Category: Human Rights
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Texas Woman Faces Prison For Voting
Crystal Mason. Illustration by Gary Myrick Voting has more power than you’d think. Crystal Mason will never forget the ballot she cast in the 2016 presidential election. But the Texan shouldn’t have been anywhere near a polling station, even though she was hearing different. “My mom was like, ‘Go vote. Go vote. Go vote,’” she said.…
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UN Report a Blistering Indictment of Myanmar’s Crimes Against Rohingya
It is estimated that 700,000 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar are housed in Cox’s Bazar district in Bangladesh. Credit: Mojibur Rahaman Rana/IPS At 12, Mohammed* is an orphan. He watched his parents being killed by Myanmar government soldiers a year ago. And he is one of an estimated half a million Rohingya children who have survived…
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Parents Who Had Kids Torn From Them File Class Action Lawsuit
A group of parents who had their children taken from them by the United States government announced on Thursday, Sept. 6, that they are filing a class action lawsuit against numerous individuals and agencies that have helped facilitate this crisis. At the law firm Todd & Weld LLP in downtown Boston, three parents got…
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Boston Activists Rally to Show Solidarity With Nationwide Prison Strike
About 150 people rallied outside of Suffolk County Jail Thursday, Aug. 23 to stand in solidarity with a nationwide prison strike which kicked off earlier in the week. As police stood on the jailhouse steps, batons at the ready, protesters chanted, sang, and donned signs. The prison reformists and abolitionists called for the Massachusetts Department…
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Raising the Profile on the Largest Environmental Issue of Our Time
IPS correspondent Tharanga Yakupitiyage spoke to Robert Scholes, ecologist and co-chair of Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service (IPBES) assessment, about land degradation and efforts needed to halt and reverse the catastrophe. Land degradation caused by human activities is occurring at an alarming rate across the world, and the cost will be steep…
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Thousands gather at Boston City Hall against separating immigrant families
All photos by author. An estimated 5,000 marchers gathered at City Hall Plaza just before noon last Saturday, June 30, to protest current immigration policies. The march was one of many hosted in several cities across the nation, in part sparked by photos coming from a processing detention center in McAllen, Texas, as well as…
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Hundreds Rally to Mass. State House to Protest Immigration Policy, State Government’s Inaction
Hundreds of protesters gathered at the Massachusetts State House on Wednesday, June 20, to speak out against the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy that detains those trying to cross the border and separates parents from their children. The protesters — joined by groups such as the ACLU and the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy…
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Panel discusses how racial equity can help solve homelessness
The speakers who discussed racial equity as a solution to homelessness, from left to right: Dr. Monica Bharel, Julia Tripp, and Jeff Olivet. On Thursday, June 14, the Center for Social Innovation held a discussion at The Nonprofit Center in downtown Boston about systemic racism and its impact on the homeless population—and how improving racial…
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Supreme Court Ruling Sparks Discrimination Fears
Civil rights advocates fear the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case will encourage more attempted discrimination against LGBT people. By a 7-2 margin, the court ruled that the cake shop owner had not received an impartial hearing at the Colorado Civil Rights Commission over his refusal on religious grounds to make a wedding…