News

6,000 Dead Pigs in the Huangpu River Ignites Concerns Over Water’s Drinkability

By Karen Diep
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – Today, Chinese officials released a statement that revealed the number of pig carcasses found in Shanghai’s Haungpu River, a major source of drinking water for Shanghai, was close to 6,000.  Yesterday, nearly 5,916 dead pigs were removed from the river.

Authorities retrieving carcasses from the river. (Photo Courtesy of New York Times).

Officials stated that the water quality met the government set standard and thus, was drinkable. Specifically, the Shanghai municipal government claimed that the water in Huangpu River was safe.  No contaminated or contaminated pork had been discovered in the local markets.

However, many are still skeptical.

According to the Huffington post, many residents are concerned after seeing the pictures of “swollen and rotting carcasses.”

Laboratory tests have discovered that some of the dead pigs possessed porcine circovirus, a common disease that affects pigs but not humans. Moreover, authorities are disinfecting the pig carcasses before burying them, while incinerating others.

According to BBC News’ John Sudworth in Shanghai, the general mood is of concern opposed to outrage or panic. Chinese citizens are very familiar to food scandals – oil scraped from sewers for cooking and plasticizer in baby formula.

On weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter, users are voicing their concern over the dead pigs.

“Cadres and officials, we are willing to provide for you, but please don’t let us die from poisoning. Otherwise who will serve you? Please think twice,” said netizen Shi Liqin.

“This river’s colour [sic] is about the same as excrement, even if there weren’t dead pigs you couldn’t drink it,” wrote someone with the username Yuzhou Duelist.

In the state-run Global Times, the article claimed that the “pig scandal” comes amid growing concerns about China’s environment, including recent record smog levels in Beijing and water and air pollution affecting villages.

“The country’s citizens, including both ordinary people and officials, should bear in mind the necessity of protecting the environment,” read the article.

Although the cause of death is unknown, officials believe that the pigs may have come from Jiaxing, a city in the Zhejiang province.

“We don’t exclude the possibility that the dead pigs found in Shanghai were from Jiaxing. But we are not absolutely sure,” stated Jiaxing local spokesman Wang Dengfeng at a news conference. Furthermore, Jiaxing officials also believe that the pigs may have been killed by the cold weather.

Today, a Zhejiang court sentenced 46 people to jail for yielding unsafe pork from sick pigs that they had acquired and slaughtered between 2010 and 2012.

Last year, Jiaxing authorities segregated a gang that acquired and slaughtered diseased pigs arresting 12 suspects and seizing nearly 12 tons of unsafe pork.

For further information, please see:

BBC News – China Pulls Nearly 6,000 Dead Pigs From Shanghai River – 13 March 2013

Huffington Post – Dead Pigs In China’s Shanghai River Worry Residents – 13 March 2013

New York Times – With 6,000 Dead Pigs in River, Troubling Questions on Food Safety – 13 March 2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hungarian Constitutional Amendment Restricts Freedoms

By Madeline Schiesser
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

BUDAPEST, Hungary – Despite protests in the capital city throughout the weekend, Hungary’s parliament voted to pass an amendment Monday which critics say amounts to an attack on democracy.  The amendment, the fourth to Hungary’s 14-month-old constitution, will limit the ability of Hungary’s Constitutional Court to Challenge new laws as well as effectively annul all decisions made by the Court since January 2012.  Rolling back the Court’s decisions will bring back a narrow definition of marriage as a heterosexual union, a ban on sleeping on the streets, a requirement for students who accept state scholarships to stay in Hungary, and a ban on political campaign adverts in private media.

Hungarian members of parliament voted Monday for an amendment that some critics say will severely limit democratic freedoms. (Photo Courtesy of Al Jazeera)

The European Union and United States expressed concern over the effects the amendment would have on the independent judiciary, the latter saying the amendment deserved “closer scrutiny and more deliberate consideration”.  The Council of Europe (an independent human rights body) urged for delays to allow legal experts time to examine the amendment, claiming the amendment “raise[s] concerns with respect to the principle of the rule of law, EU law and Council of Europe standards.”  However, members of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz ruling party remained persistent, and passed the amendment.

MP Antal Rogan declared in a speech in the chamber: “We won’t allow either any international business lobby or the political forces that speak on their behalf to interfere with the decisions of the Hungarian parliament.”

The amendment, passed by the Fidesz party, which has a two-thirds majority, says that the Constitutional Court will no longer be able to overturn laws passed in parliament with a two-thirds majority and enshrined in the constitution.  Rather, the court will only have the power to review cases on procedural grounds.  PM Orbán explained that the amendment would create an “irreversible” situation in which parliament’s role in protecting the constitution supersedes that of the Constitutional Court.

Furthermore, the president’s veto power has been removed and he will be obliged to sign amendments, except when there is an objection on procedural grounds.

“When they lay down in the constitution how those who have nowhere to go may or may not sleep on the street then we need to ask whether it’s us protesters who have gone crazy or those who write the constitution,” opposition activist Miklos Tamas Gaspar said.

The EU may decide Thursday, when heads of state are scheduled to gather in Brussels, whether to take action. Although the EU has the power to strip a country of voting rights, doing so is a laborious process.

Rui Tavares, a Portuguese MEP, stressed the importance ensuring Hungary’s new constitution remains compatible with European values: “You have to ensure that the judiciary in every member state is compatible with these values we have in the treaties.”

For further information, please see:

Al Jazeera – Hungary amends constitution despite warning – 11 March 2013

The Independent – Hungary Erupts in Protest after PM Viktor Orbán is Accused of Assault on Democracy – 11 March 2013

The Independent – Hungary Votes Yes Over Change to Constitution Despite Human Rights Concerns – 11 March 2013

Xpatloop – EC Prepared To Enforce EU Law In Hungary – 11 March 2013

They’re (Not) Lovin’ It. McDonalds And Labor Violation In Brazil

By Brendan Oliver Bergh
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BRASILA, Brazil – Ronald McDonald’s has another fire to put out, and this one is not related to its flame broiled burgers. In Brazil new information is being released that would implicate labor violations imposed against young workers in order to keep the costs of running a fast food franchise down.

McDonalds in Brazil has been facing allegations of labor violations towards their young workers. (Photo courtesy of Vice)

Brazil has the second most McDonalds of any country in the Western hemisphere after the United States, and with that comes its share of scandals. While not rocked by the horse meat scandal that has hit the United States, here McDonald’s young workers are coming forth complaining about slave-like working conditions that are being imposed upon them. Conditions such as sexual harassment, lack of minimum worker comfort, and work hours above the weekly maximum – which according to article 7 of the Federal Constitution on employee rights should not exceed 44 hours a week – are unfortunately far reaching. Beyond hourly violations furnishing workers with inadequate food are just some of the conditions many workers are forced to deal with in Brazil.

Last year, the Brazilian corporate office of McDonalds at Sao Paulo was facing 1790 cases for labor violations from claims concerning overtime violations, and minimum wage violations, and until recently has seemingly been able to get away them. The hiring of young workers for fast-food is everyday practice for many corporations, but in Sao Paulo the act has taken a slightly more predatory nature. McDonald’s in Brazil has taken to a habit of hiring teenagers with little to no job experience and no notice of their rights.

These recent labor violations have resurfaced thanks to a suit by a seventeen year old girl. She had been working at a Sao-Paulo McDonalds for 8 months without pay and has agreed to testify against her former employers.

Antonio Carlos Lacerda, a lawyer representing the young girl working for the Hotel and Restaurant Workers Union, believes this is one of many other similar situations. He believes “that when the investigation is concluded, they will prove that there is a systematic pattern of this kind of behavior through the entire McDonald’s system.”

These labor law violations are just some of the issues being discussed by the Inter-American Commission 0n Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights this month in Brazil. These issues crucial to Brazil – like slave labor and gender-based violence – are to be addressed to alter Brazil’s sometimes deplorable human rights violations.

For more information, please see:

Vice – McDonalds Is Violating Labor Laws In Brazil – 4 March 2013

Independent European Daily Express – Inter-American Human Rights System Reform Faces Deadline – 1 March 2013

The Drum – Horse Meat Scandal – McDonald’s Is Loving It – 7 February 2013

The Brazil Business – Brazilian Employment Law In A Nutshell – 15 May 2012

Lo De Alla – McDonald’s In Brazil: A Campaign To Cover Up Exploitation – 20 March 2011

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Malian Media Strikes Following Editor’s Arrest

By Hannah Stewart
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

BAMAKO, Mali — Mali’s private media launched a news strike after an editor was arrested for publishing a letter about the substandard conditions of Malian soldiers fighting Islamist militants in the north.

Man selects one of the 40 newspaper titles typically published each week in Bamako. (Photo Courtesy of BBC)

Agents from Mali’s intelligence service arrested Boukary Daou, editor-in-chief of Le Republican newspaper, and took him from his home on March 6.  This followed soon after his newspaper published a letter from an army officer denouncing Captain Amadou Haya Sanogo’s recently-decreed salary of $8,000 per month.

Sanogo’s salary is incredibly high salary for anyone in the impoverished country.  The letter contends that the salary — as much as 26 times what Sanogo earned before last year’s coup — serves as an incentive for future coups.

The letter further threatened that if Sanogo’s salary is not reduced, soldiers deployed in northern Mali’s will refuse to fight.  Currently, the average salary of an enlisted soldier is just $100 a month, which is 80 times less than what Sanogo’s salary.

Sanogo seized power a year ago last March.  Just weeks later, he was forced to relinquish control due to international sanctions.  Sanogo managed to negotiate a “golden parachute” before resigning, including the salary of an ex-head of state.  Despite officially stepping down, many observers contend that Sanogo continues to pull the strings in government, as Daou’s arrest evidences.

President Dioncounda Traore spoke to reporters at a stop in Dakar, Senegal, and defended his administration’s decision to arrest Daou.  President Traore assured reporters that if Daou is innocent that he will be freed.  Moreover, President Traore condemned the letter published in Le Republican as subversive and aimed to demoralize the nation’s troops during wartime.

Sources in the capital of Bamako, say that approximately 40 periodicals are published weekly; however, none appeared on newsstands on Tuesday morning.  Furthermore, the 16 local private FM radio stations are either silent or only playing music.

According to a statement from the country’s press association, the media strike “will continue until Boukary Daou is freed.”

“Mali is in a state of emergency.  We all need to remember this.  We are in a state of war, and we cannot allow this kind of thing,” President Traore said.  “If he is guilty, he will need to answer to the courts.  If he is not, there’s no reason he’ll be kept in prison.”

Following Sanogo’s coup last year, various rebel groups allied with al-Qaeda forces in northern Mali have sent the the country and the region careening into crisis.  Since January, French troops have joined with Malian and regional soldiers to push back against the northern rebels.

For more information, please see:

BBC News – Mali Media Strike Over Editor Boukary Daou’s Arrest – 12 March 2013

Bloomberg – Media in Mali Protest Journalist’s Arrest with National Strike – 12 March 2013

Financial Times – Mali Media Strike Against Editor’s Arrest – 12 March 2013

NPR – Mali Media Outlets Go Silent Over Editor’s Arrest – 12 March 2013

Saudi Arabia to Consider an end to Beheadings

By Justin Dorman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Recently, Saudi Arabia has been under a lot of heat for the amount of people it has been executing under capital punishment. The most common method used in Saudi Arabia for executions has been that of beheading by swordsmen. Saudi Arabian authorities finally seem ready to retire the traditional Sharia technique.

The beheading of Rizana Nafeek, seen above, took place this past January. (Photo Courtesy of the Global Dispatch)

Those beheaded last year were convicted for the capital crimes of armed robbery, drug smuggling, murder, rape, sorcery, and witchcraft. International human rights group, Amnesty International, opposes the administration of death sentences for the commission of any crime.

Those still contemplating committing witchcraft anytime soon should know that they will still be executed for a capital crime. Instead of being killed by a beheading, a sorcerer will be executed by firing squad.

The switch has nothing to do with the Saudis seeing beheadings as antiquated. The real reason why the ministerial committee of the interior has decided to potentially cease beheadings is because there is a shortage of swordsmen. Swordsmen are largely unavailable in a number of areas in Saudi Arabia. This shortage leads to swordsmen needing to often travel great distances in order to perform executions. When such travels are necessary, executions are often delayed. They are simply impractical.

Saudi Arabia is currently the only country which still beheads criminals in public by sword. Executions by beheading has always been seen as the proper technique under the Koran to punish a person who committed a capital offense since medieval times. Death by the gunfire of a firing squad has also been deemed to be consistent with Sharia law. Though they have been more uncommon, such executions have occurred before and are not considered to be a religious violation.

The manner in which an individual, sentenced by a judge to death, will be killed will ultimately come down to the discretion of a local governor or prince. So far seventeen individuals have been executed this year. At least fifteen of those seventeen were beheaded. The seventeen people already killed this year represent a great increase in the rate of individuals executed, after just eighty individuals were killed a year for the past two years.

For further information, please see:

Arabian Business – Saudi Could Replace Beheading with Firing Squad – 11 March 2013

Guardian – Saudi Shortage of Swordsmen Prompts Approval of Executions by Firing Squad – 11 March 2013

New York Times – Saudis Consider Firing Squads for Executions – 10 March 2013

Global Dispatch – Amnesty International Calls for Saudi Arabia to Stop Beheading ‘Nearly two People a Week’ – 12 February 2013