Many parties competing in Tunisia’s election for a constituent assembly on October 23, 2011, believe that basic freedoms should be protected, but they disagree about circumstances under which freedoms could be limited, Human Rights Watch said in a briefing paper issued today. The paper was prepared to help voters make decisions based on the parties’ stances on basic human rights and freedoms.

By Susan Morgan. Susan is Executive Director of the Global Network Initiative, a multi-stakeholder group of companies, civil society organizations (including human rights and press freedom groups), investors and academics working to protect and advance freedom of expression and privacy in information and communications technologies.

Israel should immediately release the journalist Samer Allawi or charge him with a criminal offense. The Israeli military arrested Allawi, a Palestinian who heads Al Jazeera’s office in Afghanistan, on August 9, 2011, as he tried to leave the West Bank after visiting his family.

An Omani appeals court should immediately revoke a lower court’s sentences in a press freedom case. The court should drop all charges against a journalist, editor, and civil servant allegedly for insulting and defaming the justice minister and his deputy in a May 14 article. The charges appear to violate international standards of freedom of expression, including the right to criticize government ministers.

Ten years after President Isaias Afewerki of Eritrea ordered the detention of 21 senior government members and journalists who criticized him, his government should release the detainees or reveal their fate, a Human Rights Watch briefing paper says. Eritrea should also open its jails to international monitors.

Emirati authorities should immediately drop all charges against five activists imprisoned after calling for greater political rights and freedoms and free them ahead of national elections on September 24, 2011.

Member states of the United Nations should use President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s appearance before the UN General Assembly to highlight the Iranian government’s gross and systematic human rights violations against its own people. Member states should press the Iranian leader to allow the newly appointed UN special envoy on Iran and independent human rights organizations to visit the country.

Iraqi authorities should conduct an immediate, full, and transparent investigation into the September 8, 2011 killing of Hadi al-Mahdi, a popular radio journalist often critical of the government, at his home in Baghdad, and prosecute those responsible.