Equality/Justice

Open Letter to the Grassroots: Help Organize for Urgent Action on Climate Change

The Mobilization for Climate Justice is a North America-based network of organizations and activists who have joined together to build a North American climate justice movement that emphasizes non-violent direct action and public education to mobilize for effective and just solutions to the climate crisis. The Mobilization for Climate Justice invites communities, organizations and activists across North America to join us in organizing mass action on climate change on November 30, 2009 (N30).

Posted in 350, climate change, direct action, Equality/Justice

Goldstone Rejects Bias Charges Over UN Gaza Report

JERUSALEM - The head of the UN commission that issued a damning report on the Gaza war this week on Thursday rejected Israeli criticism that it was biased from the start.

"I deny that completely," Judge Richard Goldstone said in remarks broadcast on Thursday on public radio, a replay of an earlier interview with Israeli television.

"I was completely independent, nobody dictated any outcome, and the outcome was a result of the independent inquiries that our mission made," he said.

Posted in Equality/Justice, war crimes, Israel/Palestine

UN Assembly Votes for More Powerful Women's Agency

UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. General Assembly voted on Monday to create a new, more powerful agency for women, in a move supporters hailed as a breakthrough for women's equality and rights.

An assembly resolution called for the amalgamation of four existing U.N. offices dealing with women's affairs into a single body to be headed by an under-secretary-general -- a higher rank than exists at present on the issue.

Posted in Equality/Justice, women's rights

Local Levee Districts Will Pay $20 Million to Settle Their Role in Katrina Class Action Lawsuits

U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval on Wednesday approved a $20 million settlement involving federal class-action lawsuits that claimed sloppy work by the Orleans, Lake Borgne Basin and East Jefferson levee districts contributed to levee breaches during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

The settlement money actually would come from insurance proceeds resulting from policies the levee districts held on the levees, said Joseph Bruno, an attorney representing plaintiffs in the case.

But a decision on how the money would be distributed is a long way off, Bruno said.

Posted in Equality/Justice, katrina

Supreme Court of Canada to Hear Khadr Case

OTTAWA - The Supreme Court of Canada has agreed to hear the Conservative government's appeal of orders to seek the return from a Guantanamo prison of 22-year-old Omar Khadr.

In addition, the high court agreed to a federal request to weigh the matter on an expedited basis, setting a date of Nov. 13 and raising the prospect of the court hearing the high-stakes case during a threatened federal election. The Liberals have already raised Khadr's treatment as a reason to reject the Conservative government.

Posted in Equality/Justice, guantanamo

The Great Exception

On this one-way planet of ours, it’s hard sometimes to imagine things any other way, but for a moment let’s try. Imagine, for instance, that in recent years the director of Iranian intelligence oversaw a program of “extraordinary rendition” aimed at those who were believed to be prepared to commit acts of terror against that country’s fundamentalist regime.

Posted in cia, Equality/Justice, war crimes

Holder -- and Obama -- Must Focus on Torture Accountability

Attorney General Eric Holder chose not to take the counsel of the Republican partisans who have been campaigning in recent weeks to avert an accountability moment with regard to the Bush-Cheney administration's torture regime.

But that does not necessarily mean that an accountability moment will come.

For that to happen, Holder -- and, by extension, President Obama -- must stop being so cautious about laying the groundwork for the prosecution of wrongdoings.

Posted in Equality/Justice, torture

Troy Davis and the Meaning of ‘Actual Innocence’

Sitting on death row in Georgia, Troy Davis has won a key victory against his own execution. On Aug. 17, the U.S. Supreme Court instructed a federal court in Georgia to consider, for the first time in a formal court proceeding, significant evidence of Davis' innocence that surfaced after his conviction. This is the first such order from the U.S. Supreme Court in almost 50 years. Remarkably, the Supreme Court has never ruled on whether it is unconstitutional to execute an innocent person.

Posted in death penalty, Equality/Justice

Sometimes It’s Not Your War, But You Sacrifice Anyway

To outsource the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States has turned to the cheapest labor possible. About two-thirds of the 200,000 civilians working under federal contracts in the war zones are foreigners. Many come from poor, Third World countries. Others are local hires.

These low-paid foreign workers face many of the same risks soldiers do. Mortars have killed Filipinos who served meals in mess halls.

Posted in Equality/Justice, private contractors, War/Empire

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 12, 2009
9:03 AM

CONTACT: Equality California (EQCA)

Vaishalee Raja
916-284-9187 vaishalee@eqca.org

Equality California Today Releases Roadmap, Recommended Timeline to Restore Freedom to Marry for Same-Sex Couples

SACRAMENTO - August 12 -
What: After many conversations with community members across the state, coalition partners, donors and political strategists, Equality California (EQCA) will hold a teleconference to discuss its "Winning Back Marriage Equality in California: Analysis and Roadmap," with a recommended timeline on returning to the ballot to restore the freedom to marry for same-sex couples. EQCA will also discuss the achievements of its Win Marriage Back: Make it Real! effort, an on-the-ground, statewide organizing campaign launched almost 100 days ago.

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Equality California is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, grassroots-based, statewide advocacy organization whose mission is to achieve equality and civil rights for all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Californians.

Equality California (EQCA) Links:

Posted in Equality/Justice, gay marriage