Human Rights

Lesbians “are a small minority” “who don’t adhere to the prevails of nature.”

These are the remarks made by a Committee member on the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).  CEDAW is an independent body of experts tasked to implement the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

The meeting, held on July 16, brought together a number of NGOs concerned about discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender.

Astonishingly, the Committee member then implied that NGOs were bringing forward “false-issues” that “have no basis on international law.”  The Committee member then said that sexual orientation and gender discrimination would not be recognized in the committee’s text nor work.

Such derogatory remarks made by a member of CEDAW is of serious concern.  Homophobia has no place in society and much less so in an organization that espouses anti-discrimination ideals.

Indeed, article 2 of CEDAW explicitly states the absolute prohibition of discrimination in all its forms against women.  While these remarks do not reflect the whole of CEDAW it is nevertheless depressing that one of its members believes  lesbians are the exception to article 2.

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Human Rights First,  Center for Women’s Global Leadership and International Service for Human Rights have all signed a letter (pdf), addressed to Ms Dubravka Simonovic
Chairperson of CEDAW, condemning the remarks.

Memories continue to haunt those who suffered under the brutality of war. Children who witnessed atrocities and were themselves subjected to war crimes will struggle to cope with everyday life. Most live in abject poverty and face a future without prospect. The war these children faced is far from over.

Plan International released a study today that claims two-thirds of war orphans are at a high risk of suicide. Many have contracted HIV/AIDS. The study looked at 1,000 children aged 8 to 16 in six west African countries and revealed a cycle of poverty, prostitution, and sexually transmitted disease.

In Koindu, Sierra Leone, 16 year old Theresa lost her parents during the civil war. She’s been in and out of refugee camps but now lives with her aunt. She sold her body to feed herself and now has a two-year old son. The father is not known.

“I feel like I have no purpose, like there is no meaning to it,” she told IRIN news. “I have no idea who the child’s father is. I have to struggle just to get clothes for us. I beg to eat.”

On June 19, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution 1820 condemning sexual violence against women and girls as a tacit weapon of war that serves to “to humiliate, dominate, instill fear in, disperse and/or forcibly relocate civilian members of a community or ethnic group.” The resolution in itself is a recognition of the culture of impunity that often surrounds the abuse women and girls suffer. However, much is to be done.

Last year, Dr.Yakin Erturk, UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women released a thematic report (see A/HRC/4/34) on how culture based discourse fragment human rights issues facing women as a problem of the “other.” “We don’t need campaigns. We need action,” she says in a openDemocracy podcast.

Erturk says there is an increasing trend to view violence against women as a cultural phenomenon via cultural relativism especially in countries of the south. In the north, she says cultural essentialism promotes an image that violence against women is a problem of the south. These trends diverge from universal human rights standards and should not be categorized as “minority” issues.

Indeed, Theras’ story leads credence to this view.  War, poverty, and the dissolution of social relations are instrumental.

“People have lost their cultural values and their sense of community,” Lawrence James, a councilor who used to work in Koindu, tells IRIN news. He explains the lack of support for war orphans is a consequence of the breakdown of social relations in communities destroyed by war coupled with abject poverty.

Rape and sexual violence orchestrated towards women and girls is often used as tool to rip apart these communities. The former commander of UN peacekeeping troops in eastern Congo, Major-General Patrick Cammaert, says women and girls are specifically targeted to destroy communities.

Amnesty International has released a scathing report on China’s unfilled promises to improve human rights.

Worse, the report claims human rights abuses have deteriorated since its last report in April.

Published ten-days before the start of the games, Amnesty’s report claims Chinese authorities are persecuting individuals who may tarnish the sanitized image of the games.

The organization also claims its website is no longer accessible in China.

In a separate article by International Herald Tribune journalist Andrew Jacobs, China will officially censor the internet during the games with the complicit aid of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Both IOC and China previously claimed 20,000 journalists covering the games would have unprecedented press freedoms.

Sites dealing with Tibetan succession, Taiwanese independence, the violent crackdown of the protests in Tiananmen Square and the sites of Amnesty International, Radio Free Asia and several Hong Kong newspaper are no longer accessible in China.

Intermediaries play a vital role in assembling information and bringing forward victims to help prosecute war crimes suspects in the Hague.

Lawyers representing victim of war crimes rely on intermediaries on the ground to facilitate outreach and provide a vital information link.

While the International Criminal Court (ICC) offers protection services to both prosecution and defense witnesses, intermediaries are left to fend for themselves.

Intermediaries, often activists, are now being threatened.  In one case, Kinshasa lawyer Carine Bapita who represents victims in a case against Thomas Lubanga said she had to fly one of her intermediaries out of the DRC because of the threats.

In another case, Women’s Initiative for Gender Justice had to relocate activists involved in ICC cases when DRC militias began targeting them.

In Darfur, intermediaries are facing threats on a daily basis.

“Even if we could reach them ourselves, we would put victims at risk by talking to them directly.We need an intermediary who is not only an interpreter, but a country person who understands the geography of Darfur and how the conflict unfolded,” Wanda Akin, a representative of Darfur victims in the United States told IWPR reporter Katy Glassboro.

In Tanzania, the body parts of albinos are believed to possess magical properties.   BBC journalist, Vicky Ntetema, has filmed (see video here) a witchdoctor in Tanzania discussing anatomy for potions.    There are anywhere between 4000 to 173,000 albinos living in Tanzania.

So far this year, a known 25 have been killed for witchcraft, most in and around the Lake Victoria area.  Fishermen weave hair from albinos into their nets.  Albino blood poured into a mine shaft will increase the spoils.

Albinos already suffer from discrimination and are treated as outcasts. Most die of skin cancer before the age of 30.  In Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s capital, police are escorting albino children to schools.

Last month,  the New York Times ran a profile of Samuel Mluge, an albino living Dar es Salaam. “I feel like I am being hunted,” he said.

People are turning to the Tanzanian Albino Society for help. But with only $15,000 budget, the aid organization is unable to tackle the problem. The government appointed an albino to parliament to help change perceptions.

“This is serious because it continues some of the perceptions of Africa we’re trying to run away from,” Salvator Rweyemamu, a Tanzanian government spokesman, told the New York Times in April.

The increasing lack of security in Afghanistan is spreading throughout the country.  Even areas of Kabul considered somewhat secure are threatened. On July 7 a suicide bomber killed over 50 people in front of the Indian embassy in the capital.

The International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) says some 250 Afghani civilians were killed within a week earlier this month. Various militias, Taliban, and coalition forces are responsible for their deaths.

“Currently some 400,000 people in the country do not have access to basic health services because of attacks on health personnel and health centres, and also due to lack of security for health workers,” Abdullah Fahim, a spokesman for the Ministry of Public Health, told IRIN in Kabul on 23 July.

On July 18, two French ACF (Action Contre Faim - in French) aid workers were abducted by armed militias in central Afghanistan. ACF has since temporarily suspended operations leaving behind 130,000 people who faced acute malnutrition.

The lack of security in Afghanistan is preventing NGOs and aid agencies from delivering services in a time when a severe drought and rising food prices is having devastating affects on millions.

According to UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Organisation, Taliban attacks against aid workers is occurring throughout the country and not just in the more volatile south. However, many of the attacks are by unidentified gunmen.

Anja de Beer, director of ACBAR, a network of 100 of local and international NGOs in Afghanistan told IRIN that the current situation could provoke a crisis.  “If insecurity continues to hamper NGO [non-governmental organization] access, and needs remain unmet, we worry that the humanitarian situation will deteriorate into a crisis,” she said.

Child abuse or sexual abuse is an euphemism for what is really happening and has been happening for a very long time.  Let’s just call it what it is - child rape.

The Catholic Church, already having paid out billions of dollars in compensations ($2 billion in the US alone), is having to make some very tough choices.  How much money should one pay for destroying the life of a child all the while maintaining a position of moral superiority?

On Saturday in Australia while addressing the Catholic Church’s World Youth Day in Australia, Pope Benedict XVI made a public apology for the sexual abuse of children by clerics (see International Herald Tribune article here).  The victims were not allowed to attend according to Broken Rites.

Broken Rites, an Australian group that campaigns for the victims of rape by religious authority figures, says 107 Australian priests and clergy (of all denominations) have appeared in courts over sex crimes.

Victims are fighting for compensation but bishops’ lawyers are arguing that the Catholic Church cannot be sued because it does not exist as a legal entity according to Broken Rites website.

The Pope has yet to apologize for how his Australian bishops deliberately covered up these crimes. In 2003, Cardinal George Pell, the Catholic Church’s archbishop in Sydney, wrote a letter to an accuser and dismissed his claim of sexual abuse leveled against a priest.

Pell argued that no similar accusations were made against the priest.  It later turned out that Pell had indeed received a similar accusation from another victim directed toward the same priest. Pell claimed that his letter was badly worded and was not trying to cover up the crime.

On July 1, the breakaway region of Abkhazia was in a state of emergency because of a bomb near the Inguri bridge.  The bridge is a vital trading link for the thousands of Georgians living in the Gali district, a region inside Abkhazia that borders the ceasefire line with Georgia.   Abkhazia is seeking independence from Georgia. For an overview of the conflict, please visit Reuters AlertNet here.

On July 2, I tried crossing this bridge again and was finally allowed to enter thanks to a contact.  However, no one else was on the bridge aside from a handful of people in an UNOMIG (United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia ) bus and the ever present Georgian/Russian/Abkhaz border guards.  The border was officially closed.

On the evening of July 6, a bomb detonated in Gali town center killing four and injuring six and was at the scene on the morning of July 7.  Most bystanders refused to comment. However those who did complained of the miserable living conditions, lack of jobs and lack of development.  Most rely on trade with Zugdidi but with the bridge closed, this has been taken away as well. “We can only rely on ourselves,” one resident told me.

According to an article by medianews published at Human Rights Georgia, Gali district residents are asking the Georgian government for food aid assistance. They also want the bridge opened.

There are around 45,000 Georgians living in the district administered by Abkhazian de facto jurisdiction.  Caught in a conflict between Abkhazia and Georgia, the Gali residents are suffering from a conflict with no discernible end in sight.  However, it is not clear how Georgia could provide the Gali residents with food assistance so long as the bridge remains closed.

Indeed, even if the bridge was open, Georgia has no links with Gali Abkhaz authorities. It is unlikely Georgia would ever attempt to provide food to the Gali district residents given the sensitive political nature of the current crisis.

Last May, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili signed into law a set of three amendments lowering the age of criminal responsibility from 14 to 12 in direct contravention to UN recommendations.  Children committing major crimes will be tried as adults.

Major crimes include premeditated murder, intentional damage to health, rape, most types of robbery, and possession of knives.  According to a United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child report, a Georgian representative said the implementation of the law would not go into effect until juvenile detention centers were constructed.  This report was dated May 26, 2008.

A month later, on June 25, 2008 I asked Georgia’s current Prime Minister Vladimer (Lado) Gurgenidze to comment on the law.    This is what he had to say…