Human Rights

Top US Law Schools Present Undeniable Evidence Of Israel’s Gaza Genocide

June 21, 2024 Kit Klarenberg, MintPress News. Educate! Gaza, Genocide, Human Rights, International Law, Israel, Palestine, University Network for Human Rights (UNHR)

On May 15, the University Network for Human Rights (UNHR), a U.S.-based advocacy group training undergraduates in human rights law at colleges and universities worldwide to counter abusive state, corporate, or private conduct, published a 105-page analysis of international law and its application to Israel’s military actions since October 7, 2023. Drawing on extensive evidence and historical legal precedents, the findings leave no doubt that Israel has committed horrific breaches of the 1948 Genocide Convention in Gaza. A collaborative effort by some of the West’s most prestigious law schools, the report has now been submitted to the United Nations.

Chiquita Case Exposes Failure Of Voluntary ‘Social Responsibility’

June 21, 2024 Manpreet Kaur Kalra and Anna Canning, In These Times. Educate! Accountability, Bananas, Chiquita, Corporate Responsibility, Human Rights

Last week, Chiquita Brands International — one of the world’s largest banana distributors — was found liable in a Florida court for financing a Colombian paramilitary group. The ruling marks a landmark moment for corporate accountability: It is the first time a U.S. corporation has been held liable for human rights violations abroad in connection to their business operations. As momentous as this victory is in its own right, it also illustrates the ineffectiveness of voluntary corporate social responsibility initiatives — and the need for strong civil society institutions to protect human rights. Chiquita Brands International has vast banana plantations throughout Colombia.

UN Commission Accuses Israel Of Committing ‘Crimes Against Humanity’

June 13, 2024 Abdul Rahman, People's Dispatch. Educate! Crimes against humanity, Genocide, Hamas, Human Rights, Israel, Palestine, Report, United Nations (UN), War crimes

The report specifically accuses Israel of committing “crimes against humanity of extermination, murder, gender persecution targeting Palestinian men and boys; forcible transfer; and torture and inhuman and cruel treatment,” and recommends accountability for such crimes. Although the report claims that both sides indulged in indiscriminate killings and sexual violence, it states that Israel has launched “a widespread and systematic attack directed against the civilian population in Gaza” with the intent to cause maximum damage, “disregarding the principles of distinction, proportionality and adequate precaution.”

Inmates Challenge Motion To Dismiss In Alabama Forced Labor Federal Lawsuit

June 12, 2024 Alander Rocha, Black Agenda Report. Resist! Alabama, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Forced Labor, Human Rights, Legal System, Prison Labor, Worker Rights

Incarcerated individuals in Alabama have filed a 214-page response opposing a motion to dismiss their lawsuit accusing state prisons of using slave labor. The case involves multiple claims against state officials, private employers and local governments alleging Alabama’s prison labor program system is a form of modern-day slavery. Each defendant filed motions to dismiss the lawsuit, claiming that counsel for plaintiffs did not state a legal claim in the lawsuit. “Despite Defendants’ strenuous efforts to dispute Plaintiffs’ well-founded allegations—a strategy that cannot justify dismissal of Plaintiffs’ claims at this juncture...

US Jury Finds Chiquita Guilty Of Financing Paramilitary Death Squads

June 11, 2024 The Canary. Resist! Chiquita, Colombia, Food and Agriculture, Human Rights, Legal System, Paramilitary, State Violence

In a historic first, an American jury has held a major US corporation liable for complicity in serious human rights abuses abroad. Specifically, the case has held banana giant Chiquita Brands International accountable for financing a brutal paramilitary death squad in Colombia. Chiquita In Colombia Between 1997 and 2004, Chiquita financed the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) to the tune of US $1.7m. The AUC was a coalition of right-wing death squads. The group of over 30,000 soldiers operated throughout two-thirds of the country, and manufactured war to prop up a series of illegal business activities. Primarily, the AUC ran what was then the largest drug trafficking cartel in the world. It also engaged in arms sales, human trafficking, and money laundering.

IBAHRI Urges Joe Biden To Drop All Charges Against Julian Assange

June 9, 2024 International Bar Association. Resist! Afghanistan, Afghanistan War, Extradition, Human Rights, International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI), Iraq, Iraq War, Joe Biden, Julian Assange, Wars and Militarism, Wikileaks

The International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) urges United States President Joe Biden, to drop all charges against Australian WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in relation to the Wikileaks publication, in 2010, of more than 250,000 leaked classified documents – exposing alleged human rights abuses allegedly perpetrated by the US army during the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. It was reported in April 2024 that the US President said ‘we’re considering it’ in response to a journalist’s question about a request from the Australian Government that Mr Assange be allowed to return to his native country.

Should Children Take Part In Nonviolent Struggle? 

June 8, 2024 George Lakey, Waging Nonviolence. Strategize! Capitalism, Child Wellbeing, Human Rights, Youth Activism

In fifth grade I was introduced to children as nonviolent warriors. In one of our elementary school’s story collections I ran into a tale from the Norwegian resistance to Nazi German occupation during World War II. It was centered on the problem of preventing Norway’s store of gold bullion from falling into the hands of the occupiers. The first step was moving the gold to storehouses on farms in Norway’s mountainous western coast. The next step — of getting the gold on ships to Britain, where the country’s royal family had already fled — was going to be a lot harder due to the patrols of German warships.

Doctors Demand Biden End Solitary Confinement In Immigration Prisons

June 7, 2024 Mike Ludwig, Truthout. Resist! Biden administration, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Human Rights, Immigration, Joe Biden, Protests

Hundreds of physicians and other health professionals are demanding the Biden administration end the use of solitary confinement in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) prisons. The letter comes after reports of multiple suicide attempts by immigrants incarcerated at a privately run ICE facility made national headlines. President Joe Biden pledged on the 2020 campaign trail to end solitary confinement in federal prisons “with very limited exceptions,” and time for change could be running out. Reliance on solitary confinement in ICE jails and prisons — the extremely dangerous and potentially deadly practice of isolating people in tiny cells for weeks, months and even years at time — would likely explode in scope if former President Trump wins the November election and attempts to implement an unprecedented crackdown on undocumented families.

China’s Report On Human Rights Violations In The United States In 2023

June 5, 2024 Orinoco Tribune. Educate! China, Human Rights, Report, United States, US decline

The human rights situation in the United States continued to deteriorate in 2023. In the United States, human rights are becoming increasingly polarized. While a ruling minority holds political, economic, and social dominance, the majority of ordinary people are increasingly marginalized, with their basic rights and freedoms being disregarded. Gun violence spills over, while the government’s control policies are ineffective. There were at least 654 mass shootings in the United States in 2023. Approximately 43,000 people were killed by gun violence in 2023, averaging 117 deaths per day. Driven by partisan polarization and interest groups, a growing number of state governments have taken the initiative to push legislation to expand residents’ rights to own and bear arms.

New Bill In Honduras Seeks To Rectify 1980s Human Rights Violations

June 3, 2024 Michael Fox, Resumen English. Create! History, Honduras, Human Rights, Reparations, State Violence

In Honduras, family members of the victims of state violence in the 1980s have been marching for 40 years to demand justice for the disappearance and death of their loved ones. Now, there’s a chance they may see reparations. An unprecedented bill that would provide compensation for the family members of the victims is working its way through Congress. In June 1981, Bertha Oliva was three months pregnant and had only been married for four months when she witnessed the kidnapping of her husband by the country’s death squad. “I was there when they took him away from me,” she said, adding, “I am a witness to the brutality. I am a survivor of that moment.”

How The ICC Case Against Israeli Leaders Was Made Possible

May 30, 2024 Qassam Muaddi, Mondoweiss. Strategize! Human Rights, International Criminal Court (ICC), Israel, Palestine, War crimes

The request for international arrest warrants against Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and war minister Yoav Gallant, alongside three Hamas leaders, came as a surprise to many, not least of which Israel. For what was likely a first, its top leaders were being confronted judicially for their violations of international law. Although Israel had been spying on the International Criminal Court (ICC) for years, as revealed in a recent exposé by The Guardian, the outrage Netanyahu displayed betrayed indignation at the fact that the wall of impunity for Israeli leaders was showing signs of cracking. For Palestinians, the news was long-awaited. Palestinian human rights groups have been tirelessly campaigning for such a move for years.

What Leading Consumer Brands Drive Global Deforestation?

May 26, 2024 Laurel Sutherlin, LA Progressive. Educate! Corporations, Deforestation, Environment, Human Rights

Since the turn of the century, there has been a consistent average annual loss of 3 to 4 million hectares (7.4 to 9.9 million acres) of tropical forest globally. This puts us far from reaching the goal of zero deforestation by 2030, a target embraced in 2021 by 145 countries during the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow. Besides damaging the local environment, deforestation threatens our societies and economies by elevating carbon emissions and exacerbating the climate crisis. Land use change—mainly deforestation—contributes as much as a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions. So, solving the climate crisis means ending rampant deforestation.

The State Department Report On Human Rights

May 8, 2024 Jerry Grey, Black Agenda Report. Educate! China, Human Rights, Media, Propaganda, Report, State Department

There’s plenty of media coverage on what he came for, and the messages he wanted to deliver but the main thrust of his first day was the wave of media reports on what he felt about China’s human rights record. In a 1283-word preface, signed by Blinken there are 49 words related to China but these 49 words achieved all the media attention. They were: The Report documents ongoing grave human rights abuses in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). For example, in Xinjiang, the PRC continues to carry out genocide, crimes against humanity, forced labour, and other human rights violations against predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups.

Odessa Massacre 10 Years On: Neo-Nazis Drowned The City In Blood

May 4, 2024 Ilya Tsukanov, Orinoco Tribune. Educate! Crimea, Donbass, Euromaidan, History, Human Rights, Maidan Massacre, NATO, Nazis, Russia, Ukraine

This Thursday marked the 10th anniversary of the May 2, 2014 Odessa Trade Unions Building massacre, in which 48 anti-Maidan activists were burned alive by neo-Nazi thugs. The violence, coming soon after Kiev kicked off its ‘anti-terrorist operation’ in the Donbass, demonstrated the new regime’s readiness to drown Ukraine in blood to cling to power. The warm weather of the spring of 2014 was accompanied by the winds of revolutionary fervor across southeastern Ukraine, with activists from across Kharkov, the Donbass, Zaporozhye, Dnepropetrovsk, Kherson, Nikolayev and Odessa rising up in opposition to the Euromaidan coup in Kiev that had taken place in February.

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