Nicole Hughes
July 18, 2008 | 11:44 am EST
As part of the celebration for the 60th Anniversary of International Human Rights Day on Wednesday, I’m making this a week long holiday! And, today I am excited to tell you about another one of my favorite organizations, Human Rights First (we worked closely with the group for our film, Standard Operating Procedure, about Abu Ghraib.) Yes, the name is a bit ironic because shouldn’t human rights always be first? I know this is obvious, but unfortunately, it’s not always true. Whether its sanctioned abuses by our government or others, Human Rights First (HRF) is leading efforts to stop these human rights abuses and hold perpetrators accountable.
I wrote yesterday about the work of Physicians for Human Rights to end US torture practices. HRF is also intimately involved in this work, though from a different perspective (and this issue needs to be addressed from as many angles as possible). And, as always, they require your involvement to make these changes happen!
takepart to sign their petition, “I Do Not Support Torture.” Join with thousands of others to ensure that the Obama Administration follows up on its campaign promise to close Guantanamo and end the use of torture.
Their “Prime Time Torture” campaign seeks to change how torture is portrayed in movies and television. Their documentation shows that torture is used much more widely now and that “good” American characters often engage in torture practices. Instead, torture should be shown in a more nuanced light for what it really is and should not be shown as a patriotic tool. takepart with HRF’s Prime Time Torture to find out how you can help to change the portrayal of torture in Hollywood.
The work of HRF is critical to renewing the founding values of our nation that ensure human rights protections. While these have been eroded over the past eight years by Bush Administration policies, I’m confident that the ongoing work of groups like HRF, in combination with the efforts by the American public, will help to fully restore our commitment to being a leader in protecting human rights at home and around the world.
(Photo: Steve Rhodes, Creative Commons)
The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Check out some of our most popular stories of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites!
TakePart Gang:
Sudan Leader Charged with Genocide: What Are the Reactions? by Wendy Cohen
Inconvenient Truth of the Day: Al Gore Speaks on Climate Change by Joshua Tremblay
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Nicole Hughes:
“Farms in the Sky” a Solution to Global Food Crisis?
Wal-Mart Launches Eco-Bling Project
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NYC To Bring in 300 Hybrid Taxis Per Month
Coolio To Educate Students On Climate Change
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Jon Popham:
Pickens’ Plan for Energy Independence
On “Rent” Closing, the East Village, and Gentrification
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Gina Telaroli:
Batman Morals: Top 5 Lessons from the Capped Crusader’s Films
“Rent” the Broadway musical portraying the bohemian life in NYC’s East Village in the early 1990’s is closing this September. This passing in the cultural life of the city and an article in today’s New York Times examining the changes that have occurred in New York City since the times the show was set in have me reflecting on my own tenure in the Big Apple.
I should start by saying I never saw “Rent“. I’m not much for musicals and in fact have never seen a single one since I moved to New York in 1994 for college. But what I’ve shared with Jonathan Larson’s bohemian epic is a neighborhood: the East Village. A neighborhood that has constantly changed since my arrival in New York City at a speed I never dreamed possible for a piece of land. The East Village intimately introduced me to gentrification, a force that has been a constant throughout my adult life, and a fitting associate, seeing how I fast realized after moving into the area that I was a gentrifier.
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As the election draws nearer it’s becoming more and more important to encourage everyone to vote this go around.
In regards to the youth vote, The Nation has an interesting piece up about the influence of Rock the Vote on the election this year:
While RTV held the biggest name brand in youth politics, youth turnout declined in 1996 and 2000, and a lot of political minded folks concluded that Rock the Vote wasn’t getting the job done. As described in [the] book, Youth to Power, the vacuum left in youth organizing by the failures of Rock the Vote in part inspired the boom in youth organizing that occurred between 2003 and 2007.
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Andy Kondrat:
