Human Rights | WPN World People News

Revelers celebrate during New York City's Gay Pride Parade, two days after the state Legislature legalized same-sex marriage.

Ivorians collect food at distribution centre in the west of the country

Special Representative Radhika Coomaraswamy visits an IDP camp in Kabul 24 February 2010

After days of contentious negotiations and last-minute reversals by two Republican senators, New York became the sixth and largest state in the country to legalize gay marriage, breathing life into the national gay rights movement that had stalled over a nearly identical bill here two years ago.

The operator of Morning Star Center, a residential facility located in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, that provided food and shelter to minors, has been charged with offenses involving the sexual abuse of minors in Haiti, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Wifredo A. Ferrer of the Southern District of Florida and Director John Morton, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

A diabetic when involved in an auto accident due to a diabetic shock or coma is not charged with a criminal offense but instead rushed to a medical facility to receive appropriate treatment to stabilize his or hers blood sugar levels with insulin. So, why should a an addict or an alcoholic, suffering from a mental disease of addiction be treated otherwise? This fact that the aforesaid conditions are a disease and should be addressed through treatment rather than punishment has eventually come to impress upon our Criminal Justice System to reform its approach while dealing with drunk driving or substance abuse related offenses.

Stronger rehabilitation support is needed

An independent United Nations human rights group today called on Chinese authorities to report on the fate of some 300 Tibetan monks who reportedly were arrested in April, and to investigate "the ongoing practice of enforced disappearances" in the Asian country.

On Friday the International Monetary Fund issued a report saying that it expects the US economy to grow at a slower pace than what many economists had predicted. Higher oil prices and lower factory output are partly to blame according to the report. As forecasts continue to downgrade US growth many analysts and leaders in the non-profit sector are expanding their resources to help Americans maneuver through what has been a looming cloud of national economic uncertainty.

Livestock is important for the Bedouins (file photo)