Governments responsible for serious human rights violations have over the past year intensified attacks against human rights defenders and organizations that document abuse, Human Rights Watch said in its World Report 2010.

The 612-page report, the organization's 20th annual review of human rights practices around the globe, summarizes major human rights trends in more than 90 nations and territories worldwide, reflecting the extensive investigative work carried out in 2009 by Human Rights Watch staff. The volume's introductory essay by Executive Director Kenneth Roth argues that the ability of the human rights movement to exert pressure on behalf of victims has grown enormously in recent years, and that this development has spawned a reaction from abusive governments that　grew particularly intense in 2009.

Attacks on human rights monitors are not limited to authoritarian governments like Burma and China, Human Rights Watch said. In countries with elected governments that are facing armed insurgencies, there has been a sharp rise in armed attacks on human rights monitors. Although the armed conflict in Chechnya has wound down, there was a devastating series of killings and threats against lawyers and activists fighting impunity in the North Caucasus.

Human Rights Watch noted that some governments are so abusive against individuals and organizations that no domestic human rights movement can function, citing Eritrea, North Korea, and Turkmenistan.

The introduction to the report said that in addition to Russia and Sri Lanka, other countries where human rights monitors were murdered in order to silence them included Kenya, Burundi, and Afghanistan.

Human Rights Watch cited Sudan and China as countries that routinely shut down human rights groups and Iran and Uzbekistan as countries that openly harass and arbitrarily detain human rights workers and other critics. Colombia, Venezuela, and Nicaragua threaten and harass rights defenders. Human rights advocates face violence in countries such as The Democratic Republic of Congo and Sri Lanka. Some governments such as Ethiopia and Egypt use extremely restrictive regulations to stifle the work of nongovernmental organizations. Other countries use the disbarment of lawyers (China and Iran, for example), criminal charges - often faked from staged attacks (Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan), and criminal libel laws (Russia and Azerbaijan) to silence critics.

The US government has ended the CIA's coercive interrogation program, but should still uphold domestic and international law against torture by investigating and prosecuting those who have ordered, facilitated, or carried out torture and other ill-treatment, he said. On closing the detention facility at Guantanamo, the deadline has slipped, but the more important issue is how it will be closed. Human Rights Watch and others have urged the administration either to prosecute detained suspects before regular federal courts or safely repatriate or resettle them elsewhere. The Obama administration has insisted on maintaining military commissions that provide substandard justice and on continuing to hold suspects indefinitely without charge or trial, both of which risk perpetuating the spirit of Guantanamo,

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