The blogosphere is abuzz with the unsettling news that the Chinese government has arrested Xu Zhiyong, a 36-year-old attorney, thereby dealing another blow to the growing Chinese rule of law movement. In authoritarian countries or nations in transition, lawyers often play a key role in bringing greater democracy through the judicial protections, accountability, and transparency […]
Cambodia has never been known as a haven for free speech and political dissent, but several recent developments in the country have observers even more concerned about the shrinking space for political expression. Last week, a Cambodian court found an outspoken opposition MP guilty of defamation for filing her own defamation suit against Prime Minister […]
Children’s bodies aren’t like automobiles with the assailant’s fingerprints lingering on the wheel. The world of sexual abuse is quintessentially secret. It is the perfect crime. The following quote by, Beatrix Campbell, a British journalist, is from her book, Unofficial Secrets, ch. 2 (1988). In the book’s introduction, Campbell quotes a police source on the […]
Anyone interested in understanding the history of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and prosecuting war crimes should take a look at the new documentary “The Reckoning.” This film can currently be viewed on-line here [Warning: contains extremely graphic scenes of violence]. The movie explains the court’s history, its foundations in international criminal law that began […]
Moshi is a small town in Tanzania, about an hour drive south of the International Criminal Tribunal in Arusha. But this post is not about the endearing legacy of a genocide, or the incapacity of a court to bring to justice those responsible. Instead, this post is about hope – or at the very least […]
We usually only post once a day here at the Human Rights Blog, which means we can only cover so many human rights stories. But to keep you informed, here are some of the other stories that came across my desk this past week. Niger: For the People, By the people . . . Niger’s […]
I already posted on how the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in the Western Sahara (Minurso) is the only one of its kind to not have a human rights mandate. The conflict is over thirty years in the making and consistently hovers below the media radar screen. Perhaps there is not enough blood spilled […]
Speaking in Kenya, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said it is a “great regret” that the US is not a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague.
Yesterday I brought you the piece, The fine lines between porn and cyberspace, on virtual child porn and the gray areas that it has now created. However virtual child porn is not the only door opener to child sexual exploitation. With advancements and an increased access to technology, we have also an increased access to […]
Amidst what appears to be a confusion of evidence and a disregard for both the pressures faced by girls sold into marriage and the inherently dual victim-perpetrator status of children in conflict situations, Rania Ibrahim, a 16-year-old Iraqi teenage girl, has been sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for an attempted suicide […]
The lines around child porn are often tested, with those who do use very young looking 18+ girls, who’s looks they play with to seem even more innocent and child like, to avoid any legal ramifications while still benefiting from the massive industry that is fueled by pedophiles around the globe. The FBI’s cybercrime unit’s […]
5-Aug-09 – The conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has seen a massive upsurge in sexual violence against men. By Lisa Gambone.
There are few places on Earth where one could believe that people have exhausted their ability for cruelty, but the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo may be one of them. Since the mid-1990s, the country has been embroiled in a series of ethnically-fueled conflict and civil war that has killed over two million people. […]
Suicide bombers are a mainstay in modern warfare, shock or dismay rarely comes as headlines like, “suicide bomber kills 11″, are splattered across our TV screens and newspapers. However while no longer a new tactic of war the use of suicide bombers has dramatically increased since its modern beginnings in the 198o’s which saw an […]
‘Dozens’ of Guantanamo detainee cases have been referred to federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C., New York and Virginia. US Attorney General Eric Holder has reportedly met with federal prosecutors from these jurisdictions, each of which has experience handling international terrorism cases. The debate continues as to what to do with the remaining 229 detainees, with […]