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A blog about human rights in their many forms.

Dispatches from CSW: A conversation with Layla Alkhafaji

A member of Iraq's parliament and head of an international non-profit, Layla Alkhafaji, sat down with GlobalPost during the Commission on the Status of Women.
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After years of oppression and suffering, Iraq's women are making strides across the country, empowering themselves and each other, and ending the culture of gender-based violence. (MOHAMMED SAWAF/AFP/Getty Images)

NEW YORK – Layla Alkhafaji, a participant at this week's United Nations Commission on the Status of Women representing her NGO, Al-Hakim. She took a moment, on the sidelines of the CSW, to recount her experiences battling violence against women on the ground of Iraq in a conversation with GlobalPost.

Alkhafaji had just finished her schooling in Baghdad when she was arrested for continuously refusing to sacrifice her traditional ideologies for allegiance to the Baathist regime. It was the early 1980s. 

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Troubled Waters: The End of USAID’s Kajaki Dam Project in Afghanistan

Eleven years and hundreds of millions of dollars later, a dam promised by USAID contractors in Helmand will be handed over to Afghans.
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U.S. Marine marksman Cpl. Jacob Hoag (L) of Bend, OR and his spotter Cpl. Cody Scholes of Belfast, NY perch in a sniper position over the Kajaki Dam site in this 2010 file photo. The dam was never completed by USAID contractors and will be turned over to locals. ( Scott Olson/AFP/Getty Images)

A short primer on the 57th annual UN Commission on the Status of Women

Member states of the United Nations will gather in New York for the next two weeks to discuss the elimination of violence against women and girls.
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The United Nations member states gather to discuss this year's priority issue on women, elimination of violence against women and girls, in New York at the 57th annual Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). (TAUSEEF MUSTAFA/AFP/Getty Images)

According to UN Women, nearly 7 in 10 women across the world will experience some kind of violence in their lifetimes.

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Cambodian workers win $200,000 settlement from Walmart, H&M

After months of occupying the sidewalk in front of their shuttered factory and a hunger strike, workers won the severance they were owed by major retailers.
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Workers hold a vigil on the sidewalk outside the Kingsland factory in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where they've been since January demanding severance pay from Wal-Mart and H&M. (YouTube)

After a two-month strike, Cambodian workers from a factory that manufacturing clothing for Walmart and H&M have won a $200,000 settlement they say was owed to them in back wages.

When the Kingsland factory in Phnom Penh closed in January, workers were sent packing without severance, new jobs, or the wages they earned before the shutdown.

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Western rights activists concerned about 'double bind' on Muslim extremism

A new secular space in London offers a place to discuss and untangle knotty issues around rights for Muslims and terrorism.
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A Muslim protester holds the Islamic flag bearing the writing in Arabic, 'There is no God but God and Mohammed is his Prophet' during a protest outside the embassy of Bangladesh in central London on March 1, 2013, a day after the vice president of Jamaat-e-Islami party was found guilty of murder, religious persecution and rape by a war crimes tribunal in Bangladesh. Fresh clashes erupted in Bangladesh, bringing the number of people killed to 52 in violence triggered by convictions for Islamist leaders over war crimes committed during the 1971 independence war. (Carl Court/AFP/Getty Images)

LONDON — Religion today often crosses into the public sphere, becoming a battering ram for extremist politics across the Abrahamic faiths of Judaism, Islam and Christianity.

In the case of Islam in particular, declares veteran feminist and human rights activist Gita Sahgal, Western liberals find themselves in a double bind: "In a period of right-wing attacks on Muslims … how does one respond to human rights violations by the Muslim Right without feeding hate campaigns?"

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Q&A with editor at Ireland's longest-running LGBT magazine

Brian Finnegan talks to GlobalPost about his country's changing attitude toward Catholicism, LGBT rights and gay marriage.
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A man walks past the Papal Cross, which was built for the visit of the late Pope John Paul II in September 1979, in Phoenix Park, in Dublin, Ireland. (Peter Muhly/AFP/Getty Images)

Not long ago, Ireland was considered one of the most devout nations in the world. Catholicism was synonymous with the Irish identity, and for most of the 20th century, the Catholic Church in Ireland was an immovable, unparalleled force in Irish society. The institution had its hand in education, in hospitals and in private life.

But in the latter part of the century, Ireland shifted its course.

At the hands of the "Celtic Tiger" — Ireland’s 1995 economic boom — the country moved toward a modern European republic, and away from a monotheistic state. In the 1970s, more than 90 percent of Irish Catholics said they regularly attended Mass. That number is now just under one third.

Why have Irish Catholics lost their reverence for the once almighty Roman Catholic Church? A slew of factors come into play, but the slow erosion of faith is due mostly to damning revelations of clergy sex abuse scandals and the church's intolerance in the face of changing social mores.

Women's rights and gay marriage are chief among the concerns listed by those whose faith dwindles. Irish LGBT life has radically changed in the last decade — homosexuality was decriminalized in 1993, more gay people are "out" in society, and with the advent of civil partnerships there has been a growing push for marriage equality.

Despite such strides, the LGBT community still faces discrimination at the hands of the church. Homosexual acts are considered a sin, and the Vatican remains a staunch critic of the gay rights movement.

Brian Finnegan is deputy editor of GCN, the longest-running LGBT magazine in Ireland. The former Catholic says despite the church’s teachings, it’s only a matter of time until gay marriage becomes a reality.

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Is gender violence getting worse in Latin America?

Commentary: Evidence in Colombia shows sexual assault is more frequent during times of conflict.
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People show pictures of missing women during Mexico's 'One Billion Rising' flashmob against violence against women, at the Republic Square in front of the Monument to the Mexican Revolution, in Mexico City on Feb. 14, 2013. (Yuri Cortez/AFP/Getty Images)
Despite advancements, Latin America continues to struggle with gender-based violence. Some even believe violence against women is getting worse.
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Rights group says Indonesia a hotbed of religious intolerance and corruption

A Human Rights Watch report released today details the numerous ways the Indonesian government curbs religious freedoms.
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An Indonesian Muslim resident (C) shouts at Christian worshippers during Christmas mass on December 25, 2012. More than 200 Indonesian Muslims threw rotten eggs at Christians, an incident that's part of a growing trend of religious intolerance, according to a report by Human Rights Watch. (ADEK BERRY/AFP/Getty Images)

Religious intolerance in Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority country, is out of control as members of minority religions face systemic discrimination, violence and widespread abuses, said a Human Rights Watch report released today.

A county of 238 million people, Indonesia is an archipelago made up of 17,000 islands known for tourist havens like Aceh and Bali. But paradise is hard to come by for locals, especially those belonging to faiths other than Sunni Islam, an overwhelming majority of the population.

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South Africa's newest political party is LGBT-friendly

In an announcement yesterday, ANC challenger Mamphela Ramphele said she fully supports gay rights.
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Respected businesswoman and anti-apartheid activist Mamphela Ramphele delivers a speech on February 18, 2013 at the Women's Gaol on Constitution Hill in Johannesburg to launch a political party platform to challenge the ruling African National Congress (ANC). Ramphele announced yesterday that her new party supports gay rights. (STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN/AFP/Getty Images)

The leader of South Africa's newest political party and renowned anti-apartheid activist, Mamphela Ramphele, announced yesterday that she fully supports LGBT rights.

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UN won't take responsibility for Haiti's cholera epidemic

Experts allege cholera was brought to Haiti by UN peacekeepers, but Ban Ki Moon says the international body is immune from legal action and will not compensate victims.
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Cholera patients are pictured in a Doctors Without Borders clinic in Delmas, Haiti. The epidemic is caused by dirty drinking water, and is said to have been brought to Haiti after the devastating earthquake in 2010 by UN peacekeepers from Nepal. A case against the UN charging negligence has stalled, and the UN announced its legal immunity on Feb. 21. (THONY BELIZAIRE/AFP/Getty Images)

The UN announced yesterday it was invoking legal immunity in a case regarding the deadly 2010 cholera outbreak in Haiti, said by experts to have been caused by UN peacekeepers from Nepal.

Secretary General Ban Ki Moon spoke with Haitian President Michel Martelly by phone yesterday to say that the international body would not only decline to take responsibility for the epidemic, but also that it would not compensate claimants in the case against the UN, reported the Guardian.

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