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Linked with our presentation of Nina Karpachova – Ukraine.

Do we know how to protect our rights and freedoms?

In March 2002 Institute of Politics held the investigation under the UN research project “Human Rights and Freedoms in Ukraine”. 1200 of Ukrainians were suggested to answer the questions if the rights of Ukrainian citizens were protected. 65.2% were against that statement and only 10% agreed that they lived in the country, where human rights were protected. 60% told about the violation of their rights and freedoms, but only 7.7% appealed to the court or to Ukrainian Parliament Commission for Human Rights, (see this link, and see also this link).

World practice in democratic state-building convincingly shows that the right to freedom of thought and speech, free opinion and convictions is a cornerstone for the establishment of a democratic, law-governed state and civil society. There is no democracy without freedom of speech.

The Ukrainian Constitution (Article 34) guarantees every person the right to freedom of thought and speech and to the free expression of views and beliefs, free collection, storage, use and dissemination of information. This important constitutional provision completely accords with Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 10 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

Ukraine holds one of the leading places in the CIS as to the number of laws on the mass media intended to extend transparency and society’s access to information. According to international experts, Ukrainian legislation on information makes it possible to exercise the human rights to freedom of speech and thought, although the laws are in need of certain modifications, amendments and additions.

links:

ArtUkraine.com;

UABA;

Legual Advisers and Attorneys, Ukraine.

UPCHR.

Linked with our presentation of Susan Ahmed-Böhme – Iraq.

Their Homepage in arab, and their Homepage in english

The League was founded by middle-class Iraqi women doctors, teachers and lawyers, and in its most active time represented 42,000 members. It offered self-help programs, elementary education classes, health and social services, and perhaps most importantly, counseling services for women’s rights issues. The League was most active in 1958. That year the Iraqi king was executed and a revolution brought to power a moderately progressive military junta, which included the first female minister in the Middle East.

Iraqi Women’s League issues an Open Letter to women in military families, inviting them put the Government on Trial for Crimes at Home and Abroad, as part of the Global Women’s Strike: 6 March 2004, Trafalgar Square, London. Their Letter – Dear sisters in military families,

Invitation to protest with us as part of the Global Women’s Strike on International Women’s Day to defend our loved ones, Saturday 6 March in Trafalgar Square – We write as the Iraqi Women’s League (IWL) UK which is the oldest women’s organisation in Iraq. Since 1952 when it was founded, the IWL , which is independent of all political parties, has played a significant role in the struggle against tyranny and repression in Iraq. Many of our members were executed or disappeared and thousands of our Iraqi sisters were tortured, raped and imprisoned, just for being members of our women’s movement, while the US and UK governments were the friends of our torturers.

Continuer la lecture de « The Iraqi Women’s League (IWL) »

The third part of the WSF Karachi will happen in Karachi , with a series of events that will be held simultaneously in a cluster of venues between March 24th and 29th, 2006. Here some informations:

First, registration for organisations is closed (see on WSF, in the window of the right column);

Then, an ask for help from Dr. Tanveer Ahmed;

DAWN focus on 8 citie’s problems. See also for this item the article on The Nation of February 19;

Karachi News;

Swiss reflections in german;

Same out of Germany;

and out of the german ATTAC;

Linked with our presentation of Cynthia Maung – Burma.

Over the years the Mae Tao Clinic has grown from a small house serving Burmese pro-democracy students fleeing the 1988 crackdown to a multispecialty center providing free health care for refugees, Burmese migrant workers and others crossing the border from Burma into Thailand.

Though exact numbers are difficult because of the fluidity of its patient population, the Clinic serves a target population of around150,000 on the Thai-Burma border. Its staff of 5 physicians, 80 health care workers, 40 trainees and 40 support staff provide comprehensive health services including inpatient and outpatient medicine, trauma care, blood transfusion, reproductive health, child health, eye care, and prosthetics for landmine survivors.

Each year the Clinic trains a new class of medics to serve people throughout the border region.

Services beyond Mae Sot: The Mae Tao Clinic’s reach extends far beyond its base in Mae Sot. It supports mobile clinics serving Burma’s internally displaced persons (IDP). The Clinic’s community service programs include a home at Umphium Mae refugee camp for unaccompanied children.

The Clinic also supports schools and boarding houses that serve the families of local migrant workers and our staff. In addition it sponsors women’s organizations, health education and community awareness events at refugee camps.

Continuer la lecture de « The Mae Tao Clinic – Thai-Burma Border »

For those liking visible symbols to be shown you may like this link working for peace:

http://www.peacestream.org/initiative.html ,

and here the Homepage of this organisation: http://www.peacestream.org/.

Linked to our presentation of Oung Chanthol – Cambodia.

Linked also to our presentation The Fight against Trafficking in Women and Children.

The Cambodian Women’s Crisis Center – CWCC, Tel/Fax 063 963 276, N° 323 Group 1, Stung Thmey Village, Svay Dangkum Commune, Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Oung Chanthol first noticed certain disparities between the sexes as a young girl living in a Cambodian refugee camp on the Thai border. As a teen-ager in the Rithysen camp, she observed hate crimes against women going on around her, as men and women, shell-shocked from surviving the Khmer Rouge, vented their frustrations.

“Even there, there was a lot of rape, a lot of domestic violence,” she says. “So I thought something had to be done.”

She surely wasn’t the first woman to think it. And Cambodia has other intelligent women working towards it. But Oung was one of the first, and her centers are arguably one of the most helpful to women in distress in Cambodia.

Oung, now 35, learned from her experiences in the camp, and during later schooling, that women and girls in her homeland would need sanctuary, as a place to run to when things looked absolutely hopeless.

Continuer la lecture de « Cambodian Women’s Crisis Center CWCC »

Linked to our presentation of Moses Zulu – Zambia.

Also linked to our presentation of Children’s Town Malambanyama Zambia.

The International HUMANA PEOPLE TO PEOPLE Movement

hqchair@humana.org; and
http://www.humana.org.

Africa Contact:

Murgwi Estate, Shamva, Zimbabwe;
PO Box 6345, Harare, Zimbabwe;
Tel: +263 71 7811;
and +263 91 420 420;
Fax: +263 71 6427.

Geneva Contact:

Av. Louis-Casaï 18, CH 1209 Geneva, Switzerland;
Tel: +41 22 747 7540;
Fax: +41 22 747 7616.

Linked to our presentation of Moses Zulu – Zambia.

Also linked to our presentation of The International HUMANA PEOPLE TO PEOPLE Movement.

The Children’s Town is a school project designed to address the plight of street children and other vulnerable children in giving them a chance to get off the streets, to get an education and turn their lives around into productive citizens.

The project provides a supportive environment and basic education to former street children and orphans from major cities and towns in Zambia and the surrounding villages.

The project was established in 1990 with only 2 children. As the number of children grew the physical structures of the project also grew from living in tents to building 4 residential homes. Now the centre serves as a school, a home and sound environment for 300 former street children and orphans.

The children are organised into family units, which provide them with a home environment. Discussing their character and behaviour and offering counselling regularly addresses the rehabilitation of children. All conflicts are followed up and appropriate authorities involved if necessary. A Social Worker conducts home visits to evaluate the situation in guardian’s houses as the project strives to reunite the children with their families in circumstances that are favourable. Files on the social background of the children are regularly updated. The statistics, current accommodation and occupation of those who have graduated are kept to establish the impact of the project.

The children at the project receive primary education, vocational training and learn to be responsible and productive. The Ministry of Education recognised Children’ Town as a community school. The school follows the ministry’s curriculum. The school facilitates a community based initiative of 5000 orphans in an outreach program for orphans in 240 villages around the school in trying to address the education, shelter, nutrition, clothing needs. The school also undertakes HIV/AIDS awareness programs.

Continuer la lecture de « Children’s Town Malambanyama Zambia »

Linked with Rozlana Taukina – Kazakhstan, with Reporters without borders and with Institute of war and peace …

Rozlana Taukina writes about her association: ANESMI (Association for Independent Electronic Mass Media – see Refworld) was formed in 1993 at a meeting of ten television and radio stations in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Today, it is an association of 83 broadcasting television and radio stations representing four of the five Central Asian Republics. (See Association of Independent Electronic Mass Media of the Countries of Central Asia – ANESMI).

The association seeks to develop television and radio business in Central Asia, foster good relations between the media and government, influence legislation on regulation of the mass media, and enhance information exchange among television and radio stations in Central Asia. It has advocated laws on author’s rights and advertising, and issued challenges to the state on the criteria selected for the redistribution of television and radio channels.

ANESMI plans to intensify their lobbying efforts by learning about methods used by the mass media in other countries to influence public policy. It has also organized periods of silence on radio and television to mark the deaths and persecution of prominent journalists and professionals in the media sphere.

The association has branches in Dushanbe, Tajikistan; Qoqand, Uzbekistan; and Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

E-mail:

rozlana@anesmi.almaty.kz, and

muhtar@anesmi.almaty.kz.

links:

IWPR’S CENTRAL ASIA REPORT, No. 130

NIS Media Orgs by countries;

Eurasianet.org;

Analyst;

UNESCO Media Resource Center.

linked with our presentation of Rozlana Taukina – Kazakhstan.

Reporters without borders in different languages, and here the english edition.

They say about themselves: Reporters Without Borders is an association officially recognised as serving the public interest

More than a third of the world’s people live in countries where there is no press freedom. Reporters Without Borders works constantly to restore their right to be informed. Fourty-two media professionals lost their lives in 2003 for doing what they were paid to do — keeping us informed. Today, more than 130 journalists around the world are in prison simply for doing their job. In Nepal, Eritrea and China, they can spend years in jail just for using the « wrong » word or photo. Reporters Without Borders believes imprisoning or killing a journalist is like eliminating a key witness and threatens everyone’s right to be informed. It has been fighting such practices for more than 18 years.

Defending press freedom… every day

Continuer la lecture de « Reporters without borders »

Linked with our presentation of Rozlana Taukina – Kazakhstan.

Sorry, there is no ‘the Institute for War and Peace Problems‘ found by search tools, but ‘The Institute for War and Peace Reporting‘. An interesting site worth to be visited, with actual news about the public life in Central Asia.

Their Central Asian Blog shows actual reports on Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. These countries are seen by themselves as the real Central Asian States. (Some Wessies often mix into this Central Asian groupe States going from Mongolie to the Balkans. This has the same logic, as if we would say, America extend from Fireland to Groenland, what the peoples of these countries would not confirm, as we understand as ‘Americans’ the USA).

Reports on Afghanistan are to be found on this separate blog.

links:

hyperlinks for Balkanpeace;

wikipedia;

worldpress.org.

Linked with our presentation of Kailash Satyarthi – India

Also linked with our presentation of 6th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates

South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude (SACCS), works to end forced child labor in South Asia.

Kailash Satyarthi, After successfully freeing and rehabilitating thousands of children, went on to build up a global movement against child labor. Today Kailash heads up the Global March Against Child Labor, a conglomeration of 2000 social-purpose organizations and trade unions in 140 countries.

What Does SACCS Do? Since its inception in 1989, SACCS and its partners have liberated nearly 40,000 bonded laborers, many of them bonded, working in various industries, including rug manufacturing. But to free such children without offering new opportunities would, in Kailash’s view, be meaningless.

Bal Ashram in Rajasthan, India is a transition center where newly-freed slaves are taught basic skills. Kailash describes the arrival of a girl recently freed from a stone quarry: « It’s a joyous experience to watch the changing emotions flit across this beautiful girl’s face. She’s like an open book, and her varying expressions tell us a story: the story of transition from slavery to a new life of freedom. When her face lights up, it is clear she is taking her first steps toward freedom and belief in others. »

Since the Ashram can only serve 100 children at a time, Kailash has begun a program called « Bal Mitra Gram » to encourage Indian villages to abolish child labor. In order to be a part of the program, an entire community must agree that no child will be put to work and every child will be sent to school.

While changing India village by village is a worthwhile pursuit, such a strategy could take centuries to achieve Kailash’s goal, and he is not prepared to wait that long. So he has begun attacking the problem by harnessing the immense power of market forces.

Many rugs from South Asia are manufactured using child labor. Kailash believes that if consumers around the world knew how their expensive and colorful Indian rugs were made, they would no longer think they were so beautiful. He started « Rugmark, » a program in which rugs are labeled and certified to be child-labor-free by factories who that agree to be regularly inspected. Kailash plans to extend the labeling program to other products such as soccer balls, another popular product that is commonly made by children. (Read more on The new Heroes).

reported during an Interview given by Kailash Satyarthi to Speak Truth to Power.

Continuer la lecture de « South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude (SACCS) »

Linked with our presentation of Nuclear Weapons and Non-Proliferation – the Russian Perspective.

Also linked with our presentation of Alla Yaroshinskaya – Russian Federation.

4th Annual Stasiuk Lecture in Contemporary Ukrainian Studies:

Big Lie: Chernobyl twenty years on, by Dr Alla Yaroshinskaya (Moscow).

A member of Boris Yeltsin’s President’s Council from 1992 to 2000 and a former member of the Congress of Peoples’ Deputies, Alla Yaroshinskaya spent the last years working on ecological issues and nuclear disarmament. She has been a member of the Russian delegation to the United Nations to negotiate nuclear non-proliferation, and she continues to be a champion for the survivors of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident, which has its twentieth anniversary this year. It was her series of investigative articles after this nuclear tragedy that brought Yaroshinskaya to international prominence and earned her the Alternative Nobel Prize in 1992.

The lecture is organized by the Cambridge Committee for Russian and East European Studies with the support of Cambridge University Ukrainian Society. It is sponsored by the Stasiuk Program for the Study of Contemporary Ukraine, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta.

On: Friday 24th February 2006, Open: 5.30pm.

Venue: Robinson College, Grange Road, Cambridge , CB3 9AN, Umney Lecture Theatre.

Find on map ;

Website: http://www.camcrees.group.cam.ac.uk/ .

Contact: Dr Hubertus F. Jahn, Tel: +44 (0)1223 333253.

First Programm:

The Diplomacy Training Program is holding, in partnership with Migrant Forum Asia (MFA), the « Capacity Building on Human Rights and Migrant Workers in the Asia-Pacific Region – A Training Program for Advocates » on 7 – 11 April 2006 in Petaling Jaya.

The course aims to bring together advocates from the human rights movement, migrant workers organizations, women’s organizations, national human rights institutions and trade unions. The course content will focus on the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Family (ICRMW) in the context of the broader human rights framework, and other relevant standards such as the International Labour Organization (ILO) Conventions. It will explore some of the key trends affecting migrant workers’ rights and identify some of the key challenges to implementing ICRMW and other relevant standards in the Asia-Pacific region.

Second Program:

It is also organizing a training program – in Darwin on 3-12 May 2006 – for community advocates working for Indigenous Peoples’ Rights in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region. The training provides knowledge of international human rights law and the UN system, with particular emphasis on Indigenous Peoples’ rights; understanding of how international standards relate to issues such as intellectual property, the environment, community development and corporate accountability; Practical training in strategic advocacy and peoples’ diplomacy including skills in working with the media and using the internet for advocacy. This year there will be a special, additional focus on the Right to Health, particularly as it relates to Indigenous health issues.

For further information and application to attend the workshops, please contact: Diplomacy Training Program, Faculty of Law, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia, ph: (612) 9385-2277 or (612) 9385 2807; fax: (612) 9385-1778;

e-mail: actiondtp@unsw.edu.au;

www.dtp.unsw.edu.au.

The International Human Rights Education Consortium will be holding its regional meeting for Asia on 22 – 24 May 2006 in Taipei.

For further information, please contact: Mab Huang, Chang Fo-Chuan Center for the Study of Human Rights, 70, Linshi Road, Shihlin, Ta i p e i Taiwan 111; ph (8862)2881-9471 ex. 6279 or 6110; fax (8862) 2881- 2437;

e-mail: hrer@mail.scu.edu.tw;

http://www.scu.edu.tw/hr;

or, Theodore S. Orlin, J.D, President, IHREC, Utica College, 1600 Burrstone Road, Utica, NY 13502, USA; ph(315) 792-3267; fax: (315) 792-3381;

e-mail: ihrec@utica.edu;

www.utica.edu/academic/institutes/ihrec.