International

Human Wrongs Watch Briefing UN Member States on 7 January 2016 on the widely varied and devastating impacts of the current El Niño weather phenomenon – which for months has sparked massive floods in some countries while leaving others, often in…

At first sight it would seem that there couldn’t be two countries more different than the third-generation dictatorship of North Korea and the 200-year old democracy of the United States of America. Instead of accepting the strong propaganda of both…

It’s been said that peace is not merely the absence of war, but the presence of justice. That spirit underpinned the Peace Campaign 2015 photo exhibition that ran from November 25 to 27 in the historical Bagh-e Babur Park in Kabul.…

President Obama has laid out his plans to take executive action in an attempt to cut gun violence. Part of his plan will result in mandatory background checks for individuals purchasing firearms online or at gun shows. The administration is…

President Barack Obama formally announced plans to expand background checks to buy guns and impose other restrictions on firearms through executive action. The order bypasses Congress, further feeding sentiments about the administration’s overreach. “Every year, more than 30,000 Americans have…

Human Wrongs Watch By Baher Kamal* 5 January 2016 (IPS) – The “big five” – i.e., the most military powerful states on earth (US, UK, France, Russia and China) have just agreed that it would be about time to end…

Paris. 4 January 2016—UPDATE 5 January 2016 In 2015, a total of ten new nuclear reactors were connected to the world’s grids, more than in any year since 1990. Two reactors were closed, Grafenrheinfeld in Germany and Wylfa in the…

After Saudi Arabia executed Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr on Saturday along with 46 others, protesters in the Iranian capital of Tehran responded by torching part of the Saudi Embassy. On Sunday, Saudi Arabia responded by severing ties with Iran.…

Criminalizing clients opens doors to discrimination, police harassment and abuse, and other human rights violations. By Sebastian Kohn, writing for Open Society Foundation Last month, the French Senate voted down a bill that would have shifted criminal penalties from sex…

Human Wrongs Watch  By Aaron Gray-Block* 1 January, 2016 (Greenpeace) – A short distance outside the village of Molyvos on the Greek Island of Lesbos there is a rubbish dump of life jackets, discarded now but forever witness to the hope…