Spotted: P 4 HR

Spotted: person for human rights. On this page, scroll down to find stories of individuals: your roommate, a hardworking professional, award- winning lawyers, glitzy celebrities, controversial politicians anyone anywhere, with innovative ideas and projects concerning human rights. From biographies, to quotes, to notable achievements and milestones, this page hopes to profile people worth knowing, supporting, and maybe even emulating.

Know someone worth mentioning? Email your story to: theyalejournalofhumanrights@gmail.com

Spotted: Lyudmila M. Alexeyeva

Interesting fact: she’s is actually not scared.  At all.

(Photo taken from The New York Times website.)

Despite being 82 years old and only 5 feet tall Lyudmila M. Alexeyeva is a pro at terrorizing the Russian government.  A veteran political dissident and regular visitor to Russian prison, Ms. Alexeyeva was once again arrested on New Year’s Eve of last year.  In an attempt to remind citizens of their right to assemble, guaranteed by Article 31 of the Russian Constitution, Ms. Alexeyeva and members of different political opposition groups, gathered in Moscow for a demonstration.  The Moscow Times described the event as an “Anti- Kremlin Rally.”

Ms. Alexeyeva was immediately arrested and forced on a bus with 50 others, until the Russian police realized the demonstrators were in their rights.  Despite being released, Ms. Alexeyeva cleverly refused to go until a picture of her, a deceptively frail elderly woman appearing seemingly terrified of an officer in uniform, was taken and distributed among the press.

She has a knack for hoarding media attention, and turning the spotlight on human rights issues in Russia.  Her dramatic flair, love for the provocative, and sheer audacity, are capable of highlighting the existence and ludicrousness of Russian authoritarianism.

As a political dissident she began fighting human rights abuses occurring under Communist Stalin: unwrapping elaborate lunches of ham and oranges while being questioned she waged a war against KGB nerves; indulging in these food delicacies right in front of them.

According to The New York Times,

At 19, she was reported to a Communist party secretary for reciting banned poetry. Soon after she turned 40, she volunteered to type the Chronicle of Current Events, a journal compiled in such secrecy that not even its contributors knew one another’s roles. Once, hauled in for questioning, Ms. Alexeyeva stuffed eight copies of the manuscript into her bra.

But there are costs, and the stakes are high.  She has received death threats and recently buried two of her friends.

“Now [the government] do what they want,” she said. “There were rules then. They were idiotic rules, but there were rules, and if you knew them you could defend yourself.”

That is to say, in Russia while human rights may be subjected to some legal code, that code is not necessarily enforced: making it seem subjected to unpredictable changes.  Arrests and court procedures do not necessarily occur according to what is codified, and seem to be arbitrarily created on the spot; nothing is predictable and nothing is set on stone. The existence of the law guarantees neither rights nor security.

Some, like those at the Human Rights Watch Office in Moscow, believe there is a problem of reaching the ordinary Russians, rather than just the social elite, in order to educate the greater community about what their rights are exactly.  The NGO believes that in being uninformed and content (especially when Putin puts food on the table), Russians are missing out on complete democratic freedom.

But, as The New York Times reports,

Ms. Alexeyeva has heard these arguments, and she rejects them. She casts the democratic rollbacks of the Putin period as the recoil that inevitably follows revolution, not as a catastrophe. As for the notion of outreach to the public, she believes that Russians are passive because they are poor, and that that will not change as long as they remain so.

And on New Year’s Eve, Ms. Alexeyeva engaged in her own outreach: a perfectly predicted and executed event.  In anticipating – no, expecting, to be arrested, she ordered a shipment of hot meat pies to her apartment, and told the guard to admit her guests for a New Year’s party she was hosting.  The revelers were already deep in celebration when she arrived back home from police headquarters at 11pm.

In the mean time, says the The New York Times, “Russian leaders would wake up to angry statements from the United States National Security Council, and then from the president of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, who said he was ‘profoundly and personally touched when I think that this very respectful 82-year-old woman spent the night of New Year’s Eve under Russian arrest.’”

One sharp cookie, Ms. Alexeyeva, although immensely satisfied with herself, remarked on the event, “If it serves as a lesson to [to the authorities], I wouldn’t call it a victory, but it would be useful,” she said. “Whether it will serve as a lesson I can’t say, because they study very badly.”

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Spotted: IHRDC

Google map it.

You might never have noticed, but there’s a revolution being fueled on Church Street in New Haven, Connecticut. The Iran Human Rights Documentation Center is reporting and translating, advocating and educating.

The Iran Human Rights Documentation Center believes that the development of an accountability movement and a culture of human rights in Iran are crucial to the long-term peace and security of the country and the Middle East region. As numerous examples have illustrated, the removal of an authoritarian regime does not necessarily lead to an improved human rights situation if institutions and civil society are weak, or if a culture of human rights and democratic governance has not been cultivated. By providing Iranians with comprehensive human rights reports, data about past and present human rights violations and information about international human rights standards, particularly the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the IHRDC programs will strengthen Iranians’ ability to demand accountability, reform public institutions, and promote transparency and respect for human rights. Encouraging a culture of human rights within Iranian society as a whole will allow political and legal reforms to have real and lasting weight.

Reports include survivor accounts of Iran’s 1988 massacre, attacks on cyber-journalists, Iran’s parallel intelligence apparatus, and more. At the most fundamental level, the IHRDC is telling the truth, which is often times too easily ignored.

Find more information visit http://www.iranhrdc.org.

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Spotted: “General” Jeff Page

“General” Jeff Page (left) and LAPD Senior Lead Officer Deon Joseph (right).

Photo taken from Flickr.

Skid Row is the backwater of glitzy Los Angeles, characterized by one of the largest stable homeless populations in the United States.  After a failed career as a rap promoter Jeff Page, arrived to the area burnt out, his lifestyle quickly evolving into homelessness in the violent crime- ridden ghetto of Skid Row.  He took it upon himself to rebuild the community, getting feedback from its residents and implementing their needs into projects; including a Nike supported refurbishment of a public park that has a cleaned up basketball court.  The General (an affectionate nickname given to Mr. Page by the homeless) has even been elected to the local council and served for two years already, making him Los Angeles’ only homeless public official.

His efforts have brought much needed publicity to Skid Row (pictured left), including from the Mayor of Los Angeles. But the General still has a lot to accomplish: in 2009 alone there were 994 reported violent crimes and over 13,000 arrests made in Skid Row.  He is determined though, he walks the streets of Skid Row in a crisp suit (albeit, accompanied by a body guard), engaging with its residents; many of whom are huddled in blankets and in between boxes on the side of the street or pushing shopping carts filled with empty cans through litter.  Nonetheless, they are glad to see General Jeff – and he’s glad to be working for them, “I’m determined to succeed, I’m a finisher.  So I will see this through no matter what the odds.”

All information comes from CNN.  Read the entire story and watch a video on General Jeff and Skid Row at the CNN website, by clicking here.  Top and bottom photos taken from flickr and Wikipedia, respectively.

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Spotted: Shministim

Let the Shministim go! View the original post on the YJHR blog here.

Being jailed for refusing to go to war based on ethical or moral concerns seems to be a thing of the past (think Vietnam War). Unfortunately, it still occurs around the world. A notable modern example is that of the Shministim in Israel – a group of young Israelis who refuse to serve in their country’s army because of their beliefs.

The Shministim are Israeli high school students who have been imprisoned for refusing to serve in an army that occupies the Palestinian Territories. December 18, 2008 marked the launch date of a global campaign to release them from jail.

Here’s a video clip of some of the Shministim:

If you want to sign a letter asking for their release, click here.

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Spotted: Aung San Suu Kyi

A Prison Birthday for Aung San Suu Kyi

June 19, 2009: View the original post on the YJHR blog here.

‘Don’t just depend on the courage and intrepidity of others. Each and every one of you must make sacrifices to become a hero possessed of courage and intrepidity. Then only shall we all be able to enjoy true freedom.’

The effort necessary to remain uncorrupted in an environment where fear is an integral part of everyday existence is not immediately apparent to those fortunate enough to live in states governed by the rule of law. Just laws do not merely prevent corruption by meting out impartial punishment to offenders. They also help to create a society in which people can fulfil the basic requirements necessary for the preservation of human dignity without recourse to corrupt practices. Where there are no such laws, the burden of upholding the principles of justice and common decency falls on the ordinary people. It is the cumulative effect on their sustained effort and steady endurance which will change a nation where reason and conscience are warped by fear into one where legal rules exist to promote man’s desire for harmony and justice while restraining the less desirable destructive traits in his nature. (Freedom from Fear Speech, 1990 Aung San Suu Kyi)

The Burmese Prime Minister – elect and pro-democracy activist and leader of the National League of Democracy party in Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi, remains under arrest in Insein Prison, which is controlled by the military junta of Myanmar, today, on her 64th birthday.

Kyi comes from a politically active family, which weilds great respect from the opressed Burmese community: her father, Aung San, founded the modern Burmese army and negotiated Burma’s peace from the United Kingdom – though he was assinated by his oppenents in the same year. She has been leading the pro-democracy movement in Burma since the 1980s, inspired by the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi, non-violent philosophy, and Buddhist ideology. Since 1989, Kyi has been placed under house arrest several times under the Burmese dictatorship: because of this she was only able to see her husband 5 times before he died of prostrate cancer and she remains separted from her children living in the United Kingdom.

In the past, Kyi has been offered freedom if she leaves her country, but she has refused: beliving the freedom of her people more valuable than her own. In 1991, she was awarded the Noble Peace Prize.

Now in prison yet again, there are reports that Kyi is suffering from dehyradation, low blood pressure, and weight loss. Take action for Kyi – give her hope on her birthday via Amnesty International here.