A report released on November 5, 2009 by the United Nations Panel of Experts on Sudan reveals continuing human rights violations in Darfur and underscores the urgent need to reform Sudan's repressive national security law.

Congolese armed forces in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have brutally killed hundreds of civilians and committed widespread rape in the past three months in a military operation backed by the United Nations.

The decision at the UN Human Rights Council to defer a vote on the Goldstone Gaza report until March 2010 obliges the United States and other governments blocking action at the council to press Israel and Hamas to commence credible investigations, Human Rights Watch said today. The fact-finding mission found evidence of violations of the laws of war during the Gaza conflict that should trigger credible investigations of the conduct of both sides.

The UN Human Rights Council concluded its session with mixed results. The council adopted helpful resolutions on the human rights situations in Burma, Somalia, Honduras, and Cambodia and unanimously supported resolutions on freedom of expression, migrants' rights, HIV/AIDS, and access to medicines.

The United Nations Security Council resolution up for a vote today to create a senior coordinator to address how armed conflict affects women around the globe is a vital step toward more consistent UN action on the issue, Human Rights Watch said today.

The failure of the United States and European Union governments to endorse the report of the Gaza fact-finding mission sends a message that serious laws-of-war violations will be treated with kid gloves when committed by an ally.

World leaders in New York for the United Nations General Assembly and the G-20 economic summit in Pittsburgh should call on the Sri Lankan government to immediately release more than 260,000 displaced persons illegally confined in detention camps.

Member states of the United Nations should use President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's upcoming visit to the UN General Assembly to address Iran's worsening human rights crisis.