Tag Archive for "Human Rights"

Posts Tagged Human Rights

Big news: Daw Aung San Suu Kyi released

On Saturday morning US time, Myanmar’s pro-democracy leader was released from house arrest. Her most recent confinement lasted seven years; she has been under house arrest for 15 of the last 21 years. According to the New York Times, the decision to release the Nobel Peace laureate just a few days after Myanmar’s election “suggested that the generals were confident of their position and ready to face down the devotion she still commands both in her country and abroad.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4Uw_wGWV0Q&feature=player_embedded

Suu Kyi addressed a crowd of several thousand supporters, saying that she plans to continue working to bring democracy to Myanmar, establishing networks within and outside of the country to do so. She called for freedom of speech and told the ...

By Maya Dusenbery • 13 years ago

New report on the treatment of mothers and pregnant women in U.S. prisons

Yesterday the National Women’s Law Center and the Rebecca Project for Human Rights released a new report, “Mothers Behind Bars,” on the treatment of pregnant and parenting women in U.S. state prisons. The picture the report paints—like most glimpses into our broken prison system—is not a pretty one.

By Rose • 13 years ago

Birth control breakthroughs on the horizon

Via Kristof of the New York Times and The Daily Report from the National Partnership for Women and Families, this decade promises to be filled with encouraging contraceptive breakthroughs for both men and women.

A quick round-up of what we may be in store for includes:

A vaginal ring that lasts for one year and costs under $10 A hormonal implant for women that can last as long as an IUD and costs $3 Reversible sterilization for men that can be undone by injection Underclothing for men that acts as a long acting contraceptive agent

While these breakthroughs are important because they get us closer to the day when the burden for contraception doesn’t fall on women alone, I can’t help but feel conflicted ...

A quick ...

By Courtney • 13 years ago

‘Why are girls who lose their virginity allowed to go to public school?’

Yup, that’s a direct quote. Bambang Bayu Suseno, a legislator in Jambi, a province of Indonesia, is floating an idea among his colleagues and constituents that all girls would have to pass a virginity test in order to attend state-funded schools.

Bambang told the Jakarta Post that he “deemed that parental and school supervision on youth interaction was weak, so there was no other choice but to hand over supervision completely to the child. Hence, the idea of drafting the virginity test draft bylaw.” So let me get this straight–because parents and schools aren’t adequately policing young people’s interactions with one another, young women have to suffer the human rights violation of being forcibly tested for a ...

By Samhita • 13 years ago

Public shaming incident under investigation in India

A woman in India was allegedly forced to walk naked for six miles through three villages because she had engaged in an “illicit love affair.” As if that on its own isn’t horrifying enough, the incident was caught on a cell phone camera.

via BBC.

Critics say that it was only after mobile phone clips of the woman went into wide circulation that the police swung into action.

Six of the men who allegedly molested her have been arrested.

The West Bengal Human Rights Commission (WBHRC) has also asked the district police for a report into the incident within a month.

“If we are not satisfied with this report, we will do our own investigation and submit recommendations to the government,” WBHRC chairman ...

By Lori Adelman • 13 years ago

Lebron, Family Honor, and Yo Momma

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been following the Lebron James story with great interest. For those who don’t follow sports (or live under a rock), Lebron recently announced that he would be leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers to play for the Miami Heat, after much hype, speculation, conspiracy theories, and an hour-long ESPN special. That’s all fine and good. I’m not foolish enough to try to opine on such a still touchy subject in a public forum.
What I WILL talk about is the fact that for months, the critical backlash against Lebron has involved blatant, disrespectful, and anti-feminist slut-shaming of his mother based on rumors that she slept with Delonte West, another player on the ...

By Samhita • 13 years ago

Dan Cho: “I feel like I am living inside an invisible prison cell.”

A powerful and courageous speech from Dan Cho at the Campus Progress National Conference this last week, with an impassioned plea for immigration reform and to support the Dream ACT.

This just gave me chills. Thanks to Jorge Rivas for the link.

A powerful and courageous speech from Dan Cho at the Campus Progress National Conference this last week, with an impassioned plea for immigration reform and to support the Dream ACT.

This just gave me chills. Thanks to ...

By Vanessa • 13 years ago

The sanctioning of child genital cutting at Cornell University

*Strong trigger warning*

Alarming research being conducted at Cornell University is creating quite a stir, and pretty damn understandably: pediatric urologist Dr. Dix Poppas has been cutting the genitals of infants and children, with parental consent, for having clitorises that are too large.

Alice Dreger and Ellen K. Feder at Bioethics Forum brought recent attention to the controversial (to put it mildly) treatment which Dr. Poppas claims to “fix” the genitals of children as young as 3 months so they can have a more “normal appearing vagina” after the doctor deem their clitoris oversized. But despite Poppas’ claims that “female patients are able to undergo a more natural psychological and sexual development” with clitoroplasty, the two professors have ...

*Strong trigger warning*