Category Archives: Human Rights

The haunting faces of child laborers.

Posted on May 31, 2011 by Barbara Dillon Hillas

It wasn’t too long ago that children were employed in all sorts of jobs.  The haunting faces of these child laborers are depicted in a collection of photos:  American Child Labour c. 1900-1937.  Among all the squalor and harsh reality … Continue reading →

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UNDP’s Rule of Law annual report.

Posted on May 24, 2011 by Barbara Dillon Hillas

The UNDP’s Annual Report:  Global Programme on Strengthening the Rule of Law in Conflict and Post-Conflict Situations.

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The hideous consequences of war: Soviet Rape of Berlin women.

Posted on May 9, 2011 by Barbara Dillon Hillas

Frederick Kempe explains the brutality: According to estimates extracted from hospital records, between 90,000 and 130,000 Berlin women had been raped during the last days of the war and the first days of Soviet rule – a soldiers’ expression of … Continue reading →

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Stalin’s Gulag is now a Museum on the Internet.

Posted on May 8, 2011 by Barbara Dillon Hillas

Here’s the virtual museum:  European Memories of the Gulag. From RFI: Between 1939 and 1953, the Soviet Union deported almost one million people from the European territories it occupied. Some were sent to labour camps but most were deported to … Continue reading →

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Afghan women’s rights.

Posted on April 9, 2011 by Barbara Dillon Hillas

An Afghan women’s rights activist, Wazhmah Frogh, asks the question and provides the answer: …does the threat to the women of Afghanistan only come from the Taliban’s insurgency? Not, exactly. The failure of governance—with the accompanying impunity perpetuated through a … Continue reading →

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No real informed consent in driver’s license organ donor designations. UPDATED.

Posted on April 9, 2011 by Barbara Dillon Hillas

(National Donate Life Month brought back to mind my concerns about organ donation, so I re-post what I wrote last year.) Until my own personal experience with the aggressive and predatory approach to organ donation, I believed in the altruism … Continue reading →

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Afghan women, self-immolation.

Posted on April 3, 2011 by Barbara Dillon Hillas

Elliot Woods has an agonizing video, with a glimmer of hope, on women in Afghanistan and self-immolation.  From Herat Burning:  “I see a little ray of hope, but it is very far away…”  So says Maria Bashir, Herat’s chief prosecutor, … Continue reading →

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“Children of the Revolution.”

Posted on April 1, 2011 by Barbara Dillon Hillas

Where’s the outrage?  A photo essay from Foreign Policy.

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“They Call It Myanmar”

Posted on March 30, 2011 by Barbara Dillon Hillas

“They Call It Myanmar” is a new film about Burma: Shot clandestinely over a 2-year period by best-selling novelist and filmmaker, Robert H. Lieberman, this film provides a rare look at the second-most isolated country on the planet. It lifts … Continue reading →

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The bumblebee (Brundibar).

Posted on March 29, 2011 by Barbara Dillon Hillas

I have a friend who is trying to raise funds for an international education project to tell the story of the 15,000 children who were imprisoned in Terezin. The main goal of the project is to obtain testimony from the … Continue reading →

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Child slavery in Nepal: “kamalari”.

Posted on March 28, 2011 by Barbara Dillon Hillas

Of human bondage: Aid organizations estimate that 10,000 girls work as kamalari in Nepal. As long ago as 1956, the United Nations declared that forms of child labor and bonded labor were slavery and should therefore be outlawed. However, although … Continue reading →

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Via Walter Olson: Chinese mothers – abortions and adoptions.

Posted on March 27, 2011 by Barbara Dillon Hillas

Walter Olson, of Overlawyered and the Cato Institute, is an overly perspicacious man.  He never fails to point out the legally inane as well as the legally insane:  to wit:  a depressing account of Chinese desperate measures.

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South Africa: from massacre to Human Rights Day.

Posted on March 21, 2011 by Barbara Dillon Hillas

It seems like ancient history now, but, in reality, it was not that long ago that South Africa was subject to the invidious pass laws, and a massacre occurred that would eventually bring down the whole system of apartheid. For … Continue reading →

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Failed states.

Posted on March 18, 2011 by Barbara Dillon Hillas

Very interesting article in The Economist on the term “failed state“: …states that cannot control their territories, protect their citizens, enter or execute agreements with outsiders, or administer justice are a common and worsening phenomenon. Robert Gates, America’s defence secretary, … Continue reading →

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Women’s rights.

Posted on March 3, 2011 by Barbara Dillon Hillas

First, read this: White House Releases First Comprehensive Federal Report on the Status of American Women in Almost 50 Years Then, watch this:

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