This week on Newsnight on BBC 2 there are features on international justice. Last night's programme included an interview about the International Criminal Court in the Hague. See the Amnesty media team's blog on Lubanga being brought...

The BBC insists that it will not broadcast an appeal from the Disasters Emergency Committee or DEC (a group of major charities) for the people of Gaza. Most other main broadcasters are to air the appeal although Sky is taking the same...

At last! Barack Obama is now the president of the United States after that long wait from winning the election. Much hope is pinned on him. The inauguration speech showed some of the fresh thinking that he offers. (Did he really do...

This evening at 8 pm there is a programme on BBC Radio 4 in the series, Investigation . It looks at the Human Rights Council of the United Nations. Does the Council protect human rights or does it shelter governments that abuse rights?

Tonight's Unreported World on Channel Four, Nigeria: Child Brides, Stolen Lives , showed some of the dreadful consequences of girls marrying and becoming pregnant when too young. Unreported World takes us to places around the world and...

Israel has launched massive strikes against Gaza, leading to many deaths and injuries. Hospitals and other public services in Gaza were already struggling due to lack of supplies even before these latest attacks. An editorial in the...

Adrian Mitchell , 1932 – 2008, was a poet who aimed to make his poetry easy for people to read and understand. He came to public attention when he used poetry against the war in Vietnam and read his Tell me lies about Vietnam at a...

Unreported World on Channel Four tonight at 7:35 pm takes us to Mexico where killings related to drugs are rife. The Guardian on 22 December reported on the killing of eight soldiers whose bodies were found decapitated; the military is...

Chinese democracy? Do those two words fit together? It is the title of an album by Guns N Roses . I cannot tell you much about the album but it has been a very long time in the making. A Guardian article says that a Chinese newspaper...

The BBC World Affairs Editor, John Simpson, has interviewed a Chinese government minister on the subject of Tibet . At the start of the interview the minister, Zhu Weixin, welcomed the statement from the UK government recognising the...

Miriam Makeba , South African singer and campaigner, has died. I see that there is a film called Sarafina that includes her music and shows the struggle against apartheid in the days before the release of Nelson Mandela. It is a film...

Murder in the Snow told of the shooting by Chinese border guards of a group of Tibetans trying to escape across the mountains to India. The stories of some of those who managed to reach sanctuary in Dharamsala in India were combined...

As a vegetarian I am keen on soya beans. Source of tofu, soy sauce, soya milk, and containing high-quality protein, where would I be without them? If many in the world are short of food then we should go further down the food chain and...

I was not surprised that Barack Obama won the election in the USA but was excited to hear the phrase "President-elect Obama" almost as soon as I turned on the radio this morning. John McCain said that he stood for change but as Barack...

If you have elections then you live in a democracy, right? Not necessarily. The other night I watched the film Recount on television. It is based on true events in the presidential election of 2000 in the United States and especially...

Amnesty says that more resources are needed for the UN peacekeepers in Congo. The war in eastern Congo seems to be related to the Rwandan genocide – that conflict will just not go away. Huge numbers of people are moving to try to...

Hope for slaves in west Africa after a landmark ruling says a recent Guardian article by Xan Rice. A court has found Niger's government guilty of failing to protect a girl from being sold into slavery. The article mentions some other...

Sorry that I cannot write this entry in a rainbow of colours. If you are in or near Shrewsbury you may like to know about the Rainbow Film Festival , Shropshire's gay and lesbian film week. It is the third year of the festival and...

Amnesty International has a new campaign on Poverty and Human Rights . The summary of the campaign carries a quote from Nelson Mandela: "Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and...

The Orwell Prize is awarded each year for political writing. There will be an event on 22 October 2008 at the Frontline Club, launching the 2009 Prize. The question for debate: Is journalism failing failing states? The website also...