Author: Edwin Wood

Indigenous Leader Murdered Amidst Brazilian Amazon Tensions

A local leader of the Waiãpi indigenous community in the Brazilian Amazon has been murdered amidst ongoing tensions over land usage. Emyra Waiãpi was found with stab wounds near the village of Mairry in Amapá state on 24 July. Three days later an estimated 50 gold miners, known as garimpeiros, stormed

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Council Of Europe Commissioner Condemns Human Rights Abuses In Hungary

The Council of Europe’s Human Rights Commissioner, Dunja Mijatović, has called on Hungarian authorities to take action against widespread human rights abuses. Following a four day visit to Hungary in February, Mijatović released a report on 21 May discussing a wide range of issues – from immigration to gender equality.

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Arrest Made Following Arson Attacks On Three Louisiana Churches

A 21-year old white man, Holden Matthews, has been arrested for setting fire to three Baptist churches in Louisiana with majority African American congregations. The St. Mary, Greater Union, and Mount Pleasant Baptist churches were burned down successively between 26 March and 4 April. No one was injured, but the

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Canada Is Warming At Twice The Rate Of The Global Average

A report by Environment and Climate Change Canada has warned that the country faces rising temperatures at a faster rate than the rest of the world. The report, which was released on 1st April by the government organization, details the rise in temperature by 1.7 degrees Celsius in Canada since

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Eleven Women On Trial For Women’s Rights Activism In Saudi Arabia

On Wednesday the trial of 11 Saudi Arabian women, all of which are women’s rights campaigners, resumed. The group of women was arrested in May last year during a wider crackdown on critics of the Saudi monarchy and have been imprisoned since. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch initially believed

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Syrian Refugees Seek Justice Against Assad Government In ICC

A bid has been launched with the International Criminal Court (ICC) to prosecute the Syrian government for war crimes, as one of the first credible opportunities for Bashar al-Assad’s government to face retribution for its actions in the Syrian war, which has devastated the country since 2011. Previously, bringing Assad’s

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University “Forced Out” Of Hungary By Government Restrictions

Last week, the Central European University, an American private university based in Budapest, made the decision to transfer most of its programmes to Vienna. The move follows 18 months of legal dispute with the Hungarian government, which passed legislation last year to target the CEU’s campus and more fundamentally, the

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Tensions Escalate As Russia Seizes Ukrainian Navy Boats

The strained relationship between Russia and Ukraine was tested last week as the countries came to blows in the Kerch Strait, a stretch of water linking the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov. On 25 November, Russian border guards fired at and seized three Ukrainian navy ships approaching the

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IS Responsible For Over 200 Mass Graves, UN Report Finds

The United Nations has published a report that reveals the horrifying extent of the so-called Islamic State’s activities in Iraq. The joint report, between the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, estimates that there are 202 mass grave

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President Trump Stokes Immigration Fears Ahead Of Midterms

On October 13, thousands of men, women and children left Central America in search of a more prosperous life. A large proportion of this group hail from Honduras, whilst a significant number come from Guatemala and El Salvador, but all left their homelands to escape corruption, poverty and the risk

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Australian PM Considers Moving Embassy To Jerusalem

Last week, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the possibility of transferring the Australian embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. This breaks a long-standing convention that Jerusalem should only be discussed in the final stages of a peace deal between Israel and Palestine. The proposal,

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