Experts say older people are affected more severely than the rest of the population during displacement. 'People who have energy can resist or run or take away belongings. An old person doesn't have the energy to do all this. So in cases of forced evictions, for instance, they lose a home and lose belongings and also a critical social network,' Protus Waringa, a Kenyan human rights law expert, told IRIN. Globally, an estimated 26.4 million people were displaced by armed conflict, generalized violence and human rights violations at the end of 2011, according to a 2011 overview by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC); the overview noted that there were huge gaps in the data available on older IDPs, with just six out of 50 countries making specific reference to older persons in their data on IDPs.

This discussion paper from the Transnational Institute's Agrarian Justice Programme argues that there is a need to come to grips with land issues in a changing global context and to rethink what may be needed to mobilise effectively in such a setting. 'The main frameworks of advocacy that have been employed by some academics, radical researchers and social movement activists have some particular limitations in the context of global land grabbing. Neither land reform nor land tenure security alone are well-equipped to be frameworks for analysis or action in the current conjuncture. Land reform remains important, but its limitations as a call to action are being exposed by the current cycle of land grabbing. Likewise, land tenure security is important, but alone is not enough, since adverse incorporation of the rural working poor classes into the corporate-controlled global food-feed-fuel regime does not necessarily require moving them off the land.'

Crucial hearings will begin on Monday 16 July 2012 in the High Court on time limitation periods applicable in the landmark case brought by Kenyan victims of alleged torture during the Kenya Emergency in the 1950s and 1960s. The British Government is arguing that the claims are time-barred and should be struck out, but the victims contend that this is a case in which the Judge should exercise his discretion and allow the claims to proceed. REDRESS, a London-based human rights organisation that helps torture survivors obtain justice and reparation, has made submissions in support of the victims’ claims.

The world’s 105 biggest companies are worth more than US$11 trillion. They touch the lives of people across the globe. But just how much do we know about their impact on daily lives? Too often, citizens experience little benefit from global economic activity while suffering the consequences of unethical corporate activity. Transparency in Corporate Reporting assesses the disclosure of steps these companies have in place to fight corruption. It also looks at companies’ transparency footprint across 177 countries: to what extent are earnings and taxes in specific countries made public.

IHRFG and the Foundation Center are excited to launch the first-ever visualization tool of the contemporary scope and landscape of global human rights grantmaking!

A new project called Africa Express, being carried out by Frenchmen Jeremy Debreu and Claire Guibert with support from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), is bringing attention to a different breed of alternative energy on the continent, one where Africans who lack access to energy are the main beneficiaries. For a period of ten months, the pair are traveling 20,000 km through 23 countries using trains and buses to survey a range of alternative energy projects. From a community refrigeration project in northern Senegal to a massive hydroelectric dam in Morocco, the size and nature of the projects differ.

Between 11- and 20-million undocumented immigrants live in the United States. The photo gallery on the site of photographer Mary Beth Meehan were taken inside the homes of undocumented residents in New England, with 'the goal of using the texture of their living spaces to make visible these human beings, and to provide a window into the very personal paths they have chosen'.

Zambia’s immediate past president, Rupiah Banda, says he has sent a letter to former US President George W. Bush’s offices, offering an apology on behalf of the Zambian people following a controversial debacle in Lusaka in which President Michael Sata referred to Bush as a 'colonialist'. During a ceremony held at State House in Lusaka, the Zambian capital, on Wednesday, President Sata castigated President Bush in front of an audience as a 'colonialist' who had returned to pay back the resources that had been stolen from Africa.

This briefing from the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre provides an overview of corporate legal accountability for human rights, summarising trends and developments in this field. The goal is to help a wide audience understand what is happening in different parts of the world.

One week after its creation, IndustriALL Global Union announced its intention to shine a light on Rio Tinto’s unethical behavior around the world, starting with the release of a report on the company’s operations in Africa. Speaking to journalists at the Foreign Press Association in London, the newly elected General Secretary of IndustriALL Global Union Jyrki Raina said, 'Rio Tinto’s operations in Africa are a story of displaced communities, broken promises, cozy arrangements with local dictators and the oppression of union involvement.'

The Rio+20 summit from 13 to 22 June was disappointing to many, but it could still succeed through the mandated follow-up actions on a high-level political forum, sustainable development goals, finance and technology, says The South Centre, which gives an in-depth assessment in its latest bulletin. Individual articles include:
- The Rio+20 Summit and its Follow Up
- Rio+20: Summit Adopts Text, Ends With Positive Speeches
- Rio+20: An Inside View on the Tough Fight Over Means of Implementation (Finance and Technology)
- Sustainable Development As An Answer To Economic And Financial Crises
- Food Issues in the Rio+20 Spotlight
- 'It's Not Fair to Require Emerging Countries to Contribute As Much As Rich Countries,' Says South Centre
- Indian PM’s Speech at Rio+20
- Chinese PM’s Speech at Rio+20
- South Centre Seminar in Rio on World Economy

As European elections show the public increasingly rejecting austerity, critics call on the IMF to focus on the flaws of the eurozone rather than austerity in country programmes. Throughout the past months the prolonged recession in parts of Europe saw unemployment reach record highs and output stall, with concerns that austerity is hindering growth and the prospects to achieve fiscal and debt targets.

Across regions, young people are disproportionately affected by unemployment, underemployment, vulnerable employment and working poverty, says this article from the UN Focal Point on Youth, which looks at youth unemployment in the aftermath of the financial crisis. 'Even during periods of economic growth, many economies have been unable to absorb large youth populations into the labour market. In recent years, however, the global financial and economic crisis has further hit young people particularly hard in the developed world.'

Burkina Faso is enjoying something akin to a gold rush. The precious metal generates a huge amount of money for the government, but there is a downside to the boom. Of the thousands taking up work in illegal gold mines, many are children, often opting out of school to enjoy the meagre gains earned at mine pits.

Using or creating a new law is only the first step in what must be a longer political struggle to provide genuinely democratic forms of public water provision. As such, legal campaigns must also strive toward building frameworks for regulating, maintaining and monitoring progressive management of services after they become public. In addition, dedicated and committed activism is more critical to the success of campaigns than the legal tools themselves. These are two of the findings of a paper from the Municipal Services Project which examines how effective legal strategies have been in activism against the privatisation of water.

Civil society space in Uganda is rapidly shrinking, warn global network CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation and Uganda-based East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project (EHAHRDP). Independent civil society organisations are being openly threatened and placed under excessive scrutiny by senior government officials. For example, on 18 June, a skills-building workshop for LGBTI human rights defenders organised by EHAHRDP was closed abruptly after police raided the training venue.

Maina Kiai, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association has said that gays should be free to assemble and associate saying ‘such rights are essential components of democracy.’ ‘It is astonishing how often States have encroached upon the right of individuals to assemble peacefully by also violating their rights to life and to be free from torture, rights which allow no limitation, Kiai said during the presentation of his annual report to the UN Human Rights Council, in which he makes a number of recommendations to establish minimum standards to protect the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association.

The Climate Connections blog has a variety of photographs from the just-held Rio+20 Conference and Peoples’ Summit in Brazil. Visit their blog to have a look.

Haiti is home to one form of slavery propelled by economic desperation. Parents who cannot feed or school their children regularly give them away in the hopes that the family receiving them will offer more than they themselves can.

The secessionist group based at Kenya’s coast raises genuine concerns about historical injustices. But they are dead wrong to demand their own state.