The Prime Minister has stated his determination to combat child marriage globally, but he must use Britain's leverage more effectively in Bangladesh.
A lesson of the last decade's work on the Millennium Development Goals is the need to rethink current approaches to development, says David Mepham, the UK director of Human Rights Watch. The key requirement is to see development not just as material improvement, vital though that is, but as a proc
Some say we should put Britain's complicity in torture and human rights abuse in Libya behind us. We cannot do so. Lessons have not been learned, victims still await justice, while the 'secret courts bill' would help ensure future abuses remain hidden.
The violent repression of citizens in Syria is escalating, and can now be linked to named officials of the regime. This reinforces the case for concerted international pressure to end the suffering, says David Mepham.
A study of the healthcare environment of expectant mothers in the Eastern Cape region of South Africa reveal severe problems that both the national government and overseas donors should address, says David Mepham.
The opening weeks of Gordon Brown's premiership have brought a marked change of tone to the conduct of British foreign policy. The misconceived and counterproductive notion of a
At the sixtieth-anniversary summit of the general assembly of the United Nations in September 2005, the world's leaders endorsed an international "responsibility to protect": an obligation
The biggest job in international diplomacy – the secretary-general of the United Nations – is up for grabs in the next few weeks. Kofi Annan will officially leave his post on 31
The lesson of Palestine's election is that the international community should become more serious and sophisticated about political reform in the middle east, says David Mepham of the
Kofi Annan could barely conceal his frustration. In an unusually frank and forthright address at the start of the United Nations world summit he lamented the failure of world leaders
The lessons Simon Zadek draws from his thoughtful openDavos blog from the World Economic Forum are cast in generic terms, without a strong geographical focus. But there are few areas
David Helds essay on openDemocracy, Globalisation: the dangers and the answers is a timely, trenchant and wide-ranging analysis of the existing global order. It provides a particularly powerful critique
