Governments in countries with caste systems should respond to the call from a top UN official to end this form of discrimination.

The UK government should order an independent judicial inquiry into mounting evidence that its security services and law enforcement agencies were complicit in the torture of terrorism suspects in Pakistan.

In the event of military operations in South Waziristan, Pakistani armed forces and Taliban militants should allow civilians sufficient time to evacuate conflict areas to minimize civilian casualties and suffering.

The Pakistani authorities should immediately lift a 24-hour curfew in place since May 18 in the Swat valley and adjoining areas of the Malakand Division of Pakistan’s Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (PATA).

The Taliban’s use of landmines and human shields and the Pakistani army’s aerial and artillery attacks are placing civilians at unnecessary risk in the continued fighting in Pakistan’s Swat valley.

Pakistani armed forces and Taliban militants should take all necessary precautions to avoid civilian casualties in fighting in Pakistan’s volatile Swat valley and adjoining areas of the North West Frontier Province.

Unless its army can focus on confronting them, Pakistan risks bending to the fundamentalists' will, says Ali Dayan Hasan.

The Pakistani government should swiftly reverse its decision to cede de-facto administrative control of the Swat valley in Pakistan’s tribal areas to the Taliban and affiliated groups.