Human Rights

Interview with Karim Lahidji, FIDH President, following the 14 July 2015 agreement between Iran and the “P 5 + 1” (United States, Russia, China, France, United Kingdom and Germany) on the Iranian nuclear programme.

In the United States, campaigns for the presidential election of 2016 have already begun. This might be an occasion for a realistic discussion of the enormously important challenges which we now face, not only in the America, but also throughout the world. But will the central issues be discussed? Or will the campaigns focus on personalities and trivia?

Human rights abuses in their home countries are the driving force behind the surge in boat migration in the Mediterranean to reach Europe, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

At 15 Omar Khadr was held at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Now 28 years old, after 13 years locked away, he is finally able to speak about his experiences. He was branded as a terrorist and convicted as a murderer.

“Torture is a man-made disaster,” said Felicitas Treue. “Wherever it takes place it is an emergency situation and a direct attack against the victim, against their family and their community.”

Seventeen months after Setara’s husband cut her face and chest with a knife, disfiguring her for life and only narrowly failing to kill her, the laws of her native Afghanistan have still not allowed her to divorce him.

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), strongly condemns today’s arrest of human rights defender Ms. Nargess Mohammadi in Iran.

Iranian security forces have arrested a prominent activist just days after she was charged in court with crimes “against national security”, a human rights group has said.

As rumors swirl about a new round of peace talks with the Afghan Taliban, the first under Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani, women are fighting for a place at the table. The view from the front lines of that fight is maddening.

Latest figures from the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) show a continuing trend of record high civilian casualties, with deaths and injuries from ground engagements in Afghanistan remaining the leading cause.