About 130 million people voted in the recent US elections. In contrast, just 2,270 delegates to the Chinese Communist Party Congress met to choose the new leadership of the world’s most populous country. While the Chinese leaders met...

We’re winning! That’s not a claim you may hear too often from human rights activists, but in the case of the global struggle against the death penalty, it’s true. The momentum around the world is towards ending executions. The vast...

When David Hockney published his etching In the dull village in 1967, the UK government was busy passing the Sexual Offences Act to (partially) decriminalise homosexuality in England and Wales. It was another fifteen years before...

Readers of my posts over on the Northern Ireland blog Slugger O'Toole will know that I and others there share a particular interest in Haiti . So, I thought it worthwhile to note the regrettable decision by a Haitian court not to...

I first posted this on Slugger O'Toole , on yesterday's 10th anniversary of Guantánamo Bay. Ten years ago today, the first detainees were transferred to the US naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Since then 779 people have been held...