COVID-19 and the Case for Prison Abolition
Time to rethink the U.S. prison system? UChicago 2020 Justice Fellow Meera Santhanam writes about the fundamental connections between racism and incarceration revealed by the coronavirus pandemic.
According to the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. And yet around the world, many people are denied basic human rights, or find their rights under threat. Pulitzer Center stories tagged with “Human Rights” feature reporting that covers the fight for equality under the law, civil rights and the basic dignity afforded every person. Use the Pulitzer Center Lesson Builder to find and create lesson plans on human rights.
Time to rethink the U.S. prison system? UChicago 2020 Justice Fellow Meera Santhanam writes about the fundamental connections between racism and incarceration revealed by the coronavirus pandemic.
Without access to basic hygiene in the middle of a pandemic, some inmates are using a hunger strike to call attention to the poor conditions inside Egypt’s overcrowded prisons. Is the government doing enough to keep them safe?
Sixteen reporters, four healthcare workers, and a human rights defender have been arbitrarily detained while covering COVID-19. U.N. experts said that these arrests deteriorate freedom of expression in the country.
Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism student Kira Leadholm reports on how COVID-19 has left Ghanians—particularly those in rural areas—more susceptible to child trafficking as the government diverts its resources to fighting the pandemic.
An ambitious infrastructure project in the Brazil is increasingly opposed the closer it gets to the heart of the Amazon—an area that has been defended by Indigenous communities for years.
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Reporting Fellow alum Divya Mishra reports on how the pandemic has left thousands of unaccompanied minors in Greece without adequate shelter or food.
Children champion tree planting as hundreds of people grapple with acute water scarcity in Bunambutye landslides resettlement villages amidst the fight against the novel coronavirus in Uganda.
From a doctor stranded in Ciudad Juárez to a shelter closed after an outbreak, COVID-19 is hitting hard along the Texas-Mexico border.
Adham Hassoun had completed a 15-year sentence in the United States on terrorism-related charges. Unable to deport him, the government sought to keep him in open-ended custody.
The Obama administration ran into a wall of political opposition when it tried to close Guantánamo Prison. The former vice president rarely brings up the topic and has yet to draw up a strategy but says he shares the goal.
Before it was outlawed, the Brazilian government federally isolated leprosy patients in remote colonies. Decades later, the children of these patients are calling for federal reparations.
The epidemic was an opportunity for the Algerian authorities to isolate everything they deemed to be “germs," the proliferation of that which poses a threat to the repressive system.
A war fought in the name of the Yemeni people has exposed dirty deals by all parties to the conflict, including U.S. allies, and pushed the nation to the brink of famine.
Despite death threats, environmentalist Phyllis Omido is fighting the Kenyan government, demanding compensation for residents of a slum outside Mombasa plagued by lead poisoning for over a decade.
University of Chicago student fellow Kiran Misra looks at urban development in Delhi, a process that has resulted in the displacement of thousands of Indians living in informal housing settlements.
Women and children spend months in Ukrainian prisons in torturous conditions. What is being done to change that?
In Cambodia’s floating villages, tens of thousands of ethnic Vietnamese eke out precarious lives on the Tonle Sap. Born into statelessness, they are not permitted to vote, work, or even live on land.
Robert Mugabe's downfall after 37 years in power left beleaguered Zimbabweans euphoric, but the rise of Emmanuel Mnangagwa, aka The Crocodile, suggests that the rejoicing might be premature.
This innovative project utilizes illustration, photography, and video to investigate what role the Nigerian movie industry has played in the increase of witchcraft accusations against children.
Five years since war erupted, life in the Central African Republic is again spiralling out of control, with families caught in a deepening humanitarian crisis. How do you survive when your country is collapsing?
Bolivia can be a rough place for children, especially the most vulnerable. Bolivian President Evo Morales takes pride in protecting youth, but critics question whether he has done enough.
A group of mothers with missing children just unearthed the biggest narco mass gravesite in Mexican history. This project documents their struggle to discover what happened their kids.
Did the United States ignore signs of a coming mass atrocity against the Rohingya when it chose to upgrade its relationship with Myanmar and lift sanctions on the country?
"All I have left are my words," the Rohingya Muslim refugee said. The AP documents systematic gang rape of Rohingya women by the Myanmar military, and reconstructs a massacre in one Rohingya village.
Photojournalist Daniella Zalcman talks about her work documenting Uganda's LGBT community in the wake of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill.
Pulitzer Center grantee Larry C. Price talks about the use of mercury in small-scale gold mining.
Allison Shelley and Allyn Gaestel report on the silent crisis of abortion in Nigeria.
In 2014, Rwanda will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the genocide. Tomaso Clavarino spent 20 days in the country reporting on the survivors, and the scars, of the 1994 civil war.
Writer Jeff Kelly Lowenstein and photographer Jon Lowenstein talk about their project that looks at Chile's past, present and future 40 years after the Pinochet coup.
Katherine Zoepf traveled to Saudi Arabia this fall to investigate how a new law that allows women to work in lingerie stores could be catalyst for a much bigger societal change.
Writer Jeremy Relph and photographer Dominic Bracco II talk about their reporting project in Honduras, "Aqui Vivimos," which explores violence, impunity, ideology, and politics in the country.
Journalist Ken Weiss has spent several years documenting the causes and consequences of rapid global population growth.
Rieke Havertz, editor and writer for Taz, Die Tageszeitung, reports from Chicago on the sales of local gun shops, the strict gun laws and the neighborhoods that suffer most from violence.
Jason Motlagh returns to Bangladesh to investigate its export garment industry in the wake of the Rana Plaza tragedy.
Journalists Alisa Roth and Hugh Eakin traveled the perimeter of Syria, to Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Northern Iraq to cover the Syrian refugee crisis.
Robin Hammond discusses the mental health issues facing former child soldiers. His work documents the treatment of mental health issues in various African countries, focusing specifically on Liberia.
Ellison wins Innovation award for his interactive graphic novel illustrating the fates of Nigerian children accused of witchcraft.
In celebration of Women's History Month, we've compiled our top 5 lesson plans of the year that feature reporting on women's rights and the ways women are fighting for them.
Pulitzer Center grantees were awarded McGill Medal for Journalistic Courage for their ongoing coverage of Yemen's civil war.
Patrick Brown wins the 2019 FotoEvidence Book Award with World Press Photo for his photography documenting the Rohingya crisis.
Photographer Daniella Zalcman explores ideas of authentic photography, visual literacy, and confronting history during interview.
Meet the next generation of global changemakers: our contest winners are profiled here, and receive congratulatory videos from journalists reporting on their letters' focal areas.
Grantees Cassandra Vinograd, Peter Tinti, and Jack Losh were finalists for an award honoring some of the most courageous, yet least recognized, journalists around the world.
This week: cobalt mining comes from one of the planet's poorest countries and all too often it is mined by children, skepticism about Kosovo's deradicalization and rehabilitation programs for returning jihadists, and Pulitzer Center welcomes new Executive Editor, Indira Lakshmanan.
This week: air pollution kills over 4 million people each year, Rohingya survivors tell their stories, and Putin is building his ties in Africa.
The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting is calling on Bangladeshi authorities to promptly release photographer Shahidul Alam, who was arrested and beaten by police on Sunday, August 5, 2018.
This week: a teenager adjusts to life after Al-Shabab, Losing Earth premiers shortly, and one man's quest to eradicate a skin disease.
"Finding Home" has been nominated in the Outstanding New Approaches: Documentary category for the 2018 News & Documentary Emmy Awards.
In this lesson, students will learn about the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the people who worked to slow the epidemic, and the aftermath the disease has wrought upon the region.
Students will read a piece by Pulitzer Center grantee Alice Su and discuss a contentious issue: refugees and extremism.
In this lesson, students determine main ideas in new information on fragile states and identify their own and others' points of view.
In this lesson, students will read and respond to a photograph and article excerpt by Lauren Gelfond Feldinger, published in the BBC Magazine, about Syrian refugee children in Jordan.
This lesson introduces students to the Pulitzer Center e-book "Flight From Syria: Refugee Stories." Students examine and discuss the Syrian refugee crisis and its effect on children.
This lesson plan outlines a project that allows students the opportunity to connect with a contemporary crisis somewhere in the world.
Objective: to allow students to explore the interplay between China’s politics, environmentalism and Tibetan Buddhism. Lesson length: 50 minutes.
In this lesson we will look at three reporting projects: violence in Honduras; violence in Guatemala; and the abduction of students in Iguala, Guerrero, Mexico.
After a series of chats with Pulitzer Center journalists, students reflect on the experience in a creative yet relevant form of writing by producing a blog post.
This global affairs lesson plan asks students to watch a short video and read a newspaper article to learn about the Rana Plaza factory collapse, and then compare it to historical industrial trends.
Objective: Examine current events in Cuba, now that the US and Cuba have restored diplomatic ties. Essential Question: Is Cuba in the midst of positive change, negative change, or stagnation?
Students will analyze how authors order ideas and emphasize details to report on a global conflict. They will reflect on injustices they have witnessed and write their own reports on local conflicts.