Below are proposed and approved resolutions considered by the Chatham County Board of Commissioners for calendar year 2017. In the Action Taken column, we will post a link to final adopted resolution and note if any changes were made. We also will note if the resolution failed.
Information released online from January 20, 2009 to January 20, 2017. Note: Content in this archive site is not updated, and links may not function. External links to other Internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views contained therein.
The Humanity Bureau 2017
Since the dawn of the space age, the global community has been inspired by humanity's space endeavors and reaped the benefits of the use and exploration, of outer space. Many may take these benefits for granted so we must ask ourselves: "What will the consequences be if the space environment were to become unusable?"
North Korea is a single-party state led by a dynastic totalitarian dictatorship. Surveillance is pervasive, arbitrary arrests and detention are common, and punishments for political offenses are severe. The state maintains a system of camps for political prisoners where torture, forced labor, starvation, and other atrocities take place. A UN commission of inquiry into the human rights situation in North Korea in 2014 found violations to be widespread, grave, and systematic, rising to the level of crimes against humanity.
All domestic media outlets are run by the state. Televisions and radios are permanently fixed to state channels, and all publications are subject to strict supervision and censorship. In recent years, several foreign news agencies have established bureau offices in Pyongyang: the U.S.-based Associated Press, Russia's Sputnik International (formerly RIA Novosti), Japan's Kyodo, and China's Xinhua. In September 2016, Agence France-Presse officially opened its Pyongyang bureau, though it will largely be limited to filing photos and video. A British Broadcasting Corporation crew was detained and expelled in May for coverage that the authorities found objectionable.
North Korea does not have an independent judiciary. The UN General Assembly has recognized and condemned the country's severe human rights violations, including torture, public executions, extrajudicial and arbitrary detention, and forced labor by detainees; the absence of due process and the rule of law; and death sentences for political offenses. A UN commission of inquiry into the human rights situation in North Korea in 2014 found these violations to be widespread, grave, and systematic, rising to the level of crimes against humanity. Since then, there have been ongoing efforts to convince the UN Security Council to refer the case to the International Criminal Court.
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