The litany of discriminatory measures levelled at Roma people in Europe, including children, grows yet longer this week as the Slovakian Prime Minister revealed plans to take Roma kids from their families and place them in special...

The litany of discriminatory measures levelled at Roma people in Europe, including children, grows yet longer this week as the Slovakian Prime Minister revealed plans to take Roma kids from their families and place them in special...

At last could it really be upon us: democracy in Burma. Well that was the promise. Indeed, we were all led to believe that today would be the day when the ruling military junta would finally name a date for elections. And what happened...

Figures out today show that the situation for thousands of women in developing countries today is as bad as it was for women in the UK in 1910. In 1910 in the UK, figures available show that 355 women per 100,000 live births died as a...

I paid my electricity bill this week and it was steep man! Like most people, I’ve noticed my meagre wallet wedge shrinking lately even as I go around the flat switching off the lights my (profligate) girlfriend's left on … According to...

I’m going to be upfront in today’s blog – there’s only a tenuous link at best between England’s 3-1 footballing victory over Egypt at Wembley last night and the impending military trial of Egyptian blogger Ahmed Mustafa . In fact it’s...

Speaking on 5 Live this morning – one BBC radio station that’s safe from the axe at the moment – Mike Wooldridge discussed President Jacob Zuma’s “action-packed” state visit to the UK – his first since assuming presidency in South...

The late-breaking news last night that Ejup Ganic , a former Bosnian vice-president, had been arrested at Heathrow was, for my money, heartening. Why? Because we’re supposed to be living in a world that, after Srebrenica, after Kigali...

We have a new campaign briefing out today, urging the authorities in Sudan to abolish the practice of flogging, which is normally used against women. Women in Sudan face a daily risk of being arbitrarily arrested in public or private...

The UK government’s Control Orders regime is being discussed by MPs today, in the annual review/rubber-stamping of this “lamentable system”, as Andy Worthington describes it in his excellent and detailed blog on the subject. Today’s...

Anyone who’s kept up with every twist and turn of the Binyam Mohamed saga probably needs to get out more, but most people are now familiar with the broad thrust. A man is picked up in Pakistan during the US “war on terror”. Like scores...

The death, after a prolonged hunger strike, of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, a prisoner of conscience in Cuba, has been widely reported in the media today . Orlando Zapata Tamayo was one of 55 prisoners of conscience in Cuba to have been...

Guinea is one African country which is rarely reported on. So last September’s bloody protests took much of the international media by surprise as they witnessed how scores of people were killed and hundreds were attacked by security...

I’ve been trying to wade through around 1,500 tweets about last night’s “Is technology really good for human rights?” event, while nursing a slightly-foggy head after the post-doo drinks at the Book Club. The consensus seems to be very...

With one media report around today entitled “ Google will pave the way to freedom in China, says Dalai Lama ” and a front page splash in the FT saying “US analysts believe they have identified the Chinese author of the critical...

Yesterday the Times columnist Melanie Reid gushed that the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai was like the film Ocean's 11. (I think, by the way, she meant an exciting Hollywood crime caper … as opposed to a useless star-vehicle...

Three women (& four men) in Malaysia were flogged earlier this month – meaning whipped with a cane – after a Shariah court found them guilty of extramarital sex. The news came in a press conference from the Malaysian Home Minister...

It seems as though the government of Burkina Faso has been the bearer of good news twice in the last 10 days or so. It’s not often we say that about any country’s government. But their decision to ratify the international cluster...

When it comes to Burma, the world and his dog tends to think about one thing: Aung San Suu Kyi . Now, I’m not one to say she isn’t important – far from it – but the plight of the iconic Burmese leader is just the tip of the iceberg...

It’s probably a generational thing, but a lot of conversations I have with my parents these days consist of whether “things are getting better … or worse”. Not exactly an easy topic to pin down! There’s always a danger that these...