Human Rights

The recently released report of the United Nations Human Rights Council on last winter's war between Israel and Hamas, which was chaired by the South African jurist Richard Goldstone and just approved by the Human Rights Council, condemns both Israel and Hamas for "war crimes" and possibly "crimes against humanity." However, the report - which was approved by a vote of 25-6, with 11 abstentions - reserves the bulk of the blame in its 575 pages for Israel. To understand how this report, which is clearly biased against Israel, came about, it is necessary to consider three factors: the nature of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC)

WASHINGTON - -Hundreds of prisoners held by the U.S. military in Afghanistan will for the first time have the right to challenge their indefinite detention and call witnesses in their defense under a new review system being put in place this week, according to administration officials. The new system will be applied to the more than 600 Afghans held at the Bagram military base, and will mark the first substantive change in the overseas detention policies that President Barack Obama inherited from the Bush administration.

Human Rights Watch has long been a self-proclaimed torch-bearer for human rights around the world. Although the organization can rightly be proud of its initial contribution on behalf of political prisoners incarcerated by oppressive regimes, HRW's activities in more recent years have been characterized by an obsessive focus on Israel and only muted criticism of dictatorships such as Syria, Saudi Arabia and Libya. HRW's Middle East activities recently reached a nadir. In May, Arab News reported that HRW officials had visited Saudi Arabia to raise funds, using their pseudo-research on Israel over the Gaza war as bait.

WASHINGTON - - The Obama administration will announce plans Friday to revive the Bush-era military commission system for prosecuting accused terrorists, current and former officials said, reversing a presidential campaign pledge to rely instead on federal courts and the traditional military justice system. Word of the imminent decision infuriated human rights groups, who argued that any trials under the system created by former President George W. Bush would be widely viewed as tainted and said the Obama administration was duplicating the mistakes of former administration.

Progress toward a thaw in U.S.-Cuban relations gained unexpected momentum Friday as leaders of the two countries signaled a willingness to open potentially historic talks on issues that have bitterly divided them since the days of the Cold War. President Barack Obama called for a "new beginning" with the island nation, capping a surge of gestures fed by Cuban President Raul Castro's declaration Thursday that his country "could be wrong" about its approach...

JERUSALEM -Israel's use of white phosphorus artillery shells led to the deaths of at least 12 Palestinian civilians and destroyed millions of dollars in property during the recent three-week war in the Gaza Strip, Human Rights Watch says in a report released Wednesday. Israeli military officials called the claim "baseless" and said the shells, designed to produce a smoke screen, were used in accordance with accepted rules. A frequent critic of Israeli military practices, New York-based Human Rights Watch says its review of the Gaza fighting found instances in which white phosphorus rounds were used in urban areas under circumstances that had no clear military rationale.

Who would have thought that the revival of a creaky TV space opera like Battlestar Galactica would have meaningful lessons to teach about human rights, terrorism and reconciliation? But this complex and intellectually challenging narrative series has delivered all of that and more through four award-winning seasons that will end with its final episode tonight. Battlestar Galactica's explorations of faith, politics and terror have struck so painfully close to home that the United Nations hosted a special panel this week to discuss human rights issues raised by the series.

Human rights have been a central purpose of the United Nations since its creation after World War II. Equally central over that time has been U.S. leadership on human rights. But in the last few years, the U.S. has boycotted the U.N. Human Rights Council, the most important human rights institution in the world body. Citing institutional flaws and misguided decisions, the U.S. refused to run for a seat in each of the first three council elections, from 2006 to 2008. This May, the U.N. General Assembly will elect 18 new members to the council.

BEIJING -Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said yesterday that she would not emphasize contentious issues such as human rights in talks this weekend with the Chinese and focus instead on topics on which progress might be more likely: the economy, climate change and security issues. Clinton's weeklong tour of Asia culminates with meetings in China, where she is remembered for a tough 1994 speech on human rights. But she said that after years of pressing Beijing, the dialogue on human rights, freedom for Tibet and accommodation with Taiwan had grown predictable.

Howard superintendent to get human rights honor Howard County schools Superintendent Sydney L. Cousin will be honored by the county's Human Rights Commission as the recipient of the 2008 Human Rights Award. Cousin will be honored at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Slayton House, 10451 Twin Rivers Road in Columbia. The ceremony is open to the public. "I'm honored to receive this prestigious award," said Cousin, 63, who was appointed superintendent in July 2004. The commission also will honor the late Leola M. Dorsey, a longtime member of the NAACP and the Howard Community College board of trustees.