Category Archives: human rights

Hungary fires tear gas, water cannons to hold back refugees | News | DW.COM | 16.09.2015

Police in Hungary’s Roszke border crossing have fired tear gas and water cannons to scatter asylum seekers wanting to cross over from Serbia. Budapest has closed down its borders to keep new arrivals out.

Source: Hungary fires tear gas, water cannons to hold back refugees | News | DW.COM | 16.09.2015

Hungary’s shame begins at its borders!

Countries Using Child Soldiers Join UK Arms Fair

Credit: Stop the Arms FairBy a Global Information Network correspondentLONDON, Sep 15 2015 (IPS)Human rights and citizen activist groups are criticizing one of the world’s largest arms bazaars, which opened at London’s Docklands Tuesday.Participants in what is officially known as the Defense and Security International (DSEI) include 61 countries that violate human rights, such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Angola and Algeria. According to the website, some 30,000 visitors are expected.More than 1,500 companies will exhibit their military wares, including the U.S. and UK giants Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon and BAE Systems. Forty foreign governments will have pavilions. Sponsors and co-sponsors of the event include Turkey, South Africa, Northrup Grumman and Hewlett Packard.The four-day fair has drawn furious debate between human rights activists and those who say the arms industry provides thousands of jobs and valuable exports.Citizen activist groups using Twitter and other social media have jumped into action to condemn the fair. Traders at previous arms fairs, they note, have been able to buy and sell equipment used for torture including electric shock stun guns and batons, leg-irons, and belly-, body- and gang-chains. There has also been a range of illegal cluster-munition weaponry advertised at the fair.Nine, companies which have attended the DSEI fair between 2005 and 2013, have breached UK law, according to human rights campaigner Amnesty International.This year’s DSEI comes as the UK government ramps up its effort to sell weapons to countries in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, by far its most lucrative single arms market.Ryvka Barnard, senior military and security campaigner for the activist group War on Want, took issue with organizers giving Israel a national pavilion where Israeli arms companies exhibit ‘battle tested’ military technology used on Palestinians.The UK headquarters of Amnesty also spoke up: “In the past, torture equipment has been on offer right on our doorstep. Things like illegal leg irons and electric-shock batons have been shamelessly advertised and it’s blindingly obvious the law needs tightening up.“We need strengthened laws – and crucially we need proper enforcement – to stop Britain being used as a showroom for torturers to advertise their disgusting wares…” the group said.Groups organizing on Twitter against arms sales include Stop the Arms Fair!, Stop DSEI, Pax Christi and the Campaign Against Arms Trade, among others.

Source: Countries Using Child Soldiers Join UK Arms Fair

IUF UITA IUL | Uniting food, farm and hotel workers worldwide

Finland’s new right-wing coalition government has announced plans to unilaterally cut pay and benefits negotiated through collective bargaining through legislation which violates basic trade union rights, Conventions of the ILO and international and European human rights instruments. CLICK HERE TO SEND A MESSAGE!

Source: IUF UITA IUL | Uniting food, farm and hotel workers worldwide

Corbyn tells unions that UK government is declaring war on organized labor

Newly-elected Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn slammed Prime Minister Cameron’s budget cuts as a “political choice.” He also compared Conservative government plans limiting trade union power to tactics used by General Franco.

Source: Corbyn tells unions that UK government is declaring war on organized labor

Britain braced for long, snowy winter as strongest El Nino since 1950 expected – Telegraph

Winter is coming, and it could be colder and snowier than normal after forecasters predicted that this year’s El Nino weather phenomenon could be the strongest since 1950.Met Office meteorologists said conditions could mirror those of the 2009/2010 winter which was so long and chilly it was dubbed ‘The Big Freeze.’That winter, heavy snowfall brought transport chaos to much of the country with airports closed and train services suspended. In parts of Scotland temperatures dropped to -8.1F (-22.3C) as record 19 inch snowfall fell in the highlands. In December that year, the average UK temperature was just 30F (-1C) the coldest since records began.

Source: Britain braced for long, snowy winter as strongest El Nino since 1950 expected – Telegraph

′I feel ashamed′ – Danes react to refugee crisis | Europe | DW.COM | 14.09.2015

Anti-immigrant sentiment has long pervaded Denmark’s political discourse. Human rights and strong social-democratic values are widely seen as part of the national DNA. But the Nordic country’s small size also makes it a natural underdog on the European stage, which, time and again, has led it to bare its teeth at anyone perceived as posing a threat to its close-knit culture. In some corners – mainly the more culturally homogenous, rural areas – this has given rise to Gaulish opposition to any outsider challenging their idolized idiosyncrasies.For decades, this has landed Brussels on the receiving end. Voters reluctantly agreed to sign the Maastricht Treaty in 1993, but only after securing significant concessions on several issues, including immigration and asylum policies. The kingdom does not like to be lectured.But in recent years, much of this antagonism has been directed at Denmark’s Muslim population, which make up less than 5 percent of the country’s of 5.6 million people. Integration has long been a political buzzword, though many really mean assimilation. In just a little over a decade, the right-wing Danish People’s Party has gone from a fringe movement to second-most popular. As a result, the historically dominant parties – mainly, the center-left Social Democrats and center-right Liberal Party – have moved ever further to the right on immigration issues to prevent an electoral exodus.

Source: ′I feel ashamed′ – Danes react to refugee crisis | Europe | DW.COM | 14.09.2015

German ethics and empathy in full reverse!

Berlin has closed its southern borders to refugees, preventing other victims of civil wars from entering, and has begun deportations of rejected asylum applicants back to Southeast Europe. Inconsistencies among government officials over how to approach the refugee problem have ultimately led to an unexpected influx of tens of thousands of refugees. Thousands in the German population have made a unique display of helpfulness toward refugees, helpfulness, the government will now render futile. At today’s EU Interior and Justice Ministers Meeting, measures will be promoted to once again seal the EU borders and establish camps to hold refugees immediately upon their arrivals in Greece, Italy, and possibly Hungary. One such camp has been opened in Germany to separate Southeast European refugees for their rapid deportation. Last week, one hundred eleven refugees were deported by plane to Kosovo. Half of the 250,000 refugees, who entered Germany this year, between January and August, are threatened with immediate deportation. At the same time, demands are being raised to drastically reduce state support for refugees and to abolish the fundamental individual right of asylum.

Source: www.german-foreign-policy.com

62-Year-Old Man Arrested For Spray-Painting ‘NO MORE CHINESE’ All Over Bayview: SFist

The SFPD is thanking the public for their help after an arrest was made Tuesday in a vandalism case that is being considered a hate crime. 62-year-old John Schenone of San Francisco has been charged with five counts of felony vandalism and five counts of felony hate crime after it is believed he’s the person responsible for spray-painting the words ‘NO MORE CHINESE’ in multiple locations Monday in the Portola and Bayview districts.

Source: 62-Year-Old Man Arrested For Spray-Painting ‘NO MORE CHINESE’ All Over Bayview: SFist