Year: 2018

United States (Inequality) – Eleanor Roosevelt famously said that human rights must begin in “small places, close to home.” To speak to people’s everyday experiences in these places, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights — drafted with her leadership — protects not only civil and political rights but also socioeconomic rights “indispensable” for human dignity. These include the rights to work and to just and favorable conditions of work; to education; and to housing, medical care, and social services necessary to ensure an adequate standard of living. During her lifetime, Roosevelt…

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World Wide (Conversation) – After Israeli forces shot her 15-year-old cousin in the head with a rubber bullet last December, Ahed Tamimi, a Palestinian girl from Nabi Saleh in the West Bank, stood up to the occupying Israeli forces and was arrested and charged for slapping a soldier. The story of the activist went viral. But what Ahed was fighting for was largely buried beneath sensationalized media representations of her. Her story is unlikely to circulate in the same elevated spaces granted to Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani girl who survived…

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North America (Conversation) – Youth turnout in the recent United States midterm elections was the highest it has been in 25 years. The midterms also saw the average age of congressional representatives go down by 10 years. Likewise, in the 2015 Canadian federal election, 58 per cent of newly eligible voters turned out to vote, an increase of almost 18 per cent over the 2011 election. There have been similar increases in voting among 18- to 24-year-olds in provincial elections. Dramatic wins in 2015 for the NDP in Alberta and…

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Kurdistan (OpenDemocracy) – After the Syrian Kurds’ fight for Kobane (a Kurdish city in northern Syria/Rojava) against ISIS in 2014-5, many across the world were suddenly made aware of the Kurdish women’s movement. What has not reached us, however, is a much wider context that enabled the Kurdish women-fighters to confidently take up arms to defend themselves and their people. The unprecedented accomplishments of the Kurdish women predated Kobane and the war in Syria. They are rooted in the evolution of Turkey’s Kurdish liberation movement, as it is represented by the Kurdistan…

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Australia (Conversation) – We have conducted what we believe to be Australia’s first quantitative research on young people’s behaviour in nightclubs and the findings present a disturbing picture. The research suggests that behaviour is taking place at these clubs that would be criminal if non-consensual, and totally unacceptable at the very least. However, the behaviour is somehow tolerated – in some cases almost encouraged. Many young people think they are too conservative, and that the behaviours they witness must be normal and acceptable in a nightclub setting – so they…

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Saudi Arabia (GV) – The October 2018 murder of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi — who Turkish officials say was killed at the order of Crown Prince Bin Salman — has cast new light on the many human rights abuses that take place in the kingdom. International and regional human rights groups and activists are taking this new scrutiny as an opportunity to publicly demand the release of imprisoned human rights activists, including women’s rights defenders. At least ten women’s rights activists are currently in jail in Saudi Arabia in retaliation for…

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