“Stop killing us,” read a sign held by protesters mourning death of a civil rights leader and Rio de Janeiro’s city councillor Marielle Franco, 38. Last Wednesday, two men in a car fired nine shots into the vehicle carrying Franco and her driver, Anderson Gomes, … Continue readingMarielle Franco’s murder exposes impunity in Brazil
In Brazil, every 28 hours an LGBTQ person is violently attacked due to homophobia, biphobia, or transphobia. As a matter of fact, Latin America accounts for 78% of reported murders of transgender and gender-diverse people worldwide, according to a study of a group Transgender Europe. In … Continue readingLGBTQ Rights in Latin America Are Illusory, Despite Progressive Laws
In 2015 and 2016 alone, at least 450 human rights activists suffered a violent attack with a proven complicity of State and business actors, shows a recent report issued by the UN Special Rapporteur Michel Forst. Over half of the attacks took place in Latin … Continue readingBusiness Actors Complicit in Attacks Against Human Rights Activists
The Quipu Project is an interactive transmedia platform that documents testimonies of women and men forced or coerced into sterilization in Peru in the mid-1990s. “They put me on a bed and four of them held me. Two held my hands and two held my … Continue readingThe Quipu Project exposes forced sterilizations of indigenous people in Peru
“I can’t find words to describe what it was like,” says Juvenal Moudenge, as he contemplates on his role in the 1994 genocide. “I was like an animal. I knew most of the people that were killed that day because we were neighbours. Our objective … Continue readingRwanda Report, France should be held accountable
It will take us exactly 217 years to close global gender gap, if we continue on current trends. According to the new publication of the World Economic Forum (WEF), the disparity between genders has widened for the first time since the institution started the … Continue readingTwo centuries until we close the global gender gap
Mexican authorities announced the plan to create a working group to mediate land crisis between Wixarika (Huichol community) and cattle ranchers in the state of Nayarit, Mexico. The conflict dates back to 1906, year in which the farmers received property titles, forcing the indigenous inhabitants … Continue readingMexico to mediate in a land crisis
Do women expressing their cultural sense of membership with a distinct way of dressing threaten social cohesion in Canada? It seems that Stéphanie Vallée, Quebec’s minister of justice, would be inclined to agree. On Wednesday, the provincial legislative in Quebec, Canada, passed a law that … Continue readingQuebec votes against burqas
India’s Supreme Court has just opposed the legal loophole that allowed for sex with underage wives. “Sexual intercourse with a girl below 18 years of age is rape regardless of whether she is married or not,” the Court said in the decision from October 11, … Continue readingSexual intercourse with an underage wife is rape, India’s Supreme Court rules
Amid Canada’s 150th birthday celebrations, the indigenous movement behind #Resistance150 challenges our perception of the country’s identity. Whose Canada are we really celebrating? Instead of embracing the history of over 10,000 years during which indigenous peoples had been living on “Canadian” lands, the official #Canada150 … Continue readingCanada’s Contentious 150 Anniversary