http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/shdaily_sing.asp?id=394330&type=Opinion&page=0
AS much as I consider myself a realist on matters related to the global economy - indeed, some call me a pessimist - never would I have believed that in my lifetime I would be seeing anything remotely resembling the 1930s.
I did invariably remonstrate with those who in the booming last couple of decades would claim that "globalization was irreversible." Nonsense, globalization has been repeatedly reversed throughout history. But I never expected it would go quite so far.
The gravity of the current situation is beginning to be recognized. The recovery is likely to be "L-shaped": The global economy could be entering a "lost decade", comparable to what Japan experienced after its crash and financial implosion in 1991. But that was one country, now it's the world.
In reality, things could get much worse than that. The greatest threat the world economy faces is a resurgence of protectionism.
This would, as it did in the past, decrease growth and dramatically increase unemployment. This calamity would be occurring at a time of a huge increase in the youth of the developing world, when hundreds of millions of young people will be coming on to the labor market.
In the Middle East, 100 million jobs need to be created in the next decade-and-a-half. In Pakistan, between 2010 and 2020 - 10 years - the population is due to increase by 35 million! In only one decade, Pakistan's population will grow by the equivalent of 12 percent of the US population.
The ILO (International Labour Organization) estimated that in 2009 unemployment will increase worldwide by 50 million. This could end up having been too optimistic a forecast.
In the 1930s it was unemployment, following the great crash and the trade wars, that gave rise to extremist political movements, xenophobia and eventually to war.
The social protection, wealth and demographics of the West make it unlikely that a 1930s scenario will be repeated. However, the situation in the developing world is different and far more alarming. Furthermore, while the last couple of decades saw a quite remarkable decrease in global poverty, the current crisis, protectionism and unemployment could see a dramatic reversal of this process. Already the effects are being felt in many ways. According to FAO (The Food and Agricultural Organization), between 2007 and 2008 the number of under-nourished people increased by 50 million.
Business leaders
It is worth pausing briefly to recollect the words of John Steinbeck in "The Grapes of Wrath" (1939): "How can you frighten a man whose hunger is not only in his own cramped stomach but in the wretched bellies of his children? You can't scare him - he has known a fear beyond every other."
An international financial crisis, surging unemployment and protectionism were the ingredients that fueled the cataclysms that ensued in the 1930s. We have an international financial crisis, which will not go away tomorrow, unemployment is rising, protectionism is rearing its very ugly head, but there is still time to act. And this is where business leaders must stand up and be counted.
The event that sparked the outbreak of unbridled protectionism in the 1930s was the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act (1930). More than 1,000 economists (1,028, to be exact) sent a petition to Herbert Hoover pleading that he veto the bill. They were ignored. There is no record of the business community having mobilized to exert overt pressure to prevent protectionism.
Apart from the fact that no doubt many were themselves seeking protection, there was no sign of business leadership acting in enlightened self-interest. Catastrophes occur not only because of acts of commission, but also because of acts of omission.
Had the business community taken a stand - had business leaders shown guts - history may have turned out differently. It would also have given business leadership the kind of respect it abysmally failed to deserve not only in the 1930s, but even worse in the 1940s.
In the past couple of decades, many business leaders have talked quite effusively about globalization and its benefits. It is now urgent to walk the talk.
On November 15 last year the first G20 summit was held in Washington. The leaders all pledged to promote the open global market economy, to bring the World Trade Organization Doha Round to conclusion and to prevent new protectionist practices; specifically, in paragraph 13: "We underscore the critical importance of rejecting protectionism and not turning inward in times of financial uncertainty. In this regard, within the next 12 months, we will refrain from raising new barriers to investment or to trade in goods and services, imposing new export restrictions, or implementing World Trade Organization inconsistent measures to stimulate exports."
Not only has this pledge turned out to be sheer rhetoric, but indeed since the Washington summit nearly every single member of the G20 has taken protectionist measures.
The next G20 summit is to be held in London on April 2. What the world needs to try to prevent the current crisis turning into a tragic drama is to have a minimum of 1,028 business leaders, preferably far more, signing a petition addressed to Prime Minister Gordon Brown (host of the summit) expressing the clearest and strongest rejection of protectionist measures and the imperative of maintaining, indeed enhancing, the global market economy.
The late David de Pury, a man of great vision, board member of Nestle and chairman of the Evian Group, titled the last article he wrote before his untimely death, "Let us not repeat the mistakes of the past."
We are in serious danger of doing so. Business leaders must consider not repeating the mistakes of omission they made in the 1930s.
If business leaders fail to fight against protectionism, there may be no future for capitalism at all. The consequences will be terrible and the inheritance bequeathed to future generations dreadful.
Jean-Pierre Lehmann is professor of international economy at IMD and founding director of The Evian Group. IMD is a leading global business school based in Switzerland (www.imd.ch).
Trade barriers bode ill for economic recovery
Japan: Labor Think Tank Says Shorter Work Hours Can Create 4.53 Million Jobs
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/japan150309.html
by Akahata
The Labor Movement Research Institute (Rodo Soken) of Japan says that the strict application of labor laws and regulations and the shortening of work hours would create 4.53 million jobs.
Rodo Soken, which has close working relations with the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren), earlier estimated that 2.7 million jobs would be created by simply eliminating unpaid overtime and encouraging workers to use all their paid holidays.
If Japan established a 38-hour workweek, as in Europe, additional 1.8 million jobs would be created, which would be feasible if just 4.11 percent of 403 trillion yen, which corporations had amassed in their internal reserves (as of the end of 2007), were used.
Rodo Soken also calls for the prevention of mass layoffs by forcing corporations to use their internal reserves. It says that corporations should offer full-time positions to all temporary workers after three years of service.
The labor think tank also calls on the national and local governments to compel companies to comply with the existing laws and regulations, to provide full-time positions to the public-sector contingent workers, and to enact a law on public contracts that will ensure living wages.
Rodo Soken stresses that a fundamental revision of the Temporary Staffing Services Law (労働者派遣法) and a raise in the minimum wage are essential to securing stable employment. It is also necessary to improve the unemployment insurance system and the public safety net and to establish a public project for the relief of the unemployed.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This article was published by Akahata on 7 March 2009. See, also, the full text of Rodo Soken's proposal: "解雇規制と失業保障、雇用創出のための 緊急提言" (Emergency Proposal for Regulation of Layoffs, Unemployment Insurance, and Job Creation), 5 March 2009.
Burma Allows Labor Rights Group To Station Officer in Rangoon
http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-20-13-Burma.cfm
Washington
20 March 2002
Robinson report - Download 332K
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Burma's military government has agreed to allow an official of the International Labor Organization, or ILO, to be stationed in Rangoon to oversee efforts to eliminate forced labor in the country. The agreement between Burma and the ILO was reached after months of negotiations.
The memorandum of understanding was signed after several days of talks ending this past Tuesday between a Burmese delegation and the ILO in Geneva. It comes about one month after a high-level ILO delegation visited Rangoon and held intensive negotiations on the wording of the agreement.
Burma has been under pressure from the ILO, which represents the international community in promoting labor rights, to put an end to the practice of forced labor. Human rights groups say the use of forced labor in Burma is still pervasive.
Two years ago, the organization agreed to impose unprecedented sanctions on Rangoon and called on its member organizations and U.N. agencies to review all relations with Burma's government to make sure they were not supporting forced labor.
The ILO has been pressing for establishment of a permanent office in Burma to help fulfill its mandate. However, Burma's military had resisted.
The memorandum of understanding does not authorize the setting up of a full ILO office in Rangoon. But it is significant because this is the first time Burma has agreed to an in-country ILO representation, and it also opens the way for a future expanded ILO presence.
David Steinberg, director of Asian Studies at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, says details remain to be worked out.
"The questions really are, what will happen in the future?," he said. "What kind of freedom will this liaison officer have? What kind of support staff will he or she have? Will he be able to travel without announcement, to various places in the country. All of these questions have yet to be answered."
Bo Hla Tint is spokesman in Washington for Burma's exile National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma. He also says the test of the ILO/Burma agreement will be how much flexibility the new liaison representative will have.
"We welcome their gesture, the first sign of a more cooperative manner of the SPDC to work with the ILO and the international community," he said. "But at the same time we are very much concerned about how much working space the ILO can get in Burma, and in the field.
The memorandum of understanding makes clear that the new liaison official in Burma will pursue what the agreement calls "prompt and effective elimination of forced labor in Burma."
The agreement with the ILO also means Burma will face a bit less criticism at the International Labor Conference which takes place in Geneva in June.
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[Ye Yint Thet Zwe] အဲဒီလမ္းကေလးေပၚမွာ
ညမရွိတဲ့ ေကာင္းကင္
ေကာင္းကင္မရွိတဲ့ လ
ႀကံဳဘူူးၾကရဲ ့လား
အလင္းမဲ့ေန ့မ်ားမွာ
ငါတို ့ရဲ ့အတၱေတြကို
ေလာင္စာတခုလို အသံုးခ်
အားလံုးအတြက္
ယံုၾကည္ခ်က္နဲ ့ ၀င္းလက္ေတာက္ပေနခဲ့ဘူးတယ္ ။
အခုမ်ားမွာေတာ့
ေကြးေသာလက္ မဆန္ ့မွီ
ဆန္ ့ေသာလက္ မေကြးမွီ
ေခါက္ရွာငွက္တို ့ရဲ ့ပ်ံသန္းမႈမွာ
ဘ၀ဟာ ေပ်ာ္၀င္တယ္
အသက္က
ဉာဏ္ရဲ ့ ေစစားရာအတိုင္း ရွင္သန္တယ္
အေမကေတာ့
ေမွ်ာ္လင့္ခ်က္အကုန္လံုး
သား ျပန္လာမယ့္
ေဟာဒီလမ္းကေလးအေပၚ ပံုထားတုန္းပဲ ။
တေန ့တာရဲ ့
ေနာက္ဆံုးအလင္းေရာင္ အကြယ္မွာ
ဘုရားစင္ေရွ ့က ရိႈက္သံဟာ
လမ္းကေလးအေပၚမွာ ပဲ့တင္ထပ္လို ့
ခ်ိဳးျဖဴငွက္တို ့ရဲ ့ ေတာင္ပံခတ္သံမွာ ပဲ့တင္ထပ္လို ့
ခြပ္ေဒါင္းတို ့ရဲ ့ ေတာင္ပံခတ္သံမွာ ပဲ ့တင္ထပ္လို ့
သားေပ်ာက္မိခင္တို ့ရဲ ့ ရင္မွာ ပဲ့တင္ထပ္လို ့ ။
ပဲ့တင္ထပ္လို ့ ၊ ပဲ့တင္ထပ္လို ့၊ ပဲ့တင္ထပ္လို ့ ။
--
Posted By Ye Yint Thet Zwe to Ye Yint Thet Zwe at 3/09/2009 01:01:00 PM
Forced child labour: invisible to the world
http://www.alertnet.org/db/blogs/3159/2009/02/13-142651-1.htm
13 Mar 2009 14:26:00 GMT
Written by: Andrew Stroehlein
Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.
It has to be the largest regular state-driven act of child exploitation anywhere in the world. The annual cotton harvest in Uzbekistan depends on the forced labour of some 2.7 million children, who are all removed from school for six to eight weeks to work in the fields and enrich the elites of the country's authoritarian regime.
A new study, "Invisible to the World: The Dynamics of Forced Child Labour in the Cotton Sector of Uzbekistan", highlights the scale and severity of this yearly horror. I'd seen some of the data from this report before it was published, but the full details of the assessment, carried out by Uzbek researchers who put themselves at great risk to gather the evidence, are still shocking.
Published by the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, the report looks at six school districts, where between 86 and 100 per cent of the pupils were subject to compulsory recruitment for 51 to 63 days, without weekend breaks and under detrimental sanitary, health and nutritional conditions. The children miss out on two months of school and are exposed, according to the paper, "to conditions of work that merit close examination in light of the criteria set by the International Labour Organization Conventions 138 and 182", referring to the international treaties concerning the Minimum Age for Admission to Employment (Convention 138, 1973) and The Worst Forms of Child Labour (Convention 182, 1999).
Understand, please, this is most certainly not the poverty-driven child labour one sadly sees in other developing countries. As the report says:
The practice of child labour in Uzbekistan represents a distinctive case. Global patterns suggest that it is generally families and/or employers who tend to be the major initiators and beneficiaries of children's work. Uzbekistan represents a rare instance of state-sanctioned mass mobilization of children's labour. The principal beneficiaries are not households or primary producers but state-controlled trading companies higher up the value chain. Their exclusive control over cotton export revenues and their ability to appropriate the profits generated by the disparity between domestic and international market prices gives them a stake in the maintenance of the current procurement and labour control regime.
The new SOAS study looks at data from the 2007 harvest, but researchers are now busy analysing data from 2008. While those newer figures are not yet available publicly, they do already make clear that the situation did not change at all in the intervening year, despite much publicised government promises to end the practice of forced child labour.
When I was in Tashkent in October, regime officials told me point blank that no children were working in the cotton fields any more. From the photos I've seen, including those in this new study which were taken in 2008, the government's claims are clearly false.
Thankfully, this issue is not "invisible" to everyone. The Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) has been working on it for years, campaigning for an EU regulation on forced child labour and for cotton products to show the country of origin of the cotton on the label. Many major clothing producers and retailers in Europe and the US have pledged to stop using Uzbek cotton in their products.
Reuters AlertNet is not responsible for the content of external websites.
Federation of Trade Unions of Burma
http://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/2579051
Infobox Union
name= FTUB
country= Burma (Myanmar)
affiliation= ITUC
members=
full_name= Federation of Trade Unions of Burma
native_name=
founded= 1991
current=
head=
dissolved_date=
dissolved_state=
merged_into=
office=
people= Hla Oo, president
U Maung Maung , general secretary
website= [http://www.ftub.org/ www.ftub.org]
footnotes=
The Federation of Trade Unions of Burma (FTUB) is an underground trade union in Burma. It was formed in 1991 and includes workers and students who were involved in the general strike of August and September, 1988. Activities of the union are primarily restricted to information gathering and advocacy.
In 1998 Myo Aung Thant, an FTUB executive committee member, was sentenced to life imprisonment for labour organization activities inside Burma. In 2003 Nai Min Kyi, Yae Myint, and Naing Yatha, members of FTUB, were sentenced to death for high treason. ICTUR reports that: "The ostensible reasons for their sentences were that they had attended FTUB training on the Thai-Burma border, were relaying information on forced labour to the International Labour Organization, and had published an article in a Burmese magazine which uncovered corruption in the national football league."
FTUB is affiliated with the International Trade Union Confederation and has offices in Thailand, the United States, Japan, and Australia.
References
*cite book
year = 2005
title = Trade Unions of the World
editor = ICTUR et al,
edition = 6th
publisher = John Harper Publishing
location = London, UK
id = ISBN 0-9543811-5-7
.
См. также в других словарях:
G.F.T.U. General Federation of Trade Unions — G.F.T.U. General Federation of Trade Unions noun Всеобщая федерациятред-юнионов… (Англо-русский словарь Мюллера)
WFTU World Federation of Trade Unions — noun Всемирная федерация профсоюзов,ВФП…
trade unions — профсоюзы… (Большой англо-русский и русско-английский словарь)
trade unions — объединение профессиональных союзов… (Англо-русский словарь экономических терминов)
International Confederation of Free Trade Unions — сокр. ICFTU Международная конфедерация свободных профсоюзов… (Большой англо-русский и русско-английский словарь)
ICFTU International Confederation of Free Trade Unions — noun Международнаяконфедерация свободных профсоюзов, МКСП… (Англо-русский словарь Мюллера)
restrict trade to revive trade — ограничивать торговлю… (Большой англо-русский и русско-английский словарь)
Burma — n -sБирма… (Большой немецко-русский и русско-немецкий словарь)
Burma — noun Бирма… (Англо-русский словарь Мюллера)
Burma — geographical name see Myanmar… (New Collegiate Dictionary)
Farmers’ lawyer sentenced to four years in prison
http://english.dvb.no/news.php?id=2348
Mar 18, 2009 (DVB)–A young lawyer defending farmers whose land had been forcibly seized by the army was sentenced to four years' imprisonment by Magwe division court yesterday, said a source close to the court.
Around 50 farmers reported to the International Labour Organisation office in Rangoon in January, complaining that the army confiscated more than 5,000 acres of paddy fields at Myetyeh-kan and Kyaung-ywalay villages in Natmauk township.
Pho Phyu, well-known as a political activists' lawyer, had been requested by family members to represent four farmers who were arrested and detained when news of their visit to the ILO reached authorities.
He was charged under the Unlawful Associations Act.
One of the farmers, Zaw Htay from Aunglan, was sentenced to 10 years on 23 January with the charge of leaking national secrets for taking photographs of confiscated farmlands.
Lawyers defending political and human rights activists have been harassed and intimidated in various ways.
Young lawyer Nyi Nyi Htway was sentenced to six months in jail by Rangoon Hlaing township court in October with the charge of impeding court procedures.
Another lawyer Kyaw Kyaw Min, who was sentenced in absentia, had fled to the Thai-Burmese border.
Two senior lawyers Aung Thein and Khin Maung Shein were each sentenced to four months' imprisonment last November for contempt of court. They were released on 6 March.
Reporting by Aye Nai
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Global Labor's Forgotten Plan to Fight the Great Depression
http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/20913
March 19, 2009 By Jeremy Brecher
and Brendan Smith
and Tim Costello
Jeremy Brecher's ZSpace Page
Join ZSpace
In the early 1930s, as global unemployment tripled in two years and the world plunged into the Great Depression, the world's labor movements developed a program for fighting the global crisis through international public works. It's a little-known historical might-have-been that could have helped halt the Great Depression, the rise of Adolph Hitler, and the Second World War. And, as the efforts of world leaders to address today's "Great Recession" threaten to break down in nationalist rivalry and petty political bickering, it bears lessons - and perhaps an alternative vision - for today.
Workers and organized labor have historically advocated government public works as a solution to unemployment. Not only would they provide jobs and income for those directly employed, but they would raise overall purchasing power, thereby creating demand for the products of other workers and creating a virtuous circle of economic growth. In the context of swelling unemployment in the early Depression, discussion of national public works programs developed in many countries.
The proposal for international public works originated with General German Trade Union Alliance (ADGB), which included most of Germany's trade unions and represented the great majority of its workers. The plan won the support first of the German union alliance, then of unions around the world, and finally of the League of Nations' International Labor Organization.
The plan was worked out by the head of the Alliance's statistical department, W.S. Woytinsky. Woytinsky was a Russian émigré who had been president of the St. Petersburg Council of the Unemployed during the 1905 revolution and had organized mass action to force the city to provide public works employment. Observing Germany's combination of spiraling deflation and spiraling unemployment in the early 1930s, he came up with the idea of using credit expansion to finance massive public works.
Taking a cue from recent League of Nations policy proposals, Woytinsky proposed an international agreement that would allow the lowering the gold reserve requirements for national currencies. That would let central banks create new money that could finance international public works and thereby create the purchasing power needed to reflate the economy.
In a June, 1931, article, Woytinsky proposed an "Action Program for Reviving the Economy." It called for the labor movement to "assume the role of conveyor of the idea of an activist world economic policy." It was up to the labor movement to "force the state and all public institutions to implement measures to revive the economy."
Labor's policy "must be a global economic policy. All nations are suffering because the world economy is sick, and therefore they must all concentrate their forces upon joint action to overcome the worldwide crisis." The international agreement would provide an alternative to the rise of economic nationalism, supporting "tariff reductions and European economic unification" as well as "internationalization of wage policy and social policy." The program would also support workers' fight for higher wages, shorter hours, social rights, and regulation of business.
The funds freed up by international money-creation policies would be applied to job creation through "public works on a grand scale" for a "grand plan for European reconstruction" with "the employment of one million unemployed." The creation of jobs would "spark a revival of the consumer goods industry, thereby sucking a further, considerable number of unemployed back into employment."
A primary objection to such a plan was that it would lead to runaway inflation like that which had been so devastating to Germany in 1922-23. But Woytinsky argued that the conditions were entirely different. "We have a huge amount of unutilized capacity in our productive apparatus. Consequently, increases in production can, without difficulty, follow along in the wake of planned increases in purchasing power."
Why international public works?
As the International Labour Organization's International Labor Review explained in its introduction to Woytinsky's January, 1932 article "International Measures to Create Employment: A Remedy for the Depression," there were two problems with big public works programs to fight unemployment. First, it was hard to find enough money. Second, "in a worldwide depression like the present one, if one country goes very much ahead of other countries in its public works program" there is "danger of price inflation." Both, the Review noted, "can be overcome by international cooperation."
Woytinsky elaborated the danger. The creation of credit on a large scale "represents a daring experiment for any one country, and failure would shake and weaken the economic system of the country, and more especially its finances." An international agreement is "the only method of avoiding this danger and clearing the way for individual countries to undertake schemes of this kind."
How would such a plan work in practice? An international office would "collect the newly-created capital from every country" to create a fund for creating new purchasing power and new employment on an internationally agreed plan. "From the fund thus constituted, different countries would be granted loans in proportion to their needs for the creation of employment." Two or two-and-a-half billion dollars would employ four to five million workers and provide the economic stimulus the world required.
Such programs should be selected for their social usefulness, not to their profitability for one or another company. Such works "must produce something of lasting value, but they do not need to be productive in the sense in which private enterprise employs the term and show a direct profit to meet the interest and redemption charges on the capital employed." Each part doesn't need to show a profit on capital. What is necessary is that "the plan as a whole" will reduce the resources wasted by the Depression and "improve the conditions of life throughout the world."
In Europe, the funds would be used for "the construction of an international network of motor roads, of canals to link up the most important waterways of the Continent, and the international supply of electric power." In individual countries they would be used for such purposes as land improvement, roads, and housing.
In 1933, sixty nations sent high-level representatives to the London Monetary and Economic Conference to forge a solution to the Great Depression. The ILO had voted to present its plan "to set on foot immediately large-scale public works" and "to coordinate these measures on an international basis" there. But instead of developing an international strategy to solve the Depression, the Conference broke down in nationalist bickering. The worldwide spread of mass unemployment, Hitler's rise to power, and World War II followed apace.
Lessons for today's "Great Recession"?
After the meeting of finance ministers from the world's major economic powers in mid-March, 2009 the participants issued a statement saying, "We have taken decisive coordinated and comprehensive action to boost demand and jobs" and "we are prepared to take whatever action is necessary until growth is restored." It sounds as though the lessons of the Great Depression have been learned and a plan like that advocated by the unions in the early 1930s for job creation and economic stimulus has been adopted. But, as one news account put it, the ministers "stopped short of announcing any details." In fact, world leaders are facing the same paralysis in the face of the "Great Recession" that they did in the face of the Great Depression eighty years ago.
What would it mean for the world's labor movement, and the broader community of allies often known as the "Global Justice Movement," to develop an "activist world economic policy" to confront today's "Great Recession"? Conditions are of course different, but in many ways the core of such a program can be the same.
That core can be public works to create jobs to meet public needs. In today's world, threatened as it is by global warming, the number one public need is to rebuild the world's economy in a way that protects the Earth's climate. So a global jobs program today means primarily a program for global green jobs.
Such a program needs to be global for the same reasons that it did in the 1930s. First, the problems are global, and therefore require a global solution. Second, if any country expands credit too much by itself, it is likely to face rebound effects from the international economy. (Think about the way the Chinese, who hold much of the U.S. debt, recently forced Barack Obama to give assurances that the U.S. would not inflate its currency.) Such measures by one country alone also lead to loss of trade.
There are ways to provide international credit expansion today that didn't exist in the 1930s. The primary one is a kind of international money, known as "Special Drawing Rights" (SDRs) or "paper gold" that allows countries to create new currency reserves through the International Monetary Fund. Countries can hold SDRs in their treasuries and release other currencies they are holding there - creating new money in very much the same way as Woytinsky's proposals for lowering gold reserve requirements.
The U.S, Britain, and many other countries are currently calling for an expansion of SDRs to help poorer countries get through the current economic crisis. George Soros has called for the issuing of trillions of dollars of SDRs to counteract the downturn. And Joseph Stiglitz has proposed that SDRs be used to create an international fund for supporting projects for "public purposes" in poorer countries. Expansion of SDRs, or some other form of internationally agreed global credit expansion, can be the basis for a new era of global green public works, what has recently been dubbed a Global Green New Deal.
World leaders didn't face up to their responsibility for countering the Great Depression, and it looks like the same is true of today's leaders in the face of the Great Recession. The idea of international public works financed through global agreement to credit expansion could provide a global program around which labor and popular organizations around the world could unify to "force the state and all public institutions to implement measures to revive the economy."
[Tim Costello, Jeremy Brecher and Brendan Smith are the co-founders of Global Labor Strategies, a resource center providing research and analysis on globalization, trade and labor issues. GLS staff have published many previous reports on a variety of labor- related issues, including Outsource This! American Workers, the Jobs Deficit, and the Fair Globalization Solution, Contingent Workers Fight For Fairness, and Fight Where You Stand!: Why Globalization Matters in Your Community and Workplace. They have also written and produced the Emmy-nominated PBS documentary Global Village or Global Pillage? GLS has offices in New York, Boston, and Montevideo, Uruguay. For more on GLS visit: www.laborstrategies.blogs.com or email smithb28@gmail.com.]
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Suu Kyi a ‘Beacon of Hope’: Clinton
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=15294
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By LALIT K JHA Friday, March 13, 2009
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WASHINGTON — US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday called the iconic Burmese pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, a beacon of hope for people around the world.
Clinton’s comments occurred at a function at the State Department on the occasion of Women’s History Month.
“Aung San Suu Kyi, whom I mentioned yesterday and I mention as often as I can because having been in prison now for most of the past two decades, she still remains a beacon of hope, strength, and liberty for people around the world,” Clinton said.
The secretary also mentioned Mukhtar Mai of Pakistan, who survived a horrific assault in what is euphemistically called an “honor crime,” and then used the money she received in a court settlement to help educate the rural poor in Pakistan.
“These women are not just improving the world for other women,” Clinton said. “Their courage and actions are helping to create societies where every boy and girl, every man and woman, has the opportunity to live up to his or her God-given potential.”
She said these women understand that the struggle for women’s rights in the 21st century is no longer limited to fighting for the ballot, or equal pay for equal work, or the end of domestic violence, or the right to speak out, or the right to worship or associate.
“All of these items are critical and necessary, but they are no longer sufficient. In order to secure the full spectrum of women’s rights, we have to create economic opportunity and economic security,” Clinton said.
“It is essential that we improve access to healthcare and that we protect Mother Earth from our assaults, so that we can guarantee a better future, and that we do all that we can to help improve education so that we will have more allies and partners and fewer adversaries,” she said.
Clinton said wherever there is oppression, women need to stand against it. “Wherever there is violence, we as women must work to end it. Wherever there is poverty or sickness, we as women must work to cure it. And wherever our planet is in danger, we as women must work to protect it,” she said.
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy.org
We Will Boycott Election: CRPP
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=15301
We Will Boycott Election: CRPP
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By LAWI WENG Friday, March 13, 2009
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The Committee Representing the People’s Parliament (CRPP) will not participate in next year’s general election in Burma unless political prisoners are released and the junta agrees to a review of the constitution, according to Aye Thar Aung, a spokesman for the committee, who spoke to The Irrawaddy on Friday.
“The release of political prisoners is the first step toward democracy,” he said. “The second is to allow for a review of the new constitution. If not, we will not be involved in the election.”
The announcement came after a meeting was held in Rangoon on Thursday between representatives of the five political parties that comprise the CRPP coalition: the National League for Democracy (NLD), the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy, the Mon National League for Democracy, the Arakan League for Democracy, and Zomi National Congress.
Between them, the five parties took 89 percent of the electoral votes at the 1990 general election—some 433 of the parliament’s 485 seats—with the NLD winning a landslide victory.
However, the elected representatives were never allowed to take power and many of their members were subsequently arrested and imprisoned by the military junta.
Despite the announcement, Nyan Win, a spokesperson for the NLD, refused to comment to The Irrawaddy on Friday about the CRPP decision or the 2010 election.
The NLD has previously called on the Burmese military regime to review the new constitution and release all political prisoners, including its general secretary, Aung San Suu Kyi.
At the 14th Asean Summit in Thailand last month, Burmese Prime Minister Thein Sein reportedly promised that Burma would allow United Nations to monitor the 2010 election, a date for which still has not been announced.
But Aye Thar Aung said that allowing the international community to monitor next year’s general election is not as important a factor as the need to review the new constitution.
“It is simply unacceptable that the military will reserve 25 percent of seats in the parliament for itself according to the new constitution,” he said.
He added that the CRPP seeks meaning dialogue between the military junta and the opposition groups for the future of democracy in Burma.
Some leaders of political parties within the CRPP are still in detention, including Suu Kyi and Tin Oo of the NLD, and ethnic Shan leader Hkun Htun Oo.
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy.org
Myanmar: Treatment of Burmese Seafarers
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/49b92b32a.html
Title Myanmar: Treatment of Burmese Seafarers who have returned to Myanmar (Burma) after having jumped ship and contacted the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) to complain about working conditions while outside of Myanmar
Publisher Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
Country Myanmar
Publication Date 6 August 2008
Citation / Document Symbol MMR102913.E
Cite as Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Myanmar: Treatment of Burmese Seafarers who have returned to Myanmar (Burma) after having jumped ship and contacted the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) to complain about working conditions while outside of Myanmar, 6 August 2008. MMR102913.E. Online. UNHCR Refworld, available at: http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/49b92b32a.html [accessed 19 March 2009]
Myanmar: Treatment of Burmese Seafarers who have returned to Myanmar (Burma) after having jumped ship and contacted the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) to complain about working conditions while outside of Myanmar
An article in an International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) online publication called ITF Seafarers states that "[s]eafarers are among the most exploited and abused groups of workers in the world" and may find themselves in a complex legal situation when confronted by abuse, insufficient food or accommodation or unpaid wages, especially while under the employment of foreign flag ships (flags of convenience) (ITF 2007).
The Seafarers' Union of Burma (SUB), an organization that seeks protection for and offers assistance to Burmese seafarers employed by foreign ships, is considered illegal by the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) military regime of Myanmar (Burma) (ITUC 2007). The SUB is affiliated with the ITF and the Federation of Trade Unions – Burma (FTUB), a Burmese labour organization that has operated underground since 1991 and is classified as an "unlawful association" under the Unlawful Associations Act (ibid.; see also US 11 Mar. 2008, Sec. 6). Notification No. 3/2005, issued by the SPDC Ministry of Home Affairs on 28 August 2005 declares that the "'FTUB, its members, and other related groups and individuals'" are a threat to the country (ITUC 2007). The SPDC regime considers the FTUB to be a "terrorist organization" (ibid.; US 11 Mar. 2008, Sec. 6).
As a condition of employment, seafarers must join the Myanmar Overseas Seafarers' Association (MOSA), a state-linked seafarer's organization launched in 2002 (ITUC 2007; Irrawaddy Jan. 2003), which is not affiliated with the ITF (ibid.) despite claims to the contrary by Myanmar's military regime (ITUC 2007; ILO Mar. 2006, Sec. 1097). The 340th Report of the Committee on Freedom of Association published by the International Labour Organization (ILO) notes that membership in MOSA "explicitly limits seafarers' right to establish and join associations of their own choosing" (ILO Mar. 2006, Sec. 1099). The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), an international organization that encourages global cooperation among trade unions to promote the rights of workers around the world (ITUC n.d.), states that when MOSA was launched, then Prime Minister General Khin Nyunt urged seafarers to "'refrain by their words and actions from harming the State'" (ITUC 2007).
Another state-controlled organization, the Seaman's Employment Control Division (SECD), charges a fee for issuing the documents required for employment as a seafarer (ibid.; Irrawaddy Jan. 2003) and gives mandatory lectures in which prospective seafarers are warned not to complain about working conditions aboard ship and to stay away from the SUB and the ITF (ITUC 2007).
Although sources indicate that the SPDC has abolished a requirement for seafarers to sign an affidavit prohibiting contact with the ITF (ILO Mar. 2006, Sec. 1099; Irrawaddy Jan. 2003), the United States (US) Department of State's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2007 maintains that seafarers are forbidden contact with the organization (US 11 Mar. 2008, Sec. 6). A 2008 document published by the ILO states that Burmese seafarers are denied the right to be represented by the SUB (ILO June 2008).
The ITUC's 2007 Annual Survey of Violations of Trade Union Rights reports that recruitment agents for seafarers may insert restrictions into contracts prohibiting contact with the SUB, ITF or any ITF-affiliated unions (ITUC 2007). Corroborating information was received by the Research Directorate from the Manager of the International Seafarers Assistance Network (ISAN), a registered charity based in the United Kingdom (UK) that provides free assistance to seafarers (ISAN n.d.), who stated that ISAN has come across employment contracts stipulating that seafarers are forbidden to contact outside agencies for assistance, including the ITF and other unions (ISAN 30 July 2008). The Manager added that if found in breach of contract, the seafarer could be forced to pay for their repatriation expenses in addition to those incurred for any replacement hired (ibid.). A "cash penalty" could also be administered (ibid.).
The ITUC maintains that state authorities have reportedly retaliated against seafarers who have contacted the SUB or the ITF for assistance, imposing a range of penalties including seizure of wages and imprisonment (ITUC 2007). In 2005, the ITF reported that a SUB activist was arrested, tortured and killed by the armed forces for his role in organizing fishermen and migrant workers (ITF Oct.-Dec. 2005, 20; ibid. 24 May 2005).
The ILO's 340th Report of the Committee on Freedom of Association lists complaints against the Government of Myanmar presented by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), a confederation of 241 organizations from 156 countries that addressed labour issues (ICFTU n.d.), including the "murder, detention and torture of trade unionists" and the "continuing repression of seafarers for the exercise of their trade union rights" (ILO Mar. 2006, Case No. 2268). The ITUC and the ILO provide details on several cases of arrest, imprisonment and torture for trade union activities, including that of eight family members of an FTUB activist in August 2006 (ITUC 2007; ILO June 2008). The ILO notes that punishment may be administered for the "mere sending of information to the FTUB" (ibid.).
In March 2008, an aritcle by Mizzima News, a news organization established in 1998 by Burmese journalists in exile (Mizzima 23 Jan. 2008), reported that six human rights and trade rights activists associated with the FTUB had been charged with "membership in a terrorist organization" and given sentences of over 20 years (Mizzima 20 Mar. 2008).
The ITUC indicates that there are no legally registered workers' organizations in Myanmar (ITUC 2007). Country Reports 2007 corroborates this information stating that there are "no free trade unions" in Myanmar (US 11 Mar. 2008, Sec. 6).
This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim for refugee protection. Please find below the list of sources consulted in researching this Information Request.
References
International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU). N.d. "ICFTU: What it is, What it Does ... "
International Labour Organization (ILO). June 2008. Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations (CEACR). "CEACR: Individual Observation Concerning Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) Myanmar."
_____. March 2006. Committee on Freedom of Association (CFA). 340th Report of the Committee on Freedom of Association.
International Seafarers' Assistance Network (ISAN). 30 July 2008. Correspondence received from a manager.
_____. N.d. "About Seafarerhelp."
International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). 2007. "Burma." 2007 Annual Survey of Violations of Trade Union Rights.
_____. N.d. "ITUC – CSI – IGB / International Trade Union Confederation."
International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF). 2007. Martin Whitfield. "Out of Sight, Out of Mind."
_____. 24 May 2005. "Annex 1 & 2: Murder of Seafarers' Trade Union Organiser."
_____. October – December 2005. Issue 21. "Union and Human Rights Abuses: Atrocity in Burma." Transport International.
The Irrawaddy [Chiang Mai, Thailand]. January 2003. Ko Thet. "Shoring up Burma's Seamen."
Mizzima. 20 March 2008. "Burma Urged to Legalize Exiled Trade Union."
_____. 23 January 2008. "About Mizzima."
United States (US). 11 March 2008. Department of State. "Burma."Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2007.
Additional Sources Consulted
Oral sources: Representatives of the Federation of Trade Unions – Burma (FTUB), International Labour Organization (ILO), International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) and Seafarers International Union of Canada did not respond within the time constraints of this Response.
Internet sources, including: Amnesty International (AI), Human Rights Solidarity, Human Rights Watch (HRW), International Center for Labor Solidarity (ICLS), International Christian Maritime Association, International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF), International Sailors Society, Online Burma/Myanmar Library, Pattaya Daily News, Seafarers International Research Centre, Shipwrecked Mariners Society, United Nations (UN) Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
Copyright notice: This document is published with the permission of the copyright holder and producer Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB). The original version of this document may be found on the offical website of the IRB at http://www.irb-cisr.gc.ca/en/. Documents earlier than 2003 may be found only on Refworld.
ILO GB Discusses Global Crisis, Minimum Wage in Geneva
http://allafrica.com/stories/200903120131.html
Lagos — The Governing Body of the International Labour Office (ILO) which opened in Geneva last week has on its agenda, urgent new policies and measures to mitigate the severe impact of the global financial and economic crisis on the world of work and to stimulate a sustainable economic recovery.
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It will also discuss minimum wage developments worldwide and the implementation of the Employment Agenda in Brazil. The ILO office in Geneva also stated that On "23 March 2009, a High-level Tripartite Meeting on the Current Global Financial and Economic Crisis will discuss effective responses to the crisis based on a report covering 40 countries worldwide. Mr. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, will address the meeting, among others".
Professor Joseph Stiglitz, who was awarded the ILO's Decent Work Prize in 2008, will address the Governing Body during a special sitting today .
Nigeria is represented by Government, Employers and Workers.
Against the backdrop of the financial and economic crisis, the Committee on Social and Employment Policy will examine the ILO response to the crisis.
The meeting, scheduled for 5-27 March, will examine programme and budget proposals for the 2010-11 biennium. The ILO Director-General, Juan Somavia has said the budget is designed to support efforts of governments, employers' and workers' organizations worldwide to reach the Organization's objectives in the midst of a profound and global economic crisis.
Three Men Die in Forced Labor Incidents
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=15288
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By MIN LWIN Thursday, March 12, 2009
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Three villagers died in two cases of forced labor in Kyauktada and Daik-U townships in Pegu Division in Burma, according to a social and labor rights group, Guiding Star.
The deaths occurred when village authorities forced villagers to excavate sand and gravel for schools and to construct government buildings, said the labor group, which monitors and documents human rights abuses in Burma.
“Local village authorities are still using forced labor in villages in Pegu Division,” Aye Myint, a Guiding Star activist, told The Irrawaddy on Thursday.
Saw Phar Luu, 54 years old, of Kyauk Talone village in Daik-U Township was forced to work in a rock quarry in the Yoma Mountain range in Pegua Division.
“Saw Phar Luu was killed when rocks fell on him on January 29,” Aye Myint said.
In a separate incident, two brothers, Min Oo and Myint Aung of Gway Chogone village in Kyauktada Township in Pegu Division, died on February 1 when sand buried them in Phayargyi, one mile from Gway Chongone village.
The village authorities and school construction committee asked Min Oo, 30, and Myint Aung, 22, to work on a government school in Gway Chogone village and to take charge of collecting sand for the project.
“They were killed while collecting the sand at a forced labor site. The sand pit collapsed and both of them died,” said Aye Myint.
Aye Myint said the local village authorities offered no compensation to family members.
Aye Myint complained about what he termed the response of the International Labor Organization (ILO) office in Rangoon, when it was informed about the death of the two brothers.
"The ILO doesn’t want us to inform the exile media,” said Aye Myint.
Meanwhile, Phoe Phyu, a labor lawyer, has been arrested by local authorities in Magwe Township. Phoe Phyu was an advocate for farmers in Natmauk Township in Magwe Division who were arrested by local authorities. The farmers had complained to the ILO office in Rangoon that their land had been confiscated.
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy.org
Two migrants released from Thai ship after 25 months of work without pay, abuse
http://democracyforburma.wordpress.com/2009/03/10/two-migrants-released-from-thai-ship-after-25-months-of-work-without-pay-abuse/
2009 March 10
tags: Burma, Human Rights, Junta, migrants, Thailand, Thugs and Thieves, world focus on Burmaby peacerunningTue 10 Mar 2009, Ruby Mon,IMNA
Two migrant workers have been released after working for 25 months without pay on a fishing boat operated by a Thai company. The two men were rescued by migrant labor rights organizations in Songkhla, Thailand, as they waited for repairs to be made to their ship.
On March 4th the two workers were sent to a karaoke shop in Songkhla with 4 other Thai crewmembers. Though they had not been paid in 25 months, the Burmese workers made no attempt to escape because they did not speak Thai and had no idea where to go. Both workers are from upper Burma, and had made their way to find work in Thailand via a broker after they struggled to find agricultural jobs at home.
One of the Thai crewmembers, however, notified a migrant labor rights non-governmental organization (NGO) in the area, which notified the Thai navy. The NGO source requested that details of the organization be withheld for security reasons.
According to a source in the NGO, later that day representatives of two migrant labor rights NGOs and Thai Navy arrived and detained the fishermen.
One of the workers, who spoke with IMNA via phone, described 25 months of mistreatment, and no pay. “During the time we were working on the fishing boat for 25 months, if the workers did not catch fish they could not eat,” said the worker, age 19. “If you did not do a good job for your work, you would be beaten with a plastic shovel until blood would come out from your skin. And they never paid us anything.”
Though neither worker posses a work permit or immigration papers of any kind, they were both released by the Thai navy. According to a source at the NGO involved in securing their release, they have since found paid construction work.
The Thai fishermen were also left without pay, and though 3 have returned to sea on other boats the NGO source said that they are suing the fishing company for their back pay.
IMNA could not confirm, however, whether there were any repercussions for the owner of the ship or its captain. The ship, known as the Pohn Pai San #44, is owned by the chairman of a major area fisheries business organization.
from → Burma
Over 2 million workers anticipated to be laid off in Thailand
http://www.shanland.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2503:over-2-million-workers-anticipated-to-be-laid-off-in-thailand&catid=87:human-rights&Itemid=285
Monday, 09 March 2009 18:19 Hseng Khio Fah Human Rights
According to the Social Security of Thailand, over 2 million workers would be laid off in 2009; most of them migrant workers, said Wilaiwan Sae Tia, Chairwoman of the Thai Labor Solidarity Committee, when she was invited to the 8th Annual Women’s Exchange Get-Together which was held at an undisclosed location on the Thai-Burma border from 5-9 of March 2009.
Wilaiwan Sae Tia
According to the Social Security of Thailand, over 2 million workers would be laid off in 2009; most of them migrant workers, said Wilaiwan Sae Tia, Chairwoman of the Thai Labor Solidarity Committee, when she was invited to the 8th Annual Women’s Exchange Get-Together which was held at an undisclosed location on the Thai-Burma border from 5-9 of March 2009.
Among those workers to be laid off would be workers from electronics, shoe and furniture factories, transportation, and tourism including graduated people.
Most of them would be migrant workers because they don’t have work permits, she said. “Currently, more migrant workers have been laid off than Thai workers.”
Last week, there were over 40 migrant workers from Chiangmai returning to their homeland due to lack of work, difficulty to survive and fear of police arrest.
Many migrant factory workers from Burma are feeling the effects of Thailand’s economic slowdown, Independent Mon News Agency (IMNA) reported yesterday.
In 2008, 93,275 workers had been laid off and this early year, 66, 776 more had been laid off.
However, Thai labor could be impacted as well if Thailand’s economy gets worse because some business owners could move their factories or their businesses to border towns like Maesod and Maesai in order to get cheap labor, she added.
“Most business owners don’t want to hire Thai labor because they are entitled to ask compensation under the law. They will only hire migrant labor so they don’t’ need to pay compensation.”
There are at least 2 million legal and illegal migrant workers in Thailand. But there is no law to protect those migrant workers.
In May, 2008, the Thai Labor Solidarity Committee sent a letter to the Thai government to pass a law for all migrants to have equal rights, to be safe in workplace and to allow them freedom of assembly.
Debbie Stothard from Altsean (Alternative Asean) also commented that if Thailand’s economy is to recover, they will need workers immediately, especially cheap labor.
“If the Thai government deports all migrant workers back to Burma, they may try to go to other countries because they have to survive,” said Jackie Pollock, Coordinator of the Migrant Assistance Program (MAP) “Deportation will only make it difficult for Thailand to get workers.”
Conflicts and human rights violations continue to cause displacement-BURMA
http://www.internal-displacement.org/8025708F004CE90B/(httpCountrySummaries)/32AEFA2B4F8C0B4FC125756400510DB5?OpenDocument&count=10000
Displacement as a result of conflict and human rights violations continued in Myanmar in 2008. An estimated 66,000 people from ethnic minority communities in eastern Myanmar were forced to become displaced in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict and human rights abuses. As of October 2008, there were at least 451,000 people reported to be internally displaced in the rural areas of eastern Myanmar. This is however a conservative figure, and there is no information available on figures for internally displaced people (IDPs) in several parts of the country.
In 2008, the displacement crisis continued to be most acute in Kayin (Karen) State in the east of the country where an intense offensive by the Myanmar army against ethnic insurgent groups had been ongoing since late 2005. As of October 2008, there were reportedly over 100,000 IDPs in the state.
New displacement was also reported in 2008 in western Myanmar’s Chin State as a result of human rights violations and severe food insecurity. People also continued to be displaced in some parts of the country due to a combination of coercive measures such as forced labour and land confiscation that left them with no choice but to migrate, often in the context of state-sponsored development initiatives.
IDPs living in the areas of Myanmar still affected by armed conflict between the army and insurgent groups remained the most vulnerable, with their priority needs tending to be related to physical security, food, shelter, health and education. Humanitarian access to this population continued to be very restricted.
An unprecedented level of access for humanitarian workers was permitted in response to Cyclone Nargis which struck the Ayeyarwady (Irrawaddy) Delta in May 2008, but government restrictions on humanitarian access continued elsewhere in Myanmar and frustrated efforts to reach conflict-affected IDPs. Additionally, the awareness of the international community of the nature and extent of conflict-displacement in Myanmar continued to be limited.
Background
Intense international attention focused on Myanmar in May 2008 due to the humanitarian crisis created by Cyclone Nargis that struck the Ayeyarwady (Irrawaddy) Delta region. The cyclone severely affected 2.4 million people and led to the initial displacement of 800,000 people. After it became clear that the military government, currently known as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), was not immediately opening up international access to affected areas, international pressure increased and after a series of diplomatic initiatives, a meeting between UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Senior General Than Shwe led to a commitment to allow access to affected areas. The international assistance was to be facilitated through a coordination mechanism led by the Association of South-East Asian Nations or ASEAN (Belanger and Horsey, ODI-HPN, December 2008, pp.3-4). Aid agencies have subsequently delivered assistance thanks to an unprecedented level of access and mobility in the Delta, and international organisations have reported access to any requested part, including ethnic minority areas, and the ability to send international staff to train, implement and monitor programmes without obstruction (RI, 5 September 2008).
The situation, however, remains very different for those internally displaced as a result of conflict between government forces and ethnic insurgent groups in Myanmar, and by associated human rights violations. Since independence from Britain in 1948, Myanmar has been subject to armed conflicts, in the form of a communist insurgency and a series of inter-linked ethnic rebellions. In 1989, the Communist Party of Burma collapsed, allowing the army to concentrate its forces on ethnic insurgencies which by this time were mostly confined to the northern and eastern border areas (University of Oxford RSC, February 2007, p.3).
Between 1989 and 1995, ceasefires were agreed between the government and a majority of the armed ethnic groups. Currently only two significant insurgent organisations remain in armed conflict with the SPDC. However, the number of people displaced because of these or earlier conflicts for whom no durable solution has been found must be calculated in the millions, and includes vulnerable communities that have been living in displacement for decades (University of Oxford RSC, February 2007, pp.3-6). The most acutely vulnerable internally displaced people (IDPs) live in those areas of the country still affected by significant levels of armed conflict (University of Oxford RSC, February 2007, p.4).
There continues to be limited awareness among the international community about the scale of this conflict and related displacement crisis, even as at least half a million people are estimated to be currently living as IDPs in eastern Myanmar. Despite concessions made in the Ayeyarwady Delta after Cyclone Nargis, restrictions on humanitarian access have continued elsewhere in Myanmar and frustrated efforts to reach conflict-affected IDPs (TBBC, FMR, December 2008, p.14).
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Causes of displacement
The scale of internal displacement in Myanmar remains difficult to accurately assess due to the political sensitivities of the government and impossible to assess in areas under the government’s control (TBBC, October 2008, p.8). The impact of the conflicts, and government policies including counter-insurgency strategies, on the enjoyment of human rights of civilians and IDPs in particular have been documented in areas of eastern Myanmar.
According to Refugees International in May 2007, the SPDC has been the biggest perpetrator of human rights violations in the country, while to a lesser extent abuses have been carried out by ethnic insurgent groups. These groups have positioned themselves as the defenders of minority populations against the aggression of state forces. However they have been unable to defend civilians against government action in retaliation to their guerilla tactics. Since the 1960s, in response to protracted insurgencies in most ethnic minority areas, the army or Tatmadaw has often pursued brutal counter-insurgency strategies, including the forced relocation of civilian populations (ANU, June 2007).
The Karen National Union (KNU) and other insurgent groups have an interest in controlling, or at least maintaining, civilian populations in traditional ethnic lands, as a source of legitimacy, and of food, intelligence, soldiers and porters. On this basis they bear some responsibility for the plight of civilians in areas where they operate. For nearly 60 years, they have fought an armed conflict against the central government although the possibility of any military victory ended several years ago. Nevertheless most forms of displacement and associated human rights abuses still occur in the context of the Tatmadaw’s “four cuts” counter-insurgency strategy which aims to prevent the armed opposition groups’ access to supplies, information, recruits and food (ANU, June 2007).
According to Amnesty International, since at least the early 1980s, civilians in areas of ongoing conflict in Myanmar have been relocated to fenced settlements known as relocation sites. Villagers are characteristically given short notice periods prior to relocation, and villages may be burned down and mined in order to prevent return. Members of the army have in many reported cases shot and killed people found in their villages after the expiry of the notice period. Villagers have reported being told that they would be killed if they fail to comply with relocation orders, and that anyone who remained would be taken to be supporters of armed oppositions groups and therefore treated as a legitimate military target during counter-insurgency operations or combat (AI, June 2008, p.26).
In order to avoid going to relocation sites, some villagers have fled into the jungle, sometimes to hiding places prepared in advance. They flee with only what they can carry, such as infant children, utensils, blankets, plastic sheeting, and a few days’ supply of rice. Once the offensive is over and troops have returned to their camps, some villagers have tried to return to or near their fields and villages, while others have remained displaced in hiding for longer periods (Eubank, FMR, April 2008, p.11).
Besides direct relocation or eviction orders issued by the military and civil authorities, internal displacement in Myanmar results from a combination of coercive measures, such as forced labour, extortion and land confiscation, which drive down incomes to the point that people have no choice but to leave their homes (UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, 7 March 2008, p.17). Displacement has also occurred in the context of state-sponsored development initiatives that have been closely related to militarisation, with ethnic communities generally bearing a disproportionate share of the impact and being denied a fair share of the benefits (TBBC, October 2008, p.8).
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Displacement in eastern Myanmar
According to the 2008 survey by the Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC), field surveys by local humanitarian and human rights groups indicated that more than 3,200 villages had been destroyed, forcibly relocated or otherwise abandoned in eastern Myanmar between 1996 and 2007. In 2008, community organisations documented the destruction, forced relocation and abandonment of a further 142 villages and hiding sites. The majority of these areas were located in the contested regions of northern Kayin (Karen) State and eastern Bago (Pegu) Division. Forced relocations were also prominent in the politically sensitive townships surrounding Laikha in southern Shan State (TBBC, October 2008, p.18).
An estimated 66,000 people were forced to become displaced as a result of, or in order to avoid the effects of, armed conflict and human rights abuses between October 2007 and October 2008. The estimates have been derived by TBBC from the rural areas of 38 townships most affected by forced migration, and do not contain figures from urban areas or mixed administration areas.
According to TBBC, while the total number of IDPs in eastern Myanmar’s Kayin State, Kayah (Karenni) State, Shan State, Mon State, Tanintharyi (Tenasserim) Division and Bago Division was likely to be well over half a million, there were at least an estimated 451,000 displaced people in the rural areas in 2008. This population included 224,000 people living in temporary settlements in ceasefire areas administered by ethnic nationalities, another 101,000 civilians estimated to be hiding from the SPDC in areas most affected by military skirmishes, and approximately 126,000 villagers who had followed government eviction orders and moved to designated relocation sites. These figures suggested a ten per cent reduction in the IDP population compared to 2007, due to the estimated fall of over 70,000 in the number of IDPs in ceasefire areas. Meanwhile, however, estimates for IDPs in hiding and in relocation sites had increased from 2007 to 2008 (TBBC, October 2008, p.20).
In Kayin State, a military offensive has been ongoing since late 2005. According to Amnesty International, unlike previous SPDC counter-insurgency campaigns against the KNU and its armed wing the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), the current offensive has civilians as its primary target. The current operation is the largest in a decade and unlike former seasonal operations, this offensive has continued through the rainy season. Since November 2005, more than 140,000 Karen civilians have experienced violations of human rights and humanitarian law (AI, June 2008, p.2).
As of October 2008, there were at least 104,900 IDPs in Kayin State (TBBC, October 2008, p.21). The SPDC continued to fight for control of the northern hills of Kayin State and surrounding territories, where the KNU/KNLA has stronger presence than in other areas and where many Karen civilians live (AI, June 2008, p.2).
Displaced villagers in hiding in Toungoo district of Kayin State were prevented from cultivating their fields due to the risk of being shot on sight by the Tatmadaw, while those living under military control had to endure regular forced labour and strict controls on their movements (KHRG, 1 July 2008, p.1). In Nyaunglebin district, forced relocations by the SPDC served to depopulate hill areas and concentrate the civilian population in the plains areas (KHRG, January 2009). In much of eastern Pa’an and north-eastern Dooplaya districts of Kayin State, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), a proxy force for the Tatmadaw, has conducted an intensified military campaign since August 2008. In some cases the DKBA attacks have been employed as part of a forced relocation programme in which soldiers have burned down villages in order to prevent the return of villagers relocated to DKBA-controlled areas (KHRG, 6 February 2009, pp.1-2).
As of October 2008, at least 53,300 people remained displaced in Kayah State (TBBC, October 2008, p.21). Given that the population of Kayah State is estimated at 300,000, a significant percentage of the population in the state is living in displacement. In Kayah State ceasefire agreements between some ethnic groups and the government have created tensions, with ceasefire groups in some areas acting as proxy forces for the SPDC. Civilians in Kayah State were in 2008 facing oppression from the Tatmadaw, ceasefire groups aligned with the SPDC, as well as some members of the armed opposition Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP) who had also committed human rights abuses against villagers (Burma Issues, March 2008, p.36).
According to Burma Issues, the militarisation of Kayah State was increasingly linked to army efforts to secure sites for development projects and extraction of natural resources, while in previous years its aim had been to defeat the armed resistance movement. In order to secure complete control of some areas, Karenni villagers have been relocated and the army has launched patrols to search for villagers who are in hiding and resisting relocation orders. Once an area has been depopulated, or the population is in a relocation site, the SPDC has reportedly moved to initiate development projects (Burma Issues, March 2008, pp.33-34).
One such project, construction of the proposed Wei Gyi dam along the Salween river, will affect 30,000 people in Kayah State. The dam site is an area of ongoing conflict between the SPDC and the KNPP. The SPDC has already depopulated the area along the river in Kayah State and only 28 villages remain from an original number of 85. The rationale behind the depopulation along the Salween has been preparation for the Wei Gyi dam (Salween Watch, August 2007, p.4).
Displacement was ongoing in 2008 in parts of Shan State, where the Shan State Army-South (SSA-S) has not signed a ceasefire agreement with the government. In 1996, the Tatmadaw intensified its counter-insurgency strategy in central and southern Shan State. Forced relocations were accompanied by human rights violations against civilians by the army. The violations, coupled with ongoing conflict in areas of the state and failed economic policies that had drastically reduced agricultural production and increased poverty and food insecurity, had driven villagers from their homes and forced them to live as IDPs or as refugees or migrants in Thailand (Conflict and Health, 2008). More recently, large infrastructure projects and joint ventures in Shan State between the governments of Thailand and Myanmar have resulted in increased militarisation, accompanied by widespread abuses of civilians, displacing many more villagers (Conflict and Health, 2008).
According to the TBBC, there were over 135,000 IDPs in southern Shan State as of October 2008, and the four townships surrounding Laikha in southern Shan State were of particular concern. Armed skirmishes and Tatmadaw deployments had escalated in this area since a former battalion commander with the SSA-S surrendered in 2006. The Tatmadaw was attempting to assert its supremacy in the area by breaking communication links between the armed opposition to the south and ceasefire groups to the north. Over 13,000 civilians are estimated to have been displaced from their homes in this area during 2008 (TBBC, ODI-HPN, December 2008, p.30).
In Mon State, the New Mon State Party (NMSP) entered into a ceasefire agreement with the SPDC in 1995, but by 2001, an NMSP splinter group known as the Monland Restoration Party had started activities in the area between southern Ye and northern Tavoy. Another armed Mon splinter group known locally as the “Chan Dein group” has also been active over the last five years. The relationship between the Mon splinter groups and local civilians remains complicated and the groups have committed human rights abuses. Mon villagers have often found themselves caught between the parties to the conflict and some have been forced to support the splinter group and then punished by the Tatmadaw for doing so (HURFOM, November 2008).
Mon civilians have not only undergone human rights violations as suspected supporters of splinter groups, but also continuing conscription for forced labour such as guard duty and portering services. As of 2008, land and properties had increasingly been confiscated without compensation since 2005 (Rehmonya, 5 August 2008). As of October 2008, 70,000 civilians remain internally displaced in Mon areas, a vast majority in the NMSP ceasefire areas (TBBC, October 2008, p.34).
According to the TBBC, in 2008, military rule left approximately 65,000 people internally displaced in Tanintharyi Division. The majority of the IDPs were living in government-controlled relocation sites which have been in place since the Tatmadaw’s 1997 offensive against the Karen population of Tanintharyi. As a result of severe restrictions on access to fields and markets, there are few livelihood opportunities and the government’s economic mismanagement has led to widespread poverty. Thousands of IDPs from relocation sites have fled to Thailand to seek employment over the last two years (TBBC, October 2008, p.36).
Displacement in eastern Myanmar is being further fuelled by anti-personnel landmines which have been planted in parts of ten of the 14 states and divisions of the country. Anti-personnel mines planted by both government forces and ethnic armed groups have injured and killed civilians in addition to enemy combatants. The Tatmadaw has laid mines close to areas of civilian activity and mines are allegedly used to dissuade people from returning to their native villages after forced eviction (International Campaign to Ban Landmines, ODI-HPN, December 2008, p.33). As of mid-2008, there were no humanitarian demining programmes within Myanmar (International Campaign to Ban Landmines, ODI-HPN, December 2008, p.33).
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Displacement in western Myanmar
There is little information available on internal displacement in western Myanmar, but local groups estimated that there were in 2007 approximately 80,000 IDPs in hiding or living in temporary settlement in jungles and mountainous areas of Rakhine (Arakan) State, as low-level armed conflict continued between the Arakan Liberation Army and the Tatmadaw (COHRE, November 2007, p.58).
In northern Rakhine State, the predominantly Muslim Rohingya people continue to be denied citizenship in Myanmar and struggled from multiple restrictions as a result of which large numbers have fled to Bangladesh, Malaysia and the Middle East. Since 2006, an increasing number of Rohingya have attempted to reach Malaysia through Thailand, and according to reports emerging in early 2009, Thai authorities have detained them and towed their boats with no engines out to sea (AP, 13 February 2009).
The land of many Rohingya people has been confiscated by the army for the establishment of Tatmadaw farms and businesses. Confiscated land has also served to accommodate the creation of “model villages” which house communities forcibly resettled from other parts of the country as part of a scheme to remodel the demographics of northern Rakhine State (COHRE, November 2007, p.71).
In Chin State, the Chin National Front and its armed wing, the Chin National Army (CNA), is active as a resistance movement, although the operations of the CNA have been considerably reduced (HRW, January 2009, p.13). According to Human Rights Watch, restrictions on fundamental freedoms, forced labour, torture, arbitrary arrests, unlawful and prolonged detention and attacks on religious freedom are some of the violations perpetrated by the Tatmadaw in the state (HRW, January 2009, p.25). In Palweta township of southern Chin State, villagers are reported to have been forced into hiding by the army’s demands, for example that villagers carry supplies for them, build new camps, and provide food and jatropha seeds for the troops. The demands, in addition to restrictions placed on farming, have forced 4,000 people in the area to flee to the forests (FBR, November 2008).
The humanitarian situation in Chin State has worsened in recent years due to severe food insecurity caused by the destruction of crops by an infestation of rats (IRIN, 3 February 2009). The food insecurity is being exacerbated by government policies, such as pervasive use of civilian forced labour, which have interfered with villagers’ traditional cultivation and farming methods and prevented them from working to sustain their families. In addition to many people fleeing to neighbouring India, internal migration has been reported from areas such as Thantlang and Tonzang townships (CHRO, July 2008, p.10).
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Humanitarian and protection situation of the IDPs
Many civilians in eastern Myanmar live with the constant possibility of military attacks and have planned for repeated flight from their villages by setting up shelters hidden in the surrounding forests. These sites are generally located near their villages to allow for quick access and return after troops have left. The structures set up in these hiding sites are generally simple bamboo shelters. If villagers need to stay longer, they may expand the settlement, setting up hillside paddy fields and building more durable structures. Restrictions imposed by the army on travel and trade in and from areas outside its control severely obstruct the efforts of IDPs in hiding to address subsistence needs. As army patrols systematically destroy any hill fields they encounter, displaced villagers in hiding regularly lose their crops at various stages of the crop cycle. A continued army presence may prevent IDPs in hiding from accessing their fields at all, eliminating any possibility of even a limited harvest (KHRG, November 2008, p.134).
The relocation sites IDPs are taken to are located close to military camps, army bases and along main roads which may increase the vulnerability to exploitation and abuse. At these sites, they may be subjected to forced labour demands from soldiers and extortion (Burma Issues, March 2008, pp.77-78). Portering by men, women and children is common and porters have been forced to accompany soldiers on military operations (AI, June 2008, p.30).
Conditions at relocation sites vary (HRW, June 2005), but some have been inadequate to sustain health and a viable livelihood. When IDPs have not been able to access productive land in the area, opportunities to farm have been limited. Some IDPs may have continued to live in relocation sites because the threat of human rights abuses is greater if they return to their villages (Burma Issues, March 2008, pp.77-78).
Within a few years of their establishment, most forcibly relocated communities have seemed to disperse, with the authorities turning a blind eye to their efforts to return to their original land or resettle elsewhere. In many cases conditions in relocation sites have gradually reached the standards of other villages in rural Myanmar, as people have rebuilt their communities in the new location, often in partnership with community-based organisations (CBOs) and local NGOs. In such instances, residents may have preferred to stay in the “new village” and avoid the uncertainties of return or resettlement elsewhere and the possibility of further displacement. Such rehabilitated relocation sites may offer better health and education services and access to markets than the remote villages which people were originally forced to vacate (University of Oxford RSC, February 2007, p.15).
IDPs in ceasefire areas face different risks as there is less active conflict. The ceasefire areas may have limited agricultural land, leading to food shortages, and IDPs may also face restrictions on movement, preventing them from travelling to fields outside designated areas. The IDPs are not compensated for belongings, land or crops damaged during displacement (Burma Issues, March 2008, pp.77-78).
Some children who have been forcibly displaced from their villages have attended makeshift schools in the jungle. They usually study in the open and have no access to books and school supplies. Many of their teachers are not formally trained or adequately compensated for their efforts. Only some displaced children have had the chance to attend these makeshift schools, and others have had to abandon their education altogether. The displaced children may return to their villages after one or two weeks in the jungle, but then after a few months be forced to flee again. This pattern presents a serious impediment to their education (HREIB, November 2008, pp.76-78).
At many relocation sites, the authorities have made little effort to support the education of the forcibly displaced children, or to construct new schools. Travel to schools in neighbouring villages has been restricted, to prevent villagers evading military-imposed duties or even fleeing from the relocation site. Displaced children may have gone from a situation of being able to freely access schools prior to their forcible relocation into a situation where no such facilities exist (KHRG, April 2008, p.23).
The health conditions of displaced and non-displaced populations are very poor in areas of eastern Myanmar. Malaria is the most common cause of death, with more than 12 per cent of the population at any given time infected with its most dangerous strain. Malnutrition is widespread, with more than 15 per cent of children showing evidence of at least mild malnutrition (ANU, 2008, p.211).
Surveys of IDPs in eastern Myanmar’s active conflict zones have estimated maternal mortality at between 1,000 and 1,200 per 100,000 live births, and infant mortality and under-five mortality as 91 per 1,000 live births and 221 per 1,000 live births respectively. In Kayin State, a study on maternal health in non-ceasefire zones showed that the risk of anaemia was nearly three times higher for participants who reported forced relocation, and those reporting loss of food security had ten times the risk. Respondents who reported forced relocation were also almost six times less likely to receive any antenatal care (PLoS Med, 23 December 2008).
In western Myanmar, IDPs in Rakhine State have had insufficient food and clothing, no schooling and almost no international contact or support (COHRE, November 2007, p.58). The IDPs hiding in jungles in Chin State have experienced unstable and harsh living conditions, as well as malnutrition, which have exacerbated cases of diseases such as dysentery, pneumonia and malaria (FBR, November 2008).
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National and international response to the displaced
An unprecedented level of humanitarian space was carved in Myanmar in response to the devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis in May 2008, particularly as a result of ASEAN proactively assuming a leadership role, both in convincing the Myanmar government to cooperate with the international community and in managing the response itself (Belanger and Horsey, ODI-HPN, December 2008, p.5). Additionally the UN’s cluster approach was activated to coordinate assistance to those displaced and affected by the cyclone (OCHA, 5 May 2008).
There has been significantly more humanitarian space in the Delta than in any other part of the country (Belanger and Horsey, ODI-HPN, December 2008, p.4) and the international community has continued to call upon the Government of Myanmar to “ensure timely, safe, full and unhindered access to all parts of Myanmar, including conflict and border areas, for the United Nations, international humanitarian organisations and their partners and to fully cooperate with those actors to ensure that humanitarian assistance is delivered to all persons in need throughout the country”(UNGA Resolution 63/245, 23 January 2009, pp.4-5).
The Government of Myanmar does not recognise the existence of IDPs as a result of conflict and human rights violations within its borders, let alone its responsibility in preventing and addressing such a situation according to recognised international standards. It restricts access to the displaced, especially in the eastern border zones, by UN agencies and other humanitarian actors (UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, 7 March 2008, p.16).
A great limitation on aid has been the lack of access to vulnerable populations, particularly in the conflict-affected areas in Kayin and Kayah states and Tanintharyi Division (ICG, 20 October 2008, p.29). Humanitarian agencies based inside Myanmar can reach more stable areas, including some IDP communities in government-controlled relocation sites and ethnic ceasefire areas, but this assistance is limited. The Myanmar-based international organisations and UN agencies have generally taken a long-term incremental approach to expand their area of activity, starting programmes adjacent to state capitals and gradually moving into more remote locations, although not in the most severely conflict-affected areas. Very few international organisations operating in government-controlled areas of Myanmar implement programmes that specifically target IDPs. This is due to the sensitivity of the issue, as well as a lack of appreciation of the nature and extent of the displacement crisis in Myanmar (South, FMR, April 2008, p.18). While not targeting IDPs specifically may help overcome the issue of political sensitivity, it may also lead to their specific vulnerabilities not being addressed.
Some Myanmar-based agencies have since the late 1990s been working in partnership with local NGOs and CBOs to gain access to vulnerable and remote communities. They have accessed conflict-affected areas, and their relief and development activities have taken the form of self-help initiatives undertaken by extended family and ethnic clan networks, as well as more systematic programmes. Relief aid has usually consisted of food, medical supplies and community rehabilitation and development activities. Three separate church-based networks working with IDPs have developed sophisticated capacities to assess needs, and monitor and evaluate the impact of assistance. Community leaders who have been able to engage with those holding power locally have also undertaken protection work to improve conditions for vulnerable communities (South, FMR, April 2008, p.18).
Cross-border assistance has reached areas in Myanmar inaccessible to agencies operating from Yangon. In addition to those based in Thailand, some cross-border activities are being carried out from Bangladesh, India and China. Most cross-border groups based in Thailand work in Karen areas, but also in Mon and Karenni areas. Security and limited local capacity has led to much less work being undertaken in Shan State. Cross-border programmes provide aid which is impartial and distributed according to need but not neutral. The aid networks are closely associated with armed opposition groups on which they rely for security and logistical support (South, FMR, April 2008, p.18).
The cross-border assistance remains the main means of accessing IDP communities in the more unstable areas along the country’s eastern border. The largest sector of cross-border assistance has been support for livelihoods, including food aid for IDPs in camps close to the border and cash transfers for communities deeper inside the country. The other two main sectors are health and education, while smaller amounts of assistance go towards the protection of civilians caught in the conflict and the promotion of civil society. Despite the ongoing conflict, in some communities it has been possible to supplement emergency relief activities with social capital development and the rehabilitation of natural, physical or social assets (TBBC, FMR, April 2008, p.20).
The level of trust and dialogue between humanitarian agencies assisting IDPs from inside Myanmar and through cross-border means has increased significantly in the last few years. However, challenges remain with information-sharing and coordination between Myanmar-based and Thailand-based agencies, and while there is a minimal overlap in existing services, this is related primarily to restrictions on access and funding. Efforts need to be strengthened to overcome ongoing constraints facing agencies based in Myanmar and Thailand, such as logistical difficulties, political risks and budgetary concerns (TBBC, FMR, April 2008, pp.20-21).
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Sources
Amnesty International (AI), 5 June 2008, Crimes against humanity in eastern Myanmar
Associated Press (AP), 13 February 2009, Thai PM says Myanmar migrants sent back to sea
Burma Issues (BI), 15 March 2008, Living Ghosts: Spiralling repression of the Karenni population
Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), 8 November 2007, Displacement and Dispossession: Forced Migration and Land Rights in Burma
Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO), July 2008, Food Scarcity and Hunger in Burma's Chin State
Conflict and Health, 14 March 2008, Displacement and disease: The Shan exodus and infectious disease implications for Thailand
Forced Migration Review (FMR), 22 April 2008, Under attack: a way of life
Forced Migration Review (FMR), 31 December 2008, Achievements and limitations of the Guiding Principles in Burma
Forced Migration Review (FMR), 22 April 2008, Humanitarian aid to IDPs in Burma: activities and debates
Forced Migration Review (FMR), 22 April 2008, Responses to eastern Burma’s chronic emergency
Free Burma Rangers, November 2008, Hunger and Malnutrition in Arakan and Chin States
Human Rights Education Institute of Burma (HREIB), November 2008, Forgotten Future: Children and Armed Conflict in Burma
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Human Rights Watch (HRW), 27 January 2009, Burma/India: End Abuses in Chin State
Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), 3 February 2009, Rats exacerbate food insecurity in Chin State
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Recession hits women in developing countries
http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/598496
The most shattering moment of Bushara's life arrived without warning: "One year ago when I went out to buy breakfast, I saw something written on the wall of our house," she said. "The graffiti told Shiites in the neighbourhood to get out."
Bushara, an Iraqi mother who lived near Abu Ghraib prison, knew there was no time to waste. The death squads were on the march. In bare feet, she fled with her husband and young daughters as the winter winds propelled them from their home. Her story, told to Oxfam International, is typical for Iraqi women, who have suffered loss and destitution since the U.S. overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003. Nor has the reported lessening of violence since 2007 improved their lives.
According to an Oxfam survey released last week, "despite fragile security gains and a decline in indiscriminate and sectarian violence over the past months, the day-to-day lives of many women in Iraq remain dire." Questioning 1,700 women in five provinces, Oxfam found:
• More than 40 per cent said their security situation was worse than last year; 22 per cent said it was about the same.
• 55 per cent said they had become victims of violence since the invasion.
• More than 30 per cent had family members who died violently.
• About 69 per cent said access to water was worse; 25 per cent had no daily access to drinking water.
• Two-thirds had electricity less than six hours a day, and one-third less than three hours a day.
• 40 per cent said that their children were not attending school.
– Olivia Ward
Raising their placards for equality
In tough economic times, fear about layoffs, bankruptcies and companies shutting their doors threaten to push other issues off the public agenda.Mar 08, 2009 04:30 AM
Comments on this story (6)
Olivia Ward
FOREIGN AFFAIRS REPORTER
In Nepal, destitute parents sell their daughters to traffickers. In Pakistan, marrying off underage daughters relieves a family's financial burden. In parts of Asia and Africa, mothers are forced to choose which of their children they will feed, and which will starve.
Today, International Women's Day, women celebrate the gains made in achieving equal rights and highlight the widespread wrongs that damage the lives of the 3.3 billion females around the world.
But the issue foremost in women's minds is the global recession, which has hit the most vulnerable half of humanity with exceptional force.
Seventy per cent of the poorest people on the planet are women and girls, and even in a wealthy country like Canada they are the majority of the poor.
Although the global downturn began in the financial sector, dominated by men, it is now bearing down on women, most often found in low-wage and part-time jobs.
The recession has plunged from wealthy to developing countries, where women lack safety nets to help them survive.
"As the economy slows, the disaster in the financial institutions is affecting the real economy," says Sylvia Borren, co-chair of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty, a coalition of groups in 100 countries.
"What happens is the informal sector suffers first – the cleaning women, gardeners and people who do the household jobs. They are mostly women."
As worldwide consumer confidence fades, says the International Labour Organization, traditionally female service jobs in cafes and retail stores are also disappearing. It predicts that 22 million of an estimated 51 million to lose their jobs this year will be women.
Adding to the problem is a global food crisis that has caused a spike in the price of dietary staples like rice, narrowing the line between malnutrition and starvation.
"The increase in hunger and economic stress is accelerating fast, and that affects women in a number of different ways," says Borren.
Because women earn less than men even in good times – a 16 per cent global pay gap, according to the International Trade Union Confederation – they have less to fall back on when times turn bad.
But those at the bottom are also caught in a vicious circle of poverty and abuse. Women who held normal jobs are forced into the "shadow" economy of prostitution, drug smuggling and other criminal activity. Or they are drawn into the nets of vicious international traffickers.
They're also more at risk of domestic violence, when unemployed husbands and fathers take out their frustration at home.
At the same time, cuts in humanitarian aid budgets mean less money to spend on education, the key factor in lifting women out of poverty. Health care suffers, with devastating effects on pregnant women, HIV/AIDs victims, and those in conflict zones where women are targeted for sexual attack.
Some of the worst affected women are migrants, whose numbers grow as life gets harder in their original countries.
"Women and girls are disproportionately affected by the risks of migration because of their vulnerability to exploitation and violence," says Ndioro Ndiaye of the International Organization for Migration. And, he adds, lack of access to health care can have long-term effects for women and their children.
But as the economic storm clouds gather, the horizon is not entirely dark for women, says Borren.
"If you go to local solutions, you see room for hope," she says.
"To help in the food crisis, there's organizing and investing in microcredit so women can have plots of land. Unions are trying to solve the problem of lack of qualified teachers with fast-track training. Small water and electricity projects can work at the household level."
Along with increased risk there is great opportunity for women in the current crisis, Borren says. "We're concentrating on top-down solutions, which have proved unsustainable, and often stupid. Now it's time to put women at the centre, and work from the bottom up."
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