By Michelle Bachelet, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights— “Recognizing the Past, Repairing the Present, Building the Future” Excellencies, Colleagues, friends, It is my honour to address this Inaugural Commemoration of the European Day for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, with the theme: “Recognizing the Past, Repairing the Present, Building the Future.” I commend the European Parliament’s Anti-Racism and Diversity Intergroup for organizing this event alongside the…
There will be no peace if underlying grievances aren’t addressed, militaries victimize local populations, and states fail to provide basic services. By Elizabeth Schmidt, FPIF — Late last year, President Trump provoked a furor when he declared his intent to withdraw some 1,400 US troops from West Africa, where he claimed they had quelled the terrorist threat. He sparked a similar firestorm when he announced that the U.S. would (eventually)…
U.S. Civil Rights and Human Rights Groups Say Water is a Human Right — Express Solidarity with Struggle for Water Rights in Nigeria. February, 10, 2020, New York — The Institute of the Black World 21st Century (IBW) released a Statement today calling for a national and international movement to declare access to water a human right that should not be subject to profiteering by corporate interests. The Statement was released against the…
By R. Drew Smith Professor, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary Co-Convener, Transatlantic Roundtable on Religion and Race — Twenty-five years ago, Nelson Mandela was elected South African president after serving 27 years in prison for leading resistance against racially-oppressive apartheid rule. During that same moment in April of 1994, a horrible tragedy was unfolding further north on the African continent as longstanding ethnic grievances within Rwanda irr
By Justin Hansford, ACLU — It is common for nations where mass atrocities have taken place to engage in the process of reparation and repair. This process happened in Germany after the Holocaust, South Africa after apartheid, and here in the United States, forty years after the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. As a result, international human rights bodies have sought to lend their expertise to the process, often by…
By Benjamin Barber, Facing South — This year has seen the continuation of an alarming epidemic of violence against transgender people in the United States. At least a dozen transgender people have been killed already this year, most of them women of color, according to the Human Rights Campaign. Nine of these murders have occurred in the South — yet lawmakers in Southern states have continued to target the transgender community…
There is no doubt that concentration camps are in operation on US soil once again. By Brett Wilkins — Concentration camp (noun): a place in which large numbers of people, especially political prisoners or members of persecuted minorities, are deliberately imprisoned in a relatively small area with inadequate facilities, sometimes to provide forced labor or to await mass execution. – Oxford English Dictionary Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has ignited a…
By Thalif Deen, IPS — The UN’s longstanding mandate to promote and protect human rights worldwide –- undermined recently by right-wing nationalist governments and authoritarian regimes – has taken another hit. The Geneva-based Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) says six of the UN’s 10 treaty bodies are being forced to cancel their sessions this year due to financial reasons. The situation has been described as…
By Thalif Deen, IPS — UNITED NATIONS, Apr 12 2019 (IPS) – The civic space in several African countries, including Tanzania, Burundi, Zambia, Sudan, Mozambique, Somalia and Eritrea, is gradually shrinking – and mostly under authoritarian leaders and repressive regimes. The attacks are directed largely against human rights and civil society organizations (CSOs)— and specifically against the news media. The UN Human Rights Office in Burundi was closed down last February…
By Greg Palast, Truthout — On January 23, right after a phone call from Donald Trump, Juan Guaidó, former speaker of Venezuela’s National Assembly, declared himself president. No voting. When you have official recognition from The Donald, who needs elections? Say what? I can explain what’s going on in Venezuela in photos. Opposition leader and self-proclaimed ‘acting president’ Juan Guaido (2-L) talks to the press as he holds his daughter Miranda (3-L), next to his wife…
Human rights activists argue that victims of mass atrocities have a right to reparations, but the international community still struggles around how to fulfill this right.
By Bojan Gavrilovic, Open Global Rights — While criminal justice is clearly an irreplaceable part of any transitional justice arrangement, reparation is at least equally important—but often forgotten. Criminal trials are generally ill-suited for awarding reparation…
The politician and freedom fighter said reggae music has helped to influence him to fight against colonial afflictions while growing up in the ghettos of Uganda. By teleSur — Member of parliament, freedom fighter and artist Bobi Wine traveled 36 hours to Jamaica, the politician says, to be able to spread his musical message to his fellow Ugandans and the rest of the world. Bobi Wine made the remark while…
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