Some (mostly) human rights links and thoughts

Some human rights (including significant, relevant links in other fields - such as geopolitics, democracy, or authoritarianism) links: 

• an article from the World Economic Forum makes the right sort of noises about the human rights aspects of protecting the environment, including reasonable to good large-scale recommendations, but lacks any detail on how those will be achieved - https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/11/why-having-a-clean-and-healthy-environment-is-a-human-right/; 
• more on the fact that the climate crisis is also a health emergency - see https://www.sbs.com.au/news/australian-doctors-have-made-a-dire-prediction-on-bushfire-deaths/4d59fc74-8f4c-4c23-b9a7-a444d4c45606; 
• an analysis of why despots "love" and pervert the law for their own ends - https://www.cfr.org/article/why-dictators-always-pretend-love-law;
  
• there have been quite a few warnings against the neoliberals' so-called "Religious Discrimination Bill". This is one, which includes: "The bill, however, must be understood as another front in the culture war creation of a national identity that is Western chauvinist at heart. The business of government is handed to the fossil fuel lobby for whom we serve as a vassal state. Meanwhile the Coalition continues massing the forces of this “conservative” identity against the feared might of “progress”. The Australian Human Rights Commission has been arguing for 20 years that Australia needs religious protections, best dealt with in a charter of human rights more broadly. This vision, however, is of a tool that protects people from discrimination on the basis of their religion (or lack thereof); the Coalition’s focus is on a bill that entitles religious groups to discriminate" - see https://johnmenadue.com/culture-war-over-religious-freedom-normalises-fascist-politics/.
  From the email I sent to my local Commonwealth MP: "As a woman with strong religious views, I consider the proposed bill to be an act of evil that has the potential to sear religious division into Australia's soul, much as john howard seared racism into our nation's soul with the "Tampa Affair" and his general xenophobic hatred of refugees and asylum seekers"; 
• a former police officer - (quite rightly, IMO) sacked after an egregious breach of the privacy of a trans woman - wants to avoid conviction on the basis that he still thinks what he did is minor . . . Fortunately, the judge disagrees - https://qnews.com.au/victoria-police-officer-who-took-photo-outing-dani-laidley-pleads-in-court/; 
• Canada has banned so-called "conversion" practices - see https://news.trust.org/item/20211201211136-2edcu/;
  
• we also have a proposed Commonwealth bill that is supposedly aimed at controlling trolling. My comments to my local MP included the following concerns:
  "1. there are people, such as members of minority communities (including the LGBTIQ+ communities) who rely on anonymity to be able to reach out for help safely - forcing them to identify themselves may lead to young LGBTIQ+ people (i.e., children) killing themselves;
  2. I do not trust social media companies - there have been hacks of several in the past and thus forcing people to hand over sensitive personal identifying information puts the security of their identity at risk - and such is contrary to accepted principles about safety online (which applies to everything the neolibs have done in that area - especially the coercive use of a single point of access ["MyGov"] which is downright stupid an criminally irresponsible). I consider Facebook to be utterly evil for a number of reasons, so have never joined, am about to leave Reddit because it is not worth being on, and have a minimal presence on Twitter which, if forced to provide personal identifying information, I would leave (my LinkedIn account is for work purposes, but I may leave that also);
  3. I do not consider this legislation to be motivated by concerns over trolling - if that were the case, there are,  in any case, other actions which could have been enforced. I consider this proposal is about the neoliberals being able to suppress criticism"
  - see https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-28/social-media-laws-online-trolls/100657004.
  Criticism of the neoliberals supposed "anti-trolling" bill also includes:   https://theconversation.com/the-governments-planned-anti-troll-laws-wont-help-most-victims-of-online-trolling-172743,   https://www.crikey.com.au/2021/11/29/governments-social-media-bill-wont-end-trolling/,   and   https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2021-11-30/online-bullying-trolling-identity-verification-legislation/100658084; 
• from a quick scan, this looks reasonable (although I haven't tried to compare it to https://engagestandards.ieee.org/ieee-7000-2021-for-systems-design-ethical-concerns.html): "UN countries adopt first global agreement on AI ethics" - https://www.jurist.org/news/2021/11/un-countries-adopt-first-global-agreement-on-ai-ethics/ - and there are concerns about the business links and lack of ethicists amongst members of an EU body with a nominally similar aim: https://euobserver.com/investigations/153386; 
• New Zealand is reported to have committed to regulation of killer robots - https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/law-order/1827645-nz-commits-to-international-law-to-ban-and-regulate-autonomous-weapons-systems; 
  
• an exposé on the idiotic incompetence of conspiracy fantasists: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2021/11/24/toy-rabbits-chemtrails-and-german-qanon-fanatics-how-not-to-conduct-open-source-investigations/ - and an introduction to social media verification, at https://www.bellingcat.com/resources/2021/11/01/a-beginners-guide-to-social-media-verification/; 
• legal action by nurses against rich nations who have opposed waivers to facilitate vaccines being manufactured by poorer nations alleges millions of lives have been needlessly lost - https://yubanet.com/world/nurses-from-28-countries-file-un-complaint-alleging-human-rights-violations-by-eu-and-4-countries-for-the-loss-of-countless-lives-in-the-pandemic/; 
• neo-nazi thugs in the Ukraine are going after the same people as the nazis did - in this case, Roma. See https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/11/29/radicals-target-roma-people-ukraine;
  
• another investigation has shown the fake social media accounts being used to whip up hysteria against Sikhs in India: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-59338245;
  
• "In an age of internet shutdowns, takedown requests, and deepfakes, the race is on to create a resilient and verifiable archive for the work of campaigners and citizen journalists" - https://www.rappler.com/technology/features/decentralized-web-human-rights-coda-story;
• police in Spain don't want to lose their power to suppress dissent / free speech: https://www.news10.com/news/international/spanish-police-protest-government-plan-to-reform-gag-law/;
• an investigations has shown the people violently pushing back refugees at eastern European borders are out-of-uniform police (again???!! Does anyone hire police who are decent - well, yes, but they also sometimes let the sadists, sociopaths/psychopaths, and bigot/haters through as well . . . ): https://www.lighthousereports.nl/investigation/unmasking-europes-shadow-armies/;
• a human rights expert has called on Indonesia to stop harassing human rights defenders - https://www.miragenews.com/stop-judicial-harassment-of-human-rights-681907/; 
• an evidence-based call for businesses to protect human rights defenders - https://politicsofpoverty.oxfamamerica.org/do-more-to-protect-human-rights-defenders/;
  
• "As a growing number of countries impose flight bans on southern African nations due to concerns over the new Omicron variant, [the] World Health Organization (WHO) urges countries to follow science and the International Health Regulations" - https://reliefweb.int/report/world/who-stands-african-nations-and-calls-borders-remain-open (an interesting tweet I saw pointed out that South Africa was just where the Omicron variant was discovered - because of that nation's excellent identification facilities, which does NOT mean that was where it came from [let alone where it is now] ); 
• from the UK, dodging responsibility for being competent human beings with basic decency: https://theconversation.com/channel-deaths-the-uk-has-clear-legal-responsibilities-towards-people-crossing-in-small-boats-172639; 
• a Coronial investigation into a bushfire caused by a defence helicopter will allow defence to review the evidence "can determine if there are any security issues" - but will NOT allow them to interview witnesses. It is always possible that such issues may genuinely be involved, but defence has very poor credibility - a better approach would have been to use an independent judge with security clearance (they do exist, I understand). At least defence won't be able to use formal interviews to potentially bully / intimidate / influence witnesses. See https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-30/defence-allowed-to-vet-evidence-in-orroral-valley-fire-coronial/100661806; 
• the new COVID-19 variant was in the Netherlands before South Africa identified it - see https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/world/2021/12/01/covid-omicron-netherlands/?utm_source=Adestra&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Morning%20News%20-%2020211201; 
• in an incredibly concerning move mainland China has been pressuring nations to export Taiwanese citizens there instead back to Taiwan - and, even more appallingly, some of those nations are COMPLYING - see https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/12/1/china-hunts-taiwan-nationals-through-forced-deportation-report; 
• a caution to avoid militarising the response to ransomware - see: https://www.justsecurity.org/79361/on-ransomware-cyber-command-should-take-a-backseat/; 
• as a call is made for Australia to do more against corruption - https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/time-step-global-kleptocracy, Australia finally has a (heavily cut down from the recommended version) Magnitsky Act! See https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2021/12/we-have-magnitsky-style-act.html - and now to also see it put to use; 
• my home state also now has a Spent Conviction Act. This means that those people who have "done their time" for crimes that are not major will be able to avoid the double punishment of society's disapprobation (i.e., the bigotry of small-minded haters who think people never change) - see https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/new-laws-giving-victorians-chance-move-forward; 
• child abusers in the CIA were protected . . . - see https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonleopold/cia-employees-sex-crimes-children-secret-files-foia; 
• from this month's ICG  overview: 
  
  
  
• the still-broken state of Australian politics, 12 years after it was destroyed by a neoliberal PM - see https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/finance-news/2021/12/03/michael-pascoe-climate-abbott/; 
• one sport is finally starting to free itself from the insidious influence of gambling - https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/consumer/2021/12/02/australia-sports-betting-ads/ (I have known two people who lost their homes through gambling: many people don't have problems, but others do - more, IMO, than is admitted to);

 On journalism: 

• who is the bigot / idiot here: the journo or defence? Referring to a woman as seaman??? Really? https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-01/royal-commission-veteran-suicide-seaman-bullying-teri-bailey/100665842.