The International Criminal Court (ICC) 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.

Los Angeles officials have taken steps to test forensic evidence in rape cases in a timely way, in response to Human Rights Watch's research and advocacy.

In October the administration of President Alvaro Uribe withdrew controversial legislation that Human Rights Watch had vigorously criticized.

On October 30, a federal jury in Miami issued a verdict in the first US prosecution for torture committed abroad, a case that Human Rights Watch worked actively to make a reality.

(New York, November 26, 2008) – Human Rights Watch has won the 2008 United Nations Prize for Human Rights, in recognition of the vital role played by the human rights movement in trying to end abuses over the past 60 years, Human Rights Watch said today.

The House of Lords rejected a proposal to give British authorities the power to detain terrorism suspects for up to six weeks without charge, as urged by Human Rights Watch. In a significant cross-party vote, the plans to extend pre-charge detention to 42 days in a revised counterterrorism bill were thrown out by a vote of 309 to 118, leading the government to shelve the measure.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in a recent judgment strongly condemned Russia for the enforced disappearance and killing of three Chechen men whose cases Human Rights Watch documented in 2001.

Two days after Human Rights Watch issued a report on Ethiopia's detention of rendition victims without charge, Ethiopia released eight of the nine detained Kenyan men.