RightsBase

human rights news & views

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 […]

Vale Howard Zinn: A movement that won’t go away

Maverick US historian and pacifist Howard Zinn died suddenly in January, aged 87.  He was an inspiring, indefatigable human rights activist best known as author of A People's History of the United States.  (His endorsement graces the cover of New Internationalist's No-Nonsense Guides.) When asked in a recent interview, Zinn said he would like to […]

Countdown to review of the Non-Proliferation Treaty

Key nuclear states Israel, North Korea, India & Pakistan remain non-signatories to the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).  What is your government's current position on the treaty and issues under review? The next review conference will be held at the UN in New York City in May next year.  This Japanese call from arms invites […]

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 […]

Calls to boycott this other apartheid

When people like Desmond Tutu describe the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories as apartheid, it's not mere hyperbole. Israel's self-proclaimed 'policy of separation' seeks to segregate Palestinians and Jews in the West Bank, writes Israeli human rights lawyer Michael Sfard. Apartheid is an Afrikaans word meaning literally, separateness.  It's hard to see how Israel's policy […]

War crimes resisters acquitted

All but one of the 'Raytheon 9' war resisters were acquitted by a Belfast jury yesterday of all charges. In August 2006 Colm Bryce, Gary Donnelly, Kieran Gallagher, Michael Gallagher, Sean Heaton, Jimmy Kelly, Eamonn McCann, Paddy McDaid and Eamonn O'Donnell broke into the Derry offices of US arms manufacturer Raytheon (pictured right) and defenestrated […]

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 […]

The Duty of Delight: The Diaries of Dorothy Day

Writes Nobel Peace Prize nominee, John Dear, SJ: "On May 1, the Catholic Worker [movement] celebrates its 75th birthday, and to mark the occasion, Marquette University Press will publish Dorothy Day’s diaries, The Duty of Delight. Meanwhile, a beautiful new DVD documentary, Don’t Call Me a Saint, has been released, offering rare interviews and footage […]

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 […]