The 32nd round of the European Union (EU)-China Human Rights Dialogue further lowers the bar for effective, principled human rights diplomacy.

Ahead of next week’s Assembly debate on the request to open a monitoring procedure in respect of Hungary, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch urge PACE to support the Monitoring Committee’s recommendation to place Hungary under the Assembly’s monitoring procedure.

The Russian parliament’s upper chamber should reject a draft law that would discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. The bill would make it an administrative offense to expose minors to information about “non-traditional sexuality.” The Federation Council, the Russian parliament’s upper chamber, is scheduled to debate the draft law on June 26, 2013.

In this letter I would like to raise Human Rights Watch’s concerns about the homophobic draft law that is expected to pass in the Russian parliament’s upper chamber in the coming weeks. This draft law is clearly incompatible with the Olympic Charter’s promotion of “human dignity,” as well as a blatant violation of Russia’s international legal obligations to guarantee non-discrimination and respect for freedom of expression.

While world leaders managed to produce a joint communique on Syria at the end of the G8 summit, the closing media remarks made it clear that Vladimir Putin hasn’t actually moved an inch on the issue. The Russian president once again lashed out at the European Union and the United States for considering arms shipments to the Syrian opposition, suggesting it will further destabilize Syria. At the same time, he made it clear that Russia will continue supplying a range of weapons to the Syrian government, arguing that this will help stabilize the region while preventing a foreign intervention.

President Ilham Aliev of Azerbaijan is visiting Brussels this week for negotiations on the Southern Gas Corridor, which someday might transport gas from the Caspian Sea region to European markets. This oil-rich country in the south Caucasus plays a significant role in the European Union's energy security. That should in no way impede José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission's president, from being very clear that the need to meet human-rights standards will be a part of any relationship with the EU.

On Tuesday (18 June), the German chancellor and the US president will embrace each other. Eyes will be shining as both sides praise the German-American friendship. After all, this visit from Washington is an election campaign present for Angela Merkel, and the president can hope for symbolic pictures to build his own legend.

The Erdoğan government’s use of force in a clampdown on protesters over the weekend has precipitated a deepening human rights and political crisis in Turkey. Human Rights Watch documented a huge wave of arbitrary detentions and police attacks on people who were on hospital premises, as well as on a hospital itself and on makeshift health clinics. With the trade union confederations declaring a strike on June 17, 2013, there were signs of further clampdown on demonstrations in the evening.

Even in the basement of the courthouse, safe behind a closed door, I’m sure the defendant could still hear the women screaming at him. I certainly could hear the women, standing just metres away, and I definitely felt their violent rage as one hit me in the arm, shouting at me - “What are you drawing in your notebook, girl, what are you drawing?” - as I walked out of the courthouse.

It has been a long and eventful week in Istanbul. It will be hard for many who were there to forget the scenes reminiscent of war on the streets around Taksim Square and Gezi Park, the site of the protests, on Tuesday evening and into the night. After apparently conciliatory tweets from Istanbul governor Hüseyin Avni Mutlu to the young protesters occupying Gezi Park just a day earlier, and following indications that the prime minister was ready to sit down to talks over the protests on Wednesday, both leaders made an astonishing about-face.

Russia’s Supreme Court should stop the extradition of three ethnic Uzbeks to Kyrgyzstan, where they would be at serious risk of torture. On June 19, 2013, the court is scheduled to hear an appeal of the prosecutor general’s decision to extradite Gairatbek Saliev, in response to a request by the Kyrgyz government for his extradition to stand trial on multiple charges relating to the June 2010 interethnic violence in southern Kyrgyzstan.

Athens police are conducting abusive stops and searches and have detained tens of thousands of people in a crackdown on irregular migration, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

The Turkish government’s decision to send riot police into Taksim Square and to teargas tens of thousands of peaceful protesters has all but destroyed efforts to foster a peaceful dialogue between the government and protesters. The demonstrators have been demanding an end to development of Taksim Square and Gezi Park in Istanbul.

Russia’s parliament should reject a draft law that would de-facto ban disseminating information about “non-traditional” sexuality. The bill’s provisions would infringe on Russian citizens’ freedom of expression and information, and discriminate against Russia’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community.

When I heard the news about the murder of British soldier Lee Rigby in Woolwich on May 22, my first reaction was horror. My second was dread. Sadly, my fears that anger would be targeted at Muslim communities across the UK have been confirmed.

The Universal Periodic Review of France addressed a range of concerns, including on the issues of discrimination in particular with regards to identity checks and religious symbols, forced evictions and expulsions of Roma and counterterrorism laws.

HRW shares the Special Rapporteur on Belarus’ view that “human rights remain systemically and systematically restricted” in Belarus. Governmental harassment of human rights defenders, independent media, and defense lawyers continues, including through arbitrary bans on foreign travel.

The United Kingdom government’s proposed legal aid changes would deny access to justice to the most vulnerable people in society and undermine the rule of law.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government should end police violence and excessive use of force against protests across Turkey. Officials should uphold the right to peaceful protest and free speech.

Greece’s government should move quickly to adopt measures to combat hate crimes and protect victims. A bill on hate speech and racist violence has yet to be submitted in parliament because of disagreement among the three parties in the ruling coalition over its scope.

President Francois Hollande of France will meet with Saudi Arabia’s interior minister, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef Al Sa`ud, in Paris on May 28, 2013. The visit comes amid an Interior Ministry-led crackdown on human rights activists throughout the kingdom. President Hollande should press Saudi Arabia to honor its human rights obligations and cease harassment and prosecutions of human rights activists.

Azerbaijani authorities are using spurious drug possession charges to lock up political activists critical of the government. Human Rights Watch documented four recent cases, in three of which the detainees alleged ill-treatment in police custody.

Kazakh authorities should drop criminal charges against a journalist and immediately release him from a psychiatric clinic where he is under forced observation. On May 13, 2013, a court in the journalist’s hometown extended his detention until June 14.

The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) was founded in 2003 with the goal of strengthening governance by increasing transparency over revenues from the oil, gas, and mining sectors. EITI has contributed to much greater disclosures of information and helped spur dialogue in many countries. But EITI has not made progress toward its ultimate purpose of enhancing accountability in resource-rich countries. An independent evaluation commissioned by EITI in 2011 concluded, “EITI has not been a significant driver of change. While transparency has improved, accountability does not appear to have changed much.” The evaluation attributed this problem to the absence of a coherent strategic vision, explaining that without clarity on how publicizing credible data on natural resource revenues would lead to better governance, EITI would not be able to direct its efforts to where they would be most likely to deliver results.

Here’s a story to break your heart – thousands of Afghan refugee boys who roam Europe alone, without parents, without enough help from European governments, and at risk of destitution, detention, and death.

Courtroom violence during a hearing in the case of an ethnic Uzbek on trial for alleged crimes during the June 2010 ethnic violence seriously undermines his right to fair trial. Such violence and hostility has occurred repeatedly during the trial, which began in September 2011, and at other trials of ethnic Uzbeks linked to the 2010 violence.

The European Union has placed human rights, democracy and the rule of law firmly at the core of its structure, and so its willingness to defend those values is crucial to its credibility. Faced with a deteriorating situation on these three fronts in Hungary, Brussels has failed to show the necessary resolve.

Russian authorities should ensure that the investigation into the murder of a young man in southern Russia includes whether he was murdered because his killers believed or claimed he was gay. Investigative authorities should examine all possible motives for the killing, including homophobia, due to the sadistic homophobic aspects of the crime.

Ukraine’s cabinet of ministers’ approval of new regulations on access to pain medicines will dramatically expand healthcare services for patients with incurable illnesses and reduce unnecessary suffering, Human Rights Watch said today.

Starting in early March 2013 the Russian government launched a nationwide campaign of inspections of nongovernmental organizations, unprecedented in its scale and scope.

Last year was very tough for Greece, and there for few prospects that 2013 will be easier. Millions of people have been directly affected by the sweeping austerity measures arising from the economic crisis. The country is convulsed by political tensions, with the rise of the far-right Golden Dawn party the most worrying example. And there are severe social problems, linked in part to the huge influx in recent years of irregular migrants from outside the European Union.

Turkmen authorities should immediately free or credibly charge a journalist arrested on May 6, 2013 for unreported reasons. The journalist, Rovshen Yazmuhamedov, has been a local correspondent in Turkmenistan for United States government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) since September 2012.

One year ago today, Vladimir Putin was sworn in for the third time as Russia’s president. He placed his hand on a copy of Russia’s constitution, saying, “I swear to protect and guarantee the rights and freedoms of our citizens.” But Putin has not lived up to that oath as the Russian government has unleashed a crackdown on rights that is unprecedented in the country’s post-Soviet history.

The Azerbaijani authorities should immediately stop its campaign of forced evictions and demolitions in the capital, Baku, Human Rights Watch said today. The government should also guarantee fair compensation to homeowners and residents, including those already evicted.

Prime Minister David Cameron should demand a thorough and independent investigation by the UAE authorities into credible allegations of torture by three British nationals.

The decision of a Moscow court on April 25, 2013, to fine an independent nongovernmental organization and its leader is an alarming indicator for the future of civil society in Russia.

Justice for the thousands of state-perpetrated killings and disappearances of Kurdish civilians in the 1990s should be an essential part of the peace process under way in Turkey. Human Rights Watch released a video outlining the events of that era, with family members whose loved ones were killed describing the lack of justice ever since.

The Russian government has unleashed a crackdown on civil society in the year since Vladimir Putin’s return to the presidency that is unprecedented in the country’s post-Soviet history.

Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan’s highly repressive policies are coming up for rare international scrutiny on April 22 and 24, 2013. United Nations member countries gathering at the Human Rights Council in Geneva under the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) procedure should seize the opportunity to expose and denounce the ongoing repression in both countries and press for concrete steps to end abuses.

Starting in June 2012, the Russian government reversed small, positive steps taken since the previous UPR, which had slightly loosened excessive government control over civil society organizations and aimed to improve pluralism in the political system. It launched a broad crackdown on freedom of assembly, association, and expression. Abuses in the counterinsurgency campaign in the North Caucasus continue. Several Russian regions have adopted homophobic laws, and preparations for the 2014 Olympic games in Sochi have been tainted by abuses.

Authorities in Russia should free a civil society activist charged with misuse of government funds pending his trial.

The Ukrainian parliament should reject two draft laws that would discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people and infringe on their free expression rights.

European Union officials should press the Turkmen foreign minister for concrete human rights improvements during his meetings in Brussels on April 9, 2013.

Russian authorities on April 5, 2013, released a young woman with a severe health condition after three months in pretrial detention.

The leaders of Germany and the Netherlands should urge President Vladimir Putin of Russia during his upcoming visit to reverse his administration’s crackdown on civil society and erosion of human rights.

(Barcelona) – Leather buyers at an international leather fair in Italy should only purchase leather goods from tanneries that comply with laws that protect the right to health and labor rights, Human Rights Watch said today as the fair opens in Bologna. Such compliance should include respecting both national and international environmental standards. Tanneries in the Hazaribagh area of the Bangladesh capital, Dhaka, do not meet these criteria, Human Rights Watch said.

The Chinese call it jin zhuan, or golden brick. The Russians have suggested calling it briuki, an acronym meaning trousers in Russian. And what about the ambiguous S? It originally was just a plural for the emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China, places where a Goldman Sachs analyst was urging greater investment. Now it stands for South Africa, which joined in 2010 despite having an economy roughly on the order of China’s sixth-largest province.

The BRICS countries should call for an end to indiscriminate attacks on civilians and civilian-populated areas in Syria, and insist that cluster munitions and incendiary weapons should not be used. Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa are meeting in Durban for the annual BRICS summit on March 26 and 27, 2013.

Human Rights Watch considers that repealing the statute of limitations for violations of the right to life and torture by suspected state perpetrators and public officials would be an effective means of combatting Turkey’s legacy of impunity for serious human rights abuses, particularly those committed during the early 1990s.

A wave of inspections of nongovernmental organizations in Russia is intensifying pressure on civil society since the adoption of a series of restrictive laws in 2012.

“The Constitution is not a game!” crowds chanted during a March 9 demonstration in Budapest against constitutional changes adopted on March 11. Hopefully those chants were heard in Brussels. It’s high time the EU took resolute action to hold the Hungarian government accountable for their ongoing assault on human rights and the rule of law.

Azerbaijani police used unnecessary force to disperse a peaceful protest in the capital, Baku, on March 10, 2013.

US Secretary of State John Kerry should publicly express concern about Uzbekistan’s deteriorating human rights situation during his meeting with the Uzbek foreign minister on March 12, 2013, and press for concrete improvements, Human Rights Watch said today.

The Belarusian authorities should immediately cease harassing and trying to shut down the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, the only human rights organization with registration status to operate nationally.

An Uzbek refugee has been missing from Kyrgyzstan’s capital, Bishkek, since February 18, 2013.

The European Union should urge the Ukrainian government at the upcoming EU-Ukraine summit to end abuses against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Ukraine.

Two Turkmen civil society activists convicted on politically motivated charges were freed on February 16, 2013, after serving out their prison terms. Sapardurdy Khajiev and Annakurban Amanklychev, wrongfully imprisoned since their arrest in June 2006, suffer numerous health problems from their incarceration.

Ukraine’s recent registration of oral morphine, a strong pain medication used most frequently to treat severe cancer pain, is a major step toward improving end-of-life care, Human Rights Watch said today.

The Azerbaijani government should immediately end a hostile campaign of intimidation against writer Akram Aylisli. Aylisli recently published a controversial novel depicting relationships between ethnic Azeris and Armenians in Azerbaijan.

Les mêmes causes produisent les mêmes effets (“The same causes produce the same effects”). It’s a phrase I’ve heard Ivorian lawyers, taxi drivers, and civil society leaders utter repeatedly in recent months to describe Côte d’Ivoire’s uneven prospects for reconciliation so long as President Alassane Ouattara’s government makes little progress toward impartial justice and addressing abuses by the security forces. But the phrase applies just as aptly to the failure of Côte d’Ivoire’s most important partner, France, to publicly make human rights issues a priority in its diplomatic relationship.

Migrant workers building sites and infrastructure for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, have been cheated and exploited.

An appeals court in Bishkek should stop the extradition of a former Imam to Uzbekistan, where he would be at serious risk of torture.

Turkey needs to end its use of overly broad antiterrorism laws to hold thousands of activists and journalists, who have spoken out or engaged in the non-violent promotion of Kurdish rights, in prolonged detention, Human Rights Watch said today in releasing its World Report 2013. Human Rights Watch identified the key human rights challenges facing Turkey in 2013 and reviewed domestic human rights developments in 2012.

Georgia’s new government needs to rectify the troubling human rights problems it inherited, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2013. In addressing past abuses, the government should avoid politically motivated prosecutions, ensure public scrutiny of its actions, and make the worst abuses a top priority.

The Kremlin in 2012 unleashed the worst political crackdown in Russia’s post-Soviet history. The authorities introduced a series of restrictive laws, harassed and intimidated activists, and interfered in the work of nongovernmental organizations, crushing hopes for reform following the winter 2011 mass protests.

The new Somali government, in power since September and much feted by international donors, seems to think they can silence the discussion of sexual violence by the security forces by clamping down on women reporting rape and journalists. The UK - a key donor to Somalia - needs to send an urgent message to the contrary before Saturday's hearing date.

Azerbaijan’s abysmal rights record came under a rare spotlight last week. One of Europe’s foremost human rights bodies, the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly, devoted an entire afternoon to debating two much-awaited reports on the country.

Vicious attacks on gay rights protesters in Russia in recent days underscores the need for the Russian Duma to reject a draft law on “propaganda for homosexuality.”

Recent Twitter conversations between the wannabe-jet-set daughter of Uzbekistan’s authoritarian ruler and critics of the country’s atrocious human rights record may have been unusual and amusing. They may have even brought a rare blip of international media attention to a reclusive regime the world normally seems happy to ignore.

Azerbaijan’s leadership should take to heart and act on the clear message sent by one of Europe’s foremost human rights bodies about the urgent need for rights reform.

Yesterday’s Istanbul court decision to order the pre-trial detention of nine human rights lawyers highlights the arbitrary and abusive use of anti-terrorism laws in Turkey. The 9 were among 12 lawyers arrested, 11 during early morning raids on January 18, and 1 on January 20.

Russian authorities should investigate death threats against Vitalii Ponomarev, the lead Central Asia expert with Memorial Human Rights Center. The investigation should be prompt and comprehensive, and Russia should seek cooperation from Uzbek authorities to ensure its thoroughness.

On the eve of your parliamentary debates regarding whether to support marriage equality in France, I invite you to look to another European country that went through the same discussions and soul-searching about 15 years ago. In 1994, as a member of the Dutch parliament, I proposed to introduce marriage equality legislation. Years of debate ensued, in part because nowhere else in the world had such legislation been introduced.

Two Palestinians being held at the Cairo airport, apparently refused entry to Egypt, are at risk of deportation to Syria. The man and his son would face indiscriminate violence and possible persecution if returned to Syria.

President François Hollande of France should publicly and privately convey concerns about deteriorating human rights conditions in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on his visit there. Hollande is scheduled to arrive for his first official visit to the UAE on January 15, 2013.