Best of Dispatches: Top News Posts This Week

Facebook's exclusionary and harmful 'real name' policy; confronting hate crimes in Europe; and the US stands alone - for the wrong reason - these were among the most popular posts to Dispatches, our daily forum for breaking human rights news and commentary.

Dispatches: Time to Fix Facebook's Name Policy

Henry Peck
Last June, Facebook locked the account of “Happy Addis”, an Ethiopian LGBT activist who runs Facebook groups for gay Ethiopians. The reason? His Facebook profile does not list his real name...

Dispatches: When Will Europe Finally get Serious About Hate Crimes?

Benjamin Ward
As a parent it was hard to listen to. Mette Bentow described how a joyous occasion for her 12-year-old daughter turned into a nightmare, when the Copenhagen synagogue where she was celebrating her Bat Mitzvah was attacked by a gunman...

Dispatches: The US Club of 1 on Children's Rights

Jo Becker
Today the United States officially became a club of one, as the only United Nations member country that has not ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child...

Dispatches: Britain Backtracks on Justice for Yemen

David Mepham
The British government’s concern for the safety and well-being of the Yemeni people – already extremely feeble – reached a new low this week...

Dispatches: Chaos Returns to Bangui

Lewis Mudge
[Last] week, the streets of Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, were littered with dead bodies. According to the latest reports, over 40 people have been killed since September 26, hundreds have been injured, and over 40,000 people have fled their homes...