OMNI NEWSLETTER ON HUMAN RIGHTS #3, March 24, 2013,Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace and Justice. (#1 June 8, 2008;#2 Feb. 5, 2012)
Here is the link to all OMNI newsletters:
http://www.omnicenter.org/newsletter-archive/ See OMNI’s newsletters on bill of Rights Day, Civil Liberties, Drones, Guantanamo , Human Rights Day, War on Terror, Torture, and related subjects.
For a knowledge-based peace, justice, and ecology movement and an informed citizenry as the foundation for change. Informed citizens demanding a constitutional democracy.
CONTENTS of #1 June 8, 2008
I. UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS (UDHR) 60THANNIVERSARY
Human Rights Organizations
II. USA and HUMAN RIGHTS
US Withdraws from UN Human Rights Council
US Exceptionalism
US and Habeas Corpus
[For remaining contents go to www.omnicenter.org]
Death Penalty: ABA
Death Penalty: NWA, John Threet
Human Rights Week 2008 at UA
Graffiti Prosecutions
Contents #2
Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute’s newsletter, Human Rights Now!
Human Rights Treaties = US Law
US Mercenaries
Sexual Abuse
Moyn, Human Rights in History
CEDAW
Right to Die Film on Jack Kevorkian
US in UN Human Rights Council 2010
Accountability Improving Globally
Human Rights Education
Contents of #3 March 24, 2013
Local ACLU Human Rights Forum
Amnesty International
Universal Rights and Realities
Chomsky, Others Did It Not Us
Kathryn Sikkink, Human Rights Prosecutions
Large Scale Interventions
Universal Rights
Bricmont, Humanitarian Imperialism
Murdering Human Rights Advocates in the Philippines
From: William Schreckhise
Date: Tue, Mar 6, 2012 at 8:23 PM
Subject: ACLU Forum on National Security and Civil Liberties
To: wschreckhise@gmail.com
A forum on national security and civil liberties was held Saturday, March 10, 2012, at 1:30 at Temple Shalom, sponsored by the local chapter of the Arkansas ACLU. . Former Congressman Asa Hutchinson was one of the forum's participants. PUBLIC FORUM NATIONAL SECURITY AND CIVIL LIBERTIES SATURDAY, 1:30 TEMPLE
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Argentina begins prosecution of military-era human rights abuses Tue Mar 12, 2013 12:14 pm (PDT) . Posted by:
* ³This is a huge step to achieve the truth internationally,² says Atilio
Borón, an Argentine political scientist who studies social movements and
democracy. Human rights have become a cornerstone of Argentine politics
since Néstor Kirchner, the predecessor and late husband of current President
Cristina Kirchner, overturned impunity laws.
Borón, an Argentine political scientist who studies social movements and
democracy. Human rights have become a cornerstone of Argentine politics
since Néstor Kirchner, the predecessor and late husband of current President
Cristina Kirchner, overturned impunity laws.
* Eyes Wide Open (2010)
Jonathan Gilbert, Christian Science Monitor / MinnPost
Submitted by Evergreene Digest Contributing Editor Steve Clemens
In 1980, a young, left-wing Argentine militant named Horacio Campiglia was
abducted in Rio de Janeiro and then taken to a military base in Buenos
Aires, never to be heard from again.
In the southern cone, Mr. Campiglia's story is a familiar one he is one of
tens of thousands of dissidents who were "disappeared" abducted and
murdered by military dictatorships in the region in the 1970s and 1980s.
Now, the former government officials responsible for those disappearances
are being put on the stand for the first time.
Full story...
http://evergreenedigest.org/argentina-begins-prosecution-military-era-human-
rights-abuses
Related:
Eyes Wide Open (2010), Democratic Underground
http://evergreenedigest.org/eyes-wide-open-2010
After 500 years of exploitation and repression, Latin America is at a
turning point in its history: a series of socialist leaders has come to
power. Can they satisfy their peoples' hunger for change?
Jonathan Gilbert, Christian Science Monitor / MinnPost
Submitted by Evergreene Digest Contributing Editor Steve Clemens
In 1980, a young, left-wing Argentine militant named Horacio Campiglia was
abducted in Rio de Janeiro and then taken to a military base in Buenos
Aires, never to be heard from again.
In the southern cone, Mr. Campiglia's story is a familiar one he is one of
tens of thousands of dissidents who were "disappeared" abducted and
murdered by military dictatorships in the region in the 1970s and 1980s.
Now, the former government officials responsible for those disappearances
are being put on the stand for the first time.
Full story...
http://evergreenedigest.org/argentina-begins-prosecution-military-era-human-
rights-abuses
Related:
Eyes Wide Open (2010), Democratic Underground
http://evergreenedigest.org/eyes-wide-open-2010
After 500 years of exploitation and repression, Latin America is at a
turning point in its history: a series of socialist leaders has come to
power. Can they satisfy their peoples' hunger for change?
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Promoting Social Justice and Human Dignity
The Center for Human Rights and Peace Studies advances social justice and human dignity in an interdisciplinary fashion through active involvement of faculty, students, and community in research and teaching.
About the Center
The Center builds on Lehman College ’s unique history: the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights began at Lehman College Lehman College New York
The Center emphasizes intrinsic linkages between human rights and peace. Not merely the absence of war or conflict, human security necessitates community building, safety, promotion of tolerance, environmental sustainability, expanded life chances, freedom of expression, movement and association, and equal access to resources across gender, ethnic, class, national, and other socio-economic divides.
Events
The Center for Human Rights and Peace Studies hosts a rich program of human rights events for both the Lehman community and the broader public throughout the year. Recent events include:
· Center for Human Rights and Peace Studies Spring 2012 Conference
East Dining Room
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Time: 2:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Last modified: Apr 17, 2012
Spotlight
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o MADRE
My new op-ed on Rios Montt Trial and President Otto Perez Molina's denial of genocide "Genocide is not an 'Armed Confrontation'"
Inbox | x |
|  2:27 PM (28 minutes ago) | | ||
| ||||
Dear Friends,
The historic Rios Montt genocide trial began on Tuesday, March 19 in Guatemala City despite every move you can imagine (including defense lawyers abandoning Rios Montt) to try to delay the trial.
I am sending you links to an op-ed I wrote entitled "El genocidio no es una confrontacion armado" for El Faro which has just been published by Plaza Publica in Guatemala
NPR did a nice piece that you can link to here:
For ongoing trial summaries, commentary and analysis, see a new Website launched by the Open Society Justice Initiative in partnership with the National Security Archive, the International Center
http://www.riosmontt-trial.org/
http://www.riosmontt-trial.org/
And, last but not least, you can read about the first day of the trial in the attached documents written by the Association for Justice and Reconciliation AJR
Center for Human Rights Legal Action CALDH-- the two NGOs who have been instrumental in moving the case forward and are representing the victims as querrellantes adhesivos - lawyers working with the prosecutors to prosecute the case on behalf of the victims.
Please circulate widely.
Many thanks,
Center for Human Rights & Peace Studies
Professor of Anthropology Lehman College & the Graduate Center
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham
![Book Cover]()
Universal Rights Down to Earth
A path-blazing lesson on how to reconcile lofty human rights ambitions with political and cultural realities.More
*Action: Arming human rights abusers inBahrain
Under current U.S. law as interpreted by the Obama Administration, the U.S. US
"Somebody Else's Atrocities"
By Noam Chomsky, Nation of Change, posted June 7, 2012
IDEAL ILLUSIONS: How the U.S.
From the Cold War to the War on Terror, a historian and foreign-policy analyst charts the rise of human rights and the U.S.
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The Justice Cascade
How Human Rights Prosecutions Are Changing World Politics
The Norton Series in World Politics
Acclaimed scholar Kathryn Sikkink examines the important and controversial new trend of holding political leaders criminally accountable for human rights violations. Sikkink tells how international courts originated in domestic courts and developed in the 1990s, leading up to the establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2002.Grawemeyer Award winner Kathryn Sikkink offers a landmark argument for human rights prosecutions as a powerful political tool. She shows how, in just three decades, state leaders in Latin America, Europe, and
Drawing on extensive research and illuminating personal experience, Sikkink reveals how the stunning emergence of human rights prosecutions has come about; what effect it has had on democracy, conflict, and repression; and what it means for leaders and citizens everywhere, from Uruguay to the United States. The Justice Cascade is a vital read for anyone interested in the future of world politics and human rights. Rev. The Nation (March 19, 2012) by Samuel Moyn (author of The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History).
INTERVENTIONS
Best-selling author Rory Stewart and political economist Gerald Knaus examine the impact of large-scale interventions, from
1. ![Book Cover]()
A Nation of Enemies
"This will stand as the definitive work on Chile under Pinochet for many years to come."-Library JournalMore
OBAMA ADMINISTRATION’S EXTRAJUDICIAL PUNISHMENT
DEMAND OBAMA’S memos justifying the targeted execution of U.S.
 Dear Dick, President Obama feels your Constitutional right to "due process" can be what ever secret process he makes up. Yesterday, US Attorney General Eric Holder reiterated the administration's support for their controversial program of secretly targeting US citizens for execution without notifying them of the accusations against them, officially charging them with a crime or offering them the opportunity to respond. Since the whole world is a battlefield in the vague 'war on terror,' the only due process afforded to someone who has been targeted for extrajudicial execution is a secret 'review' by the executive branch. Just as the public demanded the release of the Bush Administration's Torture Memos to expose the ludicrous rationale behind their secret torture program, we too must demand to know the legal rationale for a program that allows our president to unilaterally choose to deprive someone of life and liberty - without the victim even being charged with a crime. Holder's speech was a cheap attempt to feign transparency without actually releasing the legal memos that define the administration's execution policy.1 We need your help to demand the Obama administration release these memos immediately. Can you please sign our petition demanding the Obama administration release the Execution Memos? The administration's refusal to even outline this non-judicial 'due process' that allows US citizens to be secretly put on a kill list is beyond troubling to say the least. As Salon writer Glenn Greenwald put it: "the 'process' which Eric Holder yesterday argued constitutes "due process" as required by the Fifth Amendment before the government can deprive of someone of their life: the President and his underlings are your accuser, your judge, your jury and your executioner all wrapped up in one, acting in total secrecy and without your even knowing that he's accused you and sentenced you to death, and you have no opportunity even to know about, let alone confront and address, his accusations; is that not enough due process for you?"2 The ACLU, New York Times and others have been suing the Obama administration for months in hopes of securing the release of the Execution Memos, but as one of the least-transparent administrations in recent history, they have repeatedly blocked their release.3 If left unchallenged, this secretive program could continue to expand under Obama and future presidents, and further erode This is a serious and dangerous precedent, and anyone who took issue with the Bush Torture Memos should be even more concerned about this latest power grab by the president. I hope you'll join us in fighting to release these memos. Deepest Thanks, Brian Sonenstein Director of Online Activism, Firedoglake.com 1. Holder's Regressive Defense of Targeted Killings, Kevin Gosztola, FDL's Dissenter, 3/6/2012. 2. Attorney General Holder defends execution without charges, Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com, 3/6/2012. 3. The Worst Administration on FOIA, Kevin Gosztola, FDL's Dissenter, 3/5/2012. Firedoglake's community of 350,000 activists is supported by small donations from people like you. Can you chip in to keep us strong? Click here to contribute. |
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Details
Humanitarian Imperialism: Using Human Rights to Sell War
by
Paperback, 176 pages
ISBN: 1-58367-147-1
ISBN: 1-58367-147-1
Since the end of the Cold War, the idea of human rights has been made into a justification for intervention by the world’s leading economic and military powers—above all, the United States Yugoslavia to Afghanistan to Iraq
Jean Bricmont’s Humanitarian Imperialism is both a historical account of this development and a powerful political and moral critique. It seeks to restore the critique of imperialism to its rightful place in the defense of human rights. It describes the leading role of the United States
Timely, topical, and rigorously argued, Jean Bricmont’s book establishes a firm basis for resistance to global war with no end in sight.
In this stimulating book, Jean Bricmont effectively deconstructs ‘humanitarian interventionism’ and makes a good case that leftists who support it are the ‘useful idiots’ of imperialism. He also provides a broader critique of the Western left and offers a number of constructive suggestions. This insightful book is chock full of enlightening case studies and provocative arguments. —Edward S. Herman, Professor Emeritus of Finance
Wharton School , University of Pennsylvania
Jean Bricmont’s provocative and carefully argued book deserves to be widely read and debated in the progressive, ecological, peace, and human rights movements. It may not be the last word on this subject but the issues Bricmont raises cannot be ignored.
Dick: See OMNI Newsletters on Arab Spring uprisings and Western interventions.
December 8, 2012
For reference: Cristina Palabay, Karapatan secretary general (017-3162831)
International concern for rights defenders in the Philippines
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) raised the alarm on the continuing human rights violations in the country under the Aquino government, particularly cases of extrajudicial killings of human rights defenders.
OMCT noted “the attacks on human rights defenders in a climate of pervasive impunity” especially those fighting for their land rights and the protection of the environment. “A climate of pervasive and systematic impunity is at the heart of this alarming situation,” said the OMCT delegation in a statement.
The OMCT conducted a mission in the Philippines on November 11 to 17, 2012, to investigate the situation of rights defenders. Two members of OMCT General Assembly, Ms. Vrinda Grover, a prominent human rights lawyer (India ), and Ms. Claudia Samayoa, Coordinator of the Unit for Protection of Human Rights Defenders of Guatemala, led the mission. They met with leaders and network of Karapatan, indigenous peoples, farmers groups, lawyers, faith-based organisations, as well as government officials, foreign embassies and representatives of a transnational mining company in Manila and Mindanao .
The OMCT mission statement particularly cited the indigenous peoples who are “at risk in areas where conflict over land and natural resources has been aggravated by activities of national and transnational companies engaged in acquisition of land for mining and/or agro-industry.”
More than 70 farmer and indigenous peoples leaders and environmental advocates are currently in Metro Manila, the ManiLakbayan, to call the government’s attention for the same issues raised by the OMCT mission.
“The ancestral rights of indigenous people over land and natural resources are being brazenly violated often through the use of private security guards, paramilitary and the military. Indigenous human rights defenders resisting peacefully the violations and asserting their lawful and ancestral claims face extrajudicial killings, vilification and threats,” said the OMCT.
The OMCT initial mission report noted the recent killing of indigenous leader Juvy Capion and her two minor children on October 18, 2012, in Tampakan, by members of the 27th Infantry Battalion of the Philippines Armed Forces, saying that it “exemplify the dangerous and violent conditions in the area sought for gold – copper mining by Sagittarius Mines Inc. (SMI) and transnational company Xstrata.”
The relatives of Juvy Capion, led by sister-in-law Erita Capion, are among the ManiLakbayan delegates who arrived in Metro Manila on Nov. 30 for a series of activities and protest actions to call the government’s attention to the killings due to counterinsurgency operations of Oplan Bayanihan, and also to quell people’s protests against large-scale mining.
The OMCT mission did not fail to notice the presence and activities of “legalized paramilitary groups such as the Citizen Armed Force Geographical Unit (CAFGU) and the Investment Defense Unit, as well as the large scale possession and availability of dangerous arms and weapons, are contributing to the climate of impunity for human rights violations including the attacks on human rights defenders.”
The OMCT has taken to task the Aquino government to “demonstrate its intent to respect and protect the rights of those that continue to struggle for human rights even in a climate of stigma and fear,” adding that “plethora of laws and institutional mechanisms, purportedly for advancement of human rights, does not inspire confidence, as in their actual working and practices those in position of political, economic and military power continue to enjoy impunity.”
Among the recommendations of the mission emphasized the “role of command responsibility in Government and among forces in the security sector should also be diligently scrutinized in the perpetuation of impunity.”
*Attached is a copy of the complete press statement of the international factfinding missions of the OMCT and FIDH with their preliminary recommendations.
PUBLIC INFORMATION DESK
publicinfo@karapatan.org
2nd Flr. Erythrina Bldg., #1 Maaralin corner Matatag Sts., Central District
Diliman, Quezon City , PHILIPPINES
Telefax: (+63 2) 4354146
Web: http://www.karapatan.org
KARAPATAN is an alliance of human rights organizations and programs, human rights desks and committees of people’s organizations, and individual advocates committed to the defense and promotion of people’s rights and civil liberties. It monitors and documents cases of human rights violations, assists and defends victims and conducts education, training and campaign.
END OMNI HUMAN RIGHTS NEWSLETTER #3