Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the top United Nations human rights body today that its mission was more important than ever in an era when “war, terror and the threat of political violence have become a much greater part of many peoples’ lives,” an era when “inaction is not an option.”

The United Nations Commission on Human Rights headed into the final stretch of its annual session today, adopting a series of measures promoting civil and political rights, and approving a three-year mandate extension of its working group on arbitrary detention.

In a series of keenly debated decisions, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights adopted resolutions expressing concern at rights violations in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Turkmenistan and Myanmar, but rejected bids to censure serious human rights abuses in Zimbabwe and the Sudan.