Belfast and Beyond

My colleague Fionna is far to modest to blog it herself, but she was a guest on BBC Radio Ulster's Sunday Sequence programme a couple of days ago to discuss new film, Standard Operating Procedure, which deals with the torture meted out...

Benjamin Zephaniah, the Rastafarian dub poet, was recently talking on Radio 4 about the focus on China's human rights record during the Olympics. The gist of what Zephaniah said was: how would the UK react when London holds the...

I am too young to remember where I was when I heard Kennedy was shot, but I will never forget the growing horror with which I listened to the car radio ten years ago today as I headed south on holidays with Rachel, my then girlfriend...

Mick Fealty at Slugger O'Toole (the daddy of 'em all, in NI blog terms) has asked for help in spreading the word about the 'political blogger' category in the new Slugger Awards . So here goes. The Slugger Awards are in their first...

As reported by the BBC , Westminster's Joint Committee on Human Rights has published the report of its year-long inquiry into proposals for a UK Bill of Rights and has come out firmly in support of the idea. So far I have only speed...

Ronan Bennett gave an inspiring lecture as part of Feile an Phobail . The former Long Kesh prisoner, author and now writer of his first hundred million dollar movie starring Johnny Depp, gave fascinating insights into the writer's...

Should this afternoon's opening ceremony to the Beijing Olympics be banned? That, surely, is the shocking logical conclusion of the Beijing Olympic rules being bandied about at the moment to justify the banning of flags from the likes...

There were more politicians at today's Belfast Pride parade than you could shake a stick at. Or at least an Amnesty placard which, once again, was the hottest item in town. In the wake of the now infamous series of anti-gay comments...

Today, for the first time ever, unionist politicians will attend the Belfast Pride parade – and not as anti-gay protestors. In the wake of a row started by the homophobic comments of DUP MP Iris Robinson and heightened this week by a...

The US (or at least parts of it) continues to wrestle with its conscience, not to mention its pocket-book, in the matter of the continued use of the death penalty. Maryland is just one of the States currently examining the future of...

The Daily Telegraph today reports (somewhat gleefully) on the declining membership of the Labour Party and the UK's political parties genrally. Labour Party member numbers are down from a 1997 high of 405,000 to only 177,000 today...

Peter Tatchell and last night's Amnesty International Pride Lecture have been at the centre of something of a Northern Ireland media storm for the last couple of days. Peter, with his widely reported comments on Iris Robinson MP, King...

You have to hand it to Peter Tatchell . The veteran gay rights campaigner – who will be giving the Amnesty International Pride Lecture this evening – really knows how to maximise media attention. In the wake of Iris Robinson MP's...

A New York Times story of this headline raises important questions about freedom of the press in reporting an unpopular war, which has now generated over 4,000 US fatalities and over 170 UK military deaths , including two from Northern...

As previously blogged in more detail, the BBC is broadcasting a two-part radio play on the life of early human rights advocate and activist (and much more), Thomas Paine. First part was broadcast today on Radio 4 as its Saturday play...

The rest of the world is destined to be disappointed by every American President. This is normal. Don't be depressed. Don't be surprised. American Presidents look after American interests, not European or anyone else's. Sometimes our...

That's the rather piquant name of a Facebook group at the heart of a fightback against homophobia in Northern Ireland. The four thousand-strong campaign group on the social networking site is just one element of an online and offline...

It may soon be the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights , but December 10th 1948 – albeit a massively significant moment – was not the starting point for human rights. We could have a long argument about...

There is a lot to be said for 'bringing human rights home'. I personally believe that, as individuals and humans, we have the moral authority to criticise other countries and others' governments for human rights abuses. If this was not...

Could Northern Ireland be helping to fuel genocide in Darfur? That's the almost incredible prospect opened up by new revelations from the BBC. I have previously blogged about the possibility that Northern Ireland companies could be...