Category Archives: Human Rights

Rights Groups: Stop Deportations of Haitians from U.S.

Interview of Drew Aiken, Defend Haiti | stophaitideportations.org | Press TV, YouTube. The U.S. has resumed the deportation of about 50 Haitians per month to Haiti since January 2011. Some of the deportees get detained in Haiti, including 34 year-old Wildrick Guerrier who died in prison of cholera. Many deportees have medical conditions for which they cannot get care or have U.S.-citizen children in the States whom they cannot support. Human Rights groups are calling for a consideration of humanitarian factors and a stop to the deportations.

UN Soldiers Accused of Rape By Haitian Youth in Uruguayan Court

By staff, AHP | Translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery | AlJazeera, YouTube. Nineteen year-old Johnny Jean from Port-Salut was heard on Thursday May 10 by Uruguayan Judge Guido Alejandro. Jean identified in court the soldiers he accuses of having raped him in a Port Salut base of the U.N. Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH). (English | French)

Venezuelan Labor Law a Landmark That Promotes Dignified Existence, National Sovereignty

venezuela_chavez

By Tamara Pearson and Staff, Venezuelanalysis. Venezuela passed a spectacularly progressive labor law on April 30th that is consistent with work’s main objectives being: “to overcome forms of capitalist exploitation, as well as… guarantee economic independence, satisfy human needs, through the just distribution of wealth, and create material, social, and spiritual conditions that allow for the family to be the fundamental space for the integral development of people.”

Trayvon Martin’s Mom: Call Your Governor On Mother’s Day

Trayvon Martin

By Sybrina Fulton, Justice for Trayvon and Global Grind, YouTube | Stephen C. Webster, Raw Story. For Mother’s Day, Sybrina Fulton asks the U.S. public to spare other mothers her grief by calling the governors of their states and urging them to reconsider laws like the one cited by the man who killed her son Trayvon Martin. Includes link to drop down scorecard with status of each state on “Stand Your Ground” law.

Fearless Bahraini Family Speaks Out About Those Inside

Zainab al-Khawaja

By Staff, Witness Bahrain | Introduction by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. On February 9, 2012, after being sentenced to life imprisonment for peacefully calling for reforms, Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja launched a hunger strike and vowed he would persevere until freedom or death. Others from his family who have been imprisoned include his son-in-law Wafi Kamel Al-Majed, who was also arrested during the Spring 2011 crackdown and held for 10 months, and daughter Zainab al-Khawaja, arrested in April for demanding her father’s release. In these fearless interviews, Abdulhadi’s wife Khadija Al-Mousawi reports on her daughter’s arrest and her husband’s recent force feeding, and Wafi discusses his hopes for Bahrain.

Haitians Trafficked to Brazil to Work for Problematic French Utility GDF-Suez

Brazil_Haitians_b

By Mario Osava, IPS. A year ago, unrest was predicted to break out at Jirau because: growth in wages has not kept up with the demand for labor, the large concentration of workers at enormous construction sites is leading to worker solidarity in the fight for improved wages and conditions, and the dam is being built by a foreign utility (GDF Suez) that provides terrible working conditions and allows little personal time to the workers. (English | Spanish)

Record Numbers Deported, Thousands of Their Children Taken By Current U.S. Administration

immigrants_children

By Staff, Huffington Post. More than 5,100 children were living in foster care in January 2012 because their parents were detained or deported, according to a study released by the Applied Research Center, which advocates for immigration reform.

Mexico Mining Union Wins Battle to Pick Napoleon Gomez Urrutia as Its Leader

Napoleon Gomez Urrutia, May 28, 2008 Interview (I).

By Laurence Iliff, Dow Jones Newswires via 4-Traders | Tony Burke, Power in a Union | Editorial comment by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. The Mexican Supreme Court has decided that the National Union of Mine, Metal and Steelworkers (Los Mineros) is entitled to choose its own leader. This represents a huge victory for Mexican labor and resounding defeat for the right-wing employers who have persecuted Napoleon Gomez Urrutia since his 2008 election as General Secretary of Los Mineros.

International Network of Activists Fight Mining Giant Vale: ‘Worst Company in The World’

By Fabíola Ortiz, IPS. Brazilian mining giant Vale was named the “Worst Company in the World” by the Public Eye Awards in January 2012. A Report on Vale’s Unsustainability (PDF included) accuses the company of 15 worker deaths between 2010 and 2012, and of massive emissions of greenhouse gases and particulate matter into the atmosphere. The report was drafted by an International Network of People Affected by Vale, including 30 social movements from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile and Mozambique. (English | Spanish)

Barrick in the Dominican Republic

dr_peligro

By Staff, Protestbarrick. As the opening date approaches for the Dominican Republic’s Pueblo Viejo mine, controversy around this mega-mine has continued to grow. According to the president of Maimón’s municipal committee, the funds Barrick has transferred to the municipality are less than the costs of the damage it has caused. Community members complain that the workers in the mine are overwhelmingly foreigners. Recently Barrick was accused of blocking the performance of the protest song “De Pascua Lama” (video included) at a Dominican Festival.

Poor Little Rich Haiti to Be Fleeced of Copper-Silver-Gold Via Caracol Deep-Water Port (UPDATED)

Caracol_Turtle_c

By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Plans are under way for Canadian corporations to mine Haiti’s northeast area near Caracol, which has been discovered to contain a wealth of silver and gold, in addition to copper. As in the Dominican Republic’s Pueblo Viejo project, construction of the mines will involve dynamiting of mountains, and the ore will be extracted by an opencast (or open-pit) mining process that contaminates large volumes of water with cyanide. In addition a deep-water port is slated for construction in Caracol. UPDATES: May 7 (Le Matin) Martelly formally announces construction of a “modern port” in Fort Liberte, near Caracol.

Pentavalent Vaccines Promoted by WHO Despite Deaths of Healthy Children – Part II, Haiti

Money injection

By Emmanuel Bruno Marino, AlterPresse | All-India Drug Action Network | Translations by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Within two months of the start of a campaign of vaccination with pentavalent vaccine in India by the World Health Organization (WHO), four healthy inoculated children died. Nevertheless, on April 16, 2012 Haiti announced that it would introduce pentavalent vaccine into its national immunization program at a cost U.S. $11 million. According to Expanded Vaccination Program Director Dr. Ronald Jean Cadet, this program will make up for “a lack of sanitary control over foreigners who can travel with these viruses into the country.” (English | French)

Pentavalent Vaccines Promoted by WHO Despite Deaths of Healthy Children – Part I, Asia

Healthcare_corruption

All-India Drug Action Network open letter | Ranjit Devraj, IPS | Haiti Chery. Pentavalent vaccines were introduced in India last year by the World Health Organization (WHO). Despite the widespread concern over their safety, efficacy and cost, India’s central health ministry approved their inclusion in its universal immunisation programme for seven provinces. Eminent pediatrician Jacob Puliyel likened the unpredictable deaths in vaccinated children to the penicillin sensitivity reaction and said it borders on criminality to be administering pentavalents to children without first testing them for hypersensitivity.

From Haymarket to Occupy May 1, 2012: A Day Without the 99% (UPDATED)

Occupy_bat_signal

By Syed Hussan, Mary-Elizabeth Dill, and Abeer Majeed, Rabble | Occupy Oakland | Occupy Wall Street | YouTube | Haiti Chery. Occupy May Day in Oakland and New York will be joined by workers the world over. Get informed about the events. Read about the contributions of immigrants to the history of labor and the designation of May 1st as International Workers’ Day. UPDATES: April 30, Peter Seeger’s ” L’Internationale”; May 1, videos of oakland protesters marching early in the day and of later attack on a young woman by police.