by Jessica D’Itri Mu Sochua, 55, the most prominent woman in Cambodia’s Sam Rainsey opposition party is on the campaign trail three years in advance of the scheduled parliamentary elections. Sochua, a human rights and women’s rights activist, faces a tough and at times vicious campaign. The Prime Minister, Hun Sen, of the ruling Cambodian […]
Earlier this month I was in Albania writing a story on the 700,000 + bunkers; artifacts of an era that most want to put behind them. And while there, I had heard that in neighboring Macedonia, hundreds of ethnic Albanians were packing it up, selling all their possessions, and buying one-way bus tickets to Brussels. […]
The key to a prosperous future lies in the lives of generations of girls and ensuring they have equal rights and access, especially in regards to healthcare and education. Education is an essential element to achieve peace and international cooperation, and to ending poverty and conflict. The promotion of lifelong education for women and girls, […]
At the press conference on 14 March 2010, immediately after the close of the National People’s Congress annual session (NPC, China’s legislature and highest state body), Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao discussed Hong Kong. The speech came in the wake of a stormy political debate over the slow progress towards universal suffrage that has seen clashes […]
In recent years previously posts on the plight of child marriage in Yemen, including The Growing Battle of Yemen’s Child Brides and Girls In Yemen Forced to Marry Too Young, have brought the attention of the grave nature violations and abuse across the country. The situation of child brides in Yemen since both posts has […]
Committee hearings at the European Parliament generally do not attract the crowds. But today (or rather yesterday), Tony Blair was in town and invited to debate the current sad state of affairs in the Palestinian territories. I didn’t stick around for Mr. Blair however. Other dignitaries were also present, including Max Gaylard who is the […]
UN: Contaminated water is more deadly than war A report by the UN Environmental Program finds that deaths caused by contaminated water outnumber deaths caused by all forms of violence — including war. Fertilizer runoff, agricultural and industrial waste, and sewage are among the leading toxins that kill some 2.2 million people each year. Up […]
The US State Department recently released its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. This is done every year as a requirement of the Foreign Assistance Act and normally does not gain much attention. However this year, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has made waves with the announcement that the US will be subjecting itself […]
I stumbled across this piece on IRIN, Is humanitarianism genetic?, looking at various creatures like ants or bees, who will give their individual lives in sacrifice of that of the rest of the ‘colony’, challenge Darwin’s theory of the survival of the fittest. The article was written in response to a recent paper, Altruism, Spite, […]
For the past couple of days I have been receiving a series of disturbing photos from a part of the world that I had once reported on. The struggle for human rights in the occupied territories of the Western Sahara is on that has endured for over thirty years. In the hot desolate deserts in […]
Last week the Commission on the Status of Women finished up a two-week review of how successful the world has been in implementing 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, and where we need to improve as a global society in advancing women’s rights as called for in the Declaration. Known as Beijing +15 and […]
Early this month the International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women of Burma convened in New York City. At the Tribunal the testimonies of twelve women outlined atrocities committed by Burmese officials against women during the longest ongoing conflict in the world. Representatives of the witnesses recounted brutal gang rapes, torture and murder committed by Burmese […]
The Irish Oireachtas (Parliament) has been languishing over a Constitutional Referendum on Children over the last 2 years. Over the last decade a number of milestones have been achieved to safe guard the rights of children in Ireland including the publication of the Towards Redress and Recovery – The Ryan Report , by the Commission […]
In a move that will likely need to be repeated in coming years, the Supreme Court of India ordered a controversial resort in the Andaman Islands to close down pending further deliberations of the Court on the possible effect the resort will have on the endangered Jarawa tribe. The decision came just weeks after the […]
I spent an afternoon discussing with Fatos Lubonja last week in Tirana, Albania. He was sitting at a cafe, outside on a terrace. Here in front of me, was a man who spent 17 years in the Albanian gulag. He was initially sentenced 7 years for criticizing Enver Hoxha, a brutal dictator who ruled the […]