Human Rights | featured news

CIA drone strikes on Pakistani targets violate Pakistan’s national sovereignty and have resulted in far more civilian casualties than the U.S. government has recognized, a special U.N. human rights envoy reported after a secret investigation in Pakistan this week.

The United Nations’ human rights chief said Wednesday that more than 60,000 people have been killed in the bloody conflict in Syria, a figure that far exceeds even estimates given by opposition groups after nearly two years of fighting.

Far more civilians have been killed by U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas than U.S. counter-terrorism officials have acknowledged, a new study by human rights researchers at Stanford University and New York University contends.

Chinese authorities have released a woman sent to a labor camp for challenging the sentences handed down to the men who abducted, raped and prostituted her 11-year-old daughter. Tang Hui was ordered last week to serve 18 months in a labor camp for "disturbing social order and exerting a negative impact on society." The crusading mother's case has aroused widespread public outrage and thrown a spotlight on China's controversial reeducation through labor camps.

The bloodiest massacre of protesters since Tianamen Square turned Uzbekistan into a pariah state. Now, the United States needs its help over Afghanistan - and has launched a flurry of overtures while putting aside concerns over human rights....

The United States says it has taken all the necessary steps on its side to admit Chen Guangcheng, the Chinese human rights activist who ignited a diplomatic frenzy when he escaped house arrest last month.

Syria is now in a state of civil war with more than 4,000 dead and increasing numbers of defecting soldiers taking up arms against the government of President Bashar al-Assad, the top United Nations human rights official said on Thursday.

At least 2,600 people have died in the six months of unrest that has swept Syria, the U.N.'s top human rights official said Monday, as a panel was named to investigate abuses in the Arab country....

Iran plans to try in absentia 26 U.S. officials is believes violated human rights, the latest attempt to turn the tables on Western accusations about Tehran's rights record.

Many lawmakers and staff members say the issue would probably pass if it were brought up for consideration.