El Tiempo, April 8, 2016 “Court says “yes’ to gay marriage in historic decision” reads the Friday front page of Bogota-based daily El Tiempo, a day after Colombia’s highest court ruled to legalize same-sex marriage. Members of the Colombian LGBT community, pictured on the daily’s front page, gathered outside the court in Bogota’s historic center […]
Tag: human rights
Tourism, mining and oil in this southernmost region of South America are financing a flourishing, multinational sex trade.
GASR GARABULLI — Migrant #322 slowly lifts his head and opens his eyes. The long shadow of the sun, punctuated by the jail’s metal bars, bathes the cement walls as the blue sky seeps through the metal grate ceiling. It’s silent in the cells, except for the faint sound of children crying in the distance […]
The torture killing of an Italian student in Cairo has prompted the European Parliament to cut military lead to Egypt. But the European leaders may not be able to make the break.
The internationally brokered ceasefire had a rocky start. While the first 24 hours passed relatively quietly, Russian and Syrian government air strikes picked up again on Sunday, with airplanes targeting towns and villages controlled by the Free Syrian Ar
KRUGERSDORP — A group of men are running away on a wasteland adjoining the residential district of Mindalore, in Krugersdorp (25 miles west of Johannesburg). They probably came out of the “Old Jerusalem” mine, opened in 1886, two years after the first nugget was discovered in Johannesburg, the city that gave the world one third […]
In Brazil, law enforcement officers boast on social network sites about committing violence against suspects, and show off the results for all to see.
Latin American history in the 20th century is stained with autocrats and human rights violations. But with former victims now elected leaders, why don’t they speak up about political prisoners in Venezuela?
Under a repressive regime that outlaws independent lawyers, Laritza Diversent is blazing a trail for victims of Cuba’s harsh judicial system.
A pregnant Chinese woman must abort her baby, or see her husband fired. After first changes to family planning laws, sweeping reform is now urgently needed.
CAIRO — In the past two months, at least five people have died in Egyptian police custody after being arrested on politically related charges. Four of the detainees belonged to the conservative Jama’a al-Islamiya group, while another was accused of belonging to the banned Muslim Brotherhood. Three of those Jama’a al-Islamiya members died over just […]
Nearly one in five people in Lebanon is a Syrian national who fled the war, the world’s highest per capita refugee population. Like on the borders of Europe, they are largely unwelcome.
MINGORA — At 13, Hadiqa Bashir is herself just a child, but she’s already working to save girls from child marriage in rural Pakistan. Though it’s illegal in Pakistan, marrying young children to much older men is still widely practiced in the Swat Valley. Visiting Hadiqa Bashir today is a young girl, Shabana, who is with her mother. A white gauze covers her nose, and she explains the horrific reason why. “My mother-in-law asked my husband to complete his job today and she left the house,” Shabana says. “I had my young son with me, and my husband asked his […]
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On Being Transgender In Egypt
CAIRO — Aisha was sleeping when her apartment was raided. She and three other friends had just moved in when the police came by asking if they had weapons or anything illegal. They said no, and were asked for their identity cards. Aisha and her friends are transgender women, but their identity cards say they […]
Le Temps meets up with Olga Abramenko, head of a human rights organization that Russian authorities have deemed a “foreign agent” and banished from the country.
JAIPUR — Saveera Khan’s three daughters are helping her to make bangles, which requires working in front of a hot furnace that melts the powder used for making natural lac bangles. The children handle many poisonous chemicals such as crystalline silica dust, and inhale noxious fumes of toxic dust. At just 7 years old, Mantasha is the youngest and she goes to school only when there isn’t too much work to be done at home. “Our only brother always goes to school, but mostly we girls in the family work at home,” she says. “The furnace is very very hot […]
A not-so-veiled effort to limit the population of this Muslim ethnic minority is the systematic denial of marriage licenses. Children born out of wedlock are rendered stateless, without citizenship or education.
Though many voters believed they were electing a pro-human rights president, Joko Widodo, known as Jokowi, has demonstrated no mercy in executions, even for drug trafficking.
There’s always a clever argument – security, stability, secularism – to put rule of law and democracy on hold. But denying human rights is a certain recipe for destruction.
Released in late May after two years in prison, Nabeel Rajab has taken his cause to foreign capitals. But will the West challenge the oil-rich nation’s human rights record.
CHENGDU — It’s common practice in every country to confiscate property that criminals attained illegally. In China, criminal law stipulates three concrete measures: confiscation of the instruments of crime and contraband, recovery of illegal gains from criminals, and confiscation of the personal property of criminals who commit certain offenses. It’s worth recognizing that the law […]
TORA — It’s 10 a.m. and the contours of Tora Prison, south of Cairo, are filling with families arriving on time to visit relatives. Old Peugeot 504s are offloading passengers whose faces are marked by the fatigue of the trip. The scene feels like an invisible face of Cairo. Vendors selling oranges and mandarins are part of the prison economy, with families stopping and buying some on their way into the prison complex. A girl who looks about 10 years old is carrying a colossal tray of kanafeh pastries on her head. Her little brother is carrying a bag of […]
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Is Europe’s Criticism Of Iran Toothless?
What does Iran see when it looks at Europe? Not necessarily a Union at all. It was reported this week by the Iranian press that the Netherlands ambassador in Tehran told Iranian authorities not to worry about the European Parliament’s recent vote condemning Iran’s handling of human rights. The official IRNA news agency cited ambassador […]
BERLIN — “You’re the ones who created this mess I’m in…” Mohammad points his finger at me, and doesn’t even want to tell me his real first name: “Call me Mohammad, we are all the same to you racist Italians anyway.” His age, though, he does tell me: He’s 47, but looks a bit younger […]
Evidence is piling up that the Damascus regime has used rape – of daughters in front of fathers, wives in front of husbands – as a targeted weapon.
In the wake of the immigrant tragedy off the coast of Lampedusa, a reporter sneaks into a detention center in southern Italy to witness living conditions and hear tales of refugees.
The daughter of a couple kidnapped during Argentina’s Dirty War chastizes the country’s leader for appointing a suspected war criminal as army head.
-Editorial- SANTIAGO – If we based our knowledge of Latin America on Amnesty International’s latest global human rights report, we would believe that there is no real justice in the region, violence is on the rise, police regular torture citizens, that there are multiple attempts to exterminate indigenous groups, and organized crime is gaining ground. […]
The invention of “killer robots” could radically change the way wars are fought — and raises a whole array of legal and ethical questions. The UN calls for a moratorium.
THE IRRAWADDY (Burma), HRW (USA), RADIO AUSTRALIA Worldcrunch RANGOON – A new report by NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) published on Monday says there is evidence of government complicity in crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing against Burma’s Rohingya Muslim ethnic minority. Since June 2012, more than 220 people have died in sectarian fighting between […]
MOSCOW – On Friday, the United States made public its list of Russian officials who are barred to enter the U.S. under the Magnitsky Act. The law imposes visa and banking sanctions on Russians officials accused of human rights violations. It is named after Sergei Magnitsky, a corruption lawyer and whistleblower who was accused of […]
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Asmaa, The Last Free Woman Of Gaza
GAZA – They have almost all left: Bachar for Sweden, May for Spain, Imad for Tunisia, Mohamed for Qatar, Assad for Egypt, Adham for Belgium. Moustapha, Asmaa’s brother also left for Belgium, while Mohamed Matar, aka Abou Yazan, the leader of the short-lived March 15 Movement, that tried to bring the Arab Spring to Gaza, […]
-OpEd- BEIJING – The four foreign criminals who murdered 13 Chinese sailors in 2011 on northern Thailand’s Mekong River were put to death by lethal injection on March 1. I support the death sentence in this case and the execution of these men. The significance of this execution is three-fold. First, whoever commits a crime, […]
O ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO (Brazil) Worldcrunch SÃO PAULO – The election of a new President of the Commission for Human Rights and Minorities in Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies typically wouldn’t make much of a splash. But the brand new President, Marco Feliciano, an evangelical pastor, happens to already be well-known for making racist and […]
Documents reveal how American intelligence officers turned a secret training center for Polish security forces into one of the controversial “black site” prisons for terrorism suspects.
FRANCE – They are the “invisibles.” Behind closed doors, they cook, clean, take care of children and the elderly. They are often the victims of abuse – sexual and physical – they are underpaid and overworked – sometimes for more than 65 hours a week, they don’t get benefits and rarely have organizations to defend […]
XINHUA (China), VOICE OF AMERICA (USA), REUTERS Worldcrunch BEIJING – Chinese legislature has passed a law that includes mandatory real-name registration for Internet users, Xinhua reported on Friday. The new rules were announced by the official Xinhua news agency on Twitter: Rules approved Friday in China to enhance protection of personal info online and safeguard […]
MOSCOW – Human rights organization “Shield and Sword” has become the first Russian non-profit forced to register as a “foreign agent.” This comes with the activation of a new law that requires any non-profit that receives funding from outside of the country to register as such with the Russian government. Activists say the legislation was […]
MOSCOW – Barack Obama has signed into law a bill that establishes normal trade relations with Russia for the first time in decades, including the repeal of the 1974 Jackson-Vanick Amendment that denied “most favored nation” status to countries restricting human rights. But the bill also included the so-called “Magnitsky” Act, which calls for sanctions […]