Tag: Human Rights

ICC Looks At Ukraine

The International Criminal Court has issued a statement that it will be looking into the possibility that the forces of ‘Vlad the Invader’ (Russia) is committing human rights abuses against the population of Ukraine.

As Russian forces rolled into the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson on Wednesday, Mayor Igor Kolykhayev said a “miracle” was needed. It apparently did not arrive. The mayor says Kherson has fallen, making the strategic city of around 300,000 residents the first major city to be captured by the invaders in the week-old conflict, the New York Times reports. Kolykhayev tells the Times that Ukrainian forces have retreated and a Russian commander is in city hall, working on setting up a Russian administrative center. “There is no Ukrainian Army here,” the mayor says. “The city is surrounded.” More:

  • Military denied city had fallen. Earlier Wednesday, the Ukrainian military denied Russia’s claim that it had taken control of the city, the Washington Post reports. The mayor said troops had visited his office to work out an agreement on limits on civilian movement, including a curfew and an order for vehicles to travel at “minimum speed.”
  • Peace talks expected to resume Thursday. The resumption of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, earlier expected to happen late Wednesday, is now expected Thursday, reports the AP. Officials on both sides say delegations are on their way to talks in Belarus. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that while Ukraine is ready for talks to resume, his country will not accept any ultimatums from Russia.
  • Reports of atrocities referred to ICC. Some 39 countries have submitted reports of atrocities in Ukraine to the International Criminal Court, a move that will speed up the investigation process, the Guardian reports. Liz Truss, Britain’s foreign secretary, said Russian forces were targeting civilians indiscriminately. “An investigation by the International Criminal Court into Russia’s barbaric acts is urgently needed,” she said. Prosecutor Karim Khan said an investigation will be opened immediately.
  • Humanitarian crisis looms in Mariupol. The deputy mayor of Mariupol, another port city, told the BBC on Wednesday that Russian forces were trying to “destroy the city” with 15 hours of continuous bombardment. Serhiy Orlov said key infrastructure had been hit, parts of the city were short on food, and a residential area had been nearly destroyed. “We cannot count the number of victims there, but we believe at least hundreds of people are dead,” he said. “We cannot go in to retrieve the bodies. My father lives there, I cannot reach him, I don’t know if he is alive or dead.”
  • Center of Kharkiv is a “wasteland.” The Russian advance on Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, has apparently stalled, but troops have surrounded the country’s second city, Kharkiv, where heavy shelling has left the center a “wasteland of ruined buildings and debris,” reports Reuters. Dozens of people have been killed. Oleksiy Arestovich, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said, “Kharkiv today is the Stalingrad of the 21st century.”

This should be looked into….but sadly their findings will come to nothing.

Why?

The major abusers of human rights like China, Russia, Israel and even the US do not recognize the authority of this organization or its findings.

CNN has stated that it will compile evidence to present to the ICC…..what would that be?

So far all MSM is basic reporting what they are told has happened….none of their journalists have seen these possible abuses first hand only the aftermath.

Why Ukraine?

They have not been so forthcoming it the US drone strikes or the Saudi/UAE destruction of Yemen or the Israeli treatment of Palestinians or hundreds of other ‘minor’ wars.

What is it about Ukraine that they feel they need to weigh into the legal proceedings?

I understand the gravity of war….but why is UKraine the only one?

I think that ALL nations if they have signed onto the UN charter should have to submit to these investigations and should abide by the rulings.

All these proceedings will accomplish is to generate propaganda tools to be used by the nation abused.

Just my thoughts…..

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Rohingya–Another Forgotten People

I have recently wrote a post about the Muslim minority in China, the Uighurs.

They are not alone in this world of mistreatment….there is the Rohingya Muslim minority of Myanmar(Burma)…..probably most Americans are ignorant about the plight of these people….and that is where the Old Professor comes in…..

The Rohingya are an ethnic group, the majority of whom are Muslim, who have lived for centuries in the majority Buddhist Myanmar. Currently, there are about 1.1 million Rohingya in the Southeast Asian country.

The Rohingya speak Rohingya or Ruaingga, a dialect that is distinct to others spoken throughout Myanmar. They are not considered one of the country’s 135 official ethnic groups and have been denied citizenship in Myanmar since 1982, which has effectively rendered them stateless.

Nearly all of the Rohingya in Myanmar live in the western coastal state of Rakhine and are not allowed to leave without government permission. It is one the poorest states in the country, with ghetto-like camps and a lack of basic services and opportunities.

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/08/rohingya-muslims-170831065142812.html

I have written about the plight of these people…..some 3 years ago…..https://lobotero.com/2017/11/20/the-rohingya-search-for-a-home/

The Rohinyga have fled to Bangledesh and are now in camps in a country that hates them….

The exodus began on 25 August 2017 after Rohingya Arsa militants launched deadly attacks on more than 30 police posts.

Rohingyas arriving in Bangladesh said they fled after troops, backed by local Buddhist mobs, responded by burning their villages and attacking and killing civilians.

At least 6,700 Rohingya, including at least 730 children under the age of five, were killed in the month after the violence broke out, according to medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

Amnesty International says the Myanmar military also raped and abused Rohingya women and girls

The government, which puts the number of dead at 400, claims that “clearance operations” against the militants ended on 5 September, but BBC correspondents have seen evidence that they continued after that date.

At least 288 villages were partially or totally destroyed by fire in northern Rakhine state after August 2017, according to analysis of satellite imagery by Human Rights Watch.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41566561

AS usual I will try to help my readers that have an aversion to the printed word with a couple of short videos…..

And for those that need the video crisis is explained…..

The Rohingyas are yet another minority that deserves more attention than they are given.

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“lego ergo scribo”

SecState Human Rights Report

Pompeo’s State Department has decided that they would cherry pick rights….proving that this admin does not believe in equality or in human rights for all…..

Human rights advocates denounced as “dangerous” a draft report released Thursday by the U.S. State Department’s controversial Commission on Unalienable Rights that paints property rights and religious liberty as “foremost among the unalienable rights that government is established to secure” while casting doubt on other liberties, including reproductive freedom.

“Make no mistake: this report was not designed with principles of equality, justice, and rights in mind. Instead, it serves as another stepping stone in the White House’s radical, isolationist, anti-rights, anti-scientific, religious agenda,” Serra Sippel, president of the Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE), said in a statement.

“The Commission on Unalienable Rights is a thinly veiled religious fundamentalist panel, and the people on it should have absolutely no say about the human rights of people all over the world,” Sippel declared, calling the panel “a dangerous distraction from the fact that this administration does not believe that all people are equal and entitled to human rights.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/07/17/pompeo-panel-pushes-radical-isolationist-anti-rights-anti-scientific-religious

No should be surprised…..Pompeo is just echoing the crap he spread when he was in Congress….the only difference now is that he has a power to make some of these outdated manure into law of the land.

Even people that worked for him tried to change things……

A State Department whistleblower attempted to warn the agency’s Office of Legal Affairs about “questionable” activities involving Secretary Mike Pompeo but was “blocked” from doing so, according to the complaint.

McClatchy reported Sunday that the complaint, made public through a lawsuit filed by the watchdog group American Oversight, alleged the unnamed employee and other “eyewitnesses” were prevented from sharing concerns about Pompeo’s activities in the U.S. and abroad with superiors and legal authorities at the agency despite repeated attempts.

The State Department declined McClatchy’s request for comment on the whistleblower complaint. However, in explaining redactions made to the whistleblower complaint, the agency’s lawyers revealed that Pompeo still remains the target of at least one active investigation despite arranging the firing of the agency’s inspector general in May.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/508050-whistleblower-alleges-repeated-attempts-were-made-to-report-pompeos

Pompeo has given all pretense of being the chief diplomat of the US and is acting as an agent for Trump’s agenda….not the country’s agenda.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s Commission on Unalienable Rights unveiled its long-anticipated report in Philadelphia, ahead of which Pompeo delivered a speech more fitting for a Trumpian candidate for president in 2024 than a person serving in the apolitical position of secretary of state. Pompeo also published an op-ed in the Washington Post in which he devoted far more space to slamming his fellow Americans for “outrageous efforts to erase American history by tearing down statues of our nation’s founders” than he did to the worst human rights abusers around the world.

In calling for a return to our founding principles, Pompeo’s Philadelphia speech acknowledged almost in passing that “at our nation’s founding our country fell far short of securing the rights of all. The evil institution of slavery was our nation’s gravest departure from these founding principles. We expelled Native Americans from their ancestral lands.” This was one step in the right direction. The United States is a stronger advocate for human rights around the world when we acknowledge our own shortcomings and invite other nations and peoples to join us striving to improve. To that end, Pompeo should also have mentioned that women were denied the right to vote until the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920, or that two-tiered citizenship in the Jim Crow South ended only a full century after emancipation.

Mike Pompeo Has Given Up Being Secretary of State

We can only hope that come November these bigoted tools are replaced with someone with a bit of compassion and foresight.

We can make that happen but not if you do not VOTE!

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“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought-06Aug18

Slavery is alive and well!

The US does more to support modern day slavery than most Americans know……support may be the worse word to use but it still tells the story.

A new survey on modern slavery around the world pegs the number of people in the US who fall into that category at about 400,000, reports the Guardian. The new Global Slavery Index also puts the number worldwide at 40.3 million and rising. While modern slaves in the US make up just a fraction of that figure, the group behind the survey—the Walk Free Foundation—says America plays a deeper role in the problem as the biggest importer of goods produced by suspected slave labor. The 2016 estimate was $144 billion worth of such goods. Other report highlights:

  • Worst offenders: North Korea has the highest concentration of modern slaves, who account for 1 in 10 of the population, or 2.6 million people, reports CNN. Then comes Eritrea, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Afghanistan, Mauritania, South Sudan, Pakistan, Cambodia, and Iran.
  • Women hit hardest: The vast majority of modern slaves, 71%, are women, reports Axios. The usual route is through forced marriages.
  • Solutions: The foundation calls for outlawing forced marriages, setting a minimum marriage age of 18, setting up a database of human trafficking cases, and bringing greater transparency to the world’s supply chain.
  • One victim: “Over 40 million people … they are not numbers,” says North Korean defector Yeon-mi Park, who escaped to China only to be forced into a marriage, per the AP. “It could be anyone. It was me. It was my mother. It was my sister. Even now, there are 300,000 North Korean defectors in China, and 90% of them are being trafficked. They are being sold by Chinese men for a few hundred dollars.”

Human trafficking is a blight on this world…..every civilized nation should be part of the solution and not part of the problem.

My week begins and Monday comes to an end….at least my posting…..be well, be safe….chuq

Closing Thought–01Aug18

There are always news reports that do not make it to the MSM because of something more important happening around Our Dear Leader……one such story is the new law passed in Israel….you know Israel the only democracy in the Middle East?

The new law passed craps all over that long suffering LIE…..

Israel passed a law this week that has been floating around the Knesset for a half-dozen years. Branded the “nation-state bill,” the legislation declares that Israel is the historic homeland of the Jewish people, and that “the right to exercise national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people.” It establishes Hebrew as the official language of Israel and downgrades Arabic to a language with “special status,” even though many people in Israel’s sizeable Arab minority primarily speak in Arabic. The law also asserts that Jewish settlement—without specifying where—is a national value, and promises to encourage and advance settlement efforts.

(The Atlantic)

Not very democratic now is it?  But not to worry there is more to add to the LIE of democracy……

The fate of thousands of African Christians living in Israel is uncertain. The government intends to expel them, but questions remain over where the migrants will go and how the Jewish state will make it happen.

https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2018/april/israel-eritrean-sudanese-christian-migrants-asylum-tel-aviv.html

The move to deport Black Jews and non-Jews back to Africa buys Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plenty of credibility with his country’s far-right voters. He even added a couple of words to the label to make these poor African natives, many of whom gave birth to children in Israel, sound terrible. He labeled them, “illegal labor infiltrators.” Netanyahu even took the time to blame advocacy for the soon to be exported “infiltrators” on NGO’s funded by billionaire philanthropist, George Soros.

(dailynewsbite.com)

Interesting from a state set up for asylum seekers, huh?

Now ask yourself why the world lets Israel get away with all sorts of crimes….theft, murder, racist BS and still tries to convince the world they are a democracy.

Why is Israel allowed to maintain an inhuman, 11-year illegal blockade of essential goods and services against 1.8 million civilians in Gaza, now virtually without electricity 24/7 and kept near to starvation and collapse, in an Israeli bid to illegally force regime change?

Why is Israel allowed to illegally occupy the Syrian Golan Heights?

Why is Israel allowed to illegally occupy the old city of Arab East Jerusalem?

Why is Israel allowed to have induced 600,000 of its citizens to illegally occupy the Palestinian West Bank in violation of the Geneva Conventions on Human Rights?

https://www.globalresearch.ca/why-is-israel-not-being-held-to-the-same-international-standards-as-all-other-un-member-states/5647568

The answers my friend are blowing in the wind…….Israel thumbs its nose at the world and human rights after playing the victim card for 25 years to get what they wanted all along……the world needs to take notice……

Remember the date, 19 July 2018 is when Israel’s pretense of democracy, the Knesset passed the Nation State Bill, which could more aptly be called, the “Jewish State Apartheid Law” where Jews dominate the Israeli Palestinian Arabs who are lesser than them, even if they are citizens. I deliberately did not say Israeli Jews because the law gives all rights in historic Palestine to Jews, not only in Israel but across the world, including those Jews that do not identify with the state.

https://theantimedia.com/israel-apartheid-state/

Time to stop using the word “democracy” when referring to Israel.  It is time for Israel to stand on their on and stop hiding behind the skirt of the US.  Time for our Congress to start doing the business of this nation and let Israel go about their murderous ways without us.

We all remember just what damage fascism did to the Jewish population of Europe back in the 1930-40’s, right?

Then what would make Israel embrace the numerous fascist movements of modern day Europe?

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban visited Israel on 19 July where he met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials. Orban’s visit would have not required much pause except that the Hungarian leader has been repeatedly branded for his often racist, anti-Semitic remarks.

So why is Orban wining and dining with the leaders of the so-called ‘Jewish State’?

The answer does not pertain only to Orban and Hungary, but to Israel’s attitude towards the rapidly growing far-right movements in Europe as a whole. Netanyahu and Zionist leaders everywhere are not just aware of this massive political shift in European politics but are, in fact, working diligently to utilize it in Israel’s favor.

On his visit to Israel, Orban asserted that Hungarian Jewish citizens should feel safe in his country, an odd statement considering that it was Orban and his party that deprived many Jews and other members of minority groups of any feeling of safety.

https://theantimedia.com/israel-embracing-fascism-europe/

Just another illustration of why Israel is no more a democracy than I am a Mexican gardener……

The Moral High Ground Is Gone

For many years the US has been the champion of human rights…we have tried to help when there has been a refugee crisis…that is until about 25 years ago when we started pulling away from any responsibility for we were helping create the problem.

Misery has become a weapon of war these days……

From Syria to Yemen, from South Sudan to Venezuela, war and political crisis are causing human anguish on a scale unseen in a generation.

That conflict and crisis take a high human toll is hardly new, of course. Yet the scope of suffering today is striking. The number of people displaced globally by conflict and persecution stood at 65.6 million at the end of 2016, the greatest number since World War II. Figures released earlier this month show that there were 11.8 million new internal displacements in 2017, nearly double the 6.9 million in 2016. The number of people facing acute hunger globally due largely to conflict and instability reached almost 74 million across eighteen countries in 2017. The trend is clear: war and crisis are destroying more lives and livelihoods, pushing more people toward starvation and driving more people from their homes.

https://www.crisisgroup.org/global/misery-strategy-human-cost-conflict

In the last 10 years we, the US, has contributed to the Middle East refugee crisis…..and now that we have officially pulled out of the UN humanitarian efforts we can NO longer claim any moral high ground and need to keep our mouths shut.

The crisis in the Syrian desert is just such an example……there is lots of finger pointing and little effort to solve the problem…..

Looking at a map, nothing would seem easier than to drive a convoy of food and medical supplies to Rukban, a camp for refugees and displaced civilians on the Syrian–Jordanian border some 260 kilometers east of Damascus. Though the terrain is rough, the camp is located in an area of relative calm and stability, and it could be reached from Amman, Damascus, or both. But Syria’s seven-year civil war says otherwise.

All sides now blame each other for preventing aid deliveries to the tens of thousands of Syrians trapped in this desolate desert region, and Rukban has emerged as a cruel illustration of how civilians are snared in the tangled threads of sovereignty and proxy control that constitute current-day Syria.

https://tcf.org/content/report/blame-game-syrians-stranded-desert/

Many countries contributed to the creation of this problem, including the US, and few want to help solve the very problems they have created.

Personally, my thoughts are if you had a hand in creating the problem then it is on your shoulders to solve it…..but instead we are asking those countries least able to weather the refugee crisis to do the heavy lifting.

I say that every defense contract has a provision in it that “X” amount of the profits go to a fund to help refugees…administered by Switzerland through the UN.

It is time for Americans to re-claim the moral high ground in war…but that will not happen in this writers lifetime….sad but there is hope, a small glimmer but hope nonetheless.

WE DEMAND the UN ADOPT OUR: The 2016 Humane Protocol | ForceChange

My friend and regular reader and commenter on IST, Maid, screen name on IST, has started a petition campaign…..please take some time and check out the petition and sign if you agree with her….

Target: UNITED NATIONS Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, The dead child’s image was the photo SHOT seen ROUND the WORLD. It should have been enough for the UNIT

Source: WE DEMAND the UN ADOPT OUR: The 2016 Humane Protocol | ForceChange

I like people that get involved….they are not just talk…..we need more people that feel it is their duty to do the right thing……and get involved.

KUDOS to @Maid…….you have my support!

Heads Will Roll!

Think back a couple of years (in today’s time limits….a lifetime ago)…..(pause here for the slow)…..the outrage was the beheading of prisoners by ISIS…..an American was one of the first….and the world went batcrap crazy……oh the barbarity!

Since ISIS began their campaign of terror and barbarity there is no accurate way to determine just how many people have lost their heads to ISIS……it is reported that this group has killed hundreds maybe even thousands…..like I say there is no accurate way to determine that I am aware of at this time.

I bring this up for a simple reason….Saudi Arabia….it seems that America’s greatest ally in the Middle East has taken it upon itself to behead more people than possibly ISIS.

Say what?

That is accurate……in 2015 so far the Saudis have behead 151 people…..

Saudi Arabia has executed at least 151 people so far this year – the most put to death in a single year since 1995.

The stark rise in the number of executions has seen, on average, one person killed every two days, according to the human rights group, Amnesty International.

The large number of executions shed further light on what Amnesty referred to as unfair judicial proceedings, with a disproportionate imposition of capital punishment on foreign nationals.

In total, 71 people executed so far in 2015 have been foreigners. The majority were migrant workers from poorer countries who are often sentenced to die without any knowledge of the court’s proceedings because they don’t speak Arabic and do not receive translations.

Why does Saudi Arabia get a free ride from the US…..they somehow are in the same category as Israel……we here tend to avoid criticizing them on their handling of situations…..

Sorry people……beheading no matter who wields the axe/sword is an act of barbarity and does not belong in a civilized world….but I guess you can do what you want if you are flush with cash and influence…..

Apparently cash can buy a whole lot of hypocrisy……

Just thought you should know……

Turn The Page!

Blinded By The Light

A great tune from Manfred Mann Earth Band (damn another rock reference…I’m da man!)

But in this case the light of which I speak is……… MONEY!

Saudi Arabia has lots of cash and with that they can demand lots of respect and attention…….recently a Saudi has been named the head of the UN Human Rights Organization……

Last week’s announcement that Saudi Arabia — easily one of the world’s most brutally repressive regimes — was chosen to head a U.N. Human Rights Council panel provoked indignation around the world. That reaction was triggered for obvious reasons. Not only has Saudi Arabia executed more than 100 people already this year, mostly by beheading (a rate of 1 execution every two days), and not only is it serially flogging dissidents, but it is reaching new levels of tyrannical depravity as it is about to behead and then crucify the 21-year-old son of a prominent regime critic, Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, who was convicted at the age of 17 of engaging in demonstrations against the government.

Few see a problem after all Saudi is one of America’s fine friends, right?

How can the UN put a regime like Saudi Arabia in control of human rights when they are beheading people, public caning, stoning, amputations even crucifying people……people condemn ISIS and AQ for their acts of barbarity and yet applaud Saudi for theirs…..

At what point is their actions and barbarity condemned and they are held away from the civilized world?

If this cruelty is wrong from ISIS then it is wrong for Saudi.

But let’s look a little further into the barbarity of the Saudi regime…….

Source: Ten Reasons to Oppose the Saudi Monarchy « Antiwar.com Blog

Amazing what cash can buy now…..Most of the world may be horrified at the selection of Saudi Arabia to head a key U.N. human rights panel, but the U.S. State Department most certainly is not. Quite the contrary: its officials seem quite pleased about the news.

Time for the US to get on the bandwagon and stop bowing and kissing the ass of cash!

Maybe we, the US, here should start acting like that “beacon of democracy” we claim to be…..

Enough said?

Baltimore: Same Problem With No Solution

Op-Ed from the Desk of chuq

I have not commented on the situation in Baltimore until now because I wanted to see what would shake out…..and so far it is the same song and dance (from the media that is)…….the same speculation, the same hysteria and the same call to dialog…….

Then I watched the blogs…….and many points are being made…….many good points but is anyone listening?  As well as a case for the game of choosing sides.  Of course the usual line of conversation around those “outside agitators” and “thugs”

The incident is all too familiar and there has got to be something done…..but we as a people are going about it all wrong……this should not not be a game of choosing sides…..and that is exactly what we are doing…..choosing sides.

There are some great reports about this subject and then there are a bunch of speculation and hype….none of which is a solution to the problem….all it accomplishes is to force us to choose sides….one over the other.

As usual the solution to the incident that caused the situation boils down to camera cams for the cops……But is it really?

Ask yourself…..if every cop had a body cam and recorded everything the person did…..would we ever see the tape?  Who would control the distribution….the cops?  Knowing the silence of the “Blue Line” would you seriously believe we would get the whole story?

Yes, a solution MUST be found and yes, a dialog is much needed…….but I do not see any of it coming to fruition in today’s society.  Experts are not the answers…..experts know nothing of the community that they say they are speaking about…….an opinion stated by someone who lives in a Manhattan penthouse is a worthless utterance…..for a picture can be painted and may not necessarily be accurate or helpful..  How silly is it for the “Haves” to be explaining the “Have Nots”?  The view from the penthouse gives them NO special insight.

The dialog about the dialog is not helping either.  The media sensationalism is not going to help.  Name calling is not going to help.  The media needs this to continue and they will do what they must to see that there is no quick resolution.

Think I am wrong?  Then think about what it offers the people……fake drama sold as reality…….it is what the viewer wants….and they get it.  How soon before someone tries to push this as a “race riot”?

The situation that gave us the horrible events in Ferguson, Staten Island and Baltimore and countless others is far from over……NO real dialog will be possible without honesty and commitment and now all we have is talk (not a dialog) and finger pointing….none of which is helping.

For now all eyes are on Baltimore and most of the chatter is NOT helping!  The eyes are looking at the protesters and the real problem goes to the back burner….that problem is the death of Mr. Gray and the tactics of violence used against the African-American community.

Promises are being made…….promises and more talk……and while we are talking this will happen again……and again.

A cycle that we know exists but NO one is willing to find a cure!

And we talk!