Archive for January 12th, 2021

12/01/2021

Nomination of Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize

Human Wrongs Watch

By The Peace People | Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate – TRANSCEND Media Service

Ms. Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate, has today [4 January 2021] nominated Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize.

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Mairead Maguire

In her nomination letter to Nobel Committee in Oslo (copy attached) Ms. Maguire wrote:

“My reasons for nominating them together are simple.   Individually each has given countless examples of courage exposing governments’ illegal actions that caused millions of deaths – putting their own freedom and lives on the line.

“Collectively, their lives of self-sacrifice and selflessness constitute remarkable demonstrations of the magnificence of the human spirit.   They are indeed breathtaking testimonies to the goodness inherent in the human heart.

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12/01/2021

Close ‘Disgraceful’ Guantánamo Camp – UN Independent Human Rights Experts Urge Incoming US Administration 

Human Wrongs Watch

(UN News)* — Exactly 19 years after the Guantánamo Bay detention centre first opened, UN independent human rights experts on Monday [11 January 2021] urged the incoming United States administration of Joe Biden, to close the notorious military prison as soon as possible.

Unsplash/Hédi Benyounes | Barbed wire fencing surrounds a detention centre.
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Citing the rapidly deteriorating health of detainees who remain, along with the mental and physical harm inflicted on them in cruel and inhuman conditions, eight right experts warned that the aging inmates are at increasing risk. 
12/01/2021

For Whom the Bell Tolls: A Report on the State of Planet Earth at Year’s End 2020

Human Wrongs Watch

By Robert J. Burrowes*

In 1624, English poet John Donne penned his famous poem ‘No Man Is an Island’, sublimely evoking the reality of human unity: ‘Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind.’ Therefore, he concluded his poem, ‘never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.’

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Robert j. Burrowes

This report does two things.

First, in the hope of generating greater consideration of the human condition and the state of the planet, I have presented in straightforward language and point form, a reasonable summary of the nature and extent of our predicament as well as citing the relevant scientific and/or other evidence that explains each problem in more detail.

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12/01/2021

Five Things to Know about Desalination

Human Wrongs Watch

11 January 2021 (UNEP)* — More and more people in water-scarce countries rely on desalinated water for drinking, cooking and washing. The process involves removing salt from seawater and filtering it to produce drinking quality water. But the fossil fuels normally used in the energy-intensive desalination process contribute to global warming, and the toxic brine it produces pollutes coastal ecosystems.

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Photo by Reuters / 11 Jan 2021

While shifting towards low-carbon energy sources to power desalination plants can help reduce carbon dioxide emissions, the discharge of toxic brine from desalination plants into the ocean is a more challenging problem.

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