Category Archives: human rights

Become a Service Member — FoodCorps

BECOME A SERVICE MEMBER

Are you a leader passionate about healthy food, farms and kids?

Then we want you to be a FoodCorps Service Member!

Application is open now through March 30th, 2014.

via Become a Service Member — FoodCorps.

US pair accused of illegally importing rare snake from Brazil, breeding it to make money

A brother and sister from the U.S. have been indicted on charges of illegally importing a rare boa constrictor from Brazil.

The U.S. Attorney\’s Office in Utah says 39-year-old Jeremy Stone and 34-year-old Keri Stone brought the snake into the country through a shipment that went through Miami.

Authorities say they paid thousands of dollars to administrators at a Brazilian zoo to get the white leucistic boa. They say the two falsely reported the snake had been caught in the wild in Guyana.

Prosecutors say Jeremy Stone bred the boa constrictor with other snakes at his reptile business and sold the offspring for tens of thousands of dollars.

Stone sold the snakes he bred to buyers in the United States, Canada and Italy, the indictment says.

via US pair accused of illegally importing rare snake from Brazil, breeding it to make money.

Grad Employees Re-Unionize at New York University—First in the Country | Labor Notes

Victory cries rang out across campus the night of December 11. Tears of joy were shed.

The American Arbitration Association had just announced that New York University graduate employees had voted 98.4 percent in favor of union representation—after eight years of struggle for recognition.

This makes NYU once again the only private university with unionized graduate employees.

The Graduate Student Organizing Committee/Science and Engineers Together (GSOC-UAW)—which brings together two organizing drives across NYU’s campuses—is affiliated with the United Auto Workers and includes more than 1,200 graduate employees.

via Grad Employees Re-Unionize at New York University—First in the Country | Labor Notes.

New Jersey’s New Years Resolution: Tackle Pregnancy Discrimination | National Women’s Law Center

It’s 2014 and it’s hard to believe that pregnant women still face discrimination in the workplace. Many women can work through their pregnancies without changes in their jobs, but some women need temporary, often minor adjustments in their work duties or schedules to continue working safely during their pregnancy. Unfortunately, many times these women are being fired from their jobs, forced onto unpaid leave, or forced to quit when employers refuse to provide temporary accommodations for pregnant women to continue working without jeopardizing their health and the health of their pregnancy.

First day back to work in 2014 and New Jersey decided to do something about this. Monday, the New Jersey Assembly voted 77-1 (!) to pass a bill that bans pregnancy discrimination in the workplace, including by requiring employers to make the same sorts of accommodations for pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions that they do for disabilities, allowing pregnant workers to continue to do their jobs and support their families. If signed into law, this means that pregnant workers in New Jersey who need temporary modifications in their jobs to continue working safely during pregnancy—like, a reprieve from heavy lifting, or the ability to sit on a stool while working a cash register—will be able to respect their doctor’s advice without losing their paycheck.

The bill unanimously passed the New Jersey Senate in November, so now the bill heads to Governor Christie’s desk. Governor Christie has until Tuesday to follow the lead of New Jersey legislators and ensure protection against pregnancy discrimination for the women in New Jersey.

via New Jersey’s New Years Resolution: Tackle Pregnancy Discrimination | National Women’s Law Center.

Berlin pledges annual ‘Day of German expellees’ | Germany | DW.DE | 08.01.2014

Current government  leans more to the right to counter neo-Nazis or to pander to aging super-nationalists who were used as an excuse by Hitler to begin WWII?

In the early 1950s, the expellees organized in territorial groups “to remember the culture and history of their lost homelands, and to represent their demands,” historian Kittel says. The communities formed by the associations helped many get over their loss.

Initially, the groups had close ties to the Social Democrats – until Chancellor Willy Brandt recognized Germany’s eastern borders, drawn after World War Two, dashing all hopes the expellees may have had of a return. Today, the 20 remaining exile groups in Germany are affiliated mainly with the Christian Democrats – and are grappling with waning membership.

It’s not a surprising development, says Franke: some things can only be kept alive if they are shared in a community like a village. When people move elsewhere, it’s normal that they should find no resonance for their traditions. “You just have to fit in,” he says: even if a memorial day won’t bring back the traditions, it will at least make it possible to commemorate the people.

A date for the day of remembrance has not yet been set.

via Berlin pledges annual ‘Day of German expellees’ | Germany | DW.DE | 08.01.2014.

In Egypt, watch the Nour Party – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East

It’s hard to see any winner in Egypt’s messy political arena — one that is dominated by near-daily deadly confrontations between the Muslim Brotherhood and the military-backed interim leadership. However, there

‘s one political party steadily reinforcing its place in Egypt’s political scene: the Salafist Nour.

via In Egypt, watch the Nour Party – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East.

Erdogan’s corruption defense falls flat – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East

Erdogan’s approach to this scandal, however, is best challenged — surprisingly — by his very own party members. Justice and Development Party (AKP) Burdur Deputy Hasan Hami Yildirim resigned on the last day of 2013, bringing the total resigned deputies from the ruling party to seven.

“It’s necessary to correctly identify the problem and the request,” he said Dec. 31. “The issue is not to cut short Turkey’s growing success story. The issue does not embed a conspiracy, foreign powers’ intervention, a mob or a gang. And it certainly is not a coup attempt against the government. In simple terms, the problem and the request is a call for democracy. The people demand that the ruling party not cover up these corruption allegations, but faces them, to come clean.”

Yildirim added, “If, however, there needs to be a conspiracy, I believe that conspiracy is the government’s approach in presenting anything negative about its policies as a conspiracy.” Other resigning deputies echoed Yildirim and warned the public that the government is trying to cover up the corruption allegations, and that is not acceptable.

via Erdogan’s corruption defense falls flat – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East.

Humans of New York

\”I can’t stand moral absolutism. You know, there’s always that guy who wants to point out that Martin Luther King cheated on his wife— as if he obviously couldn’t have been a great person if he did something like that. Or someone will bring out an inspirational quote, and get you to agree, and then inform you that Hitler said it. As if a good thought couldn’t come from Hitler. Moral absolutism keeps us from learning from the past. It’s easy to say: ‘Hitler was a demon. Nazis were all bad seeds.’ That’s simple. It’s much harder to say: ‘Is that humanity? Is that me?’\”

via Humans of New York.

U.S. Sign Language and Deaf Communication | Pushing Limits

Following the controversy over the botched sign language “interpretation” at December’s memorial service for Nelson Mandela, Pushing Limits probes into what makes a good sign language professional service in this country.

We are seeing more and more deaf interpretation in this country with hardly a word of complaint or dissatisfaction.  What are the latest trends and dynamics?

Deaf and CODA (children of deaf adults) kids making a Mexican hat at a DCARA Cinco de Mayo event.

We take up this and other topics related

to deaf communication with Jim Brune, Executive Director of the Deaf Counseling, Advocacy and Referral Agency (DCARA), and sign language interpreter, Robin Mills.

via U.S. Sign Language and Deaf Communication | Pushing Limits.