Works by film-makers such as Michael Moore at the Sheffield Documentary Festival illustrate society's erosion of individuality There is a striking moment in Greg Barker's Sergio , his documentary about Sergio Veira de Mello showcased last weekend at the Sheffield International Documentary Festival , in which the late Brazilian United Nations ambassador is asked by a journalist whether or not the UN's...
German newsmagazine Der Spiegel notes that US President Barack Obama shelved apparent plans to attend the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, of which Toby Harnden at the Daily Telegraph said: Perhaps Obama felt that celebrating the role of the United States in bringing down the wall would be a bit triumphalist and not quite in keeping with his wish to present America as a declining world...
The UN Climate Change Summit is 26 days away. Greenpeace has an online petition for everyone to sign. You can sign the petition at http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/climate-change/take_action/leaders-go-to-copenhagen-climate-summit'0 The world needs to change from its addiction to coal and other fossil fuels , preserve forests and agree sustainable targets on reducing carbon emissions...
Almost half of the world's main donor governments are not doing enough to ensure that public funding for humanitarian assistance is reaching those most in need, when they need it most, according to DARA's 2009 Humanitarian Response Index (HRI)(TM), launched today in Washington DC. Now in its third year, the Humanitarian Response Index annually measures how well 22 of the world's main donor governments...
Racism is a lawful freedom of expression According to Race Relations commissioner Joris de Bres, the Human Rights Commission [pdf], racism is a lawful freedom of expression under some circumstances, and Hone Harawira was within his rights to be racially offensive, because his comments were not insulting, abusive, or likely to bring contempt to any group. This is despite quite a few people considering...
As Congressional Democrats prepare to reinstate the reign of back-alley wire-hanger abortions, Ann Jones in The Nation reminds us how difficult it is to overcome lethal misogyny, whether here or in Afghanistan. At this critical moment, as Obama tries to weigh options against our national security interests, his advisers can't be bothered with--as one US military officer put it to me--"the trivial...
[JURIST] The International Criminal Court (ICC) announced Friday that it has assigned three judges to the situation involving the violence perpetrated in the wake of Kenya's 2007 presidential elections. The decision came in response to a Thursday letter from chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo in which he said that he intends to request formal authorization in December to initiate an investigation...
THE recent call by former Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), Kofi Annan, for global cooperation to avert the catastrophic consequences of climate change ought to be heeded by Nigeria as the country falls within the category of vulnerable and least developed nations that would bear the brunt of the greenhouse emissions, if appropriate actions are not taken.
[JURIST] International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo on Thursday announced that he will ask the ICC to open a formal inquiry into violence perpetrated in the wake of Kenya's 2007 presidential elections. Following a meeting to discuss the ICC inquiry with Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga, Moreno-Ocampo said that crimes against humanity committed...
The head of the Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution Department at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) in Accra, Dr. Kwesi Aning, has warned that the 2012 elections will undermine the peace Ghana is enjoying, if the current skirmishes at the Kokomba Market in Accra, and Bawku in the Northern Region are not contained.
The Swiss government says it sees the 60th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions this year as "an opportunity for strengthening humanitarian law, ensuring greater respect for its principles and better protection for the victims of armed conflicts". In cooperation with the International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (ICRC), Bern has organised a conference of government...
The climate defender camp on Sumatra's Kampar peninsula swung into action last week. First up, activists got on with damming drainage canals which cut through the fragile peatland. As I said in the last post, drainage canals are the first part of the process for clearing the peatland to create, for example, palm oil plantations. That clearing involves drying out the peat and then burning off the remnanants...
[This is the headline over a report in the Maltese newspaper The Times . It reads as follows:] The Prime Minister rejected claims that his government was not investigating Lockerbie prime witness Tony Gauci due to pressure from the US. "It is totally untrue," he insisted yesterday. Jim Swire, the father of one of the victims of the 1988 bombing, last Saturday expressed concern that Malta...
[This is the headline over a report in the Maltese newspaper The Sunday Times . It reads in part:] The government "is not prepared" to investigate the testimony of key Lockerbie trial witness Tony Gauci, despite claims his evidence wrongly incriminated the Libyan man convicted of the bombing. The Justice Ministry was forced to issue a denial yesterday after British newspaper The Daily Telegraph...
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