The first session of the new country review mechanism of the UN Human Rights Council was undermined by inconsistencies and the timidity of some governments in reviewing others, Human Rights Watch said today. On April 18, 2008 the council concluded a two-week session in which it examined the records of 16 countries as part of the new Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process.

The UN Human Rights Council will begin a new review process on April 7, 2008. The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is the most innovative and ambitious instrument of the council and was set up to assess the human rights performance of all 192 UN member states over a four-year cycle.

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).

Women in Tierra del Fuego now have fewer options to prevent pregnancy and risk giving birth to unwanted children than they did a month ago. Thanks to a judge in Ushuaia, poor women and adolescents in this province no longer have access to emergency contraceptive pills. But the ruling, to suspend free distribution of these pills via the public health sector, is based on scientific ignorance and will have dire consequences for the health and well-being of poor Argentinian women.

Seven months after the United Nations General Assembly created a Human Rights Council to replace the much-maligned Commission on Human Rights, the new council already has garnered a level of condemnation that its predecessor took decades to achieve. While the council is in deep trouble, it can be saved if supporters of human rights exert leadership and mount an effective drive to win over moderate states from all regions of the world.

The conviction of a former police official who brutally tortured detainees during Argentina’s “dirty war” (1976-1983) is a landmark victory for Argentine justice, Human Rights Watch said today.

The trial tomorrow of a former police commissioner on charges of illegal arrest and torture during Argentina's “dirty war” marks the end of 20 years of impunity under amnesty laws annulled one year ago, Human Rights Watch said today.

It's been a long time since the days of back-alley abortions in the U.S. Perhaps that's why South Dakota Gov. Michael Rounds signed into law a ban against abortion in his state, with one narrow exception: protecting the life of the pregnant woman.

Perhaps Rounds, who was only 19 when Roe vs. Wade was decided in 1973, doesn't remember what it was like to live in a country where women had no right to a safe, legal abortion. But there is a place he could visit if he wants to refresh his memory: Latin America.