New Internationalist

Cover for Human Rights

January 2008's Issue

This year the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is 60 years old – and the Olympics will take place in China, a country that flagrantly abuses it. Meanwhile, countries that flaunt their human rights credentials on the world stage have decided that the War on Terror trumps everything else. Fundamental human rights that took years of suffering to establish are being casually swept aside. Social and economic rights that were always belittled are now being ignored altogether. There may be more international human rights ‘machinery’ than ever before – but it’s being put very firmly into reverse gear.

So the NI starts the New Year by going backstage, behind all the razzmatazz, to celebrate the work of some remarkable groups of human rights defenders who carry on regardless – and we award them ‘medals’ of our own.

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Featured in issue 408

Boycott Lonely Planet

Stop buying Lonely Planet books until BBC withdraws Burma edition.

Timor in Crisis

Carole Reckinger and Sara Gonzalez Devant find rumour, intrigue and the demise of a key player as Timor-Leste’s crisis worsens.

Let us not find revolutionaries where there are none

Kenyan journalist, Mukoma Wa Ngugi, makes a plea for a genuine people-based democratic movement in Kenya.

US loves democracy

America’s love affair with universal democracy is not quite as it seems, according to regular NI contributor, Jeremy Seabrook.

Human rights - the facts

Human rights refer not just to personal civil and political rights, but collective economic, social and cultural ones too. Worldwide, they are more violated than respected.

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Breathless in Beijing

Sam Geall reports on broken promises at the Olympics.

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Who killed Maksim Maksimov?

Not that no-one knows. Maria Yulikova reports on the brutal assassination of a journalist in Russia.

Devlet Bahçeli

In Turkey the political story is unusual: a liberal Islamic government is holding the line against the fascist-tinged nationalism of Devlet Bahçeli and his Grey Wolves youth movement.

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Children’s Day

Remembering Brazilian slavery in the capoeira dance, photographed by Tatiana Cardeal.

Belgian blues

True tales of a mixed-up world

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‘Maroon the gays’

Ugandans facing a barrage of discrimination

Correa kicks out the dimwit

Ecuador intends to kick the US Air Force off Manta airbase

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Fishy carbon credits

Companies profit from toxic dumping in the sea

‘Francanola’ threatens Aussies

Australians support the ban on GM crops

A little plot of earth

Poor Indian farmers on the march

A guide through the maze

The Declarations, Covenants and Conventions that make up the International Bill of Rights.

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Off the buses

The Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company (Sherkat-e Vahed).

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The eternal minority

The Roma – still widely known as ‘Gypsies’ – have had a raw deal for centuries and are only now starting to raise their voice on the international stage. Eleanor Harding looks at their plight in Romania, while the NI traces their history back to India.

Too late for Martha

Denied treatment while pregnant, she died in agony after her child was born. Jens Erik Gould tells a tragic story that changed the law on abortion in Colombia.

Can do in Kathmandu

Water Rights – Nepal

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Rwanda – why I support the death penalty

Though Jean Baptiste Kayigamba lost most of his family and friends to the genocide, he doesn’t think the Government should kill even more people.

Human rights in a time of terror

Thanks to the War on Terror, argues David Ransom, the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights marks a low point in its history alongside a propaganda festival at the Beijing Olympics.

For the happiness of individuals

Sex rights campaigners in Poland and Latvia.

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Bitter Crop

Brandon Astor Jones writes from death row in the US about race, class and songs.

The blood of Bhopal

TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS – BHOPAL, INDIA

Kazakhstan

A nation of extremes.

Tunisian Association Against AIDS

The work against the odds of activists in the Tunisian Association Against AIDS

The Left’s betrayal

Urvashi Butalia feels betrayed by politicians on the Left who embrace globalization.

The Guantánamo Files

The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison

Soul Science

Fusion of West African proto-blues and Western electric guitar

Kala

Sri Lankan artist from West London

Nobody’s Home

Ugresic’s new collection of essays

'The power of love can conquer the love of power'

Women of Zimbabwe Arise.

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Our Daily Bread

Industrialized food production

No Country for Old Men

The new Coen Brothers film

The Best of 2007

Music, Books, Films

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Mental health (Issue 452)

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