Moving beyond the paralysing difference of opinion about whether the 'Troubles' in Northern Ireland constituted an armed conflict, women peacebuilders have produced a strategic guide which places international women, peace and security goals in a domestic framework for action.
Recipients of humanitarian awards often invite controversy. In Pakistan, religious and political identities are valued more than the contributions of such recipients. Malala Yousafzai may have the Nobel Peace Prize, but she remains the target of criticism from Pakistani conservatives and also many
The governance process seems to be running smoothly. Modi’s public announcement on corruption “Na khaunga na khane dunga’ (Neither would I pocket money illegally nor allow others to do it) is laudable, though only time will prove if he walks his talk.
On life in prison generally, the most common complaints across five countries were about hygiene and space.
Antiblack racism underwrites the contemporary movement against “modern-day slavery.” The anti-slavery movement is haunted by the specter of racial slavery even while it feeds off it parasitically.
Are we learning from the past or exploiting it? It is easy to obscure the similar economic rationales and incentive structures, as well as the participation of ‘legitimate’ enterprises and institutions, in both trans-Atlantic slavery and contemporary trafficking in humans.
Three years after the Maspero massacre, no justice has been served. This was a state crime, and more worryingly, the Egyptian state seems to be increasingly engaging in hostile acts towards Copts.
In other conflict situations, the EU and its member states have pressed for justice, readily acknowledging that continued impunity, not justice, is the real impediment to peace. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict should be treated no differently.
Current anti-trafficking measures are weak because of a lack of inter-agency cooperation combined with a prioritization of national over human security.
Extreme exploitation is a structural problem, not a problem of human nature. Unless we deal with the ‘root causes’, which I locate in inequality, then it will continue. And global inequalities are growing.
New forms of urban struggle have been emerging in Barcelona. The reconstruction of the Can Vies social centre, half demolished by the state in a botched eviction, has been an inspiring example. But other sites of occupation are under threat.
Let’s stop giving the architects and beneficiaries of an increasingly neoliberal world order a platform on which to parade their moral condemnation of ‘slavery’, and focus on efforts to transform the meaning of ‘freedom’.
