July 2007 - Page 4 of 4 - Toward Freedom

Prison City: The New Walls of Baghdad

Dan Read July 4, 2007 Dan Read

In 2003, the combined forces of the UK/US coalition stormed into Iraq, unleashing perhaps the most profound political and humanitarian crisis of our time. Four years later, the war to reassert Anglo/American dominance in the Middle East has become a brutal conflict with mounting casualties, sectarian violence, and religious and ethnic unrest. Unwilling to admit defeat, the occupation forces have developed a strategy to seal off entire Baghdad communities with the construction of dividing walls interspaced with entry points guarded by heavily armed soldiers.

Children Under Fire in Ugandan Conflict

Nash Riggins July 4, 2007 Nash Riggins

In the small African country of Uganda it has been estimated that over 25,000 children have been abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a group of militants that has plagued the Acholi region of Northern Uganda for over twenty years. The children that have been abducted are often forced to participate in the torturing and killing of fellow child captives and members of their own family.

Pirates in Paradise: Reviews of Seven Books for Summer Reading

Benjamin Dangl July 2, 2007 Benjamin Dangl

Statistics show that across the globe over one billion people stare into computer screens at internet websites each day. This means that it's now more rebellious than ever to read a book. Here are seven reasons to leave the computer screen and read about pirate governments, a rainbow gathering in Croatia, coup d'etats in hot climates, media coverage of cults in Waco and counter-revolution in Nicaragua.

UN Human Rights Council: One Year’s Record, Lights and Shadows

Rene Wadlow July 2, 2007 Rene Wadlow

The United Nations Human Rights Council has just finished at the end of June 2007 its first year as the new human rights framework. The Council replaced the UN Commission on Human Rights, which was a subsidiary body of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). When the UN Charter was being drafted in the early months of 1945, no one expected that human rights would come to play such a large role in the UN's work.