Human Rights

BY: BEN MCGUIRE Carey Dean Moore was dying. As a lethal dose of the synthetic opioid fentanyl seeped into his bloodstream, witnesses reported that he “breathed heavily and gradually turned red and then purple” before finally departing. In passing, Moore joined hundreds of thousands of Americans who have succumbed to drugs like fentanyl in the […]

An Iranian Revolutionary Guard parade in Ahwaz, the capital of the Khuzestan province of Iran, ended in chaos in September when four gunmen opened fire on an assembled crowd of troops, civilians and children. Assailants dressed in military garb killed at least 25 people and wounded about 60 more at the parade that was meant […]

Renewed US sanctions will have a detrimental impact on the Iranian economy, but Iran is winning the public relations battle on the world stage.

BY WON-MO KOO Just four years ago, Nadia Murad, co-recipient of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, was one of the thousands of Yazidi women sexually enslaved by ISIL. Since her escape and despite multiple death threats, Murad spoke publicly of the atrocities she suffered. Her courage in calling international attention to the often-overlooked issue of […]

Venezuela is facing one of the biggest social collapses in modern history. The combination of economic and political unrest has mobilized millions of Venezuelans to leave their home and families behind to seek a better future, mostly to Latin American countries. With conservative estimates from around 2.6 to 3.4 million, though some reach as far […]

BY YASIR GÖKÇE “Our life was turned upside down. In one night, we were declared ‘terrorists,’” said Sevval, a 13-year-old who was among the victims of a massive crackdown on dissidents conducted by Turkey’s President Recep Erdogan. The crackdown continues today and impacts people who identify as critical of the Erdogan regime. Since a failed […]

In this episode of the Middle East Weekly podcast, we discuss the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the hands of Saudi agents in Istanbul, the formation of and challenges facing Iraq’s new government, the re-instatement of sanctions on Iran, and an election boycott in Bahrain. Khashoggi was murdered when he visited the Saudi […]

BY MICAH MELIA Brett Kavanaugh is the latest name embroiled in the #metoo movement. For the last week, we’ve heard countless voices weigh in on how multiple allegations of sexual assault and sexual harassment should shape his confirmation hearing. The tone is different—we’re not talking about Hollywood, we’re not talking about the office—but really, we’ve […]

BY ZIAD RESLAN Adnan lifts his shirt to reveal bruising covering almost his entire body.  The only interruption to the purple are deep red scars, the result, he says, of trying to cross the border between Serbia and Hungary 19 times.  Each time, he has been apprehended, beaten up and pushed back to Serbia.  He […]

BY AUSTIN DAVIS US Attorney General Jeff Sessions has unchecked authority over thousands of people seeking asylum in the United States. The NAACP, among others, has also condemned Sessions’ history of “racist comments,” and he has spoken out on multiple occasions against asylum seekers as a group. So how has Sessions used his power? To […]

BY SIBELLA MATTHEWS In 2014, the Connecticut Department of Children and Families transferred a 16-year-old girl of color known as Angel to a maximum-security adult prison.[1] Guards supervised Angel as she showered and isolated her in solitary confinement for 22 hours per day. Her offense was “delinquency,” a crime that is not serious or violent […]

BY JEAN GUO AND RACHEL PEARL O’SHEA Digital transformation and its implications for the future of work have become the topic du jour among public policy officials, scholars, and commentators all over the world. With predictions that new technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning will threaten as many as 800 million jobs over the […]