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Friday, March 12, 2010 02:25 GMT

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LATIN AMERICA: Subdued Response to Cuban Dissident's Death
By Humberto Márquez
CARACAS - The deafening silence of Latin American governments has fallen like another shovelful of earth on the grave of Cuban dissident Orlando Zapata, a bricklayer who died Feb. 23 after nearly three months on hunger strike in prison on the Caribbean island.
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RIGHTS-US: Justice Not Always Blind, Especially to Gender
By Armin Rosen
NEW YORK - When Legal Momentum, a U.S. advocacy group that works with all aspects of gender in the legal system, started its National Judicial Education Programme in 1980, gender discrimination was an unacknowledged problem in the country's courtrooms.
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RIGHTS: Saudi Arabia Faulted for Feudal Justice
By Thalif Deen*
UNITED NATIONS - Against the backdrop of a two-week U.N. meeting on gender empowerment, the London-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has blasted the government of Saudi Arabia for its feudal system of justice where women continue to be victimised because of their gender.
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PERU-CHINA: Extradition to Death Row
By Ángel Páez
LIMA - The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has asked for precautionary measures in Peru to prevent the extradition to China of Wong Ho Wing, a Chinese national accused of crimes that could carry a death sentence in his country.
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DEATH PENALTY: On Trial for Their Lives - by Public Opinion
By Gustavo Capdevila
GENEVA - The death penalty remains an apparently fixed feature in many societies because it enjoys the approval or consent of a large majority of the population, or is based on supposed ancestral values or traditions.
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DEATH PENALTY: Post-Genocide Countries Ban Executions to 'End Revenge'
By Gustavo Capdevila
GENEVA - More than 1,000 activists and experts attending this week's Fourth World Congress Against the Death Penalty in this Swiss city are building a network of cooperation to support local organisations campaigning for human rights in countries that retain capital punishment.
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JAMAICA: Young Offenders Caught Up in Adult System
By Kathy Barrett
KINGSTON - For years, Jamaica's correctional system has been under the glare of the international spotlight.
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U.S.: High Court to Decide on Impunity for Foreign War Criminals
By Loris Schumann
NEW YORK - Bashe Abdi Yousuf, a U.S. citizen, was a young businessman in Somalia when he was detained, tortured, and kept in solitary confinement for over six years. Aziz Mohamed Deria, also a U.S. citizen, lost his father and brother when they were abducted and killed by officials and never seen again.
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CHILE: Another Chance for Reparations for Pinochet Victims
By Daniela Estrada
SANTIAGO - Over the next six months, a new commission will receive testimony from victims of the 1973-1990 dictatorship of the late General Augusto Pinochet, who have not qualified for reparations since Chile's return to democracy.
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RIGHTS: Group Urges Bahrain to Stop Torture of Detainees
By Charles Fromm
WASHINGTON - Bahrain's security forces should immediately cease the use of torture to elicit confessions from prisoners suspected of security offences, says the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW).
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U.S.: Landmark Case Could Restore Felon Voting Rights
By Matthew Cardinale
ATLANTA - A historic ruling earlier this month on behalf of felons who lost the right to vote could call into question the disenfranchisement of felons and ex-felons in the State of Washington and indeed across the United States.
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PERU: Victims of Military Rapists Wait for Justice 25 Years On
By Ángel Páez
LIMA - "I want justice. That will be a kind of peace," says Micaela, a 40-year-old woman from the Andean region of Peru who is a survivor of the sexual violence prevalent during the 1980-2000 civil war. Twenty-five years ago, soldiers assaulted her at a military base and in her own home.
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RIGHTS-US: Death Sentences Hit 30-Year Low in 2009
By William Fisher
NEW YORK - The global recession has brought pain to many, but good news for at least one group - opponents of the death penalty in the United States.
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RIGHTS-US: "New" Military Courts Still Lack Basic Safeguards
By William Fisher
NEW YORK - While conservatives complain about Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four other terror suspects from Guantanamo coming to New York for trial, many legal experts and human rights groups are being equally outspoken in their criticism of the "new and improved" military commissions designated to try five other detainees.
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RIGHTS-US: Decision on 9/11 Trials Sparks Praise, Anger
By William Fisher
NEW YORK - The U.S. government's decision to bring five high-profile terror suspects to the United States to face trials in a civilian court has drawn reactions ranging from praise to condemnation to confusion.
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Q&A: Inclusive Sex Education Needed in African Schools
Suzanne Hoeksema interviews AKINYI M. OCHOLLA, Chair of Minority Women in Action
UNITED NATIONS - With the exception of South Africa, most African countries criminalise same-sex relationships with imprisonment, while incidents of violence against gay women and men are poorly investigated and rarely taken to court.
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CARIBBEAN: British Jurist Rekindles Debate on Colonial-Era Court
By Peter Richards
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - Whether or not his words were meant to rekindle debate on the merits of a Caribbean court, the statement by British jurist Lord Phillips that "in an ideal world" the former Commonwealth countries would stop using the Privy Council and instead set up their own final courts of appeal has done just that.
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US-AFGHANISTAN: "New" Bagram Rules More of the Same?
By William Fisher
NEW YORK - Human rights activists and legal experts reacted swiftly Monday to disclosures that the U.S. government is planning to introduce new measures it claims would give inmates at Afghanistan's notorious Bagram prison more opportunities to challenge their detention.
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RIGHTS-US: Some Guantanamo Prisoners Fight Release
By William Fisher
NEW YORK - As 13 prisoners held at the U.S. naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba appeared set to finally win their freedom, others are asking their release to be deferred.
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RIGHTS-US: Rendition Victim Still Seeking Justice
By William Fisher
NEW YORK - Thwarted by U.S. courts, a German citizen who claims he was "rendered" by the U.S. and secretly detained and tortured for four months is taking his case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
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The struggle for abolition of the death penalty is not over, not even where it is no longer being enforced. Abolition, or the moratorium several states have in place on the death sentence, often seems to become a cover for inhumane alternatives such as jail for life in unacceptable conditions, and simply longer sentences. IPS correspondents report here of the campaign against abolition, and for legal and prison reforms that would give prisoners the right to life, and also to justice and decency.

IPS has partnered with Penal Reform International to expand its independent coverage of issues surrounding capital punishment and long-term imprisonment.

A WIN-WIN PLAN FOR ICELAND, BRITAIN AND THE NETHERLANDS
By Hazel Henderson

MOSCOW AND HAVANA: FRIENDS FOREVER?
By Leonardo Padura

THE DECLINE OF SOCIAL DEMOCRACY
By Ignacio Ramonet

TURKEY: DEEPENING DEMOCRACY OR NEW AUTHORITARIANISM?
By Ilter Turan

CHINA'S NEOCOLONIALISM
By Walden Bello

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Amnesty International
Human Rights Watch
Child Rights Information Network
Hands Off Cain
International Development Law Organisation
World Coalition Against the Death Penalty
International Helsinki Federation on Human Rights
International Federation for Human Rights
Death Penalty Information Centre (USA)
Death Penalty Links
Penal Reform International
Human Rights: Death Penalty
The Innocence Project (USA)
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR)
Human Rights First
Anti-Slavery International
Physicians for Human Rights

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The contents of this news coverage, including any funded by the European Union, are the sole responsibility of IPS and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union.