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

How Can We End Human Trafficking?

more about “Labour Inspection in Italy by an elit…“, posted with vodpod

Yesterday, United Nations’ Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in remarks to a special General Assembly Thematic Debate on Human Trafficking related the story of Grace Akallo.

“Grace Akallo was a young high school student in Uganda who dreamed of being the first person from her village to go to university. Then came the Lord’s Resistance Army. Rebels took her and 138 other girls from their dormitory and marched them into the forest.

Grace told her story at the Security Council last week. I listened with the heaviest of hearts. “My spirit died,” she said, recounting how she was forced to kill and was repeatedly raped.

She was followed into the forest by the headmistress, Sister Rachele, who confronted the rebels. They threatened to kill her in front of the girls. She was asked to leave, but instead she faced them down, risking her own safety so that others could be freed. In the end, she was able to rescue more than 100 girls.”

The Secretary-General then challenged those present. “If this seemingly powerless educator from Uganda could face down armed rebels, surely we in this room can stand up to this threat with bold and decisive action.

Trafficking in weapons, drugs and blood diamonds has long been on the UN agenda. Now we must add people to that list.

I spoke just now about Uganda, but examples could be drawn from any of a number of countries from Asia, across the Americas, to Europe. Millions are bought and sold like chattel, most of them women and children.”

He called on member states to:

• Criminalize human trafficking. All countries must ratify the UN anti-trafficking Protocol.
• Prevent victimization by teaching people about their rights and protecting them.
• Reduce demand.
• End to impunity.
• Protect the victims.

The Secretary-General’s call for a coordinated effort to combat forced labor and human trafficking comes at a time when, because of the world financial crisis and increasing restrictions on legal migration more people are likely to fall victim to traffickers. The most vulnerable, people already living in poverty, especially women and children will suffer the most.

According to a new report by the International Labour Organization (ILO) entitled “The Cost of Coercion”, the value of the work done by people who are trapped in forced labor is over 20 billion US dollars per year.

Trafficking and forced labor are a scourge that reaches across the globe. The ILO report highlights facts and figures from each region.

Europe and Central Asia
Trafficking in Europe reflects shifts in patterns of economic development and the gradual enlargement of the European Union. While most of the victims identified by authorities are women trafficked for sexual exploitation, the number of cases of men trafficked for labor exploitation is on the rise. A recent case in Italy illustrates the international nature of the business of trafficking.  Police discovered a group of Chinese workers trapped in forced labor in a hidden factory. A lengthy investigation revealed that the leader of the trafficking ring that brought these workers to Italy lived in a suburb of Paris.

Asia
The biggest share of the world’s forced laborers are from Asia. Many are migrants, either from elsewhere in Asia or from their home country. Three issues are of particular concern.

• The persistence of bonded labor systems, particularly in South Asia, despite legislation to ban it.
• Widespread trafficking of children and adults, for both sexual and labor exploitation.
• Continued use of forced labor by the State and official institutions, notably in Myanmar.

Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa is the region with the third highest incidence of forced labor in relation to population after Asia and Latin America. It reflects long-standing patterns of discrimination against vulnerable groups, sometimes linked to the historical legacy of slavery. People in areas of conflict are at risk, an extreme example being child soldiers. There is trafficking of people for labor and sexual exploitation both within and across African countries and to Europe, North America, and the Middle East. Women are especially affected.

Americas
Latin America accounts for the second largest number of forced laborers in the world after Asia. Those most at risk are migrant workers in sweatshops, agriculture and domestic service. The main form of forced labor is through debt bondage.

Forced labor in Latin America is closely linked to patterns of inequality and discrimination especially against indigenous peoples.

In the United States and Canada the increased focus on human trafficking have brought to light more and more cases of forced labor among foreign workers, particularly in debt bondage in agriculture and domestic service.

Middle East
Forced labor and human trafficking are closely intertwined with migration in the Middle East, particularly in the Gulf States where there is a high proportion of migrant workers mainly from Asia. Labor recruitment companies operating in source countries alter contract terms and charge high recruitment fees, which the worker must ultimately repay. Employers retain control of work visas and illegally buy, sell and trade them. These costs are also passed on to the workers creating a situation of debt bondage.

The United Nations General Assembly is considering the request of some member states for a Global Plan of Action on trafficking and forced labor. The Secretary-General urged all States, whether they support this proposal or not, to move beyond fine rhetoric and moral outrage to deeds particularly by mainstreaming the fight against human trafficking into broader programs, from poverty reduction to reducing gender discrimination.

Links
Has your country ratified the UN anti-trafficking protocol? Find out here: http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/treaties/CTOC/countrylist-traffickingprotocol.html

Resources on human trafficking from the International Organization for Migration

English: http://www.iom.int/jahia/Jahia/counter-trafficking/lang/en

Español : http://www.iom.int/jahia/Jahia/activities/by-theme/regulating-migration/counter-trafficking/lang/es

UN.Gift – Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking – http://www.ungift.org/

Rape as a Weapon of War

Article 27 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states that “women shall be especially protected against any attack on their honour, in particular against rape, enforced prostitution, or any form of indecent assault.”

Yesterday, the Christian Science Monitor reported that rape is now being prosecuted as a war crime in Columbia. Small progress has been made. In May 2007, only 12 cases of sexual violence were filed with prosecutors appointed to carry out Colombia’s special Justice and Peace Law. Today that number stands at 228.

Local and national women’s organizations say that both right-wing paramilitaries and leftist guerrillas engaged in rape and other forms of sexual violence during Columbia’s four-decade civil war. Women and girls were raped, sexually tortured and mutilated. Many were killed. Fighters would often take control of a village and make all of the women and girls sex slaves. A 2006 report by a special rapporteur of the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights said: “The actors in Colombia’s armed conflict, particularly the paramilitaries and guerrillas, use physical, sexual, and psychological violence against women as a strategy of war.”

It is estimated that the number of women and girls who have been sexually abused is in the thousands, but very few incidents were ever reported. Now, women’s organizations are campaigning to make women aware of their rights and to push prosecutors to question paramilitaries about sexual violence. These efforts have led hundreds of females to come forward, but most are still remaining silent out of fear of retaliation. Even though the conflict is officially over, women continue to be sexually assaulted if they speak out

Rape has always been part of war in one way or another. In ancient times women were routinely taken as spoils of war, raped and either sold as slaves or forced to marry their captors. Into modern times, random rape by soldiers has been seen as an unavoidable consequence of war.

In spite of a body of international law condemning rape, the use of systematic rape as a tactic of war has become a common phenomena.

Serbians raped more than 20,000 Muslim women and girls between 1991-1994 in the former Yugoslavia. One goal was to make the women pregnant with Serbian babies. Another was to terrorize women so that they would flee from their land.

Iraqi soldiers raped at least 5,000 Kuwaiti women during Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.

It is estimated that 500,00 women and girls in Rwanda were gang raped and sexually mutilated, after which many were killed, during the civil war there.

Probably no war zone in recent times has employed rape as sexual terrorism as extensively as the various military forces in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), known as the  “rape capital of the world.”

According to MADRE, an international women’s rights group, no one knows how many Iraqi women have been raped since the war began in 2003. Most crimes against women “are not reported because of stigma, fear of retaliation, or lack of confidence in the police. Documenting sexual assault in Iraq by international researchers remains complicated because of widespread violence and because militias often target women’s rights advocates.

How long will men turn women’s bodies into battlefields?

http://www.amnesty.org/en/campaigns/stop-violence-against-women/issues/implementation-existing-laws/violence-in-conflict

http://www.madre.org/