human rights

“This country is one big prison with walls built of ideology”

Sophie Team Observers — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:24:10 +0200

Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez was awarded Latin America's most prestigious prize in journalism in July of this year. Going to pick it up however, has proved impossible. Yoani is forbidden from leaving the country. Just before the awards ceremony was due to take place, she went to the immigration centre - to no avail.

Writer, blogger and linguist, Yoani Sanchez was named one of the most influential people on the planet by Time Magazine in 2008. A year later, she received the Maria Moors Cabot Prize from Columbia University - a reward highly aspired to by Latin American writers.

Her blog, Generación Y, generates more than 14 million page views per month. According to the Cabot Prize jury, "Generation Y has put the rest of the world in touch with Cuba - at least digitally. (...) It is a pitch-perfect mix of personal observation and tough analysis which conveys better than anybody else what Cubans' daily life - with all its frustrations and hopes - is really like."

She filmed this video on a trip to the office of immigration and migration in Havana, October 12. At 00:25 the image stalls. The audio recording continues. Translation and subtitles by FRANCE 24.

Yoani posted the video on her blog along with the following comment:

I was naive. Right up to the last minute, I thought that the government would change their mind and let me out in time for the awards ceremony, which took place yesterday [Oct. 16].

I'd saved this footage from a trip to the immigration office on October 12. Today, seeing as the situation hasn't changed [Yoani has been prohibited from travel for a year now]; I decided to publish it, in particular for all those who have gone through similar situations. Due to high emotions and having so much to get out, it's quite hard to understand what I'm saying. But I feel better for having told those people in uniforms exactly what I think of them and their absurd restrictions."

After Calais 'jungle', police raze second migrant camp

Team Observers — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 14:14:53 +0200

All eyes were on the massive migrant camp in Calais, nicknamed the “jungle” by its occupants, when it was dismantled on Tuesday. Scenes of desperate-looking immigrants watching their scarce belongings razed by French riot police were caught on camera by French and British TV. Thirty kilometres from there, another "jungle", suffered the same fate; only this time no-one was watching.

The Calais "jungle" was France's most notorious illegal migrant camp before it was dismantled on Tuesday by over 500 policemen. The camp was set up in 2002 after the French government ordered the closure of a Red Cross shelter in nearby Sangatte. Its main occupants were Afghan refugees hoping to get across the Channel to England. France’s immigration minister, Eric Besson, hailed the dismantlement as a strong step against human trafficking and those who exploit the misery of migrants. But for several human rights associations, the operation is purely symbolic and will have no positive effect: migrants will simply be forced to find refuge in one of the dozens of other camps in the region.

Several hours after the Calais 'jungle' was demolished, security forces also razed another migrant camp, at Loon-Plage near Dunkirk. Our Observer was there, he gave us this account.

Who wants you to see these torture videos?

Sophie Team Observers — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 16:00:34 +0200

Blogger Wael Abbas has published footage of a man being tortured in what he says is an Egyptian police station. The horrific scenes seem not to have greatly shocked the Egyptian public. Our Observers there, however, are asking why and for whom these images were filmed.

Please be aware that this post includes images which you may find upsetting.

Wael, who works often with such documents, published the images last Wednesday. He says that the scene appears to have taken place in the Ad-Dawahi police station in the harbour town of Port Said, situated at the mouth of the Suez Canal. His source, which he says is reliable but prefers to remain anonymous, does not know when the scene took place but affirms that the torturer is the station commissioner, Mohamed Abu Ghazala.

Contacted by FRANCE 24, activists from the Port Said branch of the NGO Arabic Network for Human Rights Information said that they have tried to find the victim in the video, but nobody has come forward. They told us that acts of torture at the hands of the station commissioner in question had already been documented by the group. Interestingly, they also told us, the victim does not have the local accent of the Port Said province.

We decided not to publish the torture videos on The Observers. The footage shows a person hung by their wrists in an interrogation room.

He begs his torturer to stop. "Please Mohamed Bey [an old-fashioned dignitary address from the Ottoman empire], stop, I'm going to die. I'm not an animal. I'm a human being."

The officer replies, "Shut up you son of a bitch".

Here are some screen grabs of the scene.

Unrest in South African shanty towns – ready to host the World Cup?

Sophie Team Observers — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 17:38:03 +0200

Photo: blogger Sydelle Willow Smith.

Protests over living conditions in South African shanty towns turned violent on Wednesday when discontented slum dwellers around the country clashed with police forces. Similar outbursts last year resulted in over 70 deaths when rioters also targeted foreigners from neighbouring countries; a cause for concern for the hundreds of thousands of World Cup fans planning to travel to the country in a year's time.

Police responded to stones and bottles with rubber bullets and tear gas. The protestors, who marched in their thousands in townships in Johannesburg, Western Cape and the northeastern region of Mpumalanga, demand better basic services such as increased water supplies and toilet facilities. Jobless protestors demand higher unemployment benefits.

The crisis comes just two months after African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma was elected president after promising improved conditions for the country's poor. Instead, conditions have worsened after South Africa hit its biggest recession in 17 years. More than a million people remain living in shacks and over 23% of the country is unemployed. Which is perhaps why they find it hard to believe that the government is spending nearly $145 million (€102m) on next year's World Cup, taking place across the country between June 11 and July 11. With around 500,000 foreigners planning to make their way to the event, the government is under pressure to quell the violence before the games kick off.

Facebook: the new Big Brother?

Sophie Team Observers — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 12:53:10 +0200

One of our readers has sent us a warning to Facebook users — a site which he says has far too much information about our private lives.

Sacha Dratwa is an Israel-based Belgian specialist on online social networking.

Facebook is basically an enormous avenue on which every user opens a shop with a window display on their private life. With all the information you upload onto the platform — photos, interests, occupation, hobbies, favourite books, films and music, marital status, political leanings, dress sense — you're handing over your electronic DNA to the network's managers, and all for free!

Facebook knows everything about each user. The obvious next step for the company is sell our profiles — which we ourselves have created — to companies more than willing to survey and analyse our habits in order to create more efficient — even personalised — advertising.

We no longer have a private life. We've reached a stage where our bosses can find out what we do at home, where our children can follow our adult relationships, our colleagues can spy on us and advertisers can find out exactly what makes us tick. We've lost our freedom and the ability to do the things we like without anybody's knowing about it. Through Facebook, we're unknowingly feeding companies which manipulate us by watching us.

As a Facebook user myself, I wonder if it really is a social network platform and not the world's biggest people database?

Condoleezza Rice grilled over torture

Team Observers — Tue, 05 May 2009 17:28:52 +0200

A Stanford University student grills ex-US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice over the Bush administration's torture policy. Who sounds more convincing: Rice or Jeremy Cohn?

Condoleezza Rice, former US President George W. Bush's security advisor and then secretary of state (2005-2009), returned to teach political science at Stanford University, where she was a professor before entering politics, in March.

The torture memos released by US President Barack Obama's administration in April revealed that highly-placed officials in the Bush administration, including Rice, legally approved the CIA's controversial torture methods. They also gave interrogators the green light to resort to techniques like waterboarding.

Rice was given a rather luke-warm reception at Stanford University on Monday, when she visited a dormitory where she was confronted by a group of students. Among them was Jeremy Cohn, a fourth-year student who did not hesitate to grill Rice. The scene was filmed by another student, who then posted it on YouTube. Rice denied personally authorising waterboarding and simply confirmed "communicating the administration's authorisation to the CIA."

Emirates' sadistic sheikh

Julien — Tue, 05 May 2009 12:34:57 +0200

The person we see in this video is none other than Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al Nahyan, the brother of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al Nahyan, emir of Abu Dhabi and president of the United Arab Emirates, and Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi.

This 45-minute video was reportedly made at Sheikh Issa's request. The images are horrific scenes of torture inflicted on Mohammed Shah Poor, an Afghan businessman, accused of not providing the exact quantity of grain demanded by the prince. Policemen in uniform pin Poor to the floor as the sheikh uses an automatic rifle, whips, electric cattle prods, wooden planks with protruding nails and even his Mercedes SUV to torture his victim.

Bassam Nabulsi, a Lebanese-American businessman who worked for the sheikh for many years, released this video in mid-April. The incident occurred in 2004 or 2005. Nabulsi has engaged a lawsuite against his former employer in the United States.

Nabulsi says he was also tortured by UAE police for three months and imprisoned (April to June 2005) after he refused to turn in the tape.

In a statement to ABC News, which aired the video on April 22, the UAE interior ministry — led by Saif bin Zayed al Nahyan, also one of Sheikh Issa's brothers — said it had reviewed the tape and found "all rules and procedures were correctly followed by the police".

On April 30, Abu Dhabi's government, worried about its tarnished image abroad and about the video endangering deals on civil nuclear energy with the United States and France, condemned the sheikh's sadistic act.

Most of our Observers in the region refused to comment on the subject. We also contacted local human-rights experts, lawyers and journalists. No one wants to comment against the royal family. This is not surprising, because according to Human Rights Watch, Abu Dhabi's media law, article 32, provides for a fine of up to a million euros against any journalist who defames government ministers or members of the royal family.

World Water Forum in Istanbul - should water be 'privatised'?

Sophie Team Observers — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 17:18:32 +0100

Image: Obi-Akpere on Flickr.

Violent protests in Istanbul have resulted in clashes with riot police, arrests and deportations. The protestors are demonstrating against... a seven day forum that aims to address the world's fresh water crisis. Our Observers tell us why not everyone thinks the World Water Forum won't solve the looming global water crisis.

The seven-day long World Water Forum, held every three years, is organised by the World Water Council, a multinational platform based in Marseille. The forum follows a report released on 12 March by UN agencies which warns that predicted circumstances such as global warming and a population boom are set to lead to a global water crisis and subsequent "water wars" in the next half century. The world's population is expected to rise from 6.6 billion to 9 billion by 2050, yet even today there are still one billion people without access to safe drinking water, and the majority of the world's remaining fresh water is locked up in glaciers. The conference is certainly crucial, but is it efficient? Hundreds of demonstrators showed what they thought about it when they poured into Istanbul's streets on Monday morning shouting "water is not for sale". Organisations such as Corporate Europe Observatory, which objects to the privatisation of water, and International Rivers, which protests the impact of large scale infrastructure, such as dams, have published critical reports on the forum.

Working in a Chinese sweatshop for HP, Microsoft, Dell and IBM

Sophie Team Observers — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 11:49:53 +0100

A report issued by human rights activists reveals that young migrant workers are labouring under sweatshop conditions for IBM, Microsoft, HP and Dell in a factory in China. Twelve hours a day, seven days a week, the people who put your keyboard keys into place are paid 60 euro cents an hour to do it. And they're not even allowed to raise their heads or go to the toilet...

Taiwanese-owned Meitai factory in Dongguan City, Guangdong province (southeast), employs two thousand young workers, 75% of them women, to produce computer equipment including keyboards and printer cases for Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Lenovo, Microsoft and IBM (as we go to press IBM and Dell are yet to confirm this). The damning research, published online by the National Labor Committee, was carried out between June and September of 2008, and updated mid January 2009. When we contacted the companies cited in the report, only Microsoft and HP replied to say that they had been made aware of the report. Both gave similar statements about their commitment to the "fair treatment and safety" of workers contracted to produce their software.

Homeless in Beni Mellal left for dead – literally

Sophie Team Observers — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 11:56:48 +0100

A freakish cold spell in the Moroccan town of Beni Mellal has already killed at least ten people this year. Our Observer there condemns the inaction of the public authorities.