Monica has dementia and lives with her husband in a facility near Melbourne. Her son realized she was being given a cocktail of drugs when he asked to see her charts. After extensive negotiation, Monica’s doctor and facility staff agreed to wean her off the drugs. Monica went from being hunched and unbalanced to being able to sit, eat, greet people, and dance when her grandson visits and sings.

Detention is fundamentally harmful to children, yet many countries use it as their first response to difficult circumstances, rather than the last. Governments should invest in alternatives that not only protect children’s rights but produce much better outcomes for children, families, and society overall.

More than half the Afghan population, including many survivors of conflict-related violence, struggle with depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress, but fewer than 10 percent receive adequate psychosocial support from the state, according to government documents. The Afghan government and international donors should expand mental health services and outreach campaigns.

Families of victims of the September 2009 massacre by Guinea’s security forces are still awaiting justice 10 years later, 6 human rights groups said today.

The Indonesian government is failing to protect the rights of Indigenous peoples who have lost their traditional forests and livelihoods to oil palm plantations in West Kalimantan and Jambi provinces.

The Tajik government takes little action to investigate or prosecute domestic violence cases and is doing far too little to help survivors. 

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is driven largely by criminal networks that use violence and intimidation against those who try to stop them, and the government is failing to protect both the defenders and the rainforest itself.

Abusive policing in Tulsa, Oklahoma that targets black people and poor people, diminishes the quality of life in all communities.

The Nigerian military has arbitrarily detained thousands of children in degrading and inhuman conditions for suspected involvement with the armed Islamist group Boko Haram. 

Three women have accused Gambia’s former president, Yahya Jammeh, of rape and sexual assault while he was in office. Fatou "Toufah" Jallow is the first survivor to tell her story publicly.