Stories about Human Rights from June, 2006
North Korea: Holocaust-style camps
As North Korea prepares to test-fire an inter-continental ballistic missile—”The US and Japan have warned the North Koreans not to test-fire their ICBM; but the lunatics in charge of the failed Stalinist state, led by the Hitlerian tyrant Kim Jong-il, have insisted on their right to fire away.”—China Confidential‘s Confidential...
Iran: Former deputy in jail!
According to Ahmad Shirzad, Mr.Akbar Mousavi Khoiniha, former deputy of Parliament, is the only one who is not released from prison after 12 June demonstration. The blogger says Khoiniha was his colleague in Parliament and he was very active to discover underground and non declared prisons running out of reformist...
Immigration Checks in French Hospitals
Senegalese blogger Semett posts (Fr) a Medecins du Monde petition protesting the new French policy of conducting immigration checks in hospitals. Excerpt from the petition (Fr): “The right to care is inscribed in the preamble to the French constitution. It is a fundamental human right. It must never be used...
Albania: Uighur Ex-Prisoners
Alwyn Thomson of Our Man in Tirana provides an update on the fate of the five Uighurs, who were moved to Albania from Guantanamo, but are unlikely to settle there.
Turkmenistan: Enemies of the Motherland
Peter of neweurasia writes about accusations from the Turkmen government that implicate the French government and the OSCE in a plot to overthrow the Turkmen government.
Egypt: Alaa Released, Finally
Good News! Alaa's wife, Manal, reports that her husband was finally released. He will be back home tomorrow morning or maximum by Thursday. Congratulations Alaa!
Jamaica: Anti-gay groups
Francis Wade notes the arrival of the Lawyers Christian Fellowship and the National Church Alliance, the first organised anti-gay groups in Jamaica, and quotes a Jamaica Observer article which states that the groups have proposed that the phrase “free and democratic society” be replaced in the country's Charter of Rights...
Aung San Suu Kyi's Birthday in Detention
HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUNG SAN SUU KYI Originally uploaded by Ennor. As Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi spends yet another birthday in detention, online users are marking her birthday. Dr. Tyza at Burma Digest says We are celebrating you birthday all over the world. We, the citizens of the...
Morocco: Abolition of death penalty in Morocco
In Morocco, abolition of the death penalty is backed by NGOs such as the Association of Moroccan Bars, the Moroccan Association of Human Rights, the Moroccan Organisation of Human Rights, the Moroccan Forum of Truth and Justice, Amnesty Morocco, and the Moroccan Observatory of Prisons. The NGOs formed a national...
Haiti: Women prisoners
Archivex Haiti publishes a list of women imprisoned in Haiti compiled by the Haiti Information Project. According to the post, “the vast majority of the women prisoners on this list have never seen a judge in violation of the Haitian Constitution. Most consider themselves political prisoners and were arrested by...
Cuba: Remembering the dissidents
Dr. Eloy Gonzalez, a bilingual Cuban doctor resident in Fort Worth Texas, cites a Father's Day greeting from the young daughter of an imprisoned Cuban dissident in order to remind us of the 2004 incident in which the girl, along with the “Ladies in White” (a group comprising wives and...
Polish Blogosphere Roundup
With almost 20,000 names (and counting) added to a digital petition against a restrictive DRM (Digital Rights Management) bill in the Polish legislature, Poland IP news and resources reports that: Under the heavy critique of the public opinion the Ministry of Culture withdrew some most criticized provisions (inter alia changes...
Estonia: “A Simple Estonian Woman”
J. Otto Pohl writes about historians and the human suffering, quotes from a collection on Estonian women, and accuses certain U.S. university professors of lying: “Here we have ‘a simple Estonian woman’ providing more truth about the experience of communism than dozens of leftist university professors in the US who...
China: Disable certificate
Joel Martinsen in Danwei translated a local news story about an encounter between a train attendant and a disable man, asking for the disable certificate for his train ticket. Even though the disable man only had one leg the attendant insisted to have the document, finally another passenger stood up...
Truth and Consequences
The first thing that struck me as I passed by the Press Syndicate earlier this week to eavesdrop on a meeting of Egyptian bloggers was the Central Security trucks parked around the corner. The steel police barriers around the sidewalk and steps of the Syndicate were lightly manned by a...
Arabisc: The Arabic Bloggers Ken, Media, Anti-Blogging and the World Cup
Blogging nightmare… Starting with hot news this week, it looks that the Egyptian blogsphere is going to have more hard time in the near future. Following Aljazeera's one hour TV documentary (Arabic) about blogging and its role in the political scene in the Egyptian street, one of the oldest, biggest...
Bahamas: “Brokeback” and censorship
Nassau Bahamas Vacation reports that a group of lecturers at the College of Bahamas were refused permission by the Plays and Films Control Board to screen the film “Brokeback Mountain” in the context of a public lecture on the topic “Church, State and Human Rights: The Politics of Censorship”. “Brokeback...
South Korea: Call for International Support in Daechuri
An annoucement was put up in Days in Daechuri (a U.S military base in S.Korea) to call for international support to protect the farmers against forced evictions. A foriegner's house is being organized to facilitate visits for foriegn journalists interested in learning about Daechuri and the surrounding area's struggle, and...
Poland: Homophobia and the EU's Mild Response
Srdjan Cvijic of The TransAtlantic Assembly writes about the EU's unfairly mild reaction to homophobia and intolerance in Poland: “More importantly, the case of Poland, and the mild reaction of other member states, directly compromise the EU enlargement and foreign policy. How can the EU pretend to demand from the...
Poland: Warsaw Equality Parade
The beatroot posts Joseph Vogt's pictures from the Equality Parade that took place in Warsaw on June 10, and writes about the event that drew from 2,000 to 10,000 people: “Unlike similar marches in Poznan and Krakow which ended in bloody violence, this demonstration was peaceful and pleasant.” Becca Steel...
Russia: Anti-Chechen Feelings
David McDuff of A Step At A Time quotes from “an interesting and discursive study of anti-Chechen feeling in Russia.”
