Palestinian UN Recognition Bid Wins Support From Switzerland, Denmark Stephanie Nebehay and Noah Browning GENEVA/RAMALLAH, West Bank, Nov 28 (Reuters) – Switzerland and Denmark on Wednesday joined a growing list of European countries that back an upgrade for Palestinians to non-member status at the United Nations, a victory that would be a diplomatic boost to […]
Corporate Immunity Looks Likely: Supreme Court Seems Ready To Side With Shell In Human Rights Suit (Update) WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday morning appeared divided along party lines, with a conservative majority ready to hold that corporations cannot be held accountable in federal courts for international human rights violations. The Court was hearing […]
Syria: Report of the Arab League Observer Mission Neil Godfrey As a follow up to my earlier post Syria: what we are not being told here is an English translation of the report of the Arab League Observer Mission to Syria. Of particular interest are the statements made in it about the way the media have […]
Honduras: Lawyer Gunned Down After Reporting Police Abuses To Media Reporters Without Borders The lawyer Ricardo Rosales was murdered two days ago, three days after he was quoted in the newspaper Diario Tiempo as accusing police officers in the northern town of Tela of serious human rights violations. Rosales (on the right of the picture) […]
Rights Group Slams Governments For “Double Standard” on Arab Spring William Fisher Predicting that the current Middle East unrest would continue through 2012, Amnesty International is slamming Western governments for their tepid responses to peaceful protests, for their “double standard,” and for being more concerned with preserving their political and economic interests than with the […]
Close the Guantánamo Gulag Marjorie Cohn Travelers to Cuba and music lovers are familiar with the song “Guantanamera” – literally, the girl from Guantánamo. With lyrics by José Martí, the father of Cuban independence, Guantanamera is probably the most widely known Cuban song. But Guantánamo is even more famous now for its US military prison. […]
A.I.P.A.C. Persuading Americans to break the law? Clive Hambidge Habituation writes James Austin M.D “means that repeated stimuli yield a decreasing response.” Conversely and importantly he goes on, “Sensitization implies that responses increase when stronger stimuli are repeated.” For in this understanding, “we are addressing the basis of the freshness of vision of the artist […]
Silence is Complicity in Assassinating Humanity Dr Rachael Rudolph Human rights bodies have consistently warned states that their actions must conform to and operate within the boundaries of existing international legal frameworks and obligations, especially concerning the use of torture, summary executions and other acts that violate human rights norms. [1]Despite the warning, the international […]