23 posts tagged “human rights”
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UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Alone among major Western nations, the United States has refused to sign a declaration presented Thursday at the United Nations calling for worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality.
US balks at backing condemnation of anti-gay laws
By DAVID CRARY – December 19, 2008
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Alone among major Western nations, the United States has refused to sign a declaration presented Thursday at the United Nations calling for worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality.
In all, 66 of the U.N.'s 192 member countries signed the nonbinding declaration — which backers called a historic step to push the General Assembly to deal more forthrightly with any-gay discrimination. More than 70 U.N. members outlaw homosexuality, and in several of them homosexual acts can be punished by execution.
Co-sponsored by France and the Netherlands, the declaration was signed by all 27 European Union members, as well as Japan, Australia, Mexico and three dozen other countries. There was broad opposition from Muslim nations, and the United States refused to sign, indicating that some parts of the declaration raised legal questions that needed further review...
According to some of the declaration's backers, U.S. officials expressed concern in private talks that some parts of the declaration might be problematic in committing the federal government on matters that fall under state jurisdiction. In numerous states, landlords and private employers are allowed to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation; on the federal level, gays are not allowed to serve openly in the military.
Carolyn Vadino, a spokeswoman for the U.S. mission to the U.N., stressed that the United States — despite its unwillingness to sign — condemned any human rights violations related to sexual orientation.
Gay rights activists nonetheless were angered by the U.S. position...
The number of reported attacks against LGBT people increased 24 percent in 2007 over 2006, and they were expected to jump in 2008, said Sharon Stapel, executive director of the New York City Anti-Violence Project.
Anti-gay violence feared rising
By The Associated Press
12.15.2008 10:35am EST
(New York City) A rash of attacks against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people across the country - including the severe beating of a New York man whose attackers believed he was gay - suggests the number of reported assaults could rise in 2008, an advocacy group said.
The number of reported attacks against LGBT people increased 24 percent in 2007 over 2006, and they were expected to jump in 2008, said Sharon Stapel, executive director of the New York City Anti-Violence Project.
Officials were still crunching the 2008 figures, which will be released next spring, Stapel said.
The baseball bat murder of Ecuadorean immigrant Jose Sucuzhanay in New York on Sunday was the latest in a number of reported assaults, said the project, which coordinates organizations that document violence against LGBT and HIV-positive people. The attack left Sucuzhanay, 31, brain dead.
Since the February fatal shooting of Lawrence King, a 15-year-old Los Angeles boy who endured harassment after telling classmates he was gay, “we are witnessing what appears to be an increase in both the occurrence and severity of violence motivated by racism, homophobia, and transphobia,” said Stapel.
Stapel attributed the increase in part to more people reporting incidents, but she believed there actually could have been more assaults because 2008 was an election year.
“Election years are always violent years for us because of wedge issues,” Stapel said, referring to ballot measures this year banning gay marriage in California and Florida. “With increased visibility comes increased vulnerability to LGBT stereotypes and violence. We’ve seen some of the most violent hate crimes that we’ve seen in a while.”
In the case of Lawrence King, one of his classmates was charged as an adult in the slaying, which prosecutors classified as a hate crime.
Other incidents include the discovery of Angie Zapata’s body in July in her apartment in Greeley, Colo. Zapata, 18, was a transgender woman. Police have charged a man with murder as a hate crime in her death.
In June, a surveillance tape was publicized showing Memphis, Tenn., police officers beating Duanna Johnson, a transgendered woman, and shouting slurs in a jail booking area; a public outcry erupted. Johnson was found fatally shot on a Memphis street in November.
Also in New York City, police arrested four teenagers on charges of assaulting a priest outside a shelter he ran for homeless transgender youths in July. Witnesses said the four teens had harassed and taunted residents with homophobic slurs and insults before the assault.
“I expect the number will increase from 2007 to 2008,” Stapel said. “I hope I’m wrong about that.”
Zimbabwe collapses
Dominic Mahlangu, Nkululeko Ncana and Moses Mudzwiti
Published:Dec 05, 2008
South Africa plans more aid as Zimbabwe falls apart
The government is planning a massive humanitarian intervention in Zimbabwe as fears grow that the country is about to collapse.
President Kgalema Motlanthe’s cabinet will today unveil a plan for rescuing the country, which is buckling under the weight of a shattered economy, food shortages, a cholera outbreak and rioting soldiers.
South Africa believes that Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe has lost control.
A South African government official said: “That is why we are moving in. To help some government institutions to provide basic services. Mugabe has lost control. He has lost power. It’s just a matter of time before the country implodes. He cannot support his own people and that is a danger for the region.”
The Zimbabwean government yesterday took the unusual step of asking for international help — something it has been loath to do during previous crises — and declared the cholera outbreak a national emergency.
The World Health Organisation said more than 560 people have died of cholera in Zimbabwe since last month. A further 12000 are said to be infected, and there are signs that the epidemic is spreading to South Africa and other parts of Southern Africa.
Zimbabwe has been hit by a series of riots, some involving the army, caused by the acute shortage of money...
Details of the government’s plans for Zimbabwe will be revealed at a press conference to be addressed by Maseko and Public Enterprises director-general Portia Molefe this morning.
The Times understands that, among the measures being considered are sending food, medical personnel and other resources.
Zimbabwean government spokesman George Charamba told The Times that Mugabe’s regime would accept South Africa’s help...
...The 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence (25 November – 10 December) is an annual campaign that is symbolic of the global women’s movement and end-violence networks. Its starting day, 25 November, is observed each year to honour the Mirabal sisters, three political activists from the Dominican Republic who were assassinated on the same date in 1961. The end of the 16 Days is marked by 10 December, International Human Rights Day...
From the Center for Women's Global Leadership (link above):
The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence is an international campaign originating from the first Women's Global Leadership Institute sponsored by the Center for Women's Global Leadership in 1991. Participants chose the dates, November 25, International Day Against Violence Against Women and December 10, International Human Rights Day, in order to symbolically link violence against women and human rights and to emphasize that such violence is a violation of human rights. This 16-day period also highlights other significant dates including November 29, International Women Human Rights Defenders Day, December 1, World AIDS Day, and December 6, which marks the Anniversary of the Montreal Massacre.
The 16 Days Campaign has been used as an organizing strategy by individuals and groups around the world to call for the elimination of all forms of violence against women by:
- raising awareness about gender-based violence as a human rights issue at the local, national, regional and international levels
- strengthening local work around violence against women
- establishing a clear link between local and international work to end violence against women
- providing a forum in which organizers can develop and share new and effective strategies
- demonstrating the solidarity of women around the world organizing against violence against women
- creating tools to pressure governments to implement promises made to eliminate violence against women
HRC - The Human Rights Campaign Foundation has released it's "Buying for Equality Guide" for 2009
...The Human Rights Campaign Foundation's Buying for Equality guide will help you easily support companies that support equality for LGBT Americans.
Ratings in Buying for Equality are based on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation's annual report card, the Corporate Equality Index. A record 260 businesses scored 100 percent on this year's report, which is a significant increase from the 195 businesses that earned a perfect score last year. From enhanced domestic partner benefits to transgender inclusion in non-discrimination policies, we are seeing a revolution in the American workplace.
Download the guide here: Buying for Equality 2009 - pdf
Zimbabwe opposition won't be at summit with Mugabe
By DONNA BRYSON – 58 minutes ago
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) — Zimbabwe's opposition leaders boycotted a regional summit Monday, arguing the session was too limited to "knock sense" into Robert Mugabe and make a proposed unity government a reality.
Soon after the opposition's chief negotiator, Tendai Biti, appeared at a news conference in South Africa, leaders from South Africa, Angola, Botswana, Congo and Mozambique gathered in Swaziland. They were meeting as a committee of the main regional bloc, the 12-member Southern African Development Community, or SADC, to try to resolve Zimbabwe's political impasse. But Biti was dismissive.
"Going to Swaziland now won't resolve anything," Biti said. "Which is why we're calling for a full SADC summit."
A spokesman for Zimbabwean President Mugabe, who attended Monday's meeting, was not immediately available for comment on the opposition's boycott. Arthur Mutambara, leader of a smaller Zimbabwean opposition faction, attended the meeting but told reporters it was only to insist that no progress could be made without main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
Mugabe and Tsvangirai signed a power-sharing deal last month but are deadlocked over how to allocate ministries in a 31-member unity Cabinet...
...more questions were raised when Tsvangirai, who was awaiting a new passport after filling all the pages in his previous one, had to fight for travel documents to go to Swaziland. Biti said Tsvangirai was given an emergency travel document over the weekend, but said he considered that an "insult."
"The issue of a passport is a mere symptom," Biti said. "The real problem (is) there is no readiness on the part of ZANU-PF to engage in a cooperative government with Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC..
...Zimbabwe faces the world's worst inflation, a looming humanitarian emergency and worsening shortages of food, gasoline and most basic goods. The economy had been a major factor in a March presidential election Tsvangirai won.
Tsvangirai, however, did not receive enough votes according to the official count to avoid a runoff. Tsvangirai withdrew from the June runoff after an onslaught of violence on his supporters blamed on police, soldiers and Mugabe party militants. Mugabe went ahead with a runoff observers at home and abroad denounced as a sham, and was declared the overwhelming winner.
Associated Press Writer Thulani Mthetwa in Swaziland contributed to this report.
This episode features couples who are part of a lawsuit in Maryland seeking to overturn state law that bars lesbians and gay men from marriage. Despite being in committed relationships, they lack the hundreds of legal protections afforded to heterosexual married couples, and must worry about how to look after their families without these protections. In courageously taking their fight for civil liberties to the public arena, they seek to change a system that unfairly harms same-sex couples and their families.
EU slams Mugabe, threatens new sanctions against Zimbabwe
2 hours ago
LUXEMBOURG (AFP) — The EU on Monday condemned Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's "unilateral decision" to form a new government and threatened fresh sanctions unless he respects a power-sharing deal.
European Union foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg slammed, in a joint statement, "the unilateral decision to form a new government which has not been agreed by all parties."
They said they were "ready to consider additional measures" if the power-sharing deal agreed last month by Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai continues to be blocked...
...British Foreign Secretary David Miliband condemned Mugabe's "attempted power grab."
"I think it is very important that a European signal goes out that we will have no part, and play no part in supporting a power grab by the Mugabe regime," Miliband told reporters.
He added that it was important that there be "an international united response that says that the results of the (Zimbabwean) elections need to be respected and that a power grab will not be respected...
...Zimbabwean state media announced two days earlier that Mugabe had decided to give his own party all key cabinet posts, prompting opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai to threaten to pull out of the deal.
Under the power-sharing deal signed four weeks ago, 84-year-old Mugabe retains the presidency while Tsvangirai takes the new post of prime minister.
But the agreement hit a deadlock when the two men could not agree on how to divide the most important cabinet positions, including defence, home affairs and finance...
...The Europeans also voiced concern at "the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe" and called on the authorities there to allow unrestricted humanitarian access...
...Some 168 members of the Zimbabwe regime, including Mugabe and his wife Grace, are banned from entering EU nations and their European assets have been frozen...
