Africa

“We want Pope Francis’ message to come true…We want the rights of indigenous people to be supported, respected and strengthened,” Yuam Pravia, a representative of the Misquito native people, said in this city in southern Mexico. Pravia, a Misquito indigenous woman from Honduras, was taking part Feb. 13-14 in a gathering of native people from […]

Delegation says European Parliament concerned about freedom of speech, urges 'agreed mechanism' for 2019 polls

By The Daily Star- Bangladesh, Diplomatic Correspondent
Feb 15 2016 (IPS)

A European Parliament (EP) delegation has expressed concern over the human rights situation in Bangladesh, and called for an impartial investigation into all the cases of blogger killings.

Jean Lambert

Jean Lambert, who led a four-member EP delegation to Bangladesh, yesterday said they during a meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday had raised four specific issues including human rights, murder of bloggers and rise of violent extremism at international level.

“We have serious concerns about the human rights situation in the country and raised the issue of the murder of bloggers,” said Lambert, the chair of the EP delegation on relations with the countries of South Asia, at a press conference in Dhaka.

“The life of every Bangladeshi citizen is important and we requested the full and impartial investigation of all the cases.”

She also urged the government to make an environment where bloggers and other free thinkers feel that their freedom of expression was “valued”.

European Union (EU) Ambassador in Dhaka Pierre Mayaudon was also present at the press conference yesterday afternoon before the four-member delegation concluded its three-day Bangladesh visit and left the country.

On the state of press freedom in Bangladesh, Lambert said they had “some concerns” about what was happening to some newspaper editors in the country.

“I think it is fair to say that we have some concerns about what is happening to a number of editors of the newspapers.”

Asked if her delegation had touched the issue during the meeting with the prime minister, Lambert replied in the negative.

She also said nothing related to elections had been discussed in the meeting either.

But “it is very clear that there is a need for some agreed mechanisms,” Lambert said, adding that such a mechanism was required in Bangladesh to ensure participation of “many parties” in the elections.

She also made it clear that neither the European Union nor the European Parliament will make any recommendation on the polls-time administration.

“Neither the EP nor anybody else would be coming and saying that ‘This is what you do’ … We will not make any recommendation.

“It’s something to be decided by the people of Bangladesh. It’s your decision,” Lambert added.

However, in a press statement distributed at the press conference, the EP said, “Concretely, the delegation expressed its desire for free and fair elections in 2019.”

Though the election issue was not discussed with Hasina, the delegation discussed the issue of “an independent and strong” Election Commission in meetings with different other stakeholders, according to Lambert.

She said the EP delegation welcomed Hasina’s commitment for further joint collaboration with the EU on better understanding the causes of radicalisation internationally, “bearing in mind the important role Bangladesh plays in the OIC (Organisation of the Islamic Cooperation)”.

During the February 10-12 visit, the delegation met Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed, Law Minister Anisul Huq, Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali and State Minister for CHT Affairs Bir Bahadur Ushwe Sing.

It also had talks with BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, National Human Rights Commission Chairman Prof Mizanur Rahman, officials of Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety, and representatives of different business and civil society platforms.

In the meetings, the EP delegation discussed several issues, including improvement of the workers’ rights and safety in the garment sector, promotion of European investment in Bangladesh and boosting economic cooperation.

This piece was originally published in The Daily Star, Bangladesh

By Tharanga Yakupitiyage
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 15 2016 (IPS)

Poverty and education gaps have decreased significantly among indigenous communities in Latin America, but many continue to be left out of social gains, according to a new World Bank study released Monday.

The report, Indigenous Latin America in the Twenty-First Century, found immense social progress made in Latin American countries during the first decade of the millennium, dubbed the “golden decade.”

In much of the region, indigenous political participation has increased. In Bolivia, indigenous people’s representation in parliament is approximately 30 percent. More countries have also accepted indigenous traditions in electoral processes including Oaxaca, Mexico where 418 out of 570 municipalities are managed according to indigenous customs.

These developments are, in part, due to the creation of international treaties and declarations such as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples adopted in 2007.

The study also found that 70 million people were lifted out of poverty, including indigenous peoples in Bolivia, Brazil, and Peru. Access to primary education was one of the greatest and clearest achievements during the golden decade, the World Bank said. In countries such as Ecuador, Mexico and Nicaragua, the education gap between indigenous and non-indigenous children closed.

Despite progress, indigenous communities continue to be excluded from development.

“Latin America has undergone a profound social transformation that reduced poverty and expanded the middle class, but indigenous peoples benefited less than other Latin Americans,” said World Bank Vice President for Latin America and the Caribbean, Jorge Familiar.

The report found that though poverty rates have decreased within the indigenous population, the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Latin Americans has either remained stagnant or widened.

In the region, indigenous persons make up 14 percent of the poor and 17 percent of the extremely poor, despite representing less than 8 percent of the population.

Being born to indigenous parents increases the probability of being raised in a poor household regardless of parents’ level of education or the size or location of the household, the report stated.

In Ecuador, the probability of a family to be poor increases by 13 percent if the household is indigenous. The probability of being extremely poor increases by 15.5 percent. Other indicators, including gender and geography, further highlight gaps in indigenous social inclusion.

For instance, in Ecuador, if the same indigenous household is headed by a woman, it is 6 percent more likely to be poor. Indigenous women also have higher levels of illiteracy and school dropout rates across the region.

Along geographical lines, in Peru, an indigenous rural household is 37 percent more likely to be poor than an urban household. But even within urban areas, indigenous families continue to live in poorer living conditions with less sanitation and more disaster-prone households than their non-indigenous urban counterparts.

In the report, the World Bank urged for the multi-faceted inclusion of indigenous communities, especially in light of the newly-adopted Sustainable Development Agenda.

“If indigenous peoples are to assume their role as key actors in the post-2015 agenda, their voices and ideas need to be considered,” said Senior Director for the World Bank’s Social, Urban, Rural & Resilience Global Practice Ede Ijjasz-Vasquez.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) include commitments concerning indigenous peoples’ rights to education, land and markets.

The study recommends the effective implementation of national laws to guarantee indigenous political participation; strengthen indigenous communities’ access to education; improve data collection strategies to better implement targeted programs and; include indigenous persons in setting development targets.

“Inclusion of indigenous peoples in development policies and programs is not just about poverty reduction – it is the process of improving the ability and opportunity for them to be active stakeholders in society,” Ijjasz-Vasquez remarked. “Their inclusion is morally right and economically smart for nations,” he concluded.

The UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, established in 2002, is set to reconvene in May 2016 to discuss indigenous peoples in relation to conflict, peace and resolution.

(End)

Fighter aircraft from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and the United States attacked oil refineries in eastern Syria controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Sept. 24, 2014. | Credit: DoD graphic

By Baher Kamal
MADRID, Feb 15 2016 (IPS)

When 25 million Syrians–half of them refugees abroad or at home and the other half terrorised by daily bombing, learnt that major world leaders in their meeting in Germany launched an unprecedented confrontation threatening with unleashing World War III, instead of easily agreeing on a ceasefire to alleviate their inhumane suffering, they most probably fell into an even deeper desperation. See what happened.

The biggest “official” warlords on Earth—the Russian military apparatus and the US Pentagon and its “allies”–Europe, the US-led NATO, the Saudi Arabia-led Gulf countries, and Turkey, have just walked a step closer to the edge of the Middle East abyss over the weekend during their Munich Security Conference.

On the one hand, Moscow has just warned Washington and Ryad against starting a “permanent war” if they launch a ground intervention in Syria.

Russian prime minister Dmitry Medvedev on 12 February told Germany’s Handelsblatt newspaper that sending foreign troops into Syria could unleash “yet another war on Earth.” The warning followed recent statements from Saudi Arabia, joined later by other Gulf states and Turkey, that they were ready to send ground troops to Syria, should Washington lead the way.

“All sides must be compelled to sit at the negotiating table, instead of unleashing yet another war on Earth,” Medvedev said. “Any kinds of land operations, as a rule, lead to a permanent war. Look at what’s happened in Afghanistan and a number of other countries. I am not even going to bring up poor Libya.”

“The Americans and Arab partners must think well: do they want a permanent war? Do they think they can really quickly win it? It is impossible, especially in the Arab world. Everyone is fighting against everyone there,” Medvedev added.

A New World War?

“We must make everyone sit down at the negotiating table…rather than start yet another world war,” the Russian prime minister added.

Titled: “Exclusive: Russia’s Medvedev Warns of New World War” Handelsblatt ran the interview on the eve of the Munich Security Conference‘s International Syria Support Group meeting, where the cessation of hostilities in Syria became a top item on the agenda.

On the other hand, the US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter was lobbying for an ample NATO participation in the so-called war on Islamic State (IS).

The Pentagon-NATO Axis

In fact, Ashton Carter on 11 February, following a NATO meeting in Brussels, said that this military alliance is considering joining the US-led coalition fighting Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq.

“Thanks to the leadership of NATO (secretary general) Jens Stoltenberg, we are exploring the possibility of NATO joining the coalition as a member itself,” Ashton Carter said.

The alliance can bring “significant development” and “unique capabilities” which include “building partner capacity, training ground forces and providing stabilization support,” he added.

The day after, that’s on 12 February, NATO member states agreed to send AWACS surveillance aircraft to gather intelligence on IS over Iraq and Syria, replacing US jets. According to Ashton Carter, this will “increase the ability of the coalition to degrade and destroy the terrorist group.”

Syria’s Battlefield

Meanwhile, the military situation in Syria has been escalating, as Bashar al Assad’s army made further advances in the northern city of Aleppo.

At the same time, the predominantly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces recaptured a former military airbase in the Aleppo province, from jihadists near the Turkish-Syrian border, reportedly with the support of Russian air strikes.

NATO Warships to Aegean Sea to Combat “Migrant” Trafficking

On 11 February, NATO sent war ships to the Aegean Sea to help Turkey and Greece deal with people smugglers and stem the flow of migrants, the alliance’s top commander has announced.

Three NATO’s military vessels have been ordered to “start to move now” and head for the Aegean sea to conduct reconnaissance and surveillance operations, NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg on 11 February said.

“This is about helping Greece, Turkey and the European Union with stemming the flow of migrants and refugees and coping with a very demanding situation,” Stoltenberg said, describing the situation as a “human tragedy.” Stoltenberg also said that the alliance’s forces would be monitoring the land border between Syria and Turkey for people smugglers.

Saudi Jets on Syria

Parallely, Ankara announced that Saudi Arabia will deploy military jets and personnel to Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base in the south of the country. The base is already used by the US Air Force for their sorties in Syria.

The deployment is part of the US-led effort to defeat the Islamic State terrorist group, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said.

“At every coalition meeting, we have always emphasized the need for an extensive result-oriented strategy in the fight against the DAESH terrorist group,” he said, referring to IS by an Arabic-language acronym for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

Cavusoglu spoke to Turkish Yeni Şafak newspaper after addressing the Munich Security Conference. “If we have such a strategy, then Turkey and Saudi Arabia may launch a ground operation,” he added.

Furthermore, Saudi Foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir, in an interview with the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung on 13 February, said “there will be no Bashar al-Assad in the future… It may take three months… it may take six months or three years, but he (al Assad) will not assume any more responsibility in Syria.”

“Don’t Go There,” Russia, Iran

Earlier, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates heralded their readiness to contribute troops for a ground operation in Syria on the condition that the US would lead the intervention.

Syria and its regional ally, Iran, warned that such a foreign force would face strong resistance. And Russian prime minister called on his Western counterparts in Munich Security Conference “not to threaten a ground operation” in Syria, stressing that Moscow is doing its utmost to pave the way for a lasting peace in the war-torn country.

Further on, Medvedev on 13 February said that the relationships between NATO and Russia have slid down toward a new Cold War, while describing NATO’s policy as “unfriendly and not transparent.”

“Almost every day we are referred to as the most terrible threat to NATO as a whole or to Europe, America and other countries specifically,” Medvedev said. “Although actual threats that exist in our small world – and I hope, you understand that – are absolutely different.”

In short, in less than one week, largest military powers have been threatening with invasions in Syria and armed interventions in Iraq, as their answer to the ongoing human tragedy.

Apparently there would be no problem with more unarmed, civilian populations being killed in all such military operations–it would probably be about a high official just saying: “sorry for this collateral damage.”

(End)

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Member journalists of Karachi Union of Journalists and Karachi Press Club stage a protest demonstration against flurry of attacks on press freedom and killing of journalists across Pakistan. The journalists are holding banners and placards inscribed with slogans “Attacks on Press Freedom Unacceptable”, “Long Live Press Freedom” and “Attempt to muzzle free press will be opposed”. Credit: Saleem Shaikh/IPS

By Saleem Shaikh and Sughra Tunio
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan , Feb 5 2016 (IPS)

Pakistan continues to remain one of the most dangerous countries for journalists, where frequent attempts to restrict press freedom are commonplace and challenges to expanding media diversity and access to information abound.

Tense and uncertain security conditions, looming risks of terrorism and extremism-related activities, rampant political influence and the feeble role of the country’s democratic institutions, including parliament and judiciary, constitute the main reasons behind the sorry state of press freedom in Pakistan.

To address this issue, editors and news directors of a large number of Pakistani newspapers and television channels formally established ‘Editors for Safety’, an organisation focused exclusively on issues pertaining to violence and threats of violence against the media.

The organization would work on a core philosophy that an attack on one journalist or media house would be deemed as an attack on the entire media. The body would also encourage media organizations to speak with one voice against the ubiquitous culture of impunity, where journalists in the country are being frequently attacked while perpetrators are rarely brought to justice.

Former Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Mr. Javed Jabbar, welcomed the formation of Editors for Safety and said “today, militants alone do not target press freedom and journalists in the country. Political, religious, ethnic and the law enforcement agencies also attack them.”

In 2015, the country was ranked 159th out of 180 countries evaluated in the World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

Pakistan has been a “frontline state” for almost four decades, which has polarised society and ruined people’s sense of security. Because of the Afghan war, the areas bordering Afghanistan, including Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and tribal areas in the country’s northwest region, are the most troubled areas for journalists to report from.

Media freedom across the country – and particularly in the terrorism-hit northwest region – has deteriorated over the last several years in part because of extremist groups who hurl threats to journalists for reporting their activities. Religious extremists go after media persons as they believe the latter do not respect their religion and harm it on the pretext of press freedom.

On March 28, 2014, Raza Rumi, a TV anchor, blogger and widely-acclaimed political and security analyst in Pakistan, narrowly escaped death when gunmen opened fire on his car in an attack that left his driver Mustafa dead. He moved to the U.S. soon after the attack on his life, which was triggered by his liberal and outspoken voice on politics, society, culture, militancy, human rights and persecution of religious minorities.

Last year on November 30, one journalist and three other employees of Lahore-based Din Media organization, which runs a TV channel and daily Urdu language newspaper, were killed when unknown miscreants lobbed a hand grenade on the office of the media organisation in Lahore, Pakistan’s second largest urban city of 20 million people. The attack drew countrywide condemnation protests by journalists. The Prime Minister announced his pledge to bring those behind attack to the book and boost security measures for media offices and journalists.

Afzal Butt, president of Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) told IPS,
“We have conveyed the deep concern of the journalist community about the deteriorating state of press freedom to the Prime Minister and federal and provincial information ministers. We have also reminded them of their commitments made for protecting lives of journalists and press freedom in the country. But it has fallen on deaf ears.”

International media watchdogs including the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and RSF have kept highlighting the dismal state of press freedom in the country in their [annual] reports from time to time. Around 57 journalists have been killed in the line of the duty between year 1992 to 2015 and hundreds other harassed, tortured and kidnapped, according to recent data compiled by CPJ, a New York-based independent, non-profit organisation dedicated to the global defence of press freedom. In its 2015 report, CPJ ranked Pakistan as the sixth most deadly country for journalists.

Pakistan is ranked ninth out of 180 countries on CPJ’s Global Impunity Index, which spotlights countries, where journalists are slain and the killers go free.

“Incidents of threats, attacks and killings of journalists in Pakistan are the clear evidence of how critical the situation has become due to thriving culture of impunity,” said Mazhar Abbas, former deputy news director at the Ary News TV in Karachi and well-known champion of press freedom.

The good news is that the country has battled against impunity through judicial actions and institutionalisation of mechanisms to tackle this problem. For instance, two landmark convictions and arrests brought relief to the aggrieved families of slain TV journalists Wali Khan Babar, murdered in 2011 in Karachi, and Ayub Khattak, murdered in Karak district in conflict-prone Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan’s northwest.

The cases made progress thanks to relentless efforts by families of journalists, journalist unions and civil society pressure groups with cooperation from government and justice system, Khursheed Abbasi, PFUJ’s secretary general, said. The judicial commission set up to probe the attempt to murder Islamabad-based eminent television journalist Hamid Mir associated with the Geo News TV is part of this movement forward. Further to this was the announcement in April 2015 by the provincial government of Balochistan to establish two judicial tribunals to investigate six murder cases of journalists since 2011.

In another positive development, on March 9, 2015, the Islamabad High Court upheld the conviction of Mumtaz Qadri, the killer of publisher of English newspaper Daily Times Mr. Salman Taseer, under Section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). Qadri, his official guard in Islamabad in January 2010, killed Taseer, who was governor of Punjab province at that time.

“A free press is a fundamental foundation of sustainable and effective democracy. Any effort aimed at scuttling press freedom will only weaken democracy and democratic institutions,” warned journalist-turned Pakistani parliamentarian Mushahid Hussain Syed. He said that politicians need to realise that supporting endeavours for press freedom at any level would benefit the democratic political leaders themselves.

(End)

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