A handful of countries are responsible for the failure of a crucial meeting to agree to an effective mechanism which would give a global anti-corruption treaty real power, say NGOs.

Women and men from around the Anglican Communion have met in Hong Kong to address responses to the ugly billion-dollar human trafficking trade, substantially based on forced labour and sexual exploitation.

The head of the National Council of Churches of Kenya says has declared himself to be unhappy that the east African country has failed to refer cases of post-election violence to the International Criminal Court.

Amnesty International has strongly condemned the execution in Iran yesterday of a Kurdish man sentenced to death for "enmity against God" in connection with his alleged membership of an illegal opposition group.

Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin wall, European governments must act urgently to tackle human rights abuses against migrants, asylum seekers, detainees and minorities, Amnesty International has declared.

The Howard League for Penal Reform has today (Wednesday, 11 November) announced an independent inquiry into former armed service personnel in prison.

The British government today faces more embarrassment over its treatment of scientific evidence on policy over the misuse of drugs, as three more top advisers resigned last night, bringing the total to five.

Churches and Christian groups across Britain are being encouraged to hold special services and events to mark Prisons Week from 15-21 November 2009. The theme for the Week this year is 'Hold Fast to Hope'.

America's busiest death chamber claimed another victim this evening as 32-year-old Khristian Oliver, whose conviction was secured through misuse of the Bible, was executed in Texas.

Diplomatics representatives from the US and France are the latest to condemn a recently tabled anti-gay Bill in Uganda, which calls for the death penalty for "aggravated homosexuality".

Hundreds of people have been forced from their homes to make way for a commercial development in Rivers State, Nigeria. Human rights groups are calling for an end to forced demolitions.

A demonstration of Muslim hardliners calling for sharia law to be imposed in Britain was cancelled in London over the weekend amid planned counter-protests by democratic Muslims.

US President Barack Obama has signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crime Prevention Act, which strengthens existing US laws. The move has been welcomed by the United Church of Christ.