[…] This Treaty, as you all know, is the first new human rights convention of the 21st century adopted by the United Nations and further advances the human rights of the 650 million people with disabilities worldwide. It urges equal protection and equal benefits under the law for all citizens, it rejects discrimination in all its forms, and calls for the full participation and inclusion in society of all persons with disabilities.

[…] The great human tragedies that have occurred in Darfur and the rest of Sudan are deeply embedded in our memories. Many people in Sudan suffer terribly from the pain and loss brought by conflict, and it is these people who deserve our support.

[…] For many, many years, we have been actively implementing a broad strategy to support lasting peace and economic stability in the Great Lakes region. A key goal of this strategy includes definitively ending the LRA conflict and rebuilding the north.

[…] United States will seek a seat this year on the United Nations Human Rights Council with the goal of working to make it a more effective body to promote and protect human rights.

[…] In honor of the 25th anniversary of formal diplomatic relations with the Holy See, the U.S. embassy on January 13 convened an international conference on the American model of church-state relations. More than 200 officials, academics, diplomats, and students seized the opportunity to examine the success of the American system in enabling many religions to not only co-exist peacefully but to flourish. Three noted American experts on constitutional law laid out the history, and current understanding, of church-state relations in the United States.

[…] The powerful possibilities offered by philanthropy in terms of expanding access to the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was the subject of a conference co-sponsored by the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See and the Acton Institute on December 3, 2008. Ambassador Glendon began the conference by noting that while “U.S. assistance efforts over the past eight years represent the single largest development initiative since the Marshall Plan,” the “financial flows from private sources come to four and half times U.S. government foreign aid.”

[…] The Latin American Human Rights Project: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow was the theme of a conference hosted by the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See on May 2, 2008. The event was co-sponsored by the Chilean and Costa Rican Embassies to the Holy See. Ambassador Glendon highlighted the many contributions of Latin American countries to the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)

[…] If you would like to participate in this webchat, please sign up on the Ask America webchat registration page. Please tell us your preferred screen name; use of full names is not required. If you have participated in one of our previous webchats, use the same e-mail. We accept questions and comments in advance of, and at any time during, the program. You may also e-mail questions without registering.

[…] Thomas Melia, Freedom House’s deputy executive director, told USINFO his organization produces a yearly report, similar to that produced by the State Department, on political rights and civil liberties on every country worldwide. Melia said his presentation at the conference will examine the similarities and differences between the reports by the State Department and Freedom House and how his Washington-based organization arrives at its human rights assessments.

[…] “According to the FBI, modern-day trafficking generates billions of dollars each year – much of it used to finance organized crime,” Ambassador Gregory Schulte said April 25 in Vienna, Austria.

He said that unlike drugs in the narcotics trade, human beings can be sold and resold again “until they are viewed as worthless by traffickers because of sickness, age or death.”

[…] The report documents the various tools applied by the United States to support indigenous democratic reform efforts across the globe. U.S. support is focused on the “core components” of a working democracy and the ability of human rights to be protected. These core components are free and fair elections, transparent and accountable institutions operating under the rule of law, and a robust civil society and independent media.

[…] “The focus of his discussions will be on Sudan and how Libya, how Chad can play a role in resolving the conflict, [and] what they might do. It certainly touches on their borders,” he said, adding that Sudan’s neighbors can play “an active, positive role” by encouraging the Sudanese government to take steps to help resolve the crisis, as well as to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance.

[…] “[Q]uite clearly, to this point the diplomatic pressure that we as well as others have tried to apply hasn't been working,” he said, and “as a result, we have to take a look at what else we might do.” McCormack said U.S. officials “still hold out hope” that President Bashir indicated a potential change in Sudan’s position during recent talks with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in Saudi Arabia.

[…] In the first ceremony of its kind at the U.S. Department of State, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice March 7 paid tribute to 10 women from around the globe who have shown exceptional courage and leadership. The honorees represented Afghanistan, Argentina, Indonesia, Iraq, Latvia, Maldives, Saudi Arabia and Zimbabwe.

[…] In celebration of International Women's Day 2007, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced the annual Award for International Women of Courage. The Award recognizes women around the globe who have shown exceptional courage and leadership in advocating for women's rights and advancement.

[…] Today, we pay tribute to women of courage around the world and hold them up as examples of hope, strength, and compassion. This year it is my privilege to inaugurate the Secretary’s International Women of Courage Award. Through this annual award the United States will honor the courage of extraordinary women worldwide who have played transformative roles in their societies.

[…] With the release of this year's reports, Americans are "recommitting ourselves to stand with those courageous men and women who struggle for their freedom and their rights," Rice said. "And we are recommitting ourselves to call every government to account that still treats the basic rights of its citizens as options rather than, in President Bush's words, the non-negotiable demands of human dignity."

[…] The international community should equate rape with other banned practices such as the use of chemical weapons, says Jennifer Learning, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health. "Rape is the lowest technical weapon of war. It is the most prevalent weapon used." What is happening in intrastate wars in Africa "is not a pattern of regular war," Learning said. "I study regular war. This is something different and needs to be condemned as not a pattern of regular war."

“The Internet is a great place for children to learn, have fun and communicate with their peers. But where children go, the child sex predators will follow,” says Jim Gamble, chairman of the Virtual Global Task Force (VGT) and chairman of the United Kingdom’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection Center (CEOP).

[…] The U.S. State Department expressed concern over the conviction and sentencing of an Egyptian blogger to four years in prison due to his comments posted online, and said the freedom of expression on the Internet is “part of general, basic human rights.” State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said February 22 that 22-year-old Abdel Karim Suleiman is “the first Egyptian blogger to be prosecuted for the contents of his remarks.”

[…] On the issue of sanctions, Congress passed the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act in fall 2006, which prohibits Americans from entering into certain financial and business relations with Sudan. The United Nations and European Union have also passed limited sanctions against the Khartoum regime while continuing to press for a U.N. force to augment the 7,000 AU peacekeepers already in the country.

[…] Ban said he told Bashir he wanted a speedy deployment of the so-called phase three of the hybrid force. The secretary-general said he hopes the political process will be "re-energized" by the envoys' visit. Nevertheless, Wolff said that he felt "a general sense of frustration" from the 15-nation Security Council. "We have been dealing with this for many, many months," Wolff said after the closed-door Security Council meeting. "We continue to find ourselves stymied by questions and stalling tactics on the part of Sudan government."

[…] Human trafficking is both a human rights violation and an international security risk, a State Department official told a group of foreign journalists February 5. Eleanor Kennelly Gaetan, senior coordinator for public outreach for the Department of State's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, spoke to the journalists during a February 5-7 tour organized by the department’s Foreign Press Center.