Image 01 Image 03
Sign In or RegisterLogout

Human rights Tag

Posted by Mary Chastain on September 03, 2018 17 Comments
A Myanmar court sentenced two Reuters journalists, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, for seven years after they exposed the human rights abuses by the Myanmar military on the Rohingya minority in the Rakhine state. The judge claimed the two men "collected and obtained confidential documents." Prosecutors insisted that the men had "intended to harm the state by obtaining secret documents for Reuters’ commercial benefit, which clashed with Myanmar’s national interest."

Posted by Mary Chastain on June 19, 2018 19 Comments
US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley is never one to mince words and she didn't hold back as America withdrew from the UN Human Rights Council. From CNN:
"Human rights abusers continue to serve on, and be elected to, the council," said Haley, listing US grievances with the body. "The world's most inhumane regimes continue to escape its scrutiny, and the council continues politicizing scapegoating of countries with positive human rights records in an attempt to distract from the abusers in its ranks."

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on January 16, 2018 19 Comments
German authorities allowed a top Iranian cleric accused of mass murder to flee the country on Thursday. The decision came despite formal requests from leading exiled Iranian groups calling for the cleric to face justice. Ayatollah Mahmoud Shahroudi, the 69-year-old Mullah touted as the successor to Iran's all-powerful theocratic dictator Ali Khamenei, came to Germany for treatment at the clinic of an Iranian-German neurosurgeon when exiled Iranian dissidents referred him to German prosecutors, citing his record of running Islamic courts, where he presided over the killing of thousands of Iranians. The leading German tabloid Bild Zeitung ran the headline "Death Judge In Iran, Luxury Patient In Germany,"  covering Shahroudi's stay in the country.

Posted by Mary Chastain on September 20, 2017 2 Comments
I have been documenting the horrors the Rohingya minority are facing in Myanmar and their cries for help as they face genocide and ethnic cleansing. 421,000 Rohingya have escaped to Bangladesh with next to nothing and aid groups doing as much as they can to help these people. The U.S. has answered the call. Right before the UN General Assembly kicks off its second day of speeches, the State Department announced the U.S. will send $32 million in aid to help the Rohingya minority.

Posted by Mary Chastain on September 19, 2017 25 Comments
For almost a year, the Myanmar army has conducted "clearance operations" in Rokhine state against the Muslim Rohingya minority. 417,000 of those who survived have fled to Bangladesh, telling stories of rape and murder in their villages. The UN and human rights groups have described the situation as genocide and ethnic cleansing. De facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, has largely remained silent. But on Tuesday she broke that silence with a speech that is laughable, mainly because she said she has no idea why the Rohingya have fled to neighboring Bangladesh.

Posted by Mary Chastain on September 16, 2017 20 Comments
I've been documenting the horrors that the Rohingya people have endured at the hands of the Myanmar army. This Muslim minority has faced oppression for decades, but the battle to liquidate them has spiked this year. Those who have managed to escape have fled to Bangladesh and have started to speak about what happened when the army raided their villages. The details from Myanmar's "clearance operation" of the Rohingya will make anyone cringe and cry. Officers raping girls over and over, slitting their throats afterwards. They also set fire to villages and shot indiscriminately at those who ran out of the buildings.

Posted by Mary Chastain on September 14, 2017 25 Comments
Myanmar government officials have confirmed that the army targeted Rohingya villages in Rakhine state, leaving 40% emptied as of now. From The Guardian:
Of 471 villages targeted in “clearance operations” by the Burmese army since late August, 176 were now empty and at least 34 others partially abandoned, Zaw Htay said.

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 25, 2016 8 Comments
Turkey continues to purge people after a failed coup two weeks ago. Authorities said ambassadors are next while Amnesty International reported authorities have raped and tortured the detainees already behind bars. Turkey blames the Gülen Movement and have said everyone purged has connections to the group. Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said they are no concentrating on his department:
"Some personnel in the ministry had been given answered questions... and some personnel were placed in key positions in the ministry," he told broadcaster France 24.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on July 23, 2016 6 Comments
As Mary noted when she wrote about Erdogan's issuance of a three-month state of emergency, the purges have indeed continued and dramatically expanded beyond their initial scope: "What began as an effort to root out members of the military and security forces directly involved in the July 15 coup attempt has been extended to eliminate the Gulen movement’s influence from education, academia and the civil service." Reports are emerging that Turkey has moved forward with its plans to "purge" all purportedly Gulen-linked institutions and organizations. Bloomberg reports:
The Turkish government’s decision to shut down and seize the assets of organizations linked to the alleged mastermind of last week’s failed coup has come into force, and ministers continued to reassure foreign leaders and investors that the country isn’t backsliding on democracy and economic reforms.

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 21, 2016 6 Comments
The Turkish parliament has formally approved a three month state of emergency after a failed coup last Friday. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan promises its needed to protect Turkey's democracy:
“The aim is to rapidly and effectively take all steps needed to eliminate the threat against democracy, the rule of law and the people’s rights and freedoms,” Mr. Erdogan said.

Posted by Mary Chastain on June 08, 2016 4 Comments
The United Nations has shown they care more about money than children's rights as they removed Saudi Arabia from a list of countries who committed atrocities in Yemen. The kingdom threatened to pull money from numerous UN programs if they remained on the list. UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon immediately gave into their demands and will remove Saudi pending a review. Not just human rights. This list only mentioned countries that violated CHILDREN'S rights. The UN put money above innocent children. The list claimed that "the Saudis' campaign against Houthi rebels in Yemen was blamed for causing 60% of child deaths in the conflict."

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on June 01, 2016 29 Comments
So, this is pretty gross, but to each her own (placenta smoothie). ::shudders:: After extensive research, pregnant Jordan Thiering decided she wanted to take the afterbirth (placenta) and whip it up in a smoothie. When she talked to her OBGYN, she was told to check with the delivering hospital. The hospital told her she would need a court order. “I grew my baby, I grew my placenta,” Thiering said. “There should be no one that can tell me what I can or can’t do with it.”

Posted by Amy Miller on November 05, 2015 14 Comments
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has concluded that mustard gas was used during a late-August attack on the Syrian town of Marea. The chemical weapon was detected during a battle between Islamic State insurgents and rebel fighters just north of the ISIS stronghold in Aleppo. OPCW's confidential report (the media was given a peek at a summary) shows that at least two people were exposed to "sulfur mustard." What officials don't know is which side unleashed it. Via Reuters:
"It is very likely that the effects of sulfur mustard resulted in the death of a baby," it said. The findings provide the first official confirmation of use of sulfur mustard, commonly known as mustard gas, in Syria since it agreed to destroy its chemical weapons stockpile, which included sulfur mustard. The report did not mention Islamic State, as the fact-finding mission was not mandated to assign blame, but diplomatic sources said the chemical had been used in the clashes between Islamic State and another rebel group taking place in the town at the time.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on September 15, 2015 11 Comments
Recently, refusing to take any Syrian refugees, Fahad Alshalami, a senior official of Kuwait explained to the media that “it is not right for us [Kuwait and other Gulf States] to accept a people that are different from us. We don’t want people that suffer from internal stress and trauma in our country.” Alshalami glossed over the fact that 800,000 migrant Indian workers living in his country too might be suffering from the same “internal stress and trauma.” About 40 percent of Kuwait’s 4 million population comprises of Asian workers. In total about 7 million Indians work in the 6 oil-rich nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain). They are often at the mercy of their employers and work under dangerous conditions. According to an investigative report published by IndiaSpend, at an average an Indian living in Saudi Arabia, Qatar or Kuwait is “at ten times the risk of death, compared to an Indian living in the US”:
On an average, there are 53.6 deaths per 100,000 [expat Indians] annually. However, this number conceals a sharp discrepancy. The average for the six GCC nations is 69.2 deaths, while the figure for rest of the world is 26.5 deaths, almost 60% lower. Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman and Kuwait report between 65 and 78 deaths per 100,000 Indian workers.
Indian government that heavily benefits from remittances, worth billions of dollar from Gulf States annually, is reluctant to raise concerns about the safety and wellbeing of its citizens.
Accessibility by WAH