Human Rights Watch have an international film festival and it comes to London on 17 to 26 March 2010 . The website states that three themes have emerged in the programme: Closed Societies: Iran and North Korea Accountability and...

On International Women's Day, Monday 8 March, Justice for Colombia had a protest outside the Colombian embassy in London. The protest was to demand the release of political prisoners including Liliany Obando. She has campaigned against...

The Robin Hood tax is a proposed tax on speculative banking transactions. It is a tax that takes from the rich and gives to the poor. The proceeds could be used in the fight against global poverty and climate change. Years ago a top...

Vulture funds featured in a Newsnight investigation by Greg Palast shown on 25 February 2010. Vulture funds buy up the debt of very poor countries cheaply and then sue for 10 or even 100 times what they paid for it. Greg Palast...

Murder in Samarkand was last Saturday's Afternoon Play on Radio 4. I missed it but for a short time, until the afternoon of 27 Feb. 2010, it can be heard on the internet. David Tennant plays Craig Murray who was the UK's ambassador to...

The Most Dangerous Man in America is a film I watched recently on a BBC digital channel, BBC 4. You can still catch it for a little while on the internet. Daniel Ellsberg had access to top secret documents about the Vietnam War and the...

On Sunday 21 February 2010 I’m Still the Same Paul was on BBC Radio 3. Music and human rights come together in the person of Paul Robeson, played by Lenny Henry. Robeson was one of the foremost black performers in the world and also...

Joakim points us to "A Crime So Monstrous: Face to Face with Modern Slavery", a book by E Benjamin Skinner. It seems that there are more slaves in the world today then ever before in history.

Who will you vote for in this year's general election? Will your vote go to someone who cares about human rights as much as you do? What do you know about the views of the candidates and of their parties? The election may be less than...

On Saturday 6 February 2010 Channel 4 at 7:30 pm repeated Haiti's Killer Quake: Why It Happened . Part of the programme showed how to make buildings that cost a little more (maybe 15% more) but are much safer in the event of an...

Google and Global Voices will give an award for outstanding use of the internet to promote freedom of expression. Winners of the Breaking Borders Award will be announced at the Global Voices Citizen Media Summit in Santiago, Chile, on...

Desmond Tutu, Nobel peace prize winner and former archbishop of Capetown, is to make an urgent plea to Libya on Monday . He will ask the Libyan government to clarify what has happened to a prominent dissident, Jaballa Matar. His family...

A BAE middleman has been arrested and held , charged with conspiring to make corrupt payments to promote the sale of fighter planes to Austria, Czech Republic and Hungary. The Attorney General, Lady Scotland, has not yet allowed the...

A report from Human Rights Watch says that Barack Obama has set a different tone from Bush but has failed to prevent abuses .

A report from the UN says that Britain was complicit in mistreatment and possible torture . The report indicates that Britain was involved in the secret detention of British Muslims. It follows a report from Human Rights Watch, based...

The Millennium Development Goals , to be achieved by 2015 which is now only 5 years away, include this one: Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases. Malaria can be controlled with technology as simple as bed nets to keep...

The Millennium Development Goals , to be achieved by 2015, include: Goal 5: Improve maternal health Here is the Millennium Development Campaign's web page on Goal 5. As it says on that page, too often the day a baby is born is the day...

The Iraq war was illegal, the inquiry has found . No, not that inquiry in London so much in the news recently. This is a tribunal of seven judges in the Netherlands.

The attack and murder of Togolese footballers in Angola has drawn the attention of the media, yes even of the Sun. It is amazing how a link with football can make news. Lara Pawson writes in the Guardian that Cabinda should be kept in...

The eight Millennium Development Goals , intended to be met by 2015, include this one: Goal 4: Reduce child mortality One of the ways to prevent childen dying is to ensure that they receive injections to protect against common and...