Category Archives: human rights

Trump′s travel ban makes US look ′like a banana republic′ | News | DW.COM | 29.01.2017

What do you make of the implementation of this order? I think the implementation was just simply emblematic that President Trump is just simply not competent and capable of being President of the United States. This was rushed through. It did not go through individuals within the administration, lawyers and others, who have expertise in the area of immigration law. It was simply pushed through in haste and without consideration and you could see it in the results on the ground. It makes the United States look like a banana republic. The executive order has left travelers from those countries not being able to travel to the US despite holding a valid US visa, and has seen many who’ve arrived in US airports being detained. Organizations like the ACLU went to court on this and scored an initial legal win. But what exactly does that mean, because the legal standoff has apparently still not been resolved? The win the ACLU won in Brooklyn and the other rulings by courts in the country in Virginia, Seattle and other cities are basically just preserving the status quo. They are preventing the government from deporting or removing individuals who traveled to the United States after the order was implemented. I don’t believe that the orders affect anybody directly who has not yet traveled to the United States, but it prevents those people who got to the United States and who have been trapped in the airport from being deported by the United States to their home country until this case has been resolved.

Source: Trump′s travel ban makes US look ′like a banana republic′ | News | DW.COM | 29.01.2017

Refugees Detained at U.S. Airports, Prompting Legal Challenges to Trump’s Immigration Order – The New York Times

According to the filing, Hameed Khalid Darweesh was granted a special immigrant visa on Jan. 20, the same day Mr. Trump was sworn in. He worked with the United States in Iraq in a variety of jobs — as an interpreter, engineer and contractor — over the course of roughly a decade.Mr. Darweesh worked as an interpreter for the Army’s 101st Airborne Division in Baghdad and Mosul starting shortly after the invasion of Iraq on April 1, 2003. The filing said he had been directly targeted twice for working with the American military.

Trump’s whisperer-in-chief is treading on dangerous ground | Southern Poverty Law Center

It’s important that we all never forget who and what Bannon is.He is the media executive who, in his own words, turned the Breitbart News website into “the platform for the alt-right.” The alt-right is simply a rebranding of white nationalism for the digital age. At an alt-right gathering held shortly after the election just a few blocks from the White House, Richard Spencer – a man who has been lauded by Breitbart as one of the movement’s leading intellectuals – quoted Nazi propaganda and prompted sieg heils from the audience.During his campaign, Trump shared links to Breitbart’s racially charged content with his Twitter followers more often than he linked to any other media outlet. Another outlet that linked to Breitbart more than any other: the neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer, whose proprietor on election night exulted that “[o]ur Glorious Leader has ascended to God Emperor.”Now, Bannon sits at the right hand of the president and wants to silence the legitimate news media. He wants Americans to get their “news” from the website favored by neo-Nazis.We should all be very alarmed.

Source: Trump’s whisperer-in-chief is treading on dangerous ground | Southern Poverty Law Center

Donald Trump’s executive order means he is now officially gunning for Muslims | Moustafa Bayoumi | Opinion | The Guardian

The order is nothing short of a Muslim ban by another name. It is cruel and callous, espouses positions contrary to the professed values of the United States, and will certainly produce more problems than it purports to solve. In other words, it’s exactly like Donald Trump.I cannot tell you how livid these scant pages of bureaucratic language make me. In them, Trump is returning the country to the dark days of excluding masses of people on the basis of our national prejudices. It’s as if we’ve reverted to the late 19th century when laws were passed to bar Chinese entry to the United States, but this time the action is by executive fiat and trained on Muslims. Not incidentally, the case law for Chinese Exclusion also established the legal authority for the National Security Entry-Exist Registration System (Nseers), the US government’s previous incarnation of a Muslim registry. We’re never far away from our demons.

Source: Donald Trump’s executive order means he is now officially gunning for Muslims | Moustafa Bayoumi | Opinion | The Guardian

The President’s Remarks and Actions on Holocaust Remembrance Day – IJPC | Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center | Cincinnati Ohio

As President Trump signs executive orders on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, suspending refugee admissions for 120 days, indefinitely blocking all Syrian refugees, blocking entry to the US from seven countries, and limiting the amount of refugees, the White House statement from earlier in the day rings hollow. The statement reads, “it is impossible to fully fathom the depravity and horror” of the Nazi regime and we know that the depravity and horror of war is still alive in Syria and other war-torn countries that carefully vetted refugees are escaping from. As an organization that cares about the most vulnerable in our society and believes in promoting nonviolent, peaceful resolutions to conflicts, we at the Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center oppose any plan to reduce refugee admissions, especially a plan that explicitly targets and excludes Muslims from being resettled in the United States. We advocate strongly against policy changes that deny refugees access based on their religion or country of origin.As people of faith, we must welcome the stranger, welcome people who are suffering, and provide for those who are fleeing war, terror, and persecution. This is central to the message of the Gospel and a core Christian belief. Promoting racist and xenophobic messages, by equating all members of one religion to a radical sect, is dangerous and misguided.IJPC is proud to work in solidarity, peace, and justice alongside CAIR and with the Muslim community. We stand in resistance to President Trump’s executive orders and divisive rhetoric against refugees and their allies.Please call your Member of Congress and share your concerns with them. Tell them that we believe refugees and Muslims are welcome in our community.

Source: The President’s Remarks and Actions on Holocaust Remembrance Day – IJPC | Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center | Cincinnati Ohio

These are the Palestinian children killed by Israel in 2016 | The Electronic Intifada

Ruqayya Abu Eid, 13Ruqayya was shot dead by a private security guard after she allegedly attempted to stab him in the Anatot settlement near Jerusalem on 23 January.A Palestinian member of Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, condemned the girl’s slaying. “Even if she had a knife, it would have been possible to arrest a girl that age instead of killing her,” Esawi Frej of the Meretz party said.Haaretz reported that Ruqayya died of a single bullet wound to the heart.“I have no explanation for her decision,” the girl’s father told the paper. “There were two guards there, and they could have overcome her. A little girl. They are trained and armed, you know, so how is it they could not arrest a little girl of 13? Was a girl of 13 a threat to them? Whatever she planned to do, they could still have arrested her.”Ruqayya was laid to rest in the village of al-Karmel east of the West Bank town of Yatta, near Hebron.

Source: These are the Palestinian children killed by Israel in 2016 | The Electronic Intifada

California Dispatchers Save Long Island Woman Attempting Suicide On Facebook Live: Gothamist – Facebook Macabre Machine

It took weeks for Facebook to remove a 12-year-old girl’s December suicide video (she had broadcast it on the social network). This past week, a man in Los Angeles shot himself in his car while on Facebook Live and a Miami teen was allegedly using Facebook Live as she hanged herself with a scarf.A Facebook spokeswoman “said Facebook aims to interrupt livestreams that go against community standards ‘as quickly as possible… We also suggest people contact law enforcement or emergency services themselves if they become aware of something where the authorities can help.'”If someone you know exhibits warning signs of suicide: do not leave the person alone; remove any firearms, alcohol, drugs or sharp objects that could be used in a suicide attempt; and call the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) or take the person to an emergency room or seek help from a medical or mental health professional.

Source: California Dispatchers Save Long Island Woman Attempting Suicide On Facebook Live: Gothamist

Death toll rises as wildfire wipes out Chilean town of Santa Olga | News | DW.COM | 27.01.2017

Chile requests international aid

Forest fires are common in Chile’s parched, wooded areas during the hot summer months. However, serious drought has made the fires this year particularly difficult to contain. Chile’s president, Michelle Bachelet, has called the fires “the greatest forest disaster” in the Chile’s history. The country has turned to the international community, requesting aid to tackle the wildfires. Heraldo Munoz, Chile’s foreign minister, said the United States, Canada and various other countries have offered help. Meanwhile, Bachelet tweeted on Thursday that the country had accepted additional super tanker planes and helicopters from Russia.

Source: Death toll rises as wildfire wipes out Chilean town of Santa Olga | News | DW.COM | 27.01.2017

Studies show spread of MCR-1 gene in China | CIDRAP Potential global killer spread – another fact to be denied by…?

The gene, known as MCR-1, was first identified in China in November 2015 in Escherichia coli samples from pigs, pork products, and a handful of human cases. It has since been detected in more than 30 countries, including the United States. The emergence of the resistance gene was believed to be connected to widespread use of colistin in Chinese agriculture. China banned use of the drug in animal feed in 2016, based in part on the findings of that study.Though there have been few cases so far of human infections involving the gene—which has mostly been found in animals—MCR-1 has become a significant public health concern because colistin is one of the few antibiotics left that can be used to treat multidrug-resistant infections. And because the gene is carried on mobile pieces of DNA called plasmids, it can be passed not only to different strains within a single family of bacteria—such as E coli—but also to different types of bacteria.Among the most worrisome scenarios is the emergence of bacteria that harbors the MCR-1 gene along with other antibiotic-resistance genes. If the superbug carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) were to acquire the gene, for example, it could present clinicians with infections that are nearly impossible to treat with current antibiotics.

Source: Studies show spread of MCR-1 gene in China | CIDRAP

Activist faces prison for saying journalists are banned from Bahrain | Media | The Guardian – Press regulation that Trump Admires?

He also says: “The UK is setting a dangerous precedent in providing arms and political support to Bahrain, worth millions, while watching in silence as rights campaigners are harshly punished.”Rajab has also been prosecuted in a separate case for “spreading rumours in wartime”, for “insulting a neighbouring country” and for “insulting a statutory body”.One set of charges relate to Rajab’s criticism on Twitter of the Saudi war in Yemen. The other refers to his exposure of torture in a Bahraini prison.He faces up to 17 years in prison between both cases. He has been held in pre-trial detention without bail since his June arrest, largely in solitary confinement. Rajab’s next court appearance is set for 8 February.

Source: Activist faces prison for saying journalists are banned from Bahrain | Media | The Guardian