Today's Fresh Blogs...

• JI-trained bombmaker or HSA victim?

  Published: August 7, 2007, 6:52 am

  Tags: Human Rights, In The News, Human Rights, Human Security Act, Jemaah Islamiyah, Karahudin Usman Talib, Philippines

  IS Karahudin Usman Talib a bombmaker trained by the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) or the first victim of the Human Security Act of 2007 (HSA or R.A. 9372)? Southern Police District (SPD) Chief Supt. Roberto Rosales said that Talib was the right-hand man of JI leader Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, and “Filipino extremist” Basit Usman, [...]

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• 0800-HOW-IS-MY-DIPLOMACY? Technology and humanitarian action

  Published: August 6, 2007, 5:47 am

  Tags: Humanitarian Impacts, Humanitarian Action, Disarmament As Humanitarian Action, Decision Making, Borrie, Human Security, Altruism, Civilians, Accountability

  technology is transforming humanitarian relief - and shifting the balance of power between donors and recipients.It all sounds great. But the Economist conceded that - beyond anecdotal evidence - there isn't a definitive verdict yet on how much of a difference such new technologies have made in achieving more effective humanitarian aid

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• Small arms: not a happy birthday

  Published: July 17, 2007, 3:51 am

  Tags: Ak 47, Kalashnikov, Small Arms, Borrie, Human Security, Arms Trade Treaty, Att

  this trafficking and its human costs, the non-result was hardly terminal because PoA implementation will continue.Moreover, last October the UN General Assembly voted through a resolution toward negotiation of an international Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). Earlier this year the UN Secretary-General began consultations with member states on its

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• Thinking Outside the Bomb: The Road From Oslo

  Published: September 19, 2007, 12:59 pm

  Tags: United Nations, Humanitarian Approaches, Civil Society, Ccw, Oslo Process, Cluster Munitions, Landmines, Borrie, Human Security, Anti Personnel Mines

  immediately the horrendous, humanitarian, human rights and development effects of cluster munitions by concluding a legally binding instrument of international humanitarian law that:- prohibits the use, development, production, stockpiling and transfer of cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians;- requires the destruction of

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• Re-humanize yourself: The Belgrade Conference of states affected by cluster munitions

  Published: October 5, 2007, 7:26 am

  Tags: Civil Society, Serbia, Humanitarian Impacts, Belgrade, Oslo Process, Humanitarian Action, Cluster Munitions, Borrie, Human Security, Anti Personnel Mines, Civilians, Affected States

  experts are among the unsung humanitarian heroes. Their work is tricky, often tense and - because rendering unexploded munitions safe is an art rather than a science - also sometimes unavoidably dangerous. Disposing of unexploded submunitions is one of the worst jobs because these weapons are anything but "duds": they're unpredictable,

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• Announcement: New Oslo Process resource website

  Published: October 8, 2007, 3:13 am

  Tags: Humanitarian Approaches, Ccw, Oslo Process, Cluster Munitions, Human Security, Lima

  Oslo Process to address the humanitarian effects of cluster munitions. You can find it at:http://www.clusterprocess.orgThe idea behind the website is to act as a gateway for information about the cluster munition humanitarian process for participants and interested actors. It's meant to be fact-oriented, up-to-date, and easy to access and

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• 30% less pupils in Helmand province

  Published: October 10, 2007, 3:28 am

  Tags: Non State Armed Groups, Mer Ay, Taliban, Irin, Education, Human Rights Watch, Helmand, School, Afghanistan, Human Security

  over the province []. Insecurity explains why most schools are shuttered in the Helmand province. In the past 15 months, according to Saeed Ibrar Agha, Taliban insurgents and other armed groups targeting schools as symbols of the government have burned down more than 20 schools and killed 17 students, teachers and other staff.The

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• Satellites of Love?

  Published: October 19, 2007, 5:48 am

  Tags: Civil Society, Darfur, Sudan, Fas, Violence, Armed Violence, Media Reports, Vertic, Accountability, Myanmar, Humanitarian Impacts, Genocide, Borrie, Human Security, Conflict

  actions, for instance for human rights violations or failure to protect civilians in conflict. In June of this year, for instance, Amnesty International launched a website in partnership with the University of California at Berkeley to keep watch over imperiled villages in the Darfur region of Sudan, and to post images online in order to

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• What do survivors think of cluster munitions?

  Published: October 22, 2007, 3:21 am

  Tags: Civil Society, Handicap International, Circle Of Impact, Fatal Footprint, Humanitarian Action, Cluster Munitions, Human Security, Affected States

  Oslo process to address the humanitarian impacts of cluster munitions in a way that responds to affected communities' needs. The project is born out of research on the human impact of cluster munitions that my organization, Handicap International, and our research partners conducted over the past two years (see Fatal Footprint and Circle of

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• Worldmapper

  Published: October 24, 2007, 3:33 am

  Tags: Statistics, Mer Ay, Fact Based Analysis, Visualization, Worldmapper, Nuclear Weapons, Landmines, Human Security, Casualties, Inequalities, War Deaths

  Dorling, Worldmapper: The Human Anatomy of a Small Planet, PLOS Medicine, January 2007, volume 4, issue 1, edition 1, freely available online.

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• The Hub, a YouTube for human rights

  Published: November 19, 2007, 3:46 am

  Tags: Footage, Witness, Mer Ay, The Hub, Human Rights, Film, Human Security

  in particular by uploading human rights related videos, images and audio files.These kinds of innovations are worth spreading and might inspire those in the disarmament and arms control community, especially those working in the field who have been witness to the practical consequences of human rights violations and related problems of human

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• Shall the geeks inherit the earth?

  Published: March 7, 2008, 4:07 am

  Tags: Civil Society, Wellington, Technology, Oslo Process, Patricia Lewis, Decision Making, Human Security, Diplomacy, Disarmament Insight

  on international issues of human concern. But there was disappointment when it seemed not to eventuate in other areas of international security. Is it now almost here, thanks to collaborative technologies of the Web 2.0? Or is it just in the Oslo Process? And are these new developments entirely good or bad? What do readers think?John

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• Mind the Gap!

  Published: May 14, 2008, 9:00 am

  Tags: Statistics, Npt, Global Warming, Ted Conference, Technology, Arms Control, Climate Change, Gapminder, Human Security, Hans Rosling

  has big implications for security, not so much of the traditional national kind, but of the human kind. In my view, it perhaps isn't any coincidence that some of the most violent societies on earth - think armed robbery, murder, illicit gun possession - are among the most socioeconomically unequal.Rosling raised another interesting point, one

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• Explosive issues

  Published: July 15, 2008, 3:44 am

  Tags: Human Violence, Convention On Cluster Munitions, Explosive Violence, Human Security, Edgerton, Civilians

  an article in International Security journal last year on "The Winning Weapon? Nuclear Weapons in Light of Hiroshima" - an interesting analysis that re-examines the widely-held presumption (which I also touched on my blog post) that nuclear weapons played a decisive role in winning the war in the Pacific. I'd been unaware of Ward's article, and

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