--- On Fri, 16/7/10, Human Rights Watch <weba...@hrw.org> wrote:
From: Human Rights Watch <weba...@hrw.org>
Subject: Iran Shells Iraqi Kurds | The Taliban's War on Women
To: "Avnish Jolly" <avnis...@yahoo.com>
Date: Friday, 16 July, 2010, 9:52
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| Iran Shells Iraqi Kurds Near Border |
| Attacks Wound Villagers, Damage Crops, and Kill Livestock |
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Iran’s shelling of Iraqi border villages – apparently as part of an armed conflict with an Iranian Kurdish group – has displaced more than 500 Iraqi Kurdish families, wounded villagers, and killed a teenage girl. Farmers said that Iranian soldiers deliberately machine-gunned the villagers’ horses and sheep, and sometimes shot at the villagers.
When Human Rights Watch visited these areas in late June, we saw extensive patches of ground covered with small craters and twisted shrapnel near homes. We also viewed video, shot on villagers' mobile phones moments after shelling, showing smoke rising from craters alongside damaged tents and dying livestock.
The Iranian government has said it is protecting its border from attacks by guerrilla fighters belonging to the Party for Free Life of Kurdistan, an Iranian Kurdish armed group. However, villagers, government officials, and Iraqi security forces interviewed by Human Rights Watch were adamant that these guerrillas had never been in the shelled areas.
Since early June, about 500 Iraqi Kurdish families have fled their border villages, joining about 250 families in tent camps who had fled Iranian shelling in previous months. Aid organizations and local municipalities have struggled to meet the displaced families' basic needs. |
| Read more » |
| Photo:© 2010 Daniel W. Smith/Human Rights Watch |
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| Laws Harm Effective AIDS Treatment |
| Discriminatory Laws Discourage HIV Testing and Prevention |
| To prevent HIV transmission and treat AIDS effectively, governments need to end discriminatory laws and misguided or abusive public health and criminal justice policies – issues that should be addressed at the 18th annual International AIDs Conference, starting Sunday in Vienna.
Laws in more than 160 countries can interfere with effective HIV treatment, including laws that criminalize sex between men and HIV exposure or transmission. Not only do these laws fuel stigma and discrimination, but they increase the risk of HIV and impede HIV outreach and treatment.
For example, a report released by UNAIDS last year that found that, in China, two-thirds of HIV-infected people haven’t sought treatment because of fear, ignorance, and discrimination. Under China's anti-drug law, even first-time drug users are jailed for three to six years – without a trial.
Zambia’s government has made an impressive commitment to provide free HIV treatment to those in need. But prisoners have been left out, our recent study shows. As prisoners almost always return to the community, this is a problem for all Zambians. Advances in science and medicine will have limited impact without changing the laws that discourage people from HIV testing and prevention, and that make it hard for those who need treatment to get it. |
| Read more » |
| Photo: © 2009 Reuters |
| Most Popular Headlines |
Sri Lanka: Protests Against UN Echo Anti-Justice Campaign
The demonstrations against the UN’s Colombo compound are a threatening new turn in the Sri Lankan government’s campaign against the UN Panel of Experts. Anyone who ever thought this government would get serious about investigating wartime atrocities should look at the ruckus being raised over three advisors to the UN secretary-general. |
The Taliban War on Women Continues by Rachel Reid
Wall Street Journal
Beware Taliban revisionism. You're going to hear much more of it in the coming months as policy makers from Kabul to Washington seeking to reintegrate Taliban fighters try to explain why the enemy isn't so bad after all. Bombs that slaughter civilians, acid attacks that disfigure school girls, assassinations of women in public life-all of this will be swept under the carpet. |
Kazakhstan: Migrant Tobacco Workers Cheated, Exploited
Many migrant tobacco workers in Kazakhstan have been cheated and exploited, and some trapped into forced labor. Kazakh farm owners employ the migrant workers for seasonal work. The farm owners in turn contract with and supply tobacco leaf to Philip Morris Kazakhstan, a subsidiary of Philip Morris International, one of the largest tobacco companies in the world. |
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| Editor's Picks |
Kyrgyzstan: Torture, Detentions Escalate Tensions
While the Kyrgyz authorities have an obligation to investigate the June violence and prosecute those responsible, they must do so without violating international or Kyrgyz law. Coercing confessions through torture discredits the investigation and fans the flames of the ethnic conflict. |
Sudan: ICC Warrant for Al-Bashir on Genocide in Darfur
The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant on Monday, for President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan for genocide committed in Darfur. Al-Bashir's stonewalling on an earlier ICC warrant for war crimes and crimes again humanity appears only more outrageous now that he's also being sought for genocide. |
Kenya: A Preventable Childbirth Injury That Ruins Lives
Tens of thousands of Kenyan women and girls suffer from obstetric fistula, a childbirth injury causing leakage of urine and feces, a direct result of inadequate health services and failed government policies. |
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Hellish Work:
On Kazakhstan’s tobacco farms, many migrant workers are abused and exploitated by employers supplying tobacco to Philip Morris Kazakhstan. |
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Kyrgyzstan:
A photographer in southern Kyrgyzstan documents the violence in Osh. |
| Publications |
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World Report 2010
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Barriers to Fistula Prevention and Treatment in Kenya |
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Exploitation of Migrant Tobacco Workers in Kazakhstan |
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Afghan Women and the Risks of Reintegration and Reconciliation | |
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