Human rights developments in South Korea have been on my personal radar of improvements to watch for a while. Now the NYTimes reports that  a jury system has provisionally been put in place. The first evaluation sounds very promising.

Recently, the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva agreed on a special session to discuss the food crisis. Olivier De Schutter, the newly appointed Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, called the crisis “a human rights emergency”, which affects at least 100 million people, whose right to adequate food is being violated. 

Here is the resolution on the negative impact of the worsening of the world food crisis on the realization of the right to adequate food for all. 

As the Daily Mail reports, the world’s leaders had to “swallow” an 18 course-meal to discuss the current food crisis only days after the adoption of said resolution:

A friend of mine recently made the observation that there is no German word for the English term “whistleblower.” Curious that. 

Under the leadership of Julian Assange, a web activist, who grew up in Australia and now resides in Africa, Wikileaks provides a safe haven for those who have information, which is crucial for the public but fear being exposed. The Age reports that documents filed on Wikileaks were used in questioning the record of  former Kenyan leader Daniel Arap Moi, adding crucial momentum to the election campaign of the opposition.

The partners in Austria’s coalition of social democrats and christian conservatives can no longer agree to work together. Elections are to be held in September. “The two parties have been bickering since forging their “grand coalition” in early 2007 following the October 2006 elections that gave the Social Democrats a slight lead,” observes the IHT.

It took the United Nations some 20 years to agree on a Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The pressing need to implement the commitment to the inclusion, participation and enjoyment of all human rights is evidenced by the latest news report that the rate of suicides among young indigenous people in Western Australia has reached a new high. There are also clear patterns of marginalization with reports of substance and sexual abuse.