08Sep 2015 by peacepeople

MAIREAD MAGUIRE APPEALS TO UK GOVERNMENT TO TALK TO SYRIAN GOVERNMENT AND ISLAMIC MILITANTS, IN ORDER TO HELP SOLVE MIDDLE EAST CRISIS OF REFUGEES

Press Releases, Syria
Nobel Peace Laureate, Mairead Maguire, today called upon the UK Government to move from military proposals, such as bombing in Syria, to humanitarian solutions in tackling one of the greatest tragedies of human suffering, to face Europe since the Second World War, i.e. the refugee crisis. The arrival of thousands of refugees and migrants from middle east and African countries into Europe, many of whom have died on the journey, forces us to ask ‘how can they be helped immediately’,? Why are they fleeing their countries,? and how can the root cause of the problem be solved.? Bombing of Syria, as proposed by the UK Prime Minister will only force more refugees to flee Syria taking extraordinary risks with their lives in order to find some security and safety from…
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09Jul 2014 by peacepeople

Nobel Peace Laureates encourage cooling-off policy for HRW associates & urge removal of ex-NATO head Javier Solana from HRW board

Syria
While we welcome your stated commitment to Human Rights Watch's independence and credibility, we are dismayed by your rejection of our common-sense suggestion for strengthening them: bar those who have crafted or executed U.S. foreign policy from serving as HRW staff, advisors or board members—or, at a bare minimum, mandate lengthy “cooling-off” periods before and after any associate moves between HRW and the foreign-policy divisions of the U.S. government. Before addressing your letter’s objections to the three instances of HRW’s advocacy that suggest a conflict of interest, we would like to reiterate that they were “limited to only recent history,” and that other cases could have been raised as well. One obvious example of HRW's failure to appropriately criticize U.S. crimes occurred after the 2004 coup d’état against the democratically…
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