Doctrine divides, Action unites

 

  April 2014


The life of Khusmoni Rema, a Garo woman in Bangladesh, centers around the production of food for her family and community. (Photo by Shalomi Sangma)

 

A Dream of a Garo Woman in Bangladesh
Shalomi Sangma

The author is a member of the Garo tribal community in Bangladesh who explains the important role that Garo women play in their matrilineal society. She also shares her aspirations for an even larger and significant role for Garo women who are increasingly becoming educated in spite of many challenges. [Read more]
 

State Crimes Continue in Pattani
Giles Ji Ungpakorn

While little is often heard or read in the media, at least outside of Thailand, about the violence in the three southern-most provinces of the country—Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala— this article makes painfully clear that people in this Muslim-majority part of Thailand bordering Malaysia are still afflicted by the upsurge in violence that began in 2004. [Read more]
 

Online Petition for Disappearance of Karen Environmental Activist in Thailand
Oscar Arango

In this online petition, the initiator, based in Chiang Mai, Thailand, demands “a prompt and thorough investigation into the disappearance of indigenous Karen leader Por Cha Lee Rakcharoen and the removal of Chaiwat Limlikitaksor as Kaengkrachan National Park chief.” Please consider adding your name to the petition. [Read more]
 

Culture of Impunity Continues
Widows in the Philippines

Two widows whose husbands were victims of human rights violations in the Philippines sent this open letter to U.S. President Barack Obama prior to his visit to the country on April 28. Their husbands are among thousands of victims of extrajudicial killings and disappearances in the Philippines in the past decade for whom few perpetrators have been convicted. [Read more]
 

Nepal: Killing Its Citizens in the Name of Justice
Asian Human Rights Commission

It is said that justice must be blind to be impartial and fair; but when justice is apathetic or absent, as this article explains in Nepal, it can have deadly consequences. [Read more]
 

Democracy in a Gutter—Literally—in India
Avinash Pandey

Manual scavenging, i.e., manually disposing of excrement, by Dalits, or Untouchables, is illegal under India’s Constitution of 1949 and various statutory laws, raising questions about the strength and effectiveness of the country’s legal system with the practice of manual scavenging still existing and, indeed, being deadly. The author bemoans this legal limbo and the implications for one of India’s most marginalized communities—the Dalits—and offers some needed prescriptions for change. [Read more]
 

Human Rights Must Get Religion
Larry Cox

The author notes the tensions that occur between human rights activists and people of faith and explains in response that human rights and religion complement each other, that the power of both the secular and the sacred are reinforced and strengthened if they work cooperatively together. [Read more]

 

 

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