Human Rights Archives - Page 220 of 394

To Link or Not to Link: The Human Rights Question in North Korea

by John Feffer, John Gershman | Dec 16, 2005

Though it would be difficult to find anyone in the United States who would praise North Korea for its dismal human rights record, this consensus of opinion by no means extends to practical foreign policy. In other words, there is broad agreement on what is wrong in North Korea, from the political labor camps to the lack of basic freedoms of speech and assembly, but little agreement on what to do about it or who should be doing it.

Dinner with Condi and the Fate of Gaza

by John Gershman, Conn Hallinan | Dec 14, 2005

There is a moment in Jeffery Goldberg’s New Yorker profile of Brent Scowcroft, George Bush Senior’s former National Security Adviser, when the current administration’s combination of arrogance and cluelessness crystallize. Over dinner, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice tells Scowcroft that the good news from the Middle East is that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is pulling out of Gaza , the first step toward resolving the issue of a Palestinian state.

So Why DID Support for War Go South?

by John Gershman, Col. Daniel Smith (Ret.) | Dec 9, 2005

“To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe, in the face of the evidence, the optimists who have been wrong in the past. To suggest we are on the edge of defeat is to yield to unreasonable pessimism. To say that we are mired in stalemate seems the only realistic, yet unsatisfactory, conclusion. On the off chance that military and political analysts are right, in the next few months we must test the enemy’s intentions, in case this is indeed his last big gasp …”

Deconstructing the Libya Option for Syria

by John Gershman, Ronald Bruce St John | Dec 9, 2005

The Bush administration continues to talk about applying the “Libya option” to Syria. In itself, this would be an excellent idea. The problem is the White House took the wrong lessons from Libya’s decision to renounce weapons of mass destruction and rejoin the international community. The Libya model may yet provide a path through the Syrian imbroglio but only if applied correctly.

Torture Degrades Us All

by John Gershman, Ben Saul | Dec 7, 2005

In recent times, it has become fashionable to regurgitate old arguments in favor of torture, without fully thinking through the human implications of making such statements. Not only lawyers for the U.S. government, but academics from Harvard Law School and Deakin Law School in my own country of Australia have argued for torture.

Iraq Strategy: Still AWOL, Still Costly

by John Gershman, Col. Daniel Smith (Ret.) | Dec 6, 2005

Forty years ago the headline might have read, “Johnson Explains War in Johns Hopkins speech.” Today the headline is “Bush at Naval Academy Presents Plan to Win War.”

War Crimes: The Posse Gathers

by Jeremy Brecher, John Gershman, Brendan Smith | Dec 2, 2005

Diverse forces are assembling to bring Bush administration officials to account for war crimes. Cindy Sheehan, Gold Star Mother for Peace, insists: “We cannot have these people pardoned. They need to be tried on war crimes and go to jail.” 1 Paul Craig Roberts, Hoover Institution senior fellow and assistant secretary of the treasury under Ronald Reagan, charges Bush with “lies and an illegal war of aggression, with outing CIA agents, with war crimes against Iraqi civilians, with the horrors of the Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo torture centers” and calls for the president’s impeachment. 2 Anne-Marie Slaughter, dean of the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton and former president of the American Society of International Law, declares: “These policies make a mockery of our claim to stand for the rule of law. [Americans] should be marching on Washington to reject inhumane techniques carried out in our name.” 3

African Women Confront Bushs AIDS Policy

by John Gershman, Yifat Susskind | Dec 2, 2005

Rebecca Lolosoli radiates a quiet authority beneath layers of elaborate beadwork that cover her forehead, neck, chest, and wrists. She smiles readily while addressing an audience of U.S. college students, though to them, her topic is a metaphor for hopelessness. Rebecca is talking about AIDS in Africa, specifically among women in her indigenous, Samburu village of Umoja, Kenya. “For years, people were dying and we did not know why,” she recalls. “Now we know that AIDS can be avoided, but only by making great changes in our lives.”

False Dawn: Bosnia Ten Years after Dayton

by John Gershman, Julie Mertus | Nov 23, 2005

Ten years ago, I wrote an op-ed piece in the New York Times urging that Kosovo Albanians be included in the Bosnia peace talks then being held in Dayton, Ohio. I warned that the nonviolent strategy of Kosovo Albanians was endangered by an increasingly impatient population which was beginning to believe that the United States would only recognize their plight if they took up arms.

Islam, the State, and Freedom of Religion In Malaysia

by John Gershman, Clive S. Kessler | Nov 15, 2005

Since September 2001 the struggle between militantly radical and progressive or democratic tendencies—between “ungentle” and “gentle” Islam—has become a matter of urgent importance not only among Muslims but to others beyond their faith community.