Human Rights Day.

On Human Rights Day, let us recommit to guaranteeing the fundamental freedoms and protecting the human rights of all. 
-- United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon



Read More: Human Rights Day.

Syrian Refugees Now, Jewish Refugees Then...

"...it is not necessary just to take the word of the Holocaust Museum that prejudice against Muslim refugees from Syria (and Iraq) today resembles the prejudice against Jewish immigrants which turned hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of desperate people trying to escape Nazi persecution away from our shores There is ample other evidence" (Algase, "Syrian Refugees Now, Jewish Refugees Then").


Algase, Roger. "Syrian Refugees Now, Jewish Refugees Then: Is There A Comparison? Pt. 3. Roger Algase". Immigration Law Blog, ILW.com. November 24, 2015. Web. November 25, 2015

Read More: Syrian Refugees Now, Jewish Refugees Then, Is There A Comparison?

“Building a wall across the entire Southwest border is not the answer”

DHS Secretary Johnson Discusses Border Security, Executive Action, Refugees and PEP. Article by Joshua Breisblatt. (ILW.com, published Nov 05, 2015. 3:36 pm)

Read More: http://discuss.ilw.com/content.php?5298-Article-DHS-Secretary-Johnson-Discusses-Border-Security-Executive-Action-Refugees-and-PEP-By-Joshua-Breisblatt

Birthright Citizenship. What It Is And Why We Need To Preserve It.

"...the “14^th Amendment is not just another immigration policy…It defines who we are as a nation” and “categorically rejects the notion that America is a country club led by elites who get to pick and choose who can become members.” (Marshall Fits cited by the author) (Article by Wendy Feliz, The Immigration Portal, ILW.com, August 24th, 2015).

Reed More: Birthright Citizenship What It Is and Why We Need to Preserve It. By Wendy Feliz.

Still Waiting for Immigration Reform.

"By bringing millions of people off the economic sidelines and putting them on a pathway to permanent status, S. 744 would have grown the national economy significantly. Reform would have added a cumulative $1.2 trillion to the economy, increasing all Americans’ overall income by $625 billion and creating an average of 145,000 jobs per year over a decade". (Article by Philip E. Wolgin, Center for American Progress, Issues: Immigration. June 24, 2015)

Reed More: 2 years later immigrants are still waiting on immigration reform/

Children Deserve A Specially Adapted Justice System.

Children's human rights claim for this overdue regulation to be done in many countries around the world. (By Gabriela Knaul, UN Special Rapporteur, United Nations News Centre, June 23, 2015).

Read More: A justice system that fails chldren, ultimately fails society

Social Injustice across the world.

"There are ever more images of border misery in media news reports and the situation will get worse before it gets better. But the route to progress will require the empowerment of people on the move, rather than their punishment as criminals". (Aticle By Don Flynn, June 8, 2015, Migrants Rights Network Org. UK) 

Read More: "Harwich, Calais, the Mediterranean Central America and Southeast Asia..."

Mr. Cameron's new crusade against "criminal" migrant wage-workers.

"...Many of these people will be brown, and some completely black, but since all will be very foreign the rest of us aren’t supposed to care very much. Score one for Mr Cameron and his ‘zero tolerance’ approach..." (By Don Flynn, Migrants Rights Network. May 26, 2015)

 Read More:Mr Cameron’s new crusade against ‘criminal’ migrant wage-workers

Mexican-American Border,What More Is Needed?

"The fact of the matter is that the border is more secure now than it has ever been. And yet some members of Congress continue to insist that the border is unsafe, and as such, that they will hold immigration reform hostage until we have secured the border. With more than $17 billion spent each year on immigration and border enforcement, this is not only a misguided approach but an expensive one as well".(Center for American Progress, Issues, Immigration. April 27, 2015)

Reed More: infographic, setting the record straight on immigration and border enforcement.

Remembering the Armenian Genocide.

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" said George Santayana.
The Armenian Genocide, still denied by many governments of the world, was the first manifestation of terror that characterized the 20th Century.
The Ucranian Holodomor, The Jewish Holocaust, the bloody Latin American dictatorships, are just a sample of what the human being is capable of doing when he does not remember his history.

Reed More: Remembering the Armenian Genocide.

Human Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Persons with disabilities also have born free and equal in dignity and rights. 

"The protection guaranteed in other human rights treaties, and grounded in the Universal Declaracion of Human Rights, should apply to all. Persons with disabilities have, however, remained largely "invisible", often side-lined in the rights debate and unable to enjoy the full range of human rights". (ohchr.org, United Nations).

Read More: Human rights of persons with disabilities.

Migration and Human Rights.

"Human rights violations against migrants, including denial of access to fundamental economic and social rights such as the right to education or the right to health, are often closely linked to discriminatory laws and practice, and to deep-seated attitudes of prejudice and xenophobia against migrants". ("ohchr.org/your human rights/Migration". Office of High Commisioner for Human Rights, United Nations). 

Read More: Migration and Human Rights.

Immigrants Have Fascinating Powers!

"And so where are these tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands – in fact millions – of migrant heroes?  IOM wants to find them and pay homage to them, for without migrants, the wheels would stop turning". (By Niurka Pineiro, IOM, Washington). 

Read more:   "Immigrants have fascinating powers..."

Let's stop human trafficking!!

The International Organization for Migration develops programs for human trafficking prevention, protection of victims (survivors) and general information for the correct understanding of global migration. 

Human trafficking is a "business opportunity" caused by two essential ingredients: One of them is the extreme poverty, social violence, or other conditions that make life impossible for the human being in his or her country of origin; the second ingredient consist in the restrictive laws that close the borders to the free exercise of the right to migrate. 

This situation forces the migrants to seek alternative routes of escape, taking the risk of being captured by criminal groups for which they are a simple commodity offered in the market of prostitution, illegal organ trafficking, drug trafficking and organized crime groups. 

Read More: Counter-trafficking.

Knocking Down the Abstract U.S. Border.

"...Since this case, more than half of the federal circuit courts have agreed with its findings. As a result, most immigrants in the U.S. who are deported are now able to file a motion to reopen even after they are forcibly removed from the country". (Carter E (2014) Knocking Down the Abstract U.S. Border. Available at: http://bordercriminologies.law.ox.ac.uk/knocking-down-the-border/ (Consulted in February  2015).

Read more: Knocking down the abstract U.S. border.

Some Possible Business For The New Merchandise Called "Migrants"

Trafficking, smuggling, extortion, private detention centers, just some possible business for the new merchandise called "migrants".

Reed more: IOM Monitors Italy arrivals during a busy smuggling week in Meditarranean.

Restrictive Immigration Policies Tending To Fail.

"The record of both Labour and Coalition governments show that restrictive immigration policies don't achieve the set objectives, though they do make life much harder for migrants..."

By Don Flynn, Migrant's Rights Network, Director in mrn blog, January 12, 2015.

Read more: Why restrictive immigration policies tend fail and some ideas what alternative might...

We Still Have a Dream!

Immigration is about human dignity and the nobility of parents of different tribes and nations facing the risk of coming to a foreign land, a land of opportunity, to work for a better tomorrow for their children…Dr. King invoked the truth, the truth being that all humans ought to be treated with a certain dignity. It would be natural for us to look to him as an example for fighting for a just cause. (Article written by Seth Hoy, in American Immigration Council Blog, Immigration Impact, January 18 of 2010).


Read More: Dr. Matin Luther King, Jr, and the Intersection of Immigration and Civil Rights

Have Human Rights Treaties Failed?

To say that human rights treaties are too ambitious and even utopian, and that it overwhelms  governments with obligations that they can’t possibly keep, is like inviting the disobedience of every law which is arduous for us to compliance.
In fact, international law does not create fundamental rights but it just recognize them as existing. That is to say, human rights already exist in each person, they are inherent to human nature. Human rights are prior and superior to the positive law system.
The idea of discarding all international treaties dealing with human rights as suggested by Professor Posner does not make sense, because human rights would survive any attack.
Otherwise, the State as a political institution justifies its existence on respect, promotion and defense of human rights within their jurisdiction. Like Jacques Maritain said long ago, "The State is for man and not the man for the State ".
Certainly justice is an arduous good especially in our times, but to resign the search for a just social order is to deny the very reason of law.

(Debate between Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch and Eric Posner, Professor of Law at the University of Chicago. Source: The New York Times , The Opinion Pages, " Room For Debate" December 28, 2014 ).

Read more: Have Human Rights Treaties Failed?