A new report by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has found that politically and ideologically motivated attacks against teachers, students and schools are on the rise, calling for greater community involvement to reduce such incidents. Since the first-ever study on the issue, entitled “Education under Attack,” was published in 2007, the systematic targeting of students and teachers has been on the upswing, especially in Afghanistan, Pakistan,...

One hundred and twenty one journalists were killed in the world in 2009, according to a study circulated by the non-governmental organization Press Emblem Campaign (PEC). Last year saw the largest number of press people's deaths ever since the Geneva-based PEC began to compile such estimates, the study said, yesterday. Thirty-three percent more journalists were killed in 25 countries in 2009 than the year before (91 people). The largest number of journalists...

From next year, on swearing allegiance to the Queen, all members of Britain’s House of Lords will be required to sign a written commitment to honesty and integrity. Unexceptionable principles, one might say. But, until recently, it was assumed that persons appointed to advise the sovereign were already of sufficient honesty and integrity to do so. They were assumed to be recruited from groups with internalised codes of honour. No...

The new joke on Dalal street is that gold prices are soaring, not because of increased demand in the US, India and China, but because Shilpa Shetty has bought half the gold in India for her wedding dress! Jokes apart, the yellow metal has hit headlines recently because of its spectacular rise. Prices have spiked as investors now prefer gold to the weakening US dollar. The US economy has lurched...

In most cases, the gravest threats to the human rights of citizens emanate from states.  The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, signed on December 10, 1948, transformed an aspiration into legally binding standards and spawned a raft of institutions to scrutinise government conformity and condemn noncompliance. It remains the central organising principle of global human rights and a source of power and authority on behalf of victims. A human right, owed...