Category Archives: human rights

I Am More Than Just My Trauma: Life As Victims Of War Crime In Croatia. | Rebelle Society

Source: I Am More Than Just My Trauma: Life As Victims Of War Crime In Croatia. | Rebelle Society

In Snježana’s case, her assailants’ criminal court proceedings were delayed by 12 years, and once they were finally incarcerated, they were released from jail awaiting their trial after only 1 week. One of them sold his home and fled to neighboring Serbia. The second one, a policeman, was let go due to a lack of evidence. He was suspended from his job only after she publicly accused him of the rape, but he continued to receive his salary. He, too, eventually fled Croatia. Both rapists were charged with a 6-year prison term, yet neither man served any of his sentence. Snježana is relieved that they fled the country, and thinks that this is better than having to live in fear of their release. Even so, the family of one of the perpetrators still lives in her hometown. In the past, her assailant’s family members would threaten her and her husband when they crossed paths in town.

The New Ten Commandments:

1) Thou shall believe that “they” are the “Chosen” 2) If you see their numbers extremely over-represented in high positions of power and control thou shall not mention, except if it was to praise their “superior” IQ 3) If you become aware that they are “running the show” in the media thou shall only […]

https://nahidaexiledpalestinian.wordpress.com/2016/04/15/the-new-ten-commandments/

» Live Today

What if I die tomorrow?
Nothing is so easy.
I don’t live in yesterday
because it is gone.
I don’t live in the future
because it is not here yet.
It will come, whether I am alive or not
I live today. It is the moment!
Live today,
Not the regrets of yesterday,
Not the worries of tomorrow…
Enjoy the moment,
The smile, the tea, the food,
The dance, the song, the walk
Enjoy the love and existence.
Live in today
Forget yesterday and tomorrow.
They are gone or not here yet.

By Raha

Source: » Live Today

Agenzia Fides News

Cairo (Agenzia Fides) – If laws ban Muslim women from wearing the full veil (niqab), at that point, to avoid discrimination, we must also ban Christian women wearing necklaces with crosses. This – as reported by the Egyptian media – is the controversial comparative argument put forward in recent days by sheikh Ahmed Karima, a Sunni professor of al-Azhar University, to defend the use of the niqab by the growing mobilization of Egyptian organizations that are calling for the abolition in public places. In February, such campaigns achieved significant success, with the ban on wearing the full veil imposed on all women who work in the University hospital of Cairo.
According to scholar Karima, known as the Islamic Law expert (Sharia), such campaigns are an expression of a planned strategy put in place to hit the Islamic traditions of the Country, which risks fueling extremist reactions by radical Islamic groups. According to the sheikh, an eventual ban on wearing the full veil imposed by law to Muslim women should have in consideration the ban for Christian women to wear the cross.
For weeks, the scholar and other Islamic leaders are launching the alarm about the spread of “secularist” tendencies in Egypt which in their opinion aims to outlaw everything that expresses their belonging to Islam. Sheikh Karima reiterated that, in his view, the so-called “renewal of religious discourse”, wished for several times in Egypt also by President Abdel Fattah Sisi, will certainly not lead to the abolition of what is required by the Sharia, because Egypt is an “Islamic country” and “Islamic rituals must be respected”. (GV) (Agenzia Fides 14/04/2016)

Source: Agenzia Fides News

Univ. of Chicago students celebrate divestment win | The Electronic Intifada

Students at the University of Chicago are celebrating the passage of a resolution calling on the institution to divest assets from firms aiding or profiting from Israel’s “violation of human rights and international law in Palestine.” Meanwhile, students at the University of Minnesota chalked up a partial victory in their own divestment effort. The University of Chicago’s undergraduate student government backed the divestment measure by 8 votes to 4 with 3 abstentions, after what campus newspaper The Chicago Maroon described as “contentious debate and procedural wrangling” on Tuesday night.

Source: Univ. of Chicago students celebrate divestment win | The Electronic Intifada

Dilma Rousseff Targeted in Brazil by Lawmakers Facing Graft Cases of Their Own – The New York Times

In the impeachment case, she is not facing charges of graft. Instead, she is accused of using money from giant public banks to cover budget gaps, damaging Brazil’s economic credibility. Ms. Rousseff, then, is something of a rarity among Brazil’s major political figures: She has not been accused of stealing for herself. Eduardo Cunha, the powerful speaker of the lower house who is leading the impeachment effort, is going on trial at the country’s highest court, the Supreme Federal Tribunal, on charges that he pocketed as much as $40 million in bribes. Mr. Cunha, an evangelical Christian radio commentator and economist who regularly issues Twitter messages quoting from the Bible, is accused of laundering the gains through an evangelical megachurch. Vice President Michel Temer, who is expected to take over if Ms. Rousseff is forced to step aside, has been accused of involvement in an illegal ethanol-purchasing scheme. Renan Calheiros, the Senate leader, who is also on the presidential succession chain, is under investigation over claims that he received bribes in the giant scandal surrounding the national oil company, Petrobras. He has also been accused of tax evasion and of allowing a lobbyist to pay child support for a daughter from an extramarital affair. Altogether, 60 percent of the 594 members of Brazil’s Congress face serious charges like bribery, electoral fraud, illegal deforestation, kidnapping and homicide, according to Transparency Brazil, a corruption-monitoring group.

Source: Dilma Rousseff Targeted in Brazil by Lawmakers Facing Graft Cases of Their Own – The New York Times

Humans of New York

Source: Humans of New York

“I’m graduating from Columbia with a Masters’ in Public Health. I want to stay in New York for another few years, but then I want to go back to Texas. My family is from a ‘drive-through’ town off Route 66. It’s tempting to stay here in New York because there are better opportunities. The Department of Health is very developed, and there’s so much funding from the government, and the services are so extensive. I feel like there’s so much I can learn here. But then I feel like I need to bring it back home. Texas is a big ole place. People are spread out. And so many of them don’t have access to the services they need.”

Preserving Language Key to Overcoming Native Suicide Epidemic – Intercontinental Cry

“The data reported above indicate that, at least in the case of BC, those bands in which a majority of members reported a conversational knowledge of an Aboriginal language also experienced low to absent youth suicide rates. By contrast, those bands in which less than half of the members reported conversational knowledge suicide rates were six times greater.” It is important to drive this point home. In the First Nation communities where native language retention was above 50 per cent (with at least half of the community retaining or acquiring conversational fluency) suicide rates were virtually null, zero. Yet in the bands where less than half of community members demonstrated conversational fluency in their native tongue, suicide rates spiked upwards of 6 times the rates of surrounding settler communities. It is also worth noting how overall spikes in suicide prevalence found in Indigenous communities around the world indicate a strong correlation with the socio-political marginalization brought on by colonization. In other words, the suicide epidemic – which is at heart a crisis of mental health – is directly related to, if not directly caused by, the loss of culture and identity set in motion by colonialism.

Source: Preserving Language Key to Overcoming Native Suicide Epidemic – Intercontinental Cry

IRIN | Western Sahara’s moment in the sun

Part of the problem is that it’s an easy place for major powers to ignore. “Looked at from Washington, Morocco and Algeria fighting over the Western Sahara is like two bald men fighting over a comb,” said Ottoway.It’s true that the conflict is usually low in intensity. But there are occasional flare-ups: at least five people were killed in 2010 when Moroccan security forces broke up a Saharawi protest camp.From another perspective, Western Sahara is left on the sidelines not because it is small and remote, but because it has in fact become a pawn in global politics.As Jacob Mundy, an assistant professor at Colgate University and an expert on the conflict pointed out, Morocco has positioned itself as a key ally of Saudi Arabia and the West in North Africa, sharing intelligence with the United States and even playing host to at least one of the CIA’s controversial black sites. This brings the US closely into line with France, already staunchly on Morocco’s in the dispute.“Anytime Morocco is feeling the pressure on Western Sahara, they probably find ways of making themselves very useful to the United States,” Mundy explained.On Algeria’s side, three current UN Security Council members have officially recognised the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, the Polisario Front’s government-in-exile: Angola, Uruguay and Venezuela.

Source: IRIN | Western Sahara’s moment in the sun