Human Rights and the Rule of Law in Palestine

Al-Haq is an independent Palestinian NGO based in Ramallah, West Bank. Its mission -- to protect and promote human rights and the rule of law in occupied Palestine. I spoke with Al-Haq legal researcher Gareth Gleed. Click HERE to find out more about Al-Haq and its work.

The Legacy of Agent Orange

I remember watching Walter Cronkite report on the U.S. defoliation of Vietnam's forests. Enemy forces were hiding in the woods, he explained, as images of herbicide dusters swooping over Vietnamese jungle flickered on my TV screen. Agent Orange couldn't be good for people's health, I thought. I was right. Thirty-five years after the last plane dropped its toxic load, Vietnam continues to suffer the consequences of American chemical warfare. Vast tracts of land appear to have been destroyed forever, rural livelihoods stunted, cancers and birth defects are legion. On top of it all, dioxin "hot spots" at former U.S. airbases -- where herbicide was loaded onto planes -- are oozing poison into water bodies where people gather food.

Stranded on Bikini

Bikini Atoll is as close to the middle of nowhere as you can get. This is why the U.S. tested its nukes here, and why, when you’re on Bikini and both of Air Marshall Islands’ two airplanes have broken down, you’re stranded. Such was the case last August for six scuba divers who’d come from around the world to see Bikini’s famous ghost wrecks – scuttled by the first two of those bombs – and myself. Listen to my account, produced for the Radio Netherlands program The State We're In ("Return to Bikini," on bottom of RN's page).

Pacific Trash

Across the Pacific, small island nations are faced with a problem that grows bigger by the day: trash. Islanders have adopted western-style consumerism, with all the solid waste that comes with it, but haven’t any land to dispose of it. It’s an environmental and public health hazard of ballooning proportions. Majuro Atoll, in the Marshall Islands, has launched a waste management program that offers a solution to the garbage crisis. This story was produced for Radio Netherlands's Earthbeat.