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Update

Yesterday, approximately 55 Arabs, including 14 children, were evicted from their houses in east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah after the Israeli Supreme Court ruled in favor of Jewish families that claimed ownerships of the property. Soon after the evictions, these families moved in under the protection of Jerusalem police.   However, the US, UN, and UK have all come out strongly against these evictions. "Unilateral actions taken by either party cannot prejudge the outcome of negotiations and will not be recognized by the international community,” the State Department said in a released statement. Chris Gunness, spokesman for the U.N.…

August 3, 2009

Update

  Medicare turns 44 years old today. It's in good health. The program remains efficient -- Medicare’s administrative costs are about three percent, much less than that of employer-based private insurance (five to ten percent of premiums for large companies, 25 to 27 percent for small ones) or individual private insurance (40 percent of premiums). Medicare, of course, doesn't devote administrative dollars to denying coverage or claims on a case-by-case basis. Also, unlike the private insurance industry, it doesn't seek out profits. And Medicare remains popular, so much so that weakening it is a legislative third rail that health care…

July 31, 2009

Update

The Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services recently proposed new regulations for lethal injection procedures.  Executions in Maryland have been at a halt since 2005, when a court of appeals ruling found that the execution protocols were illegally adopted.  If the regulations are adopted, they will move the state closer to resuming use of the death penalty.   These regulations have now been published in the Maryland Register, and they are open for comment for the next 30 days. According to the regulations: “Comments may be sent to Randy Watson, Assistant Commissioner, Division of Correction, 6776 Reisterstown Road, Baltimore,…

July 31, 2009

Update

Yesterday, the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers (of which Amnesty International is a member) issued a briefing paper on children affected by the recent conflict in Sri Lanka.  The paper details how children in the military-controlled internment camps for displaced civilians are being abducted for ransom, for forced recruitment into pro-government armed groups or due to suspected links with the opposition Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). In May of this year, the Sri Lankan government completed its offensive against the LTTE, recapturing all the territory formerly held by the group and killing their senior leaders, thus ending the 26-year-old conflict.  The LTTE…

July 30, 2009

Update

The IDP situation in Sri Lanka continues to worsen as weeks continue to pass without the release of civilians locked up in the camps. The government, in violation of international law, has since March 2008 confined virtually all civilians displaced by the fighting in detention camps, euphemistically called “welfare centers" by the government. In a press statement this week, Eric P. Schwartz, Assistant Secretary of State for Refugees, described his short visit to Sri Lanka’s Menik Farm: “[T]he vast majority of displaced persons remain confined to camps, and my visit to Manik Farm – and my conversations with displaced person…

July 30, 2009

Update

Sarnata Reynolds, AIUSA’s policy and campaign director for refugee and migrant rights, spoke at a press teleconference on Thursday July 30th, 2009, set to discuss the bills presented by Senators Menendez and Gillibrand: "Protect Citizens and Residents from Unlawful Detention Act" and "Strong STANDARDS Act." These new bills stand to drastically improve plight of detained US citizens and immigrants. The bills also require immigration authorities to ensure that U.S. citizens and other vulnerable populations such as children are informed of their rights when arrested, are considered for release and are treated humanely while detained. Over the last twelve months, I…

July 30, 2009

Update

Many Iranian Americans have turned to the arts as a means of critiquing the status quo both in Iran and the US. Among them is Maz Jobrani, an Iranian American  comedian and a part of the "Axis of Evil" comedy troupe. He has been touring with the troupe since 2005; his routine surrounding Iran, racial profiling, and being Muslim in America. His act is so popular that he has appeared on shows ranging from the Colbert Report to The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Last week, Jobrani also voiced his support for upholding human rights in Iran and urged his viewers to…

July 29, 2009

Update

As always, it is those with no resources that lose out first. Despite of the acute international pressure, protests, threats of violence and the possibility of a civil war, the arrogant power struggle the Honduran Government has been playing at, has led to a critical consequence: the European Union has officially suspended millions in aid to Honduras, as Washington suspends 18 million in military and development assistance, warning the facto Government of more "consequences" to come. The European Union’s decision to suspend 65.5 million Euros in aid comes after failed attempts to negotiate talks for the resolution of the political…

July 29, 2009

Update

Since July 2008, abortion in all circumstances has been banned in Nicaragua. The new law makes no exceptions for terminating pregnancies that endanger the health or life of the woman, or that result from rape or incest. Girls or women seeking or obtaining abortions are subject to imprisonment. Health care professionals providing abortions -- or even unintentionally injuring a fetus -- face jail time and being barred from practice. A new Amnesty International report, The Total Abortion Ban in Nicaragua, details the effects of the new measures. Medical professionals are put in an impossible situation: they're prevented, on pain of…

July 28, 2009

Update

Since July 8, Ilham Tohti, editor of the Web site Uighur Online and a professor at Central Nationalities University in Beijing, has been held incommunicado by Chinese authorities. He was interrogated after posting articles on the site and his personal blog about a clash between members of China’s majority ethnic Han group and Uighurs in Guangdong Province on June 26. The Uighurs are a Muslim minority group in China most of whom live in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) in northwestern China. For two decades now Chinese authoirities have been pursuing a campaign in the area against "terrorism, separatism and religious…

July 28, 2009

Update

As conditions in Iran continue to look bleak, many people are wondering what the rest of the world can do next. To address these and other concerns, Amnesty International will be hosting an lecture on the human rights situation in Iran and how the international community should respond tomorrow, (Wednesday) July 29th. Speakers will include: Payam Akhavan: Co-founder, Iran Human Rights Documentation Center & Professor of Law, McGill University and former UN prosecutor Ahmed Batebi: Founder and spokes person, Human Rights Activists in Iran & former student activist in Iran Mehrangiz Kar: Distinguished Human Rights Lawyer & Activist The lecture will be…

July 28, 2009

Update

The Iranian authorities have announced they have released 140 prisoners from Evin Prison in northern Tehran, reports Reuters. Parliament official Kazem Jalali says that 150 prisoners, arrested during the uprising after the June 12th Presidential election, still remain behind bars. Ayatollah Khamenei has also ordered the closure of a detainment center in Kahrizak after it failed to "preserve the rights of detainees". Whether the prisoners in that prison were released or transferred elsewhere remains to be seen.

July 28, 2009