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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World

Nobel laureates and human rights abuses

Prime minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed, at the UN offices in Gigiri, Nairobi, 29 February 2024.
‘Abiy Ahmed, prime minister of Ethiopia, has had several gravely ill activists imprisoned for protesting against human rights violations.’ Photograph: Simon Maina/AFP/Getty Images

In reference to your report about 112 Nobel laureates calling on Iran to release the gravely ill activist Narges Mohammadi )(12 May), I write to note the irony that Abiy Ahmed, the prime minister of Ethiopia, has had under his leadership several activists imprisoned for protesting against human rights violations and a profound undemocratic social order since he was awarded the Nobel prize for peace in 2019. Perhaps the global community of Nobel laureates will next chastise one of their own.
Sehin Teferra
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

• It will not only be the students feeling restless (Third of university students in Great Britain think AI job losses will cause social unrest, poll finds, 19 May). Many parents have spent time and money encouraging their children through university, with the prospect of a good job afterwards. Now they find their offspring are back at home, owing to the lack of decent entry-level jobs, which makes renting and commuting unaffordable.
Catherine Mowat
London

• I’d express my admiration for Richard Sims’ pun about the deer stuck on the escalator at Marks & Spencer in Norwich (Letters, 18 May), but that might be fawning.
Elli Woollard
London

• A conversion rate from “bunch” to “handful” (Letters, 19 May)? As Harry Belafonte tells us, “six hand, seven hand, eight hand bunch”.
Nigel Steel
Harefield, London

• Would it not be more accurate to refer to him as Stephen Yaxley‑Lennon, trading as Tommy Robinson (Letters, 19 May)?
James Williamson
Drogheda, County Louth, Ireland

• Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.

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