Human Rights | WPN World People News

Several non-governmental organisations (NGO) have reported that custodial maltreatment is rampant in Pakistan, with physical and mental torture inflicted upon as many as 90 per cent of detainees.

The National Human Rights Commission, or CNDH, is investigating last week's attack on journalist Gerardo Ponce de Leon in Hermosillo, the capital of the northern Mexican state of Sonora, commission president Raul Plascencia said.

Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay (right) being briefed by Kuol Manyang Juuk, Governor of Jonglei state, South Sudan.

US President Barack Obama has backed same-sex marriage in a move hailed by Democrats, gay rights activists and others as the one that will be a point of reference for civil rights in America.

A prison in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, that has been renovated with UN assistance

A man is overcome with grief in front of a destroyed mosque in Taftanaz where local residents gathered those killed after government forces attacked the town on April 3 and 4. According to local activists, at least 65 people were killed during the two-day attack.

Mothers sitting on the floor with their children in India

Rights groups are calling for a full government investigation into the shooting death of a prominent land rights activist in Cambodia.

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) wishes to express its deep concern at the latest developments in the establishment of transitional justice institutions in Nepal. On 19 April 2012, the major political parties of Nepal have agreed to merge the initially proposed Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Commission of investigation into disappearances into one unique commission the Integrated Reconciliatory Commission, placing a heavy emphasis on Reconciliation over Justice. There are rising concerns that this unique commission would be granted the power to provide amnesty, including for human rights violations and even in cases in which the victims refuse to pardon the perpetrators. This would constitute a clear encroachment of Nepal's obligation to provide victims of human rights violations with an effective right to a legal redress, under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Pakistan Federal Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan on Thursday, said Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani would file an appeal against the verdict of the Supreme Court (SC) in the contempt of court case.