The AJWS community has a lot to say about what's happening in the world. Read our insights about the struggle for justice and human rights around the globe — and meet the activists on the frontlines of the fight to build a better world.
The last few months have re-invigorated Americans’ ideas about the heroic work of journalists. Linchpins of democracy, reporters who demand the truth work at considerable risk — personal insults, job loss, and the broad brush of “fake news” lobbed at them from politicians with a lot to lose. But systematic attacks on the press, now …
When Uganda passed its Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA) in 2023, countless headlines around the world denigrated the archaic law for its extreme punishment — including the death penalty — for same-sex relationships. But for many queer Ugandans inside the country, a less obvious impact was nearly as devastating: the law meant that safety required silence. That …
By now, we all know how social media has sown division in societies around the world — creating echo chambers that elevate tensions and give platforms to those spouting hate speech. In areas of extreme political division, these echo chambers have led to violence: from the January 6 insurrection in Washington, D.C., to the genocide …
The first thing you notice in Esperancita del Rio — a tiny farming village in northern Guatemala’s lush Alta Verapaz region — is the quiet. The gentle bubbling of the nearby San Roman river, the whinnying of a family of horses… and that’s about it. But every 15 minutes, a massive truck roars down the …
Long before it became his life’s work, the fight for human rights had already taken root in Tawanda Mutasah — a lesson first given by his mother, who taught him, “Every person matters. Take them all seriously.” Drawing on language from Genesis 1:27 — “God created humankind in the Divine image” — his mother’s plain-spoken …
