Dear Readers,

Andrew is on the road, so I am filling in. Should you have ideas for things we should be covering, please email us or contact me, Birgit Schwarz, on Twitter with your suggestions.

Regards,

Birgit

India’s and the United Kingdom’s human rights records have both come under scrutiny at the UN Human Rights Council this week. Both reviews could not have come at a more critical time.

While India is witnessing a serious backsliding in human rights under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led government, its former colonial rulers have come under global scrutiny as millions of its citizens are sliding into poverty and are barely able to feed themselves or pay their bills or rent, and for an agreement with Rwanda to expel asylum seekers there.

When a country like Angola, where more than half of a population of 34 million people live on less than $2 (£1.75) a day, feels the need to publicly urge one of world’s richest nations to adopt an emergency poverty strategy to protect its most vulnerable citizens from the cost-of-living crisis, something must be seriously amiss.

Angola’s intervention at yesterday’s Universal Periodic Review, which gives UN member states the chance to comprehensively review and make recommendations on another member’s human rights record, speaks volumes about the profile the UK is developing – with all signs suggesting that human rights protections will continue to suffer there.

While the UK has gained a reputation as a country that has taken a step backwards in terms of the protection of social and economic rights and the protection of refugees, India stands accused of failing to protect minority rights. With BJP leaders and affiliated groups having long portrayed minority communities, especially Muslims, as a threat to national security and to the Hindu way of life, attacks against minority communities are on a steady increase.

New discriminatory laws and policies adopted since the BJP came to power, have further fanned violent Hindi nationalism. At yesterday’s UN review India was thus yet again reminded of its obligation to protect civil society and human rights defenders as well as ethnic and religious minorities, while member states recommended that the UK enhance efforts to address disparities and ensure its treatment of asylum seekers complies with international laws.

Tuesdays midterm elections marked a historic victory for human rights, as voters across the United States came out in support of abortion rights and ending the use of imprisoned people as forced labor plus elected more women than ever to serve as governors, among them the first openly lesbian women in US history.

In at least four states voters chose to protect abortion rights. Reversing half a century of court protection for this fundamental right, the US Supreme Court in June this year had overturned the constitutional guarantee of abortion access.

With voters in Alabama, Oregon, Vermont, and Tennessee voting against a shameful exception to the US Constitution’s Thirteenth Amendment which abolished chattel slavery and involuntary servitude but permitted the practice of using imprisoned people as forced labor, these states have finally joined the ranks of others who have already banned this legacy of enslavement - a legacy that continues to perpetuate racial inequality.

More than 150 years after enslaved Africans and their descendants were released from bondage, the passage of the anti-slavery ballot, especially in traditionally Republican states like Alabama, raises hopes that the abominable practice will eventually be brought to an end nationwide.

Over the past 12 years, millions of migrant workers have toiled to make the World Cup in Qatar possible. In temperatures that can reach up to 50 degrees Celsius, they built roads, a metro, a new airport, a substantial number of hotels, and – least we forget - the state-of-the art stadiums where the matches will take place.

FIFA, Qatar and the world’s football fans owe a lot to these migrant workers, most of whom came from impoverished regions in Nepal, Bangladesh or India. Yet, many were forced to return home without pay; thousands were injured or never even made it back alive.

To this day, neither FIFA nor Qatar have paid any adequate compensation for wage losses, injuries and unexplained deaths. Those who died remain nothing but statistics.

To give the people behind the numbers a face, investigative journalism platform Blankspot has talked to their bereaved families and created Cards of Qatar – a catalogue of glossy football cards that instead of facts about players tell the stories of the workers who never returned.

“These workers are not just statistics. Their stories need to be heard”, says Martin Schibbye, chief editor and co-founder of Blankspot. Indeed!

It’s an impressive and moving project. Check it out!

(compiled by Emily Palomo)

• As Food Prices Rise, Older People are Going Hungry (Daily Maverick)
• COP27: Sharp Rise in Delegates Linked to Fossil Fuel Industry (BBC) 
• The Legacy of European Colonialism is Still Alive in the Natural Landscape (El Pais International) 
• Egypt Denies Entry to Activist at Climate Talks (HRW)