Amina Masood Janjua was scheduled to travel from Geneva to Washington, DC, on September 12, 2008, but at the last moment the US Embassy in Islamabad informed her that her US visa had been rescinded.

Charges carrying the death penalty have significantly increased in recent years in Pakistan, resulting in a much higher number of death sentences and executions. Pakistan has over 95,000 people in custody for criminal offenses, of which approximately 67 percent (about 63,600) are pre-trial detainees. Out of the more than 31,400 convicts, nearly a quarter—over 7,000 individuals, including almost 40 women—have been sentenced to death, and are either involved in lengthy appeals processes or awaiting execution after all appeals have been exhausted.

A coalition of more than 20 NGOs worldwide calls on UN Member States to push new Pakistan leadership to renew its commitment to Human Righst as part of its candidacy to the UN Human Rights Council.

Human Rights Watch writes to urge Dr. Ihsanoglu to use his position as Secretary General of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference to support measures at the upcoming Summit of the Organisation of Islamic Conference in Dakar, Senegal on March 13-14 that would improve and strengthen the 1999 OIC Convention on Combating International Terrorism. In particular, the OIC should consider two amendments to the Convention to narrow its overbroad definition of terrorism and make absolutely clear that there is no sanction in Islam for deliberately attacking civilians, whatever the circumstances or justifications.

Your parties have provided an important opportunity to start a transition towards a rights-respecting government that abides by the rule of law.

Thank you for meeting with the Human Rights Leadership Coalition on December 10. We would like to follow up on the conversation we had on Pakistan and respond to Assistant Secretary Richard Boucher’s recent reply to our November 13 letter.

We are writing on December 18, 2007, International Migrants’ Day, to call upon you to implement key reforms to respect and uphold migrants’ rights. On January 21-22, 2008, the United Arab Emirates will host the latest round of the “Colombo Process,” a series of regional consultative processes focused on Asian contract migrant workers. We believe this meeting could provide an important stepping stone to establishing regional minimum standards regarding recruitment, employment, and protection of migrant workers.

President Musharraf has stated that in the next few days he intends to lift the state of emergency he declared on November 3. However, in the period since he proclaimed martial law, Musharraf has fired and detained senior judges, arbitrarily changed laws, unilaterally amended the constitution, and given himself and Pakistan's military blanket immunity for all actions taken during emergency rule. In this letter, Human Rights Watch outlines the steps necessary to restore stability in Pakistan and end the government's crisis of legitimacy.