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Burma: Security Council Should Impose Arms Embargo

The United Nations Security Council should impose and enforce a mandatory arms embargo on Burma because of continuing massive violations of human rights says Human Rights Watch. India, China, Russia, and other nations are supplying Burma with weapons that the military uses to commit human rights abuses and to bolster its ability to maintain power.

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/10/10/burma17066.htm

(Added: Fri Oct 12 2007   Hits: 120)

A Call to Action: Crisis in Zimbabwe

The SADC mediation talks must incorporate human rights concerns and set clear benchmarks for progress. This memorandum provides a brief summary of human rights concerns in Zimbabwe and proposes a number of actions to help tackle the crisis (Human Rights Watch, August 2007).

http://hrw.org/backgrounder/africa/zimbabwe0807/zimbabwe0807web.pdf

(Added: Tue Sep 11 2007   Hits: 93)

Americans on Hold: Profiling, Citizenship, and the "War on Terror"

The U.S. government is illegally delaying the naturalization applications of thousands of immigrants by profiling individuals it perceives to be Muslim and subjecting them to indefinite security checks, charged the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) in a new report. The 63-page report documents the impact of expanded security checks on the lives of those experiencing citizenship delays, often for years on end. The report analyzes these delays and their impact within an international human rights framework, and offers specific policy recommendations to help end discrimination in access to citizenship and other human rights violations. (CHRGJ at NYU Law, 2007).

http://www.chrgj.org/docs/AOH/AmericansonHoldReport.pdf

(Added: Wed Aug 08 2007   Hits: 165)

Serbia: Pursue Mladic not human rights activists

Amnesty International today called upon the Serbian authorities to stop the imprisonment of a human rights activist Maja Stojanovic;, convicted by a Serbian court for displaying posters in an unauthorized place. The posters had urged the Serbian authorities to arrest and transfer alleged war criminal Ratko Mladic; to the International Criminal Court in the Hague. Maja Stojanovic; is due to be imprisoned tomorrow (Amnesty International, 25 July 2007).

http://news.amnesty.org/index/ENGEUR700112007

(Added: Fri Jul 27 2007   Hits: 49)

Howard's New Tampa - Aboriginal Children Overboard

Howard's new Tampa children overboard are our Aboriginal children. The Little Children are Sacred report does not advocate physically and psychologically invasive examinations of Aboriginal children, which could only be carried out anally and vaginally. It does not recommend scrapping the permit system to enter Aboriginal lands, nor does it recommend taking over Aboriginal 'towns' by enforced leases. These latter two points in the Howard scheme hide the true reason for the Federal Government's use of the latest report for blatant political opportunism. It has been an openly stated agenda that Howard wants to move Aboriginal people off their lands, and has made recent attempts to buy off Aboriginal people by offering them millions for agreeing to lease their lands to the Federal Government, e.g. Tiwi Islands and Tangentyere in Alice Springs. There was also the statement by the Federal Government that it could not continue (?!) to provide essential services to remote communities, which raised an uproar of responses in the press. The focus on the sexual abuse of children is guaranteed to evoke the most emotive responses, and therefore command attention, just like the manipulation of the Tampa situation. But while the attention of the media and the public is being emotionally coerced, what is being sneaked in under the covers? (Jennifer Martiniello, Project Safecom.Inc, 25 June 2007).

http://www.safecom.org.au/howards-new-tampa.htm

(Added: Fri Jul 06 2007   Hits: 195)

Voices: Palestinian Women Narrate Displacement

70 people, mostly women, from different regions of historic Palestine tell their stories of loss of home. They are 'ordinary' Palestinians of varying ages and social backgrounds. This is a multi-media project, a digital book in which you can hear the speakers' voices, see portraits of their faces and surroundings, and read texts that describe individual speakers and give historical background.

http://almashriq.hiof.no/voices/

(Added: Thu Jun 28 2007   Hits: 154)

REMEMBERING APO JOSE

It was a year ago when two motorcycle-riding assassins murdered Apo Jose Doton, 62 years old, farmer, peasant leader, friend and father not just of his two children by his wife Nanay Dominga but to all young people whose lives he has touched (Cordillera Peoples Alliance, 2007).

http://www.cpaphils.org/index-remembering%20jose.html

(Added: Mon Jun 11 2007   Hits: 85)

Nepal: Bhutanese Refugee Tensions Erupt Into Violence: Nepali Police Need to Protect Refugees' Freedom of Expression

Violence continues in Nepal towards Bhutanese refugees. On May 27, a group claiming to be members of the Bhutanese Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist) attacked refugees who have voiced support for a US offer to resettle Bhutanese refugees. In response to the violence, a contingent of the Nepal Armed Police opened fire on the mob. Human Rights Watch states that although there is no question that Bhutanese refugees have a right to return to Bhutan, they also have the right to make choices on essential issues like resettlement without threats, intimidation or violence (Human Rights Watch, 31 May 2007).

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/05/31/bhutan16034.htm

(Added: Tue Jun 05 2007   Hits: 50)

Take Action to Free Indonesian Trade Union Leader

Sarta Sarim, an Indonesian union leader, was arrested on the 1st of May after participating in a peaceful demonstration. Sign on to a letter asking Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to intervene and see that Sarta receives justice.

http://www.solidaritycenter.org/content.asp?contentid=674

(Added: Tue Jun 05 2007   Hits: 58)

Chop Fine: The Human Rights Impact of Local Government Corruption and Mismanagement in Rivers State, Nigeria

Nigeria has produced several hundred billion dollars worth of oil since independence in 1960, but ordinary Nigerians have derived appallingly little benefit from all of that wealth. This situation exists primarily because successive governments, both military and civilian, have stolen or misused much of Nigeria's tremendous oil wealth. The head of Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has stated that the country lost as much as $380 billion to corruption and waste between 1960 and 1999, the year Nigeria's current government came to power. (Human Rights Watch, January 2007).

http://hrw.org/reports/2007/nigeria0107/

(Added: Fri Mar 02 2007   Hits: 80)

Mexico: Defend the rights of protestors and detainees

Demonstrations in Oaxaca began in May, when teachers went on strike and occupied the city centre to demand improved pay and working conditions. The protestors occupied official buildings and media outlets, blocking roads with barricades. As the protest spread to other parts of the city, in late 2006 state security forces used excessive force in attempts to evict the protesters. Several people were killed, and many of the hundreds of detainees were tortured. Express your cncern to the Mexican government.

http://www.amnesty.ca/take_action/actions/mexico_protestors_detainees.php

(Added: Wed Feb 21 2007   Hits: 122)

Call for justice in Mexico!

In Mexico, the criminal justice system is gravely flawed. The country's law and enforcement agencies and judicial system do not effectively protect people from human rights abuses, and perpetrators are rarely brought to justice. These systemic deficiencies lead to arbitrary detentions, torture, fabrication of evidence and unfair trials. For example, Elionai Santiago Sánchez and Ramiro Aragon were arrested, beaten and tortured in Oaxaca in 2006, yet no one has been held to account. Send an email to call on the President of Mexico and the President of the Mexican Chamber of Deputies to seek prompt and substantial reform of the public security and criminal justice system within a human rights framework.

http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/index.aspx?c=goJTI0OvElH&b=953489&template=x.ascx&action=8086

(Added: Tue Feb 20 2007   Hits: 215)

Report on the Human Rights Situation in Oaxaca, Mexico

This report is the result of a visit by twenty individuals (including human rights lawyers, journalists, authors, investigators, graduate students, and activists) from the United States and Canada, who came together in Oaxaca out of concern for what appeared to be serious violations of human rights. This report provides some background regarding the roots of the conflict based on presentations and discussions in Oaxaca as well as published accounts in the media, and summarizes the testimony received regarding human rights violations. The killings and beating of people involved in the teachers' struggle at the end of 2006 and only the latest episode in a conflict that has lasted decades. (Robin Alexander, No Sweat, 4 January 2007)

http://www.nosweat.org.uk/node/261

(Added: Mon Feb 19 2007   Hits: 162)

What Happened to the Women? Gender and Reparations for Human Rights Violations

Women are victims of both authoritarianism and conflict, and often play a crucial role in the aftermath of violence, searching for victims or their remains, trying to reconstitute families and communities, and carrying on the tasks of memory and the demand for justice. Despite this, reparation programs are rarely designed to address the needs of women who bear the impact of human rights violations. But what happens to the lives of women dealing with human rights violations? What happens to their voices once they have their day in court or in front of a truth commission? This book argues for the introduction of a gender dimension into reparations programs. The volume explores gender and reparations policies in Guatemala, Peru, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, and Timor-Leste. All chapters are available for download online. (Ruth Rubio-Marín, ICRC, SSRC, December 2006)

http://press.ssrc.org/RubioMarin/

(Added: Wed Jan 31 2007   Hits: 97)

Close Guantánamo now!

You want Guantánamo closed? Say/sing/act it on camera in a 5 to 10 seconds video clip! You're welcome to comment further on why Guantánamo should be closed, as long as it is not offensive. If you can, shoot your video at a recognisable landmark from your city or your country (the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Zocalo in Mexico City...). Collected material will be compiled and edited into one big Make Some Noise video, to spearhead Amnesty International's "Close Guantánamo" campaign around the world.

http://noise.amnesty.org/site/c.adKIIVNsEkG/b.2141873/k.2B98/Make_an_impact_Close_Guantanamo/apps/ka/ct/contactcustom.asp

(Added: Mon Dec 04 2006   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 221)

Violence against women and justice denied in Mexico State

This report reveals further evidence of the Mexico State authority's failure to seriously investigate at least 23 reports of sexual abuse committed by security forces in San Salvador Atenco during police operations 5 months ago. The Mexico State has even attempted to cover up evidence of such abuse. The women were amongst 211 people arrested during a two day police operation in the towns of Texcoco and San Salvador Atenco, Mexico State. The operation aimed to stop protests by a local peasant farmer organization "Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra". To date, seven women and 21 men remain in custody. (Amnesty International, 5 October 2006)

http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR410282006

(Added: Mon Oct 09 2006   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 96)

Zimbabwe: No justice for the victims of forced eviction

During May-July 2005, an estimated 700,000 people lost their homes, their livelihoods, or both when the Zimbabwe government forcibly evicted them and demolished their homes and businesses as part of Operation Murambatsvina (Drive Out Rubbish). The forced evictions and demolitions were carried out without adequate notice, due process, legal protection, redress or appropriate relocation measures. In some instances court orders were disregarded. In addition, police used excessive force: property was destroyed and people were beaten. The vast majority of the victims have received no help from the government. They have been left to find their own alternative shelter in the middle of winter. Many are now living in overcrowded and often squalid conditions and thousands of the victims are still living in the open under makeshift shelters. (Amnesty International, September 2006)

http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAFR460052006

(Added: Tue Sep 12 2006   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 42)

USA: Excessive and lethal force? Amnesty International's concerns about deaths and ill-treatment involving police use of tasers

The use of stun gun (electro-shock) technology in law enforcement raises a number of concerns for the protection of human rights. Portable and easy to use, with the capacity to inflict severe pain at the push of a button without leaving substantial marks, electro-shock weapons are particularly open to abuse by unscrupulous officials. Taser use violates international standards prohibiting torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment as well as standards set out under the United Nations (UN) Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials. More than 200 people have died after being shot by a taser. The testimonies in this report serve as a warning for Aotearoa New Zealand, which is set to introduce the taser for police use in September 2006. (Amnesty International, August 2006)

http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engamr511392004

(Added: Wed Aug 16 2006   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 224)

Human rights: Where is the U.S.?

In this article, the former U.S. representative to the UN Commission for Human Rights, argues that the United States, despite not being a member of the Human Rights Council, must send a high-level envoy to engage in influencing and establishing procedures as the new Council takes form, as it ought not to turn our back on any opportunity to advance human rights throughout the world, having regressed their progress in its so-called 'war on terror'. (Nancy Rubin, International Herald Tribune, 20 June 2006)

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/06/20/opinion/edrubin.php

(Added: Thu Jun 22 2006   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 216)

Beyond Abu Ghraib: Detention and torture in Iraq

Nearly three years after United States (US) and allied forces invaded Iraq and toppled the government of Saddam Hussain, the human rights situation in the country remains dire. The deployment of US-led forces in Iraq and the armed response that engendered has resulted in thousands of deaths of civilians and widespread abuses amid the ongoing conflict. n this report, Amnesty International focuses on another part of the equation, specifically its concerns about human rights abuses for which the US-led Multinational Force is directly responsible and those which are increasingly being committed by Iraqi security forces. The record of these forces, including US forces and their United Kingdom (UK) allies, is an unpalatable one. (Amnesty International, 6 March 2006)

http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engmde140012006

(Added: Tue Jun 06 2006   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 175)

Philippines: A Nation in the Grip of a Grave Crisis, Implications on the Lives of Grassroots Women

Since the last quarter of 2004, a surge of killings, abductions and disappearances have swept the Philippines. This article tells of Esmeralda Ecat, a peasant woman leader from Leyte in the Visayas, that were subjected to torture for almost 24 hours in front of her two young children, and other women having their human rights violated by the military. (National Federation of Peasant Women - Philippines, 2005)

http://www.dontglobalisehunger.org/article_tfriw.php

(Added: Thu Jun 01 2006   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 94)

Justice for Victims of Agent Orange

Even though the Vietnam War ended 30 years ago, the US's saturation chemical bombing is still wreaking havoc on millions, including the newly born, making them third-generation victims. Nobody knows when the congenital deformities, one of many horrific health consequences of the toxic chemicals, will end. Sign this international online petition in solidarity with all the Agent Orange victims in Vietnam. Launched in 2004, more than 600,000 signatures have already been collected. (Vietnam Association of Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin)

http://www.greenleft.org.au/agent_orange.htm

(Added: Wed May 31 2006   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 326)

The Burmese people can't wait much longer

In this article, a Burmese former policial prisoner writes about his country, an 'aborted democracy' that the military regime call Myanmar. Tuberculosis, malaria and AIDS have reached their highest levels ever. The education system is a shambles. Inflation is rampant. To unblock the stalemate over humanitarian aid caused by the regime's pariah status, the only opposition has made overtures to the regime, only to be dismissed as 'terrorists.' The article outlines ways the international community can help. (Ludu Sein Win, International Herald Tribune, 23 May 2006)

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/05/23/opinion/edludu.php

(Added: Thu May 25 2006   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 213)

UN body urges US to shut Guantanamo, "secret jails"

The United Nations top anti-torture body told the United States on Friday that any secret jails it ran for foreign terrorism suspects, along with the Guantanamo Bay facility, were illegal and should be closed. In its first review of U.S. policy since Washington launched its war on terrorism, the Committee against Torture also urged President George W. Bush to ban interrogation methods that could be regarded as torture or cruel treatment. It cited use of dogs to terrify detainees, "water-boarding" which is a form of mock drowning, and sexual humiliation, saying that some detainees had died during questioning. The U.S. State Department rejected the recommendations to close detention facilities as being beyond the committee's anti-torture mandate. (Stephanie Nebehay, Reuter, 19 May 2006)

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13107.htm

(Added: Mon May 22 2006   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 70)

Trinidad and Tobago: End police immunity for unlawful killings and deaths in custody

Amnesty International's report looks at the issue of police killings and deaths in custody through cases reported since 2003. The report highlights the authorities' failure to conduct investigations and to bring those responsible to justice. This report argues that structural reforms within the police forces -- including the implementation of a human rights- based Code of Conduct, a transparent chain of command and criminal prosecutions in cases of human rights abuses -- are key to regaining community support, essential for preventing and combating crime. (Amnesty International, 26 April 2006)

http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/ENGAMR490012006

(Added: Wed May 17 2006   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 205)

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