Women's rights

"For me it is so obvious; leprosy has always been an issue of human rights violations," said Alice Cruz. "You find human rights abuses throughout history and in so many different cultures." Patients affected by leprosy chant prayers at a church in Mayanchaung Resettlement Village in Yangon, Myanmar. © EPA/Nyein Chan NaingCruz is the UN Special Rapporteur on the elimination of discrimination against persons affected by leprosy and their family members. She is the first UN independent expert to hold the post, which focuses on improving the human rights situation for people affected by the disease. She said she will use the position to advocate for persons and communities affected by leprosy by helping states uphold their obligations on human rights. Leprosy is a disease with a centuries old social and medical history with long-held stigmas associated with it. Chief among these has been the idea that it is highly contagious and disfiguring; beliefs which led to i...

“Something in the back of my mind told me that something was not right,” Shelia Fedrick, a flight attendant working for Alaska Airlines, told reporters. “The girl looked like she had been through hell.” A young woman sitting inside the dim lit cabin of an airplane. © Sofia Sforza/CCO 1.0Fedrick was working on a flight from Seattle to San Francisco, United States, when she noticed on board a well-dressed older man travelling with a teenage girl that she said looked “dishevelled and out of sorts.” Fedrick tried to speak to the pair but the girl remained silent and the man became defensive. It was at that moment that the flight attendant decided to leave a note for the girl in the restroom and instructed her discreetly to go to the restroom. “She wrote on the note that she needed help,” said Fedrick who immediately informed the pilot. Police officers were waiting at the plane’s terminal in San Francisco on arrival and were able to confirm that the young girl was a victim of human ...