United Nations Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Development

Early in May several NGOs urged their members to write to their government leaders and and urge them to personally attend the United Nations Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Development, originally scheduled for June 1-3, here in New York.  Only occasionally do we get to see results from the letters and emails we send to government officials but it is clear that our our action in May is having an impact. The US Mission to the UN indicated that more that 700 letters were received on this topic!

The impact of the global financial and economic crisis continues to cut deeper into the economies of the world, especially in the so-called developing world. Since the beginning of May government representatives at the UN have been meeting regularly to negotiate the text of an outcome document for the UN Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Development now scheduled for the 24th-26th June 2009.

Background

One of our  NGO colleagues, who has been monitoring the current negotiations, reports the following:

• Areas of considerable agreement among the governments: need follow up reform process beyond conference itself; UN is legitimate forum as all countries represented; need improve current system and address needs of the poorer countries; keep focus on people-centered development
• Areas needing further clarification before any agreement: naming the root causes of the crisis; has economic growth brought benefits to those living in poverty?
• Areas of marked differences: G77 (developing countries) want to address role of specific developed countries and the international financial institutions (IFIs) in current crisis and see as essential reform of the IFIs; EU and US (developed economies) hesitant to affirm these

For more information and references: http://www.un.org/ga/econcrisissummit/webcast.shtml; http://www.un-ngls.org

The sessions of the Conference will be webcast, cf. http://www.un.org/ga/econcrisissummit/webcast.shtml

The upcoming summit from the perspective of the General Assembly. http://www.un.org.ga/econcrisissummit/

The summit from the perspective of the NGOs working on Financing for Development. http://www.FfDngo.org

Center of Concern response to G-20 meeting: http://www.coc.org/node/6370

OXFAM analysis of G-20 meeting: http://www.oxfam.org/en/policy/what-happened-g20

Take Action!

Even if you acted in May, please send another letter to your government leader: Below is a sample letter to President Obama

Dear President Obama:

We are writing to urge you to attend the United Nations Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Development that will be held from the 24th to 26th of June 2009 in New York.

Your message of hope and change has inspired people across the globe, but this current crisis has shattered many people’s hope for a better future, replacing it with despair.  Developing countries are suffering disproportionately from this crisis for which they bear the least responsibility, and we believe, as you do, that peace, stability and prosperity are inextricably linked.

The responses currently proposed by the G20 are not sufficient to address the root causes of this complex crisis. And we know that real recovery for the global economy must include input from the developing world.  This crisis may be the impetus for transformational change, but such change requires strong leadership.  Your presence and input could make a tremendous difference and move us closer to a more equitable and sustainable global economic structure.

Sincerely,

Email the White House:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

You can also call or fax:
Phone Numbers
Comments: 202-456-1111
FAX: 202-456-2461
TTY/TDD
Comments: 202-456-6213

The Equal Sharing of Responsibilities between Women and Men

The annual Commission on the Status of Women took place during the first two weeks of March at the United Nations in New York. This commission was established in 1946 to promote, report on and monitor issues relating to the political, economic, civil, social and educational rights of women. The theme this year was “The equal sharing of responsibilities between women and men, including caregiving in the context of HIV/AIDS.”

Providing care for children, the sick, the elderly, and the disabled has always been considered women’s work, while men have been expected to be the primary breadwinners for their families.  Even though this traditional division of labor has long been the norm in most societies and cultures, there is a need for change today because there is evidence that this arrangement increases poverty, limits girls’ access to education, negatively impacts the health of women and girls, limits their participation in political decision making and reduces their ability to help their communities cope with climate change. The challenge of caring for those effected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic has compounded these problems.  All of this leaves families, communities and nations worse off.

While the outcome document from CSW 53 still needs to be extensively studied and analyzed, one important result of the commission is already being widely noted and discussed within UN circles. Many believe that CSW 53 has moved the issue of the equal sharing of responsibilities between women and men from the private and family sphere into the public square in the same way that the issue of domestic violence was moved over a decade ago. Just as domestic violence was once regarded as a “family matter” and is now the subject of public policy in most countries, many believe that this commission brought to light how the unequal sharing of responsibilities circumscribes the full benefits of citizenship for women and girls and marks the beginning of a change in the way that families, communities and nations think about “women’s work.”

Visit the website of the 53rd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women.

Anticipatating Nuclear Disarmament

Knotted Gun - UN Headquarters, New York

This is a moment at United Nations Headquarters here in New York that is energizing and hopeful.  It rings of possibility that progress can be made in many areas of conflict in the world.  One of the primary areas of shifting politics is in Disarmament.

Negotiations will be long and arduous, but there is a strong move toward cooperation — something which has not been felt for years.  For us, as Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) it is a time of putting our minds and hearts into full gear.  It is time to present our issues to governments, Commissions and the Secretariat so that our concern for safety, security and a peace that reverences the dignity of every human person as well as our Earth is not ignored.

Our work at the UN is international, but we realize that the United States is a major player on the long road toward negotiating the elimination of nuclear weapons in the world.  There are nine countries: US, Russia, United Kingdom, France, China, Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea, who already possess nuclear weapons and we know that other countries are in the process of developing them.  And so, our work is a movement toward entering into the conversation of deterrence.  How do we get there?

Our first move is an urgent request for the US and Russia to hold a new round of talks. These two countries hold 80% of the world’s nuclear arsenal.  The goal is to achieve significant reductions of nuclear weapons in these two countries.  This would be a major political leadership achievement and it is hoped that other countries would follow.

In anticipating a nuclear free world, we need to encourage our own governments to move beyond a fig leaf and/or a handshake.  We need to examine our current stance on all the treaties we have signed and ratified and examine what commitments we need to make.  Then, we need a serious commitment to be willing to disarm our arsenal.  As citizens of the world, as peacemakers, we need to utter our call for peace once again.  The time is now!

For more information and action steps go to:

• International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament
• Nuclear Weapons Free
• Reaching Critical Will
• Nuclear Age for Peace

- from Partnership for Global Justice:  UN Update, March, 2009

The Experience of Women Human Rights Defenders in Latin America

Madres de Plaza de Mayo - Buenos Aries

During my visit with the Passionist Sisters in Argentina in 2002, they took me to the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aries to see the Madres take their symbolic Thursday walk around the plaza. This organization of mothers and grandmothers has fought for over three decades to find their missing sons and daughters, who were abducted by agents of the Argentine government during the years known as the Dirty War (1976–1983). The Madres de Plaza de Mayo have inspired women throughout Latin America to become human rights defenders in their own countries.

Today, many human rights defenders in Latin America, like the Madres de Plaza de Mayo, are survivors of the “disappeared.” In Mexico the practice of forced disappearances was commonplace in the 1970s. It is estimated that 1200 people were disappeared nationally.  Relatives of the disappeared, who are mostly women, have gotten together to find out what happened to their loved ones. The Mexican government has made it difficult for them to find out the truth by leading them on a legal goose chase. In 2000 the Fox administration set up a special prosecutor to look into the disappearances. 19 individuals were arrested in connection with 13 cases. No one was found guilty. Before this office was terminated it issued a detailed report regarding the disappearances, blaming them mostly on the army, even though it continued to investigate only civilian involvement.  After the special prosecutor was terminated, the cases were handed back to a non-specialist court, which is under-staffed and under-resourced and therefore unable to follow up.

Sadly, forced disappearances continue in Mexico. The army and para-military groups are taking on tasks usually undertaken by police, resulting in rape, murders, massacres and forced disappearances. The victims of forced disappearances are usually social and community activists that seek to change living conditions for the peasant population. Mexico has signed on to international human rights instruments, but always with reservations that reduce their effectiveness.

In Colombia, where 3-4 people continue to be disappeared every day, the mothers, daughters, sisters and wives of the disappeared have organized to support one another and to demand the return of their relatives alive. Gloria Gomez, a member of one of these groups says, ” Forced absences made us human rights defenders. Made us brave. Made us stand up for the rights of the disappeared. Made us demand that the truth be heard in Colombia.”

Ironically, Colombia has laws on the books that are a model for combating the practice of forced disappearance and for recovering victims alive, but they are hardly ever enforced. No one is ever punished. Instead prosecutors in Colombia pursue human rights defenders for imaginary crimes. Those who peacefully promote human rights are singled out for intimidation through baseless investigations and prosecutions. Unfounded charges are often widely publicized, stigmatizing the accused and marking them as targets for physical attack by paramilitary groups. The false charges often allege that the defendants are members of FARC.  Alvaro URIBE Velez the President of Colombia has accused human rights defenders of being terrorists.  Often, human rights defenders accused in this way and eventually acquitted by the courts have been murdered or disappeared.

Gloria Gomez – “It’s not easy to be a woman human rights defender. You have to leave behind your privacy, your family and your safety. We didn’t want to be human rights defenders, but like the mothers of Plaza de Mayo in Argentina we have to find out what happened to our loved ones.”

Visit these sites to learn more and find out what you can do to support these brave women.

http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/index2.aspx

http://www.madres.org/

http://hub.witness.org/en/DualInjusticeExcerpts

Hibaaq Osman Campaigns to End Violence against Women

Al Jazeera English – Focus – Ending violence against women.

Hibaaq Osman campaigns to end violence against women in North Africa and the Middle East

Al Jazeera interviewed Hibaaq Osman on the occasion of International Women’s Day, March 8. Hibaaq Osman, who is attending the Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations, is the  founder and chair of Karama, a regional movement of activists collaborating across eight civil society sectors to end violence against women in the Middle East and North Africa.

Without the full and active participation of girls and women and the incorporation of their needs and concerns, UN meetings will not have much substance.

Without their perspectives on all levels of decision-making, the UN’s goals of equality and development cannot be achieved – no matter how many conventions are ratified, no matter how many resolutions are signed. It’s a reaffirmation that without the participation of women, a commission on the status of women would not be here today.

Their needs and interests must be taken into account because it’s an integral ingredient for democracy to properly function. It’s their very pain and strife that can bring us together in solving global problems.

President Obama Calls Wall Street Bonuses Shameful

It’s official: your suspicions of Wall Street greed have been confirmed. Despite last year’s huge losses, multibillion-dollar bailouts and closings of some of the biggest names in the industry, Wall Street still gave out an estimated $18.4 billion in bonuses. Indeed, last year’s bonuses were the sixth-largest on record.

On Thursday, President Obama, in a flash of anger, called these bonuses “shameful,” suggesting that he intended to take a hard line against excesses in executive compensation. http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/29/bonuses-for-bad-performance/

The thing that most concerns me about this is that we have become a culture that admires people like this, ruthless people who beat the system, win the game and take it all, with no thought of the carnage they leave in their wake. We only mind now because we are feeling the effects ourselves. They are taking our money.

What will it take to get us to value honor over greed? Doesn’t this make you sick?

Our Patchwork Heritage

obama speech, originally uploaded by jaclynrisa.

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.
- President Barack Obama

Stand up for Aisha!

On October 27 2008, in Somalia, 13-year old Aisha Duhulow was stoned by fifty men until she died in front of crowd of more than one thousand spectators. Before her murder, Aisha Duhulow had been raped by three men, and when her family reported the rape she was accused of adultery and sentenced to the stoning.

The Working Group on Girls, http://www.girlsrights.org, has a group on Facebook to raise awareness, especially among young people, not only about what happened to Aisha, but about violence against women and girls everywhere. We are hoping to have at 1000 people join our group by January 28, the four month anniversary of Aisha’s death, when we will black out our pages in her memory.

If you belong to Facebook please be one of 1000 to “Stand up for Aisha” at: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=41898817130&ref=nf

After you join, please share the group on your profile page!

Norway Makes Paying for Sex Illegal

A new law goes into effect in Norway today. Norwegian citizens caught paying for sex at home or abroad face fines, jail time or both. Authorities in Norway hope that this new legislation will stamp out sex tourism as well as street prostitution. There has already been a visible decrease in women working on the streets of central Oslo, local media report.  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7806760.stm.

Percentage of men who purchase sex acts by country - 2004

Sweden has used this type of legislation to achieve the same goals and also to successfully reduce forced prostitution and trafficking for sexual purposes.  See: Stopping the Demand for Trafficking in Women & Children.

Critics of this new legislation claim that it will just drive prostitution underground and make it more difficult to control, but evidence from the Netherlands where prostitution is legal suggests the opposite.

An article in Le Monde in 1997 found that 80% of prostitutes in the Netherlands were foreigners and 70% had no immigration papers, suggesting that at least some were victims of sex trafficking and forced prostitution. The Netherlands is a primary country of destination for victims of human trafficking. Many of these are led to believe by organized criminals that they are being offered work in hotels or restaurants or in child care and are forced into prostitution with the threat or actual use of violence. Estimates of the number of victims vary from 1000 to 7000 on a yearly basis. Prostitution in the Netherlands.

For a window into the life of a victim of sex trafficking read yesterday’s column by Nicholas D. Kristof of the New York Times. Kristoff has written extensively about this issue. The Evil Behind the Smiles describes the abuse and torture endured by Sina, a girl of 13, who was kidnapped from her native Vietnam and sold into prostitution in Cambodia.

The best way to stop human trafficking is to reduce the demand that drives it. Norway’s new law will deter many men from buying sex. There will be no more easy money to be made by traffickers, so Norway will stop being a destination country for trafficking.

There is a Cholera Epidemic in Zimbabwe. What is Cholera Anyway?

Cholera Epidemic Is Latest Zimbabwe Crisis to Spill Into Neighboring Countries – washingtonpost.com.

When I read this headline I thought, “Cholera was a disease that killed a lot of people in Victorian London.” Then it occurred to me that I really didn’t know what cholera is, so I looked it up.

Cholera causes diarrhea so severe and so acute that unless oral rehydration therapy is started promptly, death can occur within hours. The diarrhea results in such extreme dehydration that victims become dried up caricatures of their former selves before dying. The description of the scene this week outside the hospital in Musina, a South African border town crowded with refugees from Zimbabwe explains why cholera is feared more than many other serious diseases because it is so dehumanizing.

Beneath trees exploding with yellow and red blossoms, more than 100 adults and children lay inside steamy tents and under bushes, intravenous tubes stretching from the backs of their hands to bags of liquid hanging from tree trunks. Some, suffering through the gravest stages of an illness that causes severe diarrhea and dehydration, wore nothing but adult-size diapers.

People get cholera when they do not have access to clean water. Cholera is transmitted from person to person through ingestion of water contaminated with cholera infected feces.  This epidemic is a direct result of the dire political situation in Zimbabwe and the resulting destruction of infrastucture and health systems. In recent months the disease has killed 570 people and infected 12,700 more. Now cholera is spreading to neighboring countries including Botswana and Mozambique.

Clever Kachitigu (23) said, “We’re just praying that the Lord will help us, because our president is killing us now.”

Visit: UNICEF to learn more and see what you can do to help.