Human Rights Today: 3-16-09

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

SRI LANKA: UN suspects Sri Lanka war crimes

The United Nations high commissioner for human rights has voiced deep concern over the plight of civilians in war-ravaged Sri Lanka, saying both the government and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) may be committing war crimes. Al Jazeera

U.S.: Labor Secretary Proposes Suspending Farm Rules

Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis announced Friday that she would suspend regulations that the Bush administration introduced in December to make it easier and cheaper for agricultural employers to use foreign workers in temporary jobs. NY Times

DRC: Women in Congo Speak Out about Rape Despite Taboo

Zamuda Sikujuwa shuffles to a bench in the sunshine, pushes apart her thighs with a grimace of pain and pumps her fist up and down in a lewd-looking gesture to show how the militiamen shoved an automatic rifle inside her. Common Dreams

U.S.: Red Cross report describes “torture” at CIA jails

The International Committee of the Red Cross concludes in a secret report that the Bush administration’s treatment of al-Qaeda captives in CIA prisons “constituted torture,” The Washington Post reported on Monday, citing newly published excerpts from the 2007 document. Reuters