Dubai: This city on Sunday played host to personnel of the New York-based Human Rights Watch that released a report on human rights abuses in four nations in the Gulf region in 2009.
No presence of police or plainclothes security personnel was noticed at the Sheraton Four Points located on Shaikh Zayed Road, where the press conference was held for the third consecutive year
The attendees were either representing local media organisations or belonged to regional and international news institutions in addition to two Emiratis who presented themselves as human rights activists and members on the board of HRW in the Emirates.
The conditions of human rights in the UAE, Bahrain, Iraq and Iran were discussed at the press conference.
The rights group acknowledged that its representatives were granted access to observe first-hand the situation in the UAE, Bahrain and Iraq, but was not able to visit Iran or discuss its concerns with Iranian authorities.
Iran and Iraq were heavily criticised by the group for their poor human rights records.
The Iraqi government was urged to maintain maximum transparency in the election process and refrain from banning politicians from running for the upcoming election under a vague "de-Baathification" process.
Setback
"From a human rights point of view, banning a number of Iraqis from running [for] the election to the House of the People is a great setback and must be stopped," he said.
Joe Stork, Deputy Director of HRW's Middle East and North Africa Division, said the rights of ethnic minorities and women were deteriorating in Iraq.
In Iran, June 12, the date of the disputed presidential election, has been considered a turning point in the life of the country and its human rights record.
The report said that the Iranian authorities have unleashed the most widespread crackdown against political protesters in the country in decades.
Faraz Sanei, HRW researcher and composer of the Iranian part of the report, said the date of the presidential election will be marked as the worst day in human rights abuses in Iran in the past three decades of the history of the country.
"Security forces were responsible for the deaths of more than 30 people and incidents of sexual abuse took place during the uprising. [About] 4,000 people were arrested in the largely peaceful uprising," he said.
"Security sources beat and arrested protesters or sexually assaulted their family members to take revenge against the prisoners for taking part in protests.
Show trials were held by the government during which prominent political figures, journalists and political analysts admitted to charges of plotting a velvet coup in front of the TV cameras," he said.
Death penalty
The report criticised Iran for its lack of freedom of expression, freedom of association and for being the world's leading country after China in the implementation of the death penalty and leading the world in the execution of juveniles with three condemned to death in the previous year.
Sanei said Iran has escalated its abuses against human rights activists, subjecting them to arbitrary detention.
Presenting the report's chapter on Bahrain, titled Bahrain's Human Rights Records at Odds with Official Rhetoric, Stork, said there was as a serious failure when examined against the human rights values Barhraini leaders have been professing for the last few decades.
He said the situation in Bahrain is getting worse with a growing number of arbitrary restrictions on freedom of expression, assembly and association.
The report added the Bahrain authorities have failed to investigate abuses by security officials of alleged torture of detainees. The report stated that with the exception of the case of migrant workers, the country's human rights record worsened in 2009.
