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Human Rights Today: 4.10.09

by John Richardson on April 10, 2009

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

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

zimbabweflag 150x150 Human Rights Today: 4.10.09President 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

Japanese flagThe 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

Colombian flagMore 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

American flagThe 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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Trade Union Killings in Colombia

by John Richardson on July 23, 2008

Business as Usual for Trade Unionists in the Most Dangerous Place on Earth

The Inter Press Service published an article on July 22nd that describes in some grizzly detail the slaying of Guillermo Rivera, a trade unionist in Colombia who turned up missing some weeks ago. Constanza Vieira writes that witnesses to Rivera’s disappearance noted that he was abducted by state security forces. His body revealed that he had been tortured prior to dying. So far this year, 28 trade unionists have been killed, mostly by the government and its related paramilitary forces. Unfortunately, these facts go largely unnoticed in the U.S. press as the faltering debate continues about the proposed Fair Trade Agreement between the two countries is bandied about by the pro-free trade forces in both countries.

While free trade agreements can be a positive step in economic development, the situation in Colombia demonstrates the need for such agreements to address labor rights concerns as a condition for implement of such agreements.

As was noted in the IPS article, most extrajudicial killings in Colombia go uninvestigated. Virtually none of the killings result in the perpetrators being brought to justice. Implementation of the Colombia FTA will validate the injustice. 

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