government of Iraq is refusing to offer protection,” he added.

In an interview, one member of the Mahdy Army, Ali Hassany, said that the militia will target Iraq’s gays and lesbians.

deserve death.

embarrassment to our society

job for their families,

Iraqi Ministry of the Interior denies that the gay community is being singled out for violent attacks

related to sectarian violence.

The United Nations Assistance Mission to Iraq (UNAMI) says that it agrees that gays and lesbians are being targeted by the militias.

destination for potential victims of human trafficking, especially for sex-related purposes.

remains hidden and few cases are reported

afraid to speak out

Many simply do not know their rights

absence of laws explicitly criminalizing trafficking.

60 cases of human trafficking are officially identified every year

pregnant when her employer in Qatar raped her, according to a lawmaker in the Philippines.

Philippine woman

Sri Lankan maid

hammered nails and needles into her body.

Their earnings amount to billions of dollars of remittances sent home each year.

not one employer was charged with locking workers inside homes, confiscating their passports or denying them food

Such consistent failure to distinguish combatants and civilians is a war crime.

Israel had given civilians ample time to leave southern Lebanon, and that anyone remaining could be considered a supporter of Hezbollah.

All those now in south Lebanon are terrorists who are related in some way to Hezbollah,

does not give it carte blanche to blindly attack,”

must make every possible effort to target only genuine combatants.

strict obligation to direct attacks at only military objectives, and to take all feasible precautions to avoid the incidental loss of civilian life.

vast majority is unable to flee due to destroyed roads, a lack of gasoline, high taxi fares, sick relatives, or ongoing Israeli attacks. The sick and poor are those who mostly remain behind.

crushed to death when the building collapsed

54 civilians, including 27 children

ongoing heavy IDF bombardment in the area

Rescue teams

documented dozens of cases in which Israeli forces have carried out indiscriminate attacks against civilians while in their homes or traveling on roads to flee the fighting. A report of these findings and their legal consequences will be issued later this week.

approved cutting electricity to Gaza for increasing periods in response to ongoing rocket attacks against civilian areas in Israel, but the government has not yet implemented the order.

violate the international legal prohibition on indiscriminate attacks because they are highly inaccurate and cannot be directed at a specific target

Gaza, it is responsible for stopping indiscriminate attacks even when carried out by other groups,

Israel

Israel has increasingly blocked supplies into Gaza, letting in limited amounts of essential foodstuffs, medicine and humanitarian supplies.

June 2006, six Israeli missiles struck Gaza’s only power plant

cut electricity for 15 minutes after each rocket attack and then for increasingly longer periods if the attacks persist.

violates a basic principle of international humanitarian law, or the laws of war, which prohibit a government that has effective control over a territory from attacking or withholding objects that are essential to the survival of the civilian population.

duty as an occupying power to safeguard the health and welfare of the population under occupation.

responsible for ensuring the well-being of Gaza’s population for as long as, and to the extent that, it retains effective control over the area.

control over Gaza’s airspace, sea space and land borders, as well as its electricity, water, sewage and telecommunications networks and population registry

reentered Gaza for security op

Israeli officials state that by declaring Gaza “hostile t

participation of more political parties, in particular Sunni Arab parties, resulted in a dramatic change of power in areas where Sunni Arabs had boycotted the 2005 elections, notably in Nineveh governorate. Overall, the election results reflected sectarian divisions.

In November Iraq signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions, an international treaty that prohibits the use, production, and transfer of cluster bombs.

Civilians remained the targets of attacks across the country.

bombings and other violence killed more than 700 Iraqis, mainly Shia.

That attack, the country's deadliest in more than two years, killed more than 155 people and wounded over 500.

Sunni Arab insurgents appeared to have been responsible for these and other attack

major Shia place of worship,

caused by sectarian violence continued

maintaining legal status in Syria, Jordan, and Egypt induced some refugees to return.

ies struggled to accommodate almost 30,000 detainees,

serious delays in the judicial review of detention exacerbated overcrowding:

spent years in custody without charge or trial.

worsened in 2009 as the US military transferred detainees to Iraqi custody

detainee population stood at under 9,000 as of September 2009, from a peak of approximately 26,000 in late 2007.

eight-member special committee, composed of representatives from the government's security ministries as well as human rights and judicial agencies, to investigate allegations of widespread abuse and torture in Iraq's prisons.

al-Majid to death for the murder of Shia Muslims in 1999 (he was previously sentenced to death for his role in the 1988 Anfal campaign against the Kurds, and suppression of a Shia uprising after the 1991 Gulf War).

prime minister Tariq Aziz and Ali Hassan al-Majid (known as "Chemical Ali") each to seven years in jail for their roles in planning the forced displacement of Kurds from northern Iraq in the late 1980s.

prosecutions are rare.

targeted women who are politicians, civil servants, journalists, and women's rights activists.

women on the street for what

they consider "immoral" or "un-Islamic" behavior or dress. "Honor" killings by family members remain a threat to women and girls in Kurdish areas, as well as elsewhere in Iraq.

Kurdish areas of Iraq

inaccurate messages from public officials on its consequences.

fundamentally differen

Israel neither affirms nor denies its possession of nuclear weapon

secret accord between U.S. President Richard Nixon and Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in September 1969.

almost universal support among members of the Israeli security establishment, who argue that, by not publicly flaunting its nuclear status,

reduced its neighbors' incentives to proliferate

anachronistic,

even counterproductive.

convincing case that it is a responsible one.

shields Israel's nuclear capabilities and intentions,

ndercuts the need for its citizens to be informed about issues that are literally matters of life and death,

nuclear policy is indeed one of defensive last resort and from participating in a meaningful fashion in regional arms control and global disarmament deliberations.

making Israel vulnerable to the charge that it is a nuclear-armed pariah state, and thus associating it to an uncomfortable degree with today's rogue Iranian regime.

East peace process is linked to the issue of nuclear weapons in the region.

publicly oppose the acquisition of nuclear weapons by Iran, there is also growing support for dealing with this problem in an 'evenhanded' manner, namely, by establishing a nuclear weapons free zone across the entire region.

stop Iran from crossing the nuclear threshold and to contain a nuclear-armed Iran if those efforts fail.

not the first state to acquire nuclear weapons

n order to deal effectively with the new regional nuclear environment and emerging global nuclear norms, Israel must reassess the wisdom of its unwavering commitment to opacity

etaining its military edge

scheduled to meet Mr Abbas in Ramallah yesterday before travelling to Jordan to meet with King Abdullah II.

reiterated his commitment to the talks

part of a second round of negotiations.

Few details of the session have emerged.

begun to grapple with the core issues that can only be resolved through face-to-face negotiations,

increasingly unpopular

100 demonstrators marched through the West Bank

flags to protest against the meeting.

We don’t expect anything,”

no framework to base them on

extend a moratorium on settlement construction

crucial for Mr Abbas to walk away from negotiations with face-saving measures.

moratorium extension a precondition for the talks to continue.

encroach on the land that Palestinians want for a future state.

international support for his position.

called on Israel to extend the moratorium,

Mr Obama has proposed a three-month extension.

Mr Abbas has agreed to the US proposa

ntense pressure from members of his right-wing ruling coalition and the settler movement to let the moratorium expire, has yet to respond.

official relinquishing of the so-called right of return of Palestinian refugees to what is now Israel.

“Any negotiation process has to be on the basis of mutual compromise.”

as part of a second round of negotiations.

as part of a second round of negotiations.

as part of a second round of negotiations.