A call to Canadian Parliamentarians to take concrete measures to implement the UN Declaration...
A call to Canadian Parliamentarians to take concrete measures to implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People in Canadian law and policy
“The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples...
The Right to Development and the Fight Against Racism
By Bonny Ibhawoh,
Excepts of Statement by Bonny Ibhawoh (Chair, United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Right to Development) at the International Dialogue on Promoting and Protecting the Rights of People of African Descent and...
The Right to Development and the Fight Against Racism
Excepts of Statement by Bonny Ibhawoh (Chair, United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Right to Development) at the International Dialogue on Promoting and Protecting the Rights of People of African Descent and their communities...
Can we trust the Natives? Researchers, Indigenous Peoples, and Scholarly Authority
There is renewed debate over interpretation and authority in constructing histories of indigenous peoples. Some historians such as David Silverman have critiqued sustained collaborative approaches with indigenous communities in writing their history. They contend...
Human Rights, Nation-States and the Persistence of Oppressive Privilege in a Divided World
Human Rights, Nation-States and the Persistence of Oppressive Privilege - A commentary on Eric D. Weitz,A world divided: The global struggle for human rights in the age of nation-states, (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2019).
Eric Weitz's book A...
“Dad, what did you do for racial justice?”
Years from now, kids will ask their parents, "Dad, what side were you on during the great protest for racial justice of 2020?" Can you look them in the eye and say "On the...
Do truth and reconciliation commissions heal divided nations?
As long as unresolved historic injustices continue to fester in the world, there will be a demand for truth commissions.
Unfortunately, there is no end to the need.
The goal of a truth commission — in...
The Paradox of Democracy in Aung San Suu Kyi’s Myanmar
By Bonny Ibhawoh,
Democracy can be a messy business. Liberal democratic reforms often bring new freedoms and allow for the opening up of civil societies. But the freedoms that come with the transition from dictatorship to...
Seven Years into the Syrian Conflict: Pondering the Pity of War
By Bonny Ibhawoh,
As the war in Syria enters its seventh year with no immediate prospects of ending, the words of the British war poet, Wilfred Owen rings no truer. "My subject is War, and...
The Dawn of a Post-Human Rights World?
By Bonny Ibhawoh,
With all the talk about alternative facts and fake news, it is perhaps time to ponder whether the global rise of reactionary populism – from Brexit to Trump – signals the dawn...
Xenophobia, Immigration Restrictions and the Dawn of a Post-Human Rights World
By Bonny Ibhawoh,
Across the world, we are witnessing the gradual erosion of the gains of the post-World War II human rights movement. The clearest indication of this trend is the global rise of reactionary...
The Future of Human Rights
By Bonny Ibhawoh
What is the future of human rights? My hope is that as the world becomes more sensitive to human rights violations, we will see less and less of the most extreme and...
Public Talk: Truth, Justice and Reconciliation
By Bonny Ibhawoh
Speaking on the topic: "Truth, Justice and Reconciliation: Re-imagining Human Rights in Post-Conflict Peacebuilding" at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Lund, Sweden.
Truth, Justice and Reconciliation: Re-imagining Human...
Empowering Women and the Nation: Lessons from Rwanda
By Bonny Ibhawoh
In the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report for 2015, an annual ranking of the world's most equal countries for men and women, the small African country, Rwanda, ranked 6th globally, ahead...
How Should we Respond to Terrorism?
By Bonny Ibhawoh,
Recent terrorist attacks in Paris and Belgium have prompted questions about how ordinary citizens should respond to terrorism. Fear, anger, anxiety? I recently received an e-mail from a former student asking precisely...
Our Troubled and Conflicted World
By Bonny Ibhawoh,
In our 24 hour news media circle, it is difficult to escape the stark and often depressing reality that we live in troubled times. One gets the impression that the world is...
Truth and Reconciliation in Canada: Lessons from the South African TRC
By Bonny Ibhawoh
After 6 years of deliberations, the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission last week released its long-awaited report. The TRC was established following the settlement arising from the abuses by state agents against...
Free Blogger Raif Badawi
I have blogged about human right and social justice since 2007. But I have always understood that the right to freely express oneself through bogging or other social media platform is one that is...
What were our parents thinking?
By Bonny Ibhawoh
In a recent interview, Christopher Till who is the director of the Apartheid Museum in South Africa talks about the reaction of children and young South Africans when they visit the museum....
Adieu Madiba
Nelson Mandela. Leader, statesman, humanist, revolutionary and personal inspiration.