Human Rights Watch, one of the world’s largest and most influential
human rights organizations, is facing an unusual amount of public
criticism. Two Nobel Peace Prize laureates, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel and
Mairead Maguire, and a group of over 100 scholars have written an open
letter criticizing what they describe as a revolving door with the U.S.
government that impacts HRW’s work in certain countries, including
Venezuela. The letter urges HRW to bar those
who have crafted or executed U.S. foreign policy from serving as staff,
advisers or board members. Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth
Roth has defended his organization’s independence, responding: "We are
careful to ensure that prior affiliations do not affect the impartiality
of Human Rights Watch’s work. … We routinely expose, document and
denounce human rights violations by the US government, including
torture, indefinite detention, illegal renditions, unchecked mass
surveillance, abusive use of drones, harsh sentencing and racial
disparity in criminal justice, and an unfair and ineffective immigration
system." We host a debate between HRW counsel Reed Brody and Keane Bhatt, a writer and activist who organized the open letter..........read more............
Thursday, June 12, 2014
Part I: Economic and Political Backdrop
Most Ethiopians agree that appropriately planned,
designed, constructed, and operated dams on Abay (the Blue Nile) are
economic necessities that should be supported to ensure the long-term
economic development of the country and the well-being of its people....read more...
Ethiopia’s Police State: The Silencing of Opponents, Journalists and Students Detained
Detention under spurious charges in Ethiopia is nothing new. With the
second highest rate of imprisoned journalists in Africa[1] and arbitrary
detention for anyone who openly objects to the Ethiopian Peoples’
Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) regime’s despotic iron fist, the
Western backed government in Addis Ababa is a dab hand at silencing its
critics....read more...
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