Tag Archive for "Human Rights"

Posts Tagged Human Rights

Hospitals are deporting undocumented immigrants while they are unconscious

This is really sickening. The AP is out with an incredible report detailing the stories of undocumented immigrants who were deported by American hospitals, while they were unconscious.

Two of the immigrants profiled, Jacinto Cruz and Jose Rodriguez-Saldana, were unlucky enough to be involved in car accidents and their punishment was being flown to Mexico while still in a coma. The kicker is, they had health insurance, because they had solid jobs, but without documentation proving legal immigrant status, the hospital took it upon themselves to deport Cruz and Rodriguez-Saldana.

Via Talking Points Memo:

The men had health insurance from jobs at one of the nation’s largest pork producers. But neither had legal permission to live in the U.S., nor was ...

This is really sickening. The AP is out with an incredible report detailing the stories of undocumented immigrants who were deported by American hospitals, while they were unconscious.

Two of the immigrants profiled, Jacinto Cruz and Jose Rodriguez-Saldana, ...

By Lori Adelman • 11 years ago

Chen Guangcheng, reproductive rights activist

Have you guys heard about Chen Guangcheng? He’s a blind Chinese human rights lawyer and activist who has been occupying the news recently after making a dramatic late-night escape from his home, where he was being kept under house arrest against his will by the Chinese government.

The reason for his years-long imprisonment (made famous by Christian Bale’s attempted visit just last year )? His activism against forced sterilizations, forced abortion, and China’s “one child” policy.

We’ve spoken out against forced abortion and sterilization on this blog before, both in situations of coercion by a partner as well as government-enforced. In a post about a spate of forced abortions in southwest China, Ann wrote “Bottom line? Despite ...

By Eesha Pandit • 12 years ago

GOP: Preventing violence against women in detention centers is a “luxury”

From the Friday indignation files. When faced with report after report that recounts the inhumane conditions at ICE detention centers, some Republican lawmakers are arguing that remedying these horrific conditions is unnecessary.

On Wednesday, the House Committee on the Judiciary convened a hearing on the conditions at the Department of Homeland Security’s immigrant detention centers.

Making perhaps the least funny joke I’ve ever heard, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) , chairman of the Judiciary Committee called the hearing, “Holiday on ICE.”

The hearing was held in response to the Obama administration rules intended to prevent sexual abuse and inhumane conditions at Immigrations and Customs Enforcement facilities. According to Rep. Smith, the rules which were released in February, make ICE detention centers akin to luxury resorts ...

On Wednesday, the House Committee on the ...

By Lori Adelman • 12 years ago

Saudi women finally allowed to join work force… to sell lingerie

Wow, there are so many layers to this story. Saudi women, long denied the ability to work, are finally allowed into the public sector- but only to sell garments, cosmetics, and yes – skimpy women’s lingerie. From the New York Times:

The Ministry of Labor is enforcing a royal decree issued last summer ordering that sales personnel in shops selling garments and other goods, like cosmetics, that are only for women must be female. More than 28,000 women applied for the jobs, the ministry said. [Emphasis mine.]

Anywhere else in the world, it would not be news that sales assistants in shops selling panties and bras were female. In Saudi Arabia, where women have always been ...

Wow, there are so many layers to this story. Saudi women, long denied the ability to work, are finally allowed into the public sector- but only to sell garments, cosmetics, and yes – skimpy ...

By Chloe Angyal • 12 years ago

The Feministing Five: Mac McClelland

Mac McClelland is the human rights reporter for Mother Jones magazine and the author of the book For Us Surrender Is Out of the Question: A Story from Burma’s Never-Ending War. Mac has reported from all over the world, most recently from Haiti and the Gulf of Mexico – she is currently reporting on the impact of budget cuts in her home state of Ohio. Her book, which came out last year, was the result of the time she spent among Burmese anti-government rebels, people who risked their lives to combat ethnic cleansing under a military dictatorship.

Mac has also written about the place of women within journalism, as issue that was on many people’s minds earlier ...

By Chloe Angyal • 12 years ago

Female genital cutting: a rite, a torture, or both?

In today’s Times, Nick Kristof writes about the dilemma presented by female genital cutting. The practice, which he calls “one of the most pervasive human rights abuses worldwide,” prompts a critical question: where is the line between ending human rights violations and cultural imperialism?

For four decades, Westerners have campaigned against genital cutting, without much effect. Indeed, the Western term “female genital mutilation” has antagonized some African women because it assumes that they have been “mutilated.” Aid groups are now moving to add the more neutral term “female genital cutting” to their lexicon.

Is it cultural imperialism for Westerners to oppose genital mutilation? Yes, perhaps, but it’s also justified. Some cultural practices such as genital mutilation — or foot-binding or bride-burning ...

By Lori Adelman • 12 years ago

Ugandan anti-gay bill is poised to pass (and what westerners should do about it)

Remember that horrendous Ugandan anti-homosexuality bill we posted about late last year? According to the AP, the bill is once again rearing its ugly head. A Ugandan parliament committee is currently holding hearings on it, and Ugandan lawmakers have indicated the bill could be voted on as early as before Parliament ends its session at the end of the week.

Many advocates, including a blogger on GayUganda and Cary Alan Johnson, executive director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), suggest that the bill is being debated now to divert attention from recent political demonstrations in Uganda that have attracted police crackdowns. Human Rights Watch says security forces killed nine people in the recent ...

By Chloe Angyal • 13 years ago

Indigenous Australian activist Roberta “Bobbi” Sykes dies

Indigenous Australian activist and poet Roberta “Bobbi” Sykes died yesterday in Sydney after a long illness. Sykes was best known as an activist, campaigning for Aboriginal land rights and women’s rights. In the 1970s, she was the first executive secretary of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, the highly controversial semi-permanent settlement on the lawn of Parliament House in the nation’s capital. Sykes was arrested at the embassy in 1972 along with dozens of other activists. Her role in demanding rights for indigenous Australians was later recognized when she was awarded the Australian Human Rights Medal in 1994.

She was the first Indigenous Australian to graduate from an American university; she received her PhD in education from Harvard in 1983, and later ...