The young woman from Kandahar sat with me in the office of an independent monitoring group two days before Afghanistan’s August 20th presidential election. Halima had defied her family and threats from neighbors in the tumultuous southern region to work as an election observer and to vote.

Afghanistan’s influential international supporters should insist that President Hamid Karzai act to amend the notorious law that formalizes discrimination against Shia women.

The Kosovo authorities need to work with international donors to close lead-contaminated camps occupied by internally displaced Roma without delay, relocate their inhabitants, and provide medical treatment for lead poisoning.

A notoriously abusive Iranian prosecutor, Saeed Mortazavi, has been put in charge of the investigation of detained reformist leaders and party officials amidst a widening security crackdown in Iran following the disputed June 12 election.

President Umaru Yar’Adua of Nigeria, halfway through his presidential mandate, has undermined the country’s foremost anti-corruption body, done little to rein in an abusive police force, and failed to address the root causes of the escalating crisis in the Niger Delta.

One year after the devastation of Cyclone Nargis, the Burmese military government should release all those imprisoned for independently providing humanitarian aid to victims for criticizing the government’s response.

The Sri Lankan government's admission that it has been using heavy weapons in an area crowded with displaced civilians underscores the need for an international commission of inquiry into violations of the laws of war by government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The announcement by the US government that it would not participate in the upcoming UN Review Conference on Racism, followed by the decision of the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Australia to pull out and Germany to attend as an observer, strikes a blow at UN efforts to fight racism.