Conversations on Vietnam Development
A Cambodian Buddhist monk, foreground, holds a portrait of Cambodia prominent political analyst Kem Ley as he takes part in a funeral procession of Kem Ley in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Sunday, July 24, 2016. Photo: Heng Sinith/AP-TT
This is the first time the Brazilian state stands accused of indigenous rights violations at an international courtBy Sam Cowie
SAO PAULO, April 21 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – An international human rights commission has accused Brazil of failing to obey its own constitution and ringfence ancient tribal territories in a landmark court case that pits the state against indigenous people.
Brazil could be forced to pay damages if it loses the trial in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which is hearing evidence from both sides in Guatemala.
“This case could strengthen the fight of indigenous people, who continue to have their rights threatened in Brazil,” said Raphaela Lopes, a lawyer at Global Justice, a non-governmental organisation that is supporting the case.
The case seeks to end a vicious dispute over land which the indigenous Xucuru people say has dragged on for 27 years, cost it lives and threatens to erode an ancient way of life.
“Our case is emblematic of indigenous people across Brazil,” Marcos Xucuru, leader of the indigenous group, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by telephone.
“More than 20 years after the constitution, demarcating land is still in chaos, during which time violence against indigenous people continues to increase,” said Xucuru.
Brazil has been a pioneer in setting aside – or demarcating – parcels of land for its indigenous people, a process meant to safeguard their culture, ward off unwelcome incomers and enshrine legal rights over ancient turf. Tiếp tục đọc “Indigenous group takes Brazil to court in landmark case”
FILE PHOTO: A woman prays for her loved one who she says was killed due to alleged involvement in illegal drugs, during a Holy Eucharist mass against extra-judicial killings inside a Roman Catholic Church in Paranaque city, metro Manila, Philippines March 2, 2017. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco/File Photo
Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said in a statement that the Philippine National Police (PNP) should take “drastic measures” to verify the allegations made by two senior police officers, and punish those who have “broken their vow to protect the Filipino people.” Tiếp tục đọc “Philippine senator calls for probe into police cash-for-kill claim”
Today the five international judges for the Monsanto Tribunal presented their legal opinion, which include key conclusions, both on the conduct of Monsanto and on the need for important changes to international laws governing multinational corporations.
The judges conclude that Monsanto has engaged in practices that have impinged on the basic human right to a healthy environment, the right to food and the right to health. Additionally, Monsanto’s conduct has a negative impact on the right of scientists to freely conduct indispensable research. Tiếp tục đọc “Monsanto Tribunal Judges Slam Monsanto over Violation of Human Rights”
FILE PHOTO: Arturo Lascanas, a retired Davao policeman, wipes his tears during a news conference at the Senate headquarters in metro Manila, Philippines February 20, 2017. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco/File Photo
In the most detailed insider accounts yet of the drug war’s secret mechanics, the two senior officials challenged the government’s explanations of the killings in interviews with Reuters. Tiếp tục đọc “Police describe kill rewards, staged crime scenes in Duterte’s drug war”
ChannelNewsAsia
Posted 12 Apr 2017 14:20
A video screengrab shows passenger David Dao being dragged off a United Airlines flight at Chicago O’Hare International Airport in this video filmed by @JayseDavid April 9, 2017. Jayse D. Anspach via REUTERS
HANOI: Outrage spread to Vietnam on Wednesday over United Airlines’ handling of a passenger dragged from his seat after it emerged that the 69-year-old U.S. doctor was Vietnamese by birth.
Although United Airlines has no direct flights to Vietnam, there were widespread calls on social media for a boycott after video showed a bloodied David Dao being yanked out of the plane by airport security on Sunday to make way for United employees.
The ire in Vietnam grew quickly after it was reported that Dao’s origins were not in the Southeast Asian country’s old enemy, China, as many had at first assumed. Tiếp tục đọc “Fury in Vietnam over United passenger dragged from plane”
United Airlines: Chinese and Vietnamese anger at passenger removal
Outrage has erupted on Chinese and Vietnamese social media over the removal of a passenger from an overbooked United Airlines flight.
Videos posted online showed security officers dragging the man, who appears to be Asian, from the flight.
The man has not yet been identified. One eyewitness said he was a “Chinese American doctor”, while another said he was originally from Vietnam. Tiếp tục đọc “United Airlines: Chinese and Vietnamese anger at passenger removal – Nam hành khách bị kéo khỏi máy bay Mỹ là người gốc Việt”
A notice from the Hotan district government in China’s Xinjiang region accused a village-level secretary of being afraid to smoke before religious figures. (Photo: AFP/Johannes Eisele)
BEIJING: A Chinese official who allegedly declined to smoke in front of Muslims in Xinjiang has been demoted for taking an “unstable political stance,” a state-run newspaper reported on Tuesday (Apr 11).
Xinjiang, home to China’s Muslim Uighur ethnic minority, restricts religious practises – such as growing beards, wearing headscarves, and fasting during Ramadan – that are seen as symbols of “Islamic extremism”. Tiếp tục đọc “Chinese official demoted for not smoking in front of Muslims”
After months of living in hiding, Arturo Lascanas – a former police officer who accused Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte of orchestrating a decades-long campaign of death squads and lawless murder – has fled to Singapore.
The retired 56-year-old officer is a self-confessed member of the Davao Death Squad (DDS), a group he alleges was formed in the late 1980s by then mayor Rodrigo Duterte, to kill hardened criminals, drug dealers and political opponents.
Lascanas has been hiding since his dramatic revelations, but managed to leave the country on Saturday night on a Tiger Airways flight to Singapore.
“I have received threats that a lawsuit would be filed against me, and there are also people looking for me as well,” Lascanas told local reporters before he departed.
For months Lascanas has been holed up in a safe house in Manila, living under protective guard, unable to go outside. Now with the looming lawsuit, he said it was time to leave the Philippines for the “time being”.
When he presented at immigration on Saturday evening, one of the most wanted men in the country was told to take a seat, but fifteen minutes later his passport was stamped. Immigration authorities said there was no travel ban, or hold departure, so Lascanas was permitted to leave.
“Mr Lascanas did not have any immigration lookout bulletin order or hold departure order issued against him that could have delayed or prevented his departure,” said immigration spokesperson Antonette Mangrobang, “Hence he was cleared to depart.”
After denying the claims of the DDS in a Senate hearing last October, Lascanas made a stunning turnaround this February, telling the Senate in a second hearing that he had been forced to lie, and worried for the safety of his family if he had divulged the truth.
When the Guardian met Lascanas in his safe house this March, the former officer claimed that decades of extrajudicial killings in Davao weighed on his conscience and he had decided that he didn’t want to take his sins to the grave.
Rodrigo Duterte was mayor of Davao, a city on the southern island of Mindanao, for more than two decades before winning the presidency last May on a promise to rid the country of drugs and crime.
The drug war that has ensued has sparked deep alarm among the international community, with more than 7,000 people killed in police operations and by so-called vigilantes since last July.
After undergoing kidney surgery and a spiritual awakening, Lascanas said he felt compelled to tell the truth about the death squads of Davao, a methodology he claims has been scaled up nationwide under the president’s current war on drugs.
The Duterte administration has vehemently denied the claims, describing the DDS as a “creation of the media,” and Lascanas’ claims as part of a plot to unseat the government.
This is reportedly the first time Lascanas has left the Philippines. He showed immigration he had a return ticket, leaving Singapore on 22 April, but it is unclear if and when he will return.
“I am sure, I might either be jailed or killed. It’s just one of the two possibilities,” he told the Inquirer from the city state, “But for me, I know God has a plan and that would be my destiny for telling the truth. I have accepted that.”
Vincent Bevins in Badung, Indonesia
Two gay Indonesian men have been arrested and face 100 lashes in a case that is drawing international attention to the enforcement of controversial new Islamic bylaws in the semi-autonomous Aceh province.
Mobile phone footage, showing vigilantes slapping one of the young men as he sits naked on the ground awaiting arrest by local sharia police, has been shared on social media in the world’s largest Muslim-majority country. Tiếp tục đọc “Indonesia: gay men facing 100 lashes for having sex”
Amnesty International has sharply criticised China for continuing to conceal the number of people it sentences to death, as the human rights group reported a fall in executions globally last year. Tiếp tục đọc “Amnesty criticises ‘rogue state’ China as global death penalty toll falls”
Ngày 9/4, đại tá Đặng Hoài Sơn, Trưởng công an thị xã Kỳ Anh (Hà Tĩnh) cho biết, vừa khởi tố vụ án Gây rối trật tự công cộng để điều tra việc người dân tụ tập, gây ùn tắc trên quốc lộ 1A.
Theo tài liệu điều tra, trong hai ngày 2-3/4, lấy lý do chính quyền đền bù sự cố môi trường chưa thỏa đáng, khoảng 150 người dân mang lưới đánh cá, gạch đá kéo ra chặn xe trên quốc lộ 1A đoạn qua đèo Con, khu vực giáp ranh phường Kỳ Phương và Kỳ Nam (thị xã Kỳ Anh). Sự việc khiến phương tiện qua đây bị tắc nghẽn kéo dài.
Tiếp tục đọc “Công an điều tra vụ hàng trăm người dân chặn quốc lộ 1A”
English: Why sanitation in Asia requires more than just toilets
Tại Châu Á và Thái Bình Dương, hơn 1,7 tỷ người không được tiếp cận với hệ thống vệ sinh được cải thiện và hàng triệu người đang đi vệ sinh ngoài trời. Nhưng chỉ xây dựng nhà vệ sinh mới là không đủ để cải thiện sức khỏe cộng đồng, nhà phân tích Jingmin Huang của Ngân hàng phát triển Châu Á ( Asian Development Bank-ADB) cho biết. Việc thiếu các cơ sở vệ sinh phù hợp ở Châu Á Thái Bình Dương có ảnh hưởng sâu sắc không chỉ đối với sức khoẻ mà còn đối với nhân phẩm. Theo Ngân hàng Phát triển Châu Á (ADB), khoảng 4% tổng số ca tử vong của phụ nữ mang thai liên quan đến việc vệ sinh và điều kiện vệ sinh yếu, kém. Vấn đề này thậm chí có thể dẫn đến bạo lực đối với phụ nữ như trường hợp tại bang Uttar Pradesh của Ấn Độ, nơi hai phụ nữ bị cưỡng hiếp và cuối cùng bị sát hại trong khi tìm kiếm một nơi kín đáo để đi vệ sinh. Tiếp tục đọc “Vấn đề đảm bảo vệ sinh ở Châu Á cần nhiều việc hơn là chỉ cần có nhà vệ sinh.” |
WARNING: The above report contains images some may find distressing.
A suspected chemical attack on a rebel-held town in Syria’s Idlib province has drawn widespread international condemnation, with the United Nations saying it will investigate the bombing raid as a possible war crime.
At least 72 people, including 11 children, were killed in Khan Sheikhoun on Tuesday, according to the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS), which runs several field hospitals in the area. More than 550 people were injured. Tiếp tục đọc “‘Chemical attack’ in Syria draws international outrage”
CVD 