“It is my sincere hope that we can convene an international conference on Syria as soon as possible to help parties come to the negotiating table,” Mr. Ban said at a joint press conference in Sochi with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Last week, following talks in Moscow between Mr. Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry, the two countries announced they would work together to achieve a political solution to the Syria crisis, and agreed to convene an international conference aimed at achieving this goal.

“I thanked the Foreign Minister for working with US Secretary of State Kerry on finding a way forward,” said Mr. Ban. “Now our challenge is to build on the momentum that Foreign Minister Lavrov and Secretary Kerry have helped to generate.”

He added that although a date for the conference has not yet been set, it should take place soon. “We will try to fix a date as soon as possible. We should not lose this momentum generated by Minister Lavrov and Secretary Kerry. There is high expectation that this meeting should be held as soon as possible.”

Since March 2011, fighting between the Syrian Government and opposition forces seeking to oust President Bashar Al-Assad has killed more than 70,000 people, and left 6.8 million people in need. In addition, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced today that the number of Syrian civilians who have fled their country to escape conflict has passed the 1.5 million mark.

“The crisis in Syria is first and foremost on our minds,” Mr. Ban stated. “I am deeply concerned about the ongoing violence and the terrible impact on millions of civilians.”

The Secretary-General and Mr. Lavrov also discussed how the Syria crisis is affecting the wider region, including countries such as Lebanon and Jordan. They also exchanged views on a number of other issues, including the Middle East peace process, the situation in Afghanistan, climate change, and the situation on the Korean peninsula.

Mr. Ban also discussed these issues today with President Vladimir Putin, with whom he underscored the importance of the strong partnership between the UN and Russia. He commended the emphasis Russia places on multilateral diplomacy in addressing key global challenges, according to a read-out of the talks.

In addition, a draft association law adopted by the government significantly undermines what few rights independent nongovernmental associations have under the country’s current law, Human Rights Watch said.

Human Rights Watch made the assessments after meeting with high-ranking officials and with political prisoners.

“All the talk of national dialogue and reform mean nothing so long as the country’s most prominent human rights and political activists remain unjustly imprisoned while officials responsible for torture and murder remain in their positions,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “The minimum one should expect after the gross abuses by security forces during the 2011 uprising is recognition at the highest level of the security and defense forces, including the Interior and Defense Ministers, that they bear the responsibility for the failures of their forces – failures they have acknowledged – and will account for them.”

During a five-day visit, the first allowed to Human Rights Watch by the government in almost a year, three representatives met with the interior minister, Lt. Gen. Shaikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa; the attorney general, Dr. Ali Fadl al-Buainain;Nawaf Abdulla Hamza, head of the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) responsible for investigating police excesses and command responsibility; the chief of public security,Maj. Gen. Tariq Hassan;John Timoney, senior police adviser to the Interior Ministry, and representatives of the Social Development and Human Rights ministries.

Human Rights Watch met with the ministry’s legal affairs director, Mohamed al-Fazi, and urged the ministry to take an active role in addressing the government’s human rights shortcomings and advocating needed reforms.

Human Rights Watch said that Bahraini authorities had facilitated frank and candid meetings with government officials but that the government has unreasonably restricted its access to Bahrain, denying and ignoring numerous requests for visas over the past two years and refusing entry altogether for one representative.

In November 2011, the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI), international experts appointed by King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, concluded that Bahrain’s security forces operated within a “culture of impunity” and that the abuses “could not have happened without the knowledge of higher echelons of the command structure” of the security forces.

Human Rights Watch concluded, based on the discussions with officials, that authorities have made no progress in investigating and prosecuting higher-level officials responsible for the worst abuses during the 2011 protests.

The abuses resulted in the death of scores of protesters and bystanders, serious injuries to hundreds of people, arrests of thousands more, and more than 300 formal allegations of torture and ill-treatment.

Only four low-ranking officers and one first lieutenant have been convicted in the deaths of two protesters and serious injury to a third.

On February 26, Human Rights Watch visited several of the political and human rights activists, medics, and teachers serving sentences ranging from two years to life in Jaw Prison and met with them privately.

Human Rights Watch also expressed grave concern about a draft law to regulate nongovernmental organizations that the Social Development Ministry submitted to the government and that is now under consideration by the Parliament. The draft law would effectively convert every association registered or seeking to register – as required – into a government-controlled entity with no capacity to operate as an independent body.

The law would forbid citizens from being members of more than one group doing similar work, unless the ministry approves, and would prohibit union members from joining a group that works on activities “related to” their union.

Human Rights Watch also expressed concern about the government’s use of penal code article 168, which authorizes a fine and up to two years in prison for anyone who willfully disseminates false news knowing that it might result in harm to national security or the public order or safety if the dissemination amounts to direct incitement to violence.

Human Rights Watch raised with officials concern about reports of ongoing excessive and unlawful use of teargas, to which Bahraini opposition activists have attributed at least 16 deaths.

Effective community and prison policing requires a diverse police force that the Bahraini people can believe represents them,” Whitson said.

In the 665-page report, its23rd annual review of human rights practices around the globe, Human Rights Watch summarizes major issues in more than 90 countries. With regard to events in the Middle East and North Africa known as the Arab Spring, Human Rights Watch said the creation of a rights-respecting state can be painstaking work that requires building effective institutions of governance, establishing independent courts, creating professional police, and resisting the temptation of majorities to disregard human rights and the rule of law. But the difficulty of building democracy does not justify seeking a return to the old order, Human Rights Watch said.

“The uncertainties of freedom are no reason to revert to the enforced predictability of authoritarian rule,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. “The path ahead may be treacherous, but the alternative is to consign entire countries to a grim future of oppression.”

The tension between majority rule and respect for rights poses perhaps the greatest challenge for the new governments, Human Rights Watch said. Leaders in the Middle East are naturally eager to exercise their new electoral clout, but they have a duty to govern without sacrificing fundamental freedoms or the rights of minorities, women, and other groups at risk.

Other countries can be supportive both by setting positive examples in their own practices, respecting human rights themselves, and by consistently promoting rights in their relations with the new government and others. Turning a blind eye to repression may be politically convenient but it does enormous damage to the quests for rights-respecting democracies, Human Rights Watch said.

Three additional essays in the World Report address other threats to human rights. One describes the need to regulate business operations around the world, especially in an era of globalization, to protect the rights of workers and people negatively affected by company operations. The second says that in responding to environmental crises, governments and others frequently focus on the harm to nature, neglecting the human rights impact on people in the crisis zone. The third essay highlights how arguments of “tradition” and cultural relativism are used to deny women and minorities human rights that should be universal.

The struggle over Egypt’s constitution, which will probably be the most influential among countries in the region undergoing change, demonstrates the difficulty of protecting human rights, Human Rights Watch said in the report’s introduction. The constitution has some positive elements, including clear prohibitions on torture and arbitrary detention.

But broadly worded and vague provisions on speech, religion, and the family have dangerous implications for women’s rights and the exercise of social freedoms protected under international law. The constitution also reflects a seeming abandonment of efforts to exercise civilian control over the military.

Among the Arab countries that have changed their governments, Libya best illustrates the problem of a weak state, a result of Muammar Gaddafi’s decisions to keep government institutions underdeveloped to discourage challenges to his rule. The problem is particularly acute with respect to the rule of law. Militias dominate many parts of the country and in some places commit serious abuses with impunity. Meanwhile, thousands of people remain in detention, some held by the government and others by militias, with little immediate prospect of being charged or of confronting in court whatever evidence exists against them.

In Syria, where 60,000 people have been killed in ongoing fighting, according to the latest United Nations estimate, government forces have committed crimes against humanity and war crimes, while some opposition forces have also carried out serious abuses, including torture and summary executions.

A decision by the United Nations Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court would provide a measure of justice for all victims and help deter further atrocities and sectarian revenge. But though many governments say they support such action, they have not exerted the kind of sustained public pressure that could have persuaded Russia and China to abandon their vetoes and to allow a referral. Pressure is also needed on Syria’s armed opposition to articulate and live by a vision for Syria that respects the rights of all people.

The rights of women are a source of contention in many countries as Islamists gain electoral power. Some opponents contend that such rights are a Western imposition, at odds with Islam or Arab culture. International human rights law does not prevent women from leading a conservative or religious lifestyle if they wish. But too often governments impose restrictions on women who seek equality or autonomy. Calling such rights a Western imposition does nothing to disguise the domestic oppression, compelling women to assume a subservient role.

“As the Islamist-dominated governments of the Arab Spring take root, perhaps no issue will better define their records than the treatment of women,” Roth said.

Speech that is seen to transgress certain bounds often tempts those in power to restrict the rights of others. Especially vulnerable are statements that criticize the government, insult certain groups, or offend religious sentiment. In these cases, the danger to free speech is greatest in the absence of strong and independent institutions that can protect rights. Governments should also exercise restraint, respecting the right to dissent, criticize, and voice unpopular views.

Governments can justify some restrictions on speech, including speech used to incite violence. But it is also important to police those who use violence to suppress or punish speech. Those who react violently to nonviolent speech because they object to its content are the offenders; officials have a duty to stop their violence, not censor the offending speech.

The problem of unbridled majority rule is not limited to the Arab world. A vivid demonstration was found in Burma, where a long-entrenched military dictatorship gave way to a reform-minded civilian government. Still, the Burmese government has been reluctant to protect the country’s minority groups or even speak out about abuses against them, most notably the severe and violent persecution of the Muslim Rohingya.

The transition from revolution to rights-respecting democracy is foremost a task for the people of the country undergoing change, but other governments can and should exert significant influence. Yet Western support for human rights and democracy throughout the Middle East has been anything but consistent when interests in oil, military bases, or Israel are at issue.

Such inconsistency when it comes to holding abusive officials to account fuels arguments by repressive governments that international justice is selective and rarely applied to the allies of Western governments; it also undermines the deterrent value of the International Criminal Court.

“The Middle East’s new leaders will need to show principled determination if they are to improve human rights in a region long resistant to democratic change,” Roth said. “And they will need consistent and unwavering support from influential outsiders.”

The UN Special Rapporteur on Truth, Justice, Reparations and Guarantees of Non-Recurrence, Pablo de Greiff, welcomed the Government’s efforts to implement transitional justice measures over the last two years, especially in the areas of truth and reparations.

“I commend the Tunisian Government for the efforts to create a legal framework that refers to the four elements of transitional justice, namely, truth, justice, reparations, and guarantees of non-recurrence,” he said in a news release issued at the end of his first official mission to the country.

“However, the transitional justice process in Tunisia continues to face some serious challenges,” added de Greiff, a human rights expert from Colombia who has worked with different transitional justice bodies around the world.

The Special Rapporteur’s visit took place amid the country’s constitutional drafting process and the work towards the adoption of a law on transitional justice.

Tunisia has been moving towards becoming a society based on the rule of law in the wake of an uprising by its people, in 2010-2011, in which they demanded democracy and freedom, leading to the removal of the long-standing regime of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Their actions sparked a wave of popular uprisings, known as the Arab Spring, that brought down regimes in Egypt, Libya and Yemen.

de Greiff urged the North African country’s authorities to further their efforts on prosecutions, in the areas of institutional reform of the judiciary and the security sector, including vetting, which are essential to guarantee the non-recurrence of violations.

The Government must put the concept of human rights unambiguously at the centre of all transitional justice efforts, he stated, adding that a gender sensitive approach is also needed.

“Establishing effective measures dealing with past abuses requires deliberately designed mechanisms of institutional coordination,” he emphasized. “I therefore propose that an inter-ministerial coordination body be established to face the important challenges that lie ahead, and that guarantee adequate service delivery to victims.”

Independent experts, or special rapporteurs, are appointed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back, in an unpaid capacity, on specific human rights themes. Mr. de Greiff will report on his mission to Tunisia at a session of the Council in 2013.

Yemen should explicitly prohibit both government forces and non-state armed groups from occupying schools for military purposes when it endangers students, teachers, or the children’s education, Human Rights Watch said.

The 46-page report, “Classrooms in the Crosshairs: Military Use of Schools in Yemen’s Capital,” released by HRW details the occupation of schools by government security forces, militias, and opposition armed groups, risking the lives and education of tens of thousands of students. Forces on both sides used schools as barracks, bases, surveillance posts, and firing positions. Combatants also stored weapons and ammunition, detained prisoners, and in some cases tortured or otherwise abused detainees on school grounds or in school buildings.

 Yemen already has the lowest rates of literacy in the Middle East and some of the lowest rates of school enrollment in the world. Until the Yemeni government prohibits the deployment of armed forces and groups in schools where it violates international law, the lives of students, teachers, and school administrators will remain at unnecessary risk in conflict areas throughout the country, HRW said.

“Young people played a crucial role in Yemen’s 2011 uprising, but they also suffered greatly during the conflict,” said Priyanka Motaparthy, children’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch and a co-author of the report.

In March 2012, Human Rights Watch visited 19 schools in Sanaa that government or opposition forces had occupied, including seven schools in which they continued to live or operate. Some forces had taken over schools completely, but in most of the cases investigated, they had occupied only part of the schools, while teachers and students tried to continue their classes alongside the armed men.

“The moment soldiers enter a school, it becomes a military target and stops being a safe place for students,” Motaparthy said.

In addition to endangering students and teachers, the military use of schools further hindered children’s access to an adequate education, Human Rights Watch said. At schools used by government troops and armed groups in Sanaa during the uprising, Human Rights Watch documented disruptions to studies, lower school enrollment, decreased school attendance, and damage to school infrastructure. 

Military use of schools harmed girls’ education in particular, Human Rights Watch said. Girls’ school enrollment already falls behind boys in Yemen’s highly gender-segregated and conservative society. When troops enter their schools, girls drop out in disproportionately higher numbers or miss greater portions of the school year, teachers and principals told Human Rights Watch. They said some parents preferred to remove their daughters from school rather than allow them to study alongside armed men or in temporary classrooms where they mixed with boy students.

According to UNICEF, the United Nations children’s agency, armed forces and armed groups had conducted attacks on at least 82 schools in Sanaa and occupied at least 54 as of November 2011, just before Saleh signed an agreement brokered by the Gulf Coordination Council (GCC) to leave office.

Human Rights Watch urged international donors that fund school reconstruction projects, such as the World Bank, the UK Department for International Development (DFID), Germany, and the Netherlands, to press the government to explicitly ban any future military use of schools that unnecessarily places students and teachers at risk and deprives children of their right to education

Carried out by the UN World Food Programme (WFP), the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Syria’s Minister of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform in June, the Joint Rapid Food Security Needs Assessment mission’s report stresses that out of the three million Syrians in need of assistance, 1.5 million are in urgent need of food aid over the next three to six months, especially in areas that have seen the greatest conflict and population displacement.

Syria has been wracked by violence, with more than 10,000 people, mostly civilians, killed since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began some 16 months ago. Over recent days, there have been reports of an escalation in violence in many towns and villages, as well as the country’s two biggest cities, Damascus and Aleppo.

The joint mission’s report estimates that Syria’s agricultural sector has lost $1.8 billion as a result of the ongoing conflict. The crisis has led to damage to crops, livestock and irrigation systems. Basic crops such as wheat and barley have been badly affected, as well as cherry and olive trees and vegetable production.

“While the economic implications of these losses are quite grave, the humanitarian implications are far more pressing,” said WFP’s Representative in Syria, Muhannad Hadi. “The effects of these major losses are first, and most viciously, felt by the poorest in the country. Most of the vulnerable families the mission visited reported less income and more expenditure – their lives becoming more difficult by the day.”

The assessment mission’s report also notes that large numbers of rural people of Syria’s central, coastal, eastern, north-eastern and southern governorates were found to have totally or partially lost their farming assets and livestock-based livelihoods and businesses, due to the ongoing political crisis and insecurity, combined with a prolonged drought.

“The most vulnerable families in Syria depend entirely or partly on agriculture and farm animals for food and income. They need emergency support, like seeds, repairs to irrigation systems, animal feed and healthcare,” said the FAO Representative in Syria, Abdulla BinYehia. “If timely assistance is not provided, the livelihood system of these vulnerable people could simply collapse in a few months’ time. Winter is fast approaching and urgent action is needed before then.”

Living conditions for farmers have become increasingly difficult, according to the assessment mission, with farmers being forced to leave crops unattended due to unavailability of labour, rise in fuel costs, insecurity and power cuts affecting water supply, augmenting the risk of losing crops if assistance is not provided.

Close to one million people are in need of seeds, food for animals, fuel and repair of irrigations pumps, the assessment says, stressing that particular attention needs to be given to female-headed households, migrant workers and small farmers.

WFP’s Hadi said that during the assessment mission’s visit to Al Hassakeh governorate in the country’s north-east, “even the richest family in a village reported having food stock for only one more month.”

WFP announced that it would scale up its emergency operation for Syria, which began in October, to reach 850,000 people this month and access badly affected areas. However, the operation is still facing a funding shortfall of about $62 million out of an overall budget of $103 million.

Meanwhile, FAO, which has provided assistance to some 82,000 people since December, aims to reach 900,000 people in rural households over the next six months to ensure they can continue planting and keeping their livestock. A budget of $38 million will be required for this, the agency said.

Out of the six people being charged, three are put on trial in absentia,including the son of jailed activist Hassan Mushaima, who is currently fighting to overturn a life sentence imposed last year because of links to the protests in the island nation, according to Reuters.

The case reflects mounting claims Bahrain along with Gulf Arab states that Iran has links to the Shia-led uprising against Bahrain’s Sunni dynasty, according to Al Jazeera.

Mohsin al-Alawi, a defence lawyer, said two others received lesser sentences and were released because they had already spent six months in detention.

Iranian officials have condemned crackdowns against protesters in Bahrain, but deny any active aid to the uprising that began 15 months ago.

They also were suspected of planning possible attacks on high-profile targets, including the Saudi embassy and the Interior Ministry, the official BNA news agency and a lawyer said.

The convicted activists denied the charges.

At least 50 people have died in unrest since Bahrain’s uprising began 15 months ago. Bahraini prosecutors repeatedly claim that Iran, a predominantly Shia country, encourages and supports the protests, but there is no evidence for that.

Bahrain and its Gulf allies have issued statements demanding Iran stop “meddling” in their affairs.