LOUISVILLE – The Kentucky Commission on Human Rights released a report, today, called, Minority Educators in Kentucky Public Schools. The commission compiled statistical information from the Kentucky Department of Education and other sources as its basis for the report. The document illustrates the shortage of minority educators in Kentucky’s 174 school districts.Executive Director John J. Jo
James Dunn 15/12/2008 Illawarra Mercury: Fresh look at human rights - It was gratifying to see the significance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at last recognised by our political leaders after languishing with low - or no - profile for 60 years.
I was particularly encouraged by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's decision to consider what we should have had years ago - a bill or charter of
250 corporate executives have on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights publicly expressed their commitment to ’respect and support’ human rights.
On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we, business leaders from all corners of the world, call on governments to implement fully their [...]
A new special coverage section has been added, collecting all the posts that deal with issues on the intersection between human rights and business. Examples of the posts that you will find here so far include a post on corporate obligation to protect human rights, discussing the recent report by the NGO War on Want on labour [...]
This week saw the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Although immense progress has been made in those 60 years toward the aim of universal respect for fundamental rights, it is often asserted that major setbacks have occurred in the area of civil liberties over the last eight years or so. While [...]
On 9 December 2008 the European Commission stated that the products from 16 developing countries will benefit from duty-free access to the European Union under the “special incentive arrangement for sustainable development and good governance” (GSP+).
The GSP+ is a specific tariff arrangement in the context of the Scheme of Generalised Tariff Preferences. It provides for [...]
Well perhaps not quite, but according to the French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner insisting on the creation of a post of Secretary of State for Human Rights, when he was sworn in by President Sarkozy in 2007, was a mistake. Kouchner, who is a long-time player on the international scene having helped founding Médecins Sans [...]
... policy has reflected extreme ideological positions that have ignored the dire need to make family planning more available in developing nations (at least 100 million couples worldwide have an unmet ...
... ruled that the country's blanket ban of abortion violated women's basic human rights. The Constitutional ... Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, she declared it is "no longer acceptable ...
In 1948, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) for all people and all nations. In the UDHR, the United Nations stated in clear and simple terms rights that belong equally to every person. These rights belong to you. Familiarize yourself with them. Help to promote and defend them.
Adopted by UN General Assembly Resolution 217A (III) of 10
At last! We've found something that the British government has a track record of managing successfully over an extended period of time, breaching human rights.
The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that the British government has breached human rights, over a million times, through the retention of DNA belonging to innocent people.
The unanimous verdict was delivered by a panel of 17 j
YCL-MYF Clash in Terai Nepal
By Divas
Nepal’s former Chief Justice & incumbent Human Rights Commission Chief Kedar Prasad Upadhyaya blamed the youth groups of political parties for creating...
[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
Received a party invitation a few days ago and I thought it might be good to share the invite since it overrides cultures, race, religion, nationalities, marital status, sexual orientation, age and residential status! Yes - you’re invited!
December 10th 2008 marks the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). To [...]
The Human Rights Act undermines public safety. It has led to the development of a “rights culture”, where people feel an entitlement not to what comes immediately to mind as human rightS - the freedoms of speech, movement, association, and thought - but to getting compensation for some trivial event.
What this has also done is [...]
Sometimes you can call something inevitable, and the Dallas Morning News supporting the Colombia Free Trade agreement when it appears the occupied White House will be trying to add it to any economic rescue is that sort of news. Recent incidents that include high military officials resigning because they had been shown to be killing civilians to pump up body counts in the U.S. backed campaign aga
The President of the Republic Office of the President Department of Social Communication The Sergio Vieira de Mello Human Rights Awards 2008 Timor-Leste
Introduction
The inaugural “Sergio Vieira de Mello Human Rights Awards 2008” is a national event in Timor-Leste whose objective is to recognise the outstanding human rights contribution of individuals, groups or State institutions in
United Nations Committee against Torture Reviews the PRC Government’s Use of Torture: A Report from Falun Gong Human Rights Reveals the PRC’s Lies
(Clearwisdom.net) From November 3 to 21, 2008, the United Nations Committee against Torture is holding the 41st session of the conference in Geneva. The committee will specifically review the PRC government’s use of [...]
My personal thoughts on the state of traditional British rights.
The concept of human rights are based on national sovereignty in that they were a control on the states power against its citizens. We the people give our state certain powers so that it can do the job we ask of it, basically to protect [...]
Leading Internet companies in the web world are showing their strategy of controlling the Human rights. Many of the people depends on the famous companies and they are daily Dependant on the some of online sites. Google and Yahoo are the top most all the sites in the world wide. Other site got identity through these famous companies. These companies the American company and their dominated the we
So, I’m not just spouting off how much I hate prop 8 here on the Internet, I’ve moved it to the streets by completing my first rally here in my hometown last evening. I’ve never rallied for anything in my life but I think fighting for equal human rights is a good place to start.
[...]
"Hu Jia, one of China's best-known dissidents, was yesterday awarded an EU human rights prize, despite a warning from Beijing that selecting the political prisoner would damage relations.
His wife and supporters welcomed the news that MEPs had picked him for the Sakharov prize, worth €50,000 (£39,500) Previous recipients include Nelson Mandela and the East Timorese leader, Xanana Gusmao.
"Hu Ji
Amnesty International has submitted a briefing to the Committee Against Torture in view of its consideration of Israel’s fourth periodic report on its implementation of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The briefing focuses on Amnesty International’s concerns about Israel’s failure to implement the Convention against Torture particu
(Arkan, warlord gunned down in 2000 - source)
A state that is too powerful will violate human rights. But in many cases it is the absence of state power that leads to rights violations. A failed state, a state whose government is extremely weak or non-existent and has no control over what is happening in its [...]
Throughout this blog, I’ve always been very critical of the role of religion in politics and of the harm it can do (see here, here and here for example), and I will continue to be critical.
However, while advocating the separation of state and church as a means to guarantee liberty, human rights, tolerance and democracy, I also [...]
(source)
As in every presidential election in the U.S., there’s controversy over campaign financing. Some say that Obama’s lead in the polls, and his likely election victory, result from his superior spending rather than the intrinsic attractiveness of his policies or character.
(source)
Intuitively, one senses that exaggerated campaign spending must distort the proper democratic p
This graph shows the countries where there were child soldiers active in armed conflicts in 1998:
And this graph is a bit more specific on the African situation since Africa has without any doubt the largest number of child soldiers (Myanmar in Asia also does it’s “best”):
More on child soldiers.
Posted in human rights maps Tagged: child soldiers, [...]
(Ares, source)
The shortage of organs for transplantation is a universal problem. The supply of organs is way below the demand. And demand is increasing due to progress in medical science and increasing average age. The demand comes mainly from developed countries. The reason is that life expectancy is higher in these countries, and therefore also [...]
Some countries in Africa depend heavily on aid. The contribution of aid to their GDP is of such an extent that the countries would collapse were the aid to stop:
More on development aid.
Posted in human rights maps Tagged: human rights, human rights maps, international development aid, politics
Larry Wright, The Detroit News (source)
It’s true that most if not all human rights can be found, implicitly or explicitly, in all cultures and religions of the world. However, there’s also cruelty everywhere and universal respect for human rights requires more than simply looking for similarities and making the sum. Unity, consensus and universality will [...]
The Economist Intelligence Unit Index of Democracy (see also Wikipedia) ranks countries on a scale between 0 and 10, with 10 being the most democratic one (in the 2007 ranking, Sweden was the most democratic with a score of 9.88):
Posted in human rights maps Tagged: democracy, human rights, human rights maps, politics
Here’s the Reporters Without Borders 2007 Press Freedom Ranking:
And this is the ranking of Freedom House (green = free, yellow = partly free and blue = not free):
More on the freedom of the press.
Posted in human rights maps Tagged: free press, human rights, human rights maps, politics
UK National Contact Point under the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises delivered in late August an important decision in Global Witness v. Afrimex (UK) Ltd. Global Witness alleged that Afrimex paid taxes to rebel forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo and employed insufficient due diligence on the supply chain, sourcing minerals from mines that [...]
Thomas Hammarberg, Human Rigts Commissioner of the Council of Europe, yesterday released a call for more human rights education in schools. The call rests on the premise that human rights become more effective when people are actually aware of them. This seems a fair and perhaps rather evident idea. However, I am not sure Hammaberg [...]
(source)
Income inequality within a country is usually measured using the so-called Gini-index (see also here). When we look at the Gini indices for the U.S. at various times, we see an increase in inequality (a higher value means more inequality):
1967: 39.7 (first year reported)
1968: 38.6 (lowest index reported)
1970: 39.4
1980: 40.3
1990: 42.8
2000: 46.2
2005: 46.9
2006: 47.0 (highest index
The following two maps show the ethnic composition of Bosnia before and after the war:
The next map clearly shows the destruction inflicted on certain very specific areas of the country, namely the areas populated by ethnic Muslims:
Posted in human rights maps Tagged: Bosnia, ethnic cleansing, human rights, human rights maps, politics, war [...]
In a recent Pew poll, only a third of the U.S. public views foreign intervention to stop genocide as a foreign policy priority. And only 25% thinks the promotion of human rights is an important goal. These numbers are down compared to a previous poll and are very discouraging.
A related cartoon by Emad Hajjaj:
(source)
Posted in [...]
The Secret Policeman's Ball Just watched the Secret Policeman's Ball as it does every year it highlights key human rights issues throughout the world. Whether its torture in CIA secret detention prisons or acts of violence by a government against its defenseless people.More needs to be done to publicize these issues, many people throughout the UK today know very little about what is going on in ce
Men who have very traditional convictions on the role of women in society, and believe a woman’s place is in the home rather than in the workplace, are likely to earn substantially more than more modern men.
The opposite is true for women. Women who believe in gender equality earn more than more traditional women. For [...]
(source)
We establish a clear positive link between average levels of subjective well-being and GDP per capita across countries, and find no evidence of a satiation point beyond which wealthier countries have no further increases in subjective well-being. We show that the estimated relationship is similar to the relationship between subject well-being and income observed within [...]
(source)
Poverty is the mother of crime. Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
Does poverty cause crime? Are people criminal because they are poor, or are they poor because they are criminal? The latter is uncontroversial, given the time and professional and educational experience inmates lose, the difficulties they have finding a job after their release etc.
But what about the former [...]
In this post, I described how economic rights - and particularly the right not to suffer poverty (see article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights) - create certain duties to help poor people. I also described how these duties are ordered in a hierarchy. The state is one of several [...]
My first political cartoon. And my last I guess. Don’t have the patience for this.
Posted in human rights cartoon Tagged: art, cartoon, human rights cartoon, politics, presidential campaign, u.s.
(source)
It ought to be possible to … focus on two complementary ways to be able to live in peace with one another. One being to acknowledge the common values shared by the great religions, such as the intrinsic value and dignity of the human being, the commitment to peace and justice, and respect for the [...]
There are clear signs that the EU’s influence at the UN is declining in one of the areas on which it is most united: human rights. Richard Gowan and Franziska Brantner (source)
Richard Gowan and Franziska Brantner have studied the influence of Europe within the UN, and especially its influence regarding human rights. It’s unfortunately the [...]
(source)
ex•ploi•ta•tion: utilization of another person or group for selfish purposes. American Heritage Dictionary
To exploit someone means to take unfair advantage of that person. Usually, we define “unfair advantage” as somehow resulting in harm or coercion for the person who is taken advantage of. If A takes unfair advantage of B, we assume that B is [...]
(source)
Although many indicators still point to the existence of gender-discrimination in the US, there are hopeful signs.
But first the bad signs:
The US still ranks only 31st in the Global Gender Gap Index (an index of equality between women and men, published by the World Economic Forum) behind Cuba, South-Africa, the Philippines etc.
Only 69% of Americans [...]
(source)
Immigrant children typically do worse at school than their fellow pupils. There are many reasons for this difference in performance and in test scores:
Immigrant families are often poor
Immigrant children’s parents are often undereducated: immigrants are attracted to low-paid, low-skilled jobs because that’s where the opportunities are; and even though many immigrants work b
The debate on immigration is an angry one, filled with anxiety, prejudice and extreme positions. Immigration is said to lead to an increase in crime rates, because the immigrants are often poor, undereducated and not well adjusted to their host community. Illegal immigrants, especially, are believed to be overrepresented in crime statistics because they are [...]
Looking at the absurdity of the UN Human Rights Council. The Council includes world's worst abusers ie china, saudi arabia, egypt. They sent Desmond Tutu, a biased & unqualified priest to investigate military issue in Israel.
(source)
This is a follow-up of a previous post on the responsibilities of corporations in the field of human rights.
Corporate responsibility
Corporate responsibility (also called corporate social responsibility, responsible or ethical business, or business ethics) has 2 dimensions:
1. Good corporate governance
A company is responsible for good corporate governance (much like a government of a co
(source)
(source)
The Yellow Peril (or Yellow Danger) refers to the skin color of the Chinese, and the belief that the Chinese nation is a threat to the West. The concept of Yellow Peril, as it first surfaced by the end of the 19th century (and also during the Second World War when it included Japan), was initially racist [...]
by Tom Reifer4 September 2008The international human rights movement helped to bring General Pinochet to justice for his crimes whilst dictator of Chile. Yet there is no similar movement demanding accountability for the US officials involved in illegal torture practices since 11 September 2001. Fires, explosions, mayhem, flames leaping through the air. The smell of death. The visions being recount
(source)
Revolution, F. Spagnoli
Gunshot lullaby, rest in peace.
Animals scream like people
And people escape to prisons.
No compassion goes unwasted while
the homeless dress in white,
eat stolen chocolate and frozen kaviar.
And the rich taste defeat dressed in tar.
No one is evasive anymore.
To the point means stabbed in the heart.
People give their lives away to each other,
As if an ending [...]
Mr. Joel Edwards was appointed as an Equality and Human Rights Commissioner as part of this non-departmental public body in Great Britain. Unions and activists are currently asking for his removal. Mr. Edwards is director of the Evangelical Alliance, an organization which works tirelessly against LGBT rights."Last year they gave evidence to a House of Commons committee opposing a new crime of in
(source, Riber Hansson, Svenska Dagbladet, Sweden)
Groups, and in particular, minority groups are often attacked, oppressed and persecuted. They are considered to be groups that are separated from the rest of society and that are legitimate objects of targeted attacks such as racism, xenophobia, discrimination, exploitation or even genocide. These attacks are often collective attacks. Persons [...
(source)
Globalization means many different things. One of them is the ease with which multi-national companies can relocate (part of) their operations to other countries, or to involve subsidiaries or subcontractors in other countries in the process of production, design, distribution, sales or support. This relocation is called outsourcing or off-shoring. Modern technology and transportation are
(source)
Poverty is both a cause and a result of ill health, which results in a vicious circle that’s very hard to break:
(source)
Poverty as a CAUSE of ill health:
Poverty causes ill health because it leads to:
Insufficient or inadequate food
Consumption of unhealthy water
Inadequate sanitation; the poor in urban areas often live in overcrowded communities where there’s too [...]
(source)
Oh stay at home my lad and plough, AE Housman
Oh stay at home, my lad, and plough
The land and not the sea,
And leave the soldiers at their drill,
And all about the idle hill
Shepherd your sheep with me.
Oh stay with company and mirth
And daylight and the air;
Too full already is the grave
Of fellows that were good [...]
(source)
It’s not uncommon to hear people worry about the economic development of the developing world: what if these billions of people start to drive cars, use airco, eat meat etc. to the same extent as the people in the West? Would that not spell the end of the earth? Isn’t there a contradiction between the [...]
(source)
Few propositions command as much consensus among professional economists as that open world trade increases economic growth and raises living standards. N. Gregory Mankiw
Types and justifications of protectionism:
(source)
Most governments in the world apply restrictions on the international trade of goods. They limit the imports into their countries by way of different measures:
Imp
(source)
The following graph, from the Special Studies series of the World Trade Organization, shows the differences in annual per capita GDP growth between rich and poor countries. The vertical axis shows the average annual per capita growth between 1960 and 1990, and the horizontal axis the per capita GDP in 1960.
(source)
Had the per capita incomes of [...]
(source)
In a way similar to the leadership in China, Putin claims that authoritarianism and a state that rolls back democracy and freedom, are necessary for economic prosperity, growth, order and stability, and that the current economic upturn in Russia happened thanks to his autocratic reforms. (The situation in China is of course different in many [...]
(source)
From Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, Shylock’s Speech to Antonio (I’ve added a “translation” into present-day English):
Signior Antonio, many a time and oft
In the Rialto you have rated me
About my moneys and my usances.
Still have I borne it with a patient shrug,
For sufferance is the badge of all our tribe.
You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog,
And
(source)
Classic economic theory, based as it is on an inadequate theory of human motivation, could be revolutionized by accepting the reality of higher human needs, including the impulse to self actualization and the love for the highest values. Abraham Maslow
Economic theory is or was dominated by the assumption of the homo economicus, the human being [...]
(source)
People who are aware of, and ashamed of, their prejudices are well on the road to eliminating them. Gordon Allport
Gordon Allport, a psychologist, created Allport’s Scale in 1954. It’s a measure of the manifestation of prejudice in a society. The scale contains 5 stages of prejudice, ranked by the increasing harm they produce.
Stage 1: antilocution
(source)
Antilocution [.
(source)
The laws of God, the laws of man, A.E. Housman
The laws of God, the laws of man,
He may keep that will and can;
Not I: let God and man decree
Laws for themselves and not for me;
And if my ways are not as theirs
Let them mind their own affairs.
Their deeds I judge and much condemn,
Yet when did [...]
(source, Pavel Constantin)
I agree that a complex contemporary society needs a complex system of law, and I’m the last one to adopt a libertarian philosophy in which the state is evil (necessary evil or not) and should be kept as small as possible. I accept that the state has a role to play in poverty reduction [...]
(source)
Grenadier, A.E Housman
The Queen she sent to look for me,
The sergeant he did say,
`Young man, a soldier will you be
For thirteen pence a day?’
For thirteen pence a day did I
Take off the things I wore,
And I have marched to where I lie,
And I shall march no more.
My mouth is dry, my [...]
Islamic areas risk being seen as the world's Badlands - although they won the battle for special protection under the UN for Islamic norms such as stonings, honour killing, child brides, female circumcision/mutilation, beheading, removal of limbs and the killing, torturing or incarceration of apostates from Islam- they are likely to lose the war for respect, trust and to be taken seriously. For th
Confucianism, the traditional Chinese ethical and philosophical system based on the teachings of Confucius (551 BCE - 479 BCE), is often blamed for the lack of freedom and the authoritarian and anti-democratic form of government in China. This post examines the merits of this attack.
Confucianism is not a religion, although many believe it is, perhaps because of [...]
(source)
In India, a caste is a hereditary group in a traditionally and rigidly stratified society. People belong to a caste because they are born into one, because their parents belong to one. Mobility is minimal.
The different castes each have a ranking in a social hierarchy, or a social status, and people from lower ranked castes [...]
The Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation, an independent, contrary agency to the government, characterized the situation in “the very favorable” country as although the number of prisoners politicians to have reduced since the beginning of the year. According to semester report of the agency, at the beginning of 2008, had 234 prisoners f
(source, source)
Why is avoiding coercion a supreme end that dominates all other ends? What makes noncoercion superior to justice, equality, freedom, security, happiness, and other values? If any of these ends are superior to noncoercion, then would not coercion be justified if it were the sole means in some situations for achieving the superior value? [...]
(source)
The liberties of the intolerant may persuade them to a belief in freedom. This persuasion works on the psychological principle that those whose liberties are protected by and who benefit from a just constitution will, other things equal, acquire an allegiance to it over a period of time. John Rawls
I’ve written before about the vulnerability [...]
The price of war is not calculable and atrocities of war are not unknown. The 1949 Geneva Conventions prohibit "outrages upon the personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment" against any detainee. However, what's happening in Iraq is the rarest of rare and puts big question mark on the face of humanity. Reports and video recordings from different sources show how soldiers a
There are a couple of reasons as to why I shall not be watching the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Human RightsSince the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, the human rights and China issue has divided many. While some have leapt to China’s defense citing exaggerated claims by an “unfair media” fact is, the sources documenting abuse are many, including the U.S. State Department's annual People's Repu
(source)
Bad governance is a cause of underdevelopment, poverty, war and human rights violations. Major donors and international financial institutions are increasingly basing their aid and loans on the condition that the recipient countries reform their systems so that these conform to the requirements of good governance.
Good governance means a good way to take and implement [...]
"So America stands in firm opposition to China's detention of political dissidents and human rights advocates and religious activists. We speak out for a free press, freedom of assembly, and labor rights not to antagonize China's leaders, but because trusting its people with greater freedom is the only way for China to develop its full potential. We press for openness and justice not to impose our
Ah yes, the global model of human rights, headed by the angelic and pristine figurehead of G.W Bush. I gather we’re supposed to bob our heads in assent with a healthy bout of self-righteous condescension. We (the western world) have pointed the stick at China over Sudan, frowned (yes frowned, since we haven’t done anything [...]
The War on Terror, started by the US government as a response to the September 11, 2001 terror attacks and later joined by other governments, has had and continues to have grave consequences for the human rights of their citizens and of citizens of other countries. This is a high price for an uncertain gain.
However, [...]
(source)
Forms of corruption
Corruption can take on many forms:
From limited competition when awarding government contracts to the setting up of wasteful mega-projects designed specifically for the corruption opportunities these can yield.
From small bribes by ordinary citizens “in order to get things done” to larger payments as a means to escape criminal justice.
From the nepotism of
Apostasy (from the Greek word for defection) is the explicit and formal abandonment or renunciation of one’s religion. The word has a pejorative connotation and is mostly used by the adherents or dignitaries of the former religion of the apostate. It is used as a condemnation. Most if not all religions consider defection a sin, [...]
NCAS Pulls the Sword of Damocles on Junior Doctor Professor Scotland is an interesting man. He appears to be director of NCAS. Despite his accolades, no one has taught him how to behave. Moreover, no one seems to have appraised him of the Human Rights Act 1998. Scotland has been found leaking confidential and qualified correspondence [emails between NCAS Solicitor [Capsticks] Mr Mason and Dr X]. S
(source)
This post is kind of a summary of the stuff I’ve written about international migration and how it is relevant to human rights. I’ve tried to put it all in a simple drawing:
The darker the kind of grey, the more precarious is the rights situation of the people involved. Citizens typically enjoy the best human [...]
I have always admired Prof Khoo Kay Kim. His ideas are sound and realistic. Today he wrote at length about Human Rights and I take the liberty of reproducing it here. Give it some thought.KHOO KAY KIM: Human rights and our Western value systemBy Khoo Kay Kim2008/07/20IN Malaysia, between the two terms, it was "integrity" that was given constant attention for the longest time. Although the term its
(copyright Monte Wolverton)
Slavery was officially abolished worldwide at the 1927 Slavery Convention. Article 4 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states:
“No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms”.
Slavery is illegal everywhere and yet it still exists everywhere. Experts estimate that today [...]
(source)
Excerpt from Orwell’s 1984:
There was an outburst of squeals from the cage. It seemed to reach Winston from far away. The rats were fighting; they were trying to get at each other through the partition. He heard also a deep groan of despair. That, too, seemed to come from outside himself.
O’Brien picked up the cage, [...]
The Second Coming, William Butler Yeats
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is [...]
