Children in the military, including state armed forces, non-state armed groups, and other military organizations, may be trained for combat, assigned to support roles, such as cooks, porters/couriers, or messengers, or used for tactical advantage such as for human shields, or for political advantage in propaganda. Children have been recruited for participation in military operations and campaigns throughout history and in many cultures.
Eleanor Holmes Norton is an American politician, lawyer, and human rights activist. Holmes serves as a congressional delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives, where she has represented the District of Columbia since 1991 as a member of the Democratic Party.
Liberty, formerly, and still formally, called the National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL), is an advocacy group and membership organisation based in the United Kingdom, which challenges unjust laws, protects civil liberties and promotes human rights. It does this through the courts, in Parliament and in the wider community. Liberty also aims to engender a "rights culture" within British society. The NCCL was founded in 1934 by Ronald Kidd and Sylvia Crowther-Smith, motivated by their humanist convictions.
Trial in absentia is a criminal proceeding in a court of law in which the person being tried is not present. In absentia is Latin for "in (the) absence". Its interpretation varies by jurisdiction and legal system.
The Union of the Committees of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia is a Russian NGO, with a stated mission of exposing human rights violations within the Russian military.
Indira Jaising is an Indian lawyer and activist. Jaising also runs Lawyers' Collective, a non-governmental organization (NGO), the license of which was permanently cancelled by the Home Ministry for alleged violations of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act in 2019. The Bombay High Court later passed an order to de-freeze NGO's domestic accounts. The case is ongoing in the Supreme Court of India.
Human rights in Sri Lanka provides for fundamental rights in the country. The Sri Lanka Constitution states that every person is entitled to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including the freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice. And, that every person is equal before the law.
Human rights in Afghanistan are severely restricted, especially since Taliban's takeover of Kabul in August 2021. Women's rights and freedom are severely restricted as they are banned from most public spaces and employment. Afghanistan is the only country in the world to ban education for women over the age of eleven. Taliban's policies towards women are usually termed as gender apartheid. Minority groups such as Hazaras face persecution and eviction from their lands. Authorities have used physical violence, raids, arbitrary arrests and detention, torture, enforced disappearances of activists and political opponents.
Maya (Anne) Evans is a councillor on Hastings Borough Council representing Hollington ward in East Sussex. Since being first elected in 2018, Maya has been Armed Forces champion of Hastings, led a working group to reduce single-use plastics, and appointed cabinet member for climate change, natural environment and leisure. During the pandemic she held a senior position within the council; this ensured Hollington was always prioritised and received essential services. Maya is currently cabinet member for Environment and was described as the ‘climate change champion’ in 2019.
SharmishtaChakrabarti, Baroness Chakrabarti, is a British politician, barrister, and human rights activist. A member of the Labour Party, she served as the director of Liberty, a major advocacy group which promotes civil liberties and human rights, from 2003 to 2016. From 2016 to 2020, she served as Shadow Attorney General for England and Wales.
Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza is a Rwandan politician who served as chairwoman of the Unified Democratic Forces from 2006 to 2019. As an advocate for democracy and critic of President Paul Kagame, she was the UDF's candidate for the Rwandan 2010 presidential elections, but was ultimately arrested and sentenced to prison. A Sakharov Prize nominee, she served 8 years of a 15-year prison sentence in Kigali Central Prison on charges of terrorism and threatening national security. She currently leads the party Development And Liberty For All, with the focus to campaign for more political space and for development.
Irom Chanu Sharmila, also known as the "Iron Lady of Manipur" or "Mengoubi" is an Indian civil rights activist, political activist, and poet from the Indian state of Manipur, which is located on the north-eastern side of India. In November 2000, she began a hunger strike for abolishing the Armed Forces Act, 1958. After 16 years, she ended her fast in 2016, after being nasally force-fed for over 500 weeks in custody. Therefore, she has been viewed as the world's longest hunger striker. Amnesty International has declared her as a prisoner of conscience.
The Central African Republic, which the United Nations High Commissioner has described as undergoing "the most neglected crisis in the world", has an extremely poor human rights record. It has been designated 'Not Free' by Freedom House from 1972 to 1990, in 2002 and 2003, and from 2014 to the present day. It was rated 'Partly Free' from 1991 to 2001 and from 2004 to 2013. On the United Nations Human Development Index, it ranks 179 out of 187 countries. Between 1988 and 2008, life expectancy decreased from 49 years to 47.7 years.
Amal Clooney is a British international human rights lawyer. Notable clients of hers include former Maldivian president Mohamed Nasheed, Australian WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, Yazidi human rights activist Nadia Murad, Filipino-American journalist Maria Ressa, Azerbaijani journalist Khadija Ismayilova, and Egyptian-Canadian journalist Mohamed Fahmy. She has held various appointments with the Government of the United Kingdom and the United Nations, and is also an adjunct law professor at Columbia Law School. In 2016, she and her husband, the American actor George Clooney, co-founded the Clooney Foundation for Justice.
Nadiya Viktorivna Savchenko is a Ukrainian politician, former Army aviation pilot in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and former People's Deputy of Ukraine.
Not all armed forces have policies explicitly permitting LGBT personnel. Generally speaking, Western European militaries show a greater tendency toward inclusion of LGBT individuals. As of 2022, more than 30 countries allow transgender military personnel to serve openly, such as Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine and the United States. Cuba and Thailand reportedly allowed transgender service in a limited capacity.
The Kashmir conflict has been beset by large scale usage of sexual violence by multiple belligerents since its inception.
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Russian military and authorities have committed war crimes, such as deliberate attacks against civilian targets, including on hospitals, medical facilities and on the energy grid; indiscriminate attacks on densely-populated areas; the abduction, torture and murder of civilians; forced deportations; sexual violence; destruction of cultural heritage; and the killing and torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war.
Sexual violence in the Russian invasion of Ukraine has been committed by Armed Forces of Russia, including the use of mass rape as a weapon of war. According to the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, the victims of sexual assault by Russian soldiers ranged from 4 years old to over 80 years old.
The Makiivka surrender incident happened during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine in the village of Makiivka, Luhansk Oblast. Videos depict what appear to be at least ten Russian soldiers surrendering to four Ukrainian soldiers in Makiivka. Russian soldiers exit an outhouse one by one and lay facedown on the ground. Ukrainian soldiers appear relaxed with rifles pointed to the ground. Then an eleventh Russian soldier suddenly emerges and opens fire at the Ukrainians, catching them by surprise, a possible war crime of perfidy. In another video, there are about 12 dead visible on the footage. When the footage was taken, and who shot the footage, is currently unknown.
