In response to the previous two posts the following is a true story of how one can emerge from tragedy and violence, and teach peace to children in the face of conflict. Teaching peace is more than just teaching about an end to war and armed conflict that has engulfed nations, but also bringing peace […]
Children are undisputedly the most victimized by war, and the long-term impact which is has on their development is profound, so how do you teach peace and tolerance in the midst of violence and hate? A child woken each night by thundering bombs of the "enemy', who wakes only to walk through the rubble filled […]
The military call it Gitmo, the journalists Guantanamo, the world – a human rights disaster where the individual ceased to exist. The Geneva Conventions were summarily tossed aside. This is a war where rules and conventions no longer apply said Albert Gonzalez in his Memorandum to President Bush in 2002. And for the next seven […]
“Peace is in the waves at sea. Peace must begin with you and me!” – Student, Gander Middle School, Gander, Newfoundland, Canada “Why destroy when we could create, Keep the peace, erase the hate.” – Normal Community West High School, Normal, IL, US “As I look around the world I sigh, And think, We could […]
Congressional Research Services – Congress’ think tank – has a significant report out discussing the legal issues associated with President Obama's executive order closing the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay (link available here). The report constitutes the most comprehensive publicly available treatment of the issues surrounding Gitmo closure yet offered by the United States government, […]
A justice at the military court in Guantanamo Bay moved against an executive order issued by U.S. President Barack Obama to delay tribunals there for 120 days. Judge James Pohl denied delay requests for a case involving Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri for his role in the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole, which killed 17 […]
Talking to our children about violence and war is difficult in its own right, as no parent wants to bring their child into the harsh reality that is our globalized world. And while yes, sheltering children from violence is ideal, it is not an option that holds feasibility for long. Soon children will catch a […]
The first witness in war crimes trial of Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga reversed his testimony hours after relaying accounts of his conscription as a child soldier. The young man told the court rebels from Lubanga's Union of Congolese Patriots nabbed him and forced him into a military camp when he was in the fifth grade, […]
Yesterday was International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the 64th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the most notorious of the Nazi extermination camps. We hope you’ll join us in taking a moment to memorialize the more than 1 million people – mostly Jews, but also Gypsies and political prisoners – who were murdered at Auschwitz and […]
The conflict between Israel and Palestine is far from being anything remotely close to new, and who's right and whose wrong remains muddled in the smoke and dust of war. However one thing is clear, and that is that the children on both sides of the war are caught in the middle. Currently Gaza's children […]
The defense team for Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga Tuesday said secrecy clauses made the trial inherently unfair, adding it struck a blow to the notion of transparent international justice. All but two of the 93 alleged victims of Lubanga taking part in the trial were allowed to do so under the cloak of anonymity and […]
There is a point where numbers merge with the real and the surreal. Its relevance and impact seem abstract and incomprehensible. One million displaced since August 2008, 5 million killed over the past years. 300,000 women and girls raped and brutalized. 17,000 UN soldiers, the UN’s largest peacekeeping mission. And yet after all this suffering, […]
China parents press demands in wake of milk sentences Chinese parents of children stricken by toxic milk pressed compensation demands Friday, a day after a court sentenced two people to death and jailed 19 over the scandal in which six infants died. China sentences two to death over tainted milk A Chinese court on Thursday […]
On Monday, the ICC will begin proceedings in its first trial ever – Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga Dyilo will stand trial for using child soldiers during the Congo's civil war. (As TRIAL notes, Lubanga's group, the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC), is also accused of massacring civilians). The legal documents filed before in the case […]
Earlier this month Human Rights Watch's (HRW) released their 19th annual World Report, the report summarizes human rights conditions in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide. The 2009 HRW report highlights the extensive and investigative work which the HRW staff, and human rights activists in the field, undertook in 2008. 2008 marked the 60th […]