Happy New Year: Top 3 Human Rights Disasters in 2011!

Boom!! Fireworks explode and human rights activists everywhere burst open Champagne to congratulate themselves on another year of preventing people nuking the planet in oblivion.

BUT!!...where is the next super hot zone going to erupt I hear you ask? How can I be first in line to print the latest petition or send that strongly worded letter off to that dastardly embassy that never writes back? Well. chums....wonder no more for here is the top 3 storms waiting to hit human rights in 2011!!!......

1. Southern Sudan (seriously...god help this part of the world)

Southern Sudan made the mistake of producing 85% of the Sudanese oil industry. Yummy $$$$$ to some, but ugly war to other. And because they produce 85% of the oil and are a Christan minority in a Muslim majority country, they want to have a referendum to gain independence. The big problem is the President of Sudan is Omar al-Bashir accused by they International Criminal Court of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur. Do you think a guy like that is going to let 85% of his wealth disappear?...me neither.

 Omar al-Bashir: Wanted by ICC for genocide and just an all round jerk

2. Ivory Coast ( "brink of genocide"...not good)

Political unrest following Ivory Coast's disputed presidential election has brought the country to the "brink of genocide", its new ambassador to the United Nations said. If that wasn't bad enough three of it's neighbors have threatened war if the current President does not step down. The November 28th 2010 election was meant to reunite Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa growing nation, after a 2002-03 civil war. But a dispute over the results has provoked lethal street clashes with 170 people dead and threatens to restart open conflict.

Ivory Coast: Bad idea for a summer holiday in 2011

3. Lebanon (They killed each other over a tree in 2010...what do you think a UN report is going to do?)

Tensions between the country's antagonistic communities are rising rapidly as they await the findings of an official inquiry into the 2005 murder of prime minister Rafik Hariri. If, as expected, Iranian-backed Hezbollah is blamed, many fear the weak coalition government in Beirut may fall apart. Expect return to almost non-stop civil war since France decided to create Lebanon while out on a late night session with Britain....and of course the obligatory Israeli invasion to follow.

Check with your Lebonese neighbors first before you move a tree in the middle east

Honourable mentions for human rights disasters in 2011:

Iran: Continue to build nuclear weapons....they want them like I want Megan Fox.

Thailand: The Red Shirt protest movement, forcibly suppressed in May, can be expected to make a comeback under more militant leadership ahead of general elections due by the autumn.

North Korea: Kim Jong-il's regime provocatively revealed its uranium enrichment facilities to the world, conducted more military exercises, sank a South Korean naval vessel and then attacked a South Korean island in November, killing civilians in the process. (Booo!!!)

The whole Middle East: Of course.


Where is Aung San Suu Kyi when you need her?

Happy New Year!!