Human Rights

Jeremy Hammond Spent Nearly Two Weeks In Solitary

October 28, 2014 Free Jeremy, www.freejeremy.net Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Human Rights, Solitary Confinement

We received word last night that Jeremy had been placed in the Segregated Housing Unit (SHU), also known as solitary confinement. He had previously been placed in solitary confinement during pretrial detention. Make no mistake: We firmly believe Jeremy has been placed in solitary confinement as retaliatory punishment for filing complaints against the prison for withholding his mail. The prison had begun rejecting books and even legal material related to Jeremy’s own case. Jeremy had written that he was willing to take his grievances to the highest possible level in order to see them resolved. Because we feel this is a retaliatory measure, calling the jail or jail officials may be seen as aggression and may provoke the prison to further retaliate against Jeremy.

Meet The Kansans Who Bravely Fought For Gay Rights

October 27, 2014 Steven Rosenfeld, www.alternet.org Organize! Human Rights, Kansas, LGBTQ

Michael Nelson stared at the room packed with students from the University of Kansas’ various LGBT groups. The 2014 school year had barely begun and the white-haired pastor, poet and gay rights advocate had come to talk about his lawsuit challenging Kansas’ same-sex marriage ban and other discriminatory laws in state court. Nelson could not help but see his younger self in the students’ eager, contempletive and occasionally vulnerable faces. So as he started to speak, he took a personal turn, because in Kansas, as he and the students already knew, anti-LGBT discrimination runs deeper than what is written into law—or deliberately kept out of it.

Amnesty Int’l: Ferguson Police Abused Human Rights

October 25, 2014 Carey Gillam, www.reuters.com Resist! Ferguson, Human Rights, police brutality, Police the Police

Oct 24 (Reuters) - Police in Ferguson, Missouri, committed human rights abuses as they sought to quell mostly peaceful protests that erupted after an officer killed an unarmed black teenager, an international human rights organization said in a report released on Friday. The Amnesty International report said law enforcement officers should be investigated by U.S. authorities for the abuses, which occurred during weeks of racially charged protests that erupted after white Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson shot and killed Michael Brown, 18, on Aug. 9. The use by law enforcement of rubber bullets, tear gas and heavy military equipment and restrictions placed on peaceful protesters all violated international standards, the group said.

UN Says Water Is A Human Right In Detroit

October 25, 2014 Emily Badger, www.washingtonpost.com Educate! Detroit, Human Rights, Water

Representatives from the United Nations spent a few days in Detroit earlier this week looking into the spate of utility shutoffs that left thousands of poor households in the city this year without water to bathe and cook by. The two special rapporteurs — one on "the human right to water and sanitation," the other on "adequate housing" — were invited to town not by the city, but by community groups that have been advocating for the poor. And their conclusion reinforces what concerned on-lookers have been saying since this summer: "When people are genuinely unable to pay the bill," the U.N. says, the state is obligated to step up with financial assistance and subsidies. "Not doing so amounts to a human rights violation."

Court Orders Obama: Explain Failure To Release Torture Photos

October 23, 2014 Spencer Ackerman, www.theguardian.com Organize! Afghanistan, Human Rights, Iraq, Media, Torture, usa, Wars and Militarism

The Obama administration has until early December to detail its reasons for withholding as many as 2,100 graphic photographs depicting US military torture of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan, a federal judge ordered on Tuesday. By 12 December, Justice Department attorneys will have to list, photograph by photograph, the government’s rationale for keeping redacted versions of the photos unseen by the public, Judge Alvin Hellerstein instructed lawyers. But any actual release of the photographs will come after Hellerstein reviews the government’s reasoning and issues another ruling in the protracted transparency case. While Hellerstein left unclear how much of the Justice Department’s declaration will itself be public, the government’s submission is likely to be its most detailed argument for secrecy over the imagery in a case that has lasted a decade.

Underground Rally Defends Subway Performers From Abuse

October 23, 2014 Yari Osorio, www.liberationnews.com Resist! Art, Human Rights, New York City (NYC), police brutality

Over 50 people gathered on a busy NYC subway passageway connecting the G and L Lines the afternoon of Oct. 21 to show support to the men and women who perform on NYC subway trains and platforms. The rally was called in response to the rapid increase in NYPD false arrests and tickets of subway performers. BuskNY, a subway performer advocacy group and New Yorkers Against Bratton held a rally to protest the recent arrest of Andrew Kalleen. Andrew is a 30-year-old guitarist whose arrest was caught on camera and subsequently went viral. In the video, the NYPD officer can be clearly heard reading out loud the specific statue allowing Andrew to perform before forcefully arresting the young guitarist anyway. At today’s protest Liberation News interviewed Andrew who told us he has been performing on NYC subways since December 2008. In that time, he has been ticketed, ejected, harassed and arrested multiple times despite the legality of performing for tips in subway stations.

Detroit Canary In The Coalmine When It Comes To Water Rights

October 22, 2014 Maude Barlow, www.rabble.ca Educate! Detroit, Human Rights, Inequality, Water

Today, October 20, two UN experts, Catarina de Albuquerque, the special rapporteur on the human right to drinking water and sanitation and Leilani Farha, the special rapporteur on housing, will visit Detroit Michigan to assess the charges that water cut-offs violate the human right to water and sanitation. This is a very important development in the ongoing struggle for water justice in Detroit and the experts will be welcomed by the civil society movements there. While water cut-offs for non-payment of water bills are nothing new in Detroit, the practice took a serious turn for the worse last March when the emergency manager, appointed to administer the newly “bankrupt” city, announced he would commence with an aggressive plan to cut water services to 3,000 residences a week throughout the summer.

Union Federation Gets Vocal On Harsh Prison Sentencing

October 22, 2014 Dave Jamieson, www.huffingtonpost.com Organize! Human Rights, Labor Unions, Mass Incarceration, police brutality

Backers of a California ballot measure that would release thousands of non-violent prisoners have found a surprisingly enthusiastic ally in their fight: the nation's largest federation of labor unions. On Friday, Richard Trumka, the president of the AFL-CIO, is expected to deliver a speech in Los Angeles offering robust support for Proposition 47, a proposal that would reduce the penalties for simple drug possession and shoplifting. According to his prepared remarks provided to The Huffington Post, Trumka will declare that mass incarceration is a "labor issue" and that unions need to join other progressives in pressing for reform. "It's a labor issue because mass incarceration means literally millions of people work jobs in prisons for pennies an hour -- a hidden world of coerced labor here in the United States," Trumka's remarks read. "It's a labor issue because those same people who work for pennies in prison, once they have served their time, find themselves locked out of the job market by employers who screen applicants for felony convictions."

UN: Upholding Human Rights Means Urgent Climate Action

October 20, 2014 Andrea Germanos, www.commondreams.org Educate! Climate Change, Human Rights, Inequality, United Nations

Climate change poses a global threat to human rights, underscoring the need for worldwide action to rein in runaway greenhouse gas emissions, a group of United Nations independent experts has stressed. The Special Rapporteurs, independent experts and working group members issued their warning in an open letter (pdf) dated Friday and sent to governments involved in the upcoming UN climate negotiations. "The need for urgency in addressing this topic is underscored by the approaching deadlines for the climate negotiations to reach a concrete solution," they write. "We urge the State Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to recognize the adverse effects of climate change on the enjoyment of human rights, and to adopt urgent and ambitious mitigation and adaptation measures to prevent further harm. We call on the State Parties to include language in the 2015 climate agreement that provides that the Parties shall, in all climate change related actions, respect, protect, promote, and fulfill human rights for all."

‘Not Drowning, Fighting’: Pacific Climate Warriors Blockade Coal Port

October 18, 2014 John Queally, www.commondreams.org Resist! Coal, Energy, Environment, Human Rights, Indigenous Rights, Water

Declaring themselves "Pacific Climate Warriors," representatives from a dozen Pacific Island nations—sitting atop traditional outrigger canoes, kayaks, and other small boats—staged a full-day blockade of the Newcastle Coal Port in Australia on Friday as they sent a message to the government of Prime Minister Tony Abbott and the world that they will not sit idly by as the activities of the fossil fuel industry and its backers continue to threaten the existence of their low-lying homes. "The coal which leaves this port has a direct impact on our culture and our islands. It is clear to us that this is the kind of action which we must take in order to survive. Climate change is an issue which affects everyone and coal companies may expect further actions like this in future." —Pacific Climate

‘Not On The Menu’ Rally – Sexual Harassment & Low Wages

October 16, 2014 Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, www.rocunited.org Resist! Human Rights, Labor Rights, Minimum Wage, Restaurant Industry, Women's Rights

New York, NY — Yesterday, dozens of restaurant workers, women’s rights activists, and supporters gathered for a rally calling for the elimination of the subminimum wage and requiring the restaurant industry to pay one, fair wage directly to their employees. Last week, a report released by ROC United and Forward Together, The Glass Floor, revealed that nearly all female restaurant workers — up to 90% — report experiencing some form of sexual harassment, with tipped workers being the most vulnerable. “I was a restaurant worker over 30 years ago, and here’s the tragic story: absolutely nothing has changed,” said Eve Ensler, founder of V-Day and One Billion Rising. “The wage hasn’t changed, the sexual harassment hasn’t changed, the outfits I was forced to wear hasn’t changed, the abuse hasn’t changed. . .

UN Report: Mass Internet Surveillance

October 16, 2014 Owen Bowcott and Spencer Ackerman, www.theguardian.com Educate! Edward Snowden, Human Rights, NSA, Surveillance, UN

Mass surveillance of the internet by intelligence agencies is “corrosive of online privacy” and threatens to undermine international law, according to a report to the United Nations general assembly. The critical study by Ben Emmerson QC, the UN’s special rapporteur on counter-terrorism, released on Wednesday is a response to revelations by the whistleblower Edward Snowden about the extent of monitoring carried out by GCHQ in the UK and the National Security Agency (NSA) in the US. Emmerson’s study poses a direct challenge to the claims of both governments that their bulk surveillance programs, which the barrister finds endanger the privacy of “literally every internet user,” are proportionate to the terrorist threat and robustly constrained by law. To combat the danger, Emmerson endorses the ability of Internet users to mount legal challenges to bulk surveillance.

Mass Irish Protest: Water Is A Human Right

October 14, 2014 Kitty Holland, www.irishtimes.com Resist! Human Rights, Ireland, Water

Upwards of 50,000 people marched against water charges in Dublin today in one of the largest demonstrations seen in the capital in years. The marchers took one hour and twenty minutes to pass the Spire in O’Connell Street as they made their way from Parnell Square, around the city finishing at the GPO in O’Connell Street. While the Garda press office could not give a figure for the numbers in attendance, one garda observing the march estimated they could be as high as 100,000. “Enough is enough,” said Kathleen McWilliams, a woman in her 50s from Artane.

Protesters March In Clayton, Ferguson, Kick Off FergusonOctober

October 11, 2014 SL Today, www.stltoday.com Resist! Ferguson, Human Rights, police brutality, Racial Justice

CLAYTON • A rain-soaked crowd of several hundred people marched in downtown Clayton on Friday afternoon, kicking off this weekend’s FergusonOctober rallies and protests. Hours later, a similar crowd took to the streets of Ferguson for a candlelight march and protest across from the police department, beating drums and chanting into the night as well as blocking West Florissant Avenue. Several protesters used bullhorns to direct the crowd, some asked protesters to move to south St. Louis where a police officer killed a teenager earlier this week after the teen opened fire on him. The Clayton march began outside St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch’s office. Activists have demanded that McCulloch step aside in the Michael Brown case. Clayton police had barricaded Carondelet Avenue between Central and Bemiston avenues in anticipation of the event.

After Ferguson, From Civil Rights To Human Rights

October 11, 2014 Nathan Schneider, www.wagingnonviolence.org Strategize! Civil Rights, Ferguson, Human Rights

A rebellion can’t last forever. But in the weeks since the killing of Michael Brown, the people of Ferguson, Mo., have been keeping it up for the rest of us. Now is when vision matters most — a vision or visions that can carry people from the moment to momentum, within which a movement can mature and grow and win. That’s why we should be discussing proposals like Forward from Ferguson, a new report by Max Rameau, M Adams and Rob Robinson — all veterans of the influential housing-justice group Take Back the Land, now working as the Center for Pan-African Development. The document, drawing on utterances of Malcolm X, calls for the U.S. racial justice movement to turn from the framework of civil rights to human rights. This is Malcolm speaking: We need to expand the civil-rights struggle to a higher level — to the level of human rights.

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