Letters to Editor

By MWC News

A copy of the request sent to Venezuela to extradite the NSA whistleblower to the US should he arrive in the South American country.

Read more: US request for extradition of Edward Snowden - full text

By Richard Falk

UN HRC SR Press Release

Prefatory Note: I am posting a press release of yesterday, 14 June 2013, to take note of the start of the seventh year of the Israeli blockade. After the Mavi Marmara incident, 31 May 2010 and the more recent November ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Gaza government there was an undertaking to ease the blockade with respect to the flow back and forth of people and goods, but the situation remains desperate for the civilian population of Gaza that remains essentially locked into the Gaza Strip where economic destitution has reached epidemic extremes and where the water is mostly unfit for human consumption. The international community, and its main leaders, have commented adversely on the blockade, but nothing happens! It is this sense of powerlessness that is undermining the legitimacy and relevance of the United Nations to the suffering of the Palestinian people, and with particular relevance to the extreme ordeal of the civilian population of Gaza.

Read more: Gaza: 7th Year of Unlawful Blockade

By Gideon Polya

I have sent the following Open Letter to the taxpayer-funded, pro-Zionist ABC (Australia’s equivalent of  the UK BBC), protesting its censorship of anti-racist humanitarians demanding human rights for 12 million Palestinians.

Read more: Open letter to Oz ABC

By MWC News

Notorious Camp a "Pioneer" in Torture and Brainwashing

10 Apr 2013 -- As Chinese censors rush to delete mention of a daring 14-page exposé of torture, forced labor, and political persecution at Masanjia Labor camp published in a Chinese magazine last week, the Falun Dafa Information Center urges foreign media to dig deeper, for there is much more to this story.

Read more: Even More to Masanjia Camp than Chinese News Report Reveals

By MWC News

The following press statement was issued 13 February 2013 under the auspices of the UN Human Rights Council in my capacity as Special Rapporteur for Palestinian Territories Occupied since 1967. This nonviolent resistance to unlawful and abusive detention practices by Israel is a human rights outrage that should be the occasion of media attention and a worldwide outcry. I encourage all who can to exert pressure on Israel before these individuals die in captivity. They are currently reported to be in grave condition.

Read more: Urgent UN Press Statement: Release Palestinian Hunger Strikers Now

By MWC News

A response to Henk Vroom by Professor Oddbjørn Leirvik, University of Oslo
by Nasir Khan

I read with great interest your response to Henk Vroom in ‘Blasphemy, Offence, and Hate Speech’. The historical evolution of blasphemy laws in Norway and Pakistan you present clarifies many points in a scholarly way. (I have been aware of your serious approach to inter-religious discussions and understanding for a number of years, an admirable trait of your outlook and activity that makes a constructive contribution to the notion of peaceful coexistence and social cohesion.) The historical evolution and legislative enactments on blasphemy in the two countries have also a geopolitical and cultural context and the differences we see are enormous. Norway has been a democratic state in the modern times where the state religion did not have an open field but has operated within the confines of the state regulations. But Pakistan had a difficult political history since its inception and the people of Pakistan have been less fortunate because the political and power culture that developed in Pakistan had no substantial democratic traditions or the whole thing in the hands of our rulers after Mr. Jinnah’s death was a tug of war for personal power and prestige.

Read more: ‘Blasphemy, Offence, and Hate Speech’