Category Archives: human rights

Disney to End Support for Boy Scouts of America Over Ban on Gay Leaders | News | PND

The Walt Disney Company will end its support for the Boy Scouts of America in 2015 because of the organization’s membership policy that bans gay leaders, CNN reports.

Disney’s VoluntEARS program, through which Disney employees can convert volunteer hours to cash donations for the charities of their choice, will no longer allow employees to direct funds to the Boy Scouts, the entertainment conglomerate told CNN. Disney does not directly support the national BSA organization or local councils.

According to Disney’s charitable giving guidelines, organizations that “discriminate in the provision of services unlawfully or in a manner inconsistent with Disney’s policies on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, national origin, age, marital status, mental or physical ability, or sexual orientation” are ineligible to receive funds. While BSA voted last May to allow openly gay youths to join its ranks starting this year, it maintains its ban on gay adult leaders.

via Disney to End Support for Boy Scouts of America Over Ban on Gay Leaders | News | PND.

Egyptians begin ‘Internet Revolution’ – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East

The Internet Revolution Egypt has become very popular on Facebook. Barely one month after the campaign began, the page has over 400,000 likes. The first statement issued by the campaign read: “Internet service providers underestimate the minds of the users. … Internet in Egypt is slow, customer service is bad, the infrastructure of internet exchange points is bad and companies are giving fake offers.” Most of the Internet users in Egypt reacted to the statement and let out a cry of anger labeled the “Internet Revolution.” The main demands of this campaign are “to lower the cost of access to Internet in a way that goes in line with the income of the [average] Egyptian citizen, to improve technical support, and to abolish the service providers’ monopoly and control over the Internet.” The campaign’s influence has widened to the point that even comedian Bassem Youssef took part in it, by mocking the slow Internet connection in last week’s episode

via Egyptians begin ‘Internet Revolution’ – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East.

Jewish groups tour Al-Aqsa Mosque compound | Maan News Agency

Worshipers shouted “God is Great” in Arabic while the groups toured the compound and heated arguments were reported.

Yehuda Glick is an American-born Israeli who has been banned in the past by Israeli authorities from entering the compound due to provocations while on the site. He is the chairman of the controversial Temple Mount Heritage Fund.

Critics charge that the Temple Mount Heritage Fund leads Jewish tours to the site with the intention of leading Jewish prayer there — currently banned under Israeli agreements — and encouraging Jews to destroy the Al-Aqsa mosque and build a Jewish temple there.

via Jewish groups tour Al-Aqsa Mosque compound | Maan News Agency.

“Act of Killing” Director Hopes U.S. Will Admit Genocide Role – Inter Press Service

“I was afraid at first, but after I got over that fear I realised that everyone I interviewed was boastful about even the most horrible details of the killings, which they described with smiles on their faces,” he said.

In the eight years that it took Oppenheimer to complete “The Act of Killing”, which was executive produced by internationally known directors Werner Herzog and Errol Morris, he only discovered his main character, Anwar Congo — the founder of a right-wing paramilitary organisation that grew out of the death squads — in the final year of filming.

Congo, who describes torturing and murdering suspected communists “like we were killing happily,” acts as though he is the director of the documentary as he collaborates with friends and colleagues to recreate scenes from his memory.

“I felt his pain was close to the surface, so I lingered on him,” said Oppenheimer.

But while Congo seems haunted by his past, especially by a recurring nightmare of a severed head with eyes he failed to close staring at him, he ultimately reverts to the excuse that he was just following orders.

via “Act of Killing” Director Hopes U.S. Will Admit Genocide Role – Inter Press Service.

H5N1: Myanmar expels Doctors Without Borders, accuses group of dissension

Burma wants no witnesses to genocidal policies and looking the other way when the killings start up again!

Médecins sans frontières (Doctors Without Borders) has been kicked out of Myanmar after two decades of caring for sick people in one of the world’s poorest countries, and the group said Friday that the decision risks tens of thousands of lives.

The government defended its decision, accusing the group of creating tensions and instability in violence-scarred Rakhine state, where it has faced repeated protests for treating members of the long-persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority.

“Today for the first time in MSF’s history of operations in the country, HIV/AIDS clinics in Rakhine, Shan and Kachin states, as well as Yangon division, were closed and patients were unable to receive the treatment they needed,” the group said in a statement.

via H5N1: Myanmar expels Doctors Without Borders, accuses group of dissension.

Settlers burn entrance of house in Ramallah village | Maan News Agency

Taking inspiration from US KKK?

Israeli settlers early Thursday torched a house in Silwad village east of Ramallah, residents said.

Locals told Ma’an that settlers set the entrance of the house of Mohammad Hussein Hammad on fire and wrote racist, anti-Arab graffiti on its walls near the eastern entrance of Silwad village.

The house was empty when settlers attacked, they said.

via Settlers burn entrance of house in Ramallah village | Maan News Agency.

Moscow pledges to respect Ukraine’s territorial integrity after Russian flag raised in Crimea | News | DW.DE | 27.02.2014

Russia has denied that Moscow had any hand in the takeover of the local parliament building in Simferopol, the Crimean regional capital on Thursday. Gunmen with rocket-propelled grenades and sniper rifles erected a sign reading “Crimea is Russia” and raised the Russian flag over the building. The gunmen wore black and orange ribbons, a Russian symbol of victory in World War II.

Later there were reports that similar gunmen had taken control of the airport of Crimea’s capital Simferopol. But the AFP news agency reported early on Friday that the airport was open, although a number of armed men in uniform were standing behind the exterior security fence.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Moscow “will respect the territorial integrity of Ukraine” but voiced concerns about the situation in Crimea, according to US Secretary of State John Kerry. After meeting with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Washington, Kerry said he had spoken by telephone with Lavrov on Thursday.

via Moscow pledges to respect Ukraine’s territorial integrity after Russian flag raised in Crimea | News | DW.DE | 27.02.2014.

Ukrainian Journalists Rush To Fish Out Deposed President’s Dirty Secrets

KYIV — Someone wanted the records to disappear without a trace under the gray waves of the Kyiv Reservoir. Instead, they are ending up on the Internet for everyone in the world to see.

When ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and his entourage were fleeing the lavish presidential residence at Mezhyhirya, outside of Kyiv, on the night of February 21-22, they apparently dumped hundreds of documents into the reservoir in an amateurish attempt to conceal the information they contain.

But journalists and scuba divers showed up on the scene just hours later and began recovering the soggy papers. Some were floating surreally along the edges of the water; others were recovered in stuffed file folders from the depths.

via Ukrainian Journalists Rush To Fish Out Deposed President’s Dirty Secrets.