Foreign Policy Blogs

Tag Archives: human rights

U.S. Supports Syrian Online Resistance

U.S. Supports Syrian Online Resistance

The internet went dark in Syria last week. Although media reports blamed the outage on a fault in optical fiber cables many in the tech community were skeptical. After all, it’s not the first time Syria shut down the internet in an attempt to prevent protestors from using social media to coordinate and share with […]

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Considering Seafarers’ Right to Communicate

Considering Seafarers’ Right to Communicate

For much of the world’s employed, maintaining communication with those closest to them while completing their employment requirements is not a contemplated issue. Many workers can use their own personal or workplace phones, computers, and other devices to contact their friends and family if need be. Outside the workplace, most working people return home to […]

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Zimbabwe & the Search for the Rule of Law

Zimbabwe & the Search for the Rule of Law

What does a country in the middle of collapse look like? This was the question filmmaker Lorie Conway attempted to answer in her new film on Zimbabwe, “Beatrice Mtetwa and the Rule of Law.” A recent showing by the United States Institute of Peace gave a venue for both the filmmaker and the film’s primary […]

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The Fifth Anniversary of the Incarceration of Seven Baha’i Leaders in Iran

The Fifth Anniversary of the Incarceration of Seven Baha’i Leaders in Iran

An Interview with Gissou Nia, Executive Director of IHRDC To commemorate the fifth anniversary of the imprisonment of seven Baha’i Leaders in Iran, on Monday, May 6, the U.S. Bahá’í Office of Public Affairs is hosting an event at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C. This event is part of the Baha’i International Community’s “Five […]

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The Qatada Question: Between a Rights and a Hardline Place

The Qatada Question: Between a Rights and a Hardline Place

The single band of light slashed across the shelves catches the metallic detailing on the spines of the neatly lined books set upon them.  The shine creates what looks to be the only source of real illumination in an otherwise darkened room, perhaps an intentional set up to reflect the gravity of the interview.  Seated […]

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Will the DPRK’s Increased Militarism Unify the International Human Rights Approach?

Will the DPRK’s Increased Militarism Unify the International Human Rights Approach?

In what is often being labeled the “Korean Crisis” or “Korean Missile Crisis” the latest outward displays of military prowess by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) have prompted concerted international efforts on not only strategies of military containment, but of human rights inquiry. Comprehensive investigation into the domestic human rights record of the […]

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FPA’s Must Reads (March 29 to April 5)

FPA’s Must Reads (March 29 to April 5)

Each week, Foreign Policy Blogs’ editors help you catch up on the best long-form reads you may have missed.

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A Meeting of Ministers: Hague to make latest U.K. Syria bid

A Meeting of Ministers:  Hague to make latest U.K. Syria bid

The vice grip of prolonged violence suffocating Syria is sending the humanitarian situation there careening towards the fading lights of a blackout. With a death toll looming somewhere between 70-90,000 and a refugee population of over a million in two years time, international intervention to this point has been largely limited to food aid and […]

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Telecommuting as a Human Rights Approach

Telecommuting as a Human Rights Approach

The modern workplace and the requirements of jobs in the high-technology era have brought what was an outlying issue in the past to the forefront of the debate on employment arrangements. Some major technologically inclined corporations have come to different conclusions. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer banned telecommuting arrangements via a memo and Google CFO Patrick […]

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A Coalition of the Unwilling

A Coalition of the Unwilling

After weeks of negotiation, and, predictably, right before his already-extended deadline was set to expire, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced the formation of a majority coalition in the Knesset (Israeli legislature).  The coalition, in addition to including the pre-election alliance between Likud, the main right-wing party, and Yisrael Beiteinu, the Russian immigrant-oriented party headed by […]

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Acronyms and Acrobatics

Acronyms and Acrobatics

Tomorrow, March 15th, will mark the final day of the 57th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW57). As mentioned in my previous post, the theme running throughout the session is the issue of violence against women (VAW). If you’re unsure as to why this is a necessary focus, please remember that […]

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North Korean Jive

North Korean Jive

Give the people sports and they will forget all about politics. Such a maxim could be attributed to all manner of political figures from Commodus to Machiavelli. We can now add Kim Jong Un to that list after the North Korean leader welcomed former NBA weirdo Dennis Rodman to Pyongyang for a basketball game between […]

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Secretary Of State John Kerry: The Underrated Value of U.S. Foreign Assistance

Secretary Of State John Kerry: The Underrated Value of U.S. Foreign Assistance

  Prior to his departure to Europe and the Middle East, Secretary of State John Kerry went to the University of Virginia to deliver his first public policy speech, which focused predominantly on explaining to his audience that U.S. foreign policy and assistance has a direct impact upon domestic policy and vice versa. Secretary Kerry […]

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Competing Rights: The GMO Debate

Competing Rights: The GMO Debate

The question of whether genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are helpful or harmful has persisted since the 1970s, but reached no solid conclusion. As the U.S. Supreme Court is poised to hear oral arguments on Tuesday, February 19 in Bowman v. Monsanto Co. that will have far-reaching implications for the GMO debate: whether self-replicating technologies can […]

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What Role for Europe in Asia?

What Role for Europe in Asia?

  “In particular, I strongly believe that Europe should join the United States in increasing and deepening our defense engagement with the Asia-Pacific region.” These words are from outgoing U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta in his final overseas address to an audience at King’s College, London, delivered on January 18. This raises the question: […]

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