By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS. 5 October 2023 (IDN) — When the 193-member General Assembly (GA) elected some of the so-called “repressive regimes” as members of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) in a bygone era, US Congressman Dana Rohrabacher remarked: “The inmates have taken over the asylum”. And, as an after-thought, he added: “I […]
Human Rights Activists Facing Threats in 40 Countries for Cooperating with UN
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS, 29 September 2023 (IDN) — Be warned: If you are a human rights activist or an individual cooperating with the UN in revealing abuses, you may be under surveillance or in danger of facing physical threats. A new report from Secretary-General António Guterres says that from 1 May last year […]
Iceland Imports Foreign Workers but Does Not Employ Asylees
By Lowana Veal REYKJAVIK, Iceland. 19 September 2023 (IDN) — Facing a shortage of workers in the hospitality and construction sectors, Iceland has started importing foreign labour while at the same time refusing to give employment permits to asylum seekers. Since early August 2023, at least 58 asylum seekers have been deprived of accommodation, food […]
200 Million Migrant Workers Sent $647 Billion to over 800 Million Families
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS, 15 June 2023 (IDN) – In Asia, some of the countries dependent on remittances from migrant workers overseas include India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, China, Bangladesh and the Philippines. At the international airport in one of the Southeast Asian capitals, there is a sign at the “arrivals” terminal for a special […]
Nations Pledge to Improve Refugee and Migrant Health
By Bernhard Schell RABAT, Morocco, 16 June 2023 (IDN | WHO) — One in eight people worldwide is either a migrant or is forcibly displaced by factors including conflict, persecution, environmental degradation, or the lack of human security and opportunity. With this in view, United Nations member states and several UN agencies have adopted a […]
Latin America the Deadliest Region for Human Rights Defenders
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS, 5 April 2023 (IDN) — The world’s human rights defenders (HRDs) continue to be under constant attacks worldwide—with Latin America branded as the deadliest region. In its Global Analysis 2022 released April 4, the Dublin-based Front Line Defenders (FLD) provides a long list of threats faced by HRDs in all […]
Rights Group Warns of Growing Division and Fear
By A.D. McKenzie
PARIS (IDN | SWAN) – Politicians have shamelessly been peddling a “toxic rhetoric” that is creating a more divided and dangerous world, according to human rights group Amnesty International.
Speaking at the launch of its annual report on rights around the world in Paris on February 21, the organisation’s Secretary General Salil Shetty warned that the “politics of demonisation” was threatening to unleash the “darkest aspects” of human nature.
“Too many politicians are answering legitimate economic and security fears with a poisonous and divisive manipulation of identity politics in an attempt to win votes,” Shetty told journalists.
South Pacific: ‘Sea-Level Rise’ Migrants Posing a Problem
By Henry Oritimae and Sonal Shivangani*
This is the second in a series of features on the South Pacific produced in collaboration with Wansolwara, an independent student newspaper of the University of the South Pacific.
SUVA, Fiji (IDN) – With sea levels rising rapidly across the South Pacific and the resulting movement of people within and across countries, the region is facing a new problem of a lack of proper migration policies to address the issue, according to experts.
Inhabitants of artificial islands in the Soloman Islands are migrating to settle in the bigger islands because of sea-level rise and coastal inundation.
Revelations of Australia’s Abu Ghraib Force Gov’t to Act
By Kalinga Seneviratne
SYDNEY (IDN) – Screening of secretly filmed shocking footage of abuse of juvenile prisoners in a remote northern Australian prison by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s (ABC), renowned investigative reporting program ‘Four Corners’, has outraged thousands of Australians who took to the streets to protest and forced the government to act.
The video material filmed between 2010 and 2014 at the Don Dale youth detention centre in the Northern Territory in Australia and screened on July 25 has drawn comparisons to the treatment of prisoners in the notorious prisons run by the U.S. government in Abu Ghraib in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba.
Indigenous Peoples Insist on Equality of All Rights
Analysis by Rizwy Raheem
NEW YORK (IDN) – The world’s indigenous peoples – estimated at over 370 million living across 90 countries and accounting for 15 percent of the poorest – remain isolated, both politically and geographically.
So, nearly a thousand participants from Asia, Africa, North America, Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean gathered together to air their grievances before the United Nations at a two-week long conference, which concluded May 20.
Their plea for inclusiveness was a reiteration of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s appeal to the international community on the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for a more humane and prosperous world for all – “leaving no one behind”.
The conference ended with a resounding call for greater participation in the United Nations and in UN bodies by some of the world’s most neglected minorities who are increasingly victims of armed conflicts, corporate greed and rising economic inequalities.