Obvious though it may seem that equity and equality are not the same thing, they are often used interchangeably (or translated interchangeably) in many legal texts –including legislations aimed at implementing the principles set forth by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

Yesterday Human Rights Watch published the article UAE: Spousal Abuse Never a Right on their site criticizing a decision by the UAE Federal Supreme Court that upholds the “right” of a husband to “chastise” his wife and children with beatings and other forms of disciplinary measures such as punishments and coercion as long as no [...]

Those of us who live in the Western world are no strangers to oppression; we have been slave drivers, inquisitors, and repressors. Our history is filled with examples of ethnic, religious and gender based denigration, dehumanization, and demonization that, when taken too far, took the lives of millions of people who’s skin was too red [...]

Growing up in California I can only think of one time when a “state of emergency” was declared: the Los Angeles Riots of 1992, and let me tell you, it was scary! Of course at the time I was only 13 years old and hearing words like “state of emergency” and “curfew” while watching my [...]

Censorship is a topic that just keeps coming up in this blog because too many governments are willing to pass laws that limit people’s freedom of speech. Sometimes, their only goal is to block a certain message out, to keep people in the dark about “inconvenient” views on key issues. At other times, these restrictions [...]

Time Magazine published an article today saying that: “A Kentucky man has been arrested and charged with posting a poem threatening President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama on a white supremacist Web site.”

Freedom of religion, the principle that supports the right of an individual or group to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance either in private or public, is, in my opinion, intimately related to freedom of speech.

The country we are looking at is China, and the charge is “inciting to subvert state power” which can carry a sentence of up to 15 years in prison. Despite Article 35 of the Chinese Constitution which guarantees freedom of expression, in the last few years at least 29 people in China have been convicted [...]

And that new meaning is one that allows the government to deprive some of its citizens of a fundamental human right: the right to political participation. As Ivory Coast prepares for its very first presidential election in a decade, international pressure to set a date for the elections rises. Apparently, the condition for voting in [...]

Last week the president of Argentina, Cristina Kirchner, accused Vice President Julio Cobos of plotting to destabilize the country and overthrow the government to satisfy his own ambition and win his place as president in 2010.

Chilean freelance reporter Pascale Bonnefoy goes on trial today for libel and faces criminal charges for publishing an article that pointed to a retired military officer as the man responsible for terrorizing thousands of political prisoners during the Pinochet regime.

A state judge in Carson City, Nevada, rejected a proposed ballot initiative that sought to define a person as “everyone possessing a human genome.” According to NPR, the judge’s argument for rejecting the bill was that “the language was too vague and violated state law that limits questions to one subject.” What was the aim [...]