News

On 22 August, as a record number of fires are raging in the Amazon, a number of groups representing indigenous peoples declared an environmental and humanitarian emergency in an open letter. They are calling on the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to the United Nations to take action as the violent fires threaten their people with what … Read more →

In a public statement issued on 21 August, a coalition of 11 Venezuelan and international human rights organisations urged the United Nations Human Rights Council to establish a Commission of Inquiry on Venezuela during its 42nd session in September 2019. In the statement, the organisations detailed why a UN Commission of Inquiry is the best answer the international community can offer to victims of the Venezuelan humanitarian crisis. “A UN … Read more →

At least seven journalists have been arrested in Turkey in the last week, continuing the trend of the Erdoğan regime suppressing media freedom. On August 19 Ziyan Karahan, the Kurdish-language editor of pro-kurdish Mezopotamya News Agency, was arrested at her home in Diyarbakir. Authorities told Karahan announced that she is detained due to her “journalistic activities”. The following day, Mezopotamya reported that an additional five journalists had been arrested while … Read more →

On 21 August, the Trump administration announced a proposal to eliminate a federal court agreement that set a 20-day limit for holding children and replace it with a regulation that would allow the government to indefinitely detain migrant children with their parents. Democratic presidential contender Beto O’Rourke tweeted on 21 August: “Thousands of kids separated from their parents. Seven children dead as a result of our care. Countless more sleeping … Read more →

On 31 October 2019 – despite the efforts of policy makers from all sides of the political spectrum – the UK is set to crash out of the European Union without a deal, leaving three million EU citizens currently living in the UK and one million Britons on the continent in limbo. The plan, or lack thereof, to leave without a deal on future trade and cooperation has been widely … Read more →

On Sunday 18 August, over 1.7 million people – a quarter of the population – gathered at a pro-democracy protest in Hong Kong, amid increasingly severe warnings by Beijing. Activists and police have clashed over the past 11 weeks, but this weekend’s protest remained peaceful. Many protesters wore black, the colour now associated with the anti-government movement, carried signs and chanted slogans as they moved slowly forward: “Stand with Hong … Read more →