Human Rights

Afromaiden: World Sees Ferguson As Example Of US Failed State

August 20, 2014 Ben Piven, www.aljazeera.com Educate! Human Rights, Mass Media, Politics, Racism

It should come as no surprise that the wall-to-wall U.S. coverage of the turmoil provoked by the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, was echoed in the global media. And a quick survey of international coverage of the ongoing protests suggests that it often reflects pre-existing views of the United States. Russian and Iranian media have, perhaps unsurprisingly, printed scathing judgments about the police response to protests in Missouri. One Russian site, Svobodnaya Pressa, coined the term “Afromaidan,” implying that the U.S. is getting a dose of its own medicine for backing anti-Russian Euromaidan rallies in Kiev, Ukraine. The article poked fun at the notion of a land of opportunity, signaling that America’s “race war” proves Washington’s hypocrisy. PressTV in Iran led with the Ferguson story on its website Monday. A news feature quoted an African-American historian referring to “institutionalized racism” in the U.S. and calling the country a “human rights failed state.” And Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s Facebook page read Sunday: “Look at what they do to the black community in their own country … . The police may beat them to death over the crime of having dark skins!”

Amnesty International Comes To Ferguson

August 20, 2014 Amnesty International, www.amnestyusa.org Organize! Ferguson, Human Rights, Militarization, Police, Protest

On August 9, Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year old, was shot dead by a six-year veteran of the Ferguson police force. The next day, the community organized protests condemning the actions of the police and demanding to know the name of the officer who shot and killed Michael. Those actions continue still, a week later. The day after the shooting, I sent a text to my colleague at 3:30 AM. It read, “We need to go to Ferguson.” Later that week, I was on a plane, leading the Amnesty International USA human rights delegation to Ferguson, Missouri. Our goal: to observe police and protester activity, gather testimony, meet with officials, and offer support to the community. Importantly, our delegation also included organizers who supported local leaders in training community members on methods of nonviolent protest. On the plane, I read everything I could find about the situation in Ferguson, and spent time reflecting about community, solidarity, and intention. My heart broke as I thought about Michael Brown, the plans he had for his future, the pain his family and community feel at his loss, and the outrage the residents of Ferguson feel after the police harassment and intimidation of a grieving community.

Net Neutrality: A Struggle For Human Rights

August 18, 2014 Aitza Haddad, www.savetheinternet.com Educate! Human Rights, Internet Freedom, Net Neutrality

The fight for Net Neutrality isn’t just a battle against companies trying to take over the Internet. It’s also a struggle for human rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights stipulates that “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights,” that human rights are to be enjoyed “without distinction of any kind such as race, color or sex.” And that includes the “right to freedom of opinion and expression.” The open Internet has given people around the world the freedom to hold opinions and express themselves without interference. It has allowed individuals the right to seek, receive and impart information, which has in turn facilitated social change, as happened with the Arab Spring revolutions of 2011. But if FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s plan to allow discrimination online is adopted, it would curb our right to communicate freely.

Groups Tell Obama ‘Declare Detroit Water Emergency’

August 16, 2014 Food & Water Watch, www.foodandwaterwatch.org Organize! Children, Detroit, Human Rights, Poverty, Water

Today, a coalition of over fifty social justice organizations including Food & Water Watch urged President Obama and Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell to declare the ongoing water crisis in Detroit a public health emergency. The groups have asked the Obama administration to make money available from the Public Health Emergency Fund to restore water service to residents affected by the shutoffs. “Thousands of Detroit families do not have running water in their homes for drinking, hygiene and sanitation,” said Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter. “This is a growing public health crisis that the Obama administration has the power to stop. It is completely unconscionable that anyone would be forced to endure these conditions.” In March, the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, under the direction of state-appointed Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr, announced an aggressive campaign to disconnect the water service of thousands of households that are either $150 or 60 days behind on their water bills. In Detroit, 38.1 percent of residents, including more than half of children there, live in poverty. Over the last decade, residential water charges have more than doubled.

Geneva, Bid To Shame US Over Killings

August 15, 2014 Massoud Hayoun, www.america.aljazeera.com Organize! Human Rights, police brutality, UN, US

As outraged residents of Ferguson, Missouri continue to protest a police shooting that left unarmed African-American teenager Michael Brown dead, Ron Davis – the father of another slain black teen in Jacksonville, Florida – is aiming to shame the United States before the United Nations for what he says are murders committed with impunity against young black men. Davis' bid comes amid efforts in Ferguson to build a more-than-a-century-old civil rights movement in response to Brown's killing that community leaders say never took hold in the Greater St. Louis area. At the 85th meeting of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in Geneva, Switzerland on Wednesday and Thursday, Davis hopes to pressure Washington to bolster efforts to stop the phenomenon of what he and the United States Human Rights Network (USHRN), the NGO backing him, call “the criminalization of race” in America. The U.S. will be forced at the meeting to answer questions from Davis and the international community in what the American Civil Liberties Union told the press Wednesday was a singular opportunity to hold Washington accountable.

UN Names Panel To Investigate War Crimes In Gaza; Israel Slams It

August 12, 2014 Stephanie Nebhay, www.reuters.com Organize! Gaza, Human Rights, Israel, Palestine, War crimes

The United Nations on Monday named experts to an international commission of inquiry into possible human rights violations and war crimes committed by both sides during Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip. Israel, however, dismissed the inquiry as a U.N. Human Rights Council "kangaroo court". The U.N. statement said the independent team will investigate "all violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law ... in the context of the military operations conducted since 13 June 2014." A month of war, marked by Israeli air strikes on Gaza and rockets fired by Hamas militants into Israel, has killed 1,938 Palestinians and 67 Israelis while devastating wide tracts of densely populated Gaza. The panel is to report by March 2015 to the U.N. Human Rights Council. Israel has long accused the 47-member state forum of bias against it. Navi Pillay, the top U.N. human rights official, said on July 31 she believed Israel was deliberately defying international law in its military offensive in Gaza and that world powers should hold it accountable for possible war crimes.

Israel’s Operation Protective Edge Spurs Growth in BDS Movement

August 11, 2014 Dennis Trainor Jr, www.PopularResistance.org Resistance Report Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Government, Human Rights, Media, Palestine, Poverty, Wars and Militarism

That was before Operation Protective Edges. On August 2, The National reported: “Soros Fund Management, the family office of the billionaire investor George Soros, has sold its stake in SodaStream, the soda making appliance producer that profits from the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and was made popular by actress Scarlett Johansson’s endorsement. The decision comes as a number of big international investors, including the fund linked to the Microsoft founder Bill Gates, join in a burgeoning financial boycott of Israel amid a push by the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement and other groups seeking more rights for Palestinians. SodaStream, headquartered in the Israeli city of Lod, has its main factory in the West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Adumim.

We Are Gaza. Look Into Our Eyes.

August 8, 2014 Dennis Trainor Jr, www.PopularResistance.org Resistance Report Criminal Justice and Prisons, Democracy, Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Government, Human Rights, Palestine

Take a long look in our eyes, we are the insect in your ears, the rust upon your gears, the resistance you fear, the faith you smear, the justice you want to disappear We are the Palestinian mothers who continue to send their children to school amidst gunfire, children they gave birth to behind a checkpoint, take a long look We are the shame on the face of a Zionist at the point of realization, the crux of courage to refute the support of a gangster nation, take a long look We are the tears of a father holding his mangled child in a hospital about to be set to the fire, take a long look We are the soldier turning against his battalion, the drone operator turned freedom fighter, take a long look

Has Pro-Choice strategy Of Last 40 Years Failed Women?

August 8, 2014 Dennis Trainor Jr, www.PopularResistance.org Resistance Report Criminal Justice and Prisons, Democracy, Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Government, Health Care, Human Rights

“What once was maybe a Christian-Fascist movement against women’s right to abortion really got elevated and brought into the halls of power,” says Sunsara Taylor of Stop Patriarchy. “Starting with Ronald Reagan, continuing under Bush, escalating Bill Clinton (quiet as it is kept: Bill Clinton who signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which became the foundation for the recent Hobby Lobby decision).”

Abortion Rights Battle Bigger Than Texas

August 6, 2014 Dennis Trainor Jr, www.PopularResistance.org Resistance Report Democracy, Government, Human Rights, Internet Freedom, Worker Rights and Jobs

Stop Patriarchy’s highly theatrical, non-violent yet confrontational style has not endeared them to all activists in Texas fighting for reproductive justice. In fact, a coalition has formed whose sole purpose is to oppose Stop Patriarchy. Texans for Reproductive Justicehas published a Letter of Concern, opposing “Stop Patriarchy’s messaging, tactics, dishonesty, and racism.” Stop Patriarchy has seen this type of resistance before.

Diane Derzis runs the only remaining abortion clinic in the state of Mississippi. Speaking to Acronym TV on background for this episode, Dianne told us she was “warned about Stop Patriarchy” before they came to defend her clinic during the 2013 Abortion Rights Freedom Ride. Derzis, who now sits on the Abortion Rights freedom Ride advisory board noted that one reason people fear Stop Patriarchy is because their leader, Sunsara Taylor, is a member of the Revolutionary Communist Party.

Why I Support Abortion Rights Freedom Ride

August 4, 2014 Dennis Trainor Jr, www.PopularResistance.org Resistance Report Democracy, Government, Health Care, Human Rights, Protest, Women's Rights, Women’s health

Texas Governor Rick Perry is on the record with his objective to “make abortion a thing of the past.” Looking at the evidence, it is hard not to come to any other conclusion than the war on women is being won by a radical and regressively religious agenda. Six states in the nation have only a single abortion clinic left. By September 1^st of this year, Texas is likely to have only six abortion clinics operating. The group End Pornography and Patriarchy: The Enslavement and Degradation of Women is embarking on an Abortion Rights Freedom Ride across the state of Texas this August, and the freedom ride has set high expectations for itself, including: 1. To forge a national strategic counter-offensive to what is a national war on women. 2. Radically reset the political, moral, and ideological terms of this fight so that millions understand that this fight is about women’s liberation or women’s enslavement and; 3. Mobilize all people of conscience to wage massive, independent, political resistance. Relying on politicians, and the courts, has not halted the barrage of attacks. Not all pro-choice advocates are warming to the idea of Stop Patriarchy non-violent, yet highly dramatic and confrontational style and their oft-repeated slogan “Abortion on Demand and Without Apology.”

Lawsuit Filed To Block Deportation Of Youth

August 3, 2014 ACLU, www.aclu.org Resist! Children, Human Rights, Immigrant Rights, Law

The American Civil Liberties Union, American Immigration Council, Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, Public Counsel, and K&L Gates LLP have asked a federal court to immediately block the government from pursuing deportation proceedings against several children unless it ensures those youth have legal representation. The move comes as immigration courts are speeding up deportation hearings against children in an expedited process sometimes referred to as "rocket docket." The groups filed a lawsuit last month on behalf of thousands of children challenging the federal government's failure to provide them with lawyers in their deportation hearings. The preliminary injunction motion filed late last night specifically asks that the fast-approaching deportation proceedings for several of the named plaintiffs be forestalled until those children are provided with attorneys. The groups also asked the court to hear their motion for class certification as soon as possible, so that other unrepresented children may be protected as well. "These children face an imminent threat of being deported, potentially to their death," said Ahilan Arulanantham, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project and the ACLU Foundation of Southern California. "To force them to defend themselves against a trained prosecutor, with their lives literally on the line, violates due process and runs counter to everything our country stands for."

GITMO: A Concentration Camp in Small Town USA

August 3, 2014 Dennis Trainor Jr, www.PopularResistance.org Resistance Report Criminal Justice and Prisons, Democracy, Guantanamo, Human Rights, Wars and Militarism

Jason Leopold, in the clip from the full length Acronym TV episode, How Americans Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Guantanamo Prison, talks about the most shocking thing that struck him about visiting Guantanamo Bay Prison: The surrounding is like any small American town. An Irish pub, swing sets in the back yard of houses where American kids are growing up, a McDonalds, a high school proudly graduating the class of 2014, and other pedestrian businesses all going about their business while up the road, a facility that has the air of a concentration camp.

Amnesty Renews Call To Free Manning

August 3, 2014 Chelsea Manning Support Network, www.chelseamanning.org Resist! Chelsea Manning, Human Rights, Prison

Exactly one year after Chelsea Manning was convicted of leaking classified government material, Amnesty International is renewing its call on the US authorities to grant her clemency, release her immediately, and to urgently investigate the potential human rights violations exposed by the leaks. Chelsea Manning has spent the last year as a convicted criminal after exposing information which included evidence of potential human rights violations and breaches of international law. By disseminating classified information via Wikileaks she revealed to the world abuses perpetrated by the US army, military contractors and Iraqi and Afghan troops operating alongside US forces. “It is an absolute outrage that Chelsea Manning is currently languishing behind bars whilst those she helped to expose, who are potentially guilty of human rights violations, enjoy impunity,” said Erika Guevara Rosas, Americas Director Amnesty International. “The US government must grant Chelsea Manning clemency, order her immediate release, and implement a thorough and impartial investigation into the crimes she uncovered.”

Control Of Water Returned To Elected Detroit Government

August 3, 2014 Detroit Water Brigade, www.detroitwaterbrigade.org Resist! Detroit, Human Rights, Water

We commend the move by Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr, Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, City Council and U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Stephen Rhodes to return control of Detroit’s water to the democratically elected leadership of the city of Detroit. This is a positive step in the direction of popular control of Detroit’s water and other common resources by the people of Detroit. This decision comes after months of sustained pressure from a broad cross-section of Detroiters and their international allies: protest marches, direct action blockades, hundreds of thousands of petition signers, and a recently-filed injunction in U.S. Bankruptcy Court calling for an immediate end to the shutoff program. We are proud to work hand-in-hand with Detroiters of all stripes to affirm the human right to access to clean drinking water and sanitation and get a long-term Water Affordability Plan. We also look forward to a day when all of Detroit’s public services are returned from privatization and mismanagement to full popular control by accountable and democratically elected officials.

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