Tag Archives: human rights
Sniper Posts Pic of Child in Crosshairs
ABC News
Feb. 18, 2012
By Alexander Marquardt
JERUSALEM – A photo posted online by an Israeli soldier showing a child in the crosshairs of a rifle scope has created a firestorm on the internet, drawing widespread criticism.
The photo was reportedly posted on Jan. 25 by Mor Ostrovski, 20, a member of an Israeli sniper unit. It shows crosshairs zeroed in on the back of the head of what appears to be a Palestinian boy in a village. The photo has since been taken down and Ostrovski’s account has been deactivated.
“There are no other images to suggest that the photographer actually fired at the person in the image in this case,” wrote Palestinian activist Ali Abuminah who runs the site Electronic Intifada and drew much of the attention to the photo. “The image is simply tasteless and dehumanizing. It embodies the idea that Palestinian children are targets.”
Kids in the crosshairs: Photo of Palestinian children killed by IDF wins World Press Photo award
RT
Feb. 16, 2013
A picture of two Palestinian children killed in an Israeli airstrike has won the 2012 World Press Photo award. And as if to further prove the danger to the region’s youth, an IDF sniper has posted a photo of a child in his rifle’s scope to Instagram.
A procession of wailing men carrying two Palestinian children to their funeral, captured with the click of a camera, has won the 2012 World Press Photo.
The photo was taken by the Swedish photographer Paul Hansen, working for the Dagens Nyheter newspaper.
Taken in Gaza on November 20, 2012, the photo shows a group of men marching the dead bodies of a brother and sister, wrapped in white cloth, through the city. The piece portrays what became a common scene on the ground during Israel’s eight-day military conquest, Operation Pillar of Defense, against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
‘Idle No More’ plans global rallies over Canada’s aboriginals
Press TV
Jan. 8, 2012
Organizers are preparing to stage rallies this coming Friday, which is designated as the ‘Global Day of Action’. It coincides with the same day that Prime Minister Stephen Harper plans to meet with some native leaders, including Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence.
Spence has been on hunger strike since December 11, 2012, and intends to continue the protest until Harper meets with the leaders of Aboriginal communities.
Aboriginal rights movement Idle No More spreads beyond First Nations community
The Gazette
Dec. 19, 2012
By Christopher Curtis
OTTAWA – Theresa Spence gets dizzy if she walks more than a few steps.
The Attawapiskat chief is getting weaker as her hunger strike is in its second week, but Spence says she won’t eat until Prime Minister Stephen Harper agrees to meet with her and other aboriginal leaders across Canada.
Since she began her protest, Spence has spent her days in isolation on the tiny aboriginal territory of Victoria Island, which sits across the Ottawa River from Parliament Hill.
These days Spence barely has enough strength to leave the teepee she’s been sleeping in. She drinks a small cup of fish broth each day to fend off sickness.
“My spirits are good,” she said, warming by a wooden fire in her makeshift home. “I hear drumming every day and people singing songs for me every day … it’s encouraging.”
Canada gets human rights failing grade from Amnesty International
The Star
Dec. 19, 2012
By Olivia Ward
For Canada’s international human rights standing, 2012 was an annus horribilis.
This year three UN expert committees rated the country’s performance on meeting rights commitments — and returned a failing grade.
“These mandatory reviews are carried out every four or five years, and it just happened that this year Canada was the focus of three,” said Alex Neve, who heads Amnesty International Canada. “It’s a wake-up call that although we have things to be proud of, there are many fronts where we have long-standing issues that need to be addressed.”
An Amnesty report released Wednesday says that committees on racial discrimination, prevention of torture and children’s rights found “a range” of “ongoing and serious human rights challenges,” especially for indigenous peoples.
CIA ‘tortured and sodomised’ terror suspect, human rights court rules
Guardian
Dec. 13, 2012
By Richard Norton-Taylor
CIA agents tortured a German citizen, sodomising, shackling, and beating him, as Macedonian state police looked on, the European court of human rights said in a historic judgment released on Thursday.
In a unanimous ruling, it also found Macedonia guilty of torturing, abusing, and secretly imprisoning Khaled el-Masri, a German of Lebanese origin allegedly linked to terrorist organisations.
Masri was seized in Macedonia in December 2003 and handed over to a CIA “rendition team” at Skopje airport and secretly flown to Afghanistan.
Tibet’s Desperate Toll Keeps Climbing
New York Times
Dec. 4, 2012
By MARK MCDONALD
HONG KONG — What pushes them to do it, these desperate Tibetans, more than 90 of them, dozens in recent days and another one on Monday, the ones drenching themselves in gasoline, sometimes even drinking the fuel beforehand, and then setting themselves on fire, their robes bursting into pennants of flame as they die such painful deaths, why, what is happening here? Are they killing themselves because of politics, sadness, despair, religion, what?
We don’t yet know what drove Lobsang Gedun, 29, a Buddhist monk who burned himself to death on Monday in the western Chinese province of Qinghai. My colleague Edward Wong reported on the death, and Radio Free Asia quoted an account of the immolation: “With his body on fire, he walked about 300 steps with hands folded in prayer posture, and raised slogans before he collapsed dead on the ground.”
Lobsang Gedun’s slogans were likely in praise of the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, or condemnations of Beijing’s harsh, militarized rule in Tibet and the Tibetan areas of western China. Foreign reporters, United Nations investigators and many international relief groups are almost universally barred by the Chinese authorities from entering Tibet.
Bradley Manning lawyer argues soldier’s confinement was too harsh
NBC News
Nov. 28, 2012
By John Bailey
FORT MEADE, Md. — During a pre-trial hearing Tuesday, the defense for Army Private First Class Bradley Manning — accused of leaking thousands of classified documents to the website Wikileaks – began making the case that Manning’s charges should be dismissed, saying the Army private’s confinement conditions constitute illegal punishment.
Pfc. Manning’s defense team alleges he was improperly classified as a high security risk and as a risk to himself while confined at Quantico, which resulted in Manning being kept on 23-hour lockdown in a small cell. At one point, his clothes were taken from him at night.
David Coombs, Manning’s lead attorney, spent more than six hours questioning retired Marine Corps Col. Daniel Choike (pronounced CHOY-kee), who was commander of the Quantico brig at the time. Coombs asked Choike about a number of emails sent among the brig staff indicating that some at the facility believed that Manning did not require such harsh confinement.
Anonymous leaks personal information of 5,000 Israeli officials
RT
Nov. 18, 2012
Internet hacktivist group Anonymous has declared cyberwar on Israel, posting personal data of five thousand Israeli officials online.
The group used their Anonpaste.me site to address a message to the Israeli government before linking to the page with names, ID numbers and personal emails of 5,000 officials.
The message said: “It has come to our attention that the Israeli government has ignored repeated warnings about the abuse of human rights, shutting down the internet in Israel and mistreating its own citizens and those of its neighboring countries.”
Obama victory infuriates Pakistani drone victims
Reuters
Nov. 8, 2012
By Randy Fabi and Aisha Chowdhry
(Reuters) – The roars celebrating the re-election of U.S. President Barack Obama on television give Mohammad Rehman Khan a searing headache, as years of grief and anger come rushing back.
The 28-year-old Pakistani accuses the president of robbing him of his father, three brothers and a nephew, all killed in a U.S. drone aircraft attack a month after Obama first took office.
“The same person who attacked my home has gotten re-elected,” he told Reuters in the capital, Islamabad, where he fled after the attack on his village in South Waziristan, one of several ethnic Pashtun tribal areas on the Afghan border.
