Posts tagged : "Human rights"

Kourosh Ziabari - Fair Observer: When Saudi Arabia and a coalition of its regional partners embarked on a military campaign against Yemen in March 2015, it was hardly predictable that the war would drag on for more than a year and morph into a humanitarian crisis. The emergency is characterized by massive civilian casualties, displacement of citizens, nationwide water and fuel shortages and deepening poverty in the already-impoverished country. Saudi military engagement was a response to an uprising by the Shiite Houthis in northern Yemen trying to push the government of Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi from power. In late March, UNICEF warned that some 320,000 Yemeni children faced the risk of life-threatening malnutrition, while 82% of...

Kourosh Ziabari - Truth NGO: While the European Union grapples with the biggest refugee crisis since the World War II, there’s a heated debate going on as to whether taking in asylum-seekers and helping them resettle is a moral and legal responsibility which the EU countries should assume. According to the UN estimates, more than 15.5 million people have been displaced as a result of the five-year-long civil war in Syria. The refugees fleeing war and turmoil at home embrace the extreme hardships of getting to the EU borders by all means at their disposal, including through boarding on unsafely overloaded, jammed boats whose riders charge the refugees several thousand dollars, promising to take them to EU securely. However, many of...

Kourosh Ziabari - Iran Review: On the second day of the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum 2015 held from June 22 – 24 in the German city of Bonn, a group of journalists, including me representing Iran Review, had the chance to talk with Dunja Mijatović, a prominent European expert on media law and regulation and OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media. OSCE is the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and is known to be the world’s largest security-oriented intergovernmental organization, working on a range of issues including arms control, human rights and freedom of press. OSCE’s member states come from various geographical regions; from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in...

Kourosh Ziabari: Prominent international lawyer Gilles Devers says that Israel is an occupying power and according to the principles of international law, it has a responsibility to protect the civilian population under its rule. Gilles Devers believes that Israel's blockade against the Gaza Strip constitutes a form of collective punishment and should be lifted as part of its obligations to ensure the protection and safety of the besieged people of the tiny coastal enclave. The French lawyer stated that Israel is not only failing to do enough to help the people of Gaza, but is also exacerbating the conditions of their daily lives. Expressing his surprise that Israel is not taking any action to improve the living conditions of the...

Kourosh Ziabari: Dr. Erik Fosse, a prominent Norwegian medical doctor, who has been in the Gaza Strip during the recent Israeli incursion has detailed his experiences with the deadly Israeli aggression and its impacts on the Palestinian civilians. According to Dr. Erik Fosse, more than 400 children were killed during the Israeli regime's military operation in Gaza since early July and about 30% of the injured are children 18 years old or below (the international bodies have put the number at over 475). "I've worked in the Middle East and with the Palestinians for more than 30 years, and what often surprises me is not the fact that so many people get traumatized by these wars, but that all the young people that experience tragedies like...

Kourosh Ziabari - Tehran Times: The growing worldwide condemnation of the atrocities of the Israeli regime in the occupied Gaza Strip by the young students, activists, media personalities, public intellectuals, independent politicians and former UN officials underlines the fact that Israel cannot always get away with its criminal, discriminatory treatment of the Palestinian people and enjoy impunity from being held accountable. Despite the deafening silence of the Western leaders regarding the mass killing of Palestinians in what the Tel Aviv regime termed "Operation Protective Edge" and claimed more than 2,000 lives including 541 children, there are courageous public figures who have spoken out frankly against the illegal conduct...

Kourosh Ziabari: Prominent American sociologist Prof. William I. Robinson believes that the United States government is the biggest perpetrator of terror in the world and its military adventures across the globe have claimed the lives of millions of innocent citizens. According to Prof. William I. Robinson, “if we define terrorism as the use of violence against civilians for political objectives, then the US state is the world’s leading terrorist.” “US intervention abroad in the 20th century – the forging of a US empire - claimed tens of millions of victims, inflicted untold suffering, and set back the aspirations of freedom and democracy in dozens of countries,” said Prof. Robinson in an exclusive interview. Prof....

Kourosh Ziabari - Tehran Times: The President of the 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly said in an exclusive interview with Tehran Times that any nuclear agreement between Iran and the six world powers that can address the concerns of the international community should be welcomed by everyone. According to John W. Ashe, the economic sanctions imposed on Iran by the United States and its allies are destructive and cannot be considered helpful as long as they complicate the livelihoods of the innocent people. On the humanitarian situation of Syria, Mr. Ashe believes that the UN is facing a problem which is the lack of access to humanitarian relief. He however hopes that those who have caused such problems and...

Kourosh Ziabari: Prominent American lawyer and legal expert Marjorie Cohn says that the United States is moving in the direction of becoming a police state that adheres to no legal principle and eavesdrops on its own citizens furtively. According to Cohn, the US government is suppressing such whistleblowers as Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden to prevent the American citizens from being aware of what is not usually told them by the mass media. “The United States is moving in the direction of becoming a police state with indefinite detention of people without charging them with a crime; conducting massive surveillance without probable cause or individualized suspicion; and targeted killing with drones off the battlefield based on vague...

Kourosh Ziabari - Press TV: Like the story of all those freedom fighters and conscientious people who struggle for realizing true democracy and freedom in the United States but are punished because they purportedly threaten the “national security,” the story of Jeremy Hammond is a painful and moving one. The mainstream media in the United States gave coverage to Jeremy Hammond’s case critically and analyzed it within the borders of their dogmatic stereotypes. They never alluded to the fact that Hammond lost the joy and peace of his youth days in an audacious attempt to defeat tyranny and autocracy and that although his bargain cost him his liberty, he once again attracted the global attentions to the stirring realities hidden...

Kourosh Ziabari - Press TV: Now that Iran is reconstructing its international relations through a dynamic nuclear diplomacy and gaining reputation as an emerging regional superpower, the United States and its allies, infuriated and frantic, consider it as worthwhile to test Iran’s patience by using the notion of human rights as a leverage for pressuring and annoying the Islamic Republic. On Wednesday, December 18, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution proposed by the Canadian government to condemn the alleged violations of human rights in Iran. 83 countries votes in favor, 36 against and 62 others abstained. The adoption of the anti-Iran resolution, despite failing to get the vote of the majority of the 193 UN member...

Kourosh Ziabari - Madiba is not among us anymore. This is something which we should believe, or somehow convince ourselves to believe. However, the “grandpa”, who was a source of inspiration for the entire world throughout his fruitful life, can still be seen as an icon of freedom, struggle for peace and dignity and disobedience to oppression and tyranny. The South African Ministry of Foreign Affairs has confirmed that dignitaries and leaders from more than 90 countries have diverged on South Africa to attend the memorial service of the late anti-apartheid South African leader Nelson Mandela who passed away on Thursday, December 5, after struggling with respiratory infection for many years. Nelson Mandela is not simply...