Civil Rights
Is the UK’s Approach to Immigration Unfit for Purpose?
Article by Jess Pannese
So far, over 25,000 people have attempted the journey - more than three times last year’s number. This is where the very complex, very contested debate comes in - does this increase in migration justify the heavy securitisation and border strengthening of states, or is it up to the international community to provide asylum for people that are fleeing their own countries. In other words, should the war be on immigration or should it be on war itself?
Facebook – Internet Synonymity: What does it mean when ‘Facebook’ is the ‘Internet’?
Article by Akeefah lal Mahomed
When early online experiences are born through one platform, it entrenches the platform’s role into the everyday. This blurs distinctions between itself and the wider web. The more powerful and transnational corporations become, the less push back individuals, groups or even nation-states have against their influence.
The Survivors of Srebrenica Deserve more than Mladic’s Conviction
Article by Kaya Purchase
Many survivors do not feel that such a sentence, though deserved, is enough to bring closure or relief. A prison sentence does not turn back the clock and cannot save those who suffered and died at the hands of this man. It does not amend the years of grief and trauma that survivors have had to endure. Further than this, there are some specific contextual issues that mean that this single imprisonment is not enough to even begin to heal the wounds that have torn the lives of so many people apart.
Free Patrick Zaki
Article by Kaya Purchase
On 7th February, 2020, Patrick George Zaki returned home to Egypt from Italy to visit his family. He was studying his Masters in Women and Gender Studies at Bologna University. Upon arrival at Cairo International Airport, he was arrested, handcuffed and blindfolded. He was allegedly interrogated for seventeen hours before being taken to an undisclosed location where he was subjected to beatings and electric shocks. He was later transferred to a detention facility and has been in detention ever since, repeatedly being transferred to different facilities.
Breaking Down the Poverty to Prison Pipeline
Article by Shabnam Ali
The systemic poverty, over-policing, and over-imprisonment of the BAME Youth and communities are key and significant indicators that institutional racism does continue to exist in UK infrastructure. The disproportionate level of BAME population vs prison population can be tied to roots of systemic poverty induced and ignored by governments, creating a Hunger Games-style competition within such low-income communities, sadly resorting to violence in a battle to compete, to ultimately escape the position our government placed them in.
Photographs of Life & Dignity: the Work of Yousif Al Shewaili
Feature by Kaya Purchase
Yousif Al Shewaili’s photographs demand to be seen. For three years Yousif documented the lives of those who, like him, were stuck in the Moria refugee camp in Lesbos. Since the devastating fire displaced the refugees living there, he has continued to photograph the conditions in the new Moria 2.0 camp.
Cañada Real: Europe’s Largest Shanty Town
Article by Alida Browne
In reality, the government's destruction of homes in an effort to halt drug trade in this area only addresses the problem in the short term. The drug trade is the product of systematic marginalisation of the poor; destroying these homes is only a short-term solution that doesn’t guarantee drug trade to stop whilst simultaneously destroying the homes of hundreds of families and children.
Teach Boys Consent in the Classroom
Article by Demi Anthony
Rather than focusing education on preventative steps women can take to avoid rape, we should aim to tackle gender norms that validate men as sexual pursuers and women as their conquests. These norms dehumanise girls, reducing them to bodies to be used as a means to an end without ever establishing mutual consent.
Muslim Governments are Choosing China’s Money Over Its Muslims
Article by LM
Taking more examples just reiterates the same point: the so-called Muslim leaders and organizations did not just betray the Uyghurs – any person who calls themselves a Muslim was backstabbed, whether they recognize it or not.
Devaluing Humanity in Counterterrorism: Xinjiang’s Re-education Camps
Article by Akeefah lal Mahomed
Terrorism, separatism and religious extremism infringe human rights to life and development. Paradoxically, China’s counterterrorism approach has systemised cultural cleansing, threatening human rights in different ways. The campaign for social re-engineering has morphed into one of cultural genocide.
Abortion in Poland: A Backwards Step?
Article by Alida Browne
The result of the new ruling in Poland will do nothing more than encourage dangerous or ‘backstreet’ abortions. Dangerous abortions are the direct result of a situation in where women are given limited or no access to safe terminations.
Ireland’s Battle to End Direct Provision
Feature by Liam Robinson
Direct Provision (DP), the system used in Ireland to accommodate asylum seekers, fails to acknowledge the human rights of thousands. It was first introduced as an emergency measure to meet the basic needs of those waiting for their application for refugee status to be processed. But what was meant to be a temporary measure is now a for-profit industry.
Politicised Deportations are Morally Corrupt
Article by Kaya Purchase
The Home Office has publically defended the Jamaica 50 flight by declaring that all those on board were dangerous criminals who have committed serious offences. However, this is seriously, and I believe intentionally, over-simplifying a complex situation.
The Battle Against Period Poverty Continues in Zimbabwe
Article by Lauren Dent
However, in countries like Zimbabwe, it is a different story. The luxury of toilet paper is very often not available, and one is lucky to have running water in a public facility, let alone free period products. Zimbabwean women continue to resort to makeshift period protection such as newspapers, rags, corn husks, leaves and even cow dung to help manage their monthly flow; they either cannot afford basic sanitary wear, or do not have access to it.
Queer Couples Are Being Priced Out of Pregnancy
Article by Laura Tendall
With excessive costs disproportionately impacting the queer community, many LGBTQ+ couples simply can’t afford to have a family. Those on lower incomes and from ethnic and racial minorities are especially affected.
“Destroying the Amazon is the Destruction of the World”
Feature by Kaya Purchase
If the Amazon is the lungs of the world then these women are the defenders of the world, the ribcage that stands defiant, extended in protection around our source of life. Yet, the wider world fails to listen to the lessons these women can teach us. In a twist of tragic irony it is those who have been the most sustainable and lived in harmony with the Earth, who are impacted most noticeably by the immediate effects of the environmental crisis.
2020’s White Saviour Complex
Feature by Justine Brooks
Expressions of racism adapt to societal trends and historic events, and vice versa. This phenomenon has continuously survived revolutions, both industrial and cultural. Each iteration was once convenient to its context and acceptable to its audience. In 2020, racism has taken the insidious yet accessible form of performative allyship on social media to the detriment of ethnic minorities.
Tracking Faces and Targeting Races
Feature by Damilola Omotoso
Despite LFR's purpose of managing a population, it does not effectively do so for all people in a diverse society; heterogeneous communities consequently suffer.
Arrested for Being Human
Feature by Kaya Purchase
Sean Binder faces a potential twenty five years in prison. He was arrested for volunteering with an NGO in Lesbos, Greece, where he used his skills as a lifeguard to assist refugee boats in distress.
“A Transitional Phase”: Bisexual Erasure in Contemporary Britain
Written by Emily West
Whilst Bi Visibility Day is an important event to draw attention to bisexual culture, it is not just one day of the year where we should be reflecting upon these things.