January 2008
Issue No. 408
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Human rights in a time of terror
Thanks to the War on Terror, argues David Ransom, the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights marks a low point in its history alongside a propaganda festival at the Beijing Olympics.
'The power of love can conquer the love of power'
Women of Zimbabwe Arise.
Breathless in Beijing
Sam Geall reports on broken promises at the Olympics.
For the happiness of individuals
Sex rights campaigners in Poland and Latvia.
Too late for Martha
Denied treatment while pregnant, she died in agony after her child was born. Jens Erik Gould tells a tragic story that changed the law on abortion in Colombia.
Off the buses
The Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company (Sherkat-e Vahed).
A guide through the maze
The Declarations, Covenants and Conventions that make up the International Bill of Rights.
Who killed Maksim Maksimov?
Not that no-one knows. Maria Yulikova reports on the brutal assassination of a journalist in Russia.
Human rights - the facts
Human rights refer not just to personal civil and political rights, but collective economic, social and cultural ones too. Worldwide, they are more violated than respected.
The blood of Bhopal
TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS – BHOPAL, INDIA
Bitter Crop
Brandon Astor Jones writes from death row in the US about race, class and songs.
Rwanda – why I support the death penalty
Though Jean Baptiste Kayigamba lost most of his family and friends to the genocide, he doesn’t think the Government should kill even more people.
Can do in Kathmandu
Water Rights – Nepal
News, views, and & voices
SPECIAL FEATURE
The eternal minority
The Roma – still widely known as ‘Gypsies’ – have had a raw deal for centuries and are only now starting to raise their voice on the international stage. Eleanor Harding looks at their plight in Romania, while the NI traces their history back to India.
Currents
A little plot of earth
Poor Indian farmers on the march
‘Francanola’ threatens Aussies
Australians support the ban on GM crops
Fishy carbon credits
Companies profit from toxic dumping in the sea
Correa kicks out the dimwit
Ecuador intends to kick the US Air Force off Manta airbase
‘Maroon the gays’
Ugandans facing a barrage of discrimination
Seriously
Belgian blues
True tales of a mixed-up world
Southern Exposure
Children’s Day
Remembering Brazilian slavery in the capoeira dance, photographed by Tatiana Cardeal.
Worldbeaters
Devlet Bahçeli
In Turkey the political story is unusual: a liberal Islamic government is holding the line against the fascist-tinged nationalism of Devlet Bahçeli and his Grey Wolves youth movement.
Mixed Media
The Best of 2007
Music, Books, Films
The Guantánamo Files
The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison
Kala
Sri Lankan artist from West London
No Country for Old Men
The new Coen Brothers film
Nobody’s Home
Ugresic’s new collection of essays
Our Daily Bread
Industrialized food production
Soul Science
Fusion of West African proto-blues and Western electric guitar
The Guantánamo Files
The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison
View from New Delhi
The Left’s betrayal
Urvashi Butalia feels betrayed by politicians on the Left who embrace globalization.
Making Waves
Tunisian Association Against AIDS
The work against the odds of activists in the Tunisian Association Against AIDS
Country Profile
Kazakhstan
A nation of extremes.
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from
THIS MONTH'S EDITOR
Even if it ends as routine, the abuse of human rights usually begins in disguise, as an intricate dilemma, a delicate balance, an exceptional circumstance. But there is nothing exceptional at all about the sight of people with too much power cultivating yet more of it, since they can think of little else. Their weakness is that they don’t know just how transparent they have become. Seeing through them is easy, but acting accordingly can be dangerous. For that we tend to rely, perhaps too heavily, on inspiration from the kind of people who crowd the magazine pages that follow. All of them – and many, many more – would, in another world, be revered above any number of athletes manufactured at great expense for the Beijing Olympics. Another world is made not just more necessary but more possible because the stories told here contain, like human rights themselves, the very stuff of life.
David Ransom for the
New Internationalist Co-operative
davidr@newint.org
Voices from the margins:
Multimedia: video, podcasts, and more.
- Poetry Slam in Zimbabwe
- The House of Hunger poetry slam held in Zimbabwe in 2006, and organised by the Pamberi Trust, showcased young artists performing inspirational work on issues from corporate power to child soldiers. The video features four of the poets.
Published by Pambazuka News.
- Iranian women speak out
- 3 March 2007, London. Women's rights activists marched through the English capital last week to celebrate International Women's Day with a protest against the misogyny of the Islamic regime in Iran and the threat of invasion by the US. Hear the voices of Iranian feminists Azar and Leila Parnian and the sounds of the demonstration as it passed through the heart of the city. Click here to learn more about the campaign.
Produced by Heidi Bachram.
- Raised Voices audio:
- Benny from West Papua on Corporate Power
- Vinayan from India on agriculture
