palashcbiswas,
gostokanan, sodepur, kolkata-700110 phone:033-25659551
From: "PWAP@yahoogroups.com" <PWAP@yahoogroups.com>
To: PWAP@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Saturday, 20 June, 2009 20:45:28
Subject: PEOPLE'S WATCH ANDHRA PRADESH Digest Number 723
Messages In This Digest (4 Messages)
- 1a.
- Assessment of current phase of the WPHRE From: Global HRE List Moderator hrelistmoderato
- 2.
- Call for greater understanding of plight of refugees From: HREA noreply@hrea.org
- 3.
- Tanzania/Uganda: Possibility for forced return of refugees From: HREA noreply@hrea.org
- 4.
- Gondoliers face 173 years in jail. Protests were 'naval blockade', p From: marco.pertoni@libero.it
Messages
- 1a.
-
Assessment of current phase of the WPHRE
Posted by: "Global HRE List Moderator hrelistmoderato" Global HRE List Moderator hrelistmoderator@list msgiri_bebl
Sat Jun 20, 2009 1:58 am (PDT)
POSTED BY: Global HRE List Moderator hrelistmoderator@ lists.hrea. org
Subject: Assessment of current phase of the WPHRE
Dear List Members,
As we consider the accomplishments and challenges during the First Phase
(2005-2009) of the World Programme for Human Rights Education (WPHRE), it
may be useful to clarify that all available information on national
implementation of the WPHRE that the Office of the UN High Commissioner for
Human Rights (OHCHR) receives on activities undertaken in countries is
available in the "national initiatives" section of OHCHR's website:
http://www2. ohchr.org/ english/issues/ education/ training/ national- initiatives. htm
The national initiatives section includes a summary of national
initiatives<http://www2. ohchr.org/ english/issues/ education/ training/ Summary-national -initiatives2005 -2009.htm>undertaken
within the WPHRE, as well as national
action plans/strategies<http://www2. ohchr.org/ english/issues/ education/ training/ national- actions-plans. htm>for
human rights education elaborated by UN member states since 1995, in
the
framework of the Decade for Human Rights Education (1995-2004) or of the
WPHRE.
Best wishes,
the Moderators
- 2.
-
Call for greater understanding of plight of refugees
Posted by: "HREA noreply@hrea.org" HREA noreply@hrea.org msgiri_bebl
Sat Jun 20, 2009 1:59 am (PDT)
POSTED BY: HREA noreply@hrea. org
Subject: Call for greater understanding of plight of refugees
UNHCR Press release
18 June 2009
WASHINGTON, DC -- At an event marking the launch of activities for *World
Refugee Day* <http://www.hrea. org/index. php?base_ id=533&language_ id=1> on
June 20, UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie appeared today alongside
UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres to call on the world to
recognise millions of victims of conflict around the world not as a burden
but as a potential gift.
As an American, she said, "I know the strength that diversity has given my
country -- a country built by what some would now dismiss as asylum-seekers
and economic migrants -- and I believe we must persuade the world that
refugees must not be simply viewed as a burden. They are the survivors. And
they can bring those qualities to the service of their communities and the
countries that shelter them."
"The refugees I have met and spent time with have profoundly changed my
life, "Jolie added. "Today, on World Refugee Day, I want to thank them for
letting me into their lives."
Jolie was speaking at an event at the National Geographic Society
headquarters in Washington, D.C., hosted by UNHCR and moderated by NBC
television anchor Ann Curry. The event included a live feed from the Djabal
refugee camp in eastern Chad where a UNHCR staff member on the ground spoke
to the assembled audience.
High Commissioner Guterres, at the same event, spoke of the increasing
difficulties and dangers facing the world's more than 42 million uprooted
people as well as those trying to help them. He said the situation was
particularly challenging in internal displacement situations which can
involve a multiplicity of actors -- rebel factions, politically or
ethnically-linked militias, bandits, government troops and international
forces. If people are unable to flee across borders, then humanitarian
agencies must try to get help to them inside or near conflict zones.
"This is a dangerous and changing world," he said. "One of the worrying
trends is people's inability to cross borders. It's harder and harder for
UNHCR to get access to them. The international community faces difficulties
today -- it is difficult to balance the sovereignty of states with the
sovereignty of the human being. This is a huge challenge for us in UNHCR."
With the changing nature of conflict, the 'humanitarian space' within which
his agency and its partners must work is shrinking, Guterres said. In some
situations, humanitarian workers are seen as legitimate targets. Two UNHCR
staff members were killed within five months in Pakistan, most recently in
the June 9 bombing of the Pearl Continental Hotel in Peshawar.
"Humanitarians are becoming more and more a target," he said, and this posed
a terrible dilemma -- how to balance the urgent needs of innocent civilians
with the responsibility to ensure the safety of those trying to help them.
"But UNHCR staff never ask me how to leave," he said. "They always ask me
how to stay."
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was scheduled to speak on Thursday but
was forced to cancel after fracturing her elbow in a fall on the way to the
White House.
The event in Washington kicked off several days of activities around the
world designed to draw attention to the plight of refugees and others
uprooted by violence. The theme of this year's events is, "Real People, Real
Needs" underscoring the fact that while the world struggles to cope with the
fallout from the global financial crisis, millions of people in poorer
countries are in need of help and attention in order to survive.
Events on 20 June will include a concert at Washington's Kennedy Center by
legendary Congolese vocalist and bandleader Samba Mapangala; a football
match between refugees from Myanmar and Sudan in Australia; a musical
performance by Kurdish refugees from Iran in northern Iraq; and a film
festival in Japan. On Saturday, from 9 AM to 9 PM EST in the United States
(2 PM to 2 AM GMT) a new web site, www.refugeedaylive. org , will feature
live streams from Iraq, Pakistan , a refugee camp in Africa and a settlement
for the displaced in Colombia.
At Thursday's event, UNHCR awarded a refugee from eastern Democratic
Republic of Congo, Rose Mapendo, who had started her own NGO for victims of
conflict, with its US Humanitarian of the Year Award.
Established in 1950, the UN refugee agency protects the rights and
well-being of refugees and others uprooted by conflict around the world. It
ensures those fleeing violence and persecution are given access to
life-saving assistance, as well as long-term support during exile and help
with durable solutions so that they can rebuild their lives.
On Thursday, Jolie pointed out that forced displacement is a fact of life.
"Whether it be from Darfur, Myanmar or the Swat Valley; or some as yet
unknown crisis, mass migrations will be a feature of our future." We must
"look beyond the simple numbers," she said, "and look instead at the
individual."
- 3.
-
Tanzania/Uganda: Possibility for forced return of refugees
Posted by: "HREA noreply@hrea.org" HREA noreply@hrea.org msgiri_bebl
Sat Jun 20, 2009 1:59 am (PDT)
POSTED BY: HREA noreply@hrea. org
Subject: Tanzania/Uganda: Possibility for forced return of refugees
Human Rights Watch Press release
June 19, 2009
(New York) - The Tanzanian and Ugandan governments should ensure that
refugees living in camps due to close on June 30 and July 31, 2009 are not
forcibly returned to their home countries and are immediately given full
information about their options, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights
Watch also urged both governments to avoid repeating Rwanda's unlawful
forced return of up to 504 refugees to Burundi at gunpoint on June 2, after
it closed its last refugee camp for Burundians.
Tanzania, with 36,000 Burundian refugees, and Uganda, with 17,000 Rwandan
refugees, have signed agreements with the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR) to facilitate the safe return of refugees who wish to
go home, and to find alternatives for those who do not. However, despite the
looming camp closing deadlines of June 30 for Tanzania and July 31 for
Uganda, neither government has publicly explained the alternatives. Instead,
both have threatened the refugees with forced return, saying that after the
closures the remaining refugees will be "stripped" of their refugee status
and treated as "illegal immigrants." Both positions would be unlawful under
international refugee law.
"Both countries need to end their threats and clearly explain to the
refugees what options are on the table," said Georgette Gagnon, Africa
director at Human Rights Watch. "Refugees do not lose their status as
refugees simply because their camps are closed, and they should not be
forcibly returned to their countries."
In Tanzania's Mtabila refugee camp, witnesses told Human Rights Watch that
Tanzanian officials have "consolidated" the camp by burning or bulldozing
houses. Evicted refugees have not received new building materials, so they
have been forced to live in makeshift shelters. The officials have also
reportedly told refugees they have no choice but to return home because when
the camp closes on June 30 it will become a military camp, saying that
"soldiers and refugees don't mix." Tanzania caused an international outcry
in 1996 when it forcibly returned hundreds of thousands of Rwandan refugees
to Rwanda, followed by the forcible return of thousands of Rwandan and
Burundian refugees and asylum seekers in 2006 and 2007.
In Uganda in recent weeks, hundreds of Rwandan refugees are reported to have
fled their camps to other parts of the country, fearing forced return to
Rwanda.
Human Rights Watch expressed concern that Tanzania and Uganda had not done
enough to reassure refugees that they would not copy Rwanda's recent
unlawful forced return of Burundian refugees. On June 2, Rwandan military
and police surrounded up to 504 refugees at the Kigeme refugee camp, beat
some refugees with batons, and forced them at gunpoint onto buses and
trucks, which then drove them to the border with Burundi. The UN refugee
agency has condemned Rwanda's action.
The agency says it has received assurances from both the Tanzanian and the
Ugandan authorities that none of the refugees will be forcibly returned. It
is also negotiating with the Tanzanian authorities to extend the June 30
deadline for several months to ensure that refugees choosing to go home can
do so in a safe, dignified and orderly manner.
Since 2002, hundreds of thousands of Burundian refugees have left Tanzania
to return home and thousands of Rwandan refugees have returned home from
Uganda. Organizations working with Tanzania's remaining 36,000 Burundian
refugees in the Mtabila refugee camp say many are afraid to return to
Burundi because of land disputes there. Many of Uganda's remaining 17,000
Rwandan refugees, who fled after the country's 1994 genocide, reportedly
fear retribution either in the Rwandan justice system, still struggling to
try genocide suspects fairly, or directly at the hands of the authorities.
Under international refugee law, Tanzania and Uganda, together with the UN
refugee agency, can invoke a "cessation clause" if they believe the
circumstances leading to the original refugee flow have ceased, allowing
them to withdraw refugee status for the remaining refugees as a group.
To date, neither government has done so, preferring to make so-called
"tripartite agreements" with the refugee agency under which the refugees are
encouraged to return home voluntarily and which refer to alternative
solutions, such as local integration, for those not returning. However,
neither of the governments nor the refugee agency has explained to the
refugees exactly what such alternative solutions might involve.
"Tanzania and Uganda should swiftly begin to inform the refugees of all the
options, including the long-term solutions they envisage for refugees
choosing not to go home," said Gagnon. "To avoid repeating Rwanda's recent
appalling conduct, both Uganda and Tanzania should urgently and publicly
reassure refugees that they will not use threats or force to coerce refugees
to return home."
*Background*
Although Tanzania and Uganda have been hosts to hundreds of thousands of
refugees over the past few decades and Tanzania is registering applications
for naturalization from tens of thousands of Burundian refugees who fled
their country in 1972, there is a troubling history of forced return of
refugees in the Great Lakes region. In addition to its forced return of
hundreds of thousands of Rwandans in 1996, Tanzania began a campaign in 2006
to reduce the number of what it termed "illegal immigrants." In violent
roundups, military and police expelled thousands of registered Rwandan and
Burundian refugees living in camps, as well as an unknown number of people
with valid asylum claims living outside the camps.
In 2005, Burundi forcibly returned 6,500 Rwandan asylum seekers, many of
whom eventually managed to return to Burundi and claim asylum. In March
2009, the governor of Rwanda's Southern Province told the remaining
Burundian refugees in Kigeme camp that if they did not return home
voluntarily, they would be forcibly repatriated. Adding that "our brothers
and sisters were kicked out from Burundi and had to leave everything
behind," the governor appeared to imply that Rwanda would pay Burundians
back for what they had done to Rwandan refugees in 2005.
--> Learn more about this topic on HREA's page about *World Refugee
Day*<http://www.hrea. org/index. php?base_ id=533&language_ id=1>
.
- 4.
-
Gondoliers face 173 years in jail. Protests were 'naval blockade', p
Posted by: "marco.pertoni@libero.it" marco.pertoni@libero.it sitrep_comalp
Sat Jun 20, 2009 2:27 am (PDT)
2009-06-19 18:24
Gondoliers face 173 years in jail
Protests were 'naval blockade', prosecutors say
(ANSA) - Venice, June 19 - Some 72 gondoliers who blocked Venice's Grand Canal in a series of protests between 2003 and 2005 are facing a total of 173 years in jail.
Prosecutors on Friday accused the gondoliers, who were demonstrating against a restriction in working hours, of mounting a ''naval blockade''.
Defence lawyers said this charge was not applicable because the protests took place on an inland waterway.
They also noted that the gondoliers let water buses through.
Gondoliers blocked Venice's most famous canal and left gondolas outside the city mayor's office in protest at rules aimed at solving the problem of the violent waves produced by boats going too fast.
In 2002, then Venice mayor Paolo Costa was tasked with resolving the so-called 'moto ondoso' which swept fragile buildings and monuments. Costa issued an ordinance to keep delivery vessels and gondolas from being on the Grand Canal at the same time.
The famed steerers of the black boats said the move was an unfair limitation of their trade.
Delivery firms, shops and businesses were also unhappy with the new rules and joined with the gondoliers in their protest.
Gondoliers also argued the orders would not work unless there were enough traffic police to make sure boats stuck to the rules.
The rules were later eased as city hall cracked down on the speeding boats.
http://www.ansa. it/site/notizie/ awnplus/english/ news/2009- 06-19_119387216. html
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