Bangkok, Thailand Many adults and children in Thailand, Lao PDR, Cambodia and Vietnam have a limited understanding of what constitutes child sexual abuse and how to prevent it, revealed a new report, Sex, Abuse and Childhood: A study about knowledge, attitudes and practices relating to child sexual abuse, including in travel and tourism, in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Vietnam. The report, released today by Project Childhood Prevention Pillar, found that most children and adults understood child sexual abuse narrowly as the penetrative rape of girls. Other sexually abusive acts (such as inappropriate touching or exposure to pornography) were not generally recognised as well as the sexual abuse of boys. “Limited understanding of child sexual abuse by children and adults means that cases can go undetected ,” says Aarti Kapoor, Program Manager, Project Childhood Prevention Pillar. “We know that child sexual abuse often begins with grooming children, inappropriate speech and touching and escalates to more serious forms of abuse over time. Child sex offenders are often known to the family and target both girls and boys; however there was little understanding of this amongst the people we talked to.” More than 600 children and adults in Thailand, Vietnam, Lao PDR and Cambodia were interviewed in the study that was released today in Bangkok, Thailand, on the eve of International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression. Of all the groups interviewed, parents had the lowest levels of understanding on the issue of child sexual abuse. “Lack of awareness of the basics of child sexual abuse means that parents are unlikely to identify risks and cases early within abusive relationships”, says Afrooz Kaviani Johnson, Technical Director, Project Childhood Prevention Pillar. “Parents might miss opportunities to intervene and a lack of understanding can also affect their overall response to the needs of the child.” The report recommends child sexual abuse prevention education, particularly for parents and carers, children and community members. “We know from international experience that child sexual abuse prevention education is an effective preventative mechanism to build resilience against abuse in vulnerable communities”, says Ms Aarti Kapoor. “Children and adults need the information, skills and strategies to protect children from all kinds of sexual abuse – whether committed by a stranger, foreigner, local person, friend or family member”. The full report, Sex, Abuse and Childhood: A study about knowledge, attitudes and practices relating to child sexual abuse, including in travel and tourism, in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Vietnam, an Executive Summary and Key Findings snapshot are available for download at www.childsafetourism.org. Media enquiries: Mark Nonkes, Regional Communications Officer - East Asia contact: mark_nonkes@wvi.org About Project Childhood Project Childhood is a 4-year Australian Government initiative to combat the sexual exploitation of children in tourism in the Mekong sub-region which is completing in June 2014. Project Childhood has built on Australia’s long-term support for programs that better protect children and prevent their abuse. Project Childhood brought together World Vision and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to address the serious issue of sexual exploitation of children in tourism. The project worked in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Vietnam and took a dual prevention and protection approach. World Vision took a child safe tourism approach in working with governments and communities to prevent children from becoming victims of sexual exploitation in travel and tourism. Through the use of education and training, public campaigns, and strengthening of child helplines; governments, communities, and tourism industries are better aware of the vulnerabilities of at-risk children to sexual exploitation in travel and tourism and better equipped to build a protective environment. UNODC worked with law enforcement agencies to protect children through strengthening law enforcement responses. Through the increased knowledge of law enforcement and stronger regional and international cooperation, governments are better equipped to identify and counter child sexual exploitation.
More workers joining trade unions in Wales
Business Wales Trade unions Membership of Trade Unions is on the increase in Wales Credit: Press Association Images Membership of trade unions across the UK is falling, but Wales is bucking the trend. Recent figures show that 40,000 more workers were members of trade unions in 2013, compared to 2012. Unison welcomed the increase in numbers. A spokesperson said, "Trade unions are as important now as they have ever been. Workers would not have annual leave, maternity and paternity leave, and sick leave if it weren't for trade unions." At their in 1979 peak trade unions membership reached over 13 million across the UK. Since then the numbers have been steadily declining as the world of work has changed. The workforce in industries such as mining, which were traditionally heavily unionised, has shrunk dramatically. Experts say the growth in Wales might be because younger people are more likely to join unions if their parents were members.
* ビルマ女性国際法廷 開催！ *
みなさまへ
以下の企画、いよいよ今週末に迫ってまいりましたので、
是非ご参加・ご協力いただけると幸いです。
是非私たちとしてもメディアで取り上げてもらいたい、と思っていますので、
お知り合いのメディア関係者の方々にもご案内いただけると嬉しいです。
26日の関連企画、アクティビスタも、ビルマ女性たち(27日にお話しいただかない活動家)の
お話になりますので、是非こちらもあわせてご参加いただけると嬉しいです。
では、よろしくお願いいたします。
ヒューマンライツ・ナウ 伊藤和子
━◆◇━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
* ビルマ女性国際法廷 開催！ *
International Tribunal on Crimes against women of Burma
2010.06.27
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◆◇━━
軍事政権が続くビルマ(ミャンマー)。
ここに生きる女性たちは暴力にさらされ、彼女たちの生活と自由は脅かされています。
軍事政権は、少数民族の女性たちに性的な暴力を繰り返し、3,300以上の村を破壊し
人々を殺害、拷問し、女性や少女を厳しい強制労働に駆り立てています。
また民主化運動のリーダー、アウンサンスーチーさんは自宅に軟禁され、
2,100人以上の政治犯たちが投獄され、自由を奪われています。
軍事政権は、国連などから何度批判をされても人権侵害をやめることなく
犯罪の責任を問われません。
私たちビルマの女性は何十年もの長い残虐な圧制に耐えてきましたが
いま、勇気をもって立ちあがります。
2010年3月2日、ニューヨークにて、
ビルマ女性連盟とノーベル平和賞を受賞した女性たちのイニシアティブで
初めてのビルマ女性国際法廷が開催され、
軍事政権が人道に対する罪を犯したことが認定されました。
今度はビルマから軍政の抑圧を受けてきた女性たちが来日して証言、
この日本でアジア初のビルマ国際女性法廷を開催します。
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
●日時 2010年6月27日(日) 13: 00～17:00
●場所 青山学院大学 6号館模擬法廷
http://www.aoyama. ac.jp/other/ access/aoyama. html
JR山手線・東急線・京王井の頭線「渋谷駅」宮益坂方面出口より徒歩10分
地下鉄「表参道駅」B1出口より徒歩5分
●参加費 500円 (申込不要)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
【主催】 ビルマ女性連盟(Women's League of Burma) 【共催】 特定非営利活動法人ヒューマンライツ・ナウ
【協賛】 アジア女性資料センター、社団法人アムネスティ・インターナショナル日本、在日ビルマ民主化グループ
全日本フェミニスト議員連盟、ビルマ市民フォーラム、ビルマ情報ネットワーク、ヒューマン・ライツ・ウォッチ
【助成】 株式会社ラッシュジャパン
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
≪裁判官≫
濱田邦夫(弁護士/元最高裁判事)
久保利英明(弁護士/元日弁連副会長)
後藤弘子(千葉大学教授/内閣府男女共同参画局女性に対する暴力調査会委員)
新倉修(青山学院大学教授/国際民主法律家協会事務局長)
敷田みほ(会社経営/市民の裁判員制度・つくろう会元事務局長)
≪検察官≫
雪田樹理(弁護士/ヒューマンライツ・ナウ女性プロジェクト)
渡邉彰悟(弁護士/ビルマ市民フォーラム事務局長)
石田真美(弁護士/ヒューマンライツ・ナウビルマプロジェクト)
弘川欣絵(弁護士) 小田川綾音(弁護士) 三輪咲絵(弁護士)
≪弁護人≫
矢花公平(弁護士) 原田いづみ(弁護士) 鈴木多恵子(弁護士)
≪証人≫
軍政の人権侵害の被害にあい、また人権侵害を目撃した三人のビルマ女性たち
& 土井香苗氏(ヒューマンライツ・ウォッチ)
詳細は
http://hrn.or. jp/activity/ event/627/
をご確認ください。
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
＊予約・問合せ先＊
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
特定活動非営利法人 ヒューマンライツ・ナウ
〒110-0015 東京都台東区東上野1-20-6 丸幸ビル3F
Tel：03-3835-2110 Fax：03-3834-2406 Email：info@ngo-hrn. org
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
* Asian Activist-α2010！ * 世界を変えようとする女性たち
～ビルマ・女性に対する暴力への挑戦～
2010.06.26
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◆◇━━
いま、アジアに生きる女性たちの多くが、人権を否定されています。
理不尽な暴力、踏みにじられる心、自由に生きることへの恐怖。
その事実に正面から光りをあて、問題克服を目指し
世界を変えようとするActivist-αたち。
今回は、軍事政権の支配が続くビルマ（ミャンマー）で、軍によるレイプ、
強制労働、投獄などの人権侵害にたちむかって
果敢に活動するActivist-αたちが来日。
ビルマの女性たちの深刻な現実とこれからの課題を語り合います。
彼女たちの活動と現実に耳を傾け、日本と世界の現状を変えるために
私たちができることを考えてみませんか？
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
●日時 2010年6月26日(土) 13: 30～16:30
●場所 青山学院大学 総研ビル11階 19会議室
http://www.aoyama. ac.jp/other/ access/aoyama. html
JR山手線・東急線・京王井の頭線「渋谷駅」宮益坂方面出口より徒歩10分
地下鉄「表参道駅」B1出口より徒歩5分
●参加費 500円
人数把握の為、なるべく事前のご予約をお願い致します。
（ヒューマンライツ・ナウ事務局
Email：info@ngo-hrn. org / Fax：03-3834- 2406）
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
【主催】 特定非営利活動法人ヒューマンライツ・ナウ
【助成】 株式会社ラッシュジャパン
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
◆プログラム
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
挨拶 目黒依子(国連女性の地位委員会日本代表)
【第一部】記念講演
『ビルマ・女性に対する暴力への挑戦』
＊ティンティンアウン氏 （ビルマ女性連盟理事）
【第二部】シンポジウム
＊ティンティンアウン氏 （ビルマ女性連盟理事）
＊雪田樹理氏 （弁護士/ヒューマンライツ・ナウ）
＊渡辺彰悟氏 （弁護士/ビルマ市民フォーラム事務局長）
コーディネーター
＊伊藤和子氏 （弁護士/ヒューマンライツ・ナウ事務局長）
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
◆スピーカー紹介
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
＊ティンティンアウン氏
1988年ビルマの民主化運動に参加し、軍のクーデターの後
ビルマからインドに亡命。
ビルマ・インド国境の難民キャンプで2年間を過ごしたのち、
インドのニューデリーにて難民認定申請。
以後20年にわたり、インドにおいてビルマ民主化や女性の人権、
エンパワーメントのために活動を続けている。
2010年3月、ノーベル平和賞を受賞した女性の団体
「ノーベル女性イニシアティブ」がニューヨークで開催した
ビルマ女性に対する犯罪についての国際民衆法廷に参加し、
ビルマ軍政によるレイプや拷問、強制労働などの被害を訴えた。
＊雪田樹理氏
1990年、弁護士登録（大阪弁護士会）。ヒューマンライツ・ナウ関西事務局長。
1995年から2年間イギリスに留学し、
女性や子どもの権利に関する問題を調査、研究。
現在は、女性に対する暴力、とりわけ性暴力、セクシュアルハラスメント、
ドメスティックバオレンスの事件や女性労働者に対する差別、
婚外子差別、難民問題を扱っている。
2007年には、ヒューマンライツ・ナウの「女性に対する暴力」プロジェクトの
メンバーとして、インドの現地調査に参加。
＊渡辺彰悟氏
1990年弁護士登録（第一東京弁護士会）。日本弁護士連合会人権擁護委員、
第一東京弁護士会人権擁護委員、年民問題調査研究委員会委員長等を歴任し、
現在、全国難民弁護団連絡会議事務局長、在日ビルマ人難民申請弁護団事務局長、
ビルマ市民フォーラム事務局長を務める。
医療事件、外国人事件、難民事件を専門的に手がけてきた。
ヒューマンライツ・ナウのビルマ・みらいの法律家プロジェクトの講師として、
2009年秋、タイ・ビルマ国境のメイソットにあるピースローアカデミーを訪問し
学生に講義を行った。
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
◆呼びかけ人
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
◆大崎麻子（開発政策、ジェンダー専門家）
◆久保利英明（弁護士、元日弁連副会長）
◆郡司真弓（WE21ジャパン）
◆佐藤安信（東京大学教授）
◆園部逸夫（弁護士、元最高裁判所判事）
◆林陽子（弁護士、国連「女性差別撤廃委員会」委員）
◆目黒依子（上智大学名誉教授、国連婦人の地位委員会日本代表）
◆山下泰子（国際女性の地位協会会長・文京学院大学名誉教授）
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
◆Asian Activist-αとは？
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
人々のかけがえのない人権が守られるように積極的に活動し、
世界を変えようとする女性アクティビストたち。
ヒューマンライツ・ナウは、アジアで女性の権利のために活動し、
未来のリーダーとなる女性アクティビストを
「Asian Activist-α」と呼び、その活動をサポートしています。
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
●ヒューマンライツ・ナウ（Human Rights Now）
http://hrn.or. jp/
国境を越えて世界の人権に取り組む日本発の国際人権NGO。
アジアを中心に 各国の人権侵害に光を当て告発し、状況を変えていく活動を展開。
「女性に対する暴力廃絶プロジェクト」はアジア各国のNGOとともに暴力根絶のための政策提言を行い、
アジアにおける女性の人権のウォッチドッグの役割を果たそうとしています。
「ビルマプロジェクト」は軍事政権の抑圧の続くビルマの人権監視、告発、国連や各国政府への働きかけを行っています。
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
＊問合せ先＊
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
特定活動非営利法人 ヒューマンライツ・ナウ
〒110-0015 東京都台東区東上野1-20-6 丸幸ビル3F
Tel：03-3835-2110 Fax：03-3834-2406 Email：info@ngo-hrn. org
____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ ________
Human rights in recession
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/eo20090306hc.html
Friday, March 6, 2009
By HUGH CORTAZZI
LONDON — "It's the economy, stupid!" declared Bill Clinton during his U.S. presidential election campaign. He was right then as well as now in emphasizing that economic issues are paramount with voters.
President George W. Bush thought that the war on terror overrode all other issues. After 9/11 this was the dominant factor in Western politics even if the term "war on terror" was inaccurate.
We need to beware of minds that fail to understand the dangers to our way of life other than recession and terrorism. There are real threats to human rights in the developed and developing worlds, and if we fail to confront these threats, we will jeopardize our own future.
President Barack Obama has rightly decided that the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, should be shut and has banned the use of torture by U.S. agencies, but efforts are being made by his opponents, and by agencies that feel threatened by the exposure of their methods, to accuse the president of weakness in the defense of U.S. security.
Foreign governments and their agencies, which may have been involved in cases of "extraordinary rendition," have been doing their best to avoid being contaminated in the human rights scandals that tainted the regime of George W. Bush. It's not an attractive picture when governments plead national security as an excuse for a coverup. We also need to bear in mind that even in democratic countries the forces of law and order are sometimes guilty of infringing human rights (as in application of the death penalty).
Still, issues in democratic countries that still need addressing are much less serious than those in countries that cannot claim to be democratic. For example, freedoms are still not protected in China. Political dissidents are persecuted and imprisoned. In so-called autonomous regions, including Tibet, supporters of independence or real autonomy are victimized. Tibet is closed to journalists and most tourists. The situation in other regions colonized by Han Chinese settlers is not much better.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in her recent visit to China, appears to have downplayed U.S. concerns about human rights because she wanted to concentrate on seeking Chinese cooperation in dealing with the economic crisis. This was unfortunate if understandable.
North Korea remains a threat to South Korea and to Japan. While the regime looks after its own henchmen, the population suffers. In negotiations over nuclear issues and other threats, including the fate of kidnapped Japanese nationals, the North Koreans behave with singular deceit.
In Southeast Asia abuses of human rights have been reported from Thailand to Indonesia, but the worst examples have surely occurred under the military administration in Burma (also known as Myanmar). The Association of Southeast Asian Nations has been far too soft toward this odious regime, and the Japanese government's attitude strikes many observers as, at best, feeble.
The situation in parts of South Asia is unsatisfactory, particularly in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Pakistani Islamic extremists, especially in the North West frontier region, have caused a breakdown in law and order, leading to much ill-treatment and violence.
The Taliban in Afghanistan show a total disdain for human rights. In Iran democratic freedoms are restricted by the theocratic regime of the ayatollahs. It remains to be seen whether the Iraqi government can establish a regime that is acceptable to the Kurds and the Sunni minority as well as to the Shiite majority.
The rest of the Arab world varies greatly in its respect for human rights. In particular, the rights of women are severely restricted in many countries such as Saudi Arabia. Many regimes tolerate torture and restrict press freedom.
In Europe the biggest threats to human rights are in Russia and Central Asia. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, formerly of the Soviet secret police, has become increasingly autocratic and ruthless. He will not tolerate opposition and is determined to limit press freedom.
The biggest threat to human rights in Africa comes from the corruption that pervades almost every regime. In some such countries as Kenya and Nigeria, corruption has become endemic. In others, racial tensions have led to civil wars and genocide.
The situation in the Darfur region of Sudan, Rwanda and the Congo remains dire and appalling amid a continuing loss of life and freedom. Attempts by the United Nations to intervene have largely failed to the shame of the Security Council and member states.
Anarchy in Somalia has lasted for decades, with no respect for justice let alone other human rights. Pirates from Somalia have become a menace to shipping not merely in the Gulf of Aden but also off the east coast of Africa. The contagion has spread to the west coast where countries such as Liberia and Sierra Leone still teeter on the brink of anarchy.
Central and South America, by comparison, may seem relatively well governed, but serious blots are soon apparent upon closer look. Cuba remains a one-party state with depressed living standards. Few foreigners would want to live in Haiti or Nicaragua. Autocratic leaders such as Hugo Chavez in Venezuela make life unpleasant for many people.
These are only a few examples of disrespect for human rights. The Japanese government could surely do more to uphold human rights especially in Asia. It can no longer plead that it is inappropriate for Japan to criticize other governments because of its own record on human rights up to 1945.
Hugh Cortazzi, a former British career diplomat, served as ambassador to Japan from 1980 to 1984.
ေမွ်ာ္တလင့္လင့္
BY Ye Yint Thet Zwe
တိတ္ဆိတ္မႈ အရိပ္ေအာက္မွာ
ဆူညံတဲ့ ေၾကကြဲမႈေတြရွိတယ္
၀င္ကစြပ္ေကာင္တို ့ရဲ ့လွည့္စားမႈမွာ
ေဆာင္းညမ်ား မအိပ္ႏိုင္ မစားႏိုင္ရွာ
၀ဋ္နာ ကံနာ တခုလို
လေရာင္ေအာက္မွာ ။
အံုနဲ ့က်င္းနဲ ့ လက္ခံခဲ့ရတဲ့ ေ၀ဒနာ
နံရိုးအၿပိဳင္းၿပိဳင္းမွာ တူညီတဲ့
ယံုၾကည္မႈေတြရွိတယ္
ေဟရာကလိုက္တပ္စ္ ရဲ ့အာေဘာ္
(ျမစ္တျမစ္ထဲကို လူတေယာက္ႏွစ္ခါမဆင္းႏိုင္)
ငါ့ကို နဲနဲ ေအာ္ခြင့္ေပးပါ ။
ရင္ဘတ္ေတြနဲ ့စိုက္ပ်ိဳးခဲ့ၾကၿပီး
ဘယ္လို ရွင္သန္ဖူးပြင့္ခဲ့ၾကရတယ္ဆိုတာ
ပုခံုးေပၚကတာ၀န္ေတြကို ၾကည့္လိုက္ရံုနဲ ့
ေခတ္တခုလံုး ဆလိုက္ထိုးျပသလိုမ်ိဳး
တကြက္ၿပီး တကြက္
ငါ့မွာ ရင္သတ္ရႈ ့ေမာ ။
ေဆာင္းညမ်ားထဲမွာ
ေစြးေစြးနီတဲ့ေသြးမ်ား
ရဲရဲရင့္ရင့္ စီးဆင္းၾက
ရဲရဲရင့္ရင့္ သမိုင္းမွတ္တိုင္္္္္္္္္္္္္္္္္္္္္္္္္္္ စိုက္ထူၾက
စြန္ ့လႊတ္စြန္ ့စားသြားသူမ်ားရဲ ့
နာနာက်ည္းက်ည္း ေရရြတ္သံမ်ား
ပဲ့တင္လိႈင္းခတ္ လႈပ္ရွား
ဒီဇင္ဘာရဲ ့ ေဆာင္းညမ်ားမွာ ။
ဘယ္သူေရ ၊ ဘယ္၀ါေရ
ကယ္ပါ ကူပါ ငါ မေျပာလိုေတာ့ပါ
ဇြန္ပန္းရံုအနီး လွည္းဘီးနစ္ေနတာ
ရာစုတ၀က္တိုင္ခဲ့ေပါ့ ။
--
Posted By Ye Yint Thet Zwe to Ye Yint Thet Zwe at 3/03/2009 11:30:00 AM
Aung San Suu Kyi given freedom of Glasgow
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/news/display.var.2493351.0.Aung_San_Suu_Kyi_given_freedom_of_Glasgow.php
GERRY BRAIDEN
March 05 2009
Nobel Peace Prize winner and Burmese democracy campaigner Dr Aung San Suu Kyi was yesterday given the Freedom of the City of Glasgow.
Dr Suu Kyi remains under house arrest imposed by Burma's military regime, so the award was received by Dr Thuang Htun on her behalf at the ceremony at Glasgow City Chambers.
Dr Htun is a representative for United Nations Affairs for the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma. He also represents the democracy movement at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.
advertisementThe symbolic gesture has echoes of the decision by the city in 1981 to bestow the Freedom of Glasgow on Nelson Mandela, while he was incarcerated on Robben Island by South Africa's apartheid regime. He collected the honour in person 12 years later.
Dr Htun said: "The fact Aung San Suu Kyi should be given the Freedom of the City of Glasgow, a city far from her home, at a time she is denied even basic freedoms in her own country, is a sharp reminder of the mind-numbing reality of today's Burma.
"Daw Aung San Suu Kyi remains the only Nobel Peace Prize winner currently incarcerated."
The Freedom of the City award was originally proposed by Amnesty International and Glasgow Women's Library.
Dr Suu Kyi is the daughter of Aung San, the wartime leader of Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League who was assassinated 1947. She has endured prolonged periods of detention and imprisonment over the past 20 years by Burma's oppressive regime.
She founded the National League for Democracy (NLD) in 1988 and was swiftly put under house arrest with the offer of freedom if she left Burma.
In 1990 the NLD won the general election decisively and once again Dr Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest. The election result was nullified by a military junta. This was also the year she was awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.
The following year she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and donated the $1.3 million (£900,000) prize money to establish a health and education trust for the people of Burma.
Presenting the honour to Dr Htun, Glasgow's Lord Provost, Bob Winter, said: "It is with profound respect and admiration for Dr Aung San Suu Kyi's unflinching bravery that the Council has conferred upon her the Freedom of the City of Glasgow. This is tempered with frustration that she cannot be here today, in person.
"However, I am delighted that her loyal representative Dr Htun has been able to visit our city to accept the award in her absence. He goes with our very best wishes for Dr Suu Kyi, a shining beacon of hope in her country."
John Watson, Amnesty's International's Scottish programme director, said: "Aung San Suu Kyi is an inspiration to the people of Burma and to those around the world who applaud bravery and dignity in the face of oppression. Amnesty International congratulates Glasgow City Council on its decision to present her with its highest award"
Burmese junta should answer for crimes against humanity concerning cyclone victims
http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=14630
This is the charge of an NGO, which accuses the military junta of exploiting labor - including that of minors - confiscating humanitarian aid, and forced evictions. The report is based on interviews with volunteers and victims involved in cyclone Nargis. In Laputta, there is a shortage of drinking water and the risk of disease is high.
Yangon (AsiaNews/Agencies) - The Burmese government should appear before the International Criminal Court to face human rights charges; the dictatorship committed abuses and crimes in the months following the tragedy of Nargis. This is the harsh condemnation from a humanitarian association that has documented the violations committed by the military toward victims of the cyclone.
"The charge of crimes against humanity is a very grave and serious one," says Chris Beyrer, director of the U.S.-based Center for Public Health and Human Rights, an NGO. "But in the context of a relief effort like this, where you have evidence of forced labour, forced relocation and confiscation of relief aid, these are documented violations that need to be taken seriously."
"After the Storm: Voices from the Delta" is the first independent report - free from censorship by the Burmese military dictatorship - recounting the drama of cyclone victims. It is based on material collected in 90 interviews with volunteers and survivors. It details obstacles and threats directed against volunteers, cases of the disappearance of humanitarian aid that was later resold, and the use of forced labor for reconstruction, including the exploitation of child labor.
For 20 villages in the area of Laputta, in the Irrawaddy delta, there is also the risk of a shortage of drinking water, because of contamination of collection basins and sources. The NGO Emergency Assistance Team says that many people are forced to use drinking water mixed with sea water. Families in the villages are allowed two bottles of drinking water a day - at fifty cents each - and about 4 liters of non-potable water for personal hygiene and laundry purposes. The arrival of summer and the lack of desalination facilities could lead to the deterioration of the situation; cases of diarrhea have emerged among children, and there are fears of widespread disease.
A recent report drafted by the UN and ASEAN - the association that unites 10 countries of Southeast Asia - estimates that 700 million dollars will be needed over the next three years to guarantee reconstruction work in the areas hit by Nargis. The cyclone caused the death of about 140,000 people, but it is estimated that more than 2.4 million Burmese suffered damages of various kinds, and the devastating effects of the cy
Burmese PM Agrees to Election Monitors
By MIN LWIN Monday, March 2, 2009
Burmese Prime Minister Thein Sein reportedly said he would allow United Nations officials and developed countries to monitor the military-sponsored 2010 election during a meeting with his counterpart Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva at the Asean Summit in Thailand.
The Burmese junta will allow United Nations officials to observe its long-awaited general election next year, the Thailand-based Bangkok Post newspaper said on Sunday.
The newspaper quoted Thai deputy government spokesman Suphachai Jaisamut who said Thein Sein told PM Abhisit Vejjajiva that Burma would allow UN special Burma envoy Ibrahim Gambari and the UN staff to observe the election.
Burma also wanted observers from developed countries to monitor the election, the newspaper reported. No countries were named.
The move was seen by some as an effort to move the momentum for the election forward, in the face of strong criticism from democracy groups inside and outside Burma.
“Before we even talk about monitoring the election, there has to be a constitutional review; there has to be a release of [political] prisoners,” said Debbie Stothard, the coordinator of the Alternative Asean Network, speaking to The Irrawaddy on Monday. “There has to be freedom of association and freedom of expression.”
“Otherwise, there is no free and fair [election]—there is no need to hold an election,” she said.
Meanwhile, many Burmese opposition groups have said they will not take part in the election unless the recently approved constitution is reviewed and amended.
The National League of Democracy (NLD), Burma’s main opposition party, has declared it will not take part in the election unless the regime releases all political prisoners, starts a dialogue between pro-democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi and the junta’s leader and reviews the 2008 constitution.
Recently, the NLD said it did not agree with a joint-statement by UN special envoy Gambari and Japan Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone, saying international countries should encourage the Burmese junta to hold general elections in 2010 in a form that would be accepted by the international community.
Nyan Win, an NLD spokesperson, told The Irrawaddy that the joint statement was not consistent with NLD positions as well as resolutions by the UN General Assembly which honor the 1990 election results, which were not implemented by the military regime.
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy. org
Agency lists migrant worker abuse, calls for "humane" govt oversight
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2009/03/02/national/national_30096908.php
By Pongphon Sarnsamak
The Nation
Published on March 2, 2009
A migrants' support agency has reported allegations of official mistreatment of migrant workers in Thailand ranging from payments to police in return for their release from custody, constant "humiliating" police harassment, to the rape of women detainees by Thai Army Rangers.
The 234-page-report was prepared by the Mekong Migration Network and released at a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents' Club in Bangkok last week.
It focused on the issue of arrest, detention, deportation, return and reintegration of migrants in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS).
The report described how arrests of migrant workers in Thailand can happen at any time, day or night. Migrant workers constantly run the risk of arrest while at home, in their workplace, during their leisure time or while visiting places of worship.
Even at temples, migrants were not free from arrest. During October 2006, in Chiang Mai several hundred were detained by police while attending temples to celebrate the end of Lent, the report said.
Local Thais expressed their displeasure through a local website, saying immigration official should respect the sanctity of temples and not make arrests during religious ceremonies.
One Cambodian migrant fisherman in Rayong province told researchers most arrests of fishermen began around midnight, as officials believed they would not create so much commotion if undertaken at night.
However, the majority of migrants reported being offered the opportunity to pay for their release following an arrest, usually before they were taken to the police station.
The amount they were asked to pay varied between Bt200 and Bt5,000, with an average of around Bt1,000.
In some cases women had their hair cut by police. Migrants reported cases of immigration officers in Tak province's Mae Sot district cutting women's hair and shaving men's heads, saying the migrants would then be recognised if they tried to return to Thailand after being deported.
For Burmese women whose long hair is part of their cultural make-up, having it cut in such an undignified manner is extremely humiliating.
Full body searches of migrant women during arrest in isolated areas by male officials is clearly inappropriate and open to abuse, the report said.
It said women migrants in isolated border areas remained particularly vulnerable to abuse. In Mae Sot young women had complained the body searches were physically intrusive and abusive. In 1999, a group of women from Burma were abused similarly in a small hut in the same province.
On 12 July 1999, a group of 50 illegal migrant workers from Burma were being deported near Ban Lan village, west of Chiang Mai's Phang district. The migrants were put under the care of the Thai Army Rangers at Ban Lan.
The officer in charge separated 11 women from the group, and then ordered his men to take the rest of the migrants to the Nong Tao border point nearby. The report charges he took the women one by one into his room and physically molested each one, raping two of them.
Migrants registered with the authorities and holding a valid migrant workers' card are required to carry this card with them at all times. The migrant workers' card confers limited legal rights. While Thai citizens are fined for not carrying their national ID card, migrants lose their legal status in Thailand if they are caught without their card, leading directly to their arrest, detention and deportation.
The migrant workers' card is only valid as an immigration document when the arresting authority can verify the migrant works for the employer named on the card, and in the type of work and geographic area designated on the card.
In order to combat human rights violations experienced by migrants, the Mekong Migration Network's chairperson, Jackie Pollock urged the Thai government and others in the Greater Mekong Subregion to eliminate situations which can lead to abusive and exploitative working conditions and leave migrants vulnerable to arrest, detention and deportation.
She asked authorities to reform the procedures to ensure migrant workers treatment is humane, transparent and subject to legal oversight.
This report was a third edition in the series Migration in the Greater Mekong Subregion : Resource Book (1st edition published in 2002; 2nd edition in 2005) and is in response to rapidly changing issues relating to migration in the subregion, including changes to legislation and policy relating to migration.
In Thailand, the number of unregistered migrants from Burma, Cambodia and Laos is not known, but the estimate suggests that at any one time there are between 800,000 and 1.2 million unregistered migrants present in Thailand.
Asean human rights body lacks power to punish (3:36 p.m.)
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/network/asean-human-rights-body-lacks-power-punish-336-pm
CHA-AM, Thailand -- Southeast Asian officials on Friday praised the creation of a regional human rights body as a historic first step toward confronting abuses, but the body will lack the power to investigate or punish violators like military-ruled Myanmar.
A confidential document obtained by The Associated Press says the rights body, which the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations hopes to form later this year, would "promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms" in the region but will abide by the bloc's bedrock policy of not interfering in members internal affairs.
The document, which outlines the proposed powers of the future rights body, falls short of key demands voiced by international human rights groups, which say the body will have limited effectiveness unless it can impose sanctions or expel countries that violate the rights of their own citizens.
The document was presented behind closed-doors to ASEAN foreign ministers gathered at a coastal resort in Thailand ahead of an annual leaders’ summit this weekend. It is a first draft for the body's proposed powers, with a final draft expected in July before the body is created.
Delegates say the summit will focus on how the region can best cope with the global economic crisis, and the bloc planned to sign a free trade pact with Australia and New Zealand over the weekend.
Although the issues of democratic reform in Myanmar and human rights abuses will be discussed on the sidelines of the conference, ASEAN traditionally shies away from criticism of its members.
"We'll discuss every issue that affects ASEAN but we will not interfere in their internal politics," Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva told reporters in Bangkok when asked if leaders will push Myanmar for change.
"Political reform in each country is their own business but we can pass on the message to them from the outside world."
Thailand, which currently holds ASEAN's rotating chairmanship and is hosting the summit, bills the meeting as a turning point for the bloc.
It is the first time leaders will meet since the group signed a landmark charter in December.
The document made ASEAN a legal entity and moves it a step closer to its goal of establishing a single market by 2015 and becoming a European Union-like community - despite being a disparate Cold War-era bloc with fledgling democracies, authoritarian states, a military dictatorship and a monarchy.
Rosario Manalo, a Philippine diplomat on the panel drafting the human rights body's outline, said the plans mark efforts of the region to move toward democracy.
"It is a historic first for Southeast Asia," he said.
Officials said the powers of the human rights body could evolve over time.
"Investigative powers should not be ruled out. We'll take it step by step," said Sihasak Phuangketkeow, Thailand's chairman of the drafting committee. "We have to go as far as we can but at the same time we have to be realistic."
ASEAN's 10 members - Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam – range from very poor to moderately rich.
The bloc has long been criticized as a talk shop that forges agreements by consensus and steers away from confrontation.
According to the confidential document, the human rights body would follow the principles of "noninterference in the internal affairs of ASEAN member states" and any of the group's decisions "shall be based on consultation and consensus," giving Myanmar and other violators veto power to block decisions.
International human rights groups have urged ASEAN leaders to press military-ruled Myanmar to end its rights abuses.
London-based Amnesty International said this week that ASEAN "must be empowered to effectively address human rights in Myanmar."
New York-based Human Rights Watch, in a letter to ASEAN, urged the summit to address "the dire human rights situation in Burma" and improve treatment of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants.
The United States, in a report Wednesday, blasted Myanmar's junta for having "brutally suppressed dissent" through extrajudicial killings, disappearances and torture, and cited the country's more than 2,100 political prisoners, including pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. (AP)
Burma cyclone response was 'crime against humanity'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/burmamyanmar/4839404/Burma-cyclone-response-was-crime-against-humanity.html
Burma's regime deliberately blocked international aid getting to victims of last year's cyclone, a report has claimed.
By Thomas Bell, South East Asia Correspondent
Last Updated: 11:33PM GMT 26 Feb 2009
Survivors of Cyclone Nargis in Burma did not receive donor money they were promised to rebuild their lives Photo: AFP/Getty
The first independent inquiry into the aftermath of the disaster has said the authorities should be referred to the International Criminal Court for stopping help getting through and persecuting survivors.
It found the Burmese leadership failed to provide adequate food, shelter and medical care in the wake of Cyclone Nargis which struck the Irrawaddy Delta on May 2 last year, killing at least 140 000 people.
Around 3.4 million people were effected by the disaster, which swept away homes, farms, granaries, livestock and wells.
Researchers from Johns Hopkins University in America and an organisation of Burmese volunteers called the Emergency Assistance Team – Burma (EAT) have documented what happened in the following weeks.
Military checkpoints were set up across the delta as the regime treated the disaster not as a humanitarian emergency but as a security crisis.
The report claims some people who attempted to distribute private aid were arrested. It details allegations of aid being stolen and resold by the military authorities.
The researchers also claim the army used forced labour, including of children, in the aftermath of the disaster.
According to one survivor: "[The army] did not help us, they threatened us. Everyone in the village was required to work for five days, morning and evening, without compensation. Children were required to work too.
"A boy got injured in his leg and he got fever. After two or three days he was taken to Rangoon, but in a few [days] he died."
There were also anecdotal accounts of people dying in the aftermath of the cyclone due to the actions of the army.
But restrictions in the country mean no one has been able to estimate how many died in a supposed "second wave" of deaths in the period after the cyclone.
Under international law, creating conditions where the basic survival needs of civilians cannot be adequately met, "intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health," is considered a crime against humanity.
The report concludes that the United Nations Security Council should refer the junta for investigation by the International Criminal Court.
2008 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices
US lashes 'brutal' Myanmar rights record
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/090225/usa/us_rights_myanmar_1
Wed Feb 25, 4:39 PM
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States lashed out at the Myanmar regime's human rights record Wednesday, saying the military was "brutally" suppressing its citizens and razing entire villages.
In an annual global report on human rights, the State Department said Myanmar's ruling junta carried out numerous extrajudicial killings along with rape and torture without punishing anyone responsible.
"The regime brutally suppressed dissent," it said, faulting the junta for "denying citizens the right to change their government and committing other severe human rights abuses."
Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, crushed a 2007 uprising led by Buddhist monks, killing at least 31 people, according to the UN. In May last year, a cyclone left 138,000 people dead or missing.
"The regime showed contempt for the welfare of its own citizens when it persisted in conducting a fraudulent referendum in the immediate aftermath" of the cyclone, the State Department said.
It said that Myanmar also "delayed international assistance that could have saved many lives."
The regime forcibly relocated people away from their homes, particularly in areas dominated by ethnic minorities, with troops then confiscating their property or looting their possessions, the report said.
"Thousands of civilians were displaced from their traditional villages -- which often were then burned to the ground -- and moved into settlements tightly controlled by government troops in strategic areas," the report said.
"In other cases villagers driven from their homes fled into the forest, frequently in heavily mined areas, without adequate food, security or basic medical care," it said.
The State Department also said that women and members of certain minority groups are completely absent in the government and the judiciary.
Myanmar's most famous woman, pro-democracy advocate and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, has been under house arrest for most of the last 19 years.
Posts
