Human Rights in the News: July 2022
/Welcome to the July 2022 edition of Human Rights in the News, Woven Teaching’s monthly collection of important human rights stories from around the world.
Protestors hold cardboard signs, the most prominent of which reads, “Climate Justice Now” (Credit: Laura Quiñones)
UN General Assembly declares access to clean and healthy environment a universal human right
UN News | July 28, 2022
“The resolution will help reduce environmental injustices, close protection gaps and empower people, especially those that are in vulnerable situations, including environmental human rights defenders, children, youth, women and indigenous peoples”, said UN Secretary-General António Gutteres.
A child wearing a white long sleeve collared shirt hold a rainbow pride flag (Credit: Alejandro Pagni/AFP via Getty Images)
Buenos Aires officials sued over unjust ban on gender-neutral language in schools
Amelia Hansford | Pink News | July 25, 2022
Local officials in Buenos Aires are being taken to court after banning teachers from using gender-neutral language to address students, such as “chic@s,” “chiqxs,” or “chiques.”
Khalid Ahmed Qasim looking at the camera (Credit: Joint Task Force/Guantanamo-Reprieve)
Guantanamo detainee cleared for release after 20 years of detention without trial
Ellie Kaufman | CNN | July 20, 2022
Khalid Ahmed Qasim, who has been held in the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay since 2002–without being charged with a crime–has been cleared for release. “According to a press release from Reprieve, Qasim was ‘severely tortured,’ during his time in US custody, including ‘being forced to sleep standing up causing extreme sleep deprivation, subjected to freezing temperatures and being kept in a fenced area with his hands and feet shackled, leaving him unable to walk.’”
META founder Mark Zuckerberg, wearing a black long sleeve shirt, making a speech (Credit: Nick Wass/AP)
Facebook Approved Pro-Genocide Ads in Kenya After Claiming to Foster 'Safe and Secure' Elections
Dell Cameron | Gizmodo | July 29, 2022
Kenya’s National Cohesion and Integration Commission has threatened to suspend Facebook from operating in the country after the social media platform allowed ads advocating for ethnic cleansing.
Crosses on a bridge near Kyiv, Ukraine (Credit: Sopa Images via Getty Images)
Congress Wary Of Calling Russia’s Actions In Ukraine ‘Genocide’
Jonathan Nicholson | HuffPost | July 2, 2022
“Declaring Ukrainians to be the victims of a genocide may not have huge practical implications, but the historic weight of the word, with its overtones of the Holocaust, the killing fields of Cambodia and the breakup of Yugoslavia, may matter more. War crimes and crimes against humanity are deplored, but genocide by its nature implies the need for more forceful, immediate action. And though President Joe Biden has said he thinks it’s genocide, that concern over the obligations the label would impose may be why there’s wariness on Capitol Hill to follow suit.”
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