Indonesian forests have been destroyed at a significant rate to create plantations for the palm oil industry. Behind the environmental impacts to forests, rivers, and air, there is a serious human impact, with threats to the life of entire indigenous communities. All this with poor account to the responsible, being companies and government actors.
Dubioza Kolektiv, a popular Bosnian avant-garde group would say – or rather, sing – that Bosnia-Erzegovina is in Europe “just in Eurosong”. By that, meaning that the country is only welcome as a full-fledged member of Europe when this benefits the image of a multicultural, welcoming continent. But when the lights of Eurovision go off, Bosnia is likely to disappear from the public discourse. If anything, it may come up in conversations simply as the place where “there once was a war”.
In part, this is understandable. How is it possible that a European country could be majority Muslim? Why does it stubbornly refuse to behave like a “normal” democracy? And yet, no matter how divided or unstable, Bosnia is clearly a member of the wobbly, colorful European family.
From July 18 to 22, 2001, thousands of people gathered in the narrow streets of Genova. Twenty years later, the legacy of this summit is characterized – rather than from the content of the discussions of the G8 world leaders – from the violence which ensued in the streets, as young protestors and activists which had gathered from all over the world were met with a brutal repression from the Italian police. Hence, it appears that the right to strike, although solidly established and recognised at the international level, is often defied when actually put into practice.
Global advances in gender equality and women’s health still leave room for improvement. The EU’s resolution on ‘Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights’ takes us one step further.
Inhumane living conditions in Jau Prison in Bahrain left inmates vulnerable to the spread of COVID-19, magnifying human rights violations.
Expanding details about China’s re-education camps for minorities reveal that mass human rights abuses are taking place in Xinjiang. Although world powers are aware, they are not taking action.
Increasing amounts of scholarship in the international law community are showing that an inextricable link exists between child marriage and contemporary slavery. In light of this, child marriage can no longer be treated lightly or simply discounted as being part of culture. Child marriage violates the human rights of the child and goes against one of the key non-derogable international law norms: the prohibition of slavery.
Ethiopia’s domestic conflict in Tigray continues to endanger the human rights of its civilians. Yet, protections of these rights place the government at odds with determining its own sovereignty.
“Impunity and human rights cannot coexist”. These are the words of Thomas Andrews, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, used to describe the mounting perilous situation in a particular state of the southeast Asian country, Rakhine.
On June 14th, Sarah Hegazy, a 30 years-old Egyptian queer activist, took her own life in Canada, where she moved out after being detained in Egypt. The news spread throughout mass media: three years ago, during Mashrou’ Leila’s concert, she waved the flag symbol of LGBT+ rights and movement, which was the cause of her painful detention that lasted three months.
