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The way the bill is written means non-Christians could sue for harassment if church authorities do not remove religious imagery, according to Monsignor Andrew Summersgill, general secretary of the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales. He said the bill, currently being examined by Parliament's Equality Bill Committee, could have a "chilling effect" on religious expression.

No Respite for Cuba by: Emily Kanyi, May 28, 2009 On May 20, 2009, the world joined Cubans in marking the second anniversary of Cuba’s Solidarity Day. However, even as the world observed this day, the situation remains bleak for many Cubans. Political dissidents continue to languish in the country’s filthy jails and freedom of expression and access to information remain a dream to many. A panel of Cuban-Americans marked Cuba Solidarity Day 2009 by sharing experiences and ideas at an event hosted by a think tank, the Heritage Foundation, in Washington, DC. The panelists urged President Barack Obama to...

The general chosen by Barack Obama to run the war in Afghanistan permitted abusive treatment and interrogation of detainees in Iraq, according to human rights investigators. Soldiers have described beatings, psychological torture and other physical mistreatment at a camp near Baghdad where General Stanley McChrystal, then commander of US Joint Special Operations forces in Iraq, was frequently seen. A tall Irish-American with a deceptively gentle manner, Gen McChrystal was named last week as the next head of Afghan operations. He is currently operations director for the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. The investigation into human rights abuses was led by...

In advance of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the United States on Monday, President Obama unveiled a new strategy for throwing Israel to the wolves. It takes the form of enthusiasm for the United Nations and international interlopers of all kinds. Instead of ensuring strong American control over the course of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations or the Arab-Israeli peace process, the Obama administration is busy inserting an international mob between the U.S. and Israel. The thinking goes: If Israel doesn’t fall into an American line, Obama will step out of the way, claim his hands are tied, and let the...

I cannot listen to that phrase any longer, “abortion rights”, without responding. I just watched Norah O'Donnell on MSNBC characterize President Obama’s opposition to the fundamental human right, the Right to life, as being a position which supports what she called “abortion rights.” She then proceeded to give a lame analysis of the reasons so many oppose his being honored with a “Doctor of Law” by the University of Notre Dame this weekend. The claim of a “right” to abort an innocent child is heinous enough when it is described as a woman’s “Right to Choose” an abortion. Yet, that...

UNdefended Human Rights by: Emily Kanyi, May 15, 2009 In the Fall of 1984, former Austrian United Nations Secretary General, Kurt Waldheim, lamented that the U.N. had not yet managed to cut through the political habits and attitudes of earlier less hurried centuries to come to grips decisively with emerging factors, despite much effort and undoubted sincerity. Twenty five years later, the U.N. continues to grapple with these issues and more so within one of its most paramount bodies—the U.N. Human Rights Council. On Tuesday, May 12, 2009, the U.S. won its first seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council,...

Yesterday the UN General Assembly decides which countries should be on the Human Rights Council, At its request he United States was elected as one of the 18 new members elected to the council. The real question is WHY? The Human Rights Council is the perfect example of what is wrong with the United Nations, in other words at best it is a joke, at worst the council does more to harm human rights than to protect those being abused. The council is a great example of the lunatics running the asylum, it is loaded with human rights violators such...

The Obama Administration will now have even more opportunity to engage with tyrants with the end of its boycott of the discredited UN Human Rights Council. The U.S. has just been elected to the Council, which boasts some of the world's worst human rights violators as members, including Saudi Arabia, China, Russia, Cuba, Egypt and Nicaragua. The election process itself was a farce, with candidates put forward by regional groups, with no consideration whatsoever for human rights concerns. There were in fact just 20 candidates for 18 available seats. The Council itself is a complete basket case, as its recent...

Thursday May 7, 2009 Commentary: Obama Supports Kidnapping Commentary by Steven W. Mosher, President, Population Research Institute (PRI) May 7, 2009 (PRI) - Our own Colin Mason is back from China. His week-long undercover investigation revealed fresh abuses in China's One-Child policy and new proof of the U.N. Population Fund's complicity in these abuses. Remember that the UNFPA has been in China since 1979, helping the Beijing authorities to implement their program. Colin visited three counties where the U.N. Population Fund claims to run "voluntary" family planning programs, and found that they were anything but. What struck me about...

The siege continues... Read »

Next week, the UN General Assembly decides who should be on the Human Rights Council, The United States hopes to be one of the 18 new members elected by General Assembly to the council. The real question is WHY? The Human Rights Council is the perfect example of what is wrong with the United Nations, in other words at best it us a joke, at worst the council does more to harm human rights than to protect those being abused. The council is a great example of the lunatics running the asylum, it is loaded with human rights violators. Last...

Pope: "Non-Negotiable Human Rights" include "Right to Life and Right to Freedom of Conscience and Religion" VATICAN CITY, MAY 5, 2009 (LifeSIteNews.com) - Pope Benedict XVI addressed members of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences yesterday at their plenary session which is focused on the theme of Catholic social teaching and human rights, and called for the promotion of universal human rights based on both faith and reason, affirming the "right to life and the right to freedom of conscience and religion as being at the center of those rights that spring from human nature itself." The Holy Father noted...

Redefining Human Rights by: Bethany Stotts, May 04, 2009 When Nobel-prize winning economist Amartya Sen released his book Development as Freedom in 1999, his argument that democratic freedoms had an economic component in the developing world was greeted with acclaim. Now a World Bank employee building upon Sen’s conception of positive and negative freedoms is arguing that the twin discourses of human rights and development need to reach an accord. “In many instances when policy makers are producing policies in these countries, they pay only lip service to the role of economic freedom in their own development strategy,” said Jean-Pierre...

The reactionary left has descended upon waterboarding as its new case study in why conservatives are diabolical and without conscience. The sad reality is that conservatives are reacting in the rather conventional manner of going on the defensive. Conservatives need to fight back more vigorously against this community now willing to name even Harry Truman as a war criminal alongside President Bush, Condoleeza Rice, Vice President Cheney, and so many more good citizens. The reactionaries of the Left are celebrating their own unique sense of jingoism that has come to dominate their political community since Vietnam. In this distinct and...

Here is an excerpt of an interesting piece from FOXNEWS about how previously "pro-choice" supermodel Kathy Ireland went from believing in abortion to speaking out against about it: "My entire life I was pro-choice — who was I to tell another woman what she could or couldn’t do with her body? But when I was 18, I became a Christian and I dove into the medical books, I dove into science." ... "What I read was astounding and I learned that at the moment of conception a new life comes into being. The complete genetic blueprint is there, the DNA...

Never mind the mythical angels of religion and poetry. Meet a living angel in flesh, Nazanin Afshin-Jam. Many of you may not know that we have a hero in our midst. Many of you may not know that this individual, singlehandedly, has done more for her compatriots, as well as for other people of our planet, than most of us together. This dazzling beauty, both inside and outside, has dedicated her life to the good of humanity. We are honoring Nazanin Afshin-Jam for her tireless efforts to shed light into the shadowy corners of conflict, to expose and end the...

An international human rights group demanded Thursday that NATO be held accountable for civilian casualties in the bombing of Serbia's state television headquarters a decade ago, calling the attack a "war crime." Sixteen civilians were killed and 16 others injured during the attack on April 23, 1999, on the headquarters and studios of Radio Television Serbia in central Belgrade. Amnesty International called on NATO and its member states to ensure independent investigations, full accountability and redress for victims and their families.... ....The bombing was a part of a 78-day air-raid campaign against then-President Slobodan Milosevic to halt his onslaught against...

UN Watch Turns Tables on Libyan Chair, Exposes Durban 2 HypocrisyQaddafi rep panics and cuts off torture victim testimonyThe U.S. has decided not to attend the Durban II conference opening Monday in Geneva -- click here for more.   Meanwhile, the top story on Swiss TV news last night was the surpise "coup d'eclat" by UN Watch, when it turned the tables on the Libyan chair of the Durban II planning committee, in a showdown yesterday that exposed the U.N. hypocrisy whereby the chief organizers of a world "anti-racism" conference are themselves the worst perpetrators of racism and discrimination. See the...

The 2001 World Conference Against Racism conference in Durban, South African also known as Durban I, was an anti-Semitic hate-fest The follow-up conference begins next Monday (believe it or not Hitler's birthday) . It was planned by a committee which included "human rights activists" such as Libya and Iran. The conference looks to be even worse than the last one. As if to guarantee that this conference will be a sham, the UN Decided who would be running the actual conference. Iran will preside as a Vice-Chair, Libya will serve as the Chair of the “Main Committee” running the conference...

Cuba to this day jails dissidents and denies human rights to thousands. They refuse a visa to Congressmen Smith and Wolf because they wish to see prisoners of conscience, but gave visas to those Congressmen who would remain docile and not question Cuban human rights abuses.

China’s Other Bitter Harvest by: Heather Latham, April 14, 2009 In China there is a serious divide between those that live in urban areas and those that live in rural areas, according to a study by Roy Prosterman, Chair Emeritus, Rural Development Institute, and Zhu Keliang, East Asia Program Manager, Rural Development Institute. Prosterman and Zhu explained their study at a Cato Institute event on April 6. They argued that the way to find economic stability and growth for farmers in these rural areas is “secure, long-term land rights.” Prosterman started by comparing Chinese farmers to those in other countries...

Wednesday April 8, 2009 Cardinal Archbishop of Lima, Peru Calls Pro-Abortion Forces "Traitors" By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman LIMA, April 7, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Cardinal Archbishop of Lima, Peru denounced pro-abortion forces as "traitors" in a homily last Sunday in the cathedral of the diocese. "Human rights are often spoken of, but who defends the most defenseless one who is still within the womb of the mother?" Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani asked the crowd that had packed the cathedral. "We don't want to participate in this parade of traitors, because although they might be powerful throughout the world, they are...

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — U.S. Sen. John McCain, on a visit to Vietnam where he was held prisoner of war, urged the Hanoi government Tuesday to follow through on economic progress with political reforms and improvement in human rights. "Along with economic development must come political development as well as increased respect for human rights" McCain told a news conference.

Tragedy of Falun Gong by: Daniel Allen, April 06, 2009 A report by the Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group, entitled “Forget Not the Beijing Olympics’ Victims,” urges readers to remember that despite China’s promises to improve human rights, the Olympics ended up serving as an excuse for the Chinese government to arrest and imprison thousands of people who had shown signs of opposition to the current regime. According to the report, the Chinese government “used the Olympics’ security as a pretext to apprehend, torture, and murder people who had already suffered prolonged human rights violations in China.” It identifies...

"President Barack Obama has announced that the United States will seek a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council for the first time...The human rights abusers who dominate the council and use it to protect themselves, to eliminate universal standards, and to demonize their democratic foes are already celebrating," Anne Bayefsky writes at National Review Online... "This is a surrender of American values unlike any other. The spectacle of this particular president legitimizing a lethal weapon for the defeat of human rights will haunt him until the end of his term," said the writer, who is a senior fellow at...

The UN Human Rights Council might well be the most vile of all the world body's panels. So why does the Obama administration want in? UN Ambassador Susan Rice announced this week that the United States will seek a seat on the 47-member body -- which is dominated by such human-rights exemplars as China, Cuba, Egypt, Russia and Saudi Arabia -- when elections are held next month. "We do not see any inherent benefit, as demonstrated by recent history, in being outside the tent and simply being critical without having significant influence," Rice said. Well, sure: The Bush administration's disapproval...

A civil rights activist inspired by Nelson Mandela, Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King has been on a hunger strike since Feb.17th near Guantanamo Cuba, protesting the incarceration and "abuse" of hundreds of what he labels "prisoners of conscience." "The Armed Forces call these men "enemy agents" and "terrorists," he says. "But this is a grotesque lie, typical of these racist generals and their millionaire cronies from the Military/Industrial complex who pull all the strings in this country!" U.S. officials have refused to comment on the matter. OK, OK, I'll come clean. The hunger striker is actually in Placetas, Cuba,...

Back in August of 2008 the Islamic catering United Nation "human rights" council had banned all criticism of Islam and Sharia law in regards to human rights. Today the UN has approved a resolution urging the free world to do the same. It is nice to see that the UN is OK with stonings and amputations.

MOSCOW -- Just minutes before his murder, Stanislav Markelov was at his most defiant. Protesting the release of a war criminal he had helped convict, he declared: "The person who decided to free him ... should be held criminally responsible." As one of Russia's top human-rights lawyers -- a rare and endangered species -- Mr. Markelov had many enemies, from politicians to Nazi sympathizers. In January, someone took revenge. Mr. Markelov was walking along a busy Moscow sidewalk after his speech when a man shot him twice in the head. As the snow turned blood red, the gunman slipped away....

The tinpot dictators who dominate the so-called UN Human Rights Council are at it again -- squawking about "defamation of religion" in a seedy attempt to undermine freedom of expression. If this band of political bandits has its way, criticism of religious dogma would be virtually banned as an affront to human dignity. Curiously, only Islam is specifically mentioned in the draft resolution, released by UN Watch last week. Could this have anything to do with the fact that there are so many Muslim countries on the Human Rights Council? Want a laugh? The resolution includes the usual remarks about...

Human Rights Council Notes Children's Rights, Ignores Abortion Kills Children by Steven ErteltLifeNews.com Editor March 16, 2009 Email RSSPrint Geneva, Switzerland (LifeNews.com) -- The Human Rights Council (HRC) marked the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child last week, but a leading pro-life advocate says the human rights group ignored how abortion kills children. HRC supports children after birth but it has a long history of ignoring them beforehand.Pat Buckley, a lobbyist for the England-based Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, was in Geneva where he was lobbying the HRC to respect the lives...

Is freedom of speech in America threatened by the political mobilization of Islam? People who warn about threats to free speech usually like to shout about them—perhaps to show that they themselves won't submit to threats. I don't think America will face any shortage of people ready to shout about Islam or the Middle East or homeland security any time soon. But there are certainly ominous trends stirring in the world. Not shadowy extremists but representatives of actual governments—nearly 60, in fact— have demanded that Western nations suppress speech that casts Islam in a bad light. UN human rights agencies...

Two United Nations special rapporteurs said Tuesday they would investigate secret detention centres used by the CIA in counter-terrorism efforts. "We call on all governments to cooperate, not just in clarifying the facts, but in ensuring that such secret detention centres will no longer be used in the future," Manfred Nowak, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture said. Nowak and Martin Scheinin, Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter-terrorism will study locations alleged to have hosted such secret detention centres, including US military bases. Besides secret jails run by the CIA, the study would also probe alleged prisons run by...

GENEVA -- A U.N. human rights expert applauded the Obama administration Tuesday for pledging to turn a page in U.S. history by closing the Guantanamo Bay prison, but said the full extent of abuse at the camp needs to be revealed. "Before a page can be turned, we have to know what's on it in order to move forward," said Martin Scheinin, who reports to the United Nations on human rights in the international war on terror. Scheinin asked to be allowed into the camp to conduct private interviews with the remaining detainees. The Finnish law professor previously visited Guantanamo...

Over at Opposing Views, bioethicist Jacob Appel argues that pre-implantation genetic screening for severe disease mutations should be compulsory for parents undergoing IVF. Appell dodges one obvious criticism of this suggestion - that it unacceptably limits parental autonomy - by pointing out that "Western societies have long acknowledged that parental authority cannot undermine the medical interests of a child". As examples, Appell cites the facts that Jehovah's Witnesses cannot deny their own children blood transfusions, however strong their religious opposition, and that "American courts consistently compel pediatric cancer therapy, even when parents object". Given these precedents, Appell argues that allowing...

Elderly Chinese bishop imprisoned for three years is released Rome, Italy, Mar 6, 2009 / 12:46 pm (CNA).- Eighty five year-old Bishop Leon Yao Liang of Hebei has been reunited with his diocese after being held in prison for 30 months for belonging to the clandestine Catholic Church in China. The French ecumenical association Christian Action for the Abolition of Torture reported on the release of Bishop Yao, which took place at the end of January.The bishop has received the support of organizations and people around the world, who demanded that he be released. He enjoys good health, and although...

One of the few memorable lines in Barack Obama’s inaugural address, was a promise to “those who cling to power through corruption or deceit and the silencing of dissent … we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.” Well, that was before the $787 billion “stimulus” package, which is projected to push the FY 2009 deficit to a record $1.75 trillion - 12.3 percent of the economy, the highest share of the GDP ever since 1945. Now, America’s hand is indeed extended, but it’s not to offer help but to beg for it.

Obama throws Chinese human rights under the bus. Presidential candidate Barack Obama criticized President Bush's lack of progress on human rights. In paticular he criticized President Bush's decision to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Beijing. He said,"In the absence of some sense of progress, in the absence of some sense from the Dalai Lama that there was progress, I would not have gone," the presidential candidate told reporters at a news conference. Barack Obama also said,"It strikes me that although some meetings have been taking place, that we were not aggressive in encouraging the Chinese government to...

My suggestion to Secretary of State Clinton? Why don't you scratch the "global climate change crisis" baloney out of your agenda and replace it with something that is far more realistic and important? President Bush used every chance that he had, including his trip to Beijing last August, to pressure Beijing on its human rights policies and so should you. While the effects may not be tangible, our pressure on Beijing regarding human rights does make a difference.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — On her first trip to China as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton downplayed the Asia giant's human rights record and instead emphasized concerns over global warming and the world economy. Virginia Republican Congressman Frank R. Wolf has drafted a stinging letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton chiding her for diminishing the importance of human rights when dealing with China. Clinton, while stopping in Seoul, South Korea as part of a four-country tour to Asia, told reporters Feb. 20 that other issues were more pressing than human rights. “Successive administrations and Chinese governments have been poised...

As U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton started the China leg of her inaugural trip on Feb. 20, petitioners from all over China gathered in Beijing to use the event as another opportunity to make themselves heard. Because of the coming Chinese National Congress, many petitioners have recently returned to Beijing. But many of them have changed their strategy this year—instead of going through the normal channels such as visiting the appeals office or delivering their letters to Supreme Courts, which have netted no results—they now have taken to organized actions. On Feb. 20, a “Rights Protection Walk” was organized...

Beijing (AsiaNews/CHRD) - Some dissidents and human rights activists, many of them signers of Charter 08, have been put under house arrest and are under pressure just as Hillary Clinton arrives in Beijing.

It's a bad day when a leftist President pisses off a leftist group! Who knew? The most Liberal President Senator angers one of the most Liberal world orgainizations! Amnesty International is "shocked"! Well, we're not! Duh! This is the change you voted for you idiot radical moonbats! What did you think you were getting! From AFP: WASHINGTON (AFP) – Amnesty International and a pro-Tibet group voiced shock Friday after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton vowed not to let human rights concerns hinder cooperation with China.

At a private White House cocktail reception last night for leaders of major progressive groups, Barack Obama and his wife Michelle appealed to these leaders and signaled that their groups would play a key role in driving the big progressive changes at the heart of the White House’s legislative agenda, an attendee tells me. The message was that these groups would be valuable as a kind of progressive outside “echo chamber,” as the attendee puts it. The party — which was organized by top Obama aide Valerie Jarrett — signals that the White House is moving forward with efforts to...

Shocked huh? Well get used to it my misguided, liberal, nutroot friends. Obama's foreign policy is modeled after China's. Which is to say, it is a policy without demands of morality, civility or humanity. It is a policy of economics without strings attached. Hillary's stance on China is just the tip of the Iceberg. See Obama's stance on Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, etc... Read more..

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Amnesty International and a pro-Tibet group voiced shock Friday after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton vowed not to let human rights concerns hinder cooperation with China.

Washington's "war on terror" after the September 11 attacks has eroded human rights worldwide, creating lingering cynicism that the United Nations must now combat, international law experts said on Monday. Mary Robinson, who was the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights when al Qaeda militants flew hijacked planes into the World Trade Centre and Pentagon in 2001, said the United States caused harm with some of the ways it responded. "Seven years after 9/11 it is time to take stock and repeal abusive laws and policies," the former Irish president said, warning that harsh U.S. detentions and interrogations in Iraq,...

BEIJING -- China claimed victory Thursday after a U.N. panel examined its human rights record and found it to be on track, despite complaints over abuses including Beijing's use of labor camps and widespread allegations of police torture. Commenting on a U.N. human rights report published Wednesday, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said most countries had endorsed China's rights record - and those that did not were simply politicizing the process. "A majority of countries spoke highly of China's human rights policies and achievements, and support China continuing the followed path in line with its national conditions," Jiang said at...

Palestinian Muslims war crimes and anti Israel bias & Jihadists-appeasement among "human rights" NGO groups Hamas war crimes? Obviously (b'tzelem). So blame the victim http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/3327751/hamas-war-crimes-obviously-so-blame-the-victim.thtmlIt’s because the war crimes by Hamas are too obvious. 'No need to probe Hamas because its war crimes are so blatant' Jerusalem Post http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1233304687815&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFullNew Gaza study: Extreme NGO anti-Israel bias Ynetnews http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3667108,00.html

Cardinal Bertone says 'God is source and guarantor of all rights' Madrid, Feb 7, 2009 / 12:04 am (CNA).- The Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, said this week, “When the Magisterium of the Church speaks about human rights she does not forget to base them on God, the source and guarantor of all rights, nor does she forget to root them in the natural law.” During a speech marking the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at the offices of the Bishops’ Conference of Spain in Madrid, the cardinal recalled, “The source of rights is...