(source) There was an LGBT Pride Parade planned for June 30th in Sofia, Bulgaria, and it seems that some have yet to take the view that these things are inherently harmless and boring: On June 6, Father Evgeni Yanakiev of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church was quoted in the newspaper Standart as saying: “Our whole society must, in every possible way, […]
When stonings happen, how do they work? First, you get buried. Iran’s Islamic Penal Code states that men convicted of adultery are to be buried in the ground up to their waists; women, up to their chests. If the conviction is based on the prisoner’s confession, the law says, the presiding judge casts the first […]
(source, source) More on stoning here, here and here. More human rights ads here.
More on stoning.
(For some reason, no women allowed…). More on blasphemy.
These are the countries that take the “war on drugs” almost literally and execute drug offenders on a large scale: Iran: Saudi Arabia: Singapore: Malaysia: Vietnam: (source) In China, the numbers are difficult to ascertain given the government’s tough stance on secrecy. Thousands are executed each year, but one can’t be more precise than that. […]
More on Islamic dress code here, here, and here. More on the headscarf in particular here and here. More jokes on Islam here and here. More on women’s rights. More jokes here.
(source, photo by Luis Sinco, Los Angeles Times/October 28, 2009) Three officers with Aceh province’s civilian morality police allegedly detained a couple, raping the 20-year-old woman. Activists say the charges undermine the patrol’s legitimacy … [The] civilian patrol … enforces Islam’s strict Sharia law in Indonesia’s Aceh province … “They don’t have the authority to detain people — […]
(this is from a paper I’ll publish in February 2010 in ”Rights and Righteousness: Religious Pluralism and Human Rights“, a book edited by Trinity College Dublin and the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission) Religious extremism This post examines the relationship between religious liberty and religious extremism. The expression, “religious extremism”, does not only or even mainly refer […]
(source) Under the Hudood Ordinances introduced by the former Pakistani dictator Zia-ul-Haq in 1979, rape victims had to have four male witnesses to the crime – a ridiculous requirement. If they didn’t, they faced prosecution for adultery, a crime that potentially carried the penalty of death by stoning. This law has been repealed, but local custom […]
(source) How do you play religious roulette? You stand around in a circle and blaspheme and see who gets struck by lightning first. More on blasphemy here, here and here.
Different countries and different cultures make different choices about the appropriate scope of criminal law. Some actions which are legal in one country are illegal in another. The two tables below list a number of action types (certainly not all) and whether they are legal or illegal. This table can be used to classify countries or […]
When we talk about human rights violations, chances are high that we are talking about women. We can list the following types of violence or force used against women (I’ve linked to previous posts dealing with the individual types of violence or force): Wife beating (domestic violence) Rape (marital rape or “normal” rape) Acid attacks […]
(Ric Stultz, source) Conventional wisdom says that violent films, violent video games, violent song lyrics or even news stories about violence, lead to an increase in violent crime. On the basis of this causal link, some argue that the right to free speech of movie makers and others should be limited and they should be […]
You are here: Home > Human Rights Statistics > Statistics on Violence Content 1. Overview and a word of caution 2. Fatal interpersonal violence, i.e. homicide 2.1. Murder rates, international comparisons 2.2. Murder rates, evolution 2.3. Murder rates, U.K. 2.4. Murder rates, U.S. 2.5. Murder rates, Mexico 3. Honor killing 4. Non-fatal interpersonal violence 4.1. General 4.2. Rape 4.3. Domestic […]
You are here: Home > Human Rights Statistics > Statistics on Capital Punishment Content 1. Death penalty laws 2. Numbers of executions 3. Trends in capital punishment: numbers of executions, legal abolitionism, and public support 4. Death row numbers 5. Methods of execution 6. Deterrence? 7. Racial discrimination in the use of capital punishment 8. Capital punishment for drug offenses […]
You are here: Home > Human Rights Statistics > Statistics on Religion and on Religious LIberty Content 1. Religious liberty 1.1. Country rankings of religious liberty 1.2. Public opinion on restrictions of religious liberty 1.3. Legal restrictions of religious liberty 2. Religion and politics 3. Religion and legislation 4. Sharia law 5. Religion and poverty 6. Religion and crime 1. […]
The right to life of women in Pakistan is conditional on their obeying social norms and traditions. Hina Jilani, lawyer and human rights activist An honor killing is a murder, carried out by a family to punish a female family member who has supposedly brought dishonor on the family. The acts which are the cause […]
The term Sharia literally means “path” or “way” (“way to the water source”). So, originally, it wasn’t a legal code or a set or rules as it is now. With the passing of time, the word has come to mean the body of legal rules which were produced through a very long process of scholarly […]
(don’t remember the source or the author; sorry) The media often play a very beneficial role in exposing human rights abuses. The media spotlight can mean the difference between life and death, as has been the case for some victims of stoning sentences. Many rights violators are sensitive to shame, they care about their international image, […]
You are here: Home > Blog Series > Fun Stuff Most of the different daily posts that appear on this blog are organized into so-called “blog series”. For example, there are series called “statistical jokes“, “political jokes“, ”human rights cartoons“ and “political Monty Python“. (subscribe to the RSS feed for this series only) Statistical Jokes (1): Fun With Correlation Statistical Jokes (2): Fun […]
You are here: Home > Blog Series > Absurd Human Rights Violations Most of the different daily posts that appear on this blog are organized into so-called “blog series”. For example, there’s a series called the most absurd human rights violations: accounts of some of the most absurd human rights violations as reported in the press. (subscribe to the RSS […]
You are here: Home > Blog Series > Human Rights Ads Most of the different daily posts that appear on this blog are organized into so-called “blog series”. For example, there’s a series called human rights ads: some inspiring ads made by human rights advocates (mostly but not exclusively by Amnesty International). (subscribe to the RSS feed for this series […]
