A powerful documentary in the Washington Post on gun violence. Includes a portrait of Mary Jane Ledgerwood, Priest in charge, Grace Episcopal Church, The Plains:
Washington Post Mary Ledgerwood
The recent capture of Ratko Mladic in Serbia is, as Geoffrey Robertson writes in The Age, also part of the Nuremberg legacy: that no one can escape their responsibility for a crime, particularly those against humanity. Robertson, whose book “Crimes Against Humanity” is a must-read on international criminal justice goes on to observe:
Focus on this war crime will discomfort those who might have prevented it – especially the UN, which refused to authorise the air strikes that would have stopped Mladic’s advance, and the Dutch government, which insisted on vetoing them to protect its cowardly battalion that was meant to be protecting the town but which immediately surrendered to Mladic and handed over to him the thousands of Muslims who had sought refuge in the UN compound. The moral nadir of UN/NATO ”peacekeeping” where there is no peace to keep is the photograph of Mladic blowing his cigar smoke in the face of the spineless Dutch colonel while in the background those his battalion should have protected were taken off to the killing fields.
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.
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.
The BBC provides a moving account of children that were forcefully taken from their parents during the military rule in Argentina and are now reuniting with their parents: the intimate side of reconciliation, an important and challenging part in the aftermath of human rights violations.
The BBC features an unsung hero on the theory behind the current uprisings of societies in the Middle East: Dr. Gene Sharp is credited with sketching what it takes for people to rise and demand equality, justice, accountability and other features of democracy.
An important Op-Ed by Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus in the NYTimes on sticking to the principles of the brilliant idea to provide microfinance to those in need of (economic) empowerment and criticizing those who loose sight of the intentions and focus on the potential profits.
The Observer profiles the success of the Innocence Project , which so far has exonerated 260 people!
The lack of gender-perspective punctuates all areas of society, some revelations are more brutal than others. As Frances Crook highlights in the Guardian the failure to acknowledge gender in the British justice and prison system leads to the violation of women’s rights as many women prisoners get engulfed in a vicious cycle of male violence, crime and imprisonment.
The first trial of the International Criminal Court in The Hague starts today. It will – as a first in international law – ensure the participation of victims of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo,who stands accused of having committed, as co-perpetrator, war crimes consisting of enlisting and conscripting of children under the age of 15 years and using them to participate actively in hostilities.”
The former Arch-Bishop and Nobel Peace Laurate, Desmond Tutu gave The Atlantic one of his trademark serious & funny interviews: In addition to some peace building wisdom – “If you want peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.” And: “How does peace come? Peace doesn’t come because allies agree. Allies are allies—they already agree! Peace comes when you talk to the guy you most hate.” – the tirless fighter for a more just and peaceful world also shares some thoughts on justice: “Most of us think of justice as being retributive. But I say, there is this other kind of justice—restorative justice—where the basic thrust is not punitive, it is healing. Healing both for the victim and the perpetrator.”
Given the current conflict in Israel and Gaza one may also want to recall his critical and critized words in 2002: “In our struggle against apartheid, the great supporters were Jews. They almost instinctively had to be on the side of the disenfranchised, of the voiceless, fighting injustice, oppression and evil … (…) My heart aches. Why are our memories so short? Have our Jewish sisters and brothers forgotten their humiliation? (..) Israel will never get true security and safety through oppressing another people. A true peace can ultimately be built only on justice. We condemn the violence of suicide bombers, and we condemn the corruption of young minds taught hatred; but we also condemn the violence of military incursions in the occupied lands, and the inhumanity that won’t let ambulances reach the injured. The military action of recent days, I predict with certainty, will not provide the security and peace Israelis want; it will only intensify the hatred … .”
