openDemocracy

Women are the fastest growing incarcerated population in the United States. The female incarceration rate has ballooned by more than 700% since 1980 – 172,700 women and girls were in jail or prison in 2023. A quarter of these (46,300) are confined because they were either refused bail or cannot afford it, rather than because they were found guilty of a crime. Over 14,000 are awaiting trial for drug-related offenses. Even brief contact with the prison system can have life-long impacts.

From hiding spycams in children’s toys to coercing partners into online sex work on platforms such as OnlyFans, abusers are increasingly weaponising technology to perpetrate new and insidious forms of violence against women and girls (VAWG). One in three women in the UK has experienced online abuse or harassment, with almost one in five of them reporting that the perpetrator was a partner or former partner, according to .

Across the US, increasing numbers of Black children are growing up without fathers. Some of these families have been fatherless for up to four generations, which has profoundly impacted the wellbeing of their children for decades. These families’ fathers are absent because of systemic racial violence and the many societal practices that led to this violence.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio’s visit to Israel last weekend confirmed what we already knew: the Trump administration has given Binyamin Netanyahu’s government carte blanche to level Gaza in its efforts to destroy Hamas.

¡Recibe nuestra newsletter! América Latina, una región marcada por la desigualdad, la violencia y la discriminación, es terreno fértil para el auge de extremismos. Pero acá también florecen nuevos feminismos y movimientos que resisten. Nuestro propósito es documentar esas tensiones y sacar a la luz las historias que necesitan ser contadas.

In early September, Nepal witnessed massive protests under the banner of GenZ protests to demonstrate against what they viewed as a hopelessly corrupt and sclerotic regime. The immediate trigger was a government ban on social media apps, but as the protestors themselves have made clear – their grievances run much deeper. The protests in Nepal bear parallels to similar uprisings in Sri Lanka in 2022 and Bangladesh last year.

En Estados Unidos, la libertad nunca fue gratis. Para los afroestadounidenses, en particular, el precio de la libertad fue inmenso y se pagó durante generaciones con decisiones difíciles y concesiones forzadas que conllevaron la pérdida de la historia, la unidad familiar, la estabilidad financiera y la privacidad.

In the pendulum-swinging political landscape of the US, racial equity initiatives remain vulnerable to the whims of changing administrations. Across the country, hard-won racial equity initiatives are being systematically dismantled – from diversity programmes to voting rights protections to fair housing enforcement. As someone who has spent years dedicated to economic and racial justice, I've watched this cycle repeat itself: progress followed by backlash, advancement followed by retreat.

Una alianza de legisladores, iglesias y colectivos ultraconservadores de Perú impulsa 30 proyectos de ley que restringen libertades de mujeres y personas LGBTIQ+. Seis de ellos, ya aprobados, limitan el aborto terapéutico, niegan la identidad de las personas trans y desmontan políticas de igualdad de género. La figura central de esa estrategia es la pastora evangélica y cofundadora de la iglesia La Casa del Padre, Milagros Jáuregui de Aguayo, del partido Renovación Popular.

It’s becoming more and more apparent that there is no longer a global consensus – particularly in the increasingly far-right-leaning West – on the basic human rights that we all thought we were guaranteed. Freedom from discrimination? This week, the US Supreme Court legitimised race as a reason for immigration officials to search, detain and eventually deport those they suspect to be undocumented migrants. The right to dignity, expression, and equality?