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Dare to be a Dreamer: the Ten Commandments of the Human Rights Champion Only for those without hope that hope is given to us Good afternoon Mr. Rector, members of the University Senate, graduates, teachers, friends, First of all, I want to thank on behalf of the Danish Center for Human Rights as well as on my own behalf Prof. Roger Michaleff, Rector of the Malta University, the Dean of the Faculty of Laws Prof. Ian Refalo, the Foundation for International Studies, Mr. Leslie Agius along with Ms Cynthia D’Amato and Ms Therese Cachia, for the honor to be part of this solemn and important ceremony. I feel grateful and privileged at the opportunity to address the graduates as well as the ‘rookies’ of the master of Arts human rights. The Danish Center for Human Rights attaches great importance to the situation with human rights in the Mediterranean region as...

Stern Rhetoric to Defeat Terrorism March 5, 2002 I remember the peace discussions and the marches of the sixties, with their focus on the Cold war re-armament and the rapid increase in strategic weapons, especially in Europe. As a young officer I defended non-alliance and independent defence, as I do today. In the Finnish discussions, in many parties and organisations, there were strong currents from backing the right of the Soviet Union to re-arm, all in the name of the solidarity and peace. Does it seem familiar somehow? Do we hear the same type of rhetoric now rumbling from the West as President Bush asserts his right to fight a total war against terrorism, speaks about the "axis of evil" and divides the world into those who are with the U.S. and those who are not. The peace of the Cold war was grounded in the capabilities of two blocs...

Kasturba: a life Gandhi, Arun. Lord Richard Attenborough. Kasturba: a life New Delhi: Penguin Books Ltd., 2000. 315 pp, 295 Indian Rs, US $22.51 January 29, 2002 Arun Gandhi, grandson to Mohandas and Kasturba, has written a thorough account of Kasturba’s life. Arun begins with a description of Kasturba’s childhood in Porbandar in the late1800s, before she met Mohandas. By having chosen to embark on difficult research into his grandmother’s life, including her first years which are not well-documented, Arun ensures that the reader receives an intimate and life-long portrait of this amazing woman. Kasturba is presented as a lively woman &endash; obedient, yet with a mind of her own. As the relationship between Kasturba and Mohandas developed, Arun maintains that Kasturba’s influence over Mohandas in her own quiet way also grew, to which some of Mohandas’ writings also attest. Arun paints a vivid picture of the beginnings of Mohandas’...

"Enough is Enough!" Women Demonstrate for Peace in Cyprus A small group of Cypriot women, calling themselves "Hands Across the Divide", has started actively campaigning for peace in Cyprus…. They have to communicate by e-mail, because face to face meetings between people living in north and south Cyprus are so difficult to achieve. Since 1974, the island of Cyprus has been divided by a barbed-wire fence, which runs from coast to coast and through the heart of the principal city of Nicosia. Partition… This UN partition line was set up after a long period of ethnic violence beginning back in 1963, compounded by meddling on the part of other nations with an interest in the region. Ever since, the Turkish Cypriot population of the north of the country has lived in complete separation from the mainly Greek Cypriot population of the south. There’s only one checkpoint in the ‘Green Line’,...

Bush’s State of the The failure of the Democratic Party and the mainstream news media to criticize President Bush’s overwrought, alarmingly bellicose State of the Union speech is no less appalling for being predictable. Their vacuous, timid responses remind us once again that democracy and freedom depend ultimately on ideas and the courage to voice them, not just on forms of legality. Bush makes three points in his speech. (1) The war on Afghanistan was a great victory. (2) The war on global terrorism must be continued and expanded. (3) We will "defeat" the economic recession as well as the terrorists. For the moment, we can forget point (3), which simply dresses up the Bush Administration’s economic program in military rhetoric, and point (1), which represents the worst sort of tub-thumping propaganda. Afghanistan has been "freed from oppression," although upwards of 40,000 new refugees have fled their homes to escape...

World Statistics The Global Humanitarian Crisis Here follow some facts from United Nations Development Report/UNICEF 1997 and WHO 1998 selected by Manufacturing Dissent. $40 BILLION A YEAR $ 40 billion a year is estimated to be the additional cost of achieving and maintaining universal access to basic education for all, basic health carefor all, reproductive health care for all women, adequate food for all, and clean water and safe sewers for all is roughly $40 billion a year–or less than 4% of the combined wealth of the 225 richest people in the world. SOME STATISTICS -1.3 billion people in the world today (1,300 million, or 1,300,000,000people) struggle to survive on $1/day. -3 billion people in the world today struggle to survive on $2/day. -2 billion have no access to power (electrical). -The net worth of 10 billionaires, ten human beings, is greater than the combined national income of the forty-eight...

Back to PressInfo 138 Problems and purposes Ever more youth in Sweden, as well as in other countries, live their everyday lives with more than one culture. A fifth of the pupils in Swedish schools are either born outside Sweden or have at least one parent with a non-Swedish background. For many of those children and youth, the dominant culture has not been an integral part of their lives since they were born. Most often, they have acquainted themselves with the majority culture and the prevalent language when they enter primary school. This is when a process begins that influences even other aspects of their lives. My aim with this dissertation is to try to understand this process. I do so by describing the encounter of the youth with the new society and how the roads into it are created in individual cases. The emphasis is on how they think...

Sverige og 11. september (Den oprindelige tekst blev skrevet før bombningen af Afghanistan begyndte). Denne PressInfo giver konkrete eksempler på, hvordan den svenske regering vælger at føje sig efter USAs og EUs politik snarere end at forsvare de små staters interesser og FNs norm om fred med fredelige midler. Sveriges statsminister, Göran Persson, sendte et kondolencetelegram straks efter terrorangrebet den 11. september og Sverige deltog i EU-udtalelsen. Og så udsendte statsministeren den 22. september følgende udtalelse (i uddrag): "USAs ret til at forsvare sig, om nødvendigt med militære midler, er i overensstemmelse med FNs Charter. Denne ret bekræftedes i en resolution, som er vedtaget enstemmigt af Sikkerhedsrådet". "Jeg formoder, at de der står for enhver fremtidig operation vil overholde de internationale retsregler og sikre, at alle handlinger, der foretages, kan forsvares. Ethvert svar må vejes omhyggeligt og alle nødvendige forholdsregler tages for at forhindre skader på civile", fortsatte statsministeren. Det...

Sweden and September 11 (This text was finalised before the bombing of Afghanistan began) This PressInfo offers concrete examples of how the Swedish government chooses to acquiesce in the policies of the U.S. and the European Union (EU) rather than defending the interests of small states and the UN norm of peace by peaceful means. Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson sent a letter of condolences immediately after the September 11 terror attack and Sweden participated in the EU statement . However, it was not until September 24 that the Prime Minister stated the following (excerpts): "The terrorist attack on the United States was a crime against international peace and security. The Member States of the European Union stand united in their recognition of the right of the US to defend itself. The EU has also declared its intention to cooperate with the US in the fight against terrorism," said the...

A just response America and Americans on September 11 experienced the full horror of what must surely be the greatest display of grotesque cunning in human history. Its essence consisted in transforming the benign, everyday technology of commercial jet aircraft into weapons of mass destruction. There has been much talk about Americans discovering the vulnerability of their heartland in a manner that far exceeds the collective trauma associated with the attack on Pearl Harbor. But the new vulnerability is radically different and far more threatening. It involves the comprehensive vulnerability of technology closely tied to our global dominance, pervading every aspect of our existence. To protect ourselves against the range of threats that could be mounted by those of fanatical persuasion is a mission impossible. The very attempt would quickly turn the United States into a prison-state. And yet who can blame the government for doing what it can in...

Constructive thoughts two weeks after September 11 We shall be happy if you find any inspiration here and we invite your constructive thoughts to tff@transnational.live. Two weeks have passed. We mourn the tragedy in New York and Washington. Innocent lives were taken by mad men who could not find intelligent, non-violent ways to make their point. No civilised goals can ever be promoted by such methods. No ideology and no religion in the world can justify them. There are those who argue that, at this very moment, the discussion should only be about "Who" (guilt) and "How" (technique) and not about "Why" (causes). Some consider it inappropriate to ask whether, over the years, the United States foreign policy establishment and other Western governments have contributed in some ways to a tragedy like this and, if so, what role it may have played in the minds of the madmen. Some consider...

Constructive thoughts Continued from PressInfo 129 Global brainstorm on a humanity-oriented Western policy Imagine that we begin a global brainstorm where people of all walks of life can contribute their opinions freely on questions such as: how can the United States, and the West in general, make a more efficient contribution to a world in peace, justice and human development? What new forums do we need — in the fields of politics, religion, education, culture, etc — to balance the globalisation in the economic sphere? How must we re-structure the world system to promote global democracy and democratic governance (for, by and with the peoples) to benefit all and not mainly Western people? We are talking about a new global policy for us all and not just for the biggest countries. We are talking about taking the idea of a global human family seriously when making decisions at home. We...