Subjects Archives: Human Rights

  DB: We continue our discussion of the revelations around a memo coming out of the Justice Department that the administration plans to keep up these assassinations and expand the program.  Joining us to take a legal look at this is Marjorie Cohn, Professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and former President of the […]

  Stories of police brutality are often told in a way that casts victims as helpless bystanders of cops run amok.  We met with Sean Pagan, a recent victim of police violence, and found that his story changes how we think about policing in New York.  Sean’s story shows that communities are finding new and […]

  Candlelit Vigil to Honor Martyrs of the Maspero Massacre Friday, 12th October 2012, 7:00 PM Union Square, Manhattan October 9, 2012 marked the one year anniversary of what has come to be known as the Maspero massacre, one of the numerous bloody attacks deliberately orchestrated and executed by counterrevolutionary forces under the direction of […]

  Testimony of Rev. Ismael Moreno Coto, S.J. for the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission hearing on “Worldwide Threats to Media Freedom,” 25 July 2012 Standing up for freedom of expression is, without a doubt, one of the most uncomfortable experiences in life; and in a country like Honduras, it means living with anxiety, insecurity, […]

  Oklahoma public-sector workers and activists speak out on the attacks on workers’ civil rights. Produced by the Labor Policy Institute of Oklahoma. | Print  

  There is an undeclared war going on in the United States that threatens the lynchpins of American intellectual freedom.  In a statement worthy of Cassandra, Noah Davis wrote in Business Insider last October,  “Amazon is coming for the book publishing industry.  And not just the e-book world, either.”  When titans battle, it is tempting […]

Victor Nieto is a cartoonist in Venezuela.  Cf. “A Libyan diplomat who served as ambassador to France for Muammar Gaddafi died from torture within a day of being detained by a militia from Zintan, Human Rights Watch said in a statement on Friday. . . .  On January 26, humanitarian group Medecins Sans Frontieres said […]

  “In 1969, a group of black and Puerto Rican students occupied City College demanding the integration of CUNY, which at the time had an overwhelmingly white student body.  The occupation spread to other CUNY campuses, forcing the Board of Trustees to implement a ground-breaking new admissions policy.” Such occupations also occurred in the 1980s […]

  This footage is proof that Scott Olsen was shot in the face by police without provocation during the Occupy Oakland march on Tuesday, October 25.  The moment leading up to the shooting, Olsen was standing completely still.  He was then hit in the head with a tear gas canister, which is potentially fatal.  Also, […]

  Nou dwe sèl mèt bout tè sa a: We should be the only owners of this land. From an anti-MINUSTAH protest last month.  Photo by Ansel Herz. This was Haitian protesters’ message at a demonstration last month against the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti, known by its French acronym, MINUSTAH.  October marks an upswing […]

  After a day of intensive debate, analysis and planning for cooperation and action, the Europe against Austerity Conference heard Coalition of Resistance Secretary Andrew Burgin propose the following Declaration, on behalf of the European Preparatory Committee.  The Declaration was unanimously endorsed by the Conference which was attended by over 600 people: This European conference […]

Zainab al-Hosni, dubbed the “Flower of Syria,” who the Syrian opposition claimed was tortured and murdered, burned and decapitated, by the Syrian government, has just appeared on Syrian TV, very much alive.  Here is the video of the TV interview with Zainab, who says she fled from her family home because her brothers were beating […]

  Francisco Rodríguez Cruz is a Cuban journalist and activist who for over a year has maintained a controversial blog committed to advancing the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community in Cuba.  This is a community that has experienced a difficult history of discrimination on the island. Paquito, as he is […]

  I have long been troubled by the anomaly of having officials — selected with absolutely no public scrutiny or confirmation — voting on some of the most important decisions the federal government makes.  Therefore, I introduced H.R. 1512, which eliminates the role of the Federal Reserve’s regional presidents as voting members of the Federal […]

Regarding the recent events in Libya, Rafael Quintero, Undersecretary for Asia, Africa, and Oceania, reiterated Ecuador’s disagreement with disrespect for the territorial integrity of that country.  He expressed Ecuador’s insistence that international conventions be complied with, that human rights in Libya be respected, and that no attempt be made to take the Libyan case as […]

  Hama has suffered for the (at least) past three weeks from lawlessness and nearly complete absence of the entire state and its organs, and from control by groups of armed teenagers and criminals who (left without any other choice, in the opinion of the US and French ambassadors) actually erected roadblocks and expropriated the […]

  After a two-hour standoff at sea, the U.S. Boat to Gaza The Audacity of Hope was seized by the Greek Coast Guard and forced to return to the port of Piraeus under military escort.  The boat’s captain has been put in jail, charged with disturbing sea traffic — which includes endangering the lives of […]

  June 22, 2011 Citizens from across Michigan today announced they are taking Michigan’s controversial emergency manager law to court, filing a lawsuit that charges Gov. Rick Snyder and the Legislature with implementing an unconstitutional power grab that effectively silences citizens. “The emergency manager law is a shameless power grab by Lansing politicians and their […]

  Tegucigalpa, 22 May 2011 This afternoon in the city of Cartagena, Colombia, former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya Rosales and incumbent regime leader Porfirio Lobo met to sign the Cartagena Accord. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, his foreign minister María Angela Holguín, and Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro added their signatures to this Accord as […]

(Scene: an elevator, downstage right.  Stuck inside are ROY COHN and ETHEL ROSENBERG, characters in Tony Kushner’s landmark play, Angels in America.  McCarthyite lawyer, ROY prosecuted Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were accused of spying for the USSR and executed in 1953.  ETHEL now paces impatiently, pushing elevator buttons.  Above the stage, captions from recent […]