Human rights are for all: Response to media article

Amnesty International is being accused in a media article today of putting the human rights of some people above those of others. This is not, and has never been, true. Implicit in the accusation, is the view that we should choose those whose rights we promote. We reject this view utterly.

Amnesty International campaigns for all internationally recognised human rights for all people – it is not about their views, their political opinions, their actions – it’s about upholding the universality of human rights: these are the inalienable rights of all human beings. As part and parcel of promoting human rights, we also have a long history of demanding that those who perpetrate human rights abuses be brought to justice – whoever they may be. We make this call because victims deserve to see justice done, to know that the harm done to them has been exposed and to seek reparations.

Whenever Amnesty International accuses governments or other actors of committing human rights violations – based on our research – they typically make one of two defences. Either the violation never happened, for example, denying the existence of secret detention facilities or that the victim got what he or she “deserved.”

When the US government defended its detention of people it suspected as terrorists in Guantánamo Bay, then President Bush famously described the detainees as the “worst of the worst.” Translation – these men got what they deserved. They got years of detention, torture and ill-treatment, solitary confinement, complete isolation from the world and of course, no means to defend themselves against the charge of being the “worst of the worst”.

Amnesty International responded to President Bush’s claims by calling on the US authorities to either try them in a court of law in proceedings that met international standards for fair trial or release them. In a tacit acknowledgement that they got it wrong, the US authorities have released more than 500 detainees without bringing charges.

One of those who was released without charge, and has never been convicted of terrorist-related offences, is Moazzam Begg. Following his release in 2005, Amnesty International met him to discuss his experiences. Moazzam Begg’s account is consistent with the testimony of other detainees about human rights violations. He has since spoken at Amnesty International events describing his experiences and highlighting the plight of detainees who remain in Guantánamo and the need for accountability for human rights violations.

A European tour is currently underway as part of a campaign to encourage more EU countries to accept former Guantánamo detainees.

The tour was initiated by Reprieve and the Centre for Constitutional Rights but a number of Amnesty International national sections are hosting the tour in different European countries.

Tomorrow, Moazzam Begg will speaking alongside Amnesty International, speaking specifically on behalf of those detainees in need of protection in a third country.

Today, Amnesty International is being criticised for speaking alongside him and for being “soft” on the Taleban, when our record is one of unreserved opposition to their abuses over the years.

Interestingly, the US and other governments that have violated human rights standards in the name of countering terrorism justify those violations by saying that our security can only be protected by violating the rights of others. Mr Begg is one of the people that the US government defined as “other.”

But there is no place for the “other” in human rights because to argue that some people are more ‘deserving’ than others of having their rights protected is to argue that some beings are less than human.

Widney Brown, Senior Director for International Law and Policy, Amnesty International – International Secretariat.

Source: http://agora-dialogue.com/?p=3477

Shocking abuse statistics

MORE than 600 sex assaults were committed against children in the Avon and Somerset police force area last year.

New figures show there were 628 sex offences against young people – nine involved three-year-old toddlers and 14 involved children aged four to nine.

But ChildLine has warned that many more child sex attacks may be going unreported.

South West assistant director Denise Robertson said: “Sex attacks on young people happen a lot more than communities think.

“There is a clear misconception that the abuse is carried out by a stranger, but this is rarely the case.

“What we know is abuse against children is actually mostly carried out by someone the victim knows or is related to.”

The NSPCC statistics, obtained from every police force, showed there were 60 sex offences against children reported in the UK every day.

The young people were victims of sex crimes including rape, gross indecency and incest on 21,818 occasions.

Anyone wanting to report child abuse should call ChildLine on 0800 1111.

* On Monday, an NSPCC aerobathon will take place at Parish Wharf Leisure Centre in Portishead and Clevedon’s Strode Leisure Centre.

The UK-wide event is being held to raise money for the Child’s Voice Appeal, which is aimed at expanding the South West ChildLine call centre in Exeter.

The sponsored, two-hour workout will be led by qualified instructors from 6-8pm.

To register for the event visit www.nspcc.org.uk/aerobathon or call 01823 346346.

Source:  The Weston Mercury

Our Child and the Courtroom: Do They Have Real Justice?

by Sunday Standard Reporter

The early 1990s marked a change in our recognition of children’s rights, including the ratification of both the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the rights and welfare of the child, by our government.

It was around this time that Childline Botswana, an organization that is aimed at protecting children from abuse and promoting children’s rights, was born. The preceding noise to these developments is well known to most Batswana.

Suddenly there was a group of people who said children had rights and what more the government was in support of that! Can the situation be more preposterous than that? That was the general feeling among the very conservative Tswana adult population of that time.

The recognition of children’s rights was established by the declaration on the rights of children by the League of Nations in 1924. It was, however, not until later years that countries made strides towards the promotion of children’s rights as is the case with Botswana.

A democratic society is that which protects its citizenry as best as possible and that, no doubt, is dependent on the justice system. I do not have a legal background but my take is that our justice system is fairly efficient.

We all know of senior members of our communities who have been dragged before our courts of law and some have even served time behind bars. That situation is so highly unlikely if not outright impossible in some of our African counterparts and that is one of the reasons why I am so proud to be a Motswana.

Childline is dedicated to providing a voice for voiceless children and it is for this reason that there is a need to look further into our justice system and try to find out if it is as friendly to our children as I suppose it is for the rest of the citizenry.
I mean, I can only imagine the trauma that violated children have to go through, and add that to vigorous court appearances. It is no doubt traumatizing to adults.

The courtroom, the robes, the legal jargon, how does our justice system try to make things easy for our little ones?

Punitive measures against culprits serve many reasons one of which is incapability of the offender to commit crime during their period of incarceration. Locking up a pedophile automatically protects a potential child victim during the pedophile’s period of incarceration, no doubt about that.

But how do we only attain justice for that violated little soul?
Emily Ruhukwa of Ditshwanelo highlighted the limitations of the justice system to the fact that the justice system, especially with regards to the trial process is about one person’s word against another. When it comes to children it may get even trickier.

Imagine a little girl who is violated for years and they can not say anything because they fear for their own safety and that of their own families. And when they do say it out who is going to believe their word against that of the respectable gentleman, they often wonder. Somehow these issues, however, find a way to come out and when they do it is all about proof as is the norm with any other case.

I do not have any problem with the request for proof. In fact, the next worse thing to violating that little purity is wrongful imprisonment! However let us look at the criminal justice process.

A little girl has been raped, (I am not being a feminist by referring to the girl child regularly, merely reflecting on our society). She goes on to tell her parents who take her to a police station, where she will be questioned by police officers, who then transport her to a nearest medical facility for examination.

After the examination, she leaves with the family back home. A social worker is then engaged to accompany the child to court. The next time the issue is talked about is when the officers come to inform the family about the trial date, where the child may come face to face with their violator.

They then have to relieve their story to a courtroom full of strangers before undergoing a vigorous cross examination from the defense lawyer.

The procedure may be that the child undergoes therapy to help prepare them for court, but the sad truth is that it is only in a few instances that that actually happens.

In my opinion, the major reason is the lack of enough child protection institutions in the country and any of the requirements are the social workers’ responsibility whom by some’s own confession are overworked or are not fully equipped to deal with that.
Are our social workers fully equipped to offer therapy? That notwithstanding, let us say there is so much irrefutable proof and the perpetrator is locked away. Great news right?

Well, the little girl has been traumatized to unimaginable levels and do we imagine that only time will heal her wounds? Add the fact that she had to relive her nightmare to a room full of adult strangers for that perpetrator to be locked away.

At my age, I still shudder at the thought of going through that and I can only imagine for that child who is yet to enjoy life’s pleasures and who had her childhood yanked away from her forever. Do we have any structures to help the children deal with their experience after the criminal justice system has played its part? If there is, it certainly is not implemented.

The new Children’s Act is an impressive piece of legislation by all standards. The concern is who are the implementers? Do they fully understand what is required of them as primary bodies responsible for the implementation? I hope our leaders address this problem, because without thorough knowledge of the law by those who are supposed to implement it, we might as well have stuck to our 1984 act!

Catch the live discussion on this topic on Saturday 13th February 2010 on RB2 from 12:30 hrs!!

Source:  http://sundaystandard.info/news/news_item.php?NewsID=6889&GroupID=2

Brainwashing America’s Youth: Obama Uses Public Schools To Indoctrinate Students; Required Reading: Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals”

by Liz Blaine

Like all radicals in positions of power, President Obama’s army of citizen volunteers, Organizing for America, is recruiting high school students as interns to organize the President’s agenda in the 2010 election cycle. I quote,

“Organizing for America, the successor organization to Obama for America, is building on the movement that elected President Obama by empowering students across the country to help us bring about our agenda”

Pam Geller at Atlas Shrugs reports on students at Perry Local High School  in Massillon, Ohio who were given propaganda recruiting papers in government class to enlist students to sign up as interns for Obama’s Organizing for America.

With weekly curricula titled “Strategizing for Effective Change,” “Managing Events,” and “Working With The Media” one wonders exactly what training the students will receive. But you needn’t wonder much further than the next page of the application.

The shocking list of recommended reading during the internship includes

Mom charged in son’s death made cult abuse claims

NEW YORK — A woman charged with murdering her 8-year-old son in a luxury Manhattan hotel was once detained by police in Wyoming after claiming the boy was being molested by devil worshippers.

Cheyenne Detective Tom Hood told the New York Post that Gigi Jordan wrote letters to a sex crimes investigator more than two years ago saying that her autistic son was being abused by a cult.

Hood says that when she flew to the area, they detained her for psychiatric evaluation but then released her. An examination of the boy showed no signs of abuse.

The boy was found dead Friday. Police said it appeared he died of a drug overdose in a murder-suicide attempt by Jordan.

Jordan’s ex-husband says he’s shocked by the accusations and she appeared to be a devoted mother.