The United Nations human rights chief voiced concern today over reported ‘cyber war’ pressure on private companies to sever links with the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks, saying this could amount to attempted censorship in breach of international covenants. “If WikiLeaks has committed any recognizable illegal act, then this should be handled through the legal system, and not through pressure and intimidation, including on third parties,” UN High Commissioner for human rights Navi...
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human rights Watch Report: BSF killing with impunity on Bangladesh borders
Indian Border Security Force (BSF) personnel routinely gun down cattle smugglers and other civilians crossing the border with Bangladesh despite negligible evidence of any crime, says human rights Watch (HRW) from America.The New York-based rights group disclosed this in its 81-page report titled `Trigger Happy: Excessive Use of Force by Indian Troops at the Bangladesh Border” released on the eve of human rights Day (December 10).“The BSF - responsible for...
More »Legal rights awareness camps for Dalits
In a bid to re-target and empower the Dalit population — especially in States like Uttar Pradesh, which is bound for Assembly elections in 2012 — the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, under its new chairman P.L. Punia, has decided to organise camps to apprise Dalits of their legal rights.According to the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, these awareness camps will be held in all divisions and mandals of...
More »Don't shoot messenger for revealing uncomfortable truths by Julian Assange
WIKILEAKS deserves protection, not threats and attacks. IN 1958 a young Rupert Murdoch, then owner and editor of Adelaide's The News, wrote: "In the race between secrecy and truth, it seems inevitable that truth will always win." His observation perhaps reflected his father Keith Murdoch's expose that Australian troops were being needlessly sacrificed by incompetent British commanders on the shores of Gallipoli. The British tried to shut him up but Keith Murdoch...
More »In Cancun, protest breaks out against REDD by Meena Menon
Members of La Via Campesina and other groups condemn market-based solutionsHector Rodriguez, who runs an alternative radio station in Cancun called Reptil, decided on a novel way to protest the commercialisation of forestry.As hundreds of people marched to the venue of the United Nations Climate Change Conference on Tuesday, Mr. Rodriguez walked up to the posse of Mexican policemen with riot shields and launched into an impassioned plea to help...
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