US President Barack Obama signed a historic law on Wednesday repealing the US military’s "don't ask, don't tell" policy, fulfilling a campaign promise to allow gays to openly serve in the armed forces.
A Pentagon report released Tuesday said that a "solid majority" of US troops had no objections to repealing the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy on gays in the military and noted that a reversal posed little risk "to overall military effectiveness".
Melissa Bell talks to American-born soprano and human rights activist Barbara Hendricks about her experience of growing up as part of the civil rights movement in the United States, and how it has influenced her involvement in humanitarian work with the UN.
Gay couples in California will be banned from tying the knot until a Federal appeals court decides whether the state’s ban on same-sex marriage is constitutional.
The Bloody Sunday Inquiry's long-awaited report into the most controversial incident in Northern Ireland's Troubles will finally be published today. The 12-year-long attempt to collate a true picture of what happened is certain to stir up deep-seated emotions in the province. The mammoth 5,000-page report examines the events of January 30, 1972 in Northern Ireland when 13 civilians were shot dead by British soldiers at a civil rights march.
Demonstrators decried Arizona's tough new immigration law as a violation of civil rights at a rally in the state's capital Phoenix on Sunday, piling pressure on Washington to reform federal immigration policy.
US President Barack Obama has signed a 680-billion-dollar defence spending bill that also contains an attached measure expanding the definition of federal hate crimes to those committed because of sexual orientation.
Kuwaiti’s constitutional court has ruled that women can obtain their own passports and travel without the approval of their husbands, putting an end to a 47-year-old law.
Honduran security forces have detained 55 supporters of ousted President Manuel Zelaya in a dawn raid on a farm workers building. The security forces acted under a highly controversial decree restricting civil rights.
