Category Archives: Post Human

Malaysia needs to be more diligent in stopping all forms of worker exploitation and trafficking of human persons, says Charles Hector.

Many of us wrongly believe that trafficking in persons is only about sex workers but this is not true as it also includes the exploitation of workers.

Trafficking in persons is defined internationally as constituting three elements:

Likewise in Malaysia, the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act 2007 defines trafficking in persons or traffics in persons to mean the recruiting, transporting, transferring, harbouring, providing or receiving of a person for the purpose of exploitation; and exploitation means all forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude, any illegal activity or the removal of human organs;

We will be looking at specifically at worker exploitation in Malaysia, including forced labour or services. Forced or compulsory labour is defined as all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily. Forced labour refers to situations in which persons are coerced to work through the use of violence or intimidation, or by more subtle means such as accumulated debt, retention of identity papers or threats of denunciation to immigration authorities.

The local worker a victim of trafficking?

The local worker in Malaysia can come under the threat of dismissal or a delay in promotion or wage increase. They are discouraged from claiming their legal rights or standing up for rights.

Even trade union leaders are not saved from such intimidation and some find they are overlooked for promotion and wage increase exercises when their fellow workers who are not union leaders or active union members get promoted or are awarded wage increases.

Unionists are also targeted for disciplinary action and dismissal for the carrying out of legitimate activities such as the issuance of media statements, picketing, involvement in campaigns for the promotion and protection of worker rights and such matters which reasonably should be considered as legitimate union activities.

If union members are so intimidated and under the menace of such penalties, what more the ordinary worker who is not unionised? The lodging of a complaint to the relevant authorities about non-payment of wages, overtime and a violation of other rights may result in not just intimidation but even disciplinary action and termination.

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Trafficking involves more than just sex workers

By Editorial Board April 13

WERE GUESSING its not a coincidence that the latest, disturbing report about Jason Rezaian, The Posts unjustly imprisoned correspondent in Iran, comes just after the government of Hassan Rouhani accepted a preliminary accord on the countrys nuclear program. On Sunday, the Fars news agency, which is believed to be close to Irans Revolutionary Guard Corps, issued a dispatch saying that Mr.Rezaian faced charges of espionage and acting against national security. It went on to sketch a case against the reporter that would be laughable were it not being used to justify an outrageous human rights abuse.

Not for the first time, Mr.Rezaian looks like a pawn in Irans domestic power struggle over the nuclear deal. That makes it all the more urgent that Mr.Rouhani demonstrate his ability to control his opposition by arranging Mr.Rezaians immediate release.

Mr.Rezaian, who was born and raised in California, had been jailed for 265 days as of Monday, far longer than any Western journalist previously detained in Iran. In violation of Iranian law, he still has not been brought to trial, and prosecutors have never officially reported the charges against him. He was denied the lawyer chosen by his family, and his court-approved attorney has not yet met with him.

Mr.Rezaians family and experts on Iran have been saying for some time that the delay and lack of transparency in the legal process likely reflect the fact that prosecutors have no plausible case against him and have been stalling while attempting to concoct one. The Fars report lends credence to that view. It claims that the 39-year-old journalist sold economic and industrial information to unidentified Americans. It then devolves into a long account of Mr.Rezaians relationships with exiled Iranian journalists and human rights activists. It cites as somehow significant the fact that two of them attended the 2011 funeral of Mr.Rezaians father as if that could have had anything to do with espionage.

One of those journalists, Omid Memarian, told The Posts Carol Morello that members of the judiciary are attempting to undermine Mr.Rouhani by impugning his nephew, who is in charge of his media operation. A critic of Mr.Rouhani claimed in February that Mr.Rezaian had penetrated the presidents office. This, too, makes little sense.

Whats clear is that Mr.Rezaian continues to be held in Tehrans notorious Evin Prison long after Mr.Rouhanis foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, described him as a good reporter and expressed the hope that he will be cleared in a court of law . Again the question arises: If Mr.Rouhani and his foreign minister cannot stop the persecution of an American journalist they know to be innocent, can they be counted on to deliver on the commitments they made in the nuclear talks?

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Editorial: Irans absurd persecution of Post reporter Jason Rezaian

Human Rights Watch and Harvard Law Schools International Human Rights Clinic have a strong and eye-catching message for the U.N.: Ban killer robots. The two groups take up the cause against fully autonomous weapons in a 38-page report released ahead of an international meeting about said weapons starting April 13.

Fully autonomous weapons, also known as killer robots, raise serious moral and legal concerns because they would possess the ability to select and engage their targets without meaningful human control, begins the report, titled Mind the Gap: The Lack of Accountability for Killer Robots. Human Rights Watch and Harvard Law School lay out a list of concerns about fully autonomous weapons, including doubts about their ability to distinguish civilian from military targets, the possibility of an arms race, and proliferation to militaries with little regard for the law.

Related:DT Debates: Should robots be held to a human moral compass?

All of those concerns are compounded by the accountability gap for unlawful harm caused by fully autonomous weapons, according to the report. Under current laws, parties associated with the use or production of killer robots (e.g., operators, commanders, programmers, manufacturers) would not be held liable in the case of harm caused by the robots. The ultimate solution proposed by the report is to adopt an international ban on fully autonomous weapons.

On Monday, a weeklong international meeting about autonomous weapons systems will take place at the U.N. in Geneva. The agenda will cover additions to The Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons.

Also known as the inhumane weapons convention, the treaty has been regularly reinforced by new protocols on emerging military technology, according to The Guardian. Blinding laser weapons were pre-emptively outlawed in 1995 and combatant nations since 2006 have been required to remove unexploded cluster bombs.

The paper is an early discussion of a hypothetical future world, and the authors of the paper admit as much: Fully autonomous weapons do not yet exist, but technology is moving in their direction, and precursors are already in use or development. The examples listed in the paper all respond to threats automatically, putting them a step beyond drones, which require a human to control it from a remote location.

Related:Robot uprising? Cambridge University team to assess threat posed by AI

No accountability means no deterrence of future crimes, no retribution for victims, no social condemnation of the responsible party, said Bonnie Docherty, senior Arms Division researcher at Human Rights Watch and the reports lead author. The many obstacles to justice for potential victims show why we urgently need to ban fully autonomous weapons.

In November 2013, an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal co-authored by two professors disputed the notion that fully autonomous weapons need to be banned. Malicious actors already disposed to abusing such weapons would not respect a ban, argued Kenneth Anderson and Matthew Waxman. Moreover, because the automation of weapons will happen gradually, it would be nearly impossible to design or enforce such a ban.

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UN told to ban killer robots before they become a reality

Crysis 3 PC Playthrough #1 - Intro, Post Human
Crysis 3 PC Playthrough Part 1 (No Commentary). My first attempt at a YouTube playthrough, I #39;ve chosen Crysis 3 to take the honour. This will be a YouTube upload practice playthrough, I #39;ll...

By: PrototypeSamurai

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Crysis 3 PC Playthrough #1 - Intro, Post Human - Video

Taro Chiezo at "Post Human" Castello di Rivoli 1994
copyright by Taro Chiezo 1994.

By: Taro Chiezo

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Taro Chiezo at "Post Human" Castello di Rivoli 1994 - Video

GENEVA UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad Al Hussein today urged the government of Malaysia to withdraw its proposed amendments to the 1948 Sedition Act.

He warned that the new provisions would seriously undermine the freedom of expression and opinion in the country and would be in breach of Malaysias Federal Constitution and its international human rights obligations.

Zeid also expressed concern at the passage of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (Pota) in the lower house of Parliament on Tuesday this week. Among the serious human rights shortcomings in the law are provisions that allow the indefinite detention of individuals without trial and the granting of sweeping powers to law enforcement authorities without sufficient safeguards to prevent abuses and ensure accountability for violations of human rights.

The UN Human Rights Office has long urged Malaysia to either repeal the 1948 Sedition Act or to bring it in line with international human rights standards. The government had committed to repealing the Act during its Universal Periodic Review at the UN Human Rights Council in 2013, the High Commissioner said.

It is very disappointing that the Malaysian government is now proposing to make a bad law worse.

The proposal to amend the overly broad Sedition Act, tabled on Tuesday, further broadens the scope of the offences and introduces harsher penalties, including up to 20 years imprisonment for aggravated sedition. New provisions for travel bans are also worrying as they may allow for arbitrary restrictions against individuals on the basis of an ill-defined law.

These proposals are particularly worrying given that the Sedition Act has been applied in many instances to curb the legitimate exercise of freedom of expression in Malaysia including through the arrests of individuals for merely tweeting their criticism of government policies and judicial decisions, the High Commissioner said.

Since the beginning of 2014, at least 78 people have been investigated or charged under the Sedition Act and in 2015 alone, so far, at least 36 individuals have already been investigated or charged.

High Commissioner Zeid urged the government to review the cases of all those who have been charged under the Sedition Act.

Silencing dissent does not nurture social stability, but an open democratic space does, the High Commissioner said. Curtailing the legitimate exercise of human rights in the name of fighting terrorism has been shown, time and again, to backfire and to only lead to festering discontent and a strong sense of injustice.

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Draft anti-terror, sedition laws seriously undermine freedom of expression: UN

Vijayalakshmi R Iyer, chairperson and managing director of Bank of India, and K K Vohra, executive director of Reserve Bank of India (RBI), are in contention for the post of member (finance & investment) at Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai). This post fell vacant in mid-March after R K Nair retired from the post. Interviews for this position have already been conducted by the government.

Iyer, who took over as chairperson and managing director of Bank of India on November 5, 2012, will retire in May. Prior to this, Iyer was executive director of Central Bank of India from September 1, 2010. A post-graduate in commerce and a certified associate of the Indian Institute of Banking and Finance (CAIIB), Iyer started her career with Union Bank of India in 1975.

Vohra was promoted to the post of executive director at RBI on November 3, 2014. He looks into portfolios including central security cell, corporate strategy and budget department, department of corporate services and the human resources management department.

According to the notification by the Department of Financial Services, a whole-time member in the area of finance and investment should preferably have at least 25 years' experience in the area of finance and investment with a minimum of three years experience at a senior level not below the rank of chief general manager of RBI or its equivalent in other financial institutions or regulatory bodies.

Also, the applicant should have at least two years of residual service with reference to the post of whole-time member in Irdai as on the last day for receipt of applications and age should not exceed 60 years on that day.

The tenure of appointment to this post will be five years from the date of joining office with a provision of re-appointment subject to the maximum age of 62 years. The consolidated pay and allowances of the whole-time members would be Rs 3.75 lakh a month without facilities such as house or car.

According to the Section 4 of Irda Act, 1999, the regulatory body is composed of a 10-member team consisting of a chairman, five whole-time members and four part-time members. All of them are appointed by the Government of India. Senior appointments under the Centre require approval from the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC).

Member (F&I) at Irdai looks into all finance and investment related regulations and norms governing the insurance sector. This includes auditing, accounting, investments in the equity and debt market and solvency margins, among others.

Irdai will see several top-level exits in the next few months. The positions of whole-time members of non-life, and distribution will become vacant in the next few months, while the post of member-life has been lying vacant since February 2014.

M Ramaprasad, member (non-life) is retiring in May 2015, while member (distribution) D D Singh will also retire in July.

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Iyer, Vohra vie for Irdai post

We are post-industrial human beings. The sagebrush steppe is not our natural habitat. We are far too fragile, too easily burned, baked and desiccated to survive long in the open in a place like this. We have decided by circumstance to make our homes on piles of sand and grit washed out of the hills, this place where without unnatural assistance, nothing lives that cannot be sustained on less than 10 inches of moisture in a year. This is a place once best suited to rodents and reptiles, and a few hardy human beings better equipped than we soft-ripened Nordics.

And yet with thrive here. With benevolent nature and human ingenuity we have created a place to envy, a leafy oasis, a patch of green at the foot of the brown hills, where many of us would rather be than any place we have seen.

Stay with the story. Get full access to The Wenatchee World online for just pennies a day!

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Arbor Day: Celebrate trees

Governor passes bill that allows posting information for human trafficking victims

BOISE The VETO stamp hovered above H.B. 183 for a long moment, and right before Idaho Governor C.L. Butch Otter went to reject the bill allowing nonprofits to post signs that assist human trafficking victims, he pulled back.

He tricked the bills sponsors it was April Fools Day, after all. The bill was signed into law soon after.

The bill arrived on the back of Rep. Sage Dixon, R-Ponderay, who said he was contacted by Savannah Hicks, a resident in his district and founder of Slavery Prevention and Revealing Corruption (SPARC), a non-profit organization.

Dixon said besides being called into action by Hicks, who drafted the bill, he had also been contacted by trafficking victims in Idaho.

This is actually happening here and its happening to our children, Dixon said. It is still something that is somewhat in the shadows, and I received an email from a young lady in Eastern Idaho that was a victim of trafficking. She was a student that was very accomplished in high school, went out and got a job and got a boyfriend that ended up initiating her into human trafficking.

The law defines human trafficking as the illegal movement of people typically for the purposes of forced labor or commercial sexual exploitation.

As per the new law, nonprofit groups such as SPARC now have the ability to post signs with emergency phone numbers for victims or witnesses of human trafficking at rest stops off state and interstate highways. These organizations are responsible for all costs attributed to posting the signs, so there is no impact to the General Fund.

According to the laws text, signs include telephone numbers to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center and the Idaho State Office of Crime Victims Advocacy, both toll-free and open 24/7.

Hicks said if the bill was not passed into law, she would have had to clear posting the signs on rest stops with each countyindividually. Prior to Otter signing the bill, she said there was only one rest stop in the southern part of the state that had a sign posted for victims of human trafficking.

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Stop signs on human trafficking

The Times of Israel was forced to nix another controversial blog post this week that called for the killing of all Palestinians. But in a surprising turn of events, it turns out the blog post was a hoax posted by a malicious imposter.

Heres the article in question, which has been archived:

The article, first flagged by Talking Points Memos Brendan James, described Palestinians as worthless subhuman beasts and vermin, and claimed Palestinians no right to land and are not even human beings and thus have no right to even live at all. Australian attorney Josh Bornstein was listed as the author.

After receiving backlash on social media, according to TPM, the article was scrubbed from the site and Bronsteins author page was taken down. The Times of Israel called the article an inappropriate/satire piece:

Bornstein later denied having ever written for The Times of Israel:

Hes apparently been receiving some hate mail, too:

Later, The Times of Israel posted an apology on their website, saying they were breached in an elaborate manner by a malicious hoaxerwho on Thursday posteda hateful andracist post.

The website also said the imposter establish[ed] his credibility with them by submitting some of Bornsteins previously-published articles that were all on topic and perfectly reasonable.

As TPM also notes, Jewish bloggerDaniel Sieradski was apparently able to track down the elaborate plan to fool readers that was posted on 4chan: These people believe Im really a Jew. Sieradski also noted that Bornstein had been targeted by white supremacists for his support of open immigration policy and hate crimes legislation. He had been called a subversive Jewish parasite.

The Times of Israel lists the following disclaimer at the top of each blog post: This post has been contributed by a third party. The opinions, facts and any media content here are presented solely by the author, and The Times of Israel assumes no responsibility for them.

Read more:
Times of Israel Scrubs Another Pro-Genocide Blog, Blames Malicious Imposter