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Posted 10:40 AM by Mary

Human Rights Report Assails U.S. By ALAN COWELL. NY TIMES

PARIS — Sixty years after the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, governments in scores of countries still torture or mistreat their people, Amnesty International said Wednesday in a report that again urged the United States to close down the Guantánamo Bay detention camp in Cuba.

In its annual report, the London-based human rights watchdog said “flashpoints” in Darfur, Zimbabwe, Gaza, Iraq/ and Myanmar “demand immediate action.”

“World leaders are in a state of denial but their failure to act has a high cost,” Irene Khan, the secretary general of Amnesty International, said in a statement accompanying the report. “As Iraq and Afghanistan show, human rights problems are not isolated tragedies, but are like viruses than can infect and spread rapidly, endangering all of us.”

The report singled out for criticism China, the United States, and Russia and accused the European Union of complicity in the rendition of terrorism suspects. The European Union, it said, must “set the same bar on human rights for its own members as it does for other countries.”

It urged Washington to close down the Guantánamo facility and other “secret detention centers,” and to “prosecute the detainees under fair trial standards or release them and unequivocally reject the use of torture and ill-treatment.”

The U.S. State Department had no immediate comment on the Amnesty International allegations, which followed an exhaustive report earlier this month by the Justice Department inspector general in Washington. That review provided the fullest account to date of internal dissent and confusion within the Bush administration over the use of harsh interrogation tactics by the military and the Central Intelligence Agency.

At that time,the Pentagon noted that a Defense Department investigation in 2005 found no evidence of torture but called some interrogation tactics degrading and abusive. A spokesman for the C.I.A. said its harsh methods were “found lawful by the Department of Justice itself” and “were employed only when traditional means of questioning — things like rapport-building — were ineffective.”

Criticizing other countries, Amnesty International urged China to ‘’live up to the human rights promises it made around the Olympic Games” and said Russia should ‘’show greater tolerance for political dissent, and none for impunity on human rights abuses in Chechnya.”

...

The report assailed the moral leadership of the United States, saying that, as “the world’s most powerful state” it “sets the standard for government behavior globally.” But, Amnesty International said, the United States had “distinguished itself in recent years through its defiance of international law.”

In the past, the State Department has accused Amnesty International of using the United States as “a convenient ideological punching bag.”

Labels: amnesy, Human rights, torture, US

Posted 11:04 AM by Mary

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter says Israel has a nuclear arsenal of 150 weapons.
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Asked at a news conference at Wales's Hay literary festival on Sunday how a future U.S. president should deal with the Iranian nuclear threat, Carter put the risk in context by listing atomic weapons held globally.

"The U.S. has more than 12,000 nuclear weapons, the Soviet Union (Russia) has about the same, Great Britain and France have several hundred, and Israel has 150 or more. We have a phalanx of enormous weaponry ... not only of enormous weaponry but of rockets to deliver those missiles on a pinpoint accuracy target," he said, according to a transcript of his remarks.

While experts have long maintained Israel has a nuclear arsenal, the Jewish state has refused to confirm or deny it. The Times of London reported Carter's estimate earlier Monday.

Most estimates, many based on evidence leaked in 1986 by Israeli nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu, put the number of Israeli nuclear weapons at between 100 and 200. But other experts have said the number is as low as 60 or as high as 400.

It was unclear from the newspaper's account whether Carter was citing those estimates, offering his own independent assessment or drawing on U.S. intelligence he would have had access to as president.

U.S. officials have generally avoided the issue of Israel's nuclear status, although during a 2006 Senate confirmation hearing Secretary of Defense Robert Gates confirmed that Israel was a nuclear power.

The Times, which did not quote him directly, said Carter made the comment Sunday while at the Hay-on-Wye literary festival on the border between England and Wales. He was discussing Iran, and the difficulty it would have in building a secret nuclear arsenal, when he mentioned the Israeli weapons, the paper said.

Reports on Carter's speech from the BBC, The Guardian and The Western Mail did not mention his estimate of Israel's nuclear stockpile.

Labels: Carter, israel, NPT, nuclear weapons

Posted 10:32 AM by Mary

JEFFREY SIMPSON, The Globe and Mail
Turning our back on the UN
Think the U.S. presidential campaign is long? It's a sprint compared to campaigning for a seat on the United Nations Security Council. Canada started campaigning four years before the vote on a two-year term in 1999-2000. Canada topped the poll in the Western European and Others Group, as it had every time it stood for election.

But this time, Stephen Harper's government is hesitating before giving the green light for the intense campaign required, in part because Canada might not even win one of the two seats up for grabs.

Circumstances and the Harperites' foreign policy imperil Canada's chances in the secret ballot that will occur two years from now for the 2011-2012 term. At this early stage, Canada's chances are no better than 50-50 to snag one of the WEOG seats, the other contenders being Germany and Portugal.

What does Canada have going against it? The recent Israel-right-or-wrong policy - reflected in various statements, policies and UN votes - has been sourly noted by the 50-odd Muslim countries that cast a ballot. The coldness toward Beijing also has been noted, especially by influential China, a permanent member of the Security Council.

In Africa, with 52 voting countries, there's a sense the Harper government doesn't care as much about the continent as did previous governments. As well, the Harper government follows Canada's long-standing policy of opposing additional permanent members of the Security Council, a policy that irritates countries that want one, such as Japan, Brazil, Germany and India. Of course, European Union members usually vote overwhelmingly for each other.

Canada flunked the climate-change test, compiling the worst record of any country that signed Kyoto Protocol, a worrying factor for many countries, especially island ones.

If, as expected, the government begins to target aid to a smaller number of countries - an entirely justified policy - those countries that lose Canadian aid also will feel grumpy.

In short, there's a sense that the Harper government's heart just isn't in the United Nations. Ministers don't go there very often. Canada was once a key player on files such as the land-mine treaty and the creation of the International Criminal Court. That sort of multilateralism just doesn't turn the crank of the Harper government.

Still, Canada's reputation is strong. And it can play the anti-European card: Europe already has two permanent council members (Britain and France), so do others really want four Europeans with the addition of Germany and Portugal?

Canada will have hemispheric support, and will retain some sympathy in Africa. Last time, Canada espoused lifting the veil on secrecy around the back-door deliberations of the council, but it seems to lack a campaign theme this time, except We're Nice, We're Canadian, We're Not European.

A lot of deal-making and back-scratching attends these votes. When Canada ran last time, it defeated Greece despite that country taking some UN ambassadors and their wives on an all-expenses paid trip to Athens.

For its part, the Chrétien government divided up the world, and sent emissaries several times to their assigned list of countries. Ministers trooped often to New York for small meetings. (Some countries give their UN ambassadors complete discretion in casting a vote; most follow instructions). The Canadian mission at the UN worked tirelessly under the direction of then-ambassador Robert Fowler.

The campaign was long, intense, quiet and ultimately successful. This time, the campaign has been much more low-key. The Prime Minister has not made an official, high-profile announcement that Canada will seek a seat, in the manner of Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who announced his country's ambition in his speech to the General Assembly last fall.

Given Canada's past successes, it's revealing that it cannot be assured a win this time. An announcement that Canada will not run would be highly embarrassing for Mr. Harper's government, since the reason would be that it reckoned the country would fail.

The path of least resistance would be to fire up a campaign, knowing that the UN vote won't happen until after the next federal election. If Canada were to lose the UN election in 2010, the next Canadian election would already have been held, so the political fallout from a UN defeat would be minimal. If Canada did win, so much the better for the government, and the country.

Posted 7:54 AM by Mary

Forum seeks to ban cluster bombs

Diplomats from around the world are gathering in Dublin for a conference that aims to secure a treaty banning the use of cluster bombs.

The proposed ban has the support of more than 100 countries.

Humanitarian organisations say a binding treaty is now urgent because the weapons cause unacceptable harm to civilians.

But some of the world's main producers and stockpilers - including the US, the UK, Russia and China - oppose the move.

"Governments have been talking about the dangers of cluster bombs for years," said Grethe Ostern, joint head of the Cluster Munitions Coalition.

"More delays mean more injuries and death for ordinary people. We have a unique opportunity to ban cluster bombs in Dublin. It is now or never." Cluster bombs have been used in countries including Cambodia, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Lebanon.

The initial weapon scatters thousands of smaller bombs across a wide area, but these bomblets can fail to explode, leaving a deadly legacy as civilians return to their homes.

On the eve of the conference, Pope Benedict XVI expressed hopes that "it will be possible to reach a strong and credible international agreement".

"It is necessary to heal the errors of the past and avoid them happening again in the future. I pray for the victims of the cluster munitions, for their families and for those who will join the conference too, wishing that it will be successful," the pontiff said.

Humanitarian groups, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, see the daily consequences of cluster munitions among the wounded civilians they treat.

They argue that a comprehensive and binding treaty - one that includes provision for compensation for victims - is essential.

"Cluster munitions are weapons that never stop killing," said ICRC president Jakob Kellenberger.

But some of the biggest producers and stockpilers of cluster weapons - the US, the UK, China, Russia, India and Israel - are against the ban, claiming such munitions can be useful on the battlefield. They have been lobbying to have the treaty watered down.

While the UK government, for example, has shown a commitment to the process, it is strongly opposed to an outright ban.

Instead it is seeking an exemption for the newest generation of so-called "smart" cluster munitions which contain self-destruct mechanisms.

Campaigners say the failure rate of these new kinds of munitions makes them too risky.

If, as expected, the conference does come to agreement, it will be the most important disarmament treaty since the Ottawa convention to prohibit landmines over 10 years ago, the BBC's Imogen Foulkes says.

HOW A CLUSTER BOMB WORKS
1. The cluster bomb, in this case a CBU-87, is dropped from a plane and can fly about nine miles before releasing its load of about 200 bomblets.
2. The canister starts to spin and opens at an altitude between 1,000m and 100m, spraying the bomblets across a wide area.
3. Each bomblet is the size of a soft drink can and contains hundreds of metal pieces. When it explodes, it can cause deadly injuries up to 25m away

Labels: cluster bombs

Posted 8:53 AM by Mary

EUROPE: Call to Link Trade With Children's Rights
By David Cronin

BRUSSELS, May 15 (IPS) - The European Union has been urged to make its trading relationships with foreign countries conditional on reducing and eventually eradicating child labour.

Some 218 million of the world's children, most of them under 14, have to work, according to data from the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

Although the EU's main institutions have committed themselves to increasing access to education in poor countries so that children can go to school rather than have to find employment to supplement their families' meagre incomes, they lack a coherent strategy against child labour, according to a group who have examined the surrounding issues.

Richard Howitt, a British Labour member of the European Parliament (MEP), complained that there is no attempt being made to include legally binding provisions in the trade agreements that the EU signs with third countries, committing the latter to eliminate child labour.

"The European Union says all the right things about child labour," he said. "They never say 'we want child labour and we think it is acceptable'. But what do they do to enforce it (a requirement to end child labour)? There is a huge chasm between rhetoric and reality."

In a new study, the campaign group Stop Child Labour advocates that the EU should require that foreign countries commit to ending child labour within an agreed timeframe if their goods are to benefit from preferential access to the Union's market.

It advocates that trade preferences granted to Uzbekistan should be revoked. Human rights activists have gathered evidence that officials working for the Tashkent government force Uzbek children, some as young as seven, to pick cotton by hand during the annual harvest.

Gerard Oonk, author of the Stop Child Labour study, noted that poor countries are obliged to ratify international conventions on human and labour rights if they are to avail of a modified version of the EU's General System of Preferences for trade, known as GSP+. This scheme allows poor countries largely unfettered access to the EU's markets.

Yet Oonk said that the 15 countries now part of GSP+ include Colombia and Bolivia, both of which "have a large child labour problem." The EU is "giving the seal of approval to countries who don't deserve it," he added.

Jetteke van der Schatte Olivier from the Dutch anti-poverty group Hivos stressed that investing in schooling is the best way both to help end child labour and to ensure that economies can develop in the long term with the help of well-educated adults. "Every euro invested in education earns itself back seven times," she claimed.

Data published recently by the United Nations Education for All initiative suggests that some of the EU's most populous countries are not contributing adequately to efforts aimed at allowing every boy and girl complete primary schooling. The UN berated France and Germany for prioritising universities over primary schools in their development aid budgets. It also found that the volume of aid allocated to basic education in poor countries by Austria, Portugal and Spain had declined between 1999 and 2005.

Thijs Berman, a Dutch MEP, said the number of children affected by child labour has fallen by 20 percent over the past 15 years. Yet the problem still remains particularly acute in sub-Saharan Africa, where children are frequently used to doing farm work.

He recommended that the EU's executive, the European Commission, should set up a 'hotline' which would gather information about European firms that use child labour at any stage during the manufacturing of their products. Companies that seek to benefit from European support schemes should be required to present proof that they do not exploit children, he said.

Dany Houngbedji, a Commission official, acknowledged that no projects aimed at addressing child labour are being supported under Investing in People, one of the main foreign aid programmes being managed by the EU's executive. Yet the "door is open" to proposals in this area, she said.

Ruth Casals, coordinator of the European Coalition for Corporate Justice in Brussels, said that there is a need for EU legislation obliging firms to guarantee they do not use child labour. "While parent companies reap the profits, it is not possible to make them legally responsible for human rights or environmental violations like child labour by their subsidiaries abroad," she explained. "The EU has a moral imperative in not allowing European companies to profit from human rights violations."

Cees van Dam, professor at King's College London, said that litigation against child labour is rare. But he stated that EU rules against unfair commercial practices may provide the possibility to take action against firms that exploit children. These rules forbid companies from giving a false picture of their activities. "If companies say they don't use child labour but in reality they do, then they are misleading consumers in Europe," he said. (END/2008)

Labels: child labor, EU, sweatshops