February, 17 2010, 11:55am EDT
End Persecution of Human Rights Defenders in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Urges Amnesty International
WASHINGTON
Amnesty International today
called on the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to protect
human rights defenders, who continue to be arbitrarily detained by security
agencies and subjected to an alarming number of death threats.
In its briefing Human Rights Defenders under attack in the Democratic
Republic of Congo, Amnesty International documents the persecution
faced by eight prominent human rights defenders in the DRC, harassment
the organization fears will intensify in the build-up to 2011 presidential
and national elections. Congolese human rights defenders have told Amnesty
International that harassment and arrests directed toward them have increased
sharply throughout 2009, reports echoed by U.N. observers in the country.
"The government of the DRC must uphold the right to freedom of expression
and ensure that Congolese human rights defenders are protected from threats,
arbitrary arrests and assault," said Andrew Philip, Amnesty International's
DRC researcher. "Many human rights defenders are detained simply because
they speak out on behalf of others."
Golden Misabiko, head of the Katanga branch of a national human rights
organization, was arrested by the National Intelligence Agency (ANR) in
July 2009 after his organization published a report alleging that government
security officials were involved in illegal mining of highly radioactive
uranium and other minerals from the Shinkolobwe mine, in the Katanga province.
Following detention for almost a month, Misabiko was convicted and sentenced
to one year in prison with eight months' suspended after being found guilty
of "publication of false information," a conviction that his lawyers
are seeking to overturn. Misabiko suffered severe stomach pains, persistent
vomiting and psychological trauma brought on by the appalling conditions
of detention, where he was forced to pay the guards to sleep outside on
a piece of cardboard to avoid an overcrowded and dirty cell.
Robert Ilunga, a community advocate and head of a human rights NGO in Kinshasa,
was arrested by the ANR and held incommunicado for nine days in September
2009 after the NGO issued a press release denouncing harsh working conditions
endured by workers at a gravel-making company in Kasangulu, in the province
of Bas-Congo.
The ANR, in particular, frequently arrests, detains and intimidates human
rights workers in the DRC. Amnesty International receives regular reports
of torture and other ill-treatment taking place in ANR detention facilities.
"Human rights defenders in the DRC play a crucial role in drawing attention
to human rights abuses, but intensifying harassment makes it increasingly
difficult for them to carry out this important work," said Andrew Philip.
Leaders of four human rights organizations based in the south-eastern city
of Lubumbashi, Katanga province, received anonymous and increasingly sinister
SMS messages since mid-September, when they led a local campaign in support
of Misabiko during his detention.
"I do not know how much longer I can bear the stress and mental suffering
caused by these threats, but every day I resist the temptation to just
return to normal life with my family, because I refuse to be intimidated
into stopping my work," a human rights defender told Amnesty International.
One of the four human rights leaders who campaigned for Misabiko, Gregoire
Mulamba, was abducted on October 18, 2009, on his way home from work. The
taxi that was supposed to take him home diverted from the usual route and
as Mulamba challenged the driver, one of the passengers pushed a gun into
his ribs and blindfolded him. Stopping after 20 minutes, Mulamba feared
he would be killed, but was instead dumped in a cemetery on the outskirts
of Lubumbashi.
The other three leaders, Timothee Mbuya, Emmanuel Umpula and Dominique
Munongo, fled Lubumbashi at the end of September 2009, fearing for their
lives. All three returned to the city in October to continue their human
rights work, despite an escalating stream of death threats.
A number of states expressed concern over the situation of human rights
defenders in the DRC and made recommendations to the DRC government during
the U.N.'s Universal Periodic Review of the DRC that took place in Geneva
in December 2009.
The DRC has since indicated that it supports the UPR recommendations to
"take further measures to protect the rights of human rights defenders...";
to "ensure that crimes and violations against human rights defenders and
journalists are effectively investigated and prosecuted" and to "adopt
an effective legal framework for the protection of human rights activists
in line with the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders."
Amnesty International urges the government to make these changes in law
and practice promptly.
Amnesty International is a global movement of millions of people demanding human rights for all people - no matter who they are or where they are. We are the world's largest grassroots human rights organization.
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Sanders Says 'Political Movement,' Not Murder, Is the Path to Medicare for All
"Killing people is not the way we're going to reform our healthcare system," he said. "The way we're going to reform our healthcare system is having people come together."
Dec 12, 2024
Addressing the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and conversations it has sparked about the country's for-profit system, longtime Medicare for All advocate Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday condemned the murder and stressed that getting to universal coverage will require a movement challenging corporate money in politics.
"Look, when we talk about the healthcare crisis, in my view, and I think the view of a majority of Americans, the current system is broken, it is dysfunctional, it is cruel, and it is wildly inefficient—far too expensive," said Sanders (I-Vt.), whose position is backed up by various polls.
"The reason we have not joined virtually every other major country on Earth in guaranteeing healthcare to all people as a human right is the political power and financial power of the insurance industry and drug companies," he told Jacobin. "It will take a political revolution in this country to get Congress to say, 'You know what, we're here to represent ordinary people, to provide quality care to ordinary people as a human right,' and not to worry about the profits of insurance and drug companies."
Asked about Thompson's alleged killer—26-year-old Luigi Mangione, whose reported manifesto railed against the nation's expensive healthcare system and low life expectancy—Sanders said: "You don't kill people. It's abhorrent. I condemn it wholeheartedly. It was a terrible act. But what it did show online is that many, many people are furious at the health insurance companies who make huge profits denying them and their families the healthcare that they desperately need."
"What you're seeing, the outpouring of anger at the insurance companies, is a reflection of how people feel about the current healthcare system."
"What you're seeing, the outpouring of anger at the insurance companies, is a reflection of how people feel about the current healthcare system," he continued, noting the tens of thousands of Americans who die each year because they can't get to a doctor.
"Killing people is not the way we're going to reform our healthcare system," Sanders added. "The way we're going to reform our healthcare system is having people come together and understanding that it is the right of every American to be able to walk into a doctor's office when they need to and not have to take out their wallet."
"The way we're going to bring about the kind of fundamental changes we need in healthcare is, in fact, by a political movement which understands the government has got to represent all of us, not just the 1%," the senator told Jacobin.
The 83-year-old Vermonter, who was just reelected to what he says is likely his last six-year term, is an Independent but caucuses with Democrats and sought their presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020. He has urged the Democratic Party to recognize why some working-class voters have abandoned it since Republicans won the White House and both chambers of Congress last month. A refusal to take on insurance and drug companies and overhaul the healthcare system, he argues, is one reason.
Sanders—one of the few members of Congress who regularly talks about Medicare for All—isn't alone in suggesting that unsympathetic responses to Thompson's murder can be explained by a privatized healthcare system that fails so many people.
In addition to highlighting Sanders' interview on social media, Congressman Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) pointed out to Business Insider on Wednesday that "you've got thousands of people that are sharing their stories of frustration" in the wake of Thompson's death.
Khanna—a co-sponsor of the Medicare for All Act, led in the House of Representatives by Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.)—made the case that you can recognize those stories without accepting the assassination.
"You condemn the murder of an insurance executive who was a father of two kids," he said. "At the same time, you say there's obviously an outpouring behavior of people whose claims are being denied, and we need to reform the system."
Two other Medicare for All advocates, Reps. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), also made clear to Business Insider that they oppose Thompson's murder but understand some of the responses to it.
"Of course, we don't want to see the chaos that vigilantism presents," said Ocasio-Cortez. "We also don't want to see the extreme suffering that millions of Americans confront when your life changes overnight from a horrific diagnosis, and people are led to just some of the worst, not just health events, but the worst financial events of their and their family's lives."
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)—a co-sponsor of Sanders' Medicare for All Act—similarly toldHuffPost in a Tuesday interview, "The visceral response from people across this country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the healthcare system."
"Violence is never the answer, but people can be pushed only so far," she continued. "This is a warning that if you push people hard enough, they lose faith in the ability of their government to make change, lose faith in the ability of the people who are providing the healthcare to make change, and start to take matters into their own hands in ways that will ultimately be a threat to everyone."
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Reports released this week from two organizations that advocate for journalists underscore just how deadly Gaza has become for media workers.
Reporters Without Borders' (RSF) 2024 roundup, which was published Thursday, found that at least 54 journalists were killed on the job or in connection with their work this year, and 18 of them were killed by Israeli armed forces (16 in Palestine, and two in Lebanon).
The organization has also filed four complaints with the International Criminal Court "for war crimes committed by the Israeli army against journalists," according to the roundup, which includes stats from January 1 through December 1.
"In Gaza, the scale of the tragedy is incomprehensible," wrote Thibaut Bruttin, director general of RSF, in the introduction to the report. Since October 2023, 145 journalists have been killed in Gaza, "including at least 35 who were very likely targeted or killed while working."
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When counting the number of journalists killed by the Israeli army since October 2023 in both Gaza and Lebanon, the tally comes to 155—"an unprecedented massacre," according to the roundup.
Multiple journalists were also killed in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Mexico, Sudan, Myanmar, Colombia, and Ukraine, according to the report, and hundreds more were detained and are now behind bars in countries including Israel, China, and Russia.
Meanwhile, in a statement released Thursday, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) announced that at least 139 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed since the war in Gaza began in 2023, and in a statement released Wednesday, IFJ announced that 104 journalists had perished worldwide this year (which includes deaths from January 1 through December 10). IFJ's number for all of 2024 appears to be higher than RSF because RSF is only counting deaths that occurred "on the job or in connection with their work."
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The U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Thursday sued Southern Glazer's Wine and Spirits, alleging that the nation's largest alcohol distributor, "violated the Robinson-Patman Act, harming small, independent businesses by depriving them of access to discounts and rebates, and impeding their ability to compete against large national and regional chains."
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Emily Peterson-Cassin, director of corporate power at Demand Progress Education Fund, said Thursday that "instead of heeding bad-faith calls to disarm before the end of the year, the FTC is taking bold, needed action to fight back against monopoly power that's raising prices."
"By suing Southern Glazer under the Robinson-Patman Act, a law that has gone unenforced for decades, the FTC is doing what our government should be doing: using every tool possible to make life better for everyday Americans," she added.
According to the FTC:
Under the Robinson-Patman Act, it is generally illegal for sellers to engage in price discrimination that harms competition by charging higher prices to disfavored retailers that purchase similar goods. The FTC's case filed today seeks to ensure that businesses of all sizes compete on a level playing field with equivalent access to discounts and rebates, which means increased consumer choice and the ability to pass on lower prices to consumers shopping across independent retailers.
"When local businesses get squeezed because of unfair pricing practices that favor large chains, Americans see fewer choices and pay higher prices—and communities suffer," Khan said in a statement. "The law says that businesses of all sizes should be able to compete on a level playing field. Enforcers have ignored this mandate from Congress for decades, but the FTC's action today will help protect fair competition, lower prices, and restore the rule of law."
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Southern Glazer's published a statement calling the FTC lawsuit "misguided and legally flawed" and claiming it has not violated the Robinson-Patman Act.
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