China

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

PRC: China plans ‘human rights action’

China has released a human rights action plan, following international criticism of its rights record.  BBC

U.S.: Local Police Increasingly Target Migrant Communities

Alleged abuses of a little-known section of U.S. immigration law have triggered charges of racial and ethnic profiling and diverting local law enforcement from their crime-fighting mission.  Common Dreams

AFGHANISTAN: Top cleric rejects changes to Afghan Shi’ite law

A top Shi’ite cleric said on Saturday the Afghan government had no right to change a law for Shi’ite Afghans that was widely condemned by Afghanistan’s Western backers for curbing women’s rights.  Reuters

UAE: Media Law Undermines Free Expression

A new draft law to regulate the news media unlawfully restricts free expression and will unduly interfere with the media’s ability to report on sensitive subjects, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The pending law also includes provisions that would grant the government virtually complete control in deciding who is allowed to work as a journalist and which media organizations are allowed to operate in the country.  Common Dreams

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

CHINA: Chinese quake activist arrested

Chinese police have arrested a man who was investigating whether poor construction caused schools to collapse during last year’s massive earthquake. The detention of Tan Zuoren is part of a crackdown in Sichuan province just weeks ahead of the first anniversary of the quake, a human rights group said.  BBC

U.S. to Seek Seat on U.N. Human Rights Council

The Obama administration has decided to seek a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced Tuesday, reversing a decision by the Bush administration to shun the U.N.’s premier rights body to protest the repressive states among its membership.  Washington Post

GAZA: Israeli Military Cloaks Abuses

The Israeli army’s Advocate General has summarily closed an internal investigation into allegations stemming from accounts by soldiers of abuses against Palestinian civilians committed during Israel’s recent war on Hamas in Gaza. It took the military investigators just half the duration of the 22-day war in Gaza to bulldoze the accounts and to dismiss completely the serious allegations made by soldiers who had themselves taken part in the fighting.  IPS

Zimbabwe prison called ‘death camp’

Inmates at the Beitbridge jail are said to receive one meal a day from the prison service. Images have been released of Zimbabwean prisoners who are said to be starving and dying of disease, due to meagre supplies and appalling conditions.  al Jazeera

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The world’s natural resources are in play and it doesn’t bode well for the environment and humankind. The world’s most voracious user of its human and natural resources – China – is engaged in a feeding frenzy.

Rio Tinto announced today that Aluminum Corporation of China (Chinalco) has received approval from the German government for Chinalco’s proposal to enter into a strategic partnership with Rio Tinto.
This comes on the heels of an announcement yesterday that Australian miner Oz Minerals has agreed to sell most of its assets to China’s Minmetals, just days after the Australian government blocked the deal.

This impact on the world’s natural resources cannot be understated. In order to sustain its rapid economic growth, China must have the raw materials so that its businesses can produce goods in demand by consumer nations. As we have seen in recent years, this huge demand has altered the balance of power and influence across the world. Chinese interests in Africa are a case in point.

While humanitarian and political concerns have tempered post-colonial western interests for natural resources in Africa, this has posed no barrier to China. On the contrary, when U.S. or European countries have shown some restraint with respect to dealing with some of the most extreme kleptocrats and tyrants in the region, the Chinese government has picked up the slack and offered up financial “inducements” to African leaders looking to profit on the backs of ordinary Africans.

On the environmental front, China has not fared any better. It’s own environmental record is appalling. A cursory glance around China’s industrial regions in the southeast part of the country reveals epic environmental degradation. In eastern Africa, clear cutting of hardwood forests are the norm when Chinese timber companies are given a free hand. When it comes to economic growth, the environment has no place at the table in China.

As Chinese interests seek more global resources to feed its economic machine, it must turn to businesses outside of China. A Chinese company’s attempted acquisition of Rio Tinto is not a first for the Australian mining operation. When BHP Billiton took a run at Rio Tinto last year, a Chinese state-owned mining company made a short-lived competing offer for Rio Tinto. In the region, we are seeing Chinese interests engaging in significant transactions with the repressive Myanmar government for oil and natural gas.

It appears that Chinalco and Rio Tinto have cleared regulatory hurdles to their deal. Should the Rio Tinto and Oz Minerals transactions close as planned, we can expect to see further incremental shifts not only in the economic power in the region and globally but possible further environmental and social turns for the worse. As Chinese power consolidates, the risk to humanity and the planet increases.

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Earlier this month Tan Ee Lyn, a Health Correspondent writing for Reuters in Asia, reported that in China’s southern Guangdong province, thousands of stonecutters are dying from silicosis, an incurable lung disease caused by inhaling silica dust while drilling, cutting, crushing, grinding or blasting slabs of gemstones. Silicosis, also known as Grinder’s disease and Potter’s rot, is marked by inflammation and scarring in the upper lobes of the lungs.

Is it preventable? Absolutely, masks and properly ventilated rooms would do a great deal to mitigate the risks. Are these safety conditions in place? Generally speaking, no. Are the stonecutters concerned about silicosis? Probably not as concerned as they are about feeding their children day by day. Do consumers need to put on the pressure to force employers to provide safe working conditions? Hell YES!

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

GAZA: US Gaza Aid Tied to Recognition of Israel

Some $900 million pledged by the United States to the Palestinians will be withdrawn if the expected Palestinian Authority coalition government between Fatah and Hamas does not recognize Israel’s right to exist, Western and Israeli diplomats said Wednesday.  Common Dreams

CANADA: Ban Bush From Canada for War Crimes

A lawyers’ group has asked the RCMP to bar former U.S. president George W. Bush from entering Canada, citing torture and war crimes committed in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  Common Dreams

TUNISIA: Revolving Door Shows Intolerance for Dissent

The Tunisian government released a long-serving political prisoner only to re-arrest him a few weeks later solely for expressing his political views to the media, Human Rights Watch said today.  Human Rights Watch

US: Cluster Bomb Exports Banned

Legislation signed into law on March 11, 2009 by President Obama will make permanent a ban on nearly all cluster bomb exports by the United States, Human Rights Watch said today. The United States should review its stance on joining the international treaty prohibiting cluster munitions in light of this action, Human Rights Watch said.  Human Rights Watch

CHINA: Putting a Face to Internet Censorship

I wasn’t going to post again today, but I was just reading Erica’s post, and I went to Daily Kos to check out the comments. One commenter was of the opinion that free speech is just an American construct, and others responded that freedom of expression and information are acutally guaranteed in Article 19 of the UDHR and also in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, of which China is a signatory. That’s good to know, but that level of discussion can make it easy to forget about the actual human cost of governments respecting those human rights, and corporations not standing up for them.  Amnesty USA

PERU: Spying on Social Movements

Business Track, a private security firm, was engaged in spying on non-governmental organisations, environmental activists, social movements and opposition groups in Peru, sources in the police, prosecutor’s office and courts investigating the case told IPS.  IPS

ZIMBABWE: Roy Bennett walks out of prison after spending a month in jail

MDC National Treasurer and Deputy Agriculture Minister – designate, Hon. Roy Bennett who was yesterday granted a US$5 000 bail was this morning released from Mutare Prison.  This is Zimbabwe

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Recently the Forbes.com Investor Team debated the ethics of investing in China, a country notorious for labor and human rights violations. To make loads of money and not worry about who is abused in the process or not to make loads of money and keep one’s ethics intact? That is the question. Certainly not a new question and not unique to China.  

Please read the full Forbes.com article, “Can You Stomach Investing In China?” below and then let us know what you think.

Over the past several decades China has seen many significant improvements in its national health and quality of life, surely the result of the massive amounts of capital infused into the country since its initial embrace of controlled capitalism.

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

U.S.: Lawsuits Challenge Charity Blacklisting

In two court cases that could test the limits of the Barack Obama administration’s executive authority as well as its commitment to transparency, human rights lawyers are challenging the government’s right to use information obtained through warrantless wiretapping as evidence and to shut down charitable organizations without allowing them to defend themselves.  IPS

ZIMBABWE: High Court dismisses State application to deny bail to Hon Bennett

The High Court today dismissed a State application to deny bail to MDC Treasurer General and Deputy Agriculture Minister designate, who is facing trumped up charges of banditry, terrorism and treason.  This is Zimbabwe

U.S.: Senate mulls Bush-era abuse probe

The US Senate Judicial Committee is to discuss the possibility of creating a commission to investigate alleged abuses of power during the administration of George Bush, the former US president.  Al Jazeera

CHINA: Congress Should End Migrant Discrimination

China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) should abolish the discriminatory hukou, or household registration system, which determines where citizens can live and whether they can have access to the most basic human services, Human Rights Watch said today. The restrictions are especially harmful to the country’s estimated 150 million migrant workers. The congress, which meets annually for about two weeks and is attended by more than 3,000 delegates, will begin on March 5, 2009.  Human Rights Watch

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

COLOMBIA: Spurious Cases Against Human Rights Defenders

Six months after human rights defender Julio Avella was put behind bars, a prosecutor reviewing the case threw out the charges against him, which were based on the testimony of former guerrillas and police and army reports, on the grounds that they were “contradictory, incoherent, inconsistent and illogical.”  IPS

U.S.: Jobless Angry at Possibility of No Benefits

As governors in nine states, mostly in the South, consider rejecting millions of dollars in federal stimulus money for increased unemployment insurance, there is growing anger among the ranks of the jobless in those states that they could be left out of a significant government benefit.  NY Times

BANGLADESH: Dozens missing in revolt

Authorities in Bangladesh continue their search for the bodies of people killed in a two-day revolt by border guards inside the capital, Dhaka.  Al Jazeera

SERBIA: UN court acquits ex-leader

Milan Milutinovic, the former Serbian president, has been acquitted of the murders of hundreds of Kosovan Albanians in 1999 by a United Nations war crimes tribunal.  Al Jazeera

CHINA: Government rejects US rights criticism

China has rejected US criticism of its human rights record, with state media describing the charges as “groundless, irresponsible and an interference in Chinese affairs”.  Al Jazeera

GERMANY: Headscarf Bans Violate Rights

German state bans on religious symbols and clothing for teachers and other civil servants discriminate against Muslim women who wear the headscarf, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.  Human Rights Watch

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

COLOMBIA: Radio show reveals identity killed FARC hostages

Caracol Radio show ‘Voces del Secuestro’ (voices of abduction) revealed 34 names of FARC hostages who were killed in captivity. The names were given by demobilized guerrillas.  Colombia Reports

U.S.: Probe Finds Army Charity is Hoarding Millions

As soldiers stream home from Iraq and Afghanistan, the biggest charity inside the U.S. military has been stockpiling tens of millions of dollars meant to help put returning fighters back on their feet, an Associated Press investigation shows.  Common Dreams

U.S.: Freed Guantanamo detainee says U.S. behind his torture

Binyam Mohamed, a British resident held at Guantanamo Bay for more than four years, was released and put on a plane to Britain on Monday and accused the U.S. government of orchestrating his torture.  Reuters

ZIMBABWE: 80,250 cases of cholera recorded in Zimbabwe (as of 19 Feb 2009)

These are the latest figure for the cholera crisis, as of (19 February), released by the World Health Organisation (WHO). 80,250 cholera cases have been recorded to date, and 3,759 Zimbabweans have died from the disease. Click on the graph to enlarge. This is Zimbabwe

CHINA: Trapped China miners found alive

Dozens of trapped miners have been rescued after a blast at the mine they were working in killed at least 74 people.  Al Jazeera

PALESTINE: Amnesty urges Israel arms embargo

Amnesty International, the human rights group, has called for a global arms embargo on Israel over its conduct during the war on Gaza.  Al Jazeera

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