When I was a teenager, a shy young man took a long distance National Express bus down from Newcastle to stay with my family in Essex for a few days. He was a distant relative who had left lran and travelled to the UK by clinging to the underframe of a lorry a few years before, breaking all his limbs as he wedged them into gaps on the underside of the vehicle for hours on end. He was struggling … Read more →
Climate change and migration dredge up very specific imagery. It is often portrayed in the media as mass hordes of people crossing through barren deserts or Pacific Islanders standing at deteriorating shorelines. But the impact of climate change on human mobility is more complex than that – and its complexity … Read more →
The right to access information is incredibly important, now more than ever. Yet amidst a barrage of coronavirus disinformation aimed at sowing further chaos, many governments’ reactions to the pandemic have been to crack down hard on media outlets and journalists who are trying to provide the accurate information and facts that so many of… … Read more →
Across the world, COVID-19 has unleashed a tidal wave of state power. What can we do to ensure that the great pandemic of 2020 is not remembered for an unravelling of democratic values, a disintegration of the rule of law; an irreversible erosion of hard-won rights and freedoms? The risk is very real. Authoritarianism, the… … Read more →
The second reading of the government’s flagship Immigration and Social Security Coordination (EU Withdrawal) Bill was scheduled for 21 April 2020. However, facing opposition from all sides of the political spectrum the Government struck the proposed “virtual” second reading off the order paper. Critics had suggested the government might take advantage of the unprecedented circumstances… … Read more →
Anti-LGBTQ+ hate is on the rise in the United States, with a 43% increase in the number of homophobic, biphobic and transphobic groups, compared to previous years. American civil rights organisation, Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has issued its annual report analysing the different hate groups operating in the US. The report refers to 2019… … Read more →
Crime may be more tied to biology than we realised. This is the contentious finding of a major Lancet Psychiatry study, published last month. Researchers identified a difference in brain structure among individuals who had engaged in a lifetime of criminal behaviour. A study with such far-reaching implications raises many questions. How can we determine… … Read more →
Today marks the fifteenth International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action. The day was initiated by the UN in 2005 with the goal of limiting states’ landmine capacities, particularly in countries where remnants of mines or live mines used in ongoing conflicts cause a serious threat to the safety and lives of… … Read more →
COVID-19 has spread at an exponential rate, with over 700,000 confirmed cases across the world. As a result, governments have enacted unprecedented measures in order to limit its spread and increase healthcare to deal with the outbreak. The focus has been on protecting the economy and people’s livelihoods, but the COVID-19 outbreak impacts lesser-seen dimensions.… … Read more →
The exponential transmission of COVID-19 is compounding the plight of some of the world’s most vulnerable people. While it took three months to reach the first 100,000 cases of the virus, it took only 12 days to double that, and in the words of Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO) “Every day,… … Read more →
With its beautiful landscapes embroidered with ever-green olive groves, cherry orchards, fig trees, and hundreds of historical sites, Idlib attracted tourists from all over the world. I was born there in 1969, one year before Hafez Assad became President-for-life of Syria. One whole year without an Assad regime, before our carefree life in Idlib was… … Read more →
A recent report of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA) has shed light on the living conditions of LGBTI people living in Europe and five countries in Central Asia. While some countries, such as Switzerland, have implemented legislation to criminalise anti-LGBTI discrimination, the situation doesn’t seem as rosy in other parts… … Read more →
The SafeToNet Foundation is a UK registered charity and is part of the SafeToNet safeguarding and wellbeing brand, which focusses on safeguarding children in the online digital context. At first blush this may seem a simple thing to achieve; after all there are “Parental Controls” that come with smartphones, all you have to do is… … Read more →
One of the common tropes of the digital age is that we should be worried about the AI robots that are coming to kill our jobs, kill our relationships, and ultimately even kill us. The problem is articulated often as a dystopian imagining, which we need to arrest before it becomes reality. Such discussions are… … Read more →
Arab Spring icon and Tunisian cyber activist Lina Ben Mhenni passed away this January. Her funeral was a bittersweet reminder of Tunisia’s long-held yearning for a better future. Nine years after the Jasmine Revolution she courageously fought for, the Arab world is still navigating the legacy of its democratic awakening. Her nationally celebrated funeral took… … Read more →
5 months of lockdown. No internet or mobile data. No access to the outside world. This has been the experience of citizens in Kashmir since 4 August 2019. When India revoked Article 370 and 35A of its Constitution, it removed the special-administered autonomy of Kashmir and Jammu, bifurcating it into two government controlled regions. Since… … Read more →
Last weekend, the people of Taiwan overwhelmingly voted to renew the mandate of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and President Tsai Ing-wen for another four years, in an election that saw the incumbent win more votes than any other presidential candidate in Taiwan’s history. On Saturday 11 January, Ms Tsai secured just over 57% of… … Read more →
At the end of last year, the Merriam-Webster dictionary named non-binary singular pronoun ‘they’ the word of 2019. Non-binary identities have taken centre stage over the past few years and more people have started to openly identify as non-binary. In the UK, non-binary people make up one per cent of the population – about 630,000… … Read more →
Sally’s Tale Residing in Moria, notorious as Europe’s most dangerous camp, is twenty-year-old Sally, one of the thousands suffering on the Greek island of Lesbos. Pregnant with her first child, Sally lives in a makeshift tent for two. ‘Come, let me show you what it’s like inside the camp. I’m here with my husband living… … Read more →
Women’s rights in Russia is far from an under-reported topic. The decriminalisation of some forms of domestic violence in early 2017 gained widespread attention and condemnation in the Western media – just last month, the Ministry of Justice caused an outcry by claiming that the domestic violence crisis faced by the country’s women is “exaggerated”,… … Read more →
From government leaders such as Robert Mugabe labelling homosexual men as “worse than pigs and dogs” to the classification of homosexuality as a disease, and no legal ramifications for those who participate in homophobic behaviour, life within Sub-Saharan African countries can be very difficult for LGBTQ+ people. Surveys taken in Zimbabwe show that 50% of gay… … Read more →
A bill before the Russian parliament that would expand the status of “foreign agents” to private persons, including bloggers and citizen journalists, should be a source for serious concern. This legislative initiative would have a detrimental impact on the already restrictive environment for independent journalism in Russia and become a strong tool to silence opposition… … Read more →
As the Impeachment Inquiry against President Trump rumbles on, Ukraine dominates the headlines. But in this moment when Western analysis of Ukraine is obscured by U.S. political squabbles, it is more important than ever to hone in on the lives of the Ukrainian population themselves – and human rights offers an ideal lens with which… … Read more →
On the afternoon of the 12th of October, Hevrin Khalaf was pulled from her vehicle, beaten and shot in an execution style murder on the side of a road, south of the Syrian town of Tel Abyad, also known as Gire Spi. She was also raped, and her body was mutilated. Her murderers were male… … Read more →
On Saturday, London saw the gathering of over a thousand people outside the Lebanese embassy in solidarity with the protestors in Lebanon. Millions of people all across Lebanon have been protesting for the last week. To an unfamiliar spectator, the current crisis in Lebanon may seem as if it has appeared all of a sudden,… … Read more →
Between Saturday 21 September and Wednesday 25 September the seaside city of Brighton played host to this year’s Labour Party Conference. Following a successful fringe event at the Liberal Democrat Conference in Bournemouth last week, the International Observatory of Human Rights (IOHR) once again ventured to the south coast to raise issues relating to citizenship… … Read more →
Gone are the days of demagogy in Italy. No more unhealthy anti-migrant propaganda without the courage to find real solutions. No more live videos on Facebook, Twitter posts and interviews released at the seaside between a Mojito and the club. Politics is done in appropriate fora. Two weeks after stepping into power, the new Interior… … Read more →
She wasn’t wearing her Wonder Woman costume that day. Powerless and oblivious to any threat, 8-year-old Agatha Felix was shot in the back – apparently by a police officer – as she rode home in a van next to her mum. The girl died in hospital. She was only eight years old. In her community,… … Read more →
Almost three decades have passed since the formal dissolution of the Soviet Union and the subsequent proclamation of independence by fifteen states. Soviet nationality ceased to exist and most former Soviet Republics adopted their own nationality laws yet the collapse of the USSR is one of the events in recent history that has resulted in… … Read more →
The United Nations Civil Society Conference is a prelude to the UN General Assembly held in New York in September each year. It is shaped as a conversation to bring together representatives of civil society from around the world with senior UN officials, to discuss the challenges of delivering the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) by… … Read more →