Our Voices

This Week’s Spotlight on Human Rights

Nearly 100 immigration advocacy groups want the Biden administration to release vulnerable migrants being held in detention centers across the United States, saying current policies have had deadly consequences. In a letter first seen by Newsweek, 94 groups asked President Joe Biden and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas to stop holding those with serious illnesses or disabilities, LGBTQ+ people and those at risk of persecution or torture.


The Taliban has banned women from hearing other women’s voices in its latest attempt to impose a hardline version of Islamic law on Afghanistan. In a rambling voice message, the country’s minister for the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice announced the bizarre new restriction on women’s behaviour.


A top UN official on Wednesday urged a probe into the killings in Bangladesh during protests that led to the downfall of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, while also calling for minority protection and a national process of truth and healing.


The high-profile city councillor was gunned down with her driver in 2018 – now two of her confessed killers go on trial. A small crowd of supporters chanted “justice” as the families of Franco and Gomes arrived for the trial. Franco’s mother, Marinete Silva, told reporters she felt as if she were reliving the day of the murder. “It feels like going through that pain all over again, but today we’re here to try to overcome it. [We are here] to say that this isn’t normal, that something like this shouldn’t happen anywhere.”