To celebrate turning 10, Lacuna Magazine is sharing 10 of our favourite stories from the past decade as chosen by our editors. The writers include school pupils, university students, journalists, academics, activists and members of the public, writing about issues as diverse as Islamophobia, rewilding the Scottish Highlands and, perhaps most crucially, love.
To mark 10 years of Lacuna Magazine, we have gathered a decade of human rights journalism, creative writing and storytelling from around the globe into an interactive world map.
In Lacuna Magazine’s first decade, our stories have been read more than half a million times and by readers in every country of the world. Clicks don’t give the full picture or measure a story’s value – and you can find our editors’ pick of articles here – but the pieces below are some of the magazine’s most popular, and they deserve to be celebrated.
Ten years have passed since 43 students from Ayotzinapa, Mexico – Los 43 – were detained and disappeared in one of the country’s most infamous human rights cases. On the tenth anniversary, as Mexico’s first female president is about to take office, Paula Gonzalez Gavilanes revisits the case while parents continue their protest.
At 15 years old, Mohammed Al Zaza suffered life-changing injuries when the Israeli army bombed his home in Gaza City. Now, 13 years later and from the other side of the world, he is once again watching bombs fall on Gaza and waiting for news from his family.
The #Freeher campaign by the National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls is reimagining approaches to equality, community and justice for imprisoned women and mothers. Beatrice Spadacini explores the work of grassroots abolitionist activists and their fight to defund America’s repressive criminal justice system, invest in community infrastructure, and combat its treatment of minority women in prisons.
This collection includes a letter from father to son, a translated story of a night in police custody, and a graphic novel about growing up under oppression. Many are award-winning and our choosers explain what each story means to them.
Many people dream of a human rights career, helping others and creating change, but how do you take the first steps? We asked human rights lawyers, humanitarians and journalists to tell us about essential qualifications and experience, and offer valuable advice to students just starting out.
