• End Child Labor in Gold Mines
    Nov 13, 2012
    In Tanzania, I met "Julius", a boy of about 13, who works in an artisanal gold mine. He told me he digs ore in pits more than 15 metres deep and mixes toxic mercury with ground ore to retrieve the gold. Once a pit collapsed and almost killed another boy, his friend. The work had made him feel "pain in the whole body."
  • Two steps forward, one step back
    Nov 8, 2012
    Two resolutions adopted by the United Nations Human Rights Council during the past 16 months represent potential advances and setbacks for the global lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights movement. One is concerned with defending sexual orientation and gender identity; the other with protecting traditional values. Together they represent divergent views on the universality and indivisibility of human rights.
  • Relations with Rwanda must be urgently reviewed
    Nov 8, 2012
    The international development select committee (IDC) is questioning Andrew Mitchell on his controversial decision to disburse £8m of UK budget support to the government of Rwanda, in his final hours as international development secretary and just six weeks after deciding to withhold this support, following allegations of Rwandan military backing for the M23 rebel group in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
  • Election 2012: Rights and Responsibility
    Nov 5, 2012
    The candidates may disagree on some human rights issues, but the next president will face challenges that transcend partisan lines.
  • Crisis calls for Bill's swift passage
    Nov 1, 2012
    Busisiwe's story was only one of many tragic stories we heard while researching a report about maternal mortality. But it is a prime illustration of why the National Health Amendment Bill, published in January last year, needs to become law, and quickly. The Bill is designed to address key shortcomings in the monitoring and oversight of the health system. Among other things, it would make several changes to the office of standards compliance, tasked with developing quality standards for the health sector and monitoring them.
  • Nigerians caught in the crossfire
    Oct 11, 2012
    It’s hard to find sadder places in Nigeria than those that have suffered attacks by Boko Haram, the underground fundamentalist Islamic organization. Christians are fearful of attending church. Muslims, who also face attacks by Boko Haram, express concern that government security forces indiscriminately hunting down the group’s members consider their entire community to be the enemy. As one Muslim civic activist in this northeastern Nigerian city put it: “People don’t know who to be more afraid of — Boko Haram or the police.”
  • World Bank Support for “Development” by Force
    Oct 11, 2012
    Ethiopia remains in much need of development aid, particularly in the areas of food security, health, and education. But donors need to hold true to their own policies to ensure that they don’t fund harmful projects, directly or indirectly.
  • Ghana Grapples with Mental Health
    Oct 8, 2012
    When we met Elijah early this year in Ghana, he was chained to a tree at a “prayer camp.” Five months earlier, his family had him bound with rope and forcibly taken to the camp for “treatment.” Elijah told me that he had been chained to the tree ever since – the “healing” prescribed for the restlessness and insomnia that his parents and the camp’s spiritual leaders had decided was a mental disability.
  • Ethiopia: Business as Usual
    Oct 3, 2012
    Despite Meles' passing, Ethiopia is continuing to conduct repressive policies, and international donors are continuing to ignore them.
  • Uganda: Protecting Civil Society Helps Preserve Basic Freedoms
    Sep 25, 2012