Linked with Alarmed at rising violence in Sri Lanka, and with Hina Jilani – Pakistan.

AGHS Legal Aid Cell is a relatively small but important NGO in Pakistan. It was set up in 1980 for providing free legal aid to women. Over the years, the mandate of AGHS has expanded to respond to the needs of a growing civil society and the demands made by various groups for legal recourse. AGHS is a professional organization headed by two Supreme Court Lawyers, Asma Jahangir and Hina Jilani. AGHS is quite unique in the country in term of its legal research, review of existing laws and lobbying new laws. It has strong links with the Bar Associations, police, political parties and the press. It also works closely with other groups of civil society nationally as well as internationally. With Regional Focus on Middle East or Asia, and with Country Focus on Pakistan. (Read more on International Rule of Law Directory).

AGHS Legal Aid Cell (ALAC) was set up in February 1980 in Lahore. Initially lawyers working for AGHS Law Associates supported the activities of ALAC. The activities were confined to providing legal aid to women. Gradually, however, these activities increased. Now legal awareness, education, protection from exploitation, legal research, counseling and providing legal assistance is all part of legal aid.

Objectives:
– To disseminate information on Family law and laws for the protection of the target group (women, children, elderly, disadvantaged etc.);
– Provision of legal aid to target group;
– Training of paralegal to involve more women in the mainstream movement for women rights;
– Campaign for child, women prisoners and crimes against women.

Activities in cooperation with Friedrich-Naumann-Foundation: AGHS provides legal assistance to women prisoners in Lahore and Multan along with monitoring situation of women prisoners in Punjab province. Besides that AGHS prepares and prints legal literacy material focused on women and human rights.

See AGHS also on the Human Rights Databank of hri.ca. And e-mail.

Linked with Arvind Kejriwal – India, and with KABIR.org – India.

Parivartan fights for people’s right to information. Parivartan, initially started up to help people get their work done in government departments without having to pay bribes, continues its crusade to educate and help people assert their right to information

Parivartan, a voluntary organisation active in Delhi, started out as a people’s movement in June 2000, to provide relief to taxpayers from extortionist corruption in the income tax department. “The idea was to help people get their income tax refunds without paying bribes,” says Manish Sisodia Parivartan’s founder. Taxpayers in Delhi were instructed not to pay bribes but to approach Parivartan with their grievances. The organisation has so far resolved about 700 grievances and helped some 2,500 customers in the Delhi Vidyut Board (DVB).

Parivartan soon realised that although its role as troubleshooter provided immediate relief to people, it neither empowered citizens to resolve their grievances directly, nor helped bring about permanent systemic changes. The organisation began to use the Delhi Right to Information Act 2001 to resolve public grievances.

Continuer la lecture de « PARIVARTAN, Fighting Corruption – India »

Linked with Tiere sind weder Menschen noch Waren, and with Othmar Keel – Switzerland.

The DBS has several publications:

• The series ORBIS BIBLICUS ET ORIENTALIS (OBO and OBO.SA), including new and forthcoming titles.
  You can also browse the complete list of back volumes still available, with ordering facilities.
• The series NOVUM TESTAMENTUM ET ORBIS ANTIQUUS (NTOA and NTOA.SA), including new and forthcoming titles.
  You can also browse the complete list of back volumes still available, with ordering facilities.
• The publications of the project BIBLE+ORIENT MUSEUM.

For other recent publications by members of the department, please refer to Fribourg University’s Futura database or the profiles of our researchers.

Ancien Testament, Groupe Lefebvre – Comment la recherche biblique peut-elle croiser d’autres disciplines, et d’abord des disciplines théologiques ? Comment rendre utilisables les conclusions de l’histoire du texte biblique au théologien, au philosophe, au littéraire ? Un groupe se constitue, réunissant quelques biblistes du Département d’Études Bibliques (premiers membres : Ph. Hugo, Y. Goldman, Ph. Lefebvre) : les membres de ce groupe travaillent d’abord un passage précis de la Bible, puis ils présentent de manière simple quelques conclusions sur les plans de la critique et de l’histoire du texte, de la philologie, de l’exégèse ; enfin ils questionnent, à partir de ce matériau mis en forme, des représentants d’autres disciplines. Il ne s’agit donc pas pour chacun de développer un discours spécifique qui ne trouve dans le texte biblique que ce qui peut consonner avec sa propre démarche ; il s’agit au contraire de tenter une véritable rencontre, un croisement, entre un texte qui définit des potentialités de sens, à la fois multiples et précises (ce que le travail biblique aura permis de dégager) et diverses disciplines.

Continuer la lecture de « Departement of Biblical Studies, Univ. Fribourg (CH) »

Linked with Sandra Jiménez Loza – Mexico.

UNICEF – Global Movement for Children: Add your voice and Say Yes to the 10 critical actions needed to improve the lives of children and adolescents everywhere. People of all ages are joining together as part of a new Global Movement for Children, determined to build a better world for children and for all of us. Their message is straightforward: the citizens of the world care about children and expect governments to keep the promises they make to them. Add your voice and say Yes to the 10 critical actions needed to improve the lives of children and adolescents everywhere. More than 94 million people have said Yes In a ceremony at UN headquarters on 7 May 2002, 12-year-old Barron Hanson presented the ‘Say Yes for Children’ pledge tally to Mr. Nelson Mandela and Mrs. Graça Machel, inspirational leaders of the Global Movement for Children. (Read more about this historic event on this UNICEF page).

Say Yes now!

The following are GMC founding partners:

• NetAid
• Save The Children
• Unicef
• World Vision International
• Plan International
• Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC)

Continuer la lecture de « UNICEF Global Movement for Children »

Regarding Darfur, linked with PBS.org, and with Understanding Sudan – The Darfur conflict, and with .

Workers World has united Black, Latino, Native, Asian, Arab and white in the struggle against racism. It has brought together women and men, lesbian, gay, bi, trans and straight, youth and seniors, workers and the unemployed, native-born and immigrants to fight for better conditions for all. Members of WWP have worked hard and long to build many of the most important progressive actions of the last three decades.

But you can’t just patch up this racist, sexist society. Capitalism rests on the exploitation of the many by the few. The monopoly of economic and political power by a small ruling class becomes more concentrated every day with mega-billion-dollar mergers and mass layoffs. That’s why capitalist democracy produces nothing but hot air. The power of the workers and the oppressed is in the streets, not in Washington.

Workers World fights for a socialist society—where the wealth is socially owned and production is planned to satisfy human need.

That’s also what workers around the world, from Cuba to China, have been struggling for. The U.S. rulers have spent trillions of our tax dollars trying to stop them in a global class struggle. WWP promotes international working-class solidarity, the right of every nation to sovereignty and self-determination, and militant resistance at home to imperialist interventions and wars.

Contact: National Office Workers World Party, 55 W. 17 St., New York, NY 10011, Tel. 212-627-2994, Fax 212-675-7869, E-mail, Web.

See Workers World about Sudan’s Darfur Situation: Oil is behind struggle in Darfur.