One afternoon last August, at a hospital on the outskirts of Los Angeles, a former beauty queen named Emma Coronel gave birth to a pair of heiresses. The twins, who were delivered at 3:50 and 3:51, respectively, stand to inherit some share of a fortune that Forbes estimates is worth a billion dollars.

Amnesty International is receiving increasing allegations of serious human rights violations, such as enforced disappearance, extrajudicial executions and other unlawful killings, torture and other ill-treatment, and arbitrary detention, being committed by members of the Mexican military. The cases documented in this report show that both civilian and military authorities frequently fail to investigate these reports in a prompt, impartial and effective manner. Amnesty International hopes this report and its recommendations will help the Mexican government address this pattern of serious human rights violations swiftly and effectively.

In late 2007, the U.S. and Mexican governments unveiled the Merida Initiative. A 3-year, $1.4 billion counternarcotics assistance program, the Merida Initiative is designed to combat the drug-fueled violence that has ravaged Mexico of late. The initiative aims to strengthen the Mexican police and military, permitting them to take the offensive in the fight against Mexico’s powerful cartels. As currently designed, however, the Merida Initiative is unlikely to have a meaningful, long-term impact in restraining the drug trade and drug-related violence. Focussing largely on security, enforcement, and interdiction issues, it pays comparatively little attention to the deeper structural problems that fuel these destructive phenomena. These problems, ranging from official corruption to U.S. domestic drug consumption, have so far frustrated Mexican attempts to rein in the cartels, and will likely hinder the effectiveness of the Merida Initiative as well. To make U.S. counternarcotics...

This 76-page report details 17 cases involving military abuses against more than 70 victims, including several cases from 2007 and 2008. The abuses include killings, torture, rapes, and arbitrary detentions. Not one of the military investigations into these crimes has led to a conviction for even a single soldier on human rights violations. The only civilian investigation into any of these cases led to the conviction of four soldiers.

The UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy (UN Strategy), which was adopted unanimously by the UN General Assembly on 8 September 2006 includes a broad range of measures aimed at addressing conditions conducive to the spread of terrorism; preventing and combating terrorism; building States. counterterrorism capacities, strengthening the role of the UN system in the provision and facilitation of capacity building assistance; and ensuring respect for human rights for all and the rule of law as the fundamental basis for the fight against terrorism. The Strategy identifies national governments as having primary responsibility for its implementation, while highlighting the supporting role that different parts of the UN system, regional and sub-regional bodies, and civil society should play in ensuring its effective implementation. By enumerating a holistic approach to addressing the terrorist threat, the Strategy represents a convergence of the global North.s post-11 September...