This week US citizens observed National Human Trafficking Awareness Day through acts of education, legislation, and enforcement; whilst, around the world, other people highlighted or tackled this global problem in their own countries.

According to an annual report on human trafficking released by the US State Department in June last year, 27 million men, women and children are exploited through human trafficking. Worldwide, at least two million children are estimated to be trafficked victims of the sex trade; and, in military conflicts, it is not uncommon for children to be forced to bear arms. In releasing the report last year, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton highlighted the importance of international cooperation in addressing trafficking, and cultural issues associated with it.

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has announced women will be allowed to vote in the country and run for municipal elections there. The modifications will apply from 2012.

Abdullah made this announcement at the start of a new Shura Council term. In a speech, the king said "we refuse to marginalise women in society in all roles that comply with sharia" and so made the decision "to involve women in the Shura Council as members, starting from next term". Abdullah clarified that female adults "will be able to run as candidates in the municipal election and will even have a right to vote." Such changes are to be put in place "according to Islamic principles," he said. Muslim women, he continued, "must not be marginalised in opinion or advice".

The New York State Legislature passed a bill Friday that legalizes same-sex marriage in the state. It was signed into law by Democratic governor Andrew Cuomo. New York now becomes the sixth and largest U.S. state with legalized same-sex marriage. The practice is legal in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Iowa and Washington, D.C..

Four Senate Republicans including Stephen Saland of Poughkeepsie, Mark Grisanti of Buffalo, Roy McDonald of Saratoga Springs, and James Alesi of Rochester, joined 29 Democrats in support, for a margin of 33 to 29. Grisanti defended his vote, stating "I cannot deny a person, a human being, a taxpayer, a worker, the same rights I have with my wife". Governor Cuomo referred to the four Republicans as "people of courage and...principle."

Soviet human rights activist Yelena Bonner died of heart failure in Boston, Massachusetts on Saturday at the age of 88, her daughter Tatiana Yankelevich said in a statement. She had been hospitalized since February 21.

Bonner gained fame by smuggling the papers of her late husband, the nuclear physicist and Russian dissident Andrei Sakharov, out of Siberia and was prominent in her own right for her human rights activism.

Leaders and politicians paid Bonner tribute. "The world has lost one of the most inspiring and dedicated human rights defenders," said Jerzy Buzek, President of the European Parliament.

Civil liberties campaigners have reacted angrily to the announcement that the largest police force in Britain has purchased a revolutionary computer system which will allow them to track everything a person does online in a three-dimensional graphic. The Metropolitan Police service, responsible for policing London, announced the purchase of Geotime, a computer program which can correlate information from satellites, mobile phones, social networking websites, IP logs and financial transactions. The software is already used by the U.S. military.

Egyptian politician Mohammed El Baradei has announced that ousted President Hosni Mubarak must stand trial. The announcement follows the recent ratification by Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil El Araby of a statute that ensures Egypt will join the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC). If El Baradei assumes power in the coming October/November 2011 elections, Mubarak and other former high-ranking corrupt Egyptian officials could potentially be tried in The Hague.

In an interview with the Islam Times, El Baradei cited reasons as to why the trial of Hosni Mubarak will be necessary to undertake if he chooses to run for Egypt’s top job. 'Mubarak allegedly issued the order to shoot at the protesters. [That should] have been reason enough to arrest him immediately...The Military Council has no other option than to try Mubarak and bring everyone else to justice who is responsible for human rights violations or corruption”, he said.

Britain announced Thursday that it will ban the export to the US of three pharmaceutical drugs used for lethal injections in executions under the death penalty.

The three drugs are pentobarbital, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride.

UK Business Secretary Vince Cable said the order will be formalized within the next few days.

Dr Binayak Sen, a medical practitioner and a civil liberties' activist, has been sentenced to life imprisonment in Chhattisgarh. Amnesty International calls him a 'prisoner of conscience' because he never advocated violence and was a champion of human rights causes in the state but was unduly targeted by the state. Probably his stand for human rights exposing gross injustices meted out to tribal population by the state, and a report had irked the government which slapped upon him violation of two draconian laws: Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act and Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).