There are moments in history when each of us is called upon to declare where we stand. I believe this is one of those moments.

Over the past year, in Tunis, Cairo, Madrid, New York and hundreds of other cities and towns across the globe, the voice of ordinary...

In Jackson, Mississippi last June, a group of white teenagers targets a 49-year old black man. First, they savagely beat him. Then they run over their victim with a pick-up truck and kill him. The reason for such brutality? According to the prosecutors involved in the case, the teenagers had...

I have recently visited Goree Island in Senegal, the infamous "door of no return" from which countless Africans were sent in chains to the Americas during the transatlantic slave trade.

As I moved around the island where thousands of human beings were traded as commodities, I was particularly appreciative...

Last week on March 8, the world celebrated International Women's Day for the 100th year.

It is an occasion to salute the women of the Middle East and North Africa, along with women all over the world who are taking great risks to stand up and fight for dignity, justice...

The horrors of the Holocaust, perpetrated with such systemic cruelty on such a large population over so many years, remain as painful to fathom today as ever.

Last Thursday was a day of remembrance for those millions of Jewish men, women and children, as well as thousands of other...

We have all been watching anxiously as the historic events triggered by the courageous people of Tunisia have been unfolding, with astonishing speed, over the past few weeks. It is essential that we, the international community, give our full support to their call for freedom and for the full respect...

Although precise statistics are not available, since violence against women -- especially domestic violence -- is a hidden crime, recent figures released by the United Nations suggest that in some countries close to 60 percent of women may be subjected to physical violence at least once in their lifetime. They...

Dayaram expected to hold his baby in his arms. Instead, he was left to mourn his wife and unborn child. They died of complications during labor because Dayaram's wife, Bushba, had to walk fifty kilometers from her remote village in northern India to the nearest hospital. Bushba's fate is not...

In January this year, I wrote about an outrageous draft bill before the Ugandan Parliament that would have sanctioned blatant discrimination against gay people.

In the same post, I mentioned a Malawian gay couple that was being prosecuted after getting engaged to marry.

I hoped then that justice...

Since July 2007, some 60 fatal shootings of unarmed migrants have occurred on the Egypt-Israel border.

While migrants often lose their lives accidentally when traveling in over-crowded boats, or trying to cross remote land borders, I know of no other country where so many unarmed migrants and asylum seekers...

The Ugandan Parliament has before it a draft bill on homosexuality. If passed, this bill will bring the country into a direct collision with established international human rights standards aimed at preventing discrimination.

I welcome the recent statements by the President and other senior members of the Government suggesting...

In recent years, migrants - including individuals who were possibly refugees - have reportedly been shot dead by security forces, or dumped to die in the desert in their attempts to cross borders in North Africa. Hundreds more are believed to have died after being pushed back out into the...

This month we mark the 20th anniversary of the adoption of a key treaty that aims to bring about the abolition of the death penalty. The treaty - known as the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights - provides States with the means of...

Old and new forms of discrimination and intolerance continue to divide communities all over the world. Sentiments of xenophobia are on the rise. They are often manipulated for demagogic purposes or even for sinister political agendas. Day after day, their corrosive effects undermine the rights of countless victims. This is...

Last week I made my first visit to Brazil as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. It was a very full and fascinating week during which I held a series of frank and open discussions with the President, ministers, the judiciary, and many other officials at both federal and...

On November 11, the United Nations Security Council will discuss the pressing, but still elusive issue of protection of civilians in armed conflict. Accountability for crimes committed in the course of hostilities should be at the forefront of that debate. History shows that there can neither be durable peace nor...

A group of representatives from caste-affected communities in Asia recently gave me a piece of brick from the wall of a torn down latrine. The brick symbolised the global struggle against the degrading practice of making members of a "lower caste" clean public toilets with their bare hands.

This...

Yesterday, in Geneva, the United Nations Human Rights Council had a very important discussion about two reports it received on the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory: the report of the independent fact finding mission on the Gaza conflict, led by Justice Goldstone, and my own report, also requested by...

There has been remarkable progress in terms of the number of States that have adopted democratic governance over the past two decades, mainly through commitment to holding periodic elections. While this gives new hope and expectations to millions of people around the globe, the prospect of leading a fulfilled life,...

Two new United Nations reports were issued this week that document a series of human rights abuses, including possible war crimes and crimes against humanity, in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). These reports underscore the urgent need for the DRC government and the international community to institute...