Wednesday, December 10, 2003

Unions & Human Rights Day FEATURED ARTICLES - Educational Resources Regarding The Universal Declaration of Human Rights - Unions & Human Rights - What's At Stake! - Take Action! - Act to protect the freedom to choose a union. - America's Hidden Human Rights Problem: Freedom of Association QUOTE OF THE DAY "It is often easier to become outraged by injustice half a world away than by oppression and discrimination half a block from home." - - Carl T. Rowan KNOW YOUR HISTORY - DECEMBER 10th 1948 -- United Nations passes The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. RHINO HERE: On December 10th of 1948, the U.N. General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), now an international standard for defending & promoting human rights. Since that day, December 10th has marked Human Rights Day, celebrating the belief that "All human beings are born with equal and inalienable rights and fundamental freedoms". Accordingly, today's blog offers a variety of links to essays, articles  & web resources regarding Human Rights Day. Educational Resources Regarding The Universal Declaration of Human Rights The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in over 300 languages http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/index.htm A Simplified Version of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights http://www.hrea.org/feature-events/simplified-udhr.html Discovering the UDHR (Amnesty International-USA) By examining two real cases of human rights abuses students are introduced to the contents and spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Discovering the UDHR More Resources Listed At The Human Rights Education Associates Website: http://www.hrea.org/feature-events/human-rights-day.html From Amnesty International, an in depth look at the death penalty, and the need for the President of the most powerful nation on the globe to take a stand against state sponsored executions. Rhino sez, "Fat chance when the Pres is shrub, who as Governor of Texas, oversaw 152 executions, and whose presidency has seen the first federal executions in the US since 1963.  A very informative read. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA A lethal ideology - More state killing on Human Rights Day as 900th execution looms Amnesty International, 12/9/03 An Amnesty International poster from the early 1990s depicted a number of former or current leaders, each with a hand in the air. Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Idi Amin, and Saddam Hussein were among those pictured. So too was the then US President, George Bush. The caption read: "All those in favour of the death penalty, raise your hand".  A decade later, the presidential hand is still raised as the USA approaches its 900th execution since resuming judicial killing in 1977 READ IT AT: http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR511492003 Three years ago,Human Rights Watch released a report which documented the systematic abuse of workers' rights to organize & bargain collectively in the United States. The report showed that U.S. labor laws contain weak penalties, are riddled with loopholes, & are not effectively enforced. Report available at: http://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/uslabor This year, the Employee Free Choice Act of 2003 has been introduced in both houses of Congress. If passed, it will fix many of the problems in the existing laws. "Workers rights are human rights." Unions & Human Rights - What's At Stake! Everything important that working families have won during the last 100 years was won by or with the help of the unions that America's workers formed through struggle. The list is long but includes: Overtime pay and protections including the 40-hour workweek and the weekend; Medicare and Social Security, workplace safety laws, child labor laws, the minimum wage, civil rights and much more. Most importantly, unions are a way that working people win a voice on their job that brings them better pay and benefits, dignity and respect in the workplace and, put simply, a better work life and more opportunities for their families. But now, the laws that protect workers who choose to form a union are failing. So, it isn't a surprise that everything else we've won--including overtime pay and Medicare--are under attack as well... MORE: http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/sponsorefca/explanation Take Action! - Act to protect the freedom to choose a union. New bipartisan legislation (H.R. 3619 and S. 1925) introduced in Congress will help fix the broken process through which workers form unions. Please take a moment right now to send a fax to your senators and representative. Urge them to sign on as a sponsor of this important pro-worker legislation. SIGN THE PETITION: http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/sponsorefca   7:56:43 AM    comment

RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE - America's Hidden Human Rights Problem America's Hidden Human Rights Problem: Freedom of Association by Mark Weisbrot, Knight-Ridder/Tribune Info Services, 12/9/03 "Unions -- the Folks Who Brought You the Weekend," reads a popular union T-shirt. It's true enough -- and we could add a sizeable list of other benefits that most people associate with social progress: employer-sponsored health insurance, pensions, and paid vacations.   But unions in the United States find themselves increasingly having to fight for their very existence. This week, on International Human Rights Day (December 10) thousands of union members and their allies around the country will demonstrate for the right to organize. This is something that was supposedly established here in 1935 during the New Deal. But this right has been so eroded in recent decades that -- to the disgrace of the world's richest democracy -- it hardly exists at all.  That was the conclusion of a 213-page report by Human Rights Watch, one of the world's largest human rights organizations, written three years ago. And it keeps getting worse. Tens of thousands of workers are fired each year for joining or attempting to organize a union, in violation of U.S. law. But the penalties for employers are so slight that they have what Human Rights Watch calls "a culture of near impunity." READ THE REST AT:   http://www.commondreams.org/views03/1209-01.htm "RHINO'S BLOG" is the responsibility of Gary Rhine. (rhino@kifaru.com) Feedback, and requests to be added or deleted from the list are encouraged. SEARCH BLOG ARCHIVES / SURF RHINO'S LINKS, AT: http://www.rhinosblog.info RHINO'S OTHER WEB SITES: http://www.dreamcatchers.org (INDIGENOUS ASSISTANCE & INTERCULTURAL DIALOG) http://www.kifaru.com (NATIVE AMERICAN RELATIONS VIDEO DOCUMENTARIES) Articles are reprinted under Fair Use Doctrine of international copyright law. http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html All copyrights belong to original publisher. Tell a friend about Rhino's Blog 7:20:51 AM    comment

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