As Earth Month 2024 gets underway, climate activists around the world are planning rallies and other events over the coming weeks to draw attention to the growing threats posed by climate change. Many of these demonstrations will focus on what humanity can do to stop fueling the damage. But while activists are amplifying the dire...
Crowds formed to protest against a bill aimed at decriminalizing female genital mutilation protest as the Gambian Parliament debated the bill on Monday. Gambian lawmakers voted on Monday, March 18, to advance to the next parliamentary stage a highly controversial bill that seeks to lift a ban on female genital mutilation (FGM), which has been...
Why have democracies failed in curtailing Xi Jinping’s human rights abuses? And how can they better insulate themselves from Beijing’s transnational threats? CDDRL Visiting Scholar and former China Director at Human Rights Watch Sophie Richardson presented her research on the Chinese government’s deteriorating human rights record. Why have democracies failed in curtailing Xi Jinping’s human...
Civil society organisations at the World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in the United Arab Emirates this week have criticized restrictions on their participation, including alleging that some of their members had been briefly detained at the talks. Our World Is Not For Sale (OWINFS), a network of civil society groups, said on Wednesday it had...
On 17 February 2024, the world woke to the news that human rights activist and long-time opponent of the Putin regime, Alexei Navalny, had died in a Russian prison. The 47 year old Kremlin critic and civil rights crusader was serving in the Kharp penal colony, one of Russia’s highest security prisons, a 19 year...
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) hosted the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) in 2023 and used it to burnish its image despite pushing for fossil fuel expansion and maintaining a zero-tolerance policy toward dissent, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2024. The UAE, one of the world’s largest oil producers and per capita greenhouse...
The United Arab Emirates on Saturday acknowledged it is conducting a mass trial of 84 inmates previously reported by dissidents as it hosted the United Nations COP28 climate talks last month. The trial likely includes a prominent activist lauded by rights group abroad. The state-run WAM news agency quoted the country’s attorney general, Hamad al-Shamsi, as saying...
There are fears that guests and journalists could be spied on at the international climate conference in Dubai. The president of international climate conference COP28 works with surveillance experts linked to a phone tapping scandal and the “Chinese military industrial complex”, openDemocracy can reveal. Sultan Al Jaber – who is the chair of a new...
On November 30, 2023, Dr. Sultan bin Ahmed Al Jaber, the CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), will formally open the 28th Conference of the Parties at Expo City in Dubai. As COP28 president, he will make the keynote address welcoming thousands of climate delegates from around the world. Continuing a trend seen in...
As the world grapples with the escalating crisis of climate change, it is becoming increasingly evident that its effects are far from equitable. While the entire planet is feeling the consequences of a warming climate, it is the low-income communities and developing countries that bear the heaviest burden. From disrupted livelihoods to increased vulnerability to...