FRANK JORDANS Associated Press Writer
(AP) - GENEVA-Women in predominantly Muslim countries are struggling to compete for jobs, win equal pay and hold political office, falling behind the rest of the world in eliminating discrimination, a report said Thursday.
Read the whole article.
Women in Sri Lanka, South Africa, Cuba and Lesotho have it better than women in the US?
SRI LANKA HUMAN RIGHTS WOES CONTINUE -- United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour criticized Sri Lanka's human rights record this week, questioning whether the government has the political will to address concerns expressed by human rights groups and the international community."In the context of the armed conflict and the emergency measures taken against terrorism, the weakness of the rule of law and the prevalence of impunity is alarming," Arbour said Oct. 13 at the end of a visit to the country.Human rights groups estimate 1,100 people have disappeared or been killed since the government signed a 2002 truce with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelan. Reports of abuses increased after hostilities recommenced last year.Both sides in the civil war, which has raged on-and-off since 1983, leaving over 70,000 dead, have been repeatedly accused of human rights violations. Despite many public statements of support for upholding human rights, the government stands accused of extrajudicial killings, forced relocations and illegal detentions.Four human rights activists resigned from the government's human rights panel Oct. 15, citing a belief that the government is not serious about addressing problems."We were not achieving anything. . . . We served the committee for one and half years, the human rights situation is getting worse," Rohan Edrisinha, one of the four, told Reuters. "We began to realize that in a sense serving in an advisory committee wasn't really yielding any concrete results from the ground when it comes to human rights issues."
Rape in South Africa
Aired March 23, 2006 - 18:00:00 ET
Lesotho
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor March 8, 2006
• allegations of torture by security forces
• excessive force against detainees
• impunity
• poor prison conditions
• lengthy pretrial detention and long delays in trials
• regular occurrence of domestic violence
• severe restrictions on women's rights
• societal discrimination against persons with disabilities and HIV/AIDS
• child labor in the agriculture and informal sectors
The IWMF also recognized Ethiopia's Serkalem Fasil, who was jailed and, under deplorable conditions, delivered a child prematurely. She was incarcerated because of articles her publications carried that were critical of the government during the May 2005 elections. According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, only China and Cuba have a worse ranking than Ethiopia for their treatment of journalists.
Well, I guess it's all relative, eh?
No comments:
Post a Comment