Asean declaration allows Cambodia to flout human rights, warn campaigners
Critics fear the new south-east Asian declaration of human rights sanctions the Cambodian government's maltreatment of dissenters and undermines international standards
Human rights groups in Cambodia fear a new south-east Asian declaration of human rights could conversely offer the government in Phnom Penh a figleaf to clamp down on dissent. Cambodia signed the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) human rights declaration on Sunday, two days before the arrival of the US president, Barack Obama, on his tour of the region.
But the declaration has been widely criticised, including by the US state department, which said it was "deeply concerned" the declaration could "weaken and erode" the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Civil society and pressure groups denounced the declaration, saying it "undermines, rather than affirms, international human rights law and standards". The groups said it was "deplorable" that Asean states had adopted a declaration that "implies their people are less deserving of human rights than the people of Europe, Africa or the Americas".
Another Gaza generation takes flight amid fear of violence
Villagers were urged to flee for their own safety - but only found greater danger
Jawhar al-Adar has experienced the harshness of fortune on Gaza during her life of 90 years. “I was here for the British occupation, the Egyptian occupation, then the Israelis,” she said. “The only one I missed was when the Ottomans were here”.
She has had to flee her home in the face of violence in the past and she was forced to do so again as war once again came to her village, travelling three hours on the back of a donkey to the refuge of a school.
Thirteen members of her family made the same journey, including three year old granddaughter Reem; strife spanning the generations.
RIGHT-WING EXTREMISM
Neo-Nazi fire attack still smolders 20 years on
Right-wing extremists in northern Germany murdered three Turks in a fire attack 20 years ago. The perpetrators were found guilty. Yet Green Party politician Hans-Christian Ströbele thinks the state hasn’t done enough.
After a while, even the anniversary of a murder can seem routine. Or at least that's the impression the mayor of Mölln, a city of 18,000 in Germany's northernmost state of Schleswig-Holstein, appears to give. "You're the third or fourth interviewer I've had today," Jan Wiegels said, somewhat annoyed. "Every year a press caravan descends on our city and stirs up a bunch of old dust."
After a while, even the anniversary of a murder can seem routine. Or at least that's the impression the mayor of Mölln, a city of 18,000 in Germany's northernmost state of Schleswig-Holstein, appears to give. "You're the third or fourth interviewer I've had today," Jan Wiegels said, somewhat annoyed. "Every year a press caravan descends on our city and stirs up a bunch of old dust."
"Stirring up dust:" In Mölln's case the "dust" was an event which, at least in German memories, is linked indelibly to the city's name. Twenty years ago, a racially motivated firebomb took the lives of three people.
China maps path to new conflicts in its passports
November 23, 2012 - 9:42AM
Joel Guinto and Nick Heath
Vietnam and the Philippines have criticised China's decision to include disputed South China Sea islands on maps printed inside new Chinese passports.
The Philippines "strongly protests" against China's decision to include the disputed maritime areas, its foreign affairs ministry spokesman, Raul Hernandez, said. Vietnam's government lodged a formal complaint with the Chinese embassy in Hanoi.
The outline of China's map in the passport wasn't targeted at specific countries.
Three separate pages in the passports include China's so-called "nine-dash" map of the sea, first published in 1947, that extends hundreds of miles south from China's Hainan Island to the equatorial waters off the coast of Borneo. Vietnam and the Philippines reject the map as a basis for sharing oil, gas and fish in the waters.
"The action of China is contrary to the spirit of the declaration of conduct of parties in the South China Sea," Mr Hernandez said on Thursday.
Weary Kenyans pin hope on hip judge
Kenya's chief justice, Willy Mutunga is a tad revolutionary by Kenyan standards and he is out to stop the rot.
Don't look what is on Willy Mutunga's ear but rather what is between his ears." That was the pithy comment of one Kenyan blogger when controversy erupted over the appointment of a chief justice with a penchant for ear studs.
Mutunga is a tad revolutionary by Kenyan standards, not only because of his sartorial tastes, but because he is a former human rights activist who was hired to clean up Kenya's justice system. Activism and earrings spell trouble for an entrenched elite in a socially conservative country where the phrase "why hire a lawyer when you can buy a judge?" is a sardonic reminder that corruption runs deep.
Yet to millions of Kenyans Mutunga represents a possibility that the stranglehold of state corruption and impunity can be broken – a possibility, not a certainty.
23 November 2012 Last updated at 01:59 GMT
No comments:
Post a Comment