Category Archives: human rights

allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Poor Sanitation – 150,000 Children Die Annually in Nigeria – -Unicef

And world media and conspiracy nuts going on and on about controllable Ebola as if the end of world was coming!

UNICEF Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Chief in Nigeria, Mr. Kanaan Nadar, disclosed this on the occasion of the 2014 global hand washing day celebration in Abuja.

UNICEF Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Chief in Nigeria, Mr. Kanaan Nadar, disclosed this on the occasion of the 2014 global hand washing day celebration in Abuja.

UNICEF Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Chief in Nigeria, Mr. Kanaan Nadar, disclosed this on the occasion of the 2014 global hand washing day celebration in Abuja.

Nadar called on parents to make their children see the need to always wash their hands and maintain safe hygiene at all times as this would reduce deaths caused by diarrhea by almost 50 per cent.

Nadar, said: “In Nigeria every year, we have about 150,000 children that die largely due to diarrhea mostly associated with unsafe water sanitation and hygiene.

via allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Poor Sanitation – 150,000 Children Die Annually in Nigeria – -Unicef.

Wisconsin attorney general candidate says fast food workers should get a “real job”

In fact, Walker recently said he doesn’t think the minimum wage “serves a purpose” at all, saying he wants to create jobs that pay “two or three times that.” The sentiment expressed by Schimel and Walker is a common conservative talking point–and a huge scam. The idea that instead of ensuring that low-wage jobs give people enough money to pay rent and fucking eat we should just get them better jobs is nothing more than a way for conservatives to pretend they care about poor people by ignoring reality. Let’s talk about some real facts…

It’s a real fact that there about 3 million fast food workers in this country, and there is no indication that Americans’ love of fries and processed burgers will wane anytime soon.

It’s a real fact that few of these workers are teenagers “flipping burgers” as a summer job–two thirds are women, disproportionately women of color, and their medium age is 28.

It’s a real fact that these workers are usually supporting kids, often by themselves, with their apparently not-real fast food jobs.

via Wisconsin attorney general candidate says fast food workers should get a “real job”.

Meshaal calls on Muslims to defend Al-Aqsa Mosque

He added, “Al-Aqsa is worth us becoming martyrs for, and anyone who can carry a weapon in the region should go and defend it, as this is the true meaning of jihad.”

via Meshaal calls on Muslims to defend Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Trying to light fuse to violence without being at risk himself and trying to be tough guy, when what is needed is leader guy.

Anti-right to work moment has passed in Michigan?

“They have the issues on their side, in right to work and other attacks on union rights. If they can’t motivate their members now, they never will.”

What political observers are watching for but haven’t seen yet is evidence that labor is constructing coordinated absentee ballot and get out the vote drives.

If it’s happening, it’s not as visible as it has been in past elections, although there’s certainly time for such efforts to emerge between now and Nov. 4.

To remain politically relevant, labor must not only sway the race for governor, but also the legislative campaigns. It was Republican lawmakers, after all, who passed right to work. If big labor can’t use its muscle to punish anti-union legislators in Michigan, of all places, why would lawmakers anywhere be afraid to take up similar measures?

It’s an overstatement to call this labor’s last stand. But unions did promise to hang right to work around GOP necks in 2014, and so far they haven’t delivered.

via Anti-right to work moment has passed.

Settlers raid Ibrahimi mosque under armed guard | Maan News Agency

Jewish settlers raided the Ibrahimi mosque in Hebron late Thursday under armed guard, a local Palestinian official said.

Head of Hebron’s endowment directorate, Taysir Abu Snineh, said mosque guards were held in the al-Jawliya area during the raid, which he labeled a “dangerous act” that could have “serious consequences” for the mosque.

Israeli authorities requested access to the mosque, referred to by Jews as Isaac’s Hall, late Thursday but endowment officials refused as it violates a previous agreement on access days, which is limited to 10 visits per year.

The agreement came into place after a Brooklyn-born Jewish settler massacred 29 Palestinians in the mosque after opening fire at worshipers in 1994.

Abu Snineh said the raid was a “dangerous escalation” in tensions at the holy site.

via Settlers raid Ibrahimi mosque under armed guard | Maan News Agency.

Sierra Leone now but where next? Law in a time of Ebola — New Internationalist

Just this week, a woman was arrested for failure to wash her hands. There are chlorinated hand-washing buckets across Freetown these days and it is common to have to wash your hands several times a day before you enter any premises. This woman refused to wash her hands as she said she had just done so and was afraid of the effect of the chlorine. Not everyone is aware of how much chlorine to add to the water; some hand-washing points can make your hands burn or smell of chlorine all day. The woman said she was afraid of developing cancer from all the chlorine – a common fear. Our paralegal was able to advise her at the police station and contacted the woman’s family, who assisted with paying her fine.

It is a difficult time for Sierra Leone. These laws are put in place to try to halt this tragic epidemic as quickly as possible. We recognize and value this, but also want to make sure that we play a role in monitoring the current State of Emergency and ensuring that it is enforced in a proportionate way that respects people’s rights. It is easy for law-enforcement officers to assume that rights are done away with and that anything can be done just because we are under a State of Emergency.

The Ebola epidemic has impacted all areas of life in Sierra Leone and has had a significant impact on the justice system. The courts have scaled down the number of hearings per day and adjournments can be lengthy. Many magistrates and lawyers have left the country. Others cannot return from abroad due to flight cancellations caused by the epidemic. Still others cannot attend court because of the quarantines. So women may spend much longer in pre-trial detention than usual, which negatively impacts on their families: women are the main caregivers and often the main income-earners. Many women have young children in prison with them. So we try very hard to ensure our clients get bail.

via Law in a time of Ebola — New Internationalist.

Electronic Village: Jurors Award $4.65 Million in Taser-Torture Death of Marvin Booker

A federal jury found five Denver sheriff’s deputies used excessive force against a homeless street preacher who died in the city’s downtown jail and awarded his family a record $4.65 million in damages, a verdict an attorney said should send a message to law enforcement everywhere.

via Electronic Village: Jurors Award $4.65 Million in Taser-Torture Death of Marvin Booker.

IS indirectly supported by US and Saudi Arabia prior to 2007?

The USA and Saudi Arabia have been financing Lebanese Salafist groups, who are the worst enemies of the Shiite Hezbollah. An official in Beirut had admitted to US journalist Seymour Hersh back in 2007 that even al Qaeda type organizations were allowed “to have a presence here.”[5] In a conversation with Hersh, a former member of the US intelligence community complained, “in this process, we’re financing a lot of bad guys with some serious potential unintended consequences. It’s a very high-risk venture.” On the other hand, since 2012, at the latest, north Lebanese Salafists – who had been reinforced with western and Saudi aid – began supporting insurgents in the Syrian civil war. Up to 900 of them are said to have joined IS. It is unlikely that Berlin had not known of this buildup of the Lebanese Salafists by its US partner and its Middle East ally, Saudi Arabia, particularly given the fact that the German Bundeswehr has been operating in Lebanon since 2006 – hardly without its accompanying intelligence-gathering component. In any case, articles on this development began being published back in March 2007. At the time, the common priorities being set by the West were aimed at weakening Iran.

via www.german-foreign-policy.com.

Hundreds of Israelis enter Aqsa under armed guard | Maan News Agency

Hundreds of Israelis toured the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Tuesday under armed guard for the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, as clashes erupted due to restrictions on Palestinian worshipers.

Palestinian men under 50 and all women were prevented from entering the compound for morning prayers and Israeli forces fired stun grenades at worshipers who tried to enter.

Israeli forces assaulted Aqsa mosque guard Muhannad Idris, 30, and detained him, witnesses said.

Director of the Aqsa compound, Sheikh Omar al-Kiswani, said 254 Israeli visited the compound to pray.

via Hundreds of Israelis enter Aqsa under armed guard | Maan News Agency.

Illegal loggers remain hidden in Peru’s forest but timber finds global buyers | Environment | The Guardian

In this remote part of Peru’s 700,000 sq km of Amazon rainforest, there is not much beyond subsistence fishing and farming as a way to earn a living. Other options are mostly illegal: logging Amazonian hardwoods, growing coca, hunting and selling bushmeat. These activities are all prohibited, but in a region larger than Germany, the state is virtually absent. Levels of poverty and illiteracy are far above the national average. Organised crime and evangelical sects fill the vacuum. As in the Rudyard Kipling poem, here the “law of the jungle” is “as old and as true as the sky”.

The murder of forest campaigner Edwin Chota with three fellow Ashaninka leaders – Jorge Rios, Leonicio Quintisima and Francisco Piñedo – at the beginning of last month briefly drew the world’s attention to Peru’s rainforest. The remains of just three men, shot dead in the forest, have been found. DNA profiling using relatives’ hair samples are being used to identify the bodies. The authorities arrested the alleged killers, illegal loggers Adeuzo and Eurico Mapes, a father-and-son pair who are reported to have threatened Chota when he informed officials of their activities. These complaints fell on deaf ears, say members of his community, Alto-Tamaya Saweto.

via Illegal loggers remain hidden in Peru’s forest but timber finds global buyers | Environment | The Guardian.