Human Rights

Teaching Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago In Prison

December 19, 2022 Chris Hedges, Scheer Post. Educate! Chris Hedges, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Health Care, Human Rights

Two nights a week for the last four months, I plowed my way through the three volumes of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago with 17 students in the college degree program offered by Rutgers University in the New Jersey prison system. No one in my class endures the extremities imposed on the millions who worked as slave labor, and often died, in the Soviet gulag, or work camps, set up after the Russian revolution. The last remnants of the hundreds of camps were disbanded in 1987 by Mikhail Gorbachev, himself the grandson of gulag prisoners. Nor do they experience the treatment of those held in Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and our secret black sites who undergo mock trials and executions, torture, extreme sensory deprivation and abuse that comes disturbingly close to replicating the hell of the gulag.

On International Human Rights Day: Money For Ukraine And War

December 18, 2022 Ajamu Baraka, Black Agenda Report. Educate! Biden administration, Class Struggle, Human Rights

December 10th is recognized globally as International Human Rights Day (IHRD) to commemorate the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948. But how does the U.S. state celebrate this day? Two days before the day of recognition, legislators in the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the $858 billion dollar National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which also specifically earmarked another $800 million for the Ukraine war. On IHRD itself, the Biden Administration announced a new set of sanctions while also justifying the continuation of sanctions against 44 nations, thereby contradicting the entire premise of the human rights frame and idea. The working class and poor in the U.S. never recovered from the 2008 capitalist financial crisis before having to face the devastation of the covid pandemic 10 years later.

Ellsberg, Donziger Among Those Demanding Freedom For Daniel Hale

December 17, 2022 Julia Conley, Common Dreams. Resist! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Daniel Hale, Human Rights, Whistleblowers

Anti-war and First Amendment advocates are among those ramping up pressure on President Joe Biden to commute the 45-month prison sentence of Daniel Hale, a former Air Force intelligence analyst and Pentagon employee who disclosed documents regarding the U.S. drone assassination program and was convicted last year of violating the Espionage Act. Human rights attorney Steven Donziger and political activist Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked classified information about the U.S. war in Vietnam to the New York Times five decades ago in what became known as the Pentagon Papers, are scheduled to join Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) at a press conference Thursday morning where they plan to appeal to the president and highlight what the congresswoman called Hale's "courageous" and "patriotic" actions.

Eric Adams Prescribes More Cops And Prisons For Poor And Oppressed

December 16, 2022 Mike Pappas, Left Voice. Educate! Class Struggle, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Eric Adams, Human Rights, New York (NY), New York City (NYC), Police

New York City, New York - Last week, New York Mayor Eric Adams announced his new directive allowing cops to forcibly remove people from public areas and involuntarily detain them for transport to hospitals. The mayor’s guidance expands previous definitions which allowed cops and qualified professionals to involuntarily detain someone if the individual is deemed to be a threat. Now, the new recommendations allow cops to detain people if they deem they are “unable to meet their basic needs.” Adams claims this decision is best for public safety and individual well-being, but his decision was never about public safety — it’s about hiding the effects of austerity, cuts in social services, and the vast inequalities created by capitalism in one of the wealthiest cities in the world.

2022 Was Rikers Island’s Deadliest Year – Again

December 16, 2022 Mansa Musa, The Real News Network. Resistance Report Criminal Justice and Prisons, Human Rights, New York (NY), New York City (NYC), Rikers

New York City, New York - 19 people have perished at Rikers Island in 2022, making this the deadliest year in the jail’s history. Rikers Island’s previous deadliest year was just last year, when 16 people died at the notorious pretrial detention center. NYC Mayor Eric Adams has rejected calls to close the facility, along with demands from advocates for a federal receivership. A federal receivership would give power to a court-appointed, nonpartisan expert to intervene in the situation on Rikers with wide latitude to change conditions in the jail. New York public defender Olayemi Olurin joins Rattling the Bars to discuss the human rights crisis on Rikers Island. Olayemi Olurin is a public defender and staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society and an analyst at the Law & Crime Network and The Hill’s Rising.

AfroResistance At The Permanent Forum Of People Of African Descent

December 16, 2022 Afro Resistance. Organize! Human Rights, People of African Descent, United Nations

From December 5- 8, 2022, AfroResistance attended the first session of the Permanent Forum for People of African Descent, which was held at the United Nations Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. The Permanent Forum serves as "a consultative mechanism for people of African descent and other relevant stakeholders as a platform to improve the security, quality of life and livelihoods of people of African descent, as well as an advisory body to the Human Rights Council, in line with the program of activities for the implementation of the International Decade for Afro-descendants and in close coordination with the existing mechanisms." (United Nations) The forum was attended by Afro-descendant human rights activists, member states, United Nations bodies and agencies, intergovernmental and regional organizations, civil society representatives, and other sectors.

Illinois Workers’ Rights Amendment Sets New Bar For Worker Power Policy

December 15, 2022 Jennifer Sherer, Economic Policy Institute. Create! Elections, Human Rights, Illinois, Voting, Worker Rights and Jobs

Illinois - On election day, Illinois voters approved a constitutional amendment guaranteeing all workers organizing and collective bargaining rights, setting a new high bar for state labor policy at a moment when policymakers should prioritize empowering workers to address historic levels of income inequality and unequal power in our economy. The Illinois Workers’ Rights Amendment adds language to the state constitution affirming that “employees shall have the fundamental right to organize and to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing for the purpose of negotiating wages, hours, and working conditions, and to protect their economic welfare and safety at work.” The new clause also specifies that “no law shall be passed that interferes with, negates, or diminishes the right of employees to organize and bargain collectively.”

UN Report Shows 11,000 Children Killed Or Maimed In This US-Backed War

December 14, 2022 Julia Conley, Common Dreams. Educate! Child Wellbeing, Human Rights, US Imperialism, Wars and Militarism, Yemen

After launching an urgent appeal for humanitarian aid for children in war-torn Yemen, the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund on Monday released a report showing that more than 11,000 young people have been killed or injured in the U.S.-backed conflict, where a Saudi-led coalition has been carrying out attacks since 2015. The true death toll of children is likely far higher, said the agency, commonly known as UNICEF, as millions face hunger and disease. "Thousands of children have lost their lives, hundreds of thousands more remain at risk of death from preventable disease or starvation," UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell said in a statement. The report was released just over two months after the expiration of a cease-fire between the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthis, who oppose the Saudi-backed Yemeni government.

Nooksack Human Rights Saga Reaches Year Ten

December 13, 2022 Gabriel Galanda, Last Real Indians. Educate! Evictions, Housing, Human Rights, Indigenous Rights, Washington State

Deming, Washington – Despite calls from the United Nations and two United States agencies for an eviction halt at Nooksack, tribal politicians are proceeding to eject nine households from their homes this winter. Nearly thirty Nooksack family members are slated to be ejected from federally subsidized, state regulated homes in northern Washington state this month. One family has already been ordered to vacate their home of 11 years by January 3, 2023. The eviction imbroglio unfolds as the human battle raging at Nooksack reaches its tenth year today. Three other households await tribal court rulings. Having been denied any right to legal counsel by Nooksack authorities, the families are representing themselves pro se.

Worldwide Human Rights Day Rallies For Assange

December 11, 2022 Consortium News. Resist! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Human Rights, Julian Assange, Whistleblowers

Supporters of imprisoned WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange are using the occasion of Human Rights Day this Saturday to demand that the British government refuse to extradite him to the United States. Assange is waiting on his application for appeal before the High Court of England and Wales against the home secretary’s decision to send him to the U.S. where he faces 175 years in prison for publishing truthful information about U.S. crimes and corruption. Supporters gathered in London on Saturday for a vigil at 2 pm GMT in front of high-security Belmarsh Prison, where Assange has been languishing for nearly four years on remand. A rally took place in Washington in front of the British Embassy from 1 to 3 pm EST at 3100 Massachusetts Ave. NW.

Making ‘The Right To The City’ Real For Urban Dwellers Worldwide

December 11, 2022 Susan Blaustein, Next City. Create! Class Struggle, Homelessness, Housing, Human Rights

This International Human Rights Day, as our mostly urban world is increasingly challenged by rising poverty, migration, inequality and climate risk, let us think about what it would mean to truly enjoy the “right to the city.” From the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights at the end of World War II to the ensuing drumbeat of further international rights covenants, conventions and declarations, the language of protection and universality of rights would seem to be ubiquitous and generally agreed. Yet discrimination persists. In cities, it most often manifests itself against low-income families, women, those in the LGBTQ+ community, those in Indigenous communities, the very young, the very old, those differently abled, non-nationals, the homeless, the formerly incarcerated and those representing other marginalized groups.

Groups File Emergency Request To Halt Controversial Mental Health Plan

December 11, 2022 Ali Bauman, CBS News. Resist! Eric Adams, Homelessness, Human Rights, New York (NY), New York City (NYC)

New York City, New York - Mayor Eric Adams' new plan to involuntarily hospitalize some mentally ill people living on New York City streets is facing its first legal battle. Advocates are arguing the plan is unconstitutional. Shannon O'Neill Fonseca was involuntarily hospitalized by NYPD officers in 2019 when her then-partner told 911 she was a danger to herself. "Some of the PTSD that I struggle the most with right now is from my hospitalizations," she said. "When I was discharged, I did not receive any type of support, there wasn't really an aftercare plan, it was so hard for me to submit any type of documentation and no one followed up with me." Fonseca has never been homeless herself but worries about the mayor's new policy directing police to forcibly hospitalize mentally ill homeless people who are deemed a danger to themselves or unable to meet their needs.

Media’s Crime Hype And Scapegoating Led To Crackdown On Unhoused People

December 8, 2022 Julie Hollar, Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting. Educate! Class Struggle, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Eric Adams, Health Care, Housing, Human Rights, Media, New York City (NYC), Police

New York City, New York - For some time now, news media have been conflating crime, homelessness and mental illness, demonizing and dehumanizing people without homes while ignoring the structural causes leading people to sleep on subways and in other public spaces. With New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ latest announcement that he would hospitalize, against their will, unhoused people with mental health conditions—even those deemed to pose no risk to others—in the name of “public safety,” the local papers once again revealed a propensity to highlight official narratives and try to erase their own role in conjuring the crime hysteria that drives such ineffective and pernicious policies. Adams, who made fighting crime the centerpiece of his 2021 campaign, announced his latest plan on November 29, his latest in a series of pushes to clear unsheltered people from the streets and subways of New York City.

Black Market In Broad Daylight

December 7, 2022 Lauren Smith, Covert Action Magazine. Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Education, Food and Agriculture, Health Care, Human Rights

Operating in the shadows is easy in the United States secondary food market, as few question what happens to food that exceeds its expiration date in leading supermarket chains across the nation. Well, truth be told, expired food gets reprocessed, repackaged, relabeled, and resold to institutions, discount retailers and restaurants. With scant regulations in place for repurposed food, and institutional purchasing specifications silent, food liquidators underbid their competitors and win contracts nearly every time. In the secondary food market, you get what you pay for, and never has the saying “garbage in, garbage out” been more appropriate. No matter how much hot sauce or gravy is added as camouflage, spoiled food products are unfit for human consumption and cause foodborne illness. Here, what you don’t know can kill you.

Worthy And Unworthy Protest

December 4, 2022 Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report. Educate! Human Rights, Protests, US Regime Change

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is on the verge of effectively making protest illegal. The Public Order Bill has passed in the House of Commons and is expected to be approved in the House of Lords and become law. The bill will ban any protest that “interferes with national infrastructure” or blocks construction or transportation. It gives police powers to search without “reasonable grounds.” It allows for Serious Disruption Prevention Orders (SDPO) which give police the right to arrest anyone who may have violated these deliberately vague rules and prevents them from attending another protest for up to two years. The ban gives police the right to electronically monitor anyone they think is in violation. These criteria effectively prevent any large scale public protest.

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