The sentencing in Dakar on January 6, 2009 of nine men who were involved in HIV-prevention work, on charges of "indecent and unnatural acts" and "forming associations of criminals," shows how laws against homosexual conduct damage HIV- and AIDS-prevention efforts as well as the work of human rights defenders.

Spain's accelerating effort to send back unaccompanied children who enter the country illegally might subject them to danger, ill-treatment and detention.

Fourteen abuse victims, backed by a coalition of African and international rights groups, today filed complaints with a Senegalese prosecutor accusing the former Chadian dictator Hissène Habré of crimes against humanity and torture.

Senegal’s adoption today of a constitutional amendment confirming that Senegalese courts can prosecute past crimes against humanity lifts any legal obstacles to the trial of former Chadian dictator Hissène Habré.

During its upcoming summit, the African Union should ask Senegal to explain why little progress has been made in the two years since it mandated Senegal to prosecute former Chadian dictator Hissène Habré, eight human rights organizations said today. The African Union is holding its bi-annual summit here on June 30 and July 1.

European and African leaders should go beyond promises and act to end atrocities, hold abusers to account and combat corruption, Human Rights Watch said today. The first European Union-Africa summit for seven years will be held in Lisbon on December 8-9, 2007.

Hundreds of unaccompanied migrant children from Africa held in government facilities in the Canary Islands are at risk of violence and ill-treatment.