My friend Dr Mudawi Ibrahim Adam is in detention again in Khartoum. He was taken by the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) from the University of Khartoum on 7th December and is being held without access to his lawyer or his family. He has previously been detained on several occasions, for over a month in 2010 and earlier for a total of 18 months in several spells during 2003-2005.

The Standing Rock Sioux tribe's battle for their land has become an international phenomenon. Native Americans and environmental defenders from all over the world have converged on the Dakotas to peacefully protest a massive pipeline project that threatens the lives of indigenous peoples.

“I keep asking: why would they do this?” human rights defender Ladonna Bravebull Allard told Front Line Defenders. She quickly added that the answer is clear:

The Irish Times this week ran an opinion piece defending the Northern Ireland Policing Board's training and financial support for Bahraini security forces.

Today is a national holiday in the United States. Schools, banks, and government buildings are all closed to commemorate the arrival of Christopher Columbus to a land he thought was India. In fact, 1492 marked the year Columbus "discovered" a land already home to almost 20 million indigenous peoples.

Since that day, indigenous communities of the continent have suffered centuries of persecution, massacre, disease, and systemic violations of their rights to land.