Olympic Trials
Dave Zirin : Sports
If China's leaders believe they've released enough steam for a smooth Olympics, they could be in for a surprise.
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Women's Advocate Is UN's New Human Rights Chief
Barbara Crossette : United Nations
Despite the Bush Administration's scramble to scuttle her nomination because she is--gasp!--a feminist, a South African judge is named high commissioner for human rights.
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Nine Reasons to Investigate War Crimes Now
Jeremy Brecher & Brendan Smith : Torture
Some Democrats are pushing to let bygones be bygones and concentrate instead on solving problems of the future. Here's why we can't let the Bush Administration off the hook.
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The Bureaucracy of Rape
Barbara Crossette : United Nations
Pressured by the Bush Administration, the United Nations issues a ringing declaration and solicits pledges that decry rape as a weapon of war. How about actually doing something?
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Rape as a Weapon of War
Slavenka Drakulic : United Nations
The UN resolution designating rape as a weapon of war is historic, but provides no legal remedy for wartime victims of sexual violence.
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Bill Ford, Remembered
Scott Greathead & Michael Posner : El Salvador
The brother of one of four US churchwomen murdered in El Salvador used his legal skills to bring their killers to justice.
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Shirin Ebadi: Don't Attack Iran
Robert Dreyfuss : Iran
The Nobel Prize-winning activist says US threats, regime-change rhetoric and efforts to promote democracy only give Iran's leaders an excuse to intensify repression.
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Youth Protests Outshine Olympic Torch
Cora Currier : Student Movements
Tibetan-led youth groups are proving the power of grassroots organizing with their highly effective Beijing Olympics protests.
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Olympic Flame Out
The Editors : Sports
Boycotts of the Beijing Olympics are easy. What's harder is moving China towards meaningful progress on human rights.
2007
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Rights of Passage
How can momentum be restored to the struggle for human rights? Begin by drawing the world's religions into the conversation.
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Our Inalienable Human Rights
Despite their political differences, Americans are strikingly united on the value of human rights, according to a new poll sponsored by The Nation.
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Lawyers Join Monks to Defy Myanmar's 'Forced Politics'
Lawyers in Myanmar joined forces this week with Buddhist monks to demand national reconciliation and an end to human rights abuse.
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Getting Away With Murder
The brutal murder of a bishop and its violent aftermath exemplify post-civil war Guatemala's descent into chaos
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Harvard's Humanitarian Hawks
Harvard's Carr Center for Human Rights doesn't officially favor the war in Iraq, so why is it helping Gen. David Petraeus devise a counter-insurgency doctrine?
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A War in the Heart of India
Maoists say they're fighting for the invisible tribal peoples of India. Are they terrorists, or the product of a corrupt and unjust system?
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Hong Kong, Ten Years After
Ten years of Chinese rule in Hong Kong hasn't resulted in severe human rights abuses, but full democracy has yet to emerge.
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The Price of a Life
Sure, the US government values the lives of innocents killed in combat. Just how much depends on whether they died in New York, Afghanistan or Iraq.
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On the Genealogy of Morals
Inventing Human Rights traces the roots of humanitarian concern back to the eighteenth century. But there's a world of difference between then and now.
2006
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We'll Always Have Geneva
The Military Comissions Act of 2006 gives the Geneva Conventions a bold, new American twist. Here's a look at the bill's final markup.
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Israel Lobby Watch
The Human Rights Watch reports that were sharply critical of Israel's killing of civilians in Lebanon represent the latest battle for Jewish hearts and minds in the ideological war over the Middle East.
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A Right to Food?
Frances Moore Lappé : Social & Economic Rights
Hunger is a violation of basic rights: a right to food, but more important, Bolivian and Brazilian experience suggests, a right to power.
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The Left Gets Real
Eyal Press : Progressives, Liberals, & The American Left
Is the coziness of progressives and foreign policy realists a strategic alliance or a sign that the conservative co-optation of "human rights" has disillusioned the left?
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'They Deserve It'
Prison rape is not a dirty joke; it's one of the most frequent and widespread human rights abuses in America.
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Looking for Answers in Argentina
The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, icons of courageous demands for accountability in Argentina, marked a thirty-year milestone and a significant if imperfect victory in the fight for human rights.
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An American Inquisition?
The case of an architect who lost lucrative contracts because of his interest in the Palestinian cause underscores how Americans are becoming inured to enforced patriotism and ideological litmus tests.
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Too Hot for New York
My Name Is Rachel Corrie was a big hit in London, but the New York Theatre Workshop backed off from producing the play. Why is it so hard for Americans to have a healthy debate about Palestinian human rights?
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The Bolton Archipelago
John Bolton's grandstanding vote today opposing the establishment of a UN Human Rights Council might please hard-core isolationists. But no one else.
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Selling Human Rights in Russia
Russian human rights activist Gregory Shvedov examines how Vladimir Putin's tactics toward Chechnya align with George W. Bush's "global war on terror."
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Nick Kristof's Brothel Problem
Alexander Cockburn : Ethical Economics
Nicholas Kristof produces a steady stream of titillating reports on child prostitution in the Third World. Better to focus on draconian economic reforms driven by the World Bank that create the conditions for prostitution.
2005
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The Legacy of Four Women
George McGovern & Jim McGovern : El Salvador
On the twenty-fifth anniversary of the murders of four American churchwomen in El Salvador, George McGovern and Representative Jim McGovern journey to El Salvador to assess what has changed and how the legacy of the churchwomen affect human rights worldwide.
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Human Rights at Work
Labor issues involve not only economic rights, but also human rights, in the US, but especially in nations around the world where the right of free speech and assembly is not a given.
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Conspiracy to Torture
: George W. Bush Administration
No nation is immune from the insidious downward spiral signified by torture. In this special issue, The Nation confronts the sweeping moral seriousness what the torture conspiracy will do to America and its democratic institutions. The facts are known: Now it's time to hold the conspirators accountable.
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The Torture Administration
Anthony Lewis : George W. Bush Administration
Despite what we know of history, it comes as a shock to discover that American leaders would open the way for torture of prisoners, that the President would fight legislation prohibiting inhumane treatment, and that Congress would barely react. A moment of historical reckoning has come: It is time to establish an independent commission with a special prosecutor and bring executors of abuse to justice.
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Intolerable Cruelty
If the US is to prevail in the war on terror, we must do it by distinguishing ourselves from the enemy. Torture and degrading treatment are as morally evil as terrorism, because they brutally disregard the value of human life.
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Oversexed
Anti-trafficking efforts place undue emphasis on commercial sex work and downplay other forms of forced labor.
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Torture and Accountability
Elizabeth Holtzman : US Military
Senior government officials can be held responsible for the horrors at Abu Ghraib.
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Bringing Human Rights Home
Alan Jenkins & Larry Cox : Supreme Court
The United States should respect international human rights standards within its own borders.
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Blaming the Messenger Fools No One
Robert Scheer : War on Terrorism
The Bush Administration respects Amnesty International only when doing so suits its political agenda.
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The Missing Patriot Debate
David Cole : Immigration to the US
The case for a human rights-based opposition to the Patriot Act.
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A Big Win for Human Rights
Daphne Eviatar : Law & Justice
Unocal's settlement with Burmese villagers may spur better corporate conduct.
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Coke: The New Nike
Michael Blanding : Student Movements
A growing student movement is taking the company to task for its record on human rights around the globe.
2004
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Falluja's Health Damage
Miles Schuman : Health & Disease
The US has caused a healthcare crisis in Falluja.
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Hope for Human Rights
Kenneth Roth : Activism & Organizing
The key to hope is realizing that there are always things we can do to curb suffering and end atrocities.
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Rehnquist, Cambodia & Abu Ghraib
The Chief Justice wrote a rationale for Nixon's invasion that is being used to justify torture.
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Tout Torture, Get Promoted
The Bush Administration awards a judgeship to the author of an infamous memo.
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Terror in Colombia
Paramilitary forces are the enforcers of the promised favorable investment climate.
2003
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Facing the Human Rights Abyss
A report on the state of global human rights.
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Colombia and Human Rights
The State Department, discounting its own human rights reports, continues to assert that the Colombian government is complying with all conditions necessary for aid.
2002
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Justice Denied in Egypt
Ibrahim's conviction and sentence is a savage parody of justice.
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Investigating Jenin
Human rights groups are saying that the evidence they've gathered demands an international hearing.
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What Israel Has Done
Edward W. Said : Israeli/Palestinian Conflict
Seeking to destroy the Palestinians as a people, it is destroying their civil life.
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Egyptian Justice, US-Style
In Egypt, trying civilians in military courts is nothing new.
2001
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Voices From the United Nations
Joschka Fischer, Tang Jiaxuan, Roberto Rojas & Reaz Rahman : Foreign Affairs
Excerpts from speeches to the General Assembly.
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The Afghan Humanitarian Crisis
In pursuing the goal of smashing the Taliban, Washington has been remarkably cavalier about the short-term danger of mass starvation.
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A Hard Look at Iraq Sanctions
Changing American policy in Iraq is an urgent priority, both for humanitarian reasons and as a means of addressing an intensely felt political grievance against the US.
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Pogroms Return to Russia
On the eve of Vladimir Putin's visit to the US, there is a troubling new phenomenon in the Russian capital: mass skinhead attacks against Muslims.
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The Shame of Boxing
Jack Newfield : Working Conditions
The fighters are powerless workers in need of rights and justice.
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Letter From Ground Zero
As the conflict heads into its sixth week, clouds of danger hang over both the US and Afghanistan.
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Bush's Uzbek Bargain
After weeks of evasion, reminiscent of two illicit lovers keen to avoid scandal, the US and Uzbekistan announced that they had made a deal.
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'Antiterrorist' Bedfellows
As the war on terrorism gears up, governments around the world are already justifying repression in the name of that cause.
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Elliott Abrams: It's Back!
George W. Bush may appoint Iran/contra player Elliott Abrams to a National Security Council staff position that (conveniently!) doesn't require Senate approval.
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Rogue Nation
There is a growing consensus that the world's most destructive rogue nation is the most powerful country of them all.
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Plan Colombia
Once again, US power is being projected abroad at a punishing social cost to a country we're "assisting."
2000
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Questions for Powell
Colin Powell is a national icon. But the retired general does not deserve hands-off hearings.
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Human Rights--The Next Step
Eyal Press : Social & Economic Rights
A consideration of economic rights as coequal with civil and political rights may be the only way for the human rights movement to recapture its power and urgency.
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Chase's Historical Ledger
John Friedman : Corporate Responsibility & Accountability
Recently revealed documents show that Chase Manhattan, which was already known to have helped the Nazis, aided slavery in the US as two of its predecessor banks worked with an insurance company to insure slave owners against loss.
This week: The Nation's reporter in Georgia talks for the first time about being assaulted by Ossetian paramilitaries. Plus: Dave Zirin recaps the olympic highs and lows, Barbara Crossette considers the future for Pakistan and John Nichols and historian Adele Oltman preview the Democratic Convention in the context of Dr. Martin Luther King's dream. (13mb mp3)
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