The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities will be the first international human rights treaty signed by the United States in nearly a decade.

With a new administration and Congress, the United States has an important opportunity to reposition itself as a global leader on human rights.  One means towards that goal is to sign and ratify core human rights treaties. Chief among these are international conventions relating to children, women, persons with disabilities, torture, enforced disappearance, and the use of anti-personnel landmines and cluster munitions.

The Rwandan Parliament should remove provisions in a draft law that would mandate compulsory HIV testing and require the sterilization of all individuals with intellectual disabilities. The provisions, in a reproductive health bill, are deeply flawed and violate the government's obligations to uphold and protect human rights.

It was the second day of a round of pretrial hearings in the 9/11 case, and Ramzi Binalshibh, one of five accused al-Qaida operatives, was in an angry mood. He didn't seem upset about facing the death penalty; in a previous round of hearings he had declared that he would embrace martyrdom. What bothered him were his lawyers' efforts to save his life.

Despite recent positive steps, discrimination against persons with disabilities continues in China and organizations for the disabled face government pressure and harassment, Human Rights Watch said today on the eve of the September 6 Paralympic Games in Beijing.

More than two-thirds of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, including many cleared for release or transfer, are being housed in inhumane conditions that are reportedly having a damaging effect on their mental health, Human Rights Watch said in a new report.

According to a new Federal Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) report, about half of the jail and prison population in the United States—1,254,800 men and women—has a mental health problem. The figure is staggering, but not surprising. It testifies to the persistent failure of the state and federal governments to stem the tide of the mentally ill swept into the criminal justice system. It also testifies to public ignorance—or is it deliberate indifference?—to the tragedy of putting the mentally ill behind bars.

New federal statistics reveal that the number of mentally ill inmates in U.S. prisons and jails has quadrupled over the past six years, Human Rights Watch said today. More than half of all prison and state inmates now report mental health problems, including symptoms of major depression, mania and psychotic disorders, according to a just-released federal Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) report, Mental Health Problems of Prison and Jail Inmates.