Governments Must Take Collective Action: Amnesty International
Human Rights Report 2008

Amnesty International (AI) recently released its 2008 State of the World's Human Rights Report. This report reveals that sixty years after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations, people are still tortured or ill-treated in at least 81 countries, face unfair trials in at least 54 countries and are not allowed to speak freely in at least 77 countries. Through its report, Amnesty International challenged world leaders to apologize for six decades of human rights failure and recommit themselves to deliver concrete improvements.

"The human rights flashpoints in Darfur, Zimbabwe, Gaza, Iraq and Myanmar demand immediate action," said Irene Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty International, launching AI Report 2008: State of the World's Human Rights.

"Injustice, inequality and impunity are the hallmarks of our world today. Governments must act now to close the yawning gap between promise and performance," Khan said.

The results from Asia show that the challenge to match unbridled economic expansion with an increase in economic, social and cultural rights for the region's poor remains unmet. Asia also remains the only region in the world that does not have an overarching human rights instrument - although the ASEAN charter is in progress. One of the key trends emerging from the report was the evasion of corporate accountability for human rights abuses.

Amnesty International cautioned that the biggest threat to the future of human rights is the absence of a shared vision and collective leadership. Governments must set a new paradigm for collective leadership based on the principles
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The AI Report states that human rights problems continue to grow worldwide, and leaders must recommit themselves to take action and improve the situation. Through this Report, AI asserts that year 2008 presents an "unprecedented
opportunity" to world leaders and emerging countries to set a new direction and reject the policies&
practices that have led to the deteriorating of human rights.

University of Washington to Establish Eco-College
The University of Washington (UW) recently released plans to create the largest environmental college in the world. The College of the Environment would combine the University's current schools of forestry, fishery sciences,
atmospheric sciences, earth and space sciences, marine affairs, and oceanography. It would create a
new programme: Environment, Society and Culture. The new college, scheduled to open in fall 2009, would start with 97 faculty members, 1,135 students and a budget of more than $60 million. It would grant degrees at the undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral levels.

"Certainly, higher education in general has a responsibility to tackle challenges that threaten the wellbeing of the planet. The UW is strongly positioned to truly advance the contributions of academia to the very concrete problems of the world around us," according to a UW report released in May 2008. Jay Manning, director of the state Department of Ecology praised the idea as an outstanding one and said that, "The timing is perfect. I think the public is ready for this, and there's a generation of kids who are more interested in the environment than any generation has been since
the 1970s." Furthermore, he said UW research - especially by the Climate Impacts Group - has had a profound effect on the climate change debate both in Washington and elsewhere in the world. Other universities that have environmental colleges include Duke, Stanford and Yale. In Washington state, Western Washington University has been a pioneer, forming the Huxley College of the Environment nearly 40 years ago. However, according to the UW report, no existing environmental college would come close to the scope of its plans: "The UW is better positioned to meet these challenges than any other university in the country or theworld."

The UW report says the college would produce students who could significantly add to the science and practice of protecting the environment: "It will be a bold, creative, problem-oriented hotbed of ideas."

City Residents Emit Less CO2: Brookings Institution Study, U.S.
Residents of the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the United States emit less carbon dioxide pollution per capita than he U.S. average, according to a new study. The Brookings Institution analyzed data on household and transportation energy use and found that the average U.S. resident was responsible for about 2.87 tons of carbon pollution a year, but that residents of the U.S.'s 100 largest metro areas had footprints of just 2.47 tons a year on average. Among the 100 largest cities, Honolulu residents were responsible for the least per capita emissions: about 1.5 tons per person per year. Lexington, Ky., fared the worst among the ranked cities with about 3.81 tons of CO2 per person per year. Overall,
West Coast cities fared better than Eastern ones due to warmer climates, more aggressive energyreduction
policies, higher fuel and electricity costs, and a greater reliance on hydropower. To lower everyone's footprint, the study authors recommended increasing funding for mass transit and cleanenergy R&D, and passing federal legislation to put a price on carbon emissions.