Human Rights
Monday, August 1, 2016 - 15:06
By a 4 to 1 vote, the Supreme Court of El Salvador repealed an Amnesty Law that they stated was “unconstitutional.” This July 13 decision argued that repealing the law would put closure to the civil war that lasted from 1980 to 1992 and claimed 75,000 lives, including 8,000 “disappeared,” from the country’s 5 million people.
Monday, August 1, 2016 - 15:06
The United States is playing a quiet but lethal role in the killing and wounding of thousands of civilians in Yemen’s civil war. In recent years, Saudi Arabia has purchased U.S. fighter jets and other American-made weapons in deals worth billions of dollars, and the Pentagon has provided the coalition with training, aerial refueling support and intelligence as it attacks targets in Yemen.
Monday, August 1, 2016 - 15:06
The Turkish government’s crackdown after a military coup attempt widened into a sweeping purge on Monday, cutting a swath through the security services and reaching deeply into the government bureaucracy and the political and business classes.
Monday, August 1, 2016 - 15:06
Members of Burundi ruling party’s youth league, the Imbonerakure, have repeatedly gang-raped women since a wave of political protests began in 2015, Human Rights Watch said today. Many of the rapes appear to have been aimed at family members of perceived government opponents. Policemen or men wearing police uniforms have also committed rape.
Monday, August 1, 2016 - 15:06
The UN, EU and other international organisations have condemned the murder on Wednesday of a prominent environmental activist in Honduras. Lesbia Yaneth Urquia was killed four months after the shooting of award-winning environmentalist Berta Caceres.
Monday, August 1, 2016 - 15:06
Major sporting events like the Olympics often lead to major human rights violations, and the situation unfolding ahead of the Summer Games next month in Rio de Janeiro is shaping up as a depressing replay, human rights activists warn.
Monday, August 1, 2016 - 15:06
Turkey ordered another 47 journalists detained on Wednesday, part of a large-scale crackdown on suspected supporters of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is accused by Ankara of masterminding a failed military coup.
Monday, August 1, 2016 - 15:06
Due to the involvement of Honduran security forces in the murder of Berta Cáceres, as well as a number of other documented human rights violations, the AFL-CIO is now calling for all U.S. aid to Honduran security forces to be suspended.
Monday, August 1, 2016 - 15:06
Amnesty International’s new report entitled “Right Cause, Wrong Means: Human Rights Violated and Justice Denied in Cameroon’s Fight Against Boko Haram” poses serious questions about the U.S. government’s ongoing support for Cameroon’s elite Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR).
Monday, August 1, 2016 - 15:06
Steven Simon and Jonathan Stevenson’s op-ed in The New York Times, “Why the U.S. Military Can’t Fix Syria,” reveals many of the misguided assumptions that have guided the Obama Administration’s policy of strategic restraint in the Middle East.