Armed Conflicts

OPINION: Give Peace a Chance – Run with Youth

By Ettie Higgins
Rambang “Raymond” Tot Deng was 18 and attending his final year of school when fighting erupted in South Sudan’s capital Juba, one year ago. In the ensuing violence, as Raymond’s schoolbooks burned, thousands of South Sudanese were killed, including two of his cousins.

Afghan Concern Over Western Disengagement

By Giuliano Battiston
The U.S./NATO International Security Assistance Force Joint Command lowered its flag for the last time in Afghanistan on Dec. 8, after 13 years. The ISAF mission officially ends on Dec. 31, and will be replaced on Jan. 1, 2015 by “Resolute Support”, a new, narrow-mandate mission to train, advise and assist the Afghan National Security Forces.

U.S. Faulted for Undermining Torture Convention

By Thalif Deen
The timing was inadvertently impeccable as two stinging reports on harsh interrogation techniques - by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the United States and former military regimes in Brazil - were released on the eve of the 30th anniversary of the U.N. Convention Against Torture.

Faiths United Against Nuclear Weapons

By Julia Rainer
“Never was there a greater need than now for all the religions to combine, to pull their wisdom and to give the benefit of that combined, huge repository of wisdom to international law and to the world.”

Nuclear States Face Barrage of Criticism in Vienna

By Jamshed Baruah
Sarcastic laughter erupted when a civil society representative expressed his “admiration for the delegate of the United States, who with one insensitive, ill-timed, inappropriate and diplomatically inept intervention” had “managed to dispel the considerable goodwill the U.S. had garnered by its decision to participate” in Vienna Conference on Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons.

Groups Push Obama to Clarify U.S. Abortion Funding for Wartime Rape

By Carey L. Biron
Nearly two dozen health, advocacy and faith groups are calling on President Barack Obama to take executive action clarifying that U.S. assistance can be used to fund abortion services for women and girls raped in the context of war and conflict.

Release of Senate Torture Report Insufficient, Say Rights Groups

By Jim Lobe
Tuesday’s release by the Senate Intelligence Committee of its long-awaited report on the torture by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of detainees in the so-called “war on terror” does not go far enough, according to major U.S. human rights groups.

U.N. Urged to Ban Nuke Strikes Against Cities

By Roger Hamilton-Martin
Civil society groups are urging the U.N. General Assembly to pass a resolution declaring nuclear strikes on cities to be a clear-cut violation of international humanitarian law.

Only Half of Global Banks Have Policy to Respect Human Rights

By Carey L. Biron
Just half of major global banks have in place a public policy to respect human rights, according to new research, despite this being a foundational mandate of an international convention on multinational business practice.

Cameroon’s Anti-Terrorism Law – Reversal of Human Freedoms

By Ngala Killian Chimtom
Legislators in Cameroon have voted in a draft law proposing the death sentence for all those guilty of carrying out, abetting or sponsoring acts of terrorism. The draft law, which is now being examined by the Cameroon Senate, call for punishment acts of terrorism committed by citizens, either individually or in complicity, with death.

Hiroshima, Nagasaki Cast Shadow Over Nuclear Conference in Vienna

By Thalif Deen
When Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was at Harvard University early this week to pick up the 'Humanitarian of the Year' award, his thoughts transcended the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, to the Austrian capital of Vienna which will be the venue of a key international conference on nuclear weapons next week.

War Knocks on Door of Youth Centre in Zwara

By Karlos Zurutuza
It could be a squat house anywhere: music is playing non-stop and there is also a radio station and an art exhibition. However, weapons are also on display among the instruments, and most here wear camouflage uniform.

U.N. Chief, Under Fire, Moves Closer to Gender Parity

By Thalif Deen
When Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon named an international panel to review peacekeeping operations last October, the announcement was greeted with bitter criticism because it lacked even a semblance of gender balance: only three out of 14 members were women.

OPINION: Improve North Korean Human Rights By Ending War

By Christine Ahn and Suzy Kim
On Nov. 18, a committee of the United Nations General Assembly voted 111 to 19, with 55 abstentions, in favour of drafting a non-binding resolution referring North Korea to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

As Wars Multiply, U.N. Takes a Hard Look at Peace Operations

By Lyndal Rowlands
Finding ways to better integrate the two arms of U.N. Peace Operations - Special Political Missions and Peacekeeping Operations - will be one of the priorities for a new review panel headed by Nobel Peace Laureate and former president of Timor-Leste José Ramos-Horta.

Illegal Logging Wreaking Havoc on Impoverished Rural Communities

By Catherine Wilson
Rampant unsustainable logging in the southwest Pacific Island states of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands, where the majority of land is covered in tropical rainforest, is worsening hardship, human insecurity and conflict in rural communities.

Citizens of the World, Unite!

By Roger Hamilton-Martin
As politics, economies, conflicts and cultures become increasingly intertwined, will individual identities also begin to transcend national boundaries?

Led by INTERPOL, U.N. Tracks Environmental Criminals

By Thalif Deen
A coalition of international organisations, led by INTERPOL and backed by the United Nations, is pursuing a growing new brand of criminals - primarily accused of serious environmental crimes - who have mostly escaped the long arm of the law.

Jewellery Industry Takes Steps to Eliminate “Conflict Gold”

By Carey L. Biron
Major U.S. jewellery companies and retailers have started to take substantive steps to eliminate the presence of “conflict gold” from their supply chains, according to the results of a year-long investigation published Monday.

OPINION: A Plea for Banning Nuke Tests and Nuclear Weapons

By Lassina Zerbo
December 1938 was a decisive month in human history: In Germany, the scientists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann discovered that when bombarded with neutrons, the atomic nucleus of uranium would split.

OPINION: Humanitarian Impact of Nukes Calls For Concerted Action

By Daisaku Ikeda
As we approach the 70th anniversary next year of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there are growing calls to place the humanitarian consequences of their use at the heart of deliberations about nuclear weapons.
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