Best of Dispatches: Top News Posts This Week

The first-ever global menstrual hygiene day – and why we're talking about it; the wrong message is being sent in the soccer championship; and an uptick in violence in Turkey highlights the need for calm - these were among the most popular posts to Dispatches, our daily forum for breaking human rights news and commentary. You can find all our Dispatches here.

Dispatches: Menstruation a Human Rights Issue? Absolutely

Amanda Klasing & Kriti Sharma
Menstruation isn’t something that necessarily leaps to mind when one thinks of human rights. But May 28, 2014, the first-ever global Menstrual Hygiene Day, is designed to change that...

Dispatches: Soccer Logo Can't Mask Real Azerbaijan

Emma Daly
This weekend, millions of viewers worldwide will tune in to watch the Champions League final between newly crowned Spanish soccer champions Atletico de Madrid and perennial favorites Real Madrid...

Dispatches: Stoking the Politics of Enmity in Turkey

Emma Sinclair-Webb
Turkey’s deep political polarization has spilled over into violence once more. Thirty-year-old municipality worker Uğur Kurt died hours after being shot in the head as he waited to attend a funeral...

Dispatches: In Iraq, Murder is the Norm

Fred Abrahams
Almost every day in Iraq, terrorist attacks kill civilians. Suicide and car bombs explode in markets, at rallies, and at marches of Shia pilgrims...

Dispatches: In Nigeria, A Troubling Impulse to Vigilantism

Andrew Stroehlein
As details emerge of yesterday’s bombings in the Nigerian city of Jos, it seems the horrific death toll – now 118 and counting, as rescue teams pull victims from the debris – was augmented by frustrated residents taking the law into their own hands...