Newsroom

Update

I can't tell you how disappointed I am.  The UN Human Rights Council concluded its special session on Sri Lanka yesterday by adopting a resolution proposed by the Sri Lankan government.  The Council's session should have been used to examine the reports of human rights violations and war crimes occurring during  the recent fighting between the Sri Lankan security forces and the opposition Tamil Tigers.  On May 17, the Sri Lankan government had announced that it had defeated the Tigers, recapturing all the territory controlled by them and killing their leaders.  The Tigers had been fighting over the past 26 years…

May 28, 2009

Update

It’s said that an apple a day keeps the doctor away. But doctors are very far away in Zimbabwe, as in entirely other countries where they might actually be paid for their services. Worse, most people don’t have anything to eat, let alone fresh fruit. Zimbabwe’s infrastructure has been in a downward spiral for at least the last ten years. The education system is in ruins, hospitals are closed, roads are impassable and the water and sewage systems destroyed. Zimbabwe inherited a colonial infrastructure now over thirty years old. I don’t condone colonialism, I don’t think Zimbabwe was better off…

May 28, 2009

Update

Do you remember when Pinochet was arrested in London?  The news flew around the world.  The Chilean dictator is now dead, but the victims of torture and their families and friends are still asking the government and the judiciary for the truth about what happened after the military coup in 1973. At least 110 people were tortured on the training ship Esmeralda that arrived in Boston yesterday.  One of them was my brother, Michael Woodward, a catholic priest who had dual nationality (Chilean and British), and who lived and worked with the poor in Valparaiso. He was driven from his…

May 27, 2009

Update

Lebanon is due to hold its national elections in about two weeks on June 7th. This is a unique opportunity for the country's political leaders to commit themselves and their parties to introducing long-needed human rights reforms. There are five key areas that the new government elected on June 7th should focus on for reform: creation of a Special Tribunal for Lebanon within the justice system, an end to arbitrary detention and torture, addressing the impunity of past human rights abuses, ending discrimination and violence against women and other marginalized groups, and abolition of the death penalty. You can find…

May 26, 2009

Update

The U.N. Human Rights Council will hold a special session on Sri Lanka in Geneva on Tuesday, May 26 (and not May 25 as I reported earlier).  Today, the Sri Lankan government tried to head off any serious review by the Council of the human rights situation in Sri Lanka by tabling a self-congratulatory resolution to be adopted by the Council.  For the sake of all the victims of the recent violence in Sri Lanka, the Council should reject Sri Lanka's proposed resolution. Even now, after the fighting between the Sri Lankan security forces and the opposition Tamil Tigers appears to have mostly ended, Amnesty…

May 23, 2009

Update

President Obama again displayed in his speech today on national security that he is an exceptionally gifted and thoughtful politician who cares about the rule of law.  Indeed, there is much to admire in his remarks today.  So I can't help wondering why he is being so obtuse about investigating torture.  He says he wants to establish legal mechanisms for dealing with terrorists that will be useful for his successors.  "We can leave behind a legacy that outlasts my Administration, and that endures for the next President and the President after that. . .", the President said.  Sadly, though, this…

May 22, 2009

Update

I read some shocking news this morning.  The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers (of which Amnesty International is a member) said yesterday that children are being abducted from refugee camps in northern Sri Lanka by Tamil paramilitary groups allied with the government.  It's not clear what the motives are for the abductions.  Some children may have been taken due to suspicion of links with the opposition Tamil Tigers, while others appear to be kidnapped for ransom.  The abductions are happening at night when security at the camps is reduced. The Sri Lankan government recently completed its military offensive against…

May 22, 2009

Update

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced yesterday that he will be visiting Sri Lanka this coming Friday and Saturday, May 22-23, to visit the conflict zone and the camps for the internally displaced civilians.  The Sri Lankan government had said last Monday that its forces had defeated the opposition Tamil Tigers, killing their leaders and reconquering all the area once controlled by the Tigers.  Toward the end, the Tigers had with them an estimated 50,000 civilians who they were using as human shields and preventing from leaving the conflict area.  Around 200,000 other civilians were able to flee the war zone and have…

May 21, 2009

Update

Good news!  The U.N. Human Rights Council will hold a special session in Geneva on Monday, May 25, on the human rights situation in Sri Lanka.  The Sri Lankan government has recently reconquered all the territory controlled by the opposition Tamil Tigers.  The Tigers had been fighting for over 26 years in pursuit of an independent state for the Tamil minority in the north and east of Sri Lanka.  The conflict has been accompanied by scores of human rights abuses and war crimes committed by both sides.  The Human Rights Council should at least do the following for the people…

May 21, 2009

Update

Today President Obama said the right words about returning to the rule of law and reclaiming America’s moral authority.  Now he needs to ensure his actions reflect American values and the rule of law. The president said that the struggle against terrorism is a struggle rooted in values.  In the past eight years, the United States has abandoned deeply held principles and empowered those who seek to harm Americans. The president recognized the perils of sacrificing our values to pragmatism, which is precisely the challenge he faces in closing Guantanamo. Revising the military commissions is a mistake.  It is a…

May 21, 2009

Update

Fathi Al-Jahmi became an activist for democracy in the 1970s. When he was a provincial governor in 2002, he criticized Muammar al-Gadhafi’s authoritarian regime, calling for free elections, a free press, and the release of political prisoners.  The same year, he was sentenced to five years for speaking out against the government.  He was released in 2004 and arrested again a month later. Despite modest improvements in the human rights field in Libya, all forms of public expression, association and assembly are tightly controlled by the authorities. Any form of group activity based on a political ideology opposed to the…

May 21, 2009

Update

Remember two years ago when then President Musharraf removed the Chief Justice of Pakistan’s Supreme Court, setting off howls of protest from the Pakistani legal community? Many people, including Musharraf, seemed surprised that lawyers had it in them to take to the streets and demand respect for the rule of law.  But if any of you have ever been to a “bar review” (read booze fest) hosted any given Thursday evening by one of our nation’s law schools, or been to a patent bar continuing legal education course (I’ve heard those patent lawyers get rowdy), you nodded your head wisely…

May 20, 2009