Human Rights for People with Disabilities. A Librarian at Every Table. No. 313.

On 20 April 2004, the Commission on Human Rights adopted a new resolution “HUMAN RIGHTS OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES”

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights report provides background for action.

Human Rights and Disability



The rights-based approach to disability essentially means viewing persons with disabilities as subjects of law. Its final aim is to empower disabled persons, and to ensure their active participation in political, economic, social, and cultural life in a way that is respectful and accommodating of their difference.

Established in 1993, Mental Disability Rights International (MDRI) documents conditions, publishes reports on human rights enforcement, and promotes international oversight of the rights of people with mental disabilities. Drawing on the skills and experience of attorneys, mental health professionals, human rights advocates, people with mental disabilities and their family members, MDRI trains and supports advocates seeking legal and service system reform and assists governments to develop laws and policies to promote community integration and human rights enforcement for people with mental disabilities.

Please see here: Library Services for People with Disabilities Policy

This Green Life. A Librarian at Every Table. No. 312.

This Green Life, the latest National Resources Defense Council newsletter on sustainability looks at disposable cameras.

The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is the nation's most effective environmental action organization. We use law, science and the support of more than 1 million members and online activists to protect the planet's wildlife and wild places and to ensure a safe and healthy environment for all living things. The NRDC has several online newsletter and you can subscribe.

"Torture and Global Efforts to Combat It"-Human Rights Day, 2005. A Librarian at Every Table. No. 311.

"Torture and Global Efforts to Combat It"
HUMAN RIGHTS DAY
10 DECEMBER 2005.

"Let us be clear: torture can never be an instrument to fight terror, for torture is an instrument of terror. [...]
Today, on Human Rights Day, let us recommit ourselves to the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and let us rededicate ourselves to wiping the scourge of torture from the face of the earth."
Kofi Annan,
United Nations Secretary-General.

"Human rights are our common heritage
and their realization depends on the contributions
that each and every one of us is willing to make,
individually and collectively, now and in the future."
Louise Arbour
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
END TORTURE NOW!

The Office for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Library aims to provide comprehensive and efficient information and reference services to OHCHR partners, UN human rights mechanisms and experts, and OHCHR staff. The OHCHR Library serves the international community but is also open to interested professionals outside the Organization (see OHCHR Library rules and regulations for more information).
Its collections cover a wide range of human rights issues either in hard copy or electronic format. The OHCHR Library, which also integrates a resource collection on human rights education and training, is linked with UN and other major libraries and research institutions around the world, providing users with on-line search and reference services.

Librarians and Human Rights: A Seminar

A Just Minimum Wage. A Librarian at Every Table. No. 310.

A new report commissioned by the American Friends Service Committee and the National Council of Churches calls on Congress to raise the minimum wage. A Just Minimum Wage: Good for Workers, Business and Our Future, by Holly Sklar and the Rev. Dr. Paul H. Sherry.
The report emphasizes that "A job should keep you out of poverty, not keep you in it... Raising the minimum wage is a moral imperative for the very soul of our nation."

Human Rights Watch-List of “Ghost Prisoners” Possibly in CIA Custody. A Librarian At Every Table. No. 310.

List of “Ghost Prisoners” Possibly in CIA Custody
“Ghost detainees” -- detainees who are not given any legal rights or access to counsel, and who are likely not reported to or seen by the International Committee of the Red Cross. The list is compiled from media reports, public statements by government officials, and from other information obtained by Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch does not consider this list to be complete: there are likely other “ghost detainees” held by the United States.

Under international law, enforced disappearances occur when persons are deprived of their liberty, and the detaining authority refuses to disclose their fate or whereabouts, or refuses to acknowledge their detention, which places the detainees outside the protection of the law. International treaties ratified by the United States prohibit incommunicado detention of persons in secret locations.