Portside

G4S, where Omar Mateen worked as a security guard, profits from both U.S. border militarization and the Israeli occupation.

The Romanian church, the aristocracy, and the state institutions inherited huge sums of wealth from the fruits of Roma slavery. Like on other slave-holding continents, after five centuries of brutalization and inhuman exploitation, the abusers received monetary compensation for freeing their Roma slaves.

In advance of President Barack Obama’s historic visit to Cuba on March 20, there was speculation about whether he can pressure Cuba to improve its human rights. But a comparison of Cuba’s human rights record with that of the United States shows that the US should be taking lessons from Cuba.

The site is nothing new to those who were held there. In June this year the South Africa-based International Truth and Justice Project, Sri Lanka (ITJPSL) launched a 134-page report on on-going human rights violations and past cases in Sri Lanka. Many of those held were either members or were connected to the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Postwar U.S. authorities helped rehabilitate erstwhile collaborators with the Japanese occupation in the name of fighting communism. Generations later, it’s led to the grandson of a despised Philippine collaborator endorsing the re-militarization of his country’s former occupiers — by the grandson of a war criminal, no less.

People and groups have been labeled terrorists by the Philippine government, the U.S. government and other countries at the behest of the U.S. government. The Philippine government engages in - red tagging - political vilification. Targets are frequently human rights activists and advocates, political opponents, community organizers or groups struggling for national liberation. Those targeted for assassination are placed on the order of battle list.

117 countries criticized, shamed and attacked the U.S. for police violence and racial discrimination at the United Nations Human Rights Council hearing in Geneva. Among the various concerns raised were the failure to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, the continued use of the death penalty, the need for adequate protections for migrant workers and protection of the rights of indigenous peoples.

Reader Comments - Obama and the TPP; Stop-and-Frisk; White Americans and Police Accountability; Vietnam and Anti-War History and the Ongoing Debate; Remembering Jackson State Murders; Greece, Organizing New York; Those Who Work in Customer Call Centers; Announcements - Immigration, Work and Wages - Washington - May 21; Film Showing and Discussion - Blood Fruit - New York - May 22

The Spanish jurist who issued arrest warrant for Augusto Pinochet reflects on the battle to unseat impunity in Chile and Argentina, and Spain's efforts to shake off its collective amnesia. Impunity, as the absence of justice, is the second of two assaults on both the law and the dignity of victims. Garzon asserts it is a mistake to advocate for peace while disregarding demands for justice. No amnesty law should obstruct access to justice for victims.