Devastating bomb attacks in Baghdad on October 25, 2009,  were an assault on the fundamental principle of respect for life, and Iraqi authorities have a duty to ensure that anyone found to have contributed to their execution is apprehended and brought to justice.

(New York, October 9, 2009) – The award of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize to US President Barack Obama should encourage him to apply his stated principles to both foreign and domestic human rights policy.

One got a glorious homecoming. The other was left to rot. Bill Frelick on the paradoxes of justice, Libya-style-and the perils of pretending Gaddafi has changed his stripes.

The CIA inspector general’s long-suppressed report on Bush-era interrogation practices shows the need for a full criminal investigation into post-9/11 detainee abuse. The release of the CIA report comes as Attorney General Eric Holder announced a preliminary review of post-9/11 interrogation abuses.

Saudi Arabia has detained indefinitely more than 9,000 people under its counterterrorism program since 2003, offering many religious "reeducation" instead of judicial review to attain their freedom.

Since 2008, a wave of punitive house burnings has started in Chechnya, the latest chapter in the blood-soaked history of this republic in Russia’s North Caucasus. A new report from Human Rights Watch documents more than a dozen incidents of torchings in which the authorities were clearly responsible.

After the recent assassination attempt against the president of Ingushetia, Yunus-bek Yevkurov, the question of whether Ramzan Kadyrov, the president of the Chechen republic, will be granted control over the neighboring Ingushetia has become a hot topic of debate. Yevkurov is now lying unconscious in the hospital and Kadyrov is proclaiming that President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia has given him a mandate to lead counter-insurgency operations in Ingushetia.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which is responsible for the brutal killing of a British tourist on May 31, 2009, should immediately and unconditionally free a second hostage in its custody.