Time to end the war in Afghanistan?

Yesterday was the deadliest day so far for the United States of its 10-year war in Afghanistan, as thirty members of the American special forces were killed when the Taliban shot down a Chinook helicopter. That brings the US death toll since the start of the conflict to over 1,000. The UK has lost over 300. Afghanistan: countless thousands (ISAF / NATO hasn’t cared to count too closely). This year, the projected total cost to the US relating to Afghanistan is …

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We, the Norwegian society, will strike back

Saw this comment on the Amnesty International Norge Facebook page: We, the Norwegian society, will strike back. We will strike back by giving the defendant a fair trial, we will strike back by giving him decent treatment. This way we will demonstrate to him, to ourselves and to the rest of the world that our basic values, such as the belief in justice, liberty, democracy and human rights, has not, despite his insane efforts to break them, moved an inch …

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Belfast Pride: repugnant or still needed after all these years?

The fact that Jim Wells MLA apparently finds me and other participants in the Belfast Pride parade “repugnant” would cause me scarcely a thought if he were not the Deputy Chairperson of the Health Committee at the Asssembly and scheduled by Peter Robinson to take over as Minister for Health in 2013. As reported by the Irish News today (subscription required), in a text message to Pride organiser Simon Rea, Mr Wells – in rejecting an invitation to take part …

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Taoiseach’s speech: This is not Rome… this is a republic of laws

A sea-change in Irish government-Catholic Church relations took place yesterday. In the government’s official response to the Cloyne Report, Taoiseach Enda Kenny gave an unprecedented speech to the Dáil, excoriating the Vatican for its efforts to block co-operation with the investigation by civil authorities of clerical child abuse: … for the first time in Ireland, a report into child sexual-abuse exposes an attempt by the Holy See, to frustrate an Inquiry in a sovereign, democratic republic, as little as three …

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Time for a clerical child abuse inquiry in Northern Ireland

Momentum is building for an inquiry into clerical child abuse in Northern Ireland. With four inquiries now completed south of the border – Ferns, Ryan, Dublin and now Cloyne – northern abuse victims are rightly asking: what about us? Their calls have now been echoed by SDLP MLA Conall McDevitt and deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness: I absolutely believe there should be the same thorough investigations in the northern dioceses as there have been in previous dioceses in the south. We …

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Helping Haiti

Regular readers may recall Slugger’s interest in Haiti over the last year, including support for the Great Big Politics Pub Quiz fundraiser last October and Moochin’s pics and commentary from the Iron Market in Port-au-Prince and elsewhere. Later this year Slugger will again be getting behind a few good causes in Haiti, hoping to raise awareness and some funds to help alleviate the situation of at least a few of this earthquake and corruption-stricken people. More about that in due …

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War crimes: caught on camera?

Jon Snow says it is “one of the most important” stories he has ever reported. It may not be on TV until 11.05 pm, yet the screening tonight of Channel 4’s Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields (trailer here) has not exactly gone unnoticed. The programme was shown to the United Nations Human Rights Council at the end of May. A UN special envoy has already said the execution videos featured appear to show evidence of “serious international crimes”. Amnesty International has called …

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Institutional child abuse: a timely reminder from Geneva

There came a timely reminder from Geneva this week. It got a mention en passant in Mick’s piece earlier, and the Prime Time programme (available on RTE Player until 28 June) does provide an excellent catch-up / analysis, but the subject matter truly merits much closer study. That’s the Concluding Observations by the UN Committee on Torture following its periodic review of Ireland.  There’s lots of good stuff in there  – on the use of Shannon for illegal rendition flights, and …

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Bahrain Grand Prix: money vs human rights?

The World Motor Sport Council – Formula One’s ruling body – is to decide today whether or not to hold the Bahrain Grand Prix in the face of violent suppression of human rights protests in the country. The oil-rich state was due to host this year’s opening race back in March, but this was postponed due to the anti-government protests and the brutal response by the Gulf kingdom’s authorities. Indeed, according to news reports, a quarter of the staff of …

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President Obama’s speech on the Middle East and North Africa

President Barack Obama is due to give an open-air speech on Dublin’s College Green on Monday afternoon. That a huge crowd will be there to hear him is not in doubt. Neither is the President’s speech-making ability. Indeed, it has been one of the hallmarks of his presidency and the campaign which preceded it. Remember the foreign policy speech he gave in Berlin in July 2008 to an estimated crowd of 200,000? It was great. He spoke about the US …

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From Haiti with thanks

Back in October, much of the Slugger O’Toole ‘community’ – Mick Fealty and Paul Evans, bloggers Alan in Belfast and Mark McGregor, politicians of all hues, public affairs company Stratagem, and of course readers / commenters – came together to support the Great Big Politics Pub Quiz, raising money for a house-building project in earthquake-stricken Haiti. The event raised £1,225, all of which went to the Haven Partnership’s Build-it-Week initiative. Due to the cholera outbreak, the week itself was postponed …

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Years of abuse, decades of neglect. Now child abuse survivors want justice

It’s been my privilege over the last eighteen months to work alongside survivors of institutional child abuse in their battle for justice. Since Margaret McGuckin and others started their campaign on behalf of the children – now adults – abused in institutions across Northern Ireland, hundreds of people have come forward with personal stories of sexual, physical, mental and emotional abuse. In July 2010 I accompanied some of the survivors to a meeting with the First and deputy First Ministers where they explained …

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Wikileaks reminder that Obama’s still Guantánamo gaoler-in-chief

As Ireland readies itself to welcome President Obama to these shores next month, those with an interest in upholding international law have been given reason to recall how he has failed the litmus test of Guantánamo. While the President appears to have forgotten his January 2010 promise to close the internment camp within a year, a new batch of leaked government documents provides a reminder of just how iniquitous the US experiment in unlawful detention has proven. The new document …

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Election leaflets: ‘targeted, effective and sometimes very bitter’

As the Irish general election leaflet website put it: Election leaflets are one of the main weapons in the fight for votes. They are targeted, effective and sometimes very bitter. We need your help to photograph, scan and record them so we can keep an eye on what the parties are up to, and try to keep them honest. The website – brought to you by the same folks as Kildare Street – managed to get 254 leaflets recorded back …

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Eamonn O’Neill: “come out and vote – this is an important election” (#ae11 #sdo11)

Eamonn O’Neill is hoping the voters of South Down will return him to the Assembly where he served a term from 1998, only to subsequently miss out in 2003 by the narrowest of margins, just 36 votes. The Castlewellan-based SDLP representative didn’t stand in the 2007 election but has maintained a high profile locally, currently serving as Chairperson of Down District Council, where he has spent thirty-fours years as a councillor. Over the years Sinn Féin’s vote in the constituency …

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Cadogan Enright talks up the Green Party in South Down (#ae11 #sdo11)

South Down, along with North Down and South Belfast, is one of the target constituencies for the Green Party, if not for immediate Assembly seats, then at least for growth in its voter base and local council representation. Their Assembly candidate in South Down is Cadogan Enright, already a sitting councillor on Down District Council and the recent runner-up to Steven Agnew for the Green Party leadership in Northern Ireland. I caught up with him while out canvassing in the …

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FM #AE11 Row: ‘No-one’s mentioned it to me on doorsteps’ – McCallister (#sdo11)

Ulster Unionist deputy leader and South Down Assembly hopeful John McCallister may have helped spark a bad-tempered row after his Nolan Show rubbishing of the “we must stop Martin McGuinness becoming First Minister” sham fight, but it hasn’t made him any more convinced that it’s an issue on the minds of the electorate. When I spoke to Jim Wells in Newcastle this week, he reckoned that the First Minister question was one of the main issues being raised with him on …

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Hyperlocal blogging the election #ae11 #sdo11

Assembly election coverage #sdo11 hyperlocal-style is up and running on newcastlerocks, with hustings coverage, runners and riders analysis, and the first of a few interviews with South Down candidates focusing their hopes on the electorate in and around Newcastle. There’s one with Sinn Féin’s Willie Clarke online and another, just-posted interview with Jim Wells of the DUP, whom I met while out canvassing the town’s Tullybrannigan Road area last evening. One of the blog’s followers responded to my twitpic (@newcastle_rocks) from …

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Double jobbing or hedging bets #AE11

One of the issues which became a subject of heated debate at the Newcastle hustings was double jobbing. A significant number of the prospective MLAs for South Down are also bidding to be returned as councillors – a pattern which is repeated right across Northern Ireland. Of course, this would simply continue the current widespread practice of dual mandates at local council and Assembly levels which, at one level, is uncontroversial. For instance, at the hustings, the SDLP’s Eamonn O’Neill …

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World turns against death penalty

Fifty years ago only ten countries had completely abolished the death penalty. In 1977, the year Amnesty International took up the cause, just 17 countries were death penalty-free. Since then, there has been a sea change.  As documented in Amnesty’s report on Death Sentences and Executions in 2010, published this week, 96 countries have now fully abolished capital punishment, while only 58 actively retain it. Of these, only 23 actually carried out executions in 2010. The remaining 43 nations have …

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