United Kingdom
Writing on human rights, politics and development.
On 20 April 2011, photojournalist Tim Hetherington was killed while on assignment in Libya, amid government forces' shelling of the besieged city of Misrata. Having spent many years covering global conflicts, including in Liberia, Afghanistan, and Sri Lanka, Hetherington had become widely renowned as a war photographer - although this was a label he rejected.
Last month, UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights Professor Philip Alston released a statement following his official visit to the United States. Beyond many issues around taxation, healthcare and housing, his report evaluated the impacts of new information technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), on the poorest Americans...
In the years following the global financial crisis, the academic study and teaching of economics has come in for a bashing. In fact, it has faced the kind of fundamental criticism rarely directed towards entire disciplines.
In October 2016, Theresa May delivered one of her first major speeches as British Prime Minister, in which she declared bluntly: "If you believe you're a citizen of the world, you're a citizen of nowhere. You don't understand what the very word 'citizenship' means."
The existing legal framework for UK aid has its roots in the 1994 Pergau dam case. A decision to fund a dam project in exchange for the securing of a major arms deal with Malaysia was found be unlawful by the high court.
For East Africa's largest economy, these are turbulent times. Beleaguered Treasury Secretary Henry Rotich was summoned before parliament in October to explain reports his department was facing cash shortages. Delays to government payments have accompanied strikes among disgruntled public sector workers and complaints from private sector contractors.
The effectiveness of UK aid spending is reliant on the government's ability to exercise meaningful oversight over spending decisions. This oversight is currently lacking, explain Ambreena Manji and Daniel Cullen , putting the effectiveness of aid spending at risk. The 'known unknowns' of UK aid We are currently witnessing significant changes to the UK aid landscape.
According to recent figures from Amnesty International, at least 1,634 executions took place worldwide last year—the highest reported number in more than 25 years. Given the secrecy surrounding many cases, the true global total may be much higher. But with an overall trend towards universal abolition of the death penalty, the majority of these executions are increasingly concentrated among a small number of states. Over 70% of states have now abolished the death penalty either in law, or in...
Overshadowed by Oxford's ongoing Rhodes statue controversy, in late April a motion was debated by student representatives at Queen Mary, University of London, calling for the removal of plaques commemorating the 1887 visit of King Leopold II of Belgium. Presenting the motion, the university's Pan-African Society referred to atrocities committed during Leopold's rule...
Ethiopia's economy has been one of the fastest growing in the world recently, lifting millions out of poverty. But now protests and violence are spreading across the country, and many are unhappy. Here's what's been happening, and the economics behind the story. Anti-government demonstrations have been taking place in Ethiopia since late 2015.
In December 2013, two weeks after the start of South Sudan's recent internal conflict, South Sudanese academic Jok Madut Jok told a New York Times interviewer: "The two men will eventually sit down, resolve their issues, laugh for the cameras, and the thousands of civilians who have died will not be accounted for.
Last week, the House of Commons' International Development Committee (IDC) released a report providing the first official scrutiny of the government's proposed framework for future UK development spending. The new aid strategy, entitled ' UK aid: tackling global challenges in the national interest', was originally released in November 2015.