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Poverty has been reduced by too little, or not at all, in recent years. A fifth, perhaps a quarter, of the world's population are living in extreme poverty. The measurement of the phenomenon, and especially of annual trends in the rates and severity of poverty, is not acceptably precise, consistent, and generally agreed. Nor is policy being analyzed and justified in precise correlation with such trend reports as have been published.

The first Millennium Development Goal — to halve world poverty by 2015 — has become an unlikely prospect. The reasons lie in the present form of the globalization of the market, together with continuing preference shown to neo-liberal economic and social policies. If poverty is to be systematically reduced, the orthodoxies of definition, measurement, explanation and resolution, which as key elements of the problem necessarily reinforce each other, have to be re-examined and re-formulated quickly.

In re-examining approaches to measurement and policy the new human rights instruments, endorsed by a majority and in some cases by an overwhelming majority of governments, must play a vital role. Their potentialities are considerable for the measurement of poverty, deprivation, exclusion and development. But, crucially, they can help to engineer an international, as well as scientific, consensus in the war on poverty. One priority illustration would be a UN Child Investment Fund to finance the universal right of children to social security.

Robert R. Wilson was the brilliant designer, builder and founding director of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory with its series of high-energy physics particle accelerators providing collision energies of 200, 400 and 2,000 GeV, the most powerful facilities in their class over a period of 40 years. He undertook the "impossible" and succeeded. With untrammeled courage he challenged the establishment as he bypassed many conventional practices in accelerator design, construction and cost control. With his remarkable talents he addressed a wide range of important aspects of the relationships of art and science, elegance and efficiency and physics and society. In doing so he always found ways for his pursuit of science to support his strong advocacy for human rights, international collaboration and democracy.

Huge debt from multilateral institutions, countries, and private creditors, unsustainable loans with onerous default conditions, investments that serve to foster political authority, treaties, and trading relations with unequal partners have set the African continent on a course that threatens its human and economic development prospects. While the multilateral relations, treaties, loans, and investments represent major opportunities for African countries to boost growth, reduce poverty, build infrastructures, and broaden economically, they could also constrain developments, and undermine the capacity of poorer African countries to create the conditions for the realization of human rights. It has been established that debt repayment is often carried out at the expense of basic human rights. In addition, debt servicing and harmful conditions linked to loans and debt relief often limit investment in and undermine the provision of essential public services. The study examined the various factors related to human rights, particularly in the context of China’s loans and financial investment in African countries. It delves into specific human rights concerns relating to socioeconomic, cultural, civil, political, and environmental rights to provide a comprehensive understanding of the human rights issues arising from China’s engagement with African countries. Human rights have also been adopted as measuring tools to assess, measure, and prevent the impact of financial relations, debt burdens, and assistance.

Underlying global efforts to counter fake news, psychological warfare and manipulation of public opinion is a far more fundamental battle: the global campaign by civilizationalists, illiberals, autocrats and authoritarians to create a new world media order that would reject freedom of the press and reduce the fourth estate to scribes and propaganda outlets.

The effort appears to have no limits. Its methods range from seeking to reshape international standards defining freedom of expression and the media; the launch and/or strengthening of government-controlled global, regional, national and local media in markets around the world; government acquisition of stakes in privately-owned media; advertising in independent media dependent on advertising revenue; funding of think-tanks; demonization; coercion; repression; and even assassination.

The effort to create a new media world order is closely linked to attempts to a battle between liberals and non-liberals over concepts of human rights, the roll-out of massive Chinese surveillance systems in China and beyond and a contest between the United States and China for dominance of the future of technology.

The stakes in these multiple battles could not be higher. They range from basic human and minority rights to issues of transparency, accountability and privacy, human rights, the role of the fourth estate as an independent check on power, freedom of expression and safeguards for human and physical dignity.

The battles are being waged in an environment in which a critical mass of world leaders appears to have an unspoken consensus on the principles of governance that should shape a new world order. Men like Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Victor Orbán, Benjamin Netanyahu, Mohammed bin Salman, Mohammed bin Zayed, Narendra Modi, Rodrigo Duterte, Jair Bolsonaro, Win Myint and Donald J. Trump have all to varying degrees diluted the concepts of human rights and undermined freedom of the press. If anything, it is this tacit understanding among the world’s foremost leaders that in shaping a new world order constitutes the greatest threat to liberal values.

Despite the presence of UN peace operations for more than two decades, the human rights situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is still dire. This article illustrates the types of violations of human rights and hindrances to protect human rights in MONUSCO. Methodologically being a qualitative study, it is based on existing literature and key informant interviews. Killings of civilians, sexual and gender-based violence, child soldiers, war crimes and crimes against humanity are major types of human rights violations in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The study argues that due to structural challenges, like the bureaucratic structure of MONUSCO, inadequacy of budget and juristic limitation of the Peacekeeping Force, and operational challenges, like challenges in the protection of civilians and UN personnel, the paucity of logistics and manpower and also gender-based violence by some UN personnel and peacekeepers in MONUSCO, the UN forces failed to maintain and defend human rights properly.

This paper critically examines Carlos Montemayor’s human rights-based approach to AI ethics, as presented in his 2023 book The Prospect of a Humanitarian Artificial Intelligence. Montemayor proposes that the concept of human rights, grounded in the cognitive needs of human beings, should guide AI development. This paper challenges Montemayor’s moral value-realism (the belief in objective moral values) by arguing for a more inclusive ethical framework that reconciles moral value-realism with skepticism. By proposing an agnostic stance towards moral truths, it suggests a new framework for AI ethics based on subjective intrinsic valuations and shared moral commitments, rather than on objective moral truths. In this proposed framework, without either denying or asserting the existence of absolute values and moral truths, human rights in AI ethics are grounded in collective moral commitments to value human beings intrinsically, rather than in inherent moral truths. This facilitates a more pragmatic and inclusive solution that allows for a diversity of ethical and metaethical perspectives while aligning with the complex nature of AI’s societal integration. The paper concludes that while Montemayor’s work is foundational, it invites further adaptation to develop AI systems that are ethically sound and in harmony with a broad spectrum of human values.

In this paper, I estimate the causal effect of economic shocks on religious freedom violations in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Sudan, using a difference-in-differences empirical strategy. Controlling for country and year effects, the timing of local conflicts and genocide, and other economic, health, and population factors; a one standard deviation increase in GDP per capita annual change caused a 0.16–0.20 standard deviation decrease in freedom of religion or belief violations in these countries between the years 1999–2020.

This research paper aims to explore the perceptions of Saudi women about their legal awareness with regards to domestic violence (DV) laws. While there has been an increasing interest in the ‘common place of law’, there is a dearth of research on women's views about their legal consciousness of DV laws, both in Saudi Arabia and internationally. The study aims to bridge this gap and contribute to our understanding of how women's awareness, individually and collectively, of their legal rights enhances the implementation of laws and the elimination of DV in matrimonial homes. Thematic analysis was utilised to highlight recurring themes in the interviews and map major themes in the literature. The findings reveal a lack or minimal awareness of DV laws among Saudi women. This was attributed to simplistic views of DV and the legal treatment adopted by the state, socio-cultural influences and the absence of women's voices in the legal discourse.

The Centre for Human Rights and Climate Change Research is a non-governmental not-for-profit organization located in Nigeria and established on the 15th of December, 2010. The Centre was founded to advance and promote understanding of human rights, climate change, sustainable development, drug abuse, international affairs and shape related policies through education, research, policy advocacy and organizing and facilitating local, national, regional and international fora; and to be a global think tank serving as a resource and reference centre for international, regional and national decision/policymakers and programmers while also opening up space for every man, woman, girl and boy to contribute their views to international, regional and national issues bordering on human rights, climate change, sustainable development, drug policies and international affairs and to be a platform for justice.

In 1965 the first sexual moral panic was created in Indonesia: the slander that communist women would have castrated and killed army generals. In reality the generals had been abducted and killed by army personnel. This moral panic served to help legitimise the rise to power of General Suharto and incited militias to murder possibly one million people. Since late 2015 another sexual moral panic has been raging. It is again directed from above by political and religious elites. This time the LGBT community is targeted. Though same-sex relations between consenting adults has never been criminalised, and Indonesia has been known as relatively tolerant of homosexuality, raids on gay saunas and bars are held, and lesbian couples evicted from their boarding houses. Activists are targeted, foreign funding is blocked, and anti-LGBT legislation is being prepared. The old communist phobic campaign persists and is even combined with the present homophobic campaign. Right after the re-election of President Joko Widodo conservative forces in the Parliament produced a revised draft of the Criminal Code in which both homosexuality and the spreading of Marxist literature would be criminalised. The passing of this bill was only prevented by student demonstrations, at the cost of the loss of several young lives. In this chapter, I will compare both campaigns, discuss the political and religious motivations behind them and sketch the current human rights climate in Indonesia.

Robert R. Wilson was the brilliant designer, builder and founding director of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory with its series of high-energy physics particle accelerators providing collision energies of 200, 400 and 2,000 GeV, the most powerful facilities in their class over a period of 40 years. He undertook the “impossible” and succeeded. With untrammeled courage he challenged the establishment as he bypassed many conventional practices in accelerator design, construction and cost control. With his remarkable talents he addressed a wide range of important aspects of the relationships of art and science, elegance and efficiency and physics and society. In doing so he always found ways for his pursuit of science to support his strong advocacy for human rights, international collaboration and democracy.

Spain and Portugal have established cooperation mechanisms to manage their shared water resources in order to avoid any potential conflict. Cooperation is clearly reflected in the 1998 Albufeira Convention, which provides a legal framework to regulate all transboundary basins between both countries to protect surface water and groundwater, as well as the aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems that depend on them for the sustainable use of water resources. The 1998 Albufeira Convention establishes as one of the uses of the Tagus Basin Gthe transfer of water interbasin such as the Aqueduct Tagus-Segura (ATS). According to this Convention, the management of water uses and the right to use water shall be addressed to guarantee the sustainable use of water that is already established. The ATS is a use guaranteed and protected under international water law. The analysis of the ATS in the context of the international legislation to mitigate water scarcity, and droughts provides the strategies to promote resilience to climate change and the impacts of drought conditions in the society in a sustainable manner while ensuring the fundamental rights.