Human Rights

In this week’s The Week there is a piece called Africa: The enduring power of witchcraft. Since spending time in the West African nation of Benin, the birthplace of voodoo, I have often wondered about the status of “witchcraft” in various African nations. I had more than a few friends in Benin who, wide-eyed, would tell me stories about witches and their evil-doings.

• In Angola and Congo, seriously ill or orphaned children are often accused of sorcery and abused or killed.
• Secretive cults on Nigeria’s university campuses have killed hundreds.
• Mwanamkasi Jumbe of Tanzania’s The Citizen, reports that witch doctors tell their clients to use potions made of albino hair, blood, or body parts as a means of getting rich. Dozens of albinos have been murdered and the albino population in Tanzania lives “in constant fear of death.”
• Recently the president of Gambia’s aunt died and he launched a witch hunt to find her killer. Random people from around the country have been rounded up and forced to drink hallucinogenic potions to make them confess. Many have died.

The article states that such primitive and incredibly ignorant behavior is not limited to certain people or certain countries. Many educated Africans live in fear of “juju” and build their lives around avoiding certain things. Human rights activists have an uphill battle in the face of this deeply entrenched cultural evil.

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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.

ZIMBABWE: Mugabe Aides Are Said to Use Violence to Gain Amnesty

President Robert Mugabe’s top lieutenants are trying to force the political opposition into granting them amnesty for their past crimes by abducting, detaining and torturing opposition officials and activists, according to senior members of Mr. Mugabe’s party.  NY Times

JAPAN: Speak out for Human Rights

The Japanese government, parliament, and bureaucracy should become much stronger proponents for human rights in Asia and worldwide, Human Rights Watch said today at a news conference to open its Tokyo Office.Human Rights Watch released a letter to Prime Minister Taro Aso, urging the Japanese government to press Burma’s military government to free political prisoners, hold free and fair elections, end rampant torture, and stop attacks on ethnic minorities.  Human Rights Watch

COLOMBIA: 2,000 Urabá indigenous displaced by new paramilitary group: UN

More than 2,000 Embera indigenous people have been forced from their homes after a new paramilitary group entered their territory in north-west Colombia and started physically and sexually abusing the indigenous, the UN says and calls on the Government to act.  Colombia Reports

U.S.: CIA to close down secret prisons

The CIA is to close down its global network of secret prisons, where “war on terror” suspects were subjected to harsh interrogation techniques, Leon Panetta, the agency’s director, has said.  Al Jazeera

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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

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According to Mizzima News, several Burma campaign groups from 13 European countries have urged the EU to strengthen its policy of sanctions on Burma and to pressure the military junta to release all political prisoners.

Zoya Phan, International Coordinator of Burma Campaign UK, who attended a Burma Campaign Meeting in Barcelona over the weekend, said the group has called on the EU to strengthen its policies on Burma. “We will call on the EU to impose sanctions against the regime by initiating a global arms embargo, financial transaction and in gas and oil sectors,” Zoya Phan said on Monday.

The campaigners also urged the EU to exert more pressure on the Burmese military junta to release political prisoners including Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and to expedite political reforms and to improve the human rights situation in the country.

Back in January, the group urged the British government to investigate UK registered insurance companies to check whether they have committed financial crimes by bribing the Burmese military junta. Financial companies cited were Lloyd’s of London companies, QBE, Hannover Re, Sompo Japan, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance, ACE Group, Labuan Re, OCBC Bank, Pana Harrison, Target Insurance Brokers and Al Wasl.

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

BELGIUM: Brussels Asks World Court to Act on Former Chad Dictator

Belgium’s request to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to order Senegal to prosecute or extradite the exiled former dictator of Chad, is an important step towards ensuring that Hissène Habré does not escape justice, five African and international human rights groups said today. Belgium made the application to the court late on February 19, 2009.  Common Dreams

DRC: The Invisible War

Perhaps we’ve heard so little about them because the crimes are so unspeakable, the evil so profound.  NY Times

CHINA: Activists ’shocked’ at Clinton stance on China rights

Amnesty International and a pro-Tibet group voiced shock Friday after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton vowed not to let human rights concerns hinder cooperation with China. APF

ISRAEL: End Ban on Human Rights Monitors

Israel continues to obstruct independent investigations into allegations of laws of war violations by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Hamas military forces in Gaza by preventing independent human rights monitors from entering Gaza, Human Rights Watch and B’Tselem said today. After submitting applications for permission to enter via the Erez crossing in January 2009, the groups faced continued delays from the IDF unit reviewing the applications. In February, the IDF told Human Rights Watch that it had rejected its application. The Israeli military denied B’Tselem’s first request to enter Gaza and has failed to respond to a second.  Human Rights Watch

CHINA: 73 Miners Dead in China Blast

Rescuers wearing headlamps and oxygen backpacks carried dozens of miners to safety Sunday after a gas explosion at a coal mine in northern China killed at least 74.  NY Times

DRC: Rwanda announces Congo pullout

Rwandan troops will start withdrawing from eastern Congo next week, a Rwandan military spokesman has said. Rwanda’s force will have left Congo in its entirety by the middle of next week, Major Jill Rutaremara said on Friday.  Al Jazeera

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In the video below a group of European nonprofit organizations asserts that if a bank claims to respect the environment and human rights, then it should not invest in the Kashagan oil project in Kazakhstan. The project is underway in the fragile ecosystem of the Northern Caspian Sea. The groups responsible for the video claim that instead of reducing poverty and bringing development, the project has negatively impacted the health and safety of thousands of local people and species.

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