Human Rights Today: 2-13-09

by admin on February 13, 2009

Today’s update of human rights events around the world.

UN: Strengthen Action to End Use of Child Soldiers

Former child soldiers and other youth representing a grassroots campaign from around the world will present thousands of symbolic “red hands” to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today to demand stronger action by international leaders to end the use of child soldiers. Human Rights Watch

GAZA: Death’s Laboratory

Gaza victimsErik Fosse, a Norwegian cardiologist, worked in Gaza hospitals during the recent war.”It was as if they had stepped on a mine,” he says of certain Palestinian patients he treated. “But there was no shrapnel in the wound. Some had lost their legs. It looked as though they had been sliced off. I have been to war zones for 30 years, but I have never seen such injuries before.” Foreign Policy in Focus

U.S.: Americans to Rally TODAY Outside AIPAC Headquarters

AIPACSeveral organizations will rally TODAY outside the offices of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) to call for the United States to resist the Israeli lobbying group and reject its destructive aims on Gaza, and decry its enormous influence on Congress which prevented Congress from condemning the recent Israeli assault on the territory. Common Dreams

ZIMBABWE: Mukoko, Chiramba and Mudzingwa sent back to jail against medical advice

Three of the most seriously ill political detainees were finally given proper unrestricted access to medical doctors on Thursday, but were forced back to prison. Civic leader Jestina Mukoko, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s former aide Ghandi Mudzingwa, and 72-year old MDC activist Fidelis Chiramba were taken to the Avenues Clinic, where they were seen by two doctors – from the state, and the private sector. This Is Zimbabwe

FIJI: South Pacific’s Burma?

Fijian flagThere are concerns that the behaviour of Fiji’s interim government indicates the possibility of a Burma-style dictatorship emerging in the Pacific nation. IPS

SRI LANKA: Tamil Tigers ’shoot’ at civilians

Sri Lanka flagSeparatist Tamil fighters have shot at injured civilians fleeing fighting in Sri Lanka’s northern war zone, witnesses who have escaped the island say. Al Jazeera

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