Newsroom

Update

Not persecution of the Church by the State. Unfortunately for Patriarch "Abune" Antonios of the Eritrean Orthodox Church, the government of Eritrea doesn't think that way. Considered a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty, he has been under house arrest since January 2006 after continually resisting government interference in religious affairs. Minority faith groups such as the Jehovah's Witnesses and over 35 evangelical Christian churches are banned in Eritrea. An estimated 2,000 members of minority evangelical churches which have been outlawed since 2002 are in detention in harsh conditions. Amnesty International has received reports that some detainees have been repeatedly beaten…

November 21, 2008

Update

Now, the outgoing Bush administration’s plans for celebrating Human Rights Day ’08 can finally be revealed!  On December 10, they are going to carry out the first U.S. Military execution in 47 years, when they put Ronald Gray to death by lethal injection.  According to CNN and several other media sources, Private Ronald Gray, a former soldier from North Carolina, is set to be executed at a federal prison in Terra Haute, Indiana by Army personnel.  His execution was approved by President Bush in July. While there is a possibility that a federal appeals court could stay the execution, the military…

November 21, 2008

Update

The tide of American politics is changing. That much is clear. Barack Obama has inspired Americans to renew their faith in their country and has repeatedly stated that he will act to renew the moral standing of the United States in the world. “I have said repeatedly that I intend to close Guantanamo, and I will follow through on that. I have said repeatedly that America doesn’t torture. And I’m gonna make sure that we don’t torture. Those are part and parcel of an effort to regain America’s moral stature in the world.” -President-elect Barack Obama on CBS’s 60 Minutes…

November 21, 2008

Update

The DRC, Zimbabwe, Cambodia, Sudan and Nicaragua--all these countries are in crisis right now. How do I know (beyond working at Amnesty International)? I can read about it in the news. But there is at least one developing humanitarian crisis you won't find in the New York Times: More than 300,000 people have been displaced in Sri Lanka by fighting between the Tamil Tigers and government forces. And not only do they lack access to basic food and shelter, but the government is not allowing U.N. aid convoys to bring in desperately needed supplies. The entire population of Birkenhead has…

November 20, 2008

Update

Can someone please explain this to me? How is it OK to arrest someone, send them to Guantánamo, keep them there a couple years, clear them for release, and then not let them leave? Among all the things that confuse and upset me about the way the US government has dealt with the detainees at Guantánamo, the situation of Mohammed Mohammed Hassan Odaini is one of the most baffling. A Yemeni national, he was arrested in 2002 in Pakistan, where he had gone to study Islamic law. In 2005, US authorities declared him suitable for release, and Yemeni authorities indicated that they…

November 20, 2008

Update

The U.S. Court of Appeal for the Eleventh Circuit has scheduled oral arguments for December 9 in the case of Troy Davis.   This was something that Davis’ lawyers requested, and that the state of Georgia argued against. The main question before the Court will be whether Davis has met the conditions required to file a second, or successive, habeas corpus petition; the underlying question, of course, is whether Davis is innocent. Stay tuned …

November 20, 2008

Update

Journalist Anna Politkovskaya's 2006 murder is an unwavering symbol of Russia's suppression of press freedom and human rights defenders. Her scathing reports on human rights abuses in Chechnya shamed government officials and others, and she was killed for it. Today, press and the public were barred from the proceedings in the trial of three men accused in Anna's murder, which some critics thought would reveal a "deep-seated corruption in the security and law enforcement agencies." They hoped public access to the proceedings would shed light on continuing intimidation and attacks on Russian journalists. More than a dozen journalists have been killed since 2000,…

November 19, 2008

Update

This is one of the questions before the U.S. Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit, in Atlanta, which is currently considering Troy Davis’ petition for permission to try again to get a hearing on evidence that he is innocent. The fact that executing someone even if they “establish actual innocence” is up for debate demonstrates how far our system has veered off the path of justice. Innocence, you see, is just one – just one – of the factors that go into a decision on whether or not a person can be put to death by the state. There are also procedural…

November 18, 2008

Update

Yes.  It happened most recently in Nebraska, where 6 men were sentenced to various prison terms for involvement in a murder they had nothing to do with, because some of them “confessed” after being threatened with the death penalty.  DNA tests have ultimately exonerated them all, revealing that, according to the Lincoln Journal Star, the state’s case was a “complete fiction” and “entirely fabricated.” The death penalty is often touted by prosecutors as a useful tool for convincing suspects to confess or to plead guilty.  Here, it is clear that the results can just as easily be false confessions or…

November 17, 2008

Update

How many times, in how many countries, in how many cities, have we heard this story? Governments try to force poor people off land they've lived on for years, sometimes decades, so that it can be developed and put to "better use". Who cares if they're shoving people into slums with no running water or sewage system? Who cares if moving them will not only adversely affect their health but also their livelihood? After all, it's the government's responsibility to "clean up the trash" to make way for progress, right? Tell that to the nearly 150 families in Phnom Penh,…

November 17, 2008

Update

Yesterday someone emailed me a link to a mock NYT article, National Health Insurance Act Passes.  I'm embarrassed to confess: I fell for it, hook, line and sinker. I believe that universal health care is one of the most important issues of our time, so, for a minute, as I read the first few paragraphs, I was elated. And then I noticed the date: July 4, 2009. The United States National Health Insurance Act really does exist. Representative John Conyers first introduced the bill (H.R. 676) in 2003. Today there are 93 cosponsors. The bill would create a publicly financed, privately delivered health care system…

November 14, 2008

Update

Commenting on Vienna's post on universal health care, J writes: Health Care for America Now (HCAN) does not support single-payer healthcare. They support Obama’s mixed public/private insurance plan. It's true that HCAN supports a choice of private or public plans. Which means they don't support single-payer right away. That doesn't mean that what they're proposing won't lead to single-payer eventually. Look at HCAN's list of congressional supporters. It includes Barack Obama (and Joe Biden). But it also includes ... John Conyers (who introduced H. R. 676, the single-payer bill Vienna was writing about). Single-payer advocates who sign on to Obama/HCAN-style…

November 14, 2008