Category Archives: human rights

ASIA/LEBANON – The victims of the Armenian Genocide will be canonized – Fides News Agency

ASIA/LEBANON – The victims of the Armenian Genocide will be canonized

 

Antelias (Agenzia Fides) – Almost a century since the Armenian genocide – carried out in the territories of Turkey in 1915 – the Armenian Apostolic Church firmly and definitively confirms its intention to proceed with the canonization for martyrdom of the victims of what the Armenians call the “Great Evil”. The confirmation came from the meeting of the Committee for the canonization set up ad hoc and held from January 27 to 29 in Antelias, Lebanon, at the Cathedral of the Armenian Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia.

via ASIA/LEBANON – The victims of the Armenian Genocide will be canonized – Fides News Agency.

Iran, Israel and the politics of gesture – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East

“Tehran considers Saudi Arabia its primary enemy, not Israel or the United States.” According to al-Rai, Hof was told this by Iranian officials in a closed-door meeting. According to Hof, he was also told that Saudi Arabia’s “intervention in the Syrian civil war on the side of the rebels poses a strategic threat to Tehran.”

The current proxy war in Syria which Iran is fighting against Saudi Arabia could have persuaded Iranian decision-makers that they should place their focus on the more immediate enemy, which in this case is the Saudis. To do this, Iran should at least try to reduce tensions, not only with the United States, but also with Israel, which, as I noted in a previous Al-Monitor article, has a number of common interests with Iran in Syria.

via Iran, Israel and the politics of gesture – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East.

Settlers cut down 100 olive trees near Nablus | Maan News Agency

Israeli settlers on Wednesday destroyed over 100 olive trees in the Nablus district, a Palestinian Authority official said.

Ghassan Daghlas, an official who monitors settlement activity in the northern West Bank, told Ma’an that settlers from Itamar cut down the olive trees in an open area in Wadi Yanoun, which is situated between Awarta and Yanoun villages.

Jewish settlers on Sunday vandalized private Palestinian agricultural lands north of Ramallah and uprooted more than 1,000 olive trees and newly planted saplings.

In 2012, there were 353 incidents of settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Settler regularly target Palestinian olive trees for attack.

Over 90 percent of investigations into settler violence by Israeli police fail to lead to an indictment.

via Settlers cut down 100 olive trees near Nablus | Maan News Agency.

North Korea and South Korea agree to first family reunions in over three years | News | DW.DE | 05.02.2014

South Korea\’s Unification Ministry confirmed on Wednesday that the two countries would bring together families divided by the 1950-53 war for a brief visit. The last such reunion was allowed over three years ago.

Delegates from the Red Cross, South and North Korea had struck the deal during a meeting in the demilitarized zone, the Unification Ministry said. Reunions were to take place between February 20-25, it added without providing further details.

The reunion date coincides with annual military drills conducted by Seoul in partnership with the United States. Although North Korea has already called on South Korea to scrap the drills, which it described as preparation for an invasion, the government in Seoul on Wednesday said it would stand its ground.

\”The drills have been conducted annually and they simply cannot be an issue for us as far as the reunions are concerned,\” a government official in Seoul told the news agency Reuters, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

via North Korea and South Korea agree to first family reunions in over three years | News | DW.DE | 05.02.2014.

When will Korea and US end war, militarism, separation? Or does everyone have too much invested in permanent war?

www.german-foreign-policy.com – Rewriting history again and blame Serbs for WW One?

Insane? Yes and no. No, because their are Germans, like Japanese counterparts, who cannot seems to feel good about themselves or their future, unless they can pretend that they were not so bad in the past – bunkum, is still bunkum and grounds for new Hitlers!

New Debate on the Responsibility for War

2014/02/04

BERLIN

(Own report) – In the few months leading up to the one-hundredth anniversary of the beginning of World War I, a new debate, over who was responsible for starting the war, is gaining momentum in Germany. As relevant publications – such as the bestseller, \”The Sleepwalkers\” by the historian Christopher Clark – show, \”a shift in paradigm has taken place\” in scholarship, according to a recent press article: \”The German Empire was not \’responsible\’ for World War I.\” The debate strongly contradicts the recognition that, even though Berlin did not bear it alone, it bore the primary responsibility for the bloody escalation of the 1914 July Crisis. This insight, which was derived particularly from the analyses of the historian Fritz Fischer in the 1960s, is now being massively contested. Historians are strongly criticizing remarks, such as those by Christopher Clark, who, working closely with government-affiliated academic institutions, is denying German responsibility for the war. According to Clark, \”the Serbs\” are supposedly a priori \”the bad guys\” of the pre war era, while he openly displays his preference for the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The denial of Germany\’s main culpability for the war is \”balm on the soul of educated social sectors, grown more self-confident\” at a time when Berlin\’s political power is again on the rise.

via www.german-foreign-policy.com.

Sexual harassment leads Egyptian women to martial arts – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East

Sexual harassment leads Egyptian women to martial arts – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East.

For her part, Asra Saleh, who works in marketing, told Al-Monitor that she will join the campaign because she gets harassed daily. Saleh has filed several harassment claims but was forced to retract many of them because of societal pressure. And the police often do not treat her claims seriously. Despite that, she thinks that filing a harassment claim is very important, in addition to martial arts training for women, because they allow the girls’ voices to be heard.

Azza Kamel, president of the Centre for Appropriate Communication Techniques for Development (ACT) and a feminist activist, said in an interview with Al-Monitor that she welcomed the spread of those campaigns because women should be able to defend themselves at any time. “These campaigns are not new. The Shoft Tahrosh campaign had previously trained girls and conducted awareness campaigns that attracted volunteers to warn that harassment is a crime and is rejected by society,” Kamel said.

It should be said that self-defense is the best way to deal with sexual harassment, which has become a real threat to the moral fabric of Egyptian society. Harassment in Egypt is getting worse, and it is especially acute during demonstrations. Sexual harassment should not be tolerated, especially in light of the slow government action against it and the state’s preoccupation with fighting terrorism in Egypt and ignoring social problems, of which sexual harassment is one of the worst.

Reham Mokbel
Contributor, Egypt Pulse

Reham Mokbel is a political science researcher at the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies. She is based in Cairo and is a freelance reporter for Deutsche Welle. Reham has a BA from the faculty of economics and political science in the English section at Cairo University and is preparing a master’s in international relations.

Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/02/anti-sexual-harassment-campaigns-egypt.html#ixzz2sJR0c3OL

Afghan Women’s Writing Project | Like a Breeze

I was a child like a breeze—beautiful and fresh

I was born during war where people try to escape

I gave smiles with my small lips to other’s smiles

I was a morning breeze entering houses with happy families

I was not powerful enough to cure their pain of losing loved ones

But the wind before every rain shakes all trees

Now this little breeze is a wind

Like a child who grows into a teenager

The wind’s voice can be heard before it comes to the forests and cities

But no one knows my voice, no one clearly hears it.

I am a beautiful wind before the rain.

I do not yet have enough power to support poor people

Or help the flower buds from begging on the streets

I do not have power to bring the flower bud to the master gardener

But I am now a wind, and I will become a powerful young storm

That lifts up the innocent, like seeds growing in the dirt

The young storm is beginning

It will hug every poor and orphaned child

And paint a beautiful picture of life with all the colors of nature.

After that storm ends, will rise a beautiful rainbow.

Farida Fa., age 16

via Afghan Women’s Writing Project | Like a Breeze.

Settlers uproot more than 1,000 olive saplings near Ramallah | Maan News Agency

Jewish settlers on Sunday vandalized private Palestinian agricultural lands north of Ramallah and uprooted more than 1000 olive trees and newly planted saplings, a Palestinian official said.

Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian Authority official who monitors settlement-related activities in the northern West Bank, told Ma\’an that a group of settlers from the Shilo settlement uprooted more than 1000 saplings in the village of Sinjil north of Ramallah.

via Settlers uproot more than 1,000 olive saplings near Ramallah | Maan News Agency.