Kartik Raj
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kartikraj.bsky.social
Kartik Raj
@kartikraj.bsky.social
Work @hrw.org on poverty, inequality, social security, human rights in Europe
Migrant. Parent. Pedant. Anorak. #dadjokes. He/him.
Barcelona-based.
Work output here: https://www.hrw.org/about/people/kartik-raj
Pinned
1/3 I’ve just returned home after a week interviewing older people on low pension incomes in Hungary for @hrw.org. The findings will be out in the coming months.

This photo is of an 80 year old woman showing me her notebook of expenses, in which every last forint is meticulously accounted for.
Reposted by Kartik Raj
Paraguay 🇵🇾 ha prohibido la palabra “género” en los libros escolares, borrando términos como “igualdad de género” y “perspectiva de género”. Esto socava el derecho de los jóvenes a una educación que les ayude a entender la discriminación y la desigualdad. www.abc.com.py/nacionales/2...
November 24, 2025 at 3:44 PM
Reposted by Kartik Raj
Paraguay 🇵🇾 has banned the word “gender” in educational materials. This doesn’t just limit language. It blocks understanding of human rights, diversity, and real equality among girls, boys, and adolescents. www.theparaguaypost.com/p/paraguay-s...
November 24, 2025 at 3:47 PM
1/2 absolute 🔥 from @nesrinemalik.bsky.social

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

"Sold as an origin story from within an immigrant and racialised experience, the purpose is to imbue her politics with sacred authenticity [...] It is clever and effective. It is cynical and disgraceful."
Shabana Mahmood is an avatar of open Britain – that’s what makes her fable about immigration so seductive | Nesrine Malik
‘She is the daughter of immigrants,’ supporters of her cruel asylum policies say. ‘How can she be wrong?’ Let me put them straight, says Guardian columnist Nesrine Malik
www.theguardian.com
November 24, 2025 at 12:27 PM
A frank assessment of where the UK is, with a concerted effort to also identify glimmers of hope.

I’ve always found Enver’s reflections to be very thoughtful and containing something in them that allows those listening to find their energy and motivation again amidst what otherwise feels grim.
November 24, 2025 at 8:34 AM
Reposted by Kartik Raj
Human Rights Watch is honored to announce Philippe Bolopion as its new Executive Director. Philippe is a 13-year HRW veteran and former journalist who has advocated on atrocities globally.

We are proud to have his expertise guiding us as HRW rises to meet the challenges ahead.
November 24, 2025 at 5:01 AM
Reposted by Kartik Raj
‘Demand is up, donations are down’: how food banks are helping families in Kent
‘Demand is up, donations are down’: how food banks are helping families in Kent
Since the pandemic, the charities have been forced to use cash gifts and grant money to cover their bills
www.theguardian.com
November 23, 2025 at 12:37 PM
Read Ussu’s story. And then consider what the UK Home Secretary is proposing.
November 23, 2025 at 12:26 PM
Reposted by Kartik Raj
Bustinduy, el valor emergente en la izquierda que no quiere ser candidato 

Por @arvaldivia.bsky.social
Bustinduy, el valor emergente en la izquierda que no quiere ser candidato
El ministro de Derechos Sociales ha logrado sacar dos leyes en las dos últimas semanas en el fragmentado Parlamento
f.mtr.cool
November 23, 2025 at 9:32 AM
Reposted by Kartik Raj
Oped by @yasmineahmed.bsky.social on UK govt's immigration plans:
"We've seen the injustices caused by a hostile environment with the Windrush generation. Instead of learning from that shameful chapter, these proposals risk recreating the same architecture of precarity"
www.hrw.org/news/2025/11...
Mahmood’s Immigration Plan Breaks Labour’s Promises
Shabana Mahmood’s newly unveiled asylum and returns policy is being sold as a moment of ‘restoring order’. In truth, it marks a profound retreat from the humane, pragmatic approach Labour promised vot...
www.hrw.org
November 21, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Reposted by Kartik Raj
Cómo una ayuda universal por hijo reduciría mucho más la pobreza infantil que las actuales (incluso muy mejoradas)

Dos estudios muy interesantes de esta semana! De Unicef y Esade, y otro de Luis Ayala, Olga Cantó, Marina Romaguera y Dmitry Petrov.

www.eldiario.es/economia/nue...
Cómo una ayuda universal por hijo reduciría mucho más la pobreza infantil que las actuales
Los investigadores de dos estudios destacan los mayores efectos de la ayuda de 200 euros al mes que debate el Gobierno frente a aumentar el IMV a familias con hijos o del complemento CAPI para hogares...
www.eldiario.es
November 21, 2025 at 10:58 AM
Reposted by Kartik Raj
The 750-page document also has stinging criticism of “toxic and chaotic” culture inside Boris Johnson’s Downing Street – which it said the then PM. actively embraced – in which loudest voices held sway and women were sidelined.
November 20, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Reposted by Kartik Raj
BREAKING: The UK’s response to Covid was “too little, too late”, a damning official report on the handling of the pandemic has concluded, saying the introduction of a lockdown even a week earlier than happened could have saved more than 20,000 lives.
November 20, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Reposted by Kartik Raj
We’re thrilled to share that Human Rights Watch’s #WithHumanity campaign has been selected as a Gold award winner at the Anthem Awards. 🙌

www.anthemawards.com/winners/list...
November 18, 2025 at 9:21 PM
Reposted by Kartik Raj
Andy Burnham calls on Labour to rethink plans to make it tougher for asylum seekers to settle permanently – UK politics live
Andy Burnham calls on Labour to rethink plans to make it tougher for asylum seekers to settle permanently – UK politics live
The home secretary’s plans ‘may leave people in a sense of limbo and unable to integrate’, Burnham said Good morning. On Monday Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, announced drastic changes to the asylum system. Today, in a statement to MPs, she will announce changes to the legal migration rules – in particular those affecting how long people have to wait until they are given a permanent right to stay in the UK. Mahmood was strongly criticised by the Commons speaker over the amount of pre-briefing there was ahead of Monday’s announcement, and this morning the Home Office has been more tight-lipped. But the Times reports that Mahmood is expected to announce “that migrants would usually be allowed to apply for indefinite leave to remain only after ten years — double the five years at present — and must meet certain conditions such as speaking English to A-level standard, having a clean criminal record and not claiming benefits”. I agree that Shabana Mahmood is right to grasp this nettle and have root and branch reform of the system. I agree with that. But I do have a concern about leaving people without the ability to settle, one of the concerns being that if there’s a need to constantly check up on the status of countries where people have come from, that might limit the ability of the Home Office to deal with the backlog. And it also may leave people in a sense of limbo and unable to integrate. I’m not going to say that the home secretary is wrong to call for this level of change. What I would say is it’s really important, on the back of the measures that she’s announced, that there is a considered debate, time is taken to see if consensus can be built around it. Because that would be hugely valuable to the country if that could be secured. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
November 20, 2025 at 9:04 AM
This article by @theguardian.com may require some correction. I’m not sure the sentence “In what is believed to the the first instance of ministers being found in breach of article 3 of the European convention on human rights…” holds up.
November 19, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Reposted by Kartik Raj
Finally!
November 19, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Reposted by Kartik Raj
Scrap the two-child limit now!
November 19, 2025 at 12:37 PM
Reposted by Kartik Raj
‘Dangerous nostalgia’: did Spain’s ‘pact of forgetting’ after Franco leave new generation open to far right?
‘Dangerous nostalgia’: did Spain’s ‘pact of forgetting’ after Franco leave new generation open to far right?
Events to mark the 50th anniversary of dictator’s death are intended to remind Spaniards, particularly the young, of the dangers of fascism
www.theguardian.com
November 19, 2025 at 6:32 AM
Reposted by Kartik Raj
Just Fair's statement on the UK Government's proposed asylum 'reforms'

"This is a critical moment for the UK, a time for deep reflection on what kind of country we are, and what kind of country we want to be"

There is an alternative to advancing division and cruelty
November 18, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Reposted by Kartik Raj
🚨📝📚 Mayotte ne garantit pas l'accès à l'éducation pour tous les enfants.

Près d'un an après le cyclone Chido dans le département français d'outre-mer, les mesures de reconstruction n'ont pas permis de corriger les graves défaillances du système éducatif.

Notre enquête⤵️
November 18, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Reposted by Kartik Raj
France is failing to provide education to all children in the French overseas department of Mayotte ,
@hrw.org research finds. The French government’s neglect of Mayotte is an ongoing legacy of colonialism that has left the island persistently underdeveloped
www.hrw.org/news/2025/11...
France: Overseas Territory’s Education Barriers
The French overseas department of Mayotte, an island territory in the Indian Ocean and a former French colony, is failing to provide education to all children.
www.hrw.org
November 18, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Reposted by Kartik Raj
These policies do not make the UK safer, they make it smaller, meaner and less committed to the equal dignity of all people.

Removing rights from the most vulnerable is state sanctioned cruelty.
November 17, 2025 at 9:28 PM
November 17, 2025 at 8:13 PM
In today’s @washingtonpost.com

Child poverty soars in Britain as working families struggle to keep up

www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/1...

($ / paywall)
Child poverty soars in Britain as working families struggle to keep up
Across Britain, families who once felt solidly middle class are losing their footing as rents, child care costs and food prices outpace wages.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 17, 2025 at 8:07 PM