Can Angelina Jolie and the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict Help Stop This Crisis?

June 9, 2014 at 12:27 PM

UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie arriving at the airport in Sarajevo to visit Bosnia ahead of the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina on March 27, 2014 (Photo Credit: Samir Yordamovic/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images).

When a violent conflict emerges, it is women and girls who bear the brunt of the conflict in some of the most horrific ways imaginable.

For example, from 2006 to 2007, faced with a civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, more than 400,000 girls and women between the ages of 15 and 49 were raped. In other words, every five minutes in the DRC, four women and girls were raped. These are human rights abuses perpetrated at an astounding rate.

These abuses have touched conflict zones across the world: from Bosnia to Syria to Colombia, and have become a prominent feature of modern armed conflict.

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How Many Different Ways Can the World Fail the Syrian People?

By Geoffrey Mock

May 23, 2014 at 5:11 PM

The U.N. now numbers the total of displaced persons in Syria at 6.5 million. 2.8 million more have have fled the country and are now in refugee camps in Lebanon, Jordan and elsewhere, overwhelming authorities in those countries (Photo Credit: Khalil Mazraawi/AFP/Getty Images).

How many different times can Russia and China stand against justice for human rights abuses in Syria?

Yesterday, Russia and China vetoed a French resolution before the United Nations Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) for investigation of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

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Introducing Amnesty’s New Global Campaign Against Torture

By Jasmine Heiss

May 12, 2014 at 7:50 PM

Darrell Cannon was tortured by three Chicago Police Department detectives at a remote site on Chicago’s South Side. Over course of a day, they pressed a cattle prod to his testicles and put it into his mouth. The officers attempted to lift him off the ground by handcuffs secured behind his back, contorting his upper body. They repeatedly made him believe that they had loaded a shotgun and rammed in into his mouth, breaking his tooth.

“These are all things they enjoyed doing,” Darrell Cannon told Amnesty International, his voice cracking.

He spent 24 years in prison on the basis of a coerced confession that was tortured out of him – ten of those years suffering further degradation in solitary confinement at Tamms Supermax prison.

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When Does Targeting Monuments Become a Human Rights Abuse?

By Simon Maghakyan

April 11, 2014 at 8:30 AM

An Azerbaijani truck dumping pieces of destroyed Djulfa khachkars into the River Araxes in December 2005 (Photo Credit: Archbishop Nshan Topouzian).

An Azerbaijani truck dumping pieces of destroyed Djulfa khachkars into the River Araxes (Photo Credit: Archbishop Nshan Topouzian).

Turkey’s YouTube blackout may not be as chilling as the leaked tape that prompted the ban of the video-sharing website. In the March 2014 recording, top officials in Turkey seemingly discuss staging an attack against a sacred Turkish tomb in Syria for the purpose of justifying military engagement by Ankara.

Cultural monuments have been targeted by power-holders for millennia. Assyria’s Sargon II proudly documented his plunder of the Musasir temple in Uraratu 2,700 years ago. The Nazis, as illustrated in the recent Hollywood movie The Monuments Men¸ stole precious pieces of art for either a future ‘Führermuseum’ or a complete destruction, depending on the outcome of WWII.

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Tell the United Nations: Protect #MyBodyMyRights!

By Lyric Thompson

March 18, 2014 at 2:00 PM

I’ve just come from opening week at the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), when thousands of women’s rights activists and member state delegations descend on New York to review the current state of affairs for women and girls globally and recommend actions states can take to advance gender equality and promote female empowerment.

Many of the events this week are calling attention to sexual and reproductive rights as a primary barrier to development progress and the enjoyment of rights and dignity for all. The priority theme for the CSW this year is a review of progress for women and girls under the Millennium Development Goals (MDG).

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Talk is Cheap: It’s Time For Real Action on North Korea

By Guest Writer

March 18, 2014 at 1:25 PM

By Salil Shetty, Amnesty International Secretary General

The resounding victory for Kim Jong Un in North Korea’s parliamentary elections this past week reflects the “absolute support” of people in the country, according to state media.

However, it’s doubtful such support includes the hundreds of thousands of people – including children – that languish in political prison camps and other detention facilities. Or those that have been the victims of crimes against humanity as documented in a chilling U.N. report made public last month.

Indeed, the U.N. Commission of Inquiry report was unprecedented, stating: “The gravity, scale and nature of these violations…does not have any parallel in the contemporary world.”

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The Word Secretary Kerry and Israel’s Prime Minister Couldn’t Bring Themselves to Say

By Sunjeev Bery

March 13, 2014 at 12:49 PM

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This post was originally published in The Hill under the title: “Call An Occupation An Occupation.”

In his speech on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said much of what one might have expected at the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. But what was most telling was the one word he didn’t utter: occupation.

It wasn’t just Netanyahu who steered clear of the word. So too did U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in his comments the night before. It is this act of repeated omission that adds so much confusion to the simple question of what concerned Americans must do to advance human rights in the region.

As a major supplier of arms and military aid to Israel, the U.S. government is not just a convener of “peace talks” and negotiations. It is also a major investor in the status quo, a state of affairs in which millions of Palestinian civilians face the risk of brutal violence from Israeli security forces simply for peacefully exercising their human rights. SEE THE REST OF THIS POST

TAKE ACTION: Three Years After the Uprising, Stand #WithSyria

By Geoffrey Mock

March 12, 2014 at 12:26 PM

The Syrian uprising started three years ago this week, sparked by the image of some 300 school children in Deraa being dragged to one of Syria’s dark prisons for the “crime” of writing graffiti calling for freedom.

The uprising hasn’t turned out as the people hoped. Three years later, starving people are braving government sniper fire to forage for leaves and berries to feed their families.

A new report from Amnesty International released Monday tells how an uprising that began with the detention of children has become one where starvation is being used as a weapon of war.

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HAPPENING NOW: Horrific Violence and U.N. Peacekeepers Are Nowhere to Be Found

By Guest Writer

March 8, 2014 at 11:00 AM

Want to learn more about the crisis in the Central African Republic? Check out this story map created by Angela Chang, Amnesty USA’s Crisis Prevention & Response Advocate.

By Natalia Taylor Bowdoin, Amnesty USA’s Central African Republic Country Specialist

It’s a miracle she survived.

Amnesty’s crisis team met an 11-year-old Muslim girl in the Central African Republic this month. She was the lone survivor of a horrific assault on the village of Bouguere – in a country where sectarian violence has spiraled out of control.

Amnesty came to this region to investigate reports of mass killings and forced evictions of Muslims. Throughout our travels, we found case after case of mayhem and death.

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Celebrate International Women’s Day – Equality for Women Is Progress for All!

By Guest Writer

March 6, 2014 at 3:30 PM

By Rebecca Landy, Women’s Human Rights Coordination Group

Saturday, March 8 is International Women’s Day – a day marking global recognition of women’s rights. International Women’s Day (IWD) was first celebrated in 1911 in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland as a day of demanding women’s rights to work, hold office, and vote. It wasn’t until 1975 that it was given official U.N. recognition. Every year, the U.N. designates a theme for the day.

For 2014, the year’s theme is: Equality for Women is Progress for All.

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Human Rights Now Blog

Category Archives: United Nations

Can Angelina Jolie and the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict Help Stop This Crisis?

How Many Different Ways Can the World Fail the Syrian People?

Introducing Amnesty’s New Global Campaign Against Torture

Tell the United Nations: Protect #MyBodyMyRights!

HAPPENING NOW: Horrific Violence and U.N. Peacekeepers Are Nowhere to Be Found