March 14, 2023
Africa: Fighter Planes? Yes. Rubber Bullets? No
When the US was planning to sell fighter planes to a politically-repressive regime in South-east Asia in a bygone era, a spokesman for a human rights organization, responding to a… Read more »
March 13, 2023
Africa: 'Outright Hatred' Towards Muslims, Risen to 'Epidemic Proportions'
Islamophobia is a 'fear, prejudice and hatred of Muslims that leads to provocation, hostility and intolerance by means of threatening, harassment, abuse, incitement and… Read more »
March 07, 2023
Africa: International Women's Day, 2023 - Promoting Gender Equality and Closing the Digital Divide
The following opinion piece is part of series to mark International Women's Day, March 8. Read more »
February 24, 2023
Africa: Spain - Home to The 'Greenhouses of Death' for African Migrants
Chances are that the fruits and vegetables sold in European supermarkets have been picked and packed by a migrant worker in southern Spain. By the tens of thousands, they work… Read more »
February 17, 2023
Nigeria: Taking a Stance On Feminists' Prejudice Against Religious Minority Women
Since researching the experiences of gender discrimination against women in poverty who belong to religious minorities, many fellow feminists have turned their back on me. Read more »
Africa: 'Hate Speech Loads the Gun, Misinformation Pulls the Trigger' - and It Is Profitable
In this world of wars, massive weapons production, sales and use; of sharpening inequalities and deadly climate emergencies, hate speech and its inhumane impact, is being amplified… Read more »
February 15, 2023
Africa: China and Russia Fail to Defund UN Human Rights Work
United Nations member states agreed to fully fund UN human rights mechanisms that China, Russia, and their allies had sought to defund in the 2023 budget. This should set a… Read more »
February 10, 2023
Eswatini: eSwatini - Democracy a Matter of Life and Death
Thulani Maseko knew speaking out in Eswatini was a risky business. An activist and well-known human rights lawyer, he'd previously spent 14 months in jail for criticising the… Read more »
January 25, 2023
Africa: 'Disconnected Citizens Are Kept Away From Opportunities'
In 2022, Saudi Arabia "quietly" sentenced Salma al-Shehab to 34 years in prison over her Twitter activity, marking the longest Saudi sentence ever for a peaceful activist. Fast… Read more »
December 16, 2022
Africa: Digital Treatment of Genetic Resources Shakes Up COP15
In addition to its nutritional properties, quinoa, an ancestral grain from the Andes, also has cosmetic uses, as stated by the resource use and benefit-sharing permit… Read more »
December 07, 2022
Africa: To Achieve Human Rights, Start With Food
Maximo Torero Cullen is the Chief Economist of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Read more »
Africa: Toward Free Education for All Children - Momentum Building to Expand the Right to Millions
Bede Sheppard is deputy children's rights director at Human Rights Watch Read more »
November 28, 2022
Africa: Digital Human Rights Need to Be Enshrined in Law
The 17th Internet Governance Forum (IGF), to be hosted by the Government of Ethiopia with the support of UN ECA and UN DESA, will take place from 28 November to 2 December 2022 in… Read more »
November 21, 2022
Africa: U.S. to Fight Sexual Abuse in International Organizations
The United States, which recently laid down a set of guidelines to monitor sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) by US citizens in international organizations, including the United… Read more »
November 25, 2022
Africa: Countries Hiding Responses Sent to UN Experts Over Allegations of Human Rights Abuses
Human rights defenders are alarmed at what appears to be a new process permitting countries to keep confidential their responses to UN experts about allegations of human rights… Read more »
November 21, 2022
Africa: Crimes Against Children
An indisputable truth is that no child has ever chosen where to be born, which colour of skin to have, which ethnic community to belong to, what religion to practice and language… Read more »
November 16, 2022
Africa: COP27 - Climate Change Exacerbates Vicious Loop of Human Rights Inequity
Climate change is worsening injustice globally, and the poor and vulnerable communities are the most affected. It is time the world acted on fulfilling human rights and building a… Read more »
November 08, 2022
Egypt: Repressive Regime Under Fire As It Hosts a Key Climate Summit
The COP27 climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh has triggered a negative fallout for Egypt's authoritarian regime which stands accused of human rights abuses -- and has been widely… Read more »
November 02, 2022
Africa: A Beacon of Light in Dark Times - the Dublin Platform for Human Rights Defenders
Before she was murdered in Honduras in 2016, the Lenca Indigenous woman and human rights defender Berta Cáceres poignantly said: "They are afraid of us because we are not… Read more »
October 10, 2022
Africa: UN Censures 42 Nations for Retaliating Against Human Rights Activists & Journalists
The United Nations has singled out 42 countries (out of 193 member states) for condemnation - virtually blacklisting them- for retaliating against human rights activists and… Read more »
September 28, 2022
Zimbabwe: Abuse of Elderly On the Rise
At his house in Mabvuku, a high-density suburb in Harare, the Zimbabwean capital, 86-year-old Tinago Murape claims his grandchildren starve him. Read more »
September 22, 2022
Kenya: The New Cold War Over Access to Safe Abortion in Kenya
Fatuma is a 24 year old girl from Korogocho, an informal settlement in Nairobi. She died in December 2021, from complications arising from an unsafe abortion. Her friend and a few… Read more »
August 26, 2022
Africa: The Journey to Defend Human Rights Never Ends
As you know, after four years as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, my mandate ends next week, on 31 August. Read more »
August 10, 2022
Zimbabwe: Zimbabwe Makes First Journalist Arrests Under Cybersecurity Law
Zimbabwe's press freedom credentials suffered further criticism with the arrest of two journalists from a privately-owned newspaper charged with transmitting "false data messages." Read more »
August 08, 2022
Africa: Of the Far West, The 'Good Cowboys'... And the 'Bad Indians'
Nothing -or too little- has changed since Hollywood started producing its spectacular western movies. Rough men, ranchers, mercenary killers, saloons, cowboys, guns, gold fever,… Read more »