The conviction of Guatemala’s ex-president General Efraín Ríos Montt for genocide and crimes against humanity during his time in office is a historic step in the nation’s long struggle for justice, Amnesty International said.

Twenty years after its independence, Eritrea’s prisons are filled with thousands of political prisoners, locked up without ever being charged with a crime, many of whom are never heard from again, Amnesty International said in a report released today.

The Zambian authorities must immediately release two young men who have been denied bail after being arrested on charges of having sex “against the order of nature”, Amnesty International said.

Serious human rights violations and denial of fundamental freedoms in Equatorial Guinea are casting a shadow over campaigning ahead of the May 26, 2013 legislative elections, Amnesty International, EG Justice, and Human Rights Watch said in a statement released today.

Puerto Rico’s lawmakers have a historic opportunity to end discrimination against the island’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) people with a pair of bills due for debate this week, Amnesty International said today.

The Bangladeshi authorities must immediately set up an independent and impartial investigation into police use of force after at least 44 people died in violent clashes between protesters and the police, Amnesty International said.

Scores of journalists reporting on human rights abuses in Syria have been killed, arbitrarily arrested, detained, subjected to enforced disappearances and tortured over the last two years, Amnesty International said in a report released today, World Press Freedom Day.

Security force harassment and unlawful detention of journalists is undermining freedom of expression in South Sudan, the Agency for Independent Media (AIM), Amnesty International, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), and Human Rights Watch said today, on World Press Freedom Day.

The Nicaraguan authorities should support a landmark law that defines crimes of violence against women and guarantee its full implementation, Amnesty International said today. 

North Korea’s Supreme Court in Pyongyang has reportedly sentenced a US national of Korean origin to 15 years of hard labour in the country’s infamous prison camps today after finding him guilty of various unspecified crimes against the nation.