Students with disabilities face corporal punishment in public schools at disproportionately high rates. The physical discipline, which often includes beatings, can worsen these students' medical conditions and undermine their education.

The United Nations Security Council should impose sanctions on governments and armed groups for using child soldiers, sexual violence against children, and attacks on schools, and should promote effective prosecution of the commanders responsible.

The UN Security Council should respond to escalating violations against children in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, including the recruitment of child soldiers and sexual violence.

The Nepali government should urgently address the widespread torture and ill-treatment of children in police custody.

All parents want their children to attend safe schools where the focus is on learning and students of all races are treated fairly. Unfortunately, after months of investigation into the use of corporal punishment in Mississippi, including interviews with dozens of parents, children and educators, we have discovered that neither is true in many of Mississippi's public schools.

Guinea’s new leader should put the country’s chronic human rights problems at the top of his agenda. Human Rights Watch identified impunity for unlawful killings, torture, prison conditions, child labor, and child trafficking as among the key issues requiring the Guinean government's immediate attention.

Laws aimed at people convicted of sex offenses may not protect children from sex crimes but do lead to harassment, ostracism and even violence against former offenders, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Human Rights Watch urges the reform of state and federal registration and community notification laws, and the elimination of residency restrictions, because they violate basic rights of former offenders.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has failed to establish an effective framework to respond to violence against women and girls, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Despite the current political and economic crisis, there are steps that the PA can and should take to address these abuses as a priority issue within its security agenda.