A Dutch court has dealt a major blow to corporate surveillance, ruling it is a human rights violation to force employees to keep their webcams on.
According to TechCrunch, the issue stems with a Florida-based company called Chetu. The company hired a telemarketer based in the Netherlands and demanded the individual leave their webcam on during working hours.
“I don’t feel comfortable being monitored for 9 hours a day by a camera. This is an invasion of my privacy and makes me feel really uncomfortable. That is the reason why my camera is not on,” the employee said, according to court documents. “You can already monitor all activities on my laptop and I am sharing my screen.”
Chetu fired the employee in response to their complaint, leading the employee to sue the company. Chetu was ordered to pay the employee’s court fees, back wages, unused vacation days, and a $50,000 fine. The company was also ordered to release the employee from a non-compete clause.
The case should serve as a warning for US companies doing business and hiring employees overseas. Regardless of how lax employment laws may be in some parts of the US, other jurisdictions often have far more employee-friendly regulations.
Amnesty International, along with 38 other humans rights organizations, is calling on Google to halt plans to establish a cloud data center in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia has a history of human rights abuses, executing political protesters, digitally surveilling citizens and more. The country was linked to the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman believed to be behind the order.
Google announced its plans to open a cloud data center in Saudi Arabia, as the company continues its efforts to move up from the third largest cloud provider. The move is not going over well with human rights groups who are afraid the data center will give Saudi authorities more means to surveil opponents.
“Saudi Arabia has a dismal human rights record, including digital surveillance of dissidents, and is an unsafe country to host the Google Cloud Platform,” said Rasha Abdul Rahim, Director of Amnesty Tech.
“In a country where dissidents are arrested, jailed for their expression and tortured for their work – Google’s plan could give the Saudi authorities even greater powers to infiltrate networks and gain access to data on peaceful activists and any individual expressing a dissenting opinion in the Kingdom.
“Google must immediately halt any plans to establish a Cloud region in Saudi Arabia until the company can publicly demonstrate how it will prevent potential abuse of its platform.”
In further proof that Clearview AI can’t be trusted, BuzzFeed News is reporting the facial recognition firm is planning on selling its services to authoritarian regimes.
Clearview claims to have scraped over 3 billion photos from millions of websites, including the major social media platforms. The company then makes those photos available, in a searchable database, to hundreds of law enforcement agencies across the country.
According to BuzzFeed, “a document obtained via a public records request reveals that Clearview has been touting a ‘rapid international expansion’ to prospective clients using a map that highlights how it either has expanded, or plans to expand, to at least 22 more countries, some of which have committed human rights abuses.”
Three of the countries are the United Arab Emirates, which is known for cracking down on dissidents, as well as Qatar and Singapore, both of which have far more restrictive human rights laws than Western countries.
In an interview with BuzzFeed, Albert Fox Cahn, a fellow at New York University and the executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, expressed concern about the implications of the software being used by oppressive regimes.
“It’s deeply alarming that they would sell this technology in countries with such a terrible human rights track record, enabling potentially authoritarian behavior by other nations,” he said.
Clearview CEO Hoan Ton-That has been defending his company amid growing scrutiny and concern over the legality and ethics of its behavior. The New Jersey Attorney General recently enacted a moratorium on police departments using the company’s service. Twitter, Facebook, Google and YouTube have sent cease-and-desist letters to Clearview. Now, as lawmakers increasingly turn their attention toward the company, it’s a safe bet this latest news will not help Clearview’s case.
Ross LaJeunesse, a top executive at Google, was the face of the company’s human rights efforts. In an interview with The Washington Post, he says he was eventually forced out because of it.
When Google announced in 2010 that it would no longer censor search results for China, LaJeunesse was put in charge of the company’s human rights efforts for China. It was his job to come up with a plan to protect human rights in the country. LaJeunesse “later devised a human rights program to formalize Google’s principles supporting free expression and privacy. He began lobbying for it internally in 2017 — around the time when the tech giant was exploring a return to China, in a stark reversal of its 2010 move that made its search engine unavailable there.”
Ultimately, it seems that China was too big and lucrative of a market for Google to ignore indefinitely—even if that meant compromising its principles. In 2018, it was reported the company was working on Project Dragonfly, a censored search app for the Chinese market. After protest from employees, Google finally scrapped the plan.
LaJeunesse sounded warnings about Project Dragonfly internally, warnings which seemed to go unheeded. He became increasingly convinced that Google needed to formally adopt a human rights policy that could guide company decisions regardless of whether he or his deputies were present.
Eventually, LaJeunesse was informed his role was being terminated and he was offered another one that seemed too much like a demotion. He chose to leave the company without signing an NDA so he could shed light on the changes occurring within Google.
Speaking about the company’s former mission statement, “Don’t be evil,” LaJeunesse told The Washington Post: “I didn’t change. Google changed. Now when I think about ‘Don’t be evil,’ it’s been relegated to a footnote in the company’s statements.”
It was reported earlier this week that company veterans felt Google had become ‘unrecognizable’ due to some of the very same issues LaJeunesse had. The Washington Post interview is a fascinating read that continues to flesh out that narrative and showcases what happens when a company seems to prioritize profit over principles.
NBC News is reporting that Microsoft has hired Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate AnyVision, an Israeli-based facial recognition firm the company invested in.
AnyVision creates facial recognition software in use by the Israeli military at border crossings. The software is used to log the faces of Palestinians entering Israel. However, according to NBC News, the software is also used to secretly surveil Palestinians throughout the West Bank.
According to NBC News sources, AnyVision’s tech is at the heart of a secret military project, with one of those sources referring to it by the codename “Google Ayosh.” “Ayosh” refers to the West Bank and “Google” is a nod to the kind of powerful search capabilities Google is known for—although the search giant is not involved in the project. Google Ayosh was evidently so successful that it led to AnyVision winning Israel’s top defense prize in 2018.
Microsoft invested $74 million Series A funding in AnyVision in June, through it’s venture capital arm, M12. In the wake of NBC News’ report, however, the company is concerned that AnyVision’s involvement in Google Ayosh may violate its ethical principles for the use of facial recognition: “fairness, transparency, accountability, nondiscrimination, notice and consent, and lawful surveillance.”
Compliance with Microsoft’s facial recognition principles was included as part of the terms of the deal when Microsoft invested, giving them a right to perform the audit.
When NBC News first reported on the surveillance allegations, a Microsoft spokesman said that, if true, “they would violate our facial recognition principles.”
“If we discover any violation of our principles, we will end our relationship.”
At the same time, AnyVision has denied the reports, stating: “All of our installations have been examined and confirmed against not only Microsoft’s ethical principles, but also our own internal rigorous approval process.”
Whatever the case, Holder and a team of former federal prosecutors—currently working at law firm Covington & Burling—will investigate the allegations.
In 2010, North Korea was forced out of the World Cup in South Africa after giving up a staggering 12 goals in only three games. Upon returning home, the Korean soccer players were publicly shamed and scolded for their performance on the world stage. This public criticism was something of a rarity in North Korea, as most punishments are doled out in private.
Fortunately for North Korean soccer stars, there will be no concerns of disappointing the nation in the World Cup this year, seeing as the team did not qualify. However, Kim Jong Un has found another outlet for his temper – the country’s weather service.
On Tuesday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that Kim Jong Un voiced his disappointment with the national weather service during a field guide visit to the Hydro-meteorological Service. The source of Kim’s ire was “incorrect” forecasts, making it impossible “to protect the lives and properties of the people from disasters caused by the abnormal climatic phenomenon and prevent various fields of national economy including agriculture and fishery from natural disasters in good time”
N.Korean leader Kim Jong-Un censures country's weather service for "incorrect" forecasts in rare public dressing down http://t.co/D0hSpu902K
Rather than place the blame upon the people operating the weather service, though, Kim blamed the lack of up-to-date technology available to accurately predict the weather: “It is necessary to fundamentally improve the work of the Hydro-meteorological Service in order to scientifically clarify meteorological and climatic conditions and provide accurate data for weather forecast and meteorological and climatic information required by various fields of national economy in good time,” Kim stated.
Accurate weather forecasts are imperative for North Korea at the moment due to the severe drought the country is facing – the worst the country has seen in more than three decades.
Due to droughts, floods, and other weather phenomena, North Korea constantly faces a food shortage. The UN has reported that nearly two-thirds of North Korea’s 24 million people suffer from chronic food shortages and that one in four children suffer from malnourishment.
In late middle school or early high school, we all had a deep-seated fear of stoning placed in us by Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery”. In said story, members of a town draw slips of paper until one family is singled out by drawing the paper with the black dot. Ultimately, the family draws papers again until a single person is determined the winner of the lottery, only to receive stoning as their reward. All of this is done in order to ensure a good harvest for the summer.
At the time of reading such a story, it is easy to dismiss such a practice as archaic. One never thinks about the reality of such an incident occurring. Unfortunately, fiction reflects reality all too often.
On Tuesday, 25-year-old Farzana Parveen was stoned to death by her family outside of a court house in Lahore, the second biggest city in Pakistan.
The reason for the outpour of violence had to do with the person Farzana Parveen chose to marry. In Pakistan, and many other cultures in the eastern hemisphere, it is common practice for the family to construct an arranged marriage for the children, and marriage for the sake of love is seen as a transgression against the honor of the family.
Instead of marrying her cousin as her family insisted, Parveen decided to elope with the love of her life, Mohammad Iqbal.
Upon hearing of the two sneaking off to marry, Parveen’s father filed an abduction case against Iqbal.
As Parveen and Iqbal were attending a court session Tuesday to contest the claims of abduction, 20 of Parveen’s family members, including her father and brothers, began attacking her and her husband with bricks from a nearby construction site.
Parveen was taken to a nearby hospital where she was declared dead due to head trauma.
Because a woman in Pakistan was stoned to death today by her own family for marrying the man she loved http://t.co/uk3FFqAdlL#YesAllWomen
Unfortunately, all of the attackers escaped except for Parveen’s father, who surrendered and admitted to the killing, saying it was a matter of honor.
Honor killings are horrendously common in Pakistan, with the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan reporting 869 such honor killings in Pakistan in 2013.
However, the honor killings are usually not as brutal or public as the stoning Parveen suffered.
“I have not heard of any such case in which a woman was stoned to death, and the most shameful and worrying thing is that this woman was killed in front of a court,” stated Zia Awan, a lawyer and human rights activist.
Despite the fact that this murder was carried out in broad daylight in front of many witnesses, Pakistani law will most likely allow the perpetrators to walk free.
According to Pakistani law, the family of a murdered woman has the right to forgive the murderer and allow him or her to escape punishment. When the murderer is also a family member, it creates a loophole in the system that is unfixable.
Knowing that Parveen’s father has a great chance to walk free is terribly disheartening for the advancement of human and women’s rights in the Middle East, especially considering he has no remorse for his actions: “I killed my daughter as she had insulted all of our family by marrying a man without our consent, and I have no regret over it.”
Parveen’s body has been given to her husband, Mohammad Iqbal, for her burial.
Russian punk band Pussy Riot members Maria Alekhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova were on Capitol Hill Tuesday lobbying for further sanctions against Russia, citing human rights violations they had witnessed first-hand under President Vladimir Putin’s administration.
In a private meeting, the two activists requested that senators on the Foreign Relations Committee crack down even harder against Russia, and that Congress add 16 additional names to the list of Russian human rights violators who currently face sanctions, including the Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev.
Speaking through a translator, Tolokonnikova commented, “These sanctions allow a huge number of people to talk about the human rights violations as a result.” Tolokonnikova added, “Putin is not leading Russia to stability, but to complete instability and chaos. Silence is the most dangerous thing for a political prisoner.”
Alekhina and Tolokonnikova were found guilty of hooliganism with religious undertones of hatred after a live set at Moscow’s main cathedral in March, 2012, and were sentenced to two years in prison. A third member, Yekaterina Samutsevich, was released on a suspended sentence just months after the hooliganism conviction.
Here is a clip of the antics that garnered Pussy Riot their charges of hooliganism, after engaging in their “punk prayer”:
Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut was in attendance at the Tuesday meeting, and commented that further U.S. sanctions against Russia would foster an economic blow that would create a “domino effect,” which would in turn encourage Russians to stand up to human rights offenders. “People will start to care much more about the fact the they, like these two brave women standing next to us, have lost their ability to grieve their government,” Murphy said.
Tolokonnikova and Alekhina were freed from prison due to an amnesty legislation which some watchdog groups viewed as a Kremlin public relations stunt in time for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. During an appearance on NBC’s Today Show, Matt Lauer asked the activists if they thought Vladimir Putin had ordered their release to display his “softer side” to the world.
Tolokonnikova replied, “When we got released, we didn’t have any illusions at all that Putin’s regime became more liberal.”
A wearisome looking Pussy Riot also attended a few parties associated with the White House Correspondents’ Dinner over the weekend:
The Night Before the Oscars, an annual gala held at the Beverly Hills Hotel, may be hosted at a different venue henceforth, due to the Sultan of Brunei’s ownership of the storied inn. The Motion Picture & Television Fund, which holds the annual star-studded pre-Oscar party at the Dorchester Collection property, has cut ties with the establishment, after Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah enacted Sharia law last week in his Southeast Asian country.
In the Arabic-speaking world, Sharia, also known as Islāmī qānūn, means the moral code and religious law of a prophetic religion. Sharia deals with many of the same topics addressed by secular law, including politics, crime and economics, as well as with personal matters such as sexual intercourse, hygiene, diet, prayer, general etiquette and fasting. Punishments include amputation, flogging and stoning.
In a statement, MPTF’s top executives expressed their “deep concern about the recent enactment of laws in Brunei that call for violent punishment, including amputation and death by stoning, against those engaging in same-sex activity and extramarital sexual relations and those committing adultery. We expressed very clearly that we cannot condone or tolerate these harsh and repressive laws and as a result support a business owned by the Sultan of Brunei or a Brunei sovereign fund associated with the government of Brunei.”
The Night Before party, initially conceived by DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, has been held at the Beverly Hills Hotel since 2003, and has raised more than $60 million over the past 12 years. Its 2014 host committee included Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck, Camila and Matthew McConaughey, Jamie Foxx, Sandra Bullock and Octavia Spencer.
On Tuesday, the Beverly Hills City Council is scheduled to consider a resolution regarding the landmark. Beverly Hills Mayor Lili Bosse commented that the boycott “is not in any way a statement against the Beverly Hills Hotel … which is a pillar of our community. It’s about the ownership and its lack of concern for justice and human rights.”
We want the [Beverly Hills] hotel under different ownership so it's long & rich history in B.H. won't be tarnished. — Beverly Hills mayor
Other Dorchester Collection properties including the Hotel Bel-Air have also been boycotted due to Bolkiah’s Sharia decree, and Virgin Records chief Richard Branson tweeted that neither his family nor Virgin employees would stay at Dorchester Collection hotels “until the Sultan abides by basic human rights.”
No @Virgin employee, nor our family, will stay at Dorchester Hotels until the Sultan abides by basic human rights http://t.co/k1hMHAS5ft
Ellen DeGeneres and Jay Leno are just two of the famous personalities that are boycotting the Beverly Hills Hotel – a Brunei-owned company.
On Monday, the Beverly Hills on Sunset Boulevard was bombarded with crowds of protesters calling for people to boycott the hotel. The protest was against Brunei leader, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, who announced last week that he is going to push through with the Sharia law that includes stoning to death and severing limbs of adulterers and gay citizens.
According to reports, the penalties also apply to Brunei-based citizens who are not Muslim.
As a result of the announcement, music executive and record producer Clive Davis moved out of the hotel over the weekend. Organizers of large-scale events that were supposed to take place at the hotel also pulled out. Other stars boycotting the hotel include Richard Branson, Stephen Fry, and Sharon Osbourne.
Lili Bosse, mayor of Beverly Hills, is urging the city to come up with a resolution that condemns Brunei’s new laws. The city will be voting on what measures to take on Tuesday.
Amidst all the protests, some are concerned about the employees who are working for the hotel and other properties of the Dorchester Collection. Christopher Cowdray, Chief Executive for the Dorchester Collection said that the act of boycotting will hurt employees of the chain.
A source said that with the lack of celebrities and other well-known personalities in the hotel, there is no need to take on the extra employees.
U.S. has been discreet about wanting to change the penal code of Brunei, but reports say that the country’s concerns have already been relayed in private to the government of Brunei.
Sultan Bolkiah’s new law has made Brunei the first country to set the Sharia Law nationally in East and Southeast Asia. Several human rights organizations, and the United Nations office have shown their disapproval of the law.
Hassanal Bolkiah, 67, The Sultan of Brunei, plans to begin enforcing Sharia law for Muslims and non-Muslims on Thursday, despite concerns from human rights campaigners and international watchdog groups. In the Arabic-speaking world, Sharia, also known as Islāmī qānūn, means the moral code and religious law of a prophetic religion.
Sharia deals with many of the same topics addressed by secular law, including politics, crime and economics, as well as with personal matters such as sexual intercourse, hygiene, diet, prayer, general etiquette and fasting. Punishments include amputation, beheading, flogging, stoning, blinding, severing of the spinal cord, burying alive, hanging, burning alive and crucifixion.
Bolkiah warned that anyone who took to social media to protest his mandate might be prosecuted. “It is because of our need that Allah the Almighty, in all his generosity, has created laws for us, so that we can utilize them to obtain justice,” the Sultan commented. It would seem a Tweet might warrant some medium-strength flogging in Brunei under the impending the new laws.
During a speech yesterday, Bolkiah explained how he would introduce Sharia in three phases – “Today I place my faith in, and am grateful to Allah the almighty, to announce that tomorrow, Thursday, May 1, 2014, will see the enforcement of sharia law phase one, to be followed by the other phases.” The phases are likely to begin with fines and jail sentences, and could graduate to crucifixion.
Sharia law comes to Brunei. Christians want to help homosexuals, Muslims want them dead. http://t.co/QKjg92dzKA
Bolkiah, said to be worth roughly $20 billion, is likely going to see a problem with his ties to the U.K. The Sultan presently pays for a garrison of 1,000 British soldiers known as the Royal Gurkha Rifles, who are stationed in the Southeast Asian country. Great Britain’s Ministry of Defense had asked authorities in Brunei to clarify whether the new laws would have any impact on the their troops. The outcome of that communication has yet to be made public.
Commenting on the Sultan’s new edict, Anicée Van Engeland, a lecturer in law at SOAS, University of London stated, “When rulers do this, it is usually for domestic political reasons.” Bolkiah said he wished to reduce the “challenges” of globalization, mainly the use of the internet.
While Pussy Riot members Maria Alekhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova were attending the Women In The World Summit at the Lincoln Center in New York Friday, a Moscow court cleared the two of their inciting religious hatred charges stemming from one of their live rock shows.
Alekhina and Tolokonnikova were found guilty of hooliganism with religious undertones of hatred after a live set at Moscow’s main cathedral in March, 2012, and were sentenced to two years in prison. A third member, Yekaterina Samutsevich, was released on a suspended sentence just months after the hooliganism conviction.
Here’s a clip of the antics that garnered Pussy Riot their charges of hooliganism, after engaging in their “punk prayer”:
Tolokonnikova and Alekhina were freed from prison due to an amnesty legislation which some watchdog groups viewed as a Kremlin public relations stunt in time for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. Russian lawmakers had said that the new bill, which the State Duma voted 446-0 in favor of, would likely free roughly 2,000 prisoners. The new laws applied to those who were non-violent offenders, and were catered mostly toward first-time offenders, minors and women with small children. Both Tolokonnikova and Alekhina have young kids, and were both set free in December of last year. Though, the hooliganism charges still stand, which carry a sentence of up to seven years.
The Russian courts then symbolically knocked off one month of each of Tolokonnikova and Alekhina’s sentences, as they are both technically free women. During an appearance on NBC’s Today Show Friday morning, Matt Lauer asked the activists if they thought the newly single Vladimir Putin had ordered their release to display his “softer side” to the world in time for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games.
Tolokonnikova replied, “When we got released, we didn’t have any illusions at all that Putin’s regime became more liberal.”
Pussy Riot ran into former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the Lincoln Center, and the probable 2016 Democratic Presidential candidate described the duo as being “strong and brave young women, who refused to let their voices be silenced.”
As the support for the gay community is continually rising in the United States, things just seem to get worse for the people of Uganda. The president has been criticized for his anti-gay actions in the past, and continues to make it worse for gay people in his country.
Despite the fact that there had been protests from multiple human rights groups, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed an anti-gay bill today, which has severe penalties for gay people in the country of Uganda. The controversial bill was signed this morning, and has been popular in his country, despite hearing protests from other countries.
As the president of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni has continually made it difficult to be a gay person, and leaders from various countries around the world protested the bill that was put into action today. He was pressured by countries in the west, but wanted to assert independence in the middle of western pressure, and signed the bill anyway.
The president had a number of outside forces trying to influence him, including President Barack Obama, but this did not seem to phase him at all, and he wanted to stay completely independent without letting other leaders have an influence on him. Other notable leaders such as retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu also attempted to urge him to not sign the controversial bill, instead wanting him to “strengthen Uganda’s culture of human rights and justice.”
In a statement that Yoweri Museveni made on Friday, he said “We do not want anybody to impose their views on us. This very debate was provoked by Western groups who come to our schools and try to recruit children into homosexuality. It is better to limit the damage rather than exacerbate it.”
It may be hard to believe, but the bill used to be even worse than what it was when he signed it this morning. After once proposing the death penalty for some homosexual acts, Museveni has set the maximum penalty as life imprisonment, and a 14-year jail sentence for first time homosexual offenders. The life imprisonment is for “aggravated homosexuality.” According to Amnesty International, this can refer to acts in which one person is infected with HIV, “serial offenders,” and sex with minors.
Before Yoweri Museveni signed the bill this morning, lawmakers passed the bill in December. Homosexuality is already illegal in Uganda, and the new bill, which was originally introduced in 2009, has gone back and forth for years, as outside forces have continually condemned it.
Uganda President Yoweri Museveni obviously thinks he has something to prove, the beautiful people of Uganda are being sacrificed. Very sad.
North Korea has had some light shed on the country’s methods of operation and extreme human rights violations with the release of the report from the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights on Monday.
Horrific testimony from those who were captured and imprisoned, for reasons as shady as having a suspicious family member or trying to find food for their families, have been painstakingly extracted from those who have survived the hell of North Korean Prison Camps.
These stories, which are painful to hear and excruciating to tell, have been gathered over the last eleven months in an ongoing investigation into human rights violations by leaders of North Korea’s troubled regime, according to CNN.
Some of the tales from survivors are of the kind that once heard, will never be forgotten. They are the kind that inspire shock and disbelief and admittedly paint a picture of a brutal and heartless government “that does not have any parallel in the contemporary world.”
The story of a malnourished pregnant woman who, against all odds, gave birth in a filthy camp was especially disturbing. A guard was alerted to the baby’s arrival by its cries, for which the young mother was brutally beaten. As he beat her, she begged to keep her new baby. When she was on the verge of unconsciousness, he forced her to pick up her baby and hold it face down in water until the cries stopped forever.
In August, North Korea condemned the hearings as a “charade” to “hear testimonies from human scum” and in another response, North Korea said in a letter that it “totally and categorically rejects the Commission of Inquiry”.
As determined as North Korea may be to write off accusations and investigations, the testimonies of North Korea’s survivors are damning enough to erase any doubt there may have been that human rights in that country have been exceedingly and inarguably violated.
The commission also told China that it might be “aiding and abetting crimes against humanity” by sending defectors back to North Korea to face unspeakable torture and almost certain death.
“These are not the occasional wrongs that can be done by officials everywhere in the world, they are wrongs against humanity, they are wrongs that shock the consciousness of humanity,” Michael Kirby, a former chief justice of Australia and chairman of the U.N. Commission of Inquiry, told waiting journalists.
The stories are unmistakably inhumane and invoke images of Nazi concentration camps. Take this testimony from a young woman, for example.
“We finished our work and we were about to pick up this grass or the plant that we knew we could eat,” former prisoner Jee Heon A told the commission of her friend, Kim Young Hee. “And then the guards saw us, and he came running and he stepped on our hands and then he brought us to this place and he told us to kneel.”
The guard forced the two girls to eat grass, roots, and soil. Kim Young Hee became extremely ill with diarrhea after eating the soil, and soon died, leaving Jee Heon A feeling alone and helpless.
“There was nothing I could do,” Jee said. “I could not give her any medicine. And when she died, she couldn’t even close her eyes. She died with her eyes open. I cried my heart out.”
She then told of the mass burial of her friend, Kim, with about 20 other bodies, a fairly common occurrence.
“We covered the hole with clumped and frozen earth, but after a week when we went to the tomb, it was gone, the bodies were not there. We felt strange when we were going up that hill. We later found out that the old man who was guarding the place had his dogs eat the bodies. He raised five dogs and the dogs were eating the heads and the body parts of dead bodies.”
These are just a partial example of the unimaginable conditions for prisoners in North Korea.
Supreme leader Kim Jong-un and his security chiefs could possibly face international justice for the systematic Nazi-style torture and killing of the citizens of North Korea, according to Reuters.
Michael Kirby said he expected the group’s findings to “galvanize action on the part of the international community”. If it doesn’t, we should be eternally ashamed of ourselves.
The 202 travelers of Flight 702 likely asked themselves this once they were safe and sound on Swiss ground. Even the pilot of the Ethiopian airliner didn’t realize the plane he was flying from Addis Ababa to Rome had been hijacked until he emerged from the lavatory. During his bathroom break, his co-pilot barricaded himself in the cockpit and began jetting toward Geneva – with the aim of obtaining political asylum.
Hovering over Geneva’s airspace, the co-pilot reportedly requested, “And you have to give us lastly permission on board for asylum.”
The tower replied, “Yes I know,” and added, “Sorry, but we are still waiting for the response. We are trying our best to get you the response, sir.”
Then, in a turn of events described only as the plane being “forced to proceed” to the airport, he abandoned his plan, landed at the Geneva International Airport and told the control tower, “I will be coming out via the window.”
As promised, the skyjacker deplaned by way of a rope and gave himself up.
“His act has been motivated by the fact that he feels threatened in his county and wants to make an asylum claim in Switzerland,” said Swiss police spokesman Philippe Grangean.
It’s easy to chock up an event like this as evil villainy from the safety of a free country. And that’s totally understandable, given the limited facts often reported with missing context. However, it’s worth considering what desperate measures we’d all take to escape a country that denied us basic human rights.
Several similar incidents transpired in the 90’s, also motivated by hijackers trying to flee Ethiopia. According to a 2013 report by Human Rights Watch, conditions there have only declined. The findings indicated that, “Ethiopian authorities continued to severely restrict basic rights of freedom of expression, association, and assembly in 2012.”
NEW AUDIO: Ethiopian Air 702 pilot says he's leaving plane through the aircraft's window – https://t.co/njNGRLbGOc
Former Reuters social media editor Matthew Keys, uploaded audio of the story and said, “From the audio that I heard… it appeared that he was pretty calm throughout the entire flight.”
Keys went on to add, “He spoke in very clear and very calm English. And the air traffic reporter really did a great job, from the recordings, keeping the situation under control.”
For those couples that are of the same sex, it appears as if things are only going to get better for your partnerships and lives. Not only are more states opening their doors to acceptance of same-sex marriage, now the Federal Government is extending privileges to those who were married in the eyes of the law, but barely acknowledged.
The Justice Department will instruct all of its employees all across the country this coming Monday, in a groundbreaking event, to extend legal equality to same-sex married partners, giving them protection under the same laws as non-same-sex married partners in every program it administers, from courthouse proceedings to prison visits to the compensation of surviving spouses of public safety officers.
Disclosed in this new policy, the department will spell out the rights of same-sex couples, which includes the right to decline to testify against a spouse, even in states that do not recognize their marriage.
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. prepared documents that would eliminate the legal distinction of same-sex and opposite-sex married couples, according to a prominent gay rights group.
“In every courthouse, in every proceeding and in every place where a member of the Department of Justice stands on behalf of the United States, they will strive to ensure that same-sex marriages receive the same privileges, protections and rights as opposite-sex marriages,” Mr. Holder’s prepared remarks said, according to the excerpts circulated by the Justice Department.
These changes were imminent after the Supreme Court, last year, declared that it was unconstitutional to refuse federal benefits to same-sex married couples, which Mr. Holder strongly supported.
The Obama administration has rewritten the federal rules for same-sex couples to allow them to file taxes as married couples, to receive Medicare and other benefits usually reserved for opposite-sex married couples. Mr. Holder has been behind these efforts and a face in the public, supporting gay rights.
“These issues are very much at the center of this administration’s civil rights legacy,” said Ian S. Thompson, who works on gay and lesbian issues for the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington.
And in a statement by Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin, who couldn’t be more pleased:
“This landmark announcement will change the lives of countless committed gay and lesbian couples for the better. While the immediate effect of these policy decisions is that all married gay couples will be treated equally under the law, the long-term effects are more profound. Today, our nation moves closer toward its ideals of equality and fairness for all.”
This new policy comes just three years after the Justice Department said it would not defend cases involving the Defense of Marriage Act any longer, with the Supreme Court ruling, things have certainly changed.
Two incarcerated members of the Russian protest-punk band ‘Pussy Riot’ were released from a Russian prison Monday, due to a new amnesty legislation which some watchdog groups view as a Kremlin public relations stunt in time for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
Pussy Riot members Maria Alekhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova were found guilty of hooliganism with religious undertones of hatred after a live set at Moscow’s main cathedral in March 2012, and were sentenced to two years in prison. A third member, Yekaterina Samutsevich, was released on a suspended sentence just months after the hooliganism conviction.
Russian lawmakers have said the new bill, which the State Duma voted 446-0 in favor of, will likely free roughly 2,000 prisoners. The new laws apply to those who are non-violent offenders, and are catered mostly toward first-time offenders, minors and women with small children. Both Tolokonnikova and Alekhina have young kids.
Here’s a clip of the antics that garnered Pussy Riot their charges of hooliganism, after engaging in their “punk prayer”:
Alekhina, 25, was released from a prison outside the Volga river city of Nizhny Novgorod, and commented, “If I had a chance to turn it down (the amnesty), I would have done it, no doubt about that,” adding, “This is not an amnesty. This is a hoax and a PR move.”
Tolokonnikova, 24, exited a prison in the eastern Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk earlier today, and commented, “How do you like our Siberian weather here?” The singer also said that she and Alekhina will form a human rights group to assist Russian prisoners, stating, “I saw this small totalitarian machine from the inside. Russia functions the same way the prison colony does.”
Freedom is a cigarette and a phone call. "It's Nadia, you twit!" Nadezhda Tolokonnikova calls Masha Alyokhina. pic.twitter.com/LzGeiyrjP7
In related news, Russian President Vladimir Putin pardoned former billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky at the end of his annual press conference on Thursday. Khodorkovsky was formerly the chief of Yukos Oil, and one of the richest people in the world. He was convicted of fraud and tax evasion in 2003, and ended up serving 10 years. Some have speculated that Khodorkovsky’s pardon was another attempt by the Kremlin to clean up the Russian image in time for the Sochi Games.
As the Winter Olympics being held in Sochi in February draw near, Russia’s parliament passed a new amnesty bill on Wednesday, which is widely viewed as being a measure to calm international watchdog groups over the Kremlin’s human rights records.
The bill would likely free the two imprisoned members of the Pussy Riot punk band, as well as a 30-member crew of a Greenpeace ship, who were taken into custody after an Arctic protest.
Russian lawmakers have said the new bill, which the State Duma voted 446-0 in favor of, will likely free roughly 2,000 prisoners. The new laws apply to those who are non-violent offenders, and are catered mostly toward first-time offenders, minors and women with small children. Jailed Pussy Riot members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alekhina both have small children, though no names were actually listed on the new bill.
Here’s a clip of the antics that garnered Pussy Riot their charges of hooliganism, after engaging in their “punk prayer”:
Tolokonnikova and Alekhina are both serving two-year sentences for their hooliganism charges, after “upping teh punx” at Moscow’s main cathedral.
All sorts of punks just won’t leave Vladimir Putin alone:
Regarding the potential release of the crew of a Greenpeace boat that was arrested, Greenpeace spokesman Aaron Gray-Block commented, “The Arctic 30 now hope they can spend Christmas at home. But it is too early to say.” The bill is expected to go into effect today, as soon as it hits the Russian media, though it may take six months for any prisoners who might benefit from it to be freed.
The Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise was boarded and seized by Russian security agents in international waters on September 19, and was subsequently towed to the port of Murmansk.
The Arctic Sunrise’s captain, Peter Willcox, said in a statement, “I might soon be going home to my family, but I should never have been charged and jailed in the first place.”
Usually you lose your rights and sometimes your mind when you become a prisoner. And, for one woman in a private prison who had a miscarriage, it allegedly meant to be told to clean up after herself; the fetus lay dead on the prison cell floor.
Nadine Wright, 37, had a nurse present with her when she miscarried on November 24; but, according to TheIndependent, she was left alone with the visceral mess in her prison cell.
“The baby was not removed from the cell,” Nadine’s lawyer Philip Gibbs told Leicester Crown Court, United Kingdom.
“There was blood everywhere and she was made to clean it up.”
The private prison failed to address the serious matter, so the governor had to step in.
“The baby was not removed from the cell. It was quite appalling. It was very traumatic. She only received health care three days later, after the governor intervened.”
Wright had been arrested for stealing £13.94 ($24.17) worth of food from the Village Store – a crime she committed after not receiving welfare benefits, despite being under the program for 11 months; she was hungry. (image)
Wright appeared for sentencing for breach of two court orders that were in place due to previous offenses of shoplifting and absence of attending. She pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 months in jail.
Though there have been no reports concerning how far along she was in the pregnancy, Wright miscarried no more than 24 hours after she arrived in HMP Peterborough.
The court heard Wright, who has been addicted to heroin since her teens and suffers from mental diseases; she was said to be deeply traumatized by the incident, reported DailyMail. Wright not only had a “chaotic lifestyle” but her mother died in September, whose loss was difficult to cope with.
Paul Trotter, for the probation service, said that Wright had failed to co-operate and did not attend appointments.
A representative of Her Majesty’s Prison (HMP) Peterborough told a UK news agency that, “a prisoner received medical treatment on the day of her arrival in prison and was seen by a GP the following day.”
“We have a duty of care to all prisoners that we hold. As part of that, we ensure that all prisoners have access to the same level of NHS services as those in the community.”
Gibbs said an investigation into Wright’s alleged mistreatment was underway.
Greg Louganis is opposed to a boycott of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics.
Instead of boycotting the Olympics, Louganis urged athletes to dedicate their performances to the gay family and friends who have supported them.
“If you have a supportive aunt, uncle, cousin, friend who is gay, you don’t win a gold medal by yourself. There is a team of people behind you. And to recognize those people is a way athletes can show their support of the LGBT community and what’s going on in Russia,” Louganis said following his participation in a Capitol Hill briefing on Friday.
During the briefing of the House LGBT Equality Caucus hosted by U.S. Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) and Human Rights First, Louganis reiterated his opposition to a boycott.
As a member of the 1980 US Olympic team that boycotted the Moscow Games, Louganis can claim first-hand experience to inform his position.
It’s still not clear how the law could effect athletes and spectators at the Games next February.
“I know that there are questions – can you wear a rainbow flag, a . . . pin in support of non-discrimination,” Louganis said at the briefing on Friday.
Louganis has sparked outrage from some in the LGBT community. He admitted to receiving hate mail for refusing to support a boycott: “I was told, ‘How can I call myself a gay man?’”
Louganis reached out to one of his critics and said the two have since became friends.
“I commended the guy who was critical of me. All I’m trying to do is incite action. That’s all he’s trying to do. We’re all on the same side. If you say boycott, that’s how you address the issue. I am saying no boycott, but maybe there is another way.”
Although he boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics, Louganis had the opportunity to compete in the 1984 Los Angeles Games and the 1988 Seoul Games, winning gold medals at both.
But Louganis realizes he may have been an exception. In an opinion piece on PolicyMic, he wrote “other athletes were not so lucky. Some of those who missed the 1980 games never had another chance to shine. This boycott hurt the wrong people, taking a toll on prominent athletes more than the country it targeted.”
President Obama has denounced the new Russian law. On Friday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said “I think we’ve been very clear in our views about both the laws in place and the issues surrounding LGBT rights and our expectations of Russia when it comes to conducting the Olympics.”
The White House hasn’t announced whom it will send to represent the US at the Sochi Games ceremonies. Organizations such as Human Rights First have urged the White House to send prominent LGBT people as well as allies of the LGBT community and those who advocate on its behalf.
Louganis said he recently heard he may be asked to be a part of the delegation, but hasn’t been officially invited yet. “If it would be helpful, I would be there in a heartbeat.”
Image via YouTube
Imagine working at a convenient store and being arrested for trespassing. Imagine for four years, you’re stopped 258 times by the police. Imagine being searched more than 100 times. Imagine being arrested and put in jail 56 times, with your highest criminal offense being possession of marijuana.
This is all happening in Miami Gardens, Florida to a man named Earl Sampson, 28, who has been arrested 62 times for trespassing, during working hours, at his place of employment, according to USA Today.
Almost all the citations that Sampson has received have been issued at 207 Quickstop, a convenience store located at 207th street in Miami Gardens; the place he works at. Simply by showing up to work, Sampson gets cited – even when his boss tells police that he’s allowed to be there and isn’t trespassing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcGKX2IajLw
Alex Saleh, 36, owner of 207 Quickstop, which has been in business for 17 years, has been curious as to why his employees and customers have been constantly pestered by Miami Gardens police. Saleh told the Heraldthat he’s seen stops occur three times in the same day. It is because of this constant harassment by police that Saleh installed 15 video cameras in his store on June 2012; he’s never been robbed.
“Police line them up and tell them to put their hands against the wall. I started asking myself ‘Is this normal?’ I just kept thinking police can’t do this,’’ Saleh said.
“There is just no justifying this kind of behavior,” police policy consultant Chuck Drago told the Herald. “Nobody can justify overstepping the constitution to fight crime.”
“The real problem here is the police department does not have a relationship with its community – black or white. When they make these kinds of stops for minor offenses, it only re-enforced the mistrust.”
Five videos that Saleh captured show the cops stopping people, questioning them, searching them, and arresting them for trespassing in 207 Quickshop.
Despite phone messages and emails, questions regarding the behavior of the police were met with silence by both the Miami Gardens Police Chief Matthew Boyd, and City Manager Cameron Benson.
Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union Florida, asked, “Where is the police chief in all this? In a police department in a city this size, this kind of behavior could not escape his attention. Doesn’t the City Commission know that they are exposing the city to either massive liability for civil rights violations? Either that, or they are going to wake up one day and find the U.S. Department of Justice has taken over its police department.’’
According to the Herald, a pending lawsuit is at hand; Saleh and his lawyer, Steve Lopez, are preparing for a federal civil rights lawsuit that claims the Miami Gardens Police have engaged routinely in racial profiling, cover ups of illegal misconducts, and unconstitutional stops and searches.
On November 4th, the Herald reported that Miami Gardens had 3 shooting deaths in less than 24 hours; the town has been facing troubles with gang violence and drug related crimes. The murder rates have more than doubled in recent years. It is fear that blinds men.
