Human rights lawyer and women’s rights activist Shadi Sadr was arrested in Tehran on Friday. She was approached by several plain clothed officers who pushed her into a car while she was walking with friends to Friday prayers. In a call to her husband, she confirmed that she was under arrest and being held at […]
World Bank says broadband is key to economic progress Widespread access to information technology reduces poverty and African countries should put more focus on decreasing the costs of broadband access, the World Bank says. While some progress has been made with innovative mobile banking and free call roaming, African countries continue to have the world’s […]
Around 500 different groups of Indians still in the vast forest of the Amazon. Some have never had contact with the outside world. Last year, a small prop plane flying over forests in Peru spotted on such group. The images that came from that venture were truly astonishing. It is hard to imagine that in […]
“We should never permit ourselves to do anything that we are not willing to see our children do.” – Brigham Young Children look to adults for guidance, we are no only care takers, but natural role models. Children watch closely those adults around them for examples of how to act, how to behaveand what paths […]
The writers and supporters of the War Crimes series for the Foreign Policy Association honor July 17 as International Justice Day. July 17 marks the anniversary of the drafting of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The U.N. General Assembly launched a five-week diplomatic conference in Rome in June 1999 to establish an […]
Earlier this week, the Israeli human rights group Breaking the Silence released a report containing the anonymous testimonies of 54 combat soldiers who served in 2008-2009 Gaza War, codenamed Operation Cast Lead by the Israeli military. The testimonies detail numerous human rights abuses and violations of international laws of war including the use of human […]
The Special Court for Sierra Leone is in a dire financial situation according to Chief Prosecutor Stephen Rapp who appealed to the U.N. Security Council today for more funds. Mr. Rapp described the situation as “an impending crisis” and warned of a break-down of the courts functionality without additional resources: Even if all pledged donations […]
Earlier this month President Barack Obama attended a civil society summit in Moscow. Present at that summit was Memorial, a human rights group that came to fruition during the perestroika years and whose main tasks is to collect the facts, shed light on the past, and find a path to the future without giving any lessons […]
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has found Tharcisse Renzaho, former prefect of Kigali-Ville and Colonel of the Rwandan Armed Forces, guilty of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for his involvement in the 1994 genocide of approximately 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Rwanda; he was acquitted of complicity to commit genocide. He has […]
A major militant group in Nigeria’s troubled Niger Delta announced a sixty day ceasefire yesterday after the government released a top commander earlier in the week. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has been behind most of the region’s recent troubles and are responsible for several high profile kidnappings and attacks […]
Late last week Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno Ocampo, received an envelope containing the names of a dozen top suspects of crimes against humanity in Kenya. The alleged crimes against humanity occurred following the disputed 2008 Kenyan presidential election and the list is rumored to implicate some of Kenya’s most senior […]
Charles Taylor testified Tuesday before the U.N.-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone for the first time, calling the charges against him bogus. Taylor served as president of Liberia during the 1991-2002 civil war in neighboring Sierra Leone. Taylor allied with the leader of the Revolutionary United Front, Foday Sankoh, operating in Sierra Leone to hijack […]
President Obama has nominated Stephen Rapp, currently the Prosecutor for the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL), as his Ambassador at Large for War Crimes Issues. As head of the Office of War Crimes Issues, Rapp will report directly to Secretary Clinton regarding a wide range of war crimes issues – from Darfur to Burma […]
Third of May 1808 – Francisco Goya Behind 88794 is a name that is no stranger to controversy, that puts her words into actions, who is not afraid to push the boundaries of truth and moral conviction to help those oppressed. Locked up behind bars, this woman locked horns with President George Bush, had called […]
The fragmented country of Somalia is no stranger to conflict and the last two years of fighting has increasingly taken a toll on the lives of everyone in the country, especially the children. Somalia is quite literally a raging battle ground, as fighting in the country continues, as insurgents exchange fire with the Somali government, […]