Human Rights Revolution., page 1

Before I start I want to post some negative and some postive figures from Amnesty International
- Almost 2/3 of people in the World do not have access to justice, even where justice systems exist they are often corrupt or discrimatory.
- In 2010 Amnesty International investigated un-fair trials in 54 countries
- Amnesty International documented torture and other ill treatment in 98 countries
- In 1977, 16 countries abolished the death penalty for all crimes. Today that number has increased to 96
- Amnesty international is working on cases unlawful restriction in 89 countries
www.amnesty.org.au...

Human Rights Gains - According to Amnesty International

The 2010/2011 period has been marked with some great social revolutions and attempts to obtain political self-determination. There is no doubt that many of us here on ATS will look at a few of these social revolutions -Libya to be exact- in a skeptical and negative manner. However today we are not here to discuss conspiracies, if there is somthing listed from Amnesty international which you don't agree with please refrain from commenting on it and ignore it. We are here today to be positive and congragulate human righ advances while agreeing to work harder to better the status of Earth collective Human Rights record.

North Africa and The Middle East

In the depths of the worst crisis in the region - the Libyan conflict - there has been unprecedented regional support of human rights, civilian protection, and international justice from The Arab League and Middle Eastern countries working within the UN System and the international community.
In Egypt, 1,659 people have been released from administrative detention since early February. It is unknown how many people remain in detention.
Powerful internal security forces responsible for serious human rights abuses in Tunisia and Egypt have been dissolved and a 19-year old state of emergency in Algeria has been repealed.
In Egypt, former government authorities long thought above the law, including former President Mubarak and Minister of Interior El-Adly, are facing charges of corruption and ordering police to shoot at protesters.
In Tunisia, former government authorities are facing charges of corruption and abuses during the uprising.
Thousands of political prisoners held under the rule of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia have reportedly been released.
Human rights activists, long subjected to campaigns of intimidation and harassment in Tunisia, are now able to work without fear of repression.

North Africa and the Middle East may have recieved the most attention in the media and it may have recieved the most attention from us here on ATS. The Middle East has become a breeding ground for human rights abuse- wether it is becuase of foreign intervention or authoritarian dictators that recieve arms to repress their own people from government which are either ignorant or just don't care. Thanks to the collective groups of activists that have demanded there basic human rights, we have seen great social revolutions.

There is however alot more to be done and sadly some countries like Bahrain who are as repressive as regimes in North Africa are not getting the attention they deserve.

Asia - Pacific

In November Aung San Suu Kyi was finally released in Burma. The Nobel Peace Prize winner has spent 15 of the past 21 years in detention.
The Indian government’s rejection of a bauxite mine project in Orissa’s Niyamgiri Hills was a landmark victory for the human rights of indigenous communities, who had campaigned for years against the plans spearheaded by UK-based Vedanta Resources and the state-owned Orissa Mining Corporation.
The Indian courts delivered justice to the victims of the Union Carbide disaster, by handing down the first ever convictions of those responsible for the deadly Bhopal gas leak in 1984.
The first conviction of a Khmer Rouge official for crimes against humanity and war crimes by the UN-backed tribunal in Cambodia - a small but significant step. Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, was given a 35 years sentence.

The Asia - Pacific region, once colonised by Europe and repressed for decades- has seen leaders who are cowards in the face of economic imperialism. It has seen people repressed by the likes of the Khmer Rouge and it has seen the death of millions of soles. This has been both un-necassary and unwaranted.

The likes of Bangladesh, Indonesia, South Korea, Thailand, China and Vietnam have begun to recover from- but still strugles becuase of -the economic policies that the World Bank Orginization, the International Monetary Fund and the U.S treasury has advised them to follow and often imposed on them.

There are others such as North Korea which face daily hardship due to leaders that seem unfit to rule. They are victims of modern slavery and are often prisoners of the sole.

Africa

In Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya forced evictions were put on hold after public campaigns to draw attention to the plight of those at risk of losing their homes.
Burkina Faso committed to lifting financial barriers to emergency obstetric care and access to family planning.
Sierra Leone introduced a free health care service for pregnant women and children under five.
The International Criminal Court opened investigations in Kenya into the 2007/2008 post-election violence.
Gabon abolished the death penalty.

Africa is an area of the world that doesen't recieve the attention it deserves- this is partly due to the tribal complexities and our thin patience with the often idiotic politics and civil conflicts which we often see as primative. Many today are starving in Africa due to the corrupt system which has been imposed on them. Africa is a plentiful and resource rich continent. It's people should not be living in conditions which we would not tolerate in our Western homelands. As we sit here today children are forced into slavery in the Ivory Coast and Ghana to harvest the Cocoa beans we hold so dearly to our hearts.
Here is a list of slave chocolate for those interested.

Almost all Nestle Range (except Kit Kat 2 finger - see above)
Hershey (actually has a policy to *not* reveal its cocoa sources, despite a Supreme Court action to do so.... legal case still going...)
Mars Company (includes M&Ms)
Lindt

Americas

In Argentina, Chile, Peru and Colombia there were major advances to bring to justice some of those responsible for past serious and widespread human rights violations:
In Argentina, Reynaldo Bignone, former military general and former President, was found guilty in April 2010 of torture, murder and kidnappings that occurred while he was commander of the notorious Campo de Mayo detention centre between 1976 and 1978.
In July, Manuel Contreras, former head of the Chilean National Intelligence Directorate, was jailed for 17 years for his part in the 1974 killing in Argentina of General Carlos Prats, a cabinet member in President Salvador Allende’s 1970-73 government, and his wife.
In October, members of Peru's "Colina group" death squad and former high-ranking officials in the government of Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000) were convicted of killing 15 people and the enforced disappearance of 10 others in 1991 and 1992.
In Panama protests by indigenous organizations against a new mining law (which effectively gave the green light for larger scale exploitation) resulted in the repeal of the law.

The Americas, specifacally Latin America which has finally seen Facist dictators and dictatorships often supported by the U.S abolished and has begun their road to reconciliation. The Americas may have one of the most appaling human rights records and many live in unjust poverty while few get rich of the resource rich land. The Souther Cone specifaclly has seen dicators in Chile, Uruguay, Argentia and Brazil reign using violence and fear. Many have been dissapeared and tortured with some being thrown out of helicopters into the Ocean. It is good to see some advances in their human rights records and advances in reconciliation.

Links/Sources
amnesty.org...
www.amnesty.org.au...
consumption-rebellion.blogspot.com...