WWW or KKK? Wiesenthal Center reports hike in ‘online hate’
— “‘I could have wiped out all the Jews in the world, but I left a few of them so that you would understand why I would have destroyed them,’ reads the Arabic text on a Facebook group page praising Adolf Hitler.”
— “This example of online hate is just a sample of similar content revealed in a new report from the Simon Wiesenthal Center titled ‘Facebook, YouTube and How Social Media Outlets Impact Digital Terrorism and Hate,’ which details the size and scope of Internet hate and terror sites in 2009 and was presented to Foreign Ministry officials on Monday.”
— “The report says some 10,000 hate sites, games and other online postings now call the Internet home.”
Day: June 16, 2009
Communist China: State Religious Leaders and Government Officials Attempt to Forcibly Demolish Church in Shandong
(Communist China) State Religious Leaders and Government Officials Attempt to Forcibly Demolish Church in Shandong
— “ChinaAid has learned that on June 8 and June 9, leaders from government-sanctioned organizations in Ji’nan Municipality of Shandong province colluded with officials from the Bureau of Religion to forcibly take over and demolish the Christian Changchunli Church of Ji’nan.”
Communist China: Registered Church in Jiangsu Province Continues to be Harassed by Authorities
Mississippi: Memorial service marks 45th anniversary of Neshoba Co. civil rights slayings by Ku Klux Klan
(U.S.) Mississippi: Memorial service marks 45th anniversary of Neshoba Co. civil rights slayings by Ku Klux Klan
— memorial for Ku Klux Klan slaying of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner
— civil rights activists murdered in Neshoba County in 1964 registering blacks to vote
— Sunday 3 PM memorial service, Mt. Zion United Methodist Church, Philadelphia, Mississippi
— Story of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner written in book “We Are Not Afraid”
Tennessee: Racist e-mail aimed at Obama raises hackles in Tennessee
U.S. Group: Gay bias killings highest since 1999
Group: Gay bias killings highest since 1999
— 29 killings recorded in 2008
According to the report on 2008 violence released by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP):
“NCAVP identified the following key findings and trends.”
— “2008, with 29 total murders, has the highest number of deaths since 1999, and an increase of 28% from 2007.”
— “Of the total injuries reported in 2008, 216 (46%) were classified as serious, meaning that the injury required medical attention.”
— “Reports of abusive treatment by law enforcement increased significantly between 2007 and 2008:”
° “Reports of physical abuse at the hands of law enforcement increased 150%, from 10 in 2007 to 25 in 2008.”
° “One hundred forty-three cases (73%) of reports received bias classification by law enforcement – an increase over the 35% in 2007.”
° “Fifty three cases (27%) were refused bias classification by law enforcement in 2008.”
— “Reports of sexual assault rose 48% (from 94 to 138), continuing a three year trend of marked increases in reports of hate-motivated sexual violence.”
— “Bias violence from strangers climbed 36%.”
— “Weapons use during the commission of a hate crime increased significantly; at least 382 out of the total 1,677 incidents (23%) involved weapons use in 2008. The biggest increases in weapons use occurred in the other category (+34%) and the bottles/bricks/rocks category (+49%).”
— “There was a significant increase in reports in the 15 – 18 year old category (+118%).”
— “Anti-transgender bias comprised 12% (206) of the total incidents reported in 2008.”
— “Anti-HIV related violence comprised 5% (88) of the total incidents reported in 2008.”
— “Out of the total 1,677 incidents, 472 (28%) were also reported to the police, consistent with the percentage of reports made to police last year (29%).”
— “Incidents occurring in or around private residences constituted the most frequent site of anti-LGBT bias (32%).”
— “Workplace constituted the third most common site with (14%) and workplace incidents decreased 12% from 2007.”
— “Total number of offenders rose 5% over 2007, representing the most significant increase in terms of overall totals.”
— “Long-term data indicate that while hate violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people has fallen 4.7% over the last ten years, overall crime in country has declined 9.81%.”
Communist North Korean Central “News” Agency: 2 Americans illegally crossed into NKorea
Report: 2 Americans illegally crossed into NKorea
AP: “Two American journalists sentenced in Pyongyang last week to 12 years’ hard labor were detained in North Korean territory after crossing into the country illegally, state-run media said Tuesday, providing the first details about the circumstances of their arrest.”
“Laura Ling and Euna Lee of Current TV were taken into custody on the North Korean banks of the Tumen River after crossing over from China illegally three months ago, the official Korean Central News Agency said.”
“The women, tried in North Korea’s highest court earlier this month, ‘admitted and accepted’ their punishment of 12 years’ hard labor for committing politically motivated ‘criminal acts,’ the report said.”
“‘The accused admitted that what they did were criminal acts committed, prompted by the political motive to isolate and stifle the socialist system of the DPRK by faking up moving images aimed at falsifying its human rights performance and hurling slanders and calumnies at it,’ it said.”
— N. Korea: Journalists admitted to ‘criminal acts’
Link to R.E.A.L. petition and article
Also:
— Video May Undercut U.S. Efforts to Secure Release of Reporters Jailed in North Korea
— Obama says nuclear-armed N. Korea ‘grave threat’
Holocaust Museum Attack: Von Brunn Links to German Neo-Nazis
(U.S./Germany) Holocaust Museum Killer Had Links to German Neo-Nazis
— Der Spiegel report on James von Brunn
— “In an e-mail to notorious lawyer Horst Mahler, he called hate ‘natural, normal and necessary.'”
— “He added that ‘compassionate nations’ would ‘die.'”
— “Aside from his links with Mahler, von Brunn had also voiced support for the notorious Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel, who is currently serving time in a German prison for incitement to racial hatred”
U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report 2009 and Gender Imbalance in Human Trafficking
U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report 2009
— See also “Sudan: Women and Other Slaves Freed”
Gender Imbalance in Human Trafficking
— Introduction, page 36 (hard copy), page 38 (electronic)
“The root causes of migration and trafficking greatly overlap. The lack of rights afforded to women serves as the primary causative factor at the root of both women’s migrations and trafficking in women…By failure to protect and promote women’s civil, political, economic and social rights, governments create situations in which trafficking flourishes.”
— Radhika Coomaraswamy, UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women
———————————————————————
“According to the ILO, the majority of people trafficked for sexual exploitation or subjected to forced labor are female.”
“According to researchers, both the supply and demand sides of the trade in human beings are fed by ‘gendered’ vulnerabilities to trafficking. These vulnerabilities are the result of political, economic, and development processes that may leave some women socially and economically dependent on men. If that support from men becomes limited or withdrawn, women become dangerously susceptible to abuse. They often have no individual protection or recognition under the law, inadequate access to healthcare and education, poor employment prospects, little opportunity to own property, or high levels of social isolation. All this makes some women easy targets for harassment, violence, and human trafficking.”
“Research links the disproportionate demand for female trafficking victims to the growth of certain ‘feminized’ economic sectors (commercial sex, the ‘bride trade,’ domestic service) and other sectors characterized by low wages, hazardous conditions, and an absence of collective bargaining mechanisms. Exploitative employers prefer to use trafficked women — traditionally seen as submissive, cheap, and pliable — for simple and repetitive tasks in agriculture, food processing, labor-intensive manufacturing, and domestic servitude.”
“In countries where women’s economic status has improved, significantly fewer local women participate in commercial sex. Traffickers bring in more female victims to address the demand and also take advantage of women who migrate voluntarily to work in any industry. As commercial sex is illegal in most countries, traffickers use the resulting illegal status of migrant women that have been trafficked into commercial sex to threaten or coerce them against leaving. Gendered vulnerabilities fostered by social and institutional weaknesses in some societies — discriminatory laws and practices that tie a woman’s legal recognition, property rights, and economic opportunities to someone else — make women more likely than men to become trafficking victims. A woman who exists only through a male guardian who controls her income, identification, citizenship, and physical well-being is more susceptible to becoming a trafficking victim.”
Some Tier 3, 2 Watch, and 2 nations include (see Introduction, page 50 (hard copy), 52 (electronic copy) for complete list)
Tier 3 Nations include:
— Saudi Arabia
— Iran
— Syria
— Sudan
— Kuwait
— Malaysia
— Mauritania
— Communist North Korea
Tier 2 Watch List Nations include:
— Pakistan
— Iraq
— Lebanon
— Algeria
— Yemen
— United Arab Emirates
— Egypt
— India
— Russia
— Communist China
Tier 2 Nations include:
— Afghanistan
— Jordan
— Kosovo
— Turkey
— Communist Vietnam
————————————–
“The ninth annual Trafficking in Persons Report sheds light on the faces of modern-day slavery and on new facets of this global problem. The human trafficking phenomenon affects virtually every country, including the United States. In acknowledging America’s own struggle with modern-day slavery and slavery-related practices, we offer partnership. We call on every government to join us in working to build consensus and leverage resources to eliminate all forms of human trafficking.”
–Secretary Clinton, June 16, 2009
The Report
The report is available in PDF format as a single file [PDF: 22 MB
]. Due to its large size, the PDF has been separated into sections for easier download: Introduction; Country Narratives: A-C, D-K, L-P, Q-Z/Special Cases; Relevant International Conventions. To view the PDF file, you will need to download, at no cost, the Adobe Acrobat Reader.
–PDF Version: Trafficking in Persons Report, June 2009
–Introduction (PDF) [5071 Kb]
–Country Narratives: A-C (PDF) [4074 Kb]
–Country Narratives: D-K (PDF) [3889 Kb]
–Country Narratives: L-P (PDF) [4036 Kb]
–Country Narratives: Q-Z and Special Cases (PDF) [3868 Kb]
–Relevant International Conventions (PDF)
———————————-
Additional News Reports on Human Trafficking Watch List
— Expanded Human Trafficking Watchlist Puts Dozens of Countries on Notice
— Iran not doing enough to combat human trafficking, says US
— US adds Pakistan to human trafficking watchlist
Illinois: Creve Coeur Man Displays Nazi Flag on Flag Day
(U.S.) Illinois: Creve Coeur Man Displays Nazi Flag on Flag Day
— Cached News Report
— Main News Report Link
— “It was just an ordinary Flag Day for Phillip and Beverly Smallwood.”
— “They began their day by putting up flags in their yard…one of them the American flag to honor our country.”
— “However, as they were outside admiring their flags the couple looked down the street to find their neighbor Ron Wolf had put up a Nazi flag with the image”