July, 25 2009, 12:04pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Dan Beeton (CEPR), 202-239-1460
Obama Administration Must Support Human Rights In Honduras
NGO's and Scholars Say Latest Statement from Hillary Clinton Gives Blank Check To Honduran Military
WASHINGTON
A group of organizations, scholars, and academics who
specialize in Latin America released the following statement late Friday:
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's latest statement, which appears to
hold President Zelaya responsible for any potential further violence by
the Honduran government against civilians, is unacceptable. It is very
disheartening to see the United States government go against the
international consensus that has called for the immediate and
unconditional return of President Zelaya.
Even worse, such statements could be seen as a blank check to the
Honduran military and others to use violence against peaceful
protestors who support their elected president.
Clinton's statement called Zelaya's attempt to return peacefully to his
country "reckless," and said that "We have consistently urged all
parties to avoid any provocative action that could lead to violence,"
implying that Zelaya is responsible for the violence against his
unarmed supporters.
Given that neither Clinton nor President Obama, nor any U.S. official,
has even once criticized the Honduran dictatorship for the violence and
political repression of the last four weeks, Clinton's pointing the
finger at Zelaya is especially threatening to the human rights of
Hondurans.
By contrast, the shootings, beatings, arrests and detentions of
journalists, closing of radio and TV stations, and other repression
have been documented and condemned by the Inter
American Commission for Human Rights, by
human rights organizations such as Human
Rights Watch, Amnesty
International, the Committee
to Protect Journalists, Reporters
Without Borders, and a report from the Honduran
Committee for the Relatives of the Disappeared Detainees.
On July 23rd, an international
commission of human rights organizations - including the
International Federation of Human Rights and the Center for Justice and
International Law - concluded that "grave and systematic violations of
human rights" have taken place in Honduras since the military coup.
Yet the Obama administration has been silent in the face of these
abuses.
By echoing the statements of the coup leaders, Clinton has also put the
United States further outside the international community. By returning
to Honduras, Zelaya is attempting to implement the resolutions of the
United Nations General Assembly and the Organization of American
States, which called for his immediate and unconditional return to the
Presidency. He participated in the mediation process headed by Costa
Rican President Oscar Arias and agreed to the proposal put forth by
Arias, but the de facto government would not budge.
Signed,
ORGANIZATIONS:
Border Agricultural Workers Project
Coalition for Peace and Democracy, Los Angeles, CA
Committee in Solidarity With the People of El Salvador
Just Foreign Policy
Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance, Los Angeles, CA
National Family Farm Coalition
Portland Central America Solidarity Committee, Oregon
School of the Americas Watch
INDIVIDUALS:
William Aviles, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of
Nebraska at Kearney
Dr. James D. Cockcroft, Ph.D., writer and online professor, SUNY
Jennifer N. Costanza, MA, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Sociology,
Brown University
P. Gabrielle Foreman, Visiting Distinguished Professor of Africana
Studies, Bowdoin College, 2008, Professor of English and Comparative
Literary Studies, Occidental College, Los Angeles
Dana Frank, Professor of History, University of California, Santa Cruz
Jane Franklin, Historian, Author
Armando Gonzalez Caban, Latin American Perspectives, University of CA
Riverside
Greg Grandin, Professor of History, New York University
John L. Hammond, Hunter College and Graduate Center, City University of
New York
Doug Hertzler, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Eastern Mennonite
University
Derrick Hindery, Assistant Professor of International Studies and
Department of Geography, University of Oregon
Eric Holt-Gimenez, executive director, Food First/Institute for Food
and Development Policy
Florencia E. Mallon, Julieta Kirkwood Professor of Latin American
History, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Peter and Gail Mott, Co-Editors, INTERCONNECT
Jocelyn Olcott, Department of History, Duke University
Adrienne Pine, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, American University
Suyapa G. Portillo Villeda, PhD Candidate, Cornell University/CFD
Fellow, Pomona College
Vijay Prashad, George and Martha Kellner Chair in South Asian History
and Professor of International Studies, Trinity College
Marcus Rediker, Professor and Chair in the Department of History,
University of Pittsburgh
Milla Riggio, James J. Goodwin Professor of English, Trinity College,
Connecticut
Dr. Christine J. Wade, Associate Professor of Political Science and
International Studies, Washington College, Maryland
Jeffery R. Webber, Assistant Professor, Political Science, University
of Regina, Canada
Mark Weisbrot, Co-Director, Center for Economic and Policy Research
John Womack, Jr., Professor of History, emeritus, Harvard University
LATEST NEWS
Cori Bush Demands Repeal of 'Zombie Statute' Weaponized by Anti-Abortion Zealots
"The Comstock Act must be repealed," said the Missouri Democrat.
Mar 27, 2024
Rep. Cori Bush on Tuesday called for the repeal of a long-obsolete law that anti-abortion activists, lawmakers, and judges have worked to revive as part of their nationwide assault on reproductive rights.
"The Comstock Act must be repealed," Bush (D-Mo.) wrote in a social media post on Tuesday as the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case brought by a group of anti-abortion doctors aiming to curtail access to mifepristone—a medication used in more than 60% of U.S. abortions.
"Enacted in 1873, it is a zombie statute, a dead law that the far-right is trying to reanimate," Bush warned. "The anti-abortion movement wants to weaponize the Comstock Act as a quick route to a nationwide medication abortion ban. Not on our watch."
Bush's office said she was the first member of Congress to demand the law's repeal since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion in the summer of 2022.
The Comstock Act, which hasn't been applied in a century and was repeatedly narrowed following its enactment, prohibits the mailing of any "instrument, substance, drug, medicine, or thing" that "may, or can, be used or applied for producing abortion." Legal experts have described the dormant law as the "most significant national threat to reproductive rights."
Given that "virtually everything used for an abortion—from abortion pills, to the instruments for abortion procedures, to clinic supplies—gets mailed to providers in some form," a trio of experts wrote earlier this year, the anti-abortion movement's "interpretation of the Comstock Act could mean a nationwide ban on all abortions, even in states where it remains legal."
"Enforcing a Victorian-era law would be deeply unpopular and Democrats have a chance to sound the alarm, take action in both chambers, and run on it."
The Biden Justice Department has argued that the Comstock Act "does not prohibit the mailing of certain drugs that can be used to perform abortions where the sender lacks the intent that the recipient of the drugs will use them unlawfully."
But the law has nevertheless been cited with growing frequency by far-right advocacy groups and judges following the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
In 2023, a Trump-appointed federal judge in Texas, Matthew Kacsmaryk, invoked the Comstock Act in a decision suspending the Food and Drug Administration's 2000 approval of mifepristone. In 2021, the FDA said it would allow patients to receive abortion medication by mail—which Kacsmaryk claimed the Comstock Act "plainly forecloses."
That case, which has massive implications for abortion rights nationwide, is now before the U.S. Supreme Court.
During oral arguments on Tuesday, Justices Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas "repeatedly invoked the Comstock Act," The Washington Postreported, "pressing lawyers about whether the 1873 federal law should apply to abortion drugs sent through the mail today."
The justices' comments raised concerns that they could try to resurrect the Comstock Act in their coming ruling in the mifepristone case.
"While the Biden administration has issued guidance saying that the federal government
will not enforce the laws," the Post noted, "a future administration seeking to restrict abortion could choose to do so."
Donald Trump, the former president and presumptive 2024 Republican nominee, has expressed support for a national abortion ban.
Jezebel's Susan Rinkunas wrote Tuesday that "enforcing a Victorian-era law would be deeply unpopular and Democrats have a chance to sound the alarm, take action in both chambers, and run on it."
"We definitively have one lawmaker on board," Rinkunas added, referring to Bush. "Who's next?"
Keep ReadingShow Less
Container Ship That Destroyed Baltimore Bridge Has Troubled History
The Maersk-chartered MV Dali—which lost propulsion just before the collision—not only was involved in a previous crash, but was also briefly detained last year over problems with its propulsion system.
Mar 26, 2024
The mega-container ship that lost propulsion before toppling Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge in a Tuesday morning collision was involved in a previous crash, and was cited last year for propulsion-related problems.
Newsweekreported that the Maersk Line Limited-chartered MV Dali—which crashed into the Interstate 695 Patapsco River crossing just before 1:30 am, causing the span to collapse and sending a construction crew into the water—collided with a wall in the harbor at Antwerp, Belgium in 2016. The accident, which was reported by Vessel Finder and other outlets at the time, was attributed to errors made by the ship's master and pilot.
The 9-year-old Dali was also detained by port officials in San Antonio, Chile last June after inspectors discovered a problem related to the vessel's "propulsion and auxiliary machinery," according toThe Washington Post, which cited records from the intergovernmental shipping regulator Tokyo MOU.
The ship's owner, Grace Ocean Private Ltd., and operator, Synergy Marine, "have been sued at least four times in U.S. federal court on allegations of negligence and other claims tied to worker injuries on other ships owned and operated by the Singapore-based companies," according toThe Associated Press.
Maersk was also sanctioned last year by the U.S. Labor Department for allegedly stopping employees from reporting safety concerns, documents published by The Lever revealed.
According to a July 14, 2023 Labor Department letter to Maersk regarding an Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigation, the Danish company "suspended and then terminated" a worker "in retaliation for reporting unsafe conditions and contacting the U.S. Coast Guard."
The fired employee "engaged in numerous protected activities" including reporting a leak and the need for repairs to a ship's cargo hold bilge system, alcohol use aboard the vessel by crew members, and inoperable equipment including an emergency fire pump and lifeboat block and releasing gear.
The search for six construction workers who were on the bridge when it collapsed into the river was suspended until Wednesday, according toThe Associated Press. The workers are presumed dead by their employer, Brawner Builders. Local media reported that multiple vehicles plunged into the river and that two workers—one of whom was briefly hospitalized—were rescued from the water.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Pentagon Urged to Just Say No to AI-Powered Killer Robots
"The Department of Defense should declare its opposition to the development and deployment of autonomous weapons."
Mar 26, 2024
The watchdog group Public Citizen on Tuesday led a letter urging Pentagon leaders "to clarify that the Replicator Initiative will not involve the development and deployment of autonomous weapons systems," also known as "killer robots."
Last September, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks "asserted that the development of all-domain, attributable autonomy systems (ADA2) is an essential way for the Pentagon to maintain its comparative cutting-edge and keep up with the technological advancements of other states," notes the letter, which was addressed to her and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
"However, those comments failed to specify whether or not supporting autonomous weapons systems is one of the key focuses of this initiative," the letter stresses. "When addressing whether or not 'ADA2 means weapons systems,' Secretary Hicks stated: 'That's a serious question to be sure. They are not synonymous. There are many applications for ADA2 systems beyond delivering weapons effects.'"
"Autonomous weapons are inherently dehumanizing and unethical, no matter whether a human is 'ultimately' responsible for the use of force or not."
Public Citizen and the 13 other organizations argued that "this is no place for strategic ambiguity. Autonomous weapons are inherently dehumanizing and unethical, no matter whether a human is 'ultimately' responsible for the use of force or not."
Deploying lethal weapons that rely on artificial intelligence (AI) "in battlefield conditions necessarily means inserting them into novel conditions for which they have not been programmed, an invitation for disastrous outcomes," the groups warned. "'Swarms' of the sort envisioned by Replicator pose even heightened risks, because of the unpredictability of how autonomous systems will function in a network. And the mere ambiguity of the U.S. position on autonomous weapons risks spurring a catastrophic arms race."
"We believe the Department of Defense should declare its opposition to the development and deployment of autonomous weapons," the coalition concluded. "However, even if you are not prepared to make that declaration, we strongly urge you to clarify that the Replicator Initiative will not employ autonomous weapons."
In addition to Public Citizen, the coalition included the American Friends Service Committee, Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network, Backbone Campaign, Demand Progress Education Fund, Fight for the Future, Future of Life, National Priorities Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, RootsAction.org, United Church of Christ, the Value Alliance, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom U.S., Win Without War, and World Beyond War.
The letter comes on the heels of Public Citizen releasing a report about the rise of killer robots, AI Joe: The Dangers of Artificial Intelligence and the Military.
The February report addresses the Pentagon's AI policy, the dangers of killer robots, the need to ensure decisions about nuclear weapons aren't made by automated systems, how artificial intelligence can increase not diminish the use of violence, risks of using deepfakes on the battlefield, and how AI startups are seeking government contracts.
The publication concludes with recommendations that Public Citizen president Robert Weissman echoed in a statement Tuesday.
"The United States should state plainly that it will not create or deploy killer robots and should work to advance global treaty negotiations to ban such weapons," Weissman said. "At minimum, the United States should commit that the Replicator Initiative will not involve the use of autonomous weapons."
"Ambiguity about the Replicator program essentially ensures a catastrophic arms race over autonomous weapons," he added. "That's a race in which all of humanity is the loser."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular