Search results for ""Human Rights Watch""

De massa call me and tell me, "Woman, I’s pay big money for you, and I’s done dat 'cause I wants you to raise me chillum. I’s put you to live with Rufus for dat purpose. Now, if you doesn’t want whippin’ at de stake, you do what I wants." I thinks ‘bout Massa buyin’ me off de block and savin’ me from bein’ separated from my folks, and ‘bout bein’ whipped at de stake. Dere it am. What am I to do? So asks Rose Williams of Bell County, Texas, whose long-ago forced cohabitation remains as bitter at age 90 as when she was “just a ingnoramus chile” of 16. In all her years after freedom, she never had any desire to marry. Firsthand accounts of female slaves are few. The best-known narratives of slavery are those of Frederick Douglass and other men. Even the photos most people have seen are of male slaves chained and beaten. What we know of the lives of female slaves comes mainly from the fiction of authors like Toni Morrison and movies like Gone With the Wind. Far More Terrible for Women seeks to broaden the discussion by presenting 27 narratives of female ex-slaves. Editor Patrick Minges combed the WPA interviews of the 1930s for those of women, selecting a range of stories that give a taste of the unique challenges, complexities, and cruelties that were the lot of females under the “peculiar institution.” Patrick Minges worked for 17 years for Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. He teaches in Stokes County Schools and at Forsyth Technical Community College in Winston-Salem. He is also the author of Slavery in the Cherokee Nation: The Keetowah Society and the Defining of a People, 1855-1867 and Black Indian Slave Narratives.

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On February 15, 2003, millions of people around the world demonstrated against the war that the United States, the United Kingdom, and their allies were planning to wage in Iraq. Despite this being the largest protest in the history of humankind, the war on Iraq began the next month. That year, the World Tribunal on Iraq (WTI) emerged from the global antiwar movement that had mobilized against the invasion and subsequent occupation. Like the earlier tribunal on Vietnam convened by Bertrand Russell and Jean-Paul Sartre, the WTI sought to document—and provide grounds for adjudicating—war crimes committed by the United States, the United Kingdom, and their allied forces during the Iraq war. For the Love of Humanity builds on two years of transnational fieldwork within the decentralized network of antiwar activists who constituted the WTI in some twenty cities around the world. Ayça Çubukçu illuminates the tribunal up close, both as an ethnographer and a sympathetic participant. In the process, she situates debates among WTI activists—a group encompassing scholars, lawyers, students, translators, writers, teachers, and more—alongside key jurists, theorists, and critics of global democracy. WTI activists confronted many dilemmas as they conducted their political arguments and actions, often facing interpretations of human rights and international law that, unlike their own, were not grounded in anti-imperialism. Çubukçu approaches this conflict by broadening her lens, incorporating insights into how Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the Iraqi High Tribunal grappled with the realities of Iraq's occupation. Through critical analysis of the global debate surrounding one of the early twenty-first century's most significant world events, For the Love of Humanity addresses the challenges of forging global solidarity against imperialism and makes a case for reevaluating the relationships between law and violence, empire and human rights, and cosmopolitan authority and political autonomy.

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In recent years, aggrieved groups around the world have routinely portrayed themselves as victims of human rights abuses. Physically and mentally disabled people, indigenous peoples, AIDS patients, and many others have chosen to protect and promote their interests by advancing new human rights norms before the United Nations and other international bodies. Often, these claims have met strong resistance from governments and corporations. More surprisingly, even apparent allies, such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and other nongovernmental organizations, have voiced misgivings, arguing that rights "proliferation" will weaken efforts to protect their traditional concerns: civil and political rights. Why are certain global problems recognized as human rights issues while others are not? How do local activists transform long-standing problems into universal rights claims? When and why do human rights groups, governments, and international organizations endorse new rights? The International Struggle for New Human Rights is the first book to address these issues. Focusing on activists who advance new rights, the book introduces a framework for understanding critical strategies and conflicts involved in the struggle to persuade the human rights movement to move beyond traditional problems and embrace pressing new ones. Essays in the volume consider rights activism by such groups as the South Asian Dalits, sexual minorities, and children of wartime rape victims, while others explore new issues such as health rights, economic rights, and the right to water. Examining both the successes and failures of such campaigns, The International Struggle for New Human Rights will be a key resource not only for scholars but also for those on the front lines of human rights work.

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On February 15, 2003, millions of people around the world demonstrated against the war that the United States, the United Kingdom, and their allies were planning to wage in Iraq. Despite this being the largest protest in the history of humankind, the war on Iraq began the next month. That year, the World Tribunal on Iraq (WTI) emerged from the global antiwar movement that had mobilized against the invasion and subsequent occupation. Like the earlier tribunal on Vietnam convened by Bertrand Russell and Jean-Paul Sartre, the WTI sought to document—and provide grounds for adjudicating—war crimes committed by the United States, the United Kingdom, and their allied forces during the Iraq war. For the Love of Humanity builds on two years of transnational fieldwork within the decentralized network of antiwar activists who constituted the WTI in some twenty cities around the world. Ayça Çubukçu illuminates the tribunal up close, both as an ethnographer and a sympathetic participant. In the process, she situates debates among WTI activists—a group encompassing scholars, lawyers, students, translators, writers, teachers, and more—alongside key jurists, theorists, and critics of global democracy. WTI activists confronted many dilemmas as they conducted their political arguments and actions, often facing interpretations of human rights and international law that, unlike their own, were not grounded in anti-imperialism. Çubukçu approaches this conflict by broadening her lens, incorporating insights into how Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the Iraqi High Tribunal grappled with the realities of Iraq's occupation. Through critical analysis of the global debate surrounding one of the early twenty-first century's most significant world events, For the Love of Humanity addresses the challenges of forging global solidarity against imperialism and makes a case for reevaluating the relationships between law and violence, empire and human rights, and cosmopolitan authority and political autonomy.

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Suicide terror has become a fundamental strategic weapon in the confrontation between Fundamentalist Islam and its adversaries and now constitutes a threat to world welfare and security. The Shahids proposes that the nature of this terror changed after the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11. In this first book to be published on the subject, the author offers both an interpretation and an overall picture of a worldwide phenomenon that is not yet fully recognized, even in Israel, which remains a central arena for the perpetration of suicide attacks by terror organizations.The Shahids analyzes the general phenomenon of Islamic suicide attacks, and provides the reader with tools, comparative analyses, and comprehensive information enabling enlightened examination about suicide attacks worldwide. After a review of the historical development of the religious and ideological values legitimating suicide attacks, the volume explores the ways in which all terror organizations are both alike and different. It focuses on the countries that support terror--Iraq, Iran, and Saudi Arabia--discusses suicide attacks perpetrated by women and the suicide attackers' mothers, and shows how various countries have put an end to suicide attacks. It scrutinizes testimony drawn from confiscated documents regarding the approach of terror leaders and the administrative support of various organizations for suicide attacks, while offering descriptions and direction on ways to contend with this challenge. It explores the possibilities and recommendations for an international struggle against suicide attacks through the implementation of recently published, innovative ideas proposed by UN Organizations, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch.The Shahids maps out the overall phenomenon of suicide attacks, as well as identifies various organizations and central key figures through comparative cross-sections.

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'Seamlessly woven together, the book explores their [father and son] shared passion for humanism and social activism, using the photograph as a means to foster intimate connections and explore meaningful truths -- a lesson Steve learned studying with illustrious photojournalist W. Eugene Smith.' - i-D Vice 'The dynamism of the images and the inventive sequencing make this not just a book of great photographs, but a great photography book full of energy and verve... a fitting tribute to [Shapiro's] legacy' - B&W Photography Famed photojournalist Steve Schapiro and his son Theophilus Donoghue have collaborated on seventy thirty, a photo project that is 70% Schapiro, 30% Donoghue. Seventy thirty depicts the various faces and expressions of humanity, from metropolitans to migrants, unseen homeless to conspicuous celebrities, such as Alec Guinness, Allen Ginsberg, Muhammad Ali, Robert De Niro, René Magritte, Janis Joplin, Andy Warhol, and the Velvet Underground. Schapiro photographs early New York skateboarders while Donoghue documents current Colombian breakdancers. Father and son both capture philosophically poignant moments that rouse reflection. Schapiro includes his classic photo “Man on Iceberg,” which was the opening double-page spread of a Life story on existentialism. In a similar fashion, Donoghue contributes his contemplative “Hindsight Intersection,” which was recently featured in ARTSY’s 20 21 Artists in Support of Human Rights Watch benefit auction. Shooting in monochrome with an occasional dash of colour, Schapiro and Donoghue portray the proud and lofty as well as the humble and humorous. Alternately profound and playful, Schapiro and Donoghue’s photographs capture a vast range of human emotion and experience. Like his father, Donoghue is equally concerned with social justice issues. For this project, Schapiro has selected images from the 60s civil rights movement and, with Donoghue, provided photos from today’s Black Lives Matter protests and environmental rallies. Apart from numerous stateside locations, their project includes images from India, Italy, Nicaragua, Panama, Costa Rica, Colombia, and Ecuador. Together father and son provide a touching overview of humanity throughout the world from the 1950s to present day.

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"Remarkable insight and sensitivity ...deepen[s] our understanding of human resilience and how people rebuild their lives from tragic circumstances." --KENNETH ROTH, Executive Director, Human Rights Watch "The stories in this book are eloquently and poignantly recounted, and offer a vital, complex portrait of what the long road to peace looks like." --DINAW MENGESTU, author of The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears and How to Read the Air "Profound ...Rarely do we get the opportunity to delve into the thoughts of the young caught up in such a tragedy--and meet them not just once in their lives but again years later." --TIM JUDAH, Europe correspondent for Bloomberg World View, Balkans correspondent for The Economist, and author of The Serbs: History, Myth and the Destruction of Yugoslavia Imagine you are nine years old. Your best friend's father is arrested, half your classmates disappear from school, and someone burns down the house across the road. Imagine you are ten years old and have to cross a snow-covered mountain range at night in order to escape the soldiers who are trying to kill you. How would you deal with these memories five, ten, or twenty years later once you are an adult? Jones, a relief worker and child psychiatrist, interviewed over forty Serb and Muslim children who came of age during the Bosnian War and now returns, twenty years after the war began, to discover the adults they have become. A must-read for anyone interested in human rights, children's issues, and the psychological fallout from war, this engaging book addresses the continuing debate about PTSD, the roots of ethnic identity and nationalism, the sources of global conflict, the best paths toward peacemaking and reconciliation, and the resilience of the human spirit. Lynne Jones was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for her work in child psychiatry in conflict-affected areas of Central Europe and has established and directed mental health programs in areas of conflict and natural disaster throughout Latin America, the Balkans, East and West Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. Her field diaries have been published in O, The Oprah Magazine and London Review of Books, and her audio diaries have been broadcast on the BBC World Service.

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