NewsTrust - Human Rights - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Mainstream)

Rights Watchdog, Lost in the Mideast

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Robert L. Bernstein - Oct. 20 (Opinion) - Human Rights Watch had as its original mission to pry open closed societies, advocate basic freedoms and support dissenters. But recently it has been issuing reports on the Israeli-Arab conflict that are helping those who wish to turn Israel into a pariah state.

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My mission - and motivation

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Jerusalem Post - By Richard Goldstone - Oct. 20 (Opinion) - I begin with my own motivation, as a Jew who has supported Israel and its people all my life, for having agreed to head the Gaza mission. Over the past 20 years, I have investigated serious violations of international law in my own country, South Africa, in the former Yugoslavia, in Rwanda and the alleged fraud and theft by governments and political leaders in a number of countries in connection with the United Nations Iraq Oil for Food program. In all of these, allegations reached the highest political echelons. In every instance, I spoke out strongly in favor of full investigations and, where appropriate, criminal prosecutions. I have spoken out over the years on behalf of the International Bar Association against human rights violations in many countries, including Sri Lanka, China, Russia, Iran, Zimbabwe and Pakistan.

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Op-Ed Columnist: Fie, Fatal Flaw!

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Maureen Dowd - Oct. 18 (Opinion) - President Obama’s legislative career offers cautionary tales about the toll of constant consensus building.

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Tehran's worst fear is a sustained and well-funded human rights campaign.

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Slate - By Anne Applebaum - Sep. 29 (Opinion) - Very few security experts point out that there is another option. What do Iran's rulers truly fear, after all? I'll wager it's not sanctions, and it might not be a bombing raid. An economic boycott can be circumvented, after all, with the help of Venezuela or maybe the Russian mafia, and an attack on Iranian soil might help the regime once again consolidate power. By contrast, a sustained and well-funded human rights campaign must be a truly terrifying prospect. What if we therefore told the Iranian regime that its insistence on pursuing nuclear weapons leaves us with no choice other than to increase funding for dissident exile groups, to smuggle money into the country, to bombard the airwaves with anti-regime television programming, and above all to publicize widely the myriad crimes of the Islamic Republic of Iran?

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Fear was no excuse to condone torture

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Miami Herald - By Charles C. Krulak, Joseph P. Hoar - Sep. 15 (Opinion) - In the fear that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Americans were told that defeating Al Qaeda would require us to ``take off the gloves.'' As a former commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps and a retired commander-in-chief of U.S. Central Command, we knew that was a recipe for disaster. But we never imagined that we would feel duty-bound to publicly denounce a vice president of the United States, a man who has served our country for many years. In light of the irresponsible statements recently made by former Vice President Dick Cheney, however, we feel we must repudiate his dangerous ideas -- and his scare tactics.

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Treatment of prisoner dents Obama promise to end such practices

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Times - By Leonard Pitts Jr. - Aug. 31 (Opinion) - No, this does not match the worst abuses of the Bush era, but it is close enough that it must surely disillusion and dismay those who thought a corner was turned on Jan. 20. It must leave them hoping that faith was not misplaced. Sometimes a dented promise is worse than no promise at all.

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Tumult in Iran Raises Questions About Negotiating Over Nuclear Efforts

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - Aug. 27 (Editorial) - THE PROTESTERS have been routed from the streets of Tehran, but the political turmoil in Iran continues unabated behind the scenes. The authority of both the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is being overtly challenged by religious and secular elites. Given the internal tumult and uncertainty, it looks increasingly doubtful that the regime will respond meaningfully to the Obama administration's deadline of late September to discuss curtailing its nuclear program or risk what Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has called "crippling sanctions."

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The Other End of the Abu Ghraib Camera

Sat, 25 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By William Quinn - Jul. 25 (Opinion) - DESPITE demands by human rights advocates that photos documenting abuse of military detainees be made public, the Senate last month passed legislation to block their release. The legislation is now before the House. President Obama supports these efforts. This is all good news. Classifying the photos would help protect those detainees’ basic rights to dignity and privacy.

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Editorial - Slain for Daring to Report - NYTimes.com

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - Jul. 17 (Editorial) - New York TimesSlain for Daring to ReportNew York TimesThe murder of Natalya Estemirova, an investigator into the brutality of Chechnya's Kremlin-backed regime, has the grisly signature of a long string of murder with impunity in Vladimir Putin's Russia. Ms. Estemirova was kidnapped by gunmen Wednesday in ...Lawless Atmosphere Cited in Death of Russian JournalistVoice of AmericaAnother Death in RussiaWall Street JournalDimitry Medvedev rejects claim Chechen leader ordered killingguardian.co.ukBBC News?-Reuters?-The Associated Pressall 467 news articles??

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Why isn't the Muslim world speaking up in defense of the Uighurs?

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Foreign Policy - By Moisés Naím - Jul. 14 (Opinion) - ... in different countries, mullahs, imams, and assorted clerics have found the time to issue fatwas condemning among other practices, Pokémon cartoons, total nudity during sex for married couples, and the use of vaccines against polio, not to mention Salman Rushdie. They have yet to find the time to say anything about China's practices toward Uighurs.

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Op-Ed Contributor - A Homespun Safety Net - NYTimes.com

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Barbara Ehrenreich - Jul. 11 (Opinion) - Finding little relief, and lots of pain, in the American safety net, those slipping into poverty turn to family and friends.

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Pitts: What does a homosexual demon look like?

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Salt Lake Tribune - By Leonard Pitts Jr. - Jun. 29 (Opinion) - To Manifested Glory Ministries of Bridgeport, Conn.: Perhaps you wouldn't mind telling me what a "homosexual demon" looks like. I will confess that until last week, I had no idea demons even had sexual orientations. Or, for that matter, sex. Then I happened upon a video that is making the rounds online. It depicts members of your congregation conducting what can only be described as the "gay exorcism" of a 16-year-old boy.

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Iran on the brink?

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Aljazeera - By Mark LeVine - Jun. 20 (Opinion) - In 15 years of writing about the Middle East, I have never encountered a situation that changed so fast that one could write an article that becomes outdated in the time it takes to write it.

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Fear has gone in a land that has tasted freedom

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Independent - By Robert Fisk - Jun. 17 (Comment) - The fate of Iran rested last night in a grubby north Tehran highway interchange called Vanak Square where – after days of violence – supporters of the official President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at last confronted the screaming, angry Iranians who have decided that Mirhossein Mousavi should be the president of their country. Unbelievably – and I am a witness because I stood beside them – just 400 Iranian special forces police were keeping these two armies apart. There were stones and tear gas but for the first time in this epic crisis the cops promised to protect both sides.

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Iranian Nobel Peace Prize-Winner Ebadi Calls For New Elections

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Radio Free Europe - By Golnaz Esfandiari - Jun. 17 (Interview) - Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi has told RFE/RL that the Iranian authorities should hold a new election and allow monitoring by international observers. She also called for the release of everyone the regime has arrested, which includes several human rights activists. Ebadi spoke by phone with RFE/RL’s Golnaz Esfandiari from a location outside Iran.

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The tragedy of the Yemeni Jews

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Lyn Julius - Jun. 08 (Opinion) - The last Jews of Yemen are leaving. They are packing their bags and moving to Israel or the US. A community dating back to Biblical times is on the brink of extinction.

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Some thoughts on democracy/authoritarianism day

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Foreign Policy - By Joshua Keating - Jun. 04 (Opinion) - Sometimes the news-cycle fates align nicely to highlight a question deserving of more discussion. Today, that question was what role democracy promotion should play in the Obama administration's foreign policy and how the U.S. should interact with odious but strategically useful authoritarian regimes.

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Editorial - Vote on Gay Marriage

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - Jun. 04 (Opinion) - ..There are few new arguments to be made behind closed doors. By now, the Senate’s 62 members have heard from every interest group. They know the polls and the politics. They know that New York is lagging behind others — including New Hampshire, where Gov. John Lynch, who had previously defined marriage as strictly between a man and a woman, signed legislation legalizing same-sex marriage on Wednesday.

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Kate Bronfenbrenner - A War Against Workers Who Organize

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Kate Bronfenbrenner - Jun. 03 (Opinion) - She talked about the surveillance, constant threats and harassment they endured; how she and other workers were repeatedly taken aside and interrogated, one on one, about how they planned to vote; how two co-workers were fired; and how the rest lived in fear that any day they, too, might get a pink slip. The union filed numerous charges of unfair labor practices and eventually won the organizing election. But three years after the campaign began,

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Amnesty International Human Rights Report: 'We Are Seeing a Catastrophe' - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

Thu, 28 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Der Spiegel - May. 28 (Interview) - This is very worrying. Obama has been alarmingly ambiguous on the issue, hinting at some new legislation. But incarceration without a trial can never be within the rule of law. We are asking the government in Washington to release all innocent prisoners from Guantanamo and to try the rest in a US court. The government should show some confidence in its own justice system.

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Death of A Dissident

Wed, 27 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Natan Sharansky - May. 27 (Opinion) - Will the free world make Libya pay a price for its treatment of Fathi Eljahmi?

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The campaign - The quest for 62 per cent

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Globe and Mail - By Dennis Baker - Apr. 23 (Comment) - I am thinking about running as a candidate.dennis baker-- The responce was to be arrested and charged with possesion for the purpose of trafficking.For some alleged drugs in a vehicle that I was a passenger Human excrement + nuclear waste = hydrogen

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Are human rights still a Democratic priority?

Sun, 19 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Boston Globe - By Jeff Jacoby - Apr. 19 (Opinion) - To Democrats of a certain age, such a question might seem incomprehensible. After all, it was a Democrat, John F. Kennedy, whose inaugural address proclaimed "to friend and foe alike" that Americans would resist "the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed." It was another Democrat, Jimmy Carter, who made support for human rights an explicit foreign-policy concern, declaring at his inauguration: "Because we are free we can never be indifferent to the fate of freedom elsewhere." It was Senator Henry Jackson and Representative Charles Vanik - Democrats both - whose landmark Jackson-Vanik amendment helped win freedom for tens of thousands of Soviet dissidents and refuseniks.

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A test for Obama

Sun, 05 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Foreign Policy - By David Rothkopf - Apr. 05 (Opinion) - Nothing like confronting up close what really bad allies look like to remind you of the virtues of your better ones. As NATO's leaders prepare to meet on Saturday to discuss Afghanistan, the news is full of stories reminding us of the yawning chasm that exists between the values of the society we are committing blood and treasure to assist and our own.

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We Shall Remain ~ Video

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0800

PBS - Mar. 04 (Advocacy) - From the award-winning PBS series American Experience comes We Shall Remain, a provocative multi-media project that establishes Native history as an essential part of American history.

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