Which country is the world leader for the execution of juvenile offenders? And has failed, along only with Somalia, to sign the United Nations declaration on the rights of the child?
Algeria? Serbia? Rwanda? Wrong - only the United States executed young people for crimes committed when they were less than 18 years of age last year, according to Amnesty International's 1999 report.
As if to underline its pole position in such matters, the US state of Virginia plans to execute Douglas Christopher Thomas today for a murder carried out when he was 17. Thomas, now 25, was convicted of murdering his girlfriend's parents in 1991.
The example illustrates a central theme of the 400-page catalogue of human rights abuses, namely that crimes and breaches of international law and human decency are by no means confined to the poorest, less democratic countries of the world.
The report enumerates abuses committed by governments and opposition groups in 142 countries last year. Executions, both legal and extra-judicial, were carried out in 47 countries, and people "disappeared" in 37 countries. Amnesty believes the true figures are even higher.
In the US, 68 prisoners were executed last year, including three juveniles. More than 3,500 remain on death row. The report focuses on the use of the death penalty in the US, China (at least 1,067 executions), Saudi Arabia and Sierra Leone and calls for a worldwide ban on executions to mark the year 2000.
Although perpetrators of human rights abuses continued to escape justice, there were bright spots last year, according to Amnesty.
These include the establishment of the International Criminal Court, the historic decision by the British Law Lords that the former Chilean dictator, Gen Augusto Pinochet, should face trial, and the first convictions secured in the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
Human rights must be central to the UN peace plan for Kosovo, according to Ms Mary Lawlor, director of Amnesty's Irish section. "Human rights violations caused this disaster in the first place. Human rights violations fuelled it and human rights must be at the heart of any settlement," she said.
Ms Lawlor said it was not for the Government, NATO or any other body with a vested interest to decide when it was safe for Kosovan refugees to return home. This would have to be independently assessed.
She called on peace-keepers to abide by the highest standards and to provide protection for both Albanians and Serbs in Kosovo.
The ability of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs Mary Robinson, to speak out on behalf of all human rights victims has been "severely hampered" by financial constraints, the report says. "It remains to be seen whether the `constructive engagement' approach, which led to her signing agreements with a number of governments, will lead to enhanced respect for human rights in those countries."
As usual, Africa was the worst region for human rights abuses. Thousands of people, many of them civilians, have been arbitrarily killed in the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which now involves eight neighbouring states. But there were massive human rights abuses in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Chad, Angola and Uganda.