Category Archives: human rights

Far-right vigilante group patrols city streets – Radio Sweden | Sveriges Radio

“We know that they have started establishing themselves in Dalarna, but I can’t say much more than that at this stage,” police spokesperson Thomas Hellgren tells P4 Dalarna. Jonathan Leman, a journalist at newspaper Expo and an expert on the far-right, confirms the trend. “We know that a group has started in Dalarna. According to my sources, the patrols took place in Borlänge, Säter and Hedemora during the weekend. Soldiers of Odin is a network first started by Finnish Nazi Mika Ranta. According to Expo, the structure of the network is similar to that of criminal motorbike gangs, with different chapters. “Soldiers of Odin have also patrolled in Stockholm and Trelleborg,” says Leman. “I’m convinced that Soldiers of Odin’s patrols will only create insecurity, concern, and confrontation,” Leman adds.

Source: Far-right vigilante group patrols city streets – Radio Sweden | Sveriges Radio

For These Syrian Women, Their 20s Have Been Defined by War · Global Voices

Now, Syrians account for a quarter of Lebanon’s population, and providing them all with aid has become impossible; food vouchers have been reduced and rent assistance slashed. As a result, many are seeking to move abroad. “I cannot imagine a future here in Lebanon,” Hassan says. “Five years ago, I was in Syria. Now I’m in Lebanon, even my siblings, two of them … travelled to foreign countries. No, I don’t imagine that in two years I will be here in Lebanon.” She pauses before adding, “I don’t intend to go back to Syria, either, even if things get better. That hatred of the people who killed someone, it will always be around you.” For Marwa, a 24-year-old stay-at-home mom from Damascus, adjusting to her new reality took years. “You see this view?” she asks, pointing at the scenic landscape outside her window. “It took me three years to realize how pretty it was. As refugees, we had other concerns.” Marwa came to Lebanon along with tens of thousands of others in late 2012, when the war in Syria was spiralling out of control and swaths of the major cities were becoming no-go zones. As new refugees, she moved with her family from village to village, desperately looking for work for her husband and a school that would accept their two young children. When they eventually settled in a small village in Mount Lebanon, they also had to deal with widespread suspicion and mistrust from a population growing increasingly weary of playing host. These days, locals have become accustomed to the extra residents, but while time has improved community relations, it has not been kind to the guests’ finances. “My neighbor is going back to Syria,” Marwa explains. “Even though there’s a lot of suffering there, she’s in too much debt here. My husband is thinking the same because he’s paid so little at work and can’t take it anymore.” She throws her hands in the air and says, “I tell him ‘You can go back, but I’m not going with you. What did our children do to deserve living in the middle of a war?’ “

Source: For These Syrian Women, Their 20s Have Been Defined by War · Global Voices

Americas MexicoBlog: Nestora is Finally Free

Following her release, Salgado appeared at a press conference hosted by the Miguel Agustin Pro Human Rights Center in Mexico City. The newly-released prisoner urged freedom for other jailed CRAC members and “500 political prisoners,” criticized media manipulation and educational policies, backed the movement for the 43 Ayotzinapa students, and demanded respect for Mexico’s original peoples. “I only want to tell Mr. Pena Nieto to respect our peoples and our community police, because we have shown that we don’t defend delinquents,” Salgado said. “I ask for support for our indigenous peoples and respect for their rights, and that so much injustice not be permitted.” Nestora Salgado is expected to return to the United States for medical treatment.

Source: Americas MexicoBlog: Nestora is Finally Free

Syrian refugee who swam from Turkey to Greece sets sights on Rio Olympics – 

Ms Mardini is among 43 athletes chosen by the International Olympics Committee to potentially form a multinational team of refugees in Rio. But it has been a death-defying move from the Mediterranean to training in an Olympic-sized pool. In the summer of 2015, Ms Mardini and her sister Sarah, 20, climbed into a rubber dinghy in Turkey bound for the Greek island of Lesbos. Twenty people were packed onboard and “only three could swim,” she said. When the boat began taking water, Ms Mardini and her sister plunged into the sea. Each holding on to one side of the rubber boat, the sisters swam with just an arm each, tugging the vessel along. “It was awful in the beginning but we thought it would be a shame if we didn’t help the people who were onboard with us,” Ms Mardini recalled. We thought it would be a shame if we didn’t help the people who were onboard with us. Yusra Mardini, refugee After several hours they finally reached Greek shores at dawn. “Baba, we did it! We are in Greece!” they screamed down the phone to their father, Ezzat Mardini, 45, who was then a refugee in Jordan.

Source: Syrian refugee who swam from Turkey to Greece sets sights on Rio Olympics – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Iain Duncan Smith resigns as Britain’s welfare minister over cuts to disability benefits – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Resignation ‘threatened to throw the Government into disarray’ The Financial Times said the resignation was “a huge blow” for Mr Cameron that would inflict “serious damage” on Mr Osborne. The Daily Telegraph said the move “threatened to throw the Government into disarray”. Mr Cameron replaced Mr Duncan Smith with Stephen Crabb who supports Britain’s membership of the European Union. Will Britain leave the EU? Radio National looks at the background to the referendum and Britain’s unravelling from the EU. Several Conservative MPs, along with the main opposition Labour Party, had criticised the disability benefits cuts announced by Mr Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the plan was “appalling”, claiming that 200,000 of the 640,000 people affected by the proposed changes would lose out altogether as a result. Mr Osborne said the plan would cut around $2.5 billion a year off the bill for so-called Personal Independence Payments (PIP), a weekly allowance covering extra costs for people with long-term ill health or disabilities. A government source earlier on Friday said they would be “kicked into the long grass”.

Source: Iain Duncan Smith resigns as Britain’s welfare minister over cuts to disability benefits – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Disappearances in Sri Lanka & Role of Civil Society | Groundviews

I remember that on this day, exactly two years ago, I was in detention at the Terrorism Investigation Division with another friend, Fr. Praveen. The nearest trigger for our arrest appeared to have been our efforts to look into the arrest of a mother of a disappeared child, Balendran Jeyakumary (who was also a vocal campaigner seeking truth and justice for disappearances) and other Tamils in the North. More than a year after “good governance”, Jeyakumary. Fr. Praveen and me are still being investigated under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). Ironically, at the same time, I have been invited for various meetings of the government and to be part of an Expert Advisory Committee related to Transitional Justice (which I didn’t accept due to various other reasons), despite still being a “terrorist suspect” and having a court order restricting my freedom of expression. Although Jeyakumary was conditionally released two months after President Sirisena took office, she was re-arrested last year under “good governance”. She also faces serious social isolation due to this and struggles to find livelihood and has been compelled to keep her young daughter in a hostel. There has been no news about her disappeared son, who she claims has appeared in a photo taken at a government rehabilitation facility. We are also no closer to the truth or justice in relation to the disappearance of Lalith and Kugan, two campaigners against disappearances, who disappeared in Jaffna in December 2011. Families of disappeared and activists don’t face the kind of attacks, threats, intimidations, discrediting etc. that we experienced under the Rajapakse regime. But monitoring of families of disappeared persons and activists in the North and East continues. And there is total impunity for the reprisals we faced in the past.

Source: Disappearances in Sri Lanka & Role of Civil Society | Groundviews

Puerto Rico Braces for Its Own Zika Epidemic – The New York Times

A quarter of the island’s 3.5 million people will probably get the Zika virus within a year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and eventually 80 percent or more may be infected. “I’m very concerned,” Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the C.D.C. director, said in an interview after a recent three-day visit to Puerto Rico. “There could be thousands of infections of pregnant women this year.” The epidemic is unfolding in one of the country’s most popular vacation destinations, where planes and cruise ships disembark thousands of tourists daily. Anyone could carry the virus back home, seeding a mosquito-borne outbreak or transmitting it sexually. Health officials here have begun intensive efforts to stop the virus, which has been linked to abnormally small heads and brain damage in babies born to infected mothers, and to paralysis in adults.

Source: Puerto Rico Braces for Its Own Zika Epidemic – The New York Times

Chile lawmakers move towards authorizing abortion in limited cases | News | DW.COM | 18.03.2016

Abortion had been legal in Chile before 1989 in cases of risk to the mother or an unviable fetus before the practice became outlawed. Ever since, Chile has remained one of the few countries in the world not to allow abortion under any circumstances – a measure introduced by ex-dictator General Augusto Pinochet shortly before his departure from power in 1990. The prohibition remained unchanged for more than twenty-five years because of pressure from the Roman Catholic Church and other conservative groups. A touchy subject on many levels An estimated 160,000 clandestine abortions are nevertheless carried out each year in Chile – sometimes under risky circumstances. Polls indicate that 70 percent of Chileans say they support the new bill. Illegal abortions remained accessible mainly to wealthy Chileans only; making the issue both a moral question and an economic one.

Source: Chile lawmakers move towards authorizing abortion in limited cases | News | DW.COM | 18.03.2016

Brazil court clears Lula to take up cabinet post amid anti-government protests | News | DW.COM | 18.03.2016 Big Business – Global Capital trying to buy back Brazil for the rich only!

Protests across Brazil On Friday, Rousseff called for her supporters to hold mass rallies in more than 30 cities. The largest rallies in support of the government were expected in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia, called by Rousseff’s Workers’ Party, the major CUT union and other groups. Hours before the pro-Rousseff demonstrations were due to begin on Friday, riot police used water cannons to break up anti-government demonstrations in Brazil’s largest city, Sao Paulo. Similar measures were enforced on Thursday evening as police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to hold back protesters demanding Rousseff’s resignation.

Source: Brazil court clears Lula to take up cabinet post amid anti-government protests | News | DW.COM | 18.03.2016

David Morris: A Long (and Still Unfinished) Road to Democracy – Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics

In 1963, only 156 of 15,000 eligible black voters in Selma, Alabama, were registered to vote. Between 1963 and 1965 the federal government filed four lawsuits but the number of black registered voters only increased from 156 to 383 during that time. In 1964 the 24th Amendment prohibited poll taxes in federal elections. At the time, five Southern states still imposed that election requirement. One might accurately say that only in 1965, a century after the Civil War ended did blacks effectively gain the right to vote. The Voting Rights Act sent federal examiners to seven Southern states to help register black voters and required states with a history of voter discrimination to gain pre-approval from the federal government before changing any voting requirements.

Source: David Morris: A Long (and Still Unfinished) Road to Democracy – Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics