Rights – Page 5

40,000 Maasai told to leave their ancestral land to make way for UAE big-game hunting company

November 18, 2014 by Nasheman

Masai told to leave historic homeland by end of the year so it can become a hunting reserve for the Dubai royal family

by David Smith, The Guardian

Tanzania has been accused of reneging on its promise to 40,000 Masai pastoralists by going ahead with plans to evict them and turn their ancestral land into a reserve for the royal family of Dubai to hunt big game.

Activists celebrated last year when the government said it had backed down over a proposed 1,500 sq km “wildlife corridor” bordering the Serengeti national park that would serve a commercial hunting and safari company based in the United Arab Emirates.

Now the deal appears to be back on and the Masai have been ordered to quit their traditional lands by the end of the year. Masai representatives will meet the prime minister, Mizengo Pinda, in Dodoma on Tuesday to express their anger. They insist the sale of the land would rob them of their heritage and directly or indirectly affect the livelihoods of 80,000 people. The area is crucial for grazing livestock on which the nomadic Masai depend.

Unlike last year, the government is offering compensation of 1 billion shillings (£369,350), not to be paid directly but to be channelled into socio-economic development projects. The Masai have dismissed the offer.

“I feel betrayed,” said Samwel Nangiria, co-ordinator of the local Ngonett civil society group. “One billion is very little and you cannot compare that with land. It’s inherited. Their mothers and grandmothers are buried in that land. There’s nothing you can compare with it.”

Nangiria said he believes the government never truly intended to abandon the scheme in the Loliondo district but was wary of global attention. “They had to pretend they were dropping the agenda to fool the international press.”

He said it had proved difficult to contact the Ortelo Business Corporation (OBC), a luxury safari company set up by a UAE official close to the royal family. The OBC has operated in Loliondo for more than 20 years with clients reportedly including Prince Andrew.

Activists opposing the hunting reserve have been killed by police in the past two years, according to Nangiria, who says he has received threatening calls and text messages. “For me it is dangerous on a personal level. They said: ‘We discovered you are the mastermind, you want to stop the government using the land’. Another said: ‘You have decided to shorten your life. The hands of the government are too long. Put your family ahead of the Masai.’”

Nangiria is undeterred. “I will fight for my community. I’m more energetic than I was. The Masai would like to ask the prime minister about the promise. What happened to the promise? Was it a one-year promise or forever? Perhaps he should put the promise in writing.”

This will be the last time the Masai settle for talks, he added, before pursuing other methods including a court injunction. They could also be an influential voting bloc in next year’s elections.

An international campaign against the hunting reserve was led last year by the online activism site Avaaz.org, whose Stop the Serengeti Sell-off petition attracted more than 1.7 million signatures and led to coordinated email and Twitter protests.

Alex Wilks, campaign director for Avaaz, said: “The Masai stare out from every tourism poster, but Tanzania’s government wants to kick them off their land so foreign royalty can hunt elephants there. Almost two million people around the world have backed the Masai’s call for president Jakaya Kikwete to fulfil his promise to let them stay where they’ve always lived. Treating the Masai as the great unwanted would be a disaster for Tanzania’s reputation.”

A spokesperson for Tanzania’s natural resources and tourism ministry said : “It’s the first I’ve heard of it. I’m currently out of the office and can’t comment properly.”

An innocent man, tortured by the US, asks the UN: Where's the accountability?

November 13, 2014 by Nasheman

by Dan Froomkin, The Intercept

U.S. officials are in for a serious grilling on Wednesday as they get hauled before the U.N. Committee against Torture and questioned about about a multitude of ways in which the U.S. appears to be failing to comply with the anti-torture treaty it ratified 20 years ago.

As Jamil Dakwar, director of the ACLU Human Rights Program noted on Monday:

This marks the first U.N. review of the United States’ torture record since President Obama took office in 2009, and much is at stake. The review will test the pledges President Obama made to reverse disastrous Bush-era policies that led to gross violations of human rights, like torture, secret and incommunicado detention, “extraordinary renditions,” unfair trials, and more. It is also likely to examine practices that emerged or became entrenched during Obama’s time in office, such as indefinite detention at Guantánamo, immigration detention and deportations, and the militarization of the police, as witnessed by the world during this summer’s events in Ferguson.

The ACLU’s “shadow report” to the committee is a profoundly grim indictment of the nation’s failure to live up to its principles.

And although Obama claims to oppose torture, the New York Times recently reported that he could well fail another key test of his sincerity by reaffirming the Bush administration’s position that the international Convention Against Torture imposes no legal obligation on the U.S. to bar cruelty outside its borders.

Obama has already flouted the convention’s requirement that member states hold torturers accountable. I have long argued that his failure there has been particularly profound.

U.S. non-governmental agencies were allowed to address the U.N. committee today, and Murat Kurnaz (pictured above), who was tortured and detained by the U.S. at Kandahar and then Guantanamo over a period of five years, traveled to Geneva with his attorney, Center for Constitutional Rights Legal Director Baher Azmy. He made the following statement:

Good afternoon. My name is Murat Kurnaz. I am a Turkish citizen who was born and raised in Bremen, Germany, where I currently live. I spent five years of my life in detention in Kandahar and Guantanamo Bay from 2001-2006.My story is like many others. In 2001, while traveling in Pakistan, I was arrested by Pakistani police and sold to the U.S. military for a $3,000 bounty. In Kandahar, the U.S. military subjected me to electric shocks, stress positions, simulated drowning, and endless beatings. In Guantanamo, there was also psychological torture—I was stripped of my humanity, treated like an animal, isolated from the rest of the world, and did not know if I would ever be released.

Even though my lawyers proved that the U.S. knew of my innocence by 2002, I was not released until 2006. I lost five years of my life in Guantanamo.

Eight years later, I cannot believe that Guantanamo is still open and that there are almost 150 men detained there indefinitely. My time in Guantanamo was a nightmare, but I sometimes consider myself lucky. I know that part of the reason I am free today is because I am from Germany.

Most of the current prisoners remain in Guantanamo because they are from Yemen and the U.S. refuses to send them home. Many are as innocent as I was. But they are enduring the torture of Guantanamo for over 12 years because of their nationality, not because of anything they have done.

I understand that international human rights laws like the Convention Against Torture were created so that the people who commit torture are punished. Isn’t that how we can end torture in the world? So why has no U.S. official been held responsible for brutal practices and torture at Guantanamo or other U.S. prisons?

I will never get five years of my life back, but for me and others, it is important that the Committee confronts the United States about its actions in Guantanamo and other prisons.

Thank you.

The committee’s proceedings are being livestreamed here. The questioning of the U.S. delegation begins as 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Geneva time — 4 a.m. ET.

Fewer undertrials might solve prison overcrowding, says NHRC

November 13, 2014 by Nasheman

New Delhi: National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) chairperson Justice (retd.) K.G. Balakrishnan Thursday said overcrowding in Indian prisons can be reduced if the number of undertrials is brought down.

“If a charge sheet is being filed and there is no indication that the accused may influence witnesses or the evidence, what is the reason of keeping him behind bars,” Balakrishnan told IANS at a two-day national seminar on prison reforms.

He also said steps should be taken to decrease problems in jails. “State governments should invest to build more jails and improve infrastructure,” he said.

Many prision and government officials attended the seminar and informed the participants on the status of the prisons in their respective states.

The seminar will conclude Friday.

(IANS)

US Commitment to Terror, Expansionism, Maintains Israel’s Illegal Wall

November 12, 2014 by Nasheman

by Robert Barsocchini

As seen in the below graphic from the Washington Post, essentially every country recognizes the State of Palestine, except for Western Europe and some of the places it has conquered, such as North America, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as some US “partners” that “wouldn’t want to ruffle Washington’s feathers”, including “South Pacific island nations like Kiribati and Nauru” (WaPo).

The US has for decades used terrorism to singularly prevent Palestine from becoming a full UN member state. Likewise, without the US providing the muscle and money, Israel would not be able to continue, in defiance of the world, to occupy, colonize, ethnically cleanse, and commit terrorism and massacres against Palestine.

Without US muscle backing its terror and expansionism, Israel, despite being the strongest force in the Mid East and in possession of the “world’s best” air force and a large, rogue nuclear arsenal, would have no choice but to decolonize Palestine and remain within its own universally recognized borders, which are those that existed before June, 1967, when Israel illegally invaded and began colonizing and ethnically cleansing areas beyond those lines.

For approximately 40 years, the US has vetoed, generally alone (aside from Israel), every UN resolution demanding that Israel comply with this worldwide legal, democratic consensus. The vote is typically 165 countries against the US and Israel, and sometimes five or six other countries (European-conquered lands and some tiny islands such as Micronesia).

Obama has continued the reign of terror and expansion, specifically rejecting, at the UN, the demand for Israel to cease even future settlement activities, let alone abandon its current illegal settlements, all war crimes. This particular resolution was brought at the 15 member Security Council, and received 100% approval aside from Obama’s isolated vote of rejection, which is enforceable only due to the US dedication to terrorism and democracy-prevention.

On the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Palestinians have tried to call attention to the wall that still exists, the illegal US-backed wall that Israel is building and using as one of its means of illegally annexing Palestinian territory. Dr. Noam Chomsky, for one, has pointed out that if the wall were about security and not illegal expansionism, it could simply be made gigantic and utterly impenetrable, and be put on Israel’s legal border, which countries are allowed to do.

Palestinians break through illegal Israeli annexation wall. Photo: RT

Dr. Norman Finkelstein has suggested that Palestinians physically break down the wall en masse, as a non-violent solution, since the highest court in the world ruled that the wall is illegal and must be deconstructed, but the USA is preventing UN member states from carrying out the legally required and universally supported task.

Since the recent US/Israeli massacre against Palestine, Israel has continued its ongoing cease-fire violations, and has also announced or built thousands of new illegal settlement units in Palestine, and has illegally stolen over 4,000 more acres of Palestine (see here and here).

Note that although the Washington Post published the above map, a chief reason that the US is able to continue to illegally back Israel, and even increase illegal support for Israel as Obama has done (in defiance of the US population), is that US media never provides the full context of the situation, as Professor Edward Said pointed out (as noted by Jews for Justice in the Middle East):

It is simply extraordinary and without precedent that Israel’s history, its record — from the fact that it..is a state built on conquest, that it has invaded surrounding countries, bombed and destroyed at will, to the fact that it currently occupies Lebanese, Syrian, and Palestinian territory against international law — is simply never cited, never subjected to scrutiny in the U.S. media or in official discourse…

Edward Said in “The Progressive.” May 30, 1996

Given the full and accurate picture of how Israel has come into existence and what it does, already dwindling US public support for Israel (much of which, however, is based on religious fundamentalism) would certainly decrease, as public support for US atrocities generally decreases as information about them increases.

Robert Barsocchini is a researcher focusing on global force dynamics. He also writes professionally for the film industry. Here is his blog. Also see his free e-book, Whatever it Takes – Hillary Clinton’s Record of Support for War and other Depravities. Click here to follow Robert and his UK-based colleague, Dean Robinson, on Twitter.

Affordable, quality professional legal services to vulnerable sections through trained lawyers, paralegals: Nyayika case studies

November 12, 2014 by Nasheman

From left: Gagan Sethi, Prof Madhava Menon, Rajendra Joshi and Satyajeet Mazumdar

by Counterview

A public event in Delhi, National Meet on Social Lawyering — organized by the Centre for Social Justice and Lawyers for Change — saw release the book ,“Nyayika – Making Professional Legal Services Accessible”, which deals with how Nyayika carried out its unique experiment over the last one year of its existence as a private non-profit company. Prof Madhava Menon, chancellor, Guru Ghasidas Central University, Chhattisgarh, who released the book, said the Nayika model of community lawyering offering affordable legal services with sensitivity to the poor and the vulnerable should focus more on people and communities rather than courts. He added, there was a need to move away from court-centric lawyering towards a process of bringing justice to the people by using administrative and other mechanisms outside the courts to enable people to claim their rights and entitlements, and live with dignity.

Among those who took part in the event included founding directors of Nyayika, Rajendra Joshi, founder of SAATH Charitable Trust; Gagan Sethi, founder of Janvikas; Nupur Sinha, executive director of the Centre for Social Justice; and Satyajeet Mazumdar, CEO of Nyayika.

Providing quality professional legal services, both litigative and non-litigative, through trained lawyers and paralegals in its law centres, Nyayika addresses one the main barriers in access to quality legal services for people from the middle and lower income groups – the high fees of a lawyer – by providing its services for a fixed and affordable fee payable according to a payment schedule. Those unable to pay are offered free services. Nyayika follows transparent processes, assures speedy disposal of cases and is accountable towards its clients, a client friendly standardized operating procedure, and a robust monitoring and information system across eight centres in Gujarat – Ahwa, Modasa, Mandvi, Bharuch, Palanpur, Amreli, Vadodara, and Ahmedabad.

Below we reproduce some of the selected success stories of Nyayika, which would showcase how the new model has worked in solving people’s problems:

Child sex abuse in school, Mota Vijuda, Amreli district:

A child studying in class five was sexually abused by his school teacher, following which his father lodged a written complaint to the school principal. Based on the complaint, the principal brought the incident to the notice of the district education officer (DEO), who initiated an inquiry. Finding substance in the complaint, the teacher was transferred to another school. Nyayika learnt of the incident from a local newspaper. It approached the father of the child, the school principal and parents of two other children of the school and took their statements. The child’s parents regretted that the authorities had not acted sufficiently against the accused.

Nyayika sought copies of the written complaint of the father and the reply he had received from the DEO. An FIR was registered under Sections 4, 8 and 10 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 against the teacher. On investigation, police found that the complaint was true. Meanwhile, the accused sought anticipatory bail from the court, which was rejected on Nyayika’s plea backed by the public prosecutor. The accused was arrested and is in jail. It took just a month to book the culprit. It has created considerable awareness among people about Nyayika’s ability to seek justice. The teacher community, on the other hand, has become wary of acting in a highhanded manner.

Compensation to Amreli’s workers:

About a year ago, Nyayika learnt that many workers from Amreli district belonging to different talukas — Savarkundra, Lathi, Jaffrabad and Dhari – were not getting any compensation under the Workers’ Insurance Scheme. They would apply for compensation to the district labour officer, who would send the applications for approval to the director, insurance, Gandhinagar. After a lapse of seven to eight months, the director, insurance, Gandhinagar, would return most of the applications saying these workers could not be covered under the insurance scheme. The applications would be rejected, saying the workers did not adequate proof.

Nyayika filed a right to information (RTI) application to know about number of persons from Amreli district who had applied for insurance under the scheme, how many applications were pending, and how many were rejected. Based on the RTI reply, Nyayika called a meeting in Amreli of those whose names were rejected. Forty of them turned up for the meeting. Participants were asked why their names were rejected. They replied reason included insufficient documents. As all the workers were consumers of the insurance scheme, Nyayika decided to approach a consumer court for redressal of the grievance.

Twenty of the workers agreed to file complaint before the consumer court under the Consumer Protection Act, 1986, under sections 12 and 13. A reply was sought from the director, insurance, Gandhinagar, as to why these persons were not paid insurance amount. The director, insurance, gave several reasons, including failure to send the application to him on time and insufficient documents, including identity cards. These replies were challenged through 20 affidavits, which were forwarded by Nyayika to the consumer court. It was argued that in the case the time period, the period should be counted not from the date of the accident but of the date on which the dispute commenced. As for identity card s, it was suggested that the workers did have them from the talati or the mamlatadar, which was equal to that of the certificate issued by the labour officer.

The consumer court ruled in favour of the workers. Each worker received Rs 1 lakh as insurance amount plus Rs 25,000 as interest. Each of the 20 received Rs 1.25 lakh. The director, insurance, Gandhinagar, who would evade giving proper answer found reason to become more vigilant. The workers became aware of the importance of identity card, and also that they could approach the consumer court to get compensation.

Land acquisition case in Babracot village, Amreli district:

This case relates to land acquisition carried out for mining by Ultratech in Babracot village of Rajula taluka in Amreli district for the company’s cement plant. The land acquisition had taken place in 1993, and six farmers agreed to sell their land to the company for Rs 70,000 per bigha under an agreement. During Nyayika’s interaction with the villagers, it came out that the company did not pay the full amount. Worse, the company quietly transferred in some land which belonged to the farmers in its name.

During the meeting, Nyayika explained to farmers about the land acquisition law. The six persons, whose land was acquired, agreed that their land had been taken away fraudulently, but had no proof, hence were helpless. Nyayika decided to file RTI application to get documents of the land which was transferred to the company, including ownership details and the amount paid to the farmers. Within 30 days Nyayika received reply. It was found that the company had not paid in accordance with the prevailing market rate. It was also found that the company had fraudulently taken away some pieces of land. The agreement required that the company would provide job to the affected farmers and their families, but this was not done.

Legal notice was served to the company on behalf of the six farmers. The notice demanded payment as per the market rate, and also payment against mental and physical harassment, misuse of the farm land, loss to agriculture and livelihood. In each case, Rs 3 to 4 lakh was demanded as compensation. The company called the farmers for a compromise. The farmers insisted that they should be paid compensation, or else they would approach the court of law. The matter is at the pre-litigation stage. Thanks to Nyayika’s intervention, the farmers in the region became aware of land-related issues.

Incestual rape in Ankaleshwar, Bharuch district:

This case relates to rape of a 14-year-old girl by her father in Ankaleshwar. Studying in seventh standard, the victim lived with his father, who had divorced his wife, with whom their son lived. The girl became pregnant a couple of times, and she was given capsule to trigger abortion. The father would threaten her that she would be murdered if she opened her mouth. During one vacation, the girl’s paternal aunt (chachi) took her to her mother’s residence. When the school vacation ended, the mother asked her to return, but she refused, and divulged what all had happened to her. The mother told everything to the child’s grandmother. A complaint was registered with the Ankaleshwar police station.

The police sought Nyayika’s help. A senior activist Pramilaben, who took personal interest in the matter, took statements from the child, the mother and the grandmother. She also got the child medically examined. An application was filed seeking compensation for the rape victim. Police was told to arrest the accused, which was done within a week. The accused person’s bail application was got rejected with the help of public prosecutor.

Nyayika’s intervention proved crucial. Pramilaben Varmora, a senior paralegal activist with Nyayika, took statement from the grandmother, the mother, and the victim. The father’s lawyer sought to argue out that the mother, who was a divorcee and had illicit relationship with someone, had put up a false case. The public prosecutor was told that the father’s lawyer should argue only on the complaint, and not about the character of the mother. The court agreed. It sentenced the father to 10 years’ imprisonment and a fine of Rs 2,000. The rape victim received Rs 20,000 as compensation within a year.

Employment dispute in Vadoara:

Mr A (the complainant) was employed at ABC Info Soft Solutions Pvt Ltd (the employer) since December 19, 2013. The employer terminated the services of Mr A on April 10, 2014 through a termination letter sent on email. No termination notice was issued even though his contract with the employer required one month’s notice to be issued. Mr A’s salary for the month of March was also not paid. When this issue was raised by Mr A before the employer, it was alleged that Mr A had deleted data from the employer’s PC, hence his services were terminated without notice.

Mr A approached Nyayika on the May 9, 2014. Nyayika sent a legal notice to the employer on May 13, 2014 demanding payment of the salary due, which was Rs 40,000. The employer in turn filed a complaint before the police on May 16, 2014 against Mr A for the loss caused to the company from the data so deleted. The employer then replied to the legal notice on May 19, 2014 agreeing to settle the dispute through conciliation. The first conciliation sitting was held at the police station where Mr A was accompanied by a Nyayika lawyer. The employer agreed to take back the police complaint and agreed to pay part of the salary due to Mr. A. The second conciliation sitting was held at a café, where after much negotiation, the employer agreed to pay a sum of Rs 25000 to Mr A to settle the dispute.

The fees charged by Nyayika from Mr A for the entire process was Rs 1,500 only.

Conciliation in a case of domestic violence:

Mr N and Ms D were in a relationship. They decided to secretly get married and got a registered marriage done on October 20, 2000. Thereafter, they started living with their respective parents. However, their parents soon came to know of this, after which Ms D moved in to the residence of Mr N. Ms D continued her studies, obtained a degree and joined a school as a dance teacher. Meanwhile, Mr N was unemployed because of which his parents started to scold and quarrel with him frequently. This resulted in the couple moving out of the house and living independently in 2003.

Ms D managed the household expenses and sent her husband to an African country for a job. Somehow it did not work out and Mr N had to return to India in the year 2005. Ms D gave birth to a boy in the same year. In the year 2011, Ms D managed to purchase a house from her savings. She also had a second child, a daughter in the same year. Mr N was still unemployed. He developed a habit of drinking, and would also beat up Ms D. He started getting suspicious of Ms D, and this led to frequent arguments. On May 27, 2014, Mr N started a quarrel and Ms D retaliated. On hearing shouts, neighbours intervened and called up Ms D’s mother. Ms D left for her mother’s place at night.

Ms D approached Nyayika on May 28, 2014. The Nyayika lawyer listened to what Ms D had to say. Initially, Ms D wanted a divorce but was counseled about the process and all its pros and cons. Thereafter, she decided that to issue a legal notice to her husband through Nyayika and asked him to be present for mutual conciliation at the Nyayika office. A notice was served to Mr N on June 2, 2014 and the conciliation was fixed for the June 17. The conciliation took place in the presence of Ms D’s mother. Mr N was given a hearing after which both parties put forth their terms and conditions for entering into a compromise. Ms D wanted an assurance from Mr N that he would stop drinking and hitting her. Mr N wanted an assurance from Ms D that she would not get be vacated from the house they were living.. A compromise agreement was reached. Both parties signed the same in the presence of a notary on June 18, 2014.

The fees charged by Nyayika for the entire procedure was Rs 1,000 only.

The book can be downloaded by clicking here.

Is it a crime to possess or wear clothing with national insignia of a neighbouring South Asian Country?: An Open Letter to Secretary General of SAARC

November 10, 2014 by Nasheman

To:
H.E. Arjun Bahadur Thapa,
Secretary General of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC)
SAARC Secretariat,  Tridevi Marg,  P.O. Box 4222,  Kathmandu,  Nepal
saarc@saarc-sec.org

Your excellency,

I write to draw your attention to the recent filing of a police complaint against 10 young boys in the Kushinagar area located in the province of Uttar Pradesh in India on grounds of wearing the Tee shirts of the Pakistan Cricket Team. [see a news report in the Indian Media posted below] It is indeed astonishing that citizen’s of SAARC member states cannot take the risk of wearing clothing bearing insignia from national sports teams of another SAARC member state. In a similar incident in March 2014 some 60 odd students in a university in India were charged with sedition and faced expulsion from their university for cheering the Pakistan Team in cricket match broadcast on TV [http://tinyurl.com/mq2mz2x]. After all the SAARC member states are signatories to a common charter and a whole set of regional agreements that are meant to promote regional cooperation and mutual understanding and incidents like these clearly run counter to these commitments. What is wrong in reading books, seeing films, watching and appreciating sports events, being able to access handicrafts or clothing from countries that are members of SAARC. Why should these banal things which are lived and accepted as normal in other parts of the world be considered inimical to National interests of SAARC states?

Usually people would write a letter like this directly to the authorities concerning the country of wrongdoing, but I choose to write to you most of all, since you hold the fort for SAARC.

This may seem an extra-ordinary request concerning events in a particular SAARC member state but I would like to ask you to kindly take up this matter formally with the Govt of India and also with all member states of SAARC to ensure that the act of purchase or possession of commonly available sports goods bearing national insignia of SAARC member states should not become grounds of filing police complaints in any SAARC country against citizens of SAARC member states. Sir, please dont hold your horses on this even if it means creating a precedent, if not for anything else, you owe it to the tax payers in South Asia’s member states that fund the SAARC secretariat. However symbolic an initiative from you regarding this matter it would render a signal service to citizens of SAARC member states.

Yours sincerely,

Harsh Kapoor [as concerned South Asian]

Copies to:

Mr Akhilesh Yadav Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, 5, Kalidas Marg Lucknow Uttar Pradesh, India cmup@nic.in
People’s SAARC Regional Secrerariat, Kathmandu, Nepal peoplesaarc@yahoo.com
South Asians for Human Rights 345/18 Kuruppu Road (17/7 Kuruppu Lane), Colombo 08, Sri Lanka sahr@southasianrights.org
Anuradha Bhasin Jamwal & Asha Hans Co-Chairpersons, Pakistan India Peoples’ Forum for Peace & Democracy – India pipfpd.india@gmail.com
Mr John Dayal, Member, National Integration Council of India john.dayal@gmail.com

UP police register case against 10 boys for wearing T-shirts of Pakistan cricket team

Written by Muzamil Jaleel | New Delhi | Posted: November 8, 2014 | The Indian Express

The Uttar Pradesh Police have registered a case against 10 boys in Kushinagar district for wearing T-shirts of the Pakistani cricket team during a Muharran procession. The boys have been charged for acting “prejudicial to national integration and causing communal disharmony”, sources said.

The sources said the boys, said to be aged under 12, were part of the Muharram procession in Kalyan Chapad Chotta, a village under the jurisdiction of the Kubersthan police station. They were playing with sticks, a tradition during Muharram processions especially in this region of Uttar Pradesh in which groups of boys exhibit their skills.

Sources said the police have named five boys in their case while the other five are yet to be named.

When contacted, SP Kushinagar Lalit Kumar Singh said “an FIR has been lodged but nobody has been arrested”. He did not want to explain as to why the case was registered.

Kushinagar DM Lokesh M told The Indian Express that it was a small issue and the district administration is trying to sort it out. “These children were wearing those T-shirts and once it was pointed out, they removed it immediately,” he said. He said the police have not given him any report yet. He said that Kushinagar district is communally sensitive.

The family members of the boys were not ready to speak because of fear. A police team had already visited the village for investigation.

A village elder, Liyaqat Ali, said this case has created tension in the village. “These are foolish children. They are 11-, 12-year-old children. They had bought these T-shirts from a shop and the elders had no idea about it,” he said. “If the police had an objection to this, they should have explained this to the children. What was the need to register a case,” he said. “The police case has created tension in the village. We are unable to understand as to why police filed a case of sedition against these children.”

A local social activist, Shakir Ali, however, said the issue was being unnecessarily exaggerated. “These T-shirts are readily available with a local sports shop. A group of boys had picked these T-shirts so that they could wear them during the stick playing tradition during the Muharram procession,” he said. “They had done it without knowing that it would get them into trouble. Once someone pointed it out, they removed it immediately.” He said there is a lot of fear among the Muslim population in the village after this incident, especially after police filed the case. “How is wearing a T-shirt of a country that is readily available in a store here seditious?’’ he asked.

Sources said activists of Hindu Yuva Vahini burnt Pakistani flags at different places especially at Padrona Subash Chowk in the district on Wednesday and sought action against the boys.

After 13 years imprisoned without charge, man released from Guantanamo

November 7, 2014 by Nasheman

Groups say human rights violations at the prison continue, Gitmo must be closed

by Andrea Germanos, Common Dreams

A man held at the Guantánamo Bay prison for nearly 13 years without charge has been transferred to his home country of Kuwait.

The Department of Defense made the announcement of his release Wednesday.

Thirty-seven-year-old Fawzi al Odah is the first man to be released based on the assessment of the Periodic Review Board, a body established in 2011 through an executive order and tasked with evaluating the merits of ongoing detention for Guantánamo prisoners.

Agence France-Presse reports that in 2001, Odah “was seized by tribesmen in northern Pakistan, who sold him to the Pakistani army, which in turn handed him over to the United States.”

The transfer agreement requires al Odah to spend at least a year at a rehabilitation facility, according to reporting by the Associated Press.

One hundred forty-eight men still remain at the offshore prison, 79 of whom have been cleared for release.

Rights groups welcomed the decision to release Odah, but stressed that it was just a small step forward at the notorious prison.

“The U.S. government must do far more to end human rights violations at Guantánamo,” stated Amnesty International USA’s Director of Individuals At Risk Program Zeke Johnson. “All remaining detainees should either be fairly tried in federal court or released.”

The Center for Constitutional Right issued a similar statement: “The real work now is in getting the Obama administration to do the right thing and live up to its promise to close Guantánamo: release the men who have been cleared, no matter where they are from, and give the others real trials, not indefinite detention.”

Changes to environment, land acquisition laws jeopardize human rights: Amnesty International India

November 6, 2014 by Nasheman

Photo: Aruna Chandrasekhar

New Delhi/Bengaluru: Recent changes made and proposed to India’s environment and land acquisition policies strike at the right of communities to be consulted on decisions affecting them, Amnesty International India said today.

India’s Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has in recent months weakened requirements for public consultation with communities affected by mining and other infrastructure projects, and sought to dilute provisions mandating the free, prior and informed consent of Adivasi (indigenous) communities.

The Ministry of Rural Development has suggested changes to land acquisition laws that seek to dilute consent requirements and discard social impact assessments. Public consultations over changes to key environmental laws have been largely superficial.

“Many corporate-led infrastructure projects could severely affect the rights of communities to clean air, water, health, livelihood and a healthy environment. The people most affected by these projects must have a say in whether and how they go forward,” said Aruna Chandrasekhar, Business and Human Rights Researcher at Amnesty International India. “Attempts to shut these communities out of the decision-making process are short-sighted and counter-productive.”

“Some of the amended laws also fall short of international standards on consultation and consent, and could further marginalise vulnerable communities who seldom have a voice in decisions taken around their lands and resources.”

“Instead of carrying forward the previous government’s efforts to dismantle safeguards on consultation, authorities must strengthen and enforce existing laws.”

Public consultations with affected communities

On 30 May 2014, the MoEFCC issued an executive memorandum stating that existing coal mines with a production capacity of up to 16 mtpa (million tonnes per annum) would not need to conduct public hearings with project-affected communities before expanding their capacity by up to 50 per cent. Public hearings are mandated as part of the environmental clearance process for certain projects under the Environment (Protection) Act. They are the only existing formal means of consultation under Indian law for both indigenous and non-indigenous project-affected communities.

On 28 July, the Ministry extended the exemption from conducting public hearings to mines with a capacity above 16 mtpa seeking to expand their capacity by up to 5 mtpa. On 2 September, the Ministry issued another memorandum, exempting mines with a production capacity of over 20 mtpa seeking to expand capacity by up to 6 mtpa from conducting public hearings.

On 25 June, the Ministry amended its Environment Impact Assessment notification of 2006, which details the process by which environmental clearances are granted. The amendment made certain categories of projects, including irrigation projects which required less than 2000 hectares of land, exempt from requiring environmental clearances, and therefore exempt from needing to consult affected communities.

“The right to consultation must not be seen as a roadblock to projects, but as an integral part of the development process,” said Aruna Chandrasekhar. “The Ministry must require public hearings and environmental impact assessments to be conducted for all projects that could impact people’s lives, livelihoods or environment.”

Indigenous communities’ rights

Under India’s Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act – also referred to as the Forest Rights Act – any use of forest land for non-forest purposes requires the prior consent of the concerned gram sabhas (village assemblies), and documentary evidence that all individual and community claims over forest and community lands under the Act have been settled.

In recent months, authorities have sought to dilute these requirements. On 4 July 2014, the MoEFCC wrote to all state governments stating that documentary evidence of settlement of claims would no longer be required for proposals for prospecting in forest land.

On 28 October, the Ministry wrote to state governments stating that in cases where there were no recent census records of the presence of tribal communities and plantations had been categorized as ‘forests’ after 13 December 1930, gram sabha consent and documentary evidence of settlement of claims would not be required for forest land to be used for non-forest purposes.

The letter suggested that there could technically be no ‘Other Traditional Forest Dwellers’ – another category of indigenous communities – living in these forests. Under the Forest Rights Act, these communities need to have lived in and depended on forest lands for at least three generations prior to 13 December 2005, dating back to December 1930.

However the Act makes no distinction between plantations and other forests, and its definition of ‘forest land’ does not refer to a date of classification. The Ministry’s narrow interpretation of ‘forest land’ would therefore affect the rights of Other Traditional Forest Dwellers living in these forests to consultation and free, prior and informed consent.

Media reports also suggest that the government is planning to do away with the consent requirement for projects located outside ‘scheduled areas’ – certain Adivasi regions identified under the Constitution as deserving special protection.

“India must uphold its obligations under international and Indian law to protect the rights of indigenous communities over their lands and territories, and ensure that their free, prior and informed consent is sought on matters affecting them,” said Aruna Chandrasekhar.

Land acquisition

In July 2014, the Ministry of Rural Development wrote to the Prime Minister’s Office proposing a number of amendments to the flawed but progressive Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, which came into force on 1 January.

The changes proposed included diluting or doing away with provisions requiring the consent of 70 per cent of families where land was sought to be acquired for public-private partnership (PPP) projects and 80 per cent for private projects. The Ministry also recommended that social impact assessments mandated by the Act be restricted to only large projects or PPP projects as they ‘might delay the land acquisition process’.

Other changes proposed include reexamining the Act’s definition of ‘affected families’ eligible for resettlement and rehabilitation to exclude those who don’t own land but whose livelihood is affected by land acquisition.

The Act excludes several important industries – including coal mining by the state – from its ambit, and states that the central government shall make it applicable to these industries within one year of its commencement. However, the government has not taken any known measures in this regard.

“Authorities must not rush to amend a law which has barely been implemented on the ground. Instead, they must ensure that its provisions are strengthened and extended to all people affected by any project, and explicitly prohibit forced evictions in all circumstances,” said Aruna Chandrasekhar.

Consultations on legal reform

On 29 August 2014, the MoEFCC set up a committee to review key environmental laws, including India’s Air Act and Water Act, and “recommend specific amendments…to bring them in line with current requirements to meet objectives” within three months. However the committee’s mandate, while broad, remains vague, and its consultations have provided limited opportunities for public participation. The committee has conducted consultations in only urban centres so far, which have been largely inaccessible to many project-affected communities across the country.

A consultation held in Bangalore in September, which was attended by Amnesty International India, ended before schedule, and members of the public were not given sufficient time to provide feedback. The MoEFCC has invited suggestions and comments from members of the public. However these suggestions can only be made online, and at one point were restricted to under 1000 characters.

“A review of important environmental laws that will have long-lasting implications on millions of people must not be done in haste or in a perfunctory manner,” said Aruna Chandrasekhar. “It must involve consultations with a wide-range of stakeholders, especially from affected communities, in a manner that is transparent, meaningful and inclusive.”

Gaza cut off from World: Israel closes border crossings indefinitely

November 3, 2014 by Nasheman

Palestinians walk past trucks loaded with gravel at the Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and the southern Gaza Strip (Reuters / Ibraheem Abu Mustafa)

by RT

Israel has said it’s shutting the only two operating Gaza border crossings indefinitely. This comes a day after a projectile hit Israel from the strip, but caused no damage. Border closures threaten to isolate already devastated Gaza completely.

The move will affect both the Kerem Shalom and Erez border crossings, Haartez reported, quoting Israel’s defense establishment. The authorities have notified the Palestinians of the decision.

Meanwhile, the three other crossings into Gaza are still not operational and the passage from the area into Egypt – the Rafah crossing – remains closed.

From now on and until further notice, only critical humanitarian aid going into Gaza will be allowed via the Erez crossing.

The news comes after the Iron Dome defense system detected a projectile fired from Gaza overnight on Friday. There was no damage reported and no one has claimed responsibility for the incident.

“Overnight a rocket or mortar launched from Gaza struck southern Israel. No damage or injuries reported,”Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner said on Twitter.

It was not immediately clear if Israel’s move on Sunday was connected to the incident.

Meanwhile, Egypt has stepped up its plans to create a buffer zone on the Gaza border, in Cairo’s ongoing campaign against underground tunnels dug from the restive Sinai Peninsula, Ynet News reported. In Rafah, buildings are being demolished, while some of the local residents are leaving, fearing a new escalation of violence in the region.

Border closures threaten to cut off Gaza from much-needed humanitarian aid, which could make a dire situation in the area even worse. The Gaza Strip requires substantial rebuilding after Israel’s 50-day Operation Protective Edge this summer left much of its infrastructure in ruins.

Canada accused of failing to prevent overseas mining abuses

November 3, 2014 by Nasheman

Residents of Tapachula, Mexico protest mining by Canada’s Goldcorp. (Photo: Movimiento Mesoamericano Contra Modelo Minero/cc/flickr)

by Carey L. Biron, IPS News

The Canadian government is failing either to investigate or to hold the country’s massive extractives sector accountable for rights abuses committed in Latin American countries, according to petitioners who testified here Tuesday before an international tribunal.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) also heard concerns that the Canadian government is not making the country’s legal system available to victims of these abuses.

“Canada has been committed to a voluntary framework of corporate social responsibility, but this does not provide any remedy for people who have been harmed by Canadian mining operations,” Jen Moore, the coordinator of the Latin America programme at MiningWatch Canada, a watchdog group, told IPS.

“We’re looking for access to the courts but also for the Canadian state to take preventive measures to avoid these problems in the first place – for instance, an independent office that would have the power to investigate allegations of abuse in other countries.”

Moore and others who testified before the commission formally submitted a report detailing the concerns of almost 30 NGOs. Civil society groups have been pushing the Canadian government to ensure greater accountability for this activity for years, Moore says, and that work has been buttressed by similar recommendations from both a parliamentary commission, in 2005, and the United Nations.

“Nothing new has taken place over the past decade … The Canadian government has refused to implement the recommendations,” Moore says.

“The state’s response to date has been to firmly reinforce this voluntary framework that doesn’t work – and that’s what we heard from them again during this hearing. There was no substantial response to the fact that there are all sorts of cases falling through the cracks.”

Canada, which has one of the largest mining sectors in the world, is estimated to have some 1,500 projects in Latin America – more than 40 percent of the mining companies operating in the region. According to the new report, and these overseas operations receive “a high degree” of active support from the Canadian government.

“We’re aware of a great deal of conflict,” Shin Imai, a lawyer with the Justice and Corporate Accountability Project, a Canadian civil society initiative, said Tuesday. “Our preliminary count shows that at least 50 people have been killed and some 300 wounded in connection with mining conflicts involving Canadian companies in recent years, for which there has been little to no accountability.”

These allegations include deaths, injuries, rapes and other abuses attributed to security personnel working for Canadian mining companies. They also include policy-related problems related to long-term environmental damage, illegal community displacement and subverting democratic processes.

Home state accountability

The Washington-based IACHR, a part of the 35-member Organisation of American States (OAS), is one of the world’s oldest multilateral rights bodies, and has looked at concerns around Canadian mining in Latin America before.

Yet this week’s hearing marked the first time the commission has waded into the highly contentious issue of “home state” accountability – that is, whether companies can be prosecuted at home for their actions abroad.

“This hearing was cutting-edge. Although the IACHR has been one of the most important allies of human rights violations’ victims in Latin America, it’s a little bit prudent when it faces new topics or new legal challenges,” Katya Salazar, executive director of the Due Process of Law Foundation, a Washington-based legal advocacy group, told IPS.

“And talking about the responsibility for the home country of corporations working in Latin America is a very new challenge. So we’re very happy to see how the commission’s understanding and concern about these topics have evolved.”
Home state accountability has become progressively more vexed as industries and supply chains have quickly globalised. Today, companies based in rich countries, with relatively stronger legal systems, are increasingly operating in developing countries, often under weaker regulatory regimes.

The extractives sector has been a key example of this, and over the past two decades it has experienced one of the highest levels of conflict with local communities of any industry. For advocates, part of the problem is a current vagueness around the issue of the “extraterritorial” reach of domestic law.

“Far too often, extractive companies have double-standards in how they behave at home versus abroad,” Alex Blair, a press officer with the extractives programme at Oxfam America, a humanitarian and advocacy group, told IPS. “They think they can take advantage of weaknesses in local laws, oversight and institutions to operate however they want in developing countries.”

Blair notes a growing trend of local and indigenous communities going abroad to hold foreign companies accountable. Yet these efforts remain extraordinarily complex and costly, even as legal avenues in many Western countries continue to be constricted.

Transcending the legalistic

At this week’s hearing, the Canadian government maintained that it was on firm legal ground, stating that it has “one of the world’s strongest legal and regulatory frameworks towards its extractives industries”.

In 2009, Canada formulated a voluntary corporate responsibility strategy for the country’s international extractives sector. The country also has two non-judicial mechanisms that can hear grievances arising from overseas extractives projects, though neither of these can investigate allegations, issue rulings or impose punitive measures.

These actions notwithstanding, the Canadian response to the petitioners concerns was to argue that local grievances should be heard in local court and that, in most cases, Canada is not legally obligated to pursue accountability for companies’ activities overseas.

“With respect to these corporations’ activities outside Canada, the fact of their incorporation within Canada is clearly not a sufficient connection to Canada to engage Canada’s obligations under the American Declaration,” Dana Cryderman, Canada’s alternate permanent representative to the OAS, told the commission, referring to the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, the document that underpins the IACHR’s work.

Cryderman continued: “[H]ost countries in Latin America offer domestic legal and regulatory avenues through which the claims being referenced by the requesters can and should be addressed.”

Yet this rationale clearly frustrated some of the IACHR’s commissioners, including the body’s current president, Rose-Marie Antoine.

“Despite the assurances of Canada there’s good policy, we at the commission continue to see a number of very, very serious human rights violations occurring in the region as a result of certain countries, and Canada being one of the main ones … so we’re seeing the deficiencies of those policies,” Antoine said following the Canadian delegation’s presentation.

“On the one hand, Canada says, ‘Yes, we are responsible and wish to promote human rights.’ But on the other hand, it’s a hands-off approach … We have to move beyond the legalistic if we’re really concerned about human rights.”

Antoine noted the commission was currently working on a report on the impact of natural resources extraction on indigenous communities. She announced, for the first time, that the report would include a chapter on what she referred to as the “very ticklish issue of extraterritoriality”.