Should the world give recognition to China to host the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing while the Chinese Communist Party clamps down on the human rights of so many of the Chinese people? What are the options to keep the Olympic flame alight against the backdrop of growing condemnation? The post The Winter Olympics 2022- Is China skating on thin ice? appeared first on International Observatory of Human Rights ..read more

Taking pride should be about being proud of what you do and what you stand for but sometimes it’s about “rainbow-washing” or the mis-appropriation of the LGBTQ+ community by using Pride branding without living up to the values. The post The true colours of Pride – Behind Rainbow washing appeared first on International Observatory of Human Rights ..read more

Since the takeover of Kabul by the Taliban on 15 August 2021, thousands of Afghan people have tried to flee the country. Sadly, these most recent events fit seamlessly into a long history of violence and suffering of the Afghan people. The small hope of peace, which emerged in 2019 after negotiations between the US and Taliban, has now vanished into horror and displacement. Afghanistan’s history of foreign involvement  Throughout history, Afghanistan has been at the centre of many foreign-policy strategies and hence, attacked numerous times. Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan invaded th ..read more

2021 has seen some of the worst conditions ever in Sudan. But in the midst of a crisis, for 20 years, the small British charity Kids for Kids, led by the indomitable Patricia Parker OBE, has helped rural villages in North Darfur improve the basic living standards for ordinary people. With a sustainable development model, they are helping some of the poorest families in the world help themselves. Kids for Kids has supported 550,000 people in 106 villages and provided over 120,000 goats. To help, donate here: kidsforkids.org.uk/ The post Kids for Kids: 20 years of helping children in Darfur appe ..read more

The British government is preparing to deport a number of Jamaican nationals who arrived as children, reneging on a previous agreement to not remove people who came to the UK before the age of 12. At least 34 people are due to board a charter flight to Jamaica on 11 August 2021, many of whom have lived in the UK from childhood and have little to no ties to their place of birth. The Movement for Justice campaign (MFJ) has said that it intends to investigate the case of every individual deportee; so far having collected detailed information on 10 of the affected. Of those surveyed, the MFJ found ..read more

All around the world, a large number of people are constantly on the move and fleeing their home countries due to conflict, civil unrest, and instability. Over the last decade, the number of people seeking asylum in the European Union (EU) has increased exponentially. Europe’s refugee crisis has been a topic of heated debate and has revealed serious fault lines in Europe’s migration project. Governments have been unsuccessful in reaching a consensus on how to share the responsibility for welcoming asylum seekers and continue to blame each other for the seemingly uneven distribution of asylum ..read more

On 2 August 2021, the UN General Assembly established a long due platform aimed at improving the lives of Afro-descendants; just days after the Human Rights Council established a panel of experts to investigate systemic racism in policing against people of African descent. The unanimously adopted United Nations Permanent Forum of People of African Descent will be working closely the with Human Rights Council in order to tackle racism, racial discrimination and the legacy of slavery globally. The advisory body will consist of 10 members, five of which will be nominated by governments and electe ..read more

On 5 August 2021, ultraconservative hardliner, Ebrahim Raisi will be inaugurated as Iran’s 8th president by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. 60- year-old Raisi will be sworn in before parliament, where he will submit his proposed cabinet. During the ceremony broadcast live on Iranian state television, Khamenei’s decree was read out by his chief of staff: “Following the people’s choice, I task the wise, indefatigable, experienced and popular Hojatoleslam Ebrahim Raisi as president of the Islamic Republic of Iran.” Yet while he won 7.9 million votes overall, nearly 62% of the total 28.9 ..read more

Six months after the violent military takeover in Myanmar on 1 February 2021, millions of people are still protesting the junta’s power grab and hoping for a return to the democratically elected civilian government. However, as the violence continues on the streets of Myanmar, democracy seems a distant hope. Min Aung Hlaing, the junta’s army general, has recently extended Myanmar’s emergency rule to August 2023 and named himself  the country’s prime minister. In his speech addressing the people, he stated that he will hold a “free and fair multi-party election” in the future yet also refe ..read more

Last summer, Denmark became the first European nation to revoke or fail to renew the residency permits for Syrian refugees after authorities said that the situation in Damascus and surrounding areas had “improved significantly”.  A year later and the actions of the Danish Immigration Service in seeking to deport hundreds of Syrian refugees faces a domestic legal action. If this case is unsuccessful, then it could bring the Danish government before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Around 1200 Syrian refugees from Damascus are currently living in Denmark. As there are currently no ..read more