The use of child soldiers extends far beyond Central and West Africa. Today, child soldiers are fighting in at least 14 countries, including Colombia, Myanmar (also known as Burma) and Afghanistan. In most of these cases, there have been no arrest warrants, no trials and no convictions for those responsible.
On Jan. 28 in Lima, Peru, 27 people were killed and at least five others critically injured by a fire that swept through Christ is Love, a privately run drug rehabilitation facility. Witnesses said patients started the fire in an effort to escape, after a caretaker refused to release them.Firemen on the scene reported terrible overcrowding -- up to 70 people, 18 to a room, in a facility equipped for 12. Who would blame them for trying to escape?
Haiti desperately needs legal reform on gender-based violence. Haitian law prohibits domestic violence against minors but does not classify domestic violence against adults as a distinct crime. The penal code includes penalties for rape but does not address marital rape. Women and girls cannot seek protection orders from judicial officers.
Women's rights is one example of huge problems and work ahead, and yet it also shows why no one should give up on Haiti. Groundbreaking work is being done to promote the rights of women and girls -- who have suffered immeasurably in Haiti's disasters and instability -- through new legislation.
With two weeks left in its two-year tenure on the UN Security Council, Brazil has a tremendous opportunity to make its vote count for the Syrian people. With Brazil’s support, the Security Council could overcome eight months of inaction and join the Arab League, Turkey, and dozens of other countries in applying real pressure on the Syrian government to end the bloodbath.
Conditions have become worse for many Haitian women and girls after last year's earthquake, including access to reproductive health care. Their needs must be considered in every aspect of reconstruction and at each step.
How could thriving Monterrey, the “Sultan of the North,” which only years earlier had been deemed one of the safest cities in Latin America, descend so quickly into chaos? If it could happen here, was anywhere in Mexico safe for long?
Canada has been a regional leader in drug policy, but Bill S-10 would waste billions of dollars on ineffective approaches that only appear to be tough on crime.
Human Rights Watch recently released a report that details brutal gang rapes and other abuses allegedly carried out by employees of Barrick Gold in Papua New Guinea. Barrick, a Canadian firm, is the world's largest gold producer and Porgera is one of the world's largest gold mines. Now the company is scrambling to put things right, investing in new mechanisms for oversight and accountability and firing some of its private security personnel while others are being hauled away by the police.
With two weeks left in its two-year tenure on the UN Security Council, Brazil has a tremendous opportunity to make its vote count for the Syrian people. With Brazil’s support, the Security Council could overcome eight months of inaction and join the Arab League, Turkey, and dozens of other countries in applying real pressure on the Syrian government to end the bloodbath.
Human Rights Watch recently released a report that details brutal gang rapes and other abuses allegedly carried out by employees of Barrick Gold in Papua New Guinea. Barrick, a Canadian firm, is the world's largest gold producer and Porgera is one of the world's largest gold mines. Now the company is scrambling to put things right, investing in new mechanisms for oversight and accountability and firing some of its private security personnel while others are being hauled away by the police.