Human Rights

Staff Accuses U.N. of Violating Human Rights

December 7, 2013 Thalif Deen, www.ipsnews.net Educate! Human Rights

The United Nations will commemorate Human Rights Day next week amidst charges the world body is unilaterally proposing drastic changes to working conditions and salaries of staffers without due consultation – and in violation of their basic rights. The Geneva U.N. Staff Union is protesting “the withdrawal of the right to union recognition by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and his refusal to honour negotiating rights for elected representatives of his employees.” Meanwhile, the United States has proposed an eight-percent pay cut while the UK, on behalf of the largest contributing countries, has asked the secretary-general to further slash costs.

Criminalizing Homelessness

December 7, 2013 M Caulfield, www.exposingthetruth.co Educate! Housing, Human Rights, Poverty

Recently, one family in Atlanta, Georgia decided that they were going to turn their unlucky situation into a beautiful one: to be a blessing to the lives of others by doing something good for those less fortunate in their community. Carol and Willie Fowler’s daughter Tamara had planned to get married at the Villa Christina catering hall, but the wedding was unexpectedly called off just 40 days before the event was slated to take place. At the initial news, the family was understandably upset that the planned celebration was not going to happen. But, then they had an idea, they didn’t want to let all of their planning and money to have to go to waste. So they decided to invite 200 of the cities homeless to feast on the four-course meal which had been planned for Tamara’s wedding reception.

Driven By ‘State Injustice’, Egypt’s Revolutionaries Rise Up

December 7, 2013 Hatem Maher, www.english.ahram.org.eg Resist! Democracy, Egypt, Hate, Human Rights, Revolution

But now that the heavy-handed tactics have come to the doorstep of the fundamental rights they earned by revolting in 2011 to unseat autocratic leader Hosni Mubarak, they are back on the streets. “Many people did not go out on the streets because of the absence of a clear demand. But, after a while, things have become clear again. The state is still trying to preserve and renew its oppressive tools,” socialist activist Khaled Abdel-Hamid told Ahram Online. “The interior ministry and all the security apparatuses are doing their utmost to exact revenge on the symbols of the January 2011 revolution,” added Abdel-Hamid, a member of the Way of the Revolution Front, founded in September as a third political force opposed to both the military and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Killing People, Killing The Planet — WTO Found Guilty

December 7, 2013 Priadi Talman, Aditiajaya, Mae Buenaventura and Muhammad Reza, www.popularresistance.org Educate! Corporatism, Human Rights, WTO

To the chant of “guilty, guilty, guilty!”, a “peoples’ tribunal” indicted the World Trade Organization yesterday for the “systematic violation of human rights, massive destruction of livelihoods and the environment, privatization and commodification of the commons and the violation of international law”. The court specifically held to account and answer for widespread damages, private entities that Freeport Indonesia Ltd., PAM Lyonnais Jaya Ltd. and Aetra Air Jakarta Ltd., the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, Donggi Senoro Liquid Natural Gas Ltd., Lafarge Cement Indonesia Ltd., Charoen Pokphand Indonesia Tbk., the mayor of Samarinda - Kalimantan, and corporations of coal and pesticides in Brebes, Central Java . It also decried “corporate impunity”, such that justice cannot be accessed in the current judicial system by grassroots people.

Global People’s Tribunal on WTO & Free Trade Agreements

December 6, 2013 Staff, www.PopularResistance.org Resist! Corporatism, Democracy, Environment, Finance and the Economy, Human Rights, TPP, Worker Rights and Jobs, WTO

The Indictment A. We the Justices of the Global People’s Tribunal on WTO, Free Trade Agreements, Investments & Transnational Corporations, have heard the substantive testimonies of the affected communities and sectors, including women and children, peasants, fishers, workers, migrants and indigenous peoples in Indonesia, other Asian countries (India, Korea, Thailand, Cambodia), and other regions - Latin America, Canada. B. These testimonies have given evidence on: The systematic violation of human rights; The massive destruction of livelihoods and the environment; The privatization and commodification of the commons and of nature; The violation of international law. . . . I. We underline people’s inalienable right to justice. We acknowledge the importance of social movements and civil society organisations engagement in the campaigns to end corporate impunity, the WTO and the trade & investment regime. J. We recognize that the struggle of resistance goes hand in hand with the construction of alternatives of an economy for the people and the planet, with initiatives such as the indigenous knowledge systems, seed banks, food sovereignty, and a new paradigm for trade and investment, as well as a new juridical system that will deliver justice.

Bhopal Disaster Survivors Ask for Apology, Thank Hammond

December 5, 2013 Rashida Bi, Nawab Khan,Balkrishna Namdeo, Satinath Sarangi, and Safreen Khan, www.popularresistance.org Educate! Chelsea Manning, Corporatism, Environment, Health Care, Human Rights

The organizations led a rally of survivors of the disaster and those exposed to contaminated groundwater to the Union Carbide factory at the end of which they set an effigy of Dow Chemical on fire. The marchers carried picture of US hacker activist Jeremy Hammond, sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, who exposed Dow Chemical’s snooping on Bhopal activists. The effigy, that of a corporate executive with horns and a forked tail, bore marks of damage caused to Dow Chemicals in India including the criminal case on bribery, the blacklisting of Dursban, the cancellation of the joint venture in Gujarat and the gutting down of its proposed R&D Centre at Chakan near Pune. Rashida Bee, who has lost 6 members of her family to the disaster and is the president of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari Sangh said “The Presdient of United States must summon the courage to express remorse for the US Government’s financing of the world’s worst industrial disaster through the EXIM bank as revealed through Wikileaks documents.

Mexico: One Year Anniversary Of President Marked With Protests

December 4, 2013 Staff, www.revolution-news.com Resist! Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Government, Human Rights, Police abuse

This 1st day of December 2013 celebrated the one year anniversary of President Enrique Peña Nieto and one of the reasons that many unhappy citizens with this victory, as well as many of us don’t support the energy and economic reforms again took to the streets to demonstrate peacefully. However through different twitter accounts we can see that it was not so peaceful. The people said that the arrests were arbitrary and were even undercover cops and that while some leaked members were damaging public property the police of the city stopped only girls.

Quest For Peace Drives Longtime Activist Kenneth Mayers

December 4, 2013 Robert Nott, www.santafenewmexican.com Resist! Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Human Rights, Palestine, Wars and Militarism

A quest for peace has driven Mayers — who was born in New York City 76 years ago — since he resigned his commission as an officer in the U.S. Marines late in 1966. He then attended the University of California at Berkeley to earn a doctorate in philosophy. He and his wife, Elizabeth, moved to Santa Fe 14 years ago; she died of cancer eight years ago. A Santa Fe friend of Mayers asked him why he always looks so happy when he goes to jail. “Because I’m in the best of company,” he explained. Santa Fe author Michael McGarrity, one of several people who nominated Mayers, said he has known him for 10 years. “He’s a remarkable man in many ways; a quiet guy,” McGarrity said. “He has that kind of leadership style that isn’t flashy — it’s just steady and organized and persistent. He’s a good man; a good man all around. He goes 100 miles an hour.”

How Food With Palm Oil Is Wiping Out Orangutans And Enslaving Workers

December 3, 2013 Piper Hoffman, www.ecowatch.org Educate! Environment, Food and Agriculture, Human Rights

“Adam,” a poor 19-year-old Indonesian, found a job driving trucks for a palm oil plantation that paid $6 a day. The foreman picked him up for a three-week, two-thousand mile journey to the worksite in Borneo. Along the way the terms of employment changed: Adam wouldn’t be paid for two years, and in the meantime he would have to borrow money from the employer for his food and housing. Workers who ran away from the company were dragged back and beaten. Adam had become a slave laborer, as Businessweek’s Benjamin Skinner reports.

Activists Stage ‘Reverse Flotilla’ To Protest IDF Gaza Sea Blockade

December 2, 2013 Yaakov Lappin, www.jpost.com Resist! Human Rights, Israel, Palestine, Wars and Militarism

Hundreds of Palestinian and international activists set out on a "reverse flotilla" from Gaza on Monday attempting to break Israel's six-mile naval blockade of the coastal enclave. The flotilla remained within permitted boundaries. The Israel Navy has prepared for the possibility that the flotilla would challenge the security blockade, which is in place to prevent the smuggling of rockets and missiles into Gaza, and to prevent sea-based terror attacks against the Israeli coastline. Despite the preparations, the flotilla was being viewed by military officials as little more than a media provocation. Palestinian organizers said their boats turned back to Gaza after the presence of many Israel ships and aircraft made them fear for their safety. According to the fleet's organizers, about 300 Palestinian and European activists participated in the event before returning to shore.

Video: Amber Lyon On Peace, Love and Pepper Spray

December 2, 2013 AbMartin, amberlyonlive.com Educate! Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Human Rights, Media, Occupy, Police abuse, Video

Abby Martin Interviews Amber Lyon on the US protest movement, the security state and corporate media; and her next project the healing of psychedelic drugs. Amber Lyon is a three-time Emmy Award- winning author, journalist, filmmaker, and photographer obsessed with hackers, human and animal rights, and revolutions. She is the founder of the investigative news site Muckraker.com. Lyon has a passion for exposing human rights violations against protesters during revolutions. For her documentary, ‘iRevolution’, Lyon examines social media’s critical role in galvanizing the revolutions and exposing human rights abuse in Egypt, Tunisia, and Bahrain. ‘iRevolution’ won a 2012 New York Festivals International Television and Film Gold World Medal Award and Lyon was nominated as a Livingston Award Finalist for the documentary. Lyon continues to investigate ongoing cases of excessive use of police force against journalists and protesters in the United States. Lyon was crushed underneath a crowd in Chicago, directly shot at with less lethal weapons in Anaheim, and forced to inhale pepper spray more times than she can count, all while using submersion journalism to photo-document protesters in the U.S. for an upcoming photo book set to be distributed in major retailers nationwide in the fall of 2013.

“Occupy the Apocalypse”

December 2, 2013 Rivera Sun, www.PopularResistance.org Strategize! Democracy, Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Human Rights, Occupy

After five minutes of conversation with Nathan Schneider, my mind began racing down new avenues of thought. Maybe Occupy isn't just any old horse. What if Occupy was a phenomenon of mythic proportions? What if the Occupiers were the un-prophesized horsemen of the Apocalypse . . . and the "Apocalypse" is not what we think? "An apocalypse", translated literally from its Greek origins, is a disclosure of knowledge, a lifting of the veil, or a revelation. In his book, Nathan dives into the epistemology of the word and offers some revelations on what was happening beneath the surface of the Occupy movement. Nathan managed to jump on board the Occupy Wall Street ship before it launched into Zuccotti Park. This vantage point gave him a few observations that many of us, in our satellite occupations throughout the country, may not have seen. According to Nathan, there were a lot of artists at the helm of the early stages of the Occupy Wall Street planning process, and what emerged was designed as a massive performance, a public demonstration of democracy in action. In the aftermath of the police crackdown on the encampments, the corporatized mainstream media declared the movement a failure. Yet, Nathan, in his simple and quiet manner, debunks that whole idea. Occupy achieved exactly what it was designed to accomplish . . .

Day Of Rage: Prawer Plan Protests Met With Extreme Brutality

December 1, 2013 Staff, www.revolution-news.com Resist! Human Rights, Israel, Palestine, Sovereignty

Clashes between protestors and police took place during a Day of Rage against the Prawer Plan that will displace over 40,000 Bedouins from their villages at El Naqab (Negev) area at the south of Israel in the largest ethnic cleansing since 1948. Resistors, including children and teens, in El Naqeb (Negev) were met with extreme brutality from riot police. Hundreds of Israeli shielded cops using tear gas, rubber bullets, water canons and stun grenades, clashed with Bedouin activists and supporters near & inside the town of Hura. Over 25 protesters were detained. For facts-and-figures about Prawer Plan read here: http://prawerwontpass.wordpress.com/facts-and-figures/

Portugal: Anti-Austerity Protesters Occupy Government Ministries

December 1, 2013 Staff, www.euronews.com Resist! Austerity, Human Rights, Portugal

As parliament passed the 2014 budget on Tuesday, paving the way for more cuts, austerity-weary trade unionists occupied four government ministries for several hours in protest. Public sector workers are set to face salary cuts of up to 12 percent as well as reductions to their pensions. “I am nearing retirement and, after 40 years of working, I don’t think I will have enough of a pension to live on. It’s really borderline,” said one elderly woman. Some marched to parliament, denouncing what will be a third straight year of austerity. The government says cuts are “inevitable” as it struggles to reduce the deficit but many on the sharp end are not convinced. “They drive people to despair, suicide and starvation,” said another elderly woman. “It can’t go on like this. This is not what the people wanted.” The opposition has vowed to challenge some measures in the Constitutional Court. But the ruling centre-right coalition is determined to satisfy Portugal’s international lenders and avoid having to ask for a second bailout.

Is The Pope Getting The Catholics Ready For An Economic Revolution?

December 1, 2013 Lynn Stuart Parramore, www.alternet.org Educate! Finance and the Economy, Human Rights, Pope Francis, Religion

Tuesday, Pope Francis launched a tirade against a brutally unjust economic system — a tirade that Marx himself would have cheered: “Just as the commandment 'Thou shalt not kill' sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say 'thou shalt not' to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills….As long as the problems of the poor are not radically resolved by rejecting the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation and by attacking the structural causes of inequality, no solution will be found for the world's problems or, for that matter, to any problems.” Whoa! Where did that come from? To understand the answer, you need to know something about liberation theology, a movement that originated in Pope Francis’s home region of Latin America. Liberation theology, a Catholic phenomenon centered on actively fighting economic and social oppression, is the fascinating place where Karl Marx and the Catholic Church meet.

«1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 »

assetto corsa mods

Daily movement news and resources