United Nations Human Rights Council

A Human-Rights Lens on the Affordable Care Act

Risa E. Kaufman | Posted 05.28.2012

Read More: Supreme Court, Affordable Care Act, Human Rights, United Nations Human Rights Council, Health Care Debate, Barack Obama, Centers for Disease Control, Health Care Inequality, Inequality in America, Aca, Minority Health Care Inequality, Racial Inequality, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Politics News

By extending health care coverage to new, under-served groups, the ACA squarely responds to concerns repeatedly raised by international human rights bodies and experts about racial disparities in U.S. health care policy.

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Voter ID Insanity at DOJ Going to the United Nations

Ken Blackwell | Posted 05.13.2012

Read More: Voter ID Laws, Department of Justice, Voter ID, Voting Rights Act, Voters, Eric Holder, Voting, United Nations Human Rights Council, Eric Holder Attorney General, Voter Identification, UN Human Rights Council, Naacp, Politics News

The right to vote includes the right not to have your vote diluted by fraudulent votes. And as citizens, each of us has a duty to comply with reasonable measures to ensure that our elections are free and fair.

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Bradley Manning, Solitary Confinement and Occupy 4 Prisoners

Bill Quigley | Posted 04.24.2012

Read More: Aclu, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Amnesty International, Pelican Bay Hunger Strike, Daniel Ellsberg, Solitary Confinement, Sarah Shourd, Human Rights, Atul Gawande, New Yorker, Center for Constitutional Rights, United Nations Human Rights Council, Human Rights Watch, Occupy Wall Street, Quantico Marine Base, San Quentin, Torture, Bradley Manning, Crime News

One of the major complaints of prisoner human rights activists is the abuse of solitary confinement in prisons across the U.S.

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Dignifying Health: Why Not Quite Everything Is Relative

David Katz, M.D. | Posted 02.19.2012

Read More: Human Rights, Universal Human Rights, Human Rights News, Women's Rights, United Nations Human Rights Council, Declaration of Human Rights, Human Rights Rape, Human Rights UN, United Nations Human Rights, World News

One might allow that rules and norms vary by culture. But we have no need to blaze new trails here. The United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights establishes, based on the consensus of humanity, that dignity is a human right. Cultural relativism has gone a step too far when it steps on dignity.

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UN Committee Condemns Syrian Crackdown

AP | EDITH M. LEDERER | Posted 01.22.2012

Read More: Syria Protests Crackdown, Un-Syria, Syria Crackdown, Un Condemns Syria, United Nations Human Rights Council, United Nations, UN General Assembly, Syria Protests, Syria, Bashar Al-Assad, World News

UNITED NATIONS — A key U.N. committee voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to condemn human rights violations by President Bashar Assad's government and...

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Gay People Affirmed To Be Human By United Nations

Rev. Dr. Cindi Love | Posted 09.09.2011

Read More: Uganda, Religion, Homosexuality, Gay Rights, Human Rights, The Response, United Nations Human Rights Council, The Call, Homosexual, Lou Engle, United Nations, Rick Perry, Gay, Newt Gingrich, Dominionism, Religion News

I have never been more proud to be an American and a global citizen of the United Nations than on the day the United States and the majority of nation-members of the U.N. issued this declaration.

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U.N. Suspends Libya From Human Rights Council

AP/The Huffington Post | By ANITA SNOW | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: The Hague, Human Rights Council, United Nations, Gaddafi, No-Fly-Zone, Libya, Muammar Gaddafi, United Nations Human Rights Council, Geneva, Human Rights Watch, Un-Secretary-General-Ban-Ki-Moon, Ban Ki-Moon, UN Human Rights Council, US-Secretary-of-State-Hillary-Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Un, Libya Protests, Joseph-Deiss, World News

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The U.N. General Assembly suspended Libya from its top human rights body as governments worldwide pressured Muammar Gaddafi to ...

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Who Is Afraid of Talking about Iran's Human Rights Crisis?

Hadi Ghaemi | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Nuclear Non Proliferation, Iran-US Relations, Human Rights, United Nations Human Rights Council, Iran Human Rights, United Nations, World News

The Iranian government is vulnerable to international criticism regarding human rights and can be pushed to reduce repression on its citizens, but its game of creating conflict, division and confusion has largely succeeded.

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The "Objective" UN Human Rights Council

Kyle Shamberg | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Israel, Human Rights, Gaza, China, United Nations Human Rights Council, Saudi Arabia, Darfur, Objectivity, United Nations High Commissioner, United Nations, Gaza Flotilla, World News

Until the UN Human Rights Council stops turning a blind eye to the myriad abuses occurring elsewhere, focusing nearly all of its resources on attacking one nation, it will continue to be impossible to take seriously.

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A Long Time Coming: The Human Right to Water

Peter H. Gleick | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Human Right to Water, Human Rights, United Nations Human Rights Council, Freshwater Scarcity, Water, United Nations, Green News

There is a formal international human right to life, to human health, to an adequate standard of living, to adequate food, and more. But until a few weeks ago, there was no formal human right to water. This was a long time coming.

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A "Progressive Hero?" Time to Think Outside of the Boxer

Stephen Zunes | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Lebanon, California, Barbara Boxer, MoveOn.Org, United Nations Human Rights Council, Demoracy for America, 2010 Elections, Goldstone Report, Richard Goldstone, Gaza Flotilla, Israel, International Court of Justice, Elections 2010, Politics News

Democracy for America doesn't seem to have a problem with backing those who support the self-destructive policies of Netanyahu, though they would refuse to support those who backed the same kinds of policies under Bush.

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Clean Water -- A Basic Human Right

John DeCock | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Matamoros-Mexico, Maqiladoras, Human Rights, United Nations Human Rights Council, Shell Nigeria, Water Pollution, Water, Accwa, United Nations, Tsca, Pollution, Shell Oil, Green News

In a society driven by profits and politics, clean, safe water is the result of a sustained, vigilant effort. But how do our actions in the United States impact the rest of the world's water?

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Indigenous Guatemalans Tell United Nations: No to Mining, Yes to Life

Tracy L. Barnett | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Guatemala, Mayans, Indigenous Rights, United Nations Human Rights Council, Mining, Green News

They came by the thousands to witness a day that would mark history for their people: a visit from James Anaya, the world's highest-ranking indigenous advocate, U.N. Special Rapporteur for Indigenous Rights.

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UN Torture Investigator, Manfred Nowak, Barred From Cuban Prisons

Yoani Sanchez | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Canaleta Prison, Manfred Nowak, Cuban Political Prisoners, Combinado Del Este Prison, United Nations Human Rights Council, Aguica Prison, Cuba, UN Special Investigator on Torture, World News

Our rulers in their olive-green have not allowed this specialized inspection agency to examine the prisons, because they feel that our system of incarceration "does not need an endorsement."

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Congress, Accountability, and the Goldstone Report

Salena Tramel | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Congress, Human Rights, United Nations Human Rights Council, Gaza, Middle East Peace Process, Breaking Politics News, Hamas, Israel, World News, The Goldstone Report, World News

Congress--and all Americans for that matter--should welcome each and every investigation of human rights violations, wherever and by whomever they may have been committed.

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Gaza War Crimes Trial Reopens

AP | FRANK JORDANS | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Gaza Israel, United Nations Human Rights Council, Gaza, Gaza War, United Nations, Israel Gaza Airstrikes, Israel-Gaza-War-Crimes, Gaza War Crimes, Gaza-War-Crimes, World News

GENEVA — The U.N. Human Rights Council will reopen the debate about alleged war crimes in Gaza later this week after Palestinians succeeded in g...

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When Abortion Is "Gendercide"

Madeline Wheeler | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Abortion, Women's Rights, Gender Ratios, Sex Selective Abortion, United Nations Human Rights Council, Petals in the Dust, Sex-Selection, Oklahoma Abortion Laws, India, Dr. Sabu George, Nyna Caputi, Infanticide, The Christian Science Monitor, H.B. 1595, International Violence Against Women Act, World News

Without enough women, some Indian girls from poor areas are being sold as wives to higher caste men. Often these girls service more than one male and are kept essentially as sex slaves.

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Glaring Omissions in Goldstone Report

State Rep. Julie Hamos | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Palestine, Susan Rice, United Nations Human Rights Council, Goldstone Report, Illinois General Assembly, Israel Defense Forces, Iran, Israel Gaza Operation, Iran Nuclear Weapons, Chicago News

Where is the repudiation of Hamas' refusal to recognize the State of Israel? How can Israel negotiate for a two-state solution when one Palestinian partner is bent on its destruction?

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The United Nations Kangaroo "Investigation" of Israeli "War Crimes"

Alan Dershowitz | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Israel Gaza Airstrikes, Palestinian Territories, United Nations Human Rights Council, Israel Hamas, Israel-Palestinian Conflict, World News

Richard Goldstone knows that unless his report condemns Israel, at least as forcefully as it condemns Hamas, it will never be accepted by the UN Human Rights Council.

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US War Crime Probes Inadequate: UN Expert

AP | FRANK JORDANS | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: War Crimes, US War Crimes, US War Crime Probes, Lewis Welshofer, Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer, Philip Alston, United Nations, United Nations Human Rights Council, UN Human Rights Council, World News

GENEVA — An independent U.N. human rights investigator said Thursday that the United States is failing to properly investigate alleged war crime...

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US Seeking Seat On UN Human Rights Council, Reversing Bush Precedent

AP | MATTHEW LEE | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: United Nations, Foreign Affairs, Advocacy, Un Human Rigths Council, United Nations Human Rights Council, Human Rights, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Obama White House, Bush White House, Universal Declaration on Human Rights, Israel, Politics News

WASHINGTON — The United States will seek election to the U.N. Human Rights Council this year, the State Department said Tuesday, announcing the ...

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North Korean Human Rights Situation "Dire", "Grim", And "Desperate": UN

Huffington Post | Stuart Whatley | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: North Korea Torture, North Korea Malnutrition, North Korea Human Rights, Human Rights, United Nations Human Rights Council, North Korea South Korea, United Nations, Vitit Muntarbhorn, Kim Jong Il, North Korea Starvation, North Korea, Kim Jong-Il, Kim Jong Il Human Rights Abuse, World News

UN special rapporteur on North Korean human rights, Vitit Muntarbhorn, reported to the 10th Session of the UN Human Rights Council today with what is ...

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