Human Rights Watch writes to urge the Ugandan government to honor its obligations under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict by ensuring the rehabilitation and reintegration of Bushobozi Irumba, who was abducted at nine years of age by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF).

Pirates have put Somalia back on the international agenda, but Somalia's people have yet to receive as much protection as the international tankers off-shore. The brutal, widely ignored conflict in Somalia has crept back into the headlines only after spawning a massive humanitarian crisis and Islamist extremism, as well as piracy. But to deal with these issues, the Obama administration will have to break with failed policies that have helped push Somalia into calamity.

Zimbabwe authorities should immediately release a prominent Zimbabwean human rights activist, Jestina Mukoko, who appeared in a Harare magistrates court on December 24, 2008, on charges that seem politically motivated.

On October 30, 2008, justice for victims of atrocities committed during the course of Liberia's long and brutal years of armed conflict took a major step forward in a very unlikely location: Miami, Florida.

The Rwandan government should reverse its decision barring Human Rights Watch's senior adviser on Africa, Dr. Alison Des Forges, from Rwanda.

President Mwai Kibaki should recall Parliament early to give it enough time to set up a special tribunal to prosecute perpetrators of election violence. To satisfy the recommendations of the Waki Commission, which investigated the devastating violence after elections a year ago, and to ensure impartial and independent prosecutions consistent with international standards, the constitution should be amended and a sound framework for the special tribunal enacted by January 30, 2009.

We continue to urge the government to address wider human rights abuses in Kenya. Promptly constituting the special tribunal will be an important step forward, and we believe that ensuring its effectiveness will contribute significantly to ending the wider problem of impunity in Kenya.

The International Criminal Court decided in November to lift the suspension of the trial of the rebel leader Thomas Lubanga, who is accused of enlisting and conscripting children as soldiers and using them to participate actively in the conflict in the Ituri region in northeastern Congo.