Headscarf Ban - Violation of Human Rights?

Everyone has heard of the infamous headscarf ban in France. The French have proposed a law to ban Islamic headscarves and other religious symbols in state schools. The thought behind this is to try and make the learning environment a safe and equal environment for everyone. There should be no pressure to feel forced to believe something just because a fellow classmate is expressing their religious choices.

On the other hand, this law brings up many human rights issues which I thought would be interesting to discuss. Banning something that is an expression of religion and peoples beliefs is a violation of human rights. Do you agree? Do you think that this law should be tolerated? Do you think that it is right that they are trying to ban them simply from schools? What do you think they are trying to accomplish through this law?

I have posted an article by the Human Rights Watch Organization that discusses some of the implications on human rights that this law presents.

http://www.hrw.org/news/2004/02/26/france-headscarf-ban-violates-religious-freedom

 

Albania Says MJAFT!

MJAFT! (which translates to ENOUGH! in English) is an Albanian NGO that raises awareness about the various political and social problems within the nation. The organization is a grassroots organization created by the collaborative effort of students and concerned citizen volunteers. MJAFT! targets awareness towards corruption, social, political, and economic growth in Albania, and violation of rights like freedom of the press, speech, and expression. MJAFT! has been active in monitoring elections for safe and fair practices and hopes to help build an Albania that is better governed. Representatives of MJAFT! serve as government "watchdogs" and civic lobbyists to facilitate change at the local level. It is one of Albania's largest movements, branching in 18 cities in the nation and consists of over 8,000 members and more than 1,000 volunteers. Their proponent approach towards their mission has won them major acknowledgement in Albania, and as a disclaimer on their website, they write, "This website is suited for active citizens only. We bear no responsibility for the discomfort it may cause to corrupt officials and indifference citizens. If you think being an active citizen is a burden, try apathy and send us a postcard from the stone ages." In 2004, MJAFT! won the annual United Nations Vienna Civil Society Award.

Nelson Mandela and Human Rights

As I am sure all of you know, South African president and revolutionary Nelson Mandela passed away this past Thursday, December 5, 2013. I believe that Nelson Mandela's life and his pursuits in the field of human rights are very relevant to our area of study. Mandela was one of the most proponent fighters against South Africa's apartheid regime that marginalized and disadvantaged all of South Africa's black population and instituted rule by the white minority. In the fight to secure human rights for the suffering blacks in South Africa, his own human rights were violated. Mandela faced beatings, torture, and a 27 year imprisonment for advocating against apartheid. The story of Mandela reminds me of "Kiss of the Spider Woman," in which Argentina, much like South Africa, had a very authoritarian and repressive system in place that undermined the human rights and personal freedoms of its its citizens. Those who threatened the regime in the novel, like Valentin and Molina, were targeted and abused by the government just like Mandela was. This led me to think about how personal freedoms and individual rights go hand in hand with having a more democratic state. Beyond South Africa, Mandela was a leader of human rights throughout the globe, and taught us the importance of fighting for human rights, as mentioned here by Think Progress. May the legacy of Mandela's life be championed through the generations, with a brighter world for human rights.

Lack of Human Rights in the Middle East

In this article, two young women  Zohrah and Hasina, were deported from Iran after being arrested for their choice of shoes and the amount of makeup they were wearing. The Iran officials found it offensive for the two women to be dressed so provocatively while visiting Qom, a holy city in Iran. The two girls were born in Iran, but their parents' homeland is Afghanistan, meaning because their parents don't have Iranian citizenship they would have to be deported back to Afghanistan, where women's rights are even fewer than Iran's. The girls asked their father and Zohrah's boyfriend to help with the deportation process, only when the two men showed up to help they also were proven to not have Iranian citizenship even though both had lived legally in Iran for most of their lives. Now, the two girls their father and soon to be son-in-law, have to leave their mother and younger siblings behind in Iran and return to Afghanistan. Their father is distraught with the thought that he has left his jobless wife and young children to fend for themselves in a country where anything- good or bad- can happen in a blink of an eye.

I thought this article was a great connection to Persepolis and how even today, Iran still has an extremely strict dress code for women. This article talks a lot about Afghanistan as well, and how it is even harder for women to live successfully there without the ridicule of dress. We are lucky to live in a culture where we are free to express ourselves through our choices in clothing.

Housing Rights

I was listening to a recent This American Life episode called "House Rules." This episode was primarily about The Fair Housing Act of 1968 and housing discrimination.

One of the first things talked about was the way in which the quality life and of one's education is often effected by income, and where one lives. It's an interesting issue to discuss from a human right perspective. How does a government go about ensuring equal quality of education for its citizens?

Similarly, how does a government go about combating housing discrimination? Act one of the show follows a New York organization that tests for violations of The Fair Housing Act of 1968 by sending people of different races in inquire about renting apartments. This kind of research is often done by non-governmental organizations rather than state governments.

The show also goes into the history of the Fair Housing Act and housing discrimination. Act one also discusses the way in which the government for a long time facilitated housing discrimination through loan giving practices. For example, by only giving loans to white people who wanted to buy houses in all-white neighborhoods. In this way the Federal government was able to facilitate housing segregation very efficiently.

The show is a lot more detailed and interesting (it's an hour long), but I would highly recommend taking a listen! It has a lot to do with the human rights issues we've been discussing in class lately.

NSA Scandal

For the last discussion we are looking at large themes and problems with human rights. What cases qualify as human rights problems? What cases do not? What makes certain issues specifically human rights issues? I was thinking about these questions when I remembered this summer, the NSA (National Security Agency) Scandal and I thought that it was a good case to discuss for human rights violations! 

The NSA Scandal was a global surveillance scandal. The dates of this scandal range from:

 November 3rd, 1999 when the the BBC revealed the existence of the global spying network Echelon up to June 6, 2013 when president Obama addressed this issue. 

The NSA and it's international parterns were found to be guilty of performing mass surveillance of foreign nationals as well as US citizens. During the 2009 G-20 London Summit, the British intelligence agency Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) had intercepted the communications of foreign diplomats. The Guardian revealed that XKeyscore, a formerly secret computer system, allows analysts to search with no prior authorization through vast databases containing emails, online chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals. This problem was not just based in the United States, it was a global problem as well. 

During specific episodes within a four-year period, the NSA hacked several Chinese mobile-phone companies, and universities in Beijing.Top secret documents were leaked by ex NSA contractor Edward Snowden.  Documents provided by Edward Snowden revealed that the NSA spied on various diplomatic missions of the EU, including the EU's delegation to the United States in Washington D.C. It was reported that the NSA had collected phone records from over 120 million Verizon subscribers, according to a top secret court order leaked by Snowden. 

This scandal attracted major public attention when it was published by The Washington Post and The Gaurdian.  

How does this affect human rights? 

Restore the Fourth was largely involved and very active. Restore the Fourth is an organization that works on strengthening the 4th ammendment 

The 4th Ammendment - Prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures and requires a warrant to be judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2AJjZurVTI

This video does a wonderful job of explaining the situation and also addressing the human rights issues. 

Human Rights in the Upper Valley

Coming from a small town in Vermont there are not a lot of human rights organizations based in my town. One of the unique aspects of where I live though is that I am right across the river from Hanover, NH which is home to Dartmouth College. Dartmouth College has many human rights organizations within the college. Just like any college students have many groups and projects that work towards protecting and securing human rights. An example of a few groups under Dartmouth College include:
- Inter-Commuity Council
- Student Uniting Rural Africa

-Global China Connection
- GlobeMed
Those are only a few of the groups that they have on campus and there are vast resources within Dartmouth for students to get connected. Over half of the student population is international, so human rights issues are not a shy topic on campus.

Within the Upper Valley (the name for a region where I live that includes several towns) I found a few groups such as:

- Knight of Columbus Council (Lebanon, NH) : They raise and donate money to charities that focus on disabilities such as,
- Special Olympics
- Global Wheelchair Mission
- Habitat for Humanity
- Food for Families
- Coats for Kids

• Youth in Action
• SEAD with Dartmouth  

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~tucker/sead/
• Upper Valley Humanists Association
• Special Olympics

Who's most at risk of having their rights violated?

This article in the Huffington Post, entitled "The 10 Worst Countries For Human Rights," lists the countries that were determined by a global analytics firm to be at "extreme risk" of human rights violations. Syria, Sudan, and The Democratic Republic of Congo top the list. Pakistan is notably ranked fourth, and the article refers to the struggle for women's rights there, and specifically to Malala Yousafzai, the young activist targeted by the Taliban for her stance on women's education.

The U.S. is ranked at 139 out of 197 countries, but I was curious as to whether the rankings took into account countries involvements internationally. The United States has certainly interfered in several of the countries on the list. We know from our discussion's of Persepolis that the U.S. has a history of involvement in Iran, and Malala Yousafzai recently spoke out against the use of U.S. drones in Pakistan.

What do you guys think? Did any of the rankings surprise you?

How Does the Human Rights Campaign Rate Worcester?

The Human Rights Campaign, the country's largest glbt rights organization, has issued ratings of cities throughout the United States, ranking them on their support for lgbt issues. Worcester's rating is 55 out of 100: too high or too low?

Human Rights Organisations in Ghana

The Human Rights Advocacy Center (HRAC) and the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) are two independent Human Rights organisations which seek to monitor and provide rights for everybody. Both offices are based in the capital of Ghana, Accra, which is where I live. HRAC is dedicated to the promotion and protection of human rights. Through research and advocacy, HRAC  fights injustice, restores peace and builds the human rights movement around the world. This organisation deals with issues of reproductive rights like Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), issues of rape, child trafficking, assault and unlawful detention or eviction. CHRI essentially deals with the same issues as HRAC. CHRI also seeks to provide rights to all the citizens of Africa. Both organisations collaborate with different governments, inter-governmental organisations, academia, students and civil society. The underlying aim of these two bodies is to improve human rights all around.

Vermont Human Rights Commission, & discrimination/diversity on a smaller scale

This is the link to the Vermont Human Rights Commission, which operates within the Vermont state government. It seems very similar to the Massachusetts version, which John presented on last class, in terms of the way it's set up and the kinds of things it does. The VT HRC does a lot with education and outreach within the state, as well as mediation and advocacy in actual cases of human rights issues and complaints. 

Above is a chart displayed on their website, about what protections against discrimination fall under the jurisdiction of the VT HRC. Again, these seem similar to the Mass equivalent; they have sections for housing, public accommodations (spaces) and employment, and the categories which they protect against discrimination for each. 

Overall, the commission, just like we already learned with MA's, is overwhelmingly driven by a social-justice type mission, through a variety of outreach and education programs and advocacy in different settings within the state, and the enforcement of existing anti-discrimination legislation. 

That said, I think it's important to remember that this is the broad state institution entrusted to help resolve and prevent pretty much all discrimination issues that fall within state law/jurisdiction. It definitely is a great commission to have, and I think it's made more effective due to its independent status as a commission dedicated specifically to this issue (not true for all states). However, past being very outwardly liberal, Vermont is one of the most homogeneous states, mostly in terms of race and culture. To relate back to the town near me specifically (pop. around 12,000 so there is no specific human rights organizations), when I was home over break I read an editorial in the local newspaper written by a black student at a graduate/training institution (not from VT), who was talking about his experience with racism and racial profiling in the town. He made the point that, although it is an extremely open-minded community to begin with, and any kind of overt racism would never be tolerated, the town's lack of racial/cultural/ethnic diversity can lead to more innocent, subconscious, and perhaps more insidious (being deeply engrained in societal subconscious) kinds of racism. 

Although this is just one case/opinion, it's an important point to make in a community like the one in which I live; these are issues that I think are true of much of the state of Vermont overall. The state human rights commission is definitely an interesting and beneficial organization to have, and Vermont itself seems to have a good human rights track record anyway, to match its very general liberalism and overall open-mindedness as a state. But in any small community and especially in VT given what I mentioned above, it's both important and interesting to consider the diversity (in all senses) of the population, and how this might affect any and all kinds of discrimination.

Westchester County Human Rights Commission

The Westchester County Human Rights Commission is an organization that works to promote human rights in education, housing, employment, and public spaces throughout Westchester, New York. Some of the specific goals of the organization include using advocacy and education to eliminate discrimination within the county and globally, investigating human rights violations and pursuing the offenders, and protecting individuals from discrimination and unfair treatment. The website offers information about the organization and its goals, shows how to file a complaint, and provides a copy of the Westchester County Human Rights Law, which was signed in 2000. This law, as the website states, makes it "unlawful to commit discriminatory acts in employment, housing, public accommodation and credit against individuals because of their group identity based on their race, color,  religion, ethnicity, creed, age, national origin, alienage or citizenship status, familial status, gender, marital status, sexual orientation or disability."

Office of Equity and Human Rights

Created in 2011, the Office of Equity and Human Rights "promotes equity and reduces disparities within City government" in Portland, Oregon. They focus on educating and providing technical support for city staff and officials in order to remove "systemic barriers to fair and just distribution of resources." They focus on issues of race and disability. Within the organization is the Human Rights Commission, which promotes the elimination of bigotry in all aspects of life for the people in Portland. The Human Rights Commission holds regular open community meetings where issues can be discussed.

12 Plus

12 Plus is an organization that works to empower young students in Philadelphia who otherwise would not have had access to a higher level of education, and therefore would not be able to go to college.  They work to provide students with access to education that schools the Philadelphia School District simply cannot provide to an inner city school, while kids just 10 miles outside of Philadelphia have access to it (from their website: "Lower Merion, an affluent school district just outside Philadelphia, claims that 96% of graduating students enroll in post-secondary programs." 
Philadelphia has a 27% poverty level, 75% of public high school students in Philadelphia come from low-income families, Philadelphia Public High Schools have a 250 : 1 student to counselor ratio, and over 50% of Philadelphia Public High Schools do not have a college access program.

Therefore, they provide the basic human rights of equal, fair, and progressive education to kids who otherwise would have dropped out or turned to other, not so great options. The students are immersed in a school environment that advocates and supports their post-secondary goals. The organization claims that when students are expected to go to college, they are more likely to try harder in their courses and make the connection between their coursework and their future success in careers. This leads to higher attendance rates, higher grades, and more students both enrolling and graduating with post-secondary degrees. 

In addition, the Philadelphia school system is going through a series of terrible budget cuts--therefore, In an effort to combat these budget cuts, 12 Plus opened the first Plus Center in the Kensington Health Sciences Academy (KHSA) during the 2012-2013 school year and expanded their services to the entire school of 350 students. Since the start of 12 Plus programming, Kensington Health Sciences Academy enrollment rate has increased from 11% to over 50%. They are projected to increase the post-secondary rate to over 80% for the 2012-2013 year.

Amherst Human Rights Commission

The Amherst Human Rights Commission aims to promote respect and equality among the diverse community, often through sponsorship of events, activities, and people involved with justice and human rights. For instance, they recently organized the activist Calvin Terrell's visit to Amherst, where he was interviewed by students of the local high school.  One of the Commission's goals is to prevent the proposed cut in housing subsidies, which have the greatest effects on minorities. Since it is difficult to prove deliberate discrimination, the Commission is trying to get as many people as possible to attend town meeting and vote against the article, mainly through education the public.

Human Rights and New York State

This image is the first thing I noticed on the New York State Human Rights website. I find the image and the significance of the text very powerful and thought provoking. When spoken, the two names above sound exactly the same, yet the spelling indicates different racial backgrounds. Discrimination based on racial backgrounds is all too common, but as the image above indicates it is against New York State Human Rights Law.

The NYS Human Rights Laws listed on the site appears to be fairly similar to Massachusetts HR Laws, and the site is a great source, with information on how and when to file a complaint.

Initially, I googled Human Rights and Brooklyn, and the first link I found was to the organization Witness. Witness is based in Brooklyn (in fact it's based fairly close to my house, in the same zip code), and I think it's fantastic. Witness aims to expose discrimination and human rights violations through video recordings of the violations. Witness has used the power of video to expose HR violations for over 20 years, the video below gives a general overview of the organization and its mission.

Nonhuman Rights

The Nonhuman Rights Project is a national organization that is working towards legal rights for various animal species besides humans. Their goal "is to change the common law status of at least some nonhuman animals from mere 'things,' which lack the capacity to possess any legal right, to 'persons,' who possess such fundamental rights as bodily integrity and bodily liberty, and those other legal rights to which evolving standards of morality, scientific discovery, and human experience entitle them". They recently filed a lawsuit on behalf of a chimpanzee, Tommy, in Gloversville, NY, who is living in captivity; they are fighting for him to be recognized as a legal person, which would mean that he would have the right to not be imprisoned. This article further explains the case; it also mentions that this case is different from others in the past because of the concern with the legal rights of animals, rather than just animal welfare.

Do you think nonhuman animals should have legal rights? If so, do you think there is a relationship between violating the rights of animals and violating the rights of humans (for instance, is a system that violates animal rights perhaps more likely to violate human rights)?

Melrose Human Rights Commission

Melrose, Massachusetts (a suburb of Boston; it is considered a city because of its larger population, though it is still very small for a city) has its own human rights organization: the Melrose Human Rights Commission. This organization focuses on resolving issues of racial, ethnic, and religious discrimination experienced by Melrose citizens. It was founded in 1992 in response to an incident that occurred three years earlier in which a Melrose family's home was vandalized with racial slurs.

Human Rights in New Hampshire

Though my own town was too small to have any active human rights organizations, on the state level New Hampshire has many groups which advocate for human rights, the most prominent being the New Hampshire Commission for Human Rights as well as the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice. The New Hampshire Commission fights for human rights on a much broader scale. It was established with the purpose of eliminating discrimination in employment, public accommodations and the sale or rental of housing or commercial property due to many different factors. It also helps to aid those who want to file a discrimination claim and also educates people on their basic human rights on the state scale.

 

The Lantos Foundation was established by Congress in honor of Tom Lantos and is based out of Concord New Hampshire. During his lifetime Lantos brought major concerns to Congress such as violence against women, killings in Darfur and the Congo, and the growing HIV/AIDS epidemic. He also brought attention to the lesser-known causes, such as abuses against Tibetans, the Kurds, the Burmese, and indigenous people on every continent. This organization was established to, in his words, to carry out "the noble banner of human rights to every corner of the world."

It was really interesting to do more research on Human Rights on the state level because it applies what we have been talking about in class to a more personal and practical level.