NewsTrust - United Nations - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Independent)

Religious Leaders Call on President Obama to Reconsider His Position on Drone Strikes

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - Mar. 30 (Opinion) - Six religious leaders from across the country joined together during the week of Easter to call on President Obama to reexamine his position on drone strikes. In briefings and explanations to the American public President Obama's administration has used Just War Theory to justify CIA and U.S. military use of drone strikes throughout the world. Joining forces with director and producer Robert Greenwald, these rabbis, reverends, and priests created a short video sharing why drone strikes in Pakistan violate Just War Theory.

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Stand Still for the Apocalypse

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0800

readersupportednews.org - By Chris Hedges - Nov. 26 (Opinion) - Humans must immediately implement a series of radical measures to halt carbon emissions or prepare for the collapse of entire ecosystems and the displacement, suffering and death of hundreds of millions of the globe’s inhabitants, according to a report commissioned by the World Bank. The continued failure to respond aggressively to climate change, the report warns, will mean that the planet will inevitably warm by at least 4 degrees Celsius

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President Obama’s Speech to the UN General Assembly

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Informed Comment - Sep. 25 (Speech) - Transcript of Barack Obama's speect

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Syria denies use of heavy weapon in Tremseh

Sun, 15 Jul 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Al Jazeera - Jul. 15 () - Syria has denied accusations by special envoy Kofi Annan that state forces used heavy weapons or helicopters in clashes in the village of Tremseh last week, where activists said there was a massacre of over 100 people.

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U.S. Pulls All Funding for UNESCO After Sweeping Vote to Support Palestinian Membership

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Nov. 01 (Interview) - In an emotional—and largely symbolic—move, the United Nations cultural organization known as UNESCO overwhelmingly voted to grant membership to the Palestinians, despite opposition from the United States and Israel. Now the United States says it will cancel a $60 million payment due in November to the U.N. body. Membership dues paid by the U.S. account for about a fifth of UNESCO's annual budget. The U.S. is also threatening to veto any Palestinian effort to be recognized by the U.N. Security Council as an independent state. "By going to UNESCO, this was a way both of gauging where the public opinion is among the various governments and, more importantly, symbolically for the world, showing that this is a moment of recognition that the 20-year-old U.S.-controlled so-called 'peace process' simply hasn't worked," said Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies. [includes rush transcript]

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Jahanpour: Is Iran Next? Supreme Leader Versus Ahmadinejad

Sun, 08 May 2011 07:18:00 -0700

Informed Comment - By Juan - May. 08 (Opinion) - Farhang Jahanpour writes in a guest column for Informed Comment The tug of war between Supreme Leader Khamene’i and President Ahmadinejad Despite the political turmoil and subsequent crackdowns in Iran since summer, 2009, seeming unity among the hardline

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The Realist Prism: Libya Could Shift NATO Focus Southward

Sat, 02 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

World Politics Review - By Nikolas Gvosdev - Apr. 02 (Opinion) - Russia's 2010 military doctrine identified the continued expansion of NATO as a prime security threat to the country. But an Atlantic alliance that looks south instead of east would be a NATO that Russia could learn to live -- and even partner -- with. The effort to oust Moammar Gadhafi might have the unexpected consequence of allowing NATO to write a new chapter of its history not only with the Arab world, but also with Russia.

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In Libya, Inaction Was Not an Option

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Real Clear Politics - By Richard Cohen - Mar. 29 (Opinion) - The Libyan intervention established a precedent: There is such a thing as the international community and, as inchoate as it may be, it will insist on certain minimum standards even for dictators: Your people are not yours to kill.

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An Open Letter to the Left on Libya

Sun, 27 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Informed Comment - By Juan Cole - Mar. 27 (Opinion) - I would like to urge the Left to learn to chew gum and walk at the same time. It is possible to reason our way through, on a case-by-case basis, to an ethical progressive position that supports the ordinary folk in their travails in places like Libya.

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Just a Bad, Bad Idea

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Talking Points Memo - By Josh Marshall - Mar. 21 (Opinion) - At the end of last week I couldn't help tweeting that everything I was seeing in Libya was bringing out my inner foreign policy Realist. And everything I've seen this weekend has confirmed me in that view. Indeed, there are so many reasons this strikes me as a bad idea I really hardly know where to start. So let me focus on the three biggest problems I see.

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The Slippery Slope Of Unilateralism

Mon, 14 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Think Progress - By Matthew Yglesias - Mar. 14 (Opinion) - I had an interesting back and forth several years ago with Anne-Marie Slaughter, then a professor at Princeton, later policy planning director at the State Department, and now back to academia about an old line from something she wrote where she said “the biggest problem with the Bush preemption strategy may be that it does not go far enough.”

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Tortured Until Proven Guilty: Bradley Manning and the Case Against Solitary Confinement

Fri, 31 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Lynn Parramore - Dec. 31 (Opinion) - In 1890, the United States Supreme Court nearly declared the punishment unconstitutional. It is banned by the Geneva Convention, condemned by the United Nations, and either prohibited or restricted in most civilized countries. And yet today, as Atul Gawande revealed in his gut-wrenching 2009 New Yorker article, tens of thousands of Americans are tortured in this fashion every day, out of sight, in the "Supermax" prisons that have popped up like poisoned mushrooms on the American landscape since the 1980s. Some prisoners are consigned to these Houses of Unholiness for violations - both major and minor -- of prison rules. Some for gang activity. Others for trying to escape. Or for violent behavior. Some are placed there because they are mentally ill and there is nowhere else to put them -- the equivalent of casting a sufferer of pneumonia onto an Arctic tundra.

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U.N. Special Rapporteur Juan Mendez: Instead of Focusing on Assange, U.S. Should Address WikiLeaks' Disclosures of Torture

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Juan Méndez, Amy Goodman - Dec. 02 (Interview) - We speak to Juan Méndez, the new U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment. He has called on the United States to investigate and prosecute torture committed under former President George W. Bush. He also said he hopes to visit Iraq and Guantánamo Bay to probe widespread torture allegations. Méndez says, "We seem to be focusing on whether disclosing these cables ... merits some kinds of action against Julian Assange... I’m very concerned about the documents that show that literally thousands of people were first imprisoned by American forces and then transferred to the control of forces in Iraq and perhaps even in Afghanistan, where they knew that these people were going to be tortured."

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Haiti Coverage and "Disaster Porn"

Fri, 19 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Columbia Journalism Review - Nov. 19 - Last month I was reporting a story on the opening of a mango warehouse in Haiti’s countryside when a fellow reporter got a phone call from his editor: forget about mangoes and get to Saint Marc, where an unknown disease had already killed forty-four people. We arrived at the town’s hospital an hour later. Hundreds of people—men, women, and children—lay...

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In Costa Rica, it pays to go to school

Tue, 16 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

GlobalPost - By Alex Leff - Nov. 16 (Opinion) - Photo caption: Students carry national flags, as they take part of a parade to commemorate Costa Rica's independence day in San Jose, Sept. 15, 2004. (Roger Benavidez JC/Reuters) SAN JOSE, Costa Rica — Costa Rica seems to have found the key to getting

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Ahmadinejad UN Speech and Visit

Fri, 24 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The Daily Beast - By Hooman Majd - Sep. 24 (Opinion) - When President Ahmadinejad spoke at the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday, the Israeli delegation was absent, the U.S. walked out on him, and we were once again willing and unwilling witnesses to the yearly Ahmadinejad show, for the sixth time in five years, no less.

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NY Times 'Climategate' Editorial A Reminder That Media Have Failed Miserably Covering Climate Science

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By James Hoggan - Jul. 13 (Opinion) - The New York Times deserves praise for its excellent editorial on Sunday, “A Climate Change Corrective,” which rightly confirms that the “Climategate” non-scandal has been thoroughly investigated and revealed as a political attack on scientists, not

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"The World Has Divided into Rich and Poor as at No Time in History"

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Maude Barlow, Amy Goodman - Jul. 05 (Speech) - the world has divided into rich and poor as at no time in our history. The richest 2% own more than half the household wealth in the world. The richest 10% hold 85% of total global assets and the bottom half of humanity owns less than 1% of the wealth in the world. The three richest men in the world have more money than the poorest 48 countries.

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The Incendiary Danger of Unchecked Power: Bibi as Bullyboy

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

truth-out.org - By Bernard Weiner - Jun. 14 (Opinion) - Take a large dose of hubris, combine it with Lord Acton's famous dictum ("power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely"), and you emerge with an explosive, reckless abuse of authority on a number of fronts.

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"The United Nations Is Beyond Reform...It Has to Be Reinvented" - Fmr. UN General Assembly President Miguel D'Escoto

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman, Miguel d’Escoto - Apr. 26 (Interview) - One of the higher-profile participants at the Cochabamba climate conference was the former president of the United Nations General Assembly, Father Miguel D'Escoto. A Roman Catholic priest from Nicaragua, D'Escoto served as foreign minister in Daniel Ortega's government from 1979 to 1990. He joins us to talk about the failures of the UN, the importance of the Bolivia climate summit, why Latin America doesn't need the United States, and much more.

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Transgender India: Banned in Bombay?

Sat, 10 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

GlobalPost - By Hanna Ingber Win - Apr. 10 () - MUMBAI, India — Laxmi Tripathi stands tall and proud. She — who used to go by he — wears her hair long, her eyes decorated with thick black eyeliner and a low-cut top that reveals a hint of cleavage. Bangles adorn her wrists. Hailed as a success story in India, Tripathi has spoken at the United Nations and addressed conferences around the world on the rights of the transgender community. And yet, being somewhat of a celebrity activist did not shield Tripathi from the very discrimination she has denounced. Last week, officials at the Bombay Gymkhana in South Mumbai interrupted a dinner party there to kick Tripathi out of the exclusive club. “I could never believe this could happen to me. I have been to so many places in the world, treated with so much dignity,” Tripathi said as she took a break from dubbing a new Bollywood film on the transgender community. And yet this incident happened “in a town where I’m more famous than anywhere in the world.” While gradual progress has been made to garner more rights for and reduce the stigma against India’s transgenders, the episode at the club illustrates that the community still faces serious discrimination — even among the elite, said Tripathi and other activists. A certain segment of Mumbai’s middle and upper class thinks of itself as cosmopolitan, said Parmesh Shahani, author of "Gay Bombay," who was at last week’s dinner party. However, if one scratches below the surface, he said, there are many undercurrents at play. “Over the past two decades we've been very wrapped up in this whole ‘India Shining’ [idea],” he said. “But I think true modernity lies in having a plural and accepting mindset and really embracing diversity in all its forms.” The transgender community in India, known as hijras, number up to a million people and occupy a unique role in society. On the one hand, they are called upon to offer blessings during auspicious occasions like weddings and at births. The rest of the time, they are not only ignored but often ostracized from society. Discrimination has prevented most hijras from obtaining decent education, jobs and housing, say transgender and human rights activists. The vast majority live in slums and, with limited job opportunities, resort to sex work or begging. They weave in and out of Mumbai’s traffic or come onto the women’s compartments of local trains, clap loudly and take money in exchange for a blessing. The “life of transsexuals or transgenders is not miserable simply because of club prejudice,” Meenakshi Ganguly of Human Rights Watch wrote in an email. “What is much harder is rejection by community, by relatives and the police abuse they suffer.” She added that many are HIV positive and face difficulty getting medical treatment. The hospital staff cannot determine whether they should be placed in the male or female wards. While hijras continue to face discrimination, they have also made significant social and legal gains in recent years. Last July, the Delhi High Court decriminalized gay sex, and in November, transgenders won the right to be listed as “other” rather than “male” or “female” on electoral rolls and voter identity cards. A Bollywood film called “Queens!," scheduled to be released later this year, will feature professional actors as well as hijras themselves and present the community in a “dignified” and thereby new light, said David Atkins, the writer and director of the film. The movie could not have been made a decade ago, he said, because both Indian society and the hijras were not ready for it. “Ten years ago, they had not come out of the closet,” Atkins said. “With Laxmi backing them, they are no longer afraid to show themselves.” In some ways, the incident at the club also highlights these changes in society. After the CEO of the Bombay Gymkhana told the dinner party’s organizer that Tripathi must leave, the entire group walked out of the club. Some members of the club have since galvanized around Tripathi to show their support, and the local media has run numerous stories bringing attention to what happened. Such outrage at the club’s behavior might not have happened five years ago, Shahani said. Prejudice has not gone away, he said, "but people are being sensitized to the rights of certain populations." The Maharashtra State Human Rights Commission has taken up the case, and Tripathi says she plans a lawsuit against the club claiming gender discrimination. The Bombay Gymkhana did not return GlobalPost's calls for comment.

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Making Aggressive War OK, for Some

Mon, 05 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Consortium News - By David Swanson - Apr. 05 (Opinion) - The worst damage done by our continuing to imagine that there's some sort of debate over whether the war was really based on lies, is that we haven't been able to focus on something more important. Whether the war was based on lies (as of course it was) or on gospel truth or on the mistakes of a bunch of morons, has absolutely no bearing on the indisputable fact that the war was a criminal act of aggression.

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Dr. Paul Farmer, UN Deputy Special Envoy for Haiti, on Haiti's Challenges Following Catastrophic Earthquake and Years of Western Domination

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman, Paul Farmer - Apr. 01 (Interview) - Last year, the well-known activist medical anthropologist Dr. Paul Farmer was appointed the UN Deputy Special Envoy for Haiti. Farmer is founder of the charity Partners in Health, which provides healthcare for people with HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other conditions in Haiti, as well as more than eight other countries around the world. He has vocally criticized US destabilization efforts in Haiti as well as major US corporations that have pursued profit at the expense of global health. Democracy Now! caught up with Dr. Farmer on Wednesday at the UN donors conference.

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UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston Responds to US Defense of Drone Attacks' Legality

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Juan Gonzalez, Amy Goodman, Philip Alston - Apr. 01 () - The Obama administration has publicly defended the legality of drone attacks for the first time. State Department legal adviser Harold Koh said last week the use of drones in the fight against al-Qaeda was both legal and necessary. Koh’s comments come six months after Philip Alston, the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, said that the strikes “might violate international humanitarian law and international human rights law.” Alston joins us with his reaction to Koh’s response.

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United Nations: Japanese Authorities Breached Human Rights of Greenpeace Anti-Whaling Activists

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Common Dreams - By ane Kochersperger - Feb. 09 (Press Release) - The Japanese government breached a series of internationally guaranteed human rights by detaining two Greenpeace activists who had uncovered major corruption in the Japanese whaling program, according to a working group of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

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