Continued crackdowns on human rights in Central Asia could backfire by encouraging extremist ideologies, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Saturday, winding up a visit to the volatile former Soviet region. Ban chose Turkmenistan, viewed by human rights groups as one of the world’s most despotic and isolated regimes, to deliver a passionate…
Governments should endorse the new Safe Schools Declaration at the United Nations Security Council debate on children and armed conflict on June 18, 2015, Human Rights Watch said yesterday. It released a short video on protecting schools during armed conflict, featuring Ziauddin Yousafzai, UN special adviser on global education and the father of the education…
The US is hampering Poland’s investigation into the secret CIA prison by snubbing repeated requests for vital documents, including the Senate report detailing CIA prison locations and practices, a Polish prosecutor said today. Published in December, the summary of the report by the US Senate’s Intelligence Committee was redacted and did not mention Poland by…
Bill Clinton’s White House didn’t want Hillary Clinton to attend the Fourth World Conference on Women, held by the United Nations in Beijing in 1995. The Clinton administration was struggling to normalize relations with China, which had been all but severed since the 1989 Tiananmen massacre. They feared that the first lady would lecture China’s hyper-sensitive…
The Odisha Human Rights Commission (OHRC) has directed the Railway IG to enquire and submit a report within a month about the allegation against the Inspector in charge (IIC) of Cuttack GRP for illegally arresting six SUCI activists, including a woman and allegedly torturing them in custody. “While the party activists were engaged in public…
China will pledge a multi-billion dollar investment in Europe’s new infrastructure fund at a summit on June 29 in Brussels, according to a draft communique seen by Reuters – Beijing’s latest round of chequebook diplomacy to win greater influence. While the exact amount is still to be decided, the pledge will mark the latest step…
A South African court today issued a temporary ban on Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir leaving the country after the International Criminal Court called for him to be arrested at a summit in Johannesburg. Bashir, who is wanted over alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in the Darfur conflict, mostly travels to countries that…
With the recent de-licensing of 4470 NGOs in India, in addition to the 8875 NGOs whose licenses were revoked in April for violation of rules governing foreign funds, the government of India seems to have set in motion a process that it began by targeting Greenpeace and Ford Foundation. Legally, the government may be right…
The Global Symposium for Regulators (GSR-15) held at the Stade de l’Amitié in the Gabonese capital, Libreville has laid emphasis on innovation in driving ICT in emerging and developing economies. Promoting digital inclusion and closing the ‘digital gap’ between a handful of highly industrialized economies and the world’s many emerging markets and developing economies will…
In a few days, net neutrality will once again be hotly debated when the report submitted by the telecom department to the TRAI will be made public. Whether the recommendations by the telecom department will be considered when the Indian government decides on net neutrality policies remains uncertain. But on a global level, net neutrality…