Farhan Haq

LABOUR-US: Gap Targeted in Protests over Saipan Workers’ Rights

Labour rights activists are targeting the major US clothing retailer The Gap in their effort to step up pressure against the labour practices of some US companies operating in the Pacific commonwealth territory of Saipan.

RIGHTS-TIBET: Concerns Over Population Block Canadian’s Speech

By Farhan Haq

China's sensitivity about Tibet were all too apparent Wednesday when a Canadian women was blocked from speaking to the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) - apparently because of her Tibetan origin.

RIGHTS-CAMBODIA: Rocky Road Ahead in Efforts to Try Khmer Rouge

By Farhan Haq

A United Nations panel that studied atrocities committed in Cambodia has recommended that a UN tribunal be set up try Khmer Rouge officials on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.

POLITICS-LIBYA: Lockerbie Judgment Looms – Or Does It?

By Farhan Haq

After more than six months of haggling, the United Nations and the United States are running out of patience with Libya's sluggish response to a proposed trial of two Libyan bombing suspects.

RIGHTS-GUATEMALA: Genocide Culprits Can Be Tried

By Farhan Haq

While suspected culprits of acts of genocide cited in a UN-backed report on Guatemalan atrocities have not been named, they can and should face trial say the authors of the report.

WEEKLY SELECTION/POLITICS-BALKANS: China Veto Dooms UN Mission in Macedonia

By Farhan Haq

China's first use of its veto power in the UN Security Council in two years has blocked the resumption of a UN mission in Macedonia, fuelling fears of future conflict in the Balkans and rifts in the Council.

POLITICS-ANGOLA: Security Council Closes UN Mission

By Farhan Haq

The UN Security Council unanimously voted Friday to end the UN peacekeeping mission in Angola which would enable the world body to leave the country after a decade of ill-fated attempts to end its civil war.

/REPEAT/POLITICS-BALKANS: China Veto Dooms UN Mission in Macedonia

By Farhan Haq

China's first use of its veto power in the UN Security Council in two years has blocked the resumption of a UN mission in Macedonia, fuelling fears of future conflict in the Balkans and rifts in the Council.

LABOUR-PAKISTAN: Footballs Still Produced by Child Labour

By Farhan Haq

Football manufacturers in Pakistan continued to use poorly-paid child labour despite an International Labour Organisation (ILO) programme designed to eliminate the practise, a new study revealed Thursday.

RIGHTS: US Opposition May Cripple ICC

By Farhan Haq

Continued U.S. opposition to an International Criminal Court (ICC) may hinder efforts to define the workings of the Court, say worried human rights activists.

CINEMA: A New Elizabethan Age

By Farhan Haq

Karl Marx declared that "History repeats itself: the first time as tragedy; the second as farce." Judging by the U.S. Academy Awards for 1998, the reign of Queen Elizabeth is both a tragedy and a farce - and is worthy of being repeated in modern-day cinema.

POLITICS-UN: No Signs of Thaw on Iraq

By Farhan Haq

Accusations by a former U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq that the United States had placed spies with Iraqi inspection teams will do little to end the standoff between Washington and other U.N. members, diplomats said here..

POLITICS: Indonesia Breaking Up?

By Farhan Haq

Panicky diplomatic cables, emboldened insurgencies, dispirited bureaucrats: all these these signs of a country fraying at the seams are evident in Indonesia.

WEEKLY SELECTION: Kurds Use Ocalan Capture to Press Case

By Farhan Haq

The end of a standoff at the UN headquarters in Geneva Wednesday and the killings of three Kurdish protestors outside Israel's embassy in Berlin summed up the promise and the peril Turkish Kurds face following the capture of rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan.

POPULATION-UN: New Wrinkles to Population Debate

By Farhan Haq

The debate on population has taken many twists and turns over the years, but some battle lines have solidified between Malthusians and development experts, North vs. South on issues of financing and priorities and the Catholic Church against feminists - have solidified.