New Zealand’s housing problem is a human rights crisis of significant proportions, says a United Nations expert. United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to housing Leilani Farha who has been visiting New Zealand, has issued a statement about her findings. She said a “more ambitious, innovative and courageous approach” is necessary to solve the Read more
The Netherlands’ police and and transport companies are unwilling to enforce a ban on wearing a face-covering burqa. Their lack of cooperation with the so-called burqa ban made the new legislation largely unworkable on its first day in law. Under the terms of the Partial Ban on Face-Covering Clothing Act, various forms of headgear are Read more
Sixteen-year-old Suneeta and her 12-year-old sister were walking home in March when they were kidnapped. The men who took them forced the girls to convert to Islam. “We were walking back to our house after working on the farm when men in a car came out of nowhere and dragged us in with them,” said Read more
Credit where it’s due. The Saudi Absher app, just described as “inhuman” by two clearly terrified Saudi refugees, also has some fabulous user reviews on its supplier websites, Apple and Google Play. To read the surge of five-star tributes placed after the app’s invaluable contribution to human enslavement was widely exposed earlier in the year Read more
Fairly and otherwise, the media often gets criticized for not speaking truth to power, especially on human rights issues. At this week’s post-Cabinet press conference, PM Jacinda Ardern gave us a glimpse into how formulaic the raising of such concerns has become. Read more
A new Human Rights Watch report says young Burmese women are being trafficked to China as ‘brides’ then locked in rooms and raped until they become pregnant. Read more
Pope Francis and pope emeritus Benedict – have sent letters supporting the 2018 International Symposium “Fundamental rights and conflicts among rights” taking place in Rome this week. The symposium is being held by the Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation. Both Francis and Benedict’s letters were addressed to Vatican Foundation president Fr Federico Lombardi SJ and Read more
A Manus Island refugee has been nominated for an international human rights award. Abdul Aziz Muhamat fled persecution in Sudan only to be detained by Australia in Papua New Guinea, where he became a spokesperson for hundreds of men held there for five years. Continue reading
Men and women in the Indonesian province of Aceh are no longer allowed to dine together unless they are married or related. Under the latest regulation in Bireuën district on Sumatra island, men and women will not be able to dine together at restaurants and coffee shops unless they are accompanied by their husband or Read more
A former president of Nauru says Australia is “complicit in a political prosecution.” Nauru has abolished a decades-old link to Australia’s legal system, removing the island nation’s highest court of appeal in a move critics have described as “shocking” and “concerning” for human rights. On 12 December last year, the Nauruan government quietly informed Australia it wished to unilaterally withdraw Read more