Best of Dispatches: Top News Posts This Week

Another penalty on FIFA's rights record; it's high stakes in the EU for tackling the refugee crisis; and a new UN report outlines war crimes in Sri Lanka's long civil war - will the government take action? - these were among the most popular posts to Dispatches, our daily forum for breaking human rights news and commentary.

Dispatches: Who Will Show FIFA the Red Card on Hong Kong? 

Maya Wang
Should it be an offense to boo your own national anthem at a public sporting event? Apparently FIFA, football’s governing body, thinks so...

Dispatches: A Make-or-Break Week for the Refugee Crisis

Judith Sunderland
Blocked borders, hand-washing governments, muddy camps, risky sea crossings, uncertainty, and fear. As decision-makers meet in Brussels in two high-level meetings this week to address the refugee crisis, the stakes couldn’t be higher...

Dispatches: Awaiting Sri Lanka's 'Courage and Leadership'

John Fisher
“Trust us,” Sri Lanka’s foreign minister, Mangala Samaraweera, told the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva just before the release of a landmark report into atrocities committed during the country’s long civil war, which ended in 2009...

Dispatches: Thailand Acts to End LGBT Discrimination 

Kyle Knight
Thailand has taken a big step in protecting transgender people from discrimination...

Dispatches: Central African Republic Gripped With Fear

Lewis MudgeA country “gripped with fear” is how the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, described the Central African Republic during a September 4 visit. His words echo what I’ve heard from hundreds of victims and witnesses over the past year...