Archive for the ‘ESC Rights’ Category

The World Bank undermined the rights of indigenous peoples and the environment with its approval on July 12, 2012, of a US$684 million loan. The loan is for a 1000-kilometer transmission line that would supply power to Kenya from Ethiopia’s controversial Gibe III dam.

(Washington, DC) – The World Bank undermined the rights of indigenous peoples and the environment with its approval on July 12, 2012, of a US$684 million loan, Human Rights Watch, Friends of Lake Turkana, Interna

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Iran’s judiciary should immediately quash execution orders against five activists from Iran’s ethnic Arab minority and allow the men’s lawyers and family members to visit them in detention. Human Rights Watch expressed grave concern for the safety of these and other Iranian-Arab detainees following reports on June 17, 2012 that authorities had executed four Arab men charged with terrorism-related activities.

(New York) – Iran’s judiciary should immediately quash execution orders against five activists from Iran’s ethnic Arab minority and allow the men’s lawyers and family members to visit them in detention.

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The World Bank should ensure that the rights of indigenous peoples and the environment are rigorously protected before funding a power transmission line connecting Kenya to a controversial dam in Ethiopia. The World Bank’s board of directors is scheduled to meet on July 12, 2012 to consider the project.

(Washington, DC) – The World Bank should ensure that the rights of indigenous peoples and the environment are rigorously protected before funding a power transmission line connecting Kenya to a controversial dam in Ethiopia, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to World Bank President Jim Yong Kim

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Marleen van Ruijven, Senior Policy Officer, Amnesty International Netherlands, and Vijay Rajendran, Chair of the Amnesty International Amsterdam Student Group

On 4 July, we visited the headquarters of Shell in The Hague together with three other student activists (Hans-Georg Eilenberger, Lisanne Peelen and Iris ten Teije) to present the company with a global petition signed [...]

Par Marleen van Ruijven, responsable des politiques d’Amnesty International Pays-Bas, et Vijay Rajendran, président de l’organisation étudiante Amnesty International Amsterdam

Le 4 juillet, nous nous sommes rendus au siège de Shell à La Haye avec trois autres militants étudiants (Hans-Georg Eilenberger, Lisanne Peelen et Iris ten Teije) pour présenter à la compagnie pétrolière une pétition [...]

Development initiatives without a clear commitment to non-discrimination and addressing the needs of marginalised and vulnerable communities are wrong in that they violate human rights. But they can also drive injustice, poverty and conflict, and are ultimately unsustainable.

"They come every day … four or five cars usually – 20 to 60 soldiers. They say, 'We need this land for sugar, so you shouldn't be here' … We say, 'We don't want [sugar]', but that is not the right answer. They hit us or they take us to jail."

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Global economic troubles are being matched by a recession in human rights with worryingly minimal commitments coming out of the United Nations Rio+20 conference on Sustainable Development, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the Center for International Environment Law (CIEL) said at the close of the conference.

(Rio de Janeiro) – Global economic troubles are being matched by a recession in human rights with worryingly minimal commitments coming out of the United Nations Rio+20 conference on Sustainable Development, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the Center for International Environment Law (CIEL) said today at the close of the conference.

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By Savio Carvalho, Director of Amnesty International’s Demand Dignity Programme, writing from Rio de Janeiro (Follow him on Twitter – @SavioConnects)

Late into one of the negotiation sessions at the Rio+20 Summit on Sustainable Development, references to “freedom of speech and association” were struck from the draft outcome document [...]

The Ethiopian government is forcibly displacing indigenous pastoral communities in Ethiopia’s Lower Omo valley without adequate consultation or compensation to make way for state-run sugar plantations. The report contains previously unpublished government maps that show the extensive developments planned for the Omo valley, including irrigation canals, sugar processing factories, and 100,000 hectares of other commercial agriculture.

(Nairobi) – The Ethiopian government is forcibly displacing indigenous pastoral communities in Ethiopia’s Lower Omo valley without adequate consultation or compensation to make way for state-run sugar plantations, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

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World leaders have a once in a generation chance to create a meaningful link between sustainable development and human rights, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said in a joint statement targeting Environment and Foreign Affairs ministers gathering in Rio.

(New York) – World leaders have a once in a generation chance to create a meaningful link between sustainable development and human rights, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said today in a joint statement targeting Environment and Foreign Affairs ministers gathering in Rio.

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The Hungarian government should revoke a new national law that makes it a crime to be homeless.

(Berlin) – The Hungarian government should revoke a new national law that makes it a crime to be homeless, Human Rights Watch said today. The new law raises serious human rights concerns, and is hard to reconcile with Hungary's human rights obligations, Human Rights Watch said.

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The decision by Singapore’s Manpower Ministry to grant foreign domestic workers a weekly rest day is an important reform but falls short of international standards. The changes, announced on March 5, 2012, go into effect only for new contracts beginning in January 2013 and do not address the exclusion of domestic workers from other key labor protections in Singapore’s Employment Act.

(New York) – The decision by Singapore’s Manpower Ministry to grant foreign domestic workers a weekly rest day is an important reform but falls short of international standards, Human Rights Watch said today.

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(Baku) – The government of Azerbaijan has forcibly evicted homeowners and demolished their homes for urban development projects in Baku, the capital, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Dozens of families have been evicted from the neighborhood where the arena for the May 2012 Eurovision Song Contest is being built.

(Baku) – The government of Azerbaijan has forcibly evicted homeowners and demolished their homes for urban development projects in Baku, the capital, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

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Thousands of children in northern Nigeria need immediate medical treatment and dozens of villages remain contaminated two years into the worst lead poisoning epidemic in modern history, Human Rights Watch said today while releasing a video on the issue. Four hundred children have died, according to official estimates, yet environmental cleanup efforts have not even begun in numerous affected villages.

(Lagos) – Thousands of children in northern Nigeria need immediate medical treatment and dozens of villages remain contaminated two years into the worst lead poisoning epidemic in modern history, Human Rights Watch said today while releasing a video on the issue.

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The rules are intended to make paid farm work safer for the hundreds of thousands of children in the United States who labor in agriculture. They would not apply to children working on their parents’ farms.

(Washington, DC) – The US House Small Business Subcommittee on Agriculture, Energy and Trade is holding a hearing on February 2, 2012, on proposed rules to prevent child farmworkers from taking on the most dangerous tasks. The new rules are intended to make paid farm work safer for the hundreds of thousands of children in the United States who labor in agriculture.

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