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U.S. Vows to Promote Gay Rights Abroad - This year, the Obama administration directed all federal agencies engaged abroad to ensure that U.S. diplomacy and foreign assistance promote and protect the human rights of LGBT persons. “The struggle to end discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons is a global challenge, and one that is central to the United States’s commitment to promoting human rights,” the president said.(Photo: EPA/KRISTOFFER TRIPPLAAR/POOL/Landov)

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Report Alleges Human Rights Violations in Somalia - According to a report by Human Rights Watch, all parties involved in this year’s Somali conflict are guilty of violations of the laws of war. The groups involved include the Islamist armed group al-Shabab, the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG), the African Union peacekeeping forces (AMISOM), and Kenya- and Ethiopia-backed Somali militias. Much of central and southern Somalia is controlled by al-Shabab after decades of ineffective government rule.(Photo: REUTERS/Feisal Omar)

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Gays Stand Trial in Cameroon - Despite pleas from human rights groups, two Cameroonian men stood trial this year for homosexuality.“By arresting people purely because of their alleged sexual orientation, the Cameroonian government is flagrantly violating international human rights treaties which it has signed or ratified,” Amnesty International’s Africa Program Director told the BBC.(Photo: Gabriela Matthews/Landov)

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Social Media Help Mobilize Support for Human Rights - In 2011 people around the world harnessed the power of social media to protest against dictatorships and unfair conditions."Today, as in the past, editorial and financial factors—as well as access—determine whether or not protests, and repression of protests, are televised or reported in newspapers around the world," U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said in a statement.(Photo: REUTERS/Adnan Abidi)

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U.S. Haiti Deportees Face Deadly Health Risks - Despite the country’s continuing struggles with public health and safety, human rights groups lamented the U.S.’s decision to continue deportations of some Haitian citizens back to the country.“The crisis has not gone away,” said Michel Forst, an expert on human rights in Haiti, according to the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting. “The most important help the international community can give to Haiti is to suspend the forced return of Haitians.”(Photo: Daniel Morel/Getty Images)

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Alabama Immigration Law Called a "Civil Rights Crisis" - African-American federal judge and civil rights veteran U. W. Clemon are among the advocates who said that Alabama’s HB 56 is a critical civil rights issue. "The Alabama immigration law was designed to be the most severe, the harshest immigration law in the country," he said. "The design, purpose of it was to drive out people who don't look like us. In this instance, it turned out to be Hispanics. Many of them, unfortunately, are American citizens, just as American as you and I."(Photo: AP Photo/Montgomery Advertiser, Mickey Welsh)

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Maternal Health Care in South Africa Under Fire - South Africa’s treatment of infants and expectant mothers has come under scrutiny lately as the country boasts some of the region’s highest infant mortality rates and birthing-room horror stories, despite its position as an economic powerhouse. According to a Human Rights Watch report, expectant mothers in South Africa routinely experienced physical and verbal abuse by health care workers. Women also reported apathetic nurses and hospital staff, who ignored calls for help, left women unattended for long periods of time, discharged women prematurely and sent them home without pain medication or antibiotics and, in some cases, refused admission to women in labor, sometimes without examining them.(Photo: REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko) 

Photo By Photo: REUTE/ REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

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Uganda’s Gay Community Fights Back - In the face of a government that drafted legislation making it a crime to be gay and a news media that encourages its readers to attack gay community members, activists in Uganda banded together to launch a bold initiative to fight against the rise in anti-gay sentiment that has become characteristic to the country.(Photo: EPA/DAI KUROKAWA/Landov)

9 / 11

Iraq War Vet Shuns Police Brutality at Occupy Wall Street - After former U.S. Marine and Iraq war veteran Sgt. Shemar Thomas saw innocent protesters being hit with batons at the Occupy Wall Street protests, he decided that enough was enough. "I saw a woman and a man getting hit with a baton. That infuriated me," he told ABC News following the incident. After becoming “infuriated,” Thomas began shouting at police directly, saying, "These are unarmed people. It doesn't make you tough to hurt these people."(Photo: PerezHilton.com)

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Nigeria Moves to Ban Gay Marriage - Although homosexuality is already outlawed in Nigeria, lawmakers proposed new legislation this year that would impose criminal penalties for gay marriages."If this bill passes into law, the Nigerian government will be sanctioning even greater discrimination and violence against an already vulnerable group," said Graeme Reid, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights director at Human Rights Watch.(Photo: AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

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Alleged Torture at Zimbabwe’s Marange Diamond Fields - According to Human Rights Watch, Zimbabwe police and private security guards employed by mining companies in the Marange diamond fields are guilty of shooting, beating and unleashing attack dogs on poor, local unlicensed miners.Although the allegations are vehemently denied by Zimbabwe’s government, diamond trading groups are already boycotting diamonds that are sourced from the fields.(Photo: John Moore/Getty Images)