Archive for category: Human Rights

Information and stories about human rights.

, , ,

Cricket Program in Argentina Fights Poverty

According to the Associated Press (AP), children who live in Villa 21-24, a dangerous slum in Buenos Aires, Argentina, are playing cricket in order to avoid a life of crime and poverty.

The Caacupe community center introduced the sport to the slum in 2009 to “integrate children to a game that traditionally was reserved for Argentina’s upscale private schools”.

Moreover, the AP said that Pope Francis, who is also known as the “slum pope”, was one of the founders of Caacupe and remains connected with its programs.

The community center is praised because children are given the opportunity to do something positive instead of giving into a lifestyle of drugs, crime and frustration.

Although the community center’s aim to help children out of poverty is benevolent, a closer examination is needed regarding Pope Francis and his role in Argentina while serving as a Bishop during the reign of a brutal military regime.

Vincent Navarro, who teaches Public Policy at Johns Hopkins University, is critical of Pope Francis despite some of his good intentions. This is primarily due to his silence during the Argentinean dictatorship in the 70’s and 80’s.

“The dictatorship, established in defense of the more privileged groups in Argentina, was especially brutal to any dissident and opponents of its reign,” Navarro said. “This silence reflected a lack of sensitivity to gross human rights violations carried out by dictatorships with close ties to the Catholic Church.”

Navarro said that the pope claimed that his silence should be excused since it was “a tactical and honest move”. Navarro also gives him credit for encouraging the Church to expand its involvement in fighting poverty and for indicating that poverty is the result of the exploitation under the capitalist system in return for profits.

However, a recent service that honored the fallen members of the Church who sided with the fascist military regime in Spain in the 30’s is another reason Navarro criticizes the Pope and the Catholic establishment.

“It is safe to assume that Pope Francis knows very well that the Catholic Church supported this military coup and dictatorship of General Franco, as evidence of this abounds,” Navarro asserted. “The Catholic Church was one of the major landowners in Spain and opposed the land reform initiated by the democratically elected Republican government.”

Although Pope Francis was one of the founders of the community center that is helping Argentinean children escape poverty today, the Counterpunch article written by Navarro uses historical examples to criticize his refusal to confront the repression of the military regime in the past.

– Juan Campos

Sources: Counterpunch
Photo: Yahoo

,

UNHRC to Investigate Civil War in Sri Lanka

On March 27, the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) voted to open an investigation in Sri Lanka, based on allegations of human rights abuses and other crimes related to the civil war in Sri Lanka that ended in 2009.

In a press release, Secretary of State John Kerry said that the resolution “reaffirms the commitment of the international community to support the Government of Sri Lanka as it pursues reconciliation and respect for human rights and democratic governance.”

In 2009, Sri Lanka’s 26-year- long and extremely bloody civil war ended when Sri Lanka’s military defeated the Tamil Tiger rebels.

Earlier in March, Sri Lanka detained two well-known human rights activists for 48 hours under their anti-terrorism laws. The government has also denied allegations of human rights abuses, brought to them by various human rights groups.

The resolution calls on the UNHRC’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to conduct an investigation in Sri Lanka based on allegations of human rights violations on both sides. The 47 members of the council voted 23 to 12 for the resolution, with 12 members choosing to abstain.

Kerry went on to say that the HRC is “deeply concerned by recent actions against some of Sri Lanka’s citizens, including detentions and harassment of civil society activists.”

Navi Pillay, the UNHRC high commissioner, had previously wanted to investigate human rights violations in the country because he believed that the country’s authorities had not made a great deal of progress in their own investigations.

This investigation has been called “long overdue,” as two years after the war ended in 2009, the HRC passed a resolution that commended Sri Lanka’s way of bringing the war to a close.

Prior to the vote on March 27, Sri Lanka’s ambassador to the HRC Ravinatha Aryasinha was not in favor of the resolution that would open a new investigation. Aryasinha said that the resolution would be a “grave threat to the sovereignty of U.N. member states” and that the resolution also went against international law.

Pakistan’s ambassador Zamir Akram also protested the resolution claiming that it based on political motives rather than about human rights. Akram also questioned whether the UNHRC had the resources to open the investigation at all.

India chose to abstain from the vote, claiming that it was concerned about going forward with an independent investigation. This decision was off-putting, as many nations expected India to support the independent investigation. In the past, India supported “tamer” resolutions regarding the war and supported previous proposal to open investigations.

The UNHRC’s investigation will focus on the bloodshed and violations that occurred at the end of the war in Sri Lanka. It was reported that approximately 40,000 civilians were killed at the end of the war, largely due to military offensives.

Additionally, the resolution calls for continuous monitoring of human rights conditions in Sri Lanka. The United States has said that it is important to improve human rights in Sri Lanka in response to the continuing abductions, torture, and extrajudicial killings that are taking place.

– Julie Guacci

Sources: The New York Times, U.S. Department of State, BBC News
Photo: The Independent

, ,

Modern Slavery in Hong Kong

slavery_hong_kong
Modern slavery is a different institution from the historical examples of slavery that we learn about in textbooks. In the 21st century, slavery is illegal in the majority of the world. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 declared, “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights” and “no one shall be held in slavery or servitude, slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.”

Individuals who become modern human trafficking victims are often coerced, tricked or seized from their homes and forcibly exploited. They are trafficked through both underground and legitimate pathways, making their way across borders and oceans. This is not an issue confined to poorer, developing countries. Human trafficking victims enter Western countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom in large numbers.

The International Labor Organization estimates that in 2013, around 21 million people were smuggled around the world, with 11.7 million individuals in Asia. “There are 1.1 million new victims a year, which is 3,000 victims a day, 125 per hour.”

Hong Kong is China’s richest and most developed city. Hong Kong has the world’s ninth largest trading economy, with a gross domestic product of $261 billion. However, Hong Kong also has the largest income gap between its citizens of any developed country. Towering shining skyscrapers share the corner with decrepit apartment buildings falling apart from the weight of the families crammed within its walls.

 

Facts on Modern Slavery

 

The U.S. State Department report on Trafficking in Persons (TIP) for 2013 describes Hong Kong as both a destination and a transit area for men, women and children, from countries like Cambodia, Thailand, China, India, Vietnam, Philippines and Nepal, who are coerced into sex slavery and forced labor. Many migrant workers are also subjected to indentured servitude, with little pay and subjected to violence, harsh conditions, and little opportunity for escape.

Hong Kong officials did not recognize its human trafficking problem as a serious concern until 2013. But once the Hong Kong government acknowledged its problem, it could begin to document, collect statistics and analyze human trafficking within its city and create solutions. The TIP report labels Hong Kong as Tier 2; “the city is not in compliance, but the government is making significant efforts to improve.”

Under Hong Kong law, human trafficking is narrowly defined as individuals crossing the border for prostitution. The Hong Kong Department Justice is making positive strides to amend its Prosecution Code to include human exploitation cases. Most human trafficking cases go un-prosecuted and unpunished. The city’s strict immigration laws have driven human trafficking underground, making it extremely difficult to enforce. The majority of its victims will not escape and receive justice without the support of its government and law enforcement.

– Sarah Yan

Sources: South China Morning Post, UN, The Borgen Project
Photo: Impunity Watch

,

For North Korea, It’s Still 1940

North Korea and the United Nations go head to head on matters of human rights. In a resolution passed on March 28, the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva condemned North Korea for “systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations, including crimes against humanity, that continue to be committed in the country.”

The resolution came shortly following a Human Rights Council Commission of Inquiry conducted earlier in the month, and received acceptance by 30 nations, against six opposing and 11 abstaining.

Many of the human rights violations allegedly occurring in North Korea are unparalleled in a world modernized by the 1948 UN Declaration of Human Rights. A great number of people are detained in prison camps for crimes they did not commit. Their guilt, it seems, is declared by association with family members or close friends of those who allegedly committed political crimes. The Commission report provided evidence for circumstances of rape, murder and torture within the prison labor camps.

North Korean officials did not appreciate the Commission and resolution results. So Se Pyong, North Korea’s UN envoy, claimed the UN Human Rights Council had politically confronted North Korea, putting the nation on the defensive. When UN Human Rights investigators asserted North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un be tried for crimes devastatingly akin to those committed under Nazi rule, the country’s ambassador told the Council to “mind your own business.”

Despite the horrendous situation the investigative Commission has shown, many activists are pleased that the results have led to such strong support for the UN resolution.  Rather than stopping at investigations of nuclear proliferation and weapons development, the United Nations will now be putting Security Council and General Assembly staff to work on bringing justice to North Korea.

At this point, some world powers are wary of the extent that can be done regarding the issue. At most, North Korea could be taken to the International Criminal Court by UNSC, yet China and Russia, both veto powers, voted against the March resolution. However, an increase in investigation could possibly turn the tide. Human rights may not yet be completely universal, but for now the world is making progress.

– Jaclyn Stutz

Sources: Al Jazeera, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Reuters
Photo: Yahoo

,

Divorce with Democracy in Turkey

Divorce_from_Democracy_in_Turkey
Since becoming Prime Minister in 2003, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has contributed to calming Turkey’s military, strengthening its political parties, and increasing the personal freedoms of its citizens. United States Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama both held Turkey on a pedestal as an example of the ability for Islam and democracy to coexist.

Yet the Justice and Development Party (AKP) has faced little to no opposition strong enough to challenge Erdogan’s position, for which he has won three successive elections. At over 11 years in office, Erdogan is now the second longest reigning Prime Minister in Turkey’s 94-year history. The nation is falling from its democratic grace.

When thousands of Turkish citizens protested the one-party state in the spring of 2013, Erdogan’s authoritarian power was evident. Tear gas, water cannons and mass arrests asserted the Prime Minister’s authority over those who wished to speak out. The in December parliament, led mostly by the AKP, presented a proposal to make protests against public services illegal.

Such actions, in addition to Erdogan’s attempts to limit and control social media, emphasize worrisome threats to basic human rights and democracy in Turkey. But the next set of elections is coming soon, and the simple fact that people continue to look towards it brings hope. Despite unfortunate actions resulting from Erdogan’s hoarding of power, Turkey formally remains a functioning democracy. If all goes as planned, the upcoming elections will take place in as free and fair an environment as ever.

Movement away from democracy in Turkey poses risks to the nation’s future political and economic security. With such tumultuous circumstances taking place in the nations bordering Turkey and in the Middle East in general, Erdogan arguably cannot afford to throw away its alliance with the United States and the Western world. Likewise, undemocratic actions take away from any chances Turkey has of being admitted in the European Union, whose membership requirements include a free market and democratic freedoms.

So while many may claim that Turkey, as a result, could not possibly move far enough from democracy as to put these alliances in true jeopardy, recent events have not sparked much confidence. Elections, however, will likely outline what the world can expect from Turkey in the near future.

– Jaclyn Stutz

Sources: Carnegie Endowment 1, Carnegie Endowment 2, Al Jazeera, Politico
Photo: Business Insider

,

United Nations Spotlights U.S. Human Rights Violations

human_rights
In a report released by the UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC), the United States was found to be in violation of previously established human rights law. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights was placed into effect in the mid-1970s as international law and the U.S. has failed to uphold it with practices including torture in Guantanamo Bay, drone strikes and massive surveillance practices.

The U.S. has already broken United Nations charters multiple times with military interventions in the Middle East.

Bulk data collection however, has become one of the major domestic human rights violations following Edward Snowden’s whistleblowing of the NSA program. The UNHRC urged the U.S. to remove their surveillance program, as it is a major violation of the right to privacy.

Moreover, the surveillance spotlight in the U.S. is not limited to the NSA. The UN Congressional Intelligence Committees have addressed surveillance by executive agencies in the past, but have failed to produce any action—until just recently.

The Senate Intelligence Committee, tasked with overseeing intelligence agencies in the executive branch such as the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency, have made allegations that the CIA spied on computers that the committee had used. The allegations have thus sparked ongoing conflict between the two branches of government and human rights advocates are stepping into the ring.

A 6,300 page long Senate Intelligence Committee report on the CIA “enhanced interrogation” program is waiting to be voted on for release. The report covers highly controversial interrogation tactics and is expected to be sent to President Barack Obama’s desk for approval to be publicly released. The Senate Intelligence Committee’s Chairwoman, Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) has also said there is currently enough support for the vote to pass; however, the official vote is set to occur later in the week.

Concerning the release of the controversial report, President Barack Obama stated, “I would urge them to go ahead and complete the report and send it to us, and we will declassify those findings so that the American people can understand what happened in the past.”

– Jugal Patel

Sources: Politico, The Huffington Post, Foreign Policy, The Guardian, The Washington Post
Photo: Popular Resistance

, , , ,

Lupita Nyong’o Shines in the Role of an Advocate

All eyes are on Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o as her newfound fame thrusts her into the global center stage. Born in Mexico as the child of prominent Kenyan politicians before later moving to the United States for college and graduate school, Nyong’o has had a truly global life thus far. Her travels have been the best education of all, bestowing upon her a rare sense of worldly wisdom and care for humanity. Her compassion and her astute perspective on the world makes her performances that much more extraordinary and poignant.

Before her role as Patsey in “12 Years A Slave,” Nyong’o starred in several other socially conscious films, one a drama about HIV/AIDS and another a documentary drawing attention to the treatment of Kenya’s albino population. Although she has not been in the public spotlight for very long, she has already managed to voice some groundbreaking thoughts regarding race, gender, beauty and charity, making it clear that she is a burgeoning beacon of the philanthropic spirit and a trailblazer for human rights advocacy.

Here are several thoughts from Nyong’o:

1. “You can’t rely on how you look to sustain you. What is fundamentally beautiful is compassion for yourself for those around you. That kind of beauty enflames the heart and enchants the soul.”

2. “As I look down on this Golden Statue, may it remind me and very little girls that no matter where you’re from your dreams are valid.”

3. “You have to allow for the impossible to be possible.”

4. “Human beings have an instinct for freedom.”

5. “Feel the validation for your beauty, but also get to the deeper business of feeling beautiful inside. There is no shade in that beauty.”

6. “I have phenomenal parents… to watch those two people do so much and mean so much to everyone but at the end of the day still have the humility to serve. I thank their example because at the end of the day I just feel it is my deeds that are more important than my fame.”

These words of wisdom from Nyong’o teach us that, above everything else, we are all equally deserving and capable of love, admiration, success and humanity. Beauty, in the sense of living a beautiful life of compassion and friendship, is something universally available and unhindered by the situations of one’s birth. May every person take Nyong’o’s message to heart, and begin to fully realize his or her amazingly valued position in the grand global community.

– Stefanie Doucette

Sources: The Independent, Huffington Post, Pinterest, The Root
Photo: The Advocate

, ,

Japanese Prime Minister Will Not Revise Apology Over WWII Sex Slaves

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced this week that he will not retract his country’s official apology for its military’s use of sex slaves during World War II. Abe’s cabinet had been reviewing a landmark 1993 cabinet statement in which Tokyo acknowledged for the first time that the Japanese military had directly or indirectly been involved in establishing brothels for its soldier in territories occupied by imperial Japan during its brutal conquest of east Asia in first half of the twentieth century. Up to 200,000 women are estimated to have been forced to work as sex slaves in Japan’s military brothels.

Speaking on Friday to the budget committee in the upper house of the Diet, Japan’s parliament, Abe said he had, ” no thought of my cabinet revising,” the 1993 apology, known as the Kono statement, after then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono. “We must be humble regarding history… it should not be politicized or made into a diplomatic issue,” Abe said.

The decision by Abe, a rightwing nationalist who recently angered his country’s east Asian neighbors by visiting a controversial war shrine commemorating Japan’s war dead, is being seen as an effort by the hawkish prime minister to placate South Korea, which has criticized Tokyo for its perceived failure to atone for wartime atrocities. Japan annexed the Korean peninsula in 1910 and ruled it as a Japanese colony until the end of World War II in 1945.

Abe’s attempt to mollify Seoul, a strategic partner in countering China’s economic and military rise, comes ahead of a possible meeting between the Japanese prime minister and South Korean President Park Geun-hye next week on the sidelines of a nuclear disarmament summit in The Hague.

On Wednesday, Japanese Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Akitaka Saiki traveled to South Korea in a bid to lock down a meeting between the two leaders at next week’s summit. After meeting with his South Korean counterpart, Akitaka left without obtaining a commitment from South Korea for a meeting between its president and Abe, as Seoul continued to insist that Tokyo do more to make amends for it militaristic past.

The Prime Minister’s decision not to revise the 1993 apology comes about two weeks after Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga announced that Abe’s government was forming a team to review the Kono statement, in which Tokyo acknowledged for the first time that, “The then Japanese military was, directly or indirectly, involved in the establishment and management of the comfort stations and the transfer of comfort women.” Comfort stations is a Japanese euphemism for the brothels operated by the Japanese imperial military in territories conquered by Tokyo during its conquest of east Asia in the first half the twentieth century.

Abe’s refusal to revisit Tokyo’s groundbreaking admission represents a u-turn for the sometimes hard line prime minister, who at times has pushed a revisionist version of history that white washes over Japan’s wartime atrocities. When he was running to be the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party in 2012, Abe said “there was no evidence” that the comfort women had been forced to work in the brothels.

Late last year, Abe angered China and South Korea, both of which were occupied by Japan during the first half of the twentieth century, when he visited Yasukuni, a Shinto shrine that commemorates Japan’s war dead, including 14 Class A war criminals.

– Eric Erdahl

Sources: BBC, BBC, Nikkei Asian Review
Photo: Enformable

, , ,

Paul Ryan’s Fight Against Anti-Poverty Programs

Rep. Paul Ryan published a 204-page report that criticizes the U.S. government’s anti-poverty programs and proposes cuts to welfare expenditures.

Ryan (R-Wis.), who is also the chairman of the House Budget Committee, believes Washington should focus on reforming the welfare program and recommended “a sweeping overhaul of social programs,” according to the Washington Post.

“There are nearly 100 programs at the federal level that are meant to help, but they have actually created a poverty trap,” said Ryan. “There is no coordination with these programs, and new ones are frequently being added without much consideration to how they affect other programs.”

Moreover, he continued, “This document is a precursor not only of our budget but of our larger project to introduce poverty reforms over the course of this year. The president may focus on inequality because he can’t talk about growth. We’re focused on upward mobility, speaking directly to people who have fallen through the cracks.”

The following day, however, President Obama unveiled a $3.9 trillion budget for next year. According to Investopedia, Obama’s budget would expand the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) to help a million Americans get out of poverty.

“Under the new plan workers would get 15.3 cents credit for each dollar earned up to $6,570, for a maximum credit of $1,005,” said Investopedia. “That amount would be set until the worker earned $18,070.”

Unfortunately for Ryan, his report was not well received by many economists. Jared Bernstein said that it is misleading to tell the American people that anti-poverty programs result in even more poverty.

“While much of the commentary suggests that federal antipoverty efforts have failed and are fraught by wasteful duplication, the evidence – some of which is in here and much of which is conspicuously missing [sic] – belies that facile claim,” said Bernstein.

In the meantime, it is uncertain which direction Washington will take to address the growing inequality in America’s biggest cities as well as the poverty that is already present throughout the country. However, many economists who have more experience than Ryan believe that his report is inaccurate.

– Juan Campos

Sources: The Washington Post, Media Matters
Photo: Mother Jones

, , ,

Human Rights Council Fights for Advocacy Rights

Human Rights Council
The Human Rights Council has recently called for its 25th meeting, which will run in Geneva, Switzerland until March 28. The specific focus of this meeting is cited to be the protection of human rights advocates themselves, as a pursuit of rights for those members of civil society who pursue justice.

This uniquely focused meeting seems to be motivated by current events and will include commissions of inquiry on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Syria, South Sudan and the Central African Republic. It is especially pertinent considering the current violent situations in the Ukraine and Venezuela, which have both separately seen similar human rights abuses against advocates.

More general presentations on topics such as genocide and corporal punishment are also expected.

Citing the United Nations’ responsibility to support those who contribute to its work, Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon stated at the opening that, “No one should have to risk their life standing up and speaking out on violations of human rights and international law.”

The Human Rights Council is a subset of the U.N. and an amalgamation of 47 member states, created in 2006 as a means to exercise the full extent of the U.N.’s movement to protect people globally against tyrannical and abusive governance. Its meetings are known for their thematic organization around various timely issues as well as a complain procedure allowing individuals and organizations to bring attention to various situations of abuse.

The council is responsible for the “Rights Up Front” campaign, launched to ensure the status of human rights as the U.N.’s top priority. Additionally, the uniquely internal focus of the current meeting is hoped to set the stage for the new international development agenda, following the approach of the Millennium Development Goal’s 2015 deadline.

According to an official statement made at the 4th meeting in 2007, the council is founded around the philosophy that “All victims of human rights abuses should be able to look to the Human Rights Council as a forum and a springboard for action.”

In addition to the rights of political activists, the Council hopes to discuss impunity against perpetrators, and the marginalized voices of those who live in poverty. Members hope that these will be essential tools in attaining the rights of advocates, who often operate under oppressive fear and silence within civil society.

U.N. High Commissioner of Human Rights Navi Pillay stressed the importance of advocacy as a public force to ensure security, expressing that, “We need to work together to ensure the space, voice, and knowledge of civil society is nurtured in all countries.”

– Stefanie Doucette

Sources: Women’s News Network, OHCHR, Washington Post
Photo: ISN Blog