Human Rights in the News: April 2024
/Welcome to the April 2024 edition of Human Rights in the News, Woven Teaching’s monthly collection of important human rights stories from around the world.
Supporters of Swiss group Senior Women for Climate Protection hold a banner (Credit: REUTERS/Emma Farge)
How three European human rights cases could shape climate litigation
Gloria Dickie and Emma Farge | Reuters | 7 April 2024
Three cases in front of the European Court of Human Rights could set important precedents for governments’ responsibility to protect people from the effects of climate change. “This will be the first time the European Court rules on whether allegedly weak climate change policies infringe on people's human rights enshrined in the European Convention.”
Amnesty International’s Secretary General, Agnes Callamard, speaks at a press conference (Credit: AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
World seeing near breakdown of international law amid wars in Gaza and Ukraine, Amnesty says
Sylvia Hui | AP News | 23 April 2024
International human rights organization Amnesty International has warned of the “near breakdown of international law” in the current moment. “The human rights organization said the most powerful governments, including the United States, Russia and China, have led a global disregard for international rules and values enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, with civilians in conflicts paying the highest price.”
People hold a yellow and purple banner reading “intersex rights are human rights”
A “big victory” for intersex people and their rights
UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights | 5 April 2024
The UN Human Rights Council has adopted a resolution calling on Member States to enhance protections for intersex people (people “born with sex characteristics that do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies”). The resolution calls for larger efforts to combat discrimination, violence, and harmful practices against intersex people and is the first resolution of its kind for the UN.
Encampment at Columbia University in New York (Credit: AP)
Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters arrested at campuses as colleges crack down on encampments
Mirna Alsharif | NBC News | 28 April 2024
Students have set up encampments at dozens of universities across the United States to protest in support of Palestinian human rights. Most of the protests have one major demand: for universities to stop investing in companies that could be profiting from the violence in Palestine. Police crackdowns have occurred at many protest sites, and some students have been expelled for participating in the protests.
Fence with barbed wire (Credit: Getty Images)
The Unbearable Heat of Prisons in Summer
Scott Guild | TIME | 23 April 2024
44 states lack air conditioning in their prisons, resulting in an increase in death and heat-related illnesses as temperatures rise. “With its rising number of deaths, Texas prisons have received a specific censure from the U.N. Convention Against Torture. The U.N. called the prisons ‘unbearably hot’ and pressed for ‘urgent measures.’ Very few have yet been taken.”
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