Human Rights

LONDON (AFP) - Human rights violations in Iran are as bad as at any time in 20 years, London-based watchdog Amnesty International said on Thursday in a report on a government crackdown against election protests. Full Story »

HAVANA - Hundreds of government supporters shouted insults and pro-Castro slogans at about 50 wives, mothers and other female relatives of Cuban political prisoners as they marched Wednesday through a crowded Havana neighborhood in the name of human rights. Full Story »

GENEVA (AFP) - North Korea on Wednesday rejected calls by members of the UN Human Rights Council to grant access to a UN independent expert to assess the human rights situation in the country, a report said. Full Story »

NEW DELHI - Indian children are increasingly caught in the middle of fighting between the government and communist rebels in impoverished rural areas, with at least 42 schools attacked in the past year, a human rights group said Wednesday. Full Story »

STRASBOURG (AFP) - Three women brought their case against Ireland's strict abortion law to the European Court of Human Rights on Wednesday, saying the Catholic country's legislation violates their rights. Full Story »

DUBLIN - Three women filed a lawsuit in a European court against Ireland's abortion ban Wednesday, claiming the government violates the human rights of pregnant women by forcing them to travel abroad for abortions and denying them appropriate medical care at home. Full Story »

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two leading international human rights groups gave U.S. President Barack Obama mixed reviews on his human rights record on Wednesday, a day before he is slated to accept the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo. Full Story »

TAIPEI (AFP) - Thirty years ago a group of Taiwanese opposition activists staged what was meant to be a peaceful human rights protest. Instead, it proved to be a turning point in ending one-party rule on the island. Full Story »

MANILA (AFP) - A Muslim clan accused of a political massacre last month killed at least 200 other people during its rule of a southern Philippine province, the nation's human rights commissioner said on Wednesday. Full Story »

RIO DE JANEIRO - Police in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo have killed more than 11,000 people in the past six years, many execution-style, according to a report released Tuesday by Human Rights Watch. Full Story »

LONDON (AFP) - Human rights are increasingly under threat in China, according to a British firm which analyses dangers for business worldwide, while also describing risks in Russia, Nigeria and India as extreme. Full Story »

CARACAS, Venezuela - A group of college students ended a hunger strike after 17 days following a meeting Tuesday with Organization of American States representatives to air their concerns about human rights in Venezuela. Full Story »

CAIRO - U.S.-allied Arab governments in the Middle East are flouting human rights through violations including torture, extra-judicial killings and repressive laws, an Egyptian human rights group said Tuesday. Full Story »

MINSK, Belarus - Men appearing to be law enforcement officers have abducted four Belarusian opposition activists in an attempt to scare them away from political activity in the repressive former Soviet republic, a human rights organization said Tuesday. Full Story »

CAIRO (AFP) - Human rights deteriorated across the Arab world in 2009 with torture widely practised in several countries, namely Egypt, an Arab watchdog said in a report released on Tuesday. Full Story »

GENEVA - North Korea made a rare appearance before a U.N. human rights organization on Monday, facing accusations of widespread abuses such as forced labor, public executions and torture. Full Story »

NAIROBI, Kenya - A government program intended to aid tens of thousands of people displaced by Kenya's postelection violence has failed because of widespread corruption and inefficiency, a top human rights group said Monday. Full Story »

KABUL (AFP) - A leading rights group Monday accused the Afghan government of failing to protect women from endemic violence such as rape and murder and from discrimination, warning that their plight risks getting worse. Full Story »