Human Rights

Happy 2010, dear readers! May it be joyful and successful! We humans are impatient beings, so it is a natural that we seek crumbs about the future from East European fortune tellers in gloomily-colored headscarves, uptight Englishmen wearing purple ties and friend victims who know how to shuffle those Tarot cards. Here are some bold […]

New Year’s is seen as a time of renewal, but it does not always bring desired changes. This week the Thai government forced over 4,000 Hmong over the border into Laos, despite the possibility that they will be persecuted upon their return. This action runs counter to international human rights law, as some of the […]

I find myself sitting here trying to get everything done as the day, and year, quickly close in on me.  As the year, and decade, comes to an end I find myself looking back on the year and what is has meant for children across the globe. Tonight many look back fondly and cheer on […]

Teaching gorilla protection in Congo Schoolchildren in the Republic of Congo capital Brazzaville are learning about gorilla protection as part of a campaign by conservationists, authorities and nongovernmental organizations to protect the threatened primates. Supporters hope the program will begin to change social attitudes toward gorillas and bolster new regulations to protect wildlife and protected […]

African governments are not well known for standing up against fellow leaders who violate the rule of law or commit human rights abuses. Ask most people what they expect from African governments in this area and you are likely not to hear anything positive. The reputation is not entirely undeserved, but is also the result […]

Last week, the United States Senate voted 60-40 to end debate on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the health care reform bill that Congress has been crafting through most of 2009.   Just before the Christmas holiday the Act was passed, and while heavy debate continues many individuals and organizations, such as Every Child […]

by Nona Willis Aronowitz In November 2006, mere weeks after the death of my mother, radical feminist and journalist Ellen Willis, my friend Emma Bee Bernstein and I found ourselves contemplating what feminism meant to us. We were just 22, and we felt that the legacy of feminism was slipping through our fingers and that […]

Merry Christmas to you all, for those who don’t celebrate I wish you a wonderful holiday season as we embark upon this new year of renewed hope.  Last year I published my letter to Santa, and sadly realize that he was quite busy and didn’t get a chance to respond to my wishes for the […]

This is a story not known to many Americans.  It is about a journalist, caught up in the mayhem of war, in the absurdity of all or nothing/with us or against us attitude that undermined the standing of the US in the world. He spent seven years of his life in the custody of the […]

As one finds themselves fully engrossed in the holidays it is time that we take a moment to notice the little miracles that surround us everyday. To look into a child’s eyes and see the wonderment that they see, to see what one really feels when they are blessed with the spirit of giving, and […]

(Angola Press) Kigali – The UN Security Council has given the tribunal for Rwanda’s genocide until 2012 to finish all its cases. The court, set up to try those most responsible for the genocide, was originally due to close in 2008 but some key suspects remain at large. Rwanda has long complained that the tribunal […]

(AFP) KIGALI — The acquittal by the UN court for Rwanda of a brother-in-law of former president Juvenal Habyarimana, an alleged planner of the Rwandan genocide, “shocked” Rwanda, the justice minister said Friday. Tharcisse Karugarama was speaking on national radio following the announcement of the extension to December 31, 2012 of the International Criminal Tribunal […]