NSA's spying a big question mark on US as promoter of Human Rights

One of the unfortunate consequences of the spying by the NSA that has now been revealed is that it makes it more difficult for the United States to be effective in promoting human rights internationally. America's ability to exercise a positive influence on the practices of other governments had been severely damaged under the Bush administration. That was because American abuses against detainees at Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib deprived Washington of the moral authority to criticise others when they engaged in such practices as prolonged detentions without charges or trials, or trials before irregular courts, or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, or torture.

President Obama's inability to fulfil his promise to close Guantánamobecause of congressional opposition, and his unwillingness to hold Bush-era officials to account for their abuses, has hampered his administration in recovering lost moral authority. That may help to explain why the Obama administration has been relatively reluctant to speak out forcefully about abuses of rights by governments such as those of China and Russia. Of course, dependence on those governments economically and eagerness for their collaboration in the ongoing global struggle against terrorism were also probably factors in muting American criticism.

Pakistan urged to vaccinate against polio

GENEVA:
World Health Organization (WHO) says that 21 nations have urged Pakistan to vaccinate all of its children to eradicate polio spreading.
Some 21 nations in the Middle East and nearby regions have jointly made the eradication of polio an emergency priority and recognized that Pakistan is a key part of the problem, the WHO said Wednesday.

The joint resolution by nations who are part of the UN health agency's Eastern Mediterranean region have called on Pakistan to urgently vaccinate all of its children to prevent the virus from spreading internationally.

Pakistan also approved the resolution, which the Geneva-based agency says includes Afghanistan, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.

The problem is particularly challenging in Pakistan, where a UN-backed eradication campaign has suffered from violence and mistrust directed against polio workers and people who want their children vaccinated.

Earlier this week, WHO officials said the polio virus has now been confirmed in 13 of 22 children who became paralyzed in a northern Syrian province.

World Report 2013, Human Rights

Pakistan had a turbulent year in 2012, with the judicial ouster of Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, attacks on civilians by militant groups, growing electricity shortages, rising food and fuel prices, and continuing political dominance of the military, which operates with almost complete impunity. Religious minorities continued to face insecurity and persecution as the government failed to provide protection to those threatened or to hold extremists accountable. Islamist militant groups continued to target and kill Shia Muslims—particularly from the Hazara community—with impunity. In September, the southwestern province of Balochistan experienced massive flooding for the third year running, displacing some 700,000 people.

Ongoing rights concerns included the breakdown of law enforcement in the face of terror attacks, continuing abuses across Balochistan, ongoing torture and ill-treatment of criminal suspects, and unresolved enforced disappearances of terrorism suspects and opponents of the military. Abuses by Pakistani police, including extrajudicial killings, also continued to be reported throughout the country in 2012.

Relations between Pakistan and the United States —Pakistan’s most significant ally and its largest donor of development and military aid—remained tense for much of the year due to the “Salala Attack” in November 2011, in which US forces killed 24 Pakistani soldiers during a military operation near the Afghan border.http://www.hrw.org/world-report/2013/country-chapters/pakistan

Two Journalists abducted, killed

Two French radio journalists were killed by gunmen in northern Mali on Saturday shortly after being abducted in the town of Kidal, French and Malian officials said.

The French government confirmed that 58-year old Claude Verlon and Ghislaine Dupont, 51, both journalists at RFI radio, had been found dead.

"The French president ... expresses his indignation over this heinous act," Francois Hollande's office said in a statement.

Kidal is the birthplace of a Tuareg uprising last year that plunged Mali into chaos, leading to a coup in the capital Bamako and the occupation of the northern half of the country by militants linked to al Qaeda.

A French-led military intervention drove out the militants but there are still pockets of insurgents and the incident dramatically highlighted the continuing security risks.



France still has about 3,000 soldiers in the country, alongside Malian troops and U.N. peacekeepers (MINUSMA), although it only has about 200 troops in Kidal and another 100 in Tessalit, several hundred kilometers away in the northwest.http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/02/us-mali-france-kidnap-idUSBRE9A105K20131102

Ban shooting the Love Messengers, the pigeons

Three-fourths of all Pennsylvanians want to see an end to live pigeon shoots.

A statewide survey by the Mason-Dixon Polling and Research Company reveals not only do 75 percent of Pennsylvanians want to see legislation to ban live pigeon shoots but only 16 percent of Pennsylvanians oppose such a ban.http://en.wordpress.com/tag/animal-rights/

Blast near polio workers

A Taliban bomb that exploded on Monday near a polio vaccination team in Pakistan's volatile northwestern city of Peshawar killed two people, police said, in the latest in a string of attacks on health workers.

Islamist violence has been on the rise in Pakistan, undermining Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's efforts to tame the insurgency by opening peace talks with the Taliban.

Peshawar has borne the brunt of much of that violence, with the frontier city near the Afghan border hit by at least four attacks that killed scores in the past month.


Monday's blast appeared to target police assigned to protect the vaccination team. Health workers have been attacked repeatedly since the Taliban denounced vaccination as a Western plot to sterilize Muslims.

Aid workers' life at risk

The huge rise in militancy across Pakistan (pdf), is also creating a number of hazards for aid workers. On New Year's Day gunmen on motorbikes ambushed and killed six female aid workers and a doctor in Khayber-Pakhtunkhwa province. It marked the latest in a series of attacks on polio vaccination charity workers.

On December 18, five female aid workers were killed as they were administering polio vaccinations. The following day another polio supervisor was killed along with her driver in the north-western town of Peshawar.

Naseer Memon, the Chief Executive of Strengthening Participatory Organization writes in an op-ed on Dawn:


Political instability, a fragile law and order situation, frail institutions and sociopolitical polarisation make the country a breeding ground for violent elements. These elements find humanitarian workers ‘soft targets’ because of their ubiquitous presence, especially in far-flung areas. A number of high-profile cases of kidnapping and killing of aid workers occurred in Pakistan in recent years, jeopardising the outreach of humanitarian organisations.

Targeting anti-polio efforts in Pakistan

Pakistan along with neighboring Afghanistan and Nigeria are among the few countries where Polio still remains endemic. In response, the United Nations, International Red Cross other humanitarian organizations have been campaigning for anti-polio efforts in various remote districts of Pakistan However, they are often targeted by militant groups and are even subject to conspiracy theories.

For instance, Ehsanullah Ehsan, a spokesperson for the Pakistani Taliban, claimed that in the aftermath of revelations that Shakil Afridi had used a fake vaccination program to gather information that led to the assasination of Osama bin Laden, many Pakistanis suspected anti-polio workers of being US agents.

A Pakistani Foreign Office official also suggested that fears by militants that NGO and health workers could be spies “may be spreading into other realms.” In September last year, Pakistani authorities ordered six aid workers from Save The Children to leave the country, allegedly for helping a spy agency.

Justin Wilder, author of a petition that demands an investigation into the murder of eight aid workers suggests:


Part of the problem is the reaction by religious leaders to the immunization program. Conservative clerics issued an announcement denouncing the UN program that helps administer oral and injected vaccinations to children in high-risk neighborhoods. There have been rumors spread among these communities that the program is a plot to sterilize Muslim children.

Walter Russell, a blogger for The American Interest magazine, blames Pakistani leaders for not doing enough:


As we saw in December, these attacks have been condemned by the public, and numerous Pakistani Muslims have been extremely vocal in their opposition to the evil perpetrated in the name of their religion. But despite the outcry, Pakistan’s leaders have proven completely powerless to stop things like this from happening. It’s a sad tragedy in one of the world’s saddest countries, and far too many Pakistanis will end up paying for it with their lives.

However, many humanitarian organizations are determined to remain in Pakistan despite the attacks. Shaheen Begum, who narrowly survived an attack by militants in mid-December, told the Sunday Telegraph:


Now, our work is becoming more dangerous with every passing day. I am still scared to be part of the campaign, but it would be a sign of cowardice if I withdraw my support, So I have decided to continue vaccinating children till the eradication of poliomyelitis from Pakistan… Though my family is extremely concerned about my safety, they allow me to protect other children from being crippled. Given the determination of the government and the health workers, it is possible that we can eradicate the disease once and for all.

Similarly, Bushra Arian of All Pakistan Lady Health Workers Association told PBS Newshour interview:


We go out door to door and risk our lives to save innocent children from being permanently handicapped.

For what? So that our coming generations turn out to be healthy. We work for our country, and we are being rewarded in the form of death. What kind of justice is this? Why are we targeted and killed?

2012 Human Rights Watch Report on Pakistan

Pakistan had a disastrous year in 2011, with increasing attacks on civilians by militant groups, skyrocketing food and fuel prices, and the assumption of near-total control of foreign and security policy by a military that operated with complete impunity. Religious minorities faced unprecedented insecurity and persecution. Freedom of belief and expression came under severe threat as Islamist militant groups murdered Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer and Federal Minorities’ Minister Shahbaz Bhatti over their public support for amending the country’s often abused blasphemy laws. Pakistan’s elected government notably failed to provide protection to those threatened by extremists, or to hold the extremists accountable.

In August and September the southern province of Sindh experienced massive flooding for the second year running, displacing some 700,000 people. Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, suffered from hundreds of targeted killings perpetrated by armed groups who are patronized by political parties.

Security continued to deteriorate in 2011, with militant and sectarian groups carrying out suicide bombings and targeted killings across the country. The Taliban and affiliated groups targeted civilians and public spaces, including marketplaces and religious processions. Ongoing rights concerns include the breakdown of law enforcement in the face of terror attacks, a dramatic increase in killings across the southwestern province of Balochistan, continuing torture and ill-treatment of criminal suspects, and unresolved enforced disappearances of terrorism suspects and opponents of the military. Abuses by Pakistani police, including extrajudicial killings, also continued to be reported throughout the country in 2011.

Relations between Pakistan and the United States—Pakistan’s most significant ally and its largest donor of civilian and military aid—deteriorated markedly in 2011, fueled by a diplomatic crisis over a CIA contractor killing two men at a Lahore traffic junction and the US’s killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.