Archive for the ‘Human Rights’ Category

France played major role in Rwanda genocide

Wednesday, August 6th, 2008

France played an active role in the 1994 Rwanda genocide, a report unveiled by the Rwandan government said, naming French political and military officials it says should be prosecuted.

“French forces directly assassinated Tutsis and Hutus accused of hiding Tutsis… French forces committed several rapes on Tutsi survivors,” said a justice ministry statement released after the report was presented in Kigali. for more click here

Standing Firm against Impunity

Tuesday, August 5th, 2008

August 1, 2008 - Many people in Bosnia and beyond thought they would never see Radovan Karadzic standing before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). It seemed almost beyond the dreams of the rape victims that I interviewed in Bosnia in 1993, or those held in concentration camps. But even then, in the midst of the conflict and in very difficult circumstances, local civilians had painstakingly gathered detailed testimonies from survivors in the hope that one day, there would be justice for these crimes. for more click here

“Defaming Islam” could soon be violation of international law

Tuesday, August 5th, 2008

Canada’s Maclean’s magazine (involved in another controversial human rights case that I wrote about here and here) has published an extensive article detailing the “remarkably successful” campaign to make “defamation of religions” a violation of international law. (H/t: Volokh Conspiracy)

Led by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), a Saudi-funded international body made up of 56 Islamic states from around the globe, the push seeks to empower all governments to punish citizens who “defame” any religion — particularly Islam. for more click here

Iran: End Executions of Juvenile Offenders

Wednesday, July 30th, 2008

(Geneva, July 29, 2008) – The Iranian judiciary should immediately halt all executions of juvenile offenders and Iran’s parliament should move swiftly to ban such executions, a group of human rights organizations said today. for more click here

Cartooning And Islam Don’t Mix

Wednesday, July 30th, 2008

Should cartoonists get danger pay? Maybe it’s time. Canada’s own Barry Blitt has gone to ground after his infamous, satirical New Yorker cover depicting the Obamas as gun-toting Islamic militants. Obama fans hated it. Other cartoonists hated it. But Muslim groups hated it even more. The Council on American-Islamic Relations declared it “inflammatory.” A commentator for the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram called it “racist” and Islamophobic. for more click here

China rights ‘worsen with Games’

Tuesday, July 29th, 2008

The human rights situation in China has deteriorated in the run-up to its hosting of the Olympic Games this year, Amnesty International says.

It documents the use of “re-education through labour”, the suppression of rights activists and journalists, and the use of arbitrary imprisonment. for more click here

Islam is Killing Free Speech in the West

Sunday, July 27th, 2008

Truth is no defense when speaking and especially writing about Islam or the actions of its followers. Some countries, like Canada, have set up special courts to handle those free speech criminals. If one Muslim is ‘offended’ the actions of the countryman are suspect and he is forced to defend himself. for more click here

The Torturing Company We Keep

Saturday, July 26th, 2008

At one point during the five and a half years John McCain spent as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, he was tortured and beaten so badly he tried to kill himself. for more click here

In death’s shadow

Friday, July 25th, 2008

“CAN a person who is Muslim choose a religion other than Islam?” When Egypt’s grand mufti, Ali Gomaa, pondered that dilemma in an article published last year, many of his co-religionists were shocked that the question could even be asked.

And they were even more scandalised by his conclusion. The answer, he wrote, was yes, they can, in the light of three verses in the Koran: first, “Unto you your religion, and unto me my religion”; second, “Whosoever will, let him believe, and whosoever will, let him disbelieve”; and, most famously, “There is no compulsion in religion.” for more click here

The Hunt for War Criminal Mladic

Friday, July 25th, 2008

On July 11, 1995, hours after the Bosnian town of Srebrenica - a “UN safe haven” - wound up being overrun by Bosnian Serb forces, General Ratko Mladic was on camera, handing out sweets to Muslim children rounded up in the town’s main square. Mladic, patting one child on the head, consoled them that all would be fine. for more click here