The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) was created as a successor to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR). The latter had become a vehicle where rogue regimes huddled together for mutual protection – they voted to thwart criticism of themselves and allies – and from which they...

Iran has terminated what seemed to be a lull in the regime’s pace of executing prisoners and dissidents. Observers and human rights groups had noted pauses revolving around the celebrations of the Persian New Year, Nowruz, and around the recent presidential campaign season. Since the June 14 election, however, executions...

Deepening sectarian tensions throughout the Middle East – there are now regular Sunni-Shiite hostilities from Lebanon on the Mediterranean coast through Syria and into Iraq – are behind a wary but measurable realignment that has seen Sunni actors willing to engage Israel to bolster their positions or security. Last week...

The State Department constantly evaluates the global community on the degree to which it helps combat trafficking. A report recently released by State puts Israel near the top of the list: The report lauded Israel for its “law enforcement against sex and labor trafficking, improved identification of trafficking victims, and...

In the latest signs of growing extremism and intolerance in the Arab world’s most populous state, an teacher in Egypt has been fined for blasphemy and an Egyptian-German author critical of radicalism has gone into hiding in Europe. The teacher, a Coptic Christian, was fined this week 100,000 Egyptian pounds –...

Lawlessness has become so endemic in Egypt that the U.S. Embassy this week warned Americans away from visiting the country’s famed pyramids. A academic teaching at the American University in Cairo received an email from the embassy warning of “aggressiveness [that] in some cases is closer to criminal conduct… with...