Human Rights

Just as the food crisis and famine in the Horn of Africa becomes manageable for aid groups, another crisis begins on the other side of the continent in the Sahel region of West Africa. On the edges of the Sahara Desert, drought is not uncommon, but is becoming more frequent with major food emergencies in […]

I’m sitting with the father of a young boy killed in a firefight in Afghanistan. His child was eight years old. He told me his story: Just before dawn on February 8th, helicopters carrying dozens of French and Afghan troops landed in a remote village in Kapisa province located in northeastern Afghanistan. The soldiers searched […]

UNICEF has recently published their flagship publication, The State of the World’s Children, which each year examines a key issue affecting children.  Last year’s report,  The State of the World’s Children 2011: Adolescence – An Age of Opportunity, focused on adolescence; this year’s report highlights the shift of the world population to urban areas and […]

As food prices continue to skyrocket, necessities such as milk, vegetables and meat never find their way into many families’ homes, placing 500 million children at risk of malnutrition.  Thus children’s physical and mental growth will be stunted over the next 15 years, according to a survey by the international charity Save the Children.  Eighty percent of […]

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has announced its partnership with the global children’s rights organization Plan International for a worldwide push to ensure that children, especially those at risk of statelessness, are registered at birth. There are some 12 million stateless people across the world, half of which are children, according to the […]

I spent the other day watching a couple illuminating shows on the price of gold. The first was on Fort Knox and America’s precious national treasure and the second was a historical documentary on gold mining from pre-gold rush until today. It is well known that gold can come at an incredibly high human and environmental cost, […]

Sixty-six days. At this hour, that is how long Khader Adnan has gone without food to protest his detention without charge by the Israeli government. Unless you follow events in the Middle East closely, it is possible this is the first time you have heard of Adnan, or only heard of his in the last […]

I have a love-hate relationship with Awareness Days. First, I do think they are needed to help promote awareness and educate society on various heath causes and human rights issues.  Many such days make headlines thanks to political pushes and great community support, while others with little political power and international appeal pass with little notice.  Such […]

When speaking about US foreign policy during the Republican Primary debates, Mitt Romney often returns to a familiar theme: his belief that troop levels in Afghanistan should be determined through close consultation with the commanding generals on the ground. It is both a criticism of President Obama’s June 2011 decision to begin drawing down troop […]

Children in Somalia continue to suffer needlessly from hunger as politics hinder the much needed distribution of food aid. In Somalia, it is women and children who bear the brunt of the famine. Children are susceptible to malnutrition that decreases their ability to fight off disease, while women are unable to access the services they need […]

In December’s post, Expectant American Mothers Help Raise Funds for Mothers in Developing Nations,  the Imagine Me & You contest finalists had been announced.  The Million Moms Challenge has now chosen a winner from its photo contest, in which hundreds of expectant mothers from across the United States submitted images with original messages, written on their “baby bumps,” stating […]

One year ago, Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier made a surprise return to Haiti. As “president-for-life” for the second half of the 1971-86 Duvalier family succession, his rule was notorious for torturous treatment of political prisoners, unexplained disappearances and attacks on the press. Baby Doc was also a chubby sports-car loving playboy, whose glamorous wife spent […]