RIANOVOSTI - Jan. 16, 2014
MOSCOW, January 15 (RIA Novosti) – In its annual report on human
rights in the European Union released on Wednesday, the Russian Foreign
Ministry said many members of the 28-nation union regularly violate
human rights.
The report says the existing EU legislation lacks effective mechanisms to prevent abuses of basic human rights.
The ministry citied the problem of non-citizens in Estonia and
Latvia, discrimination of Russian-speaking minorities in Finland and the
rise of nationalist sentiments in Poland among examples of blatant
human rights violations in the EU.
It also said UK authorities violated human rights while tapping
conversations by its citizens and foreign delegations, citing
revelations by US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden.
The ministry also criticized the 28-nation union for its
“hypocritical” entry policies that violate the freedom of movement,
citing a report by the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights
Nils Muiznieks.
Read more....
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Capitalism for Human Rights?
By Carol Te
MSc in Human Rights from the London School of Economics
The Huffington Post - Jan. 14, 2014
If you enter Cambodia, you'll inevitably notice a plethora of non-profits that riddle the country. There has been a 75% increase of orphanages in Cambodia since 2005, new schools teaching English herd kids into classrooms, and civil society organizations working on post-conflict issues have taken root in different provinces. If you walk next door into Vietnam, you will encounter organizations meant to help remaining victims of Agent Orange, homes to accommodate disabled children, and seed money thrust on to impoverished families. The emergence of non-governmental, non-profit organizations in these countries is paralleled in other developing countries. These organizations receive tens of millions of dollars in donation from the international development assistance community, and they have gained prominence in the social, economic and political affairs of their respective countries. They are meant to provide services for citizens that the government does not attend to in order to protect the rights of the people -- yet are they the answer to human rights problems?
Read more....
MSc in Human Rights from the London School of Economics
The Huffington Post - Jan. 14, 2014
If you enter Cambodia, you'll inevitably notice a plethora of non-profits that riddle the country. There has been a 75% increase of orphanages in Cambodia since 2005, new schools teaching English herd kids into classrooms, and civil society organizations working on post-conflict issues have taken root in different provinces. If you walk next door into Vietnam, you will encounter organizations meant to help remaining victims of Agent Orange, homes to accommodate disabled children, and seed money thrust on to impoverished families. The emergence of non-governmental, non-profit organizations in these countries is paralleled in other developing countries. These organizations receive tens of millions of dollars in donation from the international development assistance community, and they have gained prominence in the social, economic and political affairs of their respective countries. They are meant to provide services for citizens that the government does not attend to in order to protect the rights of the people -- yet are they the answer to human rights problems?
Read more....
‘Ineffective and flawed’ - Russian report blasts EU’s Human Rights protection system
Russia Today - January 15, 2014
The Russian Foreign Ministry has issued a critical report on human rights in the European Union saying that Europe still faced serious problems, and that member states are avoiding obligations that would change things for the better.
According to the Foreign Ministry, conclusions were made on the basis of serious sources, such as the reports of the United Nations Council for Human Rights, the OSCE, the reports of the Council of Europe’s Human Rights Commissioner and the data provided by rights activists, journalists and NGOs.
The Russian report lists the rise of xenophobia, racism, aggressive nationalism and neo-Nazism as the most acute problems of the European Union. It says that as the region faces the continuing economic crisis it also sees incidents of blatant violations of the rights of minorities, such as refugees and migrants, as well as infringement of citizens’ rights for social protection. The problems also include insufficient protection of children’s rights and gender inequality, the document reads.
Another serious issue is law enforcers overstepping their powers, and the violation of prisoners'rights. Also a number of EU countries continued to participate in the CIA’s secret prisons program, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
Read more....
The Russian Foreign Ministry has issued a critical report on human rights in the European Union saying that Europe still faced serious problems, and that member states are avoiding obligations that would change things for the better.
According to the Foreign Ministry, conclusions were made on the basis of serious sources, such as the reports of the United Nations Council for Human Rights, the OSCE, the reports of the Council of Europe’s Human Rights Commissioner and the data provided by rights activists, journalists and NGOs.
The Russian report lists the rise of xenophobia, racism, aggressive nationalism and neo-Nazism as the most acute problems of the European Union. It says that as the region faces the continuing economic crisis it also sees incidents of blatant violations of the rights of minorities, such as refugees and migrants, as well as infringement of citizens’ rights for social protection. The problems also include insufficient protection of children’s rights and gender inequality, the document reads.
Another serious issue is law enforcers overstepping their powers, and the violation of prisoners'rights. Also a number of EU countries continued to participate in the CIA’s secret prisons program, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
Read more....
Iraq's Long Shadow of Injustice Haunts Britain
BY Mark Kersten
Foreign Policy - JANUARY 15, 2014
It is often said that unresolved human rights violations cast a long and harrowing shadow. Atrocities and crimes committed in the past can come back to haunt even the most powerful states. For Britain, that restless shadow is the war in Iraq.
Earlier this week, two groups -- the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) and Public Interest Lawyers (PIL) -- lodged a formal complaint at the International Criminal Court (ICC), demanding that the ICC investigate British political and military officials for their alleged role in the commission of war crimes in Iraq. The filing maintains that senior figures within the British government bare the greatest responsibility for systematic torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of Iraqi citizens between 2003 and 2008.
The complaint comprises a judiciously organized, comprehensive, 250-page dossier. Notably, it relies not only upon witness testimony but on documents and manuals revealed and produced by various commissions, inquiries, and British ministries. Its focus is on Britain's Ministry of Defense and officials such as General Sir Peter Wall, former Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon and former Defense Minister Adam Ingram. Those hoping to see former Prime Minister Tony Blair targeted will be disappointed; his name does not appear once in the filing.
Read more....
Foreign Policy - JANUARY 15, 2014
It is often said that unresolved human rights violations cast a long and harrowing shadow. Atrocities and crimes committed in the past can come back to haunt even the most powerful states. For Britain, that restless shadow is the war in Iraq.
Earlier this week, two groups -- the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) and Public Interest Lawyers (PIL) -- lodged a formal complaint at the International Criminal Court (ICC), demanding that the ICC investigate British political and military officials for their alleged role in the commission of war crimes in Iraq. The filing maintains that senior figures within the British government bare the greatest responsibility for systematic torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of Iraqi citizens between 2003 and 2008.
The complaint comprises a judiciously organized, comprehensive, 250-page dossier. Notably, it relies not only upon witness testimony but on documents and manuals revealed and produced by various commissions, inquiries, and British ministries. Its focus is on Britain's Ministry of Defense and officials such as General Sir Peter Wall, former Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon and former Defense Minister Adam Ingram. Those hoping to see former Prime Minister Tony Blair targeted will be disappointed; his name does not appear once in the filing.
Read more....
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Universal values, foreign money: local human rights organizations in the Global South
By James Ron and Archana Pandya
Open Democracy - 13 November 2013
How important is international funding to local human rights groups worldwide? Oddly enough, there has been little published research on the topic. Pressured by angry nationalists and vengeful governments, human rights activists and donors prefer to keep money questions out of the spotlight.
Indeed, we know of only two existing studies. In 2006, a Nigerian scholar published research on 20 of his country’s 100 human rights groups, the vast majority of which were foreign-supported. Two years later, Israeli researchers published a study based on interviews with 16 of the country’s 26 human rights groups, and said that more than 90 percent of their budgets came from Europe and the United States. Neither study, however, shed light on conditions elsewhere in the world.
To rectify this gap, we began by interviewing 128 human rights workers from 60 countries in the Global South and former Communist region. Then we assembled lists of all the local rights groups we could find in Rabat and Casablanca (Morocco), Mumbai (India), and Mexico City and San Cristóbal de las Casas (Mexico). Our team identified 189 groups in total, all of which were non-governmental, domestically headquartered, politically unaffiliated, and legally registered.
Read more....
Open Democracy - 13 November 2013
How important is international funding to local human rights groups worldwide? Oddly enough, there has been little published research on the topic. Pressured by angry nationalists and vengeful governments, human rights activists and donors prefer to keep money questions out of the spotlight.
Indeed, we know of only two existing studies. In 2006, a Nigerian scholar published research on 20 of his country’s 100 human rights groups, the vast majority of which were foreign-supported. Two years later, Israeli researchers published a study based on interviews with 16 of the country’s 26 human rights groups, and said that more than 90 percent of their budgets came from Europe and the United States. Neither study, however, shed light on conditions elsewhere in the world.
To rectify this gap, we began by interviewing 128 human rights workers from 60 countries in the Global South and former Communist region. Then we assembled lists of all the local rights groups we could find in Rabat and Casablanca (Morocco), Mumbai (India), and Mexico City and San Cristóbal de las Casas (Mexico). Our team identified 189 groups in total, all of which were non-governmental, domestically headquartered, politically unaffiliated, and legally registered.
Read more....
Saturday, December 28, 2013
Reclaiming Activism
By Alex DeWaal
The World Peace Foundation: Reinventing Peace, Tufts University - April 30, 2013
For most of my adult life I introduced myself as an “activist” first and a writer, researcher, or practitioner of humanitarian action or peacemaking second. Then, about seven or eight years ago, I became rather uncomfortable with the word. Not because I had diluted my personal commitment to working in solidarity with suffering and oppressed people, but because a group of people, in whose company I didn’t want to be, were claiming not only to be activists but to define “activism” itself. I am speaking of course about the policy lobbyists in Washington DC, also known as “designer activists,” who took on the role of promoting certain causes related to Africa, and who arrogated to themselves the privilege of defining these problems and identifying and pursuing ostensible solutions. It was no accident that those purported solutions placed the “activists” themselves at the center of the narrative, because many of them were Hollywood actors—or their hangers on—for whom the only possible role is as the protagonist-savior. The actions they promoted all had one thing in common: using more U.S. power around the world.
I was not the only one to find this arrogation of “activism” offensive, demeaning and counter-productive. One of the most refreshing aspects of our recent seminar at the World Peace Foundation was finding out just how much the consensus among national civil society activists from Uganda and Congo, as well as Sudan, has coalesced around the view that the basic narratives and policy prescriptions of the Enough Project and its ilk are not only simplified and simplistic, but actually pernicious. Theirs isn’t activism: it’s insider lobbying within the Washington establishment using celebrity hype as leverage. They are not just a benign variant of advocacy, perhaps somewhat simplified: they are wrong.
To read more....
The World Peace Foundation: Reinventing Peace, Tufts University - April 30, 2013
For most of my adult life I introduced myself as an “activist” first and a writer, researcher, or practitioner of humanitarian action or peacemaking second. Then, about seven or eight years ago, I became rather uncomfortable with the word. Not because I had diluted my personal commitment to working in solidarity with suffering and oppressed people, but because a group of people, in whose company I didn’t want to be, were claiming not only to be activists but to define “activism” itself. I am speaking of course about the policy lobbyists in Washington DC, also known as “designer activists,” who took on the role of promoting certain causes related to Africa, and who arrogated to themselves the privilege of defining these problems and identifying and pursuing ostensible solutions. It was no accident that those purported solutions placed the “activists” themselves at the center of the narrative, because many of them were Hollywood actors—or their hangers on—for whom the only possible role is as the protagonist-savior. The actions they promoted all had one thing in common: using more U.S. power around the world.
I was not the only one to find this arrogation of “activism” offensive, demeaning and counter-productive. One of the most refreshing aspects of our recent seminar at the World Peace Foundation was finding out just how much the consensus among national civil society activists from Uganda and Congo, as well as Sudan, has coalesced around the view that the basic narratives and policy prescriptions of the Enough Project and its ilk are not only simplified and simplistic, but actually pernicious. Theirs isn’t activism: it’s insider lobbying within the Washington establishment using celebrity hype as leverage. They are not just a benign variant of advocacy, perhaps somewhat simplified: they are wrong.
To read more....
How Hollywood cloaked South Sudan in celebrity and fell for the 'big lie'
Film stars have been speaking from a flawed script about the newest nation. Daniel Howden points a finger at those who have failed to grasp the awful reality
By Daniel Howden
The Observer, Saturday 28 December 2013
When violence erupted two weeks ago in the world's youngest country, one of the first voices to speak out, before the US president or the head of the United Nations, was that of the Hollywood actor George Clooney. There was nothing particularly objectionable about his counsel, which in any case was more likely authored by the American activist John Prendergast, with whom he shared a byline. It spoke of the need for a robust UN response and, even as tens of thousands of civilians fled ethnically motivated death squads, of the "opportunities" present in South Sudan.
This is a country, not yet two and a half years old, whose birth has been soaked in celebrity like no other. As well as Clooney, Matt Dillon and Don Cheadle have been occasional visitors who have tried to use their star power to place the international public firmly in the corner of this plucky upstart nation.
Unsurprisingly, the actors were highly effective at communicating a narrative about the new country that borrowed from a simple script. The south had fought a bloody two-decade battle for its independence against an Islamic and chauvinist north led by an indicted war criminal. The cost of that war, regularly touted as two million lives, meant that the south would need huge development support to lift it from the impoverished floor of every quality of life index published.
The great threat in this narrative was the vile regime in Khartoum, the capital of rump Sudan, which would seek to undermine its southern breakaway, or march back to war to reclaim some of its lost oilfields.
To read more....
By Daniel Howden
The Observer, Saturday 28 December 2013
When violence erupted two weeks ago in the world's youngest country, one of the first voices to speak out, before the US president or the head of the United Nations, was that of the Hollywood actor George Clooney. There was nothing particularly objectionable about his counsel, which in any case was more likely authored by the American activist John Prendergast, with whom he shared a byline. It spoke of the need for a robust UN response and, even as tens of thousands of civilians fled ethnically motivated death squads, of the "opportunities" present in South Sudan.
This is a country, not yet two and a half years old, whose birth has been soaked in celebrity like no other. As well as Clooney, Matt Dillon and Don Cheadle have been occasional visitors who have tried to use their star power to place the international public firmly in the corner of this plucky upstart nation.
Unsurprisingly, the actors were highly effective at communicating a narrative about the new country that borrowed from a simple script. The south had fought a bloody two-decade battle for its independence against an Islamic and chauvinist north led by an indicted war criminal. The cost of that war, regularly touted as two million lives, meant that the south would need huge development support to lift it from the impoverished floor of every quality of life index published.
The great threat in this narrative was the vile regime in Khartoum, the capital of rump Sudan, which would seek to undermine its southern breakaway, or march back to war to reclaim some of its lost oilfields.
To read more....
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