Human Rights Watch's 'finite resources'
It seems that 'Human Rights Watch' is having a little trouble finding Mauritania on the map.The Islamic Republic of Mauritania is quite notorious, however for human rights violations. The government only criminalized slavery in 2007 and the enslavement of the black African population there remains rampant (estimates put the number around 600,000). A cached version of what appears to have been at one time HRW’s “Mauritania” page only lists two publications– one from 2003 and one from 2001 – and neither of these address slavery. Its only report documenting the repression of Mauritania’s black population by white “Moor” rulers dates back to 1994 – FIFTEEN YEARS ago. Even Amnesty International has several reports from 2008 on the systematic torture that is routine in the country.I wonder why they can't get the Saudis to give them more resources. Maybe because the Saudis are only interested in having them probe Israel.
Hmmm….Twenty Eight statements (and counting) in six months lobbying for the Goldstone mission and Zero reports on slavery in Mauritania in fifteen years? I guess the slaves of Mauritania will continue to suffer because as Ken Roth admitted in an interview in the Tablet, “’Why are we more concerned about the [Gaza] war rather than on other rights abuses?’ Well, we’ve got to pick and choose-we’ve got finite resources.”
Heh.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:52 AM
2 Comments:
There are only so many human rights violations crying out for attention but only the Jews are the most heavily scrutinized people on the planet. That says more about HRW than it says about the Jews.
"I wonder why they can't get the Saudis to give them more resources."
Well, that's because the Saudis support and indulge in slavery themselves. Wouldn't want to have a report that might shine a light on their human rights abuses as well, would we?
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