Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The Renewed Battle in Aleppo

1919 GMT: Syria. According to Russian Vice Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, Syrian President Bashar al Assad would step down if he lost an election:

French newspaper Le Figaro quoted Bogdanov as saying in an interview after meeting Syrian dissidents in Paris that the "regime is still solid" and supported by an important part of the population who feared those who could take his place.

"Assad told us himself. But I don't know how sincere he is," Bogdanov said. "But he clearly told us that if the people didn't want him, and if they chose a different leader in an election, he would go."

1608 GMT: Syria. The LCC's death toll has now reached 102:

67 martyrs were reported in Damascus and its Suburbs (including 36 who were field-executed in Tadamun, 17 martyrs were found in Zamalka, and 3 who were field-executed in Mouadamiyeh), 16 in Aleppo, 6 in Hama, 4 in Daraa, 4 in Idlib, 2 in Homs, 2 in Lattakia, and 1 in Deir Ezzor.

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Bahrain Special: 9 Reasons Why The Regime Gave Human Rights Activist Nabeel Rajab a 3-Year Sentence

Nabeel Rajab leading a march in April 2012

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Whilst much of the Bahrain regime's ongoing repression is relatively free from international scrutiny, Thursday's sentencing of leading human rights activist Nabeel Rajab to three years --- on three separate charges of instigating and participating in "illegal gatherings" --- will not go unnoticed. In recent weeks, many international NGOs and even 19 members of the US Congress have called for the immediate release from detention of Rajab, who is also serving a three-month sentence for his messages on Twitter.

So why would the Bahraini regime, which has been desperately seeking to convince the international community that it is committed to reform, hand down the lengthy sentence, an act bound to create questions about its commitment?

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Another Mass Execution?

2137 GMT: Syria. Today, protests may have been the largest and most widespread that Syria has seen since the beginning of the uprising last March:

Victory! 900 protests counted in #Syria this Friday in 637 unique protest points. 83 protests in Damascus city.

— Free Syrian (@HamaEcho) June 1, 2012

A group of activists have collected over 900 videos of today's protests in a database. Obviously, we have not had time to review all 901 videos that have been put into the spreadsheet, but a spot check of a few indicates that the spreadsheet is credible.

Beyond the sheer number of protests (a record, we believe), spread over a large number of protest locations, today's protests were held during a period of escalation in violence, a factor that should have suppressed the size and scope of demonstrations. It did not. Furthermore, there have been extremely large and impressive demonstrations in Aleppo, in particular, and in Damascus.

The trend is now established and clear. The protest movement has been consistently growing in strength, and if it continues at this pace it poses a serious risk to the Assad regime. Beyond the protests, the amount of labor strikes, closed shops, sit ins, traffic disruptions, and general chaos across Syria threatens to erode the economy at an increasingly rapid pace.

The people of Syria have spoken yet again, in the clearest terms possible. Popular support for Assad is rapidly shrinking, and an ever-growing throng of voices are calling for the fall of the regime.

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Bahrain Live Coverage: UN Human Rights Council Sends Message to Regime

Friday's statement by the President of the United Nations Human Rights Council, Laura Dupuy Lasserre

See also Bahrain Special: Preaching Religious Tolerance, Practicing Religious Discrimination

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1306 GMT: Claimed footage of police mobilising and using tear gas in Alma'ameer on Friday night, after a march of youth through the village:

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Syria, Egypt (and Beyond) Live Coverage: More than 50 Die in Houla; A Presidential Run-Off in Cairo

Saturday's Live Coverage has now been moved to the top of the homepage....

Bahrain Live Coverage: Appearing Before the UN Human Rights Council

See also Bahrain Report: The Ongoing Assault on the Health System
Yemen, Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: A Suicide Bombing in Sana'a
Monday's Bahrain Live Coverage: The Regime's Strategy of Rolling Detention

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1610 GMT: Some detail on detained hunger striker Abdulhadi Alkhawaja's appearance in court today, amidst 13 activists and political figures on an extended "retrial" of their lengthy prison sentences (see 1200 GMT)....

"The continuation of my arrest is a crime," Alkhawaja told the court. "Stop this sham trial."

Alkhawaja continued, "For more than 100 days I have been on hunger strike and am ready to sacrifice my life to demand freedom."

Alkhawaja's wife, Khadija Almousawi said her husband also told the court about the abuse to which he was subjected after detention in April 2011: "There was a moment of silence when he spoke about the psychological torture when they lied to him about arresting [their daughter] Zainab...torturing, raping Zainab and moving her to a jail in Saudi Arabia. This must have been harder than the torture itself."

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Iran Feature: The Week in Civil Society --- Celebrating Despite Economic Decline and the Crackdown (Arseh Sevom)

Photo: Picalm.com and BBC PersianLast year was disheartening for many civil society actors in Iran, as the regime shut down organizations, arrested many, and harassed even more. As bloggers are noting, this was a year of stagnation for Iranian activists and civil society groups, such as women and students, due to the excessive suppression and brutality of the Islamic Republic.

Yet, despite the political climate and the deteriorating economic situation, there were still moments of celebration, such as Chahar Shanbeh Suri (sometimes called Fireworks Wednesday), celebrated last week under the heavy presence of security forces in Iran.

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Iran Video Document: Tehran's Larijani to UN "We Are a Benchmark for Human Rights"

See also Iran Feature: The Week in Civil Society, from Women's Activism to Harsh Sentences to Cyberspace

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Mohammad Javad Larijani, the head of the human rights section of Iran's judiciary, addressed the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday, ostensibly responding to the report of the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran's human rights situation.

Even by Larijani's standards for defiance and bold declaration, it is an extraordinary eight-minute statement. He does not actually reposond to the 34-page report --- instead, he gives the sweeping assurance that Iran is a benchmark for political, economic, and scientific progress and then launches an attack on the Rapporteur, Ahmad Shaheed, the "Zionist mafia", and the US and other countries who guide a "terrorist apparatus".Larijani denounces the "chronically weak" UN system and concludes that Shaheed is "biased, ignorant, and perfunctory in his claims".

After Larijani finishes, he is implicitly reminded that "all members of the Council should use appropriate language that is commensurate with the dignity of the discussions...on the human rights issue".

Larijani's statement begins at the 10-minute mark of the video:

Iran Document Special: The UN Report on "Violations of Fundamental Human Rights"

In Wednesday's Live Coverage, we noted the submission of a 34-page report by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Iran, Ahmad Shaheed, on human rights violations in the Islamic Republic.

We now post the full document, which is damning in its general portrayal of injustice and curbs on freedoms and in its specific denunciation of repression pointing to a "fraudulent" Presidential Election in 2009. Shaheed, who was not allowed into Iran and was not given access to Iranian officials, concludes, "The Special Rapporteur has catalogued allegations that produce a striking pattern of violations of fundamental human rights guaranteed under international law."

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Human Rights Council, Nineteenth session

Agenda item 4

Human rights situations that require the Council’s attention

Summary

The present report, the first to be submitted to the Human Rights Council, is submitted pursuant to Council resolution 16/9 and covers the human rights developments since the commencement of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on 1 August 2011

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Iran Interview: UN's Special Rapporter on Human Rights to Tehran "Co-Operate With Me"

My work will continue. I will be able to produce a report, because many among the Iranian diaspora and the Iranian NGO network are actually very active in documenting issues and cases, and presenting the material that are addressed in the mandate with very sound evidence. So, I am not basing my work on hearsay, I am basing my work on first-hand testimonies, established evidence, and things that can be scientifically proven to be logical research on the subject.

What would be missing from my report would be my representation of the perspective from the Iranian government in its own words as to why things are the way they are. In the absence of this cooperation, the pressure on Iran will mount to respond to this, and it would perhaps become far more difficult to come back later and try to explain it. It is far easier and more productive for them to explain this as we go along, and to work with me to try and find the confidence that things in Iran will start to improve.

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