Human Rights Activists

Over 400,000 workers on Indian tea plantations that supply the world’s largest tea companies have gone on strike over the government’s failure to implement a promised daily wage increase from £1.70 to £3.70 a day.

Dr. Dre Sued for Allegedly Hiding Assets From His Estranged WifeComplex | 4dDr. Dre's divorce is getting messier and messier. According to TMZ, the hip-hop mogul's estranged wife has filed a lawsuit accusing him of hidin

A social media campaign calling for the release of 12 Hong Kong youths detained in China is gaining ground, with support from international activists including Greta Thunberg. The teenage environmentalist is among a growing list of international activists, campaigners and politicians sharing the hashtag #save12HKyouths, hoping to draw international attention to the plight of 12 young people held under tight security in mainland China after they were caught allegedly trying to flee Hong Kong by boat.Mainland ChinaSocial MediaDetaineesActivismChinese GovernmentTaiwanEnvironmentalistHong Kong GovernmentHuman Rights ActivistsAndy LiBoatChinese AuthoritiesInternational ActivistsProtestersMainland LawyersGreta ThunbergJoshua WongRead Full Story

Voting for many is burdensome. Americans wait in line for hours to vote. Celebrities urge followers to make a voting plan in order to accommodate the inconveniences of voting. How can it be made easier? Some, mostly Democrats and voting rights advocates, believe Election Day should be a holiday. But when CBS News campaign reporter Cara Korte looked into the topic, voting experts urged that declaring Election Day a federal holiday wouldn't solve any of the frustrating problems we're seeing today. In fact, it might lead to further congestion at polling places. 'I'm not a fan,' said Eddie Perez, an election administration and election technology expert at the Open Source Election Technology (OSET) Institute. He said it's more important to spread voting out over a period of days and methods. Concentrating voters into a single day risks congesting polling places, even more so than some already are. Early and at-home voting 'helps prevent bottlenecks for election administrators because it 'flattens the curve' for when ballots are cast by large numbers of voters,' Perez said. Executive director and founder of the Center for Election Innovation & Research David Becker argues that increasing turnout is a nuanced problem that can't be fixed by declaring a holiday. Like Perez, Becker thinks giving voters more time and opportunity to vote is the best approach. 'We already know how to make voting convenient to voters -- that's by offering them options, like making an election season rather than election day,' he said. 'And we actually have more options than ever before.'Read Full Story  SuffrageWhite HouseGrand CanyonElection NightPolling PlacesNational PollingEarly VotingCNNCDCWorking Families PartyCongressional DistrictNBCAmber IntegratedData OrbitalLas Vegas Review-JournalDonald TrumpJoe BidenJohn KatkoAmy Coney BarrettMax RoseKendra HornBill StepienDavid BeckerBarbara CegavskeHillary ClintonMark MeadowsRuben GallegoMike PenceStephanie BiceKaren PenceSteven WilliamsRob Ryan

PHNOM PENH Oct 21 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The pandemic risks triggering a race to the bottom that could push tens of millions of Asian garment workers into greater hazard on the factory floor, with women hardest hit, the International Labour Organization said on Wednesday.About 40% of workers furloughed or laid off by the COVID-19 crisis were not back at work by the third quarter and those who do return could lose hard-won labour rights, the agency said.“Workers are extremely vulnerable and factories are vulnerable to agree to conditions with brands that don’t allow them to ensure proper working conditions,” said Tara Rangarajan of the ILO’s Better Work programme.“It’s important ... that this doesn’t become a race to the bottom where those at the lowest end of power and privilege are the ones that suffer the greatest,” she said at the launch of an ILO report on the pandemic’s effect on garment workers.Garment workers have been heavily hit by the pandemic, with shops closed and factories shuttered.Fashion brands cancelled billions of dollars worth of orders from suppliers around the world, costing workers up to $5.8 billion in lost wages, according to advocacy group Clean Clothes Campaign.In the Asia-Pacific - home to about 65 million garment workers - orders from big Western buyers fell by up to 70% over the first half of 2020, costing the average worker between two and four weeks’ salary, said the United Nations agency.While the industry has stabilised in some centres, in Bangladesh, where at least 70,000 workers have been laid off, fears are growing that many will become destitute.“Given that the situation is worsening, I think we can all imagine what that would mean,” said Christian Viegelahn, a senior economist for the ILO in the Asia-Pacific.The crisis has given rise to union busting in Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar and seen countries introduce harsh laws that activists fear could be used to restrict worker rights.Women make up the majority of garment factory staff and have born the brunt of the crisis, Viegelahn said.“There is significant risk that we see existing inequalities between women and men exacerbated and some of the progress we have seen over recent years will be reversed.”The researchers studied Bangladesh, China, Cambodia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan and the Philippines, with uncertainty due to last for months - at least.Mohammad Akash has reverted to transporting stones for about $2 a day since he was laid off from a Dhaka garment factory.“It pays half what I used to earn and its twice as painful,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.The 33-year-old lost his job in March and said he is still waiting on severance pay and other benefits promised by the bosses he had served for eight years."I haven't been able to pay rent for my house in four months," he said. (Reporting by Matt Blomberg and Naimul Karim, Editing by Lyndsay Griffiths. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly. Visit news.trust.org)ILOLabor RightsClothingPhnom PenhWorkforceLayoffCOVID-19 PandemicPhilippinesIndonesiaChinaUnited NationsFear FactoryWorkers RightsBetter WorkClean Clothes Campaign

(CNN) — The US Supreme Court is on the verge of a historic transformation that could wind back the law in America for decades, in some cases to the 1930s, pre-New Deal approach. With President Donald Trump's nomination

SAN FRANCISCO — Fed up with white people calling 911 about people of color selling water bottles, barbecuing or otherwise going about their lives, San Francisco leaders unanimously approved hate crime legislation giving the targets of those calls the ability to sue the caller. The Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday...White PeopleRacismAfrican AmericansRacial DiversityBlack PeopleFacebookTwitterPolice ViolenceCriminal ViolenceVideo CallingPolice KillingsInstagramBoard Of SupervisorsHuman Rights CommissionFedShamann WaltonRead Full Story

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana lawmakers are working to rewrite the state’s student discipline laws after a Jefferson Parish fourth-grader was suspended because a teacher saw a BB gun in his bedroom during online classes held amid the coronavirus pandemic.The Senate Education Committee backed the legislation without objection Monday, sending the bill by Rep. Troy Romero to the full Senate for debate. The House already has unanimously supported the measure by the Jennings Republican, which was sparked by the suspension of Ka’Mauri Harrison.Harrison, 9, was suspended in September for six days for violating a school policy banning weapons on school property and at school events after a teacher saw the gun in his room as he took a test via computer. Initially, Harrison was recommended for expulsion, though that later was changed to a suspension.The boy from Harvey has attended the hearings and votes on the legislation, and spoke Monday. The law, if passed during the ongoing special session, would be named after Harrison.“Thank you for helping kids my age and kids like me,” Harrison told senators.His father, Nyron Harrison, said his son’s brother tripped over the gun and Ka’Mauri picked it up briefly while visible on camera to move the gun. “I just felt like my home was totally invaded, once they told me he was taking his test and doing what he was supposed to do,” Nyron Harrison said.Romero’s bill would give students and their families more options to appeal disciplinary decisions such as expulsions that are reduced to suspensions, including filing some challenges in district court. It would require the state’s public school districts to clearly define the rules of conduct for students who are taking classes online, rather than in person. “If we just give everybody the rules, they can learn to follow them,” Romero said.Students like Harrison who were suspended or expelled for activities during online courses during the coronavirus outbreak this year would be entitled to a school board hearing and judicial review of those disciplinary actions.“This is a very good bill because it addresses a problem that none of us really anticipated,” said Liz Murrill, with the Louisiana attorney general’s office, testifying in support of the bill. “I don’t think anyone contemplated that all of the on-campus policies would apply to your home.”Louisiana’s school superintendents organization and the Jefferson Parish School System opposed the proposal. Jennifer Ansardi, representing the parish school system, said the system was concerned the measure creates new paths for legal action and damage awards against schools. “If you decide to clarify the law and do these types of things, please don’t penalize those that were operating” with the existing policies that had been in place, Ansardi said.Senators said people have privacy rights that apply to their homes that don’t apply to public school facilities.“This thing should never have made it to this point,” said Sen. Kirk Talbot, a Jefferson Parish Republican.Murrill said the attorney general’s office has found at least three instances where students have been recommended for expulsion because of BB guns in the home, visible during online classes. Harrison’s suspension has drawn criticism from people and groups across the political spectrum, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Rifle Association. Harrison’s family is suing the Jefferson Parish school system.___The bill is filed as House Bill 83.___Follow Melinda Deslatte on Twitter at http://twitter.com/melindadeslatteEducational TechnologyLegislationBaton RougeGun LawsState LawLaw SchoolHouse Bill 83APKa'Mauri HarrisonJennifer AnsardiMelinda DeslatteLiz MurrillHarveyNyron HarrisonBB GunsKirk Talbot

Mike Henry, who voiced Cleveland Brown for years, announced he would be stepping down from the role in June, saying: 'persons of color should play characters of color' Family Guy has officially cast a new Cleveland Brown

Over 70 children were crammed into a bus, heading from Bihar to a sweatshop in the Indian city of Rajasthan, when the authorities pulled it over. Among the faces half hidden behind colourful masks was 12-year-old Deepak Kumar. Before the coronavirus pandemic, Kumar had been enrolled in grade four at...BiharCoronavirus Disease 2019RajasthanLockdownCOVID-19 PandemicChild MarriageUttar PradeshHard LabourIndian CountryMigrant WorkersStarvationBachpan Bachao AndolanSave The ChildrenHuman Liberty NetworkSaarthi TrustPrabhat KumarRead Full Story