Human Rights | WPN World People News

People lining up to vote at a polling station in a police headquarters in the Anacostia area of Washington, D.C., 6 November 2012.

Members of the United Nations Security Council should send a strong message to Libya to cooperate with the International Criminal Court (ICC), Human Rights Watch said. The Council should also press the recently appointed Libyan authorities on accountability for serious and ongoing crimes.The new ICC prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, will brief the Security Council on her Libya investigation on November 7, 2012.

South Sudan should join the great majority of United Nations members that have abolished the death penalty in law or practice by placing a moratorium on all executions, a group of South Sudanese and international human rights groups said.

A Syrian refugee woman holds her child in Jordan's Zaátri camp, where the needs are many.

The government has failed to make torture a criminal offence though it has ratified the CAT in June. The delay in legislation shows the lack of honesty on the part of the government to deal with such a serious issue. The AHRC has submitted a Draft Bill on the Criminalisation of Torture and Custodial Death after undertaking consultations with the government, parliamentarians and the civil society. The government has shown no willingness to adopt the legislation.

For the United Nations Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on Pakistan, the country presented a four-year working report of how the government improved the state of human rights in Pakistan. Ms. Hina Rabbani Khar, the foreign minister leading the Pakistan delegation, presented the report to the UN.

The European Parliament on October 26, 2012, adopted a resolution on the deteriorating human rights situation in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).