Born Free and Equal: The Ultimate Goal of Human Rights

Segment 1: Youth for Human Rights International.  http://www.youthforhumanrights.org/

Our guest on this edition of The Doug Noll Show is Tim Bowles, Director of International Development for Youth for Human Rights International. Tim practiced constitutional and civil rights law for over 30 years and helped establish valuable protections for free religious practice in American that continue to benefit individuals from all faiths and walks of life. After three decades of litigation work in the American courts, Tim traveled to Ghana, West Africa as a volunteer for Youth for Human Rights International (YFHRI), a U.S. based nonprofit dedicated to human rights education worldwide. In Africa Tim helped teach young people their human rights as embodied in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations. He also met people who shared his vision of bringing increased awareness to the subject of human rights.

 

Segment 2: Human Rights Education in West Africa.

The YFHRI organization is centered around human rights education and raising the awareness and responsibility levels of youth throughout the world. They conduct international summits around the globe. Tim believes we need to not only teach the existence of human rights, but also make it a reality. His passion is leadership training: planting the seeds that will enable the younger generation. Our young people need to know it is their responsibility to be more confident, more courageous, more creative and more effective than their parents’ generation.

 

So how do kids in West Africa respond when tasked with spreading human rights principals? Tim has found that kids are wide open to ideas. They’ve seen enough killing --- they have personal experience with murder, rape and other tragedies. The youth that Tim worked with generally had three complaints: a lack of power structure; the NGOs did not go into the side streets and look for opportunities; and they wanted to teach their peers about human rights but did not have the training or support to do so.

 

Segment 3: Youth Coalition Teams.

After some initial trial and error, YFHRI decided to engage wide groups of young people and mix up the youth in the schools. They organized them into “coalition teams” and everyone had a leadership role and a sub-product or result to work toward. Each team’s task was to create a human rights campaign on a selected issue that created support for human rights education within the student population, civil society, urban leadership, educators and the broader society around them. The teams chose their own issues and were given training and support by YFHRI. They came together at the end of the cycle and shared their phenomenal campaign ideas and results.

 

Segment 4: The Foundation for All Learning.

Unfortunately, we are not exposed to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in primary, middle school or high school. Tim believes it’s fundamental and that we need to bring this subject to the attention of policy makers. This should be a subject in of itself. It’s the foundation for all learning. It gives learning a context and a purpose, and many professions stem from human right education.

 

To listen to the complete interview:

 

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The Mystery of Vladimir Putin

Segment 1: Vladimir Putin, Revealed.

Many would argue that Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, is moving the country away from democracy and back toward authoritarian rule. Putin has supported the Al-Assad regime in Syria, despite evidence of mass human rights violations. He has also supported Iran by blocking UN Security Council resolutions aimed at crippling Iran's nuclear program.

 

Our guest on this edition of The Doug Noll Show, Jennifer Ciotto, explains what makes Vladimir Putin tick. Jennifer is the author of I, Putin, which won Honorable Mentions at the New York Book Festival & Hollywood Book Festival, 2012. She was a Peace Corps volunteer in the former Soviet republic of Estonia for two years and holds a Master’s degree in creative writing and Russian studies from the Gallatin School at New York University.

 

Jennifer’s interest in Russia started in 2000 when she graduated from college and went into the Peace Corp in Estonia. After the tragic Kursk explosion in August of 2000 and Russia’s decision not to accept rescue offers from neighboring countries, Jennifer wanted to find out why Putin reacted the way he did.

 

Segment 2: The Kursk: A Defining Moment.

In Jennifer’s book, I, Putin, we find out that Putin is a Judo black belt. Judo shaped him tremendously as an individual and he is mentally, physically and spiritually tough. The Kursk explosion was Putin’s first defining moment, as he had only been in power for three months and the event transpired before the Moscow Theater Siege in 2002 and the Chechen Hostage tragedy in 2004. When the explosion happened we saw him take control of the media and reveal his strength as a leader. Jennifer tells us that to really understand Russia we need to know that they view democracy differently than we view democracy. They want a strong, authoritarian leader and Putin is that person.

 

Segment 3: Putin’s Image.

Jennifer believes Pussy Riot, the Russian feminist punk rock band from Moscow, made a very disrespectful demonstration choice but the 2-year sentence to a penal colony was severe and extreme. Russia still doesn’t have “free speech” in the same sense that we have it in the United States. This is a society that values control and order over more liberal civil rights. It’s Putin’s Russia. He does not care what the West thinks about him, but he does care about his image in Russia.

 

Syrian ties to Russia and the Soviet Union go back a long time. Jennifer says Russia has a deep vested interest in Syria for five reasons: lucrative arms sales, deep-water ports for naval influence, fears of Syrian destabilization, Russian’s natural resource interest, and Putin’s view of sovereignty (each country has authority over itself).

 

Segment 4: Putin’s Real Motivation: Oil and Money.

The current foreign policy in Russia is basically “do what you want, don’t bother us and we won’t bother you.” Putin’s definition of sovereignty might be old school but what really motivates him is oil and money. When Putin started in 2000, oil was $27 a barrel, today it is $94 a barrel. If that price drops, the economic and political situation will not be a pretty for Putin.

 

To listen to the complete interview:

 

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Concordia Univer Award Winning Peacemaker Comes to Portland, Or Sept 13 for Talk and Book signing

http://www.elusivepeace.com

Which Candidate Votes for Peace?

http://www.elusivepeace.com

Promoting Peace at Home and in Areas of Conflict Worldwide

http://www.elusivepeace.com

Peace: One Man's Odyssey

http://www.elusivepeace.com

Nuclear Disarmament: the Stalemate Continues

Segment 1: The Irrationality of Nuclear Arms

Is there any rational reason to maintain nuclear weapons? On this edition of The Doug Noll Show we speak with Dr. David Krieger, Founder and President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, to discuss that question. A respected authority on foreign policy, international relations, peace and disarmament, Dr. Krieger has been at the forefront of the peace movement for 30 years. In 1982 he started his own dream organization: the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. He was inspired to work for the abolition of nuclear weapons after visiting Hiroshima and Nagasaki and seeing the peace memorial museums --- powerful reminders of what happened in WWII. During his tenure as an International Relations professor he came to believe that the most important issue that confronts society today is the need to abolish nuclear weapons. It affects not only the people living today but future generations far into the future.

 

Dr. Krieger says when we realize nuclear weapons are maintained and strategies are developed totally on the basis of “rationality,” we come to understand that we’re betting the future of the world on the fact that we will continue to have leaders who are rational at all times, under all conditions and all circumstances. It’s a very unlikely proposition.

 

Segment 2: The Deterrence Argument

Is there any rational reason for maintaining nuclear weapons? Deterrence is not rational. Dr. Krieger argues unilaterally that we would be safer if we got rid of our Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles. They are something to target in a time of high conflict or high stress. There are ICBMs in three states in the United States and the Senators of those three states, encouraged by industry and people who profit from those weapon sites, fight to maintain those ICMBs. Between $50 - $70 billion dollars a year are spent on the nuclear weapons industry.

 

Segment 3: Capable of Eliminating a Species

With that $70 billion dollars we could fund housing programs, provide education and Head Start programs for children, fund food programs, etc. Instead we are spending the money on preserving dinosaur-like weapons that can only be used in a manner that kills indiscriminately, violates national law, is immoral at the highest level and terribly costly.

 

If you consider the greatest threat today – terrorism – nuclear weapons have no value of deterrence. There is no “place” or “territory” to retaliate against. We need to convince countries throughout the world that we must eliminate the only weapon system in the world that is capable of eliminating us as a species.

 

Segment 4: The Non-Proliferation Treaty

The Non-Proliferation Treaty, which entered into force in 1970 and extended indefinitely in 1995, leveled the playing field to some extent. The countries who signed the treaty agreed to not acquire new nuclear weapons and to pursue disarmament, but there are still over 19,000 nuclear weapons in the world. Four countries did not sign the treaty: Isreal, India, Pakistan and North Korea. They don’t consider themselves bound by its provisions.

 

To listen to the entire interview:

  

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