10 Years in Review

Compiled by Sarika Arya

TIME magazine has sighted, in the last 10 years, an epoch in history to be dubbed ‘The Decade from Hell.’  As the article highlights, widespread humanitarian disasters caused by man and nature alike, handled largely with negligence, have made this depressing title easily justifiable.  With some help from TIME magazine, below is a recap of just some of the events that posed direct challenges to human rights.

Each year is followed by a picture depicting one of the events mentioned. Let the events and photos provoke you to fight for justice, human rights, and dignity for all mankind.  As the last 10 years proved these things cannot be taken for granted, but must be defended tirelessly and in the next 10 years, through more innovative and enduring methods.  War, torture, and action motivated by fear rather than intelligence may not provide solutions, but fortified legal structures, dialogue, greater awareness, and reformed education could.

Be warned: this is only the bad news; there was some good news to remember too.  We encourage you to leave comments reflecting on the last decade of human rights.

See the 10 years in review after the jump

2000

• Disastrous rains render more than 1 million homeless in Africa
• Elián González is detained by federal agents at his relatives’ in Miami
• Ariel Sharon makes a provocative visit to the Temple Mount, instigating the second Palestinian intifadeh

6 year old Elián González confronts his destiny.

2001

• 9/11: 19 Islamic terrorists hijack four planes, killing over 3,000 people and sparking the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in ‘The War in Terror’

America under attack.

2002

• Daniel Pearl, an American Jewish journalist for the Wall Street Journal, is kidnapped and beheaded in Pakistan
• The sexual abuse of young boys by Catholic priests defames the Vatican
• Bombs in the Bali nightclubs of Indonesia kill about 200 people
• Congress authorizes the American invasion of Iraq
• 120 hostages die in a Moscow theater that is seized by Chechen terrorists
• Beginning of the use of Guantanamo Bay for imprisoning suspects in the ‘War on Terror’

Photos of Daniel Pearl were released by Pakistani terrorists, along with a horrific video showing his decapitation.

2003

• US invasion of Iraq begins with bombardments on Baghdad
• The War in Darfur begins: causes 2.7 million people to flee their homes and some 300,000 deaths to date.  Despite severe criticism and opposition (including from the USA), the United Nations and the International Criminal Court (which issued an arrest warrant for President Omar al- Bashir in 2008) both claim that genocide is not occurring in Sudan.
• The White House admits there was misleading intelligence concerning WMDs in Iraq

An Iraqi prisoner of war holds his 4 year old son.

2004

• American death toll in Iraq: more than 1,000
• Infamous photos of Abu Gharib prison abuse are made public
• Terrorists kill nearly 200 people in Madrid train attacks
• Ukranian presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko is poisoned (He does not die and remains the Ukranian president today.)
• Former Palestinian President, Yasser Arafat, dies
• In North Ossetia, Chechen terrorists take more than 1,000 hostages at a school – and more than 300 die
• More than 200,000 people die in a catastrophic tsunami in Southeast Asia

The tsunami produced waves up to 100 feet high.

2005

• American death toll in Iraq: more than 2,000
• President Ahmadinejad enters office in Iran
• North Korea says it has nuclear weapons
• More than 1,500 die in New Orleans due to Hurricane Katrina, which destroyed poorly designed levees and instigated botched rescue efforts by the federal government
• 7/7: More than 50 people die in suicide bombings on public transportation in London
• Immigrant youth in Paris suburbs begin riots motivated by poverty, discrimination, and lack of opportunity

The famous red double- decker bus of London, destroyed by a terrorist’s bomb.

2006

• American death toll in Iraq: more than 3,000
  America witnesses 3 school shootings in one week: including the death of 5 Amish girls in Pennsylvania, by Charles Carl Roberts IV who also eventually kills himself in the shooting spree
• Israel and Hizballah battle in Lebanon, resulting in 1,007 deaths
• Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfield resigns
• Saddam Hussein receives the death sentence by hanging

Moments before his death, a picture of Saddam Hussein is captured on a camera phone.

2007

• U.N. declares global warming “unequivocal”
• Former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto, is assassinated by al- Qaeda
• Student kills 32 people and then himself in the Virgina Tech shootings

The shooter, 23 year old Seung- Hui Cho.

2008

• American death toll in Iraq: more than 4,000
• An earthquake in China leaves 80,000 dead or missing
• Proposition 8 makes gay marriage illegal in California
• More than 170 people are killed in terrorist attacks in Mumbai

A police officer escorts a senior citizens through the carnage and to safety.

2009

• 1,400 Palestinians and 14 Israelis die when Israel attacks Gaza in response to Hamas missile launches
• Despite signing an executive order to close Guantanamo Bay, President Obama faces a setback and an extension of the deadline until the prison is actually closed
• Iranians protest the reelection of President Ahmadinejad leading to violence
• North Korea captures and then releases two American reporters
• A terrifying rape epidemic engulfs the Democratic Republic of the Congo

An Iranian protester protects her identity with the face of the opposition leader, Mir Hossein Mousavi.

Here’s to a more peaceful 10 years to come.