Apr 2nd 2007CarlAnimal Rights & Austria & Human Rights & Political
As I checked the news on google today this news draw my attention.
Basically an Austrian court is going to decide whether or not a certain Chimpanzee have human rights. I have to welcome this debate. It’s a great thing that it is debated if Chimpanzees’ should have human rights. I believe they do, as well as other animals too. An old post about the subject.
Mar 27th 2007CarlHuman Rights & Political & USA
With the first prisonier of Guantanamo being trialed concerns can be raised about the fairness of the trial. This first prisonier has pleeded quilty apparently in order to get a shorter sentence. The fairness of Guantanamo Bay trials is a joke.
After several years in the harsh conditions (involving torture) in Guatanamo Bay quite a lot of people would be ready to pleed guilty just to get out of there. Whatever the outcome of the trial is it’s hard to give any credibility to its results.
Mar 18th 2007CarlAfrica & Human Rights & Political
The last days we have been able to read in the press about human rights abuses in Zimbabwe. Probably the pictures of beaten politicians woke up the interest of the Western World media (one beaten politician CNN and anotherBBC). One of the pictures shows the opposition leader with his head inflated as a result of the beating.
It’s good that the media speaks about human rights abuses in Africa. Africa is the continent with enormously human right abuses, yet Africa is pretty much the forgotten continent. Africa is rarely in the news in Europe or the America. Politicians pay much more attention to other parts of the world as Africa. When a war begins in Africa it is barely noticed in the rest of the world.
It wouldn’t be a bad thing if Africa was more often in the spotlight in European and American media and people’s attention. So little about Africa is actually known in the rest of the world.
It’s time for the leaders committing human rights abuses in Africa to start respecting more basical rights. It’s time for Mugabe’s regim to stop using torture. The West could be much more active in putting pressure for human rights in Africa.
Mar 7th 2007CarlGeorge Bush & Human Rights & USA
The United States. Lawsuit, courts, a justice system. Well, the United States has been considered long as a country with a justice system. The reality is different.
The pentagon has announced it will start the hearings of some detainees in Guantanamo to determine if they can be trailed as enemy combatants, thus depriving them of their rights (source: New York Times). No lawyers will be allowed in the procedure.
Enemy combatants are trailed in special courts and they don’t have the right to lawyers. The right to a lawyer is a basic necessity to a trial being fair and here the United States is violating human rights. Trials such are planned for those in Guantanamo Bay are more typical for countries like China or Russia than for the country pretending to stand for freedom (ie. the United States)
It is a pity that the Bush administration doesn’t seem to care about human rights and freedom. The worst thing is that Bush is limiting freedom in the name of freedom!
Feb 20th 2007CarlEquality & Human Rights & Political & USA
A court of appeal has ruled that foreign terrorist suspects (foreign enemy combatants) don’t have the right to challenge their detention in civil courts (source: Times). This is a serious violation of human rights.
The court decision means that detainees in Guantanamo won’t be able to challenge their detention in US courts. The rule in question is a part of the Military Commission Act passed after the US Supreme court declared unconstitutional that detainees in Guantanamo didn’t have the right to challenge their detention. Now the court’s decision keeps in force this part of the Military Commission Act.
One question the media and public opinion hasn’t been discussing that much is the extent to which non-citizens have different rights than citizens. Some countries make little distinction between citizens’ and non-citizens’ rights, while others have bigger differences. The rights of non-citizens’ in the United states have been continuously weakened (Patriotic Act, Military Commission Act, indefinite arrest without trial of foreign terrorist suspects and so on) in the war on terrorism.
But why non-citizens’ shouldn’t have the same rights? After all we are all individuals and it is therefore unfair that your origin determines what rights you have.
In the middle age it was current in many countries that laws had smaller punishments for people from the rich classes than from the poor classes for exactly the same crime. Nowadays this is seen as unacceptable. So why are we still making a similar distinction in practice? Now the distinction is between citizens and non-citizens instead of rich and poor classes.
Feb 18th 2007CarlChildren's Rights & Human Rights & New Zealand & Political
I run into this article today. A school in New Zealand has found an inventive way to bypass laws forbidding teachers from hitting students: it asks parents to do the hitting instead (it’s not illegal for parents to use corporal punishment).
I believe corporal punishment is an unacceptable way to try to teach children. Corporal punishment by parents should be illegal as well. Allowing corporal punishment of children is the same as saying children don’t have basic human rights.
Unfortunately corporal punishment is forbidden in only a few countries as I’ve written in an earlier post.
Feb 16th 2007CarlHuman Rights & Italy & Political & USA
Finally a court has ordered a trial of CIA agents for kidnapping terrorist suspects (source:BBC). The case in question is about the kidnapping of a terrorist suspect in Italy to send him to Egypt. He was allegedly tortured in Egypt.
However it is quite likely that the CIA agents won’t attend the court and as they are most likely in the United States. The Italian police won’t be able to arrest them. Unless, of course, if Italy uses the same methods as the United States and kidnaps the suspected CIA agents on US ground:-) My guess is that the United States wouldn’t tolerate that at all.
Jan 14th 2007CarlHuman Rights & Iraq & Political
Since the blogospher seems to be still discussing Saddam Hussein’s execution, I though it would be a good opportunity to comment the hanging and the death penalty in general.
As we know Saddam Hussein was hanged in the last days of last year. I have to say I actually see the execution as a human rights violation.
But don’t understand me wrong. Sure, Saddam Hussein had done many horrible things in his life and should have been punished for them. But even the worst criminals have rights. And the right to life is one of them.
The right to life is one of the most basical rights that everyone should have. It shouldn’t be a right that is earned by being a good citizen by following the rules of the society. No, it should be a right that everyone, even the worst criminals, has.
Jail is much more approriate than the death penalty for the worst crimes.