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October 28, 2002
Posted 8:17 PM
by Mary
Tuesday, October 22, 2002
Anti-Woman Decisions
AUSTIN, Texas -- As all the Miss Witherspoons of our lives used to call in those clear, fluty tones, "Attention, girls!" Heads up, women, we've got problems.
The latest in a long line of anti-woman decisions by the Bush administration is, for once, getting some attention, in part because of the sheer cheapness of the move.
President Bush has decided not to send the $34 million approved by both houses of Congress for the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA). The fund provides contraception, family planning and safe births, and works against the spread of HIV and against female genital mutilation in the poorest countries of the world. Thirty-four million dollars goes a long way in the parts of the world where over 600,000 women die every year from pregnancy and childbirth, many of them children themselves.
Of course, our poor government is so broke it can't afford to waste $34 million on women in poor countries. It has more important things to do, like spending $100 million on "promoting marriage." (I'm in favor of recycling old Nike ads for this one: "Marriage. Just do it.")
Two women -- Jane Roberts, a retired teacher in California, and Lois Abraham, a lawyer in New Mexico -- have started a splendid symbolic protest, and it is spreading by email, fax, newsletters and all kinds of women's groups. The organizers are looking for "34 million Friends of UNFPA" to send $1 each to the United Nations (FPA) at 220 East 42nd St., New York, N.Y. 10017.
Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, director of the UNFPA, said the $34 million U.S. contribution would have helped prevent 2 million unwanted pregnancies, 800,000 induced abortions, 4,700 maternal deaths, and 77,000 infant and child deaths. We don't have $34 million to save the lives of poor women, but President Bush wants to spend $135 million on abstinence education, which doesn't work worth a damn.
According to that fountain of misinformation, the Rev. Jerry Falwell: "This announcement angered school sex educators, who concentrate on teaching our nation's students that they should explore their sexuality and ignore the consequences. But Mr. Bush said government can teach children how to exhibit sexual control."
Actually, sex education is entirely about the consequences of "exploring sexuality," and it works. The Guttmacher Institute published a report last week showing that the abortion rate is down by 11 percent in this country precisely because young people are now getting more education about sex. One would think the anti-abortion forces would be grateful.
Instead, there is every indication that in addition to taking away a woman's right to choose whether to have an abortion, the Bush administration is going after contraception, as well. Bush's first action on his first day as president was to reinstitute the global "gag rule" that no foreign aid can go to any women's clinic abroad that that mentions the word abortion, even when the life of the mother is at stake. Now he wants to make W. David Hager chairman of the Food and Drug Administration's panel on women's health policy. Hager is an ob-gyn from Kentucky who wants the FDA to reverse its approval of RU-486, the so-called "abortion pill."
Although Hager is the editor of a book that includes the essay "Using the Birth Control Pill is Ethically Unacceptable," he told Maureen Dowd of The New York times he does not agree with the essay. Then why include it? He does not prescribe contraceptives for single women, does not do abortions, will not prescribe RU-486 and will not insert IUDs. Hager also believes headaches, PMS and eating disorders can be cured by reading Scripture. I do not want this man in charge of my health policy.
It took almost all of human history for the population of the globe to reach 1 billion in people in 1800. It took only from 1987 to 1999 for world population to grow from 5 billion to 6 billion. At current rates, we will reach 13 billion by the middle of the 21st century. Ninety-five percent of this growth will be in Africa, Latin America and Asia.
Studies estimate that by 2025, two out of every three people on Earth will live in water-stressed conditions. The stress on global resources is already apparent. The National Wildlife Federation points to severe deforestation, habitat fragmentation, species extinction, water scarcity, climate change, loss of biodiversity and pollution. Eighty percent of the original forest is gone or degraded. The grim toll on the Earth's resources goes on and on.
While we spend trillions of dollars on weapons, the military and homeland security, the real threats -- water scarcity, climate change and population growth -- advance unchecked. Of course, you would know more about all this if the media weren't so busy wasting hours of time on rank speculation about the Maryland sniper. Crime doesn't pay, but it sells.
Posted 5:57 PM
by Mary
Critique of Iraq Resolution
(based on 23 October 2002 draft)
24 October 2002 by Phyllis Bennis. Institute for Policy Studies
The U.S. has put before the 15 members of the Security Council the latest version of their draft resolution on Iraq. The new version includes several small but significant concessions to French and Russian opposition. These include dropping the demand for UNMOVIC inspectors to be chosen primarily from the U.S. or other major military powers; eliminating the call for regional UNMOVIC bases to be set up throughout Iraq; , removing the use of national (including U.S.) troops to enforce exclusion zones and other aspects of the inspections.
Despite those shifts, the resolution still is designed to legitimate a unilateral U.S. war. It is clear, however, that the Bush administration is feeling the pressure of domestic opposition, military unease, and widespread international resistance. That resistance was most visible in the 50+ countries that spoke directly in opposition to a U.S. war, and in favor of inspections and UN decision-making at the special session of the Security Council on October 16 and 17th. Initiated by South Africa as head of the Non-Aligned group at the UN, the open Council debate provided an immediate and intense challenge to U.S. backroom warmaking.
October 25, 2002
Posted 7:44 PM
by Mary
UN HUMAN RIGHTS EXPERT HAILS DIALOGUE WITH IRAQ BUT URGES KEY REFORMS
New York, Oct 25 2002 3:00PM
While welcoming the fact that he is able to conduct a dialogue with officials in Iraq, a United Nations human rights expert has called on the country to undertake a series of reforms aimed at ending abuses, according to a UNDOC report to the UN General Assembly released today.
Andreas Mavrommatis, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iraq, cites various sources pointing to ongoing abuses, including extrajudicial killings, torture, cruel, degrading and inhuman treatment and punishment, forced displacement, the lack of fair trial, freedom of expression and association, religious freedom and other rights.
During a visit to the country earlier this year, Mr. Mavrommatis gathered "considerable information regarding alleged human rights violations by the Government," including reports relating to "secret detention sites, where allegedly torture, cruel, degrading and inhuman treatment and punishment is widespread."
Calling on Baghdad to implement proposals he has long put forward for improving the human rights situation in Iraq, the Special Rapporteur lauds the fact that a dialogue has been initiated with the Government. He urges the Iraqi authorities to provide all requested information, including that concerning individual cases he has brought to their attention. Mr. Mavrommatis also calls on the Government to implement a moratorium on executions and to "end all actions and policies that directly or indirectly affect or encourage religious intolerance, or any other sort of discrimination." Baghdad, he says, should abolish the special courts, and ensure that the rule of law is respected everywhere and at all times in Iraq.
Posted 9:18 AM
by Mary
This is a quick follow-up on the United Nations NGO Briefing of October 24, 2002:
The briefing was devoted to disarmament. (October 24th is also UN Day - celebrating the 57th year of the founding of the UN. I forwarded separately the UN News digest.)
The speakers were:
Mr. Kevin Dowling, Head, Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Section, Department of Foreign Affairs, Ireland
Ms. Randall Forsberg, Director, Institute for Defense and Disarmament Studies
Mr. Joseph Sherwood McGinnis, Deputy Permanent Representative of United States to the Conference on Disarmament
Mr. Randy Rydell, Senior Political Affairs Officer, Department of Disarmament Affairs
UN General Assembly First Committee's 57th session meeting from September 30 - November 1, 2002
The First Committee deals with Disarmament and International Security (see UN Charter).
To keep us up-to-date, the following websites are helpful:
Reaching critical will.org
On this website the First Committee's Draft resolutions, their sponsorship and voting results are posted. One such draft resolution is particularly timely:
"Prohibition of the development and manufacture of new types of weapons of mass destruction and new systems of such weapons." (UN document A/C.1/57/L.5)
The US is working on new nuclear weapons which would use fusion instead of fission. The world, at this point, has good verification systems to detect a country's activity concerning the production of fissile materials but does not have the capability to detect a country's activity concerning the production of weapons of mass destruction produced by fusion.
Other websites are:
ig.org/Disarm The site of the NGO Committee on Disarmament, Peace and Security. DISARMAMENT TIMES is now available at this site.
UrgenCall.org UrgentCall.org is a new initiative to engage and educate a broad public about the growing danger that nuclear weapons will be used, and about practical steps to reduce that danger.
Also Helen Caldicott's new book:
THE NEW NUCLEAR DANGER, GEORGE BUSH'S MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX , New Press; ISBN: 1565847407 (April 2002)
Mr. Rydell mentioned that as far as he knows, New Zealand is the only country with an Office of Disarmament Affairs.
Margaretha Jones UN NGO IHEU
marjones@nyc.rr.com
October 23, 2002
Posted 9:38 PM
by Mary
RIGHTS: U.N. Asks 16 States to Probe Religious Intolerance
Wed Oct 23, 9:26 AM ET Thalif Deen,Inter Press Service
UNITED NATIONS (news - web sites), Oct 23 (IPS) - The United Nations has written to 16 member states, urging them to investigate widespread complaints of religious extremism and intolerance against individuals and ethnic groups.
The letters, from the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Abdelfattah Amor, were sent to Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Myanmar (formerly Burma), Nigeria, Pakistan, Moldova, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United States and Zimbabwe.
The most damaging complaints received by the United Nations were against the United States. Since the terrorist attacks in September last year, there have reportedly been 520 violent incidents in the United States, all of them directed against Arab-Muslims or those perceived to be such.
Additionally, there are 27 confirmed cases in which persons perceived to be Arab-Muslims have been expelled from aircraft after or during boarding on the grounds that passengers or crews did not like the way they looked.
In a report to the U.N. General Assembly, Amor says there have also been hundreds of cases of employment discrimination against Arab-Muslim Americans and others, including numerous terminations. The U.S. Justice Department is said to have profiled some 5,000 names of persons it wants to talk with. ''Most of these are chosen on the basis of ethnic or religious profiling,'' the report said.
Last year the Federal Bureau of Investigations also identified about 5,000 persons living in the United States to be contacted for ''voluntary interviews'', the purpose of which was to gather information about al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups believed responsible for the attacks on the United States last year.
The special rapporteur, Amor, has also received a number of complaints regarding investigations involving alleged arbitrary and extended detention, denial of counsel, and prisoners being held incommunicado.
Yahoo story
October 18, 2002
Posted 11:10 AM
by Mary
Last week, Ambassador Dumisani S. Kumalo of South Africa, on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement, requested and secured from The Security Council an open debate of the wider UN membership before the 15 member Security Council before it adopted any proposed resolution. Secretary-General Kofi Annan also asked to see the Council President (they rotate monthly) Ambassador Martin Belinga-Eboutou of Cameroon, and a number of other representatives before he left for China to "take the pulse" on where things stand with the Security Council.
Margaretha Jones and I spent several hours listening to the debate yesterday and found it heartening. All called for a multilateral approach and reminded the Council that it alone has the final authority about when to use force. There were also reminders that other countries have defied similar binding resolutions that fall under Chapter 6 and 7 of The UN Charter.
In the afternoon, Ambassador Negroponte indicated that the US had issued a declaration of purpose not a declaration of war and that he insisted that we would abide by weapons inspections first. If they broke down, he agreed that the US would come back to the Security Council before going into Iraq. In the meantime, the US Marine Reserves are being called up and sent to the mideast. Please hold our Administration to account.
It seems to me that we need to close the gap between the rhetoric at the UN and at the US. For example, as of this moment, we are not at war just very very close. It is not too late to keep our neighbors and friends learningt about the dire consequences if we go in...recession, inability to replace an Iraqi regime, more international attacks in Israel, horrific choices that take us closer to imperialism, damage to the environment, etc. We must not let fear and helplessness take over. There is still time to encourage Americans to stand up in opposition to this possible US preemptive strike.
In the end, our present leaders can be cowed by electoral choices. Keep talking and check in frequently to the newscasts on Cable television. I understand that the debates are being shown, also check in at UN.org for the news.
Martha Gallahue, The National Service Conference of The American Ethical Union
Posted 11:09 AM
by Mary
In a chaotic and turbulent world, the internationalization of human rights law has become an important moral phenomenon of our time. It has found expression in the ratification of many human rights conventions, in tribunals rying criminals who have committed crimes against humanity, the recent establishment of the International Criminal Court, and the establishment by the United Nations in 1993, of the Office of the U.N High Commissioner of Human Rights.
Mary Robinson, a former President of Ireland, who has been commissioner for the past five years, has pushed human rights into the forefront of international attention. Now she is leaving because she has been too outspoken. She gave her farewell speech at a conference on the task of rebuilding societies recovering from conflict. She was greeted by a standing ovation, a heartfelt welcome from an audience whose appreciation comes because she has given a voice to groups who have been previously unheard, and because she has sought out innovative and practical ways to resolve conflicts.
In her address on the task of rebuilding, she emphasized the role of local leadership, including parliaments, civil society, and n'gos as well as women's groups. She pointed out that ignoring abuses only promotes more abuses. The International Criminal Court, which came into being during her administration, can help to feed the growing hunger for justice. As a grass roots example of the truth and reconciliation processes begun in Sierra Leone and in Timor-Leste, she described how people gathered in a hut to hear criminals confess to minor crimes. If human rights are enforced by a strong and impartial policy, peace and reconciliation can prevent revenge killings and ongoing ethnic strife.
In a more intimate meeting of the Committee For Human Rights she pointed out that the controversial Conference on Racism and Xenophobia in Durban had received an extraordinarily positive response becuase of the new recognition of indigenous peoples.As a post-Durban happening, she announced the formation of an anti-discrimination unit, opposing anti-Semitism, antiArabism, and anti-South east Asians. She continually referred to the linkage bewtween democracy, human rights and development. On the sensitive issue of women's rights she mentioned that in Johannesburg she took a place as a symbolic picket opposing the subjection of women's health to cultural standards internationally copnsidered as mutilation and abuse. In the final days of her five years in office she criticized the United States' use of immigration laws to detain foreigners for indefinite periods, and for racial profiling of American citizens of Arab descent as enemy combatants. America's anti-terrorism measures are being copied by other countries to suppress opponents. America, once in the forefront of concern for human rights, is now behaving as if standards have changed.
Over the past few years the U. N system of special rapporteurs has been employed to investigate and promote alleviations of human rights abuses in a very large number of countries. For more information on the great variety of activities by the Office of the High Commissioner consult UNHCHR. Mary Robinson said that she leaves with a feeling of serenity, gratitude and enormous pride in her colleagues. Their work will continue. Sylvain and Phyllis Ehrenfeld Representatives to the UN from IHEU and the AEU 's National Service Conference.
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"War does not determine who is right--only who is left." - Bertrand Russell
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