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Homosexuality decriminalized in India
Related to country: India

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Homosexuality decriminalized in India

The Indians Supreme Court repealed the law that criminalized homosexuality, and ruled on July 1st, 1009 that the consensual gay relations between adults are no longer illegal. The decision marked the end of police harassment on gays, and was the first step taken to achieve, in the future, the general acceptance of homosexual acts in deeply traditional India.

Many Indians regard homosexuality as an illegitimate act. The homosexual acts could put people into jails for 10 years. However, the punishment for gays has become history when the 148-year-old statue, section 377 of the Indian Penal code that defined homosexual acts as “carnal intercourse against the order of nature”, was said to be an “antithesis of right to equality” and “the violation of fundamental rights” by the New Delhi High Court.

The court’s decision made Indian homosexuals and gay right activists happiest ever. They went on street and celebrated for it. Gays and lesbians kissed each other boldly and freely on the street.

"I'm so excited and I haven't been able to process the news yet," said Anjali Gopalan, the executive director of the Naz Foundation (India) Trust, the sexual health organization that filed the petition with the court.

“It is fabulously written judgement and it restores our faith in the judiciary,” said activist and lawyer Aditya Bandopadhyay.

The ruling that decriminalized homosexuality was, nevertheless, criticized by some religious people.

“The Western culture cannot be permitted in our country,” said Maulana Khalid Rashid Rarangi Mahali, the leader of Muslim Cleric.

Someday in the future, Indians can look back and say that this ruling of the court was the cornerstone for homosexuality to be totally legal in India.
More than 8% of homosexual men were infected with HIV, fewer than 1% of the general population.

http://discuss.tigweb.org/thread/38913

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8129836.stm

http://images.huffingtonpost.com/gen/90075/thumbs/s-INDIA-GAYS-large.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3125/2622957015_2124e0ac1d.jpg

July 22, 2009 | 9:50 AM Comments  0 comments

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The Renaissance of GM (from the Star)
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

The new General Motors arose on Friday as lawyers finished an all-night paperwork session transferring the automaker's good assets to a brand-new company controlled by the U.S. government.

The massive transfer of factories, money and intellectual property was completed about 6:30 a.m., according to a person briefed on the situation, clearing the way for a smaller and faster company better equipped to compete in the brutally tough global automotive market.

The person, who asked to remain anonymous because the deal wasn't announced officially, said the signing meant the new GM had emerged from bankruptcy.

One bankruptcy expert called GM's 40-day case the fastest ever for a company of its size.

GM's warp-speed emergence from bankruptcy is expected to be announced by CEO Fritz Henderson and new Chairman Edward Whitacre Jr. at a 9 a.m. news conference at the company's Detroit headquarters.

Henderson is expected to announce details of the plan to make new GM profitable again. The troubled automaker has lost more than $80 billion in the past four years.

Once the world's largest and most powerful automaker, new GM is now cleansed of massive debt and burdensome contracts that would have sunk it without federal loans. Spurred on by the Obama administration's support, the bankruptcy process was two day's faster than crosstown rival Chrysler Group LLC's 42-day timeframe.

July 10, 2009 | 3:42 PM Comments  0 comments

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CI--Conscience International
Related to country: Sierra Leone

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Sierra Leone been strategically located on the west coast of Africa and lies between latitude 7-10 Degree North of the equator and between Longitude 10-14 degree west of green witch have an area of 27,925 square miles or about 73,326 square kilometers and have a population of about 5.9 million people with 70% of it population heavily depend on subsistence Agricultural farming. It shares boundaries with Guinea in the North East, South North and Liberia in the South.

Sierra Leone has been ranked as the second to bottom in the UN Development index. According to recent research, and 60% of it population living bellow the poverty line and 26% are food poor, meaning they cannot afford to feed them selves.
The end of the ten year rebel war which was characterized by all form of violations had brought huge catastrophes on lives and property and raised the hope of Sierra Leonean for the realization of rights and responsibilities. This aspiration partly had its roots that Sierra Leonean had learn their bitter lesson from a brutal war characterized by all forms of violence especially against women and children that includes domestic violence such as early marriage, wife and child battery, sexual harassment, molestation and child trafficking, raping, Killing, burning of houses, amputation and rubbery.

Conscience International will continue the pursuit of its mandate with renewed vigour to implement and support human rights and development programs in Sierra Leone.

In the poorest Districts (where war destroyed tree crops, or which rely on poor subsistence agriculture or artisan mining) more than 8 out of 10 people live in poverty. Sierra Leone’s poverty profile shows that the main poverty indicators are insufficient food, poor housing, poor health facilities, high illiteracy, limited access to clean water, infant mortality and maternal rates are among if not the worst in the world. Contraceptive use remains low amongst school attendants



One factor about the existing poverty is because greater percent of Sierra Leonean are denied of their fundamental human rights, such as the right to food, right to justice, right to access relevant information and lack of knowledge to access those rights that empowered them to hold duty bearers accountable to fulfill their own obligations.

Despite the effort of existing human right organization on human right education, yet the violations of rights remain unabated, and much has to be done to ensure the less privileged, vulnerable societies to be free from rights deprivation and live a life of dignity.
Impunity, unfair trails, corruption, violence against women and children are still eminent in Sierra Leone, there fore need more organizations, focusing on necessary changes of policy, attitude and approach.



CHALLENGES Resultant from its work, CI faces a number of challenges. We continue to develop clear plans to meet strategic aims, secure financial bases and develop the right blend of activities to remain at the cutting edge of human rights and development needs. The frame work for Action outlines ways to get closer to that future, focusing on necessary changes of policy, attitude and approach.

In this regard, the CI is making effort to implement its set objectives in the following areas;


Dissemination of up-to-date information related to human rights and development through:

Newsletters

Meetings

Multimedia

Manuals, booklets, leaflets and posters


Facilitating access to civil society information from key organization through:

Expert Consultation

Partner activities

Seminars, workshops and trainings

Support of effective and responsive advocacy and lobbying activities to protect and promote human rights as well as basic development needs, through:
Research: aims at a purposeful monitoring, research and documentation of human rights conditions and the publication of annual human rights report.



Advocacy:

Developing effective media linkages, raising awareness of the human rights situations to activists, decision-makers and other stakeholders at local and international level to ensure better attention and timely action.





Capacity Building:

Equipping CI staff and other human rights activists with skills that enable them to enhance the efficiency of their work and ensure better individual protection through improved personal capacities and familiarity with international human rights norms.


Human Rights Education:

inform, sensitize and educate the public on internationally recognized human rights through the use of journals, newsletters, brochure, posters and report.

July 10, 2009 | 2:12 PM Comments  7 comments



Honduran Coup D’état Timeline (keep updating)
Related to country: Honduras

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Honduran Coup D’état Timeline

June 28, 2009: The coup d’état started. Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was ousted by the military. He was exiled to Costa Rica, was accused of ignoring the court’s ruling and holding a referendum to change the Constitution

June 29, 2009: Zelaya met the Bolivia President Evo Morales, ousted Honduras President Manuel Zelaya, Nicaragua President Daniel Ortega, Venezuela President Hugo Chavez and Ecuador President Rafael Correa in Managua, Nicaragua. They hugged each other as if they were brothers.

June. 30, 2009: Manuel Zelaya gained a lot of international supports. The UN voted to demand Zelaya’s immediate restoration.

July 1, 2009: The US President Barack Obama, along with OAS, backed up ousted President Zelaya. Obama said that the removal of the democratic president in Honduras was unconstitutional. The OAS was called in session in Washington; it threatened to suspend Honduras’s membership unless restoring Zelaya.

July 2, 2009: The supporters of President Manuel Zelaya protested in front of the National Congress in Tegucigalpa. Soon violence was erupted. The police threw tear gas at the throng.

July 3, 2009: The Supreme Court of Honduras rejected the ultimatum for Zelaya’s restoration. The interim government of Honduras had announced that the country has decided to quit the OAS (Organization of American States) on Friday.

July 4, 2009: President Zelaya decided to return tomorrow despite the danger and warning that he could be arrested.

July 5, 2009: Despite Zelaya’s plan to return Honduras today, the police blocked him from entering Tegucigalpa. The plane hovered over the country, and then flew back to El Salvador

July 6, 2009: Zelaya was very unhappy. He condemned the military that blocked him from entering the country.

July 7, 2009: President Zelaya was scheduled to meet Clinton, the Secretary of States of the US. Obama again boosted him and backed him up, saying that the US would “respect the universal principle that people should choose their own leaders, whether they are leaders we agree with or not.”

July 8, 2009: The Honduran interim government gave the sign of flexibility about the possible return of Manuel Zelaya.

July 10, 2009: The Costa Rican President Oscar Arias held a clsed-door meetings with both Manueal Zelaya and Roberto Micheletti. Ousted Zelaya appeared first, and left Arias' home in Cota Rica's capital shortly before Roberto Micheletti showed up

July 23, 2009: Manuel Zelaya announced that he is going back to Honduras on Saturday. The interim government that sent Manuel Zelaya into exile vows to arrest the president if he sets foot in Honduras

July 25, 2009: Manuel Zelaya set up a camp along the border of Honduras. He said he is going to settle there until the coup ended.

July 7, 2009 | 2:21 PM Comments  0 comments



Honduran coup--an immoral protest
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

June 28, 2009 was the day that sent Honduras into turmoil; it was the day that the Honduran military broke its own established democracy and overthrew its democratic leader, Manuel Zelaya, who was exiled into Costa Rica. The pretext that his opponents hold is that Zelaya tried to ignore the court’s ruling and change the constitution through a referendum.
What Micheletti tries to say here is that Zelaya is against the ruling of the Supreme Court by trying to hold a referendum to change the constitution about the presidency, and therefore he is against law. However, what a country mostly needs is not only law, but also democracy. Without democracy, law can only be a set of restrictions placed on the people. Manuel Zelaya, a democratically elected leader, represents people’s will in Honduras. Someone may say that that Manuel Zelaya wanting to change the Constitution is because of his despicable desire to stay longer on his office. In other words, he only cares about his own political power despite the court’s ruling. However, Zelaya was holding a referendum, which means people’s will. It doesn’t matter what his intention is, as long as the people support him. If Zelaya wants to hold onto his power longer than one term and most importantly, his people want him to stay longer, then why not? Laws are made by people, and so they can be and should be changed according to the will of the majority of people. That’s what majority rule means. That’s what democracy means. That’s what popular sovereignty means—the idea that governments serve for the people and only act out according to the people’s will.
Micheletti and his allies also blamed Zelaya’s socialist policies in which Zelaya gained popularity by giving handouts to the poor. It is incontrovertible that his polices to redistribute the wealth are socialistic or leftist. But so what? There is nothing wrong with being socialist. What do you want to say about being socialist? It may end up in Communist dictatorship like Czechoslovakia and Poland used to be? It may cause violence and result in another “Tiananmen Square Massacre”? Come on, don’t be so stereotypical. Socialism doesn’t always equal Communism or dictatorship. Countries like Czechoslovakia, Poland, and China were using wrong socialistic policies at wrong time. Nevertheless, when a country has a widening gap between rich and poor, socialism is needed and should be used.
“Honduras is one of the poorest and least developed countries in Latin America. Industrial development has been limited, and historically the economy has been dependent on exports of coffee and bananas. The currency has been undergoing a steady and controlled devaluation of roughly 6% per year for the last several years.” In this situation, wealth needs to be redistributed among people, the poor has to get their voice heard, and the country should be led by a leader who can stand on the side of the poor since there are more poor than rich. And Manuel Zelaya is the one who can bring them hope and democracy.
After all, coup d’états are detrimental and should be by all means avoided because it can cause turmoil, uprising, and even violence. A democratic country should try to solve problems democratically. And if the government is still republic, they should let Manuel Zelaya return to his office, or at least back to his own country.


July 6, 2009 | 3:16 PM Comments  0 comments





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