In light of developments over the last year, including the recent Canadian Supreme Court ruling that Khadr’s rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms have been and continue to be violated, we write to you to highlight the need for action in Khadr’s case. Given that Khadr has spent nearly eight years in US custody, the interests of justice and the United States’ commitment to human rights demand that Khadr’s illegal and abusive detention cease.

My 8-year-old son was understandably confused earlier this month. He was sitting in my lap as I read news that the United Nations agency responsible for protecting children’s rights was being criticised for supporting Cambodian detention centres where children are subject to arbitrary detention, torture, violent beatings and other sadistic punishments. “UNICEF is torturing kids, Dad?” he asked.

The United Nations Security Council should extend the mandate of the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT) when it comes up for renewal in March 2010. Withdrawing the peacekeepers would expose civilians to increased violence and human rights abuses.

Human Rights Watch writes to the ambassadors of the member states on the UN Security Council to express grave concern about the consequences that any withdrawal of the peacekeeping force MINURCAT, as requested by the Government of Chad, could have on the protection and security of civilians, safeguards against human rights abuses, access to humanitarian assistance for refugees and displaced populations in eastern Chad, and security sector reform efforts.

Ensuring children’s and young people’s access to education is increasingly recognized as an important part of emergency humanitarian response, particularly during mass displacement and natural disasters. Quality education in emergencies can provide lifesaving information, protect children physically, for example, from trafficking and recruitment by armed groups, and mitigate psychosocial trauma. In the long term it can promote peace and post-conflict reconstruction and help young people develop skills and qualifications to avoid poverty. Education is also a basic right.

Lofty international proclamations about the importance of protecting education during times of conflict tend to seem vacuous in a world where schools are bombed, teachers are shot in their classrooms, and children are forcibly recruited from playgrounds to fight the wars of adults. The role of accountability is to bring substance to the noble sentiments of international humanitarian and human rights’ law so as to bring genuine protection for students, schools, and teachers prior to attacks and, where such protections have failed, to offer appropriate redress for the victims.

Cyryna Pasion, a transgender girl, landed in a detention center in Hawaii as a young teenager after family tensions over her sexual identity caused her to run away from home. She was first held with girls, then transferred to the boys' unit. There her life was a nightmare.

This year, the Red Hand Campaign is pressing for universal ratification of the treaty banning the use of child soldiers. The treaty, known as the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, prohibits the use of children under age 18 in hostilities or their forced recruitment. Since it was adopted ten years ago, 131 governments-two-thirds of the world's countries- have ratified it.