Populism Speaks to Young Men – Why Don’t Human Rights?

by EditorNo Comments
By Matilde Da Luz By now, most women recognize the script. Raise a point about sexism, feminism, or gender equality and the response is often predictable. You are “angry.” You are “too woke.” You have, somehow, made things awkward. The figure of the angry feminist woman has become so familiar that it no longer feels like an accusation so much as a reflex – a shorthand for dismissing political discomfort without engaging it. You become labelled, often unconsciously, as the “killjoy.” What is striking is that this stereotype persists at a moment when anger is hardly in short supply. Much of it belongs to men, and is increasingly confident, public, and political. It circulates online, where terms like incel and manosphere emerge in everyday vocabulary. It is surfacing in dating culture, classrooms, and family conversations, where feminism is framed less as a demand for equality than as a provocation. And it is showing up in electoral politics. According to a recent study that...
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Dayak Women’s Wisdom as A Pathway to Indonesia’s Climate Resilience in Preserving Kalimantan Forests

by EditorNo Comments
By Devira Sari When the bulldozers came for Dijah’s land, she was not home to stop them. Dijah, a member of the indigenous Dayak people of West Kalimantan, returned from work to find her family’s ancestral forest being cleared for a palm oil plantation. The expansion has stripped communities of their forests, their traditional medicine, and a matrilineal way of life passed down through generations. When Dijah organized her community to resist the land clearing, she was met with state repression. Members of BRIMOB (The Mobile Brigade Corps) detained her, aiming to silence her defense of the communal lands. Dijah’s experience reflects the broader structural violence that underpins Indonesia’s palm oil industry where state-corporate collusion, gendered marginalization, and environmental destruction intersect. Yet despite intimidation, Dayak women continue to resist, embodying both ecological and cultural resilience against an economy that prioritizes profit over justice. Dijah’s story is not an isolated tragedy, it is a repeated experience of Dayak women who have long...
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The Diavata Refugee Camp: Reflections on Humanitarian Work in ‘Fortress Europe’

by db3731No Comments
By: Gracyn Elizabeth McGathy Every evening at 6:35 p.m., the iron bars of Diavata Refugee Camp glow orange. The sun sets fiercely over its weed-covered fields, illuminating a collection of discarded goods: a worn shoe, crushed soda cans, and ripped plastic. The bus to the nearest city, Thessaloniki, will have come and gone by now, completing its second of only two stops it does each day in Diavata.  The only piece of evidence left to prove that help was once there lies rotting by the side of the road. With faded letters barely legible now, a scrap of once-white tarp labeled “United Nations.” The 2015 refugee crisis, a consequence of the Syrian Civil War, drew many major humanitarian organizations to the desolate expanse of Diavata. Casa Base, a small local NGO, housed in a rusting warehouse adjacent to the camp. The only organization left of its kind, forced to be the main organization responsible for providing critical humanitarian aid to the refugees...
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It’s Not Pop Culture—It’s Racism and Fetishizing Roma Women

by EditorNo Comments
By Mara Bulzan It’s 2024 and I could not stop staring in disbelief at the costumes worn by Columbia students at Halloween parties. Ostentatious reproductions of stereotypical Roma clothing (derogatorily referred to as “gypsies”) worn to frat parties by young, white, and highly educated women. And no one called them out for it. They were not Roma, so their smiles and dancing could not have been weighed down by a history of over 800 years of enslavement, genocide, forced displacement and eugenic policies. They were not stigmatized for “looking Roma,” so they could use it as a costume. When they looked in the mirror that night, the face of someone deemed a perpetual outsider did not glare back at them.  Contemporary popular culture has normalized the stereotypical depiction of Roma women to the point in which it has become an aesthetic with fetishistic tendencies. She is only allowed to be a free-spirited, sly seductress with fortune-telling abilities. It is preferable that she...
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The Return of the ‘Perfect Soldier’: Why Ukraine’s Landmine Decision Matters for Civilians Everywhere

by Editor1 Comment
By Gracyn McGathy Ukraine’s recent decision to announce formal withdrawal from the Mine Ban Treaty should be a source of grave concern for the international human rights community. Their choice follows the scheduled exit of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, and Poland from the agreement later this year, all of which cited concerns over the Russio-Ukrainian war. Following two lengthy Russian invasions, Ukraine is now considered to be the most “mined country” in the world, with much of the forest terrain around the Kharkiv Oblast littered with trip-wire explosives, booby-trapped munition, and anti-personnel mines. The purpose of many anti-personnel mines is to “injure, rather than kill,” maximizing human suffering while attempting to create medical and evacuation burdens upon the enemy force. One of the defining characteristics of these mines is the little pressure required to explode, with some detonating at a mere 11 pounds of weight. Because of this, children around the globe are disproportionately at risk of threats posed by active minefields, and...
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Beyond Saving Her: Toward a More Ethical Human Rights Aesthetic

by EditorNo Comments
By Matilde Da Luz  What do we see when we see suffering? In human rights campaigns, especially those addressing gender-based violence, the image of the suffering woman, often Muslim, veiled, and silent, has become almost inescapable. From post-9/11 “liberation” narratives about Afghanistan to humanitarian appeals that foreground school closures and barred windows, visual tropes have flattened incredibly multifaceted political scenarios into sentimental and victimizing stories. These images stir emotions. They drive donations. But at what cost? Feminist and decolonial thinkers have long argued that emotional appeals, despite their intuitive strength, obscure the structural and historical conditions of injustice surrounding victims of abuse. They do so by effectively depoliticizing harm, casting women as passive victims, and reinscribing colonial logics of moral superiority. Representation, in this view, is never neutral. And visibility, far from guaranteeing justice, may distort, contain, or even erase. The Sentimental Economy of Rights Human rights campaigns rely on what Professor Wendy Hesford calls “spectacular rhetorics”, which are visual and narrative forms that turn trauma...
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Human Rights Violations in Artsakh: Starvation, Isolation, and Cultural Loss

Human Rights Violations in Artsakh: Starvation, Isolation, and Cultural Loss

by Sueda PolatNo Comments
By Guest Writer Tatiana Gnuva Image: "Ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh evacuated from their homes" by Mil.ru is licensed under CC BY 4.0 DEED. Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as “Artsakh,” was home to 120,000 people, most of whom were ethnic Armenians. Artsakh is isolated from the Republic of Armenia and is only connected to the country through the Lachin corridor. The independent republic of Artsakh functioned as a de-facto breakaway Armenian state yet was long claimed by Azerbaijan. For centuries, Artsakh was a primarily Armenian region, but in the early 1920s, it was incorporated into the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic under the decision of the USSR’s Joseph Stalin. Starting in December of 2022 and lasting over ten months, Azerbaijan slowly implemented its strategy to claim the territory. The country’s actions plunged the region into poverty and insecurity, dramatically lowering human rights standards. In December of 2022, Azerbaijani protestors blocked the corridor, effectively limiting movement to Artsakh. The protestors masqueraded as an environmental demonstration to...
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The CESCR Committee Champions the Right to Access Sports

The CESCR Committee Champions the Right to Access Sports

by Sueda PolatNo Comments
By Guest Writer Aleydis Nissen The United Nations (UN) Committee on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights has historically sidestepped the right to access sports in its concluding observations. Yet, the Committee's latest  recommendations to Palestine and France mark a significant milestone in recognizing the intersection of sports and human rights. As the global landscape evolves, this development challenges traditional notions of sports autonomy, signaling a crucial step towards ensuring inclusivity and the right to access sports.   A Right to Access Sports for All Unlike other UN core human rights conventions, such as those dedicated to the rights of women and people with disabilities, the Covenant on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights (CESCR) (adopted in 1966) does not explicitly include the right to access sports. Nevertheless, the Committee that monitors this covenant recognizes this right as a derivative of the right to cultural life (as outlined in Article 15 of CESCR), particularly highlighted in General Comment 21 (2009). Monitoring the Right to Access Sports Up till...
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Dismantling Democratic Norms in an Unstable Peru

Dismantling Democratic Norms in an Unstable Peru

by Meryem BahadirNo Comments
By Guest Writer Winston Ardoin Image: "Protest in Cusco, Peru" by illuminaut is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0. Over the last decade, the concept of “democratic backsliding” has captured the attention of political scientists seeking to explain the unsettling increase in government overthrows and authoritarian behaviors around the world. In the Americas alone, several countries have faced democratic instability in recent years, from infamous cases like El Salvador and Venezuela to regional hegemons like Brazil and the United States. In retreating from democratic norms, states have begun institutionalizing authoritarian practices while further targeting political dissent by restricting rights and access to justice. In recent months, interim President Dina Boluarte and the Peruvian government’s response to political instability and nationwide protests exemplifies this worrisome trend. 2022-2023 Peruvian Protests & Government Response Following the ousting of controversial leftist president Pedro Castillo in December 2022 succeeding an attempted power grab, thousands of Peruvians took to the streets. At its core, protesters’ demands have been primarily political, focused on new elections...
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Tackling Terrorism or Suppressing Dissent? Sri Lanka’s Controversial ATA Bill

Tackling Terrorism or Suppressing Dissent? Sri Lanka’s Controversial ATA Bill

by Meryem BahadirNo Comments
By Guest Writer Nishka Kapoor Recently, the government of Sri Lanka published the new Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), a new legislation intended to replace the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) of 1979. This is the second attempt to introduce a replacement bill, following the initial 2018 effort that was met with widespread criticism and subsequently rejected. The latest ATA has also drawn significant criticism nationally and internationally due to concerns regarding its non-compliance with human rights principles.    In early 2022, Sri Lanka faced a severe economic crisis which had a devastating impact on the Sri Lankan people. There is a shortage of essential goods and unprecedented levels of inflation. Millions of people were pushed into poverty, and there have been numerous anti-government demonstrations. In an attempt to quell dissent, the Sri Lankan government has proposed a new ATA Bill. This is because the country’s economic problems have triggered widespread protests against the government, and the administration has responded by detaining and arresting...
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