A blog about human rights in their many forms.

Marie DoezemaMay 17, 2013 08:16

Sex change operations legal in Iran but still perilous

Some Iranians who identify as gay, lesbian or transgender feel desire — and pressure — to change genders to fit in.

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Artin, 23, arrived in Turkey 14 in 2007 and was going to Toronto. He was one of about 15 transgender women and 75 gay men at a party in Isfahan, Iran in April 2007 that was busted by morals police. Trans women were separated and jailed, beaten, questioned and humiliated for two weeks. Finally all faced punishments of $1300 fine and 80 lashes. Artin asked for an appeal and fled by train to Kayseri. (Kate Brooks/GlobalPost)

On this International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, GlobalPost Special Reports launches a continuing series about gay, lesbian and transgendered refugees, following upon our extensive reporting on LGBT rights around the world, "The Rainbow Struggle."

NEVSHEHIR, Turkey — Amin, a 33-year-old female-to-male transgender refugee, never doubted he was born into the wrong body.

Marie DoezemaMay 17, 2013 06:17

Iranian LGBTs flee persecution via 'underground railroad'

Two Canadian organizations have helped hundreds of gay, lesbian and transgender refugees win asylum and start new lives.

Michael GoldfarbMay 16, 2013 11:53

Hungarian government failing to shield Jews from right-wing hate

A new Human Rights Watch report says freedom of religion is under threat under Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

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Participants of a demonstration of the Jobbik party hold a banner reading 'Go away merchants (Israeli)! This is our home-land!' in Budapest downtown, nearby the parliament building on May 4, 2013. Hundreds of Hungarians gathered Saturday in downtown Budapest for an anti-Zionist protest organised by the Jobbik party, just a day before a World Jewish Congress (WJC) meeting kicked off. (Attila Kisbenedek/AFP/Getty Images)

LONDON — Once again, Hungary's record on human rights is under fire. In a report released today, Human Rights Watch details threats to a wide range of freedoms since the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban forced through major constitutional changes after it took office in 2010.

One of the rights under threat, according to the report's author Lydia Gall, is freedom of religion.

Kari LydersenMay 14, 2013 15:03

Activist shareholders represent victims of international mining projects

Persistent monitoring of corporations like Anglo American and Rio Tinto has earned a greater voice for affected communities.

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Benny Wenda, who was exiled from West Papua, protesting the Grasberg mine — partially owned by Rio Tinto — in his home country in April 2013. (Kari Lydersen/GlobalPost)

LONDON — Angela Paine has been going to Rio Tinto shareholder meetings for decades. She’s part of a group called Partizans, which since 1978 has brought indigenous people from around the world to the mining giant’s meetings using proxy shares. Paine said company officials did not used to welcome the guests.

Cora EngelbrechtMay 13, 2013 17:28

Bahrain's 'inconvenient revolution' grows impatient

Q&A: Self-exiled human rights activist Maryam al-Khawaja says the opposition has taken a violent turn as dissident blogger Ali Abdulemam makes a daring escape.

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Bahraini protestors hold up placards during an anti-government protest in the village of Jidhafs, west of Manama, on May 10, 2013. (Mohammed al-Shaikh/AFP/Getty Images)

NEW YORK — More than two years since pro-democracy protests began in Bahrain in February 2011, more than 80 people have been killed and thousands have been subjected to severe violence. Riot police continue to put down demonstrations, which are led mostly by the country's Shia Muslim majority.

Laurent Y. PeterMay 9, 2013 15:56

Syrian refugee crisis strains Jordan as US offers aid

A go-to refuge for the region's displaced people, Jordan is quickly being overrun.

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Syrian refugees wait to register near their personal belongings upon their arrival at the newly-opened Mrajeeb Al Fhood refugee camp on April 10, 2013. (Khalil Mazraawi/AFP/Getty Images)

The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is no stranger to hosting refugees, including Palestinians who have called Jordan home since 1967, and Iraqis — many from the country’s middle class — who fled to Amman at the height of the Iraq War between 2005 and 2007.

But the Syrian refugees now pouring over the border, including 33,500 Syrians who entered Jordan in the month of April, pose serious economic challenges to the country’s hospitality, says Anmar Al-Hammoud, head of the Higher Advisory Steering Committee for Syrians in Jordan.

Meghan Dhaliwal and Scott EisenMay 3, 2013 12:59

Haiti's displaced people speak out

Protesters call for the preservation of their right to housing in response to increased tent camp evictions.

Internally displaced people (IDPs) from tent camps across Port-au-Prince, including Camp Acra on Delmas 33, marched Thursday in a protest led by grassroots organizations dedicated to protecting the housing rights of internally displaced people in Haiti.

According to a dispatch from the organization Under Tents, protestors called for the preservation of their right to housing and held signs reading, “Everyone should live like human beings” and “The rain soaks us, the sun bakes us.”

Approximately 320,000 Haitians are still internally displaced three years after the 2010 earthquake, living in camps scattered throughout the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area. The earthquake killed 200,000 and left 2.3 million homeless, according to Amnesty International.

Kevin Douglas GrantMay 1, 2013 15:48

Mexican priest Solalinde to lead immigration reform caravan across US

Father Alejandro Solalinde is known across Mexico for sheltering migrants from brutality, but much less so in America.

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Father Alejandro Solalinde, a Roman Catholic priest from Mexico, addresses supporters through the border fence between Calexico, California and Mexicali, Mexico. On April 30 he and a caravan of immigration reformers set out on a cross-country trip that will culminate in Washington, DC in late May. (Kevin Douglas Grant/GlobalPost)

CALEXICO, Calif. and MEXICALI, Mexico — The crowd pressed against the 17-foot border fence to get closer to the man they’d come to see. Chanting “Solalinde! Solalinde! Solalinde!” and holding bunches of white balloons, they celebrated the Mexican priest known across his home country for decades of work offering protection to migrants at great risk to himself.

Kari LydersenApril 27, 2013 09:10

Religious groups keep an eye on global mining giants

Faithful activists converged on London to continue lobbying on behalf of those hurt by industrial mines.

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Richard Solly, outside the Rio Tinto shareholder meeting in April 2013, expresses his Catholic faith through activism on mining issues. (Kari Lydersen/GlobalPost)

LONDON — When he was studying to be a priest, Richard Solly mulled founding a group called Clergy Against Gold Exploitation — CAGE. While presiding over weddings, his idea went, clergy would profess shock during the exchange of rings and ask, “Is that gold? Do you know how many people suffered for that?” CAGE was just a joke. But religious activists like Solly, part of a coalition including Protestants and Catholics, have become central to the international mining watchdog and opposition movement which has developed over the past three decades.

Rebecca Lee SanchezApril 12, 2013 13:38

Cause of Thai refugee camp fire that killed 38 Burma refugees still a mystery

Victims were ethnic Karen refugees who fled a decades-long conflict in Myanmar.

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Myanmar refugee boys walk at their destroyed camp at the Mae Surin camp in Mae Hong Son province on March 24, 2013. Thai rescue workers picked through the ashes of hundreds of shelters for Myanmar refugees, after a ferocious blaze swept through a camp in northern Thailand killing 38 people. Around 100 people were injured. (Nicolas Asfouri/AFP/Getty Images)

Thai border forces are still investigating the cause of a March 22 fire that killed 38 people and displaced over 2,000 more in the Ban Mae Surin refugee camp. According to local police under the authority of Colonel Naruchit, 300 of 400 witnesses have been questioned since the blaze.

Sally Thompson, Executive Director of The Border Consortium, which works with refugees on the Thai-Burma border, said three theories regarding the cause of the fire have emerged.

ABOUT THIS BLOG

Today, there are ongoing struggles for human rights in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Europe, the Americas and every corner of the world. When we talk about rights today, we rarely think of just how many there are, and how often they’re infringed upon or taken away. It’s easy to forget that the rights many take for granted are the very same others die fighting for.

The arc of the modern human rights movement is born of the aftermath of World War II with the formation of the United Nations General Assembly and its adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

This is a reported blog dedicated to highlighting these basic human rights, how they are defined, why they are needed and who are the people struggling to uphold them. The blog is also a way for us to provide GlobalPost’s in-depth reporting and foundation-supported Special Reports — on rights relating to labor, gender, sexuality, the environment, the Internet, children, speech and assembly, and more — with steady updates, insights and analysis worth sharing. This is a blog called RIGHTS, but the story telling here about those rights are not intended as advocacy and will always stay true to GlobalPost’s reporting standards of fairness, accuracy and independence.

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Kevin Douglas Grant

GlobalPost Deputy Editor for 'Special Reports.' read more