5 months of lockdown. No internet or mobile data. No access to the outside world. This has been the experience of citizens in Kashmir since 4 August 2019. When India revoked Article 370 and 35A of its Constitution, it removed the special-administered autonomy of Kashmir and Jammu, bifurcating it into two government controlled regions. Since then, there has been persistent human rights violations, but Kashmir is not the only instance … Read more →
Blog
Human Rights Opinion From Every Corner of the World
China’s authoritarianism rejected in the one place actually given the opportunity to vote on it
Last weekend, the people of Taiwan overwhelmingly voted to renew the mandate of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and President Tsai Ing-wen for another four years, in an election that saw the incumbent win more votes than any other presidential candidate in Taiwan’s history. On Saturday 11 January, Ms Tsai secured just over 57% of the ballot – a record 8.2m votes – well ahead of her rival Han Kuo-yu … Read more →
Gender-neutral passport: what would it mean for non-binary people?
At the end of last year, the Merriam-Webster dictionary named non-binary singular pronoun ‘they’ the word of 2019. Non-binary identities have taken centre stage over the past few years and more people have started to openly identify as non-binary. In the UK, non-binary people make up one per cent of the population – about 630,000 people – including prominent public figures such as Grammy awarded singer Sam Smith, as well … Read more →
Sally’s Tale; Life inside Moria
Sally’s Tale Residing in Moria, notorious as Europe’s most dangerous camp, is twenty-year-old Sally, one of the thousands suffering on the Greek island of Lesbos. Pregnant with her first child, Sally lives in a makeshift tent for two. ‘Come, let me show you what it’s like inside the camp. I’m here with my husband living in a tent – my parents are in Finland,’ says the young chirpy Syrian who, … Read more →
In Russia, women’s rights are still not human rights
Women’s rights in Russia is far from an under-reported topic. The decriminalisation of some forms of domestic violence in early 2017 gained widespread attention and condemnation in the Western media – just last month, the Ministry of Justice caused an outcry by claiming that the domestic violence crisis faced by the country’s women is “exaggerated”, while the last eighteen months have been peppered with protests in support of the Khachaturyan … Read more →
Violence and discrimination against LGBTQ+ people in Sub-Saharan Africa
From government leaders such as Robert Mugabe labelling homosexual men as “worse than pigs and dogs” to the classification of homosexuality as a disease, and no legal ramifications for those who participate in homophobic behaviour, life within Sub-Saharan African countries can be very difficult for LGBTQ+ people. Surveys taken in Zimbabwe show that 50% of gay men have experienced physical violence as a result of their sexual orientation, and 27% of … Read more →