Pax Gaea Human Rights World Post

PAX GAEA WORLD POST HUMAN RIGHTS HEADLINES SATURDAY, 10 JANUARY 2007

TOPICS

• Mozambique children break taboos, talk frankly with peers on young people's radio show
• $485 million added to Central Emergency Response Fund to assist devastated nations
• Americans overwhelmingly view UN negatively yet still want them to assert world leadership
• Gaia Theory inspiration behind Virgin 's Branson $25 million greenhouse gas cleanup prize
• Child soldiers of Sudan find difficulty reintegrating into communities
• Honor killing of Pakistani women on the increase according to 2006 survey
• 'War on Terror' ally Ethiopia PM accused of terrorizing political opponents
• Former State Dept., USAID officials form new rights group to address conflict in Darfur, Africa
• UN Peacekeepers press battle against Haitian gangs in Port-au-Prince slums
• Israel, Palestine clashes continue over excavations new mosque Israel claims as "routine repair work"

MOZAMBIQUE: Young people's radio show breaks down taboos

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

MAPUTO , 8 Feb 2007 (IRIN/PLUSNEWS) - Subjects like HIV/AIDS and child trafficking, usually considered taboo in Mozambican society, are being openly discussed by the teenage presenters of radio and television programmes for young people. Radio Mozambique presenter Amelia Maisha Tumgine, 13, is one of several presenters using the airwaves to talk frankly with their peers about subjects that matter to them but are often considered off-limits by parents. "I don't feel uncomfortable anymore talking about difficult subjects like HIV - it is no longer an adults' problem, as it also affects children. If the issue is only approached by adults, then kids will continue to believe that it is something they do not have to deal with," she said. According to UNAIDS, 16.1 percent of people aged between and 15 and 49 are infected with HIV. Although 33 percent of males and 20 percent of females aged between 15 and 24 know to prevent transmission of the virus, statistics indicate that only 6 percent of sexually active girls between the ages of 15 and 19 are having protected sex. Tumgine's colleague at Radio Mozambique, Larsen Msanjate, 17, who has worked on child-to-child radio shows for four years and has had his own slot for the past year, sees the programmes as a way of helping children understand not only childhood problems but also the challenges that come with adulthood. "I think that what we are broadcasting helps kids to grow into adults who know how to make good choices; I think that we are helping to make good changes in kids' lives - this [type of programme] is a window of hope," he told IRIN. IRIN News Service (United Nations) (2/10)

GLOBAL: UN announces $85m for under-funded emergencies

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.

Source: IRIN

NAIROBI, 9 February (IRIN) - A United Nations fund, the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), managed by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), has allocated about US$85 million for under-funded emergencies in 15 countries in Africa and Asia. This funding is part of CERF's two-part annual allocation for life-saving programmes around the world, according to Margareta Wahlström, the acting UN Emergency Relief Coordinator. "While each of these allocations represents but a fraction of the overall requirements in the individual emergencies, as a whole they help us pursue principled humanitarian action in which those who require aid the most are identified, based strictly on need and assisted accordingly," Wahlström said. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is scheduled to receive the highest amount of $36.6 million. The other beneficiaries are: Angola, $4.5 million; Bangladesh, $1 million; Burundi, $8.5 million; Central African Republic, $4.5 million; Cote d'Ivoire, $4.5 million; the Democratic Republic of Korea, $5 million; Eritrea, $2 million; Ethiopia, $6 million; Haiti, $2 million; Myanmar, $354,976; Namibia, $1 million; Somalia, $1 million; Sudan, $6 million, and Zimbabwe, $2 million. The CERF - funded by voluntary contributions - was officially launched on 9 March 2006 to improve emergency preparedness and response to the under-funded and sudden-onset crises. In its first year, CERF channelled at least $252 million to urgent humanitarian projects in 35 countries. Reuters AlertNet (2/10)

United Nations Ratings Remain at Lowest Ebb

Still, Americans want U.N. to contribute to international policy making

by Lydia Saad, Gallup News Service

PRINCETON, NJ -- The United Nations' public image among Americans turned sharply negative following the organization's failure to authorize the United States' use of military force in Iraq at the onset of the war in 2003. However, despite the souring of U.S. public opinion about the war within a year of the war's launch, the image of the U.N. remained low throughout 2005 and has now sunk even further in the past two years. Gallup's latest measure of the United Nations' job performance is the lowest Gallup has seen since first measuring it in 1953: Only 29% of Americans believe the United Nations is doing a good job of trying to solve the problems it has had to face while 66% say it is doing a poor job. This is statistically similar to the 30% saying it was doing a good job a year ago -- but is down from 36% in January 2005. The drop between 2005 and 2006 could be due to the negative publicity surrounding corruption charges against U.N. officials; particularly those involving the son of former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan. Today's record negative perception of the United Nations follows a period from May 2000 to January 2003 when the organization received some of its most positive ratings from the American people -- routinely exceeding 50%. Gallup News Service (2/10)

Virgin boss offers $25m reward to save Earth

James Sturcke and agencies

Sir Richard Branson Thursday offered a $25m (£12.8m) prize for scientists who find a way to help save the planet from the effects of climate change. Flanked by the former US vice-president Al Gore and other environmentalists, the boss of Virgin Atlantic airlines called for scientists to come up with a way to extract greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Describing the prize as the largest ever offered, Sir Richard compared it to the competition to devise a method of accurately estimating longitude. He denied that being the head of an airline prevented him from being concerned about climate change. "Let's confront the airline question. I have an airline. I can afford to ground that airline today. My family have got businesses in mobile phones and other businesses, but if we do ground that airline today, British Airways will just take up the space. "So what we are doing is making sure we acquire the most carbon dioxide-friendly planes. We're making sure that 100% of profits we make from our transportation businesses are put back into things like the prize we've offered today." Sir Richard said he had been influenced by James Lovelock, who developed the Gaia Theory, which suggests that the world may already have crossed a "tipping point". The Guardian (United Kingdom) (2/10)

Sudan child soldiers struggle to give up guns-UN

By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Former child soldiers in southern Sudan are failing to settle back into their communities and instead are picking up guns to fight again, a U.N. official said on Thursday. Radhika Coomaraswamy of Sri Lanka, the special envoy for children and armed conflict, visited Sudan late last month. "We were seeing the phenomenon of children not being re-integrated fully into their communities and actually coming back to the armed forces -- a remobilization," she said. UNICEF, the U.N. children's agency, had helped demobilize several thousand child soldiers in southern Sudan since 2001. She said the agency would conduct a study in the southern Sudanese capital Juba on child soldiers and the services needed in the region, devastated by decades of civil war, to help them reintegrate. "We met a lot of young people, orphans and all, and many of them want to get back into the fighting," Coomaraswamy told a news conference."They want to get back into the armed forces because they are used to carrying a gun, they have social status with a gun and they just can't get back into their communities." A peace deal was signed in January 2005 to end two decades of civil war in the South but has yet to be fully implemented. "Unless you build the community in Juba, unless you actually have education, sport, recreation for the community in Juba, these children are not going to go back," Coomaraswamy said. Reuters AlertNet (2/10)

Nearly 600 women killed in Pakistan 'honour killings' in 2006

At least 565 women and girls in Pakistan died in so-called honour killings in 2006, the country’s main rights organisation said today, nearly double the number it recorded the year before. The sharp increase from 287 in 2005 was due "at least in part" to expanded data collection, the privately funded Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said in its annual report. However, it said many more cases may have gone unreported and has estimated in the past that the annual total may be about 1,000. Many men in deeply conservative rural areas of Pakistan consider it an insult to family honour if female relatives have an affair outside of wedlock or even if they marry without their consent. Some view attacking or killing the women or their partners as a way to restore family honour. In the report released today, the commission said at least 475 of last year’s honour killings followed accusations of “illicit relations". Sixty of the dead were minors. Arrests were made in only 128 cases, it said. Irish Examiner (2/10)

Ethiopia is accused of 'torturing and illegally jailing opponents of regime'

By Steve Bloomfield

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia is conducting a systematic campaign of intimidation, detention and torture against political opponents of its increasingly autocratic government, human rights groups have alleged. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, a celebrated ally of the US administration in its "war on terror" and previously invited to sit on Tony Blair's Africa Commission, has become increasingly blatant in his suppression of opposition. At least 40 opposition supporters in the country have been held in prison since December where torture has become commonplace, according to evidence from Amnesty International. None of the detainees being held in Addis Ababa's Maikelawi prison have been allowed to see family members or lawyers and released suspects say prison guards routinely torture inmates. The opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) also claimed several of their supporters had been shot dead in a series of extra-judicial killings. Those held include a 23-year-old IT student called Endalkachew Melese who was arrested on 15 December in Addis Ababa. His family has been allowed to bring him food but have not been able to see him. Despite being taken to court, he is yet to be formally charged. Mr Melese, like the others held with him, is a supporter of the CUD.Mr Meles was once the poster boy for good governance in Africa and feted only two years ago by the West as one of Africa's brightest democratic leaders. Since then, his star has fallen rapidly. Mr Meles first changed the constitution to allow himself to seek a third term as prime minister and the subsequent elections in May 2005 were marred by allegations of fraud. Mr Meles and the opposition claimed victory and the prime minister called in the security forces to quell unrest. Several thousand suspected government opponents were arrested after demonstrations in Addis Ababa in 2005. Police and security forces opened fire on demonstrators, killing 187 and wounding 765. Independent (United Kingdom) (2/10)

New Advocacy Group Aims To Point Up Atrocities in Africa

Former Officials Unite to Focus Public on Darfur, Other Conflicts

By Nora Boustany, Washington Post Foreign ServiceVeteran Africa activists, frustrated by the slow response from Sudan's government to international demands to ease the plight of refugees in Darfur, are regrouping to take their fight to the next level. A new group, calling itself Enough, has joined the growing list of nongovernmental peacemaking organizations. Its aim, the founders said, is to tap into the grass-roots awareness and sense of rage generated by the Darfur crisis and create a social and political network that can identify potential wide-scale atrocities, particularly in Africa, and stop them before they occur. The three co-founders are Gayle E. Smith, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, who was previously an officer with the State Department and the National Security Council; Africa expert John Prendergast, a senior adviser at the International Crisis Group who also served at State and the NSC in the Clinton administration; and Colin Thomas-Jensen, Africa research and advocacy manager for the International Crisis Group and a former official with the U.S. Agency for International Development. "We've got people's attention on Darfur. While we have it, there are other raging fires such as Uganda and the Congo, and it is more cost-effective to act in concert," Smith said. "I am both excited and moved by the activism on Africa and what has happened in the last 30 years. . . . It is breathtaking." In a survey by the Pew Research Center conducted in December, 51 percent of American respondents said they thought the United States had a responsibility to do something about ethnic violence in Darfur, and 53 percent were in favor of U.S. troops in Darfur as part of a multinational force to help end ethnic genocide there. Washington Post (2/10)

U.N. Troops Fight Haiti Gangs One Street at a Time

By MARC LACEY

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Feb. 5 — For years, street gangs have run Haiti right alongside the politicians. With a disbanded army and a corrupted wreck of a police force, successive presidents have either used the gangs against political rivals or just bought them off. Recently, something extraordinary has occurred. President René Préval decided to take on the gangs and set the 8,000 United Nations peacekeepers loose on them, a risky move that will determine the security of the country and the success of his young government. “We’re taking back Port-au-Prince centimeter by centimeter,” said Lt. Col. Abdesslam Elamarti, a peacekeeper from Morocco. “We’re pressing these gangs so the population can live in peace.” The offensive by the United Nations forces, who arrived here in 2004 after the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, began in earnest in late December. One of the fiercest battles took place on the morning of Jan. 25 with a raid by hundreds of United Nations forces on a gang hide-out on the periphery of Cité Soleil, this sprawling seaside capital’s largest and most notorious slum. After a fierce firefight in which gang members fired thousands of shots, United Nations officials succeeded in taking over the hide-out, a former schoolhouse that gang members had once used to fire upon peacekeepers and to demand money from passing motorists. The United Nations said four gang members had been killed in the battle. New York Times (2/10)

Arab Protesters in Jerusalem Clash With Israeli Forces

By GREG MYRE

JERUSALEM, Feb. 9 — Israeli troops charged onto the grounds of Jerusalem’s most contentious religious site on Friday and fired tear gas and stun grenades at stone-throwing Palestinians who were protesting Israeli excavation work taking place nearby. The confrontation, which began immediately after midday worship on the Muslim day of prayer, marked the fourth straight day of Palestinian protests against Israel’s renovation of a 50-yard walkway leading up to the compound, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount. The clashes quickly spread to streets nearby and to other parts of Jerusalem’s Old City as Palestinian youths barred from the compound hurled stones at a large contingent of Israeli police officers in riot gear. Over all, 19 Israeli police officers and 17 Palestinian protesters suffered minor injuries, and 17 Palestinians were arrested. Because of the holy site’s significance to Jews and Muslims, any dispute has the potential to ignite a major conflict here and in the wider region. The latest trouble began Tuesday when work on the walkway began. Palestinians say they fear that a section of the foundation of part of the 35-acre compound could be damaged, and Muslim countries have joined in criticizing Israel. But Israel says that it is carrying out routine repair work that does not endanger the mosque compound, and that Muslim extremists are trying to manufacture a crisis. With tensions running high, Israel prohibited men under 45 to attend Friday Prayer at the mosque. But some younger men did manage to get inside, and they emerged from the prayers chanting “God is great.” They immediately headed toward the police and began throwing stones and bottles at the officers, who were just outside the gate of the compound. Some 200 police officers then ran onto the grounds, firing tear gas and stun grenades, sending up clouds of smoke.As they chased the stone-throwers, the police approached the entrances to Al Aksa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock shrine, but did not enter. New York Times (2/10)

Labels: Darfur, Ethiopia terror, Haiti gangs, Mozambique, Pakistan honor killings, Palestinian Israeli clashes, Richard Branson, Sudan, UN Global fund, US opinion

posted by Dave Carroll @ 2/10/2007 03:58:00 PM