By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image Rohingya refugees walk through rice fields after crossing the border from Myanmar into Palang Khali, Bangladesh, October 19, 2017. © 2017 Jorge Silva/Reuters On January 29, the three-week hearings on the merits of Gambia’s genocide case against Myanmar before the International Court of Justice came to a close. The case, filed in 2019, alleges that Myanmar’s atrocities against ethnic Rohingya in 2016 and 2017 violate the Genocide Convention of 1948.During the hearings, Gambia argued that the extreme brutality, pervasive sexual violence, targeting of…
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By Aline Soterroni, Pesquisadora associada do Departamento de Biologia, University of Oxford
In light of the climate crisis and biodiversity loss, voluntary commitments between companies, governments and civil society to avoid purchasing soy from deforested areas in the Amazon should be expanded
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By Martina van Heerden, Senior Lecturer in English for Educational Development, University of the Western Cape
Sharita Bharuthram, Associate Professor, University of the Western Cape
Students’ well-being in higher education has been a growing concern globally since the coronavirus pandemic, which disrupted learning and lives generally.
Well-being has been described as “the combination of feeling good and functioning well; experiencing…
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By Caroline Southey, Founding Editor, Africa, The Conversation
Lyrr Thurston, Copy Editor, The Conversation
How much we pay for the debt that we incur determines a great deal in our lives. This is true of countries too. In the world of sovereign debt – money raised or borrowed by governments – the cost of debt is dependent on, among other factors, how rating agencies “grade” a country.
It’s a sensitive issue. Three agencies dominate the rating business. A criticism often meted out is that they judge African countries more harshly than others, which pushes up borrowing rates. These tensions…
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By Nadine Biehler, Researcher, German Institute for International and Security Affairs
Emma Landmesser, Research Assistant, German Institute for International and Security Affairs
Rebecca Majewski, Information and Data Manager, German Institute for International and Security Affairs
Images of rubber dinghies overcrowded with refugees heading for Europe and narratives about mistreatment and exploitation of migrants on unsafe migration routes have come to dominate how African migration is perceived in European public and policy debates.
They suggest…
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By Gibson Ncube, Senior Lecturer, Stellenbosch University
The film Rafiki is a charming love story that plays out in urban Kenya. It follows two teenage girls whose close friendship slowly turns into first love. Directed by rising filmmaker Wanuri Kahiu, it was celebrated as groundbreaking by critics and at festivals when it was released in 2018. But back home in Kenya, where homosexuality is criminal, the film was banned.
On 23 January 2026, after a lengthy…
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By Gemma Ware, Host, The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The Conversation
Amin Naeni, an expert on digital authoritarianism, tracks how Iran built the capability to shutdown the internet. Listen on The Conversation Weekly podcast.
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By Rikke Lie Halberg, PhD Candidate in History, Lund University
When Nazi Germany began its occupation of Denmark in April 1940, Greenland suddenly found itself cut off from its colonial power and thrust into the centre of North Atlantic wartime strategy. The US took control of Greenland temporarily, establishing bases and defence perimeters there to prevent Germany from using the island.
More than 80 years later, Donald Trump invoked that moment at the World Economic Forum in Davos. In his speech…
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By Sanam Mahoozi, Research Associate, City St George's, University of London
Iran is enduring one of the darkest periods in its modern history. Protests that erupted in late December initially over economic hardship have clearly transformed into a nationwide rejection of the Islamic Republic and a call for regime change.
Thousands of people have been killed by Iranian security forces, with human rights organisations saying…
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By Brett Robertson, Associate Professor and Associate Director of the Hazards Vulnerability and Resilience Institute, University of South Carolina
Winter storms create many hazards, from slick ice to freezing temperatures. People often underestimate how quickly conditions can become life-threatening
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