Human Rights

The mayor of a New Jersey town has refused to comply with Japanese officials' request to remove a public memorial dedicated to Korean women who were used as sex slaves by Japanese military forces during WWII.

The officials visited the New Jersey town of Palisades Park, home to some 20,000 residents of Korean decent, earlier this month to ask the city to remove its public memorial paying tribute to women abused by Japanese forces during WWII as "comfort women."

"In memory of more than 200,000 women and girls who were abducted by the armed forces of the government of imperial Japan. Known as 'comfort women,' they endured human rights violations that no peoples should leave unrecognized. Let us never forget the horrors of crimes against humanity," the plaque dedicated to the thousands of women who faced forced prostitution reads. more >>

Nonprofit organization Save the Children has released its 13th annual State of the World's Mother's report highlighting the best and worst countries in the world to be a mother, with Niger and Norway populating opposite ends of the list.

At the bottom of the Mother's Index list, which is based on various indicators of maternal and child health and well-being, Niger has replaced Afghanistan for the first time in two years as the worst country in the world to be a mother. Norway, however, maintained its top spot as the best country to be a mother.

The report highlighted stark realities with regards to women and childbirth, noting that over half of all births around the world are not attended by skilled health personnel, one in seven children die before their fifth birthday, and eight out of 10 women are likely to suffer the loss of a child during their lifetime. more >>

A court in an underdeveloped southwestern province of Iran has sentenced four men to death by hanging for committing "sodomy," according to a recent report by the Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA).

The men, Javid Akbari, Saadat Arefi, Vahid Akbari, and Houshmand Akbari come from the remote town of Choram in Iran's southwestern Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province and could be hung within days, the HRANA report suggests.

The Christian Post reached out to Human Rights Watch to discuss the case and although the organization has not yet been able to independently verify the sentencing, Faraz Sanei, a Middle East and North Africa Division researcher at HRW, told CP that HRANA's claims are probable under the current climate in the country. more >>

Former Serbian General Ratko Mladic's war crimes trial began on Wednesday at the U.N. court in the Hague, Netherlands, where a tribunal is accusing him of crimes against humanity.

Mladic is the last suspect from the 1992-1995 Bosnia war that left 100,000 people dead, including 8,000 Muslim men who were targeted specifically because of their ethnicity. For his leadership role during the genocide, Mladic, believed to be an Orthodox Christian like most Serbs, became known as "the Butcher of Bosnia."

When the former general entered court on Wednesday, however, he gave a thumbs-up and clapped to supporters, The Associate Press reported. As Mladic heard the long list of accusations read against him, he reportedly showed no emotion. more >>

The Washington National Cathedral will be dedicating a new statue to late civil and human rights icon Rosa Parks.

A statue of the Alabama-born Parks will be formally installed on the cathedral's Human Rights Porch on Thursday with a dedication ceremony of evening prayer songs by the Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys to celebrate.

The Human Rights Porch at the Washington National Cathedral is dedicated to "those who struggle to bring equality and social justice to all people," according to the cathedral website. more >>

Underground Christians in China were among those who helped a blind Chinese human rights activist, Chen Guangcheng, escape after four years in prison and 18 months under house arrest.

It was Christian activist Bob Fu who reached Chen by cellphone while at a Capitol Hill hearing and let him make his appeal for passage to the U.S. directly to lawmakers, Reuters reported Friday, about a week after Chen's dramatic escape came to light.

"Chen Guangcheng isn't a Christian, but we Chinese Christians pray for all those in pursuit of the truth," Zhang Mingxuan, a house church pastor from central province of Henan, stated, according to the news agency. Activist and lawyer Chen's case, the pastor added, "has been a blow for China's legal and government officials." more >>