China should impose moratorium on executions before Olympics: HRW News
China should impose moratorium on executions before Olympics: HRW

[JURIST] Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday urged China to institute a moratorium on capital punishment [press release] in preparation for the 2008 Beijing Olympics [official website]. HRW commended China for the reported decrease in the number of executions [JURIST report], but expressed concern that "systemic weaknesses in the trial process" remain a serious issue throughout the country. HRW urged the International Olympics Committee to join it in the call for a moratorium on executions in China [JURIST news archive].

HRW maintains [backgrounder] that the Olympics provide an opportunity for China to represent that it can protect human rights. HRW and other rights groups have recently slammed China [JURIST report] for not keeping its promises to improve human rights and press freedom in preparation for the 2008 Olympics. In August, Reporters Without Borders [advocacy website] demonstrated in Beijing in protest of the continued detention of nearly 100 journalists and activists.

THIS DAY @ LAW

UN General Assembly approves Palestine partition plan

The UN General Assembly approved UN Resolution Resolution 181 (II) on November 29, 1947, recommending that the British Mandate for Palestine be split into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and an international zone for Jerusalem. The vote in the assembly was 33 for to 13 against, with 10 abstentions. The resolution sparked a war between Palestinian Arabs and Jews in 1947 and a wider war after Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon invaded the new State of Israel in 1948. Read Resolution 181 (II).

UN divided Palestine between Arabs and Jews

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab territories, leading to the establishment of a Jewish state the following year. Read UN General Assembly Resolution 181.

Defense Secretary Robert McNamara resigns during Vietnam Conflict

On November 29, 1967, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara announced that he was resigning from his office to accept an appointment as head of the World Bank. The announcement came as the Vietnam Conflict was becoming increasingly unpopular in the United States and abroad.