Category Archives: human rights

German state of Saarland bans all political campaigning by foreign officials | News | DW.COM | 14.03.2017

The small western German of Saarland moved on Tuesday to ban all foreign politicians from campaigning in the state.While the move prohibits all foreign officials from holding campaign rallies, the policy immediately targets Turkish officials. Allies of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have been rallying in European cities with large Turkish expatriate populations in a bid to harness the Turkish diaspora vote ahead of a controversial referendum vote next month that seeks to expand the President’s powers.”Internal Turkish conflicts have no place in Germany,” Saarland’s conservative State Premier Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who faces an election of her own next month, said in a statement. “Election appearances which put at risk domestic peace in our country must be banned.”

Source: German state of Saarland bans all political campaigning by foreign officials | News | DW.COM | 14.03.2017

Native American and indigenous rights: “There is no word for wall in our language” | In English | EL PAÍS

The Tohono O’odham – the name means desert people – have lived on both sides of the border since their lands were arbitrarily divided between the United States and Mexico some 160 years ago. Around 30,000 members of the nation live in Arizona. Meanwhile, several thousand more – and the majority of the nation’s sacred sites – can be found in Mexico.Trump’s wall would be a coup de grace for a nation whose territory doesn’t respect international borders and the Tohono O’odham have taken the fight to protect their lands to the Washington-based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

“If they build the wall, it will be over my dead body,” says Verlon José, Vice President of the Tohono O’odham nation.

Source: Native American and indigenous rights: “There is no word for wall in our language” | In English | EL PAÍS

Canadian church group denied entry to US over fears they would ‘steal’ jobs | World news | The Guardian – to please “#LoserTrump” boss – they will do anything!

“This trip falls in the ‘love your neighbour’ category,” said Erik Hoeksema of the group. “We typically send groups down every two or three years to do similar projects.”The 12-member group set off on Saturday. But their road trip came to an abrupt halt at the US border, after officials told them the host church in the US should have provided documentation in advance outlining exactly what they would be doing while in the US.“This was a bit of mistake on our part, and the reason why we got ‘red-flagged’ to start with,” said Hoeksema. “But in the end, I was told that this was not the reason for us being denied entry.”Members of the church had volunteered south of the border before, taking part in projects in Kentucky and Pennsylvania. Canadians do not need a visa if they are volunteering in the US, as long as they are able to show that they will not be compensated for their work.The Reformed Church of Highland Park in central New Jersey responded immediately, sending over a letter that explained that the group was going to join the 3,000 volunteers who have so far helped 200 families get back into homes damaged by Hurricane Sandy.AdvertisementBorder officials said the letter was not specific enough. Hoeksema asked the host church to send another letter, this time specifying the types of duties that the group would be carrying out.A second letter soon arrived, explaining that mission groups who travel to New Jersey carry out team building, tour programs that range from food pantries and thrift shops and assist with neighbourhood cleanup projects.It was this last line that border officials seemingly took issue with, said Hoeksema. “This was interpreted as ‘work for hire’ and since we are foreigners, this would be stealing American jobs.”Some five years after Hurricane Sandy hit the region, the need to carry out relief work was also questioned. “We were told that when there is an immediate need, volunteer groups usually are granted entrance,” said Hoeksema.After more than two hours spent at the border, the group – all of whom were carrying Canadian passports and who had travelled to the US before with no incident – was denied entry.

Source: Canadian church group denied entry to US over fears they would ‘steal’ jobs | World news | The Guardian

Raped, beaten, exploited: the 21st-century slavery propping up Sicilian farming | Global development | The Guardian

An Italian migrant rights organisation, the Proxyma Association, estimates that more than half of all Romanian women working in the greenhouses are forced into sexual relations with their employers. Almost all of them work in conditions of forced labour and severe exploitation.Police say they believe that up to 7,500 women, the majority of whom are Romanian, are living in slavery on farms across the region. Guido Volpe, a commander in the carabinieri military police in Sicily, told the Observer that Ragusa was the centre of exploitation on the island.“These women are working as slaves in the fields and we know they are blackmailed to have sex with the owners of the farms or greenhouses because of their psychological subjugation,” he says. “It is not easy to investigate or stop this from happening, as the women are mostly too afraid to speak out.”Many of the Romanian women leave children and dependent families at home and feel forced into making the desperate choices that have carved deep lines of grief into Bolos’s face.“Where I come from in Romanian Moldavia, nobody has a job,” says Bolos, as she nurses her five-month-old daughter in a dark warehouse that is now her home on another farm in Ragusa province. “The average salary there is €200 a month. Here you can make much more, even if you need to suffer.”

Source: Raped, beaten, exploited: the 21st-century slavery propping up Sicilian farming | Global development | The Guardian

The Coded Racist Language of Betsy DeVos and Ben Carson | Dame Magazine

Now, it must be said that neither DeVos nor Carson have expressed anything remotely radical: Their attitudes fall within the paradigm that the best way to fix the Negro Problem is to vehemently ignore it.Long before DeVos was ever considered for the position as Secretary of Education, states like Texas have long tried to put a spin on the atrocities of slavery by referring to it as “unpaid work” or a simple side issue of the War of Northern Aggression. This is to say nothing of the way U.S. History is taught in so many classrooms across the country—apparently Black folks dropped off the face of the Earth from 1865 to 1955. What were we doing? Sitting around eating watermelon while White folks made America great until Rosa Parks decided she was too lazy to move to her ass to the back of the bus? That’s what we do, according to White America, act divisive when we don’t feel like doing any hard work.Whether this nation admits it or not, our country lives and dies by the parameter of White savior, the Lazy Negro, and everything in between. It plays out in how we view ourselves as well as how we view one another. Non-Black American POCs measure their success by their proximity to whiteness—just how far can one distance themself from the those gosh-darn Negroes and their yucky African slave blood? It’s how a White person has the audacity to claim their immigrant ancestors have showed strength and resolve that the enslaved ancestors could not because all my Black ancestors had to do was “a little bit of manual labor for a bit” and they couldn’t even do that right.It is this narrative that allows, and even encourages, the exclusion of Black communities and any group unfortunate enough to fall within its spectrum from American perks. Because it is our insolence and aversion to hard work that states that we do not deserve the opportunities that the land of opportunity offers, and it was this narrative that drove Ben Carson to not only claim enslaved Africans were immigrants, but in the very same speech, to make this simple statement: “We do no favors for anybody. There are no extras for anybody.”

Source: The Coded Racist Language of Betsy DeVos and Ben Carson | Dame Magazine

Humans of New York

“Rio was the biggest slave port in world history. Two million slaves arrived in this city—five times more than the entire American South. Favelas were built because the government didn’t want to provide basic services to the descendants of slaves. So these descendants were forced to build their own communities. Favelas are unregulated. They’re poorly serviced. But don’t call them ‘slums.’ That’s a lazy translation and it’s unfair to the people who live here. The word ‘slum’ implies that all favelas are the same. The word ‘slum’ ignores 120 years of improvement that these residents have made to their communities. And the word ‘slum’ makes it easier to ignore these communities. That’s exactly what the government wants. Because if favelas aren’t viewed as real neighborhoods, then their residents don’t deserve real services. So please don’t use the word ‘slum.’ Because it only helps to encourage that narrative.”(Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

Source: Humans of New York

Six ill, 2 dead in Listeria outbreak tied to Vulto soft cheese | CIDRAP #LoserTrump will soon promote reducing inspections and standards for safe food – count on it and more unnecessary dead.

Six people have been sickened—two fatally—in a four-state listeriosis outbreak that began last September and has been traced to soft raw milk cheese made by Vulto Creamery of Walton, N.Y., which has issued a recall, federal officials said today.The outbreak strain of Listeria monocytogenes is known to cause serious, life-threatening disease.Deaths in Connecticut, VermontListeria specimens were taken from two of the patients in September, one in October, and the other three in January, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in its first statement on the outbreak today.Half of the patients are from New York, while Connecticut, Florida, and Vermont have each reported one case. All case-patients required hospitalization. The patients in Connecticut and Vermont died.

Source: Six ill, 2 dead in Listeria outbreak tied to Vulto soft cheese | CIDRAP

Trump is pushing American Jews away from Israel — and that’s a good thing | +972 Magazine

Now that the U.S. is being faced with a racist Trump regime, American Jews are being reminded of their own history of oppression, forcing them to make a choice: which side are we on when it comes to Israel? By Michael Sidman Blind support for Israel has kept American Jews from supporting Palestinian liberation for too long – but the Trump administration, in one of its accidental silver linings, has finally created the perfect incubator to bring American Jews and Palestinians together. For decades American Jews, guided in no small part by mainstream Jewish organizations, have actively and vocally lent their support to far-right…

Source: Trump is pushing American Jews away from Israel — and that’s a good thing | +972 Magazine

IRIN | EXCLUSIVE: Drought leaves 80,000 Sri Lankans in need of “life-saving” food aid

“Over 900,000 people are in urgent need of food assistance,” says the emergency assessment obtained by IRIN and dated 7 March. Of those, about 80,000 people need “urgent life-saving support”.The drought is affecting 23 of the island nation’s 25 districts, across all nine provinces.Already, many families are being forced to “eat less preferred food, limit portion sizes, reduce number of meals per day,” according to the assessment, which was produced by the government’s disaster management and relief authorities in cooperation with UN agencies, including the World Food Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization.“Irreversible coping strategies such as taking children out of school and selling of livelihood assets could be further increased as a result of the exhausted nature of food consumption based coping strategies,” the report warns.

Source: IRIN | EXCLUSIVE: Drought leaves 80,000 Sri Lankans in need of “life-saving” food aid

An Afghan Family, With Visas in Hand, Is Detained in Los Angeles – The New York Times

The scene at the airport was “chaotic, panicked; it was a mess,” said Lali Madduri, a lawyer with the firm Gibson Dunn, which is representing the family pro bono. “The whole time the children are crying, the woman is crying. They can’t understand what’s going on.

”The father had arrived on Thursday with his wife and three children, ages 7, 6 and 8 months, on Special Immigrant Visas, according to the lawyers’ habeas corpus petition filed on Saturday in Federal District Court in Los Angeles. Those visas were created by Congress for citizens in Iraq and Afghanistan who have helped the United States military or government as drivers, interpreters or in other jobs — work that often makes them targets in their home countries.But instead of being allowed to enter the United States, the family has been detained, according to the court papers.

“I’ve never, ever heard of this happening,” said Becca Heller, the director of the International Refugee Assistance Project, or IRAP, which filed the petition. “They go through so many layers of security clearance, including one right before they get on the plane. ”Calling the detention “egregious, inhumane and unconstitutional,” the group petitioned the court to release the family, whose names were not publicly revealed. The judge did not order the family be released, but set a hearing in the case for Monday.According to Ms. Heller, the father was being held Saturday night at a men’s immigration detention facility in Orange County, Calif. His wife and children were taken to a detention center in downtown Los Angeles.