London: England: United Kingdom: The Humanion North America Coverage: January 20 18 -December 20 18 Cogito Ergo Sum: Descartes: Contact: [email protected] thehumanion.com Read Free Everyday: To Seek: To Try: To Do: To Change: To Make Better: The Human Condition The Humanion North America Coverage: January 2018- December 2018: This Is Published As Historic Archived Materials Nicaragua: The Onslaught Against Key Human Rights Groups || December 23: 2018 || ά. After the Nicaraguan Government announced that it had asked two key human rights institutions to leave the country, the head of the United Nation Human Rights Ms Michelle Bachelet, said on Friday that she was extremely alarmed by a decision that means, in effect, there will be no functioning independent human rights bodies left in Nicaragua. According to High Commissioner Bachelet, the two non-profit human rights organisations were set up by the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights:IACHR, in full co-operation with the Government after the violence and unrest earlier this year. One of them is MESENI, a follow-up mechanism from IACHR, set up specifically for Nicaragua and the other is known as, the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts:GIEI. “After the earlier cancellation of the registration and confiscation of properties of national NGOs working on human rights, the de facto expulsion of the two IACHR organisations means there are now virtually no functioning independent human rights bodies left in Nicaragua.” said Ms Bachelet. She added further that the Government has said it will no longer accept visits by the IACHR itself. 1 Since April, when student-led protests began in response to a decree, which raised taxes and ordered changes to social security, hundreds of people have been arrested. The UN human rights office:OHCHR has received reports that fair trial rights of protesters and their leaders are being violated. According to media reports, the violence and civil unrest has led to around 300 deaths and a report from the UN rights office in late August, detailed numerous violations carried out by Nicaraguan security forces, including, extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearances. The report noted that 22 police officers had, also, lost their lives. “Coupled with the parallel clamp-down on independent media, including, last weekend’s raids on media outlets, the net result is a country where civil society is in danger of being shut out altogether and international organisations are, also, struggling to keep operating.” warned the UN Human Rights High Commissioner. “These actions by the Government make resolution of the crisis affecting the country much more difficult and risk blocking all dialogue within the country, with neighbouring states and with the international community at large, with possible wide-ranging consequences.” she said. She further added that hoping that some common ground can be found with the Government so this trend can be reversed. Caption: Artículo 66: Students protest in the Nicaraguan capital, Managua, July 2018: Image: UN Photo:::ω. || Readmore || 241218 || Up || In 2016 Over 38,000 People Were Killed and 116,000 Suffered Non-Fatal Injuries Due to Firearms in the United States: Amnesty International Report Declares Gun Violence in the United States to Be a Human Rights Crisis 2 || September 14: 2018: Amnesty International News || ά. The U.S Government has allowed gun violence to become a human rights crisis, according to ‘In the Line of Fire: Human Rights and the U.S Gun Violence Crisis’. a new Report from Amnesty International. The report examines how all aspects of American life have been compromised in some way by the unfettered access to guns, with no attempts at meaningful national regulation. While most countries have licensing and regulation systems in place for firearms, the United States lacks measures like a national registration and 30 states allow handguns to be owned without a license or permit. “The U.S. government is prioritising gun ownership over basic human rights. While many solutions have been offered, there has been a stunning lack of political will to save lives.” said Ms Margaret Huang, the Executive Director of Amnesty International USA. “Despite the huge number of guns in circulation and the sheer numbers of people killed by guns each year, there is a shocking lack of federal regulations, that could save thousands.” Acknowledging the decades of work by impacted communities and activists, the Amnesty International Report aims to support those efforts by 3 placing the problem of gun violence in the framework of universally recognised human rights and offering solutions within that framework, that the U.S should adopt to address the crisis. In 2016, the last year stats were available, over 38,000 people were killed and 116,000 suffered non- fatal injuries due to firearms in the United States. The Report examines the ways in which gun violence affects communities of colour, where gun violence is the leading cause of death for men and boys between the ages of 15 and 34, who are 20 times more likely to be killed by a gun than their white counterparts. Women facing domestic violence and children are, also, disproportionately affected. While the Report offers many different recommendations for each of the focus areas, the overarching call is for national laws, that would eliminate the current inadequate and arbitrary patchwork of state laws, that leave people in some states more vulnerable to gun violence than others. Among the recommendations are: Comprehensive background checks; National regulations for licensing and registering firearms and required training for gun ownership; Ban on semi-automatic assault rifles and other military-grade weapons; Investment in evidence-based community violence reduction and prevention programs; Mandatory safe-storage laws The Report notes that, while mass shootings have profound emotional and psychological effects and could be prevented by banning assault rifles and high-capacity firearms, such mass events only account for less than one percent of gun deaths. More common and less publicised are individual incidents, that pervade everyday life in communities across the country. To that end, the report shares individual stories of people affected by gun violence. “You have to understand, our children are suffering.” said Ms Pam Bosley, a Chicago mother, whose son Terrell was killed by gun violence in a still-unsolved crime in 2006 and, who spoke with Amnesty International for the Report. “We need social services and counselling for youth. How can we expect them to survive and excel in this climate? When a child is killed, at most, the school will bring in a counsellor for one day. If, they treated us like Sandy Hook, things would be different. When lives were taken in that community, they brought in counsellors for a year to work with the kids, our kids go through this every day. Our community is not valued by America. They don’t feel like we are worth the counselling or support.” The Report, also, explores the consequences for the thousands of people, who survive gun violence. On average, more than 317 people are shot every day and survive, at least, long enough to get to the hospital. The mental, physical and financial consequences of their injuries shape their lives forever. This is a public health crisis of astonishing proportion, with remarkably little government response, given the life-long effects on many survivors. Dr. Thomas Scalea, the Director of the R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Centre in Baltimore, spoke to Amnesty International about a patient, who exemplifies the struggles faced by survivors: “I have one guy, who had multiple shots. I’ve operated on him, may be, 15 or 20 times in 18 months, because he had a lot of problems, he was really sick. But I got him through it and we closed his colostomy and he is fixed and he is known as a ‘great save.’ Except he was, also, shot in the arm and has severe 4 nerve damage and he made a living moving stuff, picking things up. You need two arms to pick things up, so he is disabled and he can not work. And that’s it, there is no re-education or training. And in order to get disability you have to be able to negotiate the health care system and that’s hard enough for me to do, so how do you think it’s going to work out for him?” In addition to working to implement the federal and local recommendations made in the report, Amnesty International will work with local partners at the state level, starting with initiatives in Ohio, Illinois, and Michigan. In Illinois, Amnesty International members will urge the Governor to pass the Combatting Illegal Gun Trafficking Act, that will help stop the flow of illegally trafficked guns and stop gun dealers from opening next to schools and day cares. In Ohio, activists will work to stop a bill, that would make violent confrontations with firearms more likely to occur. A third campaign in Michigan aims to pass a law allowing family members to take steps to prevent loved ones from harming themselves or others. Further campaign efforts will call on city and state governments to invest in communities by fully funding community-based solutions programmes, proven to be the most effective urban gun violence reduction interventions in the U.S.:::ω. || Readmore || 140918 || Up || Regardless of How the American Flag is Flown: Senator McCain’s Legacy Is This: Being American and Being the Supporter of White Supremacy Racism and Xenophobia and Being in the Pocket of Big Money are Incompatible 5 || August 27: 2018 || ά. The Humanion is saddened to hear, with the world, that Senator McCain has lost his battle with brain cancer with his hall-mark staunchest of will, steely determination and fierce dignity and our sincere condolences go to his family, friends and colleagues at this saddest of times.