For human rights to flourish, religious rights have to come second

In Britain, discriminatory attitudes – to racism, to women, to homosexuality – have changed quickly and profoundly. But are religious beliefs now hampering progress?

By Deborah Orr
The Guardian
Originally posted December 27, 2013

There is certainly no shortage of one thing in the world, and that's a lack of goodwill to all men. And women. And children. If it isn't Russia introducing laws against homosexuality, then it's Saudi Arabia resisting the idea that women should drive cars. If it isn't Burma, spoilt for choice, decade after decade, as to which ethnicity to cleanse, then it's a bunch of African countries extolling female genital mutilation.

And outrageous as these horrors are, even the countries that we in the UK see as our natural allies, and consider as sharing our values, are hardly perfect. The US clings to capital punishment, thwarted only by a lack of the chemicals necessary to kill. Australia stands against gay marriage. Israel continues to favour the needs of settlers over established populations. Europe continues to harbour virulent antisemitism.

Britain is hardly without problems either. Hardly a day goes by without some giant, discriminatory insult provoking heated indignation.

The entire article is here.

Guantanamo Ethics

Religion and Ethics Newsweekly
Originally published September 6, 2013

A growing movement is renewing calls for the facility at Guantanamo Bay to be closed, citing concerns about the treatment of prisoners. Especially troubling for human rights activists is the practice of force-feeding detainees against their will. “They’re prisoners, but that doesn’t mean that they’ve given up every right that they have as a human being,” says a US Naval Academy professor who visited Gitmo in 2009.

Watch the video here.

Internet Access Is Not a Human Right

By VINTON G. CERF
The New York Times
Published: January 4, 2012 (and still relevant today)

Here is an excerpt:

Over the past few years, courts and parliaments in countries like France and Estonia have pronounced Internet access a human right.

But that argument, however well meaning, misses a larger point: technology is an enabler of rights, not a right itself. There is a high bar for something to be considered a human right. Loosely put, it must be among the things we as humans need in order to lead healthy, meaningful lives, like freedom from torture or freedom of conscience. It is a mistake to place any particular technology in this exalted category, since over time we will end up valuing the wrong things. For example, at one time if you didn’t have a horse it was hard to make a living. But the important right in that case was the right to make a living, not the right to a horse. Today, if I were granted a right to have a horse, I’m not sure where I would put it.

The entire piece is here.

Gay Spouses of Members of Military Get Benefits

By EMMARIE HUETTEMAN
The New York Times
Published: August 14, 2013

The Defense Department announced Wednesday that it would begin offering benefits to the same-sex spouses of military personnel and other employees by early September, in response to the Supreme Court decision that struck down the Defense of Marriage Act.

Under the plan, spousal and family benefits — including health care coverage, housing allowances and survivor benefits — will be available to all legally married military spouses. The same-sex spouses of service members and civilian Defense Department employees can claim the entitlements retroactively, starting with the date of the decision.

“The Department of Defense remains committed to ensuring that all men and women who serve in the U.S. military, and their families, are treated fairly and equally,” Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel wrote in a memo released by the Pentagon.

The entire story is here.

APA Member-Initiated Task Force to Reconcile Policies Related to Psychologists' Involvement in National Security Settings

The goal of this grassroots task force is to develop a clear, comprehensive policy statement that consolidates existing APA policies into a unified, consistent document. The consolidated policy document will highlight the following principles drawn from existing APA policies:

1. Torture is always a violation of human rights and psychologists' professional ethics;
2. Psychologists are always prohibited from engaging in torture or other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment;
3. Abusive interrogation techniques, such as waterboarding and sensory deprivation, constitute torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment and are always prohibited;
4. The role of psychologists in unlawful detention settings is limited to working on behalf of detainees or providing treatment for military personnel;
5. There is absolutely no defense to a violation of human rights under the APA Ethics Code.

The web page for this member-initiated task force is here.

Here is a copy of the proposed policy:

This is a policy recommendation related to psychologists' work in national security settings and reaffirmat...

Anti-human-trafficking efforts gain momentum

New policies and new laws on human trafficking are spreading across several states

By Yamiche Alcindor
USA TODAY
Originally posted on February 16, 2013


A growing wave of efforts to stop human trafficking has spread across the country as lawmakers and others look to combat the problem through law, policy, and grass-roots activism.

While approaches vary, advocates say more must be done to stop the crime, dubbed "modern day slavery" and defined by the U.S. State Department as the recruitment, transportation or harboring of people by means of deception or coercion. Victims, often mentally and physically abused, can be forced into prostitution, unfair working conditions, or other exploitative situations.

"Consciousness and outrage have reached a different level because of the perverseness but also the impact of human trafficking," said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. "People understand that everyone has a responsibility to fight human trafficking and every individual can have an impact."

The entire story is here.

Mental health and disadvantage in Indigenous Australians

Editorial
The Lancet
Volume 380, Issue 9858, Page 1968


Last week, Australia's National Mental Health Commission released A Contributing Life: the 2012 National Report Card on Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, its first such publication. The report card takes a whole-of-life approach, recognising that, like everyone else, people who have a mental illness need a stable home, a decent education, a job, good physical health, and a support network, as well as access to high-quality treatment and services.

There is a special focus on the first Australians, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, who still face enormous disadvantages when compared with the general population. This disadvantage starts before birth. For example, three in ten Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, including pregnant women, report barriers to accessing health services. 50% of pregnant Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women smoke. And one in seven new Indigenous mothers have postnatal depression. As the report notes, a child born into these circumstances does not have an auspicious start in life. Furthermore, an Indigenous child is two and a half times more likely to be born into the lowest income group, and has a one in two chance of living in a one-parent household when compared with the general population. All these factors play into adolescence and adulthood, and increase the risk of mental health problems and associated issues such as substance misuse in the Indigenous population. Up to 15% of the 10-year life expectancy gap compared with non-Indigenous Australians has been attributed to mental health disorders.

The report recommends the development and implementation of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mental Health and Social and Emotional Wellbeing Plan to commence in 2013 as well as training and employment of more Indigenous people in mental health services. This must be a national government priority, as should addressing the deep health and social inequalities faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. Australia's Indigenous population should have the opportunity to thrive, not just survive.

doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(12)62139-4