By Megan Abbot

Honduras has held the title for Murder Capital of the World for the last several years running, but new data suggests that from 2014 to 2015 the murder rate has dropped about 30%, from 84 to 60 per 100,000 people.  What is behind the high rates of murder across Central American countries?  What is behind such a significant decrease?

The answer is unclear.  Some point to intentional manipulation of the numbers.  Others to discrepancies in record-keeping. The Honduran government may point to mano dura or (“iron fist”) policing techniques.  But crediting hardline policing is risky.

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March 10, 2016

By Megan Abbot

Police in El Salvador have begun to arrest former military officers accused in the killing of six Jesuit priests during the country’s civil war.  The murders of the Jesuits occurred in 1989, and it is presumed that the priests were killed by the regime as they attempted to broker a peace agreement that might have been too sympathetic to the guerillas.  Since 1989, an amnesty had prevented domestic prosecutions, but families of the victims now seek justice in Spain through their law of universal jurisdiction, since five of the priests were Spanish.  Elisabeth Malkin reports for the New York Times that after the US extradited one of the accused to Spain, police in El Salvador have undertaken raids to arrest several of the others accused. 

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February 24, 2016

By Megan Abbot

The Sepur Zarco case, named after a military base in which widespread human rights abuses occurred against the civilian population, charges Lieutenant Colonel Esteelmer Reyes Giron, former commander of the base, and former military commissioner Heriberto Valdez Asig for their leadership of crimes of mass sexual violence and slavery.  The prosecutor is charging these crimes as violations of international humanitarian law, and thus as war crimes. Jo-Marie Burt reports for the International Justice Monitor that it is the first time that the Guatemalan court has prosecuted a crime of sexual violence from its decades-long civil war.  It is the first time that any court of any country is hearing crimes of sexual violence as crimes under international law.

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February 22, 2016

By Megan Abbot

This week, the U.S.  deployed 300 troops to Cameroon in order to support efforts against Boko Haram in neighboring Nigeria.  Boko Haram, the terrorist organization that kidnapped 274 girls from Chibok in Northern Nigeria in 2014, claims ties to the so-called Islamic State.  Philip Obaji reports for the Daily Beast that Boko Haram has been abducting children to serve as human shields and soldiers from Chad, Niger, and Nigeria, but that their increased activity in Cameroon has been striking. NPR reports on why Boko Haram has begun to enlist girls as young as 10 years old as suicide bombers. U.S. troops will be used for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance against Boko Haram and their child soldiers.

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October 28, 2015

By Megan Abbot

It is difficult to estimate the number of people worldwide who are detained in institutions against their will.  People with disabilities are especially vulnerable to being locked up under the guise of protection and rehabilitation. Such segregation violates international law and should outrage human rights supporters everywhere. 

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRDP) codifies the rights of people with disabilities and is part of a broad paradigm shift.  Historically, disability has been treated as a normative failing, a medical illness that should be corrected to help a person live a normal life.  Today the social model of disability seeks to build understanding of the many cultural, physical, or systemic obstacles that prevent people from participating equally in society on the basis of disability.  Disability, then, is a construction.  The onus of adaptation is not on the individual to overcome their disability.  The onus is on society to build a more inclusive environment for all.

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October 27, 2015

By Megan Abbot

Sonia Nazario reports for the New York Times that the U.S. is paying tens of millions of dollars to Mexico to externalize border controls, preventing Central American migrants fleeing gang and narco-cartel violence from entering the U.S. Mexican President Peña Nieto announced the border control policy under the guise of protecting the human rights of migrants coming legally through Mexico.  In fact, the repression has forced migrants, including children, into traveling in more dangerous ways, traveling alone, at night, or on foot through dangerous areas.  Nazario’s piece profiles one family fleeing San Pedro Sula, Honduras, a city with one of the highest homicide rates in the world.  After the murders of her brother and her 14-year-old son at the hands of gang violence, and fearing that the same gang could come after her and her children in Guatemala, July Elizabeth Pérez sought to join family living legally in Florida.  Instead, she was detained in Mexico on her way to the U.S., facing abusive and filthy conditions of detention, and a very difficult asylum process ahead.  July’s story is illustrative of the policy shift that has resulted in fewer Central Americans making it to the U.S., and many arrested and facing human rights abuses in Mexico.

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October 26, 2015

By Megan Abbot

Libyans are frustrated with the slow pace of the UN-sponsored peace talks and are calling for further international assistance to support the country’s reconstruction efforts. The uprising against Qaddafi in 2011 united many different factions against the dictatorship, but the country has since devolved into civil war. Carlotta Gall reports for the New York Times that ordinary Libyans are frustrated by the government’s lack of progress toward peace-building, and that the process of constructing a new constitution during the civil war has been daunting. Warring factions have forced many people to flee Tripoli and Benghazi and to become refugees in Tunisia. 

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October 05, 2015

By Megan Abbot

September 26 was World Contraception Day, and Brigit Katz reports for the New York Times on the barriers remaining for women’s access to birth control, and the implications for human rights and development. Factors preventing women from fulfilling their reproductive rights vary across the world, and include a lack of resources, cultural attitudes, and misperceptions about the risk of infertility. Although access is increasing in many regions, especially with the proliferation of injectables and implants, real obstacles prevent women worldwide from getting the health care they seek. The article reports “867 million women living in developing countries want to avoid becoming pregnant, but around 222 million of them have unmet contraceptive needs.” The result can be disempowering for the human rights of women and their families, and the World Health Organization reports that 800 women die every day from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. 

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October 02, 2015

By Megan Abbot

Civilians are being killed in Yemen, possibly as part of a targeted campaign in violation of international law.  In the conflict that has killed over 4,500 people, the U.S.-backed coalition led by Saudi Arabia supports Yemen’s president-in-exile, Abd Rabu Mansour Hadi, against the predominantly Shiite Houthi fighters from the northern provinces.  Iona Craig reports for Intercept that while it’s unclear whether the bombings are intentionally targeting civilians—which would be a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law—airstrikes show a pattern of indiscriminate bombing in densely-populated areas, including “double-tap” strikes seeming to target civilians assisting in recovery.  Human rights groups have called for the UNHRC to investigate these alleged violations of international law, including U.S. involvement in the killings.

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September 08, 2015