Pax Gaea Human Rights World Post

PAX GAEA WORLD POST HUMAN RIGHTS HEADLINES (12/18)

• Vatican takes cue from FOX News and accuses world of waging 'war on Christmas'
• Sanctions must lift before nuke program halts, insists North Korea
• Nepal House tables voter amendment
• U.S. opposition to Syria adds to Israeli hesitance to entreat, PM Olmert tells cabinet
• UAE chief sheik Mohammad pleased by voter turn out by women
• Kenya and UK hold talks regarding rapes of Kenyan women by British soldiers
• Christmas trip to Italy for Belarussian orphans cancelled amid abuse allegations
• Common US vaccine could save one child per minute in Latin America, UN says
• UN Refugee budget shrinks due to limited donor support
• China public shaming campaign being publicly shamed

Countries waging war on Christmas, Vatican paper says

VATICAN CITY - The traditional Christian values once feted at Christmas have evaporated, with some countries - especially England - waging a veritable "war against Christmas", the Vatican paper Osservatore Romano said today. The paper said the strongest sign of the changing face of Christmas is "the disappearance of all religious reference on stamps specially printed for Christmas, which now feature snowmen and deer and no longer the three wise men or the star" of Bethlehem. In Europe, "and more particularly in England, there is a real 'war against Christmas', which has been denounced by the daily The Sun. A war that tends to erase all the traditions of Christmas," the paper added in an article signed by journalist Mario Gabriele Giordano. New Zealand Herald (!2/18)

N. Korea demands U.S. lift sanctions

Korea Herald correspondent

BEIJING - North Korea began the six-party nuclear negotiations in Beijing yesterday by laying out a shopping list of demands in return for giving up its nuclear programs. With the resumption of the talks after a 13-month break, North Korea insisted that the "circumstances were not ripe" for it to discuss the abandonment of its nuclear programs and that any effort to do so will be reciprocated with a new demand that the six-party talks change into nuclear arms talks. The North also demanded the lifting of sanctions by the United Nations and the United States before starting negotiations on how to implement the Joint Statement agreed upon last year. Korea Herald (12/18)

Bill to amend Voters’ List Act

Himalayan News Service Kathmandu- At a time when student and youth leaders and human rights activists have been demanding that 16-year-olds be made eligible to vote, a Bill to Amend and Integrate Voters’ List Act was tabled in the House of Representatives today. The Bill proposes that only persons who have attained the age of 18 years on December 15, 2006, be made eligible to vote in elections. While those living permanently in villages across the country will be eligible to cast votes, army and police personnel putting up in barracks and police stations will be included in a temporary voters’ list. The Bill also proposes that the Election Commission make a temporary voters’ list of civil servants, army and police personnel, detainees and officials who are election duties. Himalayan Times (12/18)

PM: Israel hesitant on Syria due to US

By HERB KEINON

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made it clear to the cabinet on Sunday that one reason Israel is not embracing recent overtures for negotiations from Syria is American opposition. Olmert said that with US President George W. Bush having taken a firm stand against engaging Syria - going against the recommendations of the Baker-Hamilton panel - and with the international community demanding that Syria improve its conduct, now was not the time for Israel to throw Syria a lifeline and help it to emerge from international isolation. At the same time, Olmert said the cabinet would hold a comprehensive debate on policy toward Syria in the near future. A senior cabinet official said Olmert's comments at the meeting did not imply that if the US changed its policy regarding engaging Syria, Israel would necessarily follow suit. Jerusalem Post (12/18)

Women's vote pleases Mohammad

Agencies

Dubai: On a tour of the polling station in Dubai, His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, said that he was most encouraged by the participation of women in the electoral process. Shaikh Mohammad arrived at the polling station in Dubai at 11.45am and toured the polling station for fifteen minutes with Minister of State for FNC Affairs Dr. Anwar Gargash, as well as other dignitaries, including Ebrahim Bu Melha. "The huge participation is a positive thing and what pleases me most is the participation of women," Shaikh Mohammed said, after being taken through the voting process. Gulf News (United Arab Emirates) (12/18)

State, UK to hold talks on rape claims

By Peter Opiyo

Kenyan and British authorities are set to discuss the alleged rape of Samburu and Maasai women by British soldiers training in the country. Last week, a British Government investigation report said no evidence was found that the women were raped by UK soldiers.However, British High Commissioner to Kenya Mr Adam Wood said although the investigation did not find evidence to sustain criminal prosecution in a UK court, this did not mean that there may have been no rape cases. Foreign Affairs minister Mr Rapahel Tuju said the case was one of the ‘serious’ issues the Government will discuss with the British government. He did not reveal the other serious issues, referring to them as ‘diplomatic’.Kenya Standard (12/18)

Belarus calls off orphans' trip to Italy after abuse row

Tom Kington in RomeA diplomatic row over the alleged sexual abuse of a 10-year-old Belarussian orphan has led to the cancellation of a Christmas visit to Italy by thousands of other orphans from the former Soviet state. The Belarussian government has refused to allow 2,500 orphans to stay with Italian families after an Italian couple blocked the return home of a visiting orphan in September, claiming she had been abused in her Belarussian orphanage. Alessandro Giusto and his wife, Chiara Bornacin, said the 10-year-old, known only as Maria to protect her identity, showed signs of beating and had tried to commit suicide by drowning during her visit. Ms Bornacin said she would rather go to prison than see Maria hurt again. The Guardian (UK) (12/18)

Vaccine common in US could save life of 1 child every minute in Latin America – UN

Two children die every hour from easily preventable pneumococcal diseases in Latin America and the Caribbean, and there are more than 1.6 million cases of the illnesses that include pneumonia, meningitis and sepsis as well as severe ear infections, sinusitis and bronchitis, according to a United Nations-backed report released today. Yet a vaccine already routinely given to children in the United States could halve the toll, saving a child’s life every minute, and cut the nearly $300 million the infection costs annually, said the study, the most comprehensive ever conducted on the regional impact of the diseases, which kill 1 million people worldwide every year, mostly young children. “The current vaccine may not be a silver bullet, but widespread immunization will clearly translate into thousands of lives saved, as well as better health for children,” UN Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) official Jon Andrus told Second Regional Pneumococcal Symposium in São Paulo, Brazil. “This will also benefit large number of adults and elderly who catch the disease from children every year.” Reviewing the potential impact of the existing vaccine, the report found that widespread vaccination of children in Latin America would prevent over half of all pneumococcal illnesses and deaths regionally, saving one life for every thousand children vaccinated and avert one case of illness for every 80 youngsters vaccinated. Argentina Star (12/18)

U.N. funds for Iraqi refugees decimated

By David Enders

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

AMMAN, Jordan -- A shortfall in donations is expected to shrink the U.N. refugee agency's budget for Iraq to less than $15 million, despite continuing sectarian violence that has displaced more than 3 million people. The Iraq program budget of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has decreased steadily from a high of $150 million in 2003 to $29 million this year. Projections next year show less than half that amount despite an increasing need. "What we're seeing now is Iraqis in neighboring countries becoming increasingly desperate," said Robert Breen, the UNHCR representative in Jordan. "They're having more and more trouble accessing local services, and they've exhausted their savings." One-quarter of the budget is used for Iraqis living in neighboring countries, and the rest is for internally displaced Iraqis. Virtually no UNHCR staff members have worked in central Iraq since the violence forced a relocation to the relatively peaceful Kurdish north. Washington Times (12/18)

Campaign of shame falls flat in China

Public humiliation as punishment sets off a debate over individual privacy and the limits of state intrusion.

By Mark Magnier, Times Staff Writer

BEIJING — When police in booming Shenzhen organized a parade of 100 prostitutes, pimps, madams and their customers recently, there was little to suggest they were on shaky ground. Not only did it seem like a great way to kick off a two-month anti-prostitution campaign, the methodology was time-tested: Public shaming has featured prominently in China's criminal justice system for thousands of years. In show-trial fashion, the shackled defendants were marched through Shenzhen's Shazui neighborhood, better known locally as "Mistress Village," in government-issue yellow shirts and black pants. Photos by local journalists show the women trying to cover their faces at the late November event. Any hope of anonymity was soon frustrated when police began calling out the names and addresses of each alleged offender to a crowd of 1,000 or so, announcing a 15-day sentence and ushering them to waiting prison vans. Los Angeles Times (12/18)

posted by Dave Carroll @ 12/18/2006 03:34:00 PM