Press Releases

Two weeks before the start of the Rio+20 Summit Mr. Kazumi Matsui, Mayor of Hiroshima and President of Mayors for Peace has added his signature to the [Rio+20 Appeal](http://www.inesglobal.com/Disarmament-for-Sustainable-Development.phtml) calling on governments to cut military spending in favor of sustainable development.

Well-known freelance journalist and blogger Ismail “Hilath” Rasheed was stabbed in the neck near his Malé home today and was rushed in a critical condition to the city’s ADK hospital where he underwent an operation and was then placed in an intensive care unit.

Faced with a crisis surrounding the uproar against the Quebec Government, started by the planned hike in tuition fees, the government has chosen to take the most cowardly and irresponsible route possible: it chose to push through a special law to to take away the rights of all citizens–not just students–to demonstrate.

On May 25th at around 11:30 a lawsuit was submitted to the Superior Court by the FEUQ and the FECQ to enable students to receive instruction from the institutions they attend, or the special law, deemed null and void immediately. This action is a temporary measure to avoid irreperable damages while the case is brought through the standard legal venues.

Bill 78 is an affront to basic freedoms that goes far beyond what is permissible under provincial, national, international human rights laws. What began as protests led by student groups over a proposed hike in tuition fees have expanded in size and focus in recent weeks, with more than 2,000 arrests being made. On 23 May close to 700 protesters were arrested in several cities.

Reports Without Borders strongly condemns the arrest by Israeli troops on 17 May in the West Bank of Baha Khairi Attalah Mousa, the director of the Palestinian Prisoner Channel, a satellite television station for Palestinian prisoners. The soldiers also seized broadcasting equipment, computers, video cameras and documents.

The Canadian Association of University Teachers is strongly condemning Quebec’s Bill 78, the law tabled in Quebec to end the 14-week student strike, for violating fundamental freedoms of association, assembly, and expression. Already, the bill has received strong criticism from the Quebec Bar Association, student groups, labour organizations, and civil liberties groups.

Radio journalist Alfredo Villatoro, kidnapped on his way to work last week, was found dead yesterday on the outskirts of Tegucigalpa six days after his abduction.

World Health Organisation releases groundbreaking report condemning ’conversion’ therapies. We reproduce here a Press Release from [IDAHO](http://www.dayagainsthomophobia.org/Media-Release-World-Health,1557) regarding today’s statment by the WHO on a form of violence against homosexuals based on unproven and harmful “therapeutic” interventions.

Discrimination and persecution of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people in South Africa and Cameroon must be halted, Amnesty International said as activists around the world mark the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia.

Instances of harassment, discrimination, persecution, violence and murders … (read more)…