Category Archives: human rights

▶ Pussy Riot – I Can’t Breathe – YouTube

▶ Pussy Riot – I Can’t Breathe – YouTube.

Sacchi denies being racist despite colored comments | Sports , Football | THE DAILY STAR

Not only a racist but a bald faced liar too: “I’m certainly not racist and my coaching history shows that, starting from [Frank] Rijkaard, but watching the Viareggio tournament brings me to say that there are too many colored players, also in the youth teams,” he said. – See moreat: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Sports/Football/2015/Feb-18/287850-sacchi-denies-being-racist-despite-colored-comments.ashx#sthash.ybGtJGcX.dpuf

 

via Sacchi denies being racist despite colored comments | Sports , Football | THE DAILY STAR.

IRIN Middle East | Only five percent of pledged aid reaches Gaza | Israel | OPT | Saudi Arabia | Conflict

Contrasting it with pledging conferences for Syria, one UN staffer said the Egyptians had not been sufficiently pro-active.

“When Kuwait organized the conference on Syria the secretariat followed strict procedures to ensure that the money got paid, including inviting donors to meetings. Egypt has done nothing.”

Egyptian officials did not respond to requests for comment.

In fact it was only in mid-January, ahead of a donors’ meeting in March, that Norway formally requested the World Bank to track down how much money had been delivered.

According to Steen Lau Jorgensen, the World Bank’s Country Director for Gaza and the West Bank, the process will “include a report … that will reflect the pledges of Gaza reconstruction disbursed through all channels and the timing for disbursement. It will also assess to what extent the donors have realized their pledges and will break down the list of pledges into budget support and Gaza reconstruction.”

via IRIN Middle East | Only five percent of pledged aid reaches Gaza | Israel | OPT | Saudi Arabia | Conflict.

700 British Artists Pledge to Boycott ‘Israel’

700 British Artists Pledge to Boycott ‘Israel’.

The pledge which was published in the Guardian newspaper along with a letter reads as follows: “We support the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice and equality. In response to the call from Palestinian artists and cultural workers for a cultural boycott of Israel, we pledge to accept neither professional invitations to Israel, nor funding, from any institutions linked to its government until it complies with international law and universal principles of human rights.”

Israel’s Arab leaders join forces in attempt to oust Benjamin Netanyahu and influence future government – Middle East – World – The Independent

“Time has come today!”

For years Arabs have been effectively marginalized in Israel’s political life. But at the weekend leaders of the country’s substantial Arab minority launched an alliance which puts them on course to become a powerful force in next month’s general election – with the potential to tip the outcome against the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Five previously fractious political groupings that divided the Arab vote between them agreed to field a single “Joint List” with the aim of toppling the Israeli leader, whom they blame for a further deterioration in their own standing and conditions, and for harming fellow Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

There was standing room only in a Nazareth hall on Saturday night, as 1,500 supporters gave their backing to the combined list of Arab candidates under Israel’s system of proportional representation.

“We are no longer investing our energy in defeating each other; on the contrary we are joining our forces to grow bigger and bigger,” said Aida Touma, a socialist and feminist from the Hadash party who shares prominence on the list alongside such others as Masoud Ganaim, an Islamic fundamentalist.

via Israel’s Arab leaders join forces in attempt to oust Benjamin Netanyahu and influence future government – Middle East – World – The Independent.

With the Serra Canonization: Franciscans need to apologize for mistreating the Mission Indians | La Prensa San Diego

In one of the more moving essays, Deborah Miranda of Esselen / Chumash responds to a fourth grader named Sonora who wants to know if the Indians liked the missions and if the priests were good. Miranda writes that although some Indians believe the missions brought them Catholicism and agriculture, others insist that anything that kills about 80 percent of your people can’t be all that good.

Miranda explains to Sonora that once the Franciscans baptized the Indians, they refused to let them leave the missions. Nor could their family members visit them unless they were baptized. Girls under seven were locked up in dirty rooms at the missions (called monjerios) and got sick from the lack of sanitation. Meanwhile their parents were forced to work on the mission’s farms.

The Indians were beaten frequently for not obeying the rules of the missions, for reverting to their native religious practices, gathering wild food, hunting, or visiting their families.

Moreover, the friars made changes to the Indian’s diet, supplanting it with European foods that weakened their immune systems and made them prey to diseases such as smallpox, measles and tuberculosis.

The mission system, Miranda explains to Sonora, was a disaster. The Indian population was decimated because of European diseases, and the Indians lost their land, their religion, their language and their communities. And after the mission period ended in 1833, the remaining land was taken over by non-Indians and later by Anglo settlers who arrived with the Gold Rush.

via With the Serra Canonization: Franciscans need to apologize for mistreating the Mission Indians | La Prensa San Diego.

Justice Moore in Alabama needs to follow court’s order on same-sex marriage, not publicity’s dictates: editorial | cleveland.com

Today, if America’s anti-gay bigots and diehards aren’t thanking God for Roy Moore, perhaps they should, given Moore’s attempted defiance of a federal judge’s order clearing the way for same-sex marriage in Alabama. By ordering Alabama probate judges (who, incidentally, need not be lawyers) to refuse marriage licenses to same-sex couples, Moore is demonstrating contempt for the rule of law, something he’s sworn to uphold. That is, Moore is treating as a nullity a ruling by a U.S. District judge for Southern Alabama (an appointee of George W. Bush) that cleared the way for same-sex marriage in Alabama.

via Justice Moore in Alabama needs to follow court’s order on same-sex marriage, not publicity’s dictates: editorial | cleveland.com.

Parking dispute sparks 3 shooting deaths near University of North Carolina, police say

A racist psychopath – Police are trying to determine whether hate played any role in the killing of three Muslims, a crime they said was sparked by a neighbour’s long-simmering anger over parking and noise inside their condominium complex.

Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, describes himself as a “gun toting” atheist. Neighbors say he always seemed angry and frequently confronted his neighbours. His ex-wife said he was obsessed with the shooting-rampage movie “Falling Down,” and showed “no compassion at all” for other people.

His current wife, Karen Hicks, said he “champions the rights of others” and said the killings “had nothing do with religion or the victims’ faith.” Later Wednesday, she issued another statement, saying she’s divorcing him.

via Parking dispute sparks 3 shooting deaths near University of North Carolina, police say.

In Wake of Rapid City Racism, Lakota Nation Invitational Looking at Options

Pressure Mounting to Move Lakota Nation Invitational out of Rapid City

RAPID CITY— In wake of the January 24 incident – where Lakota students were sprayed with beer and racially taunted – and the lack of arrests in the case, the Lakota Nation Invitational (LNI) board of directors is considering taking its annual event out of Rapid City.

via In Wake of Rapid City Racism, Lakota Nation Invitational Looking at Options.

Two cases of child pornography possession in Vatican in 2014 | Reuters

The prosecutor gave no details but a Vatican spokesman said one of them involved Jozef Wesolowski, a former archbishop who was arrested last September in the Vatican on charges of having paid for sex with children while he was a papal ambassador in the Dominican Republic.

Francis approved the arrest – the first inside the Vatican related to allegations of sexual abuse – in order to send a strong signal that even high-ranking Church officials would be held accountable if they committed abuse, the Vatican said at the time.

Italian media reported at the time of his arrest that child pornography was found on his computer. He is currently under arrest in the Vatican awaiting trial.

via Two cases of child pornography possession in Vatican in 2014 | Reuters.