There has been a clampdown on the freedoms of assembly and expression
in the run-up to parliamentary and presidential elections in the
Russian Federation.
War crimes and crimes against humanity from the Kosovo conflict in the
late 1990s risk being left unpunished as a result of a failed UN
justice mission.
Eleven people in Iran - nine of them women - are waiting to be stoned to death on charges of adultery. Many have been sentenced after grossly unfair trials.