Human Rights

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  hrw.org

• Russia: Activists’ Detention Unjustified

  Human Rights Watch

  9 Feb 2010 | 4:15 pm

  (Moscow) - The Russian authorities should investigate the arbitrary detention of three human rights advocates in Chechnya and hold those responsible accountable, Amnesty International, Civil Rights Defenders, Front Line, and Human Rights Watch said today. read more

• Bahrain: End Torture of Security Suspects

  Human Rights Watch

  7 Feb 2010 | 11:45 pm

  (Manama) - Bahrain needs to take urgent steps to end torture and ill-treatment of security suspects during interrogation, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.  The government should promptly investigate all torture allegations and prosecute security officials suspected of abusing detainees. read more

• Israel: Attacks on New Israel Fund, Critical Groups, Threaten Civil Society

  Human Rights Watch

  7 Feb 2010 | 4:19 am

  (New York)–The growing harshness of attacks by Israeli government officials on nongovernmental organizations poses a real threat to civil society in Israel, Human Rights Watch said today.   read more

• Israel: Military Investigations Fail Gaza War Victims

  Human Rights Watch

  6 Feb 2010 | 11:08 pm

  (New York) - Israel has failed to demonstrate that it will conduct thorough and impartial investigations into alleged laws-of-war violations by its forces during last year's Gaza conflict, Human Rights Watch said today.  An independent investigation is needed if perpetrators of abuse, including senior military and political officials who set policies that violated the laws of war, are to be held read more

• Thailand: Cease Intimidation of Karen Refugees

  Human Rights Watch

  5 Feb 2010 | 2:48 pm

  (New York) - Thailand should immediately stop pressuring ethnic Karen refugees to return to Burma, Human Rights Watch said today. Repatriation to the designated "return zone" in Burma would place returnees at serious risk of human rights abuses and landmines. read more

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  IRIN

• SOUTH AFRICA: Foreign nationals attacked with "impunity"

  JOHANNESBURG , 9 February 2010 (IRIN) - Foreign nationals are being attacked with "impunity" in South Africa, a leading human rights organization charged as the latest service delivery protests turned violent and several hundred residents turned their anger on Ethiopian refugees living in Siyathemba township, about 80km east of Johannesburg.

• HAITI: Funding gap for nutrition

  DAKAR, 9 February 2010 (IRIN) - Donors have contributed just 6 percent of the funds sought for post-earthquake nutritional assistance to women and children in Haiti, according to the UN.

• SOMALIA: Community leaders pool together to deliver water to IDPs

  NAIROBI, 9 February 2010 (IRIN) - Community leaders in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, are filling the gaps in aid distribution by raising funds to assist thousands displaced by fighting, leaders said.

• ETHIOPIA: Condom creations grace the catwalk

  ADDIS ABABA, 9 February 2010 (IRIN) - The whims of fashion collided with some of life's harsher realities when, during a recent fashion show in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, condoms were the fabric of choice on the catwalk.

• MYANMAR: Livelihoods crucial to cyclone recovery

  BANGKOK, 9 February 2010 (IRIN) - While thousands of survivors of Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar are benefiting from better healthcare and nutrition, complete recovery may be delayed unless livelihoods are restored, warns a survey released on 9 February.

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  ReliefWeb - Headlines

• Haiti: Funding gap for nutrition

  9 Feb 2010 | 6:12 am

  Date: 09 Feb 2010Source: Integrated Regional Information Networks

• Pakistan: UN and partners seek $537 mln to address humanitarian needs

  9 Feb 2010 | 5:39 am

  Date: 09 Feb 2010Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

• Afghanistan: Avalanches, floods wreak havoc

  9 Feb 2010 | 4:53 am

  Date: 09 Feb 2010Source: Integrated Regional Information Networks

• Myanmar: More efforts needed to recover livelihoods for Nargis survivors

  9 Feb 2010 | 2:31 am

  Date: 09 Feb 2010Source: Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Government of Myanmar, UN Country Team in Myanmar

• Haiti: Precarious food security in border areas worsening due to influx from capital - OCHA sitrep #19

  8 Feb 2010 | 9:36 pm

  Date: 09 Feb 2010Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

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  Global Voices Online » Humanitarian

• China: #Tanzuoren - to be human

  Oiwan Lam

  9 Feb 2010 | 2:01 am

  Chinese activist Tan Zuoren was sentenced to 5 year imprisonment and 3 year deprivation of political rights this morning (Feb 9) under the charge of inciting subversion of state power. Tan was involved in the investigation of the relation between bean dregs school buildings and the death of school children in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake by interviewing the parents and compiling a victim list. He was arrested last year and the investigation was stopped accordingly. In his first trial, the evident that the prosecutor presented was mainly about his interviews with overseas media about the…

• Haiti: Heroes

  Janine Mendes-Franco

  8 Feb 2010 | 9:32 am

  Bagay Dwol Journal is convinced that “Heroes are everywhere in Haiti, including the USNS.”

• Jamaica, Barbados, Haiti: Defending Haitians

  Janine Mendes-Franco

  8 Feb 2010 | 8:07 am

  In response to a statement that the arrival of Haitian refugees in Jamaica could be seen as a threat to public health, Long Bench republishes a Letter to the Editor that he wrote: “Haitian refugees are not criminals, and should not be treated by citizens or represented in the media as such”; Barbados Free Press is also critical of its country's response to helping Haiti: “It didn’t take long to cut through the Bajan veneer of sincerity about Haiti, did it?”

• St. Lucia, Jamaica, Haiti: Words Can Help

  Janine Mendes-Franco

  8 Feb 2010 | 7:59 am

  Want to write in solidarity for Haiti? St. Lucia-based Caribbean Book Blog and Jamaican litblogger Geoffrey Philp have details.

• Maldives: People First Language

  Rezwan

  8 Feb 2010 | 7:20 am

  Yafaau's blog, which logs the developmental progress of a child with Cerebral Palsy in Maldives, talks about People First Language, “a more respectful and accurate way of communicating” when discussing people with disabilities.

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  ...My heart's in Accra

• links for 2010-02-08

  Ethan

  8 Feb 2010 | 3:03 pm

  Still Counting? 27 More Websites Opened in Xinjiang | Xinjiang: Far West China The internet in Xinjiang opens up a little bit… but as a constrained, whitelisted network. Is this the shape of things to come? Or specific to one of the more restive corners of China? (tags: internet censorship xinjiang china whitelist freespeech) Born Poor? | Santa Fe Reporter Interesting overview of Economist Sam Bowles on the need for American economic theory to consider inequality and build strategies that lessen it, otherwise we'll waste money on sectors of the economy which essentially exist to…

• Geocaching: Augmenting Reality for Enhanced Serendipity

  Ethan

  1 Feb 2010 | 8:13 pm

  We turned off the snowmobile tracks half a mile back, as they bent to the west and GPS pointed north to our destination. The trackless snow is knee-deep and I’m sweating as we push forward, one heavy footstep after another. 250 feet from destination. We scramble up a ridge, heading towards an outcropping of rocks beside a small stand of pine. 74 feet north by northeast. As we approach the largest of the rocks, the GPS reads “Arriving at destination”. One step ahead of me, Kris kneels down and extracts a box from a cavity behind the boulder. A nine-inch square tupperware…

• Offline… yet again…

  Ethan

  1 Feb 2010 | 12:24 pm

  Hi everyone. I’m going offline for about a month to recover from retinal surgery, which will take place tomorrow morning. I’ve had this surgery twice before – once in April 2008, and again in August 2009. This surgery is a repeat of August’s surgery, which was – unfortunately – not entirely successful, and I’ve continued to have vision problems with my left eye. There’s background on the procedure I’m having – vitrectomy – and the reasons I’m having the procedure in this blogpost here… and the success I had on the…

• Yahoo!, Moniker: why is Mowjcamp.com still offline 6 weeks after hack attack?

  Ethan

  1 Feb 2010 | 6:19 am

  UPDATE. Mowjcamp.com is back up! Friends at EFF were able to broker a conversation between Yahoo, Moniker, Melbourne IT and Access Now. The situation is complicated, and I’m still trying to understand the details of the resolution, but it’s fantastic news that the site is back up. Special thanks to friends at Yahoo! who ended up taking the brunt of the criticism for the downtime. That wasn’t fair, and was in part my fault for not understanding everyone’s role in the situation. Yahoo! worked extremely hard to resolve the situation after being called out and deserve…

• Julie Cohen – Internet policy and human flourishing

  Ethan

  26 Jan 2010 | 9:05 pm

  Professor Julie Cohen of Georgetown Law School is visiting at Harvard Law this year and working on a book, “Configuring the Network Self”. Speaking at Berkman today, she explains that she’s had two motivations to undertake this work – an understanding of information technology possibility framed through the idea of the “structural conditions of human flourishing”. One is a sense that discourse about IT policy (in the US – she distinguishes US from European disrouce) tends to use “grandiose language” about poicy choices for free speech and…

• 
  undispatch.com

• How Can the Gates Foundation Leverage Their Vaccine Funding?

  Alanna Shaikh

  9 Feb 2010 | 10:09 am

  Ruth Levine takes a new look at the Gates Foundation’s ten billion dollar vaccine promise, and identifies ways it can leverage that funding. At the Center for Global Development’s Global Health blog today, Ruth Levine takes a new look at the Gates Foundation’s ten billion dollar vaccine promise. Her concern is that this huge funding commitment will crowd out other donors on immunization. She also has some suggestions for how to spend the money without pushing out other donors. It’s an important point. This kind of big money can easily make other donors think that the problem is taken…

• The UN is NOT Trying to Take Your Guns Away. (Unless you are a terrorist or enlist child soldiers, that is)

  Mark Leon Goldberg

  9 Feb 2010 | 9:16 am

  A new online petition circulated by a gun owners advocacy group mongers in conspiracy theory. One of the most persistent stories about the UN that is circulated by people, who, shall we say, are pre-disposed to believing conspiracy theories, is that the UN is plotting to take Americans' guns away.  The latest manifestation of this meme occurred last month on the blog of National Association of Gun Rights, which is circulating an online petition to demand that the Senate vote against the UN "Arms Control Treaty."  The petition says, "The UN’s “Small Arms Treaty” is nothing more…

• New Clinton-Bush Haiti PSA

  Mark Leon Goldberg

  9 Feb 2010 | 6:50 am

  Presidents Bush and Clinton team up for a new public service announcement for Haiti relief efforts. Presidents Bush and Clinton team up for a new public service announcement for Haiti relief efforts.

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  Violence Against Women

• USA: USA to provide effective remedies to violence against women and girls with the introduction of I-VAWA

  4 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm

  Amnesty International USA today applauded the introduction of legislation to combat the global crisis of violence against women and girls. The International Violence Against Women Act (I-VAWA) would for the first time make the epidemic of violence against women worldwide a priority of the United States government and integrate prevention strategies across foreign policy and assistance programs.

• Women's lives at risk because of Nicaragua's abortion ban

  4 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm

  Activist Ana María Pizarro, tells Amnesty International how pregnant women are at risk of losing their lives because of Nicaragua's abortion ban.

• Sri Lanka: Amnesty International Urges Sri Lanka to End Post-Election Clampdown on Dissent

  31 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm

  Amnesty International today called on the Sri Lankan government to end its crackdown on journalists, political activists and human rights defenders following last week?s presidential election.

• Pregnant women in Burkina Faso dying because of discrimination

  26 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm

  A new Amnesty International report details how many maternal deaths could be prevented if women were given access on time to adequate health care.

• Photographer faces jail for 'defaming' life in Uzbekistan

  26 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm

  Umida Akhmedova, whose work shows men, women and children carrying out everyday activities, was charged with slandering and insulting the Uzbekistani people and their traditions.

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  News from Survival International

• Bushmen angry at president’s empty meeting

  9 Feb 2010 | 2:32 am

  Bushman mother and child, Kaudwane, Botswana.© Alexandra Bagge/Survival Hundreds of Bushmen were left angry and frustrated after the Botswana president refused to enter into discussions with them during a meeting on Thursday. President Khama, accompanied by four government ministers, met with Bushmen at the New Xade resettlement camp where they were dumped after being evicted from their lands in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in 2002. Despite a four year-old High Court ruling that they have the right to live in the reserve, many still languish in the camps. Since the ruling, the…

• Tribal people appeal to James Cameron

  8 Feb 2010 | 2:00 am

  Survival's appeal to James Cameron appears today in Variety magazine.© Survival Survival has appealed to Avatar director James Cameron on behalf of an Indian tribe through an ad in the film industry magazine Variety (published today 8 February 2010). In the ad Survival asks Mr Cameron to help the Dongria Kondh tribe of Orissa, India, whose story is uncannily similar to that of the Na’vi in Avatar.  The ad says: Appeal to James Cameron Avatar is fantasy .. and real. The Dongria Kondh tribe in India are struggling to defend their land against a mining company hell-bent on…

• Church takes 'unprecedented' step to sell stake in Vedanta

  5 Feb 2010 | 4:06 am

  Vedanta's planned mine in Orissa, India, has become hugely controversial.© Survival In a shock move, the Church of England decided today to disinvest from controversial miner Vedanta Resources on ethical grounds, dealing a devastating blow to the company’s credibility. The Church stated that ‘we are not satisfied that Vedanta has shown, or is likely in future to show, the level of respect for human rights and local communities that we expect…’ adding that maintaining investments in Vedanta ‘would be inconsistent with the Church investing bodies’ joint ethical investment…

• Uncontacted tribes’ land: ‘most biodiverse’ in South America and threatened by oil

  4 Feb 2010 | 9:58 am

  Crossed spears left by an uncontacted tribe in Peru where Perenco and Repsol YPF are working.© Marek Wolodzko/Survival New research by scientists has found that a vast region of the Ecuadorian and Peruvian Amazon is the most biodiverse in South America. But this region, home to some of the world’s last uncontacted tribes, is gravely threatened by oil exploration and drilling. The research, published in PLoS ONE, found parts of eastern Ecuador and northern Peru to be uniquely rich in amphibians, birds, mammals and plants. But the scientists also say that oil companies are working, or…

• Extinct: Andaman tribe’s extermination complete as last member dies

  4 Feb 2010 | 12:50 am

  Boa Sr was the last member of the Bo tribe. © Alok Das The last member of a unique tribe has died on India’s Andaman Islands. Boa Sr, who died last week aged around 85, was the last speaker of ‘Bo’, one of the ten Great Andamanese languages. The Bo are thought to have lived in the Andaman Islands for as much as 65,000 years, making them the descendants of one of the oldest human cultures on Earth. Boa Sr was the oldest of the Great Andamanese, who now number just 52. Originally ten distinct tribes, the Great Andamanese were 5,000 strong when the British colonized the Andaman…

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  OurPledge

• What will they say about 2010?

  Nikki Serapio

  24 Jan 2010 | 7:16 pm

  We talk a lot here about the need to impose targeted multilateral sanctions against the Sudanese government’s senior leaders. We first called for such action a few years ago. Now, in 2010, the Sudan movement’s bullhorn is still very much on — and we don’t think it’s worse for wear. Omar al-Bashir continues to kill Darfuris. He has decimated the medical support system for Sudanese rape victims. And he is rigging the upcoming national elections in Sudan in his favor. The voices of many Sudan activists might be tired, but we can’t stop now. Not while there is…

• “Few prospects are more alarming”

  the OurPledge Team

  11 Jan 2010 | 5:50 pm

  Senator Russ Feingold on Sudan and the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (from a statement released last week): “Few prospects for Africa are more alarming than a renewed civil war throughout Sudan. Not only would such a scenario have devastating humanitarian consequences throughout the country, but it would also likely spill over and destabilize the neighboring countries and wider region. For these reasons, I believe that the Obama administration has been right to focus on getting the CPA back on track. But in order to be both effective and credible, our diplomatic engagement must be…

• “We Pledge”

  Elissa Test

  10 Jan 2010 | 1:59 pm

  A 2009 recap from our partners at the San Francisco Bay Area Darfur Coalition: As we begin a new decade — hopefully one that brings peace, security and growth to Sudan — the SF Bay Area Darfur Coalition (SFBADC) would like to thank you for your past participation, activism and support and urge you to remain committed in the upcoming crucial year for Sudan. We also want to highlight a few of our 2009 activities, emphasizing awareness, education and advocacy. Our awareness events — always free and open to the public — included talks by Omer Ismail of Enough, a panel…

• This is what can be done

  the OurPledge Team

  20 Dec 2009 | 11:13 pm

  John Prendergast, Co-Founder of Enough, has a new Op-Ed in The Washington Post. The key section: “Obama administration officials and international diplomats often argue that all available pressures aimed at the regime — including sanctions, embargoes and diplomatic isolation — have failed, so it’s time to use carrots rather than sticks. [Scott] Gration, the [Sudan] presidential envoy, told The Washington Post that “kids, countries — they react to gold stars, smiley faces, handshakes, agreements, talk.” Yet, in the 20 years since the regime in Khartoum…

• President Obama: If Not Now, When?

  the OurPledge Team

  15 Dec 2009 | 3:37 pm

  Share This Action Alert on Facebook 50 human rights organizations; the bipartisan Congressional Caucus on Sudan; former high-level UN officials; the Save Darfur Coalition, ENOUGH, and Genocide Intervention Network; and countless people of conscience across the world all agree — President Obama isn’t doing enough to end impunity and ongoing genocide in Sudan. Tell President Obama to fulfill a promise that he made on the campaign trail: he must lead the international community in imposing strong multilateral consequences on the Sudanese government.

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  The Ushahidi Blog

• Beautifully Obvious

  caleb

  9 Feb 2010 | 8:02 am

  This is a guest post by Jonathan Shuler, the multimedia journalist behind our latest video profiling some of  the people behind the haiti.ushahidi.com. Information to save lives It’s three o’clock on a January afternoon and I’m running around the basement of the Fletcher School at Tufts University on the outskirts of Boston.  I’m trying to keep up with Carol, a grad student in dark rimmed glasses, a down vest, and fingered gloves who is rapidly eliminating possible interview locations for me.  She, like most people I have met today, seems tired and worn out, but energized by…

• Project 4636: An Info Graphic

  caleb

  8 Feb 2010 | 11:34 am

  Hot on the heals of Brian’s excellent summary of the 4636 Project development efforts, I’d like to join in with a little info-graphic of sorts. My goal in putting this together is to present an easy-to-understand “big-picture” graphic that illustrates how a simple SMS, sent from a Haitian in need, can be transformed into a powerful resource that fuels the crisis response and recovery effort. A Quick Recap of Project 4636 And here’s the full graphic: Click the image to see the high-res version. The thing that impresses me most about the whole project is how it all…

• SMS Turks

  Brian Herbert

  7 Feb 2010 | 1:58 pm

  If you’ve been reading along on the Ushahidi Blog, you will know that the coordination efforts around the Haitian Earthquake have been nothing short of amazing. The students and volunteers at the Fletcher School Situation Room, the translation volunteers on the Mission 4636 project, the teams and staff of Digicel, Comcel, Energy for Opportunity, FrontlineSMS, InSTEDD, Sahana, Cartika Hosting, the US State Department, almost all branches of the US Military providing humanitarian response and a list of individuals and organizations that could honestly go on forever, have come together in…

• Haiti: Taking Stock of How We Are Doing

  patrick

  6 Feb 2010 | 7:51 pm

  Day 25. Volunteers have mapped almost 2,500 reports on Ushahidi-Haiti with about half coming from urgent and actionable text messages. The site was launched just hours after the earthquake. Since then, some 300 volunteers in Boston, DC, Montreal, Geneva, London and Portland have been trained, including some members of the Haitian Diaspora, to continue mapping around the clock. But tracking how responders are using Ushahidi at a tactical level has been a challenge—one that is nicely summarized by Clark Craig with the Marine Corps: “I cannot overemphasize to you what the work of the…

• From the Rubble: Emotions of a Haiti Volunteer

  patrick

  31 Jan 2010 | 4:13 pm

  Kate Perino is a Sophomore at Tufts University majoring in English. She originates from Maryland and can be reached at k.perin@gmail.com. During winter break, I happened upon a news site mentioning the Fletcher school. The article was about a group of Tufts grad students who got together with their laptops in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake and began sifting through text messages and Twitter feeds directly from Haiti. They were compiling information for relief organizations, to help them save lives and coordinate resource distribution. In some cases, the students were reporting medical…

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  united-nations « WordPress.com Tag Feed

• UN Slams Haitian Hospitals for Charging Patients

  Newsguru

  9 Feb 2010 | 9:18 am

  The United Nations has warned that it will cut off shipments of free medicine beginning immediately to any Haitian hospitals that it finds are charging patients. When the catastrophic earthquake struck Jan. 12, authorities immediately decided to make all medical care free. More than 200 international medical relief groups have sent in teams to help, and millions of dollars of donated medicine has been flown in. U.N. officials told The Associated Press that about a dozen hospitals — both public and private — have begun charging patients for medicine. The officials said they could not…

• The Story Of Human Rights

  Paul Salahuddin Armstrong

  9 Feb 2010 | 8:54 am

  www.humanrights.com

• The Story Of Human Rights

  Paul Salahuddin Armstrong

  9 Feb 2010 | 8:52 am

  www.humanrights.com

• Observation

  Citta Parahita Widagdo

  9 Feb 2010 | 7:56 am

  I went to Singapore to join the NTU MUN and I made lotsa friends! My press team ♥, Indonesian people

• When to Trust - Iran and Nuclear Possibilities

  Against the Grain

  9 Feb 2010 | 6:58 am

  There comes a point in any human interaction when one must decide whether to trust another person.  It could be a decision as simple as believing the child who earnestly pleads that no, this time, he did not eat the cookies.  Or, as it is now, it could be as difficult as determining whether Iran is honest in its claim that its newly enriched uranium will only be used to fuel the research reactor in Tehran. Iran is already under several U.N. sanctions due to its uranium, the further enrichment of which would enable the country to build nuclear weapons.  Understandably, many countries fear…

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  Forced Migration Current Awareness Blog

• Publications: Accountability/Emergency Relief, Humanitarian Futures, Psychosocial Support/Haiti, Signatories/AU IDP Convention, Security/Somalia

  9 Feb 2010 | 6:20 am

  The Changing Security Situation in Somalia: Implications for Humanitarian Action (Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement, Jan. 2010) [text]Guidance Note for Mental Health and Psychosocial Support: Haiti Earthquake Emergency Response (IASC, Jan. 2010) [text]Humanitarian Horizons: A Practitioners' Guide to the Future (Feinstein International Center, Jan. 2010) [text]List of Countries which have signed, ratified/acceded to the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa (Kampala Convention) (as of 31 Dec. 2009) (UNHCR Addis, 2010)…

• New Issues of Coping w/ Crisis, Disasters, JHA, Mig. Soc.

  8 Feb 2010 | 7:15 am

  Coping with Crisis, no. IV (2009) [full-text] - Focus is on psychosocial issues and research. Disasters, early view (Feb. 2010) [access] - Series of articles now online which appear to be part of an upcoming special issue on the "social dynamics of humanitarian action." Journal of Humanitarian Assistance (5 Feb. 2010) [full-text] - New article entitled "Why was there still malnutrition in Ethiopia in 2008? Causes and humanitarian accountability."Migrations Société, vol. 22, no. 127 (Jan. 2010) [contents]- Mix of articles.Tagged Periodicals.

• Detention in Europe

  6 Feb 2010 | 1:15 pm

  JRS Europe's "Detention in Europe" project reported recently on the new Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) resolution on the detention of asylum-seekers and irregular migrants in Europe. They provide a summary of the resolution, and include links to the texts of not only the resolution, but also of PACE's recommendation and the background report of the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Population's rapporteur.For more information on the detention conditions in individual European countries, browse JRS' "Information by Countries" pages and the Global Detention Project's country…

• Publications: Detention/Australia, Disaster Recovery, Forced Labor & Child Soldiers, GHP Meeting, Housing Commentary, Humanitarian Action Rpt.

  5 Feb 2010 | 10:10 am

  Brief Commentary on Article 21 (Housing) of the 1951 Refugee Convention (Displacement Solutions, posted Feb. 2010) [access]- Note: This is a Word doc.Global Humanitarian Platform Meeting (Feb. 2010) [access]- Documents from the meeting are available."The Health of People in Australian Immigration Detention Centres," Medical Journal of Australia, vol. 192, no. 2 (Jan. 2010) [text via JRS Europe]Humanitarian Action Report 2010: Partnering for Children in Emergencies (UNICEF, Feb. 2010) [access]The Industrial Organization of Rebellion: The Logic of Forced Labor and Child Soldiering, HiCN Working…

• Publications: Accountability Principles, Aid Worker Prot./Darfur, Lessons Learned/Haiti, Refugees/DRC, Stateless/Jordan, U.S. Immig. System Reform

  4 Feb 2010 | 7:07 am

  (updated)Lessons Learned from Past Experience for International Agencies in Haiti (CDA Collaborative Learning Projects, Feb. 2010) [text via ReliefWeb]- Summarizes key lessons from Rising from the Ashes: Development Strategies at Times of Disaster.Principles of Accountability (Humanitarian Accountability Partnership, Jan. 2010) [text]The Protection of Aid Workers: Principled Protection and Humanitarian Security in Darfur, Security in Practice 2 (Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, Feb. 2010) [text via Human Security Gateway]Reforming the Immigration System: Proposals to Promote…

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  Brain Off

• Humanitarian OSM Team: Haiti Strategy and Proposal

  mikel

  8 Feb 2010 | 9:57 pm

  Who, what, where, and how are all open questions. Why is simple … OpenStreetMap has demonstrated incredible value in Haiti and we need to make sure we are prepared for the long run there, and for future disasters. A couple weeks ago, Nicolas and I started digesting the Haiti response, and years of thoughts and discussions in OSM, into something like a plan. http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Humanitarian_OSM_Team/Haiti_Strategy_And_Proposal The aim of this evolving document is to start to gather and prioritize major themes of needs and activities, for HOT organizationally, in…

• How to improve our work in Haiti? MapMaker and OSM thoughts too.

  mikel

  18 Jan 2010 | 4:33 pm

  This is a question I’m considering a lot … filtered through the brief rushes of reading the amazing crisismappers list, diving into OSM on the wiki and IRC channel … Are we doing everything we possibly can in serving the responders? Can we coordinate our mapping work better? And once aid starts flowing and the immediate response turns to long term recovery and reconstruction, how will our process and community change, when more and more data to synchronize will be coming from the ground in Haiti? How do we operate better in the next disaster? Big questions, and glad that…

• Haiti OpenStreetMap Response

  mikel

  14 Jan 2010 | 12:45 pm

  The have been at least 400 OpenStreetMap editing sessions in Haiti since the quake hit. Mostly tracing Yahoo imagery, and gleaning information from old CIA maps. We also just received permission to use GeoEye imagery acquired post-event … that will allow us to tag collapsed buildings. Many relief groups are deploying now, many checking in with the CrisisMappers list (the main locus of the wider humanitarian tech community), and they are making inquiries into OSM data and requests for particular features. Dozens of mappers and developers are lending a hand, coordinating on the OSM Haiti…

• Some notes on Map Kibera mapping

  mikel

  12 Jan 2010 | 12:46 pm

  Just yesterday, I imported the Map Kibera data into OpenStreetMap. I thought I’d take the opportunity to review how the data collection went in this entirely unique process, allude to a few of the mind-changing map features of Kibera that I’ve yet to fully comprehend, and provide some guidelines for further data clean up. I’ve been spending spare time over the last few weeks in Chicago working on the data, but realize this needs the help and energy of the entire community. If you’re interested to help, please get in touch. In short, a pretty map geeky post! Divided…

• Holidays, in Snow and in Kibera

  mikel

  6 Jan 2010 | 11:14 am

  The snow has been falling steadily outside in Chicago, bringing the pleasures of snow shoveling: a little Sisyphean circulation in an overfed and over-rested body. That body has too gladly fell into near hibernation on our holiday return from Kenya. I can’t help thinking of Kenyans here, this unimaginable climate, people who even turn down iced drinks on hot days in fear of catching cold. Their relationship with holiday foods is a lot more healthy and real than what’s happened here, unless you’re a vegetarian like me (again nearly inconceivable back in Kenya). For me, the…

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  ICT for Peacebuilding (ICT4Peace)

• Social & new media tactics: Generating and curating provincial news

  Sanjana Hattotuwa

  8 Feb 2010 | 2:43 am

  As part of my lecture series for mid-career journalists at the Sri Lanka College of Journalism, I held a class today on leveraging new and social media for news managers dealing with provincial news in Sri Lanka. Noting that the basis of this presentation was the generation of news from the provinces in a manner that also used new media (most provincial journalists still file their reports either through voice calls or by faxing hand written copies), I said that separate from this, those in Colombo in charge of news curation needed to be aware of the information already generated from the…

• Information and Technology for socio-political Change

  Sanjana Hattotuwa

  2 Feb 2010 | 6:47 pm

  I had an interesting interaction this morning with Christina Goodness and a group of graduate students in New York University on Sri Lanka, touching upon the challenges it faces post-war and the ways in which information and technology can play a role in more systemic peacebuilding and reconciliation. The class wiki (as PDF here), largely based on Christina’s exemplary vision, is a cutting-edge, interdisciplinary and international syllabus that I wish universities in Sri Lanka also had. They don’t, and it is one reason why our tertiary education especially in the journalism, mired…

• Social Media in Haiti provides critical information on Haiti’s need

  Sanjana Hattotuwa

  1 Feb 2010 | 6:12 pm

  OCHA’s ReliefWeb has (a very rough) transcript of my recent podcast with IRIN on the use of technology in Haiti’s January 2010 earthquake relief effort. Read it here. Read about the podcast and listen to the original version here. A pertinent excerpt from the interview: TUNBRIDGE: Did you see what is going on high-tech world here is unprecedented. Did you think it is going change forever the way we do respond to disasters? HATTOTUWA: The way we respond to disasters it will always be the same. It will require sweat. It will require physical effort and it will require political…

• Banning Sri Lankan porn online: A couple of months after…

  Sanjana Hattotuwa

  31 Jan 2010 | 8:06 am

  Responding to an ill-advised and misguided petition filed by the IGP (yes, the same one who said mobile phones can be used by rape victims as evidence), the courts ordered the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (TRC) to ban twelve sex sites in July 2009. At the time, pro-government Sinhala media incredibly suggested that these sites were evidence of “an international conspiracy to tarnish the image of the country”, in addition to of course the hundreds of other conspiracies floating around. Fast forward a couple of months, and it appears that the blocking of these sites is…

• Clamping down on websites in Sri Lanka with Chinese help

  Sanjana Hattotuwa

  30 Jan 2010 | 9:29 pm

  I have written extensively since 2005 on how the Rajapakse government has increasingly clamped down on websites. In From pornography to censorship? I flagged fears over the regime’s avowed desire to protect children from online pornography could lead to more blanket censorship of inconvenient content on the web. When the government went on to ban 12 pornographic sites (of the tens of millions still freely accessible), myself and others questioned the legality of the ban. Just before the Presidential election, a number of independent websites and aggregation portals were blocked from the…

• 
  Information Technology and Emergency & Crisis Response

• GOOGLE Crisis Response : Haiti

  19 Jan 2010 | 1:49 am

  Due to the terrible events caused by the earthquake in Haiti, Google provides disaster relief information on the Google Crisis Response web. On this site, you will gain access to updated maps and satellite images, mechanisms to donate money, as well as assistance of missing persons. The Google Crisis Response initiative shows in a very practical way how information technology could provide support mechanisms in disaster events.

• SR-inslag om Télécom sans frontières om uppbyggnaden av mobilkommunikation vid katastrofer

  15 Jan 2010 | 3:47 am

  Idag sände Vetenskapsradion på Sveriges Radio ett bra inslag om organisationen Télécom sans frontières (Telekom utan gränser) som är en organisation likt Läkare utan gränser fast inom kommunikation. Inslaget presentera på ett intressant sätt de behov och utmaningar som finns efter katastrofer för människor att få tillgång till kommunikation med sina sociala nätverk. Lyssna på inslaget på följande länk [SR]

• Mobile phones and emergency response

  13 Jan 2010 | 3:17 am

  The other day, I re-visted some older papers on how mobile phones and emergency response. I would like to highlight a paper on the WIPER-system that outlines some nice new ideas of how the mobile phone infrastructure could provide new means to better understand an evolving situation.WIPER: Leveraging the Cell Phone Network for Emergency ResponseTimothy Schoenharl : Ryan Bravo : Greg MadeyThis paper describes the Wireless Phone-based Emergency Response (WIPER) system. WIPER is designed to provide emergency planners and responders with an integrated system that will help to detect possible…

• Fieldstudy at the COP15 climat meeting in Copenhagen

  20 Dec 2009 | 3:23 pm

  On thursday 17th of december, myself and Fredrik Bergstrand at the Crisis Response Lab, conducted a one-day field study at the COP15 in Copenhagen. We had no problems of interviewing various activist and we gained deep insights into a world that was partially new to us. We are looking forward to compare and discuss our insights and findings with other response organizations in Sweden that also took the opportunity to learn from the activists. I hope that the Swedish MSB had a team on-site for this.

• ISCRAM2010 - Research in Progress deadline 18th of jan 2010

  7 Dec 2009 | 1:14 pm

  Keep in mind the Research-in-progress deadline for the next years ISCRAM2010.The deadline will be on the 18th of january. Have a look at the www.iscram.org wesbite for further details.

• 
  Phayul Latest News

• China plans online gambling crackdown

  8 Feb 2010 | 10:46 pm

  China plans to crack down on the online gambling industry, including the banks and websites that support it, the Ministry of Public Security said in a st

• Google warns copycat website

  8 Feb 2010 | 8:53 pm

  Google has warned a copycat Chinese website to stop using a logo that resembles the US internet giant's or face possible legal

• U.S.-China Friction: Why Neither Side Can Afford a Split

  8 Feb 2010 | 8:44 pm

  It hasn't been a banner few weeks for U.S.-China relations. In mid-January, Google announced that it was contemplating pulling out of China because of rep

• His Holiness the Dalai Lama to recieve freedom award in Cincinnati

  8 Feb 2010 | 1:28 am

  National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, has selected the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner for the award that would be conferred on him in October this

• Bihar CM in Dharamsala to meet the Dalai Lama - updated

  7 Feb 2010 | 10:13 pm

  Bihar Chief minister Nitish Kumar is in Dharamsala to meet with the Tibetan leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The CM of the Indian state where several holy si

• 
  Tibet Will Be Free

• The Tradition of ‘Gu-thug’ Before Losar

  High Peaks Pure Earth

  8 Feb 2010 | 1:46 pm

  As Losar (Tibetan New Year) is quickly approaching this year on February 14, and Tibetans in Tibet and all over the world are proudly asserting their Tibetan identity, what better way to start the year 2137 with a traditional bowl of hot steaming Gu-thug on Friday evening? High Peaks Pure Earth would not want anyone to partake in this tradition without knowing the ins and outs! High Peaks Pure Earth is therefore very grateful to Tsering Dhondup for allowing us to post his translation of "The Tradition of ‘Gu-thug’ before Losar" taken from "The Collected Works of…

• Don’t let China steal Losar

  kate

  8 Feb 2010 | 8:40 am

  By Tenzin Dorjee Losar belongs to Tibet. Losar belongs to the Tibetan people. No one can steal it from us. I live in a foreign land where Tibetan festivals hold no immediate meaning. Struggling onto crowded subways each morning and each night, avoiding the empty gaze of strangers, the ground I walk upon is many seas and skies away from my mountainous home. So why should I celebrate Losar? The real New Year is already past, any way. Well, the answer is simple: No matter where I live, I am Tibetan, and if I don’t celebrate my own tradition, who will? It has become clear that Chinese…

• Send a Losar Postcard to President Obama

  kate

  5 Feb 2010 | 4:33 pm

  Click on the links below to download printable postcard templates to President Obama who is expected to meet with His Holiness the Dalai Lama later this month. The meeting is expected to take place right around Losar! Download Losar because I am Tibetan postcard. Download I (heart) Tibet postcard. Download Losar because I (heart) Tibet postcard.

• Losar (poem by Bhuchung D. Sonam)

  kate

  5 Feb 2010 | 10:58 am

  Please read and share this beautiful poem by Tibetan poet & writer Bhuching D. Sonam, which he posted on Facebook just hours ago. Losar by Bhuchung D. Sonam We should celebrate Losar Some say… To open a new chapter Be Tibetan, Dress Tibetan Eat Tibetan Speak Tibetan To hold our heads high Walk a new path, mindful of the past. We should not celebrate Losar Others say … To respect the dead and the jailed Be Tibetan, Recite mani Pray for all Knead your rosary Remember that Our brothers and sisters are suffering. To celebrate or not to celebrate The essence is in the difference.

• SFT India: We are Tibetan because…

  kate

  5 Feb 2010 | 10:50 am

  Check out this awesome video from SFT India in response to the “I am Tibetan” video from Amdo (now with English subtitles).

• 
  hrw.org

• Russia: Activists’ Detention Unjustified

  Human Rights Watch

  9 Feb 2010 | 4:15 pm

  (Moscow) - The Russian authorities should investigate the arbitrary detention of three human rights advocates in Chechnya and hold those responsible accountable, Amnesty International, Civil Rights Defenders, Front Line, and Human Rights Watch said today. read more

• Bahrain: End Torture of Security Suspects

  Human Rights Watch

  7 Feb 2010 | 11:45 pm

  (Manama) - Bahrain needs to take urgent steps to end torture and ill-treatment of security suspects during interrogation, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.  The government should promptly investigate all torture allegations and prosecute security officials suspected of abusing detainees. read more

• Israel: Attacks on New Israel Fund, Critical Groups, Threaten Civil Society

  Human Rights Watch

  7 Feb 2010 | 4:19 am

  (New York)–The growing harshness of attacks by Israeli government officials on nongovernmental organizations poses a real threat to civil society in Israel, Human Rights Watch said today.   read more

• Israel: Military Investigations Fail Gaza War Victims

  Human Rights Watch

  6 Feb 2010 | 11:08 pm

  (New York) - Israel has failed to demonstrate that it will conduct thorough and impartial investigations into alleged laws-of-war violations by its forces during last year's Gaza conflict, Human Rights Watch said today.  An independent investigation is needed if perpetrators of abuse, including senior military and political officials who set policies that violated the laws of war, are to be held read more

• Thailand: Cease Intimidation of Karen Refugees

  Human Rights Watch

  5 Feb 2010 | 2:48 pm

  (New York) - Thailand should immediately stop pressuring ethnic Karen refugees to return to Burma, Human Rights Watch said today. Repatriation to the designated "return zone" in Burma would place returnees at serious risk of human rights abuses and landmines. read more

• 
  Derechos: Human Rights Listings

• Finland: Advanced Course on the International Protection of Human Rights

  2 Feb 2010 | 10:52 am

  The Institute for Human Rights at Abo Akademi University organizes the Advanced Course on the International Protection of Human Rights from 16 until 27 August 2010, in Turku, Finland. The course aims at providing a profound insight into, and analysis of, the system of international human rights protection in the light of contemporary problems and relevant case law. It is composed of lectures, case studies in working-groups, seminars and an optional essay. More information and application forms can be obtained from http://www.abo.fi/instut/imr/courses.htm or from Ms Johanna Bondas…

• Canada: International Forum for Young Leaders

  2 Feb 2010 | 10:36 am

  Centre for Human Righs and Legal Pluralism Centre sur les droits de la personne et le pluralisme juridique 3644 Peel Street Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 1W9 Tel: (514) 398-3577 Fax: (514) 398-8197 Email: youngleaders.law@ mcgill.ca HUMAN RIGHTS IN DIVERSE SOCIETIES International Forum for Young Leaders Call for Applications The Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism proudly announces The Global Conference on Human Rights in Diverse Societies, to be held at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, October 7th to 9th, 2010. This will be the second Echenberg Family Conference on Human Rights.

• Cambodia: Temporary position Associate Legal Officer

  2 Feb 2010 | 10:13 am

  UNITED NATIONS NATIONS UNIES Ref. No.: TVA/UNAKRT/2 010/01 TEMPORARY VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT P-2 Associate Legal Officer United Nations Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials (UNAKRT) Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) Occupational Group (See list on last page) Service/Section: Office of the Co-Investigating Judges Estimated Start Date: 01/04/2010 Duty Station: Phnom Penh Duration: 364 days DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES The United Nations Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials (UNAKRT) supports the operation of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC). The ECCC has…

• The Hague: International Conference: Measuring Access to Justice and Legal Empowerment of the Poor

  1 Feb 2010 | 10:23 am

  With this message, TISCO (Tilburg Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies of Civil Law and Conflict Resolution Systems) and HiiL (Hague Institute for the Internationalisation of Law) are pleased to inform you about upcoming International conference under the title: Measuring Access to Justice and Legal Empowerment of the poor. The two-day meeting will take place in The Hague on 26-27 April, 2010 (specific venue and detailed program TBA).

• New Delhi: PWESCR Internship Programme

  1 Feb 2010 | 10:16 am

  Programme on Women’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights DD-29, Kalkaji, 2nd Floor, New Delhi, India, 110019 Phone: +91(0)11-40536091 Fax: +91(0)11-40536095 The PWESCR volunteer internship programme typically consists of a minimum of four consecutive months of work in the Delhi, India office. The programme is mutually advantageous: interns gain valuable working experience and exposure to a wide range of international and regional women’s human rights issues, while PWESCR benefits from the contributions of dedicated people and future leaders.

• 
  UUSC Blog

• Valentine’s Day the Fair-trade Way

  Ariel Jacobson

  4 Feb 2010 | 9:15 am

• When Disasters Discriminate

  Sarah Peck

  1 Feb 2010 | 7:15 am

• What Can We Do?

  Kate Wallace

  29 Jan 2010 | 7:08 am

• Independent Expert Advises COP-15: Recognize Water's Importance in Climate Change

  Rachel Ordu Dan-Harry

  16 Dec 2009 | 1:00 pm

• UUSC Rights Night An Inspiring, Joyful Evening

  Charlie Clements

  15 Dec 2009 | 9:55 am

• 
  PhD studies in human rights

• Pre-Trial Chamber Refuses to Confirm Charges in Abu Garda Case

  9 Feb 2010 | 12:22 am

  Yesterday, a Pre-Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Court refused to confirm the charges against Sudanese rebel leader Idriss Abu Garda, who was charged with respect to attacks on peacekeepers in 2007. There was no doubt the crime took place, but there simply wasn't enough evidence to make out a case that Abu Garda had been responsible for ordering or directing it, said the Chamber.Under article 61, the Pre-Trial Chamber can confirm charges only where there is 'sufficient evidence'. It is the first time a Chamber has declined to issue any charges. In other rulings, Chambers have…

• Peter Calvocoressi

  8 Feb 2010 | 6:15 am

  This interesting report comes from Prof. John Q. Barrett:I am very sorry to report the death in England last Friday of Peter J.A. Calvocoressi, age 97. He was, to my knowledge, the last surviving British attorney and senior officer to have participated in the work of Nuremberg. During World War II, Peter Calvocoressi, a barrister, became a Royal Air Force Wing Commander. He served at Bletchley Park as part of the team in “Hut 3” that interpreted decrypted German army and air Enigma messages, selecting the information that was sent to Allied military commanders in the field. This…

• More on Rights and Democracy

  7 Feb 2010 | 6:08 am

  Previous posts on this blog have discussed the attempts by the Stephen Harper government in Canada to undermine the independence - and destroy the reputation - of Rights and Democracy. For a fine comment on the situation, see editorialist Haroon Siddiqui in today's Toronto Star.

• Prosecutor's Statement on the Bashir Arrest Warrant Decision

  6 Feb 2010 | 9:23 am

  The website of the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court contains the following statement.Statement by Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, 3 February 2010The Appeals Chamber made a decision today. It was a legal error to reject the genocide charges against President Al Bashir.The Prosecution maintains that President Al Bashir’s intention is to destroy the Fur, masalit and Zagawa. Hunger and rape are his weapons. This is genocide.President Al Bashir is a fugitive. He must be isolated. He must be apprehended. He must face justice. He should get a lawyer to represent him in…

• Letter from Dresden

  5 Feb 2010 | 4:00 pm

  The last issue of the New Yorker has a very fine and thoughtful article by George Packer about the city of Dresden, the bombing, commemoration, etc. Readers of the blog will know of my interest in issues of moral equivalency. Packer notes that neo-nazis carry signs at rallies stating: 'Auschwitz + Dresden = 0'. This recalls the debates about the supposed need to prosecute both sides in a conflict, in order to facilitate proper justice and, eventually, reconciliation. I'm a sceptical. Packer gets it right, I think, striking a balance between the need to acknowledge the horror (and the…

• 
  Business & Human Rights in Vancouver

• assorted links related to Bill C-300

  25 Jan 2010 | 5:56 pm

  Here are a few links I've gathered over the last couple of weeks.Canadian Lawyer's Magazine supports Bill C-300Toronto Star on the Canadian government's weak CSR plan, which critics refer to as 'insufficient.'Vancouver Sun covers the debate on Bill C-300.Embassy: Tanzanian foreign minister wants Bill C-300 adopted. Peace, Earth, Justice News examines Bill C-300 and how it relates to what's going on in the ground in other countries.Similarly, Toward Freedom describes our 'Long Road to Mining Reform.'

• Georgia Straight article on Bill C-300

  11 Dec 2009 | 5:38 pm

  From the Straight:Simon Child has never been to Africa, but that hasn't stopped the Grade 11 student at Semiahmoo secondary school from trying to improve the human-rights situation on the continent. Child, director of outreach and advocacy with the nonprofit Africa Canada Accountability Coalition, says one way to accomplish this is to force Canadian corporations to act more responsibly in Africa. In a phone interview with theGeorgia Straight, Child said this is particularly true in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo where several Canadian mining companies operate.Human-rights groups…

• Toronto Star editorial on Bill C-300

  24 Nov 2009 | 10:44 am

  The Toronto Star has come out in support of Bill C-300: Canada's mining, oil and gas firms think of themselves as good offshore citizens. Certainly, they are a rich source of overseas jobs, wages, royalties and social benefits. Barrick Gold Corp., for example, ploughed $8 billion back into host communities in 2008, employing 19,000 people at mines in Canada, the United States and a half-dozen other countries. It built roads, schools, clinics and more.But Canadian firms in Mexico, El Salvador, Ecuador, Congo, India, the Philippines and Papua New Guinea have come under fire since 2000 for…

• AI Film Festival - Vancouver

  11 Nov 2009 | 6:23 pm

  The Amnesty International Film Festival in Vancouver starts with a gala tomorrow night, featuring The Yes Men Fix the World, where a group of men dress up in suits to parody certain corporate executives with no sense of social responsibility. Please find the entire festival schedule here.

• Graham Allen: Bill offers Canada chance to deal with concerns raised by mining abroad

  11 Nov 2009 | 6:15 pm

  Here's an article in the Georgia Straight by fellow Vancouver AI BHR volunteer Graham Allen: The Canadian government, in a March 2009 report, acknowledged it has a problem: “Within the wider community, increasing concerns have been raised about the human rights impacts of the activities of Canadian extractive companies with respect to their operations abroad.”Liberal MP John McKay, on the day which his private member’s bill, Bill C-300, passed second reading, was more specific: “There are examples of Canadian corporations behaving badly in places like the Philippines and Guyana and as…

• 
  Chez Rémi

• Menu

  2 Feb 2010 | 10:54 pm

  Last week in Tokyo, I took out for dinner Karen Sack, the Director of the Pew Marine Programme after she'd just flown to Japan for the first time in her life. The restaurant I'd thought I'd bring her to was full, and so were about ten others we tried in the area near our hotel. Finally we found one that was totally empty. We had no idea of what was on the menu because it was all written in Japanese (as you would expect in Tokyo), but we sat there and asked if they had an English or a picture menu. It was at that point we discovered it was a whale meat restaurant. We left (with delightful…

• Fishheads against a wall

  27 Jan 2010 | 7:53 pm

  I said yesterday that I would comment on the article in The Japan Times about blue fin tuna and whales.In the article, a member of the Japan Tuna Fisheries Cooperative Association, Hisao Masuko, is reported as saying "If nothing is done, we won't have any tuna at Tsukiji fish market". If I understand the article correctly, when Mr. Masuko says "if nothing is done", he means "if nothing is done" to prevent the adoption of the proposed ban on the international trade in Atlantic blue fin tuna at the CITES conference in a few weeks in Doha. Not "if nothing is done" to conserve the species.Well,…

• The world after Sushi

  27 Jan 2010 | 4:37 am

  I've just had my dinner, in Tokyo where I've been working for a few days. I'm a bit exhausted tonight. So I will comment in detail only tomorrow on today's interesting article in "The Japan Times", shown on this photo, in which some possible or alledged impacts of the proposal to ban the international trade in Atlantic blue fin tuna are discussed.If you like the photo illustrating this post, please be aware that I accept nominations for this year's Pulitzer Prize for photography. Ah, ah!Important: If you're interested, I suggest you download as soon as possible the Japan Times' piece linked…

• Fiat

  19 Jan 2010 | 1:38 pm

  It took me a good 24-48 hours last week to decide to which relief organization to send a donation to contribute to the effort in Haiti after the quake. Of course I pay each year an annual fee to several humanitarian and development NGOs. But with the extra contribution I wanted to make for Haiti I must say that I was a bit overwhelmed by so many different calls for donation. In the last week, there has been Haiti fundraising appeals on virtually each and every page of some of the newspapers I read, let alone Internet fundraising. The design and logos are different (somewhat) on each…

• The Biodiversity Test

  14 Jan 2010 | 10:37 am

  First post this year. Not that I've been on holidays for three weeks, no. On the contrary, the year's started sleeply, after the usual short end of year break.Like millions of people, I went to see James Cameron's Avatar during the break. I had never seen a Cameron film (not even Titanic), but I highly recommend Avatar: a perfect fit to start this year, designated the Intenational Year of Biodiversity by the United Nations. [I am a bit surprised that apparently so few commentators have seen in Avatar a parabol on what's happening now to our Planet and our indigenous peoples. Read Erik…

• 
  Children

• The Silent Cries of India’s Untouchable Children

  Cassandra Clifford

  7 Feb 2010 | 9:33 am

  Many of us fail to think that in today’s modern society there is truly a caste system and that populations, including children, would be deemed ‘untouchable’. For me what first comes to mind is the Biblical references to the Lepers, or how our society once condemned most with mental or learning disabilities to a life of institutionalized isolation. However caste-based discrimination is far from a thing of the past in India, as discrimination against Dalits, or “untouchables” in Indian society, continues. In India’s historical Hindu caste system, which was…

• News…

  Cassandra Clifford

  6 Feb 2010 | 6:22 am

  New vaccine might protect children from malaria An experimental malaria vaccine that boosts immune responses has produced powerful antibodies in young children during initial trials, U.S. researchers say. Scientists hope the vaccine can be used to bring an end to the 1 million deaths a year associated with malaria. Polio survivors face new threats Post-polio syndrome continues to haunt hundreds of thousands of aging polio survivors, adversely affecting their quality of life. The absence of polio in the U.S. for several decades has created a dearth of medical professionals with experience…

• Haiti News…

  Cassandra Clifford

  4 Feb 2010 | 11:40 pm

  Haiti housing concerns mounting Haitian authorities and aid groups are in a race against time to ensure earthquake survivors have shelter before the rainy season begins in March. Aid groups are hoping to encourage the use of transitional shelters that can later be reinforced into more permanent structures over tents. Some food aid sold via Haiti’s underground economy Although food distribution has become more orderly since the chaotic first days after the Jan. 12 Haiti earthquake, some of the food has been diverted to the black market. World Food Programme representatives say some such…

• 15th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women

  Cassandra Clifford

  3 Feb 2010 | 9:03 pm

  Photo: UNICEF This year marks the 15th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women, which was held in Beijing, China in 1995.  With one hundred and eighty-nine Member States adopting the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which laid out a comprehensive agenda for women’s political and economic empowerment and the foundations for gender mainstreaming.  The Conference was seen as an historic milestone in the advancement to attain global gender equality and women’s and girls’ empowerment. Since the Beijing conference, a number of significant UN and government steps have…

• National Freedom Day

  Cassandra Clifford

  1 Feb 2010 | 7:16 pm

  Today is National Freedom Day, marking the anniversary of the ratification the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution under Lincoln, promising freedom from slavery and involuntary servitude.  The day was enacted by President Harry Truman on June 30, 1948, as he signed the bill proclaiming February 1 as National Freedom Day. I spent the evening at a Freedom Day celebration, hosted by Courtney’s House, for which they held an open house and shared their dreams of freedom with the community. Taking time to honor others in the filed, the organization recognized key supporters who have…

• 
  ICT - UN Declaration

• NCAI endorses UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

  WASHINGTON – The National Congress of American Indians has passed a resolution supporting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and urging its endorsement by state governments and Congress.

• Newcomb: World Conservation Congress endorses Declaration

  On Oct. 13, 2008 (Columbus Day), in Barcelona Spain, the World Conservation Congress (WCC) of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), voted to endorse and begin implementing the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples that was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 13, 2007.

• 
  Bahai Faith in Egypt

• More on Haiti

  Bilo

  27 Jan 2010 | 7:23 am

  On January 25, 2009, PBS NewsHour Ray Suarez talks with Dr. Paul Farmer (Partners in Health co-founder and the United Nations' deputy special envoy to Haiti) about the obstacles facing aid workers in Port-au-Prince, where thousands require urgent care: [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• Haiti: Beyond the Surface of Catastrophe

  Bilo

  19 Jan 2010 | 2:30 pm

  This is an outstanding interview that, not only examines the Haiti disaster, but goes way beyond the apparent surface of the country's catastrophic state. Katie Couric of CBS News "speaks with Mark Schneider from the International Crisis Group, and Ophelia Dahl, Executive Director of Partners in Health about the disastrous earthquake in Haiti and the relief efforts to help Haitians in need." A must watch! Watch CBS News Videos Online [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• The Ominous Threat to the Baha'is of Iran

  Bilo

  16 Jan 2010 | 1:20 pm

  Here is a brilliantly written analysis on CBC News (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) about the ominous current threat to the Baha'is of Iran. Its Canadian author is Brian Stewart, whose biography describes him as: One of this country's most experienced journalists and foreign correspondents, Brian Stewart was, until his retirement in the summer of 2009, a Senior Correspondent with CBC's flagship news program, The National, and the host of Newsworld's international affairs program. He is... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• Iran's Trial of Baha'i Leaders: First Session Ends...No Date Set for Future Sessions

  Bilo

  12 Jan 2010 | 2:19 pm

  According to the Baha'i International Community, "the trial of seven imprisoned Baha'i leaders began today in Iran. Initial reports indicate that the trial was marked by numerous violations of legal due process." The report adds: "After about three hours, the hearing ended. Authorities indicated that today’s proceeding was merely the 'first session,' and no date for future sessions was given." The entire story is posted below with permission: First session ends in trial of Baha'i leaders in... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• Iran: Another Wave of False & Outrageous Allegations

  Bilo

  9 Jan 2010 | 1:29 pm

  In a statement published today by the Baha'i International Community, the false and outrageous allegations lodged against the Baha'is by Iran's government were categorically rejected. The story in its entirety is posted below with permission: Baha'i International Community rejects allegations that arrested Baha'is had weapons in homes 9 January 2010 _________________________________________________________ GENEVA — The Baha'i International Community today categorically rejected new... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• 
  Change.org's Women's Rights Blog

• New Hampshire Women Want to Be Included in the Constitution

  Alex DiBranco

  9 Feb 2010 | 9:40 am

  You let women get a little power, and what happens? They want to rewrite the whole constitution! Good for them. In the United States Senate, women fill less than a fifth of the seats. Pitiful. On the other hand, New Hampshire broke new ground in the 2008 election by voting a female majority into the state Senate, making it the first state in the nation to upset the tradition of male dominance. And women want the state constitution to recognize that they are here: proposed legislation would replace constitutional references to men with gender-neutral language, starting at the top, with "All…

• On One Florida Corner, "12th & Delaware" Finds Microcosm of Abortion Battle

  Ruth Fertig

  9 Feb 2010 | 7:00 am

  Last week I had the privilege of watching some truly amazing documentaries at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. "12th & Delaware," directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady ("The Boys of Baraka," "Jesus Camp"), explores the battle raging on a Fort Pierce, Florida corner where an abortion clinic and a pro-life pregnancy center sit across the street from each other. Just before daybreak, a single pro-life protester awaits the arrival of an abortion provider to the clinic. When she sees him coming -- covered in a white sheet, sitting in the passenger seat of a bright yellow Mustang -- she lets…

• The Super Bowl: Double Standards and Fighting Against Choice

  Alex DiBranco

  8 Feb 2010 | 9:06 pm

  Super Bowl Sunday is over, but the advertisements live on around the internet. The misogyny certainly rolled; my fav is Dodge Charger's Man's Last Stand, which you can read a great Feministing commentary summing up. But since we've been chattering about Focus on the Family's Tim Tebow ad for a while now, I'll weigh in on that (hopefully) one last time. The ad was surprisingly cutesy and innocuous (if also vague and confusing), but Michael Jones over on the Gay Rights blog writes that even though it turned out not to spell out the extreme anti-choice message FoF is famous for, CBS was still…

• Abercrombie and Fitch Dislikes Disabled, Non-White, Non-Thin Women

  Sarah Menkedick

  8 Feb 2010 | 1:07 pm

  Here's to hoping that Abercrombie and Fitch is on the verge of a quick spiral into oblivion. The brand has earned a lovely reputation as a discriminator against Hispanics, Asians, African Americans and people with disabilities, and has been forced to settle lawsuit after lawsuit for its discriminatory and unfair unemployment practices. It's hard to think of a store that more faithfully celebrates white, blond, excessively thin WASP-iness as a superior aesthetic and, indeed, a superior racial category. It does so with a "look policy" that stipulates how long employees' nails should be, how…

• Johnny Depp Defends Rapist

  Alex DiBranco

  8 Feb 2010 | 9:30 am

  Johnny, you make such a sexy Captain Jack Sparrow. And there will always be a special place in my heart for Edward Scissorhands. I have to admit, your version of Willy Wonka was just a little too creepy for me, but that didn't make me cherish your pirating days any less. Unfortunately, you've lost all your charm (and your place in my fantasies) with your defense of a child rapist. It doesn't matter that you've joined a chorus of celebrity voices defending Roman Polanski for raping a 13-year-old. It doesn't excuse your comments that Whoopi Goldberg claimed what happened to the girl wasn't…

• 
  It Dawned On Me

• Are Your Human Rights More Right Than Mine?

  Diane Beeler

  31 Jan 2010 | 11:28 pm

  When I say HUMAN RIGHTS, you may think about a trafficked sex slave, a child soldier, a raped woman prosecuted for adultery in a Muslim country, a woman in China who is pregnant with a second child being forcibly taken to a hospital and given an abortion, and the people in earthquake-ravaged Haiti who need food, water, safety, and shelter. But what about the basic human right to live in peace and quiet in your own home? Most cities…including my new city of Berkeley, California…have ordinances that proclaim that this is a right of residents. Even my own apartment lease declares…

• Reflection on Human Rights Day

  Diane Beeler

  10 Dec 2009 | 5:13 pm

  Today is Human Right’s Day. Take a moment to reflect. Do you respect the human rights of those you deal with on a day-to-day basis? Are you respectful, kind, considerate, thoughtful, encouraging, and supportive? Do you listen to, acknowledge, and treat respectfully people who think, act, look, speak, or practice religion differently from you? Do you ever give any thought to the rights of those in other countries? Do you care if women can vote, hold public office, work, drive a car, have protections through the legal system, love and marry who they want, and speak their minds? Do you…

• Stoned to Death for Having Unmarried Sex in Somalia

  Diane Beeler

  8 Nov 2009 | 2:56 pm

  33-year-old Abas Hussein Abdirahman, who confessed to adultery in an Islamic court, was stoned to death on 11/7/09 in Somalia for having sex with his girlfriend. She will be stoned to death after she gives birth to their baby. The BBC reports that an eyewitness…one of 300 to the stoning…said that Abas “…was screaming and blood was pouring from his head during the stoning. After seven minutes he stopped moving.” The BBC reports that this is the third time this year that Al-Shabab, an Islamist insurgency group in Somalia, has stoned a person to death for adultery.

• A Would-Be Robber and The Power of Love to Overcome Fear and Desperation

  Diane Beeler

  24 Oct 2009 | 12:46 pm

  It was October 19, 2009. 23-year-old Greg Smith was out of work, desperate, and needed money. He held Angela Montez at gun point, fully intending to rob a cash advance store, but something miraculous happened. Angela, a mother and grandmother, started crying and began talking to Greg. She told him “‘No, you don’t have to do this. Nothing can be bad enough for you to lower yourself to something so bad.” Even though the cash register was open and Greg could have taken the money and ran, he didn’t. His heart softened and he got down on his knees and prayed with…

• Oak Ridge, TN: Developed the Atomic Bomb and Now Stopping Child Predators

  Diane Beeler

  18 Oct 2009 | 10:43 pm

  What was rolling farm land in east Tennessee, the city now known as Oak Ridge was quickly transformed by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1942 to become one of the four places that worked on the Manhattan Project and birthed the atomic bomb. Because of the plentiful and cheap hydroelectric power provided through the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), Oak Ridge was the place where uranium was enriched. At one point, the Oak Ridge plants consumed one-sixth of the electricity in the entire United States…more than New York City. World War II-era billboard at the Oak Ridge Facility (Photo:…

• 
  SWOPBlogger

• $103.39 for SWOP-FREE for you!!

  Marisol

  8 Feb 2010 | 10:14 am

  So far, we have made $103.39 from searches and online shopping for SWOP-so easy to do and it’s FREE!We have something new and exciting we'd like to share with you! It’s the new SouthWest Organizing Project toolbar – once added to Internet Explorer or Firefox, each time you shop at more than 1,300 stores (from Amazon to Zazzle!) a percentage of your purchase will automatically be donated to SouthWest Organizing Project – at no cost to you (and you may even save money as the toolbar provides coupons and deals as well!).The toolbar also has a search box and each time you search the…

• Pajarito Mesa Video

  George

  4 Feb 2010 | 1:29 pm

  High Country News has posted a video that provides a really nice snapshot of life on Pajarito Mesa. The residents of the Mesa have been struggling for decades to bring adequate services to their community, and SWOP has been fighting along with them. Construction has finally begun on a water filling station which will open later this year. The video for High Country News was put together by Cally Carswell and focuses on the efforts of Organizer Sandra Montes and her experience in bringing water and other services to Pajarito Mesa. Illegal dumping is just one of the hardships that burden…

• Combined Reporting Not A Job Killer

  George

  3 Feb 2010 | 12:57 pm

  Combined Reporting is a proposed tax reform that would close the loophole which allows large, multistate corporations to avoid paying state income taxes. Combined reporting rules can help generate millions of dollars in state revenue. Pop quiz: Can you name the one western state that doesn't require combined reporting? That's right: it's The Land Of Enchantment!Legislators take a look at combined reporting again this month as they try to balance the state budget. Business groups oppose combined reporting, saying that it will scare off large corporations and the jobs they bring to the state- a…

• SWOP Executive Director Robby Rodriguez on Environmental Justice

  SWOP

  2 Feb 2010 | 11:41 am

  A key moment in SWOP’s history is highlighted in the current edition of the High Country News. In 1990 we sent a letter to ten large mainstream environmental organizations that challenged them to expand their definition of environmentalism and to look to communities of color for leadership. The letter was signed by a broad cross section of our allies in the environmental justice movement. A briefing paper was written by SWOP back in 1990 explaining the reasons for the letter. The High Country News article describes the reasons for the letter, along with reflections today from those big 10…

• Report: Less Than Half Of NM Households Have Internet Access

  George

  1 Feb 2010 | 1:54 pm

  The Social Science Research Center (SSRC) recently published a report of their findings in New Mexico, which indicates that there is a serious digital divide in our state. Less than half of New Mexico households have access to the internet, a serious problem in the modern world.This article by Gloria Williams investigates the impact of internet access in New Mexico in the wake of the SSRC report. In the article, Andrea Quijada of the New Mexico Media Literacy Project touches on the importance of the internet:"As all information gets moved online, people's very real lives depend on the…

• 
  UNICEF News

• Liberia: Liberian youths report on injustices of education system

  8 Feb 2010 | 7:22 pm

  MONROVIA, Liberia, 11 January 2010 – As Liberia slowly recovers from a 14-year-long civil war, its educational system retains some of the lawlessness that reigned during the conflict.

• Togo: Youth media activists unite to broadcast the Convention on the Rights of the Child

  8 Feb 2010 | 7:22 pm

  LOMÉ, Togo, 12 January 2010 – Inspired by a UNICEF video on the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), a group of young journalists have produced a video about children's rights that will be screened on Togolese national television.

• UNICEF Commences Executive Board for 2010

  8 Feb 2010 | 7:22 pm

  NEW YORK, 12 January 2010–The UNICEF Executive Board has elected the Permanent Representative of Bangladesh Ambassador Abdul Momen as President to replace the Permanent Representative of Mali, Ambassador Oumar Daou.

• Haiti: Supplies on the way to survivors of the earthquake

  8 Feb 2010 | 7:22 pm

  NEW YORK, USA, 13 January 2010 – The first shipment of UNICEF supplies for survivors of yesterday's devastating earthquake is on its way to Haiti. The emergency aid is urgently needed, as basic services and infrastructure in the western hemisphere's poorest nation were already close to collapse even before the 7.0-magnitude quake struck.

• West Bengal: Examples of 'positive deviance' in habits leading to malnutrition

  8 Feb 2010 | 7:22 pm

  DUMURDI, India, 11 January 2010 – Bharati Mandi walks to her local 'Angawadi' – a government sponsored centre for mothers and children in India – each day with her four-month-old son Biswajit and her three-year-old daughter Shampa. Together with other mothers, she prepares herself a healthy mid-day meal of lentils, rice and vegetables.

• 
  Oxfam International News

• Oxfam's cash-for-work program in Haiti: photo gallery

  filip

  8 Feb 2010 | 9:21 am

  Oxfam is employing people affected by Haiti’s earthquake to clean up their makeshift camps, build latrines and assemble "family kits." read more

• Survey shows few Haitians willing to move far to camps outside the city

  Joel M Bassuk

  8 Feb 2010 | 3:03 am

  Camp residents have little official information about plans to re-site camps Port-au-Prince, Haiti: Less than a third of people living in one of the largest camps in Port aread more

• G7 must take on emergency recovery plan for Haiti, global economic crisis

  filip

  5 Feb 2010 | 1:56 am

  G7 finance ministers meeting in Canada this weekend must agree to a Financial Transaction Tax to leverage billions needed to help poor nations deal with the impact of the global econread more

• Scarlett Johansson designs a handbag for Haiti

  filip

  4 Feb 2010 | 4:36 am

  Part of the Profits will be donated to Oxfam's relief work in Haiti To help raise funds for Oxfam's response to the Haiti earthquake, international actress and face of MANGread more

• Haiti earthquake: What Oxfam is doing

  Joel M Bassuk

  4 Feb 2010 | 4:17 am

  The devastating earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12 left the city of Port-au-Prince in ruins, and as many as one million people may now be homeless. read more

• 
  ONE

• What We’re Reading 2/9/10

  Steve Wilson

  9 Feb 2010 | 8:08 am

  Washington Post–Haiti earthquake relief efforts are still falling short Nearly one month after an earthquake brought Haiti to a halt, the Washington Post reports that evidence is everywhere on the island that current relief efforts may soon fall short as the immediate emergency response phase fades. Despite the good intentions of the United States and the [...]

• Nigeria names acting president

  Chris Scott

  9 Feb 2010 | 6:28 am

  The New York Times reports that earlier today the Nigerian Parliament voted to make Vice President Goodluck Jonathan the acting president of Nigeria. The vote ended weeks of political uncertainty, with [President Umaru] Yar’Adua’s cabinet and supporters insisting there was no need to replace him, little word from the president himself about his condition, and outbreaks [...]

• Q&A with Michele Bertol ONE Member and “Bundled One”

  Brie O'keefe

  8 Feb 2010 | 1:42 pm

  On Saturday February 6, 2010, Michèle Bertol, a Haitian Canadian led ONE’s delegation to hand over our petition for Haiti debt forgiveness to the G7 Finance Minister’s meeting in Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada. A town of only 7,000 people near the Arctic Circle, it was harder to think of a more remote location to hold an international [...]

• “Science Speaks” with Ambassador Goosby

  Chris Scott

  8 Feb 2010 | 11:57 am

  UN Dispatch picked up a great interview conducted by Science Speaks with US Global AIDS Ambassador Eric Goosby in which he talks about the future of PEPFAR, universal access, and a host of other issues. You can read the full interview here.

• Global Fund – NGOs dig deeper

  Carola Bieniek

  8 Feb 2010 | 10:28 am

  In 2007 the German government hosted a replenishment conference for the Global Fund in Berlin. To underline its role as host Germany promised to give €200m annually to the Fund between 2008 and 2010. Right now, the German parliament is discussing the 2010 budget. We were quite surprised to see that section 23 – the [...]

• 
  BBC World Service Trust blog

• Inspiration doesn’t happen overnight

  worldservicetrust

  5 Feb 2010 | 2:23 am

  Enhancing Nigeria’s Response to HIV and Aids (ENR) is the BBC World Service Trust’s new Pan-Nigerian, DFID-funded project which will focus on lowering the prevalence of HIV in the country. An aspect of this is to help capacity building at national and state TV stations. This involves creating a TV training team which will then go out and provide training at local stations, including training on HIV reporting and co-producing with the station for several weeks. Ambika Samarthya, an international trainer based in Abuja reports on the first stages of the three year project. Last week the TV…

• Growing pains

  worldservicetrust

  14 Jan 2010 | 8:18 am

  Enhancing Nigeria’s Response to HIV and Aids (ENR) is the BBC World Service Trust’s new Pan-Nigerian, DFID-funded project which will focus on lowering the prevalence of HIV in the country. An aspect of this is to help capacity building at national and state TV stations. This involves creating a TV training team which will then go out and provide training at local stations, including training on HIV reporting and co-producing with the station for several weeks. Ambika Samarthya, an international trainer based in Abuja reports on the first stages of the three year project. In the last few…

• Things that matter

  worldservicetrust

  9 Dec 2009 | 2:51 am

  Enhancing Nigeria’s Response to HIV and Aids (ENR) is the BBC World Service Trust’s new Pan-Nigerian, DFID-funded project which will focus on lowering the prevalence of HIV in the country. An aspect of this is to help capacity building at national and state TV stations. This involves creating a TV training team which will then go out and provide training at local stations, including training on HIV reporting and co-producing with the station for several weeks. Ambika Samarthya, an international trainer based in Abuja reports on the first stages of the three year project. After the…

• Preparing for everything

  worldservicetrust

  2 Dec 2009 | 4:09 am

  Enhancing Nigeria’s Response to HIV and Aids (ENR) is the BBC World Service Trust’s new Pan-Nigerian, DFID-funded project which will focus on lowering the prevalence of HIV in the country. An aspect of this is to help capacity building at national and state TV stations. This involves creating a TV training team which will then go out and provide training at local stations, including training on HIV reporting and co-producing with the station for several weeks. Ambika Samarthya, an international trainer based in Abuja reports on the first stages of the three year project. One of the…

• Meet the training team

  worldservicetrust

  26 Nov 2009 | 12:08 pm

• 
  Darfur: An Unforgivable Hell on Earth

• We Interrupt This Program

  cooper

  5 Feb 2010 | 10:31 pm

  Twittered but an important smackdown. Found in the about section of Tales From the Hood Seven Comment Down. I think you need to re-read some of those “great posts”, because one central message very clearly has not registered for you: DO NOT COME TO HAITI. One thing Haiti absolutely does not need more of is yet another group of young adults with limited skills, who are disconnected from the real world out there (your words, not mine). This is a disaster zone. The relief effort here is (or should be) about Haitians. It is absolutely inappropriate for your young adults to come “benefit…

• ENOUGH

  cooper

  31 Jan 2010 | 3:30 pm

  From ENOUGH January 31, 2010    Your votes are counting! Last week, President Obama’s State of the Union address didn’t mention Sudan. But now is the chance for YOU to pose a follow-up question, and we at Enough urge you to ask him what he will do to ensure that widespread violence doesn’t break out during this crucial year of elections and preparations for the strong possibility that Sudan could split into two separate countries. Tomorrow night, President Obama will answer questions provided by citizens like us. We’ve sent in a question on Sudan, and…

• 
  BBC World Service Trust

• Inspiration doesn’t happen overnight

  worldservicetrust

  5 Feb 2010 | 2:23 am

  Enhancing Nigeria’s Response to HIV and Aids (ENR) is the BBC World Service Trust’s new Pan-Nigerian, DFID-funded project which will focus on lowering the prevalence of HIV in the country. An aspect of this is to help capacity building at national and state TV stations. This involves creating a TV training team which will then go out and provide training at local stations, including training on HIV reporting and co-producing with the station for several weeks. Ambika Samarthya, an international trainer based in Abuja reports on the first stages of the three year project. Last week the TV…

• Growing pains

  worldservicetrust

  14 Jan 2010 | 8:18 am

  Enhancing Nigeria’s Response to HIV and Aids (ENR) is the BBC World Service Trust’s new Pan-Nigerian, DFID-funded project which will focus on lowering the prevalence of HIV in the country. An aspect of this is to help capacity building at national and state TV stations. This involves creating a TV training team which will then go out and provide training at local stations, including training on HIV reporting and co-producing with the station for several weeks. Ambika Samarthya, an international trainer based in Abuja reports on the first stages of the three year project. In the last few…

• Things that matter

  worldservicetrust

  9 Dec 2009 | 2:51 am

  Enhancing Nigeria’s Response to HIV and Aids (ENR) is the BBC World Service Trust’s new Pan-Nigerian, DFID-funded project which will focus on lowering the prevalence of HIV in the country. An aspect of this is to help capacity building at national and state TV stations. This involves creating a TV training team which will then go out and provide training at local stations, including training on HIV reporting and co-producing with the station for several weeks. Ambika Samarthya, an international trainer based in Abuja reports on the first stages of the three year project. After the…

• Preparing for everything

  worldservicetrust

  2 Dec 2009 | 4:09 am

  Enhancing Nigeria’s Response to HIV and Aids (ENR) is the BBC World Service Trust’s new Pan-Nigerian, DFID-funded project which will focus on lowering the prevalence of HIV in the country. An aspect of this is to help capacity building at national and state TV stations. This involves creating a TV training team which will then go out and provide training at local stations, including training on HIV reporting and co-producing with the station for several weeks. Ambika Samarthya, an international trainer based in Abuja reports on the first stages of the three year project. One of the…

• Meet the training team

  worldservicetrust

  26 Nov 2009 | 12:08 pm

• 
  Sponsor Impact

• Updates straight from Haiti

  sponsorimpact

  3 Feb 2010 | 9:31 am

  Food for the Hungry has a number of US based staff down in Haiti helping with the relief efforts. Many of them have been writing their thoughts and experiences down in a blog. The most recent post especially caught my eye and I thought it would be great to pass on the incredible post. To read this post, click here.

• Child Sponsorship in Haiti

  sponsorimpact

  29 Jan 2010 | 12:00 pm

  Food for the Hungry just opened two centers for child sponsorship in Haiti. This is a great opportunity to help out this country that was in poverty even before the recent earthquake and is now even more in need of help. See the children available for sponsorship.

• Video from Haiti

  sponsorimpact

  29 Jan 2010 | 8:08 am

• New photos from Haiti

  sponsorimpact

  25 Jan 2010 | 1:08 pm

  We have a number of our staff in Haiti and they have begun to send pictures back our way. Here are a few of the images we have received. Digging through the rubble Tents for the aid workers Aid workers meeting to discuss a plan of action Reviewing a map of the affected area Waiting in line for the small amount of gas available Some of our US staff with our Haiti staff A wounded woman waiting for medical care Transporting the wounded

• Update on Relief work in Haiti

  sponsorimpact

  19 Jan 2010 | 2:52 pm

  There are a number of FH US based staff that have made their way down to Haiti to assess the damage and what part Food for the Hungry can have. To hear their thoughts and experiences see our Relief Blog.

• 
  Business & Human Rights Resource Centre

• [PDF] The role of the exploitation of natural resources in fuelling and prolonging crises in the Eastern DRC

  9 Feb 2010 | 10:16 am

  Gold and various metalshave been mined in the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since the beginning of the 20th centuryThe wars waged...strengthened the illegal character of artisanal mining and fueled the formation of militias who exploited their control of the mines in order to raise the funds necessary for their own economic survival and arms purchases...[T]he mining economy became a particularly opaque conflict economy (conflict minerals) With a view to helping establish a mining industry that does not generate further violent conflict, this report…

• Ugly low-pay truth of high street fashion

  9 Feb 2010 | 10:02 am

  Factory workers in Sri Lanka are struggling to survive on basic wages to produce clothes for leading British retailers... Even in the better factories supplying companies such as Marks & Spencer and Next, thousands of women work six days a week to take home a basic wage of less than 50 a month...Tony Nadaraja, chief executive of the Hirdaramani Group, a company that supplies Marks & Spencer, Tesco and Asda, said that the basic 8,000-8,500 rupees was not a living wage Workers at the Brandix Seeduwa plant, which produces M&S trousers, said their basic monthly salary barely covered rent, food…

• [PDF] Implementing Gender Equality Policies and Practices in Private Sector Companies

  9 Feb 2010 | 10:00 am

  CDC [Group plc], FMO [The Netherlands Development Finance Company], Norfund and IFC commissioned this study to illustrate how employers and investors in companies in developing countries can implement gender positive policies and procedures that are also beneficial from their business perspective. [Includes "Gender Equality Tools for Projects/Portfolio Companies" and "Gender Equality Self-Assessment Tool for Portfolio Companies"] [refers to AngloGold Ashanti, Lonmin, Puget Energy, Best Buy, PepsiCo, Johnson & Johnson, Goldman Sachs, Standard Chartered, Hindustan Lever, Access Bank Tanzania,…

• Sialkot's soccer kids [Pakistan]

  9 Feb 2010 | 9:35 am

  In 1995, around 50,000 stitchers in Sialkotmostly families working at homehand-stitched balls for top brands, with children undoubtedly helping...While the taint on footballs was removed and the ILO ticked all its boxes, the condition of the stitching families is worse than ever...no one knew what had happened to many of the children involved. Some had migrated to the far more dangerous surgical goods manufacturing industry...Child labour is rooted in poverty and economic stagnation. Banning it merely lets it fester away from public gaze.

• Indian Government Issues Voluntary Guidelines for Corporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility

  9 Feb 2010 | 9:25 am

  ...The CSR guidelines state that...companies should fully respect the rights of workers in the areas of workplace environment, career advancement, and freedom of association. Furthermore, companies should not employ child or forced labor, and should maintain equality of opportunities without discrimination...Companies should respect human rights for all and avoid complicity with human rights abuses...Companies should adopt sustainable environmental policies...and... address the challenges of climate change by adopting cleaner production methods.

• 
  Change.org's Poverty in America Blog

• Why Are 40 Million People Still Poor In America?

  Carl Chancellor

  9 Feb 2010 | 7:41 am

  Carl Chancellor, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has been writing about social justice issues for decades, is a columnist for Change.org. February is the perfect month to begin my regular column here on Poverty in America. Why February? Because it's Black History Month, the 28 days (when we're lucky, 29) set aside to recognize the many contributions of African-Americans to this nation of ours, although the month-long celebration tends to spotlight the Civil Rights Movement and the epic fight to end American apartheid. And that's alright, since focusing on the civil rights struggle and…

• North Dakota, Land of Opportunity?

  Megan Greenwell

  8 Feb 2010 | 1:54 pm

  North Dakota has the nation's lowest unemployment rate, just four percent. The state's economy actually grew in 2008. It has plenty of oil fields, major farms and customer service call centers that are hiring. There's even a swanky government web site advertising the thousands of available jobs. Sound like paradise for the millions of people out of work in other states? Not so fast. There's one minor problem: thousands of the job-seekers streaming into North Dakota can't find housing, and many of them aren't paid enough to afford it anyway. So, incredibly, although there's no unemployment…

• School's In Session with Free Poverty Syllabi

  Josie Raymond

  8 Feb 2010 | 12:35 pm

  Even if you've long since graduated from college, or didn't go, never fear -- school is not out. Dozens of college professors are sharing syllabi from their recent poverty-related courses with the National Poverty Center at the University of Michigan. Skimming through them is a great way to find out what people who study poverty full-time are reading and thinking about. When you begin to see overlap from syllabus to syllabus, you can feel confident in having a fairly firm grasp of the current academic trends. Flipping through these is also a great way to get a reading list of books to stack…

• 1 in 8 Americans Receive Emergency Food Assistance

  Charlotte Hill

  7 Feb 2010 | 11:45 am

  Would you want to live in a country where one in eight residents receive emergency food assistance each year? If you're an American, it's too late -- you already do. Feeding America released a shocking report this week on the state of hunger in America, relying on data gathered from its large network of food banks and partner agencies. The report found that 37 million people in the U.S. currently receive emergency food, up 46 percent from 2006. Over one third of those are children. The report's authors attribute this spike to the economic crisis still plaguing the nation's poor and working…

• Unemployment Office Errors Are Costing the Poor

  Megan Greenwell

  6 Feb 2010 | 11:23 am

  Since the state of Wisconsin pioneered the idea of unemployment benefits in 1932, Americans have known they can rely on their state governments for a little help when they're down and out. Except when they can't. Increased poverty during the recession has revealed many holes in the safety net, including dysfunctional unemployment benefit offices that unfairly cut off people's benefits, nearly allow the benefit fund to disappear and/or rely on "Flintstone-era technology" to handle millions of new claims. One thing is for sure: as the number of first-time unemployed Americans continues to rise,…

• 
  Change.org's Stop Genocide Blog

• Sri Lanka: A Change Agenda, or More of the Same?

  Michelle

  9 Feb 2010 | 10:04 am

  Sri Lanka's newly re-elected President Mahinda Rajapaksa wasted no time in using his substantial (if questionable) electoral mandate to send an unequivocal message to his opposition: It's my way, or the highway. After promptly raiding his opponent's campaign office, arresting 37 people in connection with an alleged assassination plot, and just yesterday arresting the opposition leader himself -- whether such a plot actually existed, the world may never know -- the president was quick to address the long-standing conflict with the country's Tamil minority, hundreds of thousands of whom are…

• Justice Should Be Blind, and Know Its Place

  Michelle

  8 Feb 2010 | 9:19 am

  Those crying foul over last week's decision by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to reconsider the genocide indictment against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir would do everyone a favor by saving their angst for a more appropriate time. The decision delivered last week was not related to the evidence of the case itself, but dealt with a technical application of standards of proof in the issuance of arrest warrants. It is not another example of how "the court is out to get Sudan" -- in a case that is thoroughly and inherently politicized, this ruling is about as apolitical as anything…

• Senator Tom Coburn Stands in the Way of Peace

  Michelle

  6 Feb 2010 | 11:13 am

  Do you live in Oklahoma? Or have any friends and family in the lovely Sooner State? Then you need to get on the phone and tell Senator Tom "Dr. No" Coburn to stop blocking the passage of the Lord’s Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act. The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), under the leadership of self-proclaimed messiah Joseph Kony, has terrorized a wide swath of central Africa for over 20 years, and became particularly notorious for their use of child soldiers and child sex slaves. What started as a brutal rebellion in Northern Uganda has now spread across the…

• Add Your Support for the Violence Against Women Act

  Michelle

  5 Feb 2010 | 8:58 am

  I once listened to a woman recount tales of domestic violence in a refugee camp, but she struggled to find the right words to describe the violence inflicted on these women -- who had already been forced from their homes by war -- by their husbands. "'Domestic violence' doesn't work -- it's not just a slap or a beating. It's torture," she said. What had been an occasional problem "before" was now a pervasive problem exacerbated by conflict and forced displacement. Violence against women takes many horrific, depressing forms. It is problem of epidemic proportions, and one that is shared by all…

• Media Plea Leads to Child Soldier's Release in Burma

  Michelle

  4 Feb 2010 | 9:04 am

  Even hardened military dictators resent bad press. In Burma, a child soldier was returned to his mother after she made appeals to international media outlets. Sandar Win's 14-year-old son was one of many children forcibly recruited by the Burmese military, but unlike his fellow child soldiers in the ranks of the national army, he was released by the government after Ms. Win pleaded for his return on BBC's Burmese Service and Radio Free Asia (RFA). The military junta that rules Burma is among the most iron-fisted in the world -- perhaps second only to North Korea in its control of the media…

• 
  Survival's Blog

• International law in action – Chile protects a tribe’s right to water

  Lindsay

  28 Jan 2010 | 8:08 am

  Chile has a new President. The billionaire Sebastián Piñera was elected recently. The outgoing President, Michelle Bachelet, has overseen a real shift in the future of indigenous peoples’ rights in Chile. Under her government, the country became only the 20th to commit to the international law for tribal peoples, ILO Convention 169, in 2008 and late last year the country’s Supreme Court applied that law for the first time, protecting an indigenous group’s right to water. Chile’s Supreme Court was asked to decide if a water bottling company could divert water from a river source…

• Guarani land strife story reaches DVD

  Matthew

  25 Jan 2010 | 7:49 am

  A still from the film Birdwatchers.© Marie Hippenmeyer The long-running troubles of the Guarani people are the focus of an ongoing Survival campaign. Violent invasions by ranchers have devastated their territory and nearly all of their land has been stolen. They are also the subject of landmark film Birdwatchers which contains a cast primarily composed of Guarani actors. Survival is leading a fund to raise money specifically for Guarani campaigns. The film is on sale online from the 25th January.

• Indigenous battle with oil corp

  Matthew

  20 Jan 2010 | 6:27 am

  Crude is a new movie , just out in the UK, looking at the legal struggle over what’s been dubbed the ‘Amazon’s Chernobyl’ in Ecuador. It tracks the dramatic case of Texaco’s ongoing battle to avoid payment for the cleanup of oil contamination of an area compared in size to the US state of Rhode Island. The disaster is said to have enormously increased cancer, leukemia, birth defects and a multiplicity of other health ailments amongst indigenous peoples in the region.

• Cowboys in India

  Lindsay

  18 Jan 2010 | 4:32 am

  A new documentary investigating the lives of people living in a region of India dominated by the British company, Vedanta Resources, will be aired next week in the UK. Cowboys in India is a Simon Chambers' documentary on questionable corporate activity. The programme follows filmmaker Simon Chambers’ attempt to get to the bottom of what is really happening in Orissa, India, where Vedanta has built a large plant for processing aluminium ore. Along the way, Simon meets people who’ve seen how the region has changed, while his guides are harassed for taking him around. Since the film was…

• A New Year’s Resolution for governments

  Matthew

  15 Jan 2010 | 9:02 am

  It’s a new year, a new decade even, and as always, the usual resolutions are being formed; do more exercise, get a new hobby, write a book… But there’s one resolution that should be top of the list for all governments across the world; to ratify ILO Convention 169 on the rights of indigenous and tribal peoples – if they haven’t already. Chakma child of Bangladesh. Ratification of ILO 169 should increase the Chakma peoples’ involvement in decisions about their lands.© Mark McEvoy/Survival Bangladesh has made some moves towards ratification. State Minister Dipankar Talukder…

• 
  News from Survival International

• Bushmen angry at president’s empty meeting

  9 Feb 2010 | 2:32 am

  Bushman mother and child, Kaudwane, Botswana.© Alexandra Bagge/Survival Hundreds of Bushmen were left angry and frustrated after the Botswana president refused to enter into discussions with them during a meeting on Thursday. President Khama, accompanied by four government ministers, met with Bushmen at the New Xade resettlement camp where they were dumped after being evicted from their lands in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in 2002. Despite a four year-old High Court ruling that they have the right to live in the reserve, many still languish in the camps. Since the ruling, the…

• Tribal people appeal to James Cameron

  8 Feb 2010 | 2:00 am

  Survival's appeal to James Cameron appears today in Variety magazine.© Survival Survival has appealed to Avatar director James Cameron on behalf of an Indian tribe through an ad in the film industry magazine Variety (published today 8 February 2010). In the ad Survival asks Mr Cameron to help the Dongria Kondh tribe of Orissa, India, whose story is uncannily similar to that of the Na’vi in Avatar.  The ad says: Appeal to James Cameron Avatar is fantasy .. and real. The Dongria Kondh tribe in India are struggling to defend their land against a mining company hell-bent on…

• Church takes 'unprecedented' step to sell stake in Vedanta

  5 Feb 2010 | 4:06 am

  Vedanta's planned mine in Orissa, India, has become hugely controversial.© Survival In a shock move, the Church of England decided today to disinvest from controversial miner Vedanta Resources on ethical grounds, dealing a devastating blow to the company’s credibility. The Church stated that ‘we are not satisfied that Vedanta has shown, or is likely in future to show, the level of respect for human rights and local communities that we expect…’ adding that maintaining investments in Vedanta ‘would be inconsistent with the Church investing bodies’ joint ethical investment…

• Uncontacted tribes’ land: ‘most biodiverse’ in South America and threatened by oil

  4 Feb 2010 | 9:58 am

  Crossed spears left by an uncontacted tribe in Peru where Perenco and Repsol YPF are working.© Marek Wolodzko/Survival New research by scientists has found that a vast region of the Ecuadorian and Peruvian Amazon is the most biodiverse in South America. But this region, home to some of the world’s last uncontacted tribes, is gravely threatened by oil exploration and drilling. The research, published in PLoS ONE, found parts of eastern Ecuador and northern Peru to be uniquely rich in amphibians, birds, mammals and plants. But the scientists also say that oil companies are working, or…

• Extinct: Andaman tribe’s extermination complete as last member dies

  4 Feb 2010 | 12:50 am

  Boa Sr was the last member of the Bo tribe. © Alok Das The last member of a unique tribe has died on India’s Andaman Islands. Boa Sr, who died last week aged around 85, was the last speaker of ‘Bo’, one of the ten Great Andamanese languages. The Bo are thought to have lived in the Andaman Islands for as much as 65,000 years, making them the descendants of one of the oldest human cultures on Earth. Boa Sr was the oldest of the Great Andamanese, who now number just 52. Originally ten distinct tribes, the Great Andamanese were 5,000 strong when the British colonized the Andaman…

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  Change.org's Global Health Blog

• For Sale: Lethal Malaria Drugs

  Te-Ping Chen

  9 Feb 2010 | 9:49 am

  Imagine that you head up a nonprofit working in Madagascar, Senegal or Uganda. You've got a great mission statement, an enthusiastic set of donors, and you're making great strides in fighting malaria on the ground. In your last year, you managed to raise a ton of money and have treated 1,000 patients. Except that, unwittingly, you gave them drugs that don't actually work. It sounds nightmarish, but that's the situation that plenty of doctors and aid workers easily find themselves in. Poor-quality and counterfeit drugs -- most originating in China or India -- are rife within markets across…

• When 'Charity' in Haiti Kills Children

  Te-Ping Chen

  9 Feb 2010 | 6:05 am

  It's gotten even worse. Okay, we knew that the case of the misguided 10 Baptist missionaries was a sideshow with the maddening ability to vacuum up an excessive number of media hits. But now, it turns out, the case has become something of a main event in its own right -- in fact, it's literally killing children. That's right. Since the missionaries were arrested last month, the misbegotten travails of ringleader Laura Silsby & co. have had a chilling effect on doctors, aid workers and government officials (you know, the people who have a legitimate mission in helping Haiti with the…

• Behind Haiti's Orphan Crisis, Government Neglect

  Te-Ping Chen

  8 Feb 2010 | 11:24 am

  Thanks to the much-ballyhooed case of missionaries who went kid-snatching in Haiti, the plight of Haiti's orphans has gotten a lot more press in recent days. Not very discriminate coverage, though -- more of the shallow, headline-grabby variety. Which is why it's so refreshing to see the Stars and Stripes taking a deeper dive for readers in their latest story. Prior to the earthquake, Save the Children estimated there were 380,000 Haitian children living in orphanages. And since the earthquake, the number of children who've lost their parents has more than doubled. Long before the Jan. 12…

• In Haiti, Aiding the Aid Workers

  Te-Ping Chen

  8 Feb 2010 | 9:36 am

  For a small nonprofit seeking to assist disaster recovery efforts in Haiti, where do you start? With 200,000 tents needed, rampant sanitation issues and 460,000 people living in makeshift camps, the prospect of setting a spade down anywhere can seem overwhelming. That's why the nonprofit HELP seeks to target its efforts on one group that's frequently mentioned in the news, but whose needs are less-talked about: aid workers. As director Randy Roberson tells Change.org, "In disasters, the immediate victims aren't the only ones. By helping relief teams sustain their efforts for greater periods…

• Why Less Funding for HIV/AIDS Isn't as Bad as It Seems

  Andrew Green

  6 Feb 2010 | 12:42 pm

  When the White House announced its 2011 budget this past week, the response among the HIV/AIDS community to the 9% increase in global health funding was, you could say, somewhat short of elation. While global health programs managed to escape Obama's federal spending freeze, critics were quick to point out that at just 2.6%, the increase for HIV/AIDS funding was less even than what occurred under the Bush administration. Especially given fears that the global recession will cause donor funding for HIV/AIDS to plummet, a U.S. commitment is more vital than ever. What's more, new World…

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  About.com: Civil Liberties

• What the Tebow Ad Controversy Isn't About

  5 Feb 2010 | 8:59 am

  Linda Lowen at About.com: Women's Issues has done an excellent job of covering the controversy surrounding CBS' decision to air an anti-abortion ad during the Super Bowl. Such an excellent job, in fact, that I'm not going to write a blog entry summarizing my views on the matter--because she already put it better than I would have.But there are some fallacies floating around the blogosphere, re the ad's civil liberties implications, that need to be dealt with: Contrary to

• In Search of a Sensible Approach to Corporate Free Speech

  27 Jan 2010 | 3:19 pm

  You know, I'm not sure where I personally stand on Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.The louder liberal responses to the ruling have been fatalistic and unhinged, and neither terribly helpful nor terribly intellectually honest. From Greg Palast's bizarre xenophobic rant about how the ruling will produce Chinese-funded "Manchurian candidates" (isn't that clever?) to Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Westerman's characterization of the ACLU (which tends to oppose campaign finance laws for First Amendment reasons) as "a conservative political organization, working to arm the ultimate enemies…

• The Lie of Authority

  18 Jan 2010 | 2:21 am

  Civil liberties and human rights are usually framed in adversarial terms. Governments or other specific powerful entities oppress you and deny you your civil liberties or human rights, you get angry, you organize to reclaim them. Good thing to do. It's what I'm about, in my best moments (and there aren't necessarily all that many of those), and it's what this site is about.But Tuesday's earthquake in Haiti reminds me that when people hurt each other, when they oppress each other, they're instruments of a deeper, blinder oppression that lies at the root of who we are as a species. W.H. Auden…

• Follow the Prop 8 Trial

  15 Jan 2010 | 8:13 am

  Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the lawsuit to overturn California's discriminatory Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage, is underway. While the Supreme Court has decided not to allow the trial to be videotaped, it is being liveblogged by the Courage Campaign.The transcripts are kind of raw--visibly paraphrased notes--but they cover the gist of the discussion. Here's a sample, from this morning's exchange between the defense attorney representing the anti-gay amendment ("Prop. 8.") and an expert witness, sociologist Michael Lamb ("L."). The attorney is citing research from the 1970s that calls…

• Profiling In, Profiling Out

  6 Jan 2010 | 3:59 pm

  Former Bush terror czar Michael Chertoff deserves props for pointing out how the Christmas underwear bomber scare reveals the limits of ethnic profiling:I am going to argue that this case illustrates the danger and the foolishness of profiling because people’s conception of what a potential terrorist looks like often doesn’t match reality. . . The terrorists understand that the more they vary the kind of operative they use, the more likely they’re going to be able to exploit prejudices if we allow those prejudices to guide the way we conduct our investigation. [Racial/ethnic…

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  IPS Inter Press Service

• CANADA: Khadr Case Raises Broad Questions on Child Combatants

  TORONTO, Feb 9 (IPS) - Ottawa's refusal to repatriate a former child soldier, 23-year-old Omar Khadr, back to Canada to face justice in the country of his birth opens to the door to a trial before a controversial U.S. military commission process that has been challenged for its use of evidence gleaned from interrogation after torture.

• CHILE: Stop Treating Community Broadcasters as Criminals, Say Activists

  SANTIAGO, Feb 9 (IPS) - Criminal law should not be used against freedom of expression, nor to silence community radio stations in Chile, say activists and journalists in response to closures of community radio outlets in this South American country.

• CANADA: Foundation for "Political Warfare" Takes Cue from U.S. Strategy

  VANCOUVER, Feb 9 (IPS) - Indicating further integration with its closest neighbour and ally's foreign policy priorities, the Canadian government is in the advanced stages of establishing a foundation to promote liberal democracy, akin to the controversial U.S. National Endowment for Democracy.

• POLITICS: Malaysia Faces Severe Test as Anwar Stands Trial

  KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 9 (IPS) - Malaysia’s reputation as a progressive, tolerant and moderate Muslim state is now at stake as the country’s best known democratic leader Anwar Ibrahim stands trial for alleged sodomy and risks being jailed for many years if declared guilty.

• MIDEAST: Gaza Energy Crisis Averted - For Now

  RAMALLAH, Feb 9 (IPS) - Pressure exerted on the Palestinian Authority (PA) by international and regional officials has given Gazans a last minute reprieve, albeit temporary, from plunging into darkness and plummeting temperatures.