Since 2010, the Equal Rights Trust has supported Journalists for Human Rights (JHR) Network, the only platform of its kind which provides an essential means for journalists to report safely and effectively on hate speech, discrimination and violations of freedom of expression in Sudan and South Sudan. During this time, the Trust has helped the network to develop from an informal group of a few like-minded journalists in Sudan to a network of more than 300 members, friends and associates working in both countries.
News
The Equal Rights Trust has launched a campaign to support funded internship and fellowship placements for equality advocates at the start of their careers.
The human rights charity sector is notoriously competitive and routinely demands some form of initial job experience, which is usually unpaid. Through the Bob Hepple Memorial Fund we are levelling the playing field, giving those without the financial means to work for free the opportunity to enter the sector and fulfil their ambition.
Read Dimitrina Petrova's guest column for JURIST, where she discusses the need to reduce inequality as a development goal in order to reach a prime Sustainable Development Goal.
A new report published today by the Equal Rights Trust exposes the extent of discrimination and inequality experienced by groups including women; persons with disabilities; lesbian, gay and bisexual persons; and persons living with HIV in Solomon Islands.
On 2 December 2015, the Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa held in Minister of Basic Education v Basic Education for All that the failure of the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to provide free textbooks to all students in the Limpopo province breached the constitutional guarantees of equality, human dignity, and the right to a basic education.
Today, on the occasion of Human Rights Day the Equal Rights Trust has launched My Children’s Future, a film which highlights the devastating consequences of laws implemented in 27 countries which deny women the ability to pass on nationality to their children.
Read Dimitrina Petrova's guest article for openDemocracy, where she argues that a simple change to the nationality law—which currently promotes statelessness—could improve the livelihoods of thousands in Madagascar. This was a contribution to the openGlobalRights debate on economic and social rights.
Today, the Equal Rights Trust marks International Day of Persons with Disabilities by calling for greater efforts to combat discriminatory torture and other forms of ill-treatment of persons with disabilities.
Celebrations are underway in Myanmar as Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) are emerging victorious in a national election that is being described as a “dawn of a new era”. But the political leaders, including the so called icon of Burmese democracy, have colluded in the disenfranchisement of the Rohingya minority, by failing to condemn the wave of persecution and discrimination culminating in the deletion of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya from the voting register.
Over the last two days Madagascar has taken significant steps towards eradicating gender discrimination in its nationality law and eliminating statelessness. If a reformed law is implemented it would ensure, amongst other things, that women are no longer discriminated against in their ability to confer nationality on their children – a change that would benefit many families across the country.
Commitments to reform were made during a session of Madagascar’s National Assembly where organisations including the Equal Rights Trust, UNHCR, the Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights and Focus Development Association advocated on the necessity of reform.
