Newsroom

Update

With a tie vote, the Kansas Senate today failed to pass SB 375, a bill which would have abolished that state’s death penalty.  The Kansas Senate consists of 31 Republicans and 9 Democrats, and the vote was 20-20. Extensive debates like the one today have been taking place in state legislatures across the country, reflecting a growing national concern that the death penalty is ineffective and unnecessary, and that there are better ways to tackle the problem of violent crime.  Kansas has not had an execution since 1965, and has less than a dozen people on death row.  On Thursday, Governor Mark Parkinson had said: …

February 19, 2010

Update

Last week, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) released their "Education under Attack" report, in which they have experts discuss the incidence of politically and ideologically motivated attacks on teachers, students and school buildings throughout the world. The report includes both a case study and a country report on Pakistan, both of which paint a stark picture of the impact of the Taliban on education in northwestern Pakistan. The report tells us that between 2007 and March 2009, 108 schools were fully destroyed, an additional 64 were partially damaged, and 40,000 children, including 23,000 girls, were deprived…

February 19, 2010

Update

In a fairly dramatic development in Virginia, a bill to expand the death penalty to include accomplices (those who did not actually pull the trigger) was defeated in a Senate committee.  With a new Governor in place who was eager to sign the legislation, the bill was widely expected to pass, despite the fact that such an expansion would have greatly increased the risk of wrongful convictions and wrongful executions. The drama came when former Virginia executioner Jerry Givens, who took part in 62 executions, testified against the bill.  Mr. Givens told the committee how traumatic the execution process is…

February 16, 2010

Update

I had a busy Valentine's Day writing valentines to 75,000 Zimbabweans and a squadron of anti-riot police. It was quite exhausting. Fortunately, Amnesty's good friends pitched in to help out-the members of the band State Radio, their uber cool non-profit Calling All Crows and some awesome fans made valentines at concerts and a pre-show action in Atlanta and Birmingham over the weekend. Valentine's Day is an important day for the grass roots organization Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA). Founded on that day in 2003 with the mandate "the power of love is greater than the love of power," it has grown to 75,000 women and…

February 15, 2010

Update

Next week, activists like you are mobilizing across the country to push the House of Representatives to move forward on an important piece of legislation: the Conflict Minerals Trade Act (H.R. 4128). The Conflict Minerals Trade Act was introduced a few months ago by Congressman Jim McDermott to improve transparency and reduce the trade in conflict minerals coming from the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country where millions of people have died due to an armed conflict. H.R. 4128 would greatly advance the goals of regulating and stemming the flow of conflict minerals, thereby limiting the ability of armed groups…

February 13, 2010

Update

UPDATE: Shiv Sena, a political organization with waning popularity, has been actively campaigning against this film.  Given the recent history of Shiv Sena, one can only assume that this movie has been targeted because the lead actor, Shah Rukh Khan is Muslim and he is portraying a Muslim who has suffered discrimination.  Today, there has been a noticeable increase in security in Mumbai, but no plans to cancel screenings.  On the contrary, it seems as though this controversy has caused an upsurge in excitement over the movie. A blog about human rights is not normally a place to read about…

February 12, 2010

Update

Pig. Fuzz. 5-0 (as in Hawaii). These are some American slang terms for police. I won't even get into some of the terms police are referred to around the world. (The Moustached Pagoda? Really Canada?) Despite our affectionate, or not so affectionate, appellations for police officers, they are an invaluable and indispensable part of society and do far more good than harm. Zimbabwe is no exception to this rule-really, the police are usually the good guys. Unless they are acting under order of unscrupulous persons desperate to hold on to power and squash dissent. Sadly, then you see events that have…

February 11, 2010

Update

February 11 is Victory of the Revolution Day in Iran. Equivalent to the American Fourth of July, it commemorates the downfall of the monarchy in 1979, shortly after Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran from exile in France. Iranians generally celebrate the day by thronging to public places. This year, the Iranian government made sure that people who disagreed with it were not able to exercise their rights to peaceful assembly. Those who support the government were welcome to congregate, but those who planned on protesting the authorities’ actions since the disputed June 12, 2009 presidential elections were met with violence…

February 11, 2010

Update

I was honored to attend the event to mark the re-introduction of the International Violence Against Women Act (I-VAWA) on Thursday February 4th.  There was quite a turn out - politicians, activists and advocates all committed to ending the global scourge of violence against women and all gathered to celebrate the long awaited introduction of this landmark legislation.  The bill  is a comprehensive response to this global human rights violation that places women's rights at the center of United States foreign policy and supports programs which have been shown to reduce rates of violence - including education, health, legal reform, economic opportunity…

February 10, 2010

Update

UPDATE: Apparently the tribes in Orissa have asked James Cameron, the director of record-winning film Avatar for his assistance in stopping Vedanta's operations. UK-based company is destroying the environment of indigenous people in Orissa. Help to save lives in the Indian state of Orissa. In my first blog post, I wrote about the plight of Adivasis in Orissa.  Well, we've done a report that has documented one such case in much more detail. Indian authorities have given local communities little or no information about the potentially disastrous impact of a proposed aluminum refinery expansion and mining project to be operated…

February 9, 2010

Update

Malawi president Bingu wa Mutharika will purportedly participate in a traditional engagement ceremony on Valentine's Day with the lovely woman he has been seen escorting of late. I wish him all the happiness in the world. But at the same time Mutharika looks forward to sharing his life with the person of his choice, two men remain jailed in Malawi because they tried to do the same. At the end of December 2009, Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga were arrested following their participation in a traditional engagement ceremony. They are currently on trial for "unnatural practices between males" and "gross public indecency." They remain imprisoned after…

February 8, 2010

Update

Last week Attorney-General Eric Holder wrote to Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell about the circumstances surrounding the arrest of underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on Christmas Day 2009. A plainly exasperated Holder sought to counter the hysterical reaction that greeted the decision to handle Abdulmutallab’s case within the criminal justice system with a few pertinent facts and a solid dose of common sense. His letter is well worth reading for the insights it offers into the choices facing Americans as they seek to respond to future terrorist attacks. The debate is not about whether or not the Obama administration has…

February 8, 2010