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.

The Senegalese government’s announcement that it will establish a commission to prepare the trial of the exiled former dictator of Chad, Hissène Habré, is an important step towards justice.

Senegal’s decision to prosecute the exiled former dictator of Chad, in response to a request by the African Union, is a turning point in the long campaign to bring Hissène Habré to justice.

Prosecutors in Europe are using the concept of universal jurisdiction to pursue foreign war criminals in national courts, a strategy that is gaining momentum across the continent and should be expanded.