One week after former President Donald Trump’s re-election, US Catholic bishops gathered in Baltimore, committing to defend immigrants and the poor despite anticipated challenges. Leaders of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) emphasised that they would champion vulnerable communities and work towards immigration reform. “As the successors of the Apostles and vicars of Christ Read more
Human rights groups on Sept 12 condemned a sharp increase in the use of the death sentence in Saudi Arabia for drug offences after 42 people were executed for such crimes this year. The rights groups, many of them Saudi and Egyptian, said they were “gravely fearful for the lives of hundreds of prisoners threatened Read more
The UN’s top human rights official has condemned the Taliban’s repression of Afghan women and girls, calling the situation “outrageous” and warning of its dire consequences for the country’s future. Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the Taliban’s morality laws, which severely limit women’s roles in society, are a form of systematic Read more
A report into the Prisoners of Extreme Risk Unit (PERU) at Auckland Prison says there have been human rights breaches there, with some prisoners having spent as much as 900 days in solitary confinement. International human rights state the maximum stay in solitary confinement is 15 days. Extreme risk Set up in 2019 in the Read more
Plans being made for a September papal visit to East Timor are drawing criticism from local human rights groups. The costs will be too high and people’s lives are already being disrupted they say. Extremely expensive Last Thursday human rights organisation Lao Hamutuk told Union of Catholic Asian (UCA) News that the Government’s budgeted US$12 Read more
New Zealand’s government should confront Indonesia over its alleged human rights violations in West Papua, human rights activists and West Papua independence activists in Aotearoa say. The UN Human Rights Council has reported the human rights situation in West Papua has deteriorated, citing reports of torture and mass displacement. “We know the violence that West Read more
Jesuits in Nicaragua have been expelled from the country. Nicaragua’s government declared Pope Francis’s Society of Jesus (Jesuit) order illegal on Wednesday. All the Jesuits’ property and assets were confiscated. The government claims that’s because the Jesuits had failed to comply with tax laws. On Wednesday, the San Salvador-based Jesuit Province of Central America which Read more
Before backing a law banning abortion in Texas altogether, Gov. Greg Abbott propelled a 2021 measure banning abortion after a heartbeat has been detected, saying he “would protect the life of every child with a heartbeat.” He happens to be Catholic. So why did Abbott put razor wire and a floating barrier in the Rio Read more
Religious groups who say restrictions on gatherings during Covid-19 breached their right to worship are continuing their legal battle against the Government. Free To Be Church Trust, on behalf of several religious groups, say restrictions under the red traffic light setting during the pandemic, and the Government’s failure to review them sooner, was a breach Read more
Some New Zealand landlords are so neglectful, the properties they let contravene basic human rights. They’re damp, squalid, cold, neglected and expensive. Yet in many, rents keep going up. While rent hikes can reflect the costs landlords face, there are standards that must be maintained, according to Wellington Property Investors Association president Peter Ambrose. Passing Read more