Human Rights
Leah Bolger, President of Veterans For Peace, applauded a United Nations Committee this week for raising concerns about the recruitment of children into the U.S. military, the U.S. killing of children in Afghanistan, the U.S. detention and torture of children labeled "combatants," and the provision of weapons by the United States to other nations employing child soldiers.
While the United States is one of only three countries, along with Somalia and South Sudan, not to have ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, it has ratified and made part of its law the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, which requires special protections for any military recruits under the age of 18.
The U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child has asked for additional information related to the Second Periodic Report of the United States to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, (OPAC). The United States has until November 16, 2012, to respond.
While the United States is one of only three countries, along with Somalia and South Sudan, not to have ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, it has ratified and made part of its law the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, which requires special protections for any military recruits under the age of 18.
The U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child has asked for additional information related to the Second Periodic Report of the United States to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, (OPAC). The United States has until November 16, 2012, to respond.
June 28th marked an important day in history for women’s health. The Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act enables millions of women, who previously were ineligible or did not have the economical means, to have access to quality and affordable healthcare. This includes full coverage of birth control and other preventative services, such as cancer screenings. The ACA also ensures that healthcare premiums for women, which have been significantly higher than men in the past, will be much lower and affordable. Given the recent outpour of conservative political dogma against women’s healthcare and rights in general, the passing of this act is a huge step forward for women and other groups that have neglected by the government in the past. Access to affordable healthcare is a vital basic human right and I am proud that the U.S. is taking steps to offer medical justice for all citizens.
A U.N. Committee has formally requested the United States government to provide information on the use of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) as a recruiting device in the nation's high schools.
In a report issued July 3rd, The U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child has asked for additional information related to the Second Periodic Report of the United States to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, (OPAC). The Committee calls into question a range of laws and programs that allow the U.S. military to actively recruit children under 18. At issue is a range of recruitment policies and practices in the high schools that undermine the safeguards contained in Article 3.3 of OPAC regarding the voluntary nature of underage recruitment, the right to privacy of children and the requirement of prior consent of parents (or legal guardians).
The Committee specifically mentions the recruiting provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act, the ASVAB, and the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) programs operating in the nation's schools.
In a report issued July 3rd, The U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child has asked for additional information related to the Second Periodic Report of the United States to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, (OPAC). The Committee calls into question a range of laws and programs that allow the U.S. military to actively recruit children under 18. At issue is a range of recruitment policies and practices in the high schools that undermine the safeguards contained in Article 3.3 of OPAC regarding the voluntary nature of underage recruitment, the right to privacy of children and the requirement of prior consent of parents (or legal guardians).
The Committee specifically mentions the recruiting provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act, the ASVAB, and the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) programs operating in the nation's schools.
One thing true we can say about war is that truth is its greatest casualty.
I am a volunteer teacher. Four years ago I responded to a call from then candidate Barak Obama for a new kind of soldier to wage peace, one without a uniform, without a gun. On the three-year anniversary of my moving in with the orphans here in Afghanistan, I listened to gun battle and explosions in my Kabul neighborhood for ten hours through the night and into the morning. While CNN reported the insurgency event had ended I shook my head. “Nope,” I muttered to myself, listening to stray bullets fly over my room.
I am a volunteer teacher. Four years ago I responded to a call from then candidate Barak Obama for a new kind of soldier to wage peace, one without a uniform, without a gun. On the three-year anniversary of my moving in with the orphans here in Afghanistan, I listened to gun battle and explosions in my Kabul neighborhood for ten hours through the night and into the morning. While CNN reported the insurgency event had ended I shook my head. “Nope,” I muttered to myself, listening to stray bullets fly over my room.
Two years ago I was a passenger on the first Gaza Freedom Flotilla which was sailing to break the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza. I watched from a small boat called the Challenger 1, as a much larger boat, the Mavi Marmara, with almost 600 passengers, was brutally attacked by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) commandos. 30 minutes later, our boat was attacked.
Using snipers from helicopters Israeli commandos shot many of the passengers on the exposed top deck of the ship. Other commandos in boats fired live ammunition, as well as percussion grenades, into all levels of the ship. As commandos repelled down from helicopters and boarded the ship, they executed at point blank range 5 passengers, including a 19 year old American citizen Furkan Dogan, whose body had five bullets including one to the back of his head. 9 persons, 8 Turkish citizens and one American citizen, were murdered and 50 others were wounded. One severely wounded Turkish man later died after being in a coma for many months.
Using snipers from helicopters Israeli commandos shot many of the passengers on the exposed top deck of the ship. Other commandos in boats fired live ammunition, as well as percussion grenades, into all levels of the ship. As commandos repelled down from helicopters and boarded the ship, they executed at point blank range 5 passengers, including a 19 year old American citizen Furkan Dogan, whose body had five bullets including one to the back of his head. 9 persons, 8 Turkish citizens and one American citizen, were murdered and 50 others were wounded. One severely wounded Turkish man later died after being in a coma for many months.
On the night of June 3, 2012, Israel conducted a series of air raids hitting several areas in the Gaza Strip. At about 2:00 am, the Israeli Air Force struck:
an inhabited house in Nuseirat refugee camp, central Gaza Strip. The house was struck by 4 missiles. Seven people were injured including 4 children;
an uninhabited area to the west of Nuseirat, in this case the missile has remained unexploded;
an uninhabited area between a mosque and a house, always in Nuseirat;
a farm in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip;
a farm in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip;
an uninhabited house in Deir el Balah, in the central Gaza Strip;
The following night, June 4, 2012, the Israeli Air Force struck again several areas in the Gaza Strip:
a farm that produces cheese in the Zaitoun, east of Gaza City;
an uninhabited area in El Kashif mountain, north of Gaza City.
an inhabited house in Nuseirat refugee camp, central Gaza Strip. The house was struck by 4 missiles. Seven people were injured including 4 children;
an uninhabited area to the west of Nuseirat, in this case the missile has remained unexploded;
an uninhabited area between a mosque and a house, always in Nuseirat;
a farm in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip;
a farm in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip;
an uninhabited house in Deir el Balah, in the central Gaza Strip;
The following night, June 4, 2012, the Israeli Air Force struck again several areas in the Gaza Strip:
a farm that produces cheese in the Zaitoun, east of Gaza City;
an uninhabited area in El Kashif mountain, north of Gaza City.
Sunday June 3rd, 2012, Youngstown- Last week Cornelius Harris, a level 5 prisoner at Ohio State Penitentiary (OSP) resumed the May Day hunger strike, in protest of the warden's slow response to the prisoner's demands. It is unknown when Mr. Harris began refusing food, how many consecutive meals he has refused, and whether or not other prisoners have joined Mr. Harris's hunger strike. OSP's warden, David Bobby refused to comment or make any statement about Mr. Harris's situation or condition, including how many meals he has refused.
Mr. Harris says that Warden Bobby has "found a way to twist this hunger strike around to his favor by asking for more funding for programs and material that a level 5 prisoner will never see". Mr. Harris issued the following list of grievances.
- Warden Bobby has failed to keep his promise to address outrageously high commissary prices.
- Lack of recreational material like exercise or sporting equipment, even though there is money in an "I+E" fund earmarked for these materials.
- Low quality and lack of variety in television and movie programming.
Mr. Harris says that Warden Bobby has "found a way to twist this hunger strike around to his favor by asking for more funding for programs and material that a level 5 prisoner will never see". Mr. Harris issued the following list of grievances.
- Warden Bobby has failed to keep his promise to address outrageously high commissary prices.
- Lack of recreational material like exercise or sporting equipment, even though there is money in an "I+E" fund earmarked for these materials.
- Low quality and lack of variety in television and movie programming.
BANGKOK, Thailand -- Burma's Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi arrived in Bangkok on Tuesday (May 29), the first time since 1988 that she has been out of her country where she suffered more than 15 of house arrest before being elected to parliament in April.
Mrs. Suu Kyi chose next-door Thailand for her first trip because the two Buddhist-majority countries enjoy close business and political links, and she wanted attend the Wednesday (May 30) opening of the World Economic Forum on East Asia in Bangkok and address the group on Friday (June 1).
She experienced culture shock after leaving her relatively shabby and undeveloped hometown Rangoon -- also known as Yangon -- and seeing Bangkok which is a rapidly modernizing, skyscraper-studded megalopolis.
Unlike Rangoon, Bangkok boasts public monorail transportation, extensive Wi-Fi, sprawling shopping malls and other features of a globalized economy.
During the next several days, she will meet Thailand's first female prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, who is a former business executive anxious to improve political and economic relations between the two countries.
Mrs. Suu Kyi chose next-door Thailand for her first trip because the two Buddhist-majority countries enjoy close business and political links, and she wanted attend the Wednesday (May 30) opening of the World Economic Forum on East Asia in Bangkok and address the group on Friday (June 1).
She experienced culture shock after leaving her relatively shabby and undeveloped hometown Rangoon -- also known as Yangon -- and seeing Bangkok which is a rapidly modernizing, skyscraper-studded megalopolis.
Unlike Rangoon, Bangkok boasts public monorail transportation, extensive Wi-Fi, sprawling shopping malls and other features of a globalized economy.
During the next several days, she will meet Thailand's first female prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, who is a former business executive anxious to improve political and economic relations between the two countries.
BANGKOK, Thailand -- Police said they seized one million illicit methamphetamine pills, weeks after discovering nearly 50 million legal tablets to treat common ailments had been stolen from Thailand's hospitals, to make powerful speed drugs to sell to addicts.
An additional two billion similar tablets to treat common colds have been smuggled in from Taiwan and South Korea, also to make illegal drugs, in a complex international racket that appears too entrenched and massive for Thai authorities to stop.
Corrupt chemists and drug dealers have been extracting ephedrine and pseudoephedrine from legal cold remedies and similar medicine in Thailand and secretly shipping it across the border into Laos and Myanmar, a country also known as Burma, where gangs use the ingredients to create a range of amphetamine-based drugs.
Myanmar's drug gangs work among heavily armed minority ethnic insurgents including the Shan, Wa, and other tribes in lawless, mountainous jungles near the border where the two countries meet.
An additional two billion similar tablets to treat common colds have been smuggled in from Taiwan and South Korea, also to make illegal drugs, in a complex international racket that appears too entrenched and massive for Thai authorities to stop.
Corrupt chemists and drug dealers have been extracting ephedrine and pseudoephedrine from legal cold remedies and similar medicine in Thailand and secretly shipping it across the border into Laos and Myanmar, a country also known as Burma, where gangs use the ingredients to create a range of amphetamine-based drugs.
Myanmar's drug gangs work among heavily armed minority ethnic insurgents including the Shan, Wa, and other tribes in lawless, mountainous jungles near the border where the two countries meet.
In an attack on our infrastructure, our movement and the democratic
Internet, the FBI seized a server April 19 from one of our cabinets in
a colocation facility.
The server is owned by our sister organization, Riseup, and is managed by ECN, a progressive technology provider in Italy.
While the seizure of any equipment is pernicious and damaging, the pointlessness of this seizure suggests an inclination toward extrajudicial punishment and an attempted crackdown on the very possibility of anonymous speech online.
The FBI has told us they are investigating bomb threats targeting the facilities and people at the University of Pittsburgh. They appear to believe that one of the servers used to transmit these threats was an anonymous e-mail server operated by ECN. Anonymous remailers have no logs or traces of who used them, so the FBI will not get any useful information from the stolen machine.
The server is owned by our sister organization, Riseup, and is managed by ECN, a progressive technology provider in Italy.
While the seizure of any equipment is pernicious and damaging, the pointlessness of this seizure suggests an inclination toward extrajudicial punishment and an attempted crackdown on the very possibility of anonymous speech online.
The FBI has told us they are investigating bomb threats targeting the facilities and people at the University of Pittsburgh. They appear to believe that one of the servers used to transmit these threats was an anonymous e-mail server operated by ECN. Anonymous remailers have no logs or traces of who used them, so the FBI will not get any useful information from the stolen machine.