Four courageous and tireless advocates of human rights – from Burma, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia and Russia – have been awarded the prestigious Alison Des Forges Defender Award for Extraordinary Activism, Human Rights Watch said today.

As long-term tenants of the Empire State Building, we are writing to express our surprise and dismay at the decision to illuminate the Empire State Building in red and yellow to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. 

The Dutch organization Miles4Justice will sail a yacht in honor of Human Rights Watch into New York Bay on September 8, 2009, concluding a 1,000-mile journey as part of the NY400 – Holland on the Hudson celebration.

Egypt should immediately halt deportations of Eritrean asylum seekers to their home country, where they face detention and the risk of torture, Human Rights Watch said today.

Pirates have put Somalia back on the international agenda, but Somalia's people have yet to receive as much protection as the international tankers off-shore. The brutal, widely ignored conflict in Somalia has crept back into the headlines only after spawning a massive humanitarian crisis and Islamist extremism, as well as piracy. But to deal with these issues, the Obama administration will have to break with failed policies that have helped push Somalia into calamity.

Under legislation adopted by the US Congress on December 10, 2008, governments involved in the use of children as soldiers may no longer be eligible for US military assistance. The legislation, passed unanimously by both the Senate and the House, could affect six countries currently receiving US military training, financing, and other defense-related assistance: Afghanistan, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sri Lanka, Sudan, and Uganda.

Human Rights Watch writes to the Working Group as it considers the Secretary-General's new report on children and armed conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, providing additional information and recommendations regarding violations against children that have accompanied the recent escalation of conflict in the Eastern DRC.

All parties  in the escalating conflict in Somalia  have regularly committed war crimes and other serious abuses during the past year that have contributed to the country's humanitarian catastrophe, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Human Rights Watch urged the United States, the European Union, and other major international actors to rethink their flawed approaches to the crisis and support efforts to ensure accountability.