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Gaza situation is unique in history, and a terrible human rights crime

Speaking in Gaza today at an graduation ceremony for some 200,000 students (is that possible?) who took a special UNRWA Human Rights curricula, Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said the following:

“I first visited Gaza 36 years ago and returned during the 1980s and later for the very successful Palestinian elections. Although under occupation, this community was relatively peaceful and prosperous. Now, the aftermath of bombs, missiles, tanks, bulldozers and the continuing economic siege have brought death, destruction, pain, and suffering to the people here. Tragically, the international community largely ignores the cries for help, while the citizens of Gaza are treated more like animals than human beings.

Jimmy Carter visits rubble at American International School in Gaza

Carter continued: “Last week, a group of Israelis and Americans tried to cross into Gaza through Erez, bringing toys and children’s playground equipment – slides, swings, kites, and magic castles for your children. They were stopped at the gate and prevented from coming. I understand even paper and crayons are treated as ’security hazards’ and not permitted to enter Gaza. I sought an explanation for this policy in Israel, but did not receive a satisfactory answer – because there is none.

Jimmy Carter visits rubble of destroyed American International School in Gaza

“The responsibility for this terrible human rights crime lies in Jerusalem, Cairo, Washington, and throughout the international community. This abuse must cease; the crimes must be investigated; the walls must be brought down [[ n.b. - clearly Jimmy Carter means The Wall, and not the walls of homes and schools that are shown in these pictures, which were brought down during Operation Cast Lead from 27 December - 18 January ]], and the basic right of freedom must come to you.

Former President Jimmy Carter at American International School

“Almost one half of Gaza’s 1.5 million people are children, whose lives are being shaped by poverty, hunger, violence, and despair. More than 50,000 families had their homes destroyed or damaged in January, and parents are in mourning for the 313 innocent children who were killed.
…
“In addition to the tragedy of occupation, the lack of unity among Palestinians is causing a deteriorating atmosphere here in Gaza, in Ramallah, and throughout the West Bank.

Jimmy Carter visits rubble of destroyed house in Jabalia - 16 June 2009

…
“President Obama’s resolve to resume the Israeli-Palestinian diplomatic process based on the principle of two states for two peoples must be welcomed. This vision of two sovereign nations living as neighbors is not a mere convenient phrase. It is the basis for a lasting peace for this entire region, including Syria and Lebanon.

Jimmy Carter visiting destroyed house - layers of rubble - in Jabalia

“We all know that a necessary step is the ending of the siege of Gaza – the starving of 1-1/2 million people of the necessities of life. Never before in history has a large community been savaged by bombs and missiles and then deprived of the means to repair itself. The issue of who controls Gaza is not an obstacle. As the World Bank has pointed out, funds can be channeled through a number of independent mechanisms and effective implementing agencies. Although funds are available, not a sack of cement nor a piece of lumber has been permitted to enter the closed gates from Israel and Egypt. I have seen with my own eyes that progress is negligible.

Boy and donkey cart outside rubble of destroyed house in Gaza - 14 June 2009

“My country and our friends in Europe must do all that is necessary to persuade Israel and Egypt to allow basic materials into Gaza. At the same time, there must be no more rockets and mortar shells falling on Israeli citizens.

Children - one boy an amputee - outside a tent near the rubble of their destroyed home in Jabalya - 14 June 2009

“I met this week with the parents of corporal Gilad Shalit, and have with me a letter that I hope can be delivered to their son. I have also met with many Palestinians who plead for the freedom of their 11,700 loved ones imprisoned by the Israelis, including 400 women and children. Many of them have been imprisoned for many years, held without trial, with no access to their families or to legal counsel. Rational negotiations and a comprehensive peace can end this suffering on both sides.

Boys play in the rubble of a mosque in Gaza - 14 June 2009

“I know it is difficult now, surrounded by terrible destruction, to see a future of independence and dignity in a Palestinian state, but this goal can and must be achieved. I know too that it is hard for you to accept Israel and live in peace with those who have caused your suffering. However, Palestinian statehood cannot come at the expense of Israel’s security, just as Israel’s security can not come at the expense of Palestinian statehood.

…
“In his speech in Cairo, President Obama said that Hamas has support among Palestinians, but they also have responsibilities. To play a full role in fulfilling Palestinian aspirations, to unify the Palestinian people, Hamas must put an end to violence, accept existing peace agreements, and recognize Israel’s right to exist.  I have urged Hamas leaders to accept these conditions, and they have made statements and taken actions that suggest they are ready to join the peace process and move toward the creation of an independent and just Palestinian state.

“Khaled Mashaal has assured me that Hamas will accept a final status agreement negotiated by the Palestinian authority and Israel if the Palestinian people approve it in a referendum. Hamas has offered a reciprocal ceasefire with Israel throughout the west bank and Gaza. Unfortunately, neither the Israeli leaders nor Hamas accept the terms of the Oslo agreement of 1993, but the Arab peace initiative is being considered now by all sides.

“I have personally witnessed free and fair elections in Palestine when Yasir Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas were elected president and when legislative members were chosen for your parliament. I hope to return next January for a similar event that will unite all Palestinians as you seek a proud and peaceful future”.

After leaving Gaza,  Jimmy Carter gave a press conference at The Sheraton City Hotel in Tel Aviv, at which he  said “I got the impression that Gilad Shalit is alive and well”.  The former U.S. President then met Noam Shalit, Corporal Shalit’s father, for the third time in a week.

Happy Martin Luther King Day

The DigElog Team would like to wish all of our supporters a happy Martin Luther King Day. Today we recognize one of the greatest human rights activists in world history. Doctor King was the lead spokesman for non-violent activism in the civil rights movement, which successfully protested racial discrimination within U.S. law.

After King's death, the U.S. Congress voted on a Bill to make King's birthday a national holiday. The bill first came to a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1979. However, it fell five votes short of the number needed for passage. At the White House Rose Garden on November 2, 1983, U.S. President Ronald Reagan signed a bill, proposed by Representative Katie Hall of Indiana, creating a federal holiday to honor King.

*********************

Here is an excerpt from Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I Have a Dream Speech." You can watch the speech by clicking the link below.

In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

Right to Education Project

According to united nation right to education is a human right. It is a global project. Every human being has the right to know more about his history, nation, Law of nature and over all elementary education for day to day living. The Whole world understand the importance of education for every child is must. Primary education for children is a part of Universal Declaration of Human Rights.This education include institutional instructions. According to Right to Education Project

Soviet dissident and Nobel Prize winner Sakharov remembered

Andrei Sakharov -- one of the fathers of the Soviet hydrogen bomb, as well as a dissident, human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner -- is commemorated across Russia on the 20th anniversary of his death.
Timed to coincide with the date, a two-day international conference, “Andrei Sakharov’s Ideas Today,” has started in Moscow. In a telegram that President Dmitry Medvedev sent to greet the participants, he paid tribute to “the world-famous scientist and human rights activist,” saying his ideas are at the forefront of political activism in Russia.

The Danger of Rewriting History in Afghanistan

Wazhma Frogh, Afghanistan country director former country director for Global Rights* recently published a long column in the Washington Post titled “Risking a Rights Disaster.” In it, she argues that a US shift to a narrow counterterrorism strategy in Afghanistan, or attempts to bring some Taliban into the government, would spell disaster for Afghanistan’s civilians, especially women.

Frogh’s piece is earnest, and she makes some good points, but I still found myself cringing in a few places. To begin with, this paragraph:

    In 2001, when the war in Afghanistan began, the liberation of Afghan women was one of the most important justifications for military intervention. Has the world now changed its mind about Afghan women? Is it ready to let them once again be killed and tortured by militants? Does the world no longer believe in the principles it supported in 2001?

And then this one:

    The question to keep in mind for all parties involved is, what motivated them to come to Afghanistan in the first place? The answer: global security and the protection of human rights in Afghanistan. Are these two purposes no longer valid?

OK. Here's where we run into trouble. The 2001 invasion of Afghanistan was not launched to liberate Afghanistan’s women, or to stop the Taliban’s human rights abuses. The Taliban were not overthrown because they were repressive, misogynistic, genocidal, and had no intention of providing basic services to the millions at their mercy. They were overthrown because they allowed Al Qaeda to set up shop and plan a deadly terrorist attack on a member of NATO.

Greater assistance to Afghan women was a byproduct of the invasion, not a rationale for it. During their time in power, the Taliban placed tight restrictions on how relief organizations could interact with Afghan women. These restrictions were so extreme that many foreign NGOs and even some UN agencies pulled out of the country, because they simply could not abide by the Taliban's rules and still serve their beneficiaries. With the removal of the Taliban from power in late 2001, aidworkers could assist previously unreachable Afghans.

But, again, the welfare of Afghan women was not part of the US government's rationale for deposing the Taliban militarily. If the Taliban regime had been overthrown for genuinely humanitarian reasons, it would have gone down three years earlier, in the summer of 1998, at the height of the Taliban's ethnically-motivated massacres and punishing humanitarian blockade of the central highland region. Back then, the only country seriously considering overthrowing the Taliban was Iran.

Intentions matter, in war probably more than anything else. Intentions set priorities and boundaries. When the United States overthrew the Taliban, it empowered Afghanistan’s most infamous warlords, men responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocents, with values were no more liberal than the Taliban’s --on gender or anything else. Many of these men were allowed to seize, or were handed, positions of power. They have skillfully undermined indigenous attempts to advance women's rights ever since.

I don't doubt Frogh's sincerity. She obviously wants to believe the United States cares about Afghan lives, but promoting a distorted history of the recent past is risky. If the effect of foreign involvement in Afghanistan since 2001 is to be evaluated –and make no mistake, many people, including international development critics, are evaluating– it should be evaluated based on a clear, unsentimental understanding of what was done, and why. Mistakes that are not understood will be repeated. The who is also important. Not recognizing the multiplicity of actors and motivations at work in Afghanistan does a disservice to the women and men, Afghan and foreign, who have thrown themselves into the reconstruction for principled reasons. The United Nations Assistance Mission is not the International Security Assistance Force is not the US Agency for International Development is not Oxfam is not the International Center for Transitional Justice. Conflating them makes no sense, yet many otherwise intelligent people do this regularly. Understand: this tactic is most useful to those who label Afghanistan (and, implicitly, Afghans) a "lost cause."

Afghanistan is at a critical juncture. Military and diplomatic decisions that will steer Afghanistan's course from here are being debated in Washington and London and Brussels and Kabul as I type this. The 2001 invasion of Afghanistan was not a humanitarian intervention, but humanitarian aims can still be prioritized, and should be. Ultimately, this is Frogh's point, and she articulates it with more urgency than I ever could.

    Bearing in mind how fragile the Afghan government is at this moment, it will not take long for the country's women to come under attack again. The consequences will be even more bitter this time because no matter how limited our success, we have at least managed to act in the forefront of public life in Afghanistan. We have had a taste of what it's like to have rights.

My expectations and the experience itself evolved from a history tour for teachers into a human rights eye-opener for me

During the last two weeks of July 2009, six teachers from Los Angeles toured Jordan, Israel, and Palestine thanks to the last wishes of the late Dr. Maggie Grater.

Maggie Grater was a dedicated teacher, principal and administrator who devoted her energies to bringing greater understanding of the Arab world.

In her will, Dr. Grater left a monetary gift to the Middle East Fellowship of Southern California and asked that it be used to educate teachers about the Middle East. After much consideration, the group decided to use the funds to send a group of teachers to tour the region. On Aug. 1, 2009—four years to the day after Dr. Grater’s passing—the six teachers selected returned from this extraordinary learning experience.

The teachers were accompanied on their two-week study tour of Jordan and Israel/Palestine by trip leader and coordinator Brice Harris, a retired Occidental College professor and specialist in Middle Eastern history. In keeping with the theme of Arab history, culture and circumstances, the group spent a week in Jordan touring the early proto-Arab site of Petra, the Roman-Byzantine ruins at Jarash, the old and modern souq in Amman, and religious locations on Mt. Nebo and baptismal sites in the Jordan valley. The group also met with representatives of the American Friends Service Committee and the Presbyterian Church in Amman.

In Israel/Palestine, the group continued its emphasis on background material which the teachers might find helpful in their classes or interactions with students and other faculty. The teachers met with various religious groups, toured East and West Jerusalem, and visited Palestinian refugee camps and Israel’s Yad Vashem museum, as well as many places of historical and cultural interest.

While the purpose of the trip was not to focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, inevitably the struggle for land and control was everywhere apparent. This was especially significant in light of President Barack Obama’s efforts to persuade Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to halt Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Following are impressions of this trip written by five of the six participating teachers. For further information, or if you are interested in creating a similar program in your school district, contact Vicki Tamoush at (714) 368-5100 or .

Alice Lee, who teaches U.S. and world history at Eagle Rock High School. This was her first trip to the Middle East.

In mid-July, I was given the opportunity to travel to the Middle East with a group of educators through the Dr. Maggie Grater Fund. Little did I know that this great honor was going to be a life-changing experience for me.

You see, I used to think of myself as a compassionate and well-informed global citizen of the modern world; adequately armed with an “above-average” awareness of the events that shape our world today. I follow the news. I listen to public radio. I surround myself with knowledgeable people who are eager to share their insights. I had no idea that, in reality, I knew very little about the situation in Palestine. While on this trip, I witnessed things that made a profound and lasting impression on me.

Being a social studies teacher, I’ve always been fascinated with other cultures and histories. I was so excited to visit all of the historic and religious sites that were scheduled on the itinerary. Eventually, my expectations and the experience itself evolved from a history tour for teachers into a human rights eye-opener for me.

As I began packing my bags for the trip, I was anticipating the feeling of awe any history-lover might get from walking through the narrow crevasses of Petra. Or the tear-jerking, heart-thumping thrill any pilgrim might get from visiting the site of Jesus’ birth. What ended up making the greatest lasting impression on me, however, was the genuine benevolence I experienced from the locals I met on the trip. Their generosity, hospitality, knowledge, kindness and self-control in a time of oppression left me in awe, as tears welled up in my eyes and my heart began pounding for the plight of the people of Palestine.

On this trip I heard Israeli jets flying over the city of Nablus, demonstrating their might and supremacy. I witnessed a grown man groveling before an armed teenage soldier to let him through a checkpoint. I heard testimonies from courageous activists who have been shot at by Israeli soldiers. I visited homes and entire villages that have been demolished by the Israeli government. I listened intently as individuals shared their stories of affliction with eloquence, relevance and poise. I saw the injustice. I observed the apartheid. I felt the tension. My eyes were opened to the savage treatment Palestinians experience daily under Israeli occupation.

I feel that this trip has ignited an energy in me that urges me to take action and to spread peace and understanding to others. I want to share what I know about the inequality and hostility I saw in Israel, the dignity and resilience of the Palestinian people and, finally, the truth about what is happening in the Holy Land. Ben Franklin once said, “Experience is not what happens to you. It’s what you do with what happens to you.” This means so much more to me now that I’ve experienced Palestine. I am so grateful to the late Dr. Grater and the people of Palestine for this truly moving experience.

Rosa Melendez, who was born in El Salvador. A teacher and fitness enthusiast who enjoys traveling and learning about other cultures, she also loves reading, running and food.

From the moment I crossed the Allenby Bridge, I felt that I had entered a very dark place, despite the scorching sun shining in the clear skies of the Middle East. Ironic is another adjective that comes to mind. Coming from Jordan, a country ruled by a monarch, I entered the self-proclaimed “only democracy in the Middle East” just to find an abundance of slender teenage soldiers with big guns and matching attitudes roaming everywhere. It’s interesting to note that in an area that the Western media claim is teeming with Palestinian terrorists, the only weapons I saw were in the hands of Israelis. There were armed soldiers, armed police officers, and, most puzzling of all, armed settlers everywhere.

Entering Israel, I witnessed the humiliating manner in which Palestinians are welcomed into their homeland. Without going into detail about the discomfort and inconvenience of the long waits, searches, and interrogations to enter the country, it was the calculated contempt and hatred I saw in the customs officers’ faces that angered me the most.

It reminded me of the dread I felt before I became an American citizen every time I had to cross the border and show my green card. INS officers were coldly professional and unfriendly, but the Israeli agents were mean-spirited and rude. INS agents had nothing on their Israeli counterparts, but I hear that Los Angeles and other metropolitan areas are eager to learn from Israel how to properly secure airports and borders.

The line of Palestinians going through customs moved at a snail’s pace. They stood patiently and somber, while the youthful Israeli agents and soldiers chatted amiably in small groups. Eventually, a female agent put on her best “go ahead, make my day” face, and began calling each person to her window. At the window, she would refuse to look at people as they stood there and very resignedly handed their passports. At this point, she would glare at them with something that my gut feeling said was disgust and hatred to verify that the passport picture matched the person standing before her. The look was not one of a human being recognizing another one. Finally, she would slam the passport back to its owner in a manner that fairly screamed, “I want you to disappear.”

Having lived in El Salvador in the 1980s and having lost my father in the civil war that raged there for years, I easily saw many parallels of oppression and injustice. I believe that my past experience allows me to use these two adjectives without fear of sounding melodramatic. The tight knot of anxiety and apprehension in my stomach also confirmed my assessment of the situation. I was surrounded by a violent military presence that made itself seen and felt everywhere. The checkpoints and the wall added to the sense of imprisonment and desolation. Palestinians went about their business with a tired but determined gait. I saw a sea of people crowded in the Old City of Jerusalem eerily part to let a black-clad, sullen-faced Orthodox Jew stroll down the alleyways as if he owned the place. No one challenged him or even looked at him, while at the end of the alley two soldiers toyed with their guns.

The contradictions were everywhere. There were modern highways that only Israelis could travel on. Statements have been made that the walls, which trap the Palestinian population within virtual jails, were built to protect Israelis, but whole sections of the wall have been left unfinished. City streets came to an abrupt end where they ran into the omnipresent apartheid wall. Israelis claim that they are merely returning to a land that was theirs a couple of millennia ago, but Palestinians lose their lands after two years of absence that in many cases are the result of forced evictions.

In Hebron, a civilian population in the tens of thousands has been victimized, robbed, and violently subdued for the benefit of a few hundred armed-to-the-teeth settlers. Children need foreign observers to be able to walk to school safely. In an area with extremely limited water resources, settlers feel entitled to have lush lawns and swimming pools, while the Palestinians make do with one-third of the water allotted to Israelis. Poverty, unemployment, unsanitary conditions, hopelessness, resentment, fear, anger, discontent, etc.—are all there temporarily contained within the walls with the might of the armed forces.

What is surprising is that so many of the people I met spoke of peaceful resolutions and hope for the future, not of bloodshed. They learn English and other foreign languages. They go to school and universities. They do odd jobs. They make do with what they have. They resist by refusing to give up and leave. The most common request I heard was, “Please, tell your family, friends, co-workers, and fellow Americans that we are not terrorists. We want to live in peace and with dignity.”

A fair compromise needs to be reached. A failure to do this will bring dire consequences. As the docent at Yad Vashem informed me that Jews had been placed in ghettoes, forced to carry identification cards, and their freedom of movements restricted, she failed to catch the irony of her own words. Tragically, she did not stop there, and went on to say that the WWII Jewish underground resistance fighters risked their lives so selflessly because when conditions are so oppressive, brutal, and unbearable, one’s life is not worth living.

Weeks after my trip, I cannot get the images I saw out of my mind. I feel the same knot in my stomach when I think about it. My memory of Palestine and Israel is one of apartheid walls, checkpoints, water tanks, soldiers, armed settlers, long queues, identification cards, cameras, Israeli flags in Palestinian neighborhoods—and determined Palestinians who refuse to give in to desolation and defeat.

Elvia Alvarado, who is a psychiatric social worker with Los Angeles Unified School.

I was in the Chicano Moratorium in the 1970s, when what appeared like hundreds of LAPD officers came down on us at an L.A. park where we were protesting the Vietnam War, and especially all the Mexican Americans who were dying unnecessarily. I am old now, and I hope that our kids will remember that we fought and protested against injustice.

So here we find another horrific injustice many miles away from us, but still the atrocities to the Palestinians are unbearable, and Mexicans can understand the injustice, and we can relate really well. There are some parallels between the two people. And now the Palestinians are fighting, too. The Palestinians are also a proud people, with a fighting spirit, who refuse to accept injustice. While the Palestinians are being kicked out of their land, the Latinos are incarcerated, put into detention centers for being “undocumented,” deported, told they are illegal—all in a land where they have deep historical roots. Years ago, my father was deported to Mexico in the period of the repatriations, even though he was born in Arizona.

This was my first trip to the Middle East, and it was wonderful. I liked the cucumbers and yogurt, and the men were cute, too. Many Arabs are multi-lingual and speak English. In the U.S., most of us are encouraged to speak only one language: English.

I saw the historical greatness, the rich traditions, the awesome landscapes, the ruins at Petra, the land where Jesus once walked, the great historical roots of these Palestinians, Arab people, these Arabs, these amazing people, who refuse to give up and are angry that the Israelis want and are grabbing their land with impunity. Anyway, as we visited these schools we were told about the tension, bombings, and the effects of the war on the kids and the families. My host family (where we stayed for two days) told me that I looked like them. I am dark-skinned like some Arabs.

I feel sorry for those young Israeli soldiers, because they are buying all that propaganda that the Israeli government is giving them, indoctrinating them into hating Arabs, or Palestinians. It’s a mess, and it’s been going on for too long. It’s time it stopped.

I am one of those who saw the many, many movies about Arabs where they are portrayed as terrorists. The media gives us very few, if any, positive portraits of Arabs. This trip helped me appreciate the diversity and complexity of the Arab world. I had only two friends or people I knew personally who were Arab. One I used to pray with in a Christian church I went to; my friend would sob when we prayed together, she a Christian and me a not-so-good Catholic. Later she told me that she was from Ramallah, where she grew up with bombings as a regular way of life. I thought that maybe she had been sobbing from her devastating experiences in Ramallah, her home city. Was there a connection? I regret that I never asked her.

My friends asked me why go to the Middle East? It’s hot, it’s dangerous. And it was hot, but it was a trip of a lifetime. The anger, the unthinkable gall of people to take over the land, and the fact that the United States continues to fund the army, the society of Israel, how could they, the gall.

Maria Isabel Elgueta, who is a licensed clinical social worker practicing in the East Los Angeles area schools. Born and raised in Chile, she attended graduate school at UCLA. She loves traveling and learning about other cultures.

The trip to Israel and occupied Palestine in July verified what I had read in preparation for this visit, my very first to the Middle East.

The checkpoint system was a total turn-off; I saw Palestinians, young and old, standing in long lines to access their own land. They waited for hours under the sun, while the Israeli staff, under air conditioning, were killing time and acting grandiose. Their clear intention was to show who is in charge. At a checkpoint in one of the villages we were asked, “Christians or Muslims?”

The biggest outrage, though, is the continuing extension of illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian lands, usually on hilltops. The Israeli government, their settlers and their supporters, have no regard for property laws and have destroyed Palestinian homes and orchards, causing tremendous damage and suffering to countless families, including children and the elderly.

The miles and miles of walls isolating Palestinian communities are terribly offensive to the eye and the soul; it is a system of apartheid. Did they forget about the ghettos of Europe?

It was hurtful to see children in a village near Hebron going with containers in hand to pick up soup to feed their families, because the settlers and the politics of terror destroyed their local economy.

I grew tired of the noise from Israeli jet bombers cruising the Palestinian skies, and in my mind I said, “Una vez mas, aqui van los matones” [“Once again, here come the murderers”].

I feel pained by what Palestinians are enduring; as a Chilean, I know well what happens when human rights don’t count and there is abuse of power; we witnessed it all over.

The religious rhetoric and the politics of greed mixes in a very ugly way in the Middle East. Contributing millions and millions of dollars to the Israeli coffers every year makes us partners in crime.

Human Rights Education

The Advocates has a long history of educating about human rights and how to advocate for them. The Advocates develops and distributes curricular resources, publications, and reports; conducts presentations, lecture and film series, conferences, CLE and CEU sessions, and public forums; and provides numerous resources through the internet. We educate on topics such as immigration, post- 9/11 human rights violations, asylum, the death penalty, child labor, women’s human rights, and transitional justice.

historical origins of human rights in the eighteenth century

This course offers a broad survey of the philosophical, legal and historical origins of human rights in the eighteenth century--natural rights theory, new constitutions, and the international anti-slavery and anti-torture movements--and examines how and why it burgeoned into what is arguably the dominant language of international and domestic politics all over the world in the late late twentieth and the twenty-first century. Almost all rights and almost all claims for distributive justice are today expressed as human rights. We will examine the gnarled history of, as well as contemporary controversies in, specific areas such as the laws of war and the rights of civilians, the legitimacy or illegitimacy of torture, the definition and prevention of genocide, and the rights of various groups, including indigenous people, women, children, and sexual minorities. We will also deal throughout the course with more general questions: universal rights vs. local custom; political and civil vs. human rights; majority vs. minority rights; and whether human rights is "western" and if so why this might matter. Course readings will be drawn largely from major legal texts and treaties and from the field reports of many generations of human rights advocates. There will be guests from various disciplines who will either lecture or engage in structured interviews with the instructor. (Q and A from students will be welcome too.)

Weekly discussion sections and active participation is required and expected. Other course requirements include short written responses, one term paper, take-home midterm, and a final exam.

Thoughts on Abu Dhabi and the United Arab Emirates

On several occasions I've worked in Abu Dhabi (the 'Father of the Gazelle' in Arabic) of the United Arab Emirates in an arts-related position and as the capital city's questionable human rights history becomes clearer I thought I'd share some thoughts with you.

I'd also like to bring awareness to the experiences of my friend Jahangir Munir, a Pakistani man who had emigrated and worked in the U.A.E. legally for two decades only to be wrongfully jailed, abused and deported without reason in the past few months. As we speak he's fighting to put his life back together in the unstable environment of his homeland.

The Pan-Arabic colours in the United Arab Emirates flag are meant to represent unity throughout the Middle East. And yet one of the Crown Royalty of the UAE, Sheikh Issa bin Zayed Al Nayhan, brother to Khalifa, Emir of the Throne and one of the richest men in the world, can be seen on video (Youtube even) torturing Afghan business partner Mohammed Shah Poor for over 45 minutes for his involvement in a grain deal gone bad in 2005. Among the methods used by Issa with help from local police flunkies included shoving sand into the victim's mouth, a rectally inserted cattle prod and the Prince's SUV running over Poor for good measure. An additional 25 separate charges of torture have since come up in the past year against Sheihk Issa in the mainstream media on both sides of the Atlantic. Tapes became available via former business partners with copies from Prince Issa's private collection where he would watch his own handiwork at home.

The tourism board of the UAE would like to draw you into the rich luxury of the Middle East as a safe democratic nation with its expressive ads of white sands and clear waters. Yet this experience has come from slave-labour conditions inflicted on the workers brought in from the 3rd world-Bangladeshians, Indians, Sri Lankans, Filipinos and now quite fashionable around town, Nepalese workers. Wages are withheld, false 'visa fees' are enforced, contracts are broken and when you arrive in the UAE, the construction company or maid service who you signed up with confiscates your passport. If you're in construction you'll be shipped to a work camp in the desert and add to the statistics of work-related deaths (and suicides) on-site (168 on record in Abu Dhabi for the year 2004) in the half-completed skyscrapers. Those skyscrapers are designed by some of the top architecture firms in the world who will look the other way on work conditions once they've cashed their cheque. Should you attempt a wildcat strike or form a construction union to fight against the injustice of your situation you can look forward to assault at the hands of the 'Teharyat' (Secret Police) and pick between the jail cell shared with the odd political prisoner or a return to the work site. If you happen to be a maid you're at risk from abuse of any nature behind closed doors or have it openly flaunted in public by your superiors.

Perhaps you rise above the construction rabble and find a job as a private driver or work the limo circuit. You can break the law and drive as fast as your employer insists you go, but there's a catch: If your wealthy boss racks up enough driving fines he'll offer to put you in jail in substitution, and give the courts a payoff of $20,000 AED ($5000 USD) to cover your time behind bars. On the other hand as I was told in interviews with those who've spent time in the infamous Al Wathba jail in the desert south of Abu Dhabi, should you crash your employers car and be unfortunate enough to be neither Emirati nor connected you can look forward to being jailed without formal charges. One of my contacts is the aforementioned Jahangir Munir, and this was his experience 5 years ago. A limo driver for private hire, Munir hit a tree while driving the car of his employer. Once illegally jailed without being told of the charges he was subjected to sleep deprivation, beatings, and in his last holding cell, overcrowding with over 60 other prisoners  This doesn't match the public face Abu Dhabi presents to the crowds for Formula 1 and football matches in the press-clippings from the heavily-censored local newspapers .

Mr. Munir had been freed from the Al Wathba jail late last year and after a period of struggle found new work as a driver. Once his work visa was up with his previous employer Munir renewed with a German rental company to continue his driving career in the U.A.E. and with those funds support his son's education back in Pakistan. Unfortunately Munir's arrival at the Abu Dhabi immigration courts to pay his visa fee came with a shock: he was jailed for 25 days in a squalid cell at the Al Taweela detention center, the last stop before being booted out the door and back to Pakistan. This happened with Munir being denied his rightful belongings and pay due to a clerical error that the courts refused to acknowledge despite proof of their incompetence. Based upon interviews with other contacts and Mr. Munir's own countrymen's shared expierences within the detention center, this treatment happens all too often. Munir described the conditions at Al Taweela as the worst period of his life with sick men packed together like pigs in humid pens. Now Jahangir and his son must start anew, hopefully in a Western nation with a clearer understanding of human rights. Munir's life in his troubled homeland of Pakistan is one which he doesn't want his bright son to lead with its rising crime rate and politcal instability.

As Munir was expelled from the Emirates the gaudy Burj Khalifa was opened in Dubai to international fanfare. This is the same Burj Khalifa where over 60 Indian workers had died on site in private findings by Indian worker's studies. The opening of the soon-to-be surpassed World's Largest Tower closely coincided with Dubai defaulting on a $59 billion dollar debt to investors including Barclays Bank, RBS and HSBC. Abu Dhabi, the richest of the Emirates, now owns its wayward brother Dubai and will carry on the tradition of attracting foreign investors, western vacationers and third-world builders to hold the whole structure together.

Queen gives Canadian Museum for Human Rights a piece of history

Queen Elizabeth II is using the Winnipeg stop on her Canadian tour to unveil the cornerstone of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, which was crafted with a piece of British history.

Charles Brunet, a third generation craftsman with Brunet Monuments carved the cornerstone of the museum to incorporate a stone from the ruins of the St. Mary's Priory near Windsor, where some believe the Magna Carta was signed. The stone was a gift from the Queen.

Brunet has carved out piece of Tyndall stone to create a space where the St. Mary's stone rests, covered and protected by sandblasted and etched glass.

The local craftsman said he appreciates the work done centuries ago on the historic stone.

"What I really particularly enjoy seeing in this piece is the chisel marks the holes drilled here and there, you wonder what has gone on over the years," Brunet said.

Patrick O'Reilly, the chief operating officer of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights said that while the St. Mary's stone is literally a cornerstone for the new museum, it has symbolic significance as well.

"That her majesty has decided to grace us with her presence is one thing, but then to bring this incredible gift – metaphorically it's a cornerstone for human rights and that's amazing."

Brunet said the stone is tied to the beginning of human rights in the English-speaking world.

"This stone was present when King John signed the Magna Carta in 1215," Brunet said. "It's a real honour and a privilege to touch this stone. We realize how important this stone is for all of Winnipeg and Manitoba."

The stone will remain on public display at the legislature until the museum officially opens in 2012.

Human Rights at the UN

International human rights law is based primarily on Western values and jurisprudence, but strong challenges from Asia and Africa have stimulated a lively debate over the issue. Thankfully, the current cultural gap has been bridged successfully by the team of Normand (Lahore Univ., Pakistan) and Zaidi (Center for Economic and Social Rights), who have produced an illuminating intellectual fusion. The authors carefully examine the historical background prior to WW II, and then distinguish between group and individual rights in the development of UN principles and covenants. They stress the lack of enforcement mechanisms, but praise the UN for giving birth to "the modern human rights regime." Not surprisingly, they blame the Cold War for the evident defects as the US and USSR were both reluctant to accept limitations on sovereignty. The end of the Cold War helped further the UN human rights agenda, but it still "remained dependent on voluntary state compliance with soft norms and policy targets." Normand and Zaidi are strongly critical of recent US policy, thus the latter sections of the book are increasingly polemical, but the authors do clearly announce that they are "human rights activists," not just scholars. Summing Up: Recommended.

Sorcery, Witchcraft, and an Epidemic of Human Rights Abuse in Saudi Arabia

According to a recent Reuters FaithWorld article, The perils of eating fire in Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabian religious police have been harassing a circus performer on suspicion that he may be guilty of sorcery because of his amazing feats of strength and his fire eating abilities.  Combined with last month’s breastfeeding fatwa (more about that later) and the conviction of a Lebanese news reporter for sorcery in April, one has to wonder WTF is going on?

Saudi Arabia, long known as the center of Islamic religious extremism, appears to have little control of their formidable religious police, or Mutaween, who have for decades patrolled restaurants, shopping districts, hotels, and popular hangouts looking for the tiniest infraction of the Saudi version of Sharia law.  The Police for the Protection of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, as these thugs are formally called, have made a living out of making people’s lives miserable.  Women are often the object of their watchful judgmental gaze and have suffered unspeakable violations of human rights when arrested and found guilty of their accuser’s accusations.  Let’s take a look at just a few cases and events that have been picked up and reported by international news organizations.

UCL Human Rights Fresher’s Week

Our History
A few scribbled posters advertising a “Human Rights Project” brought a group of students to University College London’s Bentham House in mid-September 2007. It is here that, following a lively discussion, the foundations were laid for the UCL Student Human Rights Programme. Within a year, the UCL SHRP had blossomed into lecture events, panel discussions, research projects, a bulletin, a law journal, a moot competition and a website.*

Above all, the UCL SHRP is proof that not all students are apathetic in the face of Bentham’s charge that natural rights are “nonsense on stilts”!

We are currently based at UCL and are predominantly composed of UCL students and staff. However, we seek to engage the wider community by establishing a network of Student Human Rights Programmes throughout the UK and hopefully beyond.

We are a non-profit organisation that act as a focal point for debate, information, networking and support to those dealing with issues of a human rights nature. We bring together those who share the passion and ambition to establish a culture of human rights.

Whether you have abundant experience, or are a complete beginner to the field of human rights; whether or not you have a legal background, you will find in UCL SHRP an open-minded and thriving community, with many opportunities for learning and participation.

The UCL SHRP is led by students and advised by human rights academics and professionals. However, we warmly welcome members from all walks of life. Our members have the opportunity to run various branches of the UCL SHRP and are always encouraged to create new initiatives.

We hope you will enjoy using this website and feel free to log on and join this fresh dialogue on human rights!

One of our favorite writers to write Human Rights History

Adam Hochschild loves the history of the underdog, of social movements that apparently come of out nowhere to successfully challenge entrenched ideas and power. We like these stories, too, but often, Hochschild says, they come to us as heroic ventures led by heroic people, who often are members of the upper class elite. Hochschild, a co-founder of Mother Jones magazine who will speak Monday at Duke, writes these histories with a different touch and finds the forgotten characters who played important parts. In King Leopold’s Ghost, it was Roger Casement and George Washington Williams who brought the world’s attention to Belgium abuses in the Congo. In his latest book on the British anti-slavery movement, Bury the Chains, he looks beyond the better-known story of aristocrat and abolitionist leader William Wilberforce (told last year in the movie “Amazing Grace”) to shed light on lesser-known characters such as Thomas Clarkson and a brilliant ex-slave named Olaudah Equiano.

In an interview last week, Hochschild talked about why these kinds of figures play such an important role in his histories and the success and failures of social movements.

Teaching the History of Human Rights

The public debate about human rights continues to evoke controversy in American society, despite the widely-held belief that individuals have certain inalienable rights that no government can or should take away. Recent arguments about the dangers of terrorism and the use of torture, indefinite detentions, targeted assassinations, secret surveillance, and the denial of habeas corpus have reappeared often in the American and international media. But how did the idea of human rights develop as a key theme in modern societies? How do we teach students about the history of this idea, the ways in which the meaning of “human rights” has evolved, and the arguments for limitations on the rights that human beings should possess? How does the history of “human rights” help us understand the contemporary world - from the eighteenth-century “age of revolutions” to the modern movements for civil rights and the current responses to terrorism?

This PHE workshop will examine these questions and provide materials for teaching about the meaning and expansion of human rights since the 18th century. It meets NC Course of Study Competency Goals: World History 1.01, 4.01, 4.05, 6.01, 6.02, 6.03, 6.06, 8.05, 8.06; AP World History 1.05, 5.04, 7.04; AP European History 2.04, 2.10, 3.03, 3.05, 3.06, 5.04, 6.04; U.S. History 1.02, 2.05, 7.03, 9.04, 9.05, 11.03, 12.06; AP U.S. History 4.04, 5.01, 15.01; Civics and Economics 3.06, 6.01, 10.02, 11.06; AP U.S. Government 1.02, 9.01, 9.02, 9.03, 9.04

This workshop will be led by PHE's own Dr. Lloyd Kramer. Lloyd is a Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He specializes in 19th century France with acute emphasis on cultural exchange, nationalism, and identity.

It will be held at the Carolina Center for Educational Excellence, located off of Seawell School Road in Chapel Hill. It will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and participants can earn .5 CEU credits.

There is ample parking at the facility. A light continental breakfast and full lunch will be provided to attendees. There is no cost for this workshop.

To register, please send an email to phe@unc.edu by Monday September 28th. Please spread the word by distributing our flyer
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