Human Rights Watch issues report on Croatia

by Jeff Gimm

The U.S based Human Rights watch recently issued a report highlighting concerns within Croatia. The primary concerns were with war crimes tribunals, the treatment of the mentally ill and freedom of the press. The report alleges that the government of Croatia has withheld documents for the War Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, as well as the dispraportionate amount of defendents who are Serbian. According to BSAANA News, the case against the mentally ill surrounds ""excessive and unnecessary forced institutionalisation of people on the grounds of mental illness". The document cites the case of Ana Dragicevic "who was placed in a psychiatric hospital by her parents at age 16 in 2004, after they learned of her romantic relationship with another girl. She was released from the institution in May 2008 after an intervention by the State Attorney's Office, following a long campaign by the local media and a civil society organisation."" The report also details that while attacks against journalists were down in 2008, there was still limited advancements in investigating attacks against journalists. All of this does not carry well for a nation which wishes to enter the EU by 2012

Malaysian official advocates using more international ideas in the area of Human Rights

by Jeff Gimm

According to the New Straight Times,the Raja Muda of Perak, Raja Dr Nazrin Shah said over the weekend that "Malaysia's judiciary should look beyond the national borders and adopt more international human rights thinking and standards in arriving at legal decisions" Dr. Narzin Shah stressed that this was not an attack on the way Malaysia is currently conducting itself. "It is about seeking solutions to local problems by consulting universally accepted standards. It is about drawing on the experience of others who have faced similar problems." Towards the end of his speech, he stated that the courts are the ultimate authority in the country, so therefore any movement in the area of human rights should be up to them.
The way this speech was framed was most interesting. Dr. Nazrin Shah framed this idea in a way that stressed Malaysia's rising power. It puts them in a "enviable and unenviable place." He also stressed that while Malaysia should look carefully at the advice of other countries, as many of them have dealt with some of the problems that Malaysia is facing now, that this advice should be looked at as a form of international Amicus briefs.