A majority of people around the world reject the use of torture even if it is supposed to extract information that could save lives from terrorism, pollsters say.   more »

A leading U.S.-based humanitarian group is urging the George W. Bush administration to engage all rebel groups in the Darfur peace process as the U.S. president prepares to talk with the leader of just one particular faction.   more »

A prominent rights advocacy group has launched a worldwide campaign this week against "big brothers" trying to block information on the Internet. London-based Amnesty International says its campaign aims to claim back the Web from technology companies that support official attempts to impose censorship on the Web in many countries.   more »

An Afghan government proposal to re-establish the notorious Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has raised concerns among U.S. human rights advocates. Under the Taliban, the virtue and vice department enforced restrictions on women and men through public beatings and imprisonment.   more »

India's fast-growing community of 'bloggers' and Internet users was in for a rude shock when it found favourite sites blocked out in the wake of the serial blasts in crowded trains that killed 200 commuters in the western port city of Mumbai, last week.   more »

Rights advocacy groups in the United States are calling for the United Nations to take note of the gross human rights violations being committed in their country.   more »

The U.S. Supreme Court ruling against the Bush administration's use of military tribunals has prompted fresh calls for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison camp and other secret prisons run by the U.S. military.   more »

Humanitarian groups trying to assess the number of innocent civilians killed in Iraq are demanding the Pentagon back up its claims that fewer Iraqis are being killed by accident at U.S. military check-points.   more »

Major international footwear companies would be wise to pay as much attention to the plight of their workers as their marketing campaigns during the World Cup, said the international human rights group Oxfam, which ranked each of the world's major sportswear companies for a new report, ''Offside! Labor Rights and Sportswear Production in Asia.''   more »

NEW YORK, June 12 (OneWorld) - Furious at the Bush administration's callous response to the deaths of three Guantanamo Bay prisoners, rights advocacy groups in the West are calling for immediate and independent investigations into the incident.   more »

Wrapping up a major meeting of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues here Friday, indigenous leaders called for a key UN human rights body to consider taking new steps to meet their concerns.   more »

The world's leading rights advocacy groups have welcomed the results of Tuesday's elections at the United Nations that have led to the formation of a new international leadership to defend human rights.   more »

The Bush administration's efforts to plead innocence to charges of using torture before a key United Nations committee have been complicated by a new report from an influential human rights group suggesting otherwise.   more »

A leading international human rights group is calling for the Bush administration to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the alleged involvement of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other senior Pentagon officials in the torture of a prisoner at Guanatanamo Bay some three years ago.   more »