Human rights abuses please help
Starmail - 25. Jan, 23:56
Menschenrechte - Human Rights
25
Jan
2005
13
Jan
2005
22
Dez
2004
America locked up : 'Thinking About Crime'
by Paul Craig Roberts
CounterPunch
12/21/04
In a just published book, 'Thinking About Crime', Michael Tonry, a distinguished American law professor and director of Cambridge University's Institute of Criminology, reports that the US has the highest percentage of its population in prison than any country on earth. The US incarceration rate is as much as 12 times higher than that of European countries. Unless you believe that Americans are more criminally inclined than other humans, what can explain the US incarceration rate being so far outside the international mainstream?
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts12212004.html
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
CounterPunch
12/21/04
In a just published book, 'Thinking About Crime', Michael Tonry, a distinguished American law professor and director of Cambridge University's Institute of Criminology, reports that the US has the highest percentage of its population in prison than any country on earth. The US incarceration rate is as much as 12 times higher than that of European countries. Unless you believe that Americans are more criminally inclined than other humans, what can explain the US incarceration rate being so far outside the international mainstream?
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts12212004.html
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
Starmail - 22. Dez, 14:44
17
Dez
2004
A nation demands the right to exist
The Inuit peoples of the Arctic have launched a dramatic legal action against America. The charge? That US emissions of greenhouse gases have made their very survival impossible
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=593660
http://snipurl.com/bf6n
From Information Clearing House
--------
GLOBAL WARMING AND HUMAN RIGHTS - Oread Daily
The United States is about to be charged with human rights violations for contributing substantially to global warming.
The Inuit, whose homeland stretches from the northeastern tip of Russia across Alaska and northern Canada to parts of Greenland, plan to seek a ruling from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights saying that the actions of the US are threatening their existence.
The Inuit plan is part of a broader shift in the debate over human- caused climate change evident among participants in the 10th round of international talks taking place in Buenos Aires aimed at averting dangerous human interference with the climate system. Inuit leaders said they planned to announce the effort at the climate meeting today. Representatives of poor countries and communities -- from the Arctic fringes to the atolls of the tropics to the flanks of the Himalayas -- say they are imperiled by rising temperatures and seas through no fault of their own. They are casting the issue as no longer simply an environmental problem but as an assault on their basic human rights.
Such a petition could have decent prospects now that industrial countries, including the United States, have concluded in recent reports and studies that warming linked to heat-trapping smokestack and tailpipe emissions is contributing to big environmental changes in the Arctic, a number of experts said. Last month, an assessment of Arctic climate change by 300 scientists for the eight countries with Arctic territory, including the United States, concluded that "human influences" are now the dominant factor.
Sheila Watt-Cloutier, elected chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC), says the biggest fear was not that warming would kill individuals but that it would be the final blow to a sturdy but suffering culture. "We've had to struggle as a people to keep afloat, to keep our indigenous wisdom and traditions. We're an adaptable people, but adaptability has its limits…Something is bound to give, and it's starting to give in the Arctic, and we're sending that early warning signal to the rest of the world."
Chief Gary Harrison of the Arctic Athabaskan Council, said: "Our homes are threatened by storms and melting permafrost, our livelihoods are threatened by changes to the plants and animals we harvest. Even our lives are threatened, as traditional travel routes become more dangerous."
Attorneys from Earthjustice and the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) are working with the Inuit Circumpolar Conference to file the petition.
Donald Goldberg, a senior attorney from CIEL said at the Conference, "Climate change is a human rights concern on an unprecedented scale. It poses an immediate danger for Inuit and other Arctic inhabitants, but millions of people in mountain areas, low-lying island and coastal regions, and other vulnerable parts of the world will soon face similar threats."
"Protecting human rights is the most fundamental responsibility of governments," said Martin Wagner, International Program managing attorney for Earthjustice. "Climate change is threatening the health, culture, and livelihoods of the Inuit. It is the responsibility of the United States, as the largest source of greenhouse gases, to take immediate action to protect the rights of the Inuit and others around the world."
The Arctic is warming much more rapidly than previously known, at nearly twice the rate as the rest of the globe, according to the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA), a four-year scientific study conducted by an international team of 300 scientists under the direction of a high-level intergovernmental forum including the United States. Increasing greenhouse gases from human activities are projected to make the Arctic warmer still, according to this unprecedented report.
The Inter-American Human Rights Commission (IAHRC) is an agency of the Organization for American States, of which the US is a member. The Inuit have a voice in the OAS - and thus the commission - through Canada, where they have their own immense and partly autonomous territory of Nunavut, covering 1.9 million square kilometers, a fifth of Canada. But although the IAHRC can issue findings, recommendations, and rulings, it is not a court, and the US has predictably indicated it will not consider itself bound by anything that emerges.
But a ruling could be the basis for lawsuits. If the Inuit gain a ruling that their human rights have been violated, it could form the basis of a case against the US government in an international court, or class-action suits in the US against the government or US energy companies, akin to the suits which have led to multibillion-dollar judgments against the tobacco companies.
One Inuit community of nearly 600 people in the Alaskan barrier island of Shishmaref faces becoming the world's first "global warming refugees". The permafrost on which their homes were built has melted and the ice that used to stop waves reaching the shore has nearly disappeared. Joe Braach, the headteacher of Shishmaref school, says: "When I moved here, the sea was 40ft (12m) from the house. Now it's about 10ft (3m)." Storms have destroyed some of the homes and the community now has little option but to move to the mainland, at a cost of $400m.
Sources: Seattle Post Intelligencer, Earth Justice, New Zealand Herald, Canadian Arctic Profiles
Informant: reg
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=593660
http://snipurl.com/bf6n
From Information Clearing House
--------
GLOBAL WARMING AND HUMAN RIGHTS - Oread Daily
The United States is about to be charged with human rights violations for contributing substantially to global warming.
The Inuit, whose homeland stretches from the northeastern tip of Russia across Alaska and northern Canada to parts of Greenland, plan to seek a ruling from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights saying that the actions of the US are threatening their existence.
The Inuit plan is part of a broader shift in the debate over human- caused climate change evident among participants in the 10th round of international talks taking place in Buenos Aires aimed at averting dangerous human interference with the climate system. Inuit leaders said they planned to announce the effort at the climate meeting today. Representatives of poor countries and communities -- from the Arctic fringes to the atolls of the tropics to the flanks of the Himalayas -- say they are imperiled by rising temperatures and seas through no fault of their own. They are casting the issue as no longer simply an environmental problem but as an assault on their basic human rights.
Such a petition could have decent prospects now that industrial countries, including the United States, have concluded in recent reports and studies that warming linked to heat-trapping smokestack and tailpipe emissions is contributing to big environmental changes in the Arctic, a number of experts said. Last month, an assessment of Arctic climate change by 300 scientists for the eight countries with Arctic territory, including the United States, concluded that "human influences" are now the dominant factor.
Sheila Watt-Cloutier, elected chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC), says the biggest fear was not that warming would kill individuals but that it would be the final blow to a sturdy but suffering culture. "We've had to struggle as a people to keep afloat, to keep our indigenous wisdom and traditions. We're an adaptable people, but adaptability has its limits…Something is bound to give, and it's starting to give in the Arctic, and we're sending that early warning signal to the rest of the world."
Chief Gary Harrison of the Arctic Athabaskan Council, said: "Our homes are threatened by storms and melting permafrost, our livelihoods are threatened by changes to the plants and animals we harvest. Even our lives are threatened, as traditional travel routes become more dangerous."
Attorneys from Earthjustice and the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) are working with the Inuit Circumpolar Conference to file the petition.
Donald Goldberg, a senior attorney from CIEL said at the Conference, "Climate change is a human rights concern on an unprecedented scale. It poses an immediate danger for Inuit and other Arctic inhabitants, but millions of people in mountain areas, low-lying island and coastal regions, and other vulnerable parts of the world will soon face similar threats."
"Protecting human rights is the most fundamental responsibility of governments," said Martin Wagner, International Program managing attorney for Earthjustice. "Climate change is threatening the health, culture, and livelihoods of the Inuit. It is the responsibility of the United States, as the largest source of greenhouse gases, to take immediate action to protect the rights of the Inuit and others around the world."
The Arctic is warming much more rapidly than previously known, at nearly twice the rate as the rest of the globe, according to the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA), a four-year scientific study conducted by an international team of 300 scientists under the direction of a high-level intergovernmental forum including the United States. Increasing greenhouse gases from human activities are projected to make the Arctic warmer still, according to this unprecedented report.
The Inter-American Human Rights Commission (IAHRC) is an agency of the Organization for American States, of which the US is a member. The Inuit have a voice in the OAS - and thus the commission - through Canada, where they have their own immense and partly autonomous territory of Nunavut, covering 1.9 million square kilometers, a fifth of Canada. But although the IAHRC can issue findings, recommendations, and rulings, it is not a court, and the US has predictably indicated it will not consider itself bound by anything that emerges.
But a ruling could be the basis for lawsuits. If the Inuit gain a ruling that their human rights have been violated, it could form the basis of a case against the US government in an international court, or class-action suits in the US against the government or US energy companies, akin to the suits which have led to multibillion-dollar judgments against the tobacco companies.
One Inuit community of nearly 600 people in the Alaskan barrier island of Shishmaref faces becoming the world's first "global warming refugees". The permafrost on which their homes were built has melted and the ice that used to stop waves reaching the shore has nearly disappeared. Joe Braach, the headteacher of Shishmaref school, says: "When I moved here, the sea was 40ft (12m) from the house. Now it's about 10ft (3m)." Storms have destroyed some of the homes and the community now has little option but to move to the mainland, at a cost of $400m.
Sources: Seattle Post Intelligencer, Earth Justice, New Zealand Herald, Canadian Arctic Profiles
Informant: reg
Starmail - 17. Dez, 16:56
Albany Woman Forcibly Injected With Drugs
Albany Woman Forcibly Injected With Drugs After Protesting Regulations of DMV
Albany residents beware. What happened to Bliss Alexandra could happen to you.
Anger police chief James Turley and you might end up at a state hospital for the violent and criminally insane, hundreds of miles away from your family and friends, forcibly injected with mind altering drugs. Bliss Alexandra who is also known as Darlene Early---or Darlene Barely as the Albany Police Department call her, was returned to Albany on Wednesday, Dec. 8 after completing an involuntary stay at Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center in Manhattan, ordered by Albany City Court judge Thomas Keefe after she exercised what she thought were her constitutional rights.
She is scheduled to appear in Albany City Court before Keefe Thursday, Dec. 9.
http://www.theempirejournal.com/albany_woman_forcibly_injected_w.htm
From:
Aftermath News
Top Stories - December 17th, 2004
Albany residents beware. What happened to Bliss Alexandra could happen to you.
Anger police chief James Turley and you might end up at a state hospital for the violent and criminally insane, hundreds of miles away from your family and friends, forcibly injected with mind altering drugs. Bliss Alexandra who is also known as Darlene Early---or Darlene Barely as the Albany Police Department call her, was returned to Albany on Wednesday, Dec. 8 after completing an involuntary stay at Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center in Manhattan, ordered by Albany City Court judge Thomas Keefe after she exercised what she thought were her constitutional rights.
She is scheduled to appear in Albany City Court before Keefe Thursday, Dec. 9.
http://www.theempirejournal.com/albany_woman_forcibly_injected_w.htm
From:
Aftermath News
Top Stories - December 17th, 2004
Starmail - 17. Dez, 15:37
10
Dez
2004
Crimes Against Humanity Committed In Connection With Pharmaceutical Business
Complaint Against Genocide and Other Crimes Against Humanity Committed in Connection With The Pharmaceutical 'Business With Disease' And The Recent War Against Iraq
The Accused
The accused are the following persons from the corporate, military
and political sectors of different nationalities:
http://www4.dr-rath-foundation.org/The_Hague/complaint/complaint04.htm
The pharmaceutical and petrochemical (oil) industries are held in the hands of the same financial interest groups, such as Rockefeller and J.P. Morgan. They were the largest donors to Bush’s election campaign in 2000.
Without this money, the Bush administration would not be in the White House today.
In return, five out of ten key legislative initiatives during the Bush administration were nothing other than trillion dollar government subsidy programs for the pharmaceutical drug cartel.
http://www4.dr-rath-foundation.org/open_letters/open_letter_2004_09_02.htm
Informant: Friends
The Accused
The accused are the following persons from the corporate, military
and political sectors of different nationalities:
http://www4.dr-rath-foundation.org/The_Hague/complaint/complaint04.htm
The pharmaceutical and petrochemical (oil) industries are held in the hands of the same financial interest groups, such as Rockefeller and J.P. Morgan. They were the largest donors to Bush’s election campaign in 2000.
Without this money, the Bush administration would not be in the White House today.
In return, five out of ten key legislative initiatives during the Bush administration were nothing other than trillion dollar government subsidy programs for the pharmaceutical drug cartel.
http://www4.dr-rath-foundation.org/open_letters/open_letter_2004_09_02.htm
Informant: Friends
Starmail - 10. Dez, 10:19
9
Dez
2004
3
Dez
2004
Thousands of Mentally Ill NJ Teens Jailed Illegally
Hundreds of children and teenagers held in juvenile detention facilities in New Jersey are there illegally, kept for months without basic medical care in locked quarters that are severely overcrowded and leave them vulnerable to episodes of violence, according to a report by the independent monitor of the state's child welfare system.
The report, issued by the Office of the Child Advocate, which was created last year after the state's child welfare system scandal, is based on a yearlong investigation that had access to confidential government records. It amounts to a damning portrait of the 17 county detention facilities that together house more than 10,000 adolescents a year. The report found that fully a quarter of the youths held in detention facilities, many of them suffering from mental health problems, were there simply because the state could not find a more appropriate setting, such as a hospital or foster home. And in what the report called a "cruel irony,'' scores of them stayed four months longer on average than the sentences served by the adolescents who had been sent there for committing crimes.
The counties, according to the report, often failed to provide the most troubled youths in the facilities with rudimentary mental health care. Evaluations often were not done in some county juvenile jails; in others, mental health care was provided by drug and alcohol counselors, not doctors.
http://www.infowars.com/articles/ps/nj_children_jailed.htm
From:
Aftermath News
Top Stories - December 2nd, 2004
The report, issued by the Office of the Child Advocate, which was created last year after the state's child welfare system scandal, is based on a yearlong investigation that had access to confidential government records. It amounts to a damning portrait of the 17 county detention facilities that together house more than 10,000 adolescents a year. The report found that fully a quarter of the youths held in detention facilities, many of them suffering from mental health problems, were there simply because the state could not find a more appropriate setting, such as a hospital or foster home. And in what the report called a "cruel irony,'' scores of them stayed four months longer on average than the sentences served by the adolescents who had been sent there for committing crimes.
The counties, according to the report, often failed to provide the most troubled youths in the facilities with rudimentary mental health care. Evaluations often were not done in some county juvenile jails; in others, mental health care was provided by drug and alcohol counselors, not doctors.
http://www.infowars.com/articles/ps/nj_children_jailed.htm
From:
Aftermath News
Top Stories - December 2nd, 2004
Starmail - 3. Dez, 17:01
30
Nov
2004
U.N. Body Rejects Censure, Threatens Revolt
Starmail - 30. Nov, 17:57
Bhopal Disaster and Aftermath a Huge Violation of Human Rights
Bhopal Disaster and Aftermath a Huge Violation of Human Rights: Amnesty
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1129-01.htm
Bhopal: A living legacy of corporate greed:
Meet the forgotten survivors...
http://207.44.245.159/article7405.htm
--------
December 3, 2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
"DOW" STATEMENT A HOAX
"Historic aid package for Bhopal victims" a lie
Contact: Marina Ashanin, Corp. Media Relations, +41-1-728-2347
Related information: http://dowethics.com/bhopal/
Today on BBC World Television, a fake Dow spokesperson announced fake plans to take full responsibility for the very real Bhopal tragedy of December 3, 1984. (1) Dow Chemical emphatically denies this announcement. Although seemingly humanistic in nature, the fake plans were invented by irresponsible hucksters with no regard for the truth.
As Dow has repeatedly noted, Dow cannot and will not take responsibility for the accident. ("What we cannot and will not do... is accept responsibility for the Bhopal accident." - CEO Michael Parker, 2002.) The Dow position has not changed, despite public pressure.
Dow also notes the great injustice that these pranksters have caused by giving Bhopalis false hope for a better future assisted by Dow. The survivors of Bhopal have already suffered 20 years of false hope, neglect, and abdication of responsibility by all parties. Is that not enough?
To be perfectly clear:
* The Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) will NOT be liquidated. (The fake "Dow plan" called for the dissolution and sale of Dow's fully owned subsidiary, estimated at US$12 billion, to fund compensation
and remediation in Bhopal.)
* Dow will NOT commit ANY funds to compensate and treat 120,000 Bhopal residents who require lifelong care. The Bhopal victims have ALREADY been compensated; many received about US$500 several years ago, which in India can cover a full year of medical care. (2)
* Dow will NOT remediate (clean up) the Bhopal plant site. We do understand that UCC abandoned thousands of tons of toxic chemicals on the site, and that these still contaminate the groundwater which area residents drink. Dow estimates that the Indian government's recent proposal to commission a study to consider the possibility of proper remediation at some point in the future is fully sufficient.
* Dow does NOT urge the US to extradite former Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson to India, where he has been wanted for 20 years on multiple homicide charges. (3)
* Dow will NOT release proprietary information on the leaked gases, nor the results of studies commissioned by UCC and never released.
* Dow will NOT fund research on the safety of Dow endocrine disruptors (ECDs) considered to have long-term negative effects.
* Dow DOES agree that "One can't assign a dollar value to doing what's morally right," as hoaxter Finisterra said. That is why Dow acknowledged and resolved many of Union Carbide's liabilities in the US immediately after acquiring the company in 2001. (4)
Again, most importantly of all:
* Dow shareholders will see NO losses, because Dow's policy towards Bhopal HAS NOT CHANGED. Much as we at Dow may care, as human beings, about the victims of the Bhopal catastrophe, we must reiterate that Dow's sole and unique responsibility is to its shareholders, and Dow CANNOT do anything that goes against its bottom line unless forced to by law.
For more information please contact Marina Ashanin, Corporate Media Relations, +41-1-728-2347, or reply to this email.
NOTES TO EDITORS:
(1) On December 3, 1984, Union Carbide - now part of Dow - accidentally killed thousands of residents of Bhopal, India, when its pesticide plant leaked a vast cloud of lethal gas over the city. Since that date, at least 12,000 more people have died from complications, and 120,000 remain chronically ill. The Dow Chemical Corporation hereby expresses its condolences to the victims.
(2) Union Carbide was originally forced to pay US$470 million in compensation to survivors, which amounts to about US$500 per victim. (Note: Dow hereby wishes to retract the 2002 statement of Dow PR Head Kathy Hunt as to US$500 being "plenty good for an Indian." The poor phrasing of this statement has often come back to haunt us.)
(3) Arrested in India following the accident, Andersen posted US$2000 bail and successfully escaped India.
(4) Dow settled Union Carbide's asbestos liabilities in the US, and paid US$10 million to one family poisoned by a Dow pesticide. This is a mark of Dow's corporate responsibility.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1129-01.htm
Bhopal: A living legacy of corporate greed:
Meet the forgotten survivors...
http://207.44.245.159/article7405.htm
--------
December 3, 2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
"DOW" STATEMENT A HOAX
"Historic aid package for Bhopal victims" a lie
Contact: Marina Ashanin, Corp. Media Relations, +41-1-728-2347
Related information: http://dowethics.com/bhopal/
Today on BBC World Television, a fake Dow spokesperson announced fake plans to take full responsibility for the very real Bhopal tragedy of December 3, 1984. (1) Dow Chemical emphatically denies this announcement. Although seemingly humanistic in nature, the fake plans were invented by irresponsible hucksters with no regard for the truth.
As Dow has repeatedly noted, Dow cannot and will not take responsibility for the accident. ("What we cannot and will not do... is accept responsibility for the Bhopal accident." - CEO Michael Parker, 2002.) The Dow position has not changed, despite public pressure.
Dow also notes the great injustice that these pranksters have caused by giving Bhopalis false hope for a better future assisted by Dow. The survivors of Bhopal have already suffered 20 years of false hope, neglect, and abdication of responsibility by all parties. Is that not enough?
To be perfectly clear:
* The Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) will NOT be liquidated. (The fake "Dow plan" called for the dissolution and sale of Dow's fully owned subsidiary, estimated at US$12 billion, to fund compensation
and remediation in Bhopal.)
* Dow will NOT commit ANY funds to compensate and treat 120,000 Bhopal residents who require lifelong care. The Bhopal victims have ALREADY been compensated; many received about US$500 several years ago, which in India can cover a full year of medical care. (2)
* Dow will NOT remediate (clean up) the Bhopal plant site. We do understand that UCC abandoned thousands of tons of toxic chemicals on the site, and that these still contaminate the groundwater which area residents drink. Dow estimates that the Indian government's recent proposal to commission a study to consider the possibility of proper remediation at some point in the future is fully sufficient.
* Dow does NOT urge the US to extradite former Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson to India, where he has been wanted for 20 years on multiple homicide charges. (3)
* Dow will NOT release proprietary information on the leaked gases, nor the results of studies commissioned by UCC and never released.
* Dow will NOT fund research on the safety of Dow endocrine disruptors (ECDs) considered to have long-term negative effects.
* Dow DOES agree that "One can't assign a dollar value to doing what's morally right," as hoaxter Finisterra said. That is why Dow acknowledged and resolved many of Union Carbide's liabilities in the US immediately after acquiring the company in 2001. (4)
Again, most importantly of all:
* Dow shareholders will see NO losses, because Dow's policy towards Bhopal HAS NOT CHANGED. Much as we at Dow may care, as human beings, about the victims of the Bhopal catastrophe, we must reiterate that Dow's sole and unique responsibility is to its shareholders, and Dow CANNOT do anything that goes against its bottom line unless forced to by law.
For more information please contact Marina Ashanin, Corporate Media Relations, +41-1-728-2347, or reply to this email.
NOTES TO EDITORS:
(1) On December 3, 1984, Union Carbide - now part of Dow - accidentally killed thousands of residents of Bhopal, India, when its pesticide plant leaked a vast cloud of lethal gas over the city. Since that date, at least 12,000 more people have died from complications, and 120,000 remain chronically ill. The Dow Chemical Corporation hereby expresses its condolences to the victims.
(2) Union Carbide was originally forced to pay US$470 million in compensation to survivors, which amounts to about US$500 per victim. (Note: Dow hereby wishes to retract the 2002 statement of Dow PR Head Kathy Hunt as to US$500 being "plenty good for an Indian." The poor phrasing of this statement has often come back to haunt us.)
(3) Arrested in India following the accident, Andersen posted US$2000 bail and successfully escaped India.
(4) Dow settled Union Carbide's asbestos liabilities in the US, and paid US$10 million to one family poisoned by a Dow pesticide. This is a mark of Dow's corporate responsibility.
Starmail - 30. Nov, 15:37
