MIDEAST: Israeli Raids Target Children
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
By Nora Barrows-Friedman
SILWAN, EAST JERUSALEM, Mar 16, 2010 (IPS) – Three thousand heavily armed Israeli security service forces locked down large parts of the Old City of Jerusalem on Tuesday, as battalions of police fired rounds of tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets at Palestinian protesters in the [...]
RIGHTS-BAHRAIN: Weak Laws Let Rapists Off the Hook
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
By Suad Hamada
MANAMA, Mar 16 , 2010 (IPS) – Cunning rapists in Bahrain can avoid victimising virgins so they could escape the maximum penalty provided by law, and those who force themselves on young girls can evade punishment by promising to marry their victims.
These are two of [...]
CUBA: Human Rights at the Eye of the Storm
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Patricia Grogg
HAVANA, Mar 15 (IPS) – Cuba’s government-controlled stepped up its media offensive Monday in response to what the government calls a well-orchestrated international campaign of misinformation carried out in the last few weeks against this socialist island nation.
At the same time, the Ladies in White – [...]
RIGHTS-MALAWI: Country Not Safe for Homosexuals
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Claire Ngozo
LILONGWE, Mar. 13 (IPS) – Malawi is quickly becoming unsafe for homosexuals as the country’s police service recently launched a campaign to hunt down and arrest prominent people who are suspected of being gay.
The police service claim to be investigating issues related to ‘homosexual tendencies’ as [...]
RIGHTS-GUATEMALA: ‘Our Lives Are Cut Short at a Stroke’
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Danilo Valladares
GUATEMALA CITY, Mar 13 (IPS) – ”This is a time of great tension because we know that at any moment, when we least expect it, our lives can be cut short at a stroke,” Tito Gálvez, a leader in the Resistance Front for the Defence of Natural [...]
ENVIRONMENT-INDIA: Law on Forest Rights Fails to Deliver
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
By Manipadma Jena
BHUBANESWAR, India, Mar 13 , 2010 (IPS) – A four-year-old landmark law that was supposed to bring profound changes in the lives of India’s tribal and forest-dwelling peoples has failed to deliver on that promise.
According to activists and government officials alike, the Scheduled Tribes and [...]
KENYA: Proposed Constitutional Amendment Sets Back Women’s Rights
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Susan Anyangu-Amu
NAIROBI, Mar 11 (IPS) – Lillian Mutuku, a 34-year-old mother of three, describes her home in Katine area, in Kenya’s Eastern province Tala, as a harsh place to live. The soil is poor, she says, the sun beats down mercilessly and vegetation is sparse.
”People here face [...]
RIGHTS: Guatemala, El Salvador Ordered to Heed Rulings
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Edgardo Ayala
SAN SALVADOR, Mar 12 (IPS) – Guatemala and El Salvador have a terrible record in terms of compliance with the recommendations and sentences handed down by the inter-American human rights bodies on cases involving appalling abuses like forced disappearance, torture and massacres committed during the armed conflicts [...]
RIGHTS: U.S. Concerned Over Curbs on NGOs, Press, Internet
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Jim Lobe*
WASHINGTON, Mar 11 (IPS) – Releasing its annual report on the state of human rights around the world, the U.S. State Department Thursday said it was increasingly concerned about curbs imposed by foreign governments on civil society groups, the press, and Internet use.
”We find ourselves in [...]
EGYPT: U.N. Slams Abuse of Emergency Law
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
William Fisher
NEW YORK, Mar 11 (IPS) – Despite diplomatic maneuvering designed to block any review of its human rights record, a United Nations special rapporteur has told the U.N. Human Rights Council that proposed changes in Egypt’s constitution ”would create a permanent legal state of emergency”.
The report [...]
POLITICS: Sri Lanka Garners Support Against U.N. Probe
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 11 (IPS) – Sri Lanka, which won a grueling decades-long battle against one of the world’s most ferocious terrorist organisations last May, has scored a diplomatic victory in its ongoing war of words with the United Nations.
The largest single political coalition has, in [...]
RIGHTS: Africa’s Success Stories in Gender Empowerment
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Thalif Deen* – IPS/TerraViva
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 10 (IPS) – Whenever gender empowerment is a vibrant topic of discussion internationally, some of the countries in Europe, Asia and Latin America are invariably singled out for their success stories in politics, education, health care or civil liberties even as Africa [...]
KENYA: New Bill to Improve State Witness Protection, If Passed
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Mary Kiio
NAIROBI, Mar 10 (IPS) – Kenyans affected by the violence that erupted after the country’s disputed presidential elections in 2007 may soon be able to speak out without fear. A new bill will offer better protection to state witnesses.
The Witness Protection (Amendment) Bill 2010, if passed [...]
POLITICS: Sri Lanka Locks Horns with UN over Experts’ Panel
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Amantha Perera
COLOMBO, Mar 10 (IPS) – The war of words between the Sri Lankan government and the United Nations has begun all over again, this time over the creation of an experts’ panel on the island’s human rights record.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon wants to appoint this panel, [...]
PERU: Suspension of Mining Operation Merely a Placebo
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Milagros Salazar
LIMA, Mar 9 (IPS) – Although the Peruvian government reported that it had suspended the exploration activities of the Afrodita mining company in the country’s northern Amazon jungle region to avoid further protests by local indigenous people, officials took no actual steps to bring the firm’s work [...]
FINANCE: Self-Policing of Extractive Industries a ”Dismal” Failure
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Charles Fromm
WASHINGTON, Mar 9 (IPS) – An international initiative that seeks to reform how governments profit from their natural resources should not reduce its existing standards of membership solely because candidate countries have been reluctant or incapable of meeting them, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Tuesday.
Twenty out of the [...]
