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Palestinian Talk Thursday the Hour of Sunlight: One Palestinian's Journey from Prisoner to Peacemaker
For Immediate Release Date: June 7, 2012 Contact: Tony Clark, 404-865-7109 [email protected] NEWS12-19 Palestinian Talk Thursday The Hour of Sunlight: One Palestinian's Journey from Prisoner to Peacemaker Atlanta, GA. The Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, Amnesty International and ACappella Books present author and award-winning documentary filmmaker Jen Marlowe for a free reading and book signing on Thursday, June 14th at 7:00pm. Her book, The Hour of Sunlight: One Palestinian's Journey from Prisoner to Peacemaker, tells the story of Sami al Jundi. As a teenager in Palestine, al Jundi had one ambition: overthrowing Israeli occupation. With two friends, he began to build a bomb to use against the police. But when it exploded prematurely, killing one of his friends, al Jundi was caught and sentenced to ten years in prison. It was in an Israeli jail that his unlikely transformation began. al Jundi was welcomed into a highly organized, democratic community of political prisoners who required that members of their cell read, engage in political discourse on topics ranging from global revolutions to the precepts of nonviolent protest and revolution. Al Jundi left prison still determined to fight for his people’s rights—but with a very different notion of how to undertake that struggle. He cofounded the Middle East program of Seeds of Peace Center for Coexistence, which brings together Palestinian and Israeli youth. Marked by honesty and compassion for Palestinians and Israelis alike, The Hour of Sunlight illuminates the Palestinian experience through the story of one man’s struggle for peace. -
Conflict-Related Sexual Violence – Translating Words Into Action
MEDIA RELEASE For immediate release Geneva, 12 June 2018 CONFLICT-RELATED SEXUAL VIOLENCE – TRANSLATING WORDS INTO ACTION In fifteen years of existence, TRIAL International has acquired an expertise in legal responses to sexual violence. Aware of the importance of good collaboration, the NGO has partnered with other civil society actors to gather practical tools for the assistance of victims. For its fifteenth anniversary, TRIAL International is organizing a high-level event on the topic of conflict-related sexual violence. Many actors of this field will gather in Geneva on 18 and 19 June – the International day for the elimination of conflict-related sexual violence – to focus on the advances these organizations have conquered. The objective is to compile their experience and share concrete solutions. “It is probably the first time that these NGOs, which have developed cutting-edge techniques or IT apps, show such willingness to collaborate. Each one will bring a piece of the puzzle to move forward, patiently and professionally, the fight against impunity for conflict-related sexual violence”, enthuses Philip Grant, Director of TRIAL International. EXPERTS WILL PRESENT THEIR VICTORIES The public event on 18 June will offer a panorama of the advances victims of conflict-related sexual violence have enjoyed in their access to justice. The United Nations Deputy High Commissioner to Human Rights Kate Gilmore and the Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the United Nations, Ambassador Valentin Zellweger, will deliver keynote speeches. -
U.N. Peacekeeping Operations in Africa
U.N. Peacekeeping Operations in Africa September 23, 2019 Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov R45930 SUMMARY R45930 U.N. Peacekeeping Operations in Africa September 23, 2019 Many Members of Congress have demonstrated an interest in the mandates, effectiveness, and funding status of United Nations (U.N.) peacekeeping operations in Africa as an integral Luisa Blanchfield component of U.S. policy toward Africa and a key tool for fostering greater stability and security Specialist in International on the continent. As of September 2019, there are seven U.N. peacekeeping operations in Africa: Relations the U.N. Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Alexis Arieff Republic (MINUSCA), Specialist in African Affairs the U.N. Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), the U.N. Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA), Lauren Ploch Blanchard Specialist in African Affairs the U.N. Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), the U.N. Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), the African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), and the U.N. Mission for the Organization of a Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO). The United States, as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, plays a key role in establishing, renewing, and funding U.N. peacekeeping operations, including those in Africa. For 2019, the U.N. General Assembly assessed the U.S. share of U.N. peacekeeping operation budgets at 27.89%; since the mid-1990s Congress has capped the U.S. payment at 25% due to concerns that the current assessment is too high. During the Trump Administration, the United States generally has voted in the Security Council for the renewal and funding of existing U.N. -
Nowruz Action 2020
Nowruz Action کارزار نوروز new day”) is an ancient holiday celebrated on the first day of“) نوروز The Iranian holiday Nowruz spring in the northern hemisphere to welcome in the new year. On this Nowruz we want to remember several courageous prisoners of conscience and prisoners held for politically motivated reasons in Iran with Nowruz greetings. We ask you to send cards with simple Nowruz greetings You can say “thinking of you at Nowruz time” or نوروز مبارک ”such as “Nowruz mobarak “hoping you are well.” You may send a greeting in either English or Farsi (Persian) but please do not mention Amnesty International or specifics of the recipient’s case. Please also refrain from mentioning the political situation, human rights or U.S.-Iran relations. We suggest sending cards with pictures of landscapes, spring flowers or the like, in keeping with the spirit of the holiday and the message of hope and renewal. Please do not choose cards that have pictures of people, and please do not use cards that depict bottles of wine or other alcoholic beverages or gambling. Traditional Nowruz celebrations include the preparation of a Haft Sin table which literally means the seven s’s. Seven items beginning with the Persian letter Sin (equivalent to the English s) and which represent spring time are set out. To honor this tradition, this year Amnesty International has selected seven cases, prisoners of conscience and prisoners held for politically motivated reasons, who have been identified by Amnesty International as “individuals at risk” and are therefore targeted for intensified campaigning. -
Dr. Shirin Ebadi Nobel Peace Prize-Winning Iranian Activist and Lawyer • • •
Dr. Shirin Ebadi Nobel Peace Prize-Winning Iranian Activist and Lawyer • • • An Iranian lawyer and human rights activist, Shirin Ebadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for her significant and pioneering efforts for democracy and human rights, especially the rights of women and children. She is the first Iranian and the first Muslim woman to receive the prize. As a researcher and activist, she is known for promoting peaceful and democratic solutions to serious problems in society. She takes an active part in the public debate and is well known and admired by the general public in her country for the legal defense of victims of the conservative faction’s attack on freedom of speech and political freedom. Along with Iranian-American co-author Azadeh Moaveni, Ebadi is the author of the memoirs Iran Awakening: One Woman’s Journey to Reclaim Her Life and Country and Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope. Her latest, The Golden Cage: Three Brothers, Three Choices, One Destiny, was published in 2011. Ebadi has also written a number of academic books and articles focused on human rights, including The Rights of the Child: A Study of Legal Aspects of Children’s Rights in Iran, published with support from UNICEF, and History and Documentation of Human Rights in Iran. An activist for the rights of refugees, women, and children, she is the founder and leader of the Association for Support of Children’s Rights in Iran. Ebadi argues for a new interpretation of Islamic law that is in harmony with vital human rights such as democracy, equality before the law, religious freedom, and freedom of speech. -
Buddhism / Dalai Lama 99
Buddhism / Dalai Lama 99 Activating Bodhichitta and A Meditation on Compassion His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama Translated by Gonsar Rinpoche The awakening mind is the unsurpassable way to collect merit. To purify obstacles bodhicitta is supreme. For protection from interferences bodhicitta is supreme. It is the unique, all-encompassing method. Every kind of ordinary and supra-mundane power can be accomplished through bodhicitta. Thus, it is absolutely precious. Although compassion is cultivated in one’s own mind, the embodiment of it is the deity known as Avalokiteshvara (Tib. Chan-re- PY: 1979,2006 zig). The various aspects that are visualized in meditation practices and 5.5 X 8.5 represented in images and paintings are merely the interpretative forms of 80 pages Avalokitephvara, whereas the actual definitive form is compassion itself. ` 140 paperback ISBN: 81-86470-52-2 Awakening the Mind, Lightening the Heart His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama Edited by Donald S.Lopez,Jr. Awakening the Mind, Lightening the Heart is His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s gentle and profoundly eloquent instruction for developing the basis of the spiritual path: a compassionate motive. With extraordinary grace and insight, His Holiness shows how the Tibetan Buddist teachings on compassion can be practiced in our daily lives through simple meditations that directly relate to past and present PY: 2008 relationships. 5.5 X 8.5 This illuminating and highly accessible guide offers techniques for 178 pages deepening and heightening compassion in our lives and the world around ` 215 paperback us. ISBN: 81-86470-68-9 Commentary on the Thirty Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama Translated by Acharya Nyima Tsering Ngulchu Gyalse Thogmed Zangpo’s The Thirty Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva is one of Tibetan Buddhism’s most popular texts, incorporated in the Mind Training text and also able to be explained according to the Lam Rim tradition. -
Police Abuse and Misconduct Against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender People in the U.S
United States of America Stonewalled : Police abuse and misconduct against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the U.S. 1. Introduction In August 2002, Kelly McAllister, a white transgender woman, was arrested in Sacramento, California. Sacramento County Sheriff’s deputies ordered McAllister from her truck and when she refused, she was pulled from the truck and thrown to the ground. Then, the deputies allegedly began beating her. McAllister reports that the deputies pepper-sprayed her, hog-tied her with handcuffs on her wrists and ankles, and dragged her across the hot pavement. Still hog-tied, McAllister was then placed in the back seat of the Sheriff’s patrol car. McAllister made multiple requests to use the restroom, which deputies refused, responding by stating, “That’s why we have the plastic seats in the back of the police car.” McAllister was left in the back seat until she defecated in her clothing. While being held in detention at the Sacramento County Main Jail, officers placed McAllister in a bare basement holding cell. When McAllister complained about the freezing conditions, guards reportedly threatened to strip her naked and strap her into the “restraint chair”1 as a punitive measure. Later, guards placed McAllister in a cell with a male inmate. McAllister reports that he repeatedly struck, choked and bit her, and proceeded to rape her. McAllister sought medical treatment for injuries received from the rape, including a bleeding anus. After a medical examination, she was transported back to the main jail where she was again reportedly subjected to threats of further attacks by male inmates and taunted by the Sheriff’s staff with accusations that she enjoyed being the victim of a sexual assault.2 Reportedly, McAllister attempted to commit suicide twice. -
Lord, Kristin
CPL Online 3.1 Fall 2006 Kristin O. Lord Page 1 Imagining Nelson Mandela in Ancient Rome: A New Approach to Intermediate Latin Prose Composition1 Kristin O. Lord Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies Wilfrid Laurier University (Canada) For the past three years I have been designing a series of exercises in English to Latin prose translation to complement a third and fourth semester university reading course in Latin prose and poetry. In the last year I have begun to extend my work to cover the first two semesters as well, an area which intersects with the high school curriculum. Although I have designed a fair complement of traditional military and political passages and material based on social history, I expect students to translate an increasing number of texts which are either unexpurgated or subject only to minor adaptations. For this reason I tend to ‘mine’ much of what I read—or would like to reread—for its suitability for translation into Latin prose. Each of the pieces ultimately chosen is meant to engage an idea as well as to illustrate various issues of syntax and style, but some encapsulate my overall approach more fully than others. A favorite page from Nelson Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom is perhaps the most striking illustration of the changes in both Classical scholarship and the world as a whole since the publication, nearly a century ago, of the textbook which I used to use. In this passage Mandela describes the polling station where he voted for the first time in South Africa in 1994: The images of South Africans going to the polls that day are burned in my memory. -
A Promise for the Future: Children in Crossfire, Strategic Plan, 2011 – 2015
Photo by Padraig Timoney A PROMISE FOR THE FUTURE: CHILDREN IN CROSSFIRE, STRATEGIC PLAN, 2011 – 2015. C:60% M:30% Y:68% K:8% C:32% M:84% Y:68% K:28% C:0% M:69% Y:100% K:0% C:91% M:57% Y:44% K:24% A Word from our Patron. “With the realisation of ones own potential and self-confidence in ones ability, one can build a better world. According to my own experience, self-confidence is very important. That sort of confidence is not a blind one; it is an awareness of ones own potential. On that basis, human beings can transform themselves by increasing the good qualities and reducing the negative qualities. Every individual has a responsibility to help guide our global family in the right direction. Good wishes are not sufficient; we must become actively engaged. I commend your organisation for the exemplary work you are doing to protect and promote the rights of some of the world’s poorest children.” His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, Patron of Children in Crossfire. ‘Courtesy of Office of Tibet’. Contact: Children in Crossfire, 2 St. Joseph’s Avenue, Derry/Londonderry, N.Ireland BT48 6 TH +44 (0) 28 71 269898, www.childrenincrossfire.org 2 From Tragedy to Triumph. In 1972, the founder and director of Children in Crossfire, Richard Moore, was blinded by a rubber bullet fired at point blank range into his face. Amazingly from childhood to the present day he has never allowed bitterness to stunt his development. “I learned to see life in a different way .. -
The Dalai Lama
THE INSTITUTION OF THE DALAI LAMA 1 THE DALAI LAMAS 1st Dalai Lama: Gendun Drub 8th Dalai Lama: Jampel Gyatso b. 1391 – d. 1474 b. 1758 – d. 1804 Enthroned: 1762 f. Gonpo Dorje – m. Jomo Namkyi f. Sonam Dargye - m. Phuntsok Wangmo Birth Place: Sakya, Tsang, Tibet Birth Place: Lhari Gang, Tsang 2nd Dalai Lama: Gendun Gyatso 9th Dalai Lama: Lungtok Gyatso b. 1476 – d. 1542 b. 1805 – d. 1815 Enthroned: 1487 Enthroned: 1810 f. Kunga Gyaltsen - m. Kunga Palmo f. Tenzin Choekyong Birth Place: Tsang Tanak, Tibet m. Dhondup Dolma Birth Place: Dan Chokhor, Kham 3rd Dalai Lama: Sonam Gyatso b. 1543 – d. 1588 10th Dalai Lama: Tsultrim Gyatso Enthroned: 1546 b. 1816 – d. 1837 f. Namgyal Drakpa – m. Pelzom Bhuti Enthroned: 1822 Birth Place: Tolung, Central Tibet f. Lobsang Drakpa – m. Namgyal Bhuti Birth Place: Lithang, Kham 4th Dalai Lama: Yonten Gyatso b. 1589 – d. 1617 11th Dalai Lama: Khedrub Gyatso Enthroned: 1601 b. 1838– d. 1855 f. Sumbur Secen Cugukur Enthroned 1842 m. Bighcogh Bikiji f. Tseten Dhondup – m. Yungdrung Bhuti Birth Place: Mongolia Birth Place: Gathar, Kham 5th Dalai Lama: 12th Dalai Lama: Trinley Gyatso Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso b. 1856 – d. 1875 b. 1617 – d. 1682 Enthroned: 1860 Enthroned: 1638 f. Phuntsok Tsewang – m. Tsering Yudon f. Dudul Rapten – m. Kunga Lhadze Birth Place: Lhoka Birth Place: Lhoka, Central Tibet 13th Dalai Lama: Thupten Gyatso 6th Dalai Lama: Tseyang Gyatso b. 1876 – d. 1933 b. 1683 – d. 1706 Enthroned: 1879 Enthroned: 1697 f. Kunga Rinchen – m. Lobsang Dolma f. Tashi Tenzin – m. Tsewang Lhamo Birth Place: Langdun, Central Tibet Birth Place: Mon Tawang, India 14th Dalai Lama: Tenzin Gyatso 7th Dalai Lama: Kalsang Gyatso b. -
President Obama Wins the Nobel Peace Prize
Keghart President Obama Wins the Nobel Peace Prize Non-partisan Website Devoted to Armenian Affairs, Human Rights https://keghart.org/president-obama-wins-the-nobel-peace-prize/ and Democracy PRESIDENT OBAMA WINS THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE Posted on October 12, 2009 by Keghart Category: Opinions Page: 1 Keghart President Obama Wins the Nobel Peace Prize Non-partisan Website Devoted to Armenian Affairs, Human Rights https://keghart.org/president-obama-wins-the-nobel-peace-prize/ and Democracy http://www.thestar.com/news/world/obama/article/708657--the-awesomeness-of-barack-obam a <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/7STx4orPBgQ&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/7STx4orPBgQ&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave- flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> WASHINGTON–While Russia's president congratulated U.S. President Barack Obama for winning the Nobel Peace Prize, Republicans see the award as so outrageous that they're using it to raise campaign money. Obama won the prize "for awesomeness," says the mocking Republican fundraising letter. Obama's honour shows "how meaningless a once honourable and respected award has become," says the letter, signed by Michael S. Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had a different view. He said the award will encourage further U.S.-Russian cooperation. "I hope this decision would serve as an additional incentive for our common work to form a new climate in world politics and promote initiatives which are fundamentally important for global security," Medvedev wrote in a letter to Obama. -
Fifty Years of Democratic Reform in Tibet(2009)
Fifty Years of Democratic Reform in Tibet(2009) BEIJING, March 2 (Xinhua) -- The Information Office of the State Council, or China's cabinet, published a white paper titled "Fifty Years of Democratic Reform in Tibet" here on Monday. Following is the full text: Fifty Years of Democratic Reform in Tibet Information Office of the State Council of the People's Republic of China Contents Foreword I. Old Tibet -- A Society of Feudal Serfdom under Theocracy II. Momentous Democratic Reform in Tibet III. Tremendous Historic Changes over the Past Half-century Conclusion Foreword Tibet has been an inseparable part of China since ancient times. The peaceful liberation of Tibet, the driving out of the imperialist aggressor forces from Tibet, the democratic reform and abolition of theocratic feudal serfdom in Tibet were significant parts of the Chinese people's national democratic revolution against imperialism and feudalism in modern history, as well as major historical tasks facing the Chinese government after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. Prior to 1959, Tibet had long been a society of feudal serfdom under theocratic rule, a society which was even darker than medieval society in Europe. The 14th Dalai Lama, as a leader of the Gelug Sect of Tibetan Buddhism and also head of the Tibetan local government, monopolized both political and religious power, and was the chief representative of the feudal serf owners, who, accounting for less than five percent of the total population of Tibet, possessed the overwhelming part of the means of production, and monopolized the material and cultural resources of Tibet.