#OFFICE OF THE UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS - OHCHR

[terrorismvictimsday]

A global toolkit that aims to support the integration of human rights in Member States' counter-terrorism strategy and policy.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) developed a global toolkit that aims to support the integration of human rights in Member States' counter-terrorism strategy and policy. As part of the launch of the toolkit, OHCHR will be organizing a panel discussion on why human rights matter in counter-terrorism strategy and policy.

Watch the OHCHR launch event - human rights toolkit!

[withbriefthanksgiving]

The director of the New York Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the UN (UN OHCHR), Craig Mokhiber, has resigned in a letter dated 28 October 2023

the resignation letter can be found embedded in this tweet by Rami Atari (@.Raminho) dated 31 October 2023.

The letters are here:

Transcription:

United Nations | Nations Unies

HEADQUARTERS I SIEGE I NEW YORK, NY 10017

28 October 2023

Dear High Commissioner,

This will be my last official communication to you as Director of the New York Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

I write at a moment of great anguish for the world, including for many of our colleagues. Once again, we are seeing a genocide unfolding before our eyes, and the Organization that we serve appears powerless to stop it. As someone who has investigated human rights in Palestine since the 1980s, lived in Gaza as a UN human rights advisor in the 1990s, and carried out several human rights missions to the country before and since, this is deeply personal to me.

I also worked in these halls through the genocides against the Tutsis, Bosnian Muslims, the Yazidi, and the Rohingya. In each case, when the dust settled on the horrors that had been perpetrated against defenseless civilian populations, it became painfully clear that we had failed in our duty to meet the imperatives of prevention of mass atrocites, of protection of the vulnerable, and of accountability for perpetrators. And so it has been with successive waves of murder and persecution against the Palestinians throughout the entire life of the UN.

High Commissioner, we are failing again.

As a human rights lawyer with more than three decades of experience in the field, I know well that the concept of genocide has often been subject to political abuse. But the current wholesale slaughter of the Palestinian people, rooted in an ethno-nationalist settler colonial ideology, in continuation of decades of their systematic persecution and purging, based entirely upon their status as Arabs, and coupled with explicit statements of intent by leaders in the Israeli government and military, leaves no room for doubt or debate. In Gaza, civilian homes, schools, churches, mosques, and medical institutions are wantonly attacked as thousands of civilians are massacred. In the West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem, homes are seized and reassigned based entirely on race, and violent settler pogroms are accompanied by Israeli military units. Across the land, Apartheid rules.

This is a text-book case of genocide. The European, ethno-nationalist, settler colonial project in Palestine has entered its final phase, toward the expedited destruction of the last remnants of indigenous Palestinian life in Palestine. What's more, the governments of the United States, the United Kingdom, and much of Europe, are wholly complicit in the horrific assault. Not only are these governments refusing to meet their treaty obligations "to ensure respect" for the Geneva Conventions, but they are in fact actively arming the assault, providing economic and intelligence support, and giving political and diplomatic cover for Israel's atrocities.

Volker Turk, High Commissioner for Human Rights Palais Wilson, Geneva

In concert with this, western corporate media, increasingly captured and state-adjacent, are in open breach of Article 20 of the ICCPR, continuously dehumanizing Palestinians to facilitate the genocide, and broadcasting propaganda for war and advocacy of national, racial, or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility, and violence. US-based social media companies are suppressing the voices of human rights defenders while amplifying pro-Israel propaganda. Israel lobby online-trolls and GONGOS are harassing and smearing human rights defenders, and western universities and employers are collaborating with them to punish those who dare to speak out against the atrocities. In the wake of this genocide, there must be an accounting for these actors as well, just as there was for radio Mules Collins in Rwanda.

In such circumstances, the demands on our organization for principled and effective action are greater than ever. But we phave not met the challenge. The protective enforcement power Security Council has again been blocked by US intransigence, the SG [UN Secretary General] is under assault for the mildest of protestations, and our human rights mechanisms are under sustained slanderous attack by an organized, online impunity network.

Decades of distraction by the illusory and largely disingenuous promises of Oslo have diverted the Organization from its core duty to defend international law, international human rights, and the Charter itself. The mantra of the "two-state solution" has become an open joke in the corridors of the UN, both for its utter impossibility in fact, and for its total failure to account for the inalienable human rights of the Palestinian people. The so-called "Quartet" has become nothing more than a fig leaf for inaction and for subservience to a brutal status quo. The (US-scripted) deference to "agreements between the parties themselves" (in place of international law) was always a transparent slight-of-hand, designed to reinforce the power of Israel over the rights of the occupied and dispossessed Palestinians.

High Commissioner, I came to this Organization first in the 1980s, because I found in it a principled, norm-based institution that was squarely on the side of human rights, including in cases where the powerful US, UK, and Europe were not on our side. While my own government, its subsidiarity institutions, and much of the US media were still supporting or justifying South African apartheid, Israeli oppression, and Central American death squads, the UN was standing up for the oppressed peoples of those lands. We had international law on our side. We had human rights on our side. We had principle on our side. Our authority was rooted in our integrity. But no more.

In recent decades, key parts of the UN have surrendered to the power of the US, and to fear of the Israel Lobby, to abandon these principles, and to retreat from international law itself. We have lost a lot in this abandonment, not least our own global credibility. But the Palestinian people have sustained the biggest losses as a result of our failures. It is a stunning historic irony that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted in the same year that the Nakba was perpetrated against the Palestinian people. As we commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the UDHR, we would do well to abandon the old cliché that the UDHR was born out of the atrocities that proceeded it, and to admit that it was born alongside one of the most atrocious genocides of the 20th Century, that of the destruction of Palestine. In some sense, the framers were promising human rights to everyone, except the Palestinian people. And let us remember as well, that the UN itself carries the original sin of helping to facilitate the dispossession of the Palestinian people by ratifying the European settler colonial project that seized Palestinian land and turned it over to the colonists. We have much for which to atone.

But the path to atonement is clear. We have much to learn from the principled stance taken in cities around the world in recent days, as masses of people stand up against the genocide, even at risk of beatings and arrest. Palestinians and their allies, human rights defenders of every stripe, Christian and Muslim organizations, and progressive Jewish voices saying "not in our name", are all leading the way. All we have to do is to follow them.

Yesterday, just a few blocks from here, New York's Grand Central Station was completely taken over by thousands of Jewish human rights defenders standing in solidarity with the Palestinian people and demanding an end to Israeli tyranny (many risking arrest, in the process). In doing so, they stripped away in an instant the Israeli hasbara propaganda point (and old antisemitic trope) that Israel somehow represents the Jewish people. It does not. And, as such, Israel is solely responsible for its crimes. On this point, it bears repeating, in spite of Israel lobby smears to the contrary, that criticism of Israel's human rights violations is not antisemitic, any more than criticism of Saudi violations is Islamophobic, criticism of Myanmar violations is anti-Buddhist, or criticism of Indian violations is anti-Hindu. When they seek to silence us with smears, we must raise our voice, not lower it. I trust you will agree, High Commissioner, that this is what speaking truth to power is all about.

But I also find hope in those parts of the UN that have refused to compromise the Organization's human rights principles in spite of enormous pressures to do so. Our independent special rapporteurs, commissions of enquiry, and treaty body experts, alongside most of our staff, have continued to stand up for the human rights of the Palestinian people, even as other parts of the UN (even at the highest levels) have shamefully bowed their heads to power. As the custodians of the human rights norms and standards, OHCHR. has a particular duty to defend those standards. Our job, I believe, is to make our voice heard, from the Secretary-General to the newest UN recruit, and horizontally across the wider UN system, incisting that the human rights of the Palestinian people are not up for debate, negotiation, or compromise anywhere under the blue flag.

What, then, would a UN-norm-based position look like? For what would we work if we were true to our rhetorical admonitions about human rights and equality for all, accountability for perpetrators, redress for victims, protection of the vulnerable, and empowerment for rights-holders, all under the rule of law? The answer, I believe, is simple—if we have the clarity to see beyond the propagandistic smokescreens that distort the vision of justice to which we are sworn, the courage to abandon fear and deference to powerful states, and the will to truly take up the banner of human rights and peace. To be sure, this is a long-term project and a steep climb. But we must begin now or surrender to unspeakable horror. I see ten essential points:

Legitimate action: First, we in the UN must abandon the failed (and largely disingenuous) Oslo paradigm, its illusory two-state solution, its impotent and complicit Quartet, and its subjugation of international law to the dictates of presumed political expediency. Our positions must be unapologetically based on international human rights and international law.

Clarity of Vision: We must stop the pretense that this is simply a conflict over land or religion between two warring parties and admit the reality of the situation in which a disproportionately powerful state is colonizing, persecuting, and dispossessing an indigenous population on the basis of their ethnicity.

One State based on human rights: We must support the establishment of a single, democratic, secular state in all of historic Palestine, with equal rights for Christians, Muslims, and Jews, and, therefore, the dicmantling of the deeply racist, settler-colonial project and an end to apartheid across the land.

Fighting Apartheid: We must redirect all UN efforts and resources to the struggle against apartheid, just as we did for South Africa in the 1970s, 80s, and early 90s.

Return and Compensation: We must reaffirm and insist on the right to return and full compensation for all Palestinians and their families currently living in the occupied territories, in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and in the diaspora across the globe.

Truth and Justice: We must call for a transitional justice process, making full use of decades of accumulated UN investigations, enquiries, and reports, to document the truth, and to ensure accountability for all perpetrators, redress for all victims, and remedies for documented injustices.

Protection: We must press for the deployment of a well-resourced and strongly mandated UN protection force with a sustained mandate to protect civilians from the river to the sea.

Disarmament: We must advocate for the removal and destruction of Israel's massive stockpiles of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, lest the conflict lead to the total destruction of the region and, possibly, beyond.

Mediation: We must recognize that the US and other western powers are in fact not credible mediators, but rather actual parties to the conflict who are complicit with Israel in the violation of Palestinian rights, and we must engage them as such.

Solidarity: We must open our doors (and the doors of the SG) wide to the legions of Palestinian, Israeli, Jewish, Muslim, and Christian human rights defenders who are standing in solidarity with the people of Palestine and their human rights and stop the unconstrained flow of Israel lobbyists to the offices of UN leaders, where they advocate for continued war, persecution, apartheid, and impunity, and smear our human rights defenders for their principled defense of Palestinian rights.

This will take years to achieve, and western powers will fight us every step of the way, so we must be steadfast. In the immediate term, we must work for an immediate ceasefire and an end to the longstanding siege on Gaza, stand up against the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, Jerusalem, and the West Bank (and elsewhere), document the genocidal assault in Gaza, help to bring massive humanitarian aid and reconstruction to the Palestinians, take care of our traumatized colleagues and their families, and fight like hell for a principled approach in the UN's political offices.

The UN's failure in Palestine thus far is not a reason for us to withdraw. Rather it should give us the courage to abandon the failed paradigm of the past, and fully embrace a more principled course. Let us, as OHCHR, boldly and proudly join the anti-apartheid movement that is growing all around the world, adding our logo to the banner of equality and human rights for the Palestinian people. The world is watching. We will all be accountable for where we stood at this crucial moment in history. Let us stand on the side of justice.

I thank you, High Commissioner, Volker, for hearing this final appeal from my desk. I will leave the Office in a few days for the last time, after more than three decades of service. But please do not hesitate to reach out if I can be of assistance in the future.

Sincerely,

Craig Mokhiber

End of transcription.

Emphasis (bolding) is my own. I have added links, where relevant, to explanations of concepts the former Director refers to.

[nelsonmandeladay]

15th Nelson Mandela World Human Rights Moot Court competition.

The Fifteenth Nelson Mandela World Human Rights Moot Court Competition adopts a hybrid format, with the in-person final rounds scheduled to take place at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland from 17 – 21 July 2023 and the preliminary virtual rounds (online) scheduled to take place from 20 – 27 May 2023.

The World Moot is open to undergraduate and masters students from all universities in the world. Teams of two students (gender diversity is encouraged) from every university in the world are invited to submit heads of argument for a hypothetical human rights case. The 50 teams with the highest memorial grades are invited to participate in the preliminary oral rounds and present their arguments to human rights experts and judges of international tribunals at the UN headquarters in Geneva.

The Moot Court Competition is the largest gathering of students, academics and judges around the theme of human rights in the world. The Competition is open to students around the world. A team of two students from each university – preferably one woman and one man (gender diversity is encouraged) – is invited to participate in the competition.

[antiterf]

Its kind of ridiculous how difficult it is to find critical intersex literature if you don't know where to look.

That said, here are frequently cited things I've found. For the one's that are behind paywalls, I have a Google Drive folder set up to hold them for access. The only things I leave behind a paywall are books by individual authors. They are not organized at all, I'm sorry.

Intersex Variations Glossary by InterACT

Narrative Symposium: Intersex—Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics (NIB) Volume 5, Number 2, Summer 2015.— Trigger warning for intersex genital mutilation (IGM), sexual assault, and medical trauma—it's honestly a lot but incredibly important. (Drive)

A human rights investigation into the medical "normalization" of intersex people - A report of a public hearing by the Human Rights Commission of the City & County of San Francisco

Surgical Progress Is Not the Answer to Intersexuality - Cheryl Chase. - TW for IGM and images of genitalia (Drive)

The Intersex Roadshow, a blog of Dr. Cary Gabriel Costello - Costello is an intersex trans man and tries to bridge the gap between trans and intersex issues

Beyond Binary Sex and Gender Ideology - Cary Grabriel Costello - Chapter 12 of The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Body and Embodiment (Drive)

Transgender and intersex: theoretical, practical, and artistic perspectives (book/textbook) (Drive)

Intersex: Stories and Statistics from Australia (Book) (Open Access)

Fixing sex: intersex, medical authority, and lived experience (Book)

The harms of medicalisation: intersex, loneliness and abandonment (Open Access Article)

Intersex: cultural and social perspectives (Open Access Article)

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) - Technical Note on the Human Rights of Intersex People. Basically, if you want an easy way to say that doctors are going against human rights by performing IGM.

An experimental philosophical bioethical study of how human rights are applied to clitorectomy on infants identified as female and as intersex (Open Access Article) - People were more likely to support the same surgery on infants labeled as intersex than they were on infants labeled as female.

Caught in the Gender Binary Blind Spot: Intersex Erasure in Cisgender Rhetoric by Hida Viloria - About how cisgender often doesn't accurately express the experiences intersex people have. Costello, mentioned earlier with Intersex Roadshow, coined Ipsogender for this reason.

Introduction for Intersex Activism - A guide for allies

Sex, Science, and Society: Reckonings and Responsibilities for Biologists (Open Access Article)

Contesting Intersex: The Dubious Diagnosis by Georgiann Davis - TW for medical trauma

Spectacles and Scholarship: Caster Semenya, Intersex Studies, and the Problem of Race in Feminist Theory by Zine Magubane (Drive)

Owning Endosex Privilege and Supporting the Intersex Community: WPATH, Intersex Genital Mutilation (IGM), and Sex Variant Bodies by Margo Schulter

The Spectrum of Sex by Hida Viloria and Dr. Maria Nieto

A long way to go for LGBTI equality from the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights - Before the UK left the EU

If anyone wants to add, feel free! This was the non-medicalized stuff I had saved in Zotero, and definitely not all that's out there.

[humanrightsday]

How human rights are a pathway to solutions, playing a critical role as a preventative, protective and transformative force for good.

Since their adoption in 2015, many developing countries have made remarkable strides towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, a troubling disconnect persists: economic growth alone does not guarantee the alleviation of poverty or inequalities, the climate emergency accelerates, and the destruction of our natural world continues. As we mark Human Rights Day 2024, we are reminded that human rights are not abstract ideals. They are vital tools for addressing these pressing challenges and advancing dignity and justice for all. 

In conflict and crisis settings, where violence and forced displacement prevail, human rights come under acute threat. Women and children are especially affected. In such contexts, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) works to support human rights solutions that strengthen accountability, protect communities and foster peace, recovery, and stability. This includes partnering with National Human Rights Institutions, which often represent the frontline defenders of human rights. For example, in Nigeria, UNDP collaborated with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to support the National Human Rights Commission’s Human Rights Dashboard and Observatory to enable real-time tracking and analysis of human rights violations, directly support to conflict-affected populations. Local initiatives also remain key. That includes women in Somalia who are being supported to lead peace efforts including assisting those facing violence, discrimination, and injustice. “I have resolved numerous local disputes…I feel motivated when I see I have been able to change people’s lives positively,” says Fatuma who led a local Peace Working Group.

As the accelerating climate emergency threatens the ability of current and future generations to enjoy their right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, UNDP is focusing on access to justice, working with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and OHCHR to help communities claim their rights. Moreover, in countries such as Belize, UNDP’s Climate Promise is supporting national climate change dialogues that comprise of key groups like civil society, Indigenous Peoples, and women's organizations, ensuring that everyone can have a say in their climate futures  -- advancing climate justice. The private sector also has a pivotal role to play. UNDP supports the implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights including to advance sustainable practices that protect the environment. Indeed, technology offers both risks and opportunities to advance human rights. The Global Digital Compact aims to create an inclusive, open, safe, and secure digital space that respects, protects and promotes human rights. Tech-enabled UNDP tools like iVerify and eMonitor+ deployed in over 25 countries to monitor and address false narratives and hate speech show the potential. It is now crucial to adopt a rights-based approach to technologies like A.I., addressing ethical challenges, protecting data, and tackling biases to mitigate risks today and unlock immense benefits for the generations to come. 

The Pact for the Future reaffirms that the three pillars of the United Nations – sustainable development, peace and security, and human rights – are equally important, interlinked and mutually reinforcing. Remove one, and the balance falters. Alongside our partners from the UN and beyond, UNDP is dedicated to bringing the Pact to life. In many ways, it calls for a re-think of how our global community plans, acts, and thinks together for the future, concertedly creating a more continuous thread of actions that will shape the world to come. That involves embedding human rights into every aspect of our work to help realise a future where justice, equality and opportunity stretches beyond the far horizon.

Achim Steiner, Administrator, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

This Human Rights Day, 10 December 2024, we focus on how human rights are a pathway to solutions, playing a critical role as a preventative, protective and transformative force for good.

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

Israel rejects UN allegations of unlawful killings in Gaza, denounces claims as 'blood libel'

by Mike Wagenheim

According to the IDF, there is no record of any operation or incident in the Al Remal neighborhood in Gaza City that aligns with the OHCHR's assertions

Israel has firmly rejected allegations made by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), which claimed that it has information that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) were responsible for the killing of at least 11 unarmed Palestinian men in Gaza City. 

The OHCHR report, titled "Unlawful Killings in Gaza City," raised concerns about the possible commission of war crimes and urged Israel to conduct a thorough and independent investigation into the allegations.

The IDF promptly conducted its investigation into the claims and found no evidence to support the allegations. 

According to the IDF, there is no record of any operation or incident in the Al Remal neighborhood in Gaza City that aligns with the OHCHR's assertions. Israel strongly contends that the UN is basing its accusations on unverified and unsubstantiated claims made by non-governmental organizations (NGOs), terming it as "blood libel."

The Israeli mission to the UN said this accusation is an example of partisan and prejudiced approach by OHCHR when it comes to issues involving Israel. Additionally, the Israeli mission accused the UN agency of a concerning trend of publishing unverified information, calling into questio

[darkmetaknightspussy]

do you have a source for your intersex population figure? not because i dont believe you but because i like arguing with my father

According to this article by The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), up to 1.7 percent of people are born with intersex traits!

[plethoraworldatlas]

Citing the "principles of distinction, proportionality, and precaution" that international humanitarian law demands military forces obey, the United Nations' top human rights office on Tuesday said the raid conducted at Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza by the Israel Defense Forces over the weekend may amount to a war crime.

The IDF conducted the operation at the camp in the central Gaza Strip in order to free four Israeli hostages who were kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, and Jeremy Laurence, spokesperson for the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) told reporters their release was "clearly very good news."

But the OHCHR, Laurence said, is "profoundly shocked at the impact on civilians of the Israeli forces' operation," which killed at least 274 Palestinians, including 64 children and 57 women, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society.

"The manner in which the raid was conducted in such a densely populated area seriously calls into question whether the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precaution—as set out under the laws of war—were respected by the Israeli forces," said Laurence in a statement.

[news4dzhozhar]

UN calls for probe as Israeli army accused of killing unarmed Palestinians

**Too bad the UN is a pretty useless organization that relies on self discipline. They don't have the authority to do anything but issue strongly worded statements. Unless the guilty party is going to punish themselves, it goes no further. This was written about 2 weeks ago so the # has risen since then.**

UN rights office calls for investigation into ‘possible war crime’ amid reports Israeli forces allegedly ‘executed’ 11 Palestinian men in Gaza.

The United Nations human rights office has called for an independent inquiry into allegations that Israeli forces “summarily executed” at least 11 Palestinian men in Gaza in what it called “a possible war crime”.

“The Israeli authorities must immediately institute an independent, thorough and effective investigation into these allegations, and if found to be substantiated, those responsible must be brought to justice and measures implemented to prevent any such serious violations from recurring,” said the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in a statement on Wednesday.

Al Jazeera spoke to several witnesses to Tuesday’s raid during which Israeli troops allegedly surrounded and stormed a residential building, going floor to floor to separate the men from the women and children, and then shooting dead 11 of the men in front of their family members. The men were in their 20s and 30s, survivors said.

“They saw us, men and their wives and children. My brother-in-law tried to speak and explain all in the house are civilians, but they shot him dead,” one survivor told Al Jazeera of the attack on families who were sheltering in al-Adwa building in Gaza City’s Remal neighbourhood.

The soldiers “forced their way into every home, killed the men and detained the women and children. We do not know their whereabouts. They did the same on every floor. All women were rounded up in one room. By the time they reached us on the sixth floor, they started shooting all men,” a woman said, adding that her father-in-law and son were shot and killed instantly.

Survivors also said that the Israeli soldiers also attacked the women and children after ordering them into a room in the residential block also known as Annan building.

“The Israeli soldiers rounded up all the women in one room, then fired three mortar shells on us, then kept shooting their machine guns at us,” a wounded woman said.

“I was hit with a bullet in my hand, my daughter in her head, my younger daughter was killed and my son is blind. My husband was executed in cold blood. All my other daughters suffered severe injuries, broken bones and flesh torn open. We were all hit by bullets or shrapnel,” she added.

Analyst Tamer Qarmout, an assistant professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, welcomed the UN call for an investigation into the “unlawful killings”, telling Al Jazeera that the key issue is how such probes are going to be conducted.

None of the entities that could investigate alleged Israeli crimes against Palestinians is currently allowed into the Gaza Strip, Qarmout noted.

Other witnesses recalled that the men were forced to strip before being shot, and one man said that “even young boys were not spared. They were all battered and bludgeoned. They suffered broken bones and are in hospital.”

There has been no comment from the Israeli military on the attack.

[almaqead]

"Medinah." From Surah 33, Al Ahzab, "The Coalitions."

The Mormons and Republicans were once again screaming at me this morning the Mosque belonged to them and they plan to take it. Except the more we learn about the Interlinear, a race of beings created by God to run His Messaging Errands all around the world we see the mission of the Mosque coming more clearly into focus. It represents unity in a place the world needs it the most and belongs in the hands of those who already possess it for these purposes. Donald Trump must be thrown before this promise made by the LDS is kept.

The Surah goes on to say how effective a Coalition against the Republican Party is just what the gods of Israel require in order to proceed with the Aqsa: the most remote possibility man has for peace, the very farthest it can do. Aqsa and Allah are as one:

30: 60-62:

If the hypocrites, and those with sickness in their hearts, and rumour-mongers in Medina do not desist, We will certainly incite you ˹O Prophet˺ against them, and then they will not be your neighbours there any longer.

˹They deserve to be˺ condemned. ˹If they were to persist,˺ they would get themselves seized and killed relentlessly wherever they are found!1

That was Allah’s way with those ˹hypocrites˺ who have gone before. And you will find no change in Allah’s way.

Commentary:

Every day, all day long I listen to the demogoblins of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints threaten to kill me and take the Mosque. They do this without fail, have done it for a decade. The US Gov has its head up its ass. These very strange persons are empowered by the upcoming illegally obtained second Donald Trump White House, even after it was determined Donald Trump egged onm a revolt against a legally sitting Congress. I implore the sane people of all religions and races to do what can be done legally and peacefully to prevent the enemies of the Aqsa Mosque from ever touching it.

The Prophet mentions a disturbance in Medinah, a supposed idyllic state in Arabic, one transformed from Yathrib, which means "certain death" by Mo. We are indeed in store for a great quake in Medinah, "a nation that governs without strife" if America does not wake up and obey its own laws forbidding traitors from holding public office. As I was typing, Senator Mitt Romney promised me Aqsa Mosque belongs to him. The Us Gov is clearly not in charge of its own affairs and this must change. Our futures depend on it.

Free elections are a human right. The US Gov did not do its homework and gave a passing grade to a foolish, silly man who is not eligible to be the president. This is an error that is easily addressed, and it will remove the immediate threat posed by Donald Trump, nearly every member of his Republican Party and give the world a much needed chance to reasses the peace process in the Middle East.

Write the UN and the International Criminal Court now and insist the US Department of Justice enforce laws that would protect this planet from the strife of Donald Trump and protect Medinah once again.

I warned them and warned them about this Thing and it is still not dead. It has left a trail of dead bodies, parched and pocked ground, and many, many mourners in its wake. It has to be stopped.

[sublimeobservationarcade]

Why Do We Have Wars?

Why do we have wars and the mass killings and destruction they engender? Men. Power hungry men who see violence as a means to an end. An end they desire, with their cabal in power. Why do we have wars? A current example of this is the Russian invasion of Ukraine, where Mr Putin’s trying to take control, by force, of a neighbouring country. There is no valid justification for killing people, whatever the political situation. Many of us shrug our shoulders and say, well, that is how the world has always been. Perhaps, but it is not good enough and we should never stop striving to progress beyond this reversion to violence and brute force.

“The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) verified a total of 39,081 civilian casualties during Russia's invasion of Ukraine as of October 31, 2024. Of them, 26,919 people were reported to have been injured. However, OHCHR specified that the real numbers could be higher.  After Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, Ukraine has seen a military conflict between the government and the Russia-supported separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. OHCHR estimates that between 14,200 and 14,400 people, including civilians and military personnel, were killed in relation to that conflict from April 14, 2014, to December 31, 2021. Of them, at least 3,400 were civilians. “ (https://www.statista.com/statistics/1293492/ukraine-war-casualties/) In comparison, the IDF in Gaza has killed more than 45, 000 Palestinians in 14 months of war. – (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/12/16/death-toll-from-israels-war-on-gaza-tops-45000)

Photo by ROMAN ODINTSOV on Pexels.com

Why Do We Buy & Sell Sex?

Why do we have prostitution and the commodification of sex in the world? Men. This is a demand driven business being serviced primarily by women under the auspices of pimps and those in the commercial sex sector. Prostitution is known as the oldest profession in existence and for much of that time has been illegal. Why has it continued? Because men want it to, whether they be punters, police, politicians, and those in power, more generally, they maintain it. Sex, when it is truly making love is a beautiful magical thing, outside of this it is empty and second rate. Selling sex is rarely a good thing. “Rod Olsen has co-owned a busy brothel, Club Pleasure in southeast Melbourne, since 2013, and used to manage it. He said the day-to-day operating of the business is much more “boring” than most people think. That’s because the sex industry in Australia is tied up in red tape, with sex service premises facing fines and closure if they don’t carefully follow a strict set of rules. “You have to jump through hoops every year to keep your license,” Mr Olsen said. “ (https://www.realcommercial.com.au/news/the-surprising-reality-of-owning-and-operating-a-brothel) “The market size, measured by revenue, of the Brothel Keeping and Sex Worker Services industry was $214.2m in 2023. The market size of the Brothel Keeping and Sex Worker Services industry increased 19.5% in 2023. The market size of the Brothel Keeping and Sex Worker Services industry in Australia has grown 4.2% per year on average between 2018 and 2023.” (https://www.ibisworld.com/au/market-size/brothel-keeping-sex-worker-services/)

Jeff Bezos by U.S. Air Force is licensed under CC-CC0 1.0

Why Do We Have The Rich & Poor?

Why do we have wealth inequality, which is becoming more extreme? Men. Men are in power everywhere you look. They are the bankers, the world leaders, the police chiefs, the business leaders and they make the rules. Sure, there are a smattering of women bosses here and there but men are, by far, in control of things. Inequality drives crime, poor health, addictions, and disenfranchises citizens from their communities. Inequality hurts children more than any other part of the demographic. If Elon Musk has a greater worth than many other nations let alone millions and millions of ordinary people – what does that tell us about the world? In the United States, they will not elect a woman president. Indeed, Donald Trump a convicted criminal has defeated women presidential candidates both times to achieve the highest office in the land. What does that infer about the most powerful country on earth?  Power remains in male hands. “The differences between the average incomes of low, middle and high-income households in Australia are large. Someone in a household that falls in the highest 20% income group has more than twice the average disposable income of the middle 20% income group and six times as much as someone in the lowest 20% income group. The average income of the middle income group is almost three times that of the lowest income group. At the top end, income is even more heavily concentrated. The average income of the highest 5% income group is nearly four times the income of the middle 20% and nine times that of the lowest 20% income groups; while the average income of the highest 1% income group is almost three times that of highest 20% income group. People in the highest 20% income group receive 42% of all national income, which is more than the share of the lowest 60% combined. People in the lowest 20% receive only 6% of all household income, while the second lowest 20% receive 12%.” (https://povertyandinequality.acoss.org.au/inequality/)

Why Do We Have Domestic Violence? Why is Domestic Violence (DV) still at crisis levels in our wealthy Western societies?  Men. Men commit acts of violence upon their partners and former partners well above that of women. 75% of reported incidents of DV are committed by men against women. The level of unreported acts would be, I suspect, much higher again. DV remains sticky in our communities because men are in power and they tolerate it. Most of the police forces are made up of men and have been since their beginnings.  Similarly, the judicial system as a whole has been predominantly male for centuries. Men see things according to their cultural preconditioning and gender stereotypes. The lack of specific training in this area has been woefully inadequate for the longest time. Yes, there are small steps in the right direction happening but we are coming from a very low base. Getting men out of the positions of authority when dealing with DV is the only way to accelerate positive change. Why do we have wars? A war on women? “1 in 6 women have experienced physical or sexual violence by a current or former partner, while for men it is 1 in 16. 75% of victims of domestic violence reported the perpetrator as male, while 25% reported the perpetrator as female. Overall, 1 in 5 women and 1 in 20 men have experienced sexual violence.” (https://www.missionaustralia.com.au/domestic-and-family-violence-statistics#:~:text=1in6womenhave,itis1in16.&text=75ofvictimsofdomestic,reportedtheperpetratorasfemale.&text=Overall1in5women,menhaveexperiencedsexualviolence.) ©WordsForWeb

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[caalaadd]

OHCHR-EAA Youth Rights Academy 2025 in Switzerland | Fully Funded

Are you looking for United Nations programs? OHCHR-EAA Youth Rights Academy 2025 in Switzerland is currently accepting applications. This program is an initiative of the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and Education Above All. People from all over the world can apply for this training program. It is part of the project, “Working with and for youth in vulnerable…

[cody-gondella-history-112]

Death now rages inside of Israel’s borders, in occupied territory. Citizens across the world cannot agree on what to call what is happening; some call it war, some conflict, still more yet cry of genocide. It doesn’t matter what I call it as I walk through shelled towns and cities, once they were thriving, but now there’s only rubble. Some people argue that it is a necessary evil, the destruction of these cities, in an attempt to weed out Hamas after the October 7th attack on Israeli citizens, but it’s hard to discount so many civilian causalities. I hear a missile whistle through the air, then the ground shakes and people scream. A young man in a press vest runs towards the destruction. 

Motaz Azaiza, a Palestinian citizen turned reporter, has seen more death than he should have in his 25 years alive. He documents the destruction of his home on social media, praying that the world will see what is happening to his people, praying that they will put a stop to it. His prayers go unanswered as he continues to dig, hand over hand, through rubble, recovering bodies to be buried. Today is different, today he recognizes the rubble of house that once stood. Motaz pauses only a moment before he begins collecting the remains of his aunt and young cousin—they are the only ones left to find, everyone else either buried beneath the destruction or gone entirely, vaporized buy the missile. He mourns but the attacks do not stop. Every night he lays awake thinking “any moment now, I will be next” (Azaiza). 

Eventually, Motaz will find his way across the boarder, but the fighting still continues. He doesn’t know how to go on. He lost his home, his family, but somehow he survived. 

Motaz Azaiza’s story is unique in some ways, but most of it is shared among his fellow Palestinians, both inside and outside of Israel’s boarders. 90% of the Palestinian population has been displaced (HRW), by August 2024 official reports stated that 40,000 lives had been lost (Türk), though unofficial reports set the death toll much higher. The destruction rages on. There is no end in sight.  

Sources: 

Azaiza, Motaz. “Photojournalist Motaz Azaiza: ‘The ghosts of Gaza follow me everywhere’.” The Guardian, 16 February, 2024. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/feb/16/motaz-azaiza-interview-gaza-ghosts-photojournalist. Accessed 14 November, 2024.

"Israel’s Crimes Against Humanity in Gaza: Forced Displacement of Palestinians Leaves Much of Area Uninhabitable.” Human Rights Watch, 14 November, 2024. https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/11/14/israels-crimes-against-humanity-gaza. Accessed 14 November, 2024. 

Türk, Volker. United Nations Human Rights: Office of the High Commissioner. 15 August, 2024. Statement. https://www.un.org/unispal/document/gaza-40000deaths-turk-ohchr-15aug24/. Accessed 14 November, 2024. Scree 

Photo: Motaz Azaiza: ‘5 December 2023: A man is holding a little girl after he extracted her from under the rubble of her house, destroyed by the Israeli war planes.’ Photograph: motaz9/Motaz Azaiza

[endimpunityday]

Panel discussion on the safety of journalists in crises and emergencies and the legal drivers behind impunity.

OHCHR: Impunity for Crimes against Journalists.

Panel discussion on the safety of journalists in crises and emergencies and the legal drivers behind impunity.

This event is co-organized by the  Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the Permanent Mission of France to the United Nations and other International Organizations in Geneva and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in order to celebrate the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, which theme this year is "safety of journalists in crises and emergencies".

More specifically, it is aimed to consider and underscore the high rate of impunity for crimes against journalists worldwide, especially affecting those working in and on crises and emergencies; highlight the legal factors – from restrictive laws to abusive litigation – which increase that impunity; and share best practices on how to reduce that high rate of impunity.

More info;

Watch the Panel discussion on the safety of journalists in crises and emergencies and the legal drivers behind impunity!