Tag: human rights

Russia’s withdrawal from the Council of Europe is a loss of hope for human rights

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March 23, Jeffrey Kahn, law professor at SMU Dallas Dedman School of Law, for a commentary explaining why Russia exiting the Council of Europe is a blow to human rights initiatives in the region. Published in the Dallas Morning News with the heading: Russia’s withdrawal from the Council of Europe is a loss of hope for human rights: https://bit.ly/3L5rMGn or https://perma.cc/T4S3-LEV2 

The last light that kindled hope for Russia to be included within Europe burned out last week. Russia withdrew from the Council of Europe. This decision, coinciding with the council’s decision to terminate Russian membership with an eye toward expulsion, is much graver than widely understood.

This is no mere diplomatic rift. It is the snuffing out of hope not only for millions of Russians, but for hundreds of millions of Europeans whose countries remain members of an organization that emerged from the embers of Europe’s last horrible conflagration.

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Putin’s vile bid to erase the Jewish sacrifice in Ukraine

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March 6, Rick Halperin, director of the SMD Dallas Human Rights Program, for a piece criticizing Russia for attempts to erase The Ukriane’s Jewish heritage and sacrifice during war. Published in the Austin American-Statesman under the heading Putin’s vile bid to erase the Jewish sacrifice in Ukraine: https://bit.ly/370FY4x 

Much of the world remains captivated and appalled at the Russian invasion of Ukraine; the unprovoked attack promises to bring much more suffering, tragedy and death to its people, and possibly its president, Volodymyr Zelensky.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated that he wants to “de-Nazify” Ukraine, a vile and outrageous statement especially given that President Zelensky is Jewish. During World War II, Ukraine was a major area of fighting, death and genocide. Two-and-a-half million soldiers were killed in Ukraine between 1941-1944, and 4.5 million civilians were killed there in the same timeframe. The 7 million deaths constituted almost 11 % of the country’s pre-war population, a figure exceeded only by Poland’s loss of 19.6 % of its population during WWII.

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Seven Years from the “Day of Infamy” to “Human Rights Day”

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Eleanor Roosevelt

 

Dec. 12, Rick Halperin, director of the Human Rights Program at SMU Dallas, for a piece challenging Americans to remember the December WWII dates of the Pearl Harbor bombing and the institution of Human Rights Day seven years later. Published in History News Network under the heading Seven Years from the “Day of Infamy” to “Human Rights Day”:  https://bit.ly/3gN3rqF

​This month has provided us with two historical dates that should give us pause to reflect on one  world fading into memory as another is still being determined.

Monday, December 7 was the 79th anniversary of the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, the singular event that brought this country into World War II.  Thursday, December 10, 1948 was a bookend of a sort: one of the results of the war was the inaugural International Human Rights Day.

This month our news broadcasts interview former U.S. soldiers and sailors who had been stationed in Hawaii at Pearl Harbor, then as young men in their late teens and early ‘20s. They visually remind us that their generation is passing away, and that soon there will be no one left to talk about that era from firsthand experience.

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