On behalf of Human Rights Watch, I urge you to reject the proposed amendment to the definition of the family in Romania’s family code, a legislative initiative that would write discriminatory treatment of families into law.

Romanian legislators should reject a change to the Family Code that would narrow the definition of marriage to one exclusively between a man and woman, Human Rights Watch said in a letter sent today to government officials. The measure would deprive many Romanian families of basic civil rights and introduce inequality into law.

The Central Intelligence Agency secretly operated illegal prisons for terrorism suspects in multiple locations in Poland and Romania from 2003 to 2005, according to a report released today by the Council of Europe, a European intergovernmental human rights body.

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.

Thousands of Romanian children and youth living with HIV face widespread discrimination that keeps many of them from attending school, obtaining necessary medical care, working, or even learning about their medical condition, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

We are writing in advance of the upcoming E.U. summit with Russia on November
11. The appalling hostage seizure in Moscow has once again thrust the armed
conflict in Chechnya high onto the E.U.’s political agenda with Russia.

The European Union (EU) should continue to press candidate countries in Central and Eastern Europe to improve arms trade controls, Human Rights Watch said today. Tomorrow, the EU is expected to release the latest annual reports assessing the progress of individual candidates toward accession. These will help pave the way for final decisions, expected later this year, on the next round of EU enlargement.