Perspectivas / Perspectives

UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet led calls on Tuesday for Afghanistan’s new Taliban leaders to respect the rights of all Afghans and warned that the treatment of women and girls is a “fundamental red line” that should not be crossed.

Geneva, Aug.24.– Speaking at the opening of an emergency session at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, a little over a week since the Taliban swept to power, Ms. Bachelet reminded Member States of credible reports of violations of international humanitarian law against civilians in areas under their control.

These reports, she said, make it especially important that the Human Rights Council work in unison to prevent further abuses, and that Member States establish a dedicated mechanism to monitor the fast-evolving situation in Afghanistan and, in particular, the Taliban's implementation of its promises.

Summary Justice

El reparto de comida procedente de donaciones internacionales comienza en los lugares donde las protestas del 11 de julio fueron más intensas

 La Habana, Ago. 1.– Desde el viernes la cola no cesa a las afueras de la bodega de las calles 251 y 50 en Punta Brava, una barriada habanera de La Lisa. Pero a diferencia de otras veces, los clientes solo necesitan su libreta de racionamiento y una bolsa, porque el módulo de alimentos que se reparte es gratis.

"La gente no se lo cree todavía, por eso ha venido medio pueblo hoy no vaya a ser que después se arrepientan y comiencen a cobrarnos", bromea Juan, uno de los sorprendidos residentes en las cercanías del local que regresó a su casa con dos bolsas de pastas, algo de azúcar, dos paquetes de chícharos y tres de arroz.

Balancing property owners' rights with the need to provide homes for our growing population. 

Property dereliction is another manifestation of the latitude afforded to property owners in Ireland.

Dublin, Aug. 2.– Even the most indifferent, daydreaming student of our history will, even if by osmosis, understand that it is largely a story of those who own property and those who do not. That is the case in most societies, but it seems an especially sharp and enduring conflict in this country. Whole swathes of our history are focused on mitigating the disproportionate impact property ownership — landlordism, in the vernacular of our revolutions — had on the fate of those of no property.

As in all post-colonial societies, there was an assumption that we would use independence to better balance the ambitions and rights of property owners and others. That being a tenant rather than a mortgage-holding home-owner — eventually — is still almost regarded as a kind of expensive failure shows how uncomfortable much of this society remains with being dependent on a landlord. That institutional investors have taken such a grip in the home market will do little to allay those concerns.

Tenants disadvantage

Dharamsala, July 20.– The Dalai Lama defended religious freedom as freedom of thought while calling for an end to religious conflict in a special video message to the International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington, DC last week.

“We human beings, unlike other animals, we have this very sharp intelligence and also have the ability to visualize a long future,” he said. “So in that respect, the various different religious traditions develop. So religious freedom is actually in a way the freedom of our thought.”