Human Rights Magazine

Each year, an estimated 12 million girls aged under the age of 18 marry against their will. These girls are usually from a poor family, and they are deprived of an education, have little in terms of opportunities, and they remain in poverty themselves. For them, childbirth is the leading cause of death. In this episode of Human Rights Magazine, Dasheeni Joud Selvaratnam explores the situation of child marriage in Bangladesh. The cover photo is of adolescent girls participating in a BRAC Socia...

Domestic violence and an unequal distribution of labor in South Korea were motivating factors behind the rise of what is known as the 4B feminist movement. In this episode of Human Rights Magazine, Lily Wang explores the expansion of 4B beyond Korea, and the extent to which it may or may not have an impact on the protection of women’s rights. Human Rights Magazine is produced by The Upstream Journal magazine. The host, Derek MacCuish, is editor of both. If you agree that informed repo...

The Yazidis are Kurdish-speaking people, most of whom live in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. Because they are not Muslim, they were a target of Islamic State terrorists who killed and imprisoned them by the thousands in a genocidal campaign. In this episode of Human Rights magazine, Maiya Karsan explores the ongoing tragic story of the Yazidis since the brutality they suffered in 2014, and the general failure to protect and support many of those who survived. As a trigger warning, the last sec...

More than four million people have fled the conflict in Sudan since it erupted in 2023, mostly to neighbouring countries where they endure severe hunger. Many wish to leave the region. How is the outside world dealing with this refugee crisis? What are the deciding factors in who may leave and who must stay? In this episode of Human Rights Magazine, Charlotte Jean-Gilles talks with experts about the way in which Canada is responding to the needs of those who are trying to escape t...

Host Derek MacCuish: My guest today in the Pathways to Peace series of interviews is Stephen Rapp, who is widely respected for his decades of work for justice and accountability in areas of conflict and war crimes. In 2001, he joined the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda as part of the effort to prosecute those responsible for the genocide of 1994, and he headed the trial team that achieved the first convictions in history for those in the media who incited genocide. He directe...

Across the world, corruption costs trillions of dollars that should have gone into social and environmental progress. Corruption steals from efforts to reduce poverty, to improve social services and to build schools, hospitals and roads. It leaves little room for democracy and systems of justice. In this episode of Human Rights Magazine, Sofia Gobin explores the concern with corruption in Brazil. Human Rights Magazine is produced by The Upstream Journal magazine. The host, Derek MacCuish, i...

Indigenous communities throughout the world usually take water directly from rivers, ponds, streams, wells or springs. This often requires people – mainly the women of the community - to carry the water from sources distant from their homes. A recent report to the UN Human Rights Council stated that one of the biggest barriers to indigenous peoples’ access to water and sanitation is that many countries deny the very existence of their indigenous peoples, or just ignore them. In th...

Greece is a destination country for many refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants from the Middle East and North Africa. The majority of these refugees come from Syria, Afghanistan, Egypt, and Eritrea Greece currently hosts about 50,000 refugees. They may have expected that Greece would be a gateway to the rest of Europe, but most of them can expect to remain in the country, since they can no longer legally travel deeper into Europe. Since 2021, many of the refugee arrivals have been detained i...

In this episode, we take a somewhat different approach to our focus on human rights, and look not at a social situation but rather look at technological possibilities. Artificial intelligence is rapidly emerging as a new tool, as computer technology accelerates in the ability of machines to learn and emulate human thinking. Listen as Charlotte Power explores the impact that AI may have on human rights, especially in humanitarian work. Human Rights Magazine is produced by The Upstream Journal ...

The use of children in combat roles is not new in Myanmar. Both the government and some resistance groups have child soldiers, with tragic results. Hundreds of children have been killed and tortured by the Myanmar army in recent years. In this episode of Human Rights Magazine, Yiwen Li speaks with several experts about the issue. Human Rights Magazine is produced by The Upstream Journal magazine. The host, Derek MacCuish, is editor of both. If you agree that informed reporting on human righ...

The Fulani people are part of an ethnic group across the Sahara, Sahel and West Africa, comprising between 25 and 40 million people. About 10 million of them are pastoralists, and so they are part of the largest nomadic pastoral community in the world. Almost all are Muslims. In this episode of Human Rights Magazine, Pauline Goemans explores the discrimination that Fulani people face in Ghana, and why that discrimination has increased in recent years. Human Rights Magazine is produced by Th...

The garment industry is Cambodia’s largest employer, with more than 850,000 workers. The three largest markets are the European Union, the destination of 40% of the production, followed by the United States at 30% and Canada at 9%. So, if we purchase clothing made in Cambodia, how concerned should we be about whether there were inadequate wages and rights abuse where the clothing is made? In this episode of Human Rights Magazine, Marley Markham speaks with experts about the garment factories ...