A new article published in a peer-reviewed academic journal corroborates earlier studies showing that children do best when raised in a stable and supportive family environment. The researchers pinpoint an important but often-overlooked factor in healthy adolescent development: the child’s relationship with the opposite-sex parent.
[A] child’s relationship with his or her parents is the [...]

On 19 September 2008, Dina Cohen, a 22-year-old mother living in Sderot, Israel, asked that question of the UN Human Rights Council.  Her statement is in French; an English translation is posted below.
Thank you, Mr. President.
All human lives have equal value and all innocent suffering is tragic. Permit me to present my story, in the [...]

A 17-year-old Iraqi girl who has been abused and exploited for much of her young life celebrated a very happy new year in Canada.
From a report by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHRC), datelined 31 December:
For any refugee, the chance to begin a new life in Canada is a coveted prize. But for Hiba [not [...]

National Post columnist Colby Cosh stated last July that Christians did not consider abortion murder “before the 1960s”. McGill University religious studies professor Douglas Farrow immediately pointed out his egregious error and cited early church fathers condemning abortion. Mr Cosh initially replied to Dr Farrow’s rejoinder with defiance, but when Farrow responded with [...]

So says the National Society for Human Rights, an independent human rights organisation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The organisation is seeking to establish a minimum age of 15 years for girls to be married in the kingdom, the Saudi Gazette reported on Thursday.
Dr Saleh al-Khathlan, deputy chairman of the NSHR, told the paper the [...]

Assyrian International News Agency reports on female genital mutilation (FGM) in Kurdistan.
Sheelan Anwar Omer, a shy 7-year-old Kurdish girl, bounded into her neighbor’s house with an ear-to-ear smile, looking for the party her mother had promised.
There was no celebration. Instead, a local woman quickly locked a rusty red door behind Sheelan, who looked bewildered when [...]

An Egyptian girl who was brought to California to work as a domestic slave lived in a garage and was compelled to perform household chores for long hours and pitiful pay.
Shyima was 10 when a wealthy Egyptian couple brought her from a poor village in northern Egypt to work in their California home. She awoke [...]

This year saw three convictions for human trafficking in Canada—the first since a human-trafficking statute was added to the Criminal Code in 2005.  Contrary to expectations, the perpetrators and victims were all Canadian citizens.
A different picture emerged of a flesh trade often thought of as foreign nationals tricked across borders. It became apparent that Canadian [...]

President Bush today signed into law the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act. This legislation is considered so important and valuable that he was applauded by a Democratic Congressional Representative, Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY), co-chair of the Congressional Human Trafficking Caucus.
“Thousands of human trafficking victims are being held in often deplorable conditions in [...]

Saudis have several cultural prejudices against women who enter the field of medicine, according to a Saudi blogger.

The women will end up married to their careers
Women will work in mixed environments (medical facilities are not segregated like the rest of the work world in KSA)
The women will end up getting married late [...]

Two newly published studies suggest that male circumcision reduces the risk of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and cervical cancer. Dr Carrie Nielson of the Oregon Health & Science University, lead researcher on one of the studies, says this demonstrates that male circumcision could provide substantial health benefits for women.
Combined with earlier evidence that circumcision is [...]

A private consultant commissioned by the Government of Alberta to suggest policies aimed at alleviating the shortage of nurses has offered a novel “solution”—pressure nurses already working to put in more hours. Right! That will absolutely make nursing a more attractive profession.
For some strange reason, however, Alberta nurses don’t see it that way.
Alberta [...]

For many years, India and other countries in Asia have been seeing an unnaturally large preponderance of boys over girls. Such unbalanced sex ratios are attributable to sex-selection abortions motivated by cultural and financial preferences for male children.
A study led by Dr S.V. Subramanian of the Harvard School of Public Health has found that, [...]

Cries of outrage have erupted in South Korea as tens of thousands call for the impeachment of a judge who issued suspended sentences to four men found guilty of incest.  The four repeatedly raped during a period of several years a developmentally handicapped teenage girl.
Tens of thousands of angry Internet users signed an online petition [...]

That would be “House” as in Gregory House M.D. (at right), the cynical, obnoxious, and arrogant lead character of the mega-hit TV show. Apparently, there are too many real doctors like him out there.
Hospital staff surveys indicate that low morale and staff turnover are sometimes attributable to abusive behaviour by doctors.
Recent studies suggest that [...]