Tag: human rights

Mar 03 2008

Nobel Peace Prize

Nominate Pete Seeger for the Nobel Peace Prize

THE PETITION

Pete Seeger has been an ambassador for Peace and Social Justice over the course of his 87 year lifetime. As a prominent musician his songs, messages and performance style have worked to engage other people, particularly the youth, in causes to end the Vietnam war, ban nuclear weapons, work for international solidarity, and ecological responsibility. It is time that a cultural worker receives the recognition that this work has great influence and global reach, that it is not only a medium of entertainment but of education, compassion and action.

DESIRED OUTCOME

To persuade American Friends Service Committee to enter Pete Seeger as their nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize 2008

WHO WE NEED TO INFLUENCE

The Nobel Prize Committee of the Norwegian Parliament

HOW LONG WILL WE CAMPAIGN

As long as it takes

Feb 28 2008

A tortuous cover-up

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The British government admits to complicity in two cases of “extraordinary rendition”, but claims they are an isolated case and promises that it “never uses torture for any purpose, including obtaining information, neither would we instigate actions by others to do so.”

Feb 28 2008

Realising Palestinian rights

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Three Palestinian children aged 10, 12 and 14 were killed this evening in an Israeli air-strike in northern Gaza, bringing today’s Palestinian death toll to 12. Five members of Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades were killed this morning in two targeted assassinations in Gaza, while this afternoon two Palestinian farmers were killed by Israeli tank fire.

In retaliation for the killing of its activists, Hamas fired at least 30 Qassam rockets into Israel, killing a student in Sderot and wounding several others. Olmert indicated that the campaign of assassinations will continue, declaring that “no one in Hamas, not the low-level officials nor the highest echelon, will be immune against this war.” To prove his sincerity, Israeli jets bombed the Hamas Interior Ministry (again), killing a six-month old baby and wounding at least 14 bystanders.

Feb 14 2008

Contradictions About Torture

cross posted from The Dream Antilles

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The Original Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy

This is really fascinating.  And short.  Whoever is playing Edgar Bergen has apparently temporarily lost control of his sockpuppet Charlie McCarthy.  The story is that the voices of Bushco apparently don’t agree today on the legality of waterboarding torture.

Join me on stage.

Jan 24 2008

Just watch. And weep. And wish for a brokered convention.

Jan 17 2008

U.S. on Canadian Torture Watch List – Updated

Guards sit in a tower overlooking Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base, Cuba. This image has been reviewed and approved by U.S. Department of Defense.

Canada puts U.S. on torture watch list: CTV

Omar Khadr’s lawyers say they can’t understand why Canada is not doing more to help their client in light of new evidence that Ottawa has put the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on a watch list for torture.

Khadr — a Canadian citizen who was just 15-years-old when he was captured in Afghanistan more than five years ago and taken to Guantanamo — has claimed that he has been tortured at the prison.

Jan 06 2008

“Hiding behind civilians”

This being a brief round-up of several recent developments in the Middle East.

Firstly, a respected Israeli NGO published a report into the state’s treatment of its Palestinian citizens during last year’s Lebanon war. Readers will recall that, back in the summer of 2006, while Israel was busy destroying southern Lebanon killing close to 1,200 Lebanese civilians in the process, one of the main arguments used by its apologists to justify the atrocities was that the civilian deaths were the fault of Hizbullah, not the IDF, because the militia deliberately hid its fighters among the civilian population.

Dec 17 2007

Politicide in Gaza

Suppose I were to argue that, given Israel’s numerous and gross war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, the international community should impose sanctions on Israel of such severity that 80% of the Israeli population would be reduced to reliance upon UN food aid for mere survival, and over 65% of Israeli households would be forced to live in ‘deep poverty’ (i.e. on less than $474 per month). The blockade would be so tight that only 41% of Israel’s food import needs would be met, and supplies of 91 out of 416 essential drugs and about a third of essential medical supplies (including most children’s antibiotics) would run out.

Dec 12 2007

Human Rights Watch: Dems are “cowardly”

Tonight I had the tremendous opportunity to hear Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch give a lecture on Defending Rights without Courts and Judges: War Stories from Around the World and Our Backyard. I’ve long admired HRW and Roth. Many of you have probably seen him speak or read him, and you know what a thoughtful, articulate, and humorous person he is, and I must say I left the lecture feeling both hopeful about the world and hopeless about our nation–how’s that for a powerful evening?  

Dec 02 2007

What women who give a damn about the rights of women want for Xmas

 

2007 Edition

Introduction:

I originally wrote this diary and posted it on The Daily Kos on December 18, 2006 under my then name, notimportant.

It’s profoundly sad for me to write that the subject of women’s rights was urgent then and has devolved since into a global catastrophic situation. The denial of women’s rights  has always seen a turndown in turbulent times. Sometime things do change – for the worse. Today we are seeing the raping of women not only as a form of genocide in certain parts of the world, but enacted more deliberately, more cruel and inhumanly than at any time in our world’s history. So my brothers and sisters, I urge, even beg you to read about the horrific acts taking place against women now following  this 2006 diary in the form of  a 2007 update.

Then please do something. I have posted numerous ways of doing so. I cannot think of a better gift for you to give the women in your life than to help secure the freedom of women across the globe while putting an end to their unbelievable suffering

I realize this diary is very long. If you don’t have the time – watch this very important video and you will get the message

Oct 18 2007

It is time to free Iraq

The Iraq war was sold as vital to the national security interests of the United States and to liberate the Iraqi people from oppression.  Everyone on the planet now knows that Iraq posed no threat to anyone in our country and lacked the means to protect itself from foreign invasion.  Whether our intelligence gathering was worthless or our politicians were dishonest is beyond the point.  We cannot resurrect all the Iraqis that have died because of our arrogance and aggression.  But what of the lofty goal to free the Iraqi people?  The last time I checked, occupation by foreign forces and inability to control your own territory does not qualify as freedom.  The time has come for the people of Iraq to declare their independence from America and every other foreign entity operating with impunity within its borders.

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