Technology permeates our everyday lives. It creates new job opportunities but also new traps that perpetuate the precarious conditions of the most vulnerable workers.Read the full article
Seven decades of exploitation by the world’s leading space agencies have left the Earth’s orbit cluttered with debris, which has been causing problems for the planet. These problems have been exacerbated by the private sector’s entry into the space race over the last five [...]Read the full article
The al-Sisi regime is without a doubt one of the most repressive in the world. Its severe reprisals against those who criticise it even in the slightest have driven thousands of dissidents into exile. But even halfway across the world, many are unable to escape the long arm of the [...]Read the full article
Vicente Salas:“Many of the proposed initiatives for change and groundbreaking reform start from a recognition of the limitations of nation states to act in cooperation. Instead, these reforms seek to turn companies/legal entities into the implementing arms of public objectives and [...]Read the full article
Two years ago figures in the reparations movement helped set up a task force to come up with a series of recommendations to compensate Californians who are descendants of enslaved Africans and African Americans and right the wrongs caused by [...]Read the full article
Ruwan Subasinghe:A human rights-based approach to climate action is imperative to ensure a just transition for workers and communities. In order to effectively mobilise resources to enable a transition to low-carbon climate resilient societies, just transition needs to be a recognised as a human [...]Read the full article
Recent moves by Israel’s right-wing government to weaken the power of the judiciary and further erode human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories is pushing the grandchildren of Holocaust survivors to seek EU citizenship and move back to the countries where their grandparents were once [...]Read the full article
Gabon’s timber industry, which employs nearly 7 per cent of the country’s working population, is struggling to adapt to often burdensome environmental policies adopted by the international community.Read the full article
Not registered with the nationality committees set up to take a census of Kuwait’s inhabitants when the country gained independence in 1961, those known in Arabic as the ‘Bidoon’ are now undocumented in their own country.Read the full article
Blandine Lavignon:Georgia was rocked in early March by historic demonstrations in opposition to a draft law that would label media and NGOs receiving foreign funding as ‘foreign agents’. Civil society actors explain what is at stake.Read the full article
The new directive makes possible EU-wide class actions for breaches of 66 different EU directives and regulations, from legislation related to medical devices to the EU’s seminal 2018 GDPR privacy law.Read the full article
For over 20 years, states have been trying to reach a new agreement on a treaty to protect the high seas. But finalising the text, called for by NGOs and environmentalists, is proving difficult, given the wealth of resources the deep sea holds for research and [...]Read the full article
According to an EU Directive, every state must bring its whistleblower legislation up to date. Romania, a country that benefitted from the strong protection of whistleblowers, understood the assignment differently and stripped them of their [...]Read the full article
In September, California governor Gavin Newsom signed ground-breaking new legislation allowing people who have committed a crime to apply to have their records expunged. A first of its kind in the United States, the law comes as a relief to hundreds of thousands of former inmates who struggle [...]Read the full article
Despite low government investment and a lack of legal framework to guide their use, geospatial technologies are being applied in a wide range of fields across Africa, and are proving to be indispensable tools in the socio-economic development of the continent, according to a recent conference [...]Read the full article
Selma Dabbagh:“Today, on the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Committed Against Journalists, we at the ICJP are calling for all crimes against journalists to be investigated. Impunity for must end and justice must be served.”Read the full article
Arnaud Zacharie:The existential crisis facing the WTO, which is holding its 12th ministerial conference from 12 to 15 June, is an opportunity to reform it to make world trade more consistent with sustainable development objectives.Read the full article
Sanctions on Russia are accelerating the European drive to end the ‘golden passport’ trade and to regulate ‘golden visas’. According to critical observers, the main beneficiaries of residency and citizenship by investment schemes have been Chinese and Russian [...]Read the full article
Cathy Feingold:As players from the US and around the world prepare for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, FIFA must improve its track record of turning a blind eye to authoritarians and ‘sportswashing’ human rights violations.Read the full article
Described as the worst fishing technique in the world, bottom trawling has been the subject of heated debate for decades. But solutions are at hand to try to limit the impacts of this practice.Read the full article
Lucía Ortiz de Zárate Alcarazo:Given that technology is a human construct that is socially and culturally conditioned, any prejudices, habits and ideas that are not regularly and rigorously examined are destined to find their way into the design and use of new [...]Read the full article
Ruwan Subasinghe:“A just transition towards a low carbon economy is not only possible, but an urgent necessity. Climate change will continue to impact workers worldwide, and such impacts are likely to be significant and disruptive unless workers are an integral part of the [...]Read the full article
“The trade union sector is now living in unprecedented fear. When the national security law arrived, political groups were the primary target. In July and August, it became clear that trade unions are also a main target.”Read the full article
“For decades women have struggled and have ultimately been able to gain rights such as voting, the right to stand for elections [passive suffrage], education, property and work. But women are now once again being forced back into the private [...]Read the full article
In Mayotte, France’s 101st department, the state is stepping up its housing demolitions. The goal is to eliminate unsanitary housing. But its action has had serious consequences for thousands of people who have been driven out of their homes without anywhere else to [...]Read the full article
Mexico ranks first in the world in childhood obesity and second in adult obesity. Until recently, studies addressing the causes of obesity have focused on the poor choices made by individuals, but have rarely looked at the obesogenic [...]Read the full article
Gold prices have risen steadily over the past two years, reaching an all-time high in mid-2020. In the Brazilian Amazon, men come to seek their fortunes on forest land that the federal government should protect, but which, more and more, is succumbing to the pressures of [...]Read the full article
Fiore Longo :On 22 April, the world celebrated Earth Day and the importance of saving biodiversity. Unfortunately, the messages conveyed by many governments and international organisations put very little emphasis on one of the essential aspects of the fight to save the environment: human [...]Read the full article
Almost four years after the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights recognised the Ogiek’s ancient title of the Mau Forest and ruled that they should be allowed to return there, the Kenyan government is yet to implement this [...]Read the full article
Can the inclusion of social or environmental objectives in a company’s articles of association help to make them more virtuous? Whilst it may help promote a shift in business mindsets, it may also amount to little more than ‘fairwashing’.Read the full article
Stan De Spiegelaere:“There is a clear relation between occupational health and safety and the involvement of workers in companies.”Read the full article
“The enormous political pressure facing teachers today is without precedent in the history of Hong Kong. The chilling effects are sweeping across school campuses, curricula and even exam papers.”Read the full article
The Indonesian government says the Omnibus Law will create more jobs, but labour and environmental activists warn that deregulation will lead to disaster for working people, environmental sustainability and democracy.Read the full article