Dear members, friends, partners and supporters of the International Society for Human Rights,

In this newsletter, we once again bring you the latest news and background information from our global network. As you can see, this edition is packed with numerous contributions from a large number of authors. We owe this above all to our fantastic ISHR Ambassador Programme, which has been running for over a month now and brings together wonderfully committed and bright young people from a wide range of countries. Many of them live and work on the African continent, which is why this newsletter has a clear African focus. In terms of style and topics, however, the compilation of articles could hardly be more diverse:

As we travel from The Gambia in the far west of the continent to Kenya in the far east, we look at topics such as Systematic Sexism, Judicial Discretion, Capital Punishment, Disability Rights, Children’s Rights, Skimpy Public Finances and Profligate Heads of State, Climate Crisis, Human Right to Health, the Human Rights Implications of a National Population Census, Child Soldiers, Period Poverty and Kenya’s Flood Disaster. I can only warmly recommend each of these topics for your in-depth consideration. On the ISHR side, we are proud and grateful to have knowledgeable experts in our ranks who look closely and analyse relentlessly. What I am personally very pleased about is the variety in the chosen formats: From scientific papers to personal reports and lyrical texts, there is once again a wide range.

But this newsletter also contains reports and updates from beyond the African continent. I would like to thank our authors who have written articles on Guatemala, Iran, Mexico, Europe after the EU elections and Ukraine. The overall picture shows once again that we are dealing with complex and interlinked human rights challenges globally. Whether inequality and limited social rights or the human rights implications of climate change, whether corruption or other problems in the field of business and human rights, whether conflicts, discrimination or poverty, whether attacks on democracy, women’s rights trampled upon or emerging challenges such as the growing global use of artificial intelligence and video surveillance – as ISHR, we deal with the wealth of issues and thus try to be the human rights organisation that does justice to our challenging present. Stay connected with us on this journey and let us know how we can better support you in your engagement and areas of interest.

I would like to highlight one article in this newsletter due to current events and a personal connection: Lillianne Franka, one of our ISHR Ambassadors, has written an excellent piece on the situation of journalists working on human rights issues. This reminded me of my participation today in the annual Global Media Forum in Bonn/Germany, not far from the headquarters of our ISHR Secretariat. This afternoon, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock gave a speech there and stated, among other things: “Independent journalism is under pressure worldwide”. Anyone who recognises the power of stories and the importance of independent reporting knows how dangerous this is. Observation and reporting are indispensable components of human rights work, which we cannot value highly enough.

With this in mind, I wish you an inspiring read,

Matthias Boehning
Secretary General, ISHR