Human rights and justice

Collage © Jan Oberg 2023 A list to be updated if and when Jan Oberg March 16, 2023 The human right to freely seek information is laid down in the American Convention on Human Rights from 1968. Article 13 states that “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought and expression. This right includes freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas of all kinds.” The Universal Declaration of Human Rights from 1948 states in Article 19 that: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966 states in Article 19 that: “1) Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference. 2) Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression;...

The estimated cost of the humanitarian response going into 2023 is US$ 51.5 billion, a 25% increase compared to the beginning of 2022. That is less than one-tenth of the total sales of weapons which reached 592 billion US dollars just in one year: 2021. Baher Kamal January 30, 2023 MADRID, Dec 22, 2022 (IPS) – Day after day, international humanitarian organisations launch desperate appeals for funding to continue saving some of the many lives at high risk. When they get a handful of dollars –even just one million– from a rich country, they welcome it as manna from heaven. Not only the available funding for humanitarian aid is already short, but 2023 will also set another record for humanitarian relief requirements, with 339 million people in need of assistance in 69 countries, an increase of 65 million people compared to the same time last year, the United Nations and...

Controlling the loss and waste of food is a crucial factor in reaching the goal of eradicating hunger in the world. Credit: FAO October 17, 2022 Baher Kamal MADRID, Sep 28 2022 (IPS)* – These are facts, not guesses: about 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted and lost … every single year, the equivalent of one ton per each of the one billion hungry people, many of them are those who produced the food. Originally published at Human Wrongs Watch on September 28, 2022 The findings have been reported by the World Bank, whose recent study: What a Waste 2.0 also informs that the number of wasted calories “could fill hunger gaps in the developing world.” On this, it reports on the breakdown of the number of calories wasted per day and per person – out of the recommended 2.000: 1.520 calories in rich North America and Oceania of which 61% are by...

Elaheh Pooyandeh TFF Associate September 26, 2022 In Part 1, we explored the history of compulsory hijab in Iran and related incidents up to September 2022 when the name Mahsa (Zhina) Amini was heard for the first time by ordinary Iranians. On September 13th, 2022, a story was leaked to social media. A young Kurd woman, Mahsa Amini only 22 years old from Saghez who was in Tehran for vacation with the family, was transferred to the Kasra hospital (which is a few minutes from the Gashte Ershad HQ in Vozara street). A few hours before, she had been arrested and separated from her teenage brother by Gashte Ershad – often called the ‘Moral Police’ in the West but – see Part 1 – why I do not use that term – when she was leaving the Taleghani subway station and forced into a van. This ignited a fire that...

Elaheh Pooyandeh TFF Associate September 26, 2022 The story of Iranian women’s struggle for their right to choose what they wear is not a new story and, believe it or not, it is older than the Islamic Revolution in 1979 and includes thousands of Iranian female activists. This article is neither going to discuss this history in full detail nor do I intend to promote women’s right and their autonomy. Not the former because this history is long, and retelling it would overshadow the current developments happening in the name of Mahsa Amini. And not the latter because I believe there are enough resources available for it. I merely wish to reflect on the current situation and some of the root causes for those who are interested but might not have a source they can trust. This article will be in two parts. Part 1 which you are reading will...

– the author Peter Peverelli TFF Associate September 22, 2022 This article was originally published by Chinasquare on September 21, 2022. In her annual speech (State of the Union), the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, further sharpened the relationship between the EU and China. She noted that democracy in the EU is under threat as hostile countries, notably Russia and China, fund organizations within the EU to carry out propaganda. She announced a package to defend democracy. von der Leyen had, unfortunately, constructed her entire speech from a negative perspective. A significant part was devoted to the war in Ukraine. It is certainly true that this has a strong negative effect on the lives of EU citizens, but instead of going into the background of this conflict and the possibilities of ending this war as soon as possible, she turned her focus on the enemy who...

Telford Taylor giving his opening remarks at the judges trial, Nuremberg, 1947. Ellen Taylor June 12, 2022 I was in Nuremberg during the war crimes trials which followed WWII. My father, Brig. Gen. Telford Taylor, was Chief Prosecutor during the  second,  American phase.  The French, Russian and British staffs had gone home to  continue trials at home, but the US stayed longer, and  scheduled about 400 additional  defendants. They were divided into twelve  categories: judges, doctors, industrialists, etc. There were 142 convictions and ten death sentences. I remember the  high spirits of the occupying  troops and  tribunal staff, The joy of triumph and victory. I  danced with them in the ballroom of  the Grand Hotel, where the  officials and court lawyers spent their evenings.  I scared myself by looking  into seemingly-bottomless bomb craters, played in the war-shattered  wreckage of  our commandeered  townhouse, and listened to stories told by the servants, who...

Jan Oberg May 31, 2022 It was the first visit to China by a UN human rights chief in 17 years. For years, governments and human rights organisations have accused China of many kinds of human rights violations – and a series of them calls what has happened in Xinjiang “genocide” in line, one could add, with former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s “determination” that that was the correct label to put on it while not publishing one word of documentation to back up that grave accusation against China and its president. After years of meticulous preparations, Mme Michelle Bachelet – a former President of Chile, a physician who has studied military strategy and who has served as both Health Minister and Defense Minister and has a significant personal experience with Pinochet’s reign of terror – sent an advance team, then went to China herself, had a zoom conversation...

Gordon DumoulinTFF Associate May 24, 2022 Introduction Here we go again. On the same day, leading Western mainstream media – such as BBC, Politiken, Dagens Nyheter, Le Monde, etc – 14 media from 11 countries – publish a new accusation against China, ‘Xinjiang Police Files’: Exclusive documents reveal China’s machine of repression against the Uyghurs. They are produced by the extreme right Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in the United States. It appeared the day after President Biden had stated, in Tokyo, that the US would come to the rescue of Taiwan if China should attack it. And it coincided also with the UN Human Rights High Commissioner, Michelle Bachelet, started her fact-finding mission in Xinjiang. Perhaps it was a coincidence. Perhaps the material was put together and made ready by the foundation so it could be published at the right moment? Clearly, the untold purpose has been to undermine...

May 3, 2022 Andrew J. Bacevich I recently participated in a commemoration of Martin Luther King’s address “Beyond Vietnam — A Time to Break Silence,” originally delivered on April 2, 1967, at New York City’s Riverside Church. King used the occasion to announce his opposition to the ongoing war in Vietnam. Although a long time coming in the eyes of some in the antiwar movement, his decision was one for which he was roundly criticized, even by supporters of the Civil Rights Movement. He was straying out of his prescribed lane, they charged, and needed to get back where he belonged. This year’s 55th anniversary event, also held in Riverside Church’s magnificent sanctuary, featured inspiring Christian music and a thoughtful discussion of King’s remarks. Most powerful of all, however, was a public reading of the address itself. “Beyond Vietnam” contains many famously moving passages. King, for example, cited “the cruel irony of watching Negro...

Alfred De Zayas February 11, 2022 The current tensions between the United States and Russia with regard to Ukraine goes back to a series of NATO actions and omissions following the demise of the Soviet Union in 1989/91.  On the Russian side, there is a widespread perception of having been misled by the US and NATO, a pervasive malaise about a breach of trust, a violation of a “gentleman’s agreement” on fundamental issues of national security. While the US protests that it never gave assurances to Gorbachev that NATO would not expand eastwards, declassified documents prove otherwise.  But even in the absence of declassified documents and contemporary statements by political leaders in 1989/91 including Secretary of State James Baker and German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher (which can be consulted in YouTube), it is all-too-obvious that there is a festering wound caused by NATO’s eastward expansion over the past 30 years,...

Sergey Vinograd, Unsplash Richard Falk TFF Associate February 7, 2022 The post below is my stimulus essay for a Forum sponsored by Great Transition Initiative, a project of the Tellus Institute, dedicated to the exploration of humane and ecologically resonant adjustments to the challenges and threats posed by the onset of the Anthropocentric Age. The text of the full Forum can be found by clicking here. It contains many wise and illuminating responses to my reflections, including by leading thinkers of our time. The Forum closes with my effort to respond to the responses, but due to space limitations, in a very truncated manner. Also, the Forum format conveys some information about the underlying philosophy that guides this ambitious undertaking. Global Solidarity: Toward a Politics of Impossibility  A Captive Imagination As the COVID-19 pandemic slowly subsides, it is not clear what lessons will be drawn by political leaders and publics around...