Is international humanitarianism an act of charity or an act of duty? In fact, it is both -- a gift we have to give.

John B. Bellinger III comments on a recent U.S. court decision that may end most human rights litigation against multinational companies in American courts.

Experts discuss the role of the UN Millennium Development Goals as a framework for new government development policy, the importance of increasing aid funding transparency with developing nations, and the impact of the financial crisis on the developing world.

Noah Feldman says the Obama administration faces both old and new legal challenges over U.S. defense strategies.

John B. Bellinger III comments on a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that states immunity provided by federal law to foreign governments against lawsuits for torture and human rights does not apply to foreign government officials.

Michael Gerson argues that in light of the humanitarian crisis in Darfur's refugee camps, the international community faces  a difficult choice: accept President Omar Hassan al-Bashir's decision to expel relief groups, or increase pressure on Sudan's regime at the risk of more short-term suffering and death.

Jerome A. Cohen discusses the disappearance of Gao Zhisheng, China's most famous human rights lawyer, and argues that if China is serious about its ratification of the UN Convention against torture twenty years ago and its other international human rights commitments, it is obligated to come clean about Gao's fate.

The United Nations was responsible for establishing universal human rights standards, but its image in recent years has been tarnished by the record of its main body charged with safeguarding rights.

A move to indict Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir meets a sharp response from Arab and African leaders and raises questions about the future of Sudan's peace process.

The United States needs the ICC to help restore its global credibility, discipline its own decision-making, and strengthen judicial intervention against atrocity crimes.

Handbook

At the third annual Arthur C. Helton Memorial Lecture, Jan Egeland, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General, discusses his work at the United Nations handling the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

Judgment

Augusto Pinochet, head of the military junta that led Chile in the 1970s and 1980s, died on Sunday. Pinochet set an international legal precedent when he was arrested in Britain for crimes against humanity committed in Chile.

Approximately 775 detainees have been held in Guantánamo since January 2002. As of late November 2006, some 345 had been released or transferred to around 26 different countries. The vast majority were never charged and are now at liberty. Some have been detained again. Others have faced harassment by the authorities. Amnesty International campaigned on behalf of some of the men who have been released from Guantánamo; in this report the organization highlights details of some of these cases.

In this summary of concerns Amnesty International argues that the operation of the detention centre at Guantánamo Bay symbolizes the US’s wider disregard of international law in its "war on terror". Amnesty argues that it is only the visible tip of the iceberg of indefinite and secret detentions, renditions and resort to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and says that secrecy surrounding detentions is dangerous for the prisoner, distressing for relatives, and detrimental to the rule of law.

Amnesty International’s summary of concerns that detainees at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba have suffered ill-treatment amounting to torture under Common Article 3 of the Geneva Convention. Amnesty alleges that many of those held at Guantánamo have been ill-treated, whether in Afghanistan or elsewhere prior to their transfer to Guantánamo, or during their transfer, or as part of the interrogation process at the base, or as a result of the isolating, indefinite and punitive nature of detention in Guantánamo.

Amnesty International’s proposed procedure for the closure of the detention centre at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Amnesty International’s summary of the names and nationalities of all known detainees at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Amnesty International’s summary of the scale of detentions at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.