Human Rights

The ISIS War in Iraq Has Deep Roots

June 17, 2014 Dennis Trainor Jr, www.PopularResistance.org Resistance Report Government, Human Rights, Iran, Iraq, Resistance Report, Saudi Arabia, Wars and Militarism

Joining Dennis on the show today to make sense of all this is Mnar Muhawesh. She is the founder, CEO and editor in chief of Mint Press News, and also a regular speaker on responsible journalism, sexism, neoconservativism within the media and journalism start-ups. Episode breakdown| As the world watches Iraq quickly descending into a failed state status under the brutal onslaught from fighters in the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, pundits, representatives form congress and no doubt members of Barack Obama’s inner circle are wondering if it is not time to put together another coalition of the willing and re-engage the US Military in Iraq. Before you dust off your yellow ribbons to tie round your oak tree’s though, remember: in 2003 The United States invaded Iraq after lying to the world and the American people saying that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and was connected to Al Qaeda- and therefore connected to the 9/11 attacks.

Shocking Photos From Inside Private Prison

June 14, 2014 George Lavender, www.inthesetimes.com Educate! Human Rights, Prison Industrial Complex, Private Prisons

A privately-run prison in Mississippi holding “seriously mentally ill” prisoners stands accused of being dirty, dangerous and corrupt. East Mississippi Correctional Facility, operated by Management and Training Corporation (MTC), is the subject of a lawsuit brought on behalf of several prisoners at the facility. After widespread criticism of conditions inside the same prison the previous operator, the GEO group, discontinued its contract with the state in 2012. At the time, the GEO group said that the prison was “"financially underperforming." A lawsuit first filed a year ago by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Southern Poverty Law Center alleged that “grossly inhumane conditions have cost many prisoners their health, and their limbs, their eyesight and even their lives.” Photos taken as part of a tour of the prison, showed “charred door frames, broken light fixtures and toilets, exposed electrical wires, and what advocates said were infected wounds on prisoners’ arms and legs,” according to the New York Times.

Human Rights Watch’s Revolving Door

June 10, 2014 Belén Fernández, www.jacobinmag.com Educate! Foreign Relations, Human Rights, Revolving Door

Let’s pretend that we want to start an organization to defend the rights of people across the globe that has no affiliation to any government or corporate interest. Which of the following characters should we therefore exclude from intimate roles in our organization’s operation? (You may choose more than one answer.) An individual who presided over a NATO bombing, including various civilian targets. An individual who was formerly a special assistant to President Bill Clinton, a speechwriter for Secretaries of State Warren Christopher and Madeleine Albright and a member of the State Department’s policy planning staff who in 2009 declared that, under “limited circumstances, there is a legitimate place” for the illegal CIA rendition program that has seen an untold number of innocent people kidnapped and tortured. A former US Ambassador to Colombia, who later lobbied on behalf of Newmont Mining and J.P. Morgan — two US firms whose track records of environmental destruction would suggest that human wellbeing falls below elite profit on their list of priorities. A former CIA analyst. If you answered “all of the above,” you’re one step ahead of Human Rights Watch, which has played institutional host not only to persons matching descriptions A–D but to many others with similar backgrounds.

Are Human Rights Activists Today’s Warmongers?

May 27, 2014 Stephen Kinzer, www.bostonglobe.com Educate! Human Rights, Wars and Militarism

Almost everyone likes the idea of human rights. The phrase itself is freighted with goodness. Supporting human rights is like supporting world peace. The modern human rights movement began as a band of outsiders, fighting governments on behalf of the faceless and voiceless. President Jimmy Carter brought it into the American foreign policy establishment by naming an outspoken assistant secretary of state for human rights. This meant that concern for the poor, the brutalized, and the imprisoned would be heard in the highest councils of government. Now, several decades after the human rights movement traded its outsider status for influence in Washington, it is clear that this has produced negative as well as positive results. The movement has become a global behemoth. Sometimes it functions as a handmaiden to the power it was once dedicated to combating. The most appalling result of this process in the United States is that some human rights activists now regularly call for using force to resolve the world’s problems. At one time, “human rights” implied opposition to war. Now some of the most outspoken warmongers in Washington are self-proclaimed human rights advocates.

The U.S., Colombia & The Spread Of The Death Squad State

May 26, 2014 Daniel Kovalik, www.counterpunch.org Educate! Colombia, Human Rights, Wars and Militarism

Colombia continues to be ground zero for the U.S.’s crimes against Latin America, and its continued quest to subjugate the region. Several recent events, virtually uncovered in the mainstream press, underscore this reality. First, Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report just this week detailing the grisly practices of paramilitary death squads in the port town of Buenaventura. [1] These practices by the paramilitaries which act with impunity and with the tacit support of the local police, include disappearances of hundreds of civilians; forced displacement; and the dismemberment of individuals, while they are still alive, in local “chop houses.” That the port town of Buenaventura was to be the model city of the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement is instructive as to what the wages of free trade truly are. Jose Vivanco of HRW called Buenaventura “the scandal” of Colombia. Sadly, it is not Colombia’s only one. Thus, this past weekend, the VI Division of the Colombian Army entered the peasant town of Alto Amarradero, Ipiales in the middle of the night, and, without warrant and in cold blood, gunned down four civilians, including a 15-year old boy. Those killed were Deivi López Ortega, José Antonio Acanamejoy, Brayan Yatacue Secue and José Yiner Esterilla — all members of the FENSUAGRO agricultural union. [2] The Army then displayed the bodies of those murdered for all to see, and falsely claimed that they were the bodies of guerillas killed in combat.

Australia’s Annual Apology To Indigenous People

May 25, 2014 National Sorry Day Committee, www.nsdc.org.au Educate! Colonialism, Human Rights, Indigenous Rights

The annual Sorry Day commemorations have helped to remind and raise awareness among politicians, policy makers, and the wider public about the significance of the forcible removal policies and the impact that they have had not just on the children that were taken, but also on their families and communities. The intergenerational impact of the forcible removal policies on young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander citizens in the 21st Century have been profound, and the commemoration of National Sorry Day each year helps contribute towards a broader ongoing effort toward healing and social and emotional wellbeing for individuals, families and communities across the country. The NSDC works to support and encourage schools and community groups across the country each year to plan and hold their own Sorry Day events, whilst holding events itself normally in Canberra and Sydney.

UN Urged To Declare CA’s Treatment Of Aboriginals ‘Genocide’

May 17, 2014 Michael Bolen, www.huffingtonpost.ca Resist! Canada, Human Rights, Indigenous Rights

A fresh campaign is underway to push the United Nations to label Canada's treatment of First Nations people "genocide." On Monday, former National Chief Phil Fontaine, elder Fred Kelly, businessman Dr. Michael Dan and human rights activist Bernie Farber sent a letter to James Anaya, UN special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, arguing that several specific crimes against aboriginal people in Canada qualify as genocide under the post-Second World War Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG) Article 2 of the Convention states that "genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Tunisia: Popular Revolutionary Activist And Photographer Arrested

May 17, 2014 Committee For A Worker's International, www.socialistworld.net Resist! Human Rights, Journalism, Tunisia

Yesterday, Tuesday 13 May, the ‘El Hambra’ theatre in Tunis was the site of a gathering of some 300 activists, young people and human rights’ campaigners. They were there to protest against the arrest on Monday night of the blogger and activist, Azyz Amami, and of his friend, the photographer Sabri Ben Mlouka. They were arrested at the port of La Goulette, in the north of Tunis. The police forced the pair to get out of a car and to kneel down with their hands on their heads. They were then subjected to a humiliating body search, something prohibited by the law, as explained by their lawyers during the protest rally yesterday. The police claimed that Azyz and Sabri had 700 grams of cannabis on their possesion. But the charge of possession or use of cannabis is a notorious tactic dating back from the Ben Ali dictatorship days, and commonly used by the police as a cover for political arrests. Azyz’s father, who visited his son in the Gorjani detention centre, in Tunis, was able to confirm that his son had bruises on the face and body, indicating that he was beaten by the police. A few days ago, Azyz Amami was a guest on a TV talk-show discussing a campaign called, “I too burned a police station”. This campaign defends youth arrested under spurious and often fabricated charges, such as drug use, or vandalism of police stations during the revolutionary movement that brought down Ben Ali.

Nobel Peace Laureates To Human Rights Watch: Close Your Revolving Door To U.S. Government

May 14, 2014 Alternet, www.alternet.org Resist! Corruption, Human Rights

The following letter was sent today to Human Rights Watch's Kenneth Roth on behalf of Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Adolfo Pérez Esquivel and Mairead Maguire; former UN Assistant Secretary General Hans von Sponeck; current UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories Richard Falk; and over 100 scholars. Dear Kenneth Roth, Human Rights Watch characterizes itself as “one of the world’s leading independent organizations dedicated to defending and protecting human rights.” However, HRW's close ties to the U.S. government call into question its independence. For example, HRW's Washington advocacy director, Tom Malinowski, previously served as a special assistant to President Bill Clinton and as a speechwriter to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. In 2013, he left HRW after being nominated as Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights & Labor under John Kerry. In her HRW.org biography, Board of Directors' Vice Chair Susan Manilow describes herself as "a longtime friend to Bill Clinton" who is "highly involved" in his political party, and "has hosted dozens of events" for the Democratic National Committee.

US, UK, France Vote Against Probing Legality Of Drone Strikes

April 18, 2014 Global Research News, www.globalresearch.ca Educate! Drones, Human Rights, UN

In the Miami Herald, John Zarocostas reports from Geneva that the U.N. Human Rights Council agreed on Friday, despite strong objections from the United States, to study whether American drone strikes comply with international law. Several NATO allies abstained. The resolution, drafted by Pakistan and co-sponsored by Yemen, both countries where the U.S. has undertaken multiple drone strikes, was adopted on a 27-6 vote, with 14 abstentions. The resolution urges that all “states” using drones should ensure that they are complying “with their obligations under international law, including the Charter of the United Nations, international human rights law and international humanitarian law, in particular, the principles of precaution, distinction and proportionality.”

Human Rights Watch Gets The Facts Wrong On Venezuela, Again

April 15, 2014 Mark Weisbrot, www.cepr.net Educate! Human Rights, Venezuela

Despite the fact that the New York Times had to run a correction on February 26 for claiming that Globovisión in Venezuela was “[t]he only television station that regularly broadcast voices critical of the government,” Daniel Wilkinson of Human Rights Watch (HRW) repeats the same error in the New York Review of Books yesterday, writing that: Two of the four private stations voluntarily dropped their critical coverage; a third was forced off the air; and the fourth was hounded by administrative sanctions and criminal charges until the owner sold it last year to investors reportedly linked to the governments, who have dramatically curtailed its critical content. In fact, the stations he claims have “dropped their critical coverage,” Venevisión and Televen, regularly run coverage that is critical of the government, as documented here. Since the claim that these stations have “dropped their critical coverage” is demonstrably false, the NYRB, like the New York Times, should run a correction.

Report On School Of America’s Watch Spring Days Of Action

April 12, 2014 Staff, http://www.soaw.org/ Organize! Human Rights

The 2014 Spring Days of Action are finished but the struggle continues! Last week in Washington, DC, our voices reverberated in the halls of power! We took our message both to Congress and to the community of Takoma Park, Maryland, where President Obama's Chief of Staff Denis McDonough lives. Write McDonough now at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20500 to pressure the Obama Administration to close the SOA/WHINSEC by executive order. Click here for a template letter. Email the text of your letter to info@soaw.org. Or order a full set of advocacy cards here to build on the momentum coming out of Spring Days. Thanks to the commitment of SOA Watch activists and local allies, the tangible results of the Spring Days of Action, here's a report.

Snowden Testifies NSA Spies On Human Rights Workers

April 9, 2014 Luke Harding, www.theguardian.com Educate! Edward Snowden, Human Rights, Surveillance

The US has spied on the staff of prominent human rights organisations, Edward Snowden has told the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, Europe's top human rights body. Giving evidence via a videolink from Moscow, Snowden said the National Security Agency – for which he worked as a contractor – had deliberately snooped on bodies like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. He told council members: "The NSA has specifically targeted either leaders or staff members in a number of civil and non-governmental organisations … including domestically within the borders of the United States." Snowden did not reveal which groups the NSA had bugged. The assembly asked Snowden if the US spied on the "highly sensitive and confidential communications" of major rights bodies such as Amnesty and Human Rights Watch, as well as on similar smaller regional and national groups. He replied: "The answer is, without question, yes. Absolutely."

Release The COINTELPRO Political Prisoners

April 9, 2014 Charlene Muhammad, www.finalcall.com Resist! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Human Rights, Police abuse

Human rights activists are calling on the government to grant amnesty and unconditional freedom to all political prisoners incarcerated because of COINTELPRO, a secret federal law enforcement program that destroyed Black and dissident organizations in the 1960s and 1970s. Men and women who sacrificed their lives so others could enjoy civil liberties and human rights in America are now aging and suffering failing health as they languish in prison, some for 40 years, and many in solitary confinement cells, unfit even for dogs, said their advocates. It is imperative that those they fought for remember and fight for them, said the activists. J. Edgar Hoover, former head of the FBI, began the covert, illegal CounterIntelligence Program in 1956 to destroy militant organizations.

Protests Held In 70 Cities On National Day Of Action

April 6, 2014 Staff, www.notonemoredeportation.com Resist! Human Rights, Immigration

As part of the national #Not1more Deportation campaign, immigrant communities in more than seventy cities will participate in a national day of action under the banner of “Two Million Too Many” with marches, rallies, vigils, and forums to push the White House to take immediate action to expand deferred action, end its quota programs like S-Comm, and suspend deportations. The protests are prompted by the record deportations under the Obama administration which are reaching the milestone of two million removals since he took office. Beginning on the April 5th “Two Million Too Many” national day of events against deportations, families and undocumented immigrants will begin an indefinite presence at the White House until President Obama stops deportations and reunites them with their loved ones currently held in detention.

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