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United Nations Spotlights U.S. Human Rights Violations

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In a report released by the UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC), the United States was found to be in violation of previously established human rights law. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights was placed into effect in the mid-1970s as international law and the U.S. has failed to uphold it with practices including torture in Guantanamo Bay, drone strikes and massive surveillance practices.

The U.S. has already broken United Nations charters multiple times with military interventions in the Middle East.

Bulk data collection however, has become one of the major domestic human rights violations following Edward Snowden’s whistleblowing of the NSA program. The UNHRC urged the U.S. to remove their surveillance program, as it is a major violation of the right to privacy.

Moreover, the surveillance spotlight in the U.S. is not limited to the NSA. The UN Congressional Intelligence Committees have addressed surveillance by executive agencies in the past, but have failed to produce any action—until just recently.

The Senate Intelligence Committee, tasked with overseeing intelligence agencies in the executive branch such as the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency, have made allegations that the CIA spied on computers that the committee had used. The allegations have thus sparked ongoing conflict between the two branches of government and human rights advocates are stepping into the ring.

A 6,300 page long Senate Intelligence Committee report on the CIA “enhanced interrogation” program is waiting to be voted on for release. The report covers highly controversial interrogation tactics and is expected to be sent to President Barack Obama’s desk for approval to be publicly released. The Senate Intelligence Committee’s Chairwoman, Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) has also said there is currently enough support for the vote to pass; however, the official vote is set to occur later in the week.

Concerning the release of the controversial report, President Barack Obama stated, “I would urge them to go ahead and complete the report and send it to us, and we will declassify those findings so that the American people can understand what happened in the past.”

– Jugal Patel

Sources: Politico, The Huffington Post, Foreign Policy, The Guardian, The Washington Post
Photo: Popular Resistance

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UN Economic and Social Council

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On January 23, 1946, the first session of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) was held.  Almost 68 years later, ECOSOC is still grappling with the world’s economic, social and environmental challenges.  The broad categorization is daunting, especially since the Council and its subsidiary bodies are responsible for about 70 percent of the entire U.N. human and financial resources.  The span of ECOSOC encompasses economic, social, cultural, educational and health concerns, according to the U.N. Charter.  The Council’s subsidiary bodies demonstrate the diversity under ECOSOC’s umbrella of responsibility: U.N. Forum on Forests, Commission on Narcotic Drugs, Commission for Social Development, and the various regional commissions.

The U.N. General Assembly elects the 54 member-governments, with each region allocated a certain number of seats.  The U.S.’ three year term began in 2012 and will end in 2015.  The Colombian representative is currently President, with four Vice-Presidents from Albania, Austria, Pakistan and Sudan.  The year 2013 has seen major reform efforts from the Council, aiming to make ECOSOC more effective, more issues-oriented, and more responsive.  For example, the Commission on Sustainable Development held its final session in September after it was slated to be dismantled due to lack of progress in its sector.  The chairperson acknowledged that though the Commission greatly influenced the 21st century environmental goals, it did not create the change sought out by the larger Council.

As a result of its extensive areas of focus, ECOSOC is one of the most important humanitarian bodies in the United Nations.  One of the early acts by ECOSOC was to adopt the Commission on Human Rights’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, an early stepping-stone in the path to equality.  The current reforms mark an important return to an issue-centered approach that many hope will lead to greater progress in the subsidiary bodies’ foci.

– Katey Baker-Smith

Sources: UN News Centre, UNISDR

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10 Shocking Statistics on Gender-based Violence

In the words of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki moon, “Violence against women continues to persist as one of the most heinous, systematic and prevalent human rights abuses in the world. It is a threat to all women, and an obstacle to all our efforts for development, peace, and gender equality in all societies.”

In fact, violence kills more women between the ages of 15 and 44 than cancer, malaria, traffic accidents and war combined.

The recent 16 days of activism against gender-based violence, kicked off November 25 on the UN International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, served to confront this global pandemic. Here are ten of countless statistics that illustrate the importance of such, and continued, efforts.

1. In the 24 developing countries studied in a recent survey, a combined total of only 7% of survivors of gender-based violence, including physical and sexual acts, formally reported their attacks to police, medical or social services.

2. In India, less than 1% of survivors reported gender-based violence to formal sources. The highest rate of reporting uncovered in the survey was in Colombia where 26% of women formally reported the violence they faced. This still means that three out of four Colombian women never report the violence they’ve faced.

3. In the same 24 developing countries, the surveyors explored whether women told their friends, family members or neighbors about their attacks and found that the rates of this “informal reporting” ranged from 15% in Honduras to 60% in Ukraine. Thus, in most of the countries, the majority of women told no one of their attacks.

4. In Papua New Guinea, 59.1% of men admit to forcing an unwilling intimate partner into having sex. Forty percent of men admit to having raped a stranger.

5. According to the UN, there were 15,654 cases of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2012. However, the country is noted to chronically underreport gender-based violence figures. A study published by the American Journal of Public Health found that more than 1,100 women were raped every day in 2006 and that more than 400,000 women and girls between the ages of 15 and 49 were raped within a 12-month time frame.

6. A third of all survivors of sexual violence in the DRC are between the ages of 12 and 17. Reports from the UN indicate that 82% of all survivors had not finished primary school.

7. A study by Johns Hopkins that surveyed women across 25 African countries found that a high proportion of women believed that wife-beating was justified in at least one of five different hypothetical scenarios. The percentage of women who adhered to this view ranged from 18 in Swaziland to 87 in Guinea.

8. A South African women is killed by an intimate partner every 6 hours.

9. An estimated 100 to 140 million girls and women throughout the world have experienced female genital mutilation. More than three million African girls face the risk of the practice every year.

10. Eighty percent of the estimated 800,000 people trafficked annually are women and girls. Seventy-nine percent of them are trafficked for sexual exploitation.

– Kelley Calkins

Sources: End Violence Against Women, UNFP, Al Jazeera, UN News Center, NCBI, Say No to Violence, Women Under Seige
Photo: Gabriela USA

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Recognizing the Legal Right to Food

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Food is necessary to survival and proper nutrition. We all need it. It’s that simple. But despite its importance, access to food is still not universally viewed as a human right. The United Nations (UN) wants to change that.

According to Food Navigator, UN expert Oliver De Schutter believes that the right to food should be legally binding. Human rights currently recognized by the UN include the right to be free from slavery and servitude, the right to be free from cruel and inhuman punishment, the right to freedom of movement between countries, and the right to be recognized as a person. De Schutter wants the right to food added to that list.

De Schutter recently released a report in support of his position, entitled, “Assessing a decade of right to food progress.” In his report, De Schutter states, “Often, we labour under the misconception that the right to food is not like political rights, such as freedom of speech. But economic and social rights — to food, water, housing, social protection — are just as real, just as binding, and can be upheld just as legitimately in court.” South Africa, Kenya, Mexico, and Niger have already included the right to food in their constitutions.

By making the right to food a priority, countries can eventually begin to see long-lasting changes in the political, economic, and environmental sectors, De Schutter suggests. Eventually, these changes can help serve as permanent safeguards against widespread hunger. De Schutter believes countries should revise their laws, incorporating nutrition policies that attempt to take responsibility for the food supply.

India’s recent food policy is an example of how policy changes can help ensure the legal right to food. The north eastern Indian states of Assum, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Tripura are expected to begin implementing the country’s National Food Security Act around the middle of 2014.

According to First Post India, state food ministers have taken the first steps toward the construction of an administration building for the state-run Food Corporation of India. The food law, passed by Parliament last year, will give 67% of the population the right to subsidized food grains. India will need 62 million tons of food grain annually in order to implement its food law.

– Cavarrio Carter

Sources: The Daily Meal, Food Navigator, First Post India, United Nations, Mail Online India
Photo: Web Governments

Australia Multinational Political Forums

Australia Multinational Political Forums
As over 60 major wildfires blaze a path toward Sydney, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott dismissed the UN’s statement that the fires are directly linked to climate change. Australia’s rejection of the years of scientific studies that informed the UN’s statement is a sad conviction for a nation that will experience even greater harm from environmental degradation in coming years. It also draws attention to the growing necessity for a strong UN in the modern world.

If countries like Australia, the USA, China, and Russia continue to pursue energy agendas that do not adapt to the imminent environmental reality, the consequences could be among the worst experienced by humanity to date. And the belligerence demonstrated by Mr. Abbott and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin suggest that no changes are forthcoming.

Nation-states are not the only players on the scene; international corporations are often as powerful as national governments – and among the largest of them all are petroleum companies ExxonMobil, Shell, British Petroleum, and China National Petroleum Company. These corporations depend for their annual billions on the very substance that is most singularly responsible for the environmental crisis, and are therefore singularly committed to blocking any energy solutions not directly produced and patented by themselves.

It is for this reason that the UN finds itself in the position of unsurpassed importance. On the UN forums, the concerns of the many have the opportunity to outweigh the greed or ignorance of the few. If countries continue their harmful agendas, and in so doing threaten the existence of more fragile nations, there may be a need for the UN to impose sanctions or other means to dissuade countries from their agendas.

It is admittedly unlikely that the UN, as it is currently structured, would pursue this radical course of action – and there is no guarantee that any reasonable action could persuade an uncooperative country to adopt a sustainable agenda. Recent rhetoric at the UN by middle-income countries such as Vietnam and Nigeria show hope that the UN structure is evolving, however.

Coupled with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s continuing commitment to solving the pressing environmental problems, the UN stands in a position to increase its international influence and become a more balanced and less fettered institution – capable of voicing concerns and passing legislation that would be impossible in national forums.

– Alex Pusateri

Sources: Chicago Tribune, CNS News, Indy Bay, Vietnam.net
Photo: Climate Shift

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Forum on Sustainable Development, UN Seeks Scientific Input

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Following the termination of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD), the UN announced recently the formation of the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development. The new organization seeks to supercede the original, which operated from 1992 to 2012, by incorporating more input from the scientific community and providing a centralized, direct interface between data and policy makers.

The CSD was ahead of its time when it was first created, but had major flaws. Representatives from and experts on topics under discussion were not included in key talks, and as such, solutions ranged from impractical to irrelevant.

Members of governing bodies with the power to enact the solutions that were feasible were not always in communication with the CSD, and the measures were not carried through with the necessary vigor. As these problems compounded, the CSD came to be little more than a subsidiary of ECOSOC.

Aware of the numerous faults, the UN commissioned a special report on the CSD’s failures and addressed each of them with the new Forum. Annual meetings will be structured to ensure constant attention, and every four years, an additional meeting will be convened with the aim of attracting the highest level policy makers to streamline the legislative process and make appeals for particular actions directly to those with the power to do so.

In the same vein, the Forum on Sustainable Development will seek greater integration between UN agencies, to give it the greatest possible reach and resources in tackling the broad problems that are its concern.

Most importantly is the UN’s commitment to seek out and utilize the expertise and knowledge of the scientific community. Environmental, biological, and social scientists will be looked to to identify and address the most pressing problems facing the globe; economists will be sought to consider the financial feasibility of all solutions and, indeed, the Forum itself, which will have its own independent budget to operate from.

As a central aegis under which the many (and incontrovertibly convoluted) disciplines can dialogue to tackle issues in the most efficient way, the Forum on Sustainable Development is itself addressing a major issue: the disconnect between information and policy.

Socially segregated from the much of the rest of the world, the work done by scientists remains stuck in academic journals and treatises, unless it contains enough flash and style to appeal to major media outlets. There is an argument to be made that if the general public was aware of the relentless pace of scientific progress in every field, and the severe constraints put on it by a scarcity of funding, favorable sentiment would increase dramatically.

None of this is set to happen until 2016, pending the announcement of post-2015 Development Goals, but the UN appears committed to making the Forum fully equipped to hit the ground running when its objectives are officially announced.

This swift action is a promising sign in an institution which has been known for sluggishness and irrelevance, and is one sign among many recently that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is aware of the UN’s singular place in the contemporary world and the necessity for it to aim for the greatest possible goals.

If the bureaucratic cogs continue to churn at the same rate, the world will have a beacon of hope come 2016, and the coming years may vindicate the often-criticized Mr. Ban.

– Alex Pusateri

Sources: Sci Dev Net: UN Launches New Sustainable Development, All Africa, Sci Dev Net
Photo: UN News Centre

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November 20 Marks Universal Children’s Day

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Universal Children’s Day, celebrated on November 20, promotes the well-being of children everywhere. Nations worldwide celebrate the day to support children’s rights and interests. Universal Children’s Day is celebrated upon principles put forth by the General Assembly on December 14, 1954, by Resolution 836(IX). Since then, the day is used to promote objectives the General Assembly puts in place to enhance the welfare of children around the world.

November 20 was chosen as the day because of two other historical adoptions the General Assembly declared on this day. First, in 1959, the Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child. Secondly, the Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of a Child in 1989.

In more recent times, world leaders drew out the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the year 2000, designed to reduce poverty dramatically. These goals are directly related to children in multiple ways. In 2012, The Secretary General launched a new program called Education First, which will raise awareness about education, as well as produce additional funds through advocacy work.

Several officials commend Universal Children’s Day and its purpose. According to David Anthony, co-author of UNICEF’s study, Generation 2025 and beyond: The critical importance of understanding demographic trends for children of the 21st century, “ the world needs to be prepared for the post-2015 agenda and take account of this fundamental and unprecedented shift.” He also states, “we must do everything possible, so these children get an equal chance to survive, develop and reach their full potential.”

Overall, by spreading awareness and boosting advocacy efforts regarding children’s well-being in the world and by incorporating the UN standard into national legal frameworks, we can ensure the rights of the world’s children. Wrapping up the vision of Universal Children’s day is this statement by the Report of the Secretary General in 2001, “We were all children once. And we all share the desire for the well-being of our children, which has always been and will continue to be the most universally cherished aspiration of humankind.”

– Laura Reinacher

Sources: United Nations, UNICEF

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Educating Syrian Refugee Children

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The crisis in Syria has garnered international attention, but arguably little intervening military action; the majority of concerned nations are opting for relief aid for innocent people. Refugees have been tended to by neighboring countries and various international aid givers. In September 2013, the UN set aside $50 million in support of aid groups operating on the ground in Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan.

TheHuffington Post reports that the dollar amount is the most the UN has ever allocated for one crisis. Now, UK teachers are partnering with those in Syria and neighboring countries to address the many displaced children to help ensure the crisis doesn’t rob them of an education.

The official numbers of those displaced by the Syrian civil war are somewhat skewed. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) places the number at 600,000, arguably a conservative estimate. Inside Syria, that number may be 5 million, according to Paris-based Syrian political observer Salam Kawakibi.

Child refugees are especially vulnerable and at risk for, “…exploitation including early marriage, domestic violence and child labor, despite efforts to keep them in school, the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said…” A Voice of Americareport says that 2.1 million children have crossed borders into surrounding nations, many lacking key family connections. Living in host communities outside Syria, children are very at risk for exploitation and are even joining Syrian rebels to fight; they also have less access to education.

In Jordan alone, only 80,000 of 200,000 refugee children consistently go to school.  UNICEF is giving $45 to refugee families in Jordan to keep children in school. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the European Union (EU) have also combined forces for a 4.3 million Euro effort to help Jordanian schools and teachers deal with the Syrian influx, helping make education possible for locals and refugees.

The UK has just announced direct educational aid through school partnerships with Jordanian and Lebanese schools serving Syrian refugees with the Connecting Classrooms program. UK International Development Secretary Justine Greening said the goal was to prevent a lost generation of Syrian children.

Director Education and Society at the British Council Dr. Jo Beall says the partnerships will give British citizens a role in assuaging the crisis for kids and teachers by offering them a better understanding of the issues and the opportunity to connect with Syrian students. An Evening Express report claims that Skype and exchanging letters will help make those connections.

The UK announcement comes on the heels of the urging of Malala Yousafzai for world leaders to educate Syrian child refugees. Malala and UN education envoy Gordon Brown received $1 million from Avaaz in September 2013 to draw more international attention to this specific issue. Brown, a former British Prime Minister, echoes the sentiment of Secretary Greening in not wanting Syrian refugee children to become lost in the face of civil war.

– David Smith

Sources: Huffington Post, Syrian Refugees, Voice of America, UNESCO, UK Government, Evening Express, Reuters, NPR

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West Gate Attack Prompts UN to Return Attention to Central Africa

westgate_mallThe three-day assault on the West Gate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya has been a jolt to the UN, jerking their attention back to central Africa, and particularly the Central African Republic, and the multitude of problems that persist there. Several news channels have reported the UN’s avowal to renew efforts to stabilize the region, and France’s Francois Hollande has led the surge.

President Hollande stated that the entire region was threatened by “Somalisation,” reflecting the concerns with al-Shabbab and its historical ability to keep Somalia in a state of anarchy.

For the Central African Republic (CAR), Somalisation is already in full swing. Somalia’s collapse began as early as 1969, when military dictator Siad Barre began a brutal campaign which destroyed any semblance to order in Somali society. Likewise, CAR has had a long history of genocide, militia warfare, famine, and human rights abuses.

And, being caught between the much larger Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, and Chad–each with their own history of mass injustice and violence–CAR’s troubles have gone largely unreported by Western media outlets.

However, this is not to say that work is not being done in CAR. The recent reports and rhetoric are welcome in that they may serve to bring the public’s attention to the plethora of issues needing immediate solutions, but they do a disservice to the UN, NGOs, and scientists already working in CAR.

The UN keeps current data on CAR, and currently has programs operating through the World Food Programme and UNICEF, among others. Setbacks have occurred, and continue to occur, but that is often the cost of sending aid to regions which need it most.

When a rebel attack on the capital of Bangui prompted looting of the UN warehouses there, it was not the fault of the UN, or a signal that their programs there are being ignored by the central powers in New York. In a country of 4.6 million, where 1.6 million are in dire need of food and other assistance, a large source of sustenance naturally a prime target in a period of extreme unrest.

Scientists have also maintained a steady rate of interest in the country. A recent report by the Center for International Forestry Research iterated the necessity of stabilizing environmental degradation in central Africa, if social order is ever to be attained. Like its neighbors, CAR is rich in metals and minerals.

The corporations which pay for the extraction and shipment of those resources have spotty records, at best, complying with any kind of environmental protection laws. As pollution accumulates in the region, agriculture and pastoralism become more difficult–thereby prompting the kind of looting on UN food stocks seen in Bangui.

And even before the West Gate attacks, the UN was working on reopening some of its operations in CAR, signaling its refusal to forsake the region.

While the results have not been perfect, and the successes remain largely invisible to global audiences, the implication that CAR has ever fallen off the radar of international aid and development agencies is simply untrue, and a disservice to the organizations and their workers there who risk a great deal to bring necessary goods and services to the struggling region.

– Alex Pusateri

Sources: Fox News, Reuters, Trust, UN, CJA, New York Times, UN: Central African Republic
Photo: Webmania

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World Hunger is Biggest Threat to Global Health

Though it is rarely featured in the daily headlines, world hunger has become the greatest problem facing the world today. Every day, 1 in 8 people go hungry worldwide. The situation has become so severe that experts now recognize hunger as the largest risk to health – surpassing AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined.

Hunger is the worst in developing nations, where nearly 98 percent of the world’s hungry reside. Africa has the greatest number of countries with the highest categories of hunger – in at least 19 of its nations more than 25 percent of the population goes hungry. These issues are exacerbated by war and crisis. For people forced from their homes by violence and for other refugees, food is scarce.

The United Nations spends about $30 million weekly to keep food aid flowing to these problem areas. The efforts of the UN alone are not enough, however. In order to combat this global health risk, the hunger problem needs to be addressed on a global scale.

“It’s getting to a point where if the international community doesn’t wake up and realize that they have to, they must make efforts to find a political solution, otherwise we are not going to be able to sustain this level of response,” said Mathew Hollingworth of the World Food Program. Without the help of the international community, world hunger will continue to endanger people around the world.

– Sonia Aviv

Sources: ENCA, World Food Programme, 15 Min. News
Photo: The Inspiration Room