Foreign Policy Blogs

Human Rights

Help End Child Slavery this Halloween

Help End Child Slavery this Halloween

With Halloween quickly approaching, most of us are running around trying to find costumes, decide what parties to attend, and most of all make sure we are stocked up on candy for the wee ones that will barrage our doors in their tiny costumes.  No one wants to be left with there pumpkin bowl empty […]

read more

News…

News…

WHO is alarmed by skin-disease spread in Afghanistan Tens of thousands of Afghans — predominantly women and children — have contracted the disfiguring skin disease cutaneous leishmaniasis and the number of cases is increasing, the World Health Organization says. The disease, transmitted by the bite of sand flies, threatens the health of 13 million Afghans. […]

read more

Blog Action Day: Water

Blog Action Day: Water

Today is Blog Action Day, which occurs every October 15 and the objective of getting bloggers around the globe to post about the same issue. This year’s topic: Water. Blog Action Day aims to create a global discussion while driving collective action towards the issue. The United Nations voted over the summer recognize access to clean water as a human right. However the UN […]

read more

Will a Ban on Child Marriage Bring an End to Obstetric Fistula?

Will a Ban on Child Marriage Bring an End to Obstetric Fistula?

“Everyday approximately 25,000 girls become child brides. It is estimated that one in seven girls in the developing world marries before turning 15. These young women are deprived of their childhood, likely to be illiterate, and burdened with responsibilities of marriage and family long before they are suited to take on such tasks,” said Ambassador-at-Large […]

read more

Ending Child Labor in the Cotton Feilds

Ending Child Labor in the Cotton Feilds

According to the International Labour Organization (ILO) there are estimated 165 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 actively involved in child labor. Children are often forced to work long hours and are often forced to work in harsh and dangerous conditions. Child labor has a direct link to poverty, and provides a […]

read more

A Win Against Impunity: Callixte Mbarushimana Arrested in Paris

A Win Against Impunity:  Callixte Mbarushimana Arrested in Paris

Notorious Rwandan war criminal Callixte Mbarushimana was arrested today in Paris after sixteen years of impunity. He was arrested after a sealed arrest warrant was issued by the ICC in late September. French authorities cooperated fully. Mbarushimana faces five counts of crimes against humanity (murder, torture, rape, inhumane acts and persecution) and six counts of […]

read more

Port-au-Prince: Tent City, Tent Currency

The much discussed and fretted over rainy season has arrived in Haiti. No, you didn’t miss it—there hasn’t been an official hurricane yet, and all fingers are crossed that it does not arrive. But storms too small to be named, but big enough to tear down trees and tents and scatter rubble and garbage have […]

read more

Advancing the Fight Against the Use of Child Soldiers

Advancing the Fight Against the Use of Child Soldiers

The use of child soldiers continues to be a plague on our global society, as thousands of children continue to be recruited into armed conflict by both government forces and armed rebel groups in spite global efforts to combat the continued use of children.  UNICEF estimates there are some 300,000 child soldiers globally, while Human Rights, with […]

read more

What Should Really Scare You This Halloween

What Should Really Scare You This Halloween

It is that time of year when the ghouls and goblins begin to descend upon us to scare us with their howls and haunts.  Stories of ghost and demons find there way into your homes and dreams.  However what is even scarier, is the fact that the Cocoa industry often traffics children to work as […]

read more

The terrorist and human rights

Remember when everyone in power claimed that prosecuting terrorists in federal court would inevitably lead to a breakdown in national security? That by providing accused terrorists with constitutional rights like habeas corpus we would be advancing our own undoing? While there are still those that agree with that position, it is also important to note […]

read more

News…

News…

Advocates are worried for Afghan women’s rights There have been some significant gains in the fight for women’s rights in Afghanistan since the 2001 fall of the Taliban government, and advocates now fear women’s rights will be sacrificed as part of negotiations between the government of Hamid Karzai and the Taliban. While Afghanistan’s constitution guarantees […]

read more

World Teachers' Day

World Teachers' Day

Today, October 5th, is World Teachers’ Day, so take a moment and thank a teacher today! World Teachers’ Day has been held annually on 5 October since 1994.  The day commemorates the anniversary of the 1966 signing in the UNESCO/ILO Recommendation Concerning the Status of Teachers. The purpose of the day is to celebrate the […]

read more

Winning Battles in the Fight to End Child Trafficking

Winning Battles in the Fight to End Child Trafficking

When people tell you that ‘you can literally buy anything online’, they are not kidding! The policing of such activities is has always been difficult for the authorities, but many question the sites themselves for even allowing services of such a sexual nature to even be advertised, thus opening the door for a multitude of […]

read more

October is Fair Trade Month

October is Fair Trade Month

The month of October is TransFair USA’s Fair Trade Month, and the 2010 theme is “Every Purchase Matters”.  The goal behind this years theme is to stress and illustrate how individuals can get involved with Fair Trade and what impact that can have on farmers and laborers across the globe. TransFair USA is the United States’s only third-party certifier […]

read more

Victoria and Abdul: The True Story of the Queen's Closest Confidant

By Shrabani Basu In the summer of 1887 as Queen Victoria approached the Golden Jubilee of her reign, she was overcome with feelings of loneliness. She had never stopped mourning for her beloved husband, Prince Albert, who had died in 1861, and had chosen to wear widow’s black all her life. As she looked ahead […]

read more