Deadly ride

Anti-Slavery International has uncovered children as young as ten years old forced to take part in dangerous camel races in the United Arab Emirates. We were able to take photos to prove that children were involved in a total of twelve races at the Sweihan race track in Abu Dhabi on February 9, 2010.

Witches of Africa

These three children were lucky. Many children in the society who were accused of witchcraft never lived to tell their stories. They were tortured to death, bathed with acid, abandoned to die by the roadside or in the bush. Jane, Abigail, Godswill and hundreds of children in the Akwa Ibom camp carry the scars of the witch-hunting campaigns that have been going on across Nigeria and many other parts of Africa.

Barring the Bahais

Despite their intimate ties to the land and the people of Iran, Bahais have been the constant target of state-sanctioned discrimination and violence for more than a century. Today, much of this intolerance stems from propagations by the Iranian government, that the Bahai faith is a wayward sect or cult whose members have deviated from Islam and are therefore apostates.

Blogging beyond borders

We hear a lot about how the internet has shrunk the world into one small global village. Online tools are seen as the great levellers of the age, and they may well be. But, consider this: while the worldwide transmission of news and ideas has indeed become easier for a large number of people across the globe, their physical bodies are all that is required by those seeking to punish such transmission or circulation of information and ideas.

In bad company

A number of Eurasian countries, notably Kazakhstan, are adopting tactics very similar to those of Belarus in order to curb critical media coverage, particularly on the internet. Recent increases in the numbers of online users in these countries have undoubtedly contributed to authorities’ perceived need to control the web.