Human Rights and Humanitarian Law Issues
By Evan Wilson It has been nearly three and a half years since Fidel Castro first delegated his powers to his brother, First Secretary of the Cuban Communist Party Raúl Castro. Though initially temporary, the transfer of power became permanent in February 2008 when Raúl Castro officially became President of Cuba. The new President Castro [Read More...]
By Evan Wilson In the days after the devastating January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) issued warnings about the dangers that Haitian children would face as aid pours in and the nation tries to rebuild. Ironically, though much of that danger comes from the devastation caused by the earthquake, some [Read More...]
By Zach Zarnow A report by human rights experts for the UN Human Rights Council has found that the use of secret detention has become a widespread tactic in anti-terrorism policies and has led to violations of human rights and international law. The report is the result of almost a year of work by experts [Read More...]
By Tracey Begley Both Argentina and Venezuela have media laws that seek to prevent small groups of private companies from controlling media outlets and to foster public support for the government. Such laws may be justified given the countries’ history with coup d’états and corporate influence over the media. Nevertheless, the laws’ severe restrictions have, [Read More...]
By Aileen Thomson Police arrested four women for “sexy dancing” during a New Year’s Eve party at the Belair Coyote Bar and Restaurant in Bandung, Indonesia. These women, along with an event organizer and a manager of the club, could be among the first charged under Indonesia’s controversial anti-pornography law, passed just over one year [Read More...]
By Evan Wilson How many times must David fight Goliath? That is something the people of the dusty neighborhood called Lomas de Poleo on the western outskirts of Ciudad Juárez in Chihuahua, Mexico have probably often wondered. Since 2002, the small community of at most four hundred families has been fighting for ownership of land [Read More...]
By Shubra Ohri On January 20, 2010, the UN Aid and Association for International Development Agencies called for the immediate opening of Gaza’s borders in light of the escalating health and environmental crisis that threatens the area. In direct contravention to this request, Gaza’s borders will soon be further blocked. Early this year, Israel announced [Read More...]
By Ri Yoo China’s far western Xinjiang province, rich in oil and gas deposits, is home to the Uighurs, one of China’s minority groups. Representing less than one percent of China’s total population but about forty percent of the inhabitants of Xinjiang province, the Uighurs speak a Turkic language and are predominately Muslim. The Uighurs [Read More...]
By Ri Yoo On January 30, 2010, ambassadors from the United States and seven Western nations met with Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada to urge Japan to address its child custody issues; the current Japanese system enables parents who abduct their children and interferes with the ability of divorced foreign parents to see their children [Read More...]
By Bhavani Raveendran More than a hundred Azerbaijani villagers were arrested in the village of Bananyar in the Nakhchivan enclave on January 5, 2010. Initially, several arrests reportedly took place the day after the Day of Ashura, on which Shia Muslims mourn the death of Muhammad’s grandson, in late December 2009. These detentions were allegedly [Read More...]
