Human Rights

Notwithstanding calls for the establishment of an independent and international commission of inquiry to investigate war crimes committed by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups during the Operation Cast Lead, a legal issue is whether the use of certain weapons by the Israeli forces is in contravention of international law.1

• S. R. Subramanian
• March 04, 2009
• IDSA Comments

The streets of Lhasa have started to become quiet once again. It would be just a matter of weeks if not months before the Forbidden City once again invites tourists to the roof of the world to experience ‘Tibetan culture’, the preservation of which has been one of the central demands of the demonstrators. Tibet would soon show its ‘normalcy’ to the world, with the Olympic Torch passing through it.

• Alok Rashmi Mukhopadhyay
• March 26, 2008
• IDSA Comments

The visit of Louise Arbour, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the subsequent resignation of four prominent civil right activists including Human Rights Watch award winner Sunila Abeysekera from an advisory committee of the Ministry of Human Rights, have highlighted the alarming state of human rights in Sri Lanka.

• M. Mayilvaganan
• November 06, 2007
• IDSA Comments

Myanmar has been in the eye of the storm in recent months. In August, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), as the Myanmarese military regime led by Than Shwe is known, arbitrarily increased the fuel prices from US $1.18 to $1.96 per gallon. This sudden decision caught the country's impoverished people by surprise, who subsequently began a massive non-violent protest. Similar mass protests had taken place in 1988 against the military regime's removal of bank notes from circulation resulting in loss of savings for the common people.

• Namrata Goswami
• October 19, 2007
• IDSA Comments