Opinions

What’s happened to the concepts of humanitarian military intervention and the responsibility to protect? How come no-one stepped in to prevent thousands of Sri Lankan Tamils being killed?

Pressenza announces Noam Chomsky, whom The New York Times Book Review has called “arguably the most important intellectual alive,” as a new featured columnist. In his inaugural article, the professor at the MIT and author of over a 100 books comments on the use of torture by the Bush administration to obtain evidence proving the connection between Al-Qaeda and Iraq within the greater historical context.

More than 2000 representatives of indigenous villages and communities from around the world are attending the Forum for Indigenous Affairs held at the U.N. headquarters in New York City.

After several years work by Nobel Peace Laureates and organizations, the “First Draft of the Charter for a World without Violence” was approved. The final version of it was approved recently at the 8th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates.

Several important objections have come in, from knowledgeable and experienced observers, to my last column arguing that pronouncing oneself in favour of human rights should predicate opposition to war. One is from Professor George Kent of the University of Hawaii, who says:

*“I think it is important not to mix outrage at particular incidents within wars with opposition to war as such. The two call for quite different strategies.

Prospects for dealing with particular violations of humanitarian and human rights law seem better than prospects for banishing war altogether. New institutional arrangements are needed to ensure accountability for those violations. Having the perpetrators chant, ‘We are investigating’ is not good enough”*.

Democracy Now! – The New York Times reports senior US officials are increasingly concerned about new vulnerabilities for Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, including the potential for militants to snatch a weapon in transport.

One improved in April 2009, according to the new issue of the International Crisis Group’s monthly bulletin CrisisWatch.

Under the slogan “The future is on its way” hundreds of young people took part in a demonstration in the town center of Buenos Aires to support the Worldwide March for Peace and Non Violence.

Lawyer and human rights activist, Dr. Shirin Ebadi, the first Muslim woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, was in Montreal at the Millennium summit on April 16 with others major players and key figures from government organizations, civil society, and leading international humanitarian organizations to raise awareness on the importance on sustainable development and the eradication of poverty. At the Summit, Dr. Ebadi proposed an International Convention to eradicate poverty.

President Obama’s decision to release the “torture memos” was a victory for
transparency; but his decision not to prosecute the agents who committed
torture is wrong, and betrays his own calls for accountability and moral
renewal.