Latest Articles

Latest Articles

The newest essays, interviews, and features from Big Think.

For all of us, coping with the death of a loved one is intensely traumatic. For sufferers of "complicated" grief, however, the trauma itself never seems to die; rather than dissipating over time, it becomes a […]
Expectations for the Copenhagen summit next month are dropping like a cartoon anvil. Where once there was talk of a comprehensive international accord on cutting greenhouse-gas emissions, now the great […]
Stewart Brand's latest book, "Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto," contains a dagger in its subtitle. To write a manifesto on behalf of "ecopragmatism" is to imply that the current […]
A variety of English media reported today that the Times of London will begin charging its customers for 24-hour access to the Times’ website by spring. The Times, roughly the […]
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Only two countries have yet to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child—Somalia, and the United States. Jo Becker explains why.
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Though it may seem like a quintessentially 19th century problem to many Americans, child labor is surprisingly prevalent throughout the First World.
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Though there continues to be resistance internationally to making 18 the minimum for military service, provisions in the CRC for education and security provide other outlets for children in areas […]
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Human Right’s Watch’s Jo Becker delineates the recruitment of child soldiers, and the abuses they suffer once they’ve been drafted.
It’s becoming a familiar theme. An election is held somewhere in the developing world that is hotly contested. The opposition cries foul and demands a recount. Allegations fly as both […]
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Twenty years after the Convention on the Rights of the Child, countries around the world are still struggling with implementation.
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Ann Venemen dissects the consequences of letting another generation go without education, health care, and basic civil rights.
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Veneman admits it’s a challenge to find a set of standards that fits every country and context, but argues against a sliding scale of rights.
Steven Pinker's attack on Malcolm Gladwell in the New York Times Book Review was more lucid and entertaining than it was intellectually honest. Pinker's take-away claim is that Gladwell's work […]
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UNICEF head Ann Veneman shares some of the frequently overlooked abuses that children are subject to the world over.
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The former child soldier decries the violence that many children still face.
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Ishmael Beah shares his own experience of being a child soldier.
Spare some change? This past Thursday, the New York Times ran a special section on giving, the big front page story of which was all about giving small. You know, […]