Suppressing Protest: Human Rights Violations in the U.S. Response to Occupy Wall Street

In September 2011, waves of protests against mounting socioeconomic injustice broke out across the United States, capturing the attention of the country. The Occupy Wall Street movement, inspired by similar protests around the globe, used the occupation of public space and mass demonstrations to call attention to a wide array of shared concerns. The movement also used public assemblies to debate concerns and promote direct democratic participation. Within weeks of their emergence, the protests dramatically expanded and deepened U.S. political discourse around the widening gap between rich and poor, bank bailouts and impunity for financial crimes, and the role of money in politics. The response of U.S. authorities to the protests also received significant attention. Images of police using pepper spray on seated students, the arrests of thousands of peaceful protesters across the country, midnight raids on encampments, baton-swinging officers, marches accompanied by phalanxes of riot police, and officers obstructing and arresting journalists were beamed around the world. This is the first in a series of reports examining the responses of U.S. authorities to the Occupy protests. Through an eight-month-long study of the response in New York City, together with comparative data collected from cities across the United States, this report highlights major policy concerns and serious violations of the rights of protesters. Further detailed studies will be published in the coming months on the response of authorities in Boston, Charlotte, Oakland, and San Francisco. Government responses to Occupy Wall Street in the United States have varied significantly, both within and across cities. Indeed, there have been examples of good practice, including through welcoming assemblies, using modern democratic policing styles that promote negotiation to facilitate protests, and enforcing strict controls on any use of police force. But across the United States, abusive and unlawful protest regulation and policing practices have been and continue to be alarmingly evident. This report follows a review of thousands of news reports and hundreds of hours of video, extensive firsthand observation, and detailed witness interviews

Movie-going in New Zealand, 1950-1980 : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand

Figures 2.2, 3.1, 3.2 and 3.3 removed due to copyright reasonsListed in 2017 Dean's List of Exceptional ThesesWhile historical film audience research has flourished internationally since the 1980s, New Zealand’s historical movie-going audiences have largely been ignored. This thesis seeks to increase our understanding of this once phenomenally popular pastime by investigating the movie-going habits of New Zealanders during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Using a multi-methodological approach, I draw on 600 survey responses, official statistics and reports, and archival material to ascertain changes in movie attendance and preference over these three decades, and the reasons for those changes. The examination of film exhibition and its practices is key to the investigation. These decades were ones of significant societal change, not least because of the introduction of television in the 1960s, which saw a rapid decrease in the number of movie-goers and led to a change in movie-going culture from ‘going to the pictures’ to ‘going to a picture’. Movie-going ceased to be a habit for many New Zealanders and instead became more of an event, assisted by a change in Hollywood production from hundreds of movies a year, to a few ‘blockbuster’ event-status films. The 1960s also saw a continuation of the high marriage and birth rates of the 1950s, and television fitted this period of domesticity. Hollywood increasingly focused on making films for young adult audiences, which further assisted in reducing audience sizes in New Zealand as some of the more popular genres with audiences here, such as the Broadway-inspired musical, were no longer being made. Another potential audience, children, were also neglected as films became increasing ‘adult’ in content, and were censored accordingly. Exhibitors were required to work hard to source appropriate material for children, many of who, given the late arrival of television here, and the even longer wait for transmission at child-friendly viewing times, still relied on the movies for entertainment. A further barrier to retaining audiences was the ever-increasing cost of admission tickets. By the end of the 1970s, these factors had coalesced to see New Zealand audiences at an all-time low, and the cinema business in New Zealand facing a most uncertain future

A Taxonomic Revision of Eastern North Pacific Softnose Skates (Arhynchobatidae: Bathyraja Ishiyama)

Softnose skates (Rajiformes: Arhynchobatidae: Bathyraja Ishiyama) are the most diverse genus of skates, with 54 described species, and are readily distinguishable from their congeners by their relatively uncalcified and flexible rostral cartilages. Six species of Bathyraja are considered valid in the eastern North Pacific, including: deepsea skate, B. abyssicola, Aleutian skate, B. aleutica, sandpaper skate, B. kincaidii, fine-spined skate, B. microtrachys, Pacific white skate, B. spinosissima, and roughtail skate, B. trachura. As with other skate genera, the eastern North Pacific Bathyraja lacks a well-supported phylogeny, which leads to issues with setting catch limits and creating management plans. This study identifies and formally describes the softnose skates species in the eastern North Pacific based on morphometric and meristic measurements and includes an Alaskan species, Bering skate, B. interrupta due to its close morphological relationship to B. kincaidii. Multivariate tests determined that significant differences existed between the study species. Parsimonious phylogenetic trees showed that B kincaidii represents the basal condition, with B. abyssicola and B. aleutica being the most derived species in the study. The synonymized species B. interrupta and B. kincaidii were shown to be separate, as were the synonymized species B. microtrachys and B. trachura. An improved Bathyraja phylogeny will hopefully assist fisheries managers in developing conservation policies and easing the impacts of deepsea fishing expansion

The Long-Term International Law Implications of Targeted Killings Practices

One of the most crucial and enduring questions about “targeted killings” is: How will the currently expanding practices of singling out individuals in advance and eliminating them in other countries without accountability impact the established international legal system? International law, since at least World War II, has developed various mechanisms to limit killing in general, including targeted killings. These take the form of vigorous protections for the right to life under human rights law; safeguards against the interstate use of force while permitting states to protect themselves where necessary; and aiming to strike a balance between the principles of humanity and military necessity during armed conflict through international humanitarian law (IHL)

Mitochondria and neuroprotection in stroke: Cationic arginine-rich peptides (CARPs) as a novel class of mitochondria-targeted neuroprotective therapeutics

Stroke is the second leading cause of death globally and represents a major cause of devastating long-term disability. Despite sustained efforts to develop clinically effective neuroprotective therapies, presently there is no clinically available neuroprotective agent for stroke. As a central mediator of neurodamaging events in stroke, mitochondria are recognised as a critical neuroprotective target, and as such, provide a focus for developing mitochondrial-targeted therapeutics. In recent years, cationic arginine-rich peptides (CARPs) have been identified as a novel class of neuroprotective agent with several demonstrated mechanisms of action, including their ability to target mitochondria and exert positive effects on the organelle. This review provides an overview on neuronal mitochondrial dysfunction in ischaemic stroke pathophysiology and highlights the potential beneficial effects of CARPs on mitochondria in the ischaemic brain following stroke

Proteomic analysis of cortical neuronal cultures treated with poly-arginine peptide-18 (R18) and exposed to glutamic acid excitotoxicity

Poly-arginine peptide-18 (R18) has recently emerged as a highly effective neuroprotective agent in experimental stroke models, and is particularly efficacious in protecting cortical neurons against glutamic acid excitotoxicity. While we have previously demonstrated that R18 can reduce excitotoxicity-induced neuronal calcium influx, other molecular events associated with R18 neuroprotection are yet to investigated. Therefore, in this study we were particularly interested in protein expression changes in R18 treated neurons subjected to excitotoxicity. Proteomic analysis was used to compare protein expression patterns in primary cortical neuronal cultures subjected to: (i) R18-treatment alone (R18); (ii) glutamic acid excitotoxic injury (Glut); (iii) R18-treatment and glutamic acid injury (R18 + Glut); (iv) no treatment (Cont). Whole cell lysates were harvested 24 h post-injury and subjected to quantitative proteomic analysis (iTRAQ), coupled with liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/ MS) and subsequent bioinformatic analysis of differentially expressed proteins (DEPs). Relative to control cultures, R18, Glut, and R18 + Glut treatment resulted in the detection of 5, 95 and 14 DEPs respectively. Compared to Glut alone, R18 + Glut revealed 98 DEPs, including 73 proteins whose expression was also altered by treatment with Glut and/or R18 alone, as well as 25 other uniquely regulated proteins. R18 treatment reversed the up- or down-regulation of all 73 Glut-associated DEPs, which included proteins involved in mitochondrial integrity, ATP generation, mRNA processing and protein translation. Analysis of protein-protein interactions of the 73 DEPs showed they were primarily associated with mitochondrial respiration, proteasome activity and protein synthesis, transmembrane trafficking, axonal growth and neuronal differentiation, and carbohydrate metabolism. Identified protein pathways associated with proteostasis and energy metabolism, and with pathways involved in neurodegeneration. Collectively, the findings indicate that R18 neuroprotection following excitotoxicity is associated with preservation of neuronal protein profiles, and differential protein expression that assists in maintaining mitochondrial function and energy production, protein homeostasis, and membrane trafficking

The Right to Mental Health in Yemen

Mental health issues are all too common consequences of conflict and atrocity crimes, often causing upwards of one-quarter of the post-conflict, post-atrocity population to suffer from physical and mental sequelae that linger long after weapons have been silenced. After more than six years of ongoing conflict, Yemen’s already weak health care system is on the brink of collapse, and population resilience has been severely stressed by indiscriminate attacks, airstrikes, torture, food insecurity, unemployment, cholera, and now the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper examines Yemen’s responsibilities regarding the right to mental health and details the few actions the government has taken to date toward fulfilling this right. It also presents the current status of mental health care in Yemen, discussing some of the barriers to accessing the available care, as well as alternative models of mental health support being used by the population. In light of the pandemic presently facing the world, the paper also discusses COVID-19’s impact on Yemen, detailing its further degrading effects on the country’s health care system and people’s mental health. Finally, the paper highlights the importance of addressing mental health in furtherance of the peace process

Trauma, Depression, and Burnout in the Human Rights Field: Identifying Barriers and Pathways to Resilient Advocacy

Human rights advocates often confront trauma and stress in their work. They are exposed to testimony about heinous abuses; work in insecure locations; visit physical sites of abuse; review forensic, photographic, and video evidence; directly witness abuses; experience threats; and can also suffer detention, be attacked, or be tortured themselves. Such exposure risks adversely impacting the wellbeing and mental health of advocates. While the human rights field is diverse and work varies widely, most – if not all – advocates are likely directly or indirectly exposed to potentially traumatic events or material in the course of their work. The degree and type of exposure to human rights violations and insecurity can vary considerably among advocates: they work on human rights issues ranging from genocide to the right to water, in the midst of extreme poverty or armed conflict, as well as in countries experiencing relative peace and economic advantage. Some human rights advocates live and work in the same community, documenting abuses close to home. Others take up positions in national, regional, or international organizations, traveling to the scene of violations for defined periods. Many advocates have a wide variety of experiences over the course of a lifetime. One constant is that human rights advocates are likely to work in environments with abusive, violent, threatening, or otherwise distressing materials that can pose risks to advocates’ mental health and wellbeing. Yet many human rights advocates have little education in or support for the potential mental health impacts of their work, there is very little research in this area in either the human rights or psychology fields, and there is limited evidence-based guidance for promoting resilience and sustainable advocacy practices. This Article is part of an effort to close these gaps and to document the mental health of human rights advocates, who, in the pursuit of the rights of others, may neglect their own wellbeing. The Article is also part of an effort to understand the causes and dynamics of both positive and adverse wellbeing among advocates, with a view to improving how advocates are prepared for and conduct their work. It is crucial to identify specific factors that might place human rights advocates at risk for negative mental health impacts, as well as those factors that may help them develop resilience and ensure sustainable work practices, at both the individual and the institutional levels