20 yr old Christian Man Tortured in Pakistan Jail?

Rights Group in Pakistan Seeks Answers on Christian’s Death - NYTimes.com
Prominent Human Rights group sources allege that a 20 yr old young Christian man was found dead in his cell with evidence of torture found on his body. Christians are a minority in Pakistan being a Muslin dominated state. The man's death is under investigation. According to the report from NY Times.com:
"Mr. Fanish was arrested on Saturday in the village of Jathikai and charged with blasphemy, a controversial statute often used against minorities in Pakistan, human rights groups say. A Muslim family accused him of "desecrating a Koran", but his local supporters said the family claimed he had been "admiring their daughter."

Furthermore according to the Times:

"The police said Mr. Fanish had hanged himself in his cell, using a strip of material ripped from his clothing. The Joint Action Committee for People’s Rights, an alliance of more than 30 human rights groups, said in a statement it had talked to witnesses who saw marks of torture on his body.

The group said evidence in the case “raises strong suspicion of the involvement of the jail officials” in Mr. Fanish’s death.

Ms. Jahangir said local politicians often collude with attackers, covering up their crimes, partly out of a deep-seated prejudice against minorities — Christians and Ahmadis, a minority sect in Islam — and out of a reflexive sympathy with other Muslims."

Apparently, we will quite possibly not get to the bottom of this, but maybe there is a chance. There is a strong coalition of Human Rights groups "The Joint Action Committee For Peoples Rights "on it" so we will see how they manage. Let us just hope that this young man's family receives some sort of justice for whatever happened to there son in that Pakistani jail cell for "blasphemy against a Koran". Please, is this really a trumped up way of getting rid of non-believers of anything other than the Muslim faith?

William

United Nations Radio: The US joins the UN Human Rights Council.

United Nations Radio: The US joins the UN Human Rights Council.
This link will of course take you to the sound clip of this monumental occasion; that being the US announcement that came as of yesterday! The US will no longer "observe" but were to become members "officially" of the United Nations Human Rights Council. Politically this is a SIGNIFICANT step for the US.
As an "observer" basically the US has stood by its sovereignty not to be "bound" by customary or international human rights legislation "per say" as the United Nations had previously interpreted it to be. Thus the term "observer" status. This official union by way of this announcement is not to be taken lightly by the rest of the world community-or the US itself; and has tremendous political and legal human rights implications .

Personally my gut feeling is that every Human Rights NGO on this planet, likely is standing on there feet applauding the American decision to get on-board with the United Nations, while also putting aside past differences with them, on other unrelated issues. This will definitely further champion the human rights effort!~

I could not be happier to hear this announcement! I do believe the new and most recent developments (see recent post)at Bagram AFB is a testimony to the United States commitment to human rights, and the new administrations renewed philosophy.

I really applaud President Obama for allowing this to go forward and I am sure that so do many many others worldwide!

William

New Rights; for "old" Afghan Detainees

VOA News - New Rights for Afghan Detainees

Straight from Washington D.C., Voice of America published this report which some may say what the heck? We do not want another "Gitmo" on our hands!! Perhaps its time we make sure that does not happen again. Apparently, the government has stood up and taken notice. Whats happened is that officially, each detainee at
Bagram Air Base is now going to be appointed a representative to represent them before a military commission when they are detained. According to Voice of America:

"The officials would not be lawyers, but would, for the first time, gather evidence and witnesses to help the detainees dispute their detention before a military-appointed review board.

Some of those being held at Bagram have been there for as long as six years.

Unlike detainees at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba, those in Afghanistan have had no access to attorneys, no right to hear the allegations against them and only basic reviews of their status as "enemy combatants."

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman says each detainee will now have the right to be heard within 60 days of his arrival at the center.

"It is basically a review procedure that insures people go in front of a panel periodically, very early on in their detention, and then periodically to give them the opportunity to contest their detention [and] for an assessment to be made as to whether or not they warrant being held," Whitman said."

This is good from a human rights perspective. Its true there are some very very bad people being held at that detention center, but how can we hold the world responsible for human rights, when we do not hold the standards ourselves; this is only logical because the rest of the world watches the US very closely.

William