April 2013
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The Indigenous Paraguayans are Tired of being...
The rights of the indigenous peoples of Paraguay have received a lot of information in recent weeks. Historic discrimination has resulted in three sentences by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) on matters related to ancestral land rights. The United Nations Human Rights Committee has recently evaluated the country’s fulfilment of the International Covenant on Civil and Political...
March 2013
1 post
The Spanish Government Must Prioritise Human...
When 26 year old Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in December 2010 it sparked international outrage throughout the Arab world and beyond. No longer able to live with his frustration after having his merchandise confiscated and being publicly humiliated by officials, Bouazizi decided to take his life in a public demonstration of frustration – self-immolation. The...
November 2012
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The Calderón Era has been a Human Rights...
On the 1st of December this year the current President of Mexico, Felipe Calderón Hinojosa (PAN), will pass the torch to Enrique Peña Nieto (PRI), after yet another disputed Mexican election. After six years as president it is a good idea to evaluate Calderón’s impact on human rights. History will not by any friend of Calderón as his legacy is appalling. The war on the Mexican drug cartels has...
October 2012
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EU Peace Prize deprives the Nobel Committee of its...
The Nobel Peace Prize in 2012 is awarded to the European Union (EU). The award could not come at a worse time as it today seems entirely out of touch with the current situation in Europe. The purpose of honouring the triumphs of the EU with this prize only seems like a retrospective act looking to redeem what is perhaps a historically justified Peace Prize, but which was never awarded. There are...
August 2012
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The Future of Mexico’s Militarized Public Security...
Public Security is considered Mexico’s main priority, but its government’s ability to provide it is questioned as a consequence of the mismanaged and militarized ‘war on drugs’. In the next few months, two changes, one political and one judicial, could provide a shift in the current panorama of public security; namely the appointment of the ‘Partido Revolucionario Institucional’s’ (PRI) Enrique...
July 2012
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Circumcision of boys - a parent’s right to decide?
The Norwegian Centre Party has caused uproar in religious communities by proposing to outlaw the circumcision of young boys, unless medically necessary. This has happened after a two week old boy died after circumcision in May of this year in a medical institution. Jenny Klinge, Justice Policy Spokeswoman for the party, argues the prohibition on the following; 1) a comparison with female genital...
June 2012
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Norway Must Invest With Human Rights in Mind
When you are interested in human rights related matters, it is difficult to see the world as anything but grim. It is even more challenging to keep any kind of faith in politicians’ manifestations of genuinely good intentions. Therefore it is difficult to give appraisal to states that have a decent human rights record. One of the states that deserves appraisal for their human rights efforts, is...
May 2012
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China in Dereliction of Duty
Introduction
In some cases it is appropriate to use the expression ‘silence before the storm’ to describe the outbreak of conflicts. The prevailing circumstances prior to the outbreak of the Arab spring would perhaps fit that portrayal. This is however not a fitting description of the current state of affairs between the two Sudans, and there are dangers of a storm coming. All the warning signs...
March 2012
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Lessons to Learn from Kony 2012
One week ago, the campaign group Invisible Children (IC) released the surprisingly controversial film ‘Kony 2012’. Just as I write this I notice that Microsoft Word 2010 auto-corrects the word ‘Kony’ as it does not recognize it, and I have to ‘add to dictionary’. I doubt that will happen on the next version of Word, as in one week 75 million people saw this video. ‘Everybody’ now knows who Joseph...
February 2012
2 posts
Does Social Media Demonstrate that Internet Access...
Social media has entered into the lives of most of us. It has changed the way we receive news, the forms in which we communicate with one another, the way we seek employment and the manner in which we manifest our opinions. Newspapers, radios, televisions, Xerox machines and faxes all did some of these things, but through the internet and social media especially, these tools have been assembled...
The Mexican Human Rights’ Panorama: Back to the...
The Mexican Presidential elections are going to be held in July 2012 and it will decide which person will govern Mexico for the next six years. The current human rights situation is a fragmented disaster that the Mexican Government has been uninterested in addressing effectively. Human Rights and indigenous organizations, together with journalists are being threatened and killed by what are always...
January 2012
2 posts
DIGGING FOR THE TRUTH
EMBARRASSING PARALLELS BETWEEN THE ARAB SPRING AND THE SPANISH TRANSITION TO DEMOCRACY On January 22nd of 2012, Human Rights Watch (HRW) presented their ‘World Report’ for 2012. Obviously, the report focused a great deal of attention on the ‘Arab spring’ (misbranded as the name is, seeing that the spring of 2011 has passed, but the public outrage and demand for respect for human rights has not)....
