Human Rights

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 from Afghanistan to Europe, […]

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 Sunnis affiliated with ISIL, […]

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 Korea. In 2008, Cho Doo-Soon was […]

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, a UN General […]

In late 2016, most people had never heard of Muhammad bin Salman or Shavkat Mirziyoyev. Both, however, would take control of their respective countries within six months. The shifts of power in Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan represent an abrupt interruption of stable, autocratic regimes. At the outset, there was no reason to expect long-lasting changes […]

“Having worked all over the world on a range of emergencies over the last 30 years, community resilience is something that I have witnessed in every situation, without fail. The strength of the human spirit to triumph over adversity never ceases to amaze me.”

Iran’s citizens, who have clung to hope and the possibility for change through decades of domestic repression and isolation from the global economy, struggle to remain hopeful. By further undermining Iran’s civil society through a damaging, sanctions-forward policy, the U.S. risks weakening the aspirations of Iranians for a peaceful future where equality and human rights are respected.

The world recently marked fifty years since the end of the 1967 Arab-Israeli “Six Day” War and the beginning of the indefinite military occupation of Palestinian West Bank. It was one of the shortest wars; it has been one of the longest occupations. The international community continues to ask, how much longer should it go […]

BY JASON HUNG In 2001, Lord Jeffrey William Rooker, then UK Minister of State for Asylum and Immigration, asked Prime Minister Tony Blair whether there was a legal way an asylum seeker could enter the United Kingdom.[1] The latter bluntly denied such a possibility. After current PM Theresa May took over the office, she argued […]

BY ALEXANDRA SCHMITT The summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, scheduled for this week in Vietnam, promises to be a dramatic reunion. Trump, for his part, bragged that he and Kim “fell in love” during their last meeting in Singapore and that he “developed a very special bond” with the […]

BY STEVEN OLENDER When a man promised to love and take care of ten-year-old Withelma “T” Ortiz Walker Pettigrew, she thought her luck had finally changed. Born to drug-addicted parents, T spent her life bouncing in and out of foster care. In ten short years, she lived through 14 placements; several unsuccessful returns home; and […]

As the Syrian refugee crisis continues, reflecting on educational provision for refugee children in Jordan demands a move beyond the crisis approach.