Inter Press Service (IPS) Human Rights Feed

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One world, one humanity, now one court to defend its rights. Another step towards universal human rights, but not remotely a step far enough. The United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights more than half a century ago, but that has done little to stop violations the world over, just as the Geneva Convention has not protected prisoners of war enough. Democracy itself and the freedom it presupposes has not been protective enough. This is the century to move from politicisation of human rights towards humanising political ways. IPS keeps an eye on that difficult path.
URL: http://ipsnews.net/human.asp
Updated: 3 hours 38 min ago

DEVELOPMENT: Cambodia Mulls Affirmative Action for Women

13 September 2010 - 10:56pm
Cambodian authorities must take sweeping measures to boost the number of women who sit in parliament if the country is to meet a key part of its global commitment to gender equality, advocates say.
Categories: , Human Rights

NEPAL: Adoption Suspension Leaves Children in Limbo

13 September 2010 - 10:14pm
A big question marks looms over the future of many Nepali children in various child homes in the country in the wake of the suspension by 11 countries of their child adoption programmes for this Himalayan nation.
Categories: , Human Rights

POLITICS: Cautious Optimism on Arms Trafficker's Extradition to U.S.

13 September 2010 - 6:50pm
In the shadowy global network of arms traffickers, Victor Bout enjoyed a special place, according to Western intelligence sources. He was the poster boy, the kingpin, the lord of this deadly illegal trade.
Categories: , Human Rights

U.N. Chief Returns from "Damage Control" Trip to Rwanda

13 September 2010 - 2:01pm
U.N Secretary General Ban Ki-moon returned Thursday from what has been described as a damage control trip to Rwanda, in an attempt to reassure President Paul Kagame that his concerns over the recently leaked Mapping Exercise report are being heard.
Categories: , Human Rights

Kenyan Women Sceptical Over Constitution's Promise

13 September 2010 - 11:13am
Charity Karemi operates a pay-phone booth and sells mobile phone scratch cards in a Nairobi suburb east of the capital. She has mixed expectations of the benefits she will gain from Kenya's new constitution.
Categories: , Human Rights

Scarce Water Diverted by Greased Palms

13 September 2010 - 7:27am
The battle to resolve the global water crisis is being grossly undermined by bad governance: bribery, extortion, embezzlement and high-level corruption.
Categories: , Human Rights

Rendition Suit Heads for U.S. High Court

13 September 2010 - 6:49am
In a move legal experts are calling unusual, the one-vote court majority that tossed out the lawsuit brought by five men who claim they were tortured under the "extraordinary rendition" programme of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency departed from customary practice in suggesting several other ways the victims might obtain justice.
Categories: , Human Rights

Mexico in Debt to the Disabled

13 September 2010 - 2:49am
Ángel Valencia was admitted to a psychiatric hospital in Mexico four years ago with a bipolar disorder. Today, after treatment, he is back in society and is an activist with the Washington-based organisation Disability Rights International.
Categories: , Human Rights

INDIA: Gov't Hems and Haws Over ‘Honour Killings'

12 September 2010 - 5:36pm
Instances of ‘honour killings' in Indian communities still steeped in traditional beliefs continue unabated. Yet the government has not enacted tougher laws that will deal a decisive blow against this societal scourge.
Categories: , Human Rights

RIGHTS-CHILE: No Dialogue in Mapuche Conflict

12 September 2010 - 1:59pm
The Chilean government is pushing through legal reforms in an attempt to bring to an end a nearly two month hunger strike by 34 Mapuche indigenous prisoners. But it is failing to address two critical aspects of the conflict: the lack of effective dialogue and a failure to recognise it as a political problem.
Categories: , Human Rights

U.N. Climate Body Urged to Take Lead in Gender Focus

12 September 2010 - 11:59am
Two weeks before the 2010 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) review summit at the United Nations, concerns are being raised that gender equality is still largely divorced from efforts to address climate change, even though women have a critical role to play in solving - and are often most affected by – the problem.
Categories: , Human Rights

AFRICA: Stronger Will Needed from Governments to Save Poorest Children

12 September 2010 - 11:39am
"Herding goats is tough with the thirst, sun, loneliness and hunger each day. And it can last forever. You herd as a girl, then as a wife, as a pregnant woman, as a mother and even as a grandmother," says Rukia Ibrahim whose 13-year-old younger sister was married off to a herdsman.
Categories: , Human Rights

Biking Across the Americas, Spotlight on Children

12 September 2010 - 4:10am
Damián López, of Argentina, has been riding his bicycle the length of the Americas for the past three years. His mission? In addition to completing the long journey, he wants to shine the spotlight on children who are at risk due to violence or abandonment.
Categories: , Human Rights

U.N. Weighs Sanctions Against Perpetrators of DRC Mass Rapes

12 September 2010 - 3:31am
The U.N. Security Council is considering leveraging sanctions against the perpetrators of the mass rapes that occurred last month in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) following a meeting held on the recent violence Tuesday.
Categories: , Human Rights

LATIN AMERICA: Border Mining Projects Before Ethics Tribunal

12 September 2010 - 1:57am
Latin American activists who want to call attention to mining developments located in border areas will gather in Chile to "pass judgement" on projects they regard as detrimental to local communities, the environment and national security.
Categories: , Human Rights

Slammed For Its Roma Expulsions, France Shifts Rhetoric

12 September 2010 - 12:29am
Faced with mounting criticism because of its expulsions of Roma, or Gypsies, the French government is trying to gain allies in what it calls the "battle" against undocumented immigration and people-trafficking networks.
Categories: , Human Rights

Sri Lanka Shuns West, Finds Solace in Emerging Powers' Arms

12 September 2010 - 12:04am
The European Union's decision to suspend trade preferences for Sri Lankan exports may have finally come into force, but the island nation is not budging an inch on any of the powerful bloc's recommendations on its controversial human rights record.
Categories: , Human Rights

US: Religious Leaders Condemn Growing Islamophobia

11 September 2010 - 11:35am
Leaders of some three dozen mainstream U.S. religious denominations Tuesday condemned what many commentators have called a rising tide of Islamophobia touched off by the recent controversy over the construction of a Muslim community centre in Lower Manhattan, two blocks from the site of the twin World Trade Centre towers destroyed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Categories: , Human Rights

ANGOLA: More Mothers Survive Childbirth

11 September 2010 - 7:22am
As darkness falls on a cool evening in Luanda, a group of women sit huddled under threadbare blankets outside one of the city's few maternity hospitals. "I have to be here," Paula Silva, 45, said, shivering slightly.
Categories: , Human Rights

PAKISTAN: Floods Leave Afghan Refugees Down and Out

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When they are not looking forlornly over what used to be their homes or trying to find help for relatives who have fallen ill, many Afghan refugees chase after vehicles that pass through the Great Trunk Road connecting Peshawar to Islamabad, the Pakistani capital.
Categories: , Human Rights