Human Rights

The re-release of a May 2004 internal CIA report on the agency’s secret detention and interrogation program was again delayed this afternoon, CNN reports. The document has been requested by the ACLU as part of its ongoing Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.  It is a report regarding then CIA inspector general John L. Helgerson’s May […]

This post can also be found on FPA’s Latin America Blog. It came as no surprise to those who knew about the past rights abuses by Iran’s government when many Iranians, especially young Iranians, took to the streets in the last two weeks and were met with brutal retribution affecting every sector of Iran’s vibrant […]

An African Union summit will bring African heads of state together tomorrow in Libya; in anticipation 8 human rights organizations  yesterday called on the AU to ensure that Senegal prosecutes former Chadian dictator Hissène Habré for crimes against humanity and torture. Habré, dubbed the “African Pinochet”, ruled Chad from 1982 until 1990; a Truth Commission […]

About two weeks ago John Vidal of the Guardian newspaper wrote that conflicts will increase as government backed companies in the scramble for resources push into territories contested by indigenous people.  About a week before his article, something extraordinary had happened. Peru sent in heavily armed police to clear away some 2000 Aguarana and Wampi Indians […]

Mexico’s midterm election for its Chamber of Deputies, six governors and mayors and local legislators in 11 states will be held next Sunday July 5. The governing National Action Party (PAN) has  deployed an agressive campaign that attempts to turn the elections  into a referendum on  President  Felipe Calderón’s war against the drug cartels: either […]

Human trafficking is the worlds fastest growing industry, according to the 2009 State Department Trafficking in Persons Report over 80% of those victimized by transnational trafficking are women and children. According to the International Labor Organization (End of Child Labor Within Reach 2006), each year, some 1.2 million children are trafficked for the purposes of […]

Throughout the war with Iraq  under the Bush administration, the question of torture seemed to provoke the basest of sensibilities.  On the one hand were the Jack Bauer types who believe in the ticking bomb scenario, on the other, are the Geneva Conventions, the War Crimes Act, and let’s face it – what’s left of […]

The freedom of expression and press has long been a contentious issue in Georgia where journalists, both Georgian and foreign, are facing intimidation, threats, and beatings.  Reporters without Borders ranks Georgia 120 on the press freedom index scale, worse than Sierra Leone and only one up from Algeria. And Saakashvili’s government is fully aware of it.  […]

On June 16, 2009, the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons within the U.S. Department of State released the Trafficking in Persons Report 2009, which describes foreign governments’ efforts to eliminate human trafficking. You can download the report from the following here. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, alongside leaders in Congress, announced […]

Update – Five men in ski masks entered Norwegian journalist’s Ragnar Skre‘s apartment at around 22:00 last night in Tbilisi.  According to my contact, a police officer who arrived at the scene said it was just a robbery while another police officer said it was because he was a journalist.  After the beating, the five […]

I received a disturbing email from a human rights activist contact inside Georgia.  He forwarded the following email from freelance Norwegian journalist Ragnar Skre: I was attacked – two hours after I sent this. Masked men with guns. How can I contact you? I called your mobile, talked to probably your son, now there is no […]

Few of us are shocked by the mention of porn, or even blink at the mention of internet porn, not for the fact that one likes it presence, but the mention of child porn is another story in its own self. Yet while we are shocked and outraged by its existence it is the widest […]