Human trafficking has surged globally, with a 25 percent increase in victims detected between 2019 and 2022, according to a report released on Wednesday by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The 2024 Global Report on Trafficking in Persons revealed rising child exploitation and forced labor cases fueled by poverty, conflict, and [...]
In a move that has sparked widespread outcry, Niger’s military authorities have arrested Moussa Tchangari, a well-known civil society leader and critic of the government, Amnesty International reported Monday. Tchangari, secretary general of Citizens’ Alternative Spaces (Alternatives Espaces Citoyens, AEC), was taken from his home in Niamey on December 3 by three men in plain [...]
The US government unsealed an indictment Monday charging two former high-ranking officials of the Syrian Air Force Intelligence with war crimes. The indictment accuses Jamil Hassan and Abdul Salam Mahmoud of cruel and inhuman treatment, including the torture of detainees, some of whom were US citizens, at the Mezzeh military airbase prison in Damascus. The [...]
Hundreds of demonstrators in Kenya’s capital of Nairobi were hit with teargas by police on Tuesday as they protested a nationwide swell in gender-based violence and femicide. Marking Human Rights Day, protestors marched toward Parliament to demand justice for victims and, that authorities hold perpetrators accountable by prioritizing investigations and instituting stronger protection mechanisms. On [...]
Germany suspended processing asylum claims for Syrian refugees on Monday following the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, with the UK, Greece and Sweden quickly adopting similar measures amid the rapidly evolving situation in Damascus. According to Germany’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge; BAMF), the currently unclear situation in Syria [...]
UN experts issued a strong rebuke on Monday against a new Taliban policy banning female students from medical training in Afghanistan, which has been denounced for further eroding the rights of women and girls in the country. United Nations Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan Richard Bennett emphasized, “Barring female students from education at medical institutions will [...]
Environmental organization Greenpeace announced Tuesday that it reached a settlement with British-Dutch oil and gas company Shell, which had sued the group over a protest. The legal dispute stemmed from an incident in 2023 when Greenpeace activists boarded a Shell oil production vessel to demonstrate against fossil fuel extraction and its environmental impact. Shell brought [...]
The UK and Germany agreed on Tuesday to a new joint action plan to tackle people-smuggling. The plan aims to “fight to save lives in the Channel and disrupt the migrant smuggling trade.” It will provide a joint framework between the two countries, which “strengthens operational capabilities of UK and German law enforcement” to tackle [...]
Amnesty International on Tuesday criticized Iran’s newly implemented mandatory veiling law, saying that it intensifies the systemic subjugation of women and girls. The law enforces harsh penalties, including imprisonment, corporal punishment, and even the death penalty for individuals who violate obligatory hijab rules. The “Law on Protecting the Family through the Promotion of the Culture [...]
My grandfather told me once I was meant to be the heiress of a family-owned winery. Inside the courthouse gates, the ghosts of unfinished stories sit beside me in the cold, marble-columned silence. My grandfather’s voice echoes in my mind, recounting a spiel riddled with missing pieces about a winery that was never mine — [...]
