As an inducement to defy its population’s strongly pro-Palestine beliefs and normalize relations with Israel, the U.S. government has announced it will reverse decades of respect for international law and recognize Morocco’s longtime claim to Western Sahara. However, the U.S. government should not be allowed to decide the identity of a people. What is needed is for businesses to step up to the plate and stop working with Morocco to profit off of Western Sahara’s natural resources.

By Asmaa Tayeh

Zeyad Aabed has devoted his career—26 years—to running an NGO dedicated to offering education and health services to the deaf. It was, to say the least, a labor of love. But now, much of the funding on which his NGO depends is drying up. And today, he feels exhausted and depressed, fearful he will have to close the El-Amal Rehabilitation Society altogether. (Reposted from We Are Not Numbers)

By Khadeeja Hamid

Khadeeja Hamid aruges that a more robust accountability regime that places emphasis on downward, inward and horizontal accountability is crucial for the integration of human rights with development practice.

By John Collins

This past August the city of Montreal hosted the 2016 World Social Forum, a major international gathering of activists, NGOs, and other concerned citizens who are committed to building a better world through grassroots action. With assistance from Jacques Brodeur, a media activist and board member of the Action Coalition for Media Education, Weave News was able to interview one of the most prominent featured speakers at the event: Riccardo Petrella, the Italian scholar and activist who for more than two decades has been at the forefront of efforts to recognize water as a human right. Following his lecture on Petrella was gracious enough to sit down with John Collins of Weave News and Shane Rogers, an environmental engineer from Clarkson University, to answer some of our Big Questions. In each case his answer was precise, thoughtful, and provocative.