Human Rights in the News: January 2025

Welcome to the January 2025 edition of Human Rights in the News, Woven Teaching’s monthly collection of important human rights stories from around the world.

Trump signing executive orders at the White House (Credit: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Judge blocks Trump’s ‘blatantly unconstitutional’ executive order that aims to end birthright citizenship
Tierney Sneed  |  CNN  |  23 January 2025

US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order ending birthright citizenship in the United States. Lawsuits have been brought against the order in several states. The right to a nationality is one of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ 30 articles.

Aerial view of the mine (Credit: AP Photo)

‘Massacre’: Did South Africa starve dozens of trapped miners to death?
Shola Lawal  |  Al Jazeera  |  16 January 2025

“Rights groups have criticised the [South African] government for failing to prevent what they are calling a ‘massacre’ after security officials cut off food and other essential supplies to [informal] miners for several weeks and delayed a rescue operation.” Because the miners were not authorized to be in those mines, authorities declined an official rescue mission for months, leading to close to 80 deaths.

The hands of a garment worker (Credit: Amnesty International)

What is a living wage and why is it a human rights issue?
Amnesty International  |  22 January 2025

Nearly 241 million workers around the world are living in extreme poverty. No country legally requires employers to pay their workers a living wage, though many countries do have (an often insufficient) minimum wage. The lack of a living wage goes against several articles of the UDHR, including the right to an adequate standard of living.

Entrance to a Costco store in California (Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images North America)

Costco's shareholders overwhelmingly reject anti-DEI proposal
Scott Neuman and Alana Wise  |  NPR  |  23 January 2025

The shareholders of Costco, the world’s third largest retailer, have rejected a plan proposed by a conservative group to end the company’s DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) programs. 98% of shareholders voted against the proposal. This vote comes at a time when companies and organizations are being threatened by the new US presidential administration to end all DEI programs.

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg (Credit: Vincent Kessler/Reuters)

Woman who refuses sex is not ‘at fault’ in divorce in France, court rules
Angelique Chrisafis  |  The Guardian  |  23 January 2025

 The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that a woman who refuses to have sex with her husband should not be considered “at fault” for the divorce. The case comes from a French man who sought a divorce from his wife because she refused to have sexual relations with him. “‘The court concluded that the very existence of such a marital obligation ran counter to sexual freedom, [and] the right to bodily autonomy,’ a court statement said. ‘The applicant’s husband could have petitioned for divorce, submitting the irretrievable breakdown of the marriage as the principal ground, and not, as he had done, as an alternative ground.’”

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