Talking Rights

This map, published in today’s New York Times, says more than any article about why tensions are so high about the Turkish-Iraqi border. Perhaps because it is also the Syria-Iraq-Turkey border and the Iran-Iraq-Turkey border…
The only thing missing is an overlay of where some of Iraq’s oil and oil pipelines are –north of Mosul, [...]

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Today’s New York Times has a fascinating article by Seth Mydans about the man who photographed thousands of Cambodians brought to the infamous Khmer Rouge prison called Tuol Sleng. Nhem En would take their portraits before the captives were taken away to be executed.
Mydans writes, “This week, En was called to be a witness at [...]

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When this administration finally waves goodbye, I hope that, among other things, George W. Bush is remembered as “the Torture President.”
Although his nominees (and his vice-president) are the ones who defend torture in public, Bush should be the one we understand to be behind this policy. As clueless and out of touch as he might [...]

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On October 20, 2007, North Carolina peace activists gathered at the gates of Blackwater USA in Moyock, North Carolina, to protest killings of 17 people at Nisour Square on September 16, 2007. According to the Washington Post, the U.S. Army has concluded that the shootings were a “criminal event.” Army officers spoke to [...]

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Christina Cowger, Maher Arar and Steve Watt
Originally uploaded by FabiolaPal
On September 26, the Duke Human Rights Center sponsored an event called “Unheard Voices in the ‘war on terror,’” featuring Canadian Maher Arar (seen on live video from the University of Ottawa, left) who was subjected to extraordinary rendition in 2002.
To summarize, Arar was taken by [...]

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It has been a year since Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya was murdered, and her newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, is reporting that government investigators know who killed her.
Politkovskaya was a dogged investigator and human rights champion. Russian president Vladimir V. Putin was a frequent target of her articles. One of the issues she covered most closely [...]

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Recently, I spoke with a colleague about a proposal, made by students, that Duke University divest holdings in companies doing business in Sudan. The initiative is part of a international campaign to pressure the Sudanese government to, in the words of the Sudan Divestment Task Force, “end the genocide in Darfur.”
A large part of Sudan’s [...]

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Burmese Duke
Originally uploaded by FabiolaPal

James P., the Duke University founder, went Burmese for the day during a student-led vigil to protest rights violations in Burma.

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