Some people, at year’s end, like to spread holiday cheer. The world might do better, suggests a landmark new report from the United Nations University in Helsinki, to start spreading wealth.
Deeply Unequal World
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Human Rights
Laos: Power Trumps Reform
There is broad agreement today that a market economy works well within a Western democratic system, but there is much less consensus over whether it can function effectively in an authoritarian state. The contemporary political economy of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) provides an excellent case in point. The Lao experience since the Communist takeover in 1975 suggests real limits to a development model that combines single party rule with market economics.
Release Secret Documents Now
Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet’s death robbed his victims and their families of the chance to obtain full justice. But they can still pursue the full truth. And the U.S. government can help.
Postcard from Pyongtaek
Just three hours south of the De-Militarized Zone, the South Korean government is waging alarming levels of violence and repression against villagers in the city of Pyongtaek near the U.S. base Camp Humphrey. For over four years, residents have refused to hand over their homes and farmland to the U.S. military.
The Limits of Public Diplomacy
After a conspicuous absence in the years between the end of the Cold War and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, U.S. public diplomacy has endured in excess of five years’ worth of setbacks, complete with a noteworthy lack of a clear strategy, repeated changes in management, and ample amounts of domestic scrutiny along the way. The cause for so much alarm over public diplomacy at this time rests on the unequivocal notion that the image of the United States has been and remains under siege by an unsettling share of the rest of the world. This group includes friend and foe alike. Each troubling assessment by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, the German Marshall Fund, or Zogby International serves as a reminder that public diplomacy is not working.
Postcard from Sri Lanka
The mother of an abducted child in Sri Lanka holds a photo of her missing son. ©Fred Abrahams/Human Rights Watch 2006
Stopping Firestone: Getting Rubber to Meet the Road
Liberia is rich in natural resources and Africa’s largest producer of natural rubber. It is also one of the world’s poorest countries. Liberia’s impoverishment is directly related to the wealth generated from its natural resources; wealth that because of a history of inequality and exploitation benefits multinational corporations and some wealthy Liberians at the expense of the citizens of Liberia. However, many Liberians, along with international allies, are actively resisting this unjust system.
The Pinochet Precedent
The news that a priest had performed "last rites" for Augusto Pinochet on Sunday was as disappointing for his opponents as his supporters. With a battery of human rights cases pending against the 91-year-old former Chilean dictator, there was still hope that he might one day see the inside of a jail cell, or at least a court room.
Truth, Justice, and the Un-American Way
My organization, the Institute for Policy Studies, gave its annual human rights award this fall to Maher Arar, an innocent man the Bush administration falsely accused of being linked to Al Qaeda. His chilling case represents an opportunity for the new Democratic leadership in Congress to show the world that America has not entirely forgotten its proud history on human rights.
Wrangling Over Arms Sales to China
On June 4, 1989, the world watched in horror as the Chinese government’s crackdown on student protestors took a deadly turn. As Chinese soldiers fired their weapons indiscriminately and Chinese tanks rolled through Tiananmen Square, an unknown number of students and soldiers were killed. The Chinese military continued its campaign of terror throughout the summer of 1989, drawing strong international condemnation.