The review announced by Gen. David Petraeus, chief of the US Central Command, into the use of airstrikes by US forces in Afghanistan needs to produce fundamental changes to reduce civilian casualties.

NATO forces in Afghanistan should immediately release the results of their investigation into a March 14, 2009, incident in which an 8-year-old girl in Kapisa province was burned by white phosphorus munitions.

Although the Security Council has identified six grave violations against children in armed conflict, to date it has focused primarily on the recruitment and use of child soldiers. Other violations affect much larger numbers of children, and result in terrible and long-lasting consequences, but have not received the same focused international response.

The government of Afghanistan should listen to the Afghan women who are planning to hold a protest on April 15, 2009, at great personal risk, and repeal or reform the Shia Personal Status law.

A US federal court ruling that three detainees in US custody at the Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan who were arrested abroad be given the same legal protections as Guantanamo detainees expands the role of federal courts in protecting detainee rights outside the US. Today's ruling, which held that the three petitioners have the right to challenge their detention in US federal court, applied the framework set out in last year's US Supreme Court ruling on Guantanamo, Boumediene v. Bush.

We write to express our concern for the continuing high levels of civilian casualties in Afghanistan and the absence of a coordinated approach by international military forces to provide assistance to civilian victims of the fighting. Many states with troops in Afghanistan recognize that prompt, adequate and equitable payments to civilians who have suffered loss is of great importance not only for the affected families, but for the message it sends the broader Afghan population and the Afghan government.

The United States should make protecting human rights a priority in its revised policy toward Afghanistan.

Human Rights Watch wrote a letter to US President Barack Obama today regarding the situation in Afghanistan.