Human Rights in the News: September 2020
/Curated by Nikki Bambauer & Nina Simone Grotch
Welcome to the September 2020 edition of Human Rights in the News, Woven Teaching’s monthly collection of important human rights stories from around the world.
Caster Semenya in a white tank top and dark shorts competing in March 2020.
Caster Semenya loses appeal in Swiss court over restriction of testosterone levels
George Ramsay and Jill Martin | CNN | September 9, 2020
Three-time world champion and olympic gold medalist Caster Semenya has lost her appeal against the restriction of testosterone levels in female athletes. Semenya, who has increased testosterone levels as the result of differences in sex development, will not be allowed to compete in some races unless she takes testosterone-reducing drugs. Learn more >
A masked woman sits at a desk in an office at the Human Rights Commission. She is wearing light teal pants and a black bikini top. On the wall behind her, someone has painted “no perdonamos ni olvidamos” (“we neither forgive nor forget” (Credit: RadicalGirlsss on Twitter)
Why Women Staged a Protest at Mexico City's Human Rights Office
Leah Rodriguez | Global Citizen | September 10, 2020
A group of women in Mexico recently took over the building of the Human Rights Commission in Mexico City. The demonstration was in protest of the government’s mishandling of human rights abuses against women and gender-based violence. Learn more >
Shreyaa and Esha Venkat sit cross-legged on the floor holding up red, white, and pink bags. The bags contain hygiene products.
Teen sisters' nonprofit gives food and toiletries to the homeless
Carly Stern | DailyMail | September 22, 2020
Two teen sisters, Shreyaa and Esha Venkat, founded Nest4Us, a nonprofit that provides food and necessities to unhoused communities in Washington, DC. Over the past four years, their volunteer team has grown to over 1,000 people. This month, the sisters were honored by George H.W. Bush's Points of Light organization. Learn more >
Rohingya refugees carrying their belongings on a green hillside, August 2017 (Credit: Adam Dean/The New York Times)
‘Kill All You See’: In a First, Myanmar Soldiers Tell of Rohingya Slaughter
Hannah Beech, Saw Nang, and Marlise Simons | The New York Times | September 8, 2020
Two soldiers’ recent video testimony marks the first time that members of Myanmar’s military have openly confessed to taking part in the genocide of the Rohingya people. The two men fled Myanmar and were recently transported to The Hague, the location of the International Criminal Court. Learn more >
A white cardboard sign which reads, “Wet’suwet’en solidarity. Caution: colonialism at work” (Credit: Ollie Millington/Getty Images)
Facebook says it ‘mistakenly’ suspended hundreds of activists’ accounts
Justine Calma | The Verge | September 24, 2020
Facebook suspended the accounts of more than 200 organizers in the lead-up to an event protesting the Coastal GasLink pipeline in Canada. The proposed pipeline would cut through the Wet’suwet’en Nation’s unceded territory. Facebook denies targeting the activists. Learn more >
Two brothers, ages 10 and 12, bent over and working with concrete at a construction site in Gaya, India (Credit: Atul Loke/The New York Times)
Futures in Peril: The Rise of Child Labor in the Pandemic
Richard Pérez-Peña | The New York Times | September 27, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has spurred millions of children into the labor force. As schools have closed and guardians’ incomes have fallen or stopped, kids around the world are being forced to do dangerous, grueling work to support their families. According to The New York Times, the situation is “a catastrophic shift for some of the world’s most vulnerable people, undoing years of gains for education and against child labor, and undermining their prospects of climbing out of poverty.” Learn more >
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