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Egypt violates human rights mrn

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(source: VOCfm Online)

 

lockdown

61 years after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Egypt continues to pursue clearly discriminatory policies and practices and the violation of the human rights of its civilian population, including the Ikhwanul Muslimeen. So said Ibrahim Vauwda, senior researcher at the Media Review Network (MRN).

"The detention, torture and incarceration of 26 civilians accused of being members of Hizbollah and being tried in a military court is the latest in the long list of human rights violations by the Mubarak regime since coming to power some 28 years ago. In addition, in the Supreme State Security Emergency Court where they appeared, there is no right of appeal. They have also been denied access to their lawyers for six months," Vawda said in a statement on Monday.

According to MRN, Egypt’s "authoritarian and brutal regime which is the root-cause of its human rights violations must cease as demanded by its civilian population and international law. Without human rights and the rule of law there can be no justice, without justice there can be no peace." MRN has now called upon the regime of President Hosni Mubarak to facilitate a free, fair and just trial for the 26 detainees in a civilian court and that the Egyptian judiciary provide guarantees for the same. VOC

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The international league of war criminals

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By Chris Marsden

(source: World Socialist Website)

The issuing of a British arrest warrant for former Israeli Foreign Minister and current leader of the opposition Tzipi Livni is only the latest event confirming an international body of legal opinion that Israel should be tried for war crimes over its treatment of the Palestinians.

Livni was a member of the war cabinet during Operation Cast Lead, the offensive against Gaza between December 27, 2008 and January 18 this year. Some 1,400 Palestinians—the majority of them civilians, including 400 women and children—were killed, at least 5,000 people were injured, and 21,000 homes and other vital infrastructure were destroyed.

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Belgian campaign forces financial group to cancel settlement loans

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Belgian campaign forces financial group to cancel settlement loans
Worldwide Activism, Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, June 16th, 2009

colony
Above: Expansion is ongoing in the Gilo settlement, just north of Bethlehem.

The Belgian-French financial group Dexia has announced it will no longer finance settlements in the West Bank through its Israeli branch, Dexia Israel. This is the result of a months-long campaign in Belgium, supported by non-governmental organizations, political parties, local authorities, trade unions and other organizations. Dexia’s management has stated that financing settlements is indeed against the bank’s code of ethics.

In October 2008, several Belgian solidarity groups discovered that Dexia Israel was granting loans to settlements in the Palestinian territories. The director of Dexia Israel, David Kapah, confirmed that the bank had indeed granted credits to seven settlements and three regional authorities in the West Bank between 2003 and 2007.

This "smoking gun" evidence entailed the start of a fast-growing campaign in Belgium. United under the slogan "Israel colonizes, Dexia finances," the campaign achieved its first successes. In the following months, petitions were being launched, MPs were questioned and local actions were started up. Significant was the support of local Belgian authorities such as municipalities and provinces, as they hold a vast amount of shares in Dexia Group.

Today, the action platform consists of 61 Belgian organizations and has gathered more than 4,000 signatures and got 29 local authorities to sign a resolution demanding that Dexia break off its relations with the settlements and immediately stop financing the occupation.

For several months the Belgian government and Dexia management didn’t respond to the demands of the action platform. However, as the campaign started to receive more media coverage and the pressure started to rise, something changed. On 13 May, campaign activists were able to voice demands at the annual shareholders meeting of Dexia Group in Brussels.

In response, Jean-Luc Dehaene, chairman of the board of Dexia and former Belgian prime minister, declared that no new loans will be granted to the settlements. He added that the credits and loans to the settlements that were granted before are in runoff and will no longer be prolonged; neither will they be replaced by similar loans.

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