For well over two generations the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide continues to haunt large swathes of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In the east DRC, a campaign of rape and violence against women and children goes largely uncontested, despite a massive deployment of 17,000 UN troops (MONUC), and despite a call on all […]
The UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict is visiting Chad and Central African Republic (CAR) to see first-hand the situation of war-impacted children in the two countries. From May 26-31 at the invitation of the Governments of the two nations, Radhika Coomaraswamy will look into child recruitment by State and non-State actors. […]
Higher education, according to an Israeli Defense minister is not a humanitarian concern. Within the bantustan-like confines of the Palestinian territories, seven Gaza Strip residents awarded Fulbright scholarships are coming to terms with yet another causality of the Israeli blockade. Denied visas by Israel, the US State Department has had to withdraw their grants. Inside Israel, […]
In a new report issued by Amnesty International, the 2008 State of the Worlds Human Rights, it has painstakingly come to light that after sixty years after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that human rights still widely abused in dozens of countries. The forward of the report was entitled, “Broken Promises”, […]
2,234 days, in jail, tortured and without trial. And the saga continues. In the next few days, the United States is expected to deliver a death penalty verdict for twenty-nine year old British national and current Guantanamo Bay detainee, Binyam Mohamed. Mr. Mohamed maintains his innocence. The US government disagrees. It believes he trained alongside […]
“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.” – Haida Indian Saying When we borrow money we pay it back with interest, when we borrow a car we fill it with gas, and when we borrow our friends clothes we clean them before we return them. However when […]
Recent reports in Kenya of a Boy's suicide reveals gaps in HIV education, the boy was in secondary school when he received his fateful results which was accompanied by no counseling. Soon after his results where received to committed suicide by ingesting lethal amounts of pesticide. The boys death which occurred last month has sparked […]
Reuters reports today that as chief plotter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other 9/11 defendants, it is not clear whether inculpatory statements made by the defendants will be admissible into evidence at their trials or which statements prosecutors will seek to introduce. Since many defendants will likely allege such statements were only made as a result […]
The BBC is reporting that there have been additional clashes in Abeyi, Sudan's oil-rich town, leading to fears that we could seek another civil war break out between the north and south of the troubled country. A Sudanese official from the South, P.Amum, secretary general of the former rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), told […]
Thursday, May 29, 2008 – 12:55 PM Manchester, Britain (SANA) The environmental campaigner and journalist George Monbiot last night tried and failed to make a citizen's arrest of the former Bush administration official John Bolton over war crimes committed during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. As Bolton ended an hour-long discussion at the Hay […]
I have been keeping a close watch on the situation in South Africa and noted today that one of the areas worst affected by the violence against foreigners is seeking assistance: “South Africa's Western Cape is to ask for parts of the province to be declared a disaster zone in the wake of recent anti-foreigner […]
The three remaining Presidential candidates in the two major parties – Senators Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John McCain – issued a highly unusual joint declaration today on Darfur. In a statement coordinated by the activist group Save Darfur, the candidates said they “stand united” on Darfur, repeatedly condemned the Sudanese government's failure to take […]
The Irrawady Delta is Burma's food bowl. Its livestock is gone and the rice fields destroyed. Already suffering from the devastation of Cyclone Nargis and from the intransigence of a military junta, the people of Burma are now having to contend with a threefold increase in price of basic food stuffs. A 60-year old retired […]
In Burma (Myanmar) cyclone Nargis's death toll has reached some 134,000 people dead or missing, one third of which may be children according to UNICEF. Thousands more young children are expected to die within two to three weeks from hunger if doesn't reach them soon according to Save the Children. According to Save the Children, […]
Most of the year, this blog is dedicated to covering violations of the laws of war – but it's appropriate for us, as Americans, to take a moment today and thank our countrymen in the Armed Forces who serve us with honor and courage. We are, now and ever, deeply in their debt. Happy Memorial […]