Unlwful Killing

Biden Should Keep Promise on Rights, Call for Release of Activists and Rights Defenders

Biden Should Not Renew Arms Sales to Saudi Arabia

By Michael Page | Deputy Director, Middle East and North Africa Division | – ( Human Rights Watch ) – President Biden is set to land in Saudi Arabia later this week to meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman amid disturbing media reports that, if true, signal a policy reversal that could lead to […]

censorship

The Family of American Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, killed by Israeli Sniper, Pleads for Meeting with Biden on Mideast Trip

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The family of slain American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh is asking for a meeting with President Joe Biden during his trip to the Middle East this week. So reports Yasmin al-Qassas at Sada al-Balad. In a letter to Mr. Biden, Shireen’s brother Anton Abu Akleh wrote that the family “feels […]

censorship

Biden once wanted to make Saudi Arabia a ‘pariah’ – so why is he playing nice with the kingdom’s repressive rulers now?

The Conversation

By Jeffrey Fields, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences | – (The Conversation) – Even before setting foot in the Middle East for his first visit to the region as president, Joe Biden felt compelled to defend a portion of the trip. “I know that there are many who disagree with my decision […]

censorship

Iran’s latest surge in executions heavily targets Baloch minority

Global Voices

By Hamid Yazdan Panah | – Iran is in a midst of yet another surge in executions, reaching a rate of killings in 2021 that is the highest in five years. According to a June 8 report from Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO), at least 168 people have been executed by Iranian authorities in the first […]

Apartheid

Saudi Arabia: Biden Visit Risks Fostering Repression: US Should Publicly Seek Rights Commitments, Reforms

Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch – (Beirut) – US President Joe Biden’s expected visit to Saudi Arabia to meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman risks encouraging new abuses and further entrenching impunity, 13 human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, said today in a joint letter to President Biden. The Biden administration should secure clear and […]

Apartheid

Apartheid: How a Reluctant UN Official Was convinced to so Describe Israeli Policies toward Palestinians

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Dawnmena (Dawn in the Middle East and North Africa), the democratization site founded by the late Jamal Khashoggi, carries an important column this week by Michael Lynk, who was the seventh United Nations Special Rapporteur for the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, serving in […]

Human Rights

Iran: 1988 Mass Executions Evident Crimes Against Humanity: Senior Officials Implicated Should Be Investigated, Fairly Prosecuted (HRW)

Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch — (Beirut) – Overwhelming evidence shows that the Iranian authorities’ mass execution of thousands of political prisoners in 1988 amounts to crimes against humanity, Human Rights Watch said in an in-depth question-and-answer document released today. In 1988, Iranian authorities, acting on the orders of then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, summarily and extrajudicially […]

Guns

What Can Be Said After So Much Grief, so Many Guns?

Hugh J. Curran

Orono, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – What more can be said with so much grief, after the spate of recent gun violence around the country? Can anything be added that has not already been said. The same questions have been haunting the country over the past two decades. Why do mass shootings appear to […]