UN

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.

Following Assault On Gaza, ‘Freedom Flotilla’ To Sail

August 15, 2014 Sarah Lazare, www.commondreams.org Resist! Gaza, Israel, Palestine, UN

Following Israel's latest military assault on Gaza, civil society groups from around the world say they are moving forward with plans to break the blockade on this besieged strip by sailing a "freedom flotilla" into Gaza Port. At a meeting in Istanbul, Turkey this week, the international Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) and numerous other groups came to the conclusion that "it is the responsibility of civil society worldwide to sail to Gaza," according to a press statement. They committed to making the voyage during 2014, which has been coined by the United Nations as the "International Year of Solidarity With the Palestinian People." While the group did not publicly disclose a launch location or date, they announced that they expect participation from civil society organizations across the globe — from Greece to South Africa to Jordan to Malaysia—as a counter to "the complicity of world governments" in the blockade on Gaza. "Calls to end the blockade of Gaza need to move from words to actions," said Ann Ighe, chairperson of Ship to Gaza and member of the FFC. "We invite all interested citizens worldwide to participate in this initiative in any way you can."

Three Reasons Why The ICC Hasn’t Taken Action On Gaza

August 14, 2014 Bill Blum, www.truthdig.com Educate! Gaza, Israel, Palestine, UN

As the war in Gaza enters its second month, quelled for the moment by another 72-hour cease-fire, the question arises: Why hasn’t the International Criminal Court initiated a formal inquiry into the carnage? To answer the question, I spent part of last week corresponding and speaking with representatives of the court, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the Coalition for the International Criminal Court, which consists of some 2,500 groups drawn from 150 countries whose mission is to strengthen international cooperation with the ICC and whose steering committee includes a who’s who of prominent human rights groups, including both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. I’ve also spent a good deal of time studying the Rome Statute, the name given to the ICC’s founding and governing charter. On the basis of those efforts, I’ve concluded that there are three fundamental factors holding back the ICC.

Collapse Of America’s Great African Experiment

August 11, 2014 Nick Turse, www.tomdispatch.com Educate! Famine, Sudan, UN, Wars and Militarism

On return from his recent reporting trip to Africa, Nick Turse told me the following tale, which catches something of the nature of our battered world. At a hotel bar in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, he attended an informal briefing with a representative of a major nongovernmental organization (NGO). At one point, the briefer commented that just one more crisis might sink the whole aid operation. He thought she was referring to South Sudan, whose bottomless set of problems include unending civil war, no good prospects for peace, impending famine, poor governance, and a lack of the sort of infrastructure that could make a dent in such a famine. Nick responded accordingly, only to be corrected. She didn’t just mean South Sudan, she said, but the entire global NGO system. Given the chaos of the present moment across the Greater Middle East and elsewhere, global aid operations were, she insisted, on the brink. They were all, she told him, just one catastrophe away from the entire system collapsing. I have to admit that as I watch the civilian carnage in Gaza; catastrophically devolving Iraq; the nightmare of Syria; the chaotic situation in Libya where, thanks to militia fighting, the capital’s international airport is now in ruins; the grim events surrounding Ukraine, which seem to be leading to an eerie, almost inconceivable revival of the Cold War ethos; not to speak of the situation in Afghanistan, where bad only becomes worse in the midst of an election from hell and the revival of the Taliban, I have a similar eerie feeling: just one more thing might tip this planet into... well, what?

Israel Attacks 100 UN Facilities In Gaza

August 2, 2014 Somini Sengupta, www.nytimes.com Educate! Israel, Palestine, UN, Wars and Militarism

In the midst of Israel’s battle with militants in Gaza over the past three weeks, skirmishes opened on a second front in recent days: Its strikes on United Nations facilities and the steep civilian casualties brought a barrage of rebukes and warnings from senior United Nations officials around the world, reaching a fever pitch just before the announcement of a cease-fire late Thursday. Behind the scenes, diplomats here were on the phone incessantly with Israelis, Palestinians and representatives of countries in the region that have influence over Israel’s principal nemesis, Hamas. The efforts led to a 72-hour humanitarian cease-fire announced late Thursday by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s spokesman and by Secretary of State John Kerry, who was traveling in New Delhi. In public, the war of words intensified this week, with the United Nations blaming Israel for an attack that killed at least 19 people who were taking refuge at a United Nations school early Wednesday and Israel, in turn, accusing the world body of helping Hamas. The United Nations has been dragged into the conflict: Eight of its staff members have been killed in the past 24 days, and more than 100 of its facilities have come under fire, including the school. United Nations officials said they had repeatedly told Israel of its exact location.

Environmentalists Plan Epic Climate March In NYC For Sep. 21st

July 31, 2014 John Zangas, www.dcmediagroup.us Organize! Climate Change, March, New York (NY), UN

The People’s Climate March will surge through Manhattan on September 21 with an expected quarter million individuals in attendance. Times Square will be the site of the historic gathering as many will travel from across the country to support UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s ambitious goals to reduce global warming pollution. The People’s Climate March will take place during a UN meeting on climate change attended by delegates from 168 countries.“The UN Secretary General has asked world leaders to finally make some real progress on climate change,” said Robert Orr, UN Assistant Secretary General. The UN conference, scheduled for September 23, will hail experts on the risks for not acting now. “Time is not on our side,” said Moon. Organizers at 350.org have joined with over 490 groups, including unions, ecumenical groups, and grassroots organizations. The plan is an “all-inclusive family oriented event” for everyone, says Paul Getsos, National Coordinator with 350.org. “We want to engage a wide range of constituencies and communities,” he said. Getting national coverage is the key to building on foundations already laid down by environmental groups. “We want to be in Times Square because there are huge media markets that look there,” said Getsos.

Speaking out about Palestine? This could happen to you.

July 21, 2014 Noah Cohen, www.counterpunch.org Organize! Human Rights, Jordan, Palestine, political prisoners, UN

A man is taken from his home by 20 armed, militarized police in fascist black uniforms. They break in through the doors and windows, rappel from the roof with ropes, storm the home where he lives with his wife and four children, in the dead of night. They take him away, and no one hears from him for days, and then weeks, and then months. He isn’t charged with anything; for a long time he is simply disappeared. There is no official charge, but he is a known political activist, a writer, a lecturer. This isn’t news, because the country is Jordan, the orders come from the US or from Israel, and the man is an Arab, a Palestinian.

Dutch State Liable For 300 Srebrenica Massacre Deaths

July 19, 2014 AP, www.theguardian.com Resist! Bosnia, Genocide, Law, Netherlands, UN

A court on Wednesday ordered the Netherlands to compensate the families of more than 300 men turned over to Bosnian Serb forces and later killed in the Srebrenica massacre 19 years ago. In an emotionally charged hearing at a civil court in The Hague, Presiding Judge Larissa Alwin said Dutch UN peacekeepers should have known that the men deported from the Dutch compound by Bosnian Serb forces on 13 July, 1995, would be killed because there was already evidence of the Serbs committing war crimes. "By cooperating in the deportation of these men, Dutchbat acted unlawfully," Alwin said, referring to the name of the Dutch UN battalion. The court cleared the Netherlands of liability in the deaths of most of the 8,000 Bosnian Muslims killed after Bosnian Serb forces commanded by General Ratko Mladic overran the town of Srebrenica on 11 July in what was to become the bloody climax to the 1992-95 Bosnian war that claimed 100,000 lives. Two days later, the outnumbered Dutch peacekeepers bowed to pressure from Mladic's troops and forced thousands of Muslim families out of their fenced-off compound. Bosnian Serb forces trucked the males away and began executing them. Their bodies were plowed into hastily made mass graves in what international courts have ruled was genocide.

UN Human Rights Commissioner: Snowden Should Not Face Trial

July 17, 2014 Reuters, www.theguardian.com Educate! Edward Snowden, Human Rights, Privacy, Surveillance, UN

The United Nations's top human rights official has suggested that the United States should abandon its efforts to prosecute Edward Snowden, saying his revelations of massive state surveillance had been in the public interest. The UN high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, credited Snowden, a former US National Security Agency contractor, with starting a global debate that has led to calls for the curtailing of state powers to snoop on citizens online and store their data. "Those who disclose human rights violations should be protected: we need them," Pillay told a news conference. "I see some of it here in the case of Snowden, because his revelations go to the core of what we are saying about the need for transparency, the need for consultation," she said. "We owe a great deal to him for revealing this kind of information." The United States has filed espionage charges against Snowden, charging him with theft of government property, unauthorised communication of national defence information and wilful communication of classified communications intelligence to an unauthorised person.

U.N. To Confront US On Persistent Racial Discrimination

July 10, 2014 Chandra Bhatnagar, www.aclu.org Educate! Indigenous Rights, Law, Native Indians, Racism, UN

Imagine the government taking away your two children in a hearing that lasts less than 60 seconds. Madonna Pappan and her husband, members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, don’t have to imagine it, because it happened to them. And they’re not alone: An American Indian child in South Dakota is 11 times more likely to be sent to foster care than a non-Indian child. Imagine receiving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for serving as a go-between in the sale of two small $5 bags of marijuana. That’s exactly what happened to Fate Vincent Winslow, an African American homeless man who says that he accepted the offer of an undercover police officer for a $5 commission in order to earn some money to get something to eat. Mr. Winslow is now serving a life sentence, without the possibility of parole, in Louisiana for this and his other prior non-violent crimes. In that state, African Americans are serving life without parole sentences for nonviolent crimes at approximately 23 times the rate of whites. Nationwide, an estimated 65.4 percent of the prisoners serving such sentences are African American.

Epic Climate Action Tour Heading To UN Negotiations

July 4, 2014 Rising Tide North America, www.facebook.com Resist! Climate Change, Latin America, Peru, UN

This group of intrepid climate activists needs your urgent help to lift up climate justice struggles in Latin America! https://actionnetwork.org/fundraising/climate-caravan-through-latin-america Here's a message from one of the organizers: "We've already toured from Northern Mexico to Panama, met and organized with communities, raised the call for climate justice on local radio and television, and made more than a dozen videos on the struggles and campaigns we've come in contact with. Currently we are in Panama, preparing the huge endeavor of shipping our tour-bus to Colombia, and making the connection from north to south a reality for communities fighting for climate justice in Latin America. We need your help to cover the cost of this part of our journey. This is the most expense and difficult expenditure that we have for the entire project. If we can make it across to South America, the Climate Caravan will be able to articulate with a whole continent of struggles and stories of communities that are on the front-lines of the climate crisis. Please consider making a donation to our cause in this crucial moment of this action-tour thru Latin America. We've already raised 3k but we need to urgently raise $2,000 more to cover the full cost shipping process and a bit more to get us to South America! Can you chip in to help us complete the tour?"

Global Campaign Rises To Dismantle Corporate Power

June 29, 2014 Diana Aguiar and Richard Girard, www.occupy.com Resist! International Law, Transnationals, UN

Starting June 23, on the occasion of the 26th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) session in Geneva, a week of mobilization has been organized by social movements and civil society organizations from around the world to shine a spotlight on the systematic lack of access to justice for victims of abuses committed by transnational corporations (TNCs). The week of mobilization is also supporting an unprecedented initiative by 85 member states of the UNHRC to establish a legally binding international instrument to stop corporate impunity and provide access to justice for victims of corporate crimes. This reaffirms a long-term demand by social movements and victims that are, in this context, reaffirming the call for the establishment of an intergovernmental working group by the UNHRC mandated to draft and negotiate such instrument. As part of the week of mobilization, the global Dismantle Corporate Power & Stop Impunity campaign will be convening a number of events designed to amplify the voices of victims of human rights abuses and environmental crimes perpetrated by TNCs. The campaign and its members believe that in order to halt the abusive power of TNCs and to provide effective remedies to victims, an international binding instrument is a crucial necessity.

UN Votes Transnationals Cannot Violate Rights, US Refuses

June 28, 2014 Thalif Deen, www.ipsnews.net Educate! Corporatism, International Law, Transnationals, UN

The United States and the 28-member European Union (EU) have assiduously promoted – and vigourously preached – one of the basic tenets of Western multi-party democracy: majority rules. But at the United Nations, the 29 member states have frequently abandoned that principle when it insists on “consensus” on crucial decisions relating to the U.N. budget – or when it is clearly outvoted in the 193-member General Assembly or its committee rooms. "The division of the votes clearly shows that the countries who are host to a lot of TNCs, such as the EU, as well as Norway and the U.S., are against this proposal." -- Anne van Schaik That’s exactly what happened Thursday at the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva which adopted, by majority vote, a proposal to negotiate a legally-binding treaty to prevent human rights abuses by transnational corporations (TNCs) and the world’s business conglomerates. But following the vote, the United States and the EU, have warned they would not cooperate with an intergovernmental working group (IGWG) which is to be established to lay down ground rules for negotiating the proposed treaty. Stephen Townley, the U.S. representative in the HRC, told delegates: “The United States will not participate in this IGWG, and we encourage others to do the same.”

UN: Detroit Violating Human Rights

June 26, 2014 AFP, www.yahoo.com Educate! Detroit, Human Rights, UN, US, Water

UN rights experts on Wednesday slammed struggling US city Detroit for violating the basic human rights of its citizens by disconnecting thousands of people from water services over unpaid bills. Cash-strapped Detroit, which last July became the largest US city to ever file for bankruptcy protection, has recently begun disconnecting water services on a large scale, for all households that have not paid bills for two months, the three experts said in a statement. The birthplace of the US auto industry has accelerated the process since early June, with around 3,000 customers cut off each week, and some 30,000 households expected to be disconnected from water services over the next few months, they said. "Disconnection of water services because of failure to pay due to lack of means constitutes a violation of the human right to water and other international human rights," they insisted. "The households which suffered unjustified disconnections must be immediately reconnected," they said.

Groups Demand Justice for Julian Assange

June 18, 2014 Jon Queally, www.commondreams.org Resist! Human Rights, Julian Assange, Justice, UN, Wikileaks

Nearly sixty international human rights groups, press freedom advocates and civil society organizations have submitted reports to bodies at the United Nations calling on Swedish officials to remedy the "pre-trial detention" status of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange who has remained under asylum protection at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for almost two years. According to the groups, Assange's legal treatment by the Swedish government—concerning charges of alleged sexual misconduct that took place in 2010—are in direct violation of his human rights and stems directly from his work as a publisher of leaked government material, most notably diplomatic cables and documents related to the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Two Swedish organizations, as well as jurist organizations from around the world—including the American Association of Jurists (AAJ), the National Lawyer’s Guild (NLG), the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL), and the Indian Association of Lawyers—submitted two reports, one in English and one in Spanish, each highlighting various attacks on Assange's right to due process and legal protections.

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