Human Rights

Global Community Urged Not to Relent in Final Push to Eliminate Leprosy

By Joyce Chimbi
When Yohei Sasakawa visited a remote village in Cameroon, he found 23 people living there.

Education Cannot Wait Interviews UNICEF Executive Director Catherine M. Russell


 
Catherine M. Russell became UNICEF’s eighth Executive Director on 1 February 2022. Ms. Russell brings to the role decades of experience in developing innovative policy that empowers underserved communities around the world, including high-impact programmes that protect women and girls, including in humanitarian crises. She has extensive experience building, elevating and managing diverse workforces and mobilizing resources and political support for a broad range of initiatives.

US Leads Sanctions Killing Millions to No End

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram and Anis Chowdhury
Food crises, economic stagnation and price increases are worsening unevenly, almost everywhere, following the Ukraine war. Sanctions against Russia have especially hurt those relying on wheat and fertilizer imports. Unilateral sanctions illegal Unilateral sanctions – not approved by the UN Security Council – are illegal under international law. Besides contravening the UN Charter, unilateral sanctions inflict much human loss. Countless civilians – many far from target countries – are at risk, depriving them of much, even life itself.

Poor Families Clash over Water with Real Estate Consortium in El Salvador

By Edgardo Ayala
Alex Leiva woke up at 4:00 a.m. to perform a key task for his family’s survival in the Salvadoran village where he lives: filling several barrels with the water that falls from the tap only at that early hour every other day.

Has the UN Transformed itself into a Vast Humanitarian Relief Organization?

By Thalif Deen
The United Nations, which has failed to help resolve some of the world’s ongoing and longstanding civil wars and military conflicts—including Palestine, Afghanistan, Yemen, Western Sahara, Myanmar, Syria, and most recently, Ukraine—was rightfully challenged by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during his riveting address to the Security Council last April.

Animal Farm, Ukrainian Resistance and Russian Propaganda

By Jan Lundius
Warfare and misinformation are intimately connected. The 29th of May was globally observed as The Day of Communication and due to the ongoing war in Ukraine it was difficult to avoid thinking of affiliated propaganda campaigns, carried out by warring factions and far from indifferent bystanders.

Elections: a Global Ranking Rates US Weakest Among Liberal Democracies

Defending democracy has suddenly become one of the central challenges of our age. The land war in Ukraine is widely considered a front line between autocratic rule and democratic freedom. The United States continues to absorb the meaning of the riot that took place on January 6 2021 in an attempt to overthrow the result of the previous year’s election. Elsewhere, concerns have been raised that the pandemic could have provided cover for governments to postpone elections.

UN System, Too Complex & Fragmented, is in Urgent Need of Reform

By Simone Galimberti
Few deny the huge role the United Nation plays in global multilateral system especially in the area of poverty eradication, sustainability and climate change. As enabler of the Agenda 2030, the UN system has the ability, stemming from its extraordinary convening powers, to bring around the table global leaders and key stakeholders for the most consequential decisions humanity must take.

Over Two Decades of Impunity for Environmental and Health Disaster in Peruvian Village

By Mariela Jara
"We are not asking for money, but for our health, for a dignified life," is the cry of the people of Choropampa, which lawyer Milagros Pérez continually hears 22 years after the environmental disaster that occurred in this town in the department of Cajamarca, in Peru´s northern Andes highlands, on the afternoon of Jun. 2, 2000.

Pakistani Artists, Activists Fight for Refugee Status for Arrested Afghan Musicians

By Ashfaq Yusufzai
The arrest of Afghan musicians in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan has elicited protests from local politicians, artists and rights activists who demand their release and say they should be allowed to stay as refugees.

Ukraine Points Up the Threat to Education During War

By Jerome Marston and Marika Tsolakis
Conflict has taken a horrific toll on civilians in Ukraine over the past three months with many families struggling to meet even their most basic needs, including education. Over 1,800 schools and universities have been damaged or destroyed since Russia’s invasion on February 24, according to Ukraine’s Education Ministry. Russian forces have shelled and bombed numerous schools. Both sides have used schools as military bases or for storing weapons.

“Gun Control” at the Pentagon? Don’t Even Think About It

By Norman Solomon
New outcries for gun control have followed the horrible tragedies of mass shootings in Uvalde and Buffalo. “Evil came to that elementary school classroom in Texas, to that grocery store in New York, to far too many places where innocents have died,” President Biden declared over the weekend during a university commencement address.

Sanctions Now Weapons of Mass Starvation

By Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
US and allied economic sanctions against Russia for its illegal invasion of Ukraine have not achieved their declared objectives. Instead, they are worsening economic stagnation and inflation worldwide. Worse, they are exacerbating hunger, especially in Africa.

Davos Fails on Financial Transparency – And Everything Else

By Matti Kohonen
At this year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) at Davos which ended last week, the attention of the world’s financial and economic elite was captured by the war in Ukraine whose president Volodimir Zelensky used his address to call to “complete withdrawal of foreign businesses from the Russian market”, despite 380 of the largest multinational companies still operating in Russia.

Xenophobia-hit Zimbabweans Saving Country’s Dead Economy

By Jeffrey Moyo
Two decades ago, Trynos Mahamba left Zimbabwe for the United Kingdom, but back home, he has changed the lives of his relatives. Since the day after he left, Mahamba (53) has been sending money home while Zimbabwe’s economy faltered amidst violent land seizures from commercial white farmers during Zimbabwe’s land reform programme.

How the Russia-Ukraine Conflict Impacts Africa

By Josefa Sacko and Ibrahim Mayaki
While Africa is yet to fully recover from the socio-economic repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine conflict poses another major threat to the global economy with many African countries being directly affected.

Rivers Have no Borders: The Motto of Their Defenders in Peru

By Mariela Jara
"Water is part of our culture, it is intrinsic to the Amazon," said José Manuyama, a member of a river defense committee in his native Requena, a town located in the department of Loreto, the largest in Peru, covering 28 percent of the national territory.

Upset with the Opulence of the Rich? But the World’s Children Are Paying the Bill

By Baher Kamal
The excesses committed by rich people can be deadly–and in fact they are. Be it about food, energy or overall waste, such excesses have been depleting the world's natural resources and pushing both current and future generations towards the edge of a predictable abyss.

Child Labour Survivor Has a Dream of Freeing Others

By Lyse Comins
Selimatha Dziedzorm Salifu was just seven years old when she went to work for the first time to support her family. Born in the fishing village, Kpando-Torkor, in Ghana, Salifu, was forced to go out and work in the local fishing industry when her father Seidu died, leaving her mother, Mary, with six children to feed, clothe and shelter. The industry is well documented for child slavery and trafficking.

Food Banks are Early Warning Systems for Emerging Food Crises, but also a Key Solution

By Lisa Moon
For months, the specter of a global hunger crisis has been looming. The war in Ukraine is a compounding factor, blocking key value chains for food and fertilizer just as the world reckons with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on global hunger.

What We Know About Mass School Shootings in the US – and the Gunmen Who Carry Them Out

When the Columbine High School massacre took place in 1999 it was seen as a watershed moment in the United States – the worst mass shooting at a school in the country’s history. Now, it ranks fourth.
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