Progress in the battle to end FGM

Iraqi Kurdistan: Law Banning FGM a Positive Step | Human Rights Watch: "(Beirut) - A Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) law that bans female genital mutilation (FGM) is a crucial step in eradicating the practice, Human Rights Watch said today."

I have just finished Abraham Verghese's Cutting for Stone which is a graphic illustration of the circles of pain that female genital mutilation creates.


Global Online Privacy

Nice in Bahrain they go after the sick and their healers

Bahrain: Systematic Attacks on Medical Providers | Human Rights Watch: "(Beirut) - The Bahraini government should immediately end its campaign of arrests of medical professionals and attacks on injured patients linked to recent anti-government protests, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today." This is double sick. The government is illegitimate. The country should be given to the people the government is victimizing. Human Rights Wants the government to investigate its own criminality. That goes as far as from here to my window. We need a no nonsense global celebrity-humanitarian panel that will alight wherever Human Rights Watch suggests to highlight, video and otherwise do that Bradley Manning did to enlighten the world to abuses. The first place they should alight is Leavenworth, then Bahrain.


Global Online Privacy

Are Bush and Cheney getting away with the war crime of torture? This report says so.

Getting Away with Torture | Human Rights Watch: "This 107-page report presents substantial information warranting criminal investigations of Bush and senior administration officials, including former Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and CIA Director George Tenet, for ordering practices such as “waterboarding,” the use of secret CIA prisons, and the transfer of detainees to countries where they were tortured." 
Most media in the US are giving this short shrift and no wonder. The Obama administration has avoided the issue of prosecution for these torture-partisans. The report suggests that we've been asleep at the wheel.