Driving through Port-au-Prince's Parc Jean Marie Vincent camp, the first thing I notice is how massive and congested it is. After that, the smell and the heat hit me. I had come to the camp to interview a young rape survivor, as part of a Human Rights Watch mission to Haiti to investigate sexual and other violence against women in the aftermath of the earthquake. Sexual violence often increases in emergencies, when normal structures have broken down and women struggle to meet basic needs for food, water, shelter and hygiene.

Last week, the Home Office Minister Meg Hillier said on the BBC’s Woman’s Hour programme that the UK Border Agency ensures that very complex cases brought by women asylum seekers do not go through the UK’s so-called “detained fast-track” asylum process, a route designed for straightforward asylum claims that can be decided quickly.

Rachel Reid, Afghanistan researcher for Human Rights Watch, testifies at a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Reid says Afghan women she has spoken to want peace with justice, transparency and inclusion, and no illusions about "moderate Taliban."

Human Rights Watch writes to the member ambassadors of the UN Security Council to bring to their urgent attention our preliminary recommendations to improve human rights and humanitarian protection in Haiti, based on an in-country field investigation completed on February 12, 2010.

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.

Illinois could soon become an unexpected champion of justice for a group too often ignored by police and politicians – rape victims.

Congress should quickly approve a bipartisan bill introduced today that sets out a new strategy for US engagement in the struggle to end violence against women worldwide.