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May 17, 2008 - 11:48pm
Human Rights News FeedMarch 22, 2007 - 9:12am
The following articles are fed through PovNet from outside mainstream and independent news sites, advocacy organizations, non-profits and government sites with the keywords human rights. These stories are not moderated and do not necessarily reflect the views of PovNet. International Museum DayBlog for Palestine DayBlogger za3tar has organized Blog About Palestine Day on May 15, the anniversary of the Nakba and Israel's 60th anniversary celebrations. Bloggers around the world were invited to blog for Palestine, as noted by Global Voices here. Many bloggers chose to participate in the event; here is a selection. za3tar, the organizer of the event, blogged about being Palestinian, sharing a story of his family and concluding: For us Palestinians, only two things remained true during the past 60 years; First, life for ordinary people only gets worst every year. Second, from the minute you are born in Palestine, you are immediately a suspect, and you are continuously treated so for as long as you live. No one in the world can condone mass punishment of civilians, but punishing suspects is not a big deal. We must be suspects, otherwise what explains 60 years of Israel’s direct violation of numerous UN resolutions without any consequences. We must be suspects, otherwise what explains our denial of basic human rights. For me and my family, the only crime that we are suspect of, is simply existing! These stories are not unusual for Palestinians. As a matter of fact, i come from a blissed family, my parents were able provide us with food and shelter, and none of my relatives was killed. Unfortunately however, the stories of average Palestinians are much grimmer still. Rebellious Arab Girl, a Canadian resident, also blogged about being Palestinian: What do I represent? It has been 60 years since my home was taken away, isn’t that too much? I may be one person. I am not a celebrity or someone who is famous and well known. However, I have the right to speak out when I say, “we had enough!” Vivirlatino blogged about the Palestinian population in Chile: Last month about 40 Palestinian families, refugees from Iraq, were welcomed into Chile. “We hope that suffering will be a thing of the past, and Chile the source of your new happiness,” Deputy Interior Minister Felipe Harboe said as he welcomed the 16 adults and 23 children who had spent months stranded at a desert camp on the Iraqi-Syrian border. The rest of about 117 refugees from this specific camp arrived in the Santiago neighborhoods of La Calera y San Felipe this week. They were welcomed with flags, dancing, and music. While these homes in Chile, which come with the support of the Chilean government and all of it's resources (including a monthly stipend and counseling services), do not replace or erase the need of Palestinians to have a home in their homeland, the right to return, historically it makes sense. So many people left Chile after the 1973 U.S. backed military coup. So many lives lost and disappeared through state sanctioned violence. The links are there. The connection is there. And Far Away blogged about the changing face of both Palestine and Israel, sharing fascinating photographs: It’s been 60 years since the Palestinian Nakbeh. That means around four generations of Palestinians. Of course, in these past 60 years, life for Palestinians for those still living in Palestine and the ones living in exodus have changed drastically. Thanks to ethnic cleansing, injustice, barricading, lack-of-educational means, poverty, bad health care, constant pressure, among other racist and unjustifiable actions, life has changed. Life for “Israelis” has also changed. The wheels have turned… Bruised Earth wondered about the false hope being given to Palestinians… So on this day of of the Nakba, the catastrophe, all this site can ask and ‘hope’ to encourage is the ongoing search for the truth. Hope more people can wade through the politics and media that filter what we all need to know; what we all must confront. Everyone must find that for themselves. …and encouraged readers to seek the truth from outside sources: Read other Web sites - beyond Fox, CNN, BBC, and Reuters. Forget about the 30 minute news updates - and instead piece together 30 minutes of real news from other sources every day. Read the facts. Find more facts. Find more truth. Syrian blogger Maysaloon discussed the Nakba: In many ways, how we choose to commemorate May the 15th says a lot about us in the Arab world. Those of us who remember it as something from the past and, to put it biblically, with much “wailing and gnashing of teeth”, miss the point. The Nakba did not happen and end in 1948, it has continued to this present day. You can see the Nakba in Gaza, in the refugee camps and, dare I say it, it has expanded to Iraq. However, from the Nakba we also saw the birth of resistance. From the heroism and selflessness of al Husseini and the resistance in 1948, to the battle of Karameh in ‘68, Beirut in ‘82, Iraq today and the South of Lebanon in 2006. The struggle against occupation continues, as it does against those who collaborate. May 15th reminds us of the tragedy which befell a people, our people but also strengthens our resolve to resist and to push on. Am I the last person to talk about resistance from the comfort of my home, in a country which was Israel's midwife? Perhaps, but just as a first person is necessary in a set, so is the last, and it is belonging to the set and playing your role in anyway possible which is what counts. The only thing, the easiest thing, for us to do is to forget, to count ourselves defeated or irrelevant. Each of us has a moral duty to resist zionism, empire and neo-colonialism in all aspects of our lives and it will be a poor excuse to say, one day, that you were only being realistic. The enemies of Palestine know that every person they kill or bomb they drop only creates more determination to fight them, that their time is running out. Sixty years on, the dream of ending Israel is that little bit closer. Sixty years on, the struggle continues. Finally, My Home Away From Home, who lives in Canada, shared her desire to go to Palestine, the country of her ancestors: Palestine…it is my home that I have never set foot in, it is the land I love without boundaries. My heart cries for Palestine, I want to touch its soil even once in my life. My heart and soul are always with Palestine, it is a part of my prayer ritual. I pray that one day we get our freedom we get our right to return. I pray for the gruesome murders and unfairness to stop, for children to start living like they are supposed to without fear, for mothers to be able to sleep the night without worrying that tomorrow or the day after she may lose some or all of her children. I pray for families to live together all in one place without a brother, a son an uncle in the isreali prisons for life. I pray that children can go to school or out to play and come back home safely. I pray that wives and husbands are not widowed too soon, and children are not orphaned when they are still young. I pray for people to live in peace and harmony and for all of us Palestinians born all over the world to reunite and meet in our homeland, a land who’s love was born in our heart… Albertans donate to rights museumGail Asper's fundraising efforts received a trio of shots in the arm from Alberta on Wednesday. The head fundraiser and tireless cheerleader for the Canadian Museum for Human Rights accepted a $1-million gift from the Edmonton offices of the Qualico Group of Companies. At the same time, she received word that $500,000 had been donated by The Dianne and Irving Kipnes Foundation and another $500,000 has been pledged by an anonymous donor -- who had previously written a cheque for $1 million -- if other Albertans can match it. Human rights commission orders Saguenay to stop council prayerQuebec's human rights commission has asked the city of Saguenay to stop praying before council meetings. Inglewood Police Kill Unarmed Black Teen; New Jersey Jail Pays for Renovations With Imported InmatesImported Inmates from Philly to Pay for New Jersey Jail Renovations Italian Police Increase Immigrant Raids 60 Years of Palestinian Dispossession . . . No Reason to Celebrate "Israel at 60"!"Even after fifty years of living the Palestinian exile I still find myself astonished at the lengths to which official Israel and its supporters will go to suppress the fact that a half century has gone by without Israeli restitution, recognition, or acknowledgment of Palestinian human rights and without, as the facts undoubtedly show, connecting that suspension of rights to Israel's official policies. . . . the Palestinian Nakba is characterized as a semi-fictional event . . . caused by no one in particular." The creation of the state of Israel almost 60 years ago dispossessed and uprooted hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes and lands. With their peaceful lives ruined, society fragmented, possessions pillaged and hope for freedom and nationhood dashed, Palestinian refugees held on to their dream of return, and Palestinians everywhere nourished their aspiration for freedom, dignified living, and becoming whole again. Organizations give $1.5 million to human rights museumEDMONTON -- Two prominent organizations from Edmonton have
donated $1.5 million to the Canadian Museum of Human Rights. Canada one of only six countries against emergency food meetingUNITED NATIONS -- Canada is one of just six countries on the
UN's Human Rights Council that is withholding support for an
emergency "right to food" meeting amid the current global food
crisis. Proponents of the May 23 special session say it will focus
on the way soaring food prices are among factors that have
diminished people's "right" to enough to eat. Canada won't support UN 'right to food' conceptUNITED NATIONS -- Canada is one of six countries on the UN's
Human Rights Council that is withholding support for an emergency
"right to food" meeting amid the current global food crisis. Lovinsky Pierre Antoine - Still Missing After Nine MonthsBy: Wadner Pierre and Jean-Ristil Jean Baptiste - Photos HaitiAnalysis.com Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine, a prominent human rights worker and Famni Lavalas activist, has been missing since August 12, 2007. He is the founder of Trant Septanm Organizasyon (September 30 Foundation) an organization that assists victims of the coup that took place September 30th, 1991. That coup ousted Haiti's first democratically elected Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide only seven months after his inauguration. According to human rights groups there were five thousand people killed by the military regime of Raul Cedras. Thousands were also raped and tortured by the Cedras regime, and hundreds of thousands driven into hiding. Pierre-Antoine worked with many national and international human rights organizations to promote the rights of all people, particularly the right to justice. The perpetrators of the 1991 coup (the Haitian elite and their ex-military allies) gradually regrouped and in 2004 managed to overthrow Aristide again - this time with the overt backing of the US, France and Canada. In October 2005, at the first “International Tribunal on Haiti” that investigated the 2004 coup, Pierre-Antoine explained to an audience of hundreds in Washington how he had been arrested, assaulted and expelled from the country by authorities at the U.S. embassy in Port-au-Prince. Race played role in Ont. attacks on Asian fishermen, inquiry concludesA series of attacks on Asian-Canadian fishermen in Ontario last year were rooted in racism, the Ontario Human Rights Commission said in a report released Tuesday. Race played role in Ont. attacks on Asian fishermen, inquiry concludesA series of attacks on Asian-Canadian fishermen in Ontario last year were rooted in racism, the Ontario Human Rights Commission said in a report released Tuesday. Race played role in Ont. attacks on Asian fishermen, inquiry concludesA series of attacks on Asian-Canadian fishermen in Ontario last year were rooted in racism, the Ontario Human Rights Commission said in a report released Tuesday. Spring 2008 - Bafflegab: Community Advocacy & Legal Centre NewsletterTopics in this issue include housing and consumer information, Special Diet Allowance, Human Rights process restructuring, Legal Aid Ontario's Aboriginal justice strategy, the end of Back-to-School and Winter Clothing Allowances, social assistance rate restructuring and the Ontario Child Benefit, vulnerable workers, and Criminal Injuries Compensation Board review. No Country for Good MenThere is an alarming trend in India of arresting and detaining without bail human rights activists that challenge state authority. The unjust imprisonment of Dr Binayak Sen is the latest example. Free barefoot doctor, say Nobel winnersTwenty two laureates urge Indian PM to quash terror charges of human rights activist who gave medicine to rebels in jail The Human Rights Crime in GazaA million and a half human beings are being imprisoned with almost no access to the outside world -- we can't sit idly by. Islamic group files human rights complaint over newspaper cartoonA Halifax Islamic group has filed a complaint with the police
and the Human Rights Commission of Nova Scotia over an editorial
cartoon published in a local newspaper. SSHRC Announces 2008 Bora Laskin National Fellowship in Human Rights ResearchAbuse Claims Mount Against Pentagon, ContractorsNEW YORK - As human rights groups demanded the release of a report on a long-running investigation of the role of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the unlawful interrogations of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay, new torture claims were leveled at two U.S. military contractors by a former Abu Ghraib “ghost” [...] 
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