HUMAN RIGHTS

Photo: UN Secretary-General António Guterres attends the High Level Segment of the 43rd Regular Session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva. Credit: UN Photo/Violaine Martin

UN Chief Launches Call to Action at Boosting Equality

By Jamshed Baruah

GENEVA (IDN) – During the 75th anniversary year of the United Nations, "because of the centrality of human rights in all UN does, and because human rights are under assault", UN Secretary-General António Guterres has launched a Call to Action aimed at boosting equality and reducing suffering everywhere.

"Human rights are our ultimate tool to help societies grow in freedom," he told Member States on the opening day of the UN Human Rights Council’s 43rd session on February 24 in Geneva.

: Jamshed Baruah; UN INSIDER; 24 February 2020

Photo: President George H.W. Bush with Jerry Falwell. Credit: Liberty University

America's Christian Right, Republicans and Donald Trump – 5

Viewpoint by John Newsinger*

This is the fifth of a six-part article originally published in International Socialism under the title The Christian right, the Republican Party and Donald Trump. Click here for part four of the series. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of IDN-InDepth News.

LONDON (IDN) – Pat Robertson, whose Christian Broadcasting Network in many ways led the field and who was to establish the Christian Coalition, found faith healing an extremely useful way to generate donations (all tax free). He regularly cured disabilities, both health and financial, on the TV, as noted by James Randi in ‘The Faith Healers’:

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 24 February 2020

Photo: Evangelical prayer rally in Washington, D.C., in 2008. Credit: Creative Commons

America's Christian Right, Republicans and Donald Trump – 4

Viewpoint by John Newsinger*

This is the fourth of a six-part article originally published in International Socialism under the title The Christian right, the Republican Party and Donald Trump. Click here for part three of the series. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of IDN-InDepth News.

LONDON (IDN) – According to Craig Unger, the evangelical churches fill the "real or perceived needs of tens of millions of Americans". They lived in "an elaborate, fully developed evangelical counterculture that utilised all the marketing tools of the modern world".

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 23 February 2020

Photo: Baxter with her kids before they fell victim to the brutality of her husband. Source: Internet.

Epidemic of Domestic Violence Shocks Australia

By Kalinga Seneviratne

SYDNEY (IDN) —The gruesome murder of a 31-year-old mother Hannah Clarke and her three small children aged 6, 4 and 3 years, by her estranged 42-year-old husband Rowan Baxter, a former footballer, has shocked the nation and brought into the spotlight an epidemic of domestic violence in Australia that has gone largely unchecked for years. It has also got Australians questioning the attitude of men towards women with their greater tendency towards violence against women.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 22 February 2020

Photo: Fundamentalist Jerry Falwell, founder of the Moral Majority, a political-action organisation to mobilise religious conservatives, with President Ronald Reagan. Credit: Salon.com

America’s Christian Right, Republicans and Donald Trump – 3

Viewpoint by John Newsinger*

This is the third of a six-part article originally published in International Socialism under the title The Christian right, the Republican Party and Donald Trump. Click here for part two of the series. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of IDN-InDepth News.

LONDON (IDN) – Graham was, according to one of his biographers, by this time, “something like an extra officer in Nixon’s cabinet, the administration’s own Pastor-without- Portfolio”. Or as the left-wing journalist I. F. Stone put it, he was Nixon’s “smoother Rasputin, dishing out saccharine religiosity”.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 21 February 2020

Photo: Collage of Biram Dah Abeid from Mauritania and Shaparak Shajarizadeh of Iran.

Mauritanian Anti-Slavery and Iranian Women Rights Activist Presented Awards

By Jamshed Baruah

GENEVA (IDN) – Biram Dah Abeid, a descendant of former slaves who has been called "the Nelson Mandela of Mauritania", and Shaparak Shajarizadeh, a prominent Iranian women's rights activist have been honoured for their courage to fight gross violations of human rights

Abeid, founder of the Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement (IRA), has mobilized tens of thousands of Mauritanians to protest slavery and the government's failure to apply anti-slavery laws.

: Jamshed Baruah; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 20 February 2020

Photo: Evangelical preacher Billy Graham, one of the key figures in the religious revival of the 1950s and beyond. Credit: Billy Graham Evangelistic Association

America's Christian Right, Republicans and Donald Trump – 2

Viewpoint by John Newsinger*

This is the second of a six-part article originally published in International Socialism under the title The Christian right, the Republican Party and Donald Trump. Click here for part one of the series. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of IDN-InDepth News.

LONDON (IDN) – And this was just one campaign. The American Legion, the veterans’ organisation which in 1952 claimed more than 2.7 million members, launched its own "Back to God" campaign, helping equip the country to combat the threat of atheistic communism.

: Phil Harris; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 20 February 2020

Photo: Presidential and legislative elections in DR Congo. Credit: Africa Renewal.

2020 Is Election Season Across Africa

By Franck Kuwonu, Africa Renewal

NEW YORK (IDN) – Voters across the continent will be heading to the ballot box this year to choose their leaders in presidential, parliamentary and local elections ending with Ghana in December.

Comorians will be electing a new 33-member national assembly following presidential elections in 2019 while Ghanaians will select their parliamentarians and president on 7 December.

: Africa Renewal; THE WORLD; Africa; 20 February 2020

Photo credit: Illustration by Marco Ventura for Rolling Stone

America's Christian Right, Republicans and Donald Trump – 1

Viewpoint by John Newsinger*

This is the first of a six-part article originally published in International Socialism under the title The Christian right, the Republican Party and Donald Trump. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of IDN-InDepth News.

LONDON (IDN) – Donald Trump was elected to the United States presidency in 2016 by the votes of the Christian right. Some 81 percent of evangelical Christians, who made up a third of the total electorate, voted for him.

: Phil Harris; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 19 February 2020

Photo: Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald (centre) with former leader Gerry Adams on the Irish border. Credit: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

What Sinn Féin’s Election Success Means for Irish Relations with the EU and Brexit

Viewpoint by Mary C. Murphy*

CORK, Ireland (IDN) – Ireland’s traditionally centre-right conservative political system has been rocked by a wave of support for Sinn Féin in the February 8 general election. The previously small left-wing republican party, with historic links to the paramilitary Provisional Irish Republican Army, now has legitimate ambitions to form part of the next Irish government in coalition with other parties.