human rights

United Nations Special Rapporteur James Anaya said at a meeting earlier this month that one of the challenges for indigenous peoples' health is "how indigenous women living near oil, gas and mining operations are '"vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS, which are often introduced with a rapid increase of extractive workers in indigenous areas,'" The First Perspective, Canada's source for news about indigenous peoples, reports. Anaya, who is the rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, also noted the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples requires "'in its articles 21, 22(1), 23 and 24 a framework for protecting and promoting indigenous peoples’ health. Together, these articles affirm indigenous peoples’ equal right to the 'highest attainable standard of physical and mental health' (art. 24); their right to improve their economic and social conditions (art. 21); and their right to 'determine and develop priorities and strategies for exercising their right to development' (art. 23)."

The U.S. Senate has not ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, including a vote in December 2012 that failed by five votes, The Interdependent reports. The convention was modeled after the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act. The Senate likely will consider the convention again this year, The Interdependent further reports.

"Both U.S. Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power and Secretary [of State John] Kerry have argued that the treaty’s benefits occur not through changing any U.S. laws or even spending U.S. resources, but rather by encouraging other countries to follow U.S. leadership in terms of the ADA—legislation that is widely recognized as among the world’s highest standards for protecting the rights of the disabled," The Interdependent also notes.

The United Nations has called on countries, including the United States, which use drone strikes for counterterrorism purposes to comply with international law, The Dawn, a newspaper in Pakistan, reports. The resolution was sponsored by Pakistan.

It is the first time the United Nations has spoken on the issuse of remote-controlled drones, The Dawn reprots.

The Washington Post reports on the criticism that the International Criminal Court is facing in Africa: "The 11-year-old court of last resort was set up to take on some of the world’s most heinous crimes. But its choice of cases has frustrated African leaders, who say that comparable crimes elsewhere in the world are being ignored and that race is a factor in the decision-making. With Kenya’s president and deputy president on trial, African leaders are pushing for changes that some ICC advocates say would undermine the court completely. At stake is the future of a court whose creation was touted as a major breakthrough in ensuring that those who commit crimes against humanity do not escape justice — a dream that African nations, more than any other region in the world , signed up for."

A United Nations committee has advanced a resolution sponsored by Brazil and Germany to make the right to privacy against unlawful surveillance applicable to anyone in the world, The Washington Post reported. The two countries sponsored the measure after revelations of monitoring  by the United States of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The resolution is expected to pass the United Nations General Assembly too, The Post further reported. While the resolution is not binding law, General Assembly resolutions " reflect world opinion and carry political weight," The Post also reported.

The largely symbolic resolution was watered down though. The Post reported: "The key compromise dropped the contention that the domestic and international interception and collection of communications and personal data, 'in particular massive surveillance,' may constitute a human rights violation."

When the United Nations Declaration On the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted in 2007, it was seen as a milestone in better protecting the rights of indigenous peoples to protect their lands and cultures. But it is unlikely that President Barack Obama is going to issue an executive order to enforce the declaration, the Indian Country Today Media Network reports. Yet American Indian legal experts who gathered recently say that law to enforce the principles behind the declaration are needed more than ever. Those principles are that free, prior and informed consent from indigenous peoples is necessary before policies affecting them are implemented. U.S. assistant secretary for Indian Affairs Kevin Washburn said in a speech that "free, prior and informed consent" is more like veto power, ICTMN reports.

James Anaya, U.N. special rapporteur on indigenous rights, said during a visit to Canada that "there's a crisis in Canada with regard to indigenous issues, notwithstanding some important developments within Canada over the last decades," the Associated Press reported.

The disparities include: one in five indigenous Canadians live in dilapidated and often overcrowded homes, Anaya said, and "funding for aboriginal housing is woefully inadequate;" and that the suicide rate among Inuit and First Nations youth who live on reservations is more than five times greater than that of other Canadians.

ALM's The Legal Times reports on en banc arguments held yesterday "in a case that could undo a terrorism conviction and reshape how the government prosecutes criminal charges against other detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba."

I am always interested in news out of Malaysia as my college roommate is from there.

Here is this report: Indigenous peoples in Malaysia are facing forced displacement and the loss of livelihood due to extractive industries in east Malaysia, Free Malaysia Today reported. The issue was brought up in a session of the United Nations Human Rights Council.  Some Malaysian leaders want James Anaya, the special UN rapporteur on indigenous rights to conduct a mission in their country, Free Malaysia Today also reported.

Separately, a human rights commission has recommended the establishment of a "Native Title Court or Special Court to deal with the backlog of native land rights cases currently in the civil court." That full story is here: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/focus-on-bumiputera-s...

When former Guatemala dictator José Efraín Ríos Montt was convicted of crimes including genocide earlier this year, it was the first time a former head of state was prosecuted for genocide in his own country's courts, according to think tank International Crisis Group. But then the Constitutional Court annulled the verdict. ICG is concerned that the verdict was annulled due to political pressure. The case against Ríos Montt and another co-defendant has gone to a new tribunal instead. ICG makes many recommendations in this report, including depoliticizing "the selection process for a new Supreme Court and judges of other appellate tribunals, as well as for re-nominating or choosing a successor for the attorney general. Urgent steps must be taken to ensure that the process is both transparent and inclusive, reflecting the diversity of Guatemala's population, not just the interests of the wealthy and politically powerful."