Human rights 'eroded worldwide'

[Mari]

What's the world coming to?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6681437.stm

Human rights 'eroded worldwide'
Powerful governments and armed groups have been deliberately fomenting fear to erode human rights worldwide, a report by Amnesty International says.
The group's annual report on human rights says policies like those linked to the "war on terror" are creating a more polarised and dangerous world.

It says the world has been impotent in the face of major crises like Darfur.

It urges governments to strengthen human rights bodies and defend the rule of law across the globe.

'Weak-willed'

The document - Amnesty International Report 2007 - is the group's annual assessment of human rights country-by-country.


REPORT'S KEY FACTS & STATS
DEATH PENALTY IN 2006:
Some 24,000 people on death row
3,861 people sentenced to death
1,591 prisoners executed
TORTURE/TERROR IN 2006:
102 nations had cases of torture by state authorities
1,245 rendition flights in Europe's air space
18,000 people held without trial by coalition troops in Iraq
400 detainees held at Guantanamo Bay
Source: Amnesty International

"The politics of fear are fuelling a downward spiral of human rights abuses in which no right is sacrosanct and no person safe," Amnesty International's Secretary General Irene Khan said ahead of the launch of the report.

The paper blames the world community for being "weak-willed" in tackling human rights crises in 2006, whether in "forgotten conflicts" in Chechnya and Colombia or "high profiles ones" in the Middle East.

During the Lebanon war, the report says, it took the UN weeks to call for a truce. Some 1,200 civilians lost their lives in the conflict.

It also says the world "showed no stomach" in tacking human rights abuses resulting from severe restrictions on freedom of movement of Palestinians, attacks by the Israeli army and also the Palestinian infighting.

"Through short-sighted, fear-mongering and divisive policies, governments are undermining the rule of law and human rights, feeding racism and xenophobia," Ms Khan said.

"The 'war on terror' and the war in Iraq, with their catalogue of human rights abuses, have created deep divisions that cast a shadow on international relations," she said.

Ms Khan described the continuing conflict in Sudan's Darfur region as a "bleeding wound on the world's conscience".

The report says that armed groups in the region waged a campaign of terror in 2006, clearing whole communities from their villages.

It also criticises the US government for what it said were kidnappings, arbitrary detention, tortures and secrets transfers of terror suspects - the practice known as "extraordinary rendition".

Widespread human rights abuses in Afghanistan, Belarus, China, Iran, Russia, Syria, Vietnam and Zimbabwe are also mentioned in the report.

[danax6]

400 detainees held at Guantanamo Bay

Have you seen 'Road to Guantanamo'?

[Mari]

Originally Posted by danax6

Have you seen 'Road to Guantanamo'?

I'm actually too chicken to watch that film, I'm sure it'll depress me majorly. Just reading newsarticles about that place makes me really angry, already.

I also saw an article somewhere today about European countries flying terrorism suspects to the US in secret.

Who could've thought we'd be ok with all this, 10 years ago? Makes me wonder what the world will look like 5 years from now.

[danax6]

Originally Posted by Mari

Who could've thought we'd be ok with all this, 10 years ago? Makes me wonder what the world will look like 5 years from now.

It's a scary thought. Especially considering that a lot of people are so quick to label anything or anyone 'terrorist' or 'muslim fundamentalist' these days. It's only going to get worse.

[Mari]

Yeah, people seem to be more interested in making each other scared of terrorism and those eeevil muslims than actually wonder, 'how did we get here?'. Or just 'why would someone turn to fundamentalism'.. No, it's so much easier to play the us vs them game.
Does anyone remember the Cold war at all?

[BombaySapphire3]

Originally Posted by Mari

No, it's so much easier to play the us vs them game.
Does anyone remember the Cold war at all?

The end of the cold war left a vacumn of "fill in the fearmongerer "which a demagouge like Bush was only to happy to seize upon to prey upon the worst instincts of people and look where it has gotten us.The recent news of troop increases in Iraq with absolutely no exit startegy has been making me ill for the last 24 hours..If the democratic candidates vote to endorse this it looks like I'll be voting Green again.

[Mari]

talk about Iraq, talk about Bush, talk about vile.. I got this mail in my box from the AVAAZ organisation..


Amidst rising bloodshed, President Bush has told the Iraqi Parliament they have till the 31st of May to pass a flawed oil law that could give multinational companies unprecedented control of Iraq's oil fields. But some Iraqi leaders are daring to resist - and they need our help.

Two weeks from now, members of the Iraqi Parliament -- including Sunni, Kurdish and Shia leaders -- are planning to read Avaaz's petition of solidarity from the floor of Parliament. They say this statement of global support for Iraqi sovereignty will strengthen the resolve of their colleagues to face down Bush and big oil companies by opposing this law. So sign the petition today--let's make 100,000 voices heard in Iraq's Parliament before they vote:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/iraq_oil_law

Our simple message: we support Iraq's sovereign right to its own oil. Revenue from oil should be distributed fairly to the Iraqi people. And the Iraqi national parliament should decide this without foreign influence.

Oil accounts for 70% of Iraq's national income. The proposed oil law would give multinational companies broad control of those revenues for three decades -- a deal more generous than any in the Middle East. In most countries, oil corporations perform services under contracts with governments. In Iraq, foreign companies would sit on the national council that gives out the contracts.

Here's how the head of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions, Hassan Jum'a Awwad, put it:

"Iraq is passing through the most difficult of times, because all and sundry are hounding it and covet a share of its riches. Everyone knows that the oil law does not serve the Iraqi people, and that it serves Bush, his supporters and the foreign companies at their expense."

It's a rare sign of hope to see Iraqis coming together on anything, but this law is bad enough to unite almost everyone. Iraqis are asking for our help. Let's tell them the world supports their right to set their own future. Sign on and help us reach 100,000 voices before they present the petition to the Parliament:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/iraq_oil_law/?cl=9794098

[Johnny Stew]

Originally Posted by Mari

Who could've thought we'd be ok with all this, 10 years ago? Makes me wonder what the world will look like 5 years from now.

Sometimes I wonder, Mari, if we're all even going to be here five years from now. Things have gotten extremely grim and political leaders the world over have gotten more blood-thirsty than ever.