Archive – Journalists for Human Rights

08 Jun

Key Forces Behind China’s Uyghur Detention Camps: Why we repeatedly feel powerless in the face of catastrophe

Derya Ekin2020 – 2021, Asia, Civil & Political Rights, Collective & Developmental Rights

According to experts and US government officials, since April 2017, between 800,000 to 2 million Uyghurs and other Muslims, including ethnic Kazakhs and Uzbeks, have been detained in high security prison camps in Xinjiang. The ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) describes them as “re-education camps” necessary to provide vocational training and deradicalization in response […]

08 May

Sarah Everard: A Story of Gender-Based Discrimination Within Law Enforcement

Enora Lauvau2020 – 2021, Civil & Political Rights, Europe, Social & Economic Rights, The Americas

The recent assault and murder of London-based marketing executive Sarah Everard by Westminster Metropolitan police officer Wayne Couzens has shone a spotlight on conversations surrounding gender-based violence as well as the role police forces play in exacerbating the threat this poses to women’s safety worldwide. Besides the fact that harassment and assault is far from being an unusual occurrence for women — an already distressing reality — the brutality that has been shown by actors of the law supposedly there to ensure the population’s security further contributes to ongoing feelings of fear. As such, the role of Couzens in Everard’s killing has further opened the debate to questions regarding whether increased policing, particularly that of a male-focused nature, is an appropriate response to growing concerns about the violence faced by women, considering that it tends to be one often proposed by state institutions.

05 May

Canada, It’s Time to Really Step Up Against the Uyghur Genocide

Mackenzie Birbrager2020 – 2021, Asia, Civil & Political Rights, Collective & Developmental Rights

The systematic genocide against the Uyghur ethnic group in the East Turkestan region (known in China as Xinjiang province) is not new news. The earliest known Chinese government document which laid the blueprints for the mass internment campaign, which the Uyghur have been subjected to for over five years, is from May 2013. Since 2016, […]

28 Apr

Japanese Internment and Migrant Detention: Twin Tales of Injustice

Atussa Kian2020 – 2021, Civil & Political Rights, Social & Economic Rights, The Americas

At face value, the Santa Anita Park is an infamous but beautiful race track located in a majority-Asian city in Southern California. A backdrop of slender palm trees, purple-y mountains, and blue skies almost distract from the animal cruelty controversies that have circulated the race track and the sport of horse racing in recent years. […]

16 Apr

The Farm Bills and the Fallout: How Modi’s India Responded to Protests through State Violence and Media Repression

Sophie Sklar2020 – 2021, Asia, Civil & Political Rights, Social & Economic Rights

The Indian agriculture acts of 2020, often referred to as the Farm Bills, are three acts that were passed by the Parliament of India in September 2020. These three very contentious laws have been called a “watershed moment” by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while they have been deemed “death warrants for farmers” by MP Pratap […]

25 Mar

Ecocriticism: Conservation in East Africa

Sophie Crawford2020 – 2021, Africa, Collective & Developmental Rights, Social & Economic Rights

The following piece of writing is an essay on ecocriticism adapted by the author from McGill’s student journal, Environmentalist Movements in the Global North and Global South – Roots, Character, Connections, to form a feature-length article. What is the environment? What is nature? And how do we – as humans – fit into all of […]

17 Mar

The War for Water: The Barriers to Clean Drinking Water for Indigenous Peoples in Canada

Sophie Sklar2020 – 2021, Collective & Developmental Rights, Editors' Picks, Social & Economic Rights, The Americas

Access to clean drinking water is not represented equally across Canada, with those living on Indigenous reservations being disproportionately affected by a lack of quality water infrastructure compared to the rest of Canada. Yet according to the United Nations, “The right to water entitles everyone to have access to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and […]

10 Mar

Advocates Fighting for Long-Term Solutions to the Plight of Montreal’s Homeless Populations

Enora Lauvau2020 – 2021, Social & Economic Rights, The Americas

Activists for Montreal’s homeless and Indigenous populations, two communities disproportionately affected by COVID-19 in Canada, have been advocating for these groups’ increased protection since the beginning of the pandemic nearly a year ago. The inadequacies previously seen in the country’s health and social policies have only been magnified in recent times. Despite advocates’ constant efforts, […]

25 Feb

The Jailing of Environmentalists in Iran

Atussa Kian2020 – 2021, Civil & Political Rights, Collective & Developmental Rights, Middle East

Over the past few decades, Iran has transformed from being the greenest nation in the Middle East to a country grappling with worsening air pollution and rising temperatures. Today, the capital city of Tehran is among the most polluted cities in the world. The rise in air pollution, which in part consists of uranium particles […]

17 Feb

The Rising Plight of Anti-Semitism

Mackenzie Birbrager2020 – 2021, Civil & Political Rights, Collective & Developmental Rights, The Americas

As the news broke about the swastika vandalization of the Westmount Congregation Shaar Hashomayim, I thought, “yet another anti-Semitism attack.” Catching myself, I quickly wondered why that was my inital response — how had such a disdainful anti-Semitic event become normalized to me? Adam Scheier, the synagogue’s rabbi, unfortunately echoed my sentiment: “One is not […]