By David Howard King in Gotham Gazette – Last November he United Nations committee on torture found that the United States was not in compliance with its Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment because of excessive use of solitary confinement in prisons across the country. The UN found that use of solitary confinement of over 15 days amounts to torture. Nearly a year later New York state has no limit on how long an inmate can be held in solitary–some have served decades. With increasing focus on the conditions in prisons, New York is struggling to address flaws in its prison system that has led to deaths and that advocates say does irreversible mental and physical damage to inmates.
By David McCabe in The Huffington Post – The Senate confirmed Keith Harper as ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Council Tuesday, making him the first Native American to ever become a U.S. ambassador. Harper is an attorney who was one of the lawyers behind a landmark class action lawsuit brought by Native Americans against the federal government. President Barack Obama first nominated him in June 2013. “I’m pleased that my colleagues have voted to appoint another historic first for Indian Country,” said Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Chairman Jon Tester (D-Mont.) in a statement. “As a longtime advocate for the civil rights of Native Americans, Keith will be a great Ambassador for our country.” A member of the Cherokee Nation, Harper helped represent around 500,000 Native Americans who brought a class-action suit — Cobell v. Salazar — against the United States in the 1990s over alleged federal mismanagement of revenue from mines and oil wells owned by Native Americans.
By Aruna Dutt for IPS News – As the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples approaches on Sunday, Aug. 9, concerns are growing that they will not fully benefit from the newly drafted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In a policy brief on the SDGs and the Post-2015 Agenda, the Indigenous Peoples Major Group said that there was a failure to recognise indigenous peoples as distinct groups under the expiring Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which resulted in the absence of targeted measures to address their specific situations related to poverty and severely limited favorable outcomes. “Any project not including the participation of Indigenous Peoples is making their needs invisible. The lack of dialogue with Indigenous Peoples and their participation in any process constitutes the main barrier,” Sandra del Pino, Regional Advisor on Cultural Diversity at the World Health Organization (WHO) for The Americas.
By CBC News – The UN human rights committee is accusing the Canadian government of failing to act on missing and murdered aboriginal women, violence against women generally, and numerous other matters, ranging from refugees to Bill C-51, the new anti-terror law. The UN’s first report card on Canada in 10 years was released Thursday, and measures whether the country has met its human rights obligations. At least 26 human rights organizations, including the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, Amnesty International Canada and Human Rights Watch, submitted their own separate reports to the 18-member independent committee on the various issues. Overall, the report took exception to Canada’s failure to set up a way to implement some of the committee’s recommendations. “It should take all necessary measures to establish mechanisms and appropriate procedures to give full effect to the committee’s views so as to guarantee an effective remedy when there has been a violation of the covenant,” the report said.
By Thalif Deen in IPS News – When U.S. President Barack Obama visited the El Reno Correctional Facility in Oklahoma last week to check on living conditions of prisoners incarcerated there, no one in authority could prevent him from visiting the prison. Obama, the first sitting president to visit a federal penitentiary, said “in too many places, black boys and black men, and Latino boys and Latino men experience being treated different under the law.” The visit itself was described as “unprecedented” and “historic.” But the United Nations has not been as lucky as the U.S. president was. Several U.N. officials, armed with mandates from the Geneva-based Human Rights Council, have been barred from U.S. penitentiaries which are routinely accused of being steeped in a culture of violence.
By Ben Norton in Mondoweiss – The US was the only country in the world to oppose a resolution calling for Israel to be held accountable for war crimes, at the 29th regular session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), held from 15 June to 3 July 2015. 41 nations voted for the measure, including Germany, France, Japan, Brazil, China, and more. Just five nations abstained—the most high-profile of which was India, which is presently run by a right-wing Hindu nationalist government that spends billions on Israeli weapons. This vote came just weeks after the release of the UN Human Rights Council report on the 2014 Gaza war, which documents possible war crimes by Israel, including the deliberate targeting of besieged Palestinian civilians.
By Ashoka Jegroo in Waging Non-Violence – Spain’s controversial new “Public Security Law,” known as “La Ley Mordaza,” or the “gag law,” officially went into effect on July 1 following protests around the country by thousands of protesters. The law, which has been the target of much criticism from journalists, lawyers associations, the opposition Socialist Party, UN experts and human rights groups, criminalizes and penalizes many common acts of protest like protesting outside of government buildings, disrupting public events, photographing or being openly disrespectful to police officers, trying to stop an eviction, and using social media to make calls for a protest. Those who break this new law face fines ranging from 100 euros ($111) to 600,000 euros ($665,139) and may also face up to one year in jail for some offenses.
By Dr. Cesar Chelala in Middle East Times- The disastrous consequences of the recent aggressions against Iraq , Afghanistan , Syria , Yemen and Ukraine , to name just a few, show the urgent need to revive the principle of non-intervention into another state. This principle of international law includes, but is not limited to, the prohibition of the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, according to Article 2.4 of the Charter of the United Nations. The Swiss legal philosopher Emmerich de Vattel is credited with being the first to formulate the principle of non-intervention in his Droit de gens ou principles de la loi naturelle (The Law of Nations) published in 1758. Essentially, the principle establishes the right of territorial sovereignty possessed by each nation. The scope of the principle, however, has been subject to debate.
By UN Commission on Human Rights – While trade and investment agreements can create new economic opportunities, we draw attention to the potential detrimental impact these treaties and agreements may have on the enjoyment of human rights as enshrined in legally binding instruments, whether civil, cultural, economic, political or social. Our concerns relate to the rights to life, food, water and sanitation, health, housing, education, science and culture, improved labour standards, an independent judiciary, a clean environment and the right not to be subjected to forced resettlement. We believe the problem has been aggravated by the “chilling effect” that intrusive ISDS awards have had, when States have been penalized for adopting regulations, for example to protect the environment, food security, access to generic and essential medicines, and reduction of smoking, as required under the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, or raising the minimum wage.
Starting Monday, the United States’ human rights record will be subject to international scrutiny by the U.N. Human Rights Council. It may just be the perfect catalyst for the Obama administration to make good on past and present wrongs that should never be associated with a liberal democracy predicated on respect for human rights. The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is part of a regular examination of the human rights records of all 193 U.N. member countries and will be the second review of its kind for the U.S. since 2010. The review comes at a critical time when the U.S. human rights record has been criticized for falling short of meeting international human rights standards. From racially biased policing and excessive use of force by law enforcement to the expansion of migrant family detention and from the lack of accountability for the CIA torture program to the use of armed drones abroad, the U.S. has a lot to answer for.
Courage Advisory Board member Thomas Drake is a candidate to be the next Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy for the United Nations. In 2006, Drake blew the whistle on the NSA’s fraudulent and abusive warrantless wiretapping. Courage wishes to congratulate Drake on his candidacy and fully supports his run. Drake has already taken a stand for privacy in the global sphere. In September 2013, he testified to the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties Committee on the threat that mass surveillance poses to privacy and human rights. In July 2014, he participated in the German Parliament’s formal surveillance inquiry, using his extensive knowledge as a former senior executive with the NSA.
The former President of the Maldives and global climate activist Mohamed ‘Anni’ Nasheed was arrested on February 22 on “terror” charges just days before he was to lead a mass demonstration against the current government. Both the UN and the EU have issued statements of concern over what now appears to be an escalation by entrenched power holders in the Maldives to stifle effective political opposition. Known to outsiders for its pristine beaches, clear turquoise waters, and five-star luxury resorts, the Maldives is a nation of about 340,000 people spread across an archipelago of 26 atolls located in the middle of the Indian Ocean, roughly 500 miles southwest of Sri Lanka. Its natural beauty is its biggest asset, given that nearly one-third of the country’s GDP is generated via tourism. But that beauty also has a way of obscuring the intense political struggles that have come to characterize everyday life for most Maldivians over the past 30 years.
The United Nations revealed Wednesday it has “credible and reliable” evidence that people recently detained at U.S. military prisons in Afghanistan have faced torture and abuse. The UN’s Assistance Mission and High Commissioner for Human Rights exposed the findings in a report based on interviews with 790 “conflict-related detainees” between February 2013 and December 2014. According to the investigation, two detainees “provided sufficiently credible and reliable accounts of torture in a U.S. facility in Maydan Wardak in September 2013 and a U.S. Special Forces facility at Baghlan in April 2013.” The report states that the allegations of torture were investigated by “relevant authorities” but provided no information about the outcome of the alleged probes or the nature of the mistreatment.
What’s most damaging is the watering down of the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities” as a result of joint lobbying by chief U.S. negotiator Todd Stern and his Chinese counterpart, Xie Zhenhua. The new formulation, according to Solon, “will dilute more and more the historical responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions of developed and emerging economies.” The big losers are the poor underdeveloped countries. The big winners are China and the United States, which according to Solon now “have an agreement to erase their responsibility for the climate chaos they created.” In the past, the United States and China used each other’s intransigence as an excuse to avoid making cuts in their carbon emissions. But the world was becoming weary of this game, forcing the two to drop their pretense of opposing each other in favor of a show of cooperation.
Palestinian envoys have presented a more strongly-worded UN draft resolution on statehood that could come up for a vote at the Security Council later this week. The text, which was submitted by Security Council member Jordan on Monday, contains new provisions on declaring East Jerusalem the capital of a future Palestinian state, settling the issue of Palestinian prisoner releases, and halting Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. It also sets a 12-month deadline to reach a final peace agreement, and demands a full Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian lands by 2017. “Both our leaderships will be discussing, to find the best way and the best timing to vote on the Security Council resolution,” Jordanian Ambassador Dina Kawar told reporters.
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