Fourteen abuse victims, backed by a coalition of African and international rights groups, today filed complaints with a Senegalese prosecutor accusing the former Chadian dictator Hissène Habré of crimes against humanity and torture.

We are writing in advance of the upcoming Article 36 Committee
meeting in Brussels, at which you will discuss the EU Network of contact points in respect of persons responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes (EU Network).

We are writing this public letter to commend your government’s commitment to refuse signature of the Stabilization Association Agreement (SAA) with Serbia in the absence of its full cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

The European Union should make the deteriorating human rights situation in Russia a focus of this weekend’s EU-Russia summit in Samara, where authorities have harassed and detained activists planning political protests, Human Rights Watch said today.

European officials, especially ones posted in China, don’t often utter the words “sovereign” and “Dalai Lama” in the same sentence. But on Wednesday Belgium’s ambassador to Beijing, Bernard Pierre, did just that when he characterized the Dalai Lama’s cancellation of his planned visit to Brussels as a “sovereign decision.”

The European Union should quickly implement the European Parliament’s resolution calling for EU assistance to Senegal for preparing the trial of Hissène Habré, the exiled former Chadian dictator accused of crimes against humanity.

The European Parliament should condemn European complicity in the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) program of “extraordinary renditions” and secret detention of prisoners, Human Rights Watch said today.

Six months after Senegal agreed to an African Union request that it prosecute Chad’s former dictator, it has moved very slowly in bringing Hissène Habré to trial on charges of crimes against humanity.