Happy 60th

Today is the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. To kick our celebration off here's a special animated video for the occasion:



If you're feeling nostalgic, here's the old Amnesty International 'running man' animation.

Not in a cartoon mood? This ACLU vid gives a nice capsule history of the UDHR beginning with footage of Eleanor Rooseve lt and presents its present day relevance to the civil rights movement.

Of course, we recommend Rights Readers selection, A World Made New: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by Mary Ann Glendon, for the full story. Facing History brings us a Glendon video too.

It's All About the Children

When reading Greg Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea, especially the "Pennies for Pakistan" story of children at Westside School in River Falls, Wisconsin (blocks from where your Leader Reader grew up!), I couldn't help but be reminded of "A School for Iqbal" and the inspiring story of middle school students in Massachusetts who raised money to build a school for former child laborers in memory of slain Pakistani child activist Iqbal Masih. Here's another kid-friendly presentation of the Iqbal story. I've always said when encountering young people's enthusiasm for causes that are meaningful to them, that I wish that some of that unbridled idealism could be bottled up and sold to cynical adults.

And here's a story from PRI's The World about a former Peace Corps worker who has helped revive folk songs that were banned during Taliban rule for the benefit of today's Afghan children. What a lovely gift!

Human Rights Podcasts

I've mentioned two sources for human rights-themed podcasts recently, the Irrepressible.info series from Amnesty International and PEN Center's event series. Here are two more: The University of Chicago Human Rights Program podcasts its lecture series and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has a weekly program of interviews called Voices on Genocide Prevention. Needless to say, much of the focus is currently on the campaign for Darfur with much useful information-- and inspiration-- for activists.

Amnesty UK Blogs

I've recently discovered that the Amnesty - UK website has a feature encouraging activists to blog about their human rights campaigning activities. Sample posts include a description of the recent conference on internet censorship, some reportage on the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Guernica, much interest in the plight of Russian journalists, an account of a mission to Chad, and the occasional reference to things literary. It's fun and inspiring to peek into what other AI groups are up to. Get the overview here. And yeah, I was momentarily thrilled to see the words "Amnesty Reading Group" - thinking that perhaps Rights Readers had a British counterpart before I realized this referred to the location, not the activity.

Eyes on Darfur

Amnesty's new Eyes on Darfur site has been launched. This is a special web feature that shows not only before and after satellite pictures of devastated villages in Darfur, Sudan, but also images of "at-risk" villages to be monitored with photos to be updated periodically. There are also actions for all to take to let the Sudanese government know the world is watching. NPR has a report on the project. Your chance to be Big Brother for a good cause!

June 12 marks the release of the big Sudan-fundraiser album Instant Karma, a tribute to John Lennon. I know its June 12 because that just so happens to be the birthday of the Lennon-lover in my life... hmmm, problem solved! Surely some of you can find a similar way to spread the peace!

Ghosts of Abu Ghraib

Guantanamo has been much in the news lately (and we'll get back to that topic in a day or too) but let's not forget Abu Ghraib. Just in time for Torture Awareness month, HBO has released Rory Kennedy's documentary, Ghosts of Abu Ghraib on DVD. View a preview here. Remember the "bad apples"? The film features interviews with many of the low level personnel implicated in the torture which occurred at Abu Ghraib and reminds us that no one further up the chain of command has never been held accountable. The film website also has a useful resource list.

Internet Freedom of Expression Webcast

More fuel for my iPod. Yesterday Amnesty-UK sponsored a webcast of a conference on the Irrepressible.info campaign on internet censorship and one can now view the archived version online. Interviews relating to the campaign can also be subscribed to as podcasts via iTunes (and perhaps the webcast will show up there soon as well). Here's a written account of the conference. Of special note as regards our ongoing concern for journalist and Amnesty prisoner of conscience Shi Tao, attorneys representing Shi Tao's wife discuss her lawsuit against Yahoo! for disclosing her husband's identity, leading to a ten year prison sentence. On a related note, check out these maps of internet filtering from the Open Net Initiative.

Sunday Meditation: Tiananmen Poetry

Last Saturday veterans and supporters of the 1989 Tiananmen protests gathered at Caltech to share poetry and reflections of their experiences. On the eve of the 18th anniversary of the June 4 massacre we present a little poetry here to commemorate the day. OpenDemocracy has a 2004 interview and poems of exiled poet Liu HongBin. And here is a taste of Bei Dao's "June" from Perihelion,

unending plastic flowers
on the dead left bank
the cement square extending
from writing to

now

An excellent resource on Tiananmen is the website for the Frontline documentary Tiananmen: The Gate of Heavenly Peace and don't forget to leave a bouquet on the square for the Tiananmen Mothers!

Blood Diamond Curriculum Guide

I've noted that the blog is getting search queries for discussion questions on the film, Blood Diamond, and since I didn't mention in my previous post on the subject I thought I would provide this helpful pointer to the Blood Diamond Curriculum Guide even if you're not planning a discussion on the subject, you might find some interesting information in this package.

The Haunted Oak

Okay, I still have trees on the brain. I'm thinking of the Paul Lawrence Dunbar poem about a lynching, The Haunted Oak,

My leaves were green as the best, I trow,

And sap ran free in my veins,

But I saw in the moonlight dim and weird

A guiltless victim's pains.

Two major campaigns were launched in the last few days focusing on the issue of innocence and the death penalty. The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty has a new action and education package focusing on four cases of innocent men who have been executed. These innocence cases came to light as a result of thorough investigative journalism by reporters working for the Chicago Tribune, Houston Chronicle and St. Louis Post-Dispatch. If you missed the original reporting this is a great way to catch up on the best evidence that innocents have been executed.

The Innocence Project also has a campaign up to draw attention to the 200 exoneree milestone that was reached this week.

Meanwhile, we are keeping an eye on the May 8 hearing instigated by State Senator Gloria Romero into the building of the secret death chamber at San Quentin. Time to drop your state senator a line and let them know that you're happy that this wasteful construction has stopped but that the process of finding a new execution method needs to be as public as possible and should engage the notion that its not just the methodology that's flawed, but that the death penalty itself is ineffective as a crime deterrent, arbitrary, racist and holds too much risk of executing the innocent (see above!). At the very least, executions should be put on hold in our state until the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice completes its report on the death penalty.

Click here to look up contact info for your California State Senator.

Map Mania!

I've been exploring the new Crisis in Darfur collaboration between the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Google Earth, which combines photos and testimony with mapping and satellite imagery of the destruction of villages in Darfur, Sudan. Viewing the project does involve downloading a piece of free software which may be too much effort for the less tech-happy among us, but the project is really an exciting taste of new possibilities for documenting human rights violations and presenting the evidence to the public.

Less taxing on the tech-challenged are our new Rights Readers Literary Maps! These are maps marking the settings of books we have read. So far the maps of North America and South America are complete. Be sure to zoom in on LA and NYC as the pins get thick in those spots. We have nice start on a walking tour of Manhattan. In Los Angeles its more like a Gold/Red/Blue Line tour. Also, compare the exercise yards at various penal institutions. (We really get around!) These links have been added to the sidebar and will be updated as we visit more locations.

Finally, I recently discovered a fascinating map blog I think my Esteemed Readers will love: Strange Maps. Check it out!

Amazing Grace

I went to see the movie Amazing Grace last weekend, in fact on the actual bicentennial of the abolition of slavery and was inspired enough to immediately begin reading Adam Hochschild's Bury the Chains which tells the same story, though with different emphases. So although I may be jumping the gun a bit by posting about the book before we've made it an official selection (I feel certain that we will at some point-- Hochschild's King Leopold's Ghost was our inaugural selection so just for nostalgia's sake...), I've assembled some links that may be of interest to those who saw the movie or have read the book.

The film has a companion website, The Amazing Change, which aims to make the link between the historic abolition movement and the campaign against modern forms of slavery. Included is an effort to match the number of petition signatures to that Thomas Clarkson gathered.

The BBC has put together a very nice package which includes reports on modern day slavery and trafficking, resources for children, and a even more goodies like an interactive map for history buffs. The gallery of abolitionists feature was put together by Hochschild and the "Tools of Abolitionists" gallery is a must-browse for modern-day activists of any cause interested in understanding the history of the techniques still in use today.

A little more on modern-day slavery: Here is a nice photo-story package from photojournalist Pete Pattison. A little background explanation is available at openDemocracy.

Finally, here is Hochschild commentary on reparations for slavery in the LA Times. and for a bit of African perspective on the same subject, try this sampling from Global Voices Online of the African blogosphere.

Check here for more Rights Readers posts on slavery.

Happy Spring!/World Water Day

Our first day of spring yesterday included a little rain, not exactly the norm around here, but very welcome after a very dry winter. And today is World Water Day! This is a good heads-up for our April focus on environmental actions that often involve contamination of ground water.

You can learn more about water issues at this UN site
which includes slideshows, videos and animations, and this site gives directions to World Water Day events including a Water Walk in Santa Monica on Saturday. Water Partners International has more information including curriculum ideas.

And just for kicks, I've changed our blog musical accompaniment --see sidebar-- to Aguas de Marcos. (If this version makes you nostalgic for the original, visit here or here.)

Democracy on Deadline

Last year Independent Lens aired the film Democracy on Deadline: The Global Struggle for an Independent Press which followed several brave and determined journalists as they tried to shine some light on dark places. You can still check out the journalist profiles on the website, including Anna Politkovskaya (Putin's Russia) and Israeli reporter Amira Hass (Rights Readers selection Drinking by the Sea at Gaza) as well as Nigerian Chris Anyanwu, a former prisoner of conscience. The site also has a handy list of links to organization supporting freedom of the press.

And while we are on the subject of courage in journalism, Amnesty International USA announced the award of the Ginetta Sagan Human Rights Award to Mexican reporter Lydia Cacho Ribeiro yesterday.

Valentine's Action

Don't forget to take action on the Clean Diamond Trade Act this Valentine's! More resources including a curriculum guide for the movie here. Back when the movie first came out, Greg Campbell, author of the Rights Readers selection Blood Diamonds appeared on the News Hour to discuss the issue,

One of the other biggest problems is that, from the point of extraction, the first point where the diamond is found and mined, to its first point of export, there are no certificates or guarantees. There are pledges that the diamonds that are being offered for export under the protections of the Kimberley Process are conflict-free.

But, you know, I've been to some of these mines in Sierra Leone. And, you know, we're talking about very unindustrialized mines. You know, the diamonds are extracted by human labor and physically handed hand-to-hand from one person to the next.

And it's very simple, in fact, to move diamonds that are from conflict zones into legitimate parcels that are being offered under the protection of the Kimberley Process certificate.

Visit the NewsHour website to view or read the whole transcript of the interview.

Libyan HIV case

Some of our Loyal Readers may be interested in following the case of the six health professionals who have been sentenced to death for after being convicted of deliberately infecting 426 children with HIV in Libya. Amnesty is calling for their release. An excerpt from one of Amnesty's press statement on the case:

"This is the second time that these six medical professionals have been sentenced to death by Libyan courts. In this trial, as in their earlier one, confessions which they have repeatedly alleged were extracted from them under torture were used as evidence against them, while defence lawyers were not allowed to bring in international expertise and the evidence produced by Libyan medical experts was questioned by international medical experts."

Declan Butler, a reporter for Nature, has a blog which may be of some interest to our Most Loyal Readers who are interested in the intersection of science and public health with human rights. He has tracked this case closely and has a resource page for those who wish to take action.

And finally, while I was roaming the Amnesty site for more information on the case I stumbled on this fascinating report released last summer, Caring for human rights: Challenges and opportunities for nurses and midwives. Check it out!

New Report on Child Soldiers in DRC

Just in time for our discussion of Beasts of No Nation, Amnesty has released a report today: Democratic Republic of Congo: Children at war, creating hope for the future. The report contains more child testimony about their experiences as soldiers and their reintegration into society,

John is 15 years’ old. He was demobilised in May 2006 after spending five years with the mayi-mayi.

"One day when I was 10 years old, fighters came to our school, stole everything inside and ordered us to go with them, saying that there would be no more learning for us. Now, I have been demobilised and I am with my family. It is good to be home, but I have nothing to do. I would like to study or work, but I have no money, there is no training and there is no work. I feel sad, because I feel unhelpful to my family. I am at home but I am worthless. During the day, I try not to think of my life as a fighter, because it makes me cry, but sometimes I think maybe I should go back to the armed groups…"

The recommendations in the report are strong on enforcing the right to education.

Tags: child soldiers, Congo, Amnesty International, education

Child Soldiers / Child Testimony

So how about some real life child testimony to compare with the fictional version in Beasts of No Nation?

Here is a short film excerpt produced by WITNESS,

In the Democratic Republic of Congo (D.R.C.) children make up the majority of combatants in a war that has claimed over four million lives. Through the voices of child soldiers, A DUTY TO PROTECT explores the complexity of the war, the issues confronted by girl soldiers including rape and sexual exploitation, and the importance of the International Criminal Court to end the rampant impunity reigning in Eastern DRC.

(Sidenote: Witness just launched a partnership with Global Voices, featuring human rights video from around the world, some from people documenting human rights abuses with cellphones-- I'm going to try to remember that next time one rings at the wrong time! A recent post concerned Mohammed Abbou, a Tunisian writer featured in Amnesty's Banned Books Week appeals.)

In this film from Sierra Leone, a 14 year old boy, Sidibay, tells the story of how his family were killed and how he become a child soldier.



More stories, drawings and songs from former Sierra Leone child soldiers can be found atChildsoldiers.org. Sample excerpt,

I left about 8:00 pm to continue my journey. I walked for about an hour having nothing to eat ro drink then I suddenly saw a stream. I was drinking then I was surrounded by tall huge men and the one yield at me " What are you doing here you small boy you're a spy I'm going to kill you now." With these words Istarted trembling, then he said "Are going to join us or choose to die" then I say whatever you want to do with me I'm willing. I was then taken to their main base in that region and I was tied up for one week eating dry Cassava and drinking filthy water. One man who was living in my village and was one of them pleaded that they should let me go. and since that day I became a full childsoldier. I was injected with cocaine and then given an AK 47 riffle to carry. I started going to front lines killing people raping and do all sorts of bad things.

Tags: child soldiers

Child Soldiers: Amnesty Resources

Continuing our exploration of Uzodinma Iweala's Beasts of No Nation, we explore some supplemental information about child soldiers:

Amnesty has a number of resources on this issue, beginning with this rundown of press releases.  Check out these more visual features: A flash animation about Children at war in the DRC, a slideshow (opens with soundtrack) about "Night Commuter" children in northern Uganda who walk from their home villages to sleep in cities or in camps for internally displaced persons because they fear abduction into the Lord’s Resistance Army (accompanying action for children and youth here). And my favorite: The Story in Pictures - Drawings by Child Soldiers.

In addition, Amnesty is a member of the Coalition to stop the use of Child Soldiers.

More resource links in the next few days...

Tags: child soldiers, Amnesty International

9/11 Miscellany

Some book related 9/11 miscellany:

Last night I watched the rebroadcast of the excellent PBS Frontline special Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero and noted the presence of Kanan Makiya, profiled in the Rights Readers selection, Calamities of Exile by Lawrence Weschler. The website offers an online interview with Makiya and poking around the site I also found this link to reflections by a number of authors on the legacy of 9/11.

And we can't forget another Rights Readers selection, Tainted Legacy: 9/11 and the Ruin of Human Rights by William Schulz, former Executive Director of Amnesty International USA. Turns out a few months back, Schulz gave a speech at the UC-San Diego's Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice and its available via Google Video! So if you want the short version of the book, need an update, or (for those who are well acquainted) are otherwise feeling nostalgic for those Sufi anecdotes, here you go:

(Yeah! My first video post, just wanted to see if I could do this!) Technorati Tags: 9/11, William Schulz, Kanan Makiya