The life of Khusmoni Rema, a Garo woman in Bangladesh, centers around the production of food for her family and community. (Photo by Shalomi Sangma)
A Dream of a
Garo Woman in Bangladesh
Shalomi Sangma
The author is a member of the Garo tribal community in Bangladesh
who explains the important role that Garo women play in their
matrilineal society. She also shares her aspirations for an even
larger and significant role for Garo women who are increasingly
becoming educated in spite of many challenges. [Read more]
State Crimes
Continue in Pattani
Giles Ji Ungpakorn
While little is often heard or read in the media, at least outside
of Thailand, about the violence in the three southern-most provinces
of the country—Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala— this article makes
painfully clear that people in this Muslim-majority part of Thailand
bordering Malaysia are still afflicted by the upsurge in violence
that began in 2004. [Read more]
Online Petition
for Disappearance of Karen Environmental Activist in Thailand
Oscar Arango
In this online petition, the initiator, based in Chiang Mai,
Thailand, demands “a prompt and thorough investigation into the
disappearance of indigenous Karen leader Por Cha Lee Rakcharoen and
the removal of Chaiwat Limlikitaksor as Kaengkrachan National Park
chief.” Please consider adding your name to the petition. [Read
more]
Culture of
Impunity Continues
Widows in the Philippines
Two widows whose husbands were victims of human rights violations in
the Philippines sent this open letter to U.S. President Barack Obama
prior to his visit to the country on April 28. Their husbands are
among thousands of victims of extrajudicial killings and
disappearances in the Philippines in the past decade for whom few
perpetrators have been convicted. [Read
more]
Nepal: Killing
Its Citizens in the Name of Justice
Asian Human Rights Commission
It is said that justice must be blind to be impartial and fair; but
when justice is apathetic or absent, as this article explains in
Nepal, it can have deadly consequences. [Read
more]
Democracy in a
Gutter—Literally—in India
Avinash Pandey
Manual scavenging, i.e., manually disposing of excrement, by Dalits,
or Untouchables, is illegal under India’s Constitution of 1949 and
various statutory laws, raising questions about the strength and
effectiveness of the country’s legal system with the practice of
manual scavenging still existing and, indeed, being deadly. The
author bemoans this legal limbo and the implications for one of
India’s most marginalized communities—the Dalits—and offers some
needed prescriptions for change. [Read
more]
Human Rights
Must Get Religion
Larry Cox
The author notes the tensions that occur between human rights
activists and people of faith and explains in response that human
rights and religion complement each other, that the power of both
the secular and the sacred are reinforced and strengthened if they
work cooperatively together. [Read
more]
|