DRC band looks to raise awareness for disabled A group of polio-stricken paraplegic singers and musicians have banded together to make music and fight against social stigma and grinding poverty faced by the disabled in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The group, Staff Benda Billi, has embarked on a European tour to promote their new […]
Not to pick on West Africa this week, but another human rights drama is currently unfolding in Guinea, where the military opened fire with live rounds into a crowd of 50,000 pro-democracy protesters on Monday. While the military government claims that only 57 people were killed, mainly due to trampling, local rights groups are placing […]
The topic of child labor is sadly one of those that is always at the top of my list. However we have had some significant strides recently, especially regarding the release of the Department of Labor’s (DOL) list of goods produced by forced labor and child labor! The long pending release was nothing less than […]
This past weekend communities across the country literally took to the streets to combat child trafficking. The flagship walk in New York City had some 1,284 registered walker with $124,687 in donations raised. New York in true NYC style added their own unique style with the Stiletto Run, which raised over $10,000 and had over […]
The credibility of the African regional human rights system suffered a serious setback last week when President Yahaya Jammeh of The Gambia made comments threatening human rights activists. This is not the first time an African head of state has made disparaging remarks about human rights activists and unfortunately will probably not be the last. […]
By Cordelia Rizzo I remember meeting Mexican politician and human rights activist Gilberto Rincón Gallardo seven years ago and hearing his story about his incarceration in the mythical Lecumberri prison. He was charged with throwing stones and “quickly running away from the cops” during one of the 1968 student-police confrontations. Gallardo, the first head of […]
They are some of the most discriminated and marginalized people in Europe. Facing rampant racism and social exclusion, some European country policies are intentionally segregating Roma children in schools. Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic all place Roma children in separate classrooms. In these conditions, the quality of education afforded to Roma children is […]
The current Yaz birth control controversy illustrates the continued tension between what pharmaceutical companies and the doctors that they pay claim is safe for consumption, and contrary scientific evidence. Natasha Singer of the New York Times is reporting that Yaz, a birth control pill manufactured and marketed by Bayer, is under fire as an […]
Throughout all of Europe, undocumented workers, migrants, refugees and others attempt to carve out a life. Many make the treacherous journey to seek a job to send money back home. But if you get sick…hope for the best. So can it be true? Sweden? That wonderful Scandinavian country where everyone is healthy, wealthy, and attractive? […]
Now is the time for action to end human trafficking in our nation’s capital, said DC Council MemberPhil Mendelson, chair of the Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary. While I am working within the DC Council to advance legislation, outreach efforts and community awareness about trafficking are imperative to end this brutal crime. Mendelson […]
Photo Credit: Stan Honda/AFP Today Colonel Muammar Qaddafi, the leader of Libya, delivered to the United Nations General Assembly what might be called a diatribe and can definitely be deemed a rambling and unexpected speech. Speaking for 100 minutes–a huge overshooting of his alloted 15 minutes–he managed to speak truth to power and mix […]
Apologies for the lack in articles over the last two weeks, as I have been on international travel, most of which was to attend and speak at the Aspen Institute’s Cultural Diplomacy Forum in Avilies, Spain. The theme of the conference was: Culture and Security. The Forum featured a combination of keynote addresses, plenary panels, […]
(UN) A high-level Rwandan rebel indicted by the United Nations war crimes tribunal for his role in the 1994 genocide in the tiny Central African country has been handed over to the court after being arrested in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).Grégoire Ndahimana, a high-level figure in the Forces démocratiques de libération […]
By Geraldine Forbes and Usha Thakkar Dr. Neera Desai [Neeraben] one of the pioneers of Women’s Studies in India, died on June 25, 2009 after a long struggle with cancer. Neeraben, born Neera Druv in Ahmedabad in 1924, lived most of her life in Bombay/ Mumbai where she founded India’s first Research Centre for Women’s […]
(AP) WASHINGTON – The CIA’s harsh interrogations are likely to have damaged the brains of terrorist suspects, diminishing their ability to recall and provide the detailed information the spy agency sought, according to a new scientific paper. The paper scrutinizes the techniques used by the CIA under the Bush administration through the lens of neurobiology […]