Human Rights

By Tharanga Yakupitiyage | (Inter Press Service) | – – John Ging, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs briefs journalists on his recent trip to Yemen. UN Photo/Rick Bajornas John Ging, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs briefs journalists on his recent trip to Yemen. UN Photo/Rick Bajornas UNITED NATIONS, May […]

Displaced and Refugees

Give Syria’s Survivors a Voice

contributors

By Hadeel al-Shalchi | ( Human Rights Watch ) | – – Twelve days ago Fatema Qaitani, a 35-year-old mother of four, was sitting in a tent teaching her daughter how to read when her life was changed forever. Fatema’s tent, one of many that sprang up in a camp for displaced Syrians on the […]

Human Rights

Yemen: Saudis Using US Cluster Munitions

contributors

Human Rights Watch | – – End Production, Transfer of These Banned Weapons (Washington, DC) – Saudi Arabia has used US-made cluster munitions near civilian areas in Yemen, leaving behind unexploded submunitions, Human Rights Watch said today. The United States should cease its production and transfer of cluster munitions to conform with the widely accepted […]

Republican Party

Trumping Terrorism with Torture?

contributors

By Rebecca Gordon | (Informed Comment) | – – Why do Republican candidates for the presidency keep promising to commit war crimes? Donald Trump guarantees he’ll torture terrorists and “take out their families.” Ted Cruz offers to carpet bomb ISIS (and anyone else in their vicinity) to oblivion. Even kindly pediatric neurosurgeon Ben Carson—when pressed […]

Human Rights Watch

UN must hold Perpetrators accountable for War Crime of Hospital Bombings: HRW

contributors

Human Rights Watch | – – An airstrike on April 27, 2016, that hit al-Quds Hospital and surrounding areas, killed 58 civilians, including medical staff and many patients, according to the Syrian Civil Defense, an opposition search-and-rescue volunteer group. On April 29, another airstrike hit a clinic in the opposition-held al-Marja neighborhood, injuring 10 people, […]

censorship

Egypt arrests Hundreds to Stop Protest, including Journalists, Lawyers

contributors

Human Rights Watch | – – (Beirut) – Egyptian security forces arrested at least 382 people in the days leading up to and during the dispersal of mostly peaceful protests on April 25, 2016. The protests followed a rare mass demonstration against President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo on April 15. Police arrested lawyers and […]

War

Globally, deaths from explosive weapons rise 54%, & 3/4s are Civilians

contributors

TeleSur | – – Civilian casualties from explosive weapons rose by 54 percent in 2015 compared to 2011. More than three-quarters of those harmed by explosive weapons in 2015— bombs, missiles and mortars— were civilians, with 30 of them killed on average every day, according to a new study from Action on Armed Violence or […]

Human Rights

Defeating ISIL in Iraq while Protecting Civilians: Don’t destroy Mosul to “Save” It

contributors

Human Rights Watch | – – (Beirut) – Iraqi government forces gearing up to drive Islamic State fighters from Mosul should prioritize protection of civilians. Hundreds of thousands of civilians remain in Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, which the extremist group Islamic State, also known as ISIS, took control of in June 2014. ISIS and pro-government […]

Bush

Not al-Qaeda: Abu Zubayda as Bush’s Mengele Experiment

contributors

By Rebecca Gordon | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – Intro: Rebecca Gordon catches the nightmarish quality of those [Bush] years, now largely buried, in the grim case of a single mistreated human being. It should make Americans shudder. She has also just published a new book, American Nuremberg: The U.S. Officials Who Should Stand Trial […]