As stated numerous times on social media in recent days, Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) stands with other non-partisan human rights and charity organizations, such as the National Center on Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and the Salvation Army, in calling for an end to the separation of children and their parents, during the detention of undocumented aliens who are illegally crossing the U.S. border according to U.S. law. As R.E.A.L, these allies in human rights, and other groups have stated, we must protect vulnerable children and protect their bonds within their families. Such vulnerable children must remain a priority.
A nation that seeks to work as a representative democracy must have mercy as its priority – not only for its own citizens, but also for its fellow human beings of every nationality. Mercy and compassion provide the moral and ethical compass to guide us in making decisions on difficult topics of national safety, dignity, and security. Our mercy must reach beyond our political partisan divisions and find answers to the most difficult problems.
R.E.A.L. urges the U.S. legislators to use mercy as its priority in considering upcoming legislation for immigration. The idea that such legislation should be postponed is based on suspicion and contempt for the politics of other politicians and other Americans. We must find the COURAGE to reach beyond that distrust of the politics of others, and find trust in one another as American human beings; our values of compassion, integrity, and respect for law must be more deeply rooted than our political divisions.
R.E.A.L. does not fail to recognize the difficult and complex issues in the U.S. immigration debate. The safety of American citizens from criminals, the need to protect the vulnerable from human trafficking, and the responsibility of the source nations in creating refugee conditions must not be ignored. These are all legitimate and reasonable human rights concerns that also must be respected.
To those who dismiss such security concerns, a recent MS-13 gang murder stabbing a victim 100 times took place only eight miles from R.E.A.L.’s headquarters. R.E.A.L. is well aware of the very real threat to human rights when criminals are not stopped from threatening the public. But such criminals are not only a U.S. concern; their threat to human rights is a global concern. It is not enough to deal with such root cause issues of refugees in the U.S. or on the U.S. border; these issues must be dealt with in the nations that have allowed such violence and criminal lawlessness to become rampant. The nations of the world must challenge the root causes that drive such refugee conditions. Our compassion and concern for human rights must include a concentrated focus on source problems driving refugees from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and other nations.
When faced with such extremely complex issues as the U.S. immigration problem, R.E.A.L. challenges U.S. lawmakers to find the moral and ethical courage to accept compromise solutions for progress. We do not protect the safety and human rights of American people, of immigrants, and especially of vulnerable children, by partisan inflexibility. In compromise solutions, no one achieves everything that they seek. But that is how achieving change in governing on complex and difficult issues proceeds. Lawmakers accept compromise to achieve progress, because they cannot represent their public by continuing an endless stalemate on such critical problems.
Human Rights and immigration activists also need to pursue progress and compromise as well. Like U.S. lawmakers, immigration activists have to accept that compromise is necessary to achieve progress. In a complex problem largely ignored for a protracted period, incremental progress and achievements have to be more acceptable than no progress at all.
Such progress requires accepting the need by all sides to communicate messages of concern with honesty, truthfulness, integrity, and civility, which has been increasingly lost in the recent debates.
Those in the debate using misinformation, deception, hate, and divisiveness are not helping the cause of children, progress on immigration issues, or human rights. Our moral compass must be guided by mercy and compassion, not hate and division.
The progress to reunify children with families announced on June 23, 2018 is also progress. As much as activists have condemned children being detained separate from their families, there must also be recognition that there has been change, which needs to be encouraged, not discouraged. There are also very complex issues, which need to be addressed. As R.E.A.L. previously pointed out, the issue of 10,000 unaccompanied children being sent across the U.S. border illegally in a dangerous journey remains a serious human rights issue, which remains to be resolved.
The solution to this complex immigration issue will not be dealt with in soundbites or single, simplistic solutions. Complex problems need complex solutions, which the communications of division will not equitably and honestly convey to the public. This complexity will continue to drive the need for compromise solutions and incremental progress that must be achieved over time.
R.E.A.L. recognizes that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), under Article 14, “Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.” Article 14 also states “this right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.” The issue of asylum has always remained a complex and vital issue in human rights, and one that requires patience and policies based on mercy and compassion. It is incorrect to apply simplistic views to complex issues; this is why a combination of solutions to achieve progress and address the root causes that create refugee circumstances are essential.
We cannot effectively address such complex issues in a democracy without respect, dignity, honesty, and of course, patience.
The greatest challenge for those in human rights concerns is PATIENCE. But we must have the courage and determination of patience and respect to achieve compromise progress to seek change.
But we will not achieve efforts to promote mercy and compassion with upraised fists or hateful slogans towards each other. We can find courage and determination through a shared commitment in mercy and compassion towards one another as American citizens and fellow human beings. Let us find the strength to achieve progress, not division, to make change together.
On June 19, 2019, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen reported at a press conference that 10,000 unaccompanied children had been taken illegally across the U.S. border by people who are not their parents or family. This astounding statement has received limited attention by the U.S. media and immigrant rights activists, but it is an astounding statement of the state of children’s human rights. Ms. Nielsen stated that 10,000 such children “were sent by their parents with strangers to undertake a completely dangerous and deadly travel alone.”
Responsible for Equality And Liberty and certainly all human rights supporters and fellow human beings should be deeply concerned about the state of these (and other children) who have been detained during illegal border crossings. We hope to obtain additional information on these children and their status. According to American law, based on the “Flores” settlement in a 1997 lawsuit, children must be released within 20 days. But the human rights questions will remain, where will such thousands of “unaccompanied alien children” (UAC) go, and what are the consequences for the many parents who would leave their children in such strangers’ care in such a dangerous situation?
There remains a grave threat of human trafficking and sexual trafficking of such children. Among the many concerns of human rights supporters, we should have a serious concern about how this will be prevented for these thousands of children?
There has been a widespread concern of child sexual grooming victims in the UK Shropshire area in the town of Telford.
The BBC reported that “West Mercia Police said it was currently working with about 46 people who were victims or at risk.”
The Telegraph has also reported there are currently “46 sexual exploitation cases” being actively investigated, and reported that yet another victim had come forward. The Telegraph also reported that the West Mercia Police “force said more than 100 girls could have been targeted by the gang between 2007 and 2009.”
In addition, the Sunday Mirror reported that up to 1,000 girls in the Shropshire town could have been victims of child sexual exploitation (CSE) since the 1980s.”
BBC reported that the West Mercia Police Supt Tom Harding stated: “I significantly dispute the 1,000-plus figure, and do feel it is sensationalised.” The Sunday Mirror report was critical of an alleged internal police memorandum allegedly claiming “in most cases the sex is consensual.” The Sunday Mirror report quoted concerns by child abuse specialist Dino Nocivelli, reporting: “Some of the victims were just 11 years old and specialist child abuse lawyer Dino Nocivelli said: ‘This is victim blaming at its worst. The authorities just don’t seem to get it. Children cannot agree to sex. Just because a child is not being physically forced to carry out sexual acts, it doesn’t mean they consented.'”
On March 15, 2018, Quilliam Foundation activitist Maajid Nawaz spoke on Sky News stating he was critical of the “drag” and posted on Twitter on March 17, 2018 that he was critical of “politicians’ despicable neglect of the Telford grooming scandal.”
Help and Support. For help and support if you’re a victim of sexual assault contact organizations such as
Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) is a non-partisan, volunteer human rights activist group, which supports the universal human rights guaranteed to all of our fellow human beings under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). This has also included our repeated and public activism on behalf of the rights of children, including their protection under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on November 20, 1989. The United States of America signed this child’s human rights convention on February 16, 1995 (but has not ratified within its Congress). The Convention on the Rights of the Child is a detailed acknowledgment of the Universal Human Rights already agreed to by the United States of America and most world nations under the UDHR on December 10, 1948, and which is codified as a formal treaty under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The Convention on the Rights of the Child includes specifics on action necessary for nations regarding neglect and abuse of children, including child sexual abuse (specifically Articles 19 and 34).
The United States of America and its various states also have laws and protection of children, including child sexual abuse, which it is empowered and has the resources to investigate and fully enforce. The world can agree on such issues, because they are part of the fundamental human rights, which we must defend by law. R.E.A.L. has in the past, and will continue in the future, to challenge the actions by individuals in any nation, which does not enforce such human rights and laws protecting our most vulnerable, including our children.
The United States of America laws and resources for protection of children include the state of Alabama. It is deeply troubling that several detailed charges of child sexual abuse has been made in the state of Alabama against a former Alabama jurist. Since November 16, 2017, R.E.A.L. has repeatedly been calling for the Alabama justice system to investigate the charges regarding child sexual abuse, that have been widely addressed in the news media regarding a former Alabama jurist. It is our understanding that this would be the role of the Alabama Law Enforcement State Police and Etowah County Sheriff’s Office in Gadsden, Alabama on this case. R.E.A.L. has also directly written to Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) Office of the Secretary of Law Enforcement and to Etowah County Sheriff Todd Entrekin on this subject calling for an investigation into these charges of child sexual abuse. The allegations refer to actions alleged to have happened 30 – 40 years ago. But when it comes to enforcing the law and protecting our children, Americans and their law enforcement must be consistent, and must consistently send a message that there will be equality under the law for all. The primary purpose of law enforcement in democratic, free nations is to enforce laws to protect the shared human rights of its citizenry, especially its most vulnerable citizens such as its children.
There is widespread belief that laws do not have to be enforced after a period of time has elapsed. In terms of Alabama State Law, R.E.A.L. would urge a review of Alabama Code Title 15 Criminal Procedure, Chapter 3 Limitations of Prosecution, specifically § 15-3-5 “Offenses having no limitation.” This § 15-3-5 provision of Alabama law states that there are time limitations on prosecution for “(4) Any sex offense involving a victim under 16 years of age, regardless of whether it involves force or serious physical injury or death.” Furthermore, § 15-3-5, also provides amendment to clearly indicate that this aspect of Alabama Code Title 15 Criminal Procedure “shall apply” “(1) To all crimes committed after January 7, 1985; and” “(2) To all crimes committed before January 7, 1985, for which no statute of limitations provided under pre-existing law has run as of January 7, 1985.”
Based on this documented information by the Alabama State Government on its Alabama Criminal Code and Criminal Procedure, it is apparent that in the case of child sexual abuse for a child under the age of 16, there is no statute of limitations, even if that child sexual abuse occurred as early as 1979.
Among the recent allegations made against the former Alabama jurist, one individual has made a detailed allegation of child sexual abuse when she was a 14 year old girl in 1979. Based on § 15-3-5 and § 13A-6, such child sexual abuse claims remain the responsibility of Alabama law enforcement to investigate. Ms. Leigh Corfman has made very specific and detailed allegations of child sexual abuse regarding a former jurist in the media, which have been broadcast across the nation. It is the responsibility of law enforcement to investigate such troubling charges.
R.E.A.L. also notes that former jurist has denied the allegations as a “baseless political attack,” “completely false and a desperate political attack,” “the very definition of fake news and intentional defamation,” and stated that “After over 40 years of public service, if any of these allegations were true, they would have been made public long before now.”
R.E.A.L. calls upon the accuser, Ms. Leigh Corfman, to use the justice system, as it was designed, for legal charges against the accused individual. Such serious charges cannot be a battle in the U.S. political media, but must be part part of the law enforcement system and laws intended to protect our society.
R.E.A.L. calls for the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) Office of the Secretary of Law Enforcement and Etowah County Sheriff Todd Entrekin to make a public statement to reassure the public that it will take responsibility for such an investigation, under Alabama law.
R.E.A.L. is a non-partisan organization. For that reason, and given that the former Alabama jurist is currently involved in a political campaign, in this public statement, we have refrained from directly using his name, although we have been specific in our private communications with law enforcement.
The political nature of the very high national office involved, however, does have a further bearing on the urgency of the law enforcement investigation by Alabama in this case. Such high national office has influence on both national and international matters involving American citizens including our children and vulnerable individuals. In this unusual situation, it is of the highest priority to quickly and thoroughly conclude an investigation into such potential serious criminal charges in this case.
To U.S. President Donald Trump, R.E.A.L. also advises that while political measures may be necessary to achieve national legislative goals, our primary objective must remain our consistent adherence to the vow that U.S. Government representatives have sworn to preserve and protect the Constitution of the United States of America. R.E.A.L. urges President Trump to call for a full investigation of this matter by the Alabama state law enforcement authorities to get a resolution on this matter, and ensure the public’s confidence in the integrity of those in our highest offices, when it comes to such serious criminal matters of child sexual abuse. R.E.A.L further urges President Trump in regards to public governance ethics to avoid the appearance of being anything less than rigorous in calling for such an investigation. While this may be an Alabama state matter, the resources and commitment to defend national law ultimately comes back to the White House.
In Pakistan, teenage girl human rights activist Hamna Tariq has spoken on what Mother’s Day means to her and how she continues to seek change for Pakistan girls and women, despite the threats against her. Her message for human rights for girls and women in Pakistan is regularly posted on the website “Amplify Your Voice.”
Hamna Tariq – Teenage Pakistan Human Rights Activist
As reported by NBC: “On Mother’s Day, I gave my mother a cushion with the words “Happy Mother’s Day” sewn on it and I attempted to write a letter to thank her for all she’s done for my brother and me. I made sure that after working around the clock all year, she could get some time to pamper herself. My mother and I love to attend gender equality enhancement seminars together and we bond over a cup of tea in the evenings after I get out of school and she gets free from her work. But both my mother and I know that the idea of “motherhood” has a dark side where we live in Pakistan: all over our country, girls like me are forced to marry and become mothers before the age of 18.”
“In Pakistan, one in 10 girls will be married before they reach the age of 15, one in four will be married before they are 18, and if present trends continue, nearly 2.5 million of the young girls born between 2005 and 2010 will be married before age 18. Marital rape is frequent and remains in a vacuum of the law as a contentious topic. And once girls in Pakistan are married, only a few of them use contraception in spite of their needs to space childbearing. This results in a large population of child mothers, many of them much younger than I am, who had no say in determining their futures.”
“In 2012, at least 1,000 Pakistani women and girls who were mostly victims of child marriage were murdered in so-called ‘honor killings’ carried out by husbands or male relatives over suspicions of adultery or other illicit sexual behavior, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, a private organization. It said another 7,000 survived similar assaults, including acid attacks, amputations, and immolation.”
“Unfortunately, child marriage, honor killings and domestic violence are not the only challenges facing girls in Pakistan. Pakistan has the world’s second highest number of children out of school, reaching 5.1 million in 2010. This is equivalent to 1 in 12 of the world’s out-of-school children. Two-thirds of Pakistan’s out of school children are girls, meaning over 3 million girls don’t have access to education. Education can make a big difference to women’s future earnings in Pakistan: women with a high level of literacy earn 95% more than women with no literacy skills.”
“I know how lucky I am: my family supports my choices and advocates for my education and healthy upbringing. My mother is an independent thinker and an outspoken supporter of women’s rights. Her wish for me to live a life that is different from the majority of girls in our country. She inspires me to continue her legacy of charting a path towards change for Pakistani women and girls.”
“But my upbringing has not shielded me from the harsh realities of living as a woman in my country. Even though I grew up in a progressive household in Pakistan, I have never been outside my house without male accompaniment, and I am always covered head to toe. I’ve seen my cousins outside of the city married at fifteen to much older men. They did not protest; marriage is all they were raised to expect. Young feminists in the United States have no qualms about fighting for their rights in their home country, but I’m scared that if I return to Pakistan after university to begin a career in women’s rights, I may be harassed – or killed.”
“The issues that plague Pakistani women are widespread across the globe. If nothing changes, there will be 142 million child marriages in developing countries between now and 2021 – or 37,000 girls per day. If nothing changes, as many as 30 million girls will remain at risk of genital mutilation or cutting before their 15th birthday. And if nothing changes, girls will continue to face the barriers that prevent them from pursuing an education.”
“But there are ways we can pressure countries like Pakistan to protect girls and women. The United Nations is currently negotiating its post-2015 development goals, which will be finalized in September, to provide guidance and overall strategy for the next 15 years of international diplomacy and action. As the UN member states, including Pakistan, debate these goals this year, it is critical that they make girls’ rights a top priority and the central focus of the post-2015 goals. I know that the long-term well-being and stability of girls in my country and around the globe can only be guaranteed through sustained leadership from world powers and the UN.”
“This is why I have spoken out for change. In anticipation of negotiations on the post-2015 UN development goals, more than 500 adolescent girls, including me, advised over 25 leading development organizations and issue experts to create The Girl Declaration, a document that lays out the key elements needed in the new development agenda to put the focus on girls, including standards for education, health services, safety, legal reforms, and sexual rights. It’s our hope that the UN listens to the voices of these girls from around the world and puts their rights front and center.”
“Ensuring that adolescent girls grow up healthy, educated, safe and empowered is crucial to breaking the cycle of poverty and building a better future for the world. By focusing international goals on adolescent girls, the UN can not only guarantee a better life for them, but can help tackle some of the most pressing challenges facing Pakistan, and the world today. My mother taught me to fight for the rights of women like me, and I will continue to advocate that no girl should be forced into marriage and early motherhood before she is ready.”
Oklahoma City, OK – 20 years ago. NEVER FORGET. April 19, 1995.
20 years ago – the monstrous attack on Oklahoma City’s Alfred P. Murrah building, by neo-Nazi supporting terrorist Timothy McVeigh. On April 19, 1995, terrorists Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, the terrorist bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah building killed 168 people and injured more than 680 others.The blast destroyed or damaged 324 buildings within a 16-block radius, destroyed or burned 86 cars, and shattered glass in 258 nearby buildings
We must continue to stand for the universal human rights of our fellow human beings against Nazis and other criminals who seek the destruction of their lives. The terrorist’s inspiration in the Neo-Nazi “The Turner Diaries,” symbolized his commitment to racist, anti-Semitic, and anti-gay violence, as has the racist hate group organization so-called “Christian Identity” hate group in the area. Over the years, R.E.A.L. has challenged the “Christian Identity” hate group and such hate groups, and we have been threatened. But their threats only seek to silence the truth, and R.E.A.L. has no intention to be silent. We will remain responsible for equality and liberty.
Timothy McVeigh’s Terrorist Attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Building
We will NOT FORGET Nazi supporting terrorist Timothy McVeigh’s attack on humanity and on our children bombing the Alfred P Murrah federal building and the daycare center inside – NYT, 1995: “Of the 21 children who were inside the day-care center on the morning of April 19, the morning of the bombing, 15 are dead, including all four of the infants by the window. Five are hospitalized, burned and broken. Only one returned home, a little girl with a broken leg. All three teachers in the center were also killed.”
Why do we reject hate? Why do we challenge terrorism?
We give this answer. Oklahoma City. Our children. Our universal human rights.
The Global Terror Organization Boko Haram has been mounting an increasing war on the human rights and security of African people in multiple nations. Within the past week, this has included burning down 16 Nigerian towns and villages, killing many at a multinational military base, and international terrorist murders in Cameroon, as well as threatening Cameroon’s democracy. In the past year, Boko Haram-linked violence has resulted in over 10,000 violent deaths, based on studies developed by the by the Council for Foreign Relations (CFR). The terrorist group Boko Haram’s goals were previously focused on establishing “an Islamic state” in northeast Nigeria. It is now clear the Boko Haram has greater, international aims.
Update: On January 9, 2015, CNN has published this update that “[m]ore than 2,000 people were killed in attacks on 16 villages, said Musa Bukar, chairman of Kukawa local government, where Baga is located…. At least 30,000 people were displaced, authorities said.”
In addition, Boko Haram has been holding over 200 schoolgirls that it kidnapped from schools in Chibok in the Nigerian Borno state in April 2014. News reports stated that the kidnapped (predominantly Christian) girls were “converted to Islam” and married to members of the Boko Haram terrorist organization for a “bride price” of $12.50. (This kidnapping has led to the social media campaign for their safe return, on Twitter at #BringBackOurGirls.) The London Times has reported that “more than 600 girls” have been kidnapped by the Boko Haram terror group. The name of the Boko Haram terror group translates into “Western education is sinful.”
The most recent wave of attacks began after a Boko Haram attack on January 3, 2015, where the global terrorist group overran a multinational military base for Nigeria, Chad, Niger, and Cameroon in Baga in Nigeria’s Borno state. In addition to military killed in the attack, civilians fleeing the Boko Haram were also killed while trying to flee across nearby Lake Chad.
Earlier that week before the attack on the Baga base, Boko Haram had kidnapped about 40 young men from surrounding villages. Boko Haram reportedly ordered villages to “attend a sermon,” then kidnapped young men aged 10 to 23 years old from the villages.
This has been an ongoing war by Boko Haram on civilians, which has been escalating for months. In September 2014, the Nigerian Daily Post reported that “the streets of the Bama [town] in Maiduguri have been taken over by littered corpses two days after the militants claimed authority over the second largest Borno town.”
Nigeria: Borno State - Corpses Line Streets in Bama Town - Boko Haram Claims Victory (Source: Nigerian Daily Post). Daily Post also stated "Boko Haram fighters are currently patrolling the streets of Bama, stopping residents from burying littered corpses."
In the past week, the Nigerian News reported the Boko Haram had destroyed at least 16 towns and villages in Nigeria. On January 8, 2015, some Nigeria media and NBC reported that included the Boko Haram capture of Baga, which was the last Nigerian-government controlled town in Northern Borno.
The AFP has reported such violence throughout Nigeria’s Borno state, from a local government and a union official. AFP reports: “‘They burnt to the ground all the 16 towns and villages including Baga, Dorn-Baga, Mile 4, Mile 3, Kauyen Kuros and Bunduram,’ said Musa Bukar, head of the Kukawa local government in Borno state.”
NBC reports that “more than 2,000 people are unaccounted for” after the Boko Haram torching of the Borno state towns and villages. Ahmed Zanna, a senator for Borno state where the attack happened, told NBC that “these towns are just gone, burned down… the whole area is covered in bodies.”
NBC also reports that Nigerians expect the Boko Haram to attempt to disrupt Nigerian national elections planned for February 14, 2015.
The terrorist group Boko Haram has demonstrated that it is more than a Nigerian-based terror threat with killings in Cameroon and further threats of violent attacks on Cameroon if it did not submit to Boko Haram. Since the beginning of the New Year, Boko Haram has been attacking Cameroon, and Boko Haram terrorists have reportedly killed 15 people in Cameroon.
As reported in numerous media, on January 7, 2015, a Boko Haram leader also issued a YouTube video to call for Cameroon to denounce democracy and to embrace Boko Haram’s religious views.
The UK Independent has reported that Boko Haram made the following threat and demands by video to the nation of Cameroon: “I advise you to desist from following your constitution and democracy, which is un-Islamic… The only language of peace is to repent and follow Allah, but if you do not then we will communicate it to you through the language of violence.”
Boko Haram Leader Threatens Cameroon in YouTube Video (Source: YouTube, The Independent)
Responsible for Equality and Liberty (R.E.A.L.) has other reports on the attacks against Christian churches and Nigerian citizens. R.E.A.L. posted a report on May 2014 attacks where 50 churches were burned and 500 Christians killed. R.E.A.L. posted a report on October 2014 attacks where 185 churches were burned and over 190,00 displaced.
In November 2013, the U.S. Department of State designated Boko Haram as a Global Terrorist Organization (GTO), which Boko Haram is increasingly demonstrating by its international terrorist activities. Boko Haram has been linked to other global terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda, all of which seek to deny universal human rights to our fellow human beings.
Our support for the Universal Human Rights of all people must be for all nations, all continents, and every place on Earth. We seek to be responsible for equality and liberty for the oppressed people in Africa and every part of our shared world. We must call upon the nations of the world to take action to stop the growing violence and threat from the international terrorist organization Boko Haram, their kidnapping of children, their efforts to deny freedom of conscience, and their rejection of our shared universal human rights of equality, liberty, dignity, and security. We call for the President of the United States to also make a statement and offer his support to Nigeria and the African nations affected by this global terror groups actions, and to end their reign of terror over children and the people of Africa.
We have been contacted on the case of Kajal Bheel. Kajal is a 12 year old Hindu girl, who was abducted, forcefully married and religiously converted. We have been contacted by a human rights campaign working for her freedom. On October 24, Kajal Bheel, daughter of Mohan Laal Bheel was abducted from her home at Udero Laal town in the district of Halla in Sindh, Pakistan
The Global Human Rights Defence organization is a human rights organization based in The Hague, Netherlands. Their work mainly focuses on the rights of religious minorities and marginalized groups in South Asia.
The Global Human Rights Defence has eight lawyers working on the case in Pakistan. Her oppressors are now claiming she is an adult and that there is no case. Her next court hearing has been postponed until December 19th. On December 19th, the court will also bring up two similar cases on forced conversions of minor girls.
By then, the human rights group is hoping to have collected 5000 signatures in order to put pressure on the national government.
The Global Human Rights Defence report provides the following background:
“On October 21 Kajal Bheel, a 12-year old Hindu girl from Sindh, Pakistan, was abducted, forcefully converted and married to one of her abductors. With the police refusing to start an investigation, insisting that there is no case to solve, and the court neglecting the birth certificate as proof of age, Kajal was subjected to a humiliating medical examination to prove she is a child. Despite the medical results proving she is indeed a minor, 17 years old , the court has chosen to apply Sharia Law, according to which a girl becomes a women upon reaching puberty. Kajal’s family is now required to prove that Kajal is a minor according to Hindu Family Law during the next hearing on December 4th. For the time being, Kajal has not been allowed to stay with her family. She has been taken by her abductor, and consequently suffers constant psychological abuse. Kajal Bheel is a prisoner of the system, which is supposed to protect little girls like her, but is instead robbing her of her childhood. Help us save Kajal and bring her back to her parents!”
Global Human Rights Defence also has an Internet campaign on Twitter at: #SaveKajal – show your support.
The constitution and laws in Pakistan do not allow child marriage before the age of 18. We are advised that Anjali’s school leaving and birth certificates confirms that she was born in 2002 and therefore her marriage is illegal.
This sad case of Hindu child abduction and denial of human rights of freedom of conscience has been too common. In November, reports have been provided of similar child abductions of Hindu girls: Neelam Kohli (11 years old), Anjali Menghwar (12 years old), Kiran Kumari (14 years old), Parsa Kolhi, and Wali Kolhi.
— In Warner Brothers’ Batman films, villains inspire murderers who seek to be an “agent of chaos” and murder children —
In Aurora, Colorado, a murderer went into a filming of the latest of Christopher Nolan’s dark-themed Batman films, “The Dark Knight Rises,” and threw canisters of gas into the audience and prWaroceeded to shoot members of the audience. The attack on the Aurora movie audience has resulted in 71 people shot with 12 deaths and 59 injured (as of news reports at time of posting.) The attack took place at the Century 16 movie theater, in in Theater 9, in Aurora. The reported victims have ranged from 3 months old babies to adults, with teenagers killed in the public rampage.
The Warner Brothers’ (Warner Bros) distributed, DC Comics-based film had numerous scenes of public rampage, mayhem, and terroristic violence, with terrorist attacks on a football stadium, a public attack on the stock market, and scenes of mob violence in the streets. This has been the pattern of Christopher Nolan’s ultra-violent film approach to the Batman character, and it has also reflected a general trend in DC Comics over the past 5 to 10 years to promote increasing levels of violence and horror in the comics that they sell to our children. DC Comics have previously published “Batman” comic books, including “The Dark Knight Returns” where a killer started shooting people in a crowded theater during a Batman-inspired film.
There needs to be a voice of restraint and sanity returned to Warner Bros and DC Comics as to the type of ultra-violent, terrorist-glamorizing film and media that is publishing, and an end to Warner Bros and DC Comics’ mass merchandising of mass murdering characters.
We urge the public to join us in contacting Warner Bros and DC Comics to seek an END to the glamorizing and mass merchandising of their characters that commit mass murder. Please sign our online petition urging them to make these changes.We call for them to use the profits from their products sold thus far to help the victims of killers in Colorado and Belgium inspired by their films and merchandising.
Aurora, Colorado Murders: Unlike Warner Bros/Christopher Nolan's Dark Film, the Murders Inside Were Not Just a Fantasy
Child Murderers Inspired by Glamorization of Terrorist Violence
The most disturbing aspect of this latest murder is this is not the FIRST time these ultra-violent films inspired such murders of CHILDREN.
The accused murderer, James Eagan Holmes, told police that he was “The Joker,” he had dyed his hair red, and wore a gas mask and protective gear as he walked among the film audience, randomly shooting his victims. With the film about a comic book character, parents who were not aware of the dark, grim approach that Warner Bros was treating this character, would have not questioned whether to let their children go to this film. The audience that James Holmes shot at random was full of children.
Among the victims of Batman film murderer James Holmes included a 3 month old baby was injured and a 6 year old child who was killed. The innocent child who was killed Veronica Moser-Sullivan, was a 6 year old girl with her entire life ahead of her.
6 Year old Veronica Moser-Sullivan - one of the victims of the mass-murder at Warner Bros "Dark Knight Rises" movie shown in Aurora, Colorado (Photo courtesy of family)
A dozen people did not survive the public mass murder by James Holmes.
The Wyoming Times press reported that witness Jennifer Seeger said that James Holmes fired continuously into the crowd, stopping only to reload, and she tried to escape saw a 14 year old girl “lying lifeless on the stairs.” Witness Shayla Roeder also stated that she saw a teenage girl bleeding outside the theater, with “this horrible look in her eyes….and I could tell she was not all right.” The press reported that “Aurora police Chief Dan Oates said the suspect wore a gas mask, a ballistic helmet and vest as well as leg, groin and throat protectors. He said he had an AR-15 military-style, semi-automatic rifle, a shotgun and two pistols.”
A group of friends are overcome with emotion as they gather outside Gateway High School, Friday July 20, 2012, in Aurora. They got news that their friend was killed during a shooting, where about 50 people were shot 12 fatally early Friday inside an Aurora movie theater during a premiere showing of the new Batman movie, were taken to the high school by bus to be questioned by police. RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post (RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post)
Jessica Ghawi, Murdered by "Joker" Killer James Holmes During Aurora Film (Photo Courtesy of Famil)
Just like the accused murderer James Holmes in the Aurora movie theater killing, another killer was inspired by the “Dark Knight” films to kill babies.
Batman Movie-Inspired Murderers: 2012 - James Eagan Holmes - Shot 71, Killed 12, Wounded 59 in Colorado Movie Theater, 2008 - Kim De Gelder - Attacked Belgian Day Care Center, Killed Two Babies, Adult - Injured 10 More Babies
In July 2008, after the first ultra-violent Warner Bros “Batman” film “The Dark Knight,” another “fan” dressed up as the perceived anti-hero “Joker” as his costume to commit murder.
In Belgium, 20 year old Kim De Gelder tricked his way into the Fabeltjesland day care center to murder and attack little children. He wore a bullet proof vest, and had a painted white face, eye shadow and ginger hair, to make himself look like Nolan’s “Joker” character. He drew a 12 inch knife and began attacking babies in the child care center, between a few months and two years old. He murdered two babies, nine-month-old Leon Garcia, six-month-old Corneel Vermeir, and he murdered one of the women watching the children, Marita Blindeman. All of the victims were stabbed in the head and the throat. Marita tried to call for help and she was murdered by the “Joker” killer as she was on the telephone calling for an ambulance. There were 10 other babies injured in the attack by the “Joker” killer, after the 2008 “Dark Knight” film. The murderer confessed to his crimes and laughed to the police, reportedly quoting one of the 2008 film’s characters when he was arrested.
In 2008, after the last "Dark Knight" film - another killer murders and injures babies in Belgium - Two unidentified persons hold a child with an identification number on his forehead, at a crisis center next to the scene of a stabbing incident at a daycare center in Dendermonde, Belgium (Photo: AP)
Ultra-Violent Warner Bros Film Promotes Killers Who “Want to See the World Burn”
It is yet another of the films by British director filmmaker Christopher Nolan, who has been the lead behind the latest in his ultra-violent films about the DC Comic’s character “The Batman.” Christopher Nolan’s latest film “The Dark Knight Rises” comes four years after his last film “The Dark Knight” in July 2008.
In both of the very dark, disturbing, dytopian films by Christopher Nolan, there is glamorization of big-screen terrorism against the public by the Batman villains, with mass murders in public places. In Nolan’s 2008 film, the Joker character commits mass murders in a hospital of helpless people, among other public terrorist attacks.
Murderers Inspiration from WB/Nolan "Dark Knight" Films: The Joker Who Wants to See the World Burn
Nolan’s Joker character from the “Dark Knight” film remains an inspiration for murderers, after both films. In the 2008 film, the glamorized villain “The Joker” is a psychopathic nihilist that advocates anarchy, who stated “I am an agent of chaos,” and who wants to see “the world burn.”
In 2009, I noticed that “This stabbing, bombing, psychopathic character becomes the central character of the Warner Bros film, which was merely rated PG-13, and is virtually glamorized in the film and the subsequent mass-merchandising campaign.”
July 21, 2012 - a full day after the murders in the Aurora theaters, DC Comics continues to mass merchandise costumes and toys glamorizing the mass-murdering "Joker" character from "The Dark Knight" - the inspiration for two murderers (Screenshot: DC Comics)
Warner Bros and DC Comics have been glamorizing and mass-merchandising this mass-murdering character from the “The Dark Knight” films for the past FOUR YEARS.
Warner Bros and DC Comics Went On to Make Millions for Merchandising of Costumes and Kits Glamorizing the Mass-Murdering Joker
WB/DC make millions of dollars by mass merchandising films and products glamorizing killers. Their inspiration of terror and incitement of violence must come to an end.
But instead of pulling back, WB/DC are planning even MORE mass merchandising to GLAMORIZE mass murderers and terrorists.
THIS is how “deeply saddened” WB and DC industry leaders are about the killings, which were inspired by mass murderers in their films and products. They are so “deeply saddened” that they continue to promote mass murderers in their films and products every single day.
Warner Bros / DC Entertainment - Comics - is NOW mass merchandising figurines of terrorist character "Bane" in latest "Dark Knight Returns" film - that commits public terrorism, attacks Stock Exchange (Screenshot: DC Entertainment web page)Warner Bros / DC Continues to Mass Merchandise Shirts, Toys, all GLAMORIZING the latest Mass-Murdering Terrorist Character "Bane" in "The Dark Knight Rises" - (Screen shot: DC Entertainment web page - July 21)
When you go to the local toy store, you would NOT expect to find TOYS and COSTUMES glamorizing mass-murderers such as Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Mao Tse-Tung, or terrorists such as Osama Bin Laden – but you will see Warner Bros and DC Comics promoting TOYS and COSTUMES of mass-murdering characters from their “Dark Knight” films.
DC Comics is continuing to do this RIGHT NOW, TODAY, in the immediate aftermath of a mass-murder terrorist attack inspired by one of the characters that the WB/DC films have glamorized and mass-merchandised as TOYS for CHILDREN. This has to END.
We must DEMAND that WB/DC stop its mass merchandising and profiteering from glamorizing of terrorism today. We must also DEMAND that WB/DC provide all of the profits raised from such mass-murder mass merchandising to the victims of those killed and injured, by the killers inspired by these characters in Colorado and in Belgium.
Police Rush to Secure Theaters in New York City, Film Canceled in Paris
The film premiere of “The Dark Knight Rises” scheduled for Paris tonight has been cancelled. In New York City, the police have stated that they will increase security around theaters that show the film, concerned about “copy cat” killers.
Heightened police presence at a movie theater in Times Square in New York on July 20 (AFP, Mehdi Taamallah)
Warner Bros and DC Comics Growing Culture of Violence
Over the past 5 to 10 years, DC Comics has had increasing levels of violence and horror in the comics that they sell to our children, and now in the films that they and Warner Bros studios distribute to the public, including the ultra-violent “Dark Knight” Batman films by Christopher Nolan. The Dark Knight films have glamorized scenes of mass murderers killing hundreds of helpless people in hospitals, committing public terrorist attacks and rampage, and then mass merchandising shirts and products to glamorize such mass murdering characters. Warner Bros and DC Comics must be responsible and accountable for their continuing actions.
DC Comics is not what mothers and fathers remember from their youth. Elements within DC Comics and Warner Bros have been promoting a growing trend ultra-violent public story lines and terrorist violence. In addition to the public terrorist attacks glamorized in the Christopher Nolan “Dark Knight” Batman films, DC Comics published a comic “The Dark Knight Returns,” where a gunman stood up in the middle of a Batman-inspired movie and opened fire inside the crowded theater.
Warner Bros’ culture of ultra-violent films has included a trailer for the September film Gangster Squad because of a scene in which gangster characters tear through a theater screen and shoot randomly in a crowded theater. After the murders in the Aurora, Colorado movie theater during the Warner Bros’ “Dark Knight Rises” film, the company has decided to pull the trailer from that film. There is no word on whether Warner Bros will continue to distribute such ultra-violent films.
WB Web Site Screen Shot for CEO Barry Meyer: Despite his "sympathies," even a full day after the mass-murder terrorist attack on an Aurora movie theater during the Dark Knight Rises WB/DC film, WB CEO shows his picture next to a film character that attacked the Stock Exchange and committed other public acts of terrorism
Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) urges the public to BOYCOTT Warner Bros’ Dark Knight and its other ultra-violent films, so that its company understands the financial price of promoting films that glamorize violence to such a degree that it encourages and incites others to commit violence – as we have seen on REPEATED ATTACKS ON OUR CHILDREN.
Speak Out to Warner Bros, DC Comics, and Christopher Nolan – Call for End to Glamorizing Mass Murderers
— Barry M. Meyer, CEO, Warner Brothers, 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, CA 91522 – email at: barry.meyer@warnerbros.com, Telephone: 818-954-6000, Fax: 212-954-7667
— Diane Nelson, President, DC Entertainment, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., 4000 Warner Blvd., Bldg 2, #103, Burbank, CA 91522 – Email: Diane.Nelson@Warnerbros.com, Telephone: 818-954-4522
— Dan DiDio, DC Comics, 1700 Broadway, #7, ( Time/Warner, Warner Bros Entertainment Inc.) Midtown Manhattan, New York, NY 10019 – telephone 212-636-5400
— Jeffrey Bewkes, Chairman of the Board and CEO, Time Warner Inc., One Time Warner Center, New York, NY 10019-8016m Phone: 212-484-8000, Fax: 212-489-6183
We will be updating this posting in the near future with an online petition to Time/Warner’s Chairman of the Board and CEO Jeffrey L. Bewkes, calling for him to take a responsible stand toward these ultra-violent films that his company makes and distributes.
Our Petition Calling for Change at Warner Bros and DC Comics
Warner Bros, DC Comics, Time/Warner CEO Jeffrey L. Bewkes, WB CEO Barry M. Meyer, WB Pictures Group’s Jeff Robinov, DC Comics President Diane Nelson, DC Comics Dan DiDio, DC Comics Jim Lee, and Filmmaker Christopher Nolan –
Concerned People of the World call upon Warner Bros and DC Comics to end its business patterns of creating, marketing, and distributing ultra-violent films, media, and products. These media and products glamorize characters that commit public mass-murder, terrorism, and mayhem.
Warner Bros and DC Comics make millions of dollars by mass merchandising films, media, and products glamorizing killers. Their inspiration of terror and incitement of violence must come to an end. These companies must use the blood money from such sales to aid the victims of criminals inspired by their glamorizing of mass murders – both in the United States and around the world
We have seen how these sick and twisted visions have inspired murders in Colorado and in Belgium, who have been responsible for killing helpless children. We have also seen how such twisted visions have infected the minds of young people around the world.
This has become a pattern with these businesses for some time. Warner Bros and DC Comics have been making and promoting films, books, and products that glamorize mass murderers. This is against all human dignity and the safety of our children and our fellow human beings, which are universal human rights.
Warner Bros and DC Comics have promoted characters in films that commit repeated acts of public mass murder, terrorist violence, killing innocent people in hospitals and others.
Unlike others however, Warner Bros and DC Comics does not portray these characters as truly “evil” or “wrong,” and in fact, makes millions of dollars out of glamorizing these characters. Warner Bros and DC Comics mass merchandising of mass murder includes TOYS and COSTUMES of mass-murdering characters from their “Dark Knight” films, such as the “Dark Knight Joker” and the “Dark Knight Bane” characters.
When you go to the local toy store, you would NOT expect to find TOYS and COSTUMES glamorizing mass-murderers such as Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Mao Tse-Tung, or terrorists such as Osama Bin Laden – but you will see Warner Bros and DC Comics promoting TOYS and COSTUMES of mass-murdering characters from their “Dark Knight” films.
Warner Bros and DC Comics is continuing to do this RIGHT NOW, TODAY, in the immediate aftermath of a mass-murder terrorist attack inspired by one of the characters that the WB/DC films have glamorized and mass-merchandised as TOYS for CHILDREN. This has to END.
We must DEMAND that Warner Bros / DC Comics stop its mass merchandising and profiteering from glamorizing of terrorism today.
We must DEMAND that Warner Bros / DC Comics discontinue all films, books, and media which glamorize public mass murder and terrorist acts.
We must also DEMAND that Warner Bros / DC Comics provide all of the profits raised from such mass-murder mass merchandising to the victims of those killed and injured, by the killers inspired by these characters in Colorado and in Belgium.
============================
Diane Nelson is President of DC Entertainment which promotes the mass merchandising of products glamorizing the "Dark Knight" mass murdering characters. She previously worked for Disney. (Screen shot: DC Entertainment)
A few weeks ago at the National Press Club, I spoke of the world crisis in respecting children’s dignity and human rights, and the need to challenge those who commit and those who tolerate abuse, hatred, rape, and violence against our children. I love my brothers and sisters in humanity of all identity groups, but we must stand united as a human race to challenge those who would attack our children.
I stated in my December 8 comments, they are “our children” because humanity’s children are humanity’s shared future. They are not just the responsibility of their parents, they are also our shared responsibility as a human society — not only for our human rights, but also for our very future existence. They are part of our shared responsibility not only for equality and liberty, but also for the future of humanity itself.
Even animals in the wild have the instinctual need to defend their children. Our human society must do better. We must work to end the very contempt so many have for our chidren, their innocence, their future, and their very lives.
So many would like to explain away not just the abuses of our children, but the societal willingness to accept this. We are too busy, the people committing such abuses are just crazy, they are the responsibility of the police and the children’s parents.
CONTEMPT.
You don’t spit on a child and call them filthy names by accident. There is no explaining this away. It is nothing less than open, unmitigated, CONTEMPT.
Yet this is precisely what has been reported in Israel over the past week. In the Jerusalem suburb of Beit Shemesh, an 8-year old Orthodox Jewish girl walking to Jewish religious school, wearing a long dress and long sleeve blouse was set upon by “ultra-Orthodox” extremists who spit on her.
Frightened Israeli Child Na'ama Margolis Fears Being Spit Upon and Threatened by Dozens of Men (Photo Clip: YouTube / Channel 2)
For months, this child, Na’ama Margolis, and her classmates have endured being spat upon and threatened with filthy insults by dozens of cowardly men, who see nothing wrong with attacking children. Such men apparently claim that these girls’ conservative dress is not conservative enough for them. This was reported and many in Israel have condemned such outrages against these children. Others have been challenging efforts at public gender segregation, excluding girls and women from public sphere in public events, in stores, on buses, and even on the sidewalk. Men supporting such abuse of women have clashed with the police. The attacks on such children and attempts at public gender segregation in the streets was broadcast by Israeli Channel 2 and is provided with English subtitles on YouTube at:
——————–
Some Israelis have also been challenging a growing repression against Israel women, including an Israel woman soldier called filthy names by a man for sitting in the front of a bus. I stand with the women and men protesting in Israel to reject such contempt against girls and women, and I am proud to support your campaign for freedom and respect. I reject the efforts of those who seek to use violence and contempt to intimidate girls and women in Israel (or anywhere). Outside of the U.S. Secretary of State, the situation in Israel has been received with a significant silence here in the United States, especially by activists. I am especially disappointed to see feminists who have been very active in challenging the disgraceful so-called “honor killings” around the world, apparently must be on vacation and too busy to be concerned about these issues involving Israeli women. I have also seen some writers who seem to want to explain the abuses against Israeli women away as political targeting or as some type of cultural misunderstanding.
Local Man in Beit Shemesh Justifies Spitting On Little Girls (Photo Clip: YouTube / Channel 2)
To those who believe it is a cultural misunderstanding to spit on little girls, let me tell you there are plenty of fathers who would have their own cultural response with a closed four fingers and a thumb if you spit on their daughter.
It is instinctual, it is normal, it is part of basic human survival coding to want to protect and defend our children. We shouldn’t need to explain it. We shouldn’t need to encourage it. It should be part of our human identity.
Nor is it political targeting to challenge abuses against children, among people in any nation or any identity group. I have stood in defense of Israelis many times to seek the respect, security, and human rights that all human beings deserve. But wrong is wrong – as other protesting Israelis point out, and we must have no acceptance of contempt against our children.
This incident summarizes the entire issue of open contempt against children, their rights, and their dignity: Spitting on Our Children. Such contempt does not get any clearer than that.
Certainly we cannot address child abuse in another nation, without addressing the disgrace and child abuse in the United States of America, who has yet to ratifythe United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), accepted by the General Assembly in 1989. While the United States signed this important convention as part of the United Nations, the United States is one of the few nations that has failed to ratify this convention. 23 years later, administration after after administration, Republican and Democratic, have come and gone, and still this basic convention on the rights of children has not yet been ratified by the United States. In 2008, Barack Obama promised to “review” this, but as we approach 2012, nearly four years later, the current United States administration has also failed to ratify this convention on child’s rights.
The only other nation that has not ratified the CRC is Somalia, where a 13-year old little girl (Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow) was publicly stoned to death in a pit as “adulteress” for the “crime” of being raped, watched by over 1,000 people who failed to act, as Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow’s extremist murderers justified killing her based on their interpretation of Islamic Sharia Law. The U.S. Senate passed a resolution condemning that killing, but where are they on ratifying the CRC?
We also cannot address the importance of the CRC, without challenging those who have ratified it with “exceptions,” that some children only have rights to life and human dignity based on limited religious interpretations. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights ensure human rights for all – without exception – but the United States of America’s government needs to ratify the CRC themselves so that when it offers advice to other world powers, it has done the least that it could do.
Image from State Dept Human Trafficking Report, section "Gender Imbalance in Human Trafficking"
We lead as human beings, as parents, as social leaders, as religious leaders, as identity group leaders, and political leaders – must lead by example. “Do what I say, not what I do” accomplishes nothing in social change and human rights. So the series of disgraces against children around the world require us to speak out consistently everywhere in the world, with every group in the world, and in every circumstance. We must show human rights, dignity, and compassion to some children, but we must do so for our all of our future children.
Our places of learning should be obvious places where children are safe. But we have learned in America how untrue that is today in our nation. Today, yet another alleged rape victim has reported the use of the Pennsylvania State University campus football facilities , as part of an apparently organized effort alleged to have been committed by former football coach Sandusky. It is sickening for Americans and people with respect for children’s rights around the world to hear the growing allegations, and this latest victim brings the number to 11 reported victims. All of us our responsible for our children, including those in positions of authority, not simply when it is convenient, but all of the time. Even if it is inconvenient to someone’s weekend (as former football coach Joe Paterno testified), we must alert the authorities to known or suspected abuse of children, and do the most we can to protect our children, not the least we can. As a Penn State alumnus, I understand when it comes to children’s safety – no one, no organization, no team, and no activity – is more important than our children.
Former Penn State University Coach Joe Paterno Testified that He Did Not Want to Disrupt the Weekend of University Official in Reporting Sandusky's Activities with Naked Boys (Photo: Ralph Wilson-AP Photo)
We see some who would rationalize and look the other way when children are killed as part of violence among adults. It is always and will always be unacceptable and wrong. There are no exceptions. We must stop killing our children, because we can not find ways to live with each other and to deal with our conflicts. Those who seek to fight, fight as adults, and leave our children out of these wars. I know the arguments, how people need to fight for security and defense. But our children don’t have to be a part of that. To those who say that is impossible, I say you need to find a way. If we are not preserving our children’s lives, what type of security, what type of defense, and what type of “victory,” do you think you are working towards?
In terms of the United States government, the Israeli government, and every government in the world who is at war or in conflict, there are no “acceptable” child casualties in war. It does not matter how we define these casualties, as “collateral damage,” or how sorry we are. This also includes the disgusting and disgraceful allegations that some Israeli soldiers have also used human shields. This also applies to any solider, American, or from any nation, who believes it is acceptable to allow the deaths of our children. Our apologies do not bring the lives of our children back anywhere in the world. No war justifies the death of children anywhere in the world, any place, any time.
A Child Injured in U.S. Drone Attack in Pakistan (Photo: AP/The Hindu)
Pakistani Child Ali Ahmad - Trained to be Suicide Bomber (Photo Clip: Voice of America)
This also includes disgraceful allegations of Palestinian militants using child human shields, or any other group with militants fighting anywhere in the world. Such groups claim they are working for ideological and nationalist causes. No cause justifies murdering children anywhere in the world, any place, any time.
In Pakistan and around the world, we have seen terrorist organizations seek to brainwash children with hatred and to train children to become terrorists. As the Pakistan Daily Times has reported, some Pakistani groups have used madrassas to teach children how to wear suicide bomber vests. Throughout Africa, and in other parts of the world, there are others who seek to recruit children for their wars. In Somalia this week, children are being recruited as “child soldiers” to wage war on the government by the Al-Shabaab group. No cause justifies this promotion of hatred in children’s minds, this warping of their innocents hearts to believe that people of all one kind, one group, or one religion deserve hatred, violence, and death. No group has the right abuse our children and try to turn them into killers.
Leave Our Children be Children
In every case and circumstance, those who would kill our children and make them into killers, anywhere and everywhere in the world, they too are spitting on our children.
Texas: Raid on Polygamist Group that Claimed Justification of Sexual Abuse (Photo Clip: NBC video)
We have also seen those who claim they have the “right” to murder young girls in America in so-called “honor killings,” rationalized by their extremist interpretations of Islamic religion and culture. Just slightly over a year ago, the trial of Faleh Almaleki began for the “honor killing” murder of his daughter Noor Almaleki. The Arizona Republic reported that “[f]amily members told police that the father was upset that his daughter failed to live by traditional Muslim values.” We need others to condemn those who rationalize murder and hate. (Almaleki’s families comments to the Arizona Republic is an extremist view that will no doubt disturb many traditional Muslims practicing love and respect to children and one another.) In April 2011, Faleh Almaleki was sentenced to only 34 years in prison for what was clearly a premeditated murder of his daughter.
Noor Almaleki - American Girl Murdered for an "Honor Killing"
Other American Girls Murdered in "Honor Killings": Amina and Sarah Said (Top Left), Methal Dayem (Top Right), and Tina Isa (Bottom)
All those who would use religious RATIONALIZATION to sexually abuse, beat, attack, and kill our children also have contempt for children’s rights. Their contempt and violence against our children speaks for itself, and they cannot hide behind their claims that contempt, abuse, and violence against children is justified by their extremist religious views or culture. They too are spitting on our children.
Those who seek to pray on our children’s minds and souls to corrupt towards violence and hatred know no boundaries. In our reporting at Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.), we have reported on those who seek to influence children via the Internet and from extremist group meetings to promote hatred of people different from themselves. We have seen with our own eyes the images of small children influenced by the Christian extremist Hutaree group and other groups that promote hatred and promote violence in the United States. When we challenge groups that promote such hatred and racial nationalism in America, as well as other groups that promote hate, we seek to protect our children – our shared responsibility.
Christian Extremist Terrorist Group Hutaree Give Rifle to Baby (Left); American Nazis Seek to Brainwash Young Girl (Right)
This problem is not limited to any one religious, ethnic, racial, national, or identity group. There is a decided effort by those promoting hatred to fight their war for hate with, against, and through our children. They too are spitting on our children.
But the contempt towards our children is hardly an isolated incident and, as I expressed in my December 8 remarks, this is a global phenomenon that we must challenge consistently and without exception. In every case, these too are spitting on our children.
Egypt: 15 year old Dina El-Gowhary - Target of Acid Attacks
In Sudan and Darfur, children are killed, young girls are raped, children are starved, authorities refuse to let children learn about their culture, and children are abducted to be forced into military service. In Balochistan, we have seen over 168 children who have “disappeared” and teenage boys killed as part of a brutal “kill and dump” campaign by authorities. In Bahrain, I have read reports of 5 children killed and hundreds of children subjected to excessive force by a brutal government that seeks deny democracy and human rights.
Sudan's Starving Children - Oppressed by Totalitarian Government (Photo: AP)
Only a Passing Trash Collector Tried to Save Chinese Baby Yue-Yue
(To those who state, you failed to address the contempt towards our children shown by this group or that group, you are correct. Given the near infinite variety of groups in the war against children, I guarantee I have missed some. Please write me at usa@realcourage.org and I will address such topics in the future.)
I know that this sometimes reads like just statistics, which is why in my December 8 remarks, I raised the issue of murdered American child Jorelys Rivera, a 7 year old girl who was raped and murdered, and dumped in a trash bin in Georgia, the week we were remembering Human Rights Day around the world. Our children are special, unique, and deserve the love, respect, and human rights. They deserve to be remembered not merely as statistics, but as human beings with names.
Jorelys Rivera - 7-Year Old America Girl - Murdered and Raped - Left in Trash Bin
The grim story of global contempt against our children is not just something I have heard about, but something I faced personally in the United States. I have spoke to young girls who have been the victims of sexual abuse predators in our nation, who have sought to steal their dignity because of the poverty and unemployment in America. To those who expect law enforcement will act on these matters, I can tell you from personal experience that this is not always the case.
The face of children’s human rights is the face of every child, those who have suffered and those remain unscathed. These children are humanity’s future. We cannot and must not expect the authorities or “someone else” to take the leadership in protecting our children around the world from contempt, hatred, brainwashing, abuse, rape, violence, and murder. Our conscience and our survival as a human race demands that we must not tolerate such abuse of our children – anywhere, any group, and any time.
We are the adults – when it comes to protecting our children – we are the authorities. It is our responsibility. It is our responsibility to stop those spitting on our children, literally and figuratively.
Our children deserve our universal human rights, including the right to life, dignity, and respect.
We extend respect to all identity groups, all religions, all races, all genders, and all nationalities as our brothers and sisters in humanity. While such individual identity groups are not to “blame” for extremists within them, they and we all have to responsibility to speak out on behalf of the need to protect and love our children – everywhere and anywhere.
Consistency on human rights is difficult, and perhaps painful and ugly at times. If we are consistent on human rights, we are going to offend someone. If we are consistent on human rights, our political allies, our national allies, our cultural allies, and our identity group allies are at some point going to be upset with us.
But the truth is that our future depends on consistency on human rights.
Our children depend on us to have the courage to be consistent on human rights, anywhere, everywhere, and all the time. We must set that example and provide that leadership for the next generation.
But first we must challenge the CONTEMPT against our children. It is unacceptable anywhere, everywhere, and all the time – with every child without exception. We must challenge the contempt against our children with our hearts, minds, and voices.
Our petition calls for all nations of the world, including the United States of America, to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Our petition also calls for the world nations to make their ratification of the CRC without exception or qualification. We shouldn’t need to “qualify” the basic rights of our children to life, respect, dignity, and the universal human rights we all share.
Our petition rejects those who claim that any human culture or ideology permits contempt, abuse, rape, violence, and hatred towards children, and even murder of children.
Our petition calls for the end of child slavery and condemns the nations and individuals that participate and tolerate such disgraces.
Our petition calls for the protection, dignity, and safety of children anywhere and everywhere – free from attack by weapons of war, free from abuse by soldiers of any kind, free from terrorism and crime, and free from abuse and violence from any person.
Finally, our petition encourages the world to reject the idea that our children are someone else’s responsibility, but they are our responsibility and our future – not just when it is convenient, but all the time.
You may think you can’t do anything about the contempt towards our children, but you can. You can start with your public voice on the issues that all human beings should share regarding our children and our future.
