Human Rights

Building a World Fit for Children

To 13-year-old Mumo Katumo, the anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is an utter irrelevance. For the past year Mumo and her family have been struggling to stay alive in the drought-ridden Masinga district of eastern Kenya with little food or water and with no hope of going to school.

Mumo describes the pain of her hunger: "You go numb. You lose the ability to do anything. Sometimes I think it is like the feeling of dying."

UN Urges Global Action on Children

Palestinian girls release balloons with messages attached, during an event organized by UNICEF to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Friday, Nov. 20, 2009. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

The UN children's agency says one billion children around the world are still deprived of food, shelter, clean water and healthcare 20 years after the adoption of a treaty guaranteeing children's rights.

Hundreds of millions more children are constantly threatened by violence, Unicef said in a report released on Thursday assessing the situation two decades after the UN adopted the Convention of the Rights of the Child on November 20 1989.

'For Afghans, There Is No Refuge'

An Afghan girl who works at a carpet-weaving firm takes a break from helping other children in a small compound in Kabul. Poverty and corruption are driving the war in Afghanistan, says a new survey released by British charity Oxfam and local organisations on the eve of President Hamid Karzai's inauguration. (AFP/File/Romeo Gacad)

For most of her life, the young Afghan woman was fleeing war. But everywhere she went it stalked her.

"She was very quiet and shy, and you could barely hear her speak," said Ashley Jackson of Oxfam. "When the civil war began in the early 1990s, she left Kabul and went to the border. But her son was killed by a rocket attack.

"She went to Pakistan and lived in a refugee settlement, and her daughter was taken by a man who wanted her. When the Taliban fell and the family finally got back to Kabul, her husband was killed.

Australian PM Kevin Rudd Issues Apology to British Child Migrants

In this 1953 black and white photo released by the National Archives of Australia shown are British orphans working in a garden at Melrose House, near Parramatta, Australia. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd issued a historic apology Monday, Nov. 16, 2009, to thousands of impoverished British children shipped to Australia with the promise of a better life, only to suffer abuse and neglect thousands of miles from home.  (AP Photo/National Archives of Australia) Speaking to a crowd of 900 survivors of state care who had gathered in Canberra, Mr Rudd apologised for his country's role in the migrations, which continued until the 1960s.

He also apologised to the 500,000 "Forgotten Australians" who were taken from their families and placed in care homes around the country.

Red Cross Says Millions of Displaced Are Neglected

Internally displaced Afghan children stand in a tiny workshop where they weave carpets near Kabul in mid October. The international Red Cross has warned that the majority of the world's 26 million displaced people were often neglected because they found refuge with local communities instead of in camps. (AFP/File/Romeo Gacad)

GENEVA - The international Red Cross on Thursday warned that the majority of the world's 26 million displaced people were often neglected because they found refuge with local communities instead of in camps.

"The focus on camps means that what happens to the majority of displaced people -- those who seek refuge with host communities -- is often ignored," International Committee of the Red Cross chief Jakob Kellenberger said.

Drone Race to a Known Future

For drone freaks (and these days Washington seems full of them), here's the good news: Drones are hot! Not long ago -- 2006 to be exact -- the Air Force could barely get a few armed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the air at once; now, the number is 38; by 2011, it will reputedly be 50, and beyond that, in every sense, the sky's the limit.

Congress, Accountability, and the Goldstone Report

I have been to the Gaza Strip twice and southern Israel once since the 2008-09 war, where I had the opportunity to listen to accounts from both people about what had happened to them during that time. Israelis showed me thickly walled rooms that act as bomb shelters and explained air raid siren systems in Sderot and Ashqelon. As difficult as their situation was, nothing could have prepared me for the level of destruction I found in Gaza.

Bipartisan Attack on International Humanitarian Law

In a stunning blow against international law and human rights, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a resolution on Tuesday attacking the report of the United Nations Human Rights Council's fact-finding mission on the Gaza conflict.

House Shames Itself on Goldstone Report

Shame on the House of Representatives, and on the Democratic leadership of the House, for pushing through a resolution once again blindly taking the side of Israeli aggression.

I’m referring to the vote on Tuesday, by a lopsided 344-to-36 margin, to condemn the Goldstone report on Gaza.

Risks and Returns: Exploiting the Immigrant Detention Industry

Last winter, a remote Texas prison convulsed in a cry of outrage, voicing the desperation of the immigration system’s silenced captives.
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