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positions of their respective organizations on matters expressed in this online journal.
June 29, 2005
Posted 10:45 PM
by Mary
Go to Original Terror Policies Draw Outrage at Home and Abroad By Haider Rizvi Common Dreams Tuesday 28 June 2005 United Nations - The George W. Bush administration's policies on indefinite detention and "extraordinary rendition" are coming under heavy fire from a number of institutions and organizations, including the United Nations, Amnesty International, and members of the US Congress itself. "The prohibition of torture is non-negotiable," said UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, held annually on Jun. 26. Without naming the United States, he added: "That includes an absolute ban on transferring anybody to another jurisdiction where there are reasonable grounds to believe that the person is at risk of torture." Currently, the US administration is pursuing a policy of what it calls "extraordinary rendition," which involves seizing suspects and taking them to a third country without court approval. Human rights groups have documented a number of cases in which US authorities secretly transferred individuals to countries where they were held without charge and routinely tortured.
June 26, 2005
Posted 10:32 PM
by Mary
UN EXPERTS 'DEEPLY REGRET' US FAILURE TO ALLOW GUANTANAMO VISIT ON TORTURE REPORT New York, Jun 23 2005 1:00PM Senior United Nations human rights experts today deeply regretted the United States Government's failure so far to allow them to visit detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan or Guantanamo Bay naval base following information "from reliable sources" of serious allegations of torture. "The lack of a definitive answer despite repeated requests suggests that the United States is not willing to cooperate with the United Nations human rights machinery on this issue," they said in a statement issued in Geneva, a year after they requested the visit. "It is our conviction that no Member State of the United Nations is above international human rights law," they added. "Due to the seriousness of the allegations, the lack of cooperation and given the responsibilities to our respective mandates, we will jointly conduct an investigation based on all credible sources regarding the situation of the detainees in Guantanamo Bay." The Statement was issued by Leandro Despouy, Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Paul Hunt, Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, Manfred Nowak, Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and Leila Zerrougui, Chairperson-Rapporteur of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. It had the endorsements of Special Rapporteurs/representatives, independent experts and chairpersons of all working groups of the Special Procedures of the UN Commission on Human Rights. "We deeply regret that the Government of the United States has still not invited us to visit those persons arrested, detained or tried on grounds of alleged terrorism or other violations in Iraq, Afghanistan, or the Guantanamo Bay naval base," the statement said. "Such requests were based on information, from reliable sources, of serious allegations of torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of detainees, arbitrary detention, violations of their right to health and their due process rights. Many of these allegations have come to light through declassified Government documents," it added. "The purpose of the visit would be to examine objectively the allegations first-hand and ascertain whether international human rights standards that are applicable in these particular circumstances are being upheld with respect to those detained persons. The Independent Experts have given ample time to the Government to consider their request and have made themselves available for any needed consultations." The experts said that should the US Government extend a visit to Guantanamo they would incorporate the findings into their other investigations.
June 24, 2005
Posted 10:29 PM
by Mary
UN Experts Cite Guantanamo Torture Reports By Bradley S. Klapper The Associated Press Thursday 23 June 2005 Geneva - UN human rights investigators, citing "persistent and credible" reports of torture at the US base in Guantanamo Bay, urged the United States on Thursday to allow them to check conditions there. The failure of the United States to respond to requests since early 2002 is leading the experts to conclude Washington has something to hide at the Cuban base, said Manfred Nowak, a specialist on torture and a professor of human rights law in Vienna, Austria. "At a certain point, you have to take well-founded allegations as proven in the absence of a clear explanation by the government," Nowak said. However, he added: "We are not making a judgment if torture or treatment under degrading conditions has taken place." Washington's response is delayed because the US review process is "thorough and independent" and involves the Bush administration, Congress and the judicial system, said Brooks Robinson, spokeswoman for the US mission to UN offices in Geneva. "The main point is that their request is being addressed and discussed and reviewed in the United States," Robinson told The Associated Press. "That process is underway." But one investigator, Algerian magistrate Leila Zerrougui, said: "The time is up. We have to act now. If not, we won't have any credibility left." For more than three years, UN investigators have made numerous requests to visit foreign terror suspects at the US Naval base in Cuba and at US facilities in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, the four independent specialists told reporters.
June 15, 2005
Posted 9:07 AM
by Mary
OR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 14, 2005 Contact: Elizabeth Alexander, 202-887-9040 Amy DiElsi, 202-419-3230 Eight Former U.S. Ambassadors Urge Congress Not To Withhold UN Dues Ad Campaign Explains Why Legislation Counter-Productive to UN Reform Washington, D.C.—The Better World Campaign (BWC) today released a letter signed by eight former U.S. ambassadors to the United Nations as part of BWC’s campaign against the withholding of UN dues. This week, the U.S. House of Representatives is slated to vote on legislation titled the “United Nations Reform Act of 2005.” Sponsored by International Relations Committee Chairman Henry Hyde (R-IL), the bill would automatically stop payment of a large portion of the United States’ annual dues to the UN causing a huge debt and inhibiting the U.S.’ ability to lead within the institution. “Reforming the United Nations is the right goal. Withholding our dues to the UN is the wrong methodology. When we last built debt with the UN, the United States isolated ourselves from our allies within the UN and made diplomacy a near impossible task,” the letter said. The eight former ambassadors are Madeleine Albright, John Danforth, Richard Holbrooke, Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, Donald F. McHenry, Thomas R. Pickering, Bill Richardson, and Andrew Young. As part of this initiative, the BWC also launched today an advertising campaign. Ads will run today and Thursday in the Washington Post, Washington Times, Congress Daily AM, Congressional Quarterly, and Roll Call. (A copy of the first ad is attached) “The last time we reneged on our dues, other countries became less willing to work with the U.S. and more resistant to our proposals. American support is critical to make the UN more effective,” the first advertisement reads.
June 11, 2005
Posted 9:52 AM
by Mary
Global law claims new turf in Sudan By Peter Ford and Abraham McLaughlin | Staff writers of The Christian Science Monitor PARIS AND JOHANNESBURG - Thrust this week into its highest-profile case to date, the fledgling International Criminal Court (ICC) faces both enormous opportunities and risks as Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo launches an investigation into possible war crimes in the Sudanese region of Darfur. At stake is not only the provision of justice to the victims of violence there, which has left at least 180,000 dead and nearly two million homeless, but the very future of international justice. The case, analysts say, crosses a new threshold, since for the first time investigators will be working uninvited by the local government and against its will. "It is going to be very difficult," says Princeton Lyman, a former US ambassador to Nigeria and South Africa who now works at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. "The Sudanese government will not cooperate." That resistance is putting into sharp relief the sometimes competing interests of international justice and state sovereignty. "This is a crucial test" for the ICC, says Richard Goldstone, the first man to prosecute such crimes from the Balkan wars. Supporters of the court, which was founded three years ago as the world's first permanent, independent judicial body to try war crimes and crimes against humanity, welcome its role in one of the world's most troubling crises. "It shows that the court is ... firmly part of the international scene," says Christopher Hall, a legal analyst with Amnesty International, the London-based human rights organization. Human rights groups blame most of the atrocities over the past two years in Darfur on Janjaweed militiamen supported by Sudanese government troops, though antigovernment rebel forces have also been accused of war crimes. Darfur is the third case that investigators with the ICC prosecutor's office have taken on. In Uganda and Congo, however, they are acting at the request of those countries' governments, which have accused rebel groups of atrocities. In Darfur, they will be working at the request of the United Nations Security Council. "This is a historic development" for international justice, says Yves Sorokobi, spokesman for Mr. Moreno-Ocampo
Posted 9:48 AM
by Mary
Annan: U.S. Withholding Dues Is Bad Idea By NICK WADHAMS The Associated Press Thursday, June 9, 2005; 10:52 PM UNITED NATIONS -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday criticized proposed legislation before the U.S. House of Representatives that would link reforms of the world body to payment of U.S. dues. Annan said he hoped the bill, introduced Tuesday by Illinois Republican Henry Hyde, won't become law. He repeated his oft-stated view that withholding dues from the United Nations would be "counterproductive." "We are going through reforms and the U.S. has a natural leadership role and I hope it will work with other Member States to reform and strengthen the Organization," Annan told reporters. "I don't think holding back on contributions sends the right message." Annan discussed the bill during a phone call with President Bush on Thursday morning, he told dozens of U.N. ambassadors at a breakfast later in the morning. Annan told the ambassadors that Bush had reiterated the U.S. position that it opposes the idea of withholding dues.
June 10, 2005
Posted 9:58 PM
by Mary
POLITICS: Nuclear Warrior Replaces Bolton as Arms Control Chief Tom Barry* SILVER CITY, New Mexico, Jun 10 (IPS) - The top U.S. government official in charge of arms control advocates the offensive use of nuclear weapons and has deep roots in the militarist political camp. Moving into the old job of John Bolton, the administration's hard-core unilateralist nominee to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Robert G. Joseph is the right-wing's advance man for counter-proliferation as the conceptual core of a new U.S. military policy. Within the administration, he leads a band of counter-proliferationists who -- working closely with such militarist policy institutes as the National Institute for Public Policy (NIPP) and the Center for Security Policy (CSP) -- have placed preemptive attacks and weapons of mass destruction at the center of U.S. national security strategy. Joseph replaced John Bolton at the State Department as the new undersecretary of state for arms control and international security affairs. U.S. security strategy, according to the new arms control chief, should ”not include signing up for arms control for the sake of arms control. At best that would be a needless diversion of effort when the real threat requires all of our attention. At worst, as we discovered in the draft BWC (Biological Weapons Convention) Protocol that we inherited, an arms control approach would actually harm our ability to deal with the WMD threat.”
Posted 9:55 PM
by Mary
UN Atlas Uses Satellite Imagery To Expose Decades Of Environmental Damage The date palm forest lining the Shatt al-Arab estuary in Iraq is the largest in the world. In 1975 the date palm belt - shown dark red - was thriving but by 2002, the pallid colour indicates dead vegetation. The UN estimates war, pests and salt have destroyed 14 million palms. Credit: UN/NASA Geneva (AFP) Jun 03, 2005 An atlas of satellite photographs published by the UN environmental agency on Friday has exposed the physical damage wrought by the growing human population, including deforestation, retreating icecaps, dried seas, sprawling cities and pollution. UNEP said the book, "One Planet, Many People", which is also aimed at policy makers, gives a clear illustration of major environmental changes that develop gradually over years without being immediately noticed on the ground. The comparative photographs from space include the emergence of greenhouses for industrial scale farming in Almeria, southern Spain that have turned about 400 square kilometres (160 square miles) of fields and valleys dotted with villages into a solid grey and white patchwork between 1974 to 2004. They also show the shrinkage of the Arctic icecap as well as glaciers in the Himalayas, European Alps, or South America's Andes, while a swathe of virgin Amazonian rainforest in Brazil turns from solid green in 1975 to stripes of white 25 years later due to logging.
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"War does not determine who is right--only who is left." - Bertrand Russell
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