Amnesty criticises 'rogue state' China as global death penalty toll falls

Amnesty International has sharply criticised China for continuing to conceal the number of people it sentences to death, as the human rights group reported a fall in executions globally last year. 

The number of executions around the world fell by more than a third to 1,032 across 23 countries in 2016, compared with 1,634 in 25 countries in 2015. Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Pakistan were the top executioners.

It is estimated that China executes thousands of people, but Beijing does not release statistics and considers the number of death sentences to be a state secret.

READ HERE

Faith still a potent presence in UK politics

Faith remains a potent presence at the highest level of UK politics despite a growing proportion of the country’s population defining themselves as non-religious, according to the author of a new book examining the faith of prominent politicians.

Nick Spencer, research director of the Theos thinktank and the lead author of The Mighty and the Almighty: How Political Leaders Do God, uses the example that all but one of Britain’s six prime ministers in the past four decades have been practising Christians to make his point.

READ HERE

'I feel so guilty': Muslim women discuss removing their hijab at work – video

Following the ruling by the European court of justice to allow employers to ban religious symbols in the workplace, three Muslim women in Spain, The Netherlands and the UK talk about their experiences of looking for work while wearing a hijab. They discuss the pressures they have felt, the changes some of them have had to make, be it a complete removal of the scarf or adapting their headgear, and reflect on the complexity of their decision

READ HERE

5 Steps to Tyranny

A documentary explaining why OBEYING AUTHORITY IS NOT ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA BUT IT IS OFTEN VERY DIFFICULT TO AVOID.  Mentions stuff like Milgram's Obedience experiment and the Stanford Prison experiment.

WATCH HERE

How religion has clashed with secular society

Ten examples of how religion has come into conflict with the rules of secular society.

READ HERE

Rillington Place - Capital Punishment and Abortion

BBC series 'Rillington Place' has details you can use for Capital Punishment (miscarriage of justice leading to execution of Timothy Evans) and episode 2 also includes reference to a 'backstreet' abortion (the type you can use in your evaluation of the issue of abortion. i.e. if abortion had been legal, then women would not have needed to resort to the services of illegal abortionists). 

WATCH EPISODE 1 HERE

WATCH EPISODE 2 HERE

When was Timothy Evans’ name finally cleared?

In 2003 the Home Office’s independent assessor, Lorn Brennan QC declared that “the conviction of Timothy Evans is now recognised to have been one of the most notorious, if not the most notorious, miscarriages of justice.”

“There is no evidence to implicate Timothy Evans in the murder of his wife”, he continued. “She was most probably murdered by Christie.”

French town told park's Virgin Mary statue must go

A French town has been told it must take down its statue of the Virgin Mary to comply with a national ban on religious symbols in public spaces, the town's mayor said on Saturday.

A court has given the town of Publier, in eastern France, three months to remove the work.

If it fails to do so, it will be fined €100 (£80; $105) a day.

Mayor Gaston Lacroix said he will try to relocate the marble statue on private land.

READ HERE

'Desperate' Afghan children go on hunger strike in France in bid to rejoin families in UK

Hunger strike is a form of non-violent protest, used by Aung San Suu Kyi, links to Martin Luther King's non-violent protests and whatnot.


READ HERE

Gay Cake

HERE 

I spent 28 years on death row

HERE

Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi

Read more about Aung San Suu Kyi, a useful example of non-violent protest, used in units Religion and Conflict, Authority: Religion and State

The 70-year-old spent much of her time between 1989 and 2010 in some form of detention because of her efforts to bring democracy to military-ruled Myanmar (Burma) - a fact that made her an international symbol of peaceful resistance in the face of oppression.

HERE

HERE

FILM ABOUT HER LIFE HERE

Postcards from the X.

Malcolm X wrote some postcards (usually with a pen but he was prepared to use any means necessary!  Ha ha!  Oh, I am so funny.) He even wrote a postcard from Hajj!  

HERE

The Trials of Muhammad Ali

This documentary deals with Ali's refusal to fight in Vietnam. 

WATCH IT HERE!

Racism in the US - Police

This is the sort of additional information that brings your Martin Luther King paragraphs up to date with regard to the current state of racial equality in the US.

READ IT HERE!