Archive
House sponsor hopeful about bill that would bar ACLU’s rewards in religion lawsuits
WASHINGTON (BP)—Indiana’s John Hostettler is trying for the fifth consecutive Congress to prevent the American Civil Liberties Union from receiving government funds when it succeeds at legal challenges to public expressions of religion. more »
By Tom Strode - Mar 24, 2006
Topic: Citizenship, Christian Citizenship, Church and State, Religious Liberty
S. Baptists want immigration enforcement, Land tells Bush
WASHINGTON (BP)—Most Southern Baptists want the country’s immigration laws to be enforced before supporting a type of guest-worker program, ethics leader Richard Land told President Bush March 23 at a White House meeting on the controversial subject. more »
By Tom Strode - Mar 24, 2006
Topic: Citizenship, Christian Citizenship, Human Rights, Immigration, Social Issues
Issues & Answers: Gambling
Public resistance to tax increases, the political power of gambling interests, and the growing pursuit of easy money have led to the legalization of some form of gambling in the District of Columbia and every state except Utah and Hawaii. more »
By staff - Mar 21, 2006
Topic: Family, Addictions, Gambling
2 more RU 486 deaths trigger renewed calls for suspension of controversial drug
WASHINGTON (BP)—Two more women in the United States have died after taking the abortion drug RU 486, once again prompting calls for suspension of its sale. more »
By Tom Strode - Mar 20, 2006
Court upholds Tenn. pro-life plate
WASHINGTON (BP)—The fate of pro-life, specialty license plates may be determined soon by the United States Supreme Court.
The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled March 17 a Tennessee law permitting the state to offer “Choose Life” auto license plates is constitutional. more »
By Tom Strode - Mar 20, 2006
Topic: Life, Abortion, End-of-Life Issues, Stem-Cell Research
U.S. critics say new U.N. human rights body inadequate
WASHINGTON (BP)—The United Nations has established a new human rights body, but American critics say it falls far short of the reform needed.
The U.N. approved in a 170-4 vote March 15 the creation of the Human Rights Council, thereby replacing the oft-maligned Commission on Human Rights based in Geneva, Switzerland. The United States, concerned that reforms were inadequate, voted against the resolution establishing the new 47-member council.
After the vote, John Bolton, U.S. ambassador to the U.N., told the body’s General Assembly the resolution marked an improvement over the previous commission but “on too many issues the current text is not sufficiently improved.”
“We did not have sufficient confidence in this text to be able to say that the HRC would be better than its predecessor,” Bolton said. “The real test will be the quality of membership that emerges on this council and whether it takes effective action to address serious human rights abuse cases like Sudan, Cuba, Iran, Zimbabwe, Belarus and Burma.”
The resolution, Bolton said, failed to address adequately a problem that plagued the Commission on Human Rights –- the ability of countries with poor human rights records to gain membership on the body. It takes only a majority vote of the 191-member General Assembly for election to the new council.
Nevertheless, Bolton said the United States would cooperate with other U.N. members in an effort “to make the council as strong and effective as it can be. We will be supportive of efforts to strengthen the council and look forward to a serious review of the council’s structure and work.”
Some human rights advocates inside and outside Congress were even more fervent in their criticism of the new U.N. body.
“The creation of this new human rights council tragically shows that the United Nations is not interested in reform, merely in the appearance of reform,” said Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. “Instead of championing human rights, which is so needed in the world today, we have a new U.N. monstrosity that reminds any objective observer of nothing quite as much as allowing the fox to guard the hen house, which merely produces fewer hens and fatter foxes.”
Rep. Chris Smith, R.-N.J., chairman of a human rights subcommittee in the House of Representatives, described the new council as a “weak and deeply flawed replacement.”
“To call what the U.N. did today ‘reform’ is Orwellian,” Smith said in a written release. “The victims of human rights abuse around the world deserve better than this new, egregiously flawed council. The hypocrisy and gross ineffectiveness that was the hallmark of the former commission will likely continue unless the American position in favor of sweeping reform is enacted.”
In addition to making it too easy for human rights violators to gain seats on the council, the resolution weakens the influence of the United States and other human rights advocates and does not protect Israel from the injustices that marked the Commission on Human Rights, Smith said.
Smith is chairman of the Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations Subcommittee of the House International Relations Committee.
Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch, which is based in New York, described the new U.N. body as a “significant improvement.” HRW Executive Director Kenneth Roth said in a written statement the “vote is only the beginning. We call on all countries to pledge not to vote for governments that systematically repress their people.”
Among the current members of the Commission on Human Rights are such notorious human rights violators as China, Cuba, Saudi Arabia and Sudan.
In addition to the United States, also voting against the resolution were Israel, the Marshall Islands and Palau.
The election of the council will take place in May, and its first meeting will more »
By Tom Strode - Mar 17, 2006
Topic: Citizenship, Human Rights
ERLC unveils legislative agenda for 2006
By Richard Land and Barrett Duke
Significant progress in 2005 has set the stage for more legislative gains in 2006. Last year, the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission was able to help secure passage of a bill providing federal funding for umbilical cord blood banks to store stem cells. more »
By Tom Strode - Mar 15, 2006
Topic: Family, Marriage, Sexual Purity, Homosexuality, Life, Abortion, Stem-Cell Research, Citizenship, Human Rights, Religious Liberty
Justices uphold ban on online obscenity
The Supreme Court affirmed March 20 a lower court’s ruling that a federal ban on Internet obscenity is constitutional.
The high court upheld a ruling by a special panel of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York by issuing a summary disposition without hearing oral arguments in the case. more »
By Tom Strode - Mar 15, 2006
Topic: Family, Sexual Purity, Pornography, Citizenship, Social Issues
Court backs federal law in dispute over ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously March 6 the federal government may prohibit funds for universities that refuse to assist military recruiters because of the schools’ disagreement with the Pentagon’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on homosexuals. more »
By Tom Strode - Mar 15, 2006
Topic: Family, Sexual Purity, Homosexuality
Land: New U.N. council like fox guarding hen house
ERLC President Richard Land joined other American advocates for human rights in criticizing a new body established by the United Nations to address the issue. more »
By Tom Strode - Mar 15, 2006
Topic: Citizenship, Human Rights
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