A quick report on Amnesty Group 81's activities today, International Human Rights Day:

At lunchtime, together with Luis Schoeberl, the Brussels regional coordinator, we held an event at the Berlaymont building where, after a short speech by Natalia Alonso from the AI EU office, we joined hands in a human chain and called for more DIGNITY.

The picture shows Natalia making her speech in front of our piece de resistance - the much coveted inflatable candle!

In the evening, it was time for our monthly quiz at Kitty O'Shea's. 9 teams participated and as usual it was a roaring success! (Thanks to everyone who helped organise it.) The picture shows Terhi handing out prizes at the end of the evening.

Sophie

Celebrating Human Rights Day in the centre of Europe

Today, the 10th December, marks International Human Rights Day. All around the world people have come together to celebrate the anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). I personally spent part of the day outside of the European Commission alongside Amnesty International highlighting the intrinsic relationship between the EU and human rights.

Sometimes, it is easy to under-estimate the role of the EU in protecting human rights. It is easy to forget that the EU was founded as a union of principle set up to protect and advance these fundamental rights. I have written before on the EU and Uzbekistan highlighting how the EU can have a detrimental effect on human rights(http://stevehynd.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/eu-without-principles-or-pragmatic/). Overwhelmingly however we can see that the EU has advanced the adoption of universal human rights through its work.

The EU pushes human rights on a number of levels, through enlargement, trade agreements, foreign policy, neighbourhood strategies, strategic partnerships and in direct dialogues. The EU has got a commitment main-streamed throughout nearly all of its work to further human rights. What we need however, is a renewed commitment to making these commitments a reality. Too often we can see human rights being side-lined because of other commitments whether it is energy security, trade or defence.

I have written before that without common values the EU is reduced to a large lumbering block of countries. It is only through shared values such as human rights that it draws any political strength. If the EU wants to maintain its position in global affairs it must unite behind these shared values.

This blog was taken from http://stevehynd.wordpress.com/

We are not thought of as human How the Dalit women of Bangladesh are struggling to end generations of oppression

If you are not considered to be human, human rights do not apply to you," says Moni Rani, walking under lines of brightly-coloured laundry decorating dilapidated buildings like bunting.

The kaleidoscopic colours of this cramped south Dhaka community disguise the dark reality that its 4,000 residents live apart from the rest of the city's citizens. As a Dalit, Moni inhabits one of the capital's 27 so-called "colonies", reserved for the men and women destined to do Dhaka's dirtiest jobs. These people, whose ancestors were left out of the four-tier Hindu caste hierarchy, are literally outcasts. Known as "untouchables" because they are shunned by the rest of society, and labelled Harijan (children of God) by Gandhi, they have adopted the name Dalit, from the Sanskrit for "downtrodden".

Based on a notion of purity and pollution, the caste system has led Dalits to be considered unclean and historically, in some communities, they were forced to wear a bell alerting others of their approach. Today, they still face resistance - and often outright refusal - when attempting to enter temples, restaurants and schools, for fear they will contaminate the higher castes.

Reminiscent of apartheid-era South Africa, Dalits - distinguished by their names, sari style, language and accents - are assigned the jobs nobody else wants, including sweeping the streets, burying the dead and manual scavenging (cleaning human excrement from dry toilets by hand). The estimated 5.5 million Dalits in Bangladesh are among 250 million across south Asia. In neighbouring India a successful civil rights movement has gained political representation for the country's 170 million Dalits, but in Bangladesh - where the former British colonial rulers lured Indian Dalits on the broken promise of better jobs, homes and prospects - they are not only a caste minority, but a religious minority in a predominantly Muslim country. In a nation of Bengali speakers, their Hindi and Telagu mother tongues mean access to education, housing, the justice system and the political arena is severely suppressed.

Gabtoli colony sits at the end of a long potholed road; a grey slum stuck on the western edge of the city. Living in a no-man's land of rusty corrugated iron and old bamboo, with no facilities and no privacy, the women of Gabtoli bathe fully clothed at the banks of the Turag - just 200 metres from a large pipe spewing sewage.

In a country where 80% of the population lives on less than $2 a day, Dalits shoulder the further burden of exclusion and entrenched discrimination. Munni Rani Das raises her hand to shoulder-level when describing the floods in rainy season. "When the rains come it brings snakes and dangerous insects to our home," she says. "We try to get away but the rickshaw pullers and bus drivers won't carry us."

Discrimination

Munni, her husband and three teenagers were moved to this flood-prone colony after developers planning to build apartments evicted them from their central Dhaka home. "We protested," she says, "but the army and police came and said, 'If you don't leave we will beat you and shoot you'."

Proffering a cup of murky chemical-scented water, Munni adds: "There, we had safe water and a market. We were near jobs and my children went to school. Now, school is too far away."

The International Dalit Solidarity Network estimates that 96% of Dalits in Bangladesh cannot read or write. Dalits say they need political representation from leaders who understand the extent of the problem, but of Dhaka's 90 elected commissioners, not one is Dalit.

Sitting behind his desk, the commissioner for Dhaka's Ward 85, Alhaj Badal Shardar, says: "I love Dalit people because they are sincere and very simple." When a typical Dhaka power cut kills the lights and the fan, one of the commissioner's men hurries to his side, wafting his boss with a giant fan of palm leaves. "I have never seen any discrimination against Dalits in my community," Shardar continues, "I am 100% sure there is no discrimination."

But, born and brought up in the Telagu colony in the commissioner's ward, Prokashamma Bhodanki insists caste discrimination is rife. The 23-year-old daughter of the late BG Murthy, who seven years ago founded the Bangladesh Dalit Human Rights movement, Prokashamma hid her Dalit identity at secondary school by speaking Bangla, each term taking her Bangla-speaking sister instead of her Telagu-speaking mother to collect her exam results - an event similar to parents' evening at British schools. She recalls: "One time my sister wasn't able to come. When the other students heard my mother speak they said terrible things."

Wiping her tears with her pink shawl, she adds: "For four years I hid my identity from my friends but when they knew I was a Dalit girl they wouldn't eat with me or speak with me. I swore I would never go back to school."

But she did. After finishing her two remaining years, Prokashamma passed her exams and is now teaching English and Bangla to young Dalits. She said: "Now I understand that so many of us are facing that kind of discrimination. I want to fight for my rights and do something for my community and myself."

Prokashamma belongs to a new wave of young Dalit women in Bangladesh who, having swum against the tide to finish school, are now role models, being elected as leaders in their communities and teaching under the Dalit Women's Forum to give the younger generation a fighting chance.

Launched two years ago, the forum provides training in making and selling candles and garments for its 150 members as a first step to financial independence.

Back at her brightly coloured home, forum leader Moni Rani says her father ensured she was the first girl in her community to finish school - and she intends to be the first of many.

"All Dalit women are now conscious of their situation and demanding change," says Moni. "When I was a girl I couldn't get the chances our girls are getting now. Our young women are smarter than me and I feel that is my success. My vision is for hundreds of smart Dalit women coming together and I will gather them under my banner."

Marry Griffin (The Guardian)


http://www.guardian.co.uk/journalismcompetition/professional-we-are-not-thought-of-as-human

Human rights concerns raised as Rwanda set to join Commonwealth Kigali wants allowances made for how far it's come since the genocide

Rwanda is set to succeed in its bid to join the Commonwealth this week despite serious concerns over its human rights record, according to a senior source close to the negotiations.

A summit of Commonwealth heads of government in Trinidad and Tobago will add the central African nation to its 53 current members, despite its failure to meet entry requirements. "There is consensus on Rwanda" a senior African negotiator told The Independent.

The decision, expected before the week's end, has been greeted with dismay by NGOs, while the author of a major report on Rwanda's candidacy said it was clear evidence that the Commonwealth "could not care less about human rights".

Professor Yash Pal Ghai, a Kenyan-born expert in constitutional law and author of an independent report for the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) said: "From the very beginning, the governments of the Commonwealth had decided they wanted Rwanda in. The secretary general, Britain and Uganda have all been pushing for that outcome."

Supporters of the bid have argued that entry into the club would encourage Kigali to raise its standards, but critics counter that it will "lower the group's average" and make it harder to take actions against states – such as Fiji, currently suspended for refusing to call elections – that trangress in future. "The Commonwealth stands for very little if it doesn't stand for human rights and democracy," said Tom Porteous, head of Human Rights Watch in London. "Admitting Rwanda will make it harder for the Commonwealth to project itself as a credible promoter of these values."

Rwanda, a former German colony, which later came under a Belgian mandate from the League of Nations, applied in 2007 to join the voluntary association of mainly English-speaking former British colonies. That move followed the breakdown in relations between Kigali and France as both countries traded accusations over events in the build-up to the 1994 genocide.

Applicant countries are meant to have some historical or constitutional link with the Commonwealth, although the grouping made an exception for the former Portuguese colony Mozambique in 1995.

In its bid, which has been strongly backed by Britain, Australia and Uganda, Rwanda has argued that it should be judged on how far it has come since 1994 rather than against a global standard. "There is room to improve, but no country is 100 per cent perfect," Foreign Minister Rosemary Museminali said. "Rwanda should be looked at in the context of where it's come from."

President Paul Kagame, whose Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front took power in the country after routing the Hutu militias responsible for the massacres, has succeeded in modernising the country's image. The administration has a reputation for efficiency and has attracted strong international support including substantial foreign aid from the UK and US in particular.

However, the CHRI's report paints a portrait of a very different Rwanda. "The Rwandan government has excellent public-relations machinery. Its leaders are astute, and effectively play upon the conscience of the world," it states.

The report details a country in which democracy, freedom of speech, the press and human rights are undermined or violently abused, in which courts fail to meet international standards, and a country which has invaded its neighbour, the Democratic Republic of Congo, four times since 1994.

Professor Ghai draws attention to the laws against "genocide ideology", prohibiting the raising of doubts about the extent of the killing of Tutsis in 1994 or any discussion of retaliatory killings of Hutus. Censorship is prevalent, according to the report, and the government has a record of shutting down independent media and harassing journalists.

It concludes that Rwanda's constitution is used as a "façade" to hide "the repressive nature of the regime" and backs claims that Rwanda is essentially an "an army with a state". Kigali reacted furiously to the accusations, saying the claims had "absolutely no basis".

Rwanda has trumpeted its Commonwealth credentials with the switch from French to English instruction in schools last year, and won acclaim for low levels of corruption and high health and education spending. Rwanda's former ambassador to the UN, Gideon Kayinamura, has boasted that other countries could learn from its democracy "where as many as 56 per cent of its MPs are women". Its membership bid is strongly backed by Tony Blair who works as an unpaid advisor on governance.

Suspicions persist that, beyond talk of deepening trade and improving cultural ties, Commonwealth diplomats are tempted by the prospect of cementing such a public defection from the Francophone world. "This British-French rivalry is a batty reason," declared Professor Ghai, who said diplomats responded with "glee and pleasure" at the prospect of Rwandan membership which, they admit, would have no big impact on trade or relations."

Published by Daniel Howden, Africa Correspondent (The Independent)

Monday, 23 November 2009

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/human-rights-concerns-raised-as-rwanda-set-to-join-commonwealth-1825930.html

China sentences quake activist to 3 years in prison

By Keith B. Richburg

Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 23, 2009; 9:47 AM

BEIJING -- A veteran Chinese human rights campaigner who challenged the central government over the faulty construction of school buildings that collapsed during last year's Sichuan earthquake was sentenced Monday to three years in prison, on a charge of possessing secret state documents.

The sentencing of Huang Qi comes less than a week after President Obama made an official visit to Beijing and appealed to China's Communist rulers to accept that "certain fundamental human rights" are universal.

Human rights lawyers and campaigners said today's tough sentence for the 46-year-old Huang -- the maximum penalty allowable under Chinese law -- was a sign that Chinese leaders were in no mood to make concessions on human rights and might even be engaged in a new crackdown targeting lawyers and prominent dissidents.

"The Chinese authorities chose this time on purpose to sentence him," said Huang's wife, Zeng Li, 43, who was in the court when the sentence was handed down. "They were waiting until the special time of Obama's visit had passed.

"The control over human right activists became stricter after Obama left," Zeng said. "The sentence given to Huang Qi is an example. I don't know if it's because Obama didn't make it serious enough, or because Obama mentioned this issue. But the Chinese government decided to crack down harder on the activists as a response."

The government stepped up surveillance of other prominent human rights activists ahead of and during Obama's visit, stopping some from leaving their homes and harassing and briefly detaining others.

One lawyer, Jiang Tianyong, described in a telephone interview how he was taken in for questioning by police Nov. 19, while walking his 7-year-old daughter to school, and detained for 13 hours before being released. The previous day, Jiang said, he had tried to approach the U.S. Embassy because he heard Obama might meet with human rights lawyers. But he was taken back to his house by police.

Jiang had returned from the United States two days earlier, after testifying before a Congressional committee on human rights and religious freedom in China.During his detention, he said, police questioned him during his detention about his attempt to go to the embassy.

Jiang told The Washington Post he thought Obama was wrong not to meet with any members of the human rights community or civil society during his short visit to Beijing and Shanghai. "There are a bunch of people in Chinese civil society who have enough courage to talk with Obama about the human rights issue in China," Jiang said. "But Obama is not decisive enough or doesn't have enough willpower to talk with the civil society."

Sam Zaridi, the Asia Pacific director for the London-based human rights group Amnesty International, said several other lawyer-activists "were quietly sent out of Beijing, or kept inside their houses by security forces."

"It used to be that when foreign dignitaries, especially from the U.S., visited, you'd see a slight loosening," Zaridi said. "Now things are moving in the other direction."

Despite his mention of "universal rights," in the view of human rights activists, Obama "didn't strike as hard of a tone on human rights as some of us had hoped for," said Zaridi. "It's tough to wag your finger about human rights when your hand is stretched out for more money."

Huang, who ran the Tianwang, or Sky Net, Human Rights Center in Chengdu, in Sichuan province, had used his Web site to make an appeal on behalf of five family members whose children died in a collapsed middle school in the May 2008 earthquake. He called for an investigation into shoddy construction practices that may have left the school vulnerable, and he asked that officials who were responsible be punished.

About 90,000 people were killed in the earthquake, according to official estimates, including 5,335 students who died when their school buildings and dormitories collapsed, often while other buildings around them remained intact. Some believe the number of student fatalities is even higher.

Huang was arrested in June 2008 and charged with "illegally holding state secrets," a catch-all charge often used to snare dissidents because most official documents here are considered secret.

His trial was completed in early August -- another reason human rights activists believe the government chose to wait until after Obama's visit to announce the sentence.

Huang's wife and his lawyer, Mo Shaoping, called the charge of possessing state secrets a fabrication. Mo said the documents in question were rules for government agencies in handling petitions from citizens. They had been published in newspapers and were readily available on the Internet, and were taken from the hard drive of a shared computer in Huang's office. Mo and Huang's wife, Zeng Li, said they were concerned about Huang's deteriorating health in prison.

Huang was arrested in 2000 and sentenced in February 2003 for "subversion" after seeking redress for family members of those who disappeared after the Tiananmen Square crackdown of 1989. He was released in 2005 and immediately went back to his activist work.

Researcher Zhang Jie in Beijing contributed to this report.