By Erica Laster                                                                                                                       Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

NEW YORK, United States – U.N. officials have been actively discussing the complete abolition of nuclear weapons.   “They all understand that nuclear weapons make us less safe, not more,” said U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at an exhibit and presentation by the Mayors of Peace at U.N. headquarters in New York last Thursday.  In the wake of the meltdown of Japanese nuclear plants following the tsunami, human rights groups have called for an end to the sale, use and production of nuclear weapons across the World.

Mayors of Peace began working alongside the United Nations in 1991 to confront the difficult task of nuclear weapon bans.  It now operates in 150 countries and over 4,500 cities in the International community. 

Accompanied by survivors of the Atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, Ban Ki-moon indicated the necessity of nuclear disarmament.

Just one day before, the Simons Foundation and the International Association of Lawyers against Nuclear Arms (IALANA) released the Vancouver Declaration which declared that nuclear weapons are “incompatible” with international humanitarian law.  Further, as weapons of mass destruction, they are universally prohibited in warfare. 

Specifically, the harm inflicted on civilians from nuclear heat and radiation has been widely discussed and argued in the community as a violation of international law by experts and public diplomacy officials.

The declaration’s signers cite the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion of 1996, arguing that “It cannot be lawful to continue indefinitely to possess weapons which are unlawful to use or threaten to use, are already banned for most states, and are subject to an obligation of elimination.”  This obligation to eliminate nuclear arsenals stems directly from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation (NPT) of 1970.  According to the NPT, states possessing weapons agreed to disarm and destroy their supply of weapons and those not in possession agreed not to acquire them.

93 percent of the world’s stockpile of nuclear weapons are possessed by the United States and Russia.  The remaining nuclear powers include China, France, Israel, Britain, India and Pakistan.

Many have derailed, prolonged and completely ignored their agreement to disarm and reduce their nuclear stockpiles.  Some, such as Dr. Jennifer Simons, Simons Foundation President, believe that “the possession of nuclear weapons should be an international crime.”

Despite a recent US-Russia Arms Treaty approved by the Barack Obama administration which confirms the countries intent to disarm, the United States is still allowed to keep 3,500 weapons after the year 2020.  John Burroughs of the Lawyer’s Committee on Nuclear Policy is hopeful that despite the long haul, the peace movement will help crystallize and garner support for the abolition of nuclear weapons. 

For More Information Please Visit:

IPS – Public Momentum Builds Against Nukes – 25 March 2011

Mayors For Peace – Powerful earthquake, huge tsunami and nuclear accident in Japan – 11 March 2010

NY Times – Nuclear Weapons – 22 December 2010

By Laura Hirahara
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

PIERRE, South Dakota, US– South Dakota’s Republican governor Dennis Daugaard signed a bill into law today that will require a woman seeking an abortion in the state to wait 72 hours.  During that 72 hours, the law requires the woman submit to two separate physician visits and counseling at a pregnancy help center, many of which focus on encouraging women to give birth and keep their child.  The law, which imposes the longest wait period for abortions in the nation, also mandates screening for unnamed mental and physical ‘risk factors’ during the wait period.  Governor Daugaard did not give any interviews after signing the law but did release a prepared statement in which he said, “I think everyone agrees with the goal of reducing abortion by encouraging consideration of other alternatives. . .I hope that women who are considering an abortion will use this three-day period to make good choices.”

Planned Parenthood, partnering with the American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota, has already stated they will be challenging the constitutionality of the bill in the courts.  Kathi Di Nicola, a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota said, “It’s not going to do one thing to reduce unintended pregnancy or reduce abortion. . .We know women think carefully and consider all their options before making a decision like this.”  Supporters of the law say Planned Parenthood, which operates the only clinic that offers abortion services in the state, does not provide adequate counseling before performing the procedure.

The state plans to publish a list of approved pregnancy help centers when the law goes into effect in July.  Republican Representative Roger Hunt, one of the bills main supporters, said “Women need to just be reminded of the fact there is a natural, legal relationship between them and their child.”  However, many claim the pregnancy help centers do not counsel women on all their options and are aimed primarily at dissuading a woman from choosing abortion.  The National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League’s policy director, Donna Crane, stated in response to the law, “We think this is among the most dangerous times for the right to choose since Roe v. Wade.”

South Dakota has been at the heart of heated political debate about abortion in recent years.  In 2006 and 2008, lawmakers passed legislation that would ban abortions in the state and both times the ballot initiatives were defeated by at least a 10 point margin.  Jan Nicolay, co-chair of the South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families, says this new law is an invasion of privacy, infringes on the doctor-patient relationship and will cost tax payers.  “Now, despite the fact that South Dakotans have repeatedly spoken on issues of government interference in private decisions, we will once more be pulled into a protracted legal battle that will potentially cost the state millions in tax dollars.”

For more information, please see;

AP– SD Governor Signs 3-Day Wait for Abortion Into Law– 22 March, 2011

Christian Science Monitor– South Dakota Anti-abortion Law Breaks New Ground– 22 March, 2011

Reuters– South Dakota Law Requires 3-Day Abortion Wait– 22 march, 2011

By Erica Laster                                                                                                                    Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

MIAMI, United States – Victims of United States syphilis experiments in Guatemala have filed a class action law suit to recover for their resulting illness and infections from 1946 to 1948.  The lawsuit alleges that U.S. public health officials violated both national and international laws by conducting syphilis experiments on prison inmates, orphans and mentally ill citizens of Guatemala.   All of the experiments were funded by the National Institute of Health.

Filed by victims or direct heirs, the lawsuit claims that the illegal testing was part of a larger scheme to continue the syphilis experiments previously performed on African Americans in the state of Alabama from 1942-1972.  The complaint alleges that “This decision to move to Guatemala was part of a deliberate plan to continue the Tuskegee testing offshore, where it would not be subject to the same level of oversight as in the United States.”

The Tuskegee experiments were a notorious study which involved the medical testing and deliberate failure to inform 400 African American men of their syphilis infection.  Under the guise of receiving medical care for “bad blood,” these poor and uneducated men were promised free meals and burial expenses if they allowed the government to autopsy their bodies after their deaths.

Susan M. Reverby, a writer and professor at Wellesley College began researching for her follow up book on the syphilis experiments, “Examining Tuskegee: The Infamous Syphilis Study and Its Legacy,” when she uncovered the Guatemalan experiments.  

Reverby immediately alerted the federal government of her findings, despite the usual practice of academics of keeping the content of their work private before publication.  A recent article published in the Journal of Policy History, Reverby states that “Public Health Service researchers did, in fact, deliberately infect poor and vulnerable men and women with syphilis in order to study the disease.”  She further claims that “The mistake of the myth is to set that story in Alabama, when it took place further south, in Guatemala.”

Dr. John Cutler, former assistant surgeon general of the United States Public Health Service (PHS), was discovered to not only have been a researcher in Tuskegee, but the physician responsible for conducting the Guatemalan experiments.

The lawsuit indicates that American doctors along with “The medical team started with inmates in the national penitentiary, using American taxpayer money to hire prostitutes who tested positive for syphilis or gonorrhea to offer sexual services to inmates.”  Requiring an uninfected group to determine error for false positive received from various inmates, the doctors moved to performing blood work on children in orphanages.  Later, mental patients were tested and inoculated with the sexually transmitted disease.

The U.S. doctors convinced the institutions officials to participate using various methods of ‘payment’.  Some received supplies such as refrigerators, while other officials received difficult to obtain medications for diseases such as epilepsy and malaria. In some instances, individual subjects -prison inmates- received compensation in the form of cigarettes.  Inmates receiving prostitutes received women already infected with syphilis.

In October, President Barack Obama created a bioethics panel to look into the studies.  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and current Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius both issued a public apology.  

The class action lawsuit currently contains 7 plaintiffs despite the 700 subjects that were allegedly victims of the syphilis experiments. 

For More Information Please Visit:

Huffington Post – U.S. Guatemala Syphilis Tests: Attorneys Seek Lawsuit For Thousands Of Victims – 8 March 2011

CNN – Guatemalans Sue U.S. Over Medical Experiments – 16 March 2011

Fox News – Secretly Infected with Syphilis, Guatemalan Victims May Sue U.S – 9 March 2011

The Root – The Guatemala Syphilis Experiments Tuskegee Roots – 2 October 2010

By Erica Laster                                                                                                                   Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

TORONTO, Canada – Two Canadian fugitives are now facing conspiracy, instruction and training to carry out terrorist activity charges in Canada, authorities announced at a news conference in Winnipeg Tuesday.  Two  of three other New York co-conspirators, including one, Najibullah Zazi, pled guilty to the bombing attempt carried out on behalf of al Qaeda in 2009.  Maiwand Yar and  FeridImam are now the subjects of an international manhunt which some believe includes the CIA.

A former student at the University of Manitoba, Imam, 30, has been identified as a weapons instructor known as “Youseff.” 

Authorities indicated that both Imam and Yar left Canada for Pakistan in 2007.  Authorities believe they planned to receive training in scouting, the use of firearms, guerrilla warfare and the use of explosives. Their goal was to join insurgents in committing terrorist attacks on NATO forces currently stationed in Afghanistan.  

Royal Canadian Mounted Police assistant commissioner Bill Robinson indicated that “This extensive and thorough national security investigation has provided us with the evidence we require to lay criminal charges.”

A second indictment from the Eastern District of New York, unsealed on Tuesday, revealed charges that Imam received military training from al Qaedasubjects and provided material support to the known terrorist group  “including currency, lodging, training, safehouses, communications equipment, personnel and transportation.”

Imam is also accused of training the three New Yorkers involved and caught in the New York City plot.  Authorities further believe that in 2008, Najibullah Zazi, Zarein Ahmedzay and Adis Medunjanin were trained and supported by Imam during a trip to northern Pakistan.  The three former high school classmates returned to the United States with orders from al-Qaeda to commit terrorist attacks in the United States, specifically as suicide bombers.

At the command of al-Qaeda leaders, Zazi, an airport driver from Denver, traveled to New York to carry out orders in 2009.  He was later arrested after fleeing to Colorado.   Zazi and Ahmedzay pled guilty to all charges while Medunjanin alone has pled not guilty.

Unable to locate and arrest the two missing fugitives, Canadian authorities charged Zaxi and Yar, issuing their indictment in absentia.  “We continue to work with Canadian border services and domestic and international security partners on this matter,” says assistant commissioner Robinson.

Gilles Michaud, a second commissioner of the RCMP acknowledged that authorities have no credible leads regarding the fugitives’ locations.  “There’s been no proof of life for more than a year,” he stated.

Canadian authorities and counter-terrorismofficials have become increasingly concerned about the radicalization of such men from North America and Europe.  “There is no set criteria. It affects all walks of life. These were well-educated, young individuals with no past criminal history and supportive families,” Michaud stated.

The investigation is ongoing.

For More Information Please Visit

CNN – Canadians Facing Terror Charges in 2009 N.Y. Subway Plot – 15 March 2011

Washington Post – Canadian Fugitive Charged With Foiled Al-Qaida Plot Vs NYC Subways; More Charges In Canada – 15 March 2011

Toronto Sun – Ex-Winnipeggers Accused of Terrorism – 15 March 2011

Huffington Post – Ferid Imam, Canadian Fugitive Charged In NYC Subway Plot –

By Erica Laster
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

SAN MIGUEL IXTAHUACÁN, Guatemala – Guatemalan mine activists have been threatened, beaten, shot and kidnapped for protesting continued mining activities at the Marlin Mine in the San Miguel Ixtahuacán municipality.  Samplings of water, blood and urine of local residents revealed the presence of toxic metals and many groups are concerned with the health effects on local indigenous communities.  The Marlin Mine, used for gold mining, is owned by Montana Exploradora de Guatemala, a subsidiary of Goldcorp, a Vancouver based company.

Physicians for Human Rights and the University of Michigan conducted a study early in 2010, sampling the blood and urine of residents of local Indigenous communities near the mine.  The study revealed the presence of elevated levels of copper, zinc, mercury, arsenic and lead in the sample of people living in close proximity to the Vancouver owned mine.  Following the release of the studies results, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) ordered the Marlin Mine to cease operations on May 21, 2010.

The Guatemalan government announced its decision to suspend mine operations in 2010, but has failed to take action.

In mid 2010, Kristen Genovese, senior attorney for the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) expressed her approval of the government to suspend the mine’s operations.  “We applaud the decision of the Government of Guatemala to honor its international human rights obligations and suspend operations at the Marlin mine.”

The government, has of yet, failed to enforce suspension of the mine’s activities.

On February 28, some 200 Indigenous people protesting the government’s failure to suspend mine operations set up a blockade around the mine in San Miguel Ixtahuacán, restricting the main routes frequently used by employees and owners of the company to gain access to the mine. The protests lasted approximately 12 hours.  Led by the Front in Defense of San Miguel Ixtahuacán (FREDEMI), the protestors boarded the buses to return home when they were attacked, beaten, robbed and shot.

Two of the protests leaders granted protective measures by the Presidential Human Rights Commission, Miguel Bamaca and Aniseto Lopez, were singled out.

Lopez was reportedly taken to the office of the local mayor of Ixtahuacán, beaten, robbed of his documents and threatened. Bamaca was allegedly taken to a location known as Siete Platos and beaten by members of the Mejia family who have ties to illegal criminal activities and other neighbors who are employed by the Vancouver based company.  While Bamaca and Lopez survived the assault with serious injuries, 50 other protestors were taken hostage and are being held by members of the San Jose Ixcaniche community.

Requests have been submitted to the Ministry of the Interior to protect the families of Bamaca and Lopez.

Photo courtesy of Vancouver Media Corp.  For More Information Please Visit:

Amnesty International – Guatemalan Mine Activists Beaten And Threatened – 3 March 2011

Vancouver Media Co-Op – Indigenous Protesters Blockading Mine – 28 February 2011

Climate Connections (UN) – Indigenous Protesters Blockading Mine Owned by Vancouver-based Goldcorp Assaulted, Taken Hostage in Guatemala – 1 March 2011

Upside Down World – Guatemala To Suspend Goldcorp’s Marlin Mine – 29 June 2010