Category Archives: Transhuman News

Editor's Note: The Kyiv Post is not publishing the most graphic videos of human rights abuses and war crimes allegedly committed by the Kremlin-backed fighters waging war in eastern Ukraine.

Extremely graphic video and photographic material appeared on a number of Kremlin-backed separatist websites showing evidence of torture and evidence of war crimes being committed against captured Ukrainian soldiers.

Kremlin mercenaries, often led by the Russian army, have seized more ground in the eastern Donbas region in recent takes, taking over the Donetsk Airport and a Ukrainian forces checkpoint in thevillage of Krasny Partizan,close to Horlivka in Donetsk Oblast on Jan. 23.

Shortly afterwards, a separatist information agency released a video showing the abandoned building of the checkpoint, a torn Ukrainian flag and the bodies of Ukrainian servicemen on the roadside.

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

Kremlin separatists show bodies of Ukrainian servicemen after taking over a checkpoint in the village of Krasny Partizan.

Earlier, the Kremlin's Aleksander Zakharchenko, who heads the separatist fighters in Donets, promised on Jan 20 to pay tribute to Ukrainian soldiers because they fought worthily We respect them as an enemy for their heroism and courage.

In reality, the mercenaries show little mercy to captured and killed servicemen. Close-up footage shows piled bodies of Ukrainian troops with insulting, humiliating comments by the separatists.

Another video that popped up on YouTube on Jan. 24 showed 12 captured Ukrainian soldiers, mostly from Dnipropetrovsk and Kryvyi Rih, sitting outside the building with their hands tied. At least two of them are severely wounded with signs of torture and four other killed. The video was actively shared in social networks and was viewed more than 271,000 times.

The separatists ask the soldiers whether they have children and wives.During the questioning one of them says he doesn't have his own family. "There's only my old mother," the soldier answers. "Old mother? Well, then we can shoot him," says one of the fighters. Then the video shows the scene of the dead Ukrainian servicemanlying on the groundwith his head blown up. "Maybe hismother will recognize him," one of the separatist says.

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Kremlin's mercenaries post videos of captive Ukrainian soldiers; human rights activists charge war crimes committed ...

26 January 2015 As United Nations Member States start discussions to finalize the post-2015 development agenda, 10 top UN human rights experts have today stressed the need to anchor the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in international human rights standards and to ensure that strong means for ensuring accountability are employed to make sure they are met.

We welcome the emphasis placed on accountability and call for this to be strengthened, said a statement issued by the Chairpersons of 10 UN human rights treaty bodies as Member States began negotiating the framework for setting plans and policies to achieve sustainable development over the next 15 years.

The statement collected the views of the:

They urge Member States to ensure that the goals they put forward for adoption at a UN summit in New York in September 2015 reinforce the alignment of the goals with human rights. Their concrete recommendations include strengthening the reference to protecting fundamental freedoms by explicitly referring to freedoms of expression, association and peaceful assembly in proposed goal 16.

In the new goals, reliable and validated means for measuring progress in meeting all the goals should be provided, and based on disaggregated data. In addition, progress should be measured in terms of how fundamental rights and freedoms are being protected.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for there to be a robust and participatory monitoring and review framework for the SDGs at the national, regional and global level, said Malcolm Evans, Chairperson of the Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture and current head of the Treaty Body Chairpersons group. We strongly support this and urge Member States to build upon the principles and inclusive working methods of the Treaty Bodies, as well as other existing human rights mechanisms such as the Universal Periodic Review.

The statement also highlights the important role to be played by the private sector in achieving the SDGs, and the importance of ensuring private sector accountability.

The work of the treaty bodies regarding corporate sector accountability is highly relevant here. For example, the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights have issued guidance regarding the impact and obligations of business, said Mr Evans.

The treaty body Chairpersons also said they would encourage their Committees to consider the impact of development goals on the enjoyment of the rights in their respective treaties, and draw on development data and reports in their dialogues with States.

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UN experts say post-2015 negotiations must emphasize human rights, accountability

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, we can track just about any superficial health metric imaginable: Our steps, our sleep, the number of beers we drink, the number of gym classes we miss because of those beers. Is it just me, or should we be sick of ourselves by now?

If this is the age of the quantified self, tomorrow very well could be the age of the quantified other. Why stop at evaluating yourself when you could measure, chart and optimize your relationships with the people around you, too? The thought is a little unnerving, but its not unrealistic. The new app pplkproffers a provocative glimpse of what this future might look like: It helps optimize your social life, automatically sending messages and using data to determine whos worth spending time with.

Developed by artists Lauren McCarthy and Kyle McDonald, pplkpr lets you quantify the value of your relationships based on a few data streams. A heart rate wrist band measures the subtle changes in your heart rate, alerting you to spikes in stress or excitement. This biometric data is correlated with information you manually input about the people youre hanging out with. Based on patterns, algorithms will determine whether you should be spending more time with a certain person or if you should cut himout altogether.

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Having a Hard Time Being a Human? This App Manages Friendships for You