Archive for the ‘Proliferation and Human Rights’ Category
Friday, June 20th, 2008 |
The Security Council today demanded that all sides to armed conflicts around the world stop using violence against women as a tactic of war and take much tougher steps to protect women and girls from such attacks.
In a resolution adopted unanimously after a day-long debate on women, peace and security, Council members said women and girls are consistently targeted during conflicts “as a tactic of war to humiliate, dominate, instil fear in, disperse and/or forcibly relocate civilian members of a community or ethnic group.”
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Thursday, May 29th, 2008 |
More than half the world’s governments agreed Wednesday to ban the production, use, stockpiling and export of all existing cluster munitions. Meeting in Dublin, Ireland, representatives of 110 nations completed negotiations on a new international treaty that commits their governments to stop using these weapons and to destroy their existing stockpiles within eight years.
The U.S. government did not attend the negotiations and actively worked to undermine them. But in the end, all other major NATO countries joined with the majority in agreeing to ban these weapons, which are designed to kill or maim every living thing in an area as large as two football fields. The vast majority of victims of cluster bombs have been civilians.
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Monday, May 26th, 2008 |
Some sections of the media usually make much of West-askewed new fangled fads like animal rights, ecology, gay activism and what have you. The painful part is that, celebrity status prominent Indians too, are in the forefront in these matters; Mmes Medha Patkar, Arundhati Roy, Maneka Gandhi; Bahuguna, and Kaw to name just a few. Do these chaps really understand what they are mouthing? I doubt it. At least the environmentalists should also realize, that, hurdles in development in the name of rights of a few rustic land owners or on ecological concerns will only harm the poor in India in the longer run. Human-kind is superior and has priority over any dead dodo, exotic tropical fowl, bird-dog or jackal or jackass.
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Friday, April 25th, 2008 |
A Bosnian Croat military commander convicted by a United Nations war crimes tribunal for his role in the torture and persecutions of Muslims living in the Mostar area of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Balkan wars of the 1990s will serve the remainder of his 20-year sentence in Italy.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), which sits in The Hague, announced today that Mladen Naletilić was transferred yesterday to detention in Italy.
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Wednesday, April 16th, 2008 |
A global effort to remove dangerous spent fuel and decommission a Soviet-designed nuclear reactor in Serbia has cleared another major funding hurdle as part of a United Nations-backed initiative to close down potential sources of terrorism and proliferation.
The UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said today that together with the Serbian Government it recently signed a $8.63 million framework agreement with the European Commission (EC) to help fund decommissioning the reactor at Vinca reactor on the outskirts of Belgrade, the capital.
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Tuesday, April 15th, 2008 |
On March 3, 2008, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution (UNSCR) 1803, with 14 votes in favor and none against (one country, Indonesia, abstained). This is the fifth time the Security Council has acted on the Iran nuclear issue. It is the fourth time the Council has acted under Chapter VII of the UN Charter to impose legally binding sanctions on Iran for the proliferation risks presented by its nuclear program and its failure to suspend its proliferation sensitive nuclear activities.
UNSCR 1803 (2008) requires Iran to suspend all uranium enrichment, regardless of its location in Iran, as well as research and development associated with centrifuges and uranium enrichment. Although the IAEA has not reported on any ongoing reprocessing activities in Iran, those are also covered by the suspension requirement. In addition, UNSCR 1803 requires Iran to halt its construction of the Arak Heavy Water Research Reactor and activities at the Heavy Water Production Plant at Arak.
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Thursday, April 3rd, 2008 |
Chinese human rights activist Hu Jia has been convicted of “inciting subversion of state power” and sentenced to three and a half years in prison.
After months under house arrest, Hu Jia was detained on 27 December 2007. He was formally charged on 28 January 2008 and went on trial on 18 March at the Beijing Municipal No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court.
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Wednesday, March 26th, 2008 |
Discussion of the situation in Tibet was stifled at the UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva on Tuesday. Following repeated Chinese protests, the President told NGOs that they could not limit their remarks under the agenda item before the Council to the situation in only one country.
Amnesty International had prepared an oral statement focussing on serious shortcomings in China’s commitment in the Vienna Declaration to ensure that persons belonging to the Tibetan minority can exercise fully and effectively all human rights and fundamental freedoms without any discrimination.
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Tuesday, March 25th, 2008 |
Over 400 people were arrested in Nepal on Monday as the authorities clamped down on peaceful demonstrations against Chinese human rights abuses in Tibet.
“Nepal is sending a message of no-tolerance of dissent by arresting peaceful demonstrators,” said Amnesty International, cautioning that the latest wave of repression extends beyond Tibet-related protests. “This is the latest in a series of clampdowns on peaceful demonstration as elections approach.”
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Thursday, March 20th, 2008 |
Riki Ellison, President of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance (MDAA), announced that MDAA has established a Polish website and named a Polish Director of Advocacy, Dr. Andrzej Jodkowski to provide independent information to the Polish Public on Missile Defense.
This emerging and critical debate on whether or not to host a US Missile Defense site on Polish soil by the Polish people is important, necessary and strengthens as well as respects the democracy now in place in Poland. Both sides of the Missile Defense debate need to be heard,
evaluated and communicated to the Polish people.
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Wednesday, March 19th, 2008 |
Chinese police are sweeping through the homes of Lhasa residents in search of people involved in recent protests in the city.
While streets in the Tibetan capital are reported to be quiet and empty, there are continued reports of unrest in neighbouring Chinese provinces with large populations of Tibetans. According to reports from TCHRD, hundreds of Tibetans converged on the streets in Kardze County, Sichuan Province, with the situation reported to be extremely tense. There were reports of demonstrations in Gansu province as well.
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