By Kenneth Roth
(Guantanamo Bay, Cuba) — On September 11, 2001, I sat in my office in the Empire State Building, then New York City’s third tallest building, with a direct view of the two tallest, the twin towers of the World Trade Center. Shortly after the second jet crashed into them, I…
BY THE NUMBERS
2,000,000
Over 2 million immigration detention transfers have occurred.
500,000
Over 500,000 detainees were transferred multiple times.
194,000
Over 194,000 detainees were transferred at least 3 times. 130,000Over 130,000 detainees were sent over 1,000 miles.
74,000
…
(Source: hrw.org)
In California, in 45 percent of 127 cases surveyed, youth who had been sentenced to life without parole had not been the person to physically commit a murder, Human Rights Watch found. They included a youth who stood by the garage door as a lookout during a car theft, a youth who sat in the getaway car during a burglary, and a youth who participated in a robbery in which murder was not part of the plan.
All photos © 2008 Private
Throne of weapons
Made by Cristovao Canhavato (Kester), Maputo, Mozambique, 2001 from decommissioned weapons collected since the end of the civil war in 1992.
Source: British Museum
Justice Julia Sebutinde: First African female sworn in as International Court of Justice Judge
In March 2012, Justice Julia Sebutinde from Uganda, officially started her term as a judge at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague hence becoming first African woman to sit on the UN Court.
According to an ICJ statement, “her career objective is to contribute to world peace through the adjudication and settlement of legal disputes at national, regional and international levels.’’
Before joining the ICJ, she conducted judicial inquiries into high-profile corruption cases in Uganda and was a judge prosecuting against the former Liberian president Charles Taylor at a special court in Sierra Leone.
A refugee from the Nuba Mountains wanders through the Yida refugee camp at dawn. People try to accomplish tasks early in the day before the heat sets in.
Photographer Pete Muller—honored last night by the Overseas Press Club—spent a week in Yida, South Sudan and neighboring camps providing visual media support for an Amnesty International research mission looking into wide-ranging human rights concerns in the area. See more here.
(via fotojournalismus)
New campaign video from the Socialist candidate for the presidency of France, Francois Hollande. Cynical, exploitative, racist? Or a positive attempt to be inclusionary?
Pictures of the Day: Sana’a, Yemen. (1) Protesters gather to demand judiciary reform. The sign being held up on the left reads, in my own rough translation, “Our demand is an independent judiciary/No to continued corruption.” Yemeni judges are currently on strike to force the issue of reform. (2) A Yemeni soldier walks past revolutionary street art in the capital.
Read: Kareem Fahim in the New York Times on the troubles that “bedevil” Yemen’s new government.
Credit: Yahya Arhab/EPA. Via/Via.
View more Picture of the Day posts. Submit a photo.
(via racialicious)
Controversial video released in the run up to Mexico’s presidential elections, showing children in the roles of corrupt or disinterested officials, violent gun-toting criminals, terrified migrants, drug traffickers and innocent victims. The message: “Somos milliones los que queremos un mejor pais”
A 12-year-old boy in a detention center in Biloxi, Mississippi, that is operated by a private security firm. Very similar in appearance to cells in East Africa.
Source: http://www.wired.com/rawfile/2012/04/photog-hopes-to-effect-policy-with-survey-of-juvenile-lock-ups/
“The United Nations children’s charity, UNICEF, reported that of Sarajevo’s 80,000 children at least 40% had been directly shot at by snipers.”
Unbelievable. Always staggers me how people pick up their lives and carry on after having endured such horrors. Such is the strength of the human spirit.
Source: http://blog.leica-camera.com/photographers/guest-blog-posts/tom-stoddart-the-siege-of-sarajevo/ via fotojournalismus.
It’s so amazing to see these scenes captured on video.
“The governor of Sudan’s Southern Kordofan has been filmed addressing troops before a battle with rebel fighters urging them to “take no prisoners”.
In footage obtained by Al Jazeera, Ahmed Harun, the state governor who has already been indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity in Darfur, is captured on camera telling his soldiers to take strong action against anyone who comes in their way.”
Source: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2012/03/2012331114433519971.html
Reprieve’s Crofton Black gives evidence to the European Parliament about how European governments were complicit in the US’s extraordinary rendition programme.
Jay Z v Dolly Parton (Jolene)
