Category Archives: Post Human

By Judith Kelley By Judith Kelley July 3 at 6:00 AM

The State Department has released its annual Trafficking in Persons report on human trafficking. The big headline was that China was downgraded to Tier 3, the lowest ranking, suggesting that the Trump administration had decided to rebuke China by grouping it with the likes of Syria, Iran and North Korea.

The report grades countries on how well or poorly they are doing in combating human trafficking. This approach which I call Scorecard Diplomacy has become increasingly important in international relations. Countries often really care about their scores. Heres how it works.

What is a scorecard?

A scorecard is a way of rating or ranking how countries or other actors perform in a given policy area. These scorecards are not one-off rankings; they recur, usually yearly.

[International agreements to prohibit child labor dont always work. Heres why.]

Why should states, or anyone else, care about scorecards? First of all, they are easier to understand and digest than complicated policy reports. Instead of emphasizing detailed data, they sort countries into categories (e.g., countries that are succeeding vs. countries that are failing), or rank them with some score, showing which countries are at the top and at the bottom. These categories and rankings are framed to pressure the countries being ranked. For example, if your country is at the bottom of a well-respected scorecard for Ease of Doing Business, you might find that international businesses start to avoid investing in your economy.

Beth Simmons and I have data on more than 180 scorecards set up by countries, international organizations and nongovernmental organizations. More and more scorecards have been appearing, covering more and more topics. The U.S. government has scorecards for areas as varied as aid, religious freedom, narcotics control, child laborand international property rights protection.

This proliferation of scorecards has brought more and more critiques. Sometimes thescorecards are based on questionable data, or questionable ways of organizing the data. Yet, even if they are biased or based on dubious assumptions, scorecards do influence behavior. Why?

Heres why these scorecards are more than just scraps of paper

My recent book on the TIP report on human trafficking explains what I call the cycle of scorecard diplomacy. The TIP report doesnt just rank countries. Producing the report involves U.S. diplomats on the ground engaging with governments year-round and orchestrating indirect pressure by media and civil society.

These combined efforts make governments concerned about their ratings. Officials react strongly to the report, particularly to the tier that their country falls into. U.S. diplomats wrote in a cable to Washington that one Albanian officials face went pale when told ofhis countrys low rating. Thats hard to fake! Many governments criticize the report in publicbut cooperate with the U.S. in private. This suggests that these grades are really getting to governments. Even allies such as Israel feel the sting. In 2009, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told the Knesset subcommittee analyzing the TIP report that:

A U.S. government report lumping Israel together with states such as Afghanistan, Jordan and Botswana in its success in combating human trafficking has troubling political implications for Israel. It has a direct impact on Israels standing in the international community.

Because countries are rated again and again, they have an incentive to improve their behavior in the hopes of boosting future grades. As a result, states pay more sustained attention to an issue than they would do if they were just shamed in an ad hoc way.

[Human rights groups are secretly U.S. agents. True or false?]

Simmons and I have shown that countries criminalize human trafficking more quickly when they are included in the report, get worse grades or see their grades drop. My work on TIP shows that this is not just because countries fear being sanctioned.The stigma of the scorecard makes states change their behavior. Countries that criminalize trafficking also work harder on related efforts to fight the problem. In many countries, the TIP report has led states to set up new institutions, to train judges and police, to improve shelters, and to increase trafficking prosecutions and convictions. Thus scorecards can prompt real changes.

But scorecards have their limits

None of this is to say that scorecards are universally successful. Critics of scorecards are correct when they say, for instance, that scorecards are often ideologically loaded and based on dubious statistics. Sometimes countries try to game the rankings rather than make genuine improvements, as Belarus has tried with TIP. When these problems combine, they may even be dangerous because they encourage unwise or wasteful reforms.

Still, all effective tools can be dangerous if used badly. The TIP report has been criticized for inconsistency, shifting goal posts and U.S. arrogance. Yet in a global survey that I did with Andrew Heiss of nearly 500 anti-trafficking organizations, more than 60 said they think the United States is an important actor in the countries where they work, with more than a quarter saying that the United States is the most important actor. Amazingly, only two organizations had a negative view. And people working for international organizations have told me that they appreciate the report enormously.

[Canada turns 150 today and its enjoying a new global role]

Its hard for international organizations to criticize states frankly over sensitive problems, since they rely on those governments for funding, support and cooperation. At their best, scorecards can hold governments accountable and help spread solutions. Thats why its important to understand exactly how they can do this and when they succeed or fail.

Judith Kelley is the Kevin D. Gorter professor of public policy and political science and a senior associate dean at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. Her bookScorecard Diplomacy: Grading States to Influence their Reputation and Behavioris recently out from Cambridge University Press.

Original post:
The State Department just released its human trafficking report. Here's why it matters. - Washington Post

A Jacksonville City Councilman wants more types of businesses to be required to post human-trafficking awareness signs.

Although a 2015 state law requires the signs in strip clubs and massage parlors, labor trafficking often happens in different types of establishments.

Under a city ordinance, Jacksonville massage parlors and adult entertainment spots can be fined $500 if they dont post signs, printed out online, with trafficking awareness information, including the phone number for the National Human Trafficking Resource Center hotline: 1 (888) 373-7888.

After City Council adopted the policy last year, Councilman Tommy Hazouri has a new bill.

(It) would increase the awareness signage for human trafficking around the city, specifically at businesses that are hotbeds for human trafficking, he said.

The bill adds hotels and restaurants to the list of establishments required to post the signs under state and city laws.

Northeast Florida attorney Crystal Freed, who almost exclusively represents victims of trafficking, agrees with the expansion.

I think its a move in a positive direction because its adding establishments other than the typical venues that you find sex trafficking, Freed said.

She said the original city ordinance ignored restaurant and hotel workers, as well as support staff like maintenance workers, who are targets for labor trafficking.

And Freed said she hopes Hazouris bill isnt the end of the conversation because the community needs better education about how to spot trafficking. Much of it happens in home services, like housekeeping or lawn care, she said.

This March, Jacksonville Sheriff's Office Lt. Kevin Goff told the City Council that labor trafficking is 10 times harder to investigate than sex trafficking. And though Hazouri is targeting labor trafficking with his hotel signage, Undersheriff Pat Ivey told Council last year that sex trafficking is prevalent in the more than 150 hotels in Jacksonville.

Florida ranks third in the country for the number of human trafficking cases documented by the national resource center database. Last year, the top referrer of callers to the hotline was a Department of the State Know Your Rights pamphlet given to those who get work visas.

Hazouri says hes working out some logistics of his bill, like who would be responsible for monitoring restaurants and whether all of them would have to post the signs. He said hell soon schedule a workshop with other Council members, the state attorney's office and JSO.

State law already requires the signs be posted in other well-traveled places, including highway rest areas, emergency rooms and airports.

Lindsey Kilbride can be reached at lkilbride@wjct.org, 904-358-6359 or on Twitter at @lindskilbride.

See original here:
More Businesses Would Promote Human-Trafficking Awareness Under Jacksonville Bill - WLRN

Abdulrazag Shneeti, a spokesman for the governments Department for Combating Illegal Migration, did not respond to repeated calls for comment.

The Zawiyah facility known as the al-Nasr detention center was set up by the al-Nasr Brigade, a militia involved in oil and human smuggling that has links to the coast guard, U.N. investigators said in a report released in June. Christine Petre, an IOM spokeswoman, said the facility is now being run by the Western-backed government, but migrants and coast guard members said the militia and its tribesmen are still in charge.

Migrants sleep and eat on the dirty floors. Lunch is a six-inch loaf of bread. Dinner is a plate of macaroni.

On a recent day, the mattresses had been taken away from a group in a cell as punishment for fighting, said Fathi al-Far, the centers director. Last year, he said, four migrants were killed and a guard was injured in clashes.

An inmate in poor health is tended to by a friend after passing out at the al-Nasr detention center on May 24.

Two migrants died of treatable problems in the past two years, Far said. He has been awaiting a water purifier for months. Nearby, an Algerian migrant lay on the floor against a wall, clutching his stomach and writhing in pain. But there was no doctor to help him.

Guards are quick to give beatings, several migrants said.

It happens, Far said.

In their report, U.N. investigators described Far as a former army colonel and said that the center is used to sell migrants to other smugglers.

Far acknowledged that smugglers come to the center to take migrants but said he is unable to stop them. Guards or militia members call the migrants families to extort cash if they pay, the migrant is released and put back on a boat to Europe.

The guards can do anything, Far said. They have the keys to the cells.

See the rest here:
'They are not treated like humans' - Washington Post

Donald Trump with daughter Ivanka, who several months ago some people were predicting would be a moderating force in the White House, especially on LGBTQ issues. Wikimedia Commons

Donald Trump has appointed a person whose most recent work was activism against transgender rights to be the senior adviser for womens empowerment in the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

USAID is an independent agency that administers foreign aid programs, including poverty and disaster relief programs.

Bethany Kozma worked for the Department of Homeland Security under George W. Bush. In 2016, she started the United We Stand campaign to end Barack Obamas protections for transgender students.

In a post to a publication run by the anti-LGBTQ Heritage Foundation, Kozma wrote, To put it simply, a boy claiming gender confusion must now be allowed in the same shower, bathroom, or locker room with my daughter under the presidents transgender policies. When I learned that predators could abuse these new policies to hurt children in school lockers, shelters, pool showers, or other vulnerable public places like remote bathrooms in national parks, I realized I had to do something.

A video accompanying the article shares stories from women who were sexually assaulted in locker rooms and bathrooms by cisgender men who did not need anti-discrimination measures to enter those rooms. Those stories are presented as reasons to discriminate against transgender people.

She went on to accuse LGBT activists of bullying everyone including her childrens vice principal into silence, because one of the rightwing trolls favorite games is I know you are but what am I, where they use tortured logic to accuse the oppressed minorities of doing the exact things that oppressors do.

When the Trump Administration reversed the Obama Administration guidance on transgender students, effectively setting up conditions for more transgender students to be bullied at school and denied an education, Kozma wrote that she was thrilled.

USAID has backed programs intended to increase LGBTQ peoples access to housing, health care, and political participation. USAID also has guidelines preventing contractors it works with from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The agency told BuzzFeed News that the agency is still committed to those programs and policies.

It is unclear what exactly Kozma will do in her new position, but its safe to say that she will not be advocating for all womens empowerment.

Original post:
Trump appoints anti-trans activist to key human rights post - LGBTQ Nation

A Jacksonville City Councilman wants more types of businesses to be required to post human-trafficking awareness signs.

Although a 2015 state law requires the signs in strip clubs and massage parlors, labor trafficking often happens in different types of establishments.

Under a city ordinance, Jacksonville massage parlors and adult entertainment spots can be fined $500 if they dont post signs, printed out online, with trafficking awareness information, including the phone number for the National Human Trafficking Resource Center hotline: 1 (888) 373-7888.

After City Council adopted the policy last year, Councilman Tommy Hazouri has a new bill.

(It) would increase the awareness signage for human trafficking around the city, specifically at businesses that are hotbeds for human trafficking, he said.

The bill adds hotels and restaurants to the list of establishments required to post the signs under state and city laws.

Northeast Florida attorney Crystal Freed, who almost exclusively represents victims of trafficking, agrees with the expansion.

I think its a move in a positive direction because its adding establishments other than the typical venues that you find sex trafficking, Freed said.

She said the original city ordinance ignored restaurant and hotel workers, as well as support staff like maintenance workers, who are targets for labor trafficking.

And Freed said she hopes Hazouris bill isnt the end of the conversation because the community needs better education about how to spot trafficking. Much of it happens in home services, like housekeeping or lawn care, she said.

This March, Jacksonville Sheriff's Office Lt. Kevin Goff told the City Council that labor trafficking is 10 times harder to investigate than sex trafficking. And though Hazouri is targeting labor trafficking with his hotel signage, Undersheriff Pat Ivey told Council last year that sex trafficking is prevalent in the more than 150 hotels in Jacksonville.

Florida ranks third in the country for the number of human trafficking cases documented by the national resource center database. Last year, the top referrer of callers to the hotline was a Department of the State Know Your Rights pamphlet given to those who get work visas.

Hazouri says hes working out some logistics of his bill, like who would be responsible for monitoring restaurants and whether all of them would have to post the signs. He said hell soon schedule a workshop with other Council members, the state attorney's office and JSO.

State law already requires the signs be posted in other well-traveled places, including highway rest areas, emergency rooms and airports.

Lindsey Kilbride can be reached at lkilbride@wjct.org, 904-358-6359 or on Twitter at @lindskilbride.

See the original post here:
More Businesses Would Promote Human-Trafficking Awareness Under Jacksonville Bill - WJCT NEWS

The situation for human beings on Mars is dire, and not just because the red planet's atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide and the average temperature is -81 degrees.

There's also the issue of the child-trafficking ring operating in secret on the planet 33.9 million miles from earth, according to a guest on the Alex Jones Show.

We actually believe that there is a colony on Mars that is populated by children who were kidnapped and sent into space on a 20-year ride, Robert David Steele said Thursday during a winding, conspiratorial dialogue with Jones about child victims of sex crimes. So that once they get to Mars they have no alternative but to be slaves on the Mars colony.

[Megyn Kelly calls Alex Joness Sandy Hook views revolting but says interviewing him has value]

NASA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

But Guy Webster, a spokesman for Mars exploration at NASA, told the Daily Beast that rumors about live humans on Mars are false.

There are no humans on Mars, he said. There are active rovers on Mars. There was a rumor going around last week that there werent. There are, but there are no humans.

Jones is known for peddling elaborate and debunked conspiracy theories on his radio show, which airs on 118 stations around the country and reaches millions of listeners.The site had 4.5 million unique page views in thepast month and more than 5 million from mid-April to mid-May,according to Quantcast. HisYouTube channelhas more than 2 million subscribers.

Among his most well-known accusations in recent years is that the December 2012 Sandy Hook massacre, in which 20 children and six adults were killed at a school in Newtown, Conn., was a hoax. Jones has claimed that the U.S. government orchestrated the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and, more recently, promoted the Pizzagate conspiracy, which alleged that Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign was linked to a child-sex ring operating from the basement of a suburban Washington D.C. pizzeria.

The theory originated on Reddit, where a user claimed hacked emails belonging to Clinton campaign manager John Podesta revealed evidence of an international child-sex ring. The key, the user alleged, wasreplacing the word pizza with little boy.

From that moment, the conspiracy theory took on a life of its own, culminating in a North Carolina man firing a military-style assault rifle inside the restaurant in December.Edgar Maddison Welch told investigators he was there to save abused children. Instead, he pleaded guilty to federal weapons charges in March and was sentenced to four years in prison last month.

Confronted about his Sandy Hook allegations during a controversial interview with NBC's Megyn Kelly last month, Jones hedged.

I tend to believe that children probably did die there, he told the anchor. But then you look at all the other evidence on the other side. I can see how other people believe that nobody died there.

On Thursdays Infowars broadcast, Steele appeared to connect the kidnapped children being held captive on Mars to pedophile rings who allegedly use children for their youthful body parts and energy.

Pedophilia does not stop with sodomizing children, Steele said. It goes straight into terrorizing them to adrenalize their blood and then murdering them. It also includes murdering them so that they can have their bone marrow harvested as well as body parts.

This is the original growth hormone, Jones said.

Yes, it's an anti-aging thing, Steele replied.

MORE READING:

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This bizarre ancient creature mystified Darwin. Now we finally know what it was.

Follow this link:
No, NASA is not hiding kidnapped children on Mars - Washington Post

A Weld County grand jury has indicted two Greeley men on charges including human trafficking for sexual servitude, second-degree kidnapping, sexual assault and child abuse.

Noman Boroumand, 45, and Fares Al Rashed, 38, were indicted June 29 on 30 felony and five misdemeanor charges, according to a news release by the Greeley Police Department.

Greeley police arrested Boroumand on Thursday evening and Al Rashed early Friday morning, the release said. Both men were arrested without incident and taken to the Weld County Jail.

The human trafficking victims are women who were acquaintances of the two suspects, Lt. Adam Turk said.

We are concerned that there may be other victims, Turk said. He urged other victims to contact the police department.

The allegations paint a wide range of alleged abuses in addition to human trafficking, the release said.

The charges include stalking, witness tampering, witness retaliation, possession of anabolic steroids and assault.The suspects face additional domestic violence penalty enhancements, according to the news release.

Greeley police began a human trafficking and sexual assault investigation in December, according to the release.

Twelve of the counts againstBoroumand and Al Rashed are for alleged felony sexual assault. The charges go up the scale of severity.

Follow this link:
Two men indicted in Greeley sex slave network - The Denver Post

The National Legislative Assembly voted 190-0 to accept in principle the organic law on the National Human Rights Commission.

If approved in subsequent readings, the existing NHRC members will have to leave office although there is a chance they may reapply as candidates under the new rules.

Meechai Ruchupan, chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee, which wrote the bill, told lawmakers on Friday the bill was based on the 2017 constitution and the Principles relating to the Status of National Institutions (the Paris Principles) which Thailand ratified.

The bill proposes that the existing NHRC be dissolved because it has problems. Its been downgraded mainly because the screening procedure is not open to public participation and not in line with the Paris Principles.

It doesnt matter how qualified the members are. The world views it came from the previous constitution. The only way out is to screen for new members.

The constitution writers version of the law stipulates the screening committee consist of representatives from professional groups -- private human rights organisations, lawyers, medical and public health professionals and mass media -- in addition to the Supreme Court chairman, House speaker, opposition leader and the Supreme Administrative Court chairman like in the previous charter.

The debate arising from the planned removal of the existing NHRC centres around its status, which has been changed to an independent organisation by the 2017 constitution. Under the 2014 charter, it is one of the three constitutional organs which are not necessarily independent.

As an independent organisation, NHRC members can hold positions for only one term and could not re-apply under the new charter. But as a constitutional organ, there is no such restriction.

Mr Meechai said the NHRC was an independent organisation since the 2017 charter was promulgated.

In our view, now that the [2017] constitution came into effect, the NHRC became an independent organisation and its members may not reapply. But its up to the Constitutional Court to decide, Mr Meechai said.

Get full Bangkok Post printed newspaper experience on your digital devices with Bangkok Post e-newspaper. Try it out, it's totally free for 7 days.

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NLA accepts in principle human rights commission bill - Bangkok Post

Colorados first human case of West Nile virus in 2017 has been recorded in Jefferson County, and mosquitoes with the virus have been found in Larimer County, the state health department reported Friday.

The person who was infected is recuperating at home in Jefferson County, said Mark Salley, spokesman for theColorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

Weekly testing for mosquitoes that carry the virus began on June 12, according to a department news release.

West Nile virus-positive mosquitoes have been found in Larimer County this season, the release said. Not all counties and municipalities test mosquitoes, so its important for all Coloradans to take preventative steps throughout the summer.

When the virus is present, people are at risk, Jennifer House, state public health veterinarian, said in the release. Protecting yourself from mosquito bites is the No. 1 way to avoid getting any mosquito-borne illness. Use an effective insect repellent, wear protective clothing or stay indoors when mosquitoes are active, and mosquito-proof your home.

In 2016, there were 149 human cases of West Nile virus in Colorado, including eight deaths.

According to the health department, most people who are infected with West Nile virus dont have symptoms. About 20 percent have flu-like symptoms, and fewer than 1 percent develop a serious, potentially deadly illness. People over age 60 and those with certain medical conditions are at greater risk of serious illness.

See the original post:
Colorado records first West Nile virus human case of the year - The Denver Post

International Symposium Gift of Nam June Paik 9 Coevolution: Cybernetics to Posthuman Saturdays, July 8, 15, 22, 29, 2017, 15pm

Nam June Paik Art Center 10 Paiknamjune-ro, Giheung-gu Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do 17068 Korea Hours: TuesdaySunday 10am6pm

press@njpartcenter.kr

njpac-en.ggcf.kr Facebook / Instagram / Twitter

Hosted and organized by Nam June Paik Art Center, Gyeonggi Cultural Foundation

Nam June Paik defined cybernetics as various relationships between humans and machines, art and machines, art and technologies, humans and art and even among diverse arts (artists). He understood that it would generate varying combinations out of these relationships. Nam June Paik put his ideas about cybernetics into artistic practices: he performed Robot Opera with robots he himself had made and manipulated, expressing simply and playfully the complicated relationship between humans and machines.

Cybernetics as a discipline was first introduced by Norbert Wiener, as he attempted to explain the regulative relationship between humans and machines. When a number of scholars gathered and discussed on the theme at Macy Conference, however, cybernetics dynamically developed into a emerging epistemological concept. Nam June Paiks theoretical ideas and artistic practices correspond to (or lead ahead) the few steps of the radical development of cybernetics achieved throughout history: the first wave cybernetics, which was at the level of mechanic feedback, and the second wave cybernetics, which characterizes as reflexity and self-generation and the third wave cybernetics, at the center of which is emergence, are all relevant. These steps express a posthuman evolutional point of view on how the boundary between humans and machines is deconstructed.

Our symposium looks into a contemporary approach to the phased developmental history of "cybernetics"and at the same time analyzes Nam June Paiks works on machines and art. We expect it will develop into a dynamic and contemporary discursive space where presenters from diverse background freely discuss in small spaces. We hope that each participant exists as a subjective observer and there will be sensitive and exciting reactions within that space.

Program

July 8 12:30pm "Sudden Unintended Accelerationas a Psychosis of Machine" Youngjun Lee(Machine Critic, Professor ofKaywon Universityof Art & Design)

2:304pm "Cybernetics and Later,The History of the Integration and Simulation for Processing Human Elements in Circuits" Kyuheun Ko(Adjunct Professorof Sung Kyun Kwan University)

45pm Discussion

July 15 12:30pm "Cybernetics and Cyborg: Some Philosophical Questions" Jinkyoung Lee(Professor of Seoul National University of Science and Technology)

2:304pm "Cognitive Ecological Outline of the Strategy for Social Solidarity in the Age of Artificial Intelligence" Kwanghyun Sim(Professor of School of Visual Arts,Korea National University of Art)

45pm Discussion

July 22 12:30pm "Cybernetic Lyricism: Gregory Bateson,Nam June Paik, and the Mind as Conjunctive" Seongeun Kim(DPhil, Leeum,Samsung Museum of Art)

2:304pm Artist Talk: Taeyeun Kim,pela Petri

45pm Discussion

July 29 12:30pm "Transductive Ensemble of Nature, Human, and Technical Objects: The TechnoAesthetics ofNam June Paik and Posthuman" Jaehee Kim (Professor of the Ewha Institute for the Humanities (EIH),Ewha Womans University)

2:304pm "Inside Out, Outside In: Technical Media as Exteriorizations of Cognition and the Art Installationsof Nam June Paik" N. Katherine Hayles(Professor of Literature at Duke University)

45pm Discussion

Read more:
Nam June Paik Art Center - E-Flux