U.S. Supreme Court Will Hear Same-Sex Marriage Cases

By Mark O’Brien
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON, United States — The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to consider, during its current term, two challenges to federal and state laws that only permit marriage between a man and a woman.

For the first time, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review two cases regarding same-sex marriage. (Photo Courtesy of Reuters)

The high court announced on Friday that it would hear a case challenging a federal law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman, as well as a case challenging California’s Proposition 8, or Prop 8, a gay marriage ban that voters approved in 2008.

These cases mark the first time the Supreme Court will consider the issue of same-sex marriage.  The hearings are expected to take place in March, with the justices delivering their opinions by the end of June.

The issue has become a politically charged debate in recent years.  Just last month, three states joined a small number of states where gay marriage is legal.  Voters in Maine, Maryland, and Washington passed laws legalizing gay marriage, bringing the total to nine states plus the District of Columbia.  Of the other 41 states, 31 have passed constitutional amendments banning it.

And even where it is legal, married same-sex couples do not qualify for many federal benefits because the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, only recognizes marriages between a man and a woman.

Edith Windsor was “delirious with joy” upon hearing the Supreme Court would hear her DOMA case, reports The Guardian.   Windsor, 83, was forced to pay more than $363,000 in federal estate taxes after her the death of her spouse, Thea Spyer, in 2009 because federal law did not recognize their marriage.

“I think DOMA is wrong for all of the various ways in which it discriminates against same-sex married couples and against gays altogether,” Windsor said.  “It’s enormously satisfying and fulfilling and exciting to be where we are now.”

Four lower federal courts and two federal appellate courts have ruled against DOMA.  Last October, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld a lower court ruling in Windsor’s case that a portion of DOMA was unconstitutional.  The provision in question, Section 3, denies gays and lesbians married under state laws benefits such as Social Security survivor payments and the right to file joint federal tax returns.

The Prop 8 case involves a review of California’s voter-approved gay marriage ban.  It passed in November 2008, months after a state supreme court ruled that same-sex marriages were legal.

Earlier this year, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that Prop 8 was unconstitutional.  The reasoning was that California could not take away the right to same-sex marriage after previously allowing it.  But the judges’ ruling was narrow; it only affected California and not any other states.

Supreme Court observers said it is unlikely that the justices will recognize a federal right to marriage equality.  Instead, many expect the high court’s ruling will be in the same narrow fashion—applying it only to California, regardless of the outcome.

For further information, please see:

The Guardian — US Supreme Court Agrees to Take up Two Gay Marriage Cases — 7 December 2012

Reuters — Supreme Court Takes up Same-Sex Marriage for First Time — 7 December 2012

SCOTUSblog.com — On Same-Sex Marriage, Options Open — 7 December 2012

The Washington Times — High Court Sets up Showdown over Gay Marriage — 7 December 2012

Russia Plans Retaliation After US Passes Magnitsky Bill

By Alexandra Sandacz
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe 

MOSCOW, Russia – On Thursday, the United States Congress passed a bill to stabilize trade with Russia. However, the bill will also simultaneously penalize Russian officials who are linked to human rights violations.

Sergei Magnitsky’s tombstone in a cemetery in Moscow. (Photo Courtesy of The Washington Post)

In August, Russia joined the World Trade Organization (WTO), and as a result, opened its market and reduced tariffs under the terms of its membership.

The new United States trade legislation, which passed by large majorities in the House and Senate, replaces a 1974 provision, the Jackson-Vanik Amendment, that connected trade relations with the former Soviet Union to the emigration of Jews and other Soviet minorities. Before the new trade provision was passed, the US was the only WTO member that could not take advantage of Russia’s newly modified market.

Under the Magnitsky bill, named after Russian lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, who died in a Russian prison three years ago after allegedly being tortured, the United States will release a list of Russian officials suspected to be involved with human rights violations and withhold their visas and freeze their financial assets.

The bill currently awaits President Barack Obama’s signature. President Obama, expressing his desire to sign the law, stated, “The legislation will ensure that American businesses and workers are able to take full advantage of the WTO rules and market access commitments that the United States worked so hard to negotiate.

He continued, “My administration will continue to work with Congress and our partners to support those seeking a free and democratic future for Russia and promote the rule of law and respect for human rights around the world.”

Furthermore, Senator Benjamin L. Cardin, a supporter of the Magnitsky bill, said, “Today, we close a chapter in U.S. history. It served its purpose. Today, we open a new chapter in U.S. leadership for human rights.”

However, despite the optimism in the United States, Moscow does not favor the human rights portion of the trade bill. The Russian Foreign Ministry called the bill “a performance in the theatre of the absurd”.

The Ministry also said, “It’s strange and wild to hear such claims about human rights addressed to us by politicians of the very state where in the 21st Century torture and the kidnapping of people all over the world were officially legalized.”

Russian Prime Minister, Dmitry Medvedev, warned that the Magnitsky provision will provoke a “symmetrical and asymmetrical reaction” from Russia. He continued, “It’s inadmissible when one country tries to dictate its will to another.”

As a response, Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, announced Moscow’s plan to retaliate by barring “entry to Americans who are in fact guilty of human rights violations.”

For further information, please see:

BBC News – Russia to retaliate over US Magnitsky rights act – 7 December 2012

Reuters – US trade-human rights link tests Obama-Russia ties – 7 December 2012

BBC News – US Congress passes ‘Magnitsky’ rule on Russia trade law – 6 December 2012

The Washington Post – Russia fumes as U.S. Senate passes Magnitsky law aimed at human rights – 6 December 2012

Report Alleges Abuse by Indian Officials in Kashmir

By Karen Diep
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

NEW DELHI, India – On Thursday, a 354 page report  published by human rights groups, International People’s Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Indian Administered Kashmir (IPTK) and Srinagar-based Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP), alleged that more than 500 members of India’s armed forces are in violation of human rights in India-administered Kashmir.

Soldiers in Kashmir Valley. (Photo Courtesy of BBC News)

Specifically, the report entitled “Alleged Perpetrators – Stories of Impunity in Jammu and Kashmir” names nine colonels, three brigadiers of Indian Army, three lieutenant colonels, seventy eight majors, twenty five captains, and thirty seven senior officials of the federal Paramilitary forces as agents of countless human rights violations: rape, torture, custody deaths, and abduction.

“While we believe in fixing the responsibility on the individuals, we have highlighted the culpability of the Indian state in shielding the perpetrators,” stated APDP’s chief Parvez Imroz.

According to BBC News, human rights lawyer Kartik Murukutla and an author of the report relayed that India’s urgency in Kashmir was to “control the territory, not pursue justice.”

“For the victims, the wait for proper justice seems perpetual. In its approach to justice, the Indian state has not moved beyond cash relief or the promise of re-investigation.  The state has willfully lowered the standard of justice as well as the crimes perpetrated,” shared Mr. Murukutla.

IPTK and APDP had gathered information through India’s new freedom of information laws from the police and interviews with families and others.

“This report prepared over two years using information gleaned mostly from official State documents, portrays the state of impunity prevalent in J&K where identities of the individual perpetrators of crime are known,” read an executive summary released four days in advance of World Human Rights Day.

According to BBC News, an army spokesman relayed that he was unaware of such a report.  “If they have sent it to the defense ministry we have not received it so far.  We can respond after proper perusal of the document,” said Lt-Col HS Brar.

Since 1989, thousands have died in a separatist insurgency in Kashmir, a disputed region claimed by both India and Pakistan.

For more information, please see:

The Hindu – Top Army, police officials involved in human rights abuse in Kashmir – 7 December 2012

BBC – India Officials accused of Kashmir rights abuses – 6 December 2012

Kafila – Full report: Alleged Perpetrators – Stories of Impunity in Jammu & Kashmir – 6 December – 2012

 

 

 

Policemen Arrested For Disappering Youths During Chile’s Dictatorship

By Brendan Bergh
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

SANTIAGO, Chile –  The fight against the human rights abuses committed under General Augusto Pinochet’s reign as President of Chile continues as a Chilean judge ordered the arrest and imprisonment of seven police officers for their alleged involvement in the disappearance and murder of 3 men and a child in 1973.

Judge Solis, continuing the fight against the active participants who aided General Pinochet’s reign as Chile’s President. (Photo Courtesy of La Nacion)

This is just the latest in Minister Alejandro Solis’ fight against impunity. In his final days as a judge, [he will be 75 before the end of the year] Solis has decided to prosecute seven police officers for their disappearance of Perez Godoy, 15, Jose Ramirez Diaz, 20, Catalan Pena, 20, and Vergara Gonzalez, 22.

According to judge Solis it is a crime against humanity to be affiliated with a “criminal organization which had, as its sole objective, to crack down on opponents of the military dictatorship, considered political enemies of president Augusto Pinochet.” While the victims in the particular set of offenses can hardly be considered political, their arrests and disappearance were made with such indifference and malice as to be considered a violation of human rights.

While details are sketchy it has been established that two of the victims, Vergara Gonzalez and Catalan Pena were eventually killed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. In the month after the fall of President Salvador Allende and establishment of the military dictatorship of Pinochet, Gonzalez and Pena were travelling by van with Miriam Conteras Bell, the personal secretary of Allende. Their van was stopped by two of the now-detained officers – dressed as civilians – before being brought to a local Police station. In the days following the arrest the police denied they had been arrested, then changed their story claiming they had been released. After that all traces were lost, until their remains were identified 30 years later.

These arrests are just the latest in Chile’s fight against the remnants of Pinochet’s reign. The alleged officers who all worked at a Santiago neighborhood police station in Ñuñoa, were brought out of retirement to face charges; they were immediately detained by the PDI and brought to a detention center. This level of security was initiated as Judge Solis declared them a “danger to the security of society.”

The victims were discovered in 1991 in a mass grave in the General Cemetery of Santiago. Buried along with them were hundreds of other unidentified bodies, their bodies only having been identified in 2003 via DNA testing.

For further information, please see:

Cooperativa – Seven Former Policemen Were Remanded In Custody By Cases DD.DD. – 7 December, 2012

La Nacion – 7 Ex Police Processed By Kidnappings And Executions Of People – 7 December, 2012

La Republica – Chile: Detention Of 7 Excarabineros Ordered Death Of Four Youths in 1973 – 7 December, 2012

Terra Noticias – Court Orders Arrest Of 7 Excarabinerous Chilean Death Of 4 Young People In 1973 – 7 December, 2012

I Love Chile – Former DINA Agents Prosecuted For Crimes Against Humanity – 6 December, 2012

Syrian Revolution Digest – Wednesday, 5 December 2012

Assad the Terrorist!

Syrian Revolution Digest – December 5, 2012 

The rise of Jabhat Al-Nusra in Syria is a worrying phenomenon indeed, but their terrorist activities, the real and the mostly imagined, pale in comparison to those currently championed by Assad and his supporters who now seem poised to perpetrate a massacre of alarming proportions using chemical weapons. It’s Assad’s brand of terrorism that gave rise to Jabhat Al-Nusra, and it’s his terrorist activities that plague our lives today. So far, the world has done little to stop Assad. Had the world lived up to its moral obligations towards Syrians last year, we would not be steering into the abyss today. As we plan for the day after with its myriad challenges and strife, let’s not neglect the immense challenges still confronting us today. Assad must be stopped.

Today’s Death Toll: 107 (including 8 women and 6 children)

45 in Damascus and suburbs, 20 in Aleppo, 22 in Idlib, 8 in Daraa, 4 in Raqqa, 3 in Lattakia, 3 in Deir Ezzor, and 2 in Homs

Points of Random Shelling: 188

Clashes:93

Rebels were able to take control of the Aqraba Military Airport   in Damascus and repelled several attempts at storming towns in Eastern Ghoutah (LCC)

 

News

Syria loads chemical weapons into bombs; military awaits Assad’s order The Syrian military is prepared to use chemical weapons against its own people and is awaiting final orders from President Bashar Assad, U.S. officials told NBC News on Wednesday.

Activists Tell Damascus Residents To Prepare For The ‘Zero Hour’

Blackouts, diesel shortages get worse in Damascus

Syrian fighting decimates tourism industry

Report: Armed men kill Moroccan honorary consul in Syrian city of Aleppo

Syria pound fall suggests currency crisis

92 Senators vote to require Pentagon to report on Syria military options The resolution does not explicitly call for the Assad to step down in Syria, a matter of contention when the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved a resolution on Syria earlier this year. It also explicitly does not authorize the use of military force in Syria. The legislation does say that any U.S. military activity with regard to Syria should be done in conjunction with allies, should not involve U.S. boots on the ground, and should minimize the risk to U.S. forces as well as financial costs to U.S. taxpayers.

Syria’s rebels in new effort to unite ranks Final deals over the new structure were still being hammered out late on Wednesday at a secret meeting in Turkey which brought together a diverse array of rebel units long plagued by deep divisions and bitter rivalries that defy coordination.

Syria conflict threatens U.N. troops on Golan ceasefire line The U.N. force deployed after the 1973 Middle East war, in which Syria failed to recapture the Golan Heights taken by Israel seven years before and later annexed by the Jewish state in a move never recognized internationally.

Russia, Turkey discuss new ideas on Syria: Kremlin Putin and Erdogan agreed to differ on Syria at Monday’s talks in Istanbul but Russia has distanced itself from President Bashar al-Assad and tried to position itself for his potential exit from power.

Syria’s Civil War Spills Into Lebanon Gunmen loyal to opposite sides in Syria’s civil war battled Wednesday in the streets of the Lebanese city of Tripoli. The fighting has killed six people and wounded nearly 60 since Monday, security officials said.

 

Special Reports

Chemical red lines on Syria
Although CBW’s lethality and indiscriminate nature gives rise to terrorism concerns, the United States should distance itself from self-interested interventions reminiscent of the Bush doctrine. Instead, any red lines in the Syrian sand should be drawn in accordance with 21st century notions of international responsibilities to protect.

Are Americans ready to deal with Syria’s chemical weapons?
On Monday, Obama strongly warned Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad not to use chemical weapons as rebels advance on Damascus. What is the national interest in threatening US action? Obama must sort out the moral purpose.

Chemical weapons in Syria: What can Latin America do about it?
Some Latin American nations voted against a UN resolution condemning violence in Syria this year. But the region can still send a message that the use of chemical weapons will end their support.

Syria’s ‘Operation Fairy Tale’: Reading in War Zones and Other Initiatives
Some might say this is the last thing Syrians need now; that what they need are basic necessities like water, food and a safe home. But any diversion from an ugly and harsh reality — if only for a few minutes — could do wonders.

Nine days in Syria: “I wanted to give with my hands,” Lahey Clinic doctor says
Acash left on Thanksgiving for Idlib, in northwest Syria on the Turkish border, where thousands of refugees have gathered in tents and a school building has been transformed into a field hospital. Volunteers there ring the school’s bell to summon doctors when a new wave of injured people arrive, some from cities and towns nearly 150 miles away.

Rape is shredding Syria’s social fabric
In an attempt to not lose a single story that could be used as possible evidence for future war crimes trials, we are documenting reports of sexualized violence on a live, crowd-sourced map on Syria. We know, however, that evidence of crimes is being destroyed every day: More than 20% of the women in our reports are found dead or are killed after rape.

Jihadists make their presence felt in Syria’s Aleppo
Their ferocity and fighting skills have made the jihadist “Al-Nusra Front the dominant force in Aleppo now,” eclipsing the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Liwa al-Tawhid, once the strongest brigade in the city, said another, Mustafa. Islamist militants are known not only for their discretion, but also for their selflessness in combat, prompting protesters on Friday to urge the FSA to man the front lines instead of staying in commandeered quarters.

U.S. might name Syrian rebel Nusra Front a foreign terrorist group
Nusra first made its mark by claiming responsibility for a series of car and suicide bombings in Damascus that killed dozens last January and that U.S. officials later said bore the mark of the group al Qaida in Iraq. Since then, Nusra has become essential to the rebels’ battlefield operations.

Syria after Assad: Heading toward a Hard Fall?
Rather than ending Syria’s civil war, the regime’s fall might herald a new, more dangerous phase, and the United States should prepare accordingly.

The New Normal on the Turkish-Syrian Border
Ankara does not want the conflict to escalate, but it cannot live with the civil war in Syria and the continued cross-border shelling it breeds, accidental or not.

How Would Assad Use Chemical Weapons?
Amid new chemical weapons activity in Syria, Washington must prepare for the practical implications of acting on its warnings.

Syria: first state with WMDs to topple? (+video)
Never before has a country with Weapons of Mass Destruction been on the verge of collapse, says an arms control expert who argues for regional coordination to prevent a catastrophe.

War Drives Businesses of Aleppo Into Exile
Only a half-decade after Iraqi businessmen fled civil war in their country, a second exodus is depleting another stronghold of Mesopotamian enterprise. Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and a key hub on the old Silk Road, is the country’s industrial and commercial turbine.

The Syrian Sarin Threat
Whatever the regime’s real intentions with regards to its chemical weapons, the next chapter in Syria will be an ugly one, and before it is all over, many people are going to die—from bullets and bombs if not from sarin gas. Thanks to the boy-who-cried-wolf legacy of the Iraq invasion and the W.M.D.-that-weren’t, it is not surprising that the alleged Syrian chemical weapons threat has thus far failed to cause panic in international circles. This could prove to be an unfortunate historical lesson, for, as things stand, there is no guarantee that they won’t be deployed. And if they are used, Syria’s conflict will become a threshold conflict in more ways than one.

Follow this link to register for FDD’s Washington Forum 2012 “Dictators & Dissidents”

 

Video Highlights

The pounding of Eastern Ghoutah, Damascus with MiGs continues: Douma http://youtu.be/Xw1IP8bK6sY ,http://youtu.be/1O1iPtLrZYY , http://youtu.be/LLehie30b7Y

Rebels lay siege to the Mayadeen Military Airport in Deir Ezzor http://youtu.be/EOTfIs56WLY ,http://youtu.be/336vFkQTrW0 , http://youtu.be/h_ONu1_6Lk4

Scenes from the havoc in Deir Ezzor City http://youtu.be/5RkcN26xxak , http://youtu.be/yVT7fQTaydU ,http://youtu.be/Va4VZBuUMzo

Scenes from the clashes in Al-Jabal Al-Wistani in Idlib http://youtu.be/Xz_sTKeGytc , http://youtu.be/boB-VpejpNY ,http://youtu.be/sTYtP-UPapY , http://youtu.be/NmDtLDvk7NM