 | Witness: Freeing Women From Cleaning Human Waste
 Photo © 2013 Digvijay Singh
A decade ago, Lalibai, then a mother of four, took a stand and refused to remove and dispose of excrement from her village's dry toilets, work she inherited at age 12. She had been approached by grassroots activists who said it was illegal for anyone to compel her to do this work, and that she had a choice to leave. She decided to claim her dignity and quit.
It's hard to imagine that powerfully outspoken Lalibai, with her henna-red hair and upright posture, had once accepted cleaning human waste as her life's duty. Each day she would carry her cane basket from house to house, lift the waste from latrines, and carry it outside the village. She hated carrying waste, found it disgusting, and it was making her physically sick. She was "paid" with stale roti, a flat bread. This job was customarily designated to her community, considered a low-ranking caste. She could not fathom any other life.
 | Burundi's Crackdown on Dissent Must not go Unnoticed
By Carina Tertsakian
The Guardian (UK)
Several years have passed since the end of Burundi's 12-year civil war, which cost tens of thousands of lives. The period following the end of the conflict in 2005 was marked by a huge sense of relief as peace gradually returned to the country.
|  | Azerbaijan Should Investigate Brutal Attack on Journalist
A brutal attack on Azerbaijani journalist Ilgar Nasibov left him seriously injured, with a concussion, broken cheekbones, nose, and ribs, and loss of vision in one eye. This violent attack coincides with a new wave of government repression against civil society and takes place during Azerbaijan's chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.
|  | Executions in Gaza Should be Halted
News reports said unidentified gunmen believed to be acting on instructions from Hamas executed 25 people accused of providing the Israeli military with information between August 21 and August 23. Amid all the carnage in Gaza, it's abhorrent that Hamas officials are adding to it by permitting, if not ordering, the summary execution of Palestinians.
| | VIDEO/PHOTOS |  | |  | | | Forced to Clean Human Waste in India. View Now >> | | | | VIDEO |  | |  | | Burundian activist Pierre Claver Mbonimpa was unjustly detained.
Watch Now >> | | | | TWEET of the WEEK | | |  | | #Indonesia new Prez #Jokowi faces "toxic legacy" of religious extremism @hrw @thejakartaglobe http://bit.ly/1BWhi3T
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