The Human Rights Blog

Athletes to sign contracts on China's human rights

BRITISH Olympic athletes will be forced to sign contracts banning them from criticising China's human rights record before travelling to the Games. Each athlete must sign a 32-page contract, which includes clauses disallowing comment on "any political sensitive issues", The Mail on Sunday reported. The British Olympic Association confirmed anyone who refused to sign would not be allowed to compete at the Games. The move is in stark contrast to countries such as the US, Canada and Australia. Share this article What is this? .

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Europe: 'Human rights and IT not mutually exclusive'

The Council of Europe has formally adopted a political statement on human rights in the IT-dominated society. The eight-page document sets out how the longstanding European Convention on Human Rights has been affected by the spread of communication technologies and the dominance of the internet. It also explains the duties incumbent on governments to spread technology usage without infringing on civil liberties. Among the topics the declaration discusses are how the internet can be used as a medium for human trafficking and the necessity of protecting intellectual property online. In addition the document attempts to guide European governments and businesses through how to deal with technologies that both enhance and jeopardise human rights. "ICTs facilitate access to legal material and knowledge� [and] facilitates better public scrutiny of court proceeding," the statement says.

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Human rights: catene solo come monili

Nel Sessantesimo annivarsario della Dichiarazione Universale dei Diritti dell'Uomo. Un passo importantissimo, fondamentale per l'umanità e la coesistenza civile tra gli uomini. Un tema forte, serio e molto sentito da due giovani imprenditori napoletani, Danilo e Emiliano De Maria, che attraverso le creazioni della loro azienda vogliono lanciare un messaggio sociale. Stesera presso il Momah (locale di tendenza in Via Fornari 15 - angolo Via Dei Mille - Napoli) si svolge la serata di presentazione della nuova collezione di gioielli Demaria: "Human Rights", ealizzata in cooperazione con Amnesty International. L'idea di usare anelli, bracciali e collane come fogli di carta, scrivere frasi sui gioielli, non è solo l'espressione dello stile Demaria, ma il valore di comunicare e diffondere messaggi.

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City's human rights commission director fired

Richmond�s Human Rights Commission has fired its long-time director, the city�s attorney said today. The commission terminated Ron Chappell�s position in a public meeting Tuesday night due to issues with his �management style,� according to a transcript of the meeting obtained from the city�s law department. �His employment was terminated by the human rights commission,� City Attorney Walt Chidester said. �We�re not saying anything beyond that.� Chappell said today that the commission�s decision took him by surprise and was void of substance. He said he met with the commission�s chairperson Tuesday but was unaware of the meeting where his termination was later approved. �They offered me the opportunity to resign, but absent anything specific that would cause me to resign, I refused,� Chappell said.

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Tame Iti rails for human rights

Tuhoe activist Tame Iti has made a plea for human rights on behalf of all New Zealanders at Te Tii marae, in Waitangi today. Speaking at a Waitangi Day public meeting that attracted about 300 people, Iti said it was necessary for New Zealanders to focus on freedom in this country. The Tuhoe elder, facing charges under the Arms Act after October's police raids in Ruatoki, said: ""We have to be free to be a Maori, be free to be a Pakeha and Tuhoe. Iti said he would be addressing a white middle class audience in Whakatane next week on the issue of freedom. "We have to work out how we are going to communicate. We cannot afford to be deaf and blind because we are not." Meanwhile Prime Minister Helen Clark went sailing on Hec Busby's ocean voyaging catamaran to watch the Waitangi Day waka ceremony this morning.

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Bushies to Human Rights Envoy: Shut Up

A few weeks ago, I wrote slightly disobligingly about Jay Lefkowitz, the man who holds the new congressionally mandated post of special envoy for human rights in North Korea. The North Korean state does not recognize the concept of human rights and considers every one of its citizens to be the property of the ruling family, so Lefkowitz's job is admittedly an extremely difficult one, but I tried to call attention to the way in which he (in his rather slender annual report to Congress), and the administration in general, had gone somewhat quiet on the subject of North Korea's famine-stricken slave society, all the while involving themselves in "constructive engagement" with "dear leader" Kim Jong-il on the question of nuclear facilities. I like to imagine that my little essay stung Lefkowitz a bit.

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African Countries Criticized in Human Rights Watch Report

A number of African countries have been cited for human rights violations in the latest Human Rights Watch report, including Kenya, Zimbabwe and Sudan. VOA's Cindy Saine reports from Washington. The New York-based group Human Rights Watch says countries claiming the mantle of democracy, including Kenya and Pakistan, should guarantee the rights that are central to it, including the rights to free expression, assembly and association, and free and fair elections. .

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May 2006

Frank Smizik is a liberal Democratic Representative from Brookline where Ted's brother Jack was born. He said the wind farm project could put Massachusetts in the forefront of innovation in renewable energy, making it a potential boon to job development as well a source of clean energy. Even one of Ted's biggest allies in all the past environmental battles, the environmental group Greenpeace, has mocked Kennedy in television ads that show him, in cartoon figure, literally gaveling down one wind farm turbine after another. It's all downhill from today on It is tragic that after a lifetime of legislative acheivement which has earned him the title of America's leading liberal, Mr. Kennedy hasn't the good sense to leave the stage at the top of his form. One is reminded of the Roman Emperer Marcus Salvius Otho of whom it was said, "In all his life nothing became him so well as his manner of leaving it; but the fortitude he then showed, even if it was not merely the courage of despair, cannot blind us to the fact that he was little better than a reckless and vicious spendthrift, who was not the less dangerous because his fiercer passions were concealed beneath an affectation of effeminate dandyism.

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Human Rights Watch report excerpts

... it occurs by way of amnesties for any crimes committed. Pakistan�s Musharraf and the military rulers in Thailand, for example, pushed through constitutional changes granting them impunity for actions taken during their respective coups. Controlling the Electoral Machinery ... it should come as no surprise that one favorite way for rulers to manipulate elections is to stack electoral machinery with their supporters. In Thailand, the new military-sponsored constitution allows members of the National Election Commission to be selected by the Senate, which was once elected but is now appointed. Blocking and Discouraging Opposition Candidates ... In Thailand, the military government�s election commission adopted stringent new rules permitting disqualification of candidates for such trivial offenses as playing music at rallies or having posters not of an approved size�evidently with the goal of eliminating candidates of the People�s Power Party, the successor to ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra�s Thai Rak Thai party.

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Viewing all entries for: January 2008

LAST night after her uncontested "victory" in Florida, Hillary Clinton was introduced by... Alcee Hastings, removed from by the Senate in 1998 after impeachment from* in the House, under a heavy cloud of suspicion of bribery when he was a federal judge. (A bit of the colourful background here.) Bill Clinton pardoned Mr Hastings' alleged co-conspirator on his last day in office. Doesn't Ms Clinton have any slightly less dodgy-looking Floridian backers? Or if slightly suspect they must be, ones whose former associates had not been pardoned from federal prison by her husband? *[Correction: Mr Metcalph is correct. The text has been changed accordingly.] Permalink .

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