RightsBase

human rights news & views

Irish peace activist’s conviction overturned

On 29 January 2003, Mary Kelly, a 50 year-old Irish nurse, climbed a fence in broad daylight at Shannon airport in the west of the Republic of Ireland and 'disarmed' a US Navy warplane with an axe. "Fully aware of the consequences" — up to 10 years' imprisonment — the mother-of-four 'smashed' the plane's nose-cone […]

Ireland in breach of Torture Convention: Shannonwatch

Shannonwatch is a non-governmental organisation established to monitor the use of an Irish civilian airport by foreign military. These plane-spotting peace and human rights activists conduct "continuous monitoring of all military flights and rendition-linked flights in and out of Shannon [Airport] and through Irish airspace," many of them occurring in the dead of night. Shannonwatch […]

Nonviolent pacifists hooded and convicted

Five peace activists were convicted this week of trespass and property damage by a US federal court jury. All aged over 60, the defendants now face prison sentences of up to 10 years. They are: Sacred Heart Sister Anne Montgomery (83), Jesuit priests Bill Bischel (81) and Steve Kelly (60), Jonah House community member Susan […]

Pacifists make judge stop and think

You could hardly ask for a more peaceful protest.  Last year 14 anti-war demonstrators walked onto Creech Air Force Base in Nevada, USA, seeking to hand-deliver a letter protesting the use of drones. Drones — known in military jargon as 'unmanned aerial vehicles' — are miniature flying machines with no pilot or crew on board […]

The Prime Minister’s IV

To quote a press release issued today on behalf of those presently involved in this anti-war protest in northern Australia: Christian Activists enter restricted military area during live-fire exercises Four nonviolent Christian activists have entered the Shoalwater Bay Training Area this morning to stop the Talisman Saber exercises.  Calling themselves 'the Bonhoeffer 4' after Kevin […]

N Irish pacifists on trial

The trail of the 'Raytheon 9' enters its likely final week.  These nine men occupied the Derry offices of an arms manufacturer for 8 hours back in August 2006 with the purpose of preventing war crimes.  Claims Eamonn McCann, due to take the stand this week: "Israel had dropped so many bombs over southern Lebanon, […]

Catonsville Nine survivors divided on legacy

It's a bumper year for 40th anniversaries, especially for the United States: assassinations, moonwalks, war, protest.  Elsewhere there were coups, decolonisation, nuclear tests.  1968 was also the year of the Prague Spring and the invasion of Czechoslovakia, student riots in Paris, violence and starvation on a mass scale in Biafra (Nigeria). Last week was the […]

Australian pacifists suffer ‘miscarriage of justice’

Australia has had a change of government since Donna Mulhearn (39), Jim Dowling (52), Bryan Law (52) and Adele Goldie (31) were convicted under the never-before used 1952 Defence (Special Undertaking) Act for breaking into the US military facility on Australian soil called Pine Gap in December 2005.  And it would appear the courts have […]

Blix envisages peace through globalisation

Hans Blix was this week awarded the 2007 Sydney Peace Prize "for principled and courageous opposition to proponents of war in Iraq, for life-long advocacy of humanitarian law and nonviolence and for leadership of disarmament programs to rid the world of weapons of terror". The 79-year old Swedish diplomat and international human rights lawyer became […]

Who remembers the Assyrians?

Adolf Hitler is said to have assumed impunity for his Final Solution with a rhetorical, ‘Who remembers Armenians?’  His dismissive reference to the 1915-18 genocide of some 1.5 million Armenians under the Ottoman empire overlooks the genocide of 750,000 Assyrians by the same regime. The Christian population of the Middle East — from the Copts […]