Category Archives: Human rights

Global freedom has declined for the 17th consecutive year

The 2023 edition of Freedom in the World from Freedom House reports: The global struggle for democracy approached a possible turning point in 2022. The gap between the number of countries that registered overall improvements in political rights and civil liberties and those that registered overall declines was the narrowest it has ever been through… Read More »

Is the poisoning of schoolgirls in Iran a new front in the war against girls’ education?

Shutterstock By Shireen Daft, Macquarie University Recent media attention has drawn global focus on an escalating number of Iranian schoolgirls falling ill over the past few months because of suspected chemical attacks. Accounts differ, but many reports cite more than 1,000 cases of poisoning at schools across Iran. At least 58 schools in ten provinces… Read More »

Republicans’ widening attack on egalitarianism

Jamelle Bouie writes: Over the past year, we have seen a sweeping and ferocious attack on the rights and dignity of transgender people across the country. In states led by Republicans, conservative lawmakers have introduced or passed dozens of laws that would give religious exemptions for discrimination against transgender people, prohibit the use of bathrooms… Read More »

Louisiana routinely overdetains inmates (sometimes called ‘slaves’), violating Constitution, U.S. says

The Washington Post reports: Louisiana correction authorities routinely confine thousands of inmates beyond their release dates each year, in violation of the Constitution and wasting taxpayer funds, the U.S. Justice Department said Wednesday. Overdetention is not unheard of in other states, nor in federal facilities, but the scale of Louisana’s actions — which the Justice… Read More »

Mike Pompeo dismisses murder of Jamal Khashoggi by saying such crimes are ‘routine’ in Middle East

In response to comments reportedly made by Mike Pompeo in his new memoir, Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) issued the following statement: “Pompeo’s crass and craven comments appearing to justify Jamal Khashoggi’s murder by disparaging his political views and falsely associating them with terrorism mirror the same justifications Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) and… Read More »