Dissemination of information and opinion related to global peace and human rights issues
A UNICEF report has been released documenting progress on the achievement of the Millenium Development Goal of halving the number of people without clean drinking water or sanitation. According to the report, 1 billion people live without clean drinking water, and 2.6 are without improved sanitation. Here's some BBC coverage.
The players on the Iraqi soccer team are angry that their success is being exploited politically by the Bush campaign. One player was quoted as saying, "How will [Bush] face his god after having slaughtered so many men and women? He has committed so many crimes."
A Pentagon report on US military dentention procedures criticizes the management of its prisons, but according to Human Rights Watch, it does not go far enough. The report "seems to go out of its way not to find any relationship between Secretary Rumsfeld's approval of interrogation techniques designed to inflict pain and humiliation and the widespread mistreatment and torture of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo."
Beijing, China is hosting the 2008 Olympic Summer Games, and with it comes responsiblity to respect basic human rights. Human Rights Watch says that it is now time for China to start upholding that responbility.
Cherif Bassiouni, the UN independent human rights expert on Afghanistan, has called for the release of 725 Taliban righters from US prisons in that country, describing that the conditions in which they are being held as "inhumane," and saying that there is no legal basis for their imprisonment.
Columnist Adrian Hamilton of The Independent observes that labelling underdeveloped countries as "failed states" dodes not acknowledge that these states were Western constructs in the first place.
Prospects for Middle East peace took a serious blow when the US announced support for expanded Israeli settlements in the occupied territories. Of course, the US, being a vested interest, shouldn't be a peace broker in the first place.
These are the human rights concerns regarding the review tribunals at Guantanamo Bay, as outlined by Human Rights Watch.
Gil Loescher, a UN research associate who lost both legs in the bombing on the UN mission in Iraq one year ago, says that there ought to be a clear separation between military and humanitarian activities in Iraq and elsewhere. He says, "the military ought to provide security for humanitarian organizations and help them get their aid where it needs to go - and then take a back seat. " He suggests that not only for for practical reasons, but also for reasons of perceived political bias, and lack of attention to affected regions which are not geopolitically important, the separation is vital.
South African president Thambo Mbeki has called for reform of the United Nations so that the developing world has more of a say. Speaking to the members of the "non-Aligned Movement, he also called for the developing world to collectively seek solutions to global issues, such as the Israel-Palestine issue.
HRW has also attacked the killing of civilians by insurgents in Iraq, as "a cruel and unjustifiable breach of the most basic principles of humanity." These are grave crimes against humanity, and "have created a climate in which many Iraqis are unwilling to speak out for fear of becoming targets themselves." Myself, I am very much opposed to the war and occupation of Iraq, but in no way does it lend justification of the killing of innocents.
Human Rights Watch has released a report showing that human rights abuses are continuing in Dafur, west Sudan, with the knowledge of the Sudanese government. They have made recommendations to a number of the parties involved, including arms of the UN , the Arab League, the African Union, and the rebels, and the government of Sudan.
I just did a google news search on the accusings of execution style murders by Iraqi Prime Minister Allawi, and it revealed nothing more recently than a July 25 column in the Sydney Morning Herald on the theme that the accusations must not be ignored. Well, if there has been nothing on it in 15 days, it looks like it is being ignored. This really makes you think about how much the press must be underpressure from the US, when you consider that accusations of murder by a sitting prime minister are not being impartially investigated, and there are no sustained calls from the media that they do so. Here is an article by Greg Guma in Common Ground that touches on this.
Human Rights First is working to expose the thousands of people the United States is currently holding in illegal detention around the world, and press the Bush administration to allow the International Commitee of the Red Cross to have access to them.
Sounds like the Sudanese government is finding loopholes through which it can satisfy UN demands for an end to the atrocities in Dafur. For example, some Janjaweed fighters are being drafted into the government policy or military. As well, prisoners have been put on display. Many of them have turned out to be petty criminals who have already been imprisoned.
Human Rights Report has released a report expressing serious concern about the potential for an explosion of violence in northern Iraq, as the Kurds return to their homes.
According to Human Rights Watch, new Pentagon tribunals designed to assess combatant status for Guantanamo Bay detainees are not fair.
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