Eggplant.place

194d

New today from Ana Flores: "I learned early as a Texan that our state doesn’t always fight for its people. Especially if you’re Latina. Especially if you’re undocumented. Especially if you’re young, brown, or poor." https://www.texasobserver.org/cuts-women-healthcare-reproductive-rights/

#Texas #politics #USpol #news #HumanRights #healthcare

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172d

"This #FourthofJuly, the world declares its #independence from #America"

Realize this is a message of #hope: for all who were never included in that #vision of the #world, were never " #AmericanLives at stake", never " #LeadersOfTheFreeWorld":

Come, #rise, claim your #PlaceInTheSun.

#future #YouBelong #freedom #newday #newworld #equality #inclusion #equity #prosperity #possibility #BiggerVision #IndigenousRights #HumanRights #AnotherWay

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/commentisfree/2025/jul/04/independence-day-america-decline

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193d

The Kurdish community in Japan's city of Kawaguchi, about 2,000 strong, is enduring a barrage of hate. Here's how Japan's online "neto-uyo" right-wingers and Japanese right-wing media are conspiring to paint a picture of this tiny immigrant population as criminals.

https://unseen-japan.com/kawaguchi-kurdish-community-under-fire/

#japan #unseenjapan #ujwebsite #humanrights #news #immigration

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169d

"I want you to imagine a toddler appearing in court to face off against a government-trained attorney trying to deport them. Think of their terror as they take their seat in the courtroom, legs swinging because they’re not long enough to reach the floor."
https://www.texasobserver.org/republicans-immigrant-children-budget-court/

#ICE #politics #USpol #news #Trump #HumanRights #immigration #fascism

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168d

USA sanctions Francesca Albanese for working with the International Criminal Court, and for being early at calling the Gaza Genocide a genocide.

This regime is a global menace, to the freedoms of each of us. Where will this end?

https://apnews.com/article/francesca-albanese-gaza-genocide-sanctions-un-israel-ff0501f318b7dd0d923c30f10b639724

#FarRight #Genocide #Gaza #USA #USPol #ICC #ICJ #Law #HumanRights #Palestine #EU #Geopolitics #Albanese #FrancescaAlbanese

Edited 168d ago

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167d

The #Trump admin is imposing #sanctions on the #UN #HumanRights Council special rapporteur #FrancescaAlbanese, an outspoken critic of #Israel's military offensive in #Gaza.

Secy of #State #MarcoRubio linked the move to her support for the International Criminal Court (#ICC), some of whose #judges have already been sanctioned by the #US.

#law #judiciary #WarCrimes #complicit
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c70rllxr0kyo

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190d

California "No Secret Police" act introduced, would ban police from covering their faces

https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/california-no-secret-police-act-introduced-sb627-ban-police-face-covering-wiener-arreguin/

#PoliceAccountability #cops #HumanRights

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172d

Especially for the #Labour administration in the UK; the Supreme Court in the UK, all the #TERF and Terf adjacent people out there, the media, especially the #Guardian.
#Rights #HumanRights #ProChoice #Autonomy #Biology #Facts

Once again, for those still quoting primary school level science:

Rebecca Helm, a biologist and an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina, Asheville US writes:

"Friendly neighborhood biologist here. I see a lot of people are talking about biological sexes and gender right now. Lots of folks make biological sex sex seem really simple. Well, since it’s so simple, let’s find the biological roots, shall we? Let’s talk about sex...[a thread]

If you know a bit about biology you will probably say that biological sex is caused by chromosomes, XX and you’re female, XY and you’re male. This is “chromosomal sex” but is it “biological sex”? Well...

Turns out there is only ONE GENE on the Y chromosome that really matters to sex. It’s called the SRY gene. During human embryonic development the SRY protein turns on male-associated genes. Having an SRY gene makes you “genetically male”. But is this “biological sex”?

Sometimes that SRY gene pops off the Y chromosome and over to an X chromosome. Surprise! So now you’ve got an X with an SRY and a Y without an SRY. What does this mean?

A Y with no SRY means physically you’re female, chromosomally you’re male (XY) and genetically you’re female (no SRY). An X with an SRY means you’re physically male, chromsomally female (XX) and genetically male (SRY). But biological sex is simple! There must be another answer...

Sex-related genes ultimately turn on hormones in specifics areas on the body, and reception of those hormones by cells throughout the body. Is this the root of “biological sex”??

“Hormonal male” means you produce ‘normal’ levels of male-associated hormones. Except some percentage of females will have higher levels of ‘male’ hormones than some percentage of males. Ditto ditto ‘female’ hormones. And...

...if you’re developing, your body may not produce enough hormones for your genetic sex. Leading you to be genetically male or female, chromosomally male or female, hormonally non-binary, and physically non-binary. Well, except cells have something to say about this...

Maybe cells are the answer to “biological sex”?? Right?? Cells have receptors that “hear” the signal from sex hormones. But sometimes those receptors don’t work. Like a mobile phone that’s on “do not disturb’. Call and cell, they will not answer.

What does this all mean?

It means you may be genetically male or female, chromosomally male or female, hormonally male/female/non-binary, with cells that may or may not hear the male/female/non-binary call, and all this leading to a body that can be male/non-binary/female.

Try out some combinations for yourself. Notice how confusing it gets? Can you point to what the absolute cause of biological sex is? Is it fair to judge people by it?

Of course you could try appealing to the numbers. “Most people are either male or female” you say. Except that as a biologist professor I will tell you...

The reason I don’t have my students look at their own chromosome in class is because people could learn that their chromosomal sex doesn’t match their physical sex, and learning that in the middle of a 10-point assignment is JUST NOT THE TIME.

Biological sex is complicated. Before you discriminate against someone on the basis of “biological sex” & identity, ask yourself: have you seen YOUR chromosomes? Do you know the genes of the people you love? The hormones of the people you work with? The state of their cells?

Since the answer will obviously be no, please be kind, respect people’s right to tell you who they are, and remember that you don’t have all the answers. Again: biology is complicated. Kindness and respect don’t have to be.

Note: Biological classifications exist. XX, XY, XXY XXYY and all manner of variation which is why sex isn't classified as binary. You can't have a binary classification system with more than two configurations even if two of those configurations are more common than others.

Biology is a shitshow. Be kind to people."

Many thanks to Traci Drake for finding this.

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189d

#SCOTUS on Wednesday upheld Tennessee’s ban on #gender-affirming care for #transgender minors, a stunning setback to #TransgenderRights.

The 6-3 decision in a case from #Tennessee effectively protects from legal challenges many efforts by #Trump’s #Republican admin & #state govts to roll back #protections for transgender people. 26 other #states have laws similar to the one in TN.

#law #discrimination #bigotry #LGBTQ #CivilRights #HumanRights #privacy #BodilyAutonomy
https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-transgender-health-care-trump-79fc6f3bbdab2e92d6f0184201a468a9?utm_source=onesignal&utm_medium=push&utm_campaign=2025-06-18-Breaking+News

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187d

I have fled through land and sea, blank land and sea,
because my house is besieged by murderers
And I was wrecked in the ocean, crushed and swept,
Spilling salt angry tears on the salt waves…

—Edwin Muir, “The refugees born for a land unknown”
published in Collected Poems, 1921–1958 (Faber, 1960)

20 June is World Refugee Day

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #refugees #WorldRefugeeDay #asylum #humanrights

Edwin Muir
‘The refugees born for a land unknown’

The refugees born for a land unknown
We have dismissed their wrongs, now dull and old,
And little judgment days lost in the dark.

‘I have fled through land and sea, blank land and sea,
Because my house is besieged by murderers
And I was wrecked in the ocean, crushed and swept,
Spilling salt angry tears on the salt waves,
My life waste water drawn down through a hole,
Yet lived. And now with alien eyes I see
The flowering trees on the unreal hills,
And in an English garden all afternoon
I watch the bees among the lavender.
Bees are at home, and think they have their place,
And I outside.
Footsteps on the stairs, two heavy, two light,
The door opens. Since then I remember nothing,
But this room in a place where no doors open.
I think the world died many years ago.’

ALT

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187d

Use no names. Roads
have been whited out,
redacted. Hone your oldest sense…

—Pippa Little, “For Refuge”
published in AIBLINS: New Scottish Political Poetry (Luath Press, 2016)

20 June is World Refugee Day

https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/refuge/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #WorldRefugeeDay #refugees #humanrights

For Refuge
Pippa Little

Use no names. Roads
have been whited out,
redacted. Hone your oldest sense.
Learn the wind,
memorise where it goes
bearing your odours. The truck-stops
are roofless churches.
Comma-birds on power lines
swollen by rain
fall away.
Comfort yourself,
there will be stars in the dark
travelling towards you,
smaller and smaller.
Trust the earth
with your bandaged feet,
the pockets sewn shut by your mother.
Carry only such things
as snowflakes, eyelashes,
for the future may not make you out.

ALT

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187d

I would like to tell her not to wear such flimsy shoes,
that rubble contains the whole spectrum of knowable
and unknowable dangers…

—Marjorie Lotfi, “Picture of Girl and Small Boy (Burij, Gaza, 2014)”
published in THE WRONG PERSON TO ASK (Bloodaxe Books, 2023)

20 June is World Refugee Day

Photo: REUTERS/Finbarr O’Reilly

https://www.reuters.com/news/picture/idUSRTR40EE6/undefined

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #refugees #WorldRefugeeDay #humanrights #Gaza

Picture of Girl and Small Boy (Burij, Gaza, 2014)
Marjorie Lotfi

I would like to tell her not to wear such flimsy shoes,
that rubble contains the whole spectrum of knowable
and unknowable dangers: sheets of metal ripped
to knife edge, live wires, bloated arms reaching

for light. Her hair, scraped back into a ponytail,
is open to sky; remnants of buildings filter down
one concrete chunk at a time, and the midday bells
of rockets ring out above her. She carries a boy

on her still narrow hips, his legs entwined around
her yellow dungarees. Like a rodeo rider, his left arm
grips her shoulder to steady himself, or her,
while his torso reels back and away; his body

is asking to slow down, to turn back. Instead,
her eyes comb the ground for a next step, fingers
of her free hand curled into a claw, as if
to frighten off what she somehow sees ahead.

ALT

A Palestinian girl carries a child across rubble from a building that police said was destroyed by an Israeli air strike, in the Burij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, August 1, 2014. REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly.

Marjorie Lotfi's poem describes the picture in detail:

Picture of Girl and Small Boy (Burij, Gaza, 2014)
Marjorie Lotfi

I would like to tell her not to wear such flimsy shoes,
that rubble contains the whole spectrum of knowable
and unknowable dangers: sheets of metal ripped
to knife edge, live wires, bloated arms reaching

for light. Her hair, scraped back into a ponytail,
is open to sky; remnants of buildings filter down
one concrete chunk at a time, and the midday bells
of rockets ring out above her. She carries a boy

on her still narrow hips, his legs entwined around
her yellow dungarees. Like a rodeo rider, his left arm
grips her shoulder to steady himself, or her,
while his torso reels back and away; his body

is asking to slow down, to turn back. Instead,
her eyes comb the ground for a next step, fingers
of her free hand curled into a claw, as if
to frighten off what she somehow sees ahead.

ALT

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187d

Frae the broo o’ a brae I saw them gang,
I saw them hirple to a lanesome shore.
I saw them pass abune the ferly seals
Withouten keel and sail and oar…

—William Jeffrey, “The Refugees”
Published in A KIST O SKINKLAN THINGS (ASL, 2017)

20 June is World Refugee Day

https://asls.org.uk/publications/books/volumes/a-kist-o-skinlan-things/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Scots #Scotslanguage #WorldRefugeeDay #refugees #humanrights

William Jeffrey
The Refugees

‘Arise and flee into Egypt’

‘There’s a carline walkin’ the road ootby,
A body wi’ hair o’ the streekit snaw,
And an auld man daunders at her side,
A chiel that’s laggie and bent in twa.’

‘They maun be folk frae a fremit toun.
Bid them come in and bide a wee.’
Sae the carline and the auld man came
And supp’d guid brose anent the swee.

I speer’d the taen, and I speer’d the tither,
And scant the answer did I get—
But O, the licht in their eldren e’en
Shone frae some gouden unkenned yett.

Quo’ the carline frail, ‘There’s hame nae mair
In kintras raxt on the crookit sword’;
But the bodach murmured, ‘Nay, there’s hame
Where folks are free wi’ the kindly word.

‘Natheless,’ quo’ she, ‘gang west, my son,
Westlins to isles o’ Bride and the sea.’
Syne they rose and quaitlike went frae the door
And steppit west by the flowery lea.

Frae the broo o’ a brae I saw them gang,
I saw them hirple to a lanesome shore.
I saw them pass abune the ferly seals
Withouten keel and sail and oar.

I saw them gang in a siller glore,
Walkin’ the sea in’ a calm sae still—
The braid eard faulded like a rose
And Bethlehem gloss’d an island hill.

ALT

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165d

A #California #farmworker died on Friday from injuries sustained a day earlier when #US #immigration agents raided a cannabis operation & arrested hundreds of workers, according to a farmworker advocacy group.

Dozens of #ImmigrantRights activists faced off w/ #federal agents in rural Southern California on Thursday. It was the latest escalation of #Trump's campaign for #MassDeportations of immigrants in the US.

#law #HumanRights #ICE #Gestapo #PoliceBrutality
https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/one-california-worker-dead-hundreds-arrested-after-cannabis-farm-raid-2025-07-11/

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163d

Highlights from APC at the WSIS+20 Review High-Level Event: The moment to recalibrate internet governance

https://www.apc.org/en/node/40755/

#DigitalJusticeNow #CommunityNetworks #IGF2025 #InternetGovernance #humanrights #WSIS20

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182d

#DeathWorld / How Israel and the US create a "death world" breaking not only Gaza but the foundations of humanitarian law

[...] "today, the death world we know is Gaza."

Gaza has become a place where the conditions are so systematically destructive and dehumanizing that its inhabitants exist in a state between life and death - where normal human existence has been made impossible through deliberate policy.

Israel's systematic destruction of Gaza over 88 weeks that has killed nearly 56,000 Palestinians, including over 15,000 children, while displacing 1.9 million people are crimes.

Hansen shows how US officials privately acknowledged Israeli war crimes while publicly defending them. State Department resignees describe how the Biden administration ignored clear evidence of deliberate aid blocking and civilian targeting, with one official stating that Biden administration officials "completely forfeit any right to critique the Trump administration for lack of morals" after laying the groundwork for lawlessness.

Both governments have deliberately shattered the post-WWII international legal order, creating what the author calls a "death world" in Gaza through systematic violations of humanitarian law.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/israel-palestine-gaza-war-crimes-genocide.html or https://archive.ph/PGLFn#selection-1217.2-1225.11

@palestine
@israel
#Gaza #WarCrimes #Genocide #Palestine #ICJ #ICC #Biden #Netanyahu #HumanRights #GazaGenocide #EdithWyschogrod

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161d

#Rendition

The #Trump admin sent 5 immigrants from Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, Yemen & Cuba to #Eswatini, a small African nation, on Tuesday, resuming the practice of so-called third-country *#deportations* after #SCOTUS cleared the practice earlier this month, #DHS ofcls said.

The *deportations* were announced on social media by the agency on Tues evening.

#law #immigration #HumanRights
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/15/us/politics/trump-deportation-flights-eswatini.html?smid=url-share

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158d

Recent comic: It's time to update the old binaries.

#cartoon #comic #uspol #science #humanrights

TERMS for our TIMES

LET'S FACE IT: THESE OLD BINARIES HAVE BECOME TIRED AND VAGUE.

EVIDENCE-BASED vs. PSEUDO-SCIENTIFIC

CONSTITUTIONAL VS. UNCONSTITUTIONAL

CORRUPT VS. FAIR

IMAGINE IF THESE TERMS WERE INSERTED INTO TYPICAL HORSE RACE NEWS COVERAGE.

Anchorman: THE CONSTITUTION IS DOWN IN THE POLLS. CAN IT APPEAL TO SWING VOTERS?

TV reporter with Ice agent hauling away older woman in background: AND ANOTHER SETBACK FOR HUMAN RIGHTS TODAY.

Pundit: PSEUDOSCIENCE IS VERY POPULAR AND WILL BE KEY TO WINNING THE MIDTERMS.

Reporter: SOME SAY BARBARISM HAS BEEN WRONGLY EXCLUDED FROM OUR INSTITUTIONS.CONSERVATIVES VS. LIBERALS RIGHT VS. LEFT

DEMOCRATS VS. REPUBLICANS

MAYBE WE SHOULD TRY THESE INSTEAD:

AUTHORITARIANISM VS. DEMOCRACY

HUMAN RIGHTS VS. BARBARISM

ALT

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160d

Oh my god. This is huge news, Michael Farrell is a hugely experienced, authoritative, and tireless international human rights lawyer.

"Irish lawyer quits European rights body over silence on Gaza"

https://www.irishlegal.com/articles/irish-lawyer-quits-european-rights-body-over-silence-on-gaza

h/t @orladediez
via @irishlegalnews
cc @palestine

https://mastodon.ie/@orladediez/114864075532459058

#Gaza #WestBank #Palestine #CouncilOfEurope #ECHR #CoE #HumanRights #MastoDaoine

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159d

📚🇵🇸Another new book out Oct 7, 2025!
Gaza: The Story of a Genocide
by Fatima Bhutto

https://www.instagram.com/p/DMNw7J6uBZP/

#FreePalestine #humanrights #apartheid #palestine #gaza #westbank #endtheoccupation #sanctionisrael #genocide #fromtherivertothesea #books #palestinebooks
@israel @bookstodon

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145d

This week's net.wars, "Big Bang", finds a folk musician fighting to get back the rights over his long-ago recorded music, and chronicles the first week of age verification in the UK: https://netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/08/01/big-bang/ #NetWars #HumanRights #Copyright #FolkMusic #AgeVerification

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159d

In this week's net.wars, "Cautionary tales", I consider becoming a child for the purposes of age verification, and Substack becomes a unicorn. Dare we predict enshittification? https://netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/07/18/cautionary-tales/ #NetWars #OnlineSafetyAct #AgeVerification #Substack #VentureCapital #HumanRights

Edited 159d ago

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141d

"Israel is starving Gaza. It’s genocide. It’s a crime against humanity. It’s a war crime. I have been repeating it and repeating it and repeating it" - Michael Fakhri, UN special rapporteur on the right to food

"We have never seen a civilian population made to go so hungry so quickly and so completely, that is the consensus among starvation experts … Intentionally depriving people of food is clearly a war crime. Israel has announced its intention to destroy the Palestinian people, in whole or in part, simply for being Palestinian … this is now a situation of genocide." (quote from February 2024)

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/04/gaza-starvation-un-expert-michael-fakhri

#Gaza #Palestine #UnitedNations #food #famine #genocide #HumanRights

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156d

“The whole system is premised on commodifying human beings.”

From Sandy West in our magazine: In the aftermath of Roe v. Wade, adoptions are on the rise in #Texas. But some private foster care and adoption agencies may have crossed serious ethical lines. https://www.texasobserver.org/private-adoption-agencies-legal-custody-battles/

#RoeVWade #children #HumanRights #politics #USpol #Texas #adoption #news

Edited 156d ago

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177d

Up to 1 million Tibetan children are in state-run boarding schools. The schools are used to suppress the culture and language of peoples in the Tibetan regions of the PRC, according to a report by the Tibet Action Institute

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-30/tibet-boarding-schools-china-ccp-indoctrination-/105448622

#Tibet #China #HumanRights

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