Full Coverage: Human rights

31.08.2004 Government hopes to involve civil society in a human rights plan to guarantee efficiency and compliance.

31.08.2004 Conceptualised by the celebrated and sometimes controversial Indian dancer and actress Mallika Sarabhai and British-Pakistani writer and poet Samia Malik, Colours of the Heart, an unusual stage production, was performed recently in New Delhi. The dance-theatre production has been written on the theme of women's empowerment and highlights what is common to the struggle against gender injustice around the world.

31.08.2004 Suspecting Maoist infiltration in their ranks, security forces have tightened restrictions and surveillance on the 100,000 Bhutanese refugees in Nepal, making it difficult for them to find work, even as geopolitical intrigues are impeding their return home.

30.08.2004 Despite local protests to keep public services like schools and hospitals out of the hands of private companies, most developing countries remain powerless to resist. Find out more about War on Want's campaign.

30.08.2004 Thousands of men, women and children are still being held without charge or trial in detention centres in Iraq. Amnesty International urges you to write to the Iraqi government to demand better treatment for these people.

27.08.2004 Parents of an Iraqi man who died trying to enter Britain in 2001 are appealing to the British public to raise £3,100 to send home his body.

26.08.2004 More than 17 years after India's Supreme Court slammed the authorities for the sorry state of juvenile homes in the country, children awaiting trial continue to be locked up in deplorable conditions, forcing the federal Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) to order their transfer to proper rehabilitation homes.

26.08.2004 Stories about dozens of dead construction workers and sports gear made in sweatshops remain the untold stories as the Olympic games attract more audiences.

26.08.2004 An NGO helps sex workers in Tamil Nadu, India, to set up a forum to counter exploitation by local policemen.

26.08.2004 As the world's most prestigious sporting event comes to a close this weekend, a global human rights group has warned China - the hosts of the next Olympics - to improve "its embarrassing record of continuing human rights abuses" before hosting the 2008 games.

25.08.2004 A UNIFEM-funded report on trafficking in India released Tuesday says 40 percent of police officials are unaware of the growing trade in women and children, stressing the urgent need for a nodal national agency to combat the crime.

25.08.2004 Protests against the sexual abuse of children are getting louder in India. Most recently, two non-governmental organisations — ActionAid India Society and HAQ: Centre for Child Rights — launched a multi-city tour of a play highlighting the plight of sexually abused children. Adapted from a book by Pinki Virani, the play, titled Bitter Chocolate, portrays true stories of child sexual abuse.

25.08.2004 BUENOS AIRES, Aug 24 (IPS) - Daniel Tarnopolsky was 18 years old when the security forces in Argentina took away his father, mother, sister, brother and sister-in-law one night in 1976. He never saw any of them alive again.

24.08.2004 Jamie Cullum, Basement Jaxx and the Divine Comedy were some of the many celebrities who showed their support for the “Vote for Trade Justice” campaign at the V2004 festival this weekend. Their votes along with hundreds signed by festivalgoers at V2004 will be gathered and counted at the launch of “Vote for Trade Justice” outside the Labour Party conference on 26 September.

24.08.2004 Campaigners at Oxfam and Amnesty International are urging Foreign Secretary Jack Straw to do all he can to bring an end to the violence in Darfur, western Sudan. Violence in Darfur has forced over a million people from their homes. Oxfam has welcomed Straw's visit, and Amnesty briefed the Foreign Secretary before he left for Sudan.

24.08.2004 LloydÂ’s of London, Rolls Royce, and Ericsson are among 37 new companies added to the "dirty list" published today by the Burma Campaign UK. A total of 95 companies feature on the list, which exposes firms that directly or indirectly help finance BurmaÂ’s brutal military dictatorship. Campaigners plan to increase pressure on these companies to pull out from Burma.

23.08.2004 Today, 23 August, is the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. But slavery continues, although it is illegal under international law. Trafficking is widespread and growing, and its victims are under-protected. The Council of Europe is drafting the European Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings, providing a valuable chance for Europe-wide protection.

23.08.2004 A UN expert on Afghanistan has denounced abuses at an illegal jail and is seeking answers from the US, the UN News Centre reports. Prof. Cherif Bassiouni called conditions at the prison inhuman and the detention illegal, because the suspects were arrested as combatants and therefore as prisoners of war. He has also raised concerns about the situation of women tried and sentenced by tribal councils.

19.08.2004 In the most recent of the series of raids on circuses, the activists of Bachpan Bachao Aandolan, an India-based voluntary organisation, has rescued eight more minor girls, between 12 and 14 years of age, serving as bonded labour at a circus.

18.08.2004 The Haitian interim government failed to ensure justice and to demonstrate its willingness to tackle impunity effectively, said Amnesty International as Louis Jodel Chamblain and Jackson Joanis have been acquitted of the 1993 murder of Antoine Izmery, a pro-democracy activist and business man. The trial has been hastily set up in a special session of the criminal court in Port-au-Prince and the verdict was reached within a day of the hearing.