A video showing the Joret Ash-Shayah neighborhood of Homs. It has been completely destroyed due to attacks by the regime forces.
**WARNING: THE VIDEO BELOW CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES**
After a shelling and raid campaign residents of Inkhel took to the streets in anger for the 15 victims killed. The regime’s army and security forces targeted the protestors, killing another 3 citizens.
Regime forces are placed all around towns in order to stifle the movement of citizens.
CASUALTY REPORT
70 confirmed casualties killed by the regime on Monday, 25 June 2012.
By Heba Girgis Impunity Watch Reporter, South America
ASUNCION, Paraguay — Paraguay’s now formerly ousted President Fernando Lugo has accused the country’s Congress of a “parliamentary coup d’etat” in order to force him out of power. Lugo, 61, said he would accept the decision in the name of peace but also made the following statement: “Lugo has not been dismissed; democracy has been dismissed. They have not respected the popular will.”
Newly Appointed President Fredrico Franco Sworn in on Friday. (Photo Courtesy of The Washington Post)
Friday, June 22, Fredrico Franco, the former vice president of Paraguay, was sworn in as the new president after the legislature voted to dismiss Lugo, who they said failed to fulfill his duties to maintain social harmony in the country. While Paraguay has long been ranked as one of the most corrupt countries in South America, Lugo was found to be indecisive in the face of the country’s challenges with corruption and drug trafficking.
Shortly before midnight on Sunday, June 24, Lugo made an appearance at a local demonstration where he told his supporters that his Presidency was targeted because he tried to offer support and aid to Paraguay’s poor majority.
Lugo’s impeachment and trial sparked after clashes during a recent land eviction resulted in 17 deaths of both police and land peasant farmers. Critics of the impeachment process in Paraguay argued, however, that Mr. Lugo’s lawyers only had a few hours to defend him in the Senate, after which Franco was quickly sworn in to the position.
When asked whether this decision thwarted the democratic setup of the government, new President Franco replied, “there was no break with democracy here. The transition of power through political trial is established in the national constitution.”
The Inter-American Human Rights Commission addressed its own concerns with the ousting of former President Lugo. Santiago Canton, the commission’s executive secretary noted, “It’s a travesty of justice and a trampling on the rule of law to remove a president in 24 hours without guarantees of due process.”
Argentinian President, Cristina Kirchner, took a firm stand saying that her country “will not validate this coup d’etat,” while the Brazilian government took a similar view that Lugo’s impeachment was “a rupture of the democratic order in Paraguay” that “compromises a fundamental pillar of democracy, an essential condition for regional integration.” Germany is the only foreign government to recognize the new leadership in Paraguay.
In order to restore its full democratic order, Paraguay now looks to its powerful neighbors for support with its new internal reform.
Courtney Schuster Special Contributor, Blog Entry #3
My most recent adventure was being assigned to a fact-finding team that was given the assignment of inspecting rural health facilities. We were sent to the very rural, and very poor state of Bihar to examine how health facilities complied with the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) standards. The federal government instituted the NRHM in 2006. It set the standards for care and operations at government health facilities. Additionally, it established dozens of requirements for health facilities including: the number of staff that should be at a facility at any given time; drugs that should be present; the number of beds each facility should have; and basic medical hygiene that should be provided.
The fact-finding team spent a week in Bihar traveling to five districts and looking at twenty-five different health facilities. The medical equipment and beds that these facilities had were mostly old and very rusted. In every single facility we visited, there were numerous concerns that went far beyond the superficial issues like rusting bed frames.
The beds of the women's ward, where patients go after giving birth.
First, every facility had a layer of dirt on the floor. Government facilities cannot afford to have air conditioning so they depend on windows and fans to cool the place. Unfortunately, open doors and windows also mean that the dust and dirt get in and covers every surface. There are no regular cleaning staff employed at any of the facilities, save the few large district hospitals; and even in those, the method of cleaning is simply sweeping with a grass broom, which is ineffective and unsanitary.
Second, poor cleanliness of supplies, bedding, and buildings is prevalent. In every room, of every facility, the floors, and often times walls, were covered in old blood stains. Sheets were also old and stained. There were beds and operating tables without any sheets at all. Medical supplies were not sterilized between uses. Many of the larger health facilities had running water but none had the means to heat water or an autoclave. A majority of the facilities we saw in rural areas did not even have running water.
A delivery room, in the yellow bucket is medical waste from a delivery a few hours earlier.
Third, unsafe medical waste disposal and poor garbage disposal was the norm. Inside the facilities, used medical supplies littered the floors. Medical waste, including blood and fluids, from births and operations were not disposed of in a proper or timely manner. Most facilities threw delivery fluids, like after birth and the placenta, out the window. At one center, a birth had taken place five hours before our arrival. As we began our tour, that delivery room was still waiting to be cleaned.
The perimeter of each facility was much worse. Every one we visited had garbage covering the lawns. There were water drainage ditches outside buildings full of garbage, medical waste, and sometimes even human waste. The more rural and remote health facilities had animal feces from cattle, goats, and sheep on the ground outside and on the steps leading into the building. Old vials, used needles, blood soaked material, used gloves, and plastic packaging were littered everywhere. Many facilities had people, including children, waiting outside right next to the medical waste.
Medical waste is tossed into an old cooler sitting outside one of the medical facilities.
I left Bihar stunned and dismayed at the unsanitary conditions and poor management of every health facility we visited. None of them were consistent with the NRHM standards and it became clear to me why India continue to struggles with high maternal mortality rates.
Courtney Schuster is a third-year student at Syracuse University College of Law. She is currently working as an intern in India for the summer. She will be contributing personal blog entries throughout her internship, documenting the challenges of solving human rights issues in international settings.
BEIJING, China -Wednesday, Chinese authorities prevented artist Ai Weiwei from attending his company’s first court hearing against Beijing tax authorities. According to Weiwei, they proffered no explanation.
Weiwei denied court access. (Photo Courtesy of NY Times)
“This society has become a scary and dangerous one now, because there are too many things that violate people’s rights and that happen with no explanation,” stated Weiwei.
Despite police officers’ attempts to bar many Weiwei supporters from leaving their homes, hundreds were still able to rally outside the Chaoyang District Court.
In 2011, Chinese authorities detained Weiwei for three months. In addition, the government sanctioned Weiwei’s design company, Beijing Fake Cultural Development Ltd., to a 15M yuan ($2.35M) fine for back taxes. Weiwei’s wife and legal representative, Lu Qing, has spearheaded an appeal on behalf of the company against the fine. Qing has also filed a separate action alleging witness and evidence mishandling by the tax bureau.
Through his work and political activism, the 54-year-old artist has earned the reverence of most in both the political and artistic communities outside of China. The Art Review deemed Weiwei the most powerful artist in the world.
“Ai’s activities have allowed artists to move away from the idea that they work within a privileged zone limited by the walls of a gallery or museum. They have reminded his colleagues and the world at large of the fact that freedom of expression is a basic right of any human being.”
Political activists and other Weiwei supporters purport that a direct correlation exists between his punishment and his criticism of the Chinese government.
Since his release, the authorities have forbidden Weiwei to travel outside of China. Moreover, Weiwei is under steady surveillance.
“They didn’t return my passport, I just realized that,” Weiwei said. “And they didn’t return my computers. You know, because for subversion of state power, they want to try to find every trace. But they can’t find anything, I guess. I mean, they owe me to say sorry. But of course they would never do it. It’s over, but it’s never totally over. You are still not allowed to go abroad.”
In addition to the pending litigation, Weiwei may face other charges: pornography, bigamy, and illicit exchange of foreign currency. However, there is no certainty whether the authorities will pursue these suspected crimes.
Despite authorities’ alleged attempts to stop or at least deter criticism directed at them, Weiwei continues to fight his censure through banned social networks such as Twitter.
MOSCOW, Russia – Alexander Bastrykin, Russia’s chief of the Investigative Committee, issued a public apology to Sergei Sokolov after making death threats to the Novaya Gazeta journalist. In an off-the-record meeting with several editors from the Moscow media, Bastrykin apologized for being overly emotional during his confrontation with Sokolov.
Sergei Sokolov, deputy editor of Novaya Gazeta. (Photo Courtesy of Committee to Protect Journalists)
Sokolov, the deputy editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta first received fire from Bastrykin after writing an article accusing the Investigative Committee and its chief for aiding crime bosses. The article was written in response to the light sentences served against members of the Kushchyovskaya gang, which murdered 12 people, including small children, in 2011. Amongst those sentences that Sokolov heavily criticized was the one imposed on local legislator Sergei Tsepovyaz. Tsepovyaz, a brother of a gang member, was only ordered to pay a fine of 150,000 rubles ($4,570) after the court found him guilty of destroying evidence of a gasoline purchase. The gasoline had been used by gang members to burn down the victims’ home.
Bastrykin was infuriated after reading the article, and quickly acted to invite Sokolov to a conference in Nalchik. Sokolov received the death threat on the return trip to Moscow. According to Muratov’s open letter to Bastrykin, Sokolov was taken to a forest near Moscow in a car. There, Bastrykin ordered his bodyguards to leave before “rudely” threatening Sokolov’s life, adding jokingly that he would personally investigate Sokolov’s murder. Sokolov fled the country shortly after telling a colleague that Bastrykin threatened to cut his head and legs off.
Bastrykin’s apology comes after the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ)’s criticism. Both groups supported Muratov and his demand for a public explanation, and urged Russian authorities to investigate the threats.
Sokolov and Muratov had both accepted Bastrykin’s apology. While some have applauded the Investigator Committee chief, others have expressed disappointment in Novaya Gazeta’s response.
“It is now forbidden to take Sergei Sokolov out in the woods and threaten to do away with him, but it’s OK to do that to other journalists. Because as of today it’s not even a crime, just a bit of rudeness. That is Dmitry Muratov’s gift to the journalistic community that only yesterday took to the streets for him,” wrote Masha Gessen, editor of the travel magazine Vokrug Sveta.
While Bastrykin’s apology did not change the dangerous conditions of Russian journalists, it most certainly answered Novaya Gazeta’s demands for Sokolov’s safety. Sokolov returned to Moscow on June 19 after Bastrykin apologized to him personally.
