Word: humanity
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...representatives of the Sandinistas and the contras verbally assaulted each other in San Jose last week, the Costa Rican capital was also the site of a landmark case being tried by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. On trial is the government of Honduras, which has been charged with "integral responsibility" in the disappearance and presumed murder of an unspecified number of its citizens by army death squads. Though the evidence presented at the proceedings deals specifically with the disappearance of four people in the early 1980s, no individuals are on trial; rather, the court is attempting to determine...
...lawyer's nightmare. Since the bodies of death-squad victims are seldom found, little prima facie evidence exists. The court has thus had to rely on the testimony of those who have brushed up against the death squads. Their willingness to cooperate has already produced tragic results. A human-rights official and a former Honduran army sergeant have been killed in the past three weeks. Many Hondurans believe they were silenced by death squads...
...court's seven magistrates are not expected to reach a verdict until June. If they find Honduras guilty, they can issue a condemnation and order the government to pay reparations. "This case has the potential to depoliticize human rights," says Claudio Grossman, one of the lawyers involved in the prosecution. "Instead of making human rights a point of ideological discourse, it can be adjudicated...
...region's conventional exports suffer a reputation for second-rate quality: outdated electronic calculators, low-grade steel, shoddy carpeting. But the East bloc's human exports are often top of the line. Many of the most talented performers have been trained from as young as age six at rigorous state-run sports or music institutions. Other stars, circus artists among them, possess skills that are centuries-old specialties of Eastern Europe. Yet Communist governments are so hungry for hard currency to help finance growing debts to Western lenders and pay for imported products that they routinely mark down the price...
With writing back in the mainstream, human beings were now permitted to develop all the disciplines that they formerly were compelled to ignore for fear of not getting invited back to parties. Science, history, hotel management--the list goes on--soon mankind was the envy of the jungle. Now not only were we able to pursue lofty intellectual goals, but at the same time, because the stuff was all shovelled away in books, no one who had important things to do had to listen...