• Upwards of a million ethnic Uighur Muslims in western China, have been detained in “re-education” camps. According to Human Rights Watch, the camps are a systematic attempt to wipe out any sense of Islamic, Uighur and Kazakh identity. A US government commission on China alleges the Uighur camps are the largest single mass imprisonment of an ethnic minority since World War II. Sophia Richardson of Human Rights Watch asserted, “It’s up to the rest of the world to point out the arbitrary detention of an ethnic minority is grotesque and unacceptable.”
(“Xinjiang official defends ‘education centers’ for Uighur Muslims,” BBC news, Oct. 16, 2018; “China defends its detention camps for minority Muslims as anti-extremist job training centers,” Los Angeles Times, Oct. 16, 2018)
• The trial of the accused killers of Berta Caceres, the award-winning rainforest activist fell apart in mid-September. Lawyers for the Caceres family filed papers against the court for “arbitrarily” rejecting key evidence, including witnesses and documents pointing to a broader conspiracy in Caceres’ murder in March 2016. For years, Honduras has been considered one of the most dangerous places on earth for eco-protectors.
(“In trial of eco-activist’s murder, push for full picture of justice,” Christian Science Monitor, Oct. 8, 2018; “Berta Caceres’s murder trial to be monitored by international lawyers,” The Guardian, Sept. 17, 2018)
• California’s legalization of marijuana for recreational use has led to reviews of past criminal sentences for the drug’s use or cultivation. The reversal of sentences could have a major impact on communities of color, who were hardest hit by harsh marijuana laws. Los Angeles, Oakland and San Francisco are offering people with drug convictions, priority opportunities to be licensed in the marijuana growing industry. Other states, including New Jersey and Michigan are considering similar reforms.
(“Following Calif., pot legalization campaigns across the US aim to throw out old convictions,” Los Angeles Times, Oct. 10, 2018)
