February 2012
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Poet Wislawa Szymborska, on Dictators and Tyrants →
fictionthatmatters:
“All sorts of torturers, dictators, fanatics, and demagogues struggling for power by way of a few loudly shouted slogans also enjoy their jobs, and they too perform their duties with inventive fervor. Well, yes, but they “know.” They know, and whatever they know is enough for them once and for all. They don’t want to find out about anything else, since that might diminish...
Human Rights Petition: Free Nigerian Activists and... →
Why This Is Important
Osmond Ugwu and Raphael Elobuike are Nigerian labour activists and human rights defenders currently spending their second month in Enugu Federal Prison in South East Nigeria. They are being detained on charges of attempted murder of a policeman following their arrest at a workers rally on 24th October 2011 at Enugu.
Osmond and Raphael, who Amnesty International regards as...
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January 2012
32 posts
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Killed because they were girls - Christie...
EXCERPT:
Looking directly at Shafia, 58, Yahya, 42, and their oldest son Hamed as they stood before him in the prisoners’ box for the last time, the judge concluded with a stinging denunciation.
“The apparent reason behind these cold-blooded, shameless murders was that the four completely innocent victims offended your twisted notion of honour, a notion of honour that is...
Amnesty International USA: Midwest: Armenian... →
amnestymidwest:
(Washington, D.C.) — A bill passed by the French senate (January 23rd) would violate freedom of expression by making it a criminal offense to publicly question events termed as “genocide” under French law, Amnesty International said today. In 2001, a French law officially declared that the mass…
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Dictionary of Human Rights
whitefieldopinionn:
Dictionary of Human Rights Over 200 clear and concise mini-essays providing explanations of the terminology, issues, organizations and laws surrounding human rights. Take Action! Get it immediately!!
Is internet access a human right? →
kyokan:
A recent United Nations Human Rights Council report examined the important question of whether internet access is a human right.
While the Special Rapporteur’s conclusions are nuanced in respect of blocking sites or providing limited access, he is clear that restricting access completely will always be a breach of article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political...
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STOP RAPE IN THE CONGO!
Even with the City of Joy open and operating in the Congo, women continue to be abused at the hands of power-driven men. Check this video out for the untold stories of these girls and women: The Greatest Silence.
I wrote a short blurb for a photo essay last year bearing a lighter note, but the severity of the situation remains.
Here is that photo essay celebrating a step in the right...
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Can Nonviolence Be Effective?
Principled and Pragmatic Peace by Metta Spencer, editor of Peace Magazine, summarizes Gene Sharp’s paper “What Are the Options in Acute Conflicts for Believers in Principled Nonviolence?”.
Gene Sharp is known for his writings on nonviolent struggle.
It’s lengthy but worth every word.
EXCERPTS:
“Nonviolent methods have frequently succeeded, Sharp says, by...
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"Too Young to Wed: The Secret World of Child...
Photographer Stephanie Sinclair and writer Cynthia Gorney investigate the world of prearranged child marriage, when girls as young as five are forced to wed.(courtesy nationalgeographic.com; published in print in June 2011)
Video
Photos
Also, visit Stephanie Sinclair’s website to view more photos and informative descriptions on child marriage, which she has been documenting for over a...
"World on Trial" - New TV Show on Human Rights →
strykerian:
Does the French headscarf ban violate human rights of girls and women?
A new TV series by Penn State Law / WPSU explores whether the 2004 law violates the ICCPR. Juries from Turkey, France, US, South Africa, China, Israel, Scotland, and Hong Kong weigh in.
Click through to watch video: www.worldontrial.psu.edu
What future for Afghan woman jailed for being... →
abeautifulfriendship:
Married off to a 30-year-old man for a dowry of about $4,500 (£3,000), Sahar had been kept locked in a cellar for several months, starved and tortured by her husband and his family. It is still not really clear why.
A must-read article about some of the horrors occurring to women in Afghanistan.
The Street Boys of Freetown →
by JESSICA MCDIARMID
They sleep under the wharf that reaches out over the Atlantic Ocean or beneath the rickety market stalls in the city centre. At night, on Rawdon Street in a district called “PZ”, rows of coughing bodies plaster the uneven stoops.
There are an estimated 2,000 boys living on the streets of Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital city. It’s a rough life. They are often sick and ...
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Prescription drug addiction is the biggest public...
Read Payne’s full article for the Ottawa Citizen on the growing health crisis of OxyContin, a potent painkiller, addictions in First Nations communities and reserves.
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You can access a two-part special on this topic by The Current on CBCradio.
OxyContin addiction in Northern Ontario (Part I) - Mike Finnerty hosts an interview...
Kenya: Security Forces Abusing Civilians Near... →
‘There Are No Human Rights Here,’ Military Officer States
(Garissa) – The Kenyan security forces are beating and arbitrarily detaining citizens and Somali refugees in Kenya’s North Eastern province, which borders on Somalia, despite repeated pledges to stop such abuses, Human Rights Watch said today. On January 11, 2012, in the latest of a series of incidents documented by Human Rights Watch...
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WatchKaren Tse: How to Stop Torture
With Reverence,
C.
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Frida Kahlo's and Diego Rivera's work to show at...
This past summer I picked up Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera in a heated moment of desperation to understand the influential women of the past. It was a remarkable story. I long to read it again, but other works have taken precedence. The title of the Toronto-bound exhibit is Frida & Diego: Passion, Politics and Painting. It...
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January 11 is Human Trafficking Awareness Day....
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It’s a fear of releasing the wrong man that keeps...
Michelle Shephard is the national security reporter for the Toronto Star. Her involvement with Guantanamo Bay has been extensive. Her newly published book “Decade of Fear” consolidated 10 years of Shephard’s “reporting from terrorism’s grey zone.” I highly recommed it. Regarding Guantanamo, she has primarily reported on the detainment of Omar Kadhr - a Canadian....
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Haiti in one of the most devastating cholera...
Two years after quake, Haiti still struggles with cholera - Toronto Star
EXCERPT:
Ivers, senior health and policy adviser for Partners in Health who lives in Haiti, said people in rural areas often live several hours from a water pump that draws from a clean water source. Many people cannot afford to buy soap to wash their hands or fuel to boil the water and kill the cholera organism, she...
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Malaysian government should repeal criminal sodomy...
Amnesty International Report
EXCERPT:
The Malaysian government must repeal the criminal sodomy law used in a politically motivated attempt to bar Anwar Ibrahim from politics, Amnesty International said today after the opposition leader was acquitted by the country’s High Court. Laws criminalizing consensual sexual activity between adults are contrary to international human rights...
November 2011
2 posts
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Write-a-thon, Amnesty International
Write for Rights is a branch of Amnesty International. A write-a-thon is happening on December 10th, Human Rights Day, in celebration of Amnesty’s 50th anniversary. You can sign up and pledge any number of letters, you are able to work individually or with a team. As of this moment, there are 20, 404 letter-writers signed up with a total of 43, 058 letters pledged. Sign up and write a...
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Excerpt: The Elusive Homeless
On her 18th birthday, Mya* was kicked out of the Toronto apartment she shared with her parents. “They had an idea of how I should live my life,” said Mya, “which wasn’t how I wanted to live it.” Lacking any financial support from her family and fed up with their strictness and abuse, Mya stayed at a friend’s place with only a garbage bag full of clothes in her possession. Within weeks the...
October 2011
6 posts
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Ed Ou: Documenting the Revolution
Ed Ou is a Canadian photojournalist whose photos of the Egyptian Revolution have drawn much attention. In a CBC video he says documenting the Arab Spring left him to feel apathetic. “When you’re photographing a people standing up against authoritative dictators, I often wondered to my self ‘Wow, I haven’t done anything of this magnitude in my life.’ It’s quite...
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September 2011
4 posts
Poor Pastoralists, Rich Elites
Due to “development” in Afar, located in north east Ethiopia, the region has suffered a widening gap between classes. Once using natural resources to sustain their livelihood, pastoralists are now negotiating foreign intervention, the marketplace and their traditional methods of subsistence.
The term “traditional” is a relative...
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Marina Nemat reveals the truth about her past
“No question is too personal, political or religious,” says Marina Nemat opening up the question period at her talk in Newmarket last Wednesday. Her two books, Prisoner of Tehran and After Tehran: A Life Reclaimed, are highly acclaimed memoirs revealing Nemat’s experiences as a political prisoner in Tehran, Iran, and nothing - personal, political...
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What You See Is What You Get
“I have something else I want to say,” a teenage prostitute in Bangladesh’s red light district bravely reveals. “Why do women have to suffer this much?” She sits cross legged on her bed in a small concrete room dressed in traditional garb, perhaps returning to work after the interview. With a brief wave of confusion and desperation she asks, “Isn’t...
With Reverence for the Relentless Spirit
Illustration by Selamawit Ghebrehiwot
I began to conceptualize this blog while reading Malalai Joya’s book, A Woman Among Warlords, whose quote heads the blog’s initiative. Moved by the relentless spirit she portrayed for her cause to free the people of Afghanistan in this time of immense internal turmoil and foreign intervention, I wanted to...
