State of California Denies Legally Required Accommodations to Employees Who are Deaf

State of California Denies Legally Required Accommodations to Employees Who are Deaf

By Ali Sprott-Roen
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

SAN FRANCISCO, California – California state employees who are deaf and hard-of-hearing are regularly denied sign language interpreters for meetings, job training, performance reviews, and other work-related events such as meeting with the public and clients. In addition, deaf employees have been left behind during evacuation drills as well as during real emergencies due to a  failure to provide accommodations.

Employee requested professional interpreters are often substituted by insufficient or ineffective forms of communication such as lip reading, utilizing untrained co-workers as interpreters  and  email or videophone. The state of California claims budget limitations as an attempt to justify its failure to provide reasonable accommodations.

These practices have resulted in workplace “isolation, exclusion, prejudice and overall pervasive discrimination,” according to a suit filed in the San Francisco Superior Court against the State of California.

The suit was filed by Deaf and Hard of Hearing State Workers United and has seven named plaintiffs, including one woman who works for the Office of Deaf Access at the Department of Social Services. It alleges violations of California fair employment law, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Rehabilitation act of 1973.  It seeks improvements in state policy, while asking for no money damages. The plaintiffs hope to turn it into a class action suit on behalf of the approximately 1,500 CA state workers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.

For more information, please see:

 

SFGate.com – – Deaf State Workers Sue Over Lack of Services – 22 May 2010

KTVU – – Deaf Workers Suing State Over No Accommodations – 21 May 2010

SF Weekly – – Deaf Left Behind During Emergencies, Lawsuit Says – 21 May 2010

Libya: Execution of Eighteen Foreign Nationals Condemned

African migrants captured in Libya. / Photo Courtesy of BBC 
Many African migrants enter Libya hoping to eventually reach Europe.
Photo Courtesy of BBC Archives, 2009.
 
By Elizabeth A. Conger
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
 

TRIPOLI, Libya – Human rights group Amnesty International has condemned the execution of eighteen foreign nationals in Libya. The eighteen individuals, from Chad, Egypt, and Nigeria, were executed by firing squad on Sunday. According to the Libyan newspaper Cerene, those executed had been convicted of murder. 

Amnesty International’s condemnation of the execution focused on Libya’s trial standards, which fail to satisfy international standards for fair trial.  Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International director for the Middle East and North Africa, said:

“In Libya we fear that death sentences are handed down after proceedings which fail to satisfy international standards for fair trial.”

Cerene reported that fourteen people were executed in Tripoli, Libya’s capital, and four were executed in Benghazi, Libya’s second largest city.

According to Amnesty, foreign nationals are at a disadvantage in the Libyan legal system because they do not have access to lawyers, have no access to their consular representatives, and frequently do not understand the trial proceedings, which are in Arabic. Furthermore, foreign nationals have a harder time getting their sentences commuted because they often have limited financial means, and do not possess the family networks that are necessary for successful negotiation in Libya.

Of the more than 200 people currently on death row in Libya, a disproportionate number of those waiting to be executed are foreign nationals.

Each year thousands of African migrants make their way to Libya with the hope of eventually finding passage to Europe.

For more information, please see:

BBC – Libyan executions of foreigners are condemned – 2 June 2010

AFP – Amnesty condems Libya executions – 2 June 2010

Amnesty International – Libya: Amnesty International Condemns Executions of 18 People Including Foreign Nations in Libya by Firing Squad – 1 June 2010

Over 200 Protesters Detained in Moscow and St. Petersburg During Rallies for Right To Assemble

by Yoohwan Kim
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MOSCOW, Russia – On Monday, May 31 the police cracked down on hundreds of protesters in two of Russia’s largest cities, Moscow and St. Petersburg.  The protesters’ called on the authorities and government officials to respect the people’s right to freedom of assembly, as stated in Article 31 of the Russian constitution.  Since last year, Russia opposition groups have been holding rallies on the last day of each month to defend their right of assembly.

At least 1,000 people gathered in Triumfalnaya Square on Monday evening, located in central Moscow.  The protesters chanted “Disgrace,” “Freedom,” and “Russia without Putin!”  Soon after the rally began, the police intervened and violently broke up the protest.  The police knocked down some of the protesters, beat them, and dragged them along the ground to the waiting police vans.

Triumfalnaya Square was occupied again on that night by 2,000 pro-Kremlin youths, from the Young Russia and Young Guard youth groups, who were hosting a patriotic concert.  As the protesters began to gather and chant anti-government slogans, the music from the concert grew louder.  A police official stated that the police had to use force after the protesters tried to disrupt the concert and block traffic.  About 180 protesters were detained in Moscow.

Photo: Russian police violently disperse rallies [Source: Courtesy of Reuters]

Police in St. Petersburg detained approximately 100 protesters after 300 members of the banned ultra-left National Bolshevik party gathered in the city center on Monday.  Protesters chanted pro-democracy slogans, such as “Russia will be free.”

Government authorities have shown little tolerance in recent years for any kind of protests, and officials in Moscow and St. Petersburg have repeatedly banned attempts by activists and political opposition to hold rallies.  According to Alexander Averin, an activist with The Other Russia opposition coalition, rallies in support of their right of assembly were held in 40 cities throughout Russia on Monday.

Two days before the protests in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin voiced his support for the people’s right to protest.  He stated that public protests “don’t hinder but, on the contrary, help” the government.  In addition, Putin said that the authorities should not “create impossible conditions for the expression of freedom of speech.”  His remarks gave some activists hopes that officials and police might respond more peacefully to rallies and demonstrations.  However, Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, stated that his comments were distorted by the media and do not offer anyone the license to rally.

For more information, please see:

Moscow Times – 200 Protesters Detained 2 Days After Putin Backs Rallies – 01 June 2010

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty – Over 200 Arrested at Russian Rallies for Freedom of Assembly – 01 June 2010

AFP – Moscow Police Violently Break Up Protest – 31 May 2010

Reuters- Police Crush Protests as Russia-EU Summit Opens – 31 May 2010

Israeli Attack on Gaza Aid Flotilla Sparks International Condemnation

By Polly Johnson
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

Israeli attack on aid ship sparked outrage. (Photo Courtesy of New York Times).
Israeli attack on aid ship has sparked outrage. (Photo Courtesy of New York Times).

NEW YORK, New York – The United Nations Security Council convened for an emergency session in New York on Monday after an Israeli attack on a flotilla carrying aid to Palestinians in Gaza resulted in the deaths of as many as ten people, many of whom were Turkish.

Dozens more were injured in the attack that took place Monday on the Freedom Flotilla –  six ships carrying over ten thousand tons of aid and six hundred passengers from more than twenty countries. Organized by the pro-Palestinian Free Gaza Movement, Sunday’s trip to Gaza was to be the final leg of the journey. Even after repeated warnings from Israel not to enter the hostile area, the flotilla entered the Gaza shore. At that point, reports as to who instigated the attack are conflicting.

Israel claims that commandos on board attacked Israelis with clubs, metal rods and knives as soon as they entered the ship. The flotilla’s organizers claim that the Israelis opened fire “on sleeping civilians” upon boarding the ship.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended the attack and said that Israel regretted the loss of life. He cancelled a Tuesday meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama to return to Israel.

The attack has not only strained tensions between Israel and Turkey, close allies in the Muslim world, but has caused international outrage and worldwide protests.

At the U.N., Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that Israel’s acts were tantamount to “murder conducted by a state.”

The United States expressed concern at the U.N. meeting but also expressed that the facts of the attack were still unclear. Namik Tan, the Turkish ambassador to the United States, called the U.S.’s response, “sort of weak.”

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has called for a three-day mourning period across the West Bank.

Turkey, Indonesia, Syria, Russia, Egypt, Britain, Italy, France, Greece, and Sweden, among other countries, have spoken out against the attacks. Said Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minster Bulent Arinc, “this operation will leave a bloody stain on the history of humanity.”

In New York, more than 500 people gathered in Times Square and walked to the Israeli consulate in protest.

The trip was Free Gaza’s ninth attempt at shipping humanitarian aid to Gaza since August 2008. The convoy included items that Israel bars from reaching Gaza.

For more information, please see:

Al Jazeera – Deadly Israel raid on aid fleet – 1 June 2010

BBC – UN members decry Israeli raid on Gaza aid flotilla – 31 May 2010

CNN – Israeli raid met with global protests – 31 May 2010

New York Times – Deadly Israeli Raid Draws Condemnation – 31 May 2010

NPR – Condemnation Follows Israeli Raid on Gaza Flotilla – 31 May 2010

The Jerusalem Post – Turkey demands int’l inquiry c’tee – 1 June 2010

UN Troops Use Rubber Bullets and Pepper Spray on Student Protesters and Unarmed Families

By Ali Sprott-Roen
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti –  In one of the most serious confrontations since the earthquake on Jarnuary 12, troops from the U.N. Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) fired rubber bullets and used pepper spray on student demonstrators at Port-au-Prince University.. The students were protesting government inaction in the aftermath of the quake, many demanding the resignation of President René Préval, who they accuse of seeking to increase his power by extending mandates past the original end date.

Troops first entered the university campus calling students thieves and vagabonds, to which the students responded by throwing rocks at the troops. This led the troops to bring in larger vehicles for reinforcement and to shoot rubber bullets at the protesters. This was the first time since the quake that troops used rubber bullets against demonstrators.

Later that day, the protest escalated and spilled into Champs de Mars plaza, the internally displaced people’s camp, where thousands of Haitians left homeless after the quake live in tight quarters. Small children and a few adults with preexisting heart conditions passed out after choking on the pepper spray. At least six people were treated at the local emergency room, including, a young girl injured by a rubber bullet who required approximately 10 stitches to mend a laceration on her face.

MINUSTAH apologized for entering the school and instigating the demonstration, but made no mention of the attack on the camp nor using rubber bullets. While the UN forces claim the right to use rubber bullets if people or institutions are in danger, they admit that their actions made the situation much worse.

For more information, please see:

 

Nj.com – Violence and Rubber Bullets in Haiti at Demonstration; Pentagon Investigating Behavior of 10 U.S. Soldiers in Afghanistan– 1 June 2010

Huffington Post – – United Nations Attacks Refugee Camp, Protests Mount – 1 June 2010

CNN – – UN to apologize for troops on Haitian university campus – 26 May 2010

Inter Press Service – U.N. Clash with Frustrated Students Spills into Camps – 25 May 2010