Kathleen writes “”Torture and Global Efforts to Combat It” is this year’s topic for HUMAN RIGHTS DAY
10 DECEMBER 2005.
“Let us be clear: torture can never be an instrument to fight terror, for torture is an instrument of terror. […]
Today, on Human Rights Day, let us recommit ourselves to the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and let us rededicate ourselves to wiping the scourge of torture from the face of the earth.”
Kofi Annan,
United Nations Secretary-General.
“Human rights are our common heritage
and their realization depends on the contributions
that each and every one of us is willing to make,
individually and collectively, now and in the future.”
Louise Arbour
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
END TORTURE NOW!
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Librarians and Torture
So when was the last time Kathleen protested the mistreatment of the librarians sentenced to life terms in Castro’s horrific prisons? Maybe she has never heard of the “celdas tapiadas” (“walled-in cells”), where the Cuban librarians are jammed into tiny cells with no ventilation, except for a window, covered with a steel plate, with maybe a couple of inches open for a minimum amount of air to enter. The summer temperature in the celdas tapiadas can get to be 130 degrees. I wonder how she would feel about being jailed in one of these hellholes?