Human Rights

As I was completing my MPP, a faculty member at Harvard Kennedy School had written to the chair of a prominent North American foundation, confident they would be interested in my work. The chair, a man of South Asian descent whom I shall call Mr. X, sent back a pat response: The proposal focusing on […]

Since the attempted coup on 15 July 2016, Turkish state authorities have engaged in what they characterize as a counterterrorism campaign against the political enemy they blame for the attacks: the expatriate cleric and government critic Fethullah Gülen, as well as hundreds of his followers who fled the country. The Turkish government still maintains that […]

In 2016, I was working at a UNHCR clinic in a refugee camp in South Beirut, Lebanon as a medical assistant. I remember throwing out suitcases full of donated medications, which were all outdated, or otherwise uselessbecause they were not addressing the health problems that we were seeing in the population. What good is a […]

During a recent interview, Dr. Kavemui Murangi (OvaHerero, Mbanderu and Nama Genocides Institute) answered questions from APJ’s Leah Coates (interview editor), regarding the Nama and Herero genocide committed by German colonial troops. Between 1904 and 1908, German colonial troops massacred 80% of Hereros and 50% of Namas to seize their land, using anti-colonial revolts as a […]

Latin America has faced significant challenges and has always found ways to get ahead. The potential of Latin American countries is great and has been recognized around the world. However, we are now witnessing a crisis that endangers the democratic progress of Latin America. Nicolás Maduro’s regime has plunged Venezuela into a dire situation where […]

  *The names of the subjects in this article have been changed to protect their identity. A heavy stench of sewage permeates the air where 11-year-old Amina roams in search of change. With tattered sandals and stained clothing nearly sliding off her frail frame, she entertains herself by kicking dust on a busy, trash-filled street […]

The international community has a responsibility to bolster its voice to hold Myanmar accountable for their denial of the brutalities and to encourage Bangladesh to continue supporting and hosting the refugees.

With the decreased opportunity for resettlement, refugees often take risks—either returning to unsafe conditions in their country of origin or even rejecting resettlement to the United States because of concerns about Islamophobia.

BY EMILY AUSUBEL   At the young age of 12, Mohammad’s family sold him to an older man to serve as a bacha, or boy child entertainer.[1] In this role, he would have to dance, sing, and sometimes provide sex for the man who owned him. Mohammad escaped quickly and embarked on the 3,500-mile journey […]

BY JOHN MILLOCK   In December 2017, Iraq’s government declared victory over the Islamic State (ISIL), ending more than three years of ISIL’s brutal occupation of large swaths of Iraq. Yet for the 2 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Iraq today, the conflict is far from over.[1] This is especially true for ordinary Iraqi […]

BY EVELYN NAM AND MELODY KIM October 20, 2020 is a day that Na-Yeong and her family dread, and one that most South Koreans resent. It is the day the man who brutally raped 8-year-old Na-Yeong while drunk, leaving her with lifelong physical and mental disabilities, will be released from a prison in Pohang, South […]

BY BEATRICE MARTINI Over the last decade, political and legislative bodies have started to codify the relationship between the Internet and human rights. In 2012, the Human Rights Council (HRC) of the United Nations adopted a resolution to protect the free speech of individuals on the Internet–the first UN resolution of its kind. In 2014, […]