United Nations -- US Questioned about Lifelong Incarceration of Leonard Peltier

Leonard Peltier

United Nations -- US Questioned about Lifelong Incarceration of Leonard Peltier

Censored News

GENEVA -- During the review of the United States record, at the United Nations Human Rights Committee, an UN expert, Vice Chair Mr. Changrok Soh, Republic of Korea, questioned the US representative about the lifelong incarceration of Leonard Peltier, reports Geneva Solutions independent news.

Soh "raised the case of the US’s longest-held Indigenous political prisoner Leonard Peltier, wrongfully convicted of murdering two FBI agents five decades ago. The intervention drew applause from civil society groups in the room."

"Among the first issues raised by the UN committee was racial disparities within the US criminal justice system. Two million people are locked up in the US, making it the country with the highest rate of incarceration in the world."

"Committee experts pointed out that minority groups, including people of African descent, Hispanics and American Indians but also women, youth and people with mental health issues were disproportionately affected by their policies."

"The US is also the world’s leading country in the number of people to die in prison while serving lengthy sentences, according to Robert Saleem Holbrook, executive director of the Abolitionist Law Centre, which advocates against US prison sentences of life without parole and who traveled to Geneva."

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Read the article https://genevasolutions.news/human-rights/un-committee-grills-us-on-political-rights-record

U.S. Shamed Globally as Promoter of Genocide: Children Die in Palestine as Humanitarian Aid Waits at Border

Another hospital in Palestine, full of patients, women, and children, prepares to be bombed by Israel

PRCS, Palestine Red Crescent Society, humanitarian aid:

Urgent Appeal PRCS faces an imminent threat. The IOF demands the evacuation of Al-Quds Hospital, a sanctuary for over 400 patients and around 12,000 displaced civilians.

We call on the international community to act urgently, averting another catastrophe like Al-Ahli Hospital.

Video https://twitter.com/i/status/1715423053692166568

U.S. Shamed Globally as Promoter of Genocide: Children Die in Palestine as Humanitarian Aid Waits at Border

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News

Watching a plane on flight radar, it is Russia's emergency services, which was in Egypt. Russia delivered 27 tons of humanitarian aid in Egypt, but the border crossing at Rafah, Egypt, to Gaza, remains closed. A crowd is trying to push their way through with humanitarian aid. Doctors who have survived the bombings in Palestine are using vinegar, instead of antibacterials, to treat the wounded in hospitals.

Badly injured children, bleeding and burned, cry out for their mothers who have been killed, and many remain below the rubble. These horrific images are on Twitter. The people are screaming into CNN cameras to leave. CNN’s Sara Sidner is confronted by someone in the West Bank, who shouts: “You are genocide supporters! You are not welcome here! Genocide supporters! F--k CNN!”

Defense for Children said today:

GAZA UPDATE: 1,661 Palestinian children are confirmed killed by the Israeli military offensive on the Gaza Strip since October 7, according to the Ministry of Health. More than 4,000 Palestinian children are injured and hundreds are still missing under the rubble.

Twitter doesn't want you to know about this. Palestine Action launched a new Palestine Action US to Shut Down Elbit. Elbit Systems, the defense contractor based in Israel, built the spy towers on the Tohono O'odham Nation, and all along the Arizona border. If you click on 'follow,' and refresh your browser at Twitter, you'll see you are no longer 'following' this new Twitter account. The Shut Down Elbit campaign just began in the U.S. In England, activists have been shutting down Elbit manufacturers of weaponized drones and machines of death. The drones, weapons and surveillance are used now by Israel to kill Palestinians.

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Below: Israeli defense contractor Elbit Systems built the 11 spy towers on the Tohono O'odham Nation, which now allows the US Border Patrol to stalk vulnerable O'odham. US Border Patrol agents have been charged with murder, serial rape, assault, kidnapping, drug running and spotting for the cartels, all along the southern US border.

The Intercept reports on the US government's complicity with genocide and holding the U.S. responsible for the support of war crimes. 

https://theintercept.com/2023/10/19/israel-gaza-biden-genocide-war-crimes/

Meanwhile, flight radar shows Air Force planes from countries around the world arriving in Israel, apparently evacuating foreign nationals. For Palestinians, there are no evacuation flights. They are trapped, and being bombed and killed in places where they are seeking refuge -- hospitals, mosques, and the UN school.

United Nations Participants Turn Their Backs on US Ambassador

Video screenshot by Censored News

Participants at the United Nations Human Rights Committee in Geneva turned their backs on the US Ambassador today. Watch video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgU9oXHndPY

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News

GENEVA -- Indigenous and other activists who campaign against discrimination turned their backs on the US Ambassador in a silent protest at the United Nations Human Rights Committee. Led by human rights activists from Guam, Puerto Rico, Hawaii and beyond, they turned their backs on U.S. Ambassador to the UN Michele Taylor.

Stephanie Amiotte, Lakota, describes the failure of the United States government.

“The United States’ response referring to various policies that do nothing to advance free, prior, and informed consent of Indigenous Peoples was offensive and serves as further failure to acknowledge Indigenous People’s rights who are constantly erased from visibility and subjected to policies that have furthered erasure,” said Stephanie Amiotte, Legal Director of the ACLU of North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming National Chapter and an enrolled member of the Oglala Lakota Nation in South Dakota.

Ki’I Kaho’ohanohano, a traditional midwife from Hawaii, said she came to speak to the maternal health care crisis in Hawaii and beyond and faulted U.S. officials for having “deflected” the committee’s repeat questions.

“Stonewall -- as usual,” she said, “Again we don’t have any responses, and it’s very infuriating.” https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/activists-turn-backs-us-officials-backed-human-rights-104078235

"We've crossed an ocean because the US justice system, laws, and policies have failed us," said Alliance San Diego Executive Director Andrea Guerrero, adding that she was "deeply disappointed" by the US' approach to the review, Tag24 reports.

Guerrero is a member of the 16-member Start With Dignity delegation from the US-Mexico borderlands fighting to end police violence in communities of color and update use-of-force standards for law enforcement. The group led a walkout at the US Mission in Geneva calling for real solutions to structural problems plaguing communities around the nation.

United States Vetoes Humanitarian Aid at United Nations, Partners in Genocide and War Crimes

The United Nations reports: US vetoes Security Council resolution that would have called for “humanitarian pauses” to deliver lifesaving aid to millions in Gaza: Favor: 12 (Albania, Brazil, China, Ecuador, France, Gabon, Ghana, Japan, Malta, Mozambique, Switzerland, UAE) Against 1 (US) Abstain: 2 Russia, UK (Photo above US veto)

Today, the United States halted a global effort at the United Nations for humanitarian aid to Israel. The U.S. vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution on Wednesday that would have called for humanitarian pauses to allow humanitarian aid access to the Gaza Strip.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us-vetoes-un-security-council-action-israel-gaza-2023-10-18/

U.S. Civil Society Members Turn Backs on U.S. Ambassador During her Closing Remarks at UN Human Rights Committee Review of United States in Geneva

By the Center for Constitutional Rights

Contact: press@ccrjustice.org

October 18, 2023, Geneva, Switzerland – Today, members of the U.S. Civil Society turned their backs in silent protest of the U.S. delegation during the closing remarks were given by U.S. Ambassador Michele Taylor at the end of the United Nations Human Rights Committee’s (UNHCR) review of the United States human rights record and its compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

“You have heard over the past two days about many of the concrete ways we are meeting our obligations under the convention, and you have also heard our pledge to do more,” said Taylor as the whole room turned their backs. “I recognize that the topics raised are often painful for all of us to discuss.”

“We chose to turn our backs on the U.S. as they have turned their backs on the state repression of Black, Indigenous, people of the global majority, LGBTQIA+ human rights, and the issue of Death by Incarceration (DBI). We have been silenced and met with no legitimate answers during every interaction with the U.S. delegation. Dignitaries from other countries who inquired about human rights violations were met with the same energy. The U.S. government has shown that it will violate the human rights of anyone who dares to oppose police militarization or stand in defense of environmental protection,” said Rev. Keyanna Jones,of Community Movement Builders, the movement to Stop Cop City.

Ms. Jones was one of more than 140 members of civil society who traveled to Geneva from dozens of organizations, including many directly impacted people, to petition the UN to hold the U.S. government accountable for policies and practices that violate the treaty.

The United States is obligated to abide by the ICCPR, one of only three international human rights treaties the country has ratified. Guided by input from the participating civil society members during in-person briefings and from shadow reports submitted earlier, committee members questioned the U.S. government officials on most of the fundamental human rights the groups had raised, including indigenous rights and decolonization, voting rights, freedom of expression and the crackdown on supporters of Palestinian rights, sexual and reproductive rights, trafficking, prisoners’ rights, immigrants’ rights, LGBTQIA+ rights, the criminalization of homelessness, children’s rights, and the failure to protect civilians and prevent mass atrocities in Gaza.

Those present said it was a spontaneous silent protest motivated by deep frustration and outrage over inadequate, canned responses from the U.S. delegation.

“The United States’ response referring to various policies that do nothing to advance free, prior, and informed consent of Indigenous Peoplse was offensive and serves as further failure to acknowledge Indigenous People’s rights who are constantly erased from visibility and subjected to policies that have furthered erasure,” said Stephanie Amiotte, Legal Director of the ACLU of North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming National Chapter and an enrolled member of the Oglala Lakota Nation in South Dakota.

“We are disappointed that not all of the groups were heard by the State Department or the U.N. Committees that are supposed to hold the U.S. accountable. How are they to hold them accountable for their human rights violations when they haven’t even heard from all of the working groups on exactly what human rights are being violated,” asked Lotus Lain with Free Speech Coalition/ DecrimSWCA/ Sex Workers & Survivors United.

Groups submitted shadow reports on many issues, including death-by-incarceration sentences, the continued colonization of U.S. territories, the metastasizing “war on terror” that is suppressing domestic social movements, the discriminatory denial of clean water to Black communities, the ongoing detention of Muslim men in Guantanamo, and the mistreatment of Black migrants. They offer a damning indictment of the U.S. government’s failure to uphold its human rights obligations.

“It is outrageous that the U.S. continues to ignore the egregious human rights violations following the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Heath decision. The U.S. delegation's response to the committee's thorough questioning on abortion access was evasive and scripted at best. The committee asked detailed questions that merited direct answers, particularly on the criminalization of people who have abortions, people who help them, and people who provide them. Sadly, that did not happen this week,” said Bethany Van Kampen Saravia, Senior Legal and Policy Advisor, Ipas. “We can no longer quietly allow these human rights violations to continue. That is why we stood and turned our backs in protest and in solidarity with all of the human rights defenders who dared to have their voices heard in Geneva this week.”

For more information on the Center for Constitutional Rights work on the ICCPR visit our web page here.

The Center for Constitutional Rights works with communities under threat to fight for justice and liberation through litigation, advocacy, and strategic communications. Since 1966, the Center for Constitutional Rights has taken on oppressive systems of power, including structural racism, gender oppression, economic inequity, and governmental overreach. Learn more at ccrjustice.org.

                              Israel blew up a bakery, where the people buy their bread

"The largest bakery in the Mid-Gaza governorate was attacked last night. As a result, over 100,000 people who relied on this bakery are now without bread. Is a bakery a target? How can this be real?" via Twitter/X

The World Stands with Palestine -- UN: Palestinians in Grave Danger of Mass Ethnic Cleansing

The World Stands with Palestine -- UN: Palestinians in Grave Danger of Mass Ethnic Cleansing

Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Native American scholar and member of the Red Nation Nick Estes speaks on Turtle Island's history of supporting genocides and how the Empire's partners silence speech with bombs. Here's part of his speech at a massive protest for Palestine in Minneapolis https://twitter.com/i/status/1713944654943522819
YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAv15yxitpE

Defense for Children, Oct. 16, 2023

GAZA UPDATE: More than 1,030 Palestinian children in Gaza have been killed by Israeli forces since October 7, or about one child every 15 minutes, and more than one-third of the total death toll.

The Center for Constitutional Rights is at the UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva:

“The public dehumanization of Palestinians at the highest level of U.S. government has led to skyrocketing repression of activism and all expressions of support for Palestine.” Oct. 16, 2023

Arrests underway at the White House

Now! Arrests are underway at the White House. "American Jews and allies have now blocked more than four doors to the White House. We’re prepared to put our bodies in the way of more slaughter — we’re ready to stay here until Biden forces a ceasefire. No ceasefire, no exit.” -- In Not Now, When

Dearborn, Michigan, US https://twitter.com/i/status/1713754989145792944

One million people marched in Karachi, Pakistan, for Palestine.

DUBLIN, Ireland now -- "Huge numbers turn out to support Palestine" https://twitter.com/i/status/1713204584980660226

A UN human rights expert warned today that Palestinians are in grave danger of mass ethnic cleansing and called on the international community to urgently mediate a ceasefire between warring Hamas and Israeli occupation forces.