A new Human Rights Watch report shows how Trump’s immigration policies are hurting some of the most vulnerable people, especially undocumented survivors of serious crimes. The US was once the place where people fleeing violence came to feel safe. Under Trump, that promise has been willfully abandoned.
#Immigration #UnitedStates #Migration #HumanRights
Today’s podcast guest is Katrina Fotovat, the former Principal Deputy Director in the Secretary of State’s Office of Global Women’s Issues, where she led a team of experts promoting women, peace, and security, countering violent extremism, promoting women’s economic empowerment, and combatting gender-based violence.
In this episode, we discuss the critical work that has been done by the Office of Global Women’s Issues under three different presidential administrations, local outreach programs facilitated by the US overseas to support women’s issues and combat gender-based violence, including working with men and boys, and the global impacts of the current Trump administration’s drastic cuts to foreign aid.
Listen now; link in bio.
The authorities’ and social media platforms’ insufficient responses have further deterred journalists from speaking out. Additionally, many journalists have migrated to better regulated online media platforms, leaving behind X and Facebook, where abuse remains prevalent, in search of safer, more controlled spaces.
https://ihcr.institute/writing/a-digital-conflict-is-escalating-technology-facilitated-violence-against-women/
UN experts now warn that torture of Palestinians has become “state doctrine” in Israel, potentially a crime against humanity. Defense for Children International – Palestine documents how children seized from Gaza were transported to the Sde Teiman camp, stripped, starved, beaten, caged, subjected to electric shocks, and tormented in a “disco room” with deafening music and random assaults. In legal terms, these practices constitute war crimes under the Rome Statute.
The next live episode of my podcast "On the Issues" is this upcoming Tuesday, May 19, at 4:00pm EDT with Jane Olson, the former Chair of the International Board of Trustees of Human Rights Watch, who has worked many decades as a volunteer promoting international peace and justice and humanitarian work.
Listeners can register for the live podcast recording on Zoom at the following link: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/4317780156830/WN_oZJO-LhIQ9mQjT7TYQEVKg
Archived episodes will be released the following day, on Wednesdays at noon. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app, including Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and Spotify, to be sure to always get the latest episodes.
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A new Human Rights Watch report shows how Trump’s immigration policies are hurting some of the most vulnerable people, especially undocumented survivors of serious crimes. The US was once the place where people fleeing violence came to feel safe. Under Trump, that promise has been willfully abandoned.
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Global violence today is metastasizing, not contained; over 180,000 violent events reported globally by the International Institute for Strategic Studies signal a world in which conflict has become a baseline condition rather than an exception. More than 130 armed conflicts now rage—over twice the number of 15 years ago—shattering infrastructure, tearing apart social fabric, and normalizing dehumanization as a political weapon. Women and children bear the brunt: hundreds of millions live within range of armed clashes, with millions of preventable deaths and lifelong trauma caused not only by bullets and bombs but by hunger, disease, and gender-based violence unleashed by war’s chaos. Yet the UN system and the world’s democracies appear increasingly paralyzed—trapped in vetoes, geopolitical rivalries, and hollow declarations—offering gestures of concern rather than the coordinated, enforced accountability this modern plague of violence so desperately demands.
alonben-meir.com/writing/the-global-epidemic-of-violence-in-an-age-of-impunity/
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Religion, when co-opted by political actors or stripped of its ethical core, becomes a potent catalyst for violence, sanctifying exclusion and legitimizing brutality. Sectarian divides—whether in the Middle East, South Asia, or parts of Africa—transform identity into a battlefield where compromise is heresy and annihilation becomes duty. When faith is manipulated to justify power or grievance, such as in India, Israel or Iraq, it ceases to restrain violence and instead consecrates it, deepening cycles of retribution and rendering conflicts existential rather than negotiable. The convergence of these dimensions explains why violence has become a baseline condition rather than an exception. Several measures must be considered to de-escalate global violence. Although effecting change is extremely difficult, every effort must still be made, provided the public leads the charge through sustained protest, continuous advocacy, and relentless pressure on policymakers to enact change.
alonben-meir.com/writing/the-global-epidemic-of-violence-in-an-age-of-impunity/
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