February 8, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The people of Egypt today mark 14 days of nonviolent uprising against a brutal military regime that has ruled with near total power for 30 years. The peaceful protests are an astonishing coalition of educated and working-class, Muslim and Christian, secularist and religiously driven, old and young, male and female, and yet they are in fact a peaceful citizen-driven revolution against tyranny. The Mubarak regime has waged a brutal assault on peaceful demonstrators, human rights monitors and international press, and now there is concern the international attention may turn away.
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February 7, 2011 :: staff :: Comments Off
A video from Alexandria reportedly shows Mubarak’s police force shoot an unarmed pro-democracy demonstrator in cold blood. The man was walking in a street, and there were reportedly other demonstrators behind him, encouraging him to walk toward the armed police. The video clearly shows the man shot by the police, without any violent provocation whatsoever.
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February 7, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
After intense pressure from Amnesty International, foreign governments, private business and the press, Egypt’s new vice president Omar Suleiman pledged yesterday that Wael Ghonim, a Google executive who is reputed to have launched a Facebook page denouncing police brutality and political persecution, would be freed. He was abducted by regime police near the beginning of the pro-democracy demonstrations, on 28 January, and was not heard from publicly till today.
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February 7, 2011 :: The Editors :: Comments Off
It has recently become fashionable to say the US is not expressing a consistent policy on Egypt, that the policy has been changing every day or is noncommittal. This is patently untrue and distorts the very consistent message of support for the pro-democracy movement coming from the White House. Pres. Obama and his administration have consistently supported the just cause of the demonstrators, while urging the Egyptian government to take substantive reforms without delay.
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February 6, 2011 :: staff :: Comments Off
Even as the government has begun to agree to concessions and to begin a process of democratization, there are concerns an employee of Google, reportedly abducted by the regime at the beginning of the pro-democracy protests, faces “serious risk of torture”. There is video showing the moment of his abduction by plainclothes security officers working for the Mubarak regime.
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February 6, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
On Tuesday, more than one million Egyptians turned out for mass demonstrations in cities across the country. On Friday, crowds massing in central Cairo and Alexandria were reported to be even larger than the Tuesday crowds, despite brutal and bloody assaults by pro-Mubarak militia on Wednesday and Thursday. It is now day 13 of the Egyptian transition to demonstrations, and opposition leaders are reportedly negotiating with the government to shape an orderly and peaceful process of transition.
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February 5, 2011 :: The Editors :: Comments Off
The news from Egypt this Saturday suggests pro-democracy demonstrators have begun negotiations with the authorities on ways to ease Hosni Mubarak out of power. Under pressure from foreign governments and diplomats across the region, as well as the UN, EU and US, Egyptian government officials and the military have reportedly begun planning for a process [...]
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February 5, 2011 :: The Editors :: Comments Off
The Guardian’s Jack Shenker has sent forward a list of human rights activists and pro-democracy leaders taken into custody by the Mubarak regime during the last week. The list, which is not considered to be complete, as it is difficult to get information on who has been arrested, and under what circumstances, includes the affiliation [...]
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February 4, 2011 :: staff :: Comments Off
Friday, for the planned “day of departure”, hundreds of thousands of non-violent pro-democracy demonstrators again massed at Midan Tahrir —Cairo’s Liberation Square—, despite two days of brutal pro-Mubarak militia attacks on demonstrators and journalists. The military today began to play a more active role in securing the square against armed gangs and pro-government cadres. They [...]
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February 4, 2011 :: staff :: Comments Off
Al Jazeera says the campaign of persecution has escalated dramatically, as a “gang of thugs” broke into their offices, destroyed equipment and set fires, threatening the staff and carrying out what appeared to be a concerted effort by government forces to shut down international media reporting on the protests in Tahrir Square. According to the [...]
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February 4, 2011 :: staff :: Comments Off
Video from the Guardian newspaper shows massive crowds, described by some as the single largest public pro-democracy protest in the history of the Arab world, at Tahrir Square in central Cairo. Demonstrators urge embattled Pres. Hosni Mubarak to “please, leave now”; one says “Everything is destroyed. What more do you want? Just leave,” while another says “Please, Mr. Mubarak, if you love this country, leave this country.
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February 4, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
Over the last two days, Hosni Mubarak has made Cairo the most dangerous place in the world for journalists. After Mubarak’s new prime minister issued an “apology” for the lethal violence waged by pro-Mubarak gangs on Wednesday and into Thursday’s pre-dawn hours, the government appeared to be engaged in an even more intense campaign of violent assaults on unarmed pro-democracy demonstrators and journalists.
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February 4, 2011 :: staff :: Comments Off
The “Day of Departure” rally has swelled the ranks of pro-democracy demonstrators occupying Tahrir Square. Reuters reports the prime minister has instructed the army to “assist” journalists and protect them from the armed pro-Mubarak gangs roaming the city. The Guardian’s Peter Beaumont gave an interview describing a harrowing experience of being detained multiple times by armed men, some wielding machetes, being forced “to kneel in front of a wall”, being detained for 2 hours by the army, which he described as “polite and disciplined”.
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February 3, 2011 :: staff :: 2 Comments
Ahmed Shafiq, the new prime minister installed over the weekend by embattled Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, has made public apology for the violence that occurred yesterday in Cairo’s Midan Tahrir, or Liberation Square. Shafiq addressed the nation, saying “As officials and a state which must protect its sons, I thought it was necessary for me to apologize and to say that this matter will not be repeated”. He called the bloodshed “a disaster”.
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January 28, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: 7 Comments
Pro-democracy protests are spreading across the Arabic-speaking world. After popular middle-class protests ended the authoritarian reign of Pres. Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, Egypt has been gripped by mass street demonstrations, in Cairo, in Alexandria, in Suez. Hosni Mubarak’s regime has responded with brutal attacks in demonstrators and an expanding ban on Internet usage and other forms of communication. Now, a pink revolution has flooded the streets of Sana’a, the capital of Yemen.
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December 24, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The small west African nation of Ivory Coast (also known by its French name Côte d’Ivoire) may be on the brink of civil war. After delaying presidential elections for 5 years, Pres. Laurent Gbagbo is reported to have disqualified over 500,000 ballots from opposition strongholds and is refusing to accept the results which show his opponent as the winner. Yesterday, the UN General Assembly (representing all member nations) formally recognized Gbagbo’s opponent, Alassane Ouattara, as president, in a unanimous vote.
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October 12, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
For nearly 30 years, you’ve advocated on behalf of those without a voice. That’s not easy. For despite the real gains that we’ve made, there’s still laws to change and there’s still hearts to open. There are still fellow citizens, perhaps neighbors, even loved ones — good and decent people — who hold fast to outworn arguments and old attitudes; who fail to see your families like their families; who would deny you the rights most Americans take for granted. And that’s painful and it’s heartbreaking. (Applause.) And yet you continue, leading by the force of the arguments you make, and by the power of the example that you set in your own lives — as parents and friends, as PTA members and church members, as advocates and leaders in your communities. And you’re making a difference.
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September 4, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
After reviewing the CIA inspector general’s (IG) report on prisoner abuse during and surrounding the Bush-era “war on terror”, the watchdog Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) says doctors not only attended and supervised prisoner abuse, but recorded information that “may amount to human experimentation”.
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August 11, 2009 :: Anjika Sridhar :: Comments Off
In the first election since the end of the Sri Lankan civil war, between government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (the Tamil Tiger rebels), ethnic Tamil voters appear to have signaled their desire to achieve self-rule. A pro-rebel party won the largest number of seats in local council elections in Vavuniya and the second most in Jaffna.
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July 29, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The United States is working to develop closer strategic and economic relations with China. The relationship has always been tricky, due to the binary opposition of strategies, which is convenient for those who would like to disqualify the other side’s policies as “evil” or contrary to all reason. Pres. Barack Obama has been clear that he sees the US-China relationship as one of global ethical responsibility, and the driving economic and political bond in the 21st century.
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July 25, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 2 Comments
Life for women in Darfuri refugee camps in Sudan and neighboring Chad is extremely hard. Many have no access to any public authority that will investigate violence against women, and medical facilities are scarce to non-existent. While rape is rampant, and has allegedly been used as a “weapon of war” by the Khartoum backed militia engaged in a campaign of ethnic cleansing in Darfur, women are seldom able to find safety in seeking help from local authorities.
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June 19, 2009 :: staff :: 13 Comments
We commend the remarkable and resilient actions of the grassroots organizations of Iranian civil society led by courageous women, students, teachers and workers, and support their demands for democracy, individual liberties, and political and religious freedoms.
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June 9, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
In 1995, Ken Saro-Wiwa and 8 other activists, who had demonstrated peacefully for environmental and human rights, were murdered in Nigeria, apparently in connection with their campaigning against abuses linked to the oil industry. Now, Royal Dutch Shell has agreed to pay $15.5 million in a settlement aimed at ending the court proceedings against it, but without acknowledging complicity in the killings.
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May 2, 2009 :: Riga Listin :: 5 Comments
UNESCO Committee on Communication and Information representative presents award for research into press freedom. Debate discusses anti-press actions that have impeded the free flow of information about civilian suffering in war-zones ranging from Gaza to Sri Lanka to Iraq. The debate is hosted and moderated by William Horsley, of the Association of European Journalists.
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April 29, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
The US-based watchdog group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has released a report on the 1st 100 days of Pres. Barack Obama’s first term in office. The report praises Obama for key reforms banning abusive treatment and moving toward a system of due process for detainees, but is critical of some holdover policies from the Bush era, which Obama has yet to reform or plans to keep in place. On the whole, Obama is rated by HRW as having “got off to a great start when he issued executive orders to close Guantanamo and ban CIA prisons on his second full day in office,” while “failure to reject the substance of the Bush-era ‘war on terror’ framework was a tremendous disappointment.”
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March 18, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 2 Comments
The Sudanese government attempted an artful campaign of misinformation by way of its presentation at the 53rd Commission on the Status of Women last week in New York. The event, hosted by the Sudanese Women Parliamentary Caucus (SWPC), focused on a government-backed study that was designed to show Khartoum to be concerned about violence against women, willing to take great pains to combat it, yet unable to find evidence of many cases in war-torn Darfur.
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March 11, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 3 Comments
The best thing China’s ruling Communist party can do for itself, for its people and for the stability of the nation, is take seriously all petitions for redress of grievances, investigate all claims of official corruption, negligence or assault, give weight to collective or individual property claims by punishing officials who steal property, blaze a path toward transparency in banking, ban government cover-ups and establish a zero-tolerance policy for public officials who use their power to punish or intimidate citizens who come forward seeking justice.
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February 27, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
CitiGroup announces deal to let US government take 36% stake in firm, up from 8% stake, a move that will intensify regulatory scrutiny and possibly move firm toward solvency by way of nationalization. Move is third rescue in five months in ongoing effort to save massive banking operation. Obama announces plan to remove most US [...]
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December 10, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), one of the United Nations’ founding charters, today marked 60 years since its official adoption. Promising the most sweeping raft of protections for human beings around the world, the document has long been controversial, as the major powers have each been accused of selectively enforcing the document’s provisions, according to their own governments’ ideologies or convenience.
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November 18, 2008 :: Evelyn Winston Perez :: Comments Off
A federal judge in Miami has ordered the Curação Drydock Company to pay $80 million in damages and fines for enslaving workers shipped to Curação from Cuba. The workers were reportedly forced to work up to 112 hours per week at just 3 cents (US$0.03) per hour. As CSM reports: “Their passports were seized at the airport and they were rarely allowed to leave the shipyard complex…”
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November 17, 2008 :: Evelyn Winston Perez :: Comments Off
Socio-economic issues linked to the disparate treatment of racial groups still plagues much of Brazil’s population and impedes the modernization of its economy. Though the Amazon nation is booming, and has become a world leader among developing market economies, the current president, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, took office promising to finally rid the dense, remote rainforest of de facto slavery.
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October 31, 2008 :: staff :: One Comment
Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.
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July 24, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Radovan Karadzic, considered one of the three “most-wanted” men in Europe, has been captured in the Serbian capital, Belgrade. He is accused of war crimes for his role in allegedly planning the murder of 8,000 men and boys at Srebrenica and of 12,000 during the siege of Sarajevo, during the Balkan wars of the 1990s. His alleged crimes have been officially classed as genocide by the war crimes court at the Hague, and the accusations are the worst allegations of mass murder in Europe since World War II.
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July 16, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The Hague human rights court’s prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, investigating allegations of war crimes and genocide in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, has recommended to the International Criminal Court it indict Sudan’s president Omar al-Bashir on charges of war crimes and genocide. Bashir would be the first serving head of state to be indicted by the court.
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