Human Rights Quote (78): Honor Killings

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 of [...]

Human Rights Quote (77): Civil Disobedience

(source: http://www.freewebs.com/phamho/literature.html)
An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Civil disobedience is a dangerous thing. Laws are [...]

Human Rights Facts (42): Discrimination

I’ve written before on discrimination, especially gender discrimination (also here) and discrimination based on sexual orientation. This post tackles the subject more generally.
Discrimination, in its non-political and non-legal sense, simply means the recognition of differences. In the political and legal sense, it means unjustifiable differences in treatment between groups of people, most often the unjustifiable [...]

Human Rights Story (1): The Judicial System

Excerpt from “In the Penal Colony” by Franz Kafka (abbreviated)
(The story is about a settlement where they have a very peculiar judicial system, and a horrible execution method. The dialogue is between a visitor and the local self-styled “judge” annex executioner. They are talking about a soldier about to be executed).
Visitor: ‘Does he know his [...]

Human Rights Quote (67): Economic Freedom

“Open markets offer the only realistic hope of pulling billions of people in developing countries out of abject poverty, while sustaining prosperity in the industrialized world.” Kofi Annan

“Africa must be allowed to trade itself out of poverty.” Bob Geldof
Human rights do not include a right to have economic freedom or to have a free market. [...]

Human Rights Cartoon (79): Fair Trial

(unknown artist)
A characteristic element of modern democratic states is their ability to offer fair trials to those accused of crimes. We try to treat everyone, even suspected criminals, with fairness, and we have two principal reasons for this:

We only want to punish real criminals. A fair trial is one in which everything is done to [...]

Human Rights Cartoon (77): Justice and Torture

(copyright http://www.felipegalindo.com/cartoons.html)
More on torture.

Human Rights Poem (30): Injustice

Injustice, Pablo Neruda
(tr. Alastair Reid)
Whoever discovers the who of me will find out the who of you,
and the why, and the where.
Early on, I discovered the range of injustice.
Hunger was not just hunger,
but rather a measure of man.
cold and wind were also measures.
The proud man racked up a hundred hungers, then fell.
Pedro was buried at [...]

Human Rights Cartoon (68): Universal Jurisdiction

(copyright http://www.claybennett.com/)
Some countries have granted their courts so-called “universal jurisdiction” in certain matters. Traditionally, courts only have national jurisdiction and can only punish crimes committed on the national territory; crimes committed elsewhere should be handled by the courts of the country in question or by international courts. Laws of one country are also generally understood [...]

Human Rights Cartoon (49): Security

(by http://cartoonbox.slate.com/nickanderson/)
Those human rights that protect a person’s security, bodily integrity and life, and that prohibit physical assault, dismemberment, torture, cruel punishment etc., acknowledge deep-rooted needs such as the wish to survive and to avoid pain.
Now, if it is reasonable to presume that some or even all people will not always be able to avoid [...]