Anti-Defamation
A group of Kiwi business leaders have called for a more inclusive country following the Christchurch mosque attacks
A group of Kiwi business leaders have called for a more inclusive country following the Christchurch mosque attacks
A group of New Zealand’s top business leaders have come together to take a public stand against racism in the workplace
The leaders have published an open letter calling for a more inclusive country following the Christchurch mosque attacks on 15 March.Chief Human Rights Commissioner Paul Hunt said he applauds the leaders who have signed the open letter for speaking out and “giving nothing to racism t’s up to all of us to stand up to racism. Our employers have a crucial role in making sure workplaces are safe and inclusive environments free from discrimination in all forms said Hunt.The message these business leaders are send is an important one. Tackling racism requires all of us to step up. These business leaders promise to be champions of change in our community Two years ago, the Human Rights Commission launched it’s Give Nothing To Racism campaign The campaign asked Kiwis to acknowledge that racism and prejudice starts small and it needs their support to survive.
Twenty-five years have passed since the genocide that killed an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutu
Twenty-five years have passed since the genocide that killed an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutu
Twenty-five years have passed since the genocide that killed an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus, one of the largest genocides since the Second World War.
On April 7, Rwandans commemorate the genocide that left hundreds of thousands of people dead, with ceremonies themed “Never Again.” Genocide prevention will also be highlighted. The United Nations holds an annual memoriam. Since Rwanda, mass killings have occurred in Bosnia, Sudan, and Myanmar . I was with my children when they died,” said Lydia Uwamwezi, recalling the 100 days of genocide that began 25 years ago this Sunday in Rwanda.There is a lake between Kigina and Nyarubuye. That is where the mob took us. They were tired of using machetes, so they threw my children into the lake. Uwamwezi, now 46, was spared. In despair, she threw her baby carrier into the lake after her drowned children. The Hutu attackers retrieved it and later raped her repeatedly, telling her she must bear them Hutu children to replace the Tutsi ones they had just murdered.If you have a grudge at heart, you can never live well with your neighbors,” she said.
‘It just breaks our hearts’: co-workers rally for Queanbeyan family
‘It just breaks our hearts’: co-workers rally for Queanbeyan family
Childcare workers, aged-care nurses and residents who know and love Queanbeyan’s Wangchuk family joined a rally outside Parliament House on Friday to protest the family’s threatened deportation and condemn immigration laws which treated people with disabilities as a “burden” on society
Chanting “say it loud and say it clear, Kinley’s family’s welcome here” and “immigrants are welcome, racists are not the rally called on Immigration Minister David Coleman to use his ministerial discretion to allow the Bhutanese family to stay in Australia The family’s visa is due to expire next week after their application for permanent residency was rejected because their son Kinley, who is deaf, did not meet the health requirements set out by immigration laws.
The requirement assesses whether someone’s condition is likely to result in significant costs to the Australian community or prejudice the access of Australian citizens and permanent residents to services in short supply The Wangchuk family, who have lived in Australia since 2012, will be deported back to Bhutan without intervention by the minister. A petition calling for them to stay in Australia has been signed by more than 30,000 people.
We live in a dangerous world
New Zealand’s Chief Human Rights Commissioner has taken office at a crucial time in the country’s history. Paul Hunt talks to Laura Walters about his plans to look beyond the obvious rights, to improve the lives of all Kiwis and their communities.
Paul Hunt’s first speech as New Zealand’s Chief Human Rights Commissioner took place on Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The speech wasn’t a speech about hope for a bright future; it was a warning of what may come.
It makes for a dark first impression of a man who is British-level considerate and smiling more often than not.
“Friends, we live in a dangerous world,” he begins the speech.
The lawyer-turned-human rights scholar and activist then quotes Ireland’s W B Yeats.
“The best lack all conviction, while the worst
“Are full of passionate intensity.”
Hunt describes Yeats’ 1919 poem The Second Coming as prophetic. Yeats foresaw what might happen in the years before WWII, and Hunt sometimes thinks we need to re-read that poem now.
The world has failed to strike the right balance between civil and political rights, and economic and social rights.
This has led to some communities being neglected and disillusionment has crept in, Hunt says, as he talks about some of the driving forces behind the UK’s Brexit.
“I fear that if we don’t get it right in New Zealand, if we don’t reset the balance between individual and community, and if we don’t set the balance between civil and political, and economic, social and cultural rights, our society will be less healthy.”
This inequality will lead to poverty.
“We know it’s a dangerous mix from other periods in history, and we’ve forgotten those lessons of history.
“It really irks me. We’ve been here before.”
He talks about the similarities between the current political climate, and pre-WWII.
“It’s not quite facism. It’s an authoritarian populism. It’s not quite facism, maybe it’s neo-facism, so it’s complicated.
“The parallels aren’t exact, if they’re exact it would be easier, they’re not – they’re more muddled than that.”
As the world did in the 1940s, we need to take a holistic approach to human rights, he says. (Hunt – a quintessential academic – apologises for the jargon.)
Racism is a public health crisis’: Milwaukee County leaders call for racial equity
Racism is a public health crisis’: Milwaukee County leaders call for racial equity
It is Milwaukee County’s responsibility to address racism, including seeking solutions to reshape the discourse actively engaging all citizens in racial justice work,” County Executive Chris Abele said in a statement. “Local government needs to take a leadership role and we intend to do so.
The announcement from Abele and County Board Vice Chairwoman Marcelia Nicholson comes during National Public Health Week Abele and the Milwaukee County Board worked together in 2016 to create the Office on African American Affairs aimed at addressing the county’s racial inequities. They said Thursday that all Milwaukee County leaders have been trained on racial equity, adding that all 4,000 employees are scheduled to be trained in 2019.We understand that Milwaukee’s racial inequities are historical complex and interrelated Nicole Brookshire, director of the Office on African American Affairs, said in a statement That’s why we need everyone at the table as we work to move the needle towards empowerment and employing good government strategies to tackle the comprehensive issues experienced by many African Americans in Milwaukee Racism has been linked to a number of health problems, including high infant and maternal mortality rates for African Americans.
Norman community condemns racism, champions diversity at community rally following vandalism
Norman community condemns racism, champions diversity at community rally following vandalism
Less than 24 hours after three sites in Norman were defaced with anti semitic, racist graffiti drawing vocal widespread condemnation from the Norman community a community rally was arranged at Lions Park to Strike Back with Love as the rally’s name proclaims
Spiritual, political and other community leaders in Norman banded together to give emotional appeals and provide support to their peers in the face of the fifth racial incident in four months. Hundreds of Normanites gathered on the grounds just outside the Firehouse Art Center, the site of one of the vandalisms, despite threat of rain to show their support by bringing handmade signs depicting messages of unity The rally’s creed was best summed up by Mayor Elect Brea Clark, who said Hate has no home here One guest speaker said the vandalism was more than just simple hate speech it was an act of terrorism, meant to inspire fear in the community But your actions do not inspire fear Clark said They inspire love Normanites continued to trickle in up to 45 minutes after the rally began to hear the guest speakers’ addresses.
Japanese court rules against journalist in HPV vaccine defamation case
Japanese court rules against journalist in HPV vaccine defamation case
A Japanese court ruled yesterday that a medical journalist who has championed vaccination to reduce the risk of cervical cancer defamed a neurologist by writing that he had fabricated data showing a link between the vaccine and brain damage in mice
The case had been closely watched by vaccine proponents who worried the decision might embolden those in Japan and elsewhere who claim shots against the human papillomavirus (HPV) cause chronic pain and movement disorders in humans To their relief the court in Tokyo didn’t address that question it only said that Riko Muranakaa doctor medical writer and lecturer at Kyoto University in Japan had not provided evidence that neurologist Shuichi Ikeda had made up the data behind his controversial claim.The case comes against a backdrop of deep mistrust against the HPV vaccine, introduced in Japan in 2009 and added to the national vaccine program in April 2013That same year some vaccine recipients complained about severe side effects. In June 2013 the health ministry suspended its recommendation that all girls in their early teens receive the vaccine, causing the vaccination rate to drop from 70% for girls born in the mid-1990s to 1% today.
Facebook extends ban on hate speech to ‘white nationalists’
Facebook is extending its ban on hate speech to prohibit the promotion and support of white nationalism and white separatism.
The company previously allowed such material even though it has long banned white supremacists. The social network said Wednesday that it didn’t apply the ban previously to expressions of white nationalism because it linked such expressions with broader concepts of nationalism and separatism — such as American pride or Basque separatism (which are still allowed).
But civil rights groups and academics called this view “misguided” and have long pressured the company to change its stance. Facebook said it concluded after months of “conversations” with them that white nationalism and separatism cannot be meaningfully separated from white supremacy and organized hate groups.
Critics have “raised these issues to the highest levels at Facebook (and held) a number of working meetings with their staff as we’ve tried to get them to the right place,” said Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a Washington, D.C.-based legal advocacy group.
“This is long overdue as the country continues to deal with the grip of hate and the increase in violent white supremacy,” she said. “We need the tech sector to do its part to combat these efforts.”
Though Facebook Inc. said it has been working on the change for three months, it comes less than two weeks after Facebook received widespread criticism after the suspect in shootings at two New Zealand mosques that killed 50 people was able to broadcast the massacre on live video on Facebook. Also on Wednesday, a man convicted on state murder charges in a deadly car attack at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, pleaded guilty to federal hate crime charges. The bloodshed in 2017 prompted tech companies to take a firmer stand against accounts used to promote hate and violence.
Why white nationalist terrorism is a global threat
Why white nationalist terrorism is a global threat
HE SEEMS to have been a classic “lone wolf”. As far as police can tell, the man who murdered 50 worshippers and critically wounded nine more, at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand on March 15th was not part of any organisation. The 28-year old Australian Brenton Tarrant claimed to have developed his violent beliefs on his own surfing the internet and visiting Europe.He bought his weapons himself He honed his skills at a suburban shooting range. No one there suspected that he was preparing a massacre.
Yet he was part of something much bigger The names and slogans scrawled on his weapons were familiar to extreme white nationalists all around the world but hardly anyone else His ranting internet manifesto The Great Replacement repeated staple far right conspiracy theory that non white and Muslim immigrants in Western countries are invaders ushered by scheming elites tore place ethnic European populations Variants of that once fringe idea are now common not just in social media posts by anonymous wackos but in the speeches of elected politicians from Hungary to Iowa The Christchurch killer acted alone but followed a terrifying trend.
UK Labour Party adopts definition of Islamophobia
UK Labour Party adopts definition of Islamophobia
The UK Labour Party has adopted a definition of Islamophobia in the wake of the mass killing of Muslim worshippers at a mosque in Christchurch New Zealand
A spokesperson told the Guardian that the party’s national executive committee NEC had adopted a rule against Islamophobia based on a definition created by the All Party Parliamentary Group APPG on British Muslims, with an aim to help tackle Islamophobia build a common understanding of its causes and consequences, and express solidarity with Muslim communities The definition characterises Islamophobia as rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness
According to the Guardian more than 750 British Muslim organisations, 80 academics and 50 MPs have supported the definition The move to adopt the definition comes as the world continued to react to the killing of 50 people in a Christchurch mosque in an apparent white supremacist attack In the first of the victims funerals to take place, hundreds of mostly Muslim mourners gathered at a cemetery in the southern city of Christchurch on Wednesday to lay to rest Khalid Mustafa and his 15-year-old son Hamza.