UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said he would discuss how to balance climate change and food security in the development of biofuels when he visits Brazil next week. Speaking before leaving on a trip that takes him first to Argentina, Antarctica and Punto Arenas in Chile, Ban said he wanted to see for himself […]
The BBC has released a poll showing that people " are ready to make personal sacrifices , including paying more for their energy , to help address climate change." Support for carbon taxes (see previous post below) is very high when it's framed that the money would go to help further renewable energy and energy […]
Lawyers for a detainee at Guantanamo Bay issued an appeal to the D.C. Circuit Court to delay his war crimes trial. Omar Khadr, a 21-year-old Canadian, faces the war crimes tribunal sitting at Guantanamo Bay for the death of a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan. The appeal challenges the tribunal's authority to determine his combatant status […]
The following videos are from Youth for Human Rights International which has a series of ad's to promote human rights, all of which can be viewed on their website. YHRI's focus is to teach the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to young people everywhere so that they know and insist on their rights and those […]
When there is no one willing to fight the war, who do you turn to? In the case of Myanmar/Burma, they have been turning to the children, and with the worlds largest child army, their numbers are only looking to increase. Coercion, threats and blackmail are some of the tactics used to recruit child soldiers, […]
The Bush administration is considering several proposals granting more legal rights to detained terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. U.S. officials say the legal considerations are a move to close the detention facility at the U.S. naval base and transfer some of the detainees to other facilities in the United States. One proposal being considered […]
Empty classrooms and full fields, may not sounds so frightening at first. One could be talking about field days out for a bit of fun, or seeing the children running on the soccer field. Sadly we are talking about forced child labor, and denial of education by a country, for the sake of profit. A […]
I've written about Big Apple Mayor Michael Bloomberg's ambitious energy and environmental plans on a number of occasions. See Congestion Pricing in New York from July and Mike Bloomberg's Earth Day from April. As someone who would've had a role working on environmental issues had Bloomberg's opponent, Mark Green, won in 2001, I might be […]
Many of you walk into the shops and aimlessly browse the the racks and racks of clothing, and just finding the right shirt can be daunting enough with out trying to wonder what pieces where made by children, and which are slave free. And the truth is that you really can't, for slavery runs deeper […]
The Bush Administration's choice to for U.S. Attorney General, Michael Mukasey, refused to address the legality of the interrogation technique known as waterboarding, skirting a potential legal watershed regarding prosecution against Central Intelligence Agency officers. At confirmation hearings before the Senate Wednesday, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Penn., said that questioning directed at declaring waterboarding a form […]
Regardless of ones gender, rape is a violent crime that continues to violate the victim time and time again. Like a scar it never leaves you, and when society turns their backs on victims of rape, and other sexually violent crime, it only deepens. Society is well known for turning its back on victims of […]
A simple child, That lightly draws its breath, And feels its life in every limb, What should it know of death? – William Wordsworth (1770,1850), British poet. From; We Are Seven (l. 1,4). It is true that death is merely a part of life, and a fact that we must all face. However should a […]
Two Mauritanians have been arrested for allegedly forcing two children to work as slaves — the first suspects to face prosecution for a practice that many in this African country consider part of the culture, authorities said Oct. 31. The mother of the children — a 16-year-old girl and 14-year-old boy — said she […]
The U.S. State Department sent a leader to leaders in the U.S. Senate declaring opposition by the Bush administration to a proposed bill that would punish U.S. foreign investors in Sudan. The bill would require U.S. states to divest from their investment portfolios any interests linked to foreign investment in Sudan. The bill punishes entities […]
ICAP , An international coalition has "announced the formation of the International Carbon Action Partnership to fight global warming." Here's the press release from two days ago in Lisbon. ICAP's founding membership includes, among others, New Jersey, California, New York, the European Commission, New Zealand, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. They have come together […]