Year Zero: How the Khmer Rouge Turned Utopia into Genocide

The mass graves and memorial stupa at Choeung Ek Genocidal Center. AUTHOR: Adriano Barbaro “Do you wear glasses?”, “Do you speak any foreign language?”, “Can you read or write?”, “Do you have relatives abroad?”, “Are you from the city?”, “What was your job before 1975?”. Those were the most feared questions in Cambodia between 1975 and 1979, during the Khmer …

Executions Reach a 44-Year High: The Middle East’s Fear Based Governance

AUTHOR: Lorena Hutanu The year 2025 marks a devastating setback for global human rights. At least 2,707 executions were recorded across 17 countries, representing a 78% increase compared to 2024. This is the highest figure recorded by Amnesty International since 1981. Shockingly, this data excludes the thousands of executions that are happening hidden behind state secrecy, led by the world’s …

Climate Change and Displacements: What Rights Do Environmental Refugees Have?

Some of the effects of climate change depicted in an article by the US National Centers for Environmental Effects AUTHOR: Sara B. Gero Climate change increases the risks of extreme weather events, including droughts, floods and wildfires, making them more unpredictable and intense. At the same time, climate change exacerbates food insecurity. Rising sea levels, droughts and the changes in …

The Buried War Beneath Southeast Asian Soil

Source: Photo by Duncan Kidd / Unsplash https://unsplash.com/photos/silhouette-of-soldiers-Cju-BkSkM1k AUTHOR: Eleonore Dlugosz Donnen “Mine action plays a critical role in places where peace is fragile, the humanitarian response urgent, and development precarious. It allows the UN and its partners to work in greater safety and enables ravaged communities to recover and rebuild.” António Guterres, UN Secretary General Few instruments of international …

War as Spectacle: The Dark Legacy of Sarajevo

“Pazi! Snajper!” (“Beware! Sniper!”) sign displayed in Sarajevo during the 1992–1995 siege. AUTHOR: Adriano Barbaro Often historical human rights violations are not given the space and attention they deserve. However, that does not make them irrelevant and or not worth remembering. There always is something to learn from the past, and as history has shown us, sometimes the past can …

Remembering a Servant of Humanity, Top UN Envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello

Sergio Vieira de Mello as he addresses the Security Council. Source : UN Photo, photo by Mark Garten, 22 July 2003. https://media.un.org/photo/en/asset/oun7/oun7775363 AUTHOR: Eleonore Dlugosz Donnen Sergio Vieira de Mello was a man who cannot be reduced solely to his role as a diplomat. Yet his life is a chronicle of diplomatic events that demonstrate resilience and the ultimate sacrifice …

Before, Within, and Beyond Boko Haram

GN, now a young woman, survived years of Boko Haram captivity and around 13 months in unlawful militarydetention. Maiduguri, Borno State, July 2023Source: Amnesty International AUTHOR: Eleonore Dlugosz Donnen Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is a sin” in Hausa, a Chadic language spoken in West Africa. It is a jihadist armed group that emerged in north-eastern Nigeria, whose …