human rights

A new French report into the incident that sparked Rwanda's genocide is of vital importance on three grounds: discrediting false accounts, establishing facts, and raising further questions. But it leaves critical questions unanswered, including over the role of a key French mercenary, says Andrew Wallis

Do the supposedly civilised values of human rights and responsible citizenry become exclusionary, used to divide rather than unite? Is religion a partner of liberty? On the day the British parliament considers a bill proposing the banning of headscarves in public places, Robin Llewellyn reviews Jonathan Sacks' ‘The Great Partnership: God, Science, and the Search for Meaning’

The collapse of the USSR in 1991 led to historical reconsideration, but unlike in Germany or South Africa, there has been no 'truth and reconciliation' process in Russia, and many of its most shameful chapters are yet to be properly confronted. A museum set up at one of the most notorious Gulag camps attempts to redress the balance, reports Susanne Sternthal.

The selfless struggle of many brave Iranians against tyranny bestows a legitimacy that their rulers cannot match, says Nasrin Alavi.

Many of the assumptions about who wrote the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are wrong. Gita Sahgal tells the less known story of the men and women who wrote this foundational, emancipatory and anti-colonial document

The Arab awakening of 2011 raises hope of an end to the torture and other human-rights violations that have long been endemic in Arab states. But it will be a tough legacy to overcome, says Vicken Cheterian.

It is about time that saner heads in the Indian national security establishment mull over the implications of the continuation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in Kashmir, says Wajahat Qazi

The recent assassination of Colombian marxist insurgent group leader Alfonso Cano has been hailed internationally as an advance towards peace, giving Colombia a boost down the path to becoming the latest emerging market of Latin America. A closer look at the history and nature of Colombia's nearly 50 year-long armed struggle, however, tells us otherwise.

The return to democracy in Nepal after the decade-long civil war has been bumpy. The question of amnesty for crimes committed during the war now faces the new Maoist-led government with a key choice, says Meenakshi Ganguly.

The legal eviction from their land of a large community on the edge of London raises disturbing questions about deep-rooted discrimination that Jewish historical experience can help to address, say Keith Kahn-Harris, Simone Abel & Shauna Leven.

The regime of controls, conditionalities and sanctions that characterise the governance of poverty - in stark contrast to laissez faire financial governance - threatens the rights and the dignity of those it ostensibly protects, say Kate Donald and Smriti Upadhyay

The growing bonds between central Asian states and China have a human-rights cost for Uyghurs across the region, says Henryk Szadziewski.

Hazing of new recruits is infamously widespread in the Russian army and families of men who have died find their struggle for closure hindered by military cover-ups and ineptitude. The campaigning organisation Mother's Right Foundation has been keeping records of these incidents for many years. Here we detail the stories behind six tragic cases.

On 31st of all months with as many days a rally in support of freedom of assembly is held in Moscow’s Triumph Square. 31 December was no exception with a massive police presence and many arrests. Ilya Yashin recounts his own story of decent policemen, falsified evidence and a night in the cells.

Journalist Oleg Kashin was recently brutally beaten up. To ram the message home, the fingers on his writing hand were broken, as well as his jaw and shins. He had been active in protesting the building of a highway through the Khimki forest nature reserve. Now he reflects on the authorities’ handling of a football demonstration with nationalist overtones and the arrests of the leaders of the punk protest group Voina, ruefully concluding that all this time he has been missing the point.

The second week of December promises to be highly symbolic for all those interested in human rights in Russia. Today is Human Rights Day, and in five days time the verdict in the second trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky will be handed down. Simon Cosgrove looks forward, reflects back and salutes the courage of Russia’s human rights activists.

The traces of optimism that had surrounded Burma’s first notionally democratic experience for two decades vanish on closer inspection of the outcome, says David Scott Mathieson in Chiang Mai.

The Ethiopian government’s political use of international humanitarian aid is a test of donors’ commitment to human-rights principles, says Tom Porteous.

“If you want to build a ship, don’t gather your people and ask them to provide wood, prepare tools, assign tasks. Call them together and raise in their minds the longing for the endless sea.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery

In the wake of the civil rights movement in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s, many Native Americans adopted civil resistance to fight for rights supposedly guaranteed in the 19th century by the government's treaties with their tribes. This true story is how one tribe in Wisconsin, using nonviolent strategies, prevailed in that fight.