Amidst the financial crisis of California, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) has ruled that the government must reduce the amount of prisoners, as the overcrowding violates the ban on cruel and unusual punishment, reports the NYTimes.
The BBC reports that new census data from India confirms the predictions over the imbalance in the gender ratio caused by female infanticide: eight million girls under the age of eight are “missing” due to a culture, which makes parents dread the birth of a girl due to dowry payments.
The visit of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. is an opportune occasion to return to the “saying sorry” series. Full coverage by the BBC.
Four years ago, the Australian government seized control of 73 indigenous communities in the Northern Territory. The Age reports that in Ampilatwatja, 350 km north-east of Alice Springs, Richard Downs, the leader of the Alyawarr people asked that no pictures be taken of his people as it embarrasses them to be pictured living in dirt.
Along dirt streets littered with rubbish and abandoned vehicles, he points out a $500,000 building, the home and office of a government business manager, one of 60 appointed across the territory to supervise delivery of government services under the emergency intervention. ”That’s all we got over four years … a government business manager living here who everyone in the community tries to avoid and doesn’t listen to,” Downs says. Downs says 500 of his people living in Ampilatwatja have been treated as outcasts from white man’s decision-making. ”No one has asked us what will work for us,” he says.
Federal funding for homelands has been capped at $20 million a year for three years and runs out next year. No government funding is available for new houses on homelands, leaving people living in substandard, overcrowded accommodation with poor infrastructure.
The Guardian reports on findings by the High Pay Commission, which suggests that current trends unaltered, the gap between the very rich and the poor could reach levels last seen under the reign of Queen Victoria by 2030.
Germany has launched a campaign in the quest for a symbol that will represent human rights the way that the dove signifies peace. Submission deadline: July 31, 2011.
A recurring human rights violation, this time in Brazil: preparing for the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games, Brazil may be violating human rights, particularly the right to housing following evictions of those living in areas selected for construction, says the UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing, Raquel Rolnik. “I am particularly worried about what seems to be a pattern that’s lacking transparency, consultation, dialogue, fair negotiation, and participation of the affected communities in processes concerning evictions undertaken or planned in connection with the World Cup and Olympics,” Rolnick said in an interview with Bloomberg.