Human Rights

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 […]

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 […]

Economic security, writes the Spectator’s Michael Heath, is the best form of loyalty required to stabilize Afghanistan’s volatile environment (see The Spectator issue May 31, 2008).  But how does one provide economic security in a country that depends on the illicit production of poppies, heroin’s source ingredient? Turn a blind eye. Legitimate crops, writes Heath, […]

"For millions of people around the world, the fight against human trafficking is a matter of life and death," she told the debate. "To reunite families that have been torn apart, to restore childhood to kids who have been robbed of their youth, to bring back dignity to all those violated by these abuses , […]

Is this the end for the cluster bomb? For many the idea of placing a ban on a military weapon which is said to inflict a 98% civilian casualty rate is seen by many a no brainier. However when states unite on the issue feet seem to drag. It took weeks before the latest ban […]

Our friends at Human Rights Watch have just released an important report that is a must read for anyone following the Zimbabwe crisis. “Bullets for Each of You” is a professional look at the flawed electoral process and a warning siren to the international community. Here is a paragraph or two from the report summary: […]

This week Save the Children UK released the report, Someone that matters: The Quality of Care in Childcare in Institutions in Indonesia, the report showed that financial pressures in Indonesia are driving more families to give up their children. The report, which was launched in joint effort with the UN children's agency UNICEF and the […]

KSM (who has confessed) and his codefendants had a preliminary hearing Thursday. The Washington Post notes that, far from a secret undertaking in a dark room, it was attended by two dozen members of the international press, some of whom blogged about the proceedings. Aside from rejecting appointed counsel, KSM weighed in on same-sex marriage […]

‘-Friedrich Nietzsche, The Twilight of the Idols (1899) Millions of children are forced to grow-up in a conflict ridden nations, children from Afghanistan, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Iraq, Lebanon, Occupied Palestinian Territory/Israel, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda, to Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Colombia, […]

The conditions of life in the Sahrawi refugee camps is far from easy. Isolated in a desert in south-western Algeria, many of the refugees have spent their entire lives dependent on international aid. But a recent article in the International Herald Tribune quoting former Sahrawi refugees now residing in the Moroccan controlled Western Sahara are […]

One doesn't have to think long and hard to realize that children who are born into conflict ridden countries are at a disadvantage to those children born into peaceful nations, however the disparity between the two when it comes to education may very well surprise you. Some 500 times more funding goes into the education […]