Human Rights Quote (79): Hate Crime

(source)
We must send a clear and strong message to all who would commit crimes of hate: it is wrong, it is illegal, and we will catch you and punish you to the full force of our laws. Al Gore
A hate crime (or a bias crime) is a crime committed against a person that is motivated, [...]

Human Rights Cartoon (95): Waterboarding

(copyright http://www.rall.com/)
Waterboarding is an old torture technique from the Spanish Inquisition. It consists of immobilizing the “target” on an inclined board, head down, with cloth covering his or her face. Pouring water over the face simulates drowning. The victim inhales water, and is convinced that he or she is drowning and about to die. As [...]

Human Rights Facts (46): Religious Liberty

(source)
Religious liberty or the freedom of religion and belief is a human right. It is the right to be protected against coercion in matters of religion, to be free to practice and profess a religion of your choice, in private as well as in public, to change your religion, or to practice no religion at [...]

Human Rights Facts (41): Xenophobia

(copyright http://www.davidlachapelle.com)
 
Xenophobia, the contempt or fear of strangers or foreign people, often people of a different race or ethnic group, is not considered to be a disease like other “phobias”. It is part of a political struggle against adversaries, much like racism is. (Whereas racism is certainly xenophobic, xenophibia doesn’t have to be racist; it [...]

Human Rights Facts (36): Support for Human Rights

In a previous post, I gave some data showing the quasi-universal popular support for democracy as the best form of government.
In the current post, I try to do the same for some aspect of other, non-political human rights, such as the freedom of religion, free speech and press, and fair judiciary.
Most of the data are [...]

Human Rights Cartoon (89): Privacy

(source: www.boligan.com)
I’ve written about privacy before on this blog (here, here and here), with a particular attention to the importance of private property for privacy. The current post deals more generally with privacy.
There’s no light without darkness. By recognizing the right to keep certain thoughts, relationships and communications secret, one automatically recognizes the right to [...]

Human Rights Cartoon (83): Habeas Corpus

(copyright http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/opinions/cartoonsandvideos/toles_main.html)

(copyright http://www.ucomics.com/patoliphant/)
This post gives some more detail about one element of our system of “fair trial” which I discussed here.
It’s the very important principle of Habeas Corpus, litterally (from Latin) “(We command) that you have the body”. This is an important legal tool to defend oneself against arbitrary or unlawful arrest. Habeas Corpus is [...]

Human Rights Quote (36): Catholicism

In a speech on his U.S. trip, Benedict said that respect for human rights, not violence, was the key to solving many of the world’s problems.
While he didn’t identify the countries that have a stranglehold on global power, the German pope — just the third pontiff to address the U.N. General Assembly — addressed long-standing [...]

Human Rights Quote (32): China Olympics

To our knowledge, the next plan of the Tibetan independence forces is to organize suicide squads to launch violent attacks. They claimed that they fear neither bloodshed nor sacrifice. WU HEPING, China’s Public Security Bureau spokesman
First it was anti-communism, then it was “Asian values”, then economic stability and progress, and now TERRORISM. A list of [...]

Human Rights Cartoon (4): Privacy

This cartoon (by www.comics.com/editoons/cardow) makes a joke of the invasions of privacy that the Bush Administration considered to be necessary in the fight against terrorism. The so-called “liberation” of Iraq and the import of democracy there are contrasted with the limitations on human rights imposed in the home country.
The Bush policies that followed 9-11 are [...]