Showing posts with label Human Rights watch. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Human Rights watch. Show all posts
Saturday, December 5, 2015
Video - Lebanese Man Takes His ’12-Year-Old Bride’ in Public, Watch How People Reacted.
Video - Lebanese Man Takes His ’12-Year-Old Bride’ in Public, Watch How People Reacted. (Egyptianstreets).
In a renewed attempt to raise awareness about the prevalence of child marriages in Lebanon, nongovernmental organization Kafa (meaning “enough” in Arabic) staged a photoshoot with a middle-aged man and a 12-year-old girl in a wedding dress.
While some passersby did not react and others were visibly disturbed but kept their opinions to themselves, a large number of those who appeared in the video were outraged at the setup.
One woman demanded to know where the young girl’s parents were, exclaiming, “She’s 12! I was jogging but my feet froze when I saw her.”
Another bystander reminded the woman that “the law allows it.”
Child marriages continue to be an issue of great concern in many countries in the region.Read the full story here.
Related: Too young to wed.
Thursday, October 30, 2014
Video - Human Rights Watch documentary: "Child Brides in Tanzania"
Child marriage in Tanzania limits girls’ access to education and exposes them to serious harms. Human Rights Watch documented how child marriage severely curtails girls’ access to education, and exposes them to exploitation and violence – including marital rape and female genital mutilation (FGM) – and reproductive health risks. HT:
Compelling work by @marcusbleasdale @hrw on the plight of child brides in Tanzania, must watch http://t.co/35fjmIMtVc
— Peter Bouckaert (@bouckap) October 30, 2014Sunday, October 26, 2014
E-Team - Official Trailer - Netflix
The truth will be exposed this October on Netflix... HT: HumanRightswatch
When human atrocities run rampant, when ruthless dictators hold a nation captive, that's when the E-Team is called into action.
From Academy Award winning filmmaker Ross Kauffman and Emmy Award nominee Katy Chevigny, the latest Netflix Original Documentary brings you behind enemy lines and into the teeth of the world's most dangerous war zones.
A group of fierce idealists, The E-Team intrepidly risks their lives to expose the truth behind the horrific warcrimes of Bashar al-Assad and Muammar Gaddafi among others, providing a voice to the helpless victims of global genocide. E-Team will premiere across all territories on Netflix Oct. 24. Learn more at http://eteamfilm.com
Hmmm....."Quod facimus in vita resonat in aeternum." (What we do in life, echoes in eternity). Gladiator.
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
NO CALL FOR DISARMING THE HAMAS TERRORISTS NOW - John Kerry Statement on Today's Cease-fire Agreement
NO CALL FOR DISARMING THE TERRORISTS HAMAS NOW - Secretary of State John Kerry Statement on Today's Cease-fire Agreement. HT: IMRA.
Consider the contrast:
"All terrorist groups in Gaza must disarm" Council of the European Union 15.8.2014
The following statement by Secretary of State John Kerry has NOTHING CLOSE TO THE EU call.
Mr. Kerry talks of reconstruction but "peace and security, without terrorist attacks, without rockets, without tunnels" is relegated to "the next phase"..."future of the region"..."long term solution for Gaza".
But bluntly: which comes first? the Messiah or the removal of the rockets?
=====
Statement on Today's Cease-fire Agreement
Press Statement
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
August 26, 2014
http://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2014/08/230910.htm
We strongly support today’s cease-fire agreement, and call on all parties to fully and completely comply with its terms. We hope very much that this cease-fire will prove to be durable and sustainable, that it will put an end to rocket and mortar attacks, and that it will help to bring about an enduring end to the conflict in Gaza.
As soon as calm is restored, the delivery of urgently needed humanitarian assistance to the people in Gaza must be accelerated, and the United States and the international community are fully committed to supporting this effort. We are also prepared to work with our international partners on a major reconstruction initiative, with appropriate measures in place to ensure that this is for the benefit of the civilian population in Gaza, not Hamas and other terrorist organizations. We look forward to coordinating closely with President Abbas and the Palestinian Authority on these critical efforts.
Over the course of the last few weeks, we have continued to work in close coordination with the Egyptians, the Israelis and the Palestinian Authority, and others in the region to arrive at this moment of opportunity. I want to commend the Egyptians for their role in hosting the negotiations in Cairo and for continuing to work to reach agreement on a cease-fire.
We are all aware that this is an opportunity, not a certainty. Today’s agreement comes after many hours and days of intensive discussions about how a sustainable cease-fire might provide the space and the opportunity to address long-term issues. I have assured both Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Abbas that the United States is ready to continue our engagement in that effort.
We are approaching the next phase with our eyes wide open. We have been down this road before and we are all aware of the challenges ahead. Both the Israelis and the Palestinians have strong views about their needs and the future of the region. Certain bedrock outcomes, though, are essential if there is to be long term solution for Gaza. Israelis have to be able to live in peace and security, without terrorist attacks, without rockets, without tunnels, without sirens going off and families scrambling to bomb shelters. Palestinians also need to be able to live in peace and security and have full economic and social opportunities to build better lives for themselves and for their children. Getting there will not be easy, but it is the only path to a future that the people on both sides deserve. ________________________________________
Monday, August 25, 2014
Sunday, August 24, 2014
IDF Eliminates Hamas terrorist group Finance and 'Justice' Head 'Al Ghoul'
IDF Eliminates Hamas Finance and 'Justice' Head 'Al Ghoul'. (INN).
The IDF on Sunday eliinated another Hamas leader, Mohammed al-Ghoul, who was responsible for transferring funds to the terrorist organization and was the "Justice Minister" in the Hamas government.
The pinpoint airstrike in northern Gaza took out al-Ghoul, confirmed the IDF. Palestinian Arab reports have confirmed the appraisal, saying al-Ghoul was killed in an airstrike on his car.
In pictures circulating in the Arab reports of al-Ghoul's ruined car the Hamas leader's body can clearly be seen. Likewise, numerous wads of US dollars can be seen inside the burning car, money that presumably was on its way to fund terror attacks.
Al-Ghoul was the contact person for the 2009 Goldstone report which accused Israel of "war crimes" in Operation Cast Lead, before Judge Richard Goldstone later retracted that core accusation of the report.
The assassination follows several similar targeted strikes.
Last Wednesday night three senior Hamas "military wing" Al-Qassam Brigades leaders were eliminated in an airstrike; the three were Mohammed Abu Shamalah, Raed al-Attar and Mohammed Barhum.
That strike followed another on Tuesday night which targeted Al-Qassam Brigades chief Mohammed Deif, whose wife and two children were taken out in the attack. There are conflicting reports as to whether Deif was killed in the strike or survived.
The assassination comes after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu declared earlier on Sunday "we've shown in the last several days that there will be no immunity for those who shoot at the people of Israel."
"Hamas is paying, and will continue to pay, a heavy price for the crimes it carries out," Netanyahu said. "I call on residents of Gaza to immediately leave any structure from which Hamas carries out terror activity against us. All such sites are a target for us."
Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon likewise spoke about the precision strikes, saying "we take advantage of every intelligence and operational opportunity to harm terrorists and their commanders, even when they are in hide-outs and surround themselves with women and children. We know how to get to them."
Hmmm.....Let's hope he doesn't become a real 'Ghoul'
'Human Rights Watch' Official Justifies Hamas’ Use of Terror Tunnels
Human Rights Watch Official Justifies Hamas’ Use of Terror Tunnels. HT: Algemeiner.
So it seems that according to Roth, international humanitarian law allows Hamas to build and use tunnels in order to attack or capture combatants, i.e. IDF soldiers.
But if Hamas uses the tunnels to attack civilians, they would be illegal under international humanitarian law - at least as interpreted by Roth, who is paid more than $400,000 per year for his expertise.
Due to a long list of terrorist attacks, Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization not only by Israel, but also by the U.S. and Europe. The group’s virulently anti-Semitic charter states already in its preamble:
“Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious.” The charter’s article seven includes the notorious Islamic teaching:
“The Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Muslims, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.”There are countless statements by prominent Hamas officials that reaffirm the group’s intense hatred for anything Jewish. Most recently, Hamas released a song that included the following lines:
“Annihilate all the Zionists! … Raze it [Israel] to the ground, exterminate the cockroaches’ nest, and banish all the Zionists.”Perhaps Ken Roth is appalled by these statements, though I haven’t seen his protests. If you have, please note so in the comments and I will update this post.
However, just in the past 24 hours, Ken Roth has repeatedly made it very clear that he is appalled by what Israel’s supporters say and write: it’s just “so much squirming and screaming.”
Indeed, why can’t Israel’s supporters simply accept that the Executive Director of Human Rights Watch pronounces Hamas tunnels as perfectly legitimate under international humanitarian law as long as the genocidal anti-Semitic terrorist group will do its very best to avoid civilian casualties while attacking from the tunnels?
But Ken Roth’s verdict on the Hamas tunnels has actually far-reaching implications, particularly since he also clarified today that acts of aggression are not necessarily a violation of international humanitarian law as long as non-combatants are not the target of the aggression.
Hezbollah also knows now that Ken Roth sees nothing wrong if it tunnels into Israel to attack the IDF. And the blood-drenched jihadists of the newly formed Islamic State (IS) may now want to consider tunneling into Jordan to attack the Jordanian army. All these terror groups can feel confident that the Executive Director of Human Rights Watch will speak up for their right to tunnel wherever they want to attack the defense forces of another country.
There are also implications beyond the Middle East. The tunnels dug from North Korea to attack South Korea would presumably also get a nod of approval from Ken Roth; and while they are often described rather negatively as “Tunnels of Aggression,” we know now that the Executive Director of Human Rights Watch is very careful not to denounce aggression as long as it is done right.
That could also be good news for Iran and Hezbollah: since they have a well-known presence in South America, they could perhaps make use of the smuggling tunnels under the U.S. border with Mexico to attack the U.S., and as long as they are careful to target U.S. army units (or maybe border guards would also be OK?), they should be able to count on Ken Roth to defend the legitimacy of their attack.
Welcome to the brave new world of Human Rights Watch, where even the most depraved terrorist groups get a chance to exercise their human right to build and use tunnels to attack those who fight terrorism. Source Algemeiner. Hmmmm......The 'New' Art of War.
Thursday, July 24, 2014
The Faux ‘Investigations’ Of Human Rights Watch, concerning Israel.
The Faux ‘Investigations’ Of Human Rights Watch, concerning Israel.By Sarah Garfinkel.
On July 21, Ken Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch (HRW), sarcastically tweeted, “People accept @HRW reporting as fair & accurate around globe but when it comes to poor, helpless, defenseless #Israel we’re suddenly biased.” Now, the first half of Roth’s statement is specious. HRW is roundly and widely criticized across the globe for its politicized approach and false reporting.
But the more important question relates to the second part of Roth’s antagonistic and unprofessional Twitter rant: Why is Roth so worried about HRW’s work on Israel?
One place to start is the pattern of false accusations and invented or totally distorted legal language, which NGO Monitor and others have identified in HRW’s reports on Israel’s actions in Gaza (2012 and 2008-9), Lebanon (2006), and Jenin (2002). As opposed to rigor and expertise, HRW “investigations” reflect anti-Israel bias, lack of research methodology, and flat-out fabrications.
For instance, during Israel’s November 2012 response to Gaza rocket attacks, an 11 month-old baby was tragically killed. Citing “news reports and witnesses,” HRW immediately blamed Israel for the child’s death. HRW’s “investigation” was revealed to be faulty when a detailed U.N. analysis confirmed that, in fact, the death was caused by “a Palestinian rocket that fell short of Israel.” By the time the truth came out, though, HRW’s damage was already done.
More egregious were HRW’s reports during the 2006 Lebanon War, with numerous false claims attributed to “eyewitnesses” from territory fully controlled by Hezbollah. After an attack in Qana, HRW claimed a number of casualties that were nearly double the on-site figure provided by the Red Cross. Similarly, in the town of Srifa, HRW claimed that no less than 42 civilians died in an Israeli attack. After more than a year of promoting this false accusation, HRW finally admitted that22 people died and of these, 17 were armed combatants.
Going back a decade, HRW was instrumental in initiating and perpetuating the Jenin “massacre” myth in the immediate aftermath of Israel’s operation Defensive Shield (2002). HRW published an “investigative report” titled “Jenin: IDF Military Operations,” based primarily on unverifiable “eyewitness testimony” from Palestinians. The report consisted of false charges that “IDF military attacks were indiscriminate… failing to make a distinction between combatants and civilians… and vastly disproportionate.” That Palestinians had located a terror center in the middle of a densely populated neighborhood-a clear violation of moral and legal standards, was ignored.
In each instance, HRW’s “reports” lack professional standards and research methodologies, and show a deep-seated ideological bias against Israel. HRW possesses neither the military expertise to conduct proper investigations that would lead to their conclusions. The faux-research is then repeated without question in the international media. And every time the allegations are repeated, new rounds of anti-Israel headlines and condemnations are triggered.
The same has already occurred during the current fighting.
On July 16, HRW presented the findings of its “investigation” into four Israeli airstrikes in Gaza. In a statement, HRW alleges that Israel “either did not attack a legitimate military target or attacked despite the likelihood of civilian casualties being disproportionate to the military gain.” According to HRW, “such attacks committed deliberately or recklessly constitute war crimes.”
However, when reading the statement it becomes clear that the “investigations” consist of conversations with people in Hamas-controlled Gaza who may or may not have witnessed the event, as well as recycling media accounts. HRW attempts to create a façade of expertise, writing that it “could not determine the weapons used in [one] attack,” as if its assessments would be in any way meaningful.
Furthermore, establishing whether or not IDF targeted legitimate military objectives and used proportional force would require knowledge of intelligence possessed by Israeli commanders at the time of the strikes, and information on the officer’s intent. Since HRW cannot and does not possess this information, its “evidence” consists solely of ignorance and Israel’s refusal to explain its operational decisions. Since HRW “found no evidence that any of the victims was a member of an armed group or that there was a military objective in the area,” then it must be so.
Yet, the media continues to uncritically quote HRW as expert spokespeople on human rights and international law. CNN’s Wolf Blizter (July 16) cited Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at HRW, “Israel’s rhetoric is all about precision attacks but attacks with no military target and many civilian deaths can hardly be considered precise.” Israeli minister Naftali Bennett responded correctly that HRW is nothing more than a radical left-wing political group. Whitson also told United Arab Emirates-basedThe National (July 16) that “recent documented cases in Gaza sadly fit Israel’s long record of unlawful airstrikes with high civilian casualties.”
This is base demonization of Israel, from a senior member of HRW’s staff no less. Unfortunately, however, it is consistent with the unethical standards set by the head of the organization.
Sarah Garfinkel is deputy editor of the Jerusalem-based research institution NGO Monitor.
Friday, June 27, 2014
Human Rights Watch - Iraq: ISIS Execution Site Located.
Human Rights Watch - Iraq: ISIS Execution Site Located. (HRW).
(Baghdad) – Analysis of photographs and satellite imagery strongly indicates that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) conducted mass executions in Tikrit after seizing control of the city on June 11, 2014.
The analysis suggests that ISIS killed between 160 and 190 men in at least two locations between June 11 and 14. The number of victims may well be much higher, but the difficulty of locating bodies and accessing the area has prevented a full investigation, Human Rights Watch said.
On June 12, ISIS claimed to have executed 1,700 “Shi’a members of the army” in Tikrit. Two days later, it posted to a website photographs with groups of apparently executed men. On June 22, Iraq’s human rights minister announced that ISIS had executed 175 Iraqi Air Force recruits in Tikrit.
“The photos and satellite images from Tikrit provide strong evidence of a horrible war crime that needs further investigation,” said Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director. “ISIS apparently executed at the very least 160 people in Tikrit.”
On June 12, ISIS first announced on its now-closed Twitter feed that it had “exterminated” 1,700 Iraqi troops. The same day, the group posted videos of hundreds of captured men in civilian clothes, who it claimed had surrendered at the nearby Iraqi Speiker military base.
On June 14, ISIS posted roughly 60 photographs, some of which show masked ISIS fighters loading captives in civilian clothes onto trucks and forcing them to lie in three shallow trenches with their hands bound behind their backs. Some of the images show masked gunmen pointing and firing their weapons at these men.
By comparing ground features and landmarks in the photographs released by ISIS, Human Rights Watch established that two of the trenches were at the same location.
By comparing these photographs with satellite imagery from 2013 and publicly available photographs from Tikrit taken earlier, Human Rights Watch located the site in a field about 100 meters north of the Water Palace in Tikrit – a former palace of Saddam Hussein next to the Tigris River. The location of the third trench has not been identified.Read the full story here.
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