MetaFilter posts tagged with HumanRights

The Anarchist Revival

homunculus — Sun, 05 May 2013 23:15:41 -0800

David Graeber’s “The Democracy Project” and the anarchist revival. "Is the current arrangement of our democracy unstable? Should we start thinking about what might come next?"

One of my poems goes: The next one and a half pages are redacted.

jaduncan — Wed, 01 May 2013 03:04:22 -0800

The Guantánamo Memoirs of Mohamedou Ould Slahi For nearly 11 years, Mohamedou Ould Slahi has been a prisoner in Guantánamo. In 2005, he began to write his memoirs of his time in captivity. His handwritten 466-page manuscript is a harrowing account of his detention, interrogation, and abuse. Although his abuse has been corroborated by U.S. government officials, declassified documents, and independent investigators, Slahi tells his story with the detail and perspective that could only be known by himself and the people who have kept him captive. It is impossible for us to meet with him or independently verify his account. Until now, it has been impossible for him to tell his story. [ht homunculus]

China: "Human Rights Record of the United States in 2012"

dreinn — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 10:04:15 -0800

"The Human Rights Record of the U.S. in 2012 is hereby prepared to reveal the true human rights situation of the U.S. to people across the world by simply laying down some facts." Chinadaily.com, among others, has the full text of the report published by The State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China. Last year's report on MeFi.

Breaking A Legacy of Silence

empath — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 20:14:19 -0800

"An April 17, 1981, a CIA cable[pdf] described an army massacre at Cocob, near Nebaj in the Ixil Indian territory, because the population was believed to support leftist guerrillas. A CIA source reported that “the social population appeared to fully support the guerrillas” and “the soldiers were forced to fire at anything that moved.” The CIA cable added that “the Guatemalan authorities admitted that ‘many civilians’ were killed in Cocob, many of whom undoubtedly were non-combatants.” In May 1981, despite these ongoing atrocities, Reagan dispatched Walters to tell the Guatemalan leaders that the new U.S. administration wanted to lift the human rights embargoes on military equipment that former President Jimmy Carter and Congress had imposed."

The Guatemala Documentation Project, part of the National Security Archive, collects information about the decades long civil war in Guatemala, including State Department documents that point to Washington's complicity in massacres, assassinations and human rights violations.

Abnormal Desire

divabat — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 02:53:53 -0800

In Malaysia's continuing efforts to persecute and combat the "deviant wave" of homosexuality, after banning a LGBT rights event claiming a threat to "public order" and training parents and educators to spot "LGBT behaviors" in school children for possible entry into a gay rehabilitation centre, they are now producing and presenting Asmara Songsang, a musical where LGBT people live lives fuelled by sex, drugs, and rock and roll...only to be struck by lightning and go straight or die. The musical is being staged in the Istana Budaya (Palace of Culture), one of the major performing arts venues in the country. It is fully sponsored by the Government and will be toured in colleges and universities across the country.

We'd never change the definition of 'bad guy', honest!

Malor — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 21:36:04 -0800

A confidential Justice Department memo concludes that the U.S. government can order the killing of American citizens if they are believed to be “senior operational leaders” of al-Qaida or “an associated force” -- even if there is no intelligence indicating they are engaged in an active plot to attack the U.S.

"China sends people back to this place"

bardic — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 00:03:34 -0800

"Q: What kind of comparisons can be drawn between Asia’s underground railroad and the one in pre-Civil War America? A: The way it’s set up is similar. The safe houses and transit routes are kept secret and vary a lot. There is another similarity in that many of the people who operate on the underground railroad are ethnically Korean, just as many of the operators on the original underground railroad were free blacks." -- an interview with Melanie Kirkpatrick, author of Escape from North Korea: The Untold Story of Asia's Underground Railroad

To ensure the effective protection of the right to life of all persons under their jurisdiction...

jiawen — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 17:35:59 -0800

The UN has condemned extrajudicial killing on the basis of gender identity. When some countries tried (PDF) to remove the "gender identity" clause, the United States was opposed; but in the final vote for the condemnation, the US abstained (PDF). (Via.) Meanwhile, in the US, it is still legal to fire someone for their gender identity in the vast majority of jurisdictions (here are a few where it isn't), trans people were not protected by the repeal of DADT, and we are still routinely denied access to health insurance.

The Permanent War

homunculus — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 20:35:27 -0800

The Permanent War (video). "This project, based on interviews with dozens of current and former national security officials, intelligence analysts and others, examines evolving U.S. counterterrorism policies and the practice of targeted killing." Part 1: Plan for hunting terrorists signals U.S. intends to keep adding names to kill lists. Part 2: A CIA veteran transforms U.S. counterterrorism policy. Part 3: Remote U.S. base at core of secret operations. U.N. to probe drone attacks by U.S., others resulting in civilian deaths

"You can cause a lot of discomfort and some people will talk but interrogation is not about talking. It’s about the search for the truth."

univac — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 22:05:30 -0800

"But the technique that all of us in Aden listened to agape was a method that had been developed allegedly very recently, which was to suspend the prisoner in a tank of liquid gelatine which was at 94.8 degrees Fahrenheit. Naked. With your arms and legs tied and your head encased in a sort of diver’s helmet, through which you were breathing. You were hung into this tank, so all you could hear was the [breathing noise] of your own breath. And in theory you would go bonkers. Because you didn’t know which way was up, you had no sense." -Interview with British Interrogator #1 "In the end the guy talks because he wants to... ...Mental damage is what the law and society tells us we can do. …You also have to note that there is a blurring between controlling prisoners and conditioning them." -Interview with British Interrogator #2 "He is being handled by people who don’t speak their language, doesn’t know what’s going to happen to him, doesn’t know when he’s going to see his family again, doesn’t know when he’s going to get his next meal, or his next drink. All he knows is that he is in the hands of the enemy. That’s all he knows. And it is frankly a very upsetting experience. It really is. And that is shown in a thing called The Shock of Capture." -Interview with British Army Interrogator #3 "Can you imagine killing these people for 2-3 days – you’d been told what to do about them – and you shot them, and you kept shooting them, and they kept coming! Eventually, it turned out, you gave up – to one of them, in my case." -Interview with SAS NCO Trained Interrogator "They were hooded. They were in a helicopter. The helicopter took off, then bounced about and came down to a couple of feet again, you know, so that the people were so disoriented that they didn’t know where they were. Then they threw them out as if they were throwing them out from a height." -Interview with Senior Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officer on interrogation "I said ‘This shackling and hooding prisoners is inconsistent with the Geneva Conventions, Colonel, and isn’t that what we’re supposed to be abiding by. I haven’t heard anything else.’ That got an official response …the response was, and one that I accepted, that prisoners have responsibilities under the Geneva Conventions, too. ‘Two soldiers have been seriously wounded and one killed by prisoners after they have surrendered, so this is a security measure that is provided for in the conventions. For security purposes you can do this.’ I read the Conventions a little differently." -Interview with US Army Interrogator #1 UK Journalist Dominic Streatfeild interviews five interrogators from the UK armed forces and one from the US about their training, tactics and experiences - both as interrogators and as subjects. Via.

Solitary Confinement

homunculus — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 23:30:29 -0800

Solitary in Iran Nearly Broke Me. Then I Went Inside America's Prisons. "We throw thousands of men in the hole for the books they read, the company they keep, the beliefs they hold. Here's why." An article on solitary confinement (previously) by Shane Bauer, one of the three American hikers who were detained in Iran in 2009 (previously).

Malala Yousafzai and Pakistani Feminism

jaduncan — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 02:54:50 -0800

The 14 year old Pakistani diarist and feminist activist Malala Yousafzai (ملاله یوسفزۍ) has been shot in the head in a targeted attack by the Taliban [NewsPakistan] [AFP]. She is presently in hospital, and in a stable condition. The attack was in apparent reprisal for passing her diaries regarding the Taliban's ban on female education to the BBC in 2009 [original BBC diary story], but also her continued activism and pressure for women and girls' rights. The attempted killing is part of a wider conflict over women's rights within Pakistan, and Pakistani feminism in general tends to be bound up with religion and the shifting boundaries of having to argue against both the patriarchal government and the Taliban itself.

"A ruling against the Kiobel plaintiffs would be disastrous"

jbickers — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 09:22:07 -0800

Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court returned from summer vacation, and among other things, it heard the second oral argument of Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co.. Esther Kiobel and eleven other Nigerian plaintiffs are accusing oil companies of complicity in a brutal crackdown on protesters that included torture and murder; during the first round of arguments, "some of the court's conservative justices signaled a willingness to shield corporations from liability in U.S. courts over allegations that they had aided or acquiesced to foreign governments that abused their own people." Meanwhile, a group called People Against Legalizing Murder has launched MurderisBad.com - which Shell has allegedly blocked from its employees.

"There's nothing more aggravating in the world than the midnight sniffling of the person you've decided to hate." ― Shannon Hale, Book of a Thousand Days

jaduncan — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 15:56:45 -0800

The DoJ drops all remaining investigation and prosecution of US War on Terror deaths/murders through harsh tactics/torture: "No Charges Filed on Harsh Tactics Used by the C.I.A." [NYT] Glenn Greenwald reacts and describes the cases that just got dropped. [Guardian] Second link is arguably a violence trigger, but is better and bothers to do things like talk to the ALCU.

A Wanker Whipping Up Fear

gman — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 18:32:34 -0800

In May of 2010, Michael D. Higgins (now President of Ireland) had an exchange on an Irish radio station with Tea Party supporter Michael Graham, about the state of politics in the United States. Here is the entire debate, which focused a fair bit on the situation in Gaza, and gives you a background for what led to the heated exchange above.

Jimmy Carter

jeffburdges — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 15:46:32 -0800

"The United States is abandoning its role as the global champion of human rights." - Jimmy Carter "At a time when popular revolutions are sweeping the globe, the United States should be strengthening, not weakening, basic rules of law and principles of justice enumerated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But instead of making the world safer, America’s violation of international human rights abets our enemies and alienates our friends." We discussed Jimmy Carter leaving the Southern Baptist Convention three years ago.

China: United States Report

rebent — Mon, 28 May 2012 11:28:14 -0800

China's has just released its report, "Human Rights Record of United States in 2011". This annual report covers gun crimes, OWS, freedom of the press, unemployment, and more. via

ESC Azerbaijan Human Rights

travelwithcats — Fri, 25 May 2012 11:31:48 -0800

Look at Azerbaijan! But look beyond the shiny Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) which will be held tomorrow in Baku. Look at the “Dirty Secrets” [SLYT, BBC Panorama, 30 min., English] and at independent film maker Liz Mermin’s film “Glanz und Schatten in Azerbaidschan” [SLYT, 30 min. German but more informative IMHO]. Locals that voted in the music contest for a country that was not in favor of the ruling family were investigated by the police. And then there is the story of two expensive donkeys (€42,000 each) and a comedic video that landed a young man in jail. Let’s not forget the story of a journalist who was blackmailed with secretly shot sex tapes. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch often report of restrictions on freedom of speech and freedom of the press in Azerbaijan. Shortly before the ESC young musician Jamal Ali fled the country. While US peace corps volunteers don’t feel like criticizing much and sing a song of their own [SLYT], we see more arrests in Baku today.

Doing God's Work Is Better Than Just Mouthing God's Word

Ipsifendus — Fri, 18 May 2012 17:47:20 -0800

The letter of the day at the Savage Love blog tells a story of cruel abandonment, and provokes an outpouring of love in response.

"The stories of these cases are very painful."

Kattullus — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 08:34:34 -0800

This is an animated documentary about Mohammad Mostafaei who is an Iranian lawyer in exile in Norway. Mostafaei specialized in advocating for defendants who faced the death penalty and the animation focuses on one of these cases, that of Behnoud Shojaee. The animation features Paul Bettany reading Mostafaei's words, is a part of Amnesty International's campaign against the death penalty.

... because reality won’t cut it, isn’t outrageous enough, we must sex up the story for it to get any traction, and it must get traction, it MUST.

OverlappingElvis — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 15:26:19 -0800

The Jimmy McNulty Gambit: Joseph Kony, Foxconn, and "The Wire" (Season 5 spoilers)

"You can do precise statistics about what's in your database, and may be completely wrong about the world."

the man of twists and turns — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 23:01:53 -0800

The Body Counter Meet Patrick Ball, a statistician who's spent his life lifting the fog of war. "On March 13, 2002, in a courtroom in The Hague, something different happened. In the trial of Slobodan Milosevic, Patrick Ball, an American statistician, presented numbers to support the case that Milosevic had pursued a deliberate policy of ethnic cleansing. "We find evidence consistent with the hypothesis that Yugoslav forces forced people from their homes, forced Albanian Kosovars from their homes, and killed people," Ball said." Dr. Ball is the director of the Human Rights Data Analysis Group, which 'designs and builds information management solutions and conducts statistical analysis on behalf of human rights projects.' Five Questions For Patrick Ball, at Engineering For Change. He was also the subject of a Wired article from 2002, in which his report on 'ethnic cleansing' in Kosovo is available as a PDF.

We are one Maryland, and all of us at the end of the day want the same thing for our children.

Faint of Butt — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 15:54:56 -0800

And the eighth state to make same-sex marriage legal is... Maryland. Governor Martin O'Malley signed the bill today, as he promised. The state's first same-sex marriage licenses will be granted on January 1, 2013. (Previously)

The allegedly amputated arm of the law

jaduncan — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 06:45:31 -0800

MI6 intends to use the 1994 Intelligence Services Act to deny all application of UK law to extraordinary rendition. The case in question revolves around the forcible extradition of several Libyan dissidents back to Gaddafi's Libya and entirely predictable torture, including a pregnant woman. s.7 of the Act states that any intelligence agency action authorised on foreign soil by a Secretary of State is automatically exempt from legal action in any UK court. This could be said to conflict in some ways with the Human Rights Act 1998 and international law, especially since the HRA may be held to have implicitly repealed s.7 of the 1994 Act. Intelligence Services Act 1994 s.7: "(1)If, apart from this section, a person would be liable in the United Kingdom for any act done outside the British Islands, he shall not be so liable if the act is one which is authorised to be done by virtue of an authorisation given by the Secretary of State under this section. (2)In subsection (1) above “liable in the United Kingdom ” means liable under the criminal or civil law of any part of the United Kingdom." Subsection 3 is too long to quote in full here, but contains important restrictions on when permission and the resultant exemptions can be given, but provides for the following limit: "(a)that any acts which may be done in reliance on the authorisation or, as the case may be, the operation in the course of which the acts may be done will be necessary for the proper discharge of a function of the Intelligence Service" Human Rights Act 1998: -S. 6(1-2) makes it unlawful for a public authority to act in a way which is incompatible with convention rights: "(1)It is unlawful for a public authority to act in a way which is incompatible with a Convention right. (2)Subsection (1) does not apply to an act if— (a)as the result of one or more provisions of primary legislation, the authority could not have acted differently; or (b)in the case of one or more provisions of, or made under, primary legislation which cannot be read or given effect in a way which is compatible with the Convention rights, the authority was acting so as to give effect to or enforce those provisions."- S. 7(1) allows a person who claims that a public authority has acted unlawfully, to bring proceedings against the authority. "(1)A person who claims that a public authority has acted (or proposes to act) in a way which is made unlawful by section 6(1) may— (a)bring proceedings against the authority under this Act in the appropriate court or tribunal, or (b)rely on the Convention right or rights concerned in any legal proceedings,but only if he is (or would be) a victim of the unlawful act."

Portia Nuh Play

Kattullus — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:04:25 -0800

"Portia Simpson Miller, the former and newly re-elected Prime Minister of Jamaica and representative of the People's National Party, recently took an historically significant position by openly supporting GLBT legal protection in Jamaica, a country internationally notorious for a "culture of homophobia." Miller's statements come at a time of great cultural change in both Jamaica and dancehall music. This is for her." This is a mixtape of dancehall music and some of it is NSFW.