The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
Repsol YPF, a Spanish-Argentine company, has a contract to explore for oil in a remote part of the Peruvian Amazon known as Lot 39. This region, in northern Peru, is home to at least two of the world’s last uncontacted tribes. Repsol currently claims there is not enough evidence to …
The UK government issued a press release confirming BP had contravened human rights regulations in relation to the controversial Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline from Azerbaijan to the Turkish coast. The announcement came after a long campaign by pressure groups for BP to be held to account for failing to investigate and …
In 1990, McDonald’s threatened activists of a London-based ethical food group with libel suits. A pamphlet, What’s wrong with McDonald’s, had earned them the ire of the fast food biggie. Three of the activists from London Greenpeace—not to be confused with Greenpeace International, which distanced itself from the matter— apologised …
>> Gambia, on January 13, ransacked and ordered closure of Teranga FM in the country’s capital, Banjul. According to the international non-profit, Reporters Without Borders, no reasons were given for shutting down the only community radio station in the country. Teranga runs on funds collected from people of Banjul. >> …
Based on evidence collected in four exemplar countries – Kenya, Bangladesh, Ghana and Vietnam – the overall aim of the study is to investigate the capacity of national legal frameworks to protect and mediate the rights of people vulnerable to environmental displacement induced by climate change.
Rights panel submits recommendations to government THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) has urged the State government to distribute the uncultivated land in the custody of the Plantation Corporation of Kerala (PCK) to the families of the individuals affected by Endosulfan toxicity in Kasaragod district. The commission also recommended …
Manual scavenging is manual removal of excreta (night soil) from “dry toilets”, i.e., toilets without the modern flush system. Manual scavenging involves the removal of human excreta using brooms and tin plates. The excreta are piled into baskets which scavengers carry on their heads to locations sometimes several kilometers from …
In Bangkok where dizzying neon signboards and glass-clad skyscrapers have been overshadowed only by a grim political battle, a group of young photographers is hoping its work behind the lens can bring human rights back into focus. On exhibit till mid- December are 27 stunning images by six Thai photographers. …
Javed Iqbal IN Chhattisgarh, the only criminal appears to be the law. For instance, Salwa Judum leader Soyam Mukka was part of a state-sponsored mob that protested against Medha Patkar and a contingent of human rights activists and social workers in January 2009. Soyam Mukka has a warrant for his …
A Chhattisgarh court held Dr Binayak Sen, a human right activist, and two others guilty on Decmber 24. He was charged with treason, helping Maoists and waging war against India. The other two held guilty are Naxal ideologue Narayan Sanyal and Kolkata businessman Piyush Guha. Sen was arrested in May …
Human rights activist Binayak Sen spent two years in jail before being granted bail. Charged with sedition, waging war against the Indian state, as well as being a Maoist supporter, both under normal laws and under the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act and the Unlawful Activities Act, the evidence has …
Twenty six-year-old Soyam Hunga has stayed in the Errabore Salwa Judum camp in Chhattisgarh for six years. He is from village Morguda in Dantewada district and moved to the camp, 30 kilometres away, to escape Naxalites. For the first five years, Soyam and his wife did not need to work …
Jaipur: On the sixth day of a dharna being staged by group of alleged asbestosis victims at the Jhadole block of Udaipur, instead of being given a patient ear, the subdivisional magistrate
Responsible Aluminium is a group of stakeholders collectively involved in the aluminium value-chain which have initiated a scoping phase seeking to establish a non-for-profit initiative to promote responsible practices relating to business ethics, social, human rights and environmental performance throughout the aluminium supply chain, from mining of the resource to …
The Meghalaya government has sent a report to the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights under the National Human Rights Commission stating that proper rehabilitation packages would be worked out to protect the children working in coal mines in Jaintia Hills. The government reply comes in the wake of …
Iranian lawyer Mohammad Mostafaei had to leave the country for protesting child executions. In the Islamic Republic children are publically executed, though they cannot vote till they turn 16. Ten-year- old girls are sentenced to death for having sex. In many of these cases the young girls are silent victims …
Liu Xiaobo, a writer and human rights activist, was sentenced to prison for 11 years in 2009 for expressing his wish to see peaceful political change in China. Xiaobo was recently awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. A few days after that, Communist Party elders wrote a letter urging the government …
It is axiomatic that the climate impacts documented by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are likely to undermine the realization of a range of protected human rights. Yet it is only in the recent past that an explicit human rights approach has been brought to bear on the climate …
This paper sets out the relevance of international human rights obligations in light of the multiple constraints climate change poses to the sustainable development of developing countries. These legally binding obligations have been agreed upon by states since the creation of the United Nations and are incorporated in widely ratified …
