Ethiopia's famine conjures up the horrors of starvation. The image of a 3-year-old child dying captured by cameraman Mohammed Amin and reporter Michael Buerk was witnessed by 470 million people around the world. This was in 1984. The inconsolable image of Africa was forever changed and made indelible by an emaciated boy. For at least […]
(Obama in Kenya, courtesy of the New York Times) Barack Obama likes to highlight that his internatinal exposure distinguishes him from his Republican opponent. His birth in Hawaii, travels to his father's native Kenya, four years spent in Indonesia, and even a college trek through Pakistan and India, have given him quite the international worldview. Now that he is […]
“Come, let us put our minds together to see what kind of lives we can create for our children.” -Chief Sitting Bull (Lakota Indian Chief) The future of the worlds children is in all our hands, it is not for one alone to strive to see that the children of today and tomorrow are given […]
The Top 100 Civil Liberties Advocacy Blogs was just released, and it is with great pleasure that I inform you that the Foreign Policy Association's Children's Rights blog has made the cut. The list, which was compiled by the Criminal Justice Degree Guide, is broken down by subject matter. Featured our very own blog in […]
Here's an interesting report that was recently featured on Al-Jazeera's English language website. It provides some insight into the rise of the al-Shabaab, also often referred to as the Mujahideen Youth Movement (MYM), as an armed force in Somalia. Some interesting points/quotes put forth by the author: 1) Entities within the al-Shabaab initially began as […]
The Pew Global Attitudes Project released today a large global public opinion poll that ties in nicely with my post yesterday about the House Foreign Relations Subcommittee report on views of the US. Here's a chart that shows the decline in favorable views of the US around the world since 1999:
In yet another resounding slap in the face to the Bush administration on its policies during the so-called war on terror, the U.S. Supreme Court Thursday ruled 5-4 that foreign nationals held at Guantanamo Bay have a right to challenge their detention in civilian courts. “We hold these petitioners do have the habeas corpus privilege,” […]
Today marks the 2008 World Day Against Child Labour, this years theme is: ‘Education: The right response to child labour’. This year the ILO's International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) has established the campaign to tackle the right to education for all children to brake the chain of child labour that envelops […]
Today the House Foreign Affairs Committee's Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight released the culmination of ten hearings all based on global views of the US. The report, titled "The Decline in America's Reputation: Why?” explores this important issue, thoroughly-documented with testimony from some of the country's brightest public opinion and regional experts. The report identifies […]
The ICC's first trial, against Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, will be delayed. Lubanga, a leader of the Union of Congolese Patriots, is accused of command responsibility for hundreds of civilian deaths and the large-scale recruitment or impression into service of child soldiers. Critical case documents are available here, though the judges’ written explanation of […]
German doll maker Marcel Offermann is used to seizing the day. He has made dolls of newsmakers like Pope Benedict, the Dalai Lama and Princess Diana. So it follows that he would make a Barack Obama doll. Offermann was interviewd on NPR's Marketplace about the doll which looks more like a boy than a man. […]
A Pew Center report entitled "Media Pivot to November, Iraq Debate' outlined trends in media coverage during the week of May 26-June 1, the period just before Barack Obama clinched the Democratic presidential nomination on June 3. As his victory appeared increasingly inevitable, Obama featured in nearly 66 percent of campaign-related news stories, against 45 […]
The leading scientists of 13 nations yesterday called for significant cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. The science academies of the G8 plus those of Brazil, Mexico, India, China and South Africa issued a joint statement on "Climate Change Adaptation and the Transition to a Low Carbon Society." See this from Reuters. The statement targets the […]
BELGRADE (AFP) ‚ Stojan Zupljanin, wanted by the UN war crimes tribunal in connection with atrocities against Muslims and Croats during the Bosnian war, has been arrested near Belgrade, officials said Wednesday.He was among the most-wanted Serbs indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia — alongside Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic […]
I have to take a moment to point out how much I disagree with the Slate article by Christopher Hitchens on former South African President Nelson Mandela and Zimbabwe. Hitchens attacks President Mandela for not speaking out on Zimbabwe: "By his silence about what is happening in Zimbabwe, Mandela is making himself complicit in the […]