Here are a few stories that came out today concerning human rights:
Rioting has continued in South Africa where many of the nation’s poor have taken to the streets to protest dire living conditions and often nonexistent government services. Fifteen years after apartheid ended and the ruling African National Congress (ANC) came to power, some townships still lack running water, electricity, and permanent housing. Police have started to use rubber bullets to disperse growing protests, which in some areas have destroyed public and private property. For example, in Simile Township in Mpumalanga province, protestors burned down a library and set fire to government vehicles, including a fire engine. Meanwhile, several labor groups have gone on strike in recent months, at times crippling service in the country. Most recently, the South African Municipal Workers Union and its 150,000 members went on strike protesting low wages and demanding a 15% pay increase. The current global economic crisis has placed additional burdens on the world’s poor who were struggling to get by before the crisis and now face even more limited options than before.
In Iran, the government has released 140 people who were arrested during protests following last month’s disputed presidential election. At least 200 more people remain in detention according to government figures, but opposition leaders and human rights groups believe that far more people were arrested during the protests than the government is reporting. None of the high profile figures arrested in recent weeks were among those released. Yesterday, Iran’s supreme leader ordered the closure of the Kahrizak detention center, claiming that the center lacked the ability to “preserve the rights of detainees.” It is unclear at this point if opposition and reformist detainees being held there will be released or simply transferred to a regular prison such as Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison.
The UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) revoked the consultative status of an Arab human rights group on Monday after Algeria complained that it brought a “known terrorist” to an event. Rachid Mesli spoke on behalf of the Arab Commission for Human Rights last year. Mr. Mesli is an attorney who defended members of the Islamic Salvation Front, which violently fought the government for several years in the 1990s. Because of the legal services he offered ISF, the Algerian government issued a warrant for his arrest for being a member of an armed terrorist group and Mr. Mesli fled to Switzerland where he was granted political asylum. The Arab Commission is a group of human rights lawyers formally based in Paris but made up of members who mostly reside in Arab states. While critical of Israel, the organization has also been critical of what it sees as growing oppression in Arab states. The ban means that the group will not have access to the Human Rights Council or the right to speak in front of UN bodies. Despite apparent broad support for the ban in February, several Western countries voiced their reservation over the move on Monday, with the US abstaining from meeting altogether. There has been growing concern that the UN Committee of Non Governmental Organizations, the section of ECOSOC that determines consultative status, has used their power in recent years to silence critics and those they do not agree with. This keeps out legitimate NGOs and hurts the overall quality of human rights work at the UN.
