Tag: human rights

Commentary: Christianity, Capitalism, and Colonialism Are Nothing to Be Ashamed Of

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Catholic Chapel

We’ve all heard the rhetorical attacks on Western Civilization—often centered on Christianity, capitalism, or colonialism, and often on all three. Among radical leftists, the consensus is that these elements are evil, but given that each is currently or historically integral to civilization as we know it, it’s worth examining the data to determine whether they deserve to be so despised.

First, Christianity. A 2018 study found that religion was “the decisive background factor” determining how much human rights were respected in any given country. And not all religions had the same impact. The percentage of Christians in the population was closely associated with a nation upholding human rights, whereas the percentage of Muslims was the opposite—that is, Muslim countries were less likely to uphold such rights. Another study reached similar conclusions about the effects of Christianity vis-à-vis Islam on nations’ ranking in the Good Country Index. (The index measures countries’ “contributions to global prosperity in domains such as peace, climate and health.”)

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Commentary: Suit Against Tech Giant Shines Light on U.S. Complicity in Chinese Torture

RealClearWire

The wheels of justice often turn slowly, but when it comes to U.S. corporate complicity in China’s record of religious persecution, human rights activists say they are finally picking up speed and moving in the right direction.

Top reformers in Washington, D.C., are heralding a recent twist in a 12-year legal battle that could have far-reaching implications for all U.S. companies that have sold surveillance or tracking technology to China.  

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GOP Rep Demands State Department Rescue Chinese and American Christians Detained in Thailand

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A Republican congressman is calling on the State Department to intervene on behalf of Chinese and American Christians detained by Thai police currently facing imprisonment in China, according to a letter obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Thai police arrested 63 members of the Shenzhen Holy Reformed Church, also known as the Mayflower Church, for overstaying their visas during an early morning raid in Pattaya, Thailand, on Thursday. They are now preparing to deport the Chinese congregants, along with two women from Texas who’d been visiting church members, back to China, where they face imprisonment and likely torture, ChinaAid, a Christian human rights group, told the DCNF.

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The United Nations Looking to Push Religious Communities to ‘Fully Comply’ with LGBTQ Agenda

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The United Nations is releasing a report in June regarding the “perceived contradictions” between religious freedom and sexual orientation and gender identity, or SOGI, laws and is looking to push governments to “fully comply with their obligations under international human rights law to protect and empower LGBT+ persons,” according to a U.N. announcement.

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Why We March: Historic 50th March for Life, First in Post-Roe Era

Susan Berry, PhD

Thousands of pro-life Americans and advocates from other nations will gather on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Friday to celebrate the 50th March for Life, the first since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

The March for Life Education and Defense Fund says the theme for the world’s largest annual human rights demonstration is “Next Steps: Marching into a Post-Roe America,” one that calls pro-life advocates to continue their work in defense of the unborn and their mothers on both the state and federal level, including advocacy for “a minimum federal standard to protect innocent life against radical pro-abortion legislation.”

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Wisconsin Congressman Calls on LinkedIn to Remove Job Listings for Companies That Pose Security Threats

Bradley Vasoli

U.S. Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI-8) this week urged the head of the career-networking website LinkedIn to prohibit the platform from posting job openings at companies posing security threats to America. 

Gallagher, who sits on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Armed Services Committee, penned a letter to LinkedIn Chief Executive Officer Ryan Roslansky, drawing particular attention to companies with ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The congressman stated that the site presently welcomes thousands of employment-opportunity notices from China-based corporations the U.S. government flags as national-security and privacy risks. 

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Chinese Representative Pushes Propaganda at Pennsylvania College Campus Event

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The Eisenhower Institute at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania invited a representative of the People’s Republic of China, General Jin Qian, to speak with students and faculty in a private meeting held on Oct. 6.

The purpose of this event was to open a respectful dialogue with the Chinese Deputy Consul General and others about Chinese and United States diplomatic relations and foreign perspectives.

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State Prohibits Inspection of Data Underlying MPD Human Rights Report

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The state of Minnesota will not allow the public to view the materials that underlay a recent report accusing the Minneapolis Police Department of routinely violating human rights.

The report, compiled by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights (MDHR), concluded that “there is probable cause that the City and MPD engage in a pattern or practice of race discrimination in violation of the Minnesota Human Rights Act.”

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Captured Russian Soldier Says He Realized Moscow Lied When His Favorite Boxers Joined the Resistance

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Ukrainian Protests Continue into the weekend for now it's 5th day, with actions happening at Trafalgar and the Russian Embassy.

A Russian prisoner of war claimed Moscow lied to soldiers before sending them to invade Ukraine.

Lieutenant Colonel Astakhov Dmitry Mikhailovich said soldiers were told Ukraine was “dominated by a fascist regime” and that “nationalists and Nazis had seized power,” according to a translation by the New York Post. He made the accusations during a media conference Thursday alongside two other captured Russian soldiers.

He explained that when he entered Ukraine and saw his favorite boxers, Ukrainians Oleksandr Usyk and Vasiliy Lomachenko, join the resistance, his doubts about the reasons for the invasion were amplified, the NYP reported.

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Tech Companies Struggle in Complicated Relationship with Communist China

The Center Square

A new report from Victims of Communism gives several American tech companies a failing grade for their “complicity” with China and its human rights violations, an ongoing controversy for tech companies which often rely on the nation’s cheaper labor and large market to pad their profits.

The report examines Amazon, Apple, Dell, Facebook, GE, Google, Intel, and Microsoft on a range of issues, including to what degree they partner with China’s surveillance state and human rights violations.

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State Department Partners with Refugee Coalition Groups Supporting Organizations with Alleged Terror Ties

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Stephen Heintz and George Soros

The U.S. State Department joined an initiative to welcome Afghan refugees into the country that is sponsored by organizations supporting groups with possible ties to Palestinian terrorist organizations, a Daily Caller News Foundation review found.

Welcome.US is part of the Office of American Possibilities initiative, a project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, according to its website. The initiative’s main co-chairs include former President Barack Obama, former First Lady Michelle Obama, former President George W. Bush, former First Lady Laura Bush, former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The initiative also formed a coalition composed of nonprofit leaders and organizations, former government officials, corporate leaders and public figures. Businesses, including Starbucks, Uber, Facebook, Microsoft, Walmart and Airbnb, also support the effort.

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Minnesota Rep. Omar Not Backing Down After Border Patrol ‘Whipping’ Story Debunked

Peter D'Abrosca

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) is not backing down Friday after it turned out that the viral narrative that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) was “whipping” Haitian migrants at the border to turned out to be false. 

“These are human rights abuses, plain and simple. Cruel, inhumane, and a violation of domestic and international law. This needs a course correction and the issuance of a clear directive on how to humanely process asylums seekers at our border,” Omar said on Twitter when the scandal first emerged. 

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Over 3,200 Migrants Waiting to Enter the U.S. Have Been Attacked in Mexico Since Biden Took Office: Report

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Group of immigrants at border

More than 3,200 migrants were attacked in Mexico while waiting to enter the U.S. since President Joe Biden took office, an advocacy organization announced Monday.

Around 3,250 asylum-seeking migrants who were either prevented from entering or expelled from the U.S. to Mexico were targets of kidnapping, rape, human trafficking, sexual assault and armed assault from Jan. 20 through June 17, according to advocacy group Human Rights First.

“Violent attacks against asylum seekers and migrants unable to reach safety in the United States due to the failure of the Biden administration to uphold refugee law and restart asylum processing continue to rise,” the organization said in a statement.

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Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Nestle, Cargill in Human Rights Lawsuit

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The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Nestle USA and Cargill could not be sued for alleged human rights abuses that occurred overseas.

The plaintiffs, six Mali citizens enslaved as children on Ivory Coast cocoa farms supplying the food giants, sued Nestle and Cargill for damages, alleging the companies had aided and profited from child labor. The court ruled the corporations could not be sued for the overseas abuses.

“Nearly all the conduct they allege aided and abetted forced labor—providing training, equipment, and cash to overseas farmers—occurred in the Ivory Coast,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in the majority opinion.

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Idaho University Campus Ministry Students Encouraged to Take ‘Anti-Racist’ Classes

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Two students walking on Northwest Nazarene University campus

A Christian university’s Student Government Association is recommending students take “helpful classes” related to “anti-racism.”

The Northwest Nazarene University Student Government Association sent out an email referring students to an anti-racism guide that promoted several social justice courses. This document, sent out in an October 19, 2020, email obtain by Campus Reform, was authored by SGA Campus Ministries.

This anti-racism guide contains a long list of poems, books, videos, and articles on the topic of racism. Many of these resources originate from widely-known proponents of critical race theory, such as Ibram X. Kendi and Robin Di’Angelo.

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Putin Flatly Denies That He’s Behind Recent U.S. Cyberattacks

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Vladimir Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin denied that he was behind the recent cyberattacks across the United States, calling the allegations against him “farcical.”

“We have been accused of all kinds of things,” Putin told NBC News Monday. “Election interference, cyberattacks and so on and so forth. And not once, not once, not one time, did they bother to produce any kind of evidence or proof. Just unfounded accusations.”

Russian intelligence and Russian-speaking groups have launched wide-ranging cyberattacks in recent months, affecting American consumer goods ranging from gasoline to meat. President Joe Biden imposed sweeping sanctions against Russia in April after U.S. intelligence determined that Putin personally ordered a massive SolarWinds hack on federal agencies and for his interference in the 2020 presidential election.

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Representative Green Urges President Biden to Hold Cuba Accountable for Human Rights Abuses

Jason M. Reynolds

U.S. Representative Mark Green (R-TN-07) and two other members of Congress on Friday sent President Joe Biden a letter urging him to implement a Cuba policy that holds the regime accountable for its human rights abuses and support for authoritarian regimes in the region. 

Joining Green in sending the letter were U.S. Representatives August Pfluger (R-TX-11) and Maria Salazar (R-FL-27), according to a statement issued by Green, ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere. Pfluger and Salazar are members of the subcommittee as well.

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Hong Kong’s Pro-Democracy Lawmakers to Resign En Masse

The Associated Press

Hong Kong’s pro-democracy lawmakers announced Wednesday they would resign en masse after four of them were ousted from the semiautonomous Chinese territory’s Legislature in a move one legislator said could sound the “death knell” for democracy there.

The resignation of the 15 remaining pro-democracy lawmakers will ratchet up tensions over the future of Hong Kong, a former British colony that has long been a regional financial hub and bastion of Western-style civil liberties but over which China’s government has increasingly tightened its control. A new national security law imposed by Beijing this year has alarmed the international community.

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China Calls Claims of Forced Uighur Sterilizations ‘Fabrication’

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A Chinese government spokesperson denied allegations that China forcibly sterilizes their Uighur Muslim population, calling it a “fabrication” in a Thursday statement.

The spokesperson for the Permanent Mission of China to the United Nations accused Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of “fabricating lies against China and creating political confrontation” in a statement released during the United Nations General Assembly’s 25th Anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women. 

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‘Unbearable Screams’: Uighurs Accuse China of Crimes Against Humanity, File International Court Complaint

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Two Uighur organizations filed a complaint against China in the International Criminal Court alleging crimes against humanity and repression of minorities.

The International Criminal Court complaint represents the first time members of the minority group have attempted to hold the Chinese government accountable for alleged repression policies, according to NBC News. Uighurs are a minority group of Muslim Turkic ethnicity numbering 11 million who mainly live in China’s Xinjiang region, according to BBC News.

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IHOP Boycotts Tucker Carlson But Not Saudi Arabia

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by Peter Hasson   Breakfast chain IHOP cited its company “values” to justify boycotting Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s show, even as the company profits from its businesses in Saudi Arabia, a notorious violator of human rights. Saudi Arabia’s repeated human rights violations include “unlawful killings,” “official gender discrimination against women” and “criminalization of same sex sexual activity,” according to the U.S. State Department. The State Department also notes that the forced labor of immigrant workers is a significant human rights issue in Saudi Arabia. Left-wing activists pressured advertisers to boycott Carlson’s show after he said liberals believe America has a “moral obligation to admit the world’s poor … even if it makes our own country poorer and dirtier and more divided.” Carlson, a co-founder of The Daily Caller News Foundation, made the comment in reference to migrant caravans making their way through Mexico. Left-wing activists with ThinkProgress and Media Matters immediately launched a campaign to pressure Carlson’s advertisers to abandon his show — a tactic activists have used against other Fox News hosts, including Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity. A spokeswoman for IHOP told HuffPost on Tuesday that the pancake chain stands for “welcoming folks from all backgrounds and beliefs into our restaurants and continually…

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While Media Focuses on Khashoggi, Hundreds of Journalists Believed to Have Been Killed in Syria

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by Joe Simonson   The disturbing slaying of Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi Arabian agents has rightfully garnered the attention of the national press. Yet the hours of coverage surrounding The Washington Post contributing columnist’s grim fate raises the question of why the hundreds of other journalists who have perished at the hands of dictators, such as Bashar al-Assad’s Syria — have not received similar concerns from America’s chattering class. Depending on the organization, the number of journalists or members of the media killed in Syria range from 123 to nearly 700. According to the American-based Committee To Protect Journalists, 18 of its estimated 123 reporters killed were murdered at the hands of the Syrian government or various rebel groups. Other groups, such as the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), believe the number killed from March 2011 to May 2018 is as high as 682. In addition, the SNHR believes as many as 1,116 journalists have been detained. A boy stands near a wall of his school riddled with holes, due to what activists said was an air strike carried out yesterday by the Russian air force in Injara town, Aleppo countryside, Syria. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi. The SNHR also claims 556 of those murdered…

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