Pax Gaea Human Rights World Post

HUMAN RIGHTS HEADLINES FOR 11/30/06

Bono meets Abe to discuss AIDS, poverty in Africa
Kyodo News

TOKYO — U2 lead singer Bono met Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday to discuss fighting AIDS, poverty and health issues in developing countries, especially in Africa. "Japan made a promise in the G8 (summit) in Gleneagles last year to double its aid to Africa," Bono told reporters afterward. "Some countries make promises and they don't keep them. Japan, we trust to fulfill their promise and the world believes in the honor of a Japanese promise." Japan Today (11/30)

DEMOCRACY IN THE BALANCE
Living symbols of reform in Afghanistan
Female lawmakers work for, and embody, change.
By Alissa J. Rubin, Times Staff Writer

AMONG the crowd of 800 turbaned elders who gathered in a vast tent, one person stood out: a slender woman in a white head scarf.She took the podium only briefly, but when she did, most conversation came to a standstill. And though many of the bearded, tradition-bound elders are uncomfortable talking to a woman in public, several dozen clustered around her afterward to ask questions. Her name is Zahera Sharif, and she is the only woman among the four members of Afghanistan's parliament from Khowst province. In a conservative area where it is possible to drive through towns without seeing a single woman on the street, she is a rarity. Los Angeles Times (11/29)

Annan Seeks Summit Outside Iraq to Reconcile Factions
By Robin Wright and Colum Lynch

The U.N. Security Council unanimously extended the mandate for the 160,000-strong U.S.-led coalition in Iraq for an additional 12 months yesterday, as Secretary General Kofi Annan proposed an international conference at a venue outside the war-torn country to forge reconciliation among Iraq's political parties. Addressing what may be the most controversial issue to face the Bush administration, Annan said that Iran and Syria should be included in efforts to stabilize Iraq. Washington Post (11/29)

UN slams use of child soldiers, sexual violence against kids
Agence Presse France

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - The UN Security Council on Tuesday sharply condemned the continuing recruitment and use of child soldiers in armed conflicts as well as the killing of and sexual violence against children. After a day-long open debate on the issue of children caught in armed conflict, the 15-member council issued a statement welcoming steps taken by national and international courts "against those who are alleged to have committed grave violations against children." ABS-CBN Interactive Philippines (11/29)

EXTRAORDINARY RENDITIONS REPORT
Europe Knew about Secret CIA FlightsThe European Parliament has issued a report on CIA secret flights and prisons in the European Union.
It points the finger at 11 EU states, saying they knew all about the extraordinary renditions program.

When the existence of secret CIA flights ferrying terror suspects through Europe to third countries for interrogation -- so-called "extraordinary renditions" of terror suspects -- hit the headlines last year, Europeans were appalled. A number of European governments were likewise quick to voice their shock at such behavior. Turns out, they faked it. A June report by the Council of Europe outlined the collusion of many EU states with the CIA's activities. And now, the European Parliament has issued its own draft report into the matter. It accuses 11 EU countries of having turned a blind eye to the questionable practices. Der Spiegel (Germany) (11/29)

Central African Republic a 'tragedy in the making': UN
The Associated Press

The Central African Republic is veering toward disaster, a senior United Nations official warned Tuesday, a day after rebels captured a northern town and said they were headed to the country's southern capital. "Central African Republic is a tragedy in the making," said Ibrahima Fall, who headed a weeklong UN mission to the country. "The situation there is bleak. It has been bleak for a number of years. It is becoming bleaker by the day."CBC News (Canada) (11/28)

UN report says Afghan drug fight will take decades to win
JASON STRAZIUSO - Associated Press

KABUL — The fight against opium production in Afghanistan has so far achieved only limited success and will take decades, not years, to win, a report released Tuesday by the UN drug agency and the World Bank said. Efforts to stamp out Afghanistan's record-setting opium trade have been stymied by corruption, and the drug trade is now run by a few powerful players with strong political connections, the report found. Opium cultivation in Afghanistan rose 59 per cent this year to 5,500 tonnes — enough to make 550 tons of heroin, nearly a third more than is consumed by the world's drug users. The harvest provided more than 90 per cent of the world's opium supply. Toronto Globe and Mail (11/28)

Violence and persecution follow Europe's downtrodden minority across the continent
Eight million Roma find political voice in face of evictions and mob attack
Ian Traynor in Ambrus, Slovenia

Miha Strojan was tending to his sick mother when the mob arrived. Wielding clubs, guns and chainsaws, several hundred villagers converged on the cottage in a clearing in the beech forest with a simple demand. "Zig raus [Gyppos out]," they called in German, deliberately echoing Nazi racist chants. "Bomb the Gypsies." It was the last Saturday of last month, when the mob terrorised the extended family of more than 30 Roma, half of them children, into fleeing their clearing a mile over the hill from the farming village of Ambrus in eastern Slovenia. "They were building bonfires on our land and shouting that if we don't move out, they will bomb us and crucify our children," recalls Mr Strojan, 30. The Guardian (United Kingdom (11/28)

Amnesty Urges Nigeria to Curb Sexual Abuse by Forces
By REUTERS

LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigeria should urgently overhaul its legal system to curb widespread sexual violence against women, including rape by security forces and police, Amnesty International said on Tuesday. The abuses are encouraged by a weak judicial system and the failure of all levels of government in Africa's most populous country to tackle the abuses, the group said in a report titled ''Nigeria: Rape - the silent weapon.'' Soldiers in Nigeria still enjoy a large measure of impunity seven years after the election of President Olusegun Obasanjo ended 30 years of almost continuous army dictatorship. New York Times (11/28)

Sending African troops into Somalia 'would trigger war'-
Thinktank warns of risks in American UN proposal· Islamic courts would view move as provocative
Xan Rice, east Africa correspondent

A US-backed proposal to send African troops into Somalia to support the weak government raises the risk of triggering an all-out war with the Islamic courts that could destabilise the entire region, a leading thinktank said yesterday. The International Crisis Group warned that approval of the draft US resolution, to be presented to the UN security council tomorrow, would be viewed by the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia (Sics) as tantamount to a declaration of war. Guardian (11/28)

US to consult with Security Council members on Myanmar
Press Trust of India

The United States plans to hold consultations with other Security Council members on a resolution, which would describe the actions of Myanmar military regime as a threat to peace and security and ask it to take concrete steps to reverse the situation.But it would not call for sanctions and it is unclear whether other members of the council would go along. Hindustan Times (11/28)

'Sierra Leone is like a tinderbox. It will only take one spark'
It should have been a success story. But four years after Tony Blair hailed Britain's role in ending a brutal civil war, this small country is back on the brink
Steve Bloomfield reports

Sweat drips off the ceiling of a seedy Freetown nightclub. The neon strip lighting illuminates a crowded dance floor where beautiful young Sierra Leoneon women gyrate against the pot bellies of middle-aged white men. A former British paratrooper propping up the bar drunkenly boasts he has just closed a mining deal worth hundreds of millions of dollars by beating up a local chief, putting a gun to his head and threatening to shoot if he doesn't sign the document. Outside, 19-year-old Joseph hops towards new arrivals, one hand clutching a series of bead necklaces to sell, the other holding a crutch. The stump that was his left leg before it was chopped off with a blunt machete barely pokes out from below his shorts. He rarely makes enough money to feed himself, let alone his 15-year-old sister. Independent (United Kingdom) (11/28)

AIDS to Be 3rd Leading Cause of Death
By MARIA CHENG
The Associated Press

LONDON -- Within the next 25 years, AIDS is set to join heart disease and stroke as the top three causes of death worldwide, according to a study published online Monday. When global mortality projections were last calculated a decade ago, researchers had assumed the number of AIDS cases would be declining. Instead, it's on the rise. Washington Post (11/27)

World Court Official Reports Evidence on Darfur Criminals
By Nora Boustany- Washington Post Foreign Service

The International Criminal Court has found sufficient evidence to identify the perpetrators of some of the worst atrocities in Sudan's Darfur region, and the probe offers "reasonable grounds to believe" that crimes against humanity were committed, chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told the annual meeting of the court's member states in The Hague. "We selected incidents during the period in which the gravest crimes occurred," he said Thursday in a report on his activities over the past year. "Based on the evidence collected, we identified those most responsible for the crimes." Moreno-Ocampo did not name the targets of the investigation, which he said is nearly complete. Washington Post (11/25)

Call to end female circumcision

Muslim scholars from around the world have called for female genital mutilation to be banned and those who carry it out to face punishment. At a conference on the subject in the Egyptian capital Cairo, the scholars said governments should enforce existing laws against the practice. Earlier, the top religious authorities in Egypt said religion offered no justification for the procedure. BBC (11/24)

posted by Dave Carroll @ 11/30/2006 09:48:00 PM