talkpolitics | Entries tagged with human rights

China forcing birth control on Uighurs to suppress population, report says

So, apparently, the Chinese government has given up on even forcibly "Sinicizing" the Uighurs into being good Han-Chinese, loyal communists. Now it's gone on to ethnic cleansing. For years, this has officially been done to "combat extremism", which is apparently equal to being Muslim and having a culture and language different from being Han-Chinese.

How likely are significant economic sanctions over this by the US and the EU countries, and could Tibet be next for this radical step toward "lebensraum" for ethnic Han Chinese? My bet is "Not very", and "For sure".

I hate this form of nationalism. Xianjing was conquered by China in fairly modern times, and the Uighurs have lived there for centuries. They're a national, rather than merely an ethnic, minority in the region. That the ChiCom government thinks everyone not being Han Chinese, everyone not believing in the same government-approved view of religion, everyone not marching lock in step with Winnie the Pooh, is a "threat" to stability and peace in China, is not just tragic in human terms, but it is tragic most because it is a wrong belief. That leads to unnecessary suffering.

And then, there's this question. Why do Muslim states stay silent over China’s abuse of the Uighurs? Nations that claim to be defenders of the faith offer no protest to the concentration camps - why is that? Uh, sorry, that must've sounded like a rhetorical question.

kiaa

For decades, the authorities here in Switzerland had been crafting an image for this country as the perfect place to live, while getting rid of anyone who failed to match the established norms. As it turns out, people in debt, underage mothers, or those with children born out of wedlock, were treated with intentional cruelty by the Swiss state. They were being accused of depravity and indolence, and all sorts of sins were being ascribed to them, like alcoholism.

https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/past-injustices_enduring-pain-of-switzerland-s-mistreated-children/40615994

( Read more... )

mahnmut

Seen around the webs.

( See more... )

fridi

Let's look at this from another angle. In about 10-15 years some of these kids in Cages presently panicked and shrieking for mother are going to be hormone rushed teens or 20+ and with memories of the American brutes with uniforms, badges, and guns who tore them away from their screaming, pleading, agonized, terrorized, and utterly powerless mothers. At that time Americans will once again scratch their heads and wonder, "Why do they hate us?"

Let's also not forget the cartels themselves (the ones who smuggle those kids to the border and subject them to all sorts of abuse on the way) are mostly funded by American drug habits. How much can a nation exploit and abuse other societies before they finally admit culpability? How many human rights abuses are we okay with excusing for the protection of an imaginary line in the sand?

I guess it makes sense that the right move for the most powerful and arrogant country on Earth is prosecuting and further abusing people who are already taken advantage of instead of, ya know, attacking the actual organized crime infrastructure that allows that kind of thing to exist.

( But looking at the larger picture )

mahnmut

This is about escape from responsibility. I'm talking of a scandal that almost no one cares about: a number of Western governments don't want to take responsibility for their citizens who've joined ISIS and who've now been detained. The Syrian Kurds for example are having huge difficulties keeping the large number of captured ISIS fighters, so they're hoping the West would take their own citizens back at some point, and prosecute them there. And because the situation on the ground is pretty dire and unstable, there's a risk that the detained jihadists could be set free and join the fight again.

The ministers of defense of the anti-terrorist coalition met earlier this month in Rome to discuss this problem. James Mattis, the US secretary of defense (being the Kurds' biggest ally) tried to convince his European partners of the necessity of such a step. But he was unsuccessful: neither the British nor the French showed any readiness to take their citizens back. Germany's position still remains unclear.

( Read more... )

johnny9fingers

www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/11/un-myanmars-treatment-of-rohingya-textbook-example-of-ethnic-cleansing

When even Aung San Suu Kyi can't or won't speak out against this some folk wonder why some of us get a bit picky about even casual stereotyping. Personally, I monitor my own responses to things, trying to make sure they fit in with my values, not my prejudices. It doesn't always work, obviously, because apart from being a self-righteous prig, I'm also human; frail in courage, and aware of my frailty.

Good ol' Desmond Tutu, an honourable and decent chap, with a track record of burying his personal prejudices in favour of his values and beliefs, has actually written to Aung San Suu Kyi urging her to remember her heroism, and rekindle it in the cause of justice.

Now, the matter may appear to be complicated by the fact that the Rohingya are Muslim, and a number of generations previous hailed from Bengal. And the people of Myanmar are Buddhists, that most peaceful of religions. Also, the Bengalis were invited to what was then Burma by the British Empire, as the Empire also relocated many thousands of Indians throughout the world. (Which may be why the Indians were expelled from various countries in Africa, as the African nations adopted the fasces of nationalism in their quest for national identity. Such governments evidently so worried about Indian domination of business and commerce, that mere decades down the line they were happy to sell their natural resources to China for infrastructure development. It's almost like the British building the railways in India, but cleverer.)

Be that as it may, what do the panel think about those nice peaceful Buddhists committing acts of ethnic cleansing against those awful Muslim chaps? And is it time to round up all the Nobel peace prize winners and jail them, just on sus, of course, having profiled the observable criminal acts committed by some of the winners since Kissinger? Of course these are the exceptions; most peace prizes going to spectacularly great-souled folk like Malala Yousafzai or Desmond Tutu. But until recently I would have tried to shoehorn Aung San Suu Kyi into that group.

And in some respects this is why we monitor ourselves and each other as part of a community; to prevent ourselves from succumbing to our baser natures. Else we would rend and slash and slay our way though our short lives on our path to painful death.

Other people may be hell, as Sartre opined, but they sure as hell civilise us.

nairiporter.livejournal.com

Hundreds of men, captured in raids against Al Qaeda extremists, have disappeared into a secret network of prisons in South Yemen, where torture and abuse is the norm and people are subjected to horrible forms of "interrogation", AP reports:

In Yemen's secret prisons, UAE tortures and US interrogates

One of the most shocking examples is the so called "grilling", where the subject is strapped to a "spit" as if to be baked alive, and they are rotated over a ring of fire.

AP's investigation has documented at least 18 illegal prisons in South Yemen that are run by the UAE or allied Yemeni forces, created and trained by the UAE. The reporters are citing testimony of former inmates and their families, lawyers and human-rights activists, and Yemeni military personnel.

These prisons were concealed, inaccessible to the local government, which gets aid from the UAE in its civil war against the rebels. The secret prisons are located in military bases, ports and one airport, in private houses and even in a night-club. Some inmates were transferred by air to an UAE base at the other side of the Red Sea, in Eritrea, Yemeni minister of the interior Hussain Arab said.

( Read more... )

luvdovz.livejournal.com

Obama gives Congress Guantanamo closure plan

About fucking time, eh? Not that the guys who believed the plan was unacceptable the first time, would believe it's any more acceptable this time around. Shame the fearmongering Congress doesn't trust US prisons, hmmm. And in the meantime, they're so hell-bent on keeping the steady influx of prisoners for the profit of their fat buddies from the private jail industry.

In the meantime, the wild promises keep coming from all sides. What wouldn't some people do to get a few more votes from the "base". For instance, Rubio has vowed that if he's elected (not gonna happen), future captured militants would not be granted a federal court hearing. "They are going to Guantanamo, and we are going to find out everything they know", he said. Well, thanks inquisitor Rubio for your approval. Now let us continue with the inquisition. Because torture totally yields results, right?

Here's the deal. Either charge the prisoners and try them, or let them go. If I were one of those prisoners and I had had over a dozen years of my life wasted by being locked up and tortured for no clear reason, I sure as hell would devote the rest of my life to hunting down and killing Americans. As for hypocritical Americans, your commitment to human rights is paper-thin. But then again, nobody is surprised about that anyway. This atrocity of a place should've been closed years ago. It's a stain on America's credibility. Beacon of freedom and liberty? Pfeh. Do you take us for a bunch of idiots?

nairiporter.livejournal.com

Dozens of migrant children are being held against their will for months and even years by the Australian authorities in a detention center for refugees located in Nauru, in the middle of the Pacific - a place merely the size of 21 square kilometers, CNN has reported.

The kids unequivocally describe that place as a prison. They are forced to live behind fences, they are searched every time they enter or exit the camp, including on their way to school. They feel threatened and abused by the omnipresent supervisors. But most of all, they are depressed by the lack of any hope in life, and the sense of their fading dreams of decent education and a better life beyond the confines of that tiny island.

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ddstory.livejournal.com

Private messages at work can be read by employers, says court

Employees in the EU better watch out from now on. Their bosses can snoop into their online communications, a human rights court has ruled. The whole case started with a scandal in 2007 where a Romanian engineer was fired after his boss had found out he was using Yahoo Messenger to chat not only for professional but also personal purposes. And the company's policy forbade that. The guy filed a lawsuit, arguing that his right of privacy had been violated. But the EU human rights court rejected his complaint, saying it was acceptable that an employer would want to make sure their employees are doing their professional tasks during worktime.

The court also absolved the company of any guilt, as it decided they had assumed they'd only find professional communications when looking into the guy's chat. The conclusion was that the company had achieved a balance between respecting personal space and upholding the interests of the employer. As we know, all EU human rights court decisions are valid for all member states that have ratified the European human rights convention, which means this precedent will send ripples throughout most of the continent now.

( Two opposing positions on the matter )

dreamville-bg.livejournal.com

I came across this short story around our local blogosphere here, and though it isn't my creation, I've taken the task of translating it into English, and I would be grateful if the mods allow my version to be posted here, as I think it helps illustrate a point - even if it sounds a bit silly and hyperbolical. So here it is.

( The short story )

luzribeiro.livejournal.com

The irony of Iran rallying behind the cause of a champion for the freedom of speech and religious equality...

...And the Saudis' absolute disregard for human rights, even in the face of a universal global outcry.

Iran leader sees 'divine vengeance' for Saudi cleric execution

As the Daily Mail summarizes the story of this, ehm, martyr for human rights,

( So who in the name of Allah is this Al-Nimr and where did he come from!? )

Naturally, the top concern that the West seems to be having from the whole story is not the violation of human rights itself, not even the imminent escalation of tensions between the two most powerful, ruthless, and heavily armed regional players in an already very volatile region, but... wait for it... Do Their Missiles Threaten Us?

No, dear. They do not threaten us. They've never threatened us. But that's not the main problem here, is it?

You guessed right: it's the oil, stupid. Apparently, now that Iran is back into the oil game, the Saudi-Iranian oil rivalry, now mixed with geopolitical struggles across Iraq and Syria (with too many players involved, like Turkey, Russia, Europe, etc), is going to make the playfield rather bumpy and unpredictable. What, even more unpredictable than it already is, you'd ask? Yeah, that's right. Cue the apocalyptic prophets about a double-dip global recession, peak oil, WW3, the Four Horsemen and whatnot.

paft.livejournal.com

Last March, the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) announced plans to shut off water service for 1,500 to 3,000 customers every week if their water bills were not paid. And on Tuesday, the City Council approved an 8.7-percent water rate increase.

According to a DWSD document, more than 80,000 residential households – in a city of 680,000 people – are in arrears, with thousands of families without water, and thousands more expected to lose access at any moment...

Over the last decade, Detroit residents have seen water rates rise by 119 percent, according to a press release Wednesday.

With unemployment rates at a record high and the poverty rate at about 40 percent, Detroit water bills are unaffordable to a significant portion of the population.

Many of those affected by the shut-offs were given no warning.

Insanity. What exactly do the authorities imagine is going to happen to those thousands of people -- many of them disabled, children, infants, etc. -- without access to potable water?

If Cholera breaks out, how do they intend to deal with it?

You know, I can remember once posting to a board about the privatization of water and the dangers it poses to the life and health of countless low income Americans. Some blase moderate yawned and said, "call me when you can cite large numbers of people in the US being denied easy access to potable water."

Wish I could remember which dozy moderate to call.

nairiporter.livejournal.com

In 2010 it became clear that the FIFA World Cup in 2022 would be hosted by Qatar. A very controversial result that stirred calls for boycotts, and even for a re-vote. Still, the projects for the new stadiums have already been initiated, with some massive construction works going on all around the tiny country. From the day when the construction started, until today, various construction incidents have claimed the lives of at least 1200 workers, mostly from India and Nepal. This fact, as well as the horrible overall working conditions for foreigners in Qatar, have caused a major outcry around the world.

According to a recent Amnesty International report, guest workers in Qatar have been subject to exploitation for much longer than that, and this is not only limited to the construction sector. That NGO has explored the working conditions of the housekeepers and chambermaids in the wealthy Gulf monarchy, and the conclusion is that not only do they receive ridiculously low wages, but they often work for 100+ hours a week, without breaks and days off, they suffer from insomnia, frequent humiliation and violence at the hands of their employers - or should I say, masters.

( Read more... )

paft.livejournal.com

Forbes Columnnist John Tamny, on the Daily Show: I think food stamps are cruel… I don’t think anyone is happy if they are reliant on somebody else, if they’re taking a handout.

Jessica Williams: Okay, well what about kids being hungry, nobody getting the food that they deserve or need?

Tamny: I think if people were literally starving, you would see a massive outpouring a charity to make up for that fact.

Williams: What does ‘literally starving’ look like?

Tamny: This is going to come off the wrong way, but I guess it’s where literally people have distended bellies, where they’re getting almost nothing. We don’t hear about the poor in this country starving on the streets…

I guess for Mr. Tamny “com(ing) off the wrong way” means, making sights like this come across as a BAD thing:

( Read more )

htpcl.livejournal.com

Welcome to my mid-20th century world, you fellow ~~chauvinistic xenophobians (sic?!)~~ peace-loving tolerant folks who want nothing but love and harmony throughout the Universe! Let's begin today's rant with a picture. Yep, this is a wall. OK, let's say it's a fence. But we call it a wall. Anyway. Could you try to guess where it's located? Palestine? North Korea? Arizona?

Nah. I won't torture you any longer. The wall/fence/whatever is on the Turkish-Bulgarian border. Riiiight here. Or somewhere there. ---> WIKI-LINKY.

It's being built by the Bulgarian government in one of the most critical sections of the border, where the most frequent violations of the so called "green line" seem to occur (that's how the loosely secured middle part of the Turkish-Bulgarian border is called). We used to have some intrusions in that area from foot-and-mouth infected cows in recent years, but although we were seriously "considering" the option, we never built any fences anyway.

But now things have changed. There's a much greater threat to the national security, you know. By raising this facility, our authorities are hoping to redirect the flow of Syrian refugees toward the border checkpoints. Our minister of the interior justified this measure with the statement that, if Bulgaria doesn't manage to contain and control the influx of refugees, that could "cause a humanitarian crisis, and threaten the very functionality of the country's social system". He also expressed concern about a potential rise of crime, and a possible sneaking in of terrorists along with the rest of the refugees. You know, bad apples.

( So what does this speak of? )

telemann.livejournal.com

A participant in the "kissing protests" was attacked and kicked in a recent Moscow protest*

In the Sunday edition, the New York Times published an Op Ed by New York City actor, playwright, and producer Harvey Fierstein condemning the Russian crackdown on gay rights; with an appeal to use the upcoming Winter Olympic games in Sochi as a platform to condemn the homophobic policies of President Putin and the Russian parliament.

Mr. Fierstein noted in his op-ed:

...just six months before Russia hosts the 2014 Winter Games, Mr. Putin signed a law allowing police officers to arrest tourists and foreign nationals they suspect of being homosexual, lesbian or “pro-gay” and detain them for up to 14 days. Contrary to what the International Olympic Committee says, the law could mean that any Olympic athlete, trainer, reporter, family member or fan who is gay — or suspected of being gay, or just accused of being gay — can go to jail.
Earlier in June, Mr. Putin signed yet another antigay bill, classifying “homosexual propaganda” as pornography. The law is broad and vague, so that any teacher who tells students that homosexuality is not evil, any parents who tell their child that homosexuality is normal, or anyone who makes pro-gay statements deemed accessible to someone underage is now subject to arrest and fines. Even a judge, lawyer or lawmaker cannot publicly argue for tolerance without the threat of punishment.

Mr. Fierstein pointed to a recent case of a 23 year old gay man murdered in Volograd. When the man stated he was gay, he was beaten, his body violated with beer bottles, his clothing set on fire, his head crushed with a rock and his genitals removed. The crime was so ghastly, it's an example of homophobia being described as the motivation of the attack (most Russian authorities deny there are such attacks).

Recalling how the world largely ignored Adolf Hitler's treatment of Jewish citizens during the 1936 Olympic Games in Munich, in addition to a call on the International Olympic Committee, and political leaders to vocalize their concerns about the curbing of human rights, there is also a movement to have Olympic atheletes condemn the Russian policies by wearing gay right emblems on their uniforms, and speaking out when ever it's possible. I don't know how effective such a campaign would be, some in Russia already seem to have persecution complex, reminiscent of the Soviet era, or the Politburo in China complaining about Western interference regarding civil rights within their own country. But the moral imperative to speak out against brute bigotry, and discrimination against an entire class of a country's citizens demands action.

Four Dutch nationals who were making a film on gay rights were recently arrested and interrogated by authorities for "promoting homosexual propaganda," which is the first known instance of the new law being implemented.

The original Op-Ed piece that ran in the New York Times.

Harvey Fierstein's Wikipedia entry.

lantean-breeze.livejournal.com

You've probably come across this already in whatever daily news you choose to read. So, I don't feel the need to post a link here. This case will go down in our nation's history. What it will go down as will vary by the person. Me? I think justice was shot and killed with this verdict, just like Trayvon.

----

Edit: I've been told I need to write more about my opinion, and so I guess maybe I picked the wrong topic to do a post on because really, right now I am just shocked. I do not have the fluidity of thought right now because I truly am just shocked. I'm not sure if this qualifies as an opinion, but that is my current state at the moment. I just can't... I really can't. A boy is dead and his killer gets to go free. It's not like they just bumped into each other and got in a fight. He was stalked and preyed upon, and his killer gets to go free. I'm sorry, but I just can't.

To the mods: I'm sorry if this isn't good enough and I wasted time in posting, but this is all I can do right now.
-----

"A jury's acquittal of George Zimmerman in the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin sparked waves of disappointment, from some of the nation's best-known civil rights leaders to the streets outside a Sanford, Fla., courthouse.

A clearly shaken NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous said, "This is a heartbreaking moment. This will confirm for many that the only problem with the New South is it occupies the same time and space as the old South.""

Post your thoughts, as I know there are many.

Mood: disgusted
Music: We Shall Overcome... Someday.

paft.livejournal.com

As an incurable bleeding-heart, I’m always on the lookout for someone suffering, and that includes people with whom I disagree. The sight of human pain should cause us all to put aside our differences. Megyn Kelly is suffering right here, on national television.

She’s thrown this Fox News Alert about presumably explosive remarks from Attorney General Eric Holder. “About the Boston bombings – which are already – making news,” she says haltingly, either reading from a teleprompter or repeating what’s coming through her earphone. “This is just coming in, we’re trying to turn the tape from you so you can hear it from the man himself,” she adds, rather hopefully.

Alas, the tape just can’t be “turned,” so Kelly is forced to tell us herself what Holder said.

( Read more )

fizzyland.livejournal.com

Recently conservatives and others were upset at the restrictions of liberty in NYC, which banned drink sizes over a certain amount, most arguing that just because government can do a thing, does not mean they should do a thing.

Last week the North Dakota House passed their stringent "fetal personhood" amendment with a 57-35 vote, which, when proposed to voters in 2014, will ban all abortion with no exceptions for rape, incest, or when the woman's life is endangered by the pregnancy.

Is there a particular expertise within the North Dakota legislature on the civil and legal issues of Personhood? Do we really want basic human rights put to referendum?

Mind you, this is following on the heels of the nation's most restrictive abortion law, making abortions illegal after 6 weeks. Is abortion really that big an issue in a State with only one abortion clinic? Hold that - turns out that a tricksy Senate bill within the State is going to force that clinic to close so make that zero clinics.

Since abortion is a federally protected right I would say that this is just a cynical exercise in attempting to push a court case to SCOTUS in the hope that Justice Scalia would make some ruling that since women weren't voting citizens when the Constitution was penned, then they aren't Persons anyway. The Bill's sponsor has admitted that the purpose of it is to raise a Roe V. Wade challenge.

Fetal personhood. Forcing women to carry all pregnancies to term regardless of their situation or risks to their health. Is this an idea whose time has come?

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Talk politics.

A place to discuss politics without egomaniacal mods.

Entries tagged with human rights

The Uighur tragedy

Paradise, and its dirty secret

A tale of atrocity

Kids in cages

Get rid of 'em the easy way

Why eternal vigilance and self monitoring is needed.

Grill baby grill

I'll believe it when I see it

Of roaches, and forgotten dreams

Your boss can read your private chat now

Integrate this!

Shit just got real down there

(no subject)

Qatar's new slavewomen

Don't be Cruel! Cut off all Food Stamps.

Yet another wall

Harvey Fierstein New York Times Op-Ed / Russia’s brutal crack down on gay rights

When A Killer Is Set Free Is It "Old South Justice"? (George Zimmerman Trial)

Won't Someone Please Help this Poor Woman?

Are women people? The North Dakota legislature seems not to think so

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May 2025

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