Wellesley College Amnesty International

The members of Wellesley College's chapter of Amnesty International support and raise awareness of the critical importance of human rights. Please see the About page for more information and be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

[penamerican]

“Writers who are subjected to state censorship, threatened with imprisonment or menaced by violent forces in their society clearly merit the support of those of us who enjoy freedom of expression." ― Don Delillo

[rebuildingreentry]

VIDEO: The Racism Of Mass Incarceration, Visualized #massincarceration #TheNewJimCrow #RebuildingReEntry via @Digg http://ow.ly/Sc031

[newshour]

The first-ever poetry journal by trans writers

Salt Sheet

There’s a wound in me, wound up in me, expert like a corkscrew unscrewed. And the cork is kept. Press a palm over it—help, there’s a wound in me— no, three. No, more. No, here is a ship at sea and she sinks. She was the enemy. So the borer— the boy with his brace & auger—he swims over to the Golden Vanity. Entreaty. Captains, can’t trust them far from land. And so he ends— the boy—I’m drifting with the tide. They stitch him in his hammock—it was so fair and wide. How many holes got the enemy? How many left to plug, crew bailing, boys tiring in the tide? Fight’s over, brace & auger. Wrap me in my salt sheet. What deserves disease will get it, or has already.

Read more.

[think-progress]

The Apple Watch May Have a Human Rights Problem

The Apple Watch finally hit stores and customer doorsteps Friday for its official release. The long-rumored device has gained praise for its luxurious components — a glamorous 18-karat gold casing, a taptic engine that gently nudges users on the wrist when they get a notification —   excitement over Apple’s newest edition could be dampened by a new report claiming Apple products and those several other U.S. tech companies may contain unethically sourced parts.

[wcamnesty]

AKA water is wet. 

A BBC documentary detailed long hours, overcrowding, and (obviously) health issues in Apple’s factories in China, a country notorious for its horrible labor conditions. And in Indonesia, children mine tin in dangerous environments.

Apple responded to the BBC report with a memo that was reproduced in the New York Times. Execs pointed out that they’ve done much to combat the human rights issues and stated that, “This year, our suppliers have achieved an average of 93% compliance with our 60-hour limit. We can still do better. And we will.” They also stated that they “spearheaded the creation of an Indonesian Tin Working Group with other technology companies.”

Of course, Apple’s not the only one to blame. Kirk McElhearn of Macworld appreciated the documentary, but argued that, “it would be more productive to lean on each and every company that manufactures goods in these countries, not just the biggest, and stop letting all the others off the hook.”

How do we stop this? Well, consumers have to be informed so that we can call out all of these companies. Want to know how many slaves work for you? I’m sad to say that, the last time I took this quiz, 34 slaves worked for me.

[wcamnesty]

Mr. Wilson said he had seen someone on television say, 'This doesn’t feel like America.' 'And I’m like, "This is America!" ' he said. ' "They just don’t want you to know!" '

Robert Wilson, a college student who went to high school in Baltimore, speaking with the New York Times

[wcamnesty]

If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.

Nelson Mandela

[newshour]

Meet the teen suing Oregon for ‘resisting the urgency’ of climate change.

[wcamnesty]

Kelsey Juliana:

“In Oregon we’re really seeing the effects of ocean acidification. Fishermen are going out of business because shellfish are not surviving with this acidification. And so, a decrease in shellfish, a decrease in wildlife. In our tide pools we’re seeing erosion along our coastlines.

“We’re seeing less snowpack in our mountains, which in turn means less water runoff for the summer season, which means more droughts. And with warming temperatures, of course, you have an increase of wildfires when that’s not natural at that time and to the severity that we’re seeing.

“And of course, we’re also seeing flooding. Because of this less dense snowpack and the warming temperatures, it’s flooding sooner and then it’s dried out for the rest of the year.”

[nprontheroad]

Welcome to Afghanistan, and to tail end of America’s longest war. For the next week, I’ll be taking you inside my trip to cover the security situation here with NPR Pentagon Correspondent Tom Bowman and NPR Photographer David Gilkey. 

I begin with this cartoon by Afghan political cartoonist Habib Rahman Habibi. His cartoons are popular throughout the country because, as he put it to me, “They are just true.” (You can hear more about Habibi on NPR in the coming days.) I think this cartoon speaks for itself.

We have a lot of big questions to answer while we’re here. Many of them are tactical: is the Afghan Military sufficiently trained and equipped to fight the Taliban? Is the Afghan police force working effectively with the Afghan Military? What does a non-combat mission look like for the 10 thousand US troops still here?

And then there’s this question: What does winning look like?

Beginning Monday we’ll be embedded with Afghan troops in the eastern part of the country. In the next couple days, I’ll introduce you to Kabul as I’m seeing it, and take you inside my process of reporting from here. Stay tuned.

–Rebecca Hersher

[npr]

Follow Rebecca’s dispatches from Afghanistan on our On The Road tumblr! -Tajha

[savedbythe-bellhooks]

Intersectionality

is the undercurrent theme of this blog. Perhaps this is a new concept. If so, here are some things to get started: 

Kimberlé Crenshaw (who coined the term in 1989)  on intersectionality: “I wanted to come up with an everyday metaphor that anyone could use.” (source)

“Intersectionality promotes an understanding of human beings as shaped by the interaction of different social locations (e.g., ‘race’/ethnicity, Indigeneity,gender, class, sexuality, geography, age, disability/ability, migration status, religion). These interactions occur within a context of connected systems and structures of power (e.g., laws, policies, state governments and other political and economic unions, religious institutions, media). Through such processes, interdependent forms of privilege and oppression shaped by colonialism, imperialism, racism, homophobia, ableism and patriarchy are created. 

PUT SIMPLY: According to an intersectionality perspective, inequities are never the result of single, distinct factors. Rather, they are the outcome of intersections of different social locations, power relations and experiences.” (source)

Read more things! There are a lot. Here are just a few:

1: Kimberlé Crenshaw on intersectionality in NewStatesman 2:  USCB Center For New Racial Studies 3.  Interview with bell hooks in Common Struggle 4. Lecture by bell hooks at the New College of Florida 5.  The Institute for Intersectionality Research and Policy

[humanrightswatch]

“They said I was uneducable. I fought back”

The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities – the group of UN experts overseeing governments’ implementation of this treaty – has a pressing task this week: to clarify what governments must do, in law, policy, and practice, to guarantee the right to inclusive education.

Read more

[humanrightswatch]

Bangladesh: 2 Years After Rana Plaza, Workers Denied Rights

Garment workers in Bangladesh face poor working conditions and anti-union tactics by employers including assaults on union organizers. In the two years since more than 1,100 workers died in the catastrophic collapse of the Rana Plaza factory on April 24, 2013, efforts are underway to make Bangladesh factories safer, but the government and Western retailers can and should do more to enforce international labor standards to protect workers’ rights, including their right to form unions and advocate for better conditions.

Read more 

[humanrightswatch]

Protecting the Earth Means Protecting Rights

Earth Day is an opportunity to reflect upon the successes and failures in protecting the environment and the humans living within it. In many cases, successes stem from strong laws diligently applied. Yet far too often failures stem not from lack of written law but lack of enforcement, as officials deem environmental and labor regulations to be interfering with private sector interests and burdensome to economic growth. Violations of the rights to life, to health, and to safe food and water are among the results.

Read more

[statedept]

This Earth Day, I ask Americans and concerned citizens everywhere to crank up the volume. Let’s act on climate.

Secretary Kerry on Earth Day, April 22, 2015 (via statedept)

[humanrightswatch]

Happy 420, But US Laws on Weed Are No Joke

Today is National Weed Day in the United States. That may prompt chuckles among many, but, as lighthearted as much of today’s commentary may be, U.S. marijuana policy is no laughing matter.

Read more

[wcamnesty]

The US has to rethink its drug laws. Instead of offering rehabilitation, our judicial system ruins lives.

[nade-da]

[wellesleyreview]

Happy National Poetry Month!

[wcamnesty]

ALL RIGHT, FOLLOWERS. I LOVE POETRY. So we’re gonna combine some social justice with some beautiful spoken word by Fong Tran.

I was going to give you quotes from the video (as per usual), but I would probably have ended up transcribing the entire poem. Give it a listen and be sure to share some of your favorite human rights-related poems with us!

[wellesleyreview]

Great idea Amnesty International! I always get the chills when I listen to this one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXk3uhlhAVY

[humanrightswatch]

Where is Leading Zimbabwean Rights Activist?

It has been a month since five armed men in civilian clothes kidnapped Itai Dzamara, a prominent Zimbabwean human rights activist, near his home in the Glenview suburb of Harare. Witnesses said that, on March 9, the unidentified men handcuffed Dzamara, forced him into a white pickup truck, and then drove off. Dzamara, a former journalist and leader of the Occupy Africa Unity Square (AUS) protest group, has not been heard from since.

Read more

[savedbythe-bellhooks]

Source: Feminism Is For Everybody by bell hooks