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Written by the guardian weekly
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Monday, 06 October 2008 09:13 |
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Riots by indigenous groups in Peru have led to the repeal of controversial land laws, supported by President Alan Garcia, that sought to ease corporate access to the Amazonian jungle. According to two new legal decrees, foreign oil, logging and mining companies could be sold whole swathes of aboriginal territory without first consulting the inhabitants. Saul Puerta Peña, of the Peruvian indigenous association AIDESEP, helped to organise the 14-day protest, which took place in August. He says that while the menace has been driven back there is still a long way to go before the rights of native Peruvians are recognised.
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Written by UN News Centre
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Tuesday, 23 September 2008 18:57 |
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The United Nations Security Council today unanimously extended the mission of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan for another year and called for it to be strengthened in the face of increased violence and terrorism from the Taliban, Al-Qaida and drug smugglers. ISAF, which now has 47,600 personnel on the ground, was established after United States-led forces ousted the Taliban regime in late 2001 to help the then-interim authorities maintain security across the impoverished nation.
In today’s resolution the 15-member body recognized “the need to further strengthen ISAF to meet all its operational requirements, and in this regard calls upon Member States to contribute personnel, equipment and other resources.”
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Written by Benjamin Jakobus
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Tuesday, 23 September 2008 00:00 |
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 Human Rights Defence (HRD) and Filip Spagnoli announced today that they have entered into a broad collaboration agreement in an attempt to further increase publicity and raise further awareness to political and human rights issues worldwide.
HRD was established in 2005 and went online February 2008; since February the site has received over 7,000 visits and we hope Mr. Spagnolis presence will assist in highlighting human rights issues. Mr. Spagnoli, author of three books, numerous OpEd articles in leading Belgian newspapers and is running both http://www.spagnoli.be/ and P.A.P. blog.
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Written by Peter Tatchell, Guardian
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Thursday, 18 September 2008 19:02 |
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The segregation and abuse of the low-caste Dalit people is a stain on India's reputation, but a militant fightback is under way. Eight people were convicted on Monday of the murder of four members of a lower-caste Dalit family in the western Indian state of Maharashtra. Dalit farmer's wife, daughter and two sons were lynched and beaten to death by an upper-caste mob in a land dispute in 2006. The women were also raped. hat is unusual about this case is that the perpetrators were successfully prosecuted. Normally, the killers of Dalits walk free.
One reason why the murderers have been bought to justice is the rising tide of Dalit militancy. There has been a wave of mass demonstrations by Dalit people demanding justice and equal treatment. Newly confident and organised, the Dalits are fighting back with strikes and boycotts. Shaken by this burgeoning protest movement, some Indian authorities are finally being pushed and pressured into action, albeit slowly and exceptionally.
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Written by Robert Fisk, The Independent
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Thursday, 25 September 2008 07:06 |
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Sami al-Haj, an Al Jazeera cameraman, was beaten, abused and humiliated in the name of the war on terror. He tells our correspondent about his struggle to rebuild a shattered life
Sami al-Haj walks with pain on his steel crutch; almost six years in the nightmare of Guantanamo have taken their toll on the Al Jazeera journalist and, now in the safety of a hotel in the small Norwegian town of Lillehammer, he is a figure of both dignity and shame. The mericans told him they were sorry when they eventually freed him this year after the beatings he says he suffered, and the force-feeding, the humiliations and interrogations by British, American and Canadian intelligence officers and now he hopes one day he'll be able to walk without his stick.
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Written by UN News Centre
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Tuesday, 23 September 2008 18:51 |
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World leaders meeting at the United Nations today have underscored the urgency of finding solutions to the major challenges facing Africa, and have recommitted themselves to a global partnership to help the continent halve poverty, illiteracy and other socio-economic ills by 2015. Member States participating in the high-level meeting of the General Assembly on Africa’s development needs also stressed that poverty eradication, particularly in Africa, is the “greatest global challenge facing the world today,” according to a political declaration adopted at the end of the day-long event. They noted that, despite recent considerable improvements, the full and timely achievement of the global anti-poverty targets that make up the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) “remains elusive.” While welcoming the commitments made by Africa and its partners so far, participants recommitted themselves to “reinvigorate and strengthen a global partnership of equals… with the explicit objective of turning existing commitments into concrete actions.” In doing so, they committed to strengthen support for the implementation of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) – the continent’s overarching framework for socio-economic sustainable development.
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Written by Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre Press release
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Friday, 19 September 2008 18:13 |
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GENEVA: Following the entry into force in June 2008 of the Pact on Security, Stability and Development in Africa’s Great Lakes region (the Great Lakes Pact), the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) and the International Refugee Rights Initiative (IRRI) today release The Great Lakes Pact and the Rights of Displaced People: A Guide for Civil Society. The Guide aims to help organisations use the Great Lakes Pact to promote the rights of refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs) in the region. The Great Lakes Pact represents a commitment by the eleven member states of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) to work to end the conflicts which have plagued their region, and to cooperate on security, governance, development, humanitarian and social issues. The Pact has been ratified by Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, The Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. Angola, Sudan and Zambia have yet to finalise the ratification process.
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