A decision by Lebanese judicial authorities is an encouraging first step toward recognizing the right of families of victims of enforced disappearances during the 1975-1990 war era to know what happened to them.

The United Nations Human Rights Council's resolution endorsing the report of the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict is a crucial step toward securing accountability for the civilian victims of the war on all sides.

Uruguayan voters' rejection of a move to annul the country's amnesty law could hamper efforts to promote justice over crimes committed during the country's military dictatorship (1973-1985), despite recent important rulings to help bring accountability for that era.

Radovan Karadzic was a founding member of the Serbian Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He was the president of Republika Srpska, the Bosnian Serb entity, during the war in Bosnia, from 1992 to 1995. Karadzic was indicted for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. His trial before The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) is due to start on October 26, 2009.

We are writing you after the United Nations Human Rights Council's resolution last week endorsing the report of the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict.  We view the report prepared by Justice Richard Goldstone as a crucial forward step towards securing accountability for the civilian victims of the war on all sides.  A key component of the report is its call on all parties to the conflict to conduct credible domestic investigations within six months. 

In the context of the Sixth Committee of the United Nations General Assembly’s preliminary exchange of views on universal jurisdiction, Human Rights Watch believes it is important to convey a few points about the concept of universal jurisdiction.

(New York) - The United Nations Security Council should demand justice for the civilian victims on both sides of the Gaza war, Human Rights Watch said today.  Breaking the climate of impunity in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a precondition for stability and lasting peace. The Security Council will meet on October 14, 2009, to discuss the Middle East.

Human Rights Watch has put forward the merits of creating a “mixed chamber” – a national judicial institution with the temporary inclusion of international staff – as a mechanism to hold to account perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity and acts of genocide committed in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This paper seeks to stimulate further discussion and set out options for how such a mechanism could be established.