Tag: United Nations

Star Wars off their rockers

Posted on by kathiemm

In the world of Hollywood, R2-D2 is an appealing robot who comes to the rescue in every Star Wars movie. In the real world, robots are being created to kill on their own—that is, without human direction and oversight.

Big dog military robots
Big dog military robots. Image in public domain.

Although proponents of killing without risk to one’s own side use terms like “lethal autonomous robotics” or “autonomous military robots” to describe the latest product of deadly technology, the term “killer robots” captures better what these machines are programmed to do.

The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots makes a very compelling case for why it is so risky to program robots to kill and then to turn them loose.

Concerns about killer robots are strong enough and widespread enough that the Human Rights Council of the United Nations is urging a moratorium on their development “before it is too late.”

A U.N. ban on the development of killer robots is a good idea, as was the U.N. 1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction–the international agreement banning antipersonnel landmines. The U.S. is among the small number of nations that have not signed that treaty.

UNICEF estimates that in the world today there are 110 million landmines in 64 countries; many of those (e.g., in Vietnam and Afghanistan) were planted by the U.S.  Every month about 800 people–mostly innocent children and other civilians–die from landmines, and thousands more are seriously injured.

Do we really need to add killer robots to our arsenal of deadly weapons?

So many Americans cloak themselves in hatred and search for an evil empire to destroy with the latest Star Wars weaponry. They may succeed. And the empire they find and destroy may be our own.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology

Terminating torture and treating its victims

Posted on by kathiemm
Painting of torture by Paolo Veronese
Paolo Veronese, in public domain.

“Torture is a crime under international law….[It] is absolutely prohibited and cannot be justified under any circumstances. This prohibition forms part of customary international law, which means that it is binding on every member of the international community, regardless of whether a State has ratified international treaties in which torture is expressly prohibited. The systematic or widespread practice of torture constitutes a crime against humanity” (United Nations).

Despite this absolute prohibition of torture, the United States has perpetrated torture at Guantanamo Bay, in its own prisons, and through extraordinary rendition, thereby earning widespread condemnation from the international community.

The government officials who have promoted the use of torture and the citizens who condone it are enabled by their own moral disengagement and by the passivity of all the Americans who avoid thinking about the agonies of torture and the complicity of their government in this violation of international law.

Time for a change.

Just two months ago, on April 16, 2013, a bipartisan task force assembled by The Constitution Project, a public interest organization, released a 560-page study providing “indisputable” evidence of U.S. torture of detainees since September 11, 2001. The U.S. government is urged to provide redress to its victims.

The report is timely, because June 26 is the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. The International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims provides valuable information on the victims of torture and the efforts made to help them recover.

Meet some of the survivors of torture from around the world and hear them relate their heart-wrenching stories. And then be part of the solution.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology

Say “Never again” to genocide

Posted on by kathiemm

Today, April 8, is Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Nazi concentration camps map
Image in public domain.

Although the United Nations General Assembly chose January 27 as annual International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the United States Congress established its own National Days of Remembrance, which are observed this year from April 7 to 14.

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum has declared this year’s theme to be “Never Again: Heeding the Warning Signs.”

Please take at least a few minutes today to honor the victims and survivors of the Nazi genocide by watching the videos linked in this post. They are compelling reminders of what the U.S. and the other democracies did as the Nazis began their attack on Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, and other convenient scapegoats—that is, virtually nothing.

Occasionally students wend their way into my Psychology of War and Peace class declaring that the U.S. entered World War II to rescue the Jews—waving flags emblazoned with an appalling level of misinformation. “Never again” will not be achieved by Americans invested in the mythology that their government has always been the crusader for democracy, humanity, and…liberty and justice for all.

The films are also powerful reminders that genocides, a scourge on human society for centuries, continue to plague the earth. If we want to say “never again” to genocide, to what other factors do we have to say “never again”? Racism? Poverty? Revenge? Humiliation? Send us your suggestions.

Whatever our religion, ethnicity, or skin color, we can all do more to resist the forces that push us to hate, dehumanize, blame, and scapegoat others who are identified by people in power as our enemies.

We are all related. We are all one family.

Time for Cain to stop killing Abel.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology

Pursuing nonviolent protest in Palestine

Posted on by kathiemm

People have asked, “Where is the Palestinian Gandhi?” One response has been Palestinian farmer Emad Burnat, who created the documentary Five Broken Cameras. Another good example is the young woman in our opening video who stood up to Israeli troops who were destroying Palestinian homes. This video should become an icon for nonviolence like the Tank Man in Tiananmen Square, or like Rachel Corrie, the young American woman who was killed by Israeli tank drivers for engaging in nonviolent resistance to the destruction of Palestinian homes.

A well-kept secret–perhaps because it is not as “newsworthy” as violence–is the substantial efforts of many Palestinians and Israelis to engage in nonviolence to resolve their rival claims to lands that the United Nations assigned to Palestine.

If you click on this link, you will see a long list of organizations that are working for nonviolence on the part of Israelis, Palestinians, or both.

A helpful article in The Economist about Palestinian efforts at nonviolence challenges Americans to support them in their quest.

Also inspiring is a brief documentary regarding Just Vision, a group founded by an American Jewish woman, Ronit Avi, working to promote nonviolence between Israelis and Palestinians through films such as Budrus.

To learn more about the many different examples of nonviolent resistance that Palestinians have adopted in response to Israeli occupation and what former President Jimmy Carter called the Israeli policy of apartheid, watch this video.

Many Israelis and Jews elsewhere in the world have supported the Palestinian cause. I believe that together these two waves of nonviolent protest against illegal occupation of Palestinian lands can bring about peace. You can join them.

March 16 was the tenthanniversary of the killing of Rachel Corrie in Gaza. Read her story on Engaging Peace and consider how you can join the worldwide observances to honor her nonviolent efforts at promoting peace.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology