The refugee radio station making waves in Iraqi Kurdistan
Four displaced young women are making waves in the northern Iraqi city of Halabja – radio waves, that is. The four women run a radio show that is broadcast on the socially-conscious Dange Nwe, or New Voice, radio station, that’s called “By The Displaced People, For The Displaced People”. The show is broadcast every day between 8am and midday and includes news broadcasts as well as information from the camps around Halabja, where an estimated 6,000 displaced Iraqis and Syrians now live. And the show is multi-lingual, using Arabic and Kurmanji, a variant of the Kurdish language commonly used in Syria.
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Cotton farming in Uzbekistan is 'modern day slavery'
In the shadow of the lush green mountains surrounding the Fergana Valley in Uzbekistan, thousands of men and women have wrapped their heads in bandanas, strapped large white pouches across their bodies, and set out to pick cotton.
Growing up in south Uzbekistan near the Tajik and Afghan border, Sukhrob Ismoilov was only eleven years old when he first stepped onto the cotton fields. He would begin his day at 7 a.m., exiting the barracks where he was forced to live during the harvest, and entering the cotton fields. He would work for four hours, take a short lunch break, and then continue picking cotton till 6 p.m., when he would return to his barracks. He would repeat this routine, day in and day out, for the duration of his allotted time in the fields.
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A law banning torture in Israel? Don't hold your breath
During its review session at the UN Committee Against Torture in Geneva on Wednesday, Israel’s representatives informed the committee that the Justice Ministry is drafting a bill that, for the first time, would explicitly enshrine torture as a crime under Israeli law. This appears to be a very positive development in a years-long battle to end Israel’s use of torture, championed by torture victims, human rights groups, and UN bodies.
Past experience, however, warns us not to be optimistic about this news. Israel ratified the Convention Against Torture in 1991, and many Israelis argue that the country’s domestic legal system already offers safeguards that ban torture – with some exceptions. A 1999 Supreme Court ruling supposedly regulated the practice, but the ruling actually provides loopholes for security agencies to employ torture methods under vaguely defined circumstances. Contrary to the wanton actions taken by sadistic regimes like in Syria, torture in Israel (both psychological and physical) is often carried out in a highly controlled and methodical manner, sugar-coated by terms like “moderate physical pressure” and justified by “necessity” and cases of “ticking bombs.”
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