| Human rights panel to discuss response to hate crimes | | Posted Monday, March 12, 2007 3:01:08 PM by Blog57 Team | | The Office of Multicultural Affairs Human Rights and Relations Committee is developing policy and procedure for addressing hate crimes in the Chattanooga area. We want to make it clear that the streets arent boiling up, said Alan Richelson, committee chairman. This is a proactive kind of move. The commission will meet at 5:30 p.m. today on the third floor of Warehouse Row to discuss how it will define and respond to hate crime. State and federal governments have legal protection in place for people who are victims of a hate crime, and the courts ultimately decide if a hate crime has been committed, but before all of that legal maneuvering is done, the community expects some kind of response, Mr. Richelson said. The committees goal is to provide a mechanism so it can respond appropriately if a situation occurs, he said.... | |
| |
| | | Crime-plagued Pretoria residents consider legal action | | Posted Sunday, January 14, 2007 3:18:42 PM by Blog57 Team | | Pretoria residents are considering taking legal action against the African National Congress-led (ANC) metro council following a high number of criminal incidents in their neighbourhoods, the Freedom Front Plus said on Saturday. "Pretoria residents are languishing under the crime wave while the ANC forbids them to secure their neighbourhoods by fencing off their residential areas," spokesperson and councillor Conrad Beyers said.He said numerous criminal incidents, including murders, could have been prevented had the ANC not implemented a ban on street closures and erection of fences around neighbourhoods in 2002."Statistics held by residents and security companies show that crime decreases dramatically when a residential area is fenced off. "With this moratorium, criminals have easy access to neighbourhoods ...... | |
| |
| | | Position: Senior Legal Advisor: Equality and Citizenship | | Posted Friday, January 05, 2007 1:06:21 PM by Blog57 Team | | Seeking an individual with substantial human rights litigation experience and excellent organizational and project management skills to coordinate and oversee litigation of cases that lie at the intersection of religious, ethnic, and national origin discrimination in European Union and Council of Europe member states. Description: The Open Society Institute works to build vibrant and tolerant democracies whose governments are accountable to their citizens. Open societies are characterized by the rule of law; respect for human rights, minorities, and a diversity of opinions; democratically elected governments; market economies in which business and government are separate; and a civil society that helps keep government power in check. To achieve its mission, OSI seeks to shape public policies that assure greater fairness in political, legal, and economic systems and safeguard fundamental rights.... | |
| |
| | | South Africa legalizes same-sex marriage | | Posted Sunday, November 19, 2006 1:01:35 PM by Blog57 Team | | CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) - Gays in South Africa can be joined in matrimony under legislation parliament passed Tuesday, an unprecedented move on a continent where homosexuality is taboo. Traditionalists said they were saddened and gay activists said the bill did not go far enough. Veterans of the governing African National Congress hailed the Civil Union Bill for extending basic freedoms to everyone under the spirit of the country's first post-apartheid constitution, adopted a decade ago by framers determined to make discrimination a thing of the past. "When we attained our democracy, we sought to distinguish ourselves from an unjust painful past, by declaring that never again shall it be that any South African will be discriminated against on the basis of color, creed, culture and sex," Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula declared.... | |
| |
| | | Class to teach legal rights | | Posted Wednesday, November 15, 2006 7:02:25 AM by Blog57 Team | | You have the right to remain silent, but by attending the Know Your Rights Seminar on Wednesday, you'll find that's not the only right you have. The 2006 Know Your Rights Seminar will be held from 1 p.m. to 1:50 p.m. in Room 7 of Hulston Hall and will be sponsored by the Public Interest Law Association. Student Legal Services Coordinator Stephen Concannon will give advice focusing on how to interact with law enforcement. “The main focus is on the practical advice centered on your right as a criminal defendant or on issues with law enforcement," Concannon said. “My role is to educate students of their rights and how to clearly, succinctly, politely and legally assert their rights responsibly." The presentation will focus on two of the most common encounters with law enforcement that college students will experience: traffic stops and visits to a home.... | |
| |
| | | Legal challenge to Madonna's adoption | | Posted Monday, November 13, 2006 7:01:08 PM by Blog57 Team | | A judge began hearing a closed-door legal challenge on Monday to pop star Madonna's bid to adopt a baby boy from Malawi, brought by a coalition of local human rights groups.The Human Rights Consultative Committee, an alliance of 67 groups, claims the government broke its own laws by granting an 18-month interim adoption order which has allowed the singer to bring up David Banda outside Malawi.They are hoping to persuade the presiding judge Andrew Nyirenda that they should have the right to bring a full-fledged appeal at a later hearing.A spokesperson for the group said they were keen to bring greater clarity to the existing rules regarding adoption, claiming that intra-country adoptions were not currently allowed."The committee is representing the children of Malawi and we have come to the court as friends of the court in order to help the government draw up rules on intra-country adoption," Maxwell Matewere, a leading children's rights activist, told Agence France-Presse outside the court in Lilongwe.David, a 14-month-old baby whose mother died shortly after his birth, is now living with Madonna and her British filmmaker husband Guy Ritchie at their home in London even though would-be adoptive parents are usually subject to an 18-month monitoring period by social workers in Malawi.Madonna has denied using her vast wealth to fast-track the process while David's father Yohane Banda has called on the coalition to drop their action over fear that the singer will return him to a life of poverty in Malawi.Matere said however it was vital that the adoption laws be clarified, adding the group would examine other legal channels if the judge did not allow them to take their case forward."We will use other means in order to force the government to make proper rules on intra-country adoption," he said.Madonna is being represented in court by leading Malawi lawyer Allan Chinula who made no comment to reporters as he arrived at the court.The rights groups did suffer a blow just before the start of the hearing when a lawyer who had been signed up to help present the case decided to withdraw.Titus Mvalo said that while he would like a judge to pronounce on the legality of intra-country adoptions, he feared his motives could be misrepresented in such a high-profile case."I see a biggger likelihood of being misunderstood," he said.The rights group's lead counsel, Justin Dzodzi, made no comment to reporters as he slipped in through a back door at the court.... | |
| |
| | | Young calls for expanded vision for civil rights museum | | Posted Sunday, November 12, 2006 3:19:46 AM by Blog57 Team | | ATLANTA Former U-S Ambassador Andrew Young says the vision for the civil rights museum planned for Atlanta should extend beyond the tumultuous era that ended legal segregation. Speaking to national leaders of cultural heritage and tourism meeting in Atlanta, Young _ also the former mayor of Atlanta _ said the focus should be more global, addressing humanity's struggles for freedom, as well as the struggle for justice in the American South. Young's spoke yesterday at the Carter Center during a meeting of the Cultural and Heritage Tourism Alliance. A committee is considering the direction of the proposed museum at the request of Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin. A broad focus on human rights is among the suggestions, which should be presented to the mayor by the end of the year.... | |
| |
| | | Rumsfeld faces legal action | | Posted Friday, November 10, 2006 7:12:42 AM by Blog57 Team | | WASHINGTON, Nov 9: United States Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's resignation on Wednesday leaves him vulnerable to legal action for his role in `authorising torture of `war on terror detainees, according to a lawyers' group representing Guantanamo prisoners. He was one of the architects of the American torture programme. That's something for which I'm really glad to see him go, Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), told AFP. He's the one who authorised a whole series of torture techniques at Guantanamo, from use of dogs, to stripping, to sexual humiliation, Mr Ratner said. This guy is in up to his neck in terms of authorising torture, he said. Mr Rumsfeld's resignation deprives him of the possibility of invoking immunity and opens him for prosecution and for lawsuits both in the US and abroad, Mr Ratner said.... | |
| |
| | | 43/I: Backers awaiting Denver count | | Posted Wednesday, November 08, 2006 11:10:49 AM by Blog57 Team | | With ballots yet to be counted from some of Colorado's most populous counties, voters leaned toward reinforcing traditional marriage Tuesday night while shying away from a measure that would extend many basic legal rights and responsibilities to same-sex couples. By supporting Amendment 43 by a double-digit margin, voters headed toward chiseling the existing legal definition of marriage as between one man and one woman into the state constitution - effectively closing the door to gay marriage. "If these numbers hold, we're excited about the idea that marriage would be protected for future generations and cemented in the constitution, where it will be safe from activist judges and in the hands of the people of .... | |
| |
| | | Everyone should have basic legal rights | | Posted Tuesday, November 07, 2006 1:15:41 PM by Blog57 Team | | The Last Will and Testament of Herman Oberweiss recorded in Anderson County, Texas Probate in June 1934, refers to a pie-shaped slice of corner property in Central Denver and makes clear who gets whats coming to them. i am writing of my will mineselfthat dam lawyer want he should have to much moneyfirst thing i want i dont want my brother oscar to get a dam thing i goti want it that hulda my sister she gets the north sixtie akers of at where I am homing it now...she cant have it if she lets oscar live on it I should have it back if she doestell moma that six hundret dollars she been looking for for ten years is berried from the backhouse behind about ten feet downpaster lucknitz can have three hundret dollars if he kisses the book and don preach no more drumhead taks about politiks.... | |
| |
| |
|
|
