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.

A Congressional vote removing all nine judges of Ecuador’s Constitutional Court is the latest in a series of arbitrary actions by competing political factions that have undermined the autonomy of the country’s democratic institutions, Human Rights Watch said today.

The United States should suspend Ecuador's trade benefits due to the country's failure to comply with the labor rights requirements of the Andean Trade Preferences Act.

Children around the world face systematic barriers to schooling that are undermining global progress towards universal primary education.

As currently negotiated, the U.S.-Andean Free Trade Agreement would not require countries to ensure that their domestic anti-discrimination laws comply with international standards nor even to enforce their existing laws. The Andean countries, however, have proposed language that would at least require countries to enforce their domestic non-discrimination laws, but the United States has reportedly not accepted this proposal. Human Rights Watch urges the United States to reconsider this wrong and misguided position.

Ecuador’s new president must move quickly to ensure respect for human rights, Human Rights Watch said today.

The Ecuadorian Congress has violated the principle of judicial independence by purging nearly all of the Supreme Court justices, Human Rights Watch said today. In a special session called by President Lucio Gutiérrez last week, 52 members of the 100-seat Congress voted to replace 27 of the 31 justices with their own political allies.