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Commonwealth Human Rights
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e-Newsletter has been produced for Commonwealth National Human Rights
Institutions (NHRIs) by the British Council, as part of the British
Council's project to support networking and sharing between such NHRIs.
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1.
Forthcoming Events |
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| FORTHCOMING EVENTS | |
| International
workshop for Commonwealth National Human Rights Institutions on "Building
an Effective Media and Communication Programme" from 22 to 24 June,
2004 in Accra, Ghana An International workshop on "Building an Effective Media and Communication Programme" for National Human Rights Commissions will be jointly organised by the British Council and the Ghana Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice from 22 to 24 June, 2004 in Accra, Ghana. The workshop will focus on how human rights commissions can work more effectively with the media, and will draw on expert advice provided by the Asia-Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions. For more information, write to Neena Jacob at neena.jacob@in.britishcouncil.org |
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| International
seminar on 'Access to justice: lawyers in the community' in Oxford from
28 June-2 July 2004 This seminar, being organised by the British Council, will explore ways in which lawyers can contribute to social inclusion and the realisation of human rights by engagement with local communities and socially excluded groups through the examination of different models of achieving equitable access from other countries. |
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| New
Tactics in Human Rights International Symposium in Turkey from 29 September
to 2 October, 2004 The Symposium is being organised by Center for Victims of Torture, Helsinki Citizens' Assembly and Public Administration Institute for Turkey and the Middle East. At this four-day event participants will have the opportunity to attend five tactical training workshops, choosing from a list of 30 tactics. Experienced trainers from groups like Amnesty International, Peace Brigades and the truth commissions in South Africa and Peru will present innovative tactics that they have used in their work and help you learn to select and adapt tactics for your own situation. The deadline to apply as been extended to June 15, 2004. |
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| Pacific
Islands Human Rights Consultation in Suva, Fiji Islands, 1 June - 3
June 2004 The Asia Pacific Forum’s Pacific Islands Human Rights Consultation will examine how the Pacific human rights agenda is responding to regional and global political, economic and social developments and identify how regional and international agencies should respond to these challenges. |
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| Education
in Conditions of Crisis and Post-Conflict in Kenya from 2 June - 4 June
2004 Education ministers and senior officials from 22 Sub-Saharan African countries, including 12 Commonwealth members, will meet in Mombasa, Kenya, from 2 to 4 June 2004 to explore the challenges encountered in seeking to achieve education for all, and specifically universal primary education, in conditions of civil strife, conflict and environmental crisis. |
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| REPORTS | |
| Africa | |
| Trafficking
in women and children in Africa The struggle against trafficking of human beings has gathered considerable momentum over recent years. This research issued by the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre in Florence focuses on the situation of Africa, drawing a preliminary mapping of trafficking patterns on the continent and providing an indication of emerging good practices in the area of policy responses and legislative framework. The research took place against a background of lack of reliable estimates and a dearth of trafficking research and methodology tools. However, research challenges such as these have provided an opportunity to develop and test innovative methods for the gathering and assessment of data. The report and findings are anchored in the commitment by Heads of State at the EU-Africa Summit to identify democracy, human rights and good governance as being among an agreed set of eight priority areas for political action. The report looks at information from 53 African countries and provides an anlysis of the patterns, root causes, and existing national and regional policy responses and effective practices. |
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Canada
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| Talking
About Refugees and Immigrants: A Glossary Of Terms Many different terms are used to describe refugees and immigrants, some with particular legal meanings, some with offensive associations. Using terms properly is an important way of treating people with respect and advancing an informed debate on the issues. Canadian Council for Refugees has produced a glossary of terms should be used for refugees and immigrants. |
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| Ghana | |
| Prisons
and Police Report -2001 The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice undertook its annual inspection of Ghana's prisons, prisons settlement camps and police cells pursuant to its obligation under Article 15 of the 1992 Fourth Republican Constitution, which provides that: "the dignity of all persons shall be inviolable and that no person shall, whether he is arrested, restricted or detained, be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment or any other condition that detracts from his dignity and worth as a human being". |
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| India | |
| Tracking
gender equity under economic reforms: Continuity and Change in South
Asia By expanding the existing set of indicators to include gender-related stress, anxiety, and violence, this book introduces a new framework for gender research. The viability of this new approach is demonstrated through a co-ordinated set of household surveys, carried out in Export Processing Zones and Export Processing Units, designed for intercountry comparisons between Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. This book by Kali for Women and IDRC is unique in its examination of both “conventional” and “nonconventional” indicators of gender disparity, and in its attempts to see how both may be affected by changes in macroeconomic policy. While “conventional” indicators include such variables as education, employment, and health status, on which official data are usually available, very little information is available on “nonconventional” indicators, such as levels of gender-based mental stress and violence. |
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| International | |
| Not
a Minute More: Ending Violence Against Women Violence against women has become as much a pandemic as HIV/AIDS or malaria. But it is still generally downplayed by the public at large and by policymakers who fail to create and fund programmes to eradicate it. Yet there is hope. The achievements over the last few decades of women and men around the world who have worked to combat violence against women and promote women's empowerment are monumental. In a relatively short time, women and their advocates have transformed the way gender-based violence is understood, and have promoted international documents and treaties that recognise, for the first time, women's right to live free of violence. This report produced by UNIFEM highlights many of the achievements and indicates what must be done to build on them. It provides examples of good practices as well as of efforts that did not meet the goals set out for them and explores why not. It looks at the challenges ahead, and asks what the most fruitful next steps might be. |
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| Amnesty
Report 2004: War on global values - attacks by armed groups and governments
fuel mistrust, fear and division Huge challenges confronted the international human rights movement in 2003. The UN faced a crisis of legitimacy and credibility because of the US-led war on Iraq and the organisation's inability to hold states to account for gross human rights violations. International human rights standards continued to be flouted in the name of the "war on terror", resulting in thousands of women and men suffering unlawful detention, unfair trial and torture often solely because of their ethnic or religious background. Around the world, more than a billion people's lives were ruined by extreme poverty and social injustice while governments continued to spend freely on arms. This Amnesty International Report reflects those challenges. It documents the human rights situation in 155 countries and territories in 2003, and summarises regional trends. It reports on areas of work being prioritised and developed by Amnesty International -- such as violence against women; economic, social and cultural rights; and justice for refugees and migrants and celebrates the achievements of activists in these and other areas. |
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| “Empty
Promises:"Diplomatic Assurances No Safeguard against Torture This report by Human Rights Watch analyses the use of diplomatic assurances by governments and commentary on their use from the U.N. system, North America, and the Council of Europe region. It includes Human Rights Watch’s research on several cases that involve the use of diplomatic assurances. The report examines cases in which courts have ruled on the adequacy of such assurances, frequently finding that diplomatic assurances are not an effective safeguard against torture. The report highlights returns or proposed returns based on diplomatic assurances from Austria, Canada, Georgia, Germany, Sweden, Turkey, United Kingdom, and the United States to countries where torture is a serious or systematic human rights problem, including Egypt, Philippines, Russia, Sri Lanka, Syria, and Uzbekistan. This is not an exhaustive survey, but reflects relevant information available to Human Rights Watch indicating inherent problems and dangers with respect to the use of diplomatic assurances and how select legal systems have addressed the use of such assurances. |
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| South Africa | |
| Building
a Culture of Human Rights: Workshop Manual This manual was produced by the South African Human Rights Commission, which is the main body set up to deal with violations of human rights. It is the basis for 3 one-hour human rights educational workshops aimed at the public, NGOs, CBOs, and similar structures or organisations. The manual also contains information to assist facilitators in running such workshops. It is provided free of charge and may be photocopied and further distributed, provided the SAHRC is credited. |
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| The
Right to Know, the Right to Live: Access to Information & Socio-Economic
Justice This book is published by the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA) argues that for the right to information to be meaningful it must extend beyond nation-state governments to transnational corporations and multilateral organisations such as the World Bank. The book states that the right to access information is not only an important civil and political right, it is also a socio-economic right, enabling the full realisation of other socio-economic rights such as the right to welfare, housing or education. This publication explores the right to access information. The focus is on the South African law - said to be the "strongest access to information law in the world". There is also an international perspective with contributions from India, Bulgaria, the United Kingdom and the United States. |
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| United Kingdom | |
| “Cause
for Concern? London Social Services and Child Trafficking” - report
by ECPAT UK The report “Cause for Concern? London Social Services and Child Trafficking” by ECPAT UK (ECPAT is a network of organisations and individuals in over 40 countries working together for the elimination of child prostitution, child pornography and trafficking of children for sexual purposes) shows that despite the fact that child trafficking is a growing problem in the UK, the majority of social workers in the region are not being given the information, training and resources to be able to help the children affected by it. The ECPAT UK report provides clear examples of the kind of physical and psychological damaged suffered by trafficked children. The report concludes that a major step forward would be for social workers to start to discuss the issue of child trafficking within teams, across teams and across boroughs. This would help raise awareness of the problem, ensure a more co-ordinated approach and assist in setting up systems that would help trafficked children. |
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| Northern
Ireland Human Rights Commission issues fourth report on police training The practical application of human rights to the training of all police officers and civilian staff in the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) is the subject of a report published by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission. The report, the fourth in a series by the Commission, examines an ambitious course on the new constitutional arrangements post-Patten delivered by the PSNI in 2002 and 2003. The Course for All, arising from a Patten recommendation, aimed to deliver a two-day training programme to every officer and member of staff in the PSNI regardless of grade or type of contract. The Commission was invited by the PSNI to look at the Course for All training materials and to observe training sessions taking place with participants at various locations across Northern Ireland. Although this particular course was a one-off venture, and some improvements have since been made to human rights training in the PSNI, the report’s recommendations nevertheless have broader implications for the creation of a constructive human rights culture within the Police Service. |
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| NEWS STORIES | |
| ARMED SERVICES | |
| Human
rights violation by Armed Forces, NHRC can recommend interim compensation
- India The Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India has revised its stand on the issue of the powers vested with the National Human Rights Commission on recommending interim compensation in cases relating to Human Rights violation by armed forces. The Commission had been approached by the widows of two residents of Ganganagar district, Rajasthan who had lost their lives at the hands of Border Security Force (BSF) constable under influence of liquor. The Commission issued show-cause notice under section 18(3) to the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India on the liability of the State to give immediate interim relief under section 18(3) of the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993 to the next of kin of the two innocent persons who had lost their lives at the hands of BSF Constable. In reply, the Ministry of Home Affairs said that complaints of Human Rights violation by members of the armed forces are regulated by section 19 of the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993. Section 18(3) of the Act is not applicable for armed forces like BSF. |
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| ASYLUM | |
| UNHCR
regrets missed opportunity to adopt high EU asylum standards The UN refugee agency has expressed concern that a key piece of European Union asylum legislation, agreed by EU Justice and Home Affairs ministers in Luxembourg, may lead in practice to breaches of international refugee law. Taking a very good European Commission draft as its starting point, the long process of inter-state negotiations has resulted in an Asylum Procedures Directive which contains no binding commitment to satisfactory procedural standards, allowing scope for states to adopt or continue worst practices in determining asylum claims. UNHCR is disappointed that EU states have failed to live up to the commitments they made at the beginning of the harmonisation process in Tampere in 1999. There they affirmed their 'absolute respect of the right to seek asylum' - and commitment to work towards establishing a common European asylum system based on the full and inclusive application of the 1951 Geneva Convention. |
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| CHILD RIGHTS | |
| Australia
breaches children's human rights A Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Inquiry has found that children in Australian immigration detention centres have suffered numerous and repeated breaches of their human rights. In its National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention Report- A Last Resort?, tabled in Federal Parliament on 13 May, 2004, the Commission found Australia’s immigration detention policy has failed to protect the mental health of children, failed to provide adequate health care and education and failed to protect unaccompanied children and those with disabilities. The Report is the result of two years of careful consideration of evidence and submissions. The Inquiry visited all detention centres in Australia and took evidence from a vast range of individuals and organisations - detainee children and parents, human rights advocacy groups, medical and legal experts, State governments, Australasian Correctional Management (ACM) and the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA) amongst others. The two-year, comprehensive Inquiry also found that the mandatory detention system breached the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. |
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| NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS | |
| UK
government rejects collective rights for tribal peoples Reversing a century of progress in the recognition of human rights, the UK government has now decided that collective human rights do not exist. If allowed to become official policy, this threatens to harm tribal peoples around the world. Ten years ago the United Nations (UN) announced a decade of indigenous peoples and began work on a declaration of their rights that was supposed by now to have stood beside the famous Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Hundreds of consultations were carried out with indigenous representatives, and a draft was finally completed with their agreement. Now the UK and some of its former colonies (eg. Australia and Canada) are blocking the new declaration. Collective rights are vital for tribal peoples, as is confirmed not just by the draft declaration but by numerous laws and agreements which are already accepted by many countries and internationally. The most important is the convention on tribal peoples: this is the cornerstone of international law on the subject and was adopted nearly 50 years ago (ILO Convention 107 of 1957, updated to Convention 169 of 1989). Paradoxically, the UK has accepted two exceptions to its refusal to recognise collective rights. |
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| Human
rights in an enlarged EU: what can people expect now? By Dick Oosting,
Director, Amnesty International EU Office in Brussels The official accession to the European Union of ten new member states on 1 May ought to be good news for human rights. Protection of fundamental rights was a critical aspect of the accession process. Candidate countries were scrutinised for years to ensure that their laws and practices were brought in line with EU norms. The reality is not quite so reassuring. While they are supposed to have passed all the tests to become members of an EU that prides itself on being a Union of values, in practice there are still some serious problems in the new member states. These relate to broad areas of the administration of justice, while discrimination against minorities, in particular Roma, remains a painful reality. However, all EU members are equal, so on 1 May the scrutiny effectively stopped. In any case, joining the EU is no guarantee that rights will be respected - human rights violations do occur within the EU and they are not just isolated incidents. |
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| Draft
action plan on Human Rights approved by Australia The Australian Government has announced its approval of a new draft National Action Plan on Human Rights to strengthen and advance Australia's comprehensive system of human rights protections. The new national action plan will be finalised following consultation with State and Territory governments, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, and non-government organisations. In 1993 Australia proposed the creation of this action plan, and in 1994 was the first State to produce a plan. Ten years on, this new plan will set out the Government's human rights priority areas for the coming decade. The development of a new national action plan demonstrates this Government's forward-looking approach to human rights protection. Australia has always played a lead role in the creation and enforcement of human rights standards, and the development of a new plan will ensure this role continues. The plan highlights Australia's ongoing commitment to international human rights instruments, as well as our continuing support for peoples in developing countries to achieve higher standards of human rights. |
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| Amnesty
Sri Lanka report incorrect and counterproductive- A Statement by the
Asian Human Rights Commission The statement by Amnesty International in its annual report for 2004 to the effect that Sri Lanka is experiencing "an improved human rights situation" is deeply disturbing and patently incorrect. Unfortunately, this statement will now be used to silence human rights defenders in the country trying to alert the public to the extreme dangers currently posed to their basic rights. The only persons who will benefit from it are the perpetrators of gross abuses and those above them. The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has in numerous documents over the last year pointed to the fact that the judicial, policing and prosecution systems in Sri Lanka are at least as bad as one year ago, and in some respects worse. Torture not only "continued to be reported" during the last year, but is in fact endemic, and police officers and other government officials continue to abuse citizens with utter impunity. |
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| Pakistan
sets up human rights commission During a convention on Sensitisation and Adoption of Human Rights Standards in Islamabad, Pakistan, the President Pervez Musharraf announced on 16 May 2004 the establishment of an independent national commission to facilitate the implementation of human rights standards in the country. “The National Commission for Human rights would have an independent status and report, review and advice on all forms of human rights violations and the redressal of grievances,” the President said. He reaffirmed a firm commitment to promotion and protection of human rights and recounted a range of pro-active steps taken for socio-economic empowerment of people which have started yielding results by greater awareness. |
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| Commonwealth
re-admits Pakistan Pakistan is to be re-admitted to the Commonwealth, five years after it was suspended because of a military coup. The Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group praised progress towards democracy by President Pervez Musharraf, who seized power in 1999. But it said after its meeting in London that it would keep its eye on "continuing concerns". The Commonwealth Secretary General, Don McKinnon, announced its re-admittance at a news conference following a meeting in London of the nine-member Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group. |
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| RIGHTS OF THE DISABLED | |
| Asia
Pacific Forum Submission to Ad Hoc Committee on Disability Convention At the 8th Annual Meeting, Asia Pacific Forum member institutions formed a Working Group on Disability comprised of the national human rights institutions of Australia, India and New Zealand. The Working Group has developed a submission to the United Nations Ad Hoc Committee tasked with developing a new international human rights convention on disability. The purpose of the submission is to assist in the negotiations on the development of the Convention. It specifically focuses on the following six areas that are the subject to ongoing debate in the Ad Hoc Committee process - (i) Definitions; (ii) Monitoring; (iii) Existing Normative Principles (iv) State Obligations (v) International Co-operation and (vi) 'What's Missing' from the Convention. |
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| RIGHT TO EDUCATION | |
| Discussion
and analysis of the major issues of Education and Poverty:(a) education
-Recommendations by Katarina Tomasevski, Special Rapporteur of the Commission
on Human Rights on the right to education These recommendations deal jointly with the themes of education and poverty because recent global education strategies and domestic policies have deepened and broadened economic exclusion from education. This prioritises the need to examine the racial and gender profile of poverty-based exclusion from education and its consequences for designing effective human rights strategies today. The Durban Declaration and Programme of Action has followed the global trend of affirming that only primary education should be free by referring in paragraph 121 to "access to free primary education for all children", while the word "free" is not repeated for post-primary education. Access to post-primary education has, indeed, become conditioned by purchasing power since education is increasingly defined as a traded service rather than a human right. |
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| TRAFFICKING | |
| UN
Rights Commission to appoint expert on Human Trafficking With the numbers of women and children coerced into smugglers' networks reaching into the hundreds of thousands per year, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights has voted to appoint a Special Rapporteur on trafficking in human beings to focus on protecting the rights of actual and potential victims. During the three-year assignment, the Special Rapporteur would present an annual report to the Commission, starting with its next session in 2005. |
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| UK
needs national strategy to address child trafficking UNICEF UK called for the formation of a comprehensive, national strategy to provide adequate identification, care and protection for children trafficked into the UK. Welcoming the Metropolitan Police Service’s ‘Paladin Child’ report as the first attempt to officially assess the profile of unaccompanied children entering the UK from non-EU countries, UNICEF UK believes the findings make a compelling case for a national strategy that would ensure effective monitoring and registration of unaccompanied children at all ports of entry in the UK, swift and appropriate social services follow up for all children at risk and a comprehensive care package for victims. |
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| WOMEN'S RIGHTS | |
| AIDS
and Female property/inheritance rights Around the world, issues of access to, ownership of, and control over land, housing, and other property are enshrined in many national constitutions and international human rights documents. Despite the proliferation of property and inheritance laws and rights, women and girls particularly in the developing world are denied this right. Where women lack title to land or housing, they suffer restricted economic options, reduced personal security, poverty, violence, and homelessness, contributing to both their and their children’s impoverishment. Poverty can also encourage risky livelihood measures, such as enduring an abusive relationship or engaging in unsafe sex in exchange for money, housing, food or education. |
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| Copyright © 2004
British Council. Disclaimer: Views expressed in e-newsletter are not necessarily those of the British Council |
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