Category Archives: human rights

Alabama Woman Who Joined ISIS Can’t Return Home, U.S. Says – The New York Times

Ms. Muthana’s father was a Yemeni diplomat, and children born in the United States to active diplomats are not bestowed birthright citizenship, since diplomats are under the jurisdiction of their home countries. That law does not apply in Ms. Muthana’s case, said Charlie Swift, the director of the Constitutional Law Center for Muslims in America, who is representing her family. Ms. Muthana, he said, was born a month after her father was discharged from his position as a United Nations diplomat. After she joined the Islamic State, Mr. Swift said, Ms. Muthana’s family received a letter indicating that her passport had been revoked. Her father sent the government evidence of his nondiplomatic status at the time of his daughter’s birth, but did not receive a response. Mr. Swift said Ms. Muthana had in fact been issued two American passports: one when she was a child, and a renewal she applied for herself just before leaving for Syria. In the case of the first, he says that her father provided a letter from the United Nations proving that he had been discharged, to overcome the jurisdictional challenge. Hassan Shibly, a lawyer with the Council on American-Islamic Relations Florida w

El Mozote massacre triggers passions in Washington decades later

Rep. Ilhan Omar In a recent Congressional hearing first year member of the US House of Representatives Ilhan Omar challenged Elliott Abr…

Source: El Mozote massacre triggers passions in Washington decades later

Just a final comment — there seems to be a suggestion from some on the right that to challenge Elliott Abrams as a fitting US representative for anything involving Latin American policy is the same as supporting Maduro in Venezuela.   That’s a completely specious argument.    You can be opposed (as I am) to Maduro’s ruinous rule in Venezuela and his violations of human rights without needing to support Abrams who actively acted to cover up the human rights abuses of an oppressive regime in El Salvador and elsewhere.   You have more credibility and integrity if you denounce human rights abuses wherever they exist, not just when the human rights abuses are committed by a government on the opposite side of the political spectrum.

Ilhan Omar, Elliott Abrams, and the El Mozote Massacre – The Atlantic

what did Abrams have to do with it? More than 900 peasants were murdered in and around several villages in the eastern province of Morazán. Most were old men, women, and children. At the Roman Catholic church in El Mozote, soldiers separated men from their families, took them away, and shot them. They herded mothers and children into the convent. Putting their American-supplied M-16 rifles on automatic, the soldiers opened fire. Then they burned the convent. Some 140 children were killed, including toddlers. Average age: 6. Omar’s questioning of Abrams was not artful, and Abrams wasn’t unreasonable in viewing it as a personal attack. But she was right to suggest that he had sought to diminish or even cover up the massacre by calling it communist propaganda. Nor was she wrong to question whether Abrams was ethically qualified to assume a high government position, with the mission to oust the Venezuelan dictatorship and promote democracy.

Source: Ilhan Omar, Elliott Abrams, and the El Mozote Massacre – The Atlantic

Trump’s emergency: the arbitrary action of an instinctive autocrat | Simon Tisdall | US news | The Guardian

The declaration, or attempted diktat, is the arbitrary action of an instinctive autocrat. It trashes convention, and co-equal Congressional rights and oversight. It is the product of an immature, egotistic mind. And it is based on a lie – namely, that Trump repeatedly promised he would make Mexico pay for the wall, not US taxpayers. More than anything, the wall is physically as well as politically divisive – and division is a trademark of Trumpism. It features in almost everything he does, whether the issue is race in the US, gun control, press freedom, Venezuela, Iran or the Israel-Palestine conflict. Trump is not alone in his myopic, fearful outlook. Walls, or the more euphemistic, antiseptic “separation barriers”, have been proliferating globally in recent years – in the West Bank, between India and Pakistan, and between EU countries, the Balkans and the Middle East. Another may soon be erected, in one form or another, on the island of Ireland. The world can be divided into those who build walls and those who build bridges. There is no doubt which side Trump is on.

Source: Trump’s emergency: the arbitrary action of an instinctive autocrat | Simon Tisdall | US news | The Guardian

4 Ways ICE Doesn’t Hold Immigration Detention Facilities Accountable : Immigration Impact

ICE fails to penalize contractors that don’t meet key detention standards. All facilities with an ICE contract are supposed to follow national detention standards. The standards generally define the facility’s responsibilities, services, and safety and security requirements. ICE’s own inspection process—which the OIG previously found to be inadequate—uncovered more than 14,000 instances of deficient standards at the contract facilities between October 2015 and June 2018. Despite identifying deficiencies, such as failing to notify ICE of sexual assaults or allegations of staff misconduct, ICE imposed a financial penalty on bad contractors only twice. That’s 0.014 percent of identified deficiencies.

Source: 4 Ways ICE Doesn’t Hold Immigration Detention Facilities Accountable : Immigration Impact

Trump’s National Emergency? Think Again | Human Rights Watch

We have seen Trump’s fear-mongering before. There are real humanitarian problems at the border, but they have largely been manufactured by the Trump Administration, for example, by blocking asylum seekers from entering at ports of entry and lodging claims. Processing increasing numbers of children and families seeking asylum is not a crisis; it is not only manageable but a responsibility any country should willingly bear.

Source: Trump’s National Emergency? Think Again | Human Rights Watch

What the pesticides in our urine tell us about organic food | Kendra Klein and Anna Lappé | Opinion | The Guardian

Of the 14 chemicals tested, every single member of every family had detectable levels. After switching to an organic diet, these levels dropped dramatically. Levels across all pesticides dropped by more than half on average. Detectable levels for the pesticide malathion, a probable human carcinogen according to the World Health Organization, decreased a dramatic 95% . Malathion was just one of the pesticides found in this study that are part of a group called organophosphates, which have long concerned public health experts because of their impact on children’s developing brains. Created as nerve agents in World War II, organophosphates have been linked to increased rates of autism, learning disabilities, and reduced IQ in children. The organophosphate chlorpyrifos, found in all of the family members, is so worrisome to public health that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) planned to ban it in 2017 – a proposal dropped by the Trump administration. In the wake of inaction from the administration, Hawaii passed the first state level chlorpyrifos ban in 2018; and Representative Nydia Velázquez introduced a federal bill to ban it.

Source: What the pesticides in our urine tell us about organic food | Kendra Klein and Anna Lappé | Opinion | The Guardian

The Predators of Instagram | Dame Magazine

In one case from February, a popular model and photographer named Jess Linnet posted an account of her negative experience with a photographer along with the experiences of a dozen or so others whom she had spoken to. Within less than an hour, Instagram suspended her account without offering any explanation, leaving the photographer’s account untouched. Jess wrote multiple impassioned emails that explained the difficulty of being a female artist on Instagram and eventually Instagram reinstated her profile. Missing, however, were the accusations against the photographer.

Source: The Predators of Instagram | Dame Magazine

Tiffany Van Dyke speaks out after husband, Jason Van Dyke, beaten in Connecticut prison: ‘The worst has happened’ – Chicago Tribune – no, he is alive and Laquan McDonald is dead… forever

“My No. 1 fear for my husband has always been his safety, it always has been that somebody is going to get him and hurt him, and the worst has happened,” Tiffany Van Dyke said in the Loop offices of her husband’s lawyers.

Source: Tiffany Van Dyke speaks out after husband, Jason Van Dyke, beaten in Connecticut prison: ‘The worst has happened’ – Chicago Tribune

Rambling Trump calls an emergency in speech that goes on and on and on | US news | The Guardian

Trump’s White House screed was him at his Trumpiest – the old man at the bar sounding off about the world’s ills

Source: Rambling Trump calls an emergency in speech that goes on and on and on | US news | The Guardian