EU should “put people of the world” first in quest for religious freedom – report
World Watch Monitor Members of the European Parliament have called for the EU to “put the people of the world before our financial and political interests”, in a report about religious freedom. The Annual Report on Freedom of Religion or Belief 2017, presented by the EP Intergroup on Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) and Religious […]
Archbishop of Canterbury calls for “major rethink” of UK economy
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has called for a rethink of the way the economy works in the UK, describing the current system as “unjust”. In an interview with the BBC marking the launch of a major report by thinktank, the IPPR Commission on Economic Justice (which Welby is a member of), the Archbishop […]
Indian sex trafficking survivors take their #MeToo stories online
Thomson Reuters Foundation Sex trafficking survivors in India are making audio recordings about their experiences to be used in a social media campaign, which organisers hope will reduce discrimination that follows them even after they escape the trade. Of an estimated 20 million commercial sex workers in India, 16 million women and girls are victims […]
China uses “legal tactics to suppress religious freedom”, says rights agency
World Watch Monitor China’s churches are experiencing the worst persecution in forty years with a government which uses ‘non-religious reasons’ and civil law to close houses of worship, according to the US-based St Charles Institute. Pressure is applied “through opaque queries of fire protection measures, by questioning the legality of printed materials used by the church, […]
TRANSHUMANISM: SHOULD WE LIVE TO BE 500? CHRISTIANS AND SECULARISTS EXPLORE THE QUESTION TOGETHER
EMILY MCFARLAN MILLER, of Religion News Service, reports on a controversial movement in the US…
‘Kite Runner’ author pens tribute to refugees who die fleeing war
Thomson Reuters Foundation Kite Runner author Khaled Hosseini urged world leaders to “act with compassion” towards refugees as he launched his new book inspired by a Syrian boy who drowned in the Mediterranean trying to reach Greece. Hosseini said on Wednesday there was a “deeply concerning” shift in attitudes in Europe – where several countries […]
ESSAY: WHAT NORTH KOREAN DEFECTORS SAY ABOUT WOMEN’S LIVES UNDER THE KIM REGIME
In an article first published on The Conversation, HYUN-JOO LIM, senior lecturer in sociology at Bournemouth University, says the plight of women in North Korea is one part of the “dire” human rights situation in the country being overlooked amid moves towards peace on the Korean Peninsula…
POSTCARDS: BUILDING HOPE – ART TRIUMPHS OVER WAR AT LONDON DESIGN BIENNALE
ADELE SULIMAN, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports…
Having human rights in Kazakhstan depends on state permission – report
World Watch Monitor Kazakhstan tries to make the “exercising of human rights conditional on state permission”, says the Oslo-based news service Forum 18 in a new report. “[Kazakhstan] systematically violates intertwined fundamental rights – such as the freedoms of religion or belief, of expression and of assembly” when it has international obligations to respect and defend these, […]