Here are a few stories that came out today concerning human rights: Rioting has continued in South Africa where many of the nation’s poor have taken to the streets to protest dire living conditions and often nonexistent government services. Fifteen years after apartheid ended and the ruling African National Congress (ANC) came to power, some […]
This past weekend, more than 100 scholars and researchers from 12 Muslim countries met at the fifth annual Moderation Forum in Jordan. During the opening ceremony, Jordanian Minister of Culture Sabri Rbeihat urged the participants to support a clearer and truer image of Islam. He pointed out that there is often a major difference between […]
Barbara Gonzalez I am reading Transforming Labor-Based Parties in Latin America: Argentine Peronism in a Comparative Perspective by Steven Levitsky, who is currently is associate professor of government and social studies at Harvard University. Drawing from the literature on party change, Levitsky argues that loosely structured party organizations have a better chance of surviving environmental […]
Ageing Shanghai urges 2nd baby for eligible couples For the first time in decades, some officials are openly calling for Chinese to have more than one child. Shanghai city officials worry the rapidly increasing percentage of residents older than 60, combined with low birth rates, will tax the country’s ability to support its aging population. […]
The IMF approved a $2.6 billion dollar loan for Sri Lanka over the objections five states who wanted human rights and policy conditions attached to the loan. As reported earlier on this blog, there are concerns about possible violation of humanitarian law committed by the government towards the end of the 26 year conflict, as […]
Peace, in the sense of the absence of war, is of little value to someone who is dying of hunger or cold. It will not remove the pain of torture inflicted on a prisoner of conscience. It does not comfort those who have lost their loved ones in floods caused by senseless deforestation in a […]
At the G8 summit in L’Aquila, Italy earlier this month, leaders came together to tell the world about all the great things they have in store for us. The money, the figures, and the promises. $20 billion will go to help feed the starving around the world. We’ve heard that one before at Gleneagles all […]
To add to the post, India Continues to Battle Against Child Labor, which the 1986 Child Labor Prohibition and Regulation Act that stated that children under fourteen years of age were prohibited to be employed in occupations deemed hazardous, and then the 2006 law, which banned the use of child labor for domestic purposes, and […]
A friend of mine recently commented that it seems like everything is a human right these days. He may be on to something. Case in point: Earlier today Intel appealed a landmark antitrust fine imposed on them by the European Union on the basis that the fine violated the company’s human rights. In May, the […]
On July 14, the prosecution wrapped up its case against Thomas Lubanga, the first ever accused brought before the International Criminal Court (ICC). Lubanga, the alleged leader of the Union des Patriotes Congolais (UPC), and its military wing the Forces Patriotiques pour la Libération de Congo (FPLC), has been charged with enlisting and conscripting child soldiers between […]
According to the International Labour Organization (ILO) there is an estimated 165 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 whom are actively involved in child labor. Just over a month ago on June 11th we celebrated World Day Against Child Labor, which as I stated in my post, that this year was one […]
The secretary of state finally gets a platter of her own at ITC Maurya’s Bukhara restaurant in New Delhi. The Hillary Platter–urgh malai kabab, seekh kabab, paneer tikka, tandoori aloo, sikandari raan, dal bukhara, tandoori jinga, mixed raita, naan, rasmalai and kulfi–joins the Presidential Platter and the Chelsea Platter. At the town hall meeting at […]
Civil society representatives from over 20 African countries met in Kigali, Rwanda last week to discuss how to better implement a key regional protocol on women’s rights. The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa received it’s fifteenth ratification and therefore came into effect in […]
Eyes have fallen off of Sri Lanka since the country ended it’s 26 year civil war ended in May 2009. The conflict ended with the governments forces final defeat of the insurgent Tamil Tigers rebel group (LTTE). Over the years, especially in the last few years of the conflict international human rights groups repeatedly called […]
A row of Moroccan flags firmly embedded in a concrete wall too tall to scale, align a compound that has no political will and surround a United Nations mission that has no human rights bureau. Minurso, the UN Mission for the Referendum in the Western Sahara, is a sad spectacle where the single blue flag […]