Land Mines

Posted on March 16, 2020 by mekorganic

We need to urge our government to sign the Ottawa Treaty banning the production, stockpiling, use and sale of land mines, and assist other nations in unearthing and disabling land mines buried in their lands.

The Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, known informally as the Ottawa Treaty, the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, or often simply the Mine Ban Treaty, aims at eliminating anti-personnel landmines (AP-mines) around the world.
Sources: Green Party, Ottawa Treaty

.

The Green Party Issues Index

Green Party Platform on the Issues

.

Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World

Posted in land mines, Ottawa Treaty | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Kurdistan

Posted on March 16, 2020 by mekorganic

The Kurdish people are the largest ethnic group in the world that is without an independent state. As a result, Kurdish people have historically suffered persecution and injustice.

The Kurdish people have been besieged to the point of a current humanitarian crisis in towns such as Kobani, Syria.

We should express solidarity for and affirms the right to self-determination, self-defense, communal autonomy, freedom from persecution, and the release of political prisoners for the Kurdish population.
Sources: Green Party

.

The Green Party Issues Index

Green Party Platform on the Issues

.

Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World

Posted in Kurdistan, Syria, Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Justice for Native Hawaiians – Kanaka Maoli

Posted on March 16, 2020 by mekorganic

Since illegal annexation in 1898, the federal and state governments have cheated and neglected the native Hawaiian people.

In 1993, the U.S. Congress passed, and President Clinton signed into law, the “Apology Bill” (U.S. Public Law 103-150). This admission of crime states in part, “the native Hawaiians have never lost their inherent sovereignty nor their national home base.”

We should demand justice for Kanaka Maoli. We support the following:

  1. Protecting sacred and culturally significant sites.
  2. Efforts to nurture native Hawaiian culture.
  3. Kanaka maoli leadership and guardianship in protecting gathering rights, and lobbying the legislature to safeguard these rights without interference.
  4. Return of, or fair compensation for, ceded lands.
  5. Immediate distribution of Hawaiian Homelands, with government funds allocated for the necessary infrastructure.
  6. Prohibition of future sale or diminishments of the Ceded Land Trust.
  7. A call for open dialogue among all residents of Hawai’i on the sovereignty option of full independence.
  8. Hawaiian sovereignty in a form that is fair to both native Hawaiians and other residents of Hawai’i.

We should acknowledge and actively endorse the inherent and absolute right of indigenous nations to self-determination, and thereby call upon the U.S. government to reverse its opposition to enactment of the proposed United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in its entirety.
Sources: Green Party

.

The Green Party Issues Index

Green Party Platform on the Issues

.

Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World

Posted in Apology Bill, Ceded Land Trust, Hawaii, Ingigenous Peoples, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Justice and Safety for All

Posted on March 16, 2020 by mekorganic

Today, we say to the prison-industrial-complex that we are going to bring about real criminal justice reform. We are going to end the international embarrassment of having more people in jail than any other country on earth. Instead of spending $80 billion a year on jails and incarceration, we are going to invest in jobs and education for our young people.

  1. End for-profit greed in our criminal justice system, top to bottom by: by banning for-profit prisons and detention centers, ending cash bail, and making prison and jail communications, re-entry, diversion and treatment programs fee-free.
  2. Ensure due process and right to counsel by vastly increasing funding for public defenders and creating a federal formula to ensure populations have a minimum number of public defenders to meet their needs.
  3. Cut the national prison population in half and end mass incarceration by abolishing the death penalty, three strikes laws, and mandatory minimum sentences, as well as expanding the use of alternatives to detention.
  4. Transform the way we police communities by end the War on Drugs by legalizing marijuna and expunging past convictions, treating children who interact with the justice system as children, reversing the criminalization of addiction, and ending the reliance on police forces to handle mental health emergencies, homelessness, maintenance violations, and other low-level situations.
  5. Reform our decrepit prison system, guarantee a “Prisoners Bill of Rights,” and ensure a just transition for incarcerated individuals upon their release.
  6. Reverse the criminalization of communities, end cycles of violence, provide support to survivors of crime, and invest in our communities.
  7. Ensure law enforcement accountability and robust oversight, including banning the use of facial recognition software for policing.

For most of our history as a country, the United States incarcerated people at about the same rates as other western democracies do today. In the early 1970s we had the same low crime rate as today, but we now have an incarceration rate five times higher. Indeed, America is now the world’s leading jailer. We lock up more than 2 million people in America, which is more of our own people than any country on Earth. And that does not include another 5 million people who are under the supervision of the correctional system.

Hundreds of thousands of incarcerated people in America have not been convicted of a crime and are solely in jail because they can’t afford their bail. We are criminalizing poverty.

Due to the historical legacy of institutional racism in this country, mass incarceration disproportionately falls on the shoulders of black and brown people in America. In fact, black Americans are incarcerated at five times the rate of white Americans, and even though people use drugs like marijuana at roughly the same rates across all races, black Americans are nearly four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than white Americans. These disparities pervade every aspect of the criminal justice system. Black Americans, and especially young black men, are more likely to be stopped by the police, subjected to excessive force, arrested, and jailed than whites.

We must finally make the deep and structural investments to rebuild the communities that mass incarceration continues to decimate.

We must move away from an overly punitive approach to public safety and start focusing on how to safeguard our communities, prevent the conditions that lead to arrests, and rehabilitate people who have made mistakes.

Source: Bernie Sanders

#CriminalJusticeReform

.

The Green Party Issues Index

.

Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World

Posted in cash bail, Incarceration, justice, prison, prison-industrial-complex, Prisoners Bill of Rights, racism, three strikes, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Iran Nuclear Deal

Posted on March 16, 2020 by mekorganic

The American people should support the “joint comprehensive plan of action” (Iran Nuclear Deal) signed in July, 2015 by Iran and the P5+1 (five permanent members of the UN Security Council: China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, United States plus Germany), and the European Union, which confirms Iran’s status as a zone free of nuclear weapons.

According to the United States National Intelligence Estimate, Iran halted an alleged active nuclear weapons program in the Fall of 2003.

The Iran Nuclear Deal provides that in return for Iran upholding its agreements to rid itself of nuclear material, current economic sanctions by the US, European Union and UN Security Council will be lifted. There should have been a swift elimination of these economic sanctions on Iran and the normalization of relations between Iran and the United States. This never happened.

In keeping with UN resolutions call for a nuclear-free Middle East, Iran has signed the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, has consistently called for a nuclear-free zone in the entire Middle East and was in full compliance with the Iran Nuclear Deal.

In keeping with UN resolutions call for a nuclear-free Middle East, the Green Party also calls on Israel, the only nuclear power in the Middle East with at least 200 nuclear warheads, to dismantle its nuclear weapons program and sign on to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.

However, we need to understand that Israel is currently the only nuclear power in the Middle East with at least 200 nuclear warheads. Israel has refused to dismantle its nuclear weapons program and sign on to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.

Sources: Green Party

We should demand an end to this blaring double standard concerning Israel and Iran if we truly want a peaceful nuclear free Middle East.

We need to strongly oppose the current U.S. administration withdrawal from the Iran deal and increased sanctions and various covert and overt interference attempts to destabilize the government and society in Iran.

Michael E. Kerr

.

The Green Party Issues Index

Green Party Platform on the Issues

.

Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World

Posted in China, France, Germany, Iran, Iran Nuclear Deal, Israel, Middle East, Nuclear Non-proliferation, nuclear weapons, Russia, U.N. Security Council, Uncategorized, United Kingdom | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

International Law

Posted on March 16, 2020 by mekorganic

We need to reduce American militarism. We need our government to follow our Constitution and International Laws when it comes to Foreign Policy.

Michael E. Kerr

  1. As one of the initiators and primary authors of the United Nations Charter, the United States is obligated to conform to the stipulations of the U.S. Constitution, which identifies all such agreements as treaties that hold the authority of U.S. law. The U.S. government is pledged to abide by its principles and guidelines in the conduct of foreign relations and affairs.
  2. We must recognize our government’s obligation to take disputes with other nations or foreign bodies to the U.N. Security Council and General Assembly forum for negotiation and resolution.  The U.N. and international laws, treaties and conventions that the U.S. has signed are the framework that controls U.S. military actions abroad.
  3. The U.S. must recognize the sovereignty of nation-states and their right of self-determination.
  4. It is important to recognize and support the right of the U.N. to intervene in a nation-state engaged in genocidal acts or in its persistent violation and denial of the human rights of an ethnic or religious group within its boundaries, and the right to protect the victims of such acts.
  5. The U.S. is obligated to render military assistance or service under U.N. command to enforce U.N. Security Council resolutions.
  6. The U.S. must recognize and abide by the authority of the U.N. General Assembly to act in a crisis situation by passing a resolution under the Uniting for Peace Procedure when the U.N. Security Council is stalemated by vetoes.
  7. The veto power enjoyed by the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council needs to be seriously reconsidered as it has been constantly abused against overwhelming decisions by the General Assembly.
  8. We must urge our government to sign the International Criminal Court agreement and respect the authority of that institution.

Sources: Green Party

.

The Green Party Issues Index

Green Party Platform on the Issues

.

Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World

Posted in constitution, International Law, military actions, Military-Industrial-Media Complex, U.N. Security Council, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Insurance Reform

Posted on March 16, 2020 by mekorganic

Clean up the insurance industry. Eliminate special-interest protections, collusion, over-pricing and industry-wide practices that too often injure the interests of the insured when they are most vulnerable. Prohibit bad-faith insurance practices, such as avoidance of obligations and price fixing.

Enact single-payer universal health insurance. Until single-payer is established, we support laws that act to make insurance policies transportable from job to job.
Support and encourage the insurance industry’s efforts for “loss prevention,” that is, to reduce the incidence of death, injuries, disease and other calamities.

Support initiatives in secondary insurance markets that expand credit for economic development in inner cities, affordable housing and home ownership among the poor, sustainable agriculture and rural development maintaining family farms.

Prohibit companies from being the beneficiary of insurance on their own employees.
Source: Green Party

.

The Green Party Issues Index

Green Party Platform on the Issues

.

Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World

Posted in health care, insurance, insurance industry, single payer, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Indigenous Peoples

Posted on March 16, 2020 by mekorganic

We should have great respect for Native American cultures, especially their deference for community and the Earth.

We must recognize both the sovereignty of Native American tribal governments and the Federal Government’s trust obligation to Native American people. Native American nations are just that — nations — and should be treated in like fashion, with the special circumstance that they are located within the United States.
The federal government is obligated to deal in good faith with Native Americans;

  1. Honor its treaty obligations;
  2. Adequately fund programs for the betterment of tribal governments and their people;
  3. Affirm the religious rights of Native Americans in ceremonies (American Indian Religious Freedom Act);
  4. Provide funds for innovative economic development initiatives, education and public health programs;
  5. Respect land, water and mineral rights within the borders of reservations and traditional lands.

We should support efforts to broadly reform the Bureau of Indian Affairs to make this vast agency more responsible and more responsive to tribal governments.

We should support the just settlement of the claims of the thousands of Native American uranium miners who have suffered and died from radiation exposure. We must condemn the stance of secrecy taken by the Atomic Energy Commission during this era and its subsequent claim of government immunity, taken knowingly and immorally at the expense of Native people. We should demand the complete clean-up of those mines and tailing piles, which are a profoundly destructive legacy of the Cold War.

Native American land and treaty rights often stand as the front line against government and multinational corporate attempts to plunder energy, mineral, timber, fish, and game resources; pollute water, air, and land in the service of the military; expand economically; and consume natural resources. We should support legal, political, and grassroots efforts by, and on behalf of, Native Americans to protect their traditions, rights, livelihoods, and sacred spaces.

We need to support the rights of indigenous peoples to their lands, their ways of life, and all other rights of free peoples. We must support the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples adopted by the UN General Assembly on September 13, 2007, and call for its provisions to be actively supported by our own government and by governments worldwide.


Sources: Green Party

Abya Yala News

South and Meso American Indian Rights Center (SAIIC) 

.

The Green Party Issues Index

Green Party Platform on the Issues

.

Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World

Posted in Atomic Energy Commission, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Human Rights, Ingigenous Peoples, Native Americans, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Human Rights vs. Corporations

Posted on March 15, 2020 by mekorganic

We need to overturn Citizen United. It shouldn’t have been necessary! But due to a corporate controlled Supreme Court, let’s propose the following amendment to the Constitution of the United States:

The rights established by this Constitution and the laws of the United States of America are exclusively the rights of living, breathing humans, citizens of this country or residing therein. No corporation or other type of association or organization can have the status of a “legal person” and thus cannot derive rights from such status.

These organizations have no permanent, constitutionally protected rights, though they may have such powers or immunities as are explicitly granted to them by legislative actions at either the federal or the state level. These powers or immunities may be modified or removed by later action of the same legislative bodies. In no case can these powers or immunities override the constitutionally protected rights of human beings.

Michael E. Kerr via unknown sources

.

The Green Party Issues Index

.

Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World

Posted in Citizen United, Human Rights, Supreme Court, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

AIDS / HIV

Posted on March 15, 2020 by mekorganic

The Green Party calls for comprehensive, humane, and competent care of all people with HIV/AIDS.
The AIDS epidemic has not had adequate public health management at all government levels. Drug corporations have a strong profit motive to encourage for medical management of those with HIV by using medication that keeps the virus from being detected in the blood. This means there are guaranteed sales of very expensive drugs.

Rather than invest in research for a cure like they have done with Hepatitis C, the drug companies invest in drugs that manage a chronic illness. The Green Party believes that this failure to invest in research for a cure is because mainstream society has the belief that contracting HIV is self-inflicted by “sinful” or “illegal” behavior.

The largest groups with HIV/AIDS in the USA are men who have sex with men, including gay, bisexual, and trans men, and men of color, particularly of African and Latinx descent. Persons who share needles are the next largest group of persons with HIV/AIDS in the USA. While HIV drug treatment regimens have saved lives, some people suffer from debilitating side effects where quality of life is poor. There is also the economic side effect due to the high cost of these life-saving medications.
We recommend the following actions:

  1. Increased public education in transmission prevention which includes funding for the purchase and distribution of condoms, gloves, dams, and needles & syringes.
  2. Increased funding for age appropriate comprehensive sex education that includes use of barriers for prevention of fluid/blood transmission. We support students having easy access to condoms, gloves, and dams in schools.
  3. Increased funding for research focusing on a cure in addition to chronic disease management.
  4. Creation of a repository for the latest peer reviewed theories, studies, and findings, and to facilitate sharing among research laboratories, schools and universities, medical centers, and public health facilities that would be accessible for common good rather than kept proprietary for profit.
  5. Funding for methods of peer education for sex workers and those who may share needles, and to supply them with condoms, dams, gloves, and needles & syringes.
  6. Educating incarcerated individuals in HIV transmission prevention and supplying them with condoms, dams, and gloves. Additionally, remove barriers to access of medicines for incarcerated individuals with HIV/AIDS, and Hepatitis C.
  7. Increased funding for educating the public about addiction and funding for treatment facilities for addicts, and for transitional housing to help with society re-entry.
  8. Education and funding for addiction harm reduction practices, including available needle exchange programs for those individuals with substance use problems who are not yet ready to enter treatment programs.
  9. Immediate increases in funding for programs that ensure all individuals with HIV/AIDS who want housing or treatment are able to obtain such promptly. No individuals with HIV should ever spend a single night on the streets or be turned away from treatment due to their economic status. We advocate for creating daily HIV medication distribution centers for individuals who are unable to manage the complex daily medication regimen without assistance.
  10. Increased funding for free, anonymous testing of people for the presence of HIV/AIDS. No mandated testing.
  11. Full funding to ensure broad access to Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) programs, which have been proven by researchers to minimize transmission of HIV and reduce public health costs by preventing the need for expensive, lifelong HIV treatment regimens. The Green Party calls for our governments to make every effort to negotiate fair and reasonable prices for associated drugs, rather than allowing manufacturers to extract excessive profits from these life-saving medications.
  12. Funding for outreach and treatment to address the particular circumstances and specific needs of the various communities affected by HIV/AIDS.
  13. More research into better methods of prevention of HIV infection. While we support condom use, better condoms are also required. We support more vaccine research as well as research on prevention methods such as microbicides. People must be provided the means and support to protect themselves from all sexually transmitted and blood & body fluid borne diseases.
  14. A repeal of all HIV criminalization laws and policies and release all prisoners imprisoned solely due to HIV status.
  15. Restore full federal health funding for persons living with HIV.

Source: Green Party

.

The Green Party Issues Index

Green Party Platform on the Issues

.

Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World

Posted in Aids, drug war, education, health care, HIV, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment