For over a decade, Lacuna Magazine has been amplifying human rights stories from every corner of the globe. This collection from 2025 brings together an array of political writing by journalists, academics, students, activists and newer writers.
Lacuna’s stories this year have: tracked a single family dispersed across continents after fleeing Venezuela; heard how a photographer supported Indigenous women in Greenland to document their experience of forced contraception; and followed scientists tracking diseases in wild animals in Namibia to prevent the next pandemic.
Focusing on Palestine, our writers shared the incredible story of young amputee Anas al-Amarin, looked to the little-known history of Bali to put the AI-generated vision of ‘Trump Gaza’ in context, and unfolded a battle for existence by Jerusalem’s Christian Armenian community. Click here to find more stories through our interactive world map.
We look forward to bringing you more in 2026. If you would like to write for us, get in touch.
Greenland’s ‘coil campaign’: Photographer Juliette Pavy exposes the forced contraception of thousands of Inuit women and girls
Juliette Pavy was named Sony World Photographer of the Year 2024 for her series Spiralkampagnen: Forced Contraception and Unintended Sterilisation of Greenlandic Women. Writer Sophie Holloway hears how Pavy discovered the issue and how she supported Inuit women to tell their stories.
Find the full story here.
‘One Health’: Could tracking diseases in animals prevent the next pandemic?
In Namibia, vets are monitoring “zoonotic” diseases that jump from animals to humans in a bid to prevent the next pandemic. This story was published in the same week the World Health Assembly adopted a new Pandemic Treaty. But as Trump’s ‘America First’ approach sees the US withdraw from international treaties and cut global health funding, how can scientists track and intercept diseases that do not recognise borders?
Find the full story here.
Leaving Venezuela: Four stories of Venezuela’s displacement crisis from the diaspora
The Venezuelan displacement crisis is the largest in Latin America’s modern history. Driven by economic collapse, political repression and a breakdown of services, about eight million people – one quarter of Venezuela’s population – are now displaced globally. Here, Shandra Back captures the stories of four remarkable women from one family, each branching off from their family tree across distances previously unimaginable.
Find the full story here.
Heat without relief: How can disabled communities navigate Delhi’s climate crisis?
The climate crisis poses unique challenges for disabled people around the world. Growing up in a slum in Delhi while navigating his own disabilities and his mother’s chronic illness, disability activist Puneet Singhal developed an acute understanding of climate change as structural exclusion. Here, he reflects on a series of interviews with disabled people in Delhi as part of his Green Disability campaign for climate justice and disability justice.
Find the full story here.
“We felt transparent”: The forgotten Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh
In 2020, a long-running dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave escalated into war. After a nine-month blockade from December 2022, a military offensive by Azerbaijan forced 100,000 ethnic Armenians to evacuate their homes. But the conflict has received little international attention. Our writer asks why this crisis has been ignored by the international community, and tells the stories of those displaced, asking what hopes they have to return.
Find the full story here.
The essential dream of Anas al-Amarin, a Palestinian in Gaza relying on social media fundraising for survival
Anas al-Amarin, a young Palestinian from Gaza, is using social media to raise funds for his survival and medical care after losing his arm in an Israeli airstrike. Despite ongoing war and displacement, Anas dreams of receiving a prosthetic limb and continuing his studies. To navigate the crisis, he is relying on international crowdfunding and online friendships with supporters on the other side of the planet. Liz McLane unravels his incredible story.
Find the full story here.
Visiting Cape Coast Castle made me re-think Black history
During a visit to Cape Coast Castle in Ghana, law student Alisha Adjei developed a deeper understanding of the trauma inflicted by slavery. But she also left Ghana with questions about the way slavery and Black history more generally are taught in schools. In this article, she takes us to Cape Coast and explains how the visit changed her life.
Find the full story here.
Somaliland’s hope for transitional justice after the Isaaq Genocide
Somaliland is still dealing with the effects of the mass murders committed under Siad Barre’s rule, decades after the Isaaq genocide claimed tens of thousands of lives and left half a million refugees. As efforts to find mass graves and preserve testimonies face political and temporal challenges, survivors call for justice, remembrance and international recognition for the self-declared republic.
Find the full story here.
The ‘lost future’ of Karenni refugees in Ban Nai Soi camp
More than two million refugees are living in camps on the Myanmar-Thailand border. In Ban Nai Soi camp, Ipsita Paul speaks with Karenni refugees to understand what forced them to flee Myanmar, what life is like in the refugee camp, and what the future holds.
Find the full story here.
When does volunteering in Africa turn into white saviourism?
Volunteering in Africa, Asia or Latin America is a bucket list experience for many young people. But after spending a summer at a school in South Africa, our student writer reflects on the experience, asking how volunteerism – or “voluntourism” – sometimes entrenches power relations instead of altering them. They question the impact of their time at the school on local pupils and explore the effects of unilateral acts of assistance.
Find the full story here.
Turning Gaza into a holiday resort has precedent. Ask the ghosts of Bali – if you can find them
Despite being met with widespread disbelief and dismissal, could Donald Trump’s AI-generated vision of ‘Trump Gaza’ be following the earlier example set by Bali? Reflecting on the tourism boom after Indonesia’s deadly coup in 1965, Adam Robertson Charlton says this would not be the first time the US has been complicit in atrocities on foreign soil before using tourism to cover it up.
Find the full story here.
While Hollywood ignored stories of Black resistance, Cuban filmmakers celebrated Black power
Hollywood has long produced cinematic films about slavery, while misrepresenting black agency and perpetuating stereotypes. In this article, Philip Kaisary looks at how Cuban cinema is trying to correct the record.
Find the full story here.
How austerity and benefits policies punish grieving people
The pain of grieving a loved one is intensified when those mourning are also cut off from the welfare and benefits payments they need to survive. With personal experience of this, Kai Charles explores how UK welfare policy and the legacy of Austerity Britain hurts the poor, disabled and marginalised.
Find the full story here.
Subterfuge and surprise attacks: Jerusalem’s Armenians fight against the sale of their homeland
While Gaza is under attack and tensions between Palestinian and Israeli communities in Jerusalem are well known, Jerusalem’s Christian Armenians say they are battling for their own existence. Campaigners trying to protect Jerusalem’s historic Armenian Quarter from development deals say attacks on the city’s minority Christian population are being ignored.
Find the full story here.
All these features and many more can be found on our interactive world map.
Thank you to all the writers and readers of the stories we’ve published this year. We look forward to bringing you more in the year ahead.
