Human Rights

Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to forego the G8 summit this weekend at Camp David is a noteworthy snub that merits a stiff response. Putin's absence has engendered a lot of heated speculation. Is Putin honestly, as he alleges, too busy? Or is it a combination of domestic unrest, a potential Kremlin power struggle, and his annoyance at the United States for raising its displeasure about the violence against recent demonstrations that has kept him away? Whatever the reason, Putin has made clear that his ambitions are not, as the Obama Administration has hoped for too long, to move...

The newest top cop who President Porfirio Lobo is giving the responsibility of cleaning up the national police force has faced questions in the past about his record on human rights. Lobo swore in Juan Carlos Bonilla Valladares, a veteran law enforcement official known as "El Tigre" or "The Tiger," late Monday to replace Ricardo Ramirez del Cid, who held the job for little more than six months. Assistant Communications Minister Mario Mejia Alas said that he didn't know the reason for the change and that Security Minister Pompeyo Bonilla praised Ramirez's performance in announcing his...

WHO Brock Leach WHAT A former Hopkinton resident, Brock Leach spent 24 years in executive positions at PepsiCo Inc., the second largest food company in the world. When he retired in 2006, he had served as president and chief executive of its Frito-Lay North America and Tropicana divisions. In retirement, he enrolled in divinity school and became a Unitarian Universalist minister. Leach now serves as vice president for mission, strategy, and innovation for the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, an international human rights organization based in Cambridge.

Zimbabwe's prime minister said Tuesday that political violence is continuing despite denials by perpetrators who have targeted his supporters. Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai met with U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay, a day after President Robert Mugabe's party, in a fragile three-year coalition government, insisted to the envoy there was no state-sponsored violence in the country. Tsvangirai, who was a victim of torture at the hands of police ahead of violent elections in 2008, said he was striving for the next proposed elections to be "free and...

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay arrived Sunday in Zimbabwe on the first mission to the troubled southern African nation by the world rights chief. Officials said Pillay's weeklong trip is at the invitation of three-year coalition government formed in 2009 after disputed, violent elections plagued by rights abuses blamed mainly on militants of President Robert Mugabe's party and loyalist police and troops. "I am here to assess the human rights situation," Pillay told reporters at the Harare airport late Sunday.

Last year, when Eugene Levin returned to his native Latvia, he found a chilling, hand-drawn diagram of houses in the small town where his ancestors once lived. The map, hanging in a museum, was sketched more than 70 years ago. Many of the houses, including one that belonged to his great-grandparents, were marked with an "X": these were the homes of Jewish residents. On July 18, 1941, nearly all of those families, including children, were murdered. Levin's grandfather, Mozus Berkovich, survived because he was away, studying dentistry in Riga.

An Algerian Islamist died in a Moroccan jail after a two-month hunger strike protesting torture and his living conditions, rights activists said Sunday. Ahmed Ben Miloud was one of nearly 160 Islamist prisoners hunger striking for better conditions in prisons across this North African monarchy. He was serving a 20-year sentence after being convicted in December of using a firearm in the Algerian consulate in the Moroccan border town of Oujda. He died on Thursday after 60 days of not eating in the Sale prison, near the capital Rabat.

Zimbabwe's prime minister said Tuesday that political violence is continuing despite denials by perpetrators who have targeted his supporters. Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai met with U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay, a day after President Robert Mugabe's party, in a fragile three-year coalition government, insisted to the envoy there was no state-sponsored violence in the country. Tsvangirai, who was a victim of torture at the hands of police ahead of violent elections in 2008, said he was striving for the next proposed elections to be "free and...

BEIRUT - The UN high commissioner for human rights called yesterday for international intervention to protect Syrian civilians from the government's crackdown amid warnings that the country is headed toward civil war. The commissioner, Navi Pillay, estimated that more than 4,000 people, including 307 children, have been killed in the nearly nine months since the uprising erupted against the government of President Bashar Assad. Pillay, who has emerged as a forceful voice on Syria, estimated that at least 14,000 people have been detained.

SEOUL -- Christian supporters from President Bush's Texas hometown, believed to have been instrumental in pressuring the White House to raise concerns over war-ravaged Sudan, are launching another international human rights campaign -- this time against North Korea's hard-line regime. Members of the Midland Ministerial Alliance, a network of more than 200 churches in the city, are in Seoul this week seeking support for their latest push for improved human rights in the communist North.

Zimbabwe's justice minister rejected allegations that the country has state sponsored violence and he vowed not to recognize gay rights after meeting with the U.N. human rights chief on Monday. Patrick Chinamasa said he told U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay that Zimbabwe will arrest same sex partners found committing homosexual acts. Pillay arrived Sunday in Zimbabwe for a weeklong visit, the first by the world rights chief, to assess human rights violations.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay arrived Sunday in Zimbabwe on the first mission to the troubled southern African nation by the world rights chief. Officials said Pillay's weeklong trip is at the invitation of three-year coalition government formed in 2009 after disputed, violent elections plagued by rights abuses blamed mainly on militants of President Robert Mugabe's party and loyalist police and troops. "I am here to assess the human rights situation," Pillay told reporters at the Harare airport late Sunday.

An Algerian Islamist died in a Moroccan jail after a two-month hunger strike protesting torture and his living conditions, rights activists said Sunday. Ahmed Ben Miloud was one of nearly 160 Islamist prisoners hunger striking for better conditions in prisons across this North African monarchy. He was serving a 20-year sentence after being convicted in December of using a firearm in the Algerian consulate in the Moroccan border town of Oujda. He died on Thursday after 60 days of not eating in the Sale prison, near the capital Rabat.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to forego the G8 summit this weekend at Camp David is a noteworthy snub that merits a stiff response. Putin's absence has engendered a lot of heated speculation. Is Putin honestly, as he alleges, too busy? Or is it a combination of domestic unrest, a potential Kremlin power struggle, and his annoyance at the United States for raising its displeasure about the violence against recent demonstrations that has kept him away? Whatever the reason, Putin has made clear that his ambitions are not, as the Obama Administration has hoped for too long, to move...

President Barack Obama is declaring a "new chapter" in U.S. relations with Myanmar, the former pariah state also known as Burma. Obama says the U.S. is rewarding democratic progress in Myanmar with announcement of the first U.S. ambassador in 22 years and an easing of investment restrictions. Obama's comments on those developments came in a statement issued by the White House. Obama says opening up greater economic engagement will help support reformers and speed development.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Thursday declared a new chapter in US relations with Myanmar, easing an investment ban and naming the first US ambassador to the former pariah state in 22 years to reward it for democratic reforms. Myanmar's reforms over the past year or so have seen it emerge from decades of authoritarian rule and diplomatic isolation, although it remains dominated by its military. Obama pointed to the parliamentary election of opposition figure Aung San Suu Kyi as a prominent example of progress in the Asian...

THE HAGUE -- The European Union and China agreed to boost relations yesterday, but the EU made clear there can be no early lifting of its 15-year-old arms embargo until Beijing improves its human rights record. The EU and China also signed a declaration in which both commit to the nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction by keeping them out of the hands of terrorists and rogue governments. "The illicit trade of WMD-related materials, equipment and technology is a matter of serious concern for China and the EU," the declaration said.

BLANTYRE, Malawi — A judge sentenced a couple to the maximum 14 years in prison with hard labor under Malawi’s antigay legislation, and crowds jeered the two men as they were driven from the courthouse to jail yesterday. The sentence for unnatural acts and gross indecency had been expected after the same judge convicted Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza earlier this week under laws dating from the colonial era. The case has drawn international condemnation and sparked a debate on human rights in this conservative southern African country.

Cambodian activists say a 13-year-old girl was shot to death Wednesday in the latest of several clashes between villagers and authorities trying to evict them to make room for development. Hundreds of armed police and soldiers tried to sweep out villagers in northeastern Kratie province from what authorities claim is state land, villager and activist Bun Ratha said. The villagers say the land has been ceded to a Russian company as a concession to be developed as a plantation, but they have been farming it for years and have nowhere else to go. Bun Ratha said the teen was shot as...

Myanmar's president has confirmed that his country bought weapons from North Korea during the past 20 years and assured his South Korean counterpart that it will no longer do so. In a meeting with visiting South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, Myanmar President Thein Sein said his country never had nuclear cooperation with North Korea but did have deals for conventional weapons, Lee's presidential Blue House said in an announcement Tuesday....