It happens every year around December 10th.  I’ll be standing at the stove cooking dinner, or simply waiting at the bus shelter when I suddenly get a little choked up.  Or a lot choked up, depending on the year. This Saturday will be one of those days — International Human Rights Day, the anniversary of […]

When I was in college, I had a small book of questions meant to serve as conversation starters for social gatherings. There was one question in particular that I had no idea how to answer, and not having a response seemed to indicate some form of personal shortcoming in my young and idealistic mind: “Is […]

In an era when human rights monitoring is a standard feature in peacekeeping missions worldwide, the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) operates as perhaps the only UN peacekeeping entity without a human rights component.

Say the words “hunger strike” and many will recall images of an emaciated Mahatma Gandhi enduring several famous fasts to protest British rule of India. But most Americans are currently unaware of an ailing human rights campaigner from Western Sahara now in the third week of a risky hunger strike after being expelled from her […]