The Kenyan government should immediately stop the recruitment of Somalis in refugee camps to fight for an armed force in Somalia. Kenyan authorities have directly supported the drive, which has recruited hundreds of Somali men and boys in the sprawling Dadaab refugee camps as well as Kenyan citizens from nearby towns.

The Obama administration's new Sudan policy, announced this morning, represents a positive step toward improving human rights and securing justice in Sudan. The policy aims to end conflict in Darfur and ensure implementation of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

The Government of Burundi should immediately evaluate the claims of up to 400 Rwandan asylum seekers and stop all efforts to coerce them to leave the country.

The draft "Anti-Homosexuality Bill" introduced on October 14, 2009 in Uganda's parliament would violate human rights and should be withdrawn immediately.

On October 19, 2009, the International Criminal Court (ICC) will begin a hearing to assess whether charges of war crimes against Bahar Idriss Abu Garda, a rebel leader in Darfur, Sudan, should be confirmed.

The Congolese government's military operation in eastern Congo, Kimia II, backed by United Nations peacekeepers and aimed at neutralizing the threat from a Rwandan Hutu militia group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), has resulted in an unacceptable cost for the civilian population.

The Sudanese government should end attacks by its armed forces on civilians in Darfur and make the major human rights reforms envisioned in the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). Special Envoys to Sudan, concerned governments, and United Nations and African Union officials meeting in Moscow today should press Sudan's government to make these legal and policy changes a matter of urgent priority.

Guinean authorities should immediately free all those detained without charge following the bloody crackdown on an opposition rally on September 28, 2009, or charge them with a specific criminal offense followed by a fair trial. Human Rights Watch also supported the call by ECOWAS to establish an international commission of inquiry into the violence, in which an estimated 150 or more demonstrators were killed.