Free Republic

March 03, 2011 HRW Founder Bernstein Starts Advancing Human Rights (AHR) Robert Bernstein, the founder and former chairman of Human Rights Watch who publicly renounced his ties with the organization due to distorted and disproportionate focus on free and open Israel at the expense of the rest of the Middle East -- mostly unfree -- has just launched a new human rights organization, Advancing Human Rights. Why the need for a new organization? Bernstein, 88, explains: Some human rights organizations, like Human Rights Watch, do not condemn incitement to genocide, Arab hate speech being spewed daily in Gaza, particularly, and...

(Snip) An estimated 200,000 people are trapped in a brutal system of political prison camps akin to Hitler's concentration camps and Stalin's gulag. Slave labor, horrific torture and bestial living conditions are now well-documented in numerous reports by human rights organizations, through the testimonies of survivors of these camps who have escaped. Although there is still a shroud of mystery surrounding North Korea, the world can no longer claim ignorance as an excuse. A growing number of North Korean defectors have shared their stories. Lee Sung Ae told British Parliament about how when she was jailed, all her finger-nails were...

Colleague tries to blackmail her into converting to Islam, marrying him. A Christian nurse here filed a police report on Saturday (Sept. 3) alleging she was raped by a Muslim colleague who filmed the act in an attempt to blackmail her into renouncing her faith and marrying him, she and hospital sources ... Christians have little legal or societal standing in Pakistan, and Muslim criminals tend to assume they will not be prosecuted if their victims are Christians. ... Although Shaista and her family have filed an FIR with police, getting justice without higher government help may be difficult

Mesbah-Yazdi, the theoretician of violence, gave a new speech at the end of Ramadan (end of August) in which he criticized the opinion of those people who claim Islam is based on generosity and respect for Human Rights. In this speech he said: “Democracy, Human Rights and the rights of citizenship have no place in Islam.” He continued that there is no room for freedom of speech and thought in Islam, and that Islam is based on strictness and violence. Muslims and those who convert to the religion of Islam must only adhere to the opinions of the leader of...

The majority of people feel upset and lonely when they are deprived of access to the internet, according to consumer research. A new study has revealed that 53 per cent feel upset when denied access and 40 per cent feel lonely if they are unable to go online. The research found that people experience these feelings even if denied online access for a short time. The scientists reported the volunteers told of physiological and physical symptoms comparable to addicts trying to quit smoking or drugs. These included feeling fidgety, anxious and isolated, and even reaching out for their mobile phone,...

A consultation paper to be launched within days will open up a debate on the future of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees "the right to a family life". Article 8 is increasingly being used by foreign criminals and illegal immigrants to dodge deportation. A highly-placed source told The Sunday Telegraph that the issue would be raised in a paper on immigration to be issued by Home Secretary Theresa May before Parliament breaks up for the summer. It comes as this newspaper can reveal that a new Article 8 test case has created a "loophole"...

On July 7, Humberto Leal Garcia, Jr is scheduled to die. He was convicted in a Texas court in 1994 of rape and murder–a capital offense for which he was sentenced to death. But this case is different from other Texas death penalty cases for the fact that Leal is a Mexican citizen. When he was arrested, he was denied the right under international law to contact the Mexican consulate. In 2004, Mexico sued the United States at the International Court of Justice for denying one of its citizens the his right under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. The...

Smuggled letters allege authorities are using mass rape as a weapon inside Iran's most notorious prisons. Prison guards in Iran are giving condoms to criminals and encouraging them to systematically rape young opposition activists locked up with them...authorities are intentionally facilitating mass rape and using it as a form of punishment. Mehdi Mahmoudian, an outspoken member of Iran's Participation Front, a reformist political party, is among those prisoners who have succeeded in smuggling out letters revealing the extent of rape inside some of the most notorious prisons. ... one young prisoner was raped seven times in a single night. "In...

Iran announced on Sunday that it has decided to bar a special United Nations (UN) human rights reporter from entering the country. The state-run Press TV reported that the Human Rights Committee of the Iranian Parliament (Majlis) decided to prevent the reporter from entering Iran, arguing that the UN does not monitor human rights violations in Western countries. "The United States, Israel and the UK are the biggest violators of human rights in the world and the United Nations Human Rights Committee should send their reporters to those countries instead of Iran," member of the Majlis National Security and Foreign...

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has turned a blind eye to most of the world’s worst abusers, UN Watch has found. In an exhaustive study, the watchdog group examined all statements by Pillay published on the UN website between September 2008 and June 2010. The findings show “a questionable sense of priorities,” the group reported. “Ms. Pillay turned a blind eye to most of the world’s worst abusers… She failed to voice any concern for victims in 34 countries rated ‘Not Free’ by Freedom House—meaning those with the worst records, and the most needy victims.” Syria was...

The Internet is a fundamental human right, a United Nations report released on Friday proclaims -- a statement that resonates all the more in the wake of the recent revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt and the ongoing uprisings and protests in the Middle East and North Africa. The Internet, and sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, played a huge role in helping protesters organize and spread information, and also in spreading the word about what was going on around the world. Says the UN report on the "promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression": The...

Saudi authorities have re-arrested an activist who defied a ban on female drivers in the conservative kingdom, a security official said Monday... Through Facebook, the campaigners set June 17 as the day all women should drive their cars. The page, called "Teach me how to drive so I can protect myself," was removed after more than 12,000 people indicated their support for the call. The campaign's Twitter account also was deactivated. Al-Sherif was detained for several hours on Saturday by the country's religious police and released after she signed a pledge agreeing not to drive. ...Khobar prison chief Ayoub ben...

Lawyers for the suspected al-Qaida mastermind of the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole said Tuesday they have filed a case against Poland at Europe's court of human rights over alleged abuse against him at a CIA-run site in that country about eight years ago. The Open Society Justice Initiative, a New York-based human rights group, and lawyers for Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri are challenging Poland for "active complicity" in the extraordinary rendition program carried out under then-President George W. Bush. The case filed with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, seeks in part to press Poland...

When Lara Logan traveled to Egypt to cover the Tahrir Square protests, she was unaware that she was going to be working in a country where sexual harassment rates of women and especially foreign women are so high as to be universal. In a politically correct profession, such truths are politically incorrect. And even now all of the coverage studiously avoids mentioning one dangerous word. Islam. Muslim rape culture did not begin in Tahrir Square and it won't end there. Not when it actually began in the year 624 when Mohammed came up with an ingenious means of rewarding his...

Via Greg Hengler, why would an American cap a three-day visit to Kim Jong-Il’s national gulag by accusing the U.S. of human rights violations? Well, much like Superman, Carter’s more a “citizen of the world” now than part of the country he used to lead. In fact, he wasn’t there on behalf of the State Department but as part of a delegation from “The Elders,” an elite team of ex-statesmen who travel the world sharing the sort of wisdom that’s made “Jimmy Carter” synonymous with successful foreign policy ideas here at home. Kim wouldn’t meet with them, incidentally, for reasons...

The brutal crackdown by Syrian President Bashar Assad may finally be getting the attention of world leaders -- but apparently not enough to stop Syria from becoming the newest member of the U.N. Human Rights Council. And despite calling for an independent investigation into the crackdown, which has left hundreds dead, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon apparently won’t do much about blocking Syria’s path to the human rights group. "That's not really for the secretary general to suggest to a member state," said Martin Nesirky, a spokesman for the secretary-general, when asked if the U.N. chief would ask Syria to drop...

Why should a little slaughter prevent Syria from ascending to a seat on the prestigious UN Human Rights Council? In a move reminiscent of his brutal father, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has dispatched his armed forces to try to snuff out the country’s five-week-old democratic uprising. Thousands of Syrian troops backed by tanks and armoured personnel carriers stormed the southern city of Daraa on Monday, killing as many as 25 people, witnesses said. It was the first time the Syrian regime has resorted to such extreme measures against civilians in the current crisis. “This is monumental,” said Barry Rubin,...

On the fortieth anniversary of the gruesome murders of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and seven other victims, mass murderer Charles Manson granted an interview. Charlie was convicted and sentenced to death for these murders, though he boasted of many more. But after one of several court decisions ruling the death penalty unconstitutional, Charlie was resentenced to life imprisonment. He continues to reside as a guest of the State of California, as do other members of his “family.” Manson rambled on about global warming, protecting nature, and various topics including theology. Typically, the college-educated are more likely to substitute environmentalism for...

NEW YORK/ISLAMABAD/KARACHI: The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Pakistan`s National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW), Insani Huqooq Ittehad (IHI) comprising 10 NGOs and other women and human rights organisation have expressed “deep shock” and “disappointment” at the Supreme Court verdict acquitting the accused who had raped Mukhtar Mai about nine years ago. “This is a setback for Mukhtar Mai, the broader struggle to end violence against women and the cause of an independent rights-respecting judiciary in Pakistan,” the HRW said in a statement and urged the government to ensure her safety. It said that any argument...

Germany’s Parliament says its human rights committee is protesting the conditions in which a United States Army private suspected of giving classified material to WikiLeaks is being detained.