On September 22, Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, issued Legislative Decree No. 56.  The decree pardoned criminals who committed minor offenses, but refrained from granted “general amnesty” to political prisoners.  The decree also pardoned prisoners over the age of 70 years and those inflicted with incurable diseases.

He came to power in March, 2000, when his father died.  During the first few years of his term, al-Assad released thousands of political prisoners.  Observers had hoped that this would be the first step in Syria moving to a more open, less oppressive country.  However, over the past year, Syria has been reverting back to repressing individual rights and Damascus has arrested several human rights advocates and political dissidents.

For more information, please see:
New York Times- Syrian pardon omits dissidents– 24 September 2007

Syrian Arab News Agency- President al-Assad issues Legislative Decree No.56 Granting a General Amnesty for the Crimes Committed Before 17.07.2007– 22 September 2007

A new official report stated that Yemen’s phenomenon of child labor is closely related to the country’s high poverty rates.  The report, released by the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, claimed that children with families affected by poverty were more likely to be employed as child laborers.  High poverty rates mean that there is a high population of families affected by poverty, and as a result, more child laborers.  The report concluded that as long as high levels of poverty persist in Yemen, Yemen will also be battling child labor.

Recent statistics show that the number of child laborers in Yemen is increasing.  A 1999 census show that there are 700,000 child laborers in Yemen.  The census also shows that in rural areas, 95% of children work.  Also, in 1999, ILO estimated that 19.2% of children aged 10-14 worked in Yemen.  The increase in child laborers is related to the increase in the number of dropouts from school.  Jamal Al-Shami, director of Democracy School, claimed that there are over 2 million children in Yemen who are not attending school; most of whom will end up illiterate.

On September 5, Yemen’s Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, working in cooperation with UN’s International Labor Organization (ILO), launched the first national policy to limit child labor.  The report also suggested that the government adopt a program whose purpose was to identify the poorest communities in the country.  These communities would be targeted by national and international aid programs so that their dependence on child labor would lessen.

A delegation from ILO spent a week in Yemen, meeting with their counterparts in Yemen.  There main focus of the meetings was to design a method of identifying sources of decent work in Yemen.  One reason for the high rate of poverty in Yemen is that there is a shortage of “decent work”.  ILO defines “decent work” as “productive work in which rights are protected; work that generates an adequate income; and work with adequate social protection. It also means sufficient work, in the sense that all should have full access to income-earning opportunities.”

For more information, please see:
News Yemen- Poverty aggravates child labor in Yemen: official report– 22 September 2007

Yemen Observer- ILO delegation to combat child labor in Yemen and present Decent Work Strategy– 18 September 2007

News Yemen- Labor ministry and ILO announce first policy against child labor– 5 September 2007

Yemen Times- Yemen: Fears over possibly rising number of child labourers– 5 September 2007

Blackwater USA, which is under intense scrutiny following the shooting deaths of eleven people in Iraq, is also being investigated for smuggling weapons into Turkey and Iraq.  The investigation reportedly began through internal reviews by the Pentagon and the U.S. State Department regarding missing military weapons in Iraq and whether these weapons were subsequently transferred to other nations.

Blackwater USA responded strongly against its accusers “[a]llegations that Blackwater was in any way associated or complicit in unlawful arms activities are baseless . . . The company [Blackwater] has no knowledge of any employee improperly exporting weapons.”  (AP)

The investigations come after complaints from Turkish authorities in July, regarding American weapons that were confiscated from the Kurdistan Worker Party (PKK).  The PKK is an outlawed rebel faction in Turkey seeking to create an independent Kurdistan.  The faction was founded by Abdullah Ocalan in 1974 and has grown to 5,000 members.  Reportedly, the PKK has used guerrilla warfare to kill around 30,000 people.  (Impunity Watch Middle East, Kurds Continue to Battle)  Thus, the U.S. State Department has designated that the group is a “foreign terrorist organization.”  (AP)  This official designation prohibits any citizen or person within U.S. jurisdiction from helping that organization.  (AP)

This is not the first time that such an allegation has been brought against the security company.  Recently, Blackwater USA released two of its former employees because of their involvement with shipping stolen firearms internationally.  The company immediately fried the former marines and police officers, and the individuals are negotiating with prosecutors regarding their sentences.

How Iraq and Turkey deal with Blackwater’s troubles may define the international law regarding security companies, which is currently a legal gray area.  As private security companies have become increasingly popular by governments seeking ways to circumvent particular difficult situations, the Iraqi and Turkish governments must make these security companies accountable for their actions.  However, it will be especially difficult for the Iraqi government to take strong actions against Blackwater USA, because of the company’s close relationship with the U.S. government who have protected the fledging government.  However, it has taken a major step in voicing its deep concern with the practices of the security company’s practices to the international community.

For more information, please see:

AP- Blackwater Denies Smuggling Allegations- 22 September 2007

Bloomberg- Blackwater Says Allegations of Arms Smuggling are `Baseless’ – 22 September 2007

BBC News- Blackwater Denies Iraq Smuggling- 22 September 2007

ALGIERS, Algeria – A group calling itself al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb said it carried out a bomb attack in Algeria, which wounded nine people. It is the latest of a string of attacks that have stymied the Algerian government’s effort to get beyond an insurgency that devastated the country since the 1990s.

A car rammed into an Algerian police convoy escorting workers for the French company Razel to a dam it is building in the region. Two French workers, one Italian, their Algerian driver, and five police officers were injured as a result of that attack. It occurred a day after al-Qaeda’s second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri released a video message saying that French and Spaniards should be “cleansed” from North Africa.

Earlier this month, Algeria was hit by two suicide attacks that killed more than 50 people. In August, the group also staged two deadly attacks that killed more than 50 people and wounded more than 140.

For more information, please see:

Al Jazeera – ‘Al-Qaeda’ claims Algeria bombing – 21 September 2007

BBC News – Algeria bomb attack injures nine – 21 September 2007

NY Times – Bomb hits European workers – 22 September 2007

By Kevin Kim
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

CAIRO, Egypt – On September 4, Cairo governor `Abd al-`Azzem Wazeer issued a decree closing the Association for Human Rights Legal Aid (AHRLA). AHRLA is one of the country’s leading human rights organizations, and it reports on human rights violations and provides legal assistance to torture victims.

Even though Egypt is a member of the UN Human Rights Council, the Egyptian government has shown increasing tendency to abuse state powers to police and stifle the work of civil society organizations. Earlier in April, the government also closed Center for Trade Union and Workers Services (CTUWS), which offered legal aid to Egyptian factory workers and reported on labor-rights issues.

AHRLA has appealed the decree to the Administrative Court, and a hearing will be held on October 21.

For more information, please see:

Human Rights Watch – Reverse decree closing human rights organization – 18 September 2007

Reuters – Egypt to close rights group aiding torture victims – 13 September 2007