Derechos Humanos / Human Rights

• More than 200 police officers and government officials in Henan province raided a house church (religious services are often celebrated in private houses to avoid represion), taking more than 50 Christians into custody and detaining eight of them on "criminal" charges.
• That was one year ago ... now their case has gone to court. And, the result was not good –seven were charged with "cult activity" and they all received prison sentences –from the pastor to a few ladies who were making copies of the sermons 

May 30.─ Last year police and government officials raided a house church in Hunan where 54 young people were quietly attending a Bible study class. Suddenly, more than 200 police and government officials surrounded the meeting place and took all the students away, including a mother and her one-year-old infant!

The entire police force of Ye county, officials from the township government, armed police and the fire brigade, and anti-terrorism police were all out in force to execute the police action. Police were also equipped with two water cannons. In addition, the Pingdingshan Public Security Bureau and officers from the police stations of two neighboring townships also assisted in the raid.

The Ye county Public Security Bureau has repeatedly refused to produce the legally required paperwork to the family of the detainees.

The National Crime Records Bureau records 572 rapes reported from Delhi for the year 2011. This year 635 rapes had already been reported as of December 15, 2012, Rape is not a problem that afflicts Delhi alone. In recent months, we have seen a rising crime graph against women being reported from virtually every corner of the country including Haryana, Kerala and Bangalore.

Each time a rape is reported, civil society reacts with anger and outrage, which unfortunately dies down and is forgotten, until the next time. The question to ask: what is the inflexion point? At what stage do we say collectively and in one voice: Enough.

Many solutions have been offered in the light of this particular gang-rape and in the past. Some of these include:

1. The setting up of fast track courts (as in Rajasthan recently) to ensure speedy trials.
2. The imposition of maximum, exemplary sentence.
3. The immediate clearing of all pending cases involving crimes against women.
4. Immediate training and sensitisation of police force to crimes against women, including domestic violence, molestation and sexual assault.
5. The immediate passage of pending bills that seek to protect women, including the Protection of Women Against Sexual Harassment at the Workplace Bill 2012 and the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill 2012
6. Consultations with the Ministry of Human Resources to see how best to address the issue of sensitising boys through the school curriculum.
7. National-level, open consultations involving civil society and other stake-holders on how best to tackle the growing misogyny and hostility against women as well as rising crimes against them.

One of the latest victims was 23, with dreams of being a doctor. But two weeks ago, she was gang raped by six men, savagely beaten and thrown out of a moving bus in Delhi. The still unnamed woman who has become "India's daughter" just died of her injuries in hospital.

Dirija una nota de apoyo a esta posición
y a la Demanda Ciudadana a:
anppci@ceniai.inf.cu
gobierno@tsp.cu
hilda@cecm.cu
dlai@minjus.cu
cancio@minrex.gov.cu
cobo@ctc.cu

La Habana, 16 de agosto de 2010

A LA OPINIÓN PÚBLICA NACIONAL E INTERNACIONAL:

En el día de ayer, 15 de agosto del año en curso y mientras repartían la Demanda Ciudadana por Otra Cuba en una céntrica zona de la barriada de Marianao, fueron detenidos tres ciudadanos y conducidos a la 6ta. Unidad de la Policía Nacional Revolucionaria (PNR).

Al tener noticias de tal arresto, los que suscriben se presentaron en dicha Unidad para conocer los pormenores del caso y si existían cargos contra los detenidos. Después de haber conversado con las personas que parecían ser los responsables, nos pareció insoslayable hacer las declaraciones que siguen a continuación para dejar establecida para el futuro la posición que asumiremos en este complejo problema.

Nuestra actuación tiene su fundamento en el precepto constitucional que establece en su artículo 63:

"Todo ciudadano tiene derecho a dirigir quejas y peticiones a las autoridades y a recibir la atención o respuestas pertinentes y en plazo adecuado, conforme a la ley".

Amparados en ese postulado de la Ley de Leyes de la nación, es que fuimos a la Asamblea Nacional del Poder Popular y entregamos ese documento para, en primerísimo lugar, informar sobre el mismo al gobierno del país, por lo que no puede imputársenos ahora actuar a sus espaldas, ni con su desconocimiento.

Yes, we mean real slavery. People held against their will, forced to work and paid nothing.

Sometimes the slave holder ‘pays’ a few grains of rice to keep the slaves alive, or uses a bogus payment that the slave holder reclaims at the end of the month. But the end result is what slavery is today and has always been—one person controlling another and then forcing them to work.

Through Free the Slaves’ research, first published in Kevin Bales’ Disposable People, a conservative estimate is that there are 27 million people in slavery today. This means that there are more people in slavery today than at any other time in human history. Slavery has existed for thousands of years, but changes in the world’s economy and societies over the past 50 years have enabled a resurgence of slavery.

[ More information HERE ]