5.02 countering political repression, promoting human rights

Repression at the Republican Convention: The Criminalization of Dissent

Anti-war demonstration in St. Paul, MN, September 4, 2008. photo: Zoe Prinds-Flash
Authors: Tom Good

Summary:

The Republican Party Host Committee bribed St. Paul to violate protesters' rights. The city, and Homeland Security, complied.

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Reporter Arrested at Democratic Convention: His Crime? Reporting on How Money Fuels Politics

Gerry Katz from Taos helps form the letter "T" in "Make Out Not War" Photo Josie Lenwell
Authors: Sam Diener

Summary:

Shoved off the sidewalk; threatened with arrest for blocking traffic.

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March on Ballot Boxes to Eradicate Poverty: King on Combining Direct Action & Suffrage

Authors: Jr. Martin Luther King

Summary:

Truth crushed to earth will rise again.

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Reinstate Malalai Joya to Afghanistan's Parliament: Feminist Banned for Honesty

Joya at a UNIFEM conference, Photo: AfghanKabul, 2007
Authors: Human Rights Watch

Summary:

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Anti-TortureActivists Convicted: Guantánamo Prison Put On Trial

The thirty five defendants stand in front of Superior Court, Photo: Bill Ofenlach, www.witnesstorture.org
Authors: Frida Berrigan

Summary:

We have a right to petition the government for a redress of grievances, and Guantánamo Bay prison is beyond grievous.

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Human Rights and "Asian" Values

Authors: Amartya Sen

Summary:

When Zilu asks him "how to serve a prince," Confucius replies, "Tell him the truth even if it offends him."

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The Burmese Cyclone, Nonviolent Action, and the Responsibility to Empower

Pushing the relief truck out of the mud, photo: Beyond Rangoon Project, May 17, 2008
Authors: Patrick Meier

Summary:

It is not acceptable to let regimes like Burma's dictate the rules of humanitarian intervention.

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Assisting Burmese Cyclone Survivors: Defying the Government to Save Lives

A generous monk who shared relief supplies with his entire region stands in front of the village's damaged monastery photo: © Beyond Rangoon Project, May 17, 2008
Authors: Beyond Rangoon Project

Summary:

When we made it to villages farther down the road, we found that a monk had shared the rice for his village with all the surrounding villages, which had received no aid and were starving.

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Stop the Killing: Arab Activists Call for Ending the Death Penalty in Arab Countries

Egyptian labor bloggers Hossam el-Hamalawy and Kareem el-Beheiry. Kareem was jailed from April to early June 2008 after promoting and covering an April 6 general strike (partially organized via Facebook!) and ongoing independent labor union activism cente
Authors: Amman Centre for Human Rights Studies

Summary:

Sharia'a law insists that room be left for forgiveness and reconciliation.

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A Politics of Inclusion: An Interview with Egyptian Democracy Advocate Saad Eddin Ibrahim

Following a fire in the Qale't el-Kabsh slum of Cairo, residents were promised replacement housing and compensation, but many received nothing. After a prosecutor told residents and the Egyptian Center for Housing Rights that they would not pursue
Authors: Saad Eddin Ibrahim

Summary:

Women got upset and marched to the Royal Palace. The King called me and said, 'Saad, do you see what is happening?' I said, 'Yes, but that is democracy, your Majesty.'

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