On Tuesday, January 5 2010, at about 7 am some armed police officers and soldiers led by two local criminals, Edward Uwah and Ethelbert Ugwu, stormed my family compound in Mbaise in Imo state in Southern Nigeria. They arrested me and my aging father. We were detained briefly at the local police station in Ahiazu before we were transfered to the zonal police headquarters in Umuahia.

One of IHEU's Dutch member organization, HIVOS (the Humanist Institute for Development Cooperation), is being targeted by the Islamic regime in Iran.

The appalling lack of human rights in even the most liberal of Islamic States was highlighted this week when Qatar rejected the following recommendations made by member states of the Human Rights Council. Those not entitled to the full enjoyment of their human rights in Qatar include women, the children of mixed marriages, and–of course–homosexuals.

The UK Government appears to be edging closer to outlawing discrimination on the grounds of caste. It is hoped this can be included in an Equality Bill currently under consideration by Parliament. Caste discrimination provisions were not in the original draft of the bill, and Hindu leaders had claimed that caste discrimination was not a problem in Britain despite substantial evidence to the contrary. But government ministers have indicated an openness to consider the matter as a result of some powerful lobbying.

The worldwide problem of belief in witchcraft and the appalling human rights abuses to which it leads received a boost in September at the 12th session of the UN Human Rights Council held in Geneva, Switzerland.

Mina Ahadi and Nazanin Afshin-Jam write: "Behnoud Shojaee and Akram Mahdavi are scheduled to be executed in Evin prison this Sunday October 11, 2009, which falls one day after the International Day Against Execution. Some reports say that they may be executed tomorrow. Another juvenile, Safar Angooti is scheduled to be executed on October 21st. The Supreme Court is also deciding the fate of another minor on death row, Ali Mahin Torabi.

Speaking in the plenary debate at the Human Rights Council on 30 September on the Rights of Women, IHEU representative Cathy Buchs condemned the increasing use of rape as a political weapon in Sudan, Iran and other States, contrasting this with the “perverted sense of morality” that condemned 10 women to being whipped in Sudan for wearing trousers.

Exercising their right of reply to criticism by IHEU at the Human Rights Council on 22 September, the Holy See argued that the Catholic Church was not unique in having clergy who sexually abused children and young people - thereby comprehensively missing the point. No doubt there are abusers in all walks of life, but our point was not the abuse itself but the cover up in which some of the highest officials of the Church were implicated. The Holy See is a sovereign state and its senior clergy, safe in their cosy palaces in the heart of Rome, are answerable to no earthly power other than themselves - and to the few international treaties to which they are party. One such is the International Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and, as we showed on 22 September, they are in massive breach of their obligations under that convention. Answerable only to international law, it is by the international community that they mustv be held to account. One senior UN official described the reply by the Holy See as "a disgrace". We agree.

The UN Human Rights Council has published IHEU's written statement on witchcraft in Africa. The statement documents the abuse of children and others through accusations of witchcraft and supposed witch "cures". IHEU calls for improved education and policing to eliminate these twin scourges.

Geneva, Switzerland -- In four statements to the United Nations (UN), made on Sept. 22, 2009, the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) raised the alarm about human rights abuses across the world and threats to the very existence of universal standards of human rights. In a statement to the 12th session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, the IHEU warned about the danger of plans by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to create an Islamic system of rights that could compete with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Human Rights Council itself. IHEU called on the Council to refuse to recognize any human rights structure that did not accept existing international law. In three additional statements the IHEU condemned murderous witchcraft and witch hunts in Africa, the Catholic Church’s response to child abuse, and slavery in Mauritania and Sudan.