Humanitarian Texts

2011-02-01: Promouvoir l’Abandon des Mutilations Génitales Féminines dans le Contexte Migratoire;
2011-02-02: Worker burnout warnings spread across World Economic Forum;
2011-02-03: FGM Trailer for film in Burkina Faso;
2011-02-03: 6 février: Journée Internationale contre les Mutilations Sexuelles Féminines;
2011-02-03: Soirée contre les MGF aux Territoires de la Mémoire, Liège /Bélgique;
2011-02-04: Exhibit G: Now Google Street View lets you tour the world’s finest museums from the comfort of your armchair;
2011-02-05: How to spot an Emotional Vampire;
2011-02-06: Slums in Thailand;
2011-02-06: We Are The Power … ;
2011-02-06: E-Mail exchange about ClitorAid having been created by a “sect”;
2011-02-06: L’excision;
2011-02-07: L’humanisme laïque en tant que référence;
2011-02-07: Excision et sexualité – Excision et plaisir;
2011-02-08: Progress towards ending corporal punishment;
2011-02-08: Philo um Rael et co.;
2011-02-09: Education of the masses;
2011-02-09: News: Egypt Protesters Call For More Demonstrations To Oust Mubarak;
2011-02-10: La Mutilation Génitale Feminine MGF dans les Médias – un extrait;
2011-02-11: Transition from Conflict to Peace & Nonviolence (Baku, 1-14 June 2011);
2011-02-12: UNICEF et FNUAP appellent à mettre fin aux MGF;
2011-02-13: Tolérance zéro envers les MGF;
2011-02-13: On Leaderless Revolutions and the Fall of Mubarak;
2011-02-14: Die Wirtschaftskrise und ihre humanitären Auswirkungen auf Europa;
2011-02-14: Grand economic surgery and economic terror combine;
2011-02-15: Soirée liégeoise contre les MGF;
2011-02-16: Wikimania;
2011-02-17: Atlas Slacked (and So Should We);
2011-02-18: Public Interest Opportunities;
2011-02-19: THE ROVING EYE: Iran’s post-Islamist generation;
2011-02-20: The Fight of Their Lives: All Out War on Workers’ Rights in Wisconsin;
2011-02-21: Summer Programme on the WTO, International Trade and Development;
2011-02-22: Patriot Act Serves Empire Not A Republic;
2011-02-23: Florence needs a few minutes of your time – Get Lippy;
2011-02-23: Cachez ce clitoris … ;
2011-02-24: Gaddafi Turns US and British Guns On His People;
2011-02-25: Julian Assange, Wikileaks’ Founder, Faces Extradition Over Rape Allegations;
2011-02-26: Blood and oil;
2011-02-26: Quarante films et 80 intervenants au FIFDH à Genève;
2011-02-27: Sudan & AU break silence on Libya as death toll rises;
2011-02-27: Mutilations sexuelles et la chirurgie réparatrice;
2011-02-28: NORTH KOREA: First public protests against the Kims’ regime;
2011-02-28: Notre pain quotidien.
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Une denrée alimentaire de base importante et bien précieuse – Publié dans Horizons et Débats, no 7, par Urs Knoblauch, 21 février 2011.

De plus en plus souvent, nous apprenons par les médias l’existence de révoltes dues à la faim. C’est connu depuis des décennies que l’écart entre les pauvres et les riches s’agrandit. Beaucoup de gens se rendent compte que cet état des choses ne peut plus durer longtemps et les événements politiques actuels le montrent également. Du pain, de la nourriture, l’humanité civilisée serait très bien capable d’en récolter assez pour tous les êtres humains.

En vue de la situation alimentaire tendue il vaut la peine de réfléchir à notre pain quotidien, un aliment précieux et un bien culturel aussi dans notre pays. La Suisse, avec son modèle démocratique et son économie nationale de la responsabilité sociale, de l’équilibre social et du bien commun, a pris également la responsabilité du pain.  Continue Reading…

Published on AsiaNews.it, Feb 23, 2011.

Seoul (AsiaNews) – The wave of protests that began in the Mideast appears to have reached even North Korea. For the first time in the history of the Stalinist regime, groups of ordinary citizens have protested in three cities demanding food and electricity, sources say. The event is exceptional and confirms the economic difficulties, especially concerning food supplies, people have to face under the Communist government.

According to South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo newspaper, citing a North Korean source, demonstrations broke out on 14 February, two days before Kim Jong-il’s birthday, in the cities of Jongju, Yongchon and Sonchon, not far from the border of China.

The State Security Department (the all-powerful agency under Kim Jong-il’s direct control) investigated the incident but failed to identify the people who started the commotion when they met with a wall of silence. “When such an incident took place in the past, people used to report their neighbours to the security forces, but now they’re covering for each other,” the source said.

Korean sources told AsiaNews that this represents a crack in the prevailing mindset. “Different factors are at play. On the one hand, the country’s worsening economic situation is certainly one reason. The regime is in fact unable to feed most of its people. On the other, changes at the top are another as Kim Jong-un gets ready to succeed his father on the throne in Pyongyang” … (full text).

Publié sur Cadre de Santé.com, par Pascal, Les Hospices civils CHU de Lyon, 25 février 2011.

Bonne nouvelle pour les 53 000 femmes excisées* vivant en France, la chirurgie peut réparer leurs mutilations sexuelles. A l’occasion de la journée internationale contre les mutilations génitales du 6 février, le service de gynécologie du Centre Hospitalier Lyon Sud se réjouit de pouvoir adresser ce message d’espoir aux victimes. L’unité leur propose un dispositif d’accueil et d’accompagnement pluridisciplinaire dans le cadre de l’intervention chirurgicale réparatrice … //

… D’après une enquête de l’INED, en 2009, l’excision expose les femmes à des problèmes de santé (infections urinaires et gynécologiques) et à des complications au moment de l’accouchement. Une femme excisée sur 10 est gênée au quotidien pour uriner marcher ou porter certains vêtements.  Continue Reading…

Published on Sudan Tribune, February 23, 2011. Thursday 24 February 2011.

(KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese government issued a statement reacting to events in Libya and called on the latter to exercise “self-restraint” and cease “use of force” in the face of burgeoning demonstrations against the four-decade rule of Muammar Gaddafi.

Libya continues to sink deeper into chaos as its defiant ruler Muammar Gaddafi battles to retain control of the capital Tripoli amid an international outcry over the rising death toll and mass exodus by foreigners … //

… Gaddafi, who has billions of dollars at his disposal, is one of the (African Union) AU’s largest benefactors providing along with four other countries 75% of its budget. The Libyan leader has been pushing for an African unity government for years, saying it is the only way Africa can develop without Western interference. He wanted the organization’s small executive body to be granted enhanced powers and remodeled as the African Authority.  Continue Reading…

Une quarantaine de films seront à l’affiche de la 9e édition du Festival du film et forum international sur les droits humains FIFDH qui se déroulera du 4 au 13 mars 2011 à Genève.

Publié sur Tribune de Genève, par ATS, le 22 février 2011. (voir aussi: Actualité correspondant à FIFDH, et aussi sur Google-search).

Les droits humains sont irrémédiablement contagieux, a relevé mardi Leo Kaneman, co-directeur du FIFDH. Le printemps arabe sera donc au coeur de la programmation avec notamment un film sur la révolution en Tunisie et un débat avec la militante Safoua Bouazzi.

Nous voulons donner la parole et mettre en lumière ceux qui se battent pour les droits humains  , a ajouté Yaël Reinharz Hazan, co- directrice du FIFDH. Les dissidents et les défenseurs des droits de l’homme seront donc à l’honneur lors de cette 9e édition, à l’instar de Taslima Nasreen, écrivaine bangladaise qui s’exprimera sur le fondamentalisme … //  Continue Reading…

Published on The Economist, Feb 24, 2011.

LESS than two years ago, at the G8 summit in L’Aquila in Italy, prime ministers and presidents sat down to talk about world trade and food security with Muammar Qaddafi. Today Libya’s tyrant is paying mercenaries to shoot his people in the streets like “rats” and “cockroaches” … //

… And yet Mr Qaddafi also made concessions that were worth something to the West, to the region and to Libyans themselves. The greatest of these was to give up his nuclear programme and help to blow the lid on the nuclear black market centred on Pakistan. Libya also stopped sponsoring terrorism in the West, though it continued to sow mayhem in Africa. And, hard as it is to remember just now, Libya’s people were less oppressed after their country rejoined the world.  Continue Reading…

Published on The Huffington Post, by CASSANDRA VINOGRAD, Feb 24, 2011.

LONDON — Julian Assange can be extradited to Sweden in a sex crimes inquiry, a British judge ruled Thursday, rejecting claims by the WikiLeaks founder that he would not face a fair trial there. Assange’s lawyer said he would appeal … //

… The Swedish case stems from charges of sexual misconduct made against Assange by two women after he visited Sweden last August. Lawyers for Sweden have argued that authorities made repeated attempts to interview Assange while he was in Scandinavia, to no avail.

In Sweden, Claes Borgstrom, the lawyer representing the two women, said the decision had been expected.  Continue Reading…

Watch this video, published on The Real News Network, 15.58 min, by Paul Jay, February 22, 2011.

Transcript: PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I’m Paul Jay Washington. In Libya, protests continue to mount. Benghazi may be partly under the control of protesters, and in Tripoli, it–situation is described as being in chaos. The regime is starting to fracture. Libya’s representative to the Arab League announced that he was resigning in protest at the suppression of the unrest. Libya’s ambassador to China resigned on air while on Al Jazeera Arabic, calling on the army to intervene, and urged all diplomatic staff to resign. Now joining us to talk about the current events in Libya and the historical context, how did Gaddafi come to power, and who is he anyway, we’re joined by–Hamid Dabashi is a professor of Iranian studies and comparative literature at Columbia University. He’s host of The Week in Green, a weekly online program about the Green Movement in Iran. Thanks very much for joining us, Hamid.

HAMID DABASHI, PROF. IRANIAN STUDIES & COMPARATIVE LIT., RADIO HOST: Thanks, Paul. Thanks for having me.

JAY: So what’s your take on the most recent developments? … (full long transcript text).

Interview d’Odile Buisson et de Pierre Foldès, auteurs de “Qui a peur du point G ?”, un ouvrage qui dénonce notre retard en matière de médecine sexuelle féminine – Publié dans Le Figaro.fr/Madame, le 22 février 2011.

Elles font la une des magazines féminins. Elles font glousser, fantasmer, mais cela s’arrête là. En France, les études sur le clitoris et le point G seraient au point mort sans la ténacité de quelques-uns. Et tandis que l’on oublie les dysfonctionnements sexuels féminins, la recherche sur la sexualité masculine, elle, s’épanouit … //

… Êtes-vous confiants pour l’avenir ? La médecine sexuelle féminine va-t-elle cesser d’être à ce point laissée de côté ?  Continue Reading…

stories from the women we work with

Published on ActionAid /what you can do.

She lives in a country where speaking out can get a woman into serious trouble. But on International Women’s Day, 8th March, she’s still going to Get Lippy, and campaign for the rights all women should have.

• She was abducted by brutal rebels, the Lord’s Resistance Army. Now she’s one of the ActionAid leaders in the fight for women’s rights all over the world. Watch their short video, then (click on play) … //
• … If we aren’t equal everywhere, we aren’t equal anywhere. So watch our shocking, heartbreaking and inspiring stories from women fighting injustice around the world, then GET LIPPY for International Women’s Day.

Watch this video from Bruce Fein: Patriot Act does not defend national security, it defends a military empire, published on the Real News Network, by Paul Jay, 10.48 min, February 21, 2011.

We look forward to welcoming you to the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, from 27 June to 8 July 2011, in Geneva, Switzerland – aussi en français – Linked on our blogs with Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. – Published on Graduate Institute /Teaching.

The Graduate Institute has been a long-time neighbour of the GATT secretariat, and later WTO, in Geneva. In addition, it has also developed cutting-edge expertise on the issues and challenges inherent to trade liberalisation and regulation. In its teaching programmes, the Graduate Institute is fortunate to be able to draw on contributions from high-ranking WTO staff and a world-renowned faculty. The Summer Programme on the WTO, International Trade and Development builds upon this long tradition and offers a unique  opportunity to observe first-hand the atmosphere and analyses surrounding multilateral trade, as well as witness some of the most important international discussions on the topic.

Find all items for registration etc. on Graduate Institute Geneva:

Address: Institut de hautes études internationales et du développement / The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Rue de Lausanne 132, Case postale 136, CH – 1211 Genève 21; Contact.

Published on Global Research.ca, by Christopher Fons, February 6, 2011.

Republicans in Wisconsin, after a fresh set of tax giveaways to corporations and limits on liability in a special session of the legislature this week have decided to go for the whole bratwurst and devour all public sector unions in one big gulp.  Fueled by worker distress, Tea Party bluster, and big corporate donors, the governors of New Jersey and Wisconsin are engaged in a kind of tailgating “competitive eating” contest to see which can be the most anti teacher and anti public employee.  These governors are feeding at the trough of American angst created by the economic crisis, the bullhorns on Fox News and shout radio.  Rollbacks of labor rights and cuts in health care for the poor and elderly are on offer for the red meat crowd that wants someone to pay for their own distress.  Continue Reading…

Published on Asia Times online, by Pepe Escobar, February 17, 2011.

What has just happened in Iran?

There’s no question the military dictatorship of the mullahtariat – that conglomerate uniting President Mahmud Ahmadinejad’s faction, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his clerical circle, and the military/business complex ruled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) – very much followed to the minute the extraordinary chain of events in Egypt.

And then suddenly they are confronted by a potential remix of Tahrir Square right in their own backyard (Azadi Square in Tehran).

What to do? They could not possibly relax their iron grip on the rules of their game; so to deal with their own protests, they resorted to the usual package of tactics – pre-emptive detention and repression, but stopping short of a bloodbath.  Continue Reading…

Published on PittLaw /student resources, not authored nor dated.

The term “Public Interest Law” is difficult to define precisely. Kimm Alayne Walton in her book America’s Greatest Places to Work With A Law Degree (Harcourt Brace, 1999) provides that: “As a general matter you could call public interest the area that provides legal representation to people, groups, or interests that are historically underrepresented in our legal system.” This broad definition necessarily includes not only nonprofit organizations and public interest law firms, but also government positions (the government is typically included in the area of public interest because of its public service mission).

Students interested in public interest careers need to explore and begin to define their specific areas of public interest early on in their law school careers … //  Continue Reading…

Published on Dissident Voice, by E.R. Bills, February 16, 2011.

“I have no money, no resources, no hopes. I am the happiest man alive.”

Thus spake Henry Miller on the first page of his first book, Tropic of Cancer, in 1934—no doubt one of the reasons it was banned from publication in the United States until 1961. Miller was a square wheel and not the kind of influence a country trying to get things rolling after a Great Depression wanted folks being exposed to … //

… America is in trouble because we don’t believe in it anymore. And we shouldn’t. But not because our president is black or because our government is too big or we pay too many taxes. It’s because we no longer operate under the precept of collective self-interest. We have self-interest down to a science and regard self-indulgence as the fulfillment of the American Dream. But “collective” no longer has a place in the equation because it’s an unpleasantness that the have-mores and the have-mosts pay legions of lawmakers and lobbyists to help them avoid.  Continue Reading…

Archive Director Tom Blanton decries Wikimania – Congressional testimony calls for overhaul of secrecy system and restraint on prosecutions

Published on The National Security Archive NSA, by Archive Director Tom Blanton, December 16, 2010.

Efforts to tighten the secrecy system and crackdown on leakers and the media will be “fundamentally self-defeating,” according to Thomas Blanton, executive director of the National Security Archive, who testified today before the House Committee on the Judiciary. During the first Congressional hearing in the aftermath of “Cablegate” and the Wikileaks release of State Department documents, Blanton urged that lawmakers take a reasoned view of the issues raised by the leaks and not to overreact.

“There is more heat than light,” Blanton stated, citing calls for broadening the Espionage Act and assassinating Wikileaks leader, Julian Assange. Hasty punitive reactions, he predicted, “will actually produce more leaks, more crackdowns, less accountable government, and diminished security.”  Continue Reading…

Watch this video, published on YouTube, 5.53 min.

Links:

Conférence-débat de l’ONG CONIPRAT, à l‘occasion de la Journée internationale Tolérance zéro aux MGF: imprégner la communauté universitaire de l’ampleur et des méfaits des MGF, dans Le Sahel.org, le 9 février 2011;

UNICEF /Communiqué de presse: Plus de 6000 communautés en Afrique abandonnent la pratique de la MGF/excision, LONDRES/GENÈVE, le 6 février 2011;

MGFs – Des pratiques à couper court, dans Izuba.

Published on CoDIR, Jane Green, January 29, 2011.

The government of the Islamic Republic of Iran in December slashed subsidies on food, water, electricity and fuel. They say the subsidies have been too expensive costing them around $100bn annually. Petrol prices will rise from 10 cents per litre to 70 cents. Electricity prices will jump from around $5 per month to $20. The cost of natural gas will rise from around $30 per month to $150.

The cutbacks have been described as the “biggest surgery” to the nation’s economy in 50 years. The cuts come as the Iranian economy continues to strain under international sanctions imposed earlier this year by the UN, the US and the EU over Iran’s its nuclear programme … //   Continue Reading…

Was berichtet uns die Internationale Föderation der Rotkreuz- und Rothalbmondgesellschaften?1

In Zeit-Fragen, von Katrin Schulte-Holtey, 7. Februar 2011.

Grosse Teile der Bevölkerung quer über den Kontinent leiden unter massiven Folgen der Wirtschaftskrise. Die nationalen Rotkreuz- und Rothalbmondgesellschaften fungieren als sozioökonomisches Barometer, welches schneller reagiert als irgendwelche Statistiken. Eine zunehmende Zahl von Menschen, einschliesslich solcher, die normalerweise niemals daran denken würden, eine karitative Organisation um Hilfe zu ersuchen, wendet sich heute an die lokalen Rotkreuz- oder Rothalbmondgesellschaften, um dort um Unterstützung bezüglich grundlegender, zum Leben notwendiger Güter zu bitten … //

… Die Situation der nationalen Rotkreuz- und Rothalbmondgesellschaften Die nationalen Rotkreuz- und Rothalbmondgesellschaften ringen darum, den wachsenden Bedarf zu decken, und die Not der Menschen zu mildern und nicht nur trotz, sondern auch wegen der immer knapper werdenden ­finanziellen Mittel neue Ansätze entsprechend der neuen Situation zu entwickeln und umzusetzen. Manche bauen ihr Angebot an psychosozialen Unterstützungsprogrammen aus, die ursprünglich für Opfer von Katastrophen entwickelt worden waren.  Continue Reading…

Published on ZNet, by David Porter, February 12, 2011.

“Leaderless revolutions,” as seen currently in North Africa, pose important challenges to outside media and to foreigners, generally, seeking authoritative voices to clarify the picture of fast-moving events. But genuine revolutions are made from below, with the myriad energies and objectives of hundreds of thousands or millions coalescing at least around certain fundamental demands. Time-constrained and impatient foreign journalists and audiences, dependent on fast analyses by the usual hierarchical menu of “experts” and political leaders, naturally resist an arduous process of grassroots inquiry.

Yet it is at the grassroots level and not simply in the media focus of Tahrir Square where the intense frustration, despair and rage has accumulated for years. It not the more abstract models and formulas of the political class that provide the essential building blocks of genuine revolution from below.  Continue Reading…

Publié sur ONEWO-VISION/Actu ONU, by Catherine Fiankan-Bokonga, 7 février 2011.

Les mutilations génitales féminines affectent entre 100 et 140 millions de filles et de femmes à travers le monde. Cette pratique menace désormais chaque année quelque trois millions de fillettes en Afrique, en Asie, au Moyen-Orient et aussi dans certaines communautés migrantes en Europe.

L’Union interparlementaire (UIP), l’Organisation internationale pour les migrations (OIM), le Comité interafricain sur les pratiques traditionnelles affectant la santé des femmes et des enfants (CIAF) et l’Office des droits humains (ODH) du Département de la sécurité, de la police et de l’environnement (DSPE) du Canton de Genève ont présenté, à Genève, des données sur les MGF et décrit les mesures prises pour lutter contre cette violation des droits fondamentaux des femmes et des filles. Le Parlement européen estime que quelque 500 000 femmes excisées vivent en Europe et que, tous les ans, près de 180 000 femmes et filles migrantes subissent des MGF ou risquent d’en subir. Depuis cinq ans, le Canton de Genève effectue un travail de prévention auprès des communautés migrantes. Quelques 1.200 femmes vivant à Genève pourraient être concernées par cette problématique.  Continue Reading…

Lié dans nos blogs avec BITO DOUALA. – Publié dans Centre d’actualisation de l’ONU, le 6 février 2011.

Pour marquer la Journée internationale de la tolérance-zéro à l’encontre des mutilations génitales féminines et de l’excision, les Directeurs du Fonds des Nations Unies pour la population (FNUAP), Babatunde Osotimehin, et du Fonds des Nations Unies pour l’enfance (UNICEF)), Anthony Lake, ont renouvelé dans un communiqué commun leur engagement à mettre fin à ces pratiques, dont 100 à 140 millions de femmes ont déjà été victimes dans le monde.

« Nous appelons la communauté internationale à nous rejoindre dans cet effort essentiel. Ensemble, nous pouvons abolir les mutilations génitales féminines et l’excision en l’espace d’une génération et aider des millions de jeunes filles et de femmes à vivre une vie plus saine et plus entière », indiquent-ils.

Les mutilations génitales féminines consistent essentiellement en l’ablation partielle ou totale des organes génitaux externes, justifié par des croyances culturelles ou religieuses. Elles causent de graves douleurs immédiates et ultérieures, provoquent des saignements prolongés, parfois des infections qui peuvent mener à une stérilité ou à la mort. L’excision peut également entraîner des complications pendant les relations sexuelles, ainsi que lors des accouchements, augmentant les risques de décès ou d’invalidité pour la mère et l’enfant.  Continue Reading…

Linked on our blogs with Institute for Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding ICP. – Received by e-mail, From: Fakhrinur Huseynli, Date: February 10, 2011.

Dear colleagues and friends, The Institute for Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding (ICP) will be organising a training “Transition from Conflict to Peace & Nonviolence (TCPN)” in Azerbaijan from 1 – 14 June, 2011. (Applications should be sent no later than: 5 April, 2011).

MAIN GOAL: The main objective of the TCPN training in Azerbaijan is to develop peace-related practices and skills of participants and to train them on how to intervene constructively in the transition process from violence to peace and nonviolence.

Other objectives of the training are:

• To bring together civilians and NGOs from different countries and conflict regions to contribute to the facilitation of local/international peace-building efforts.
• To create an atmosphere of solidarity as well as to establish a world-wide network of peace workers for strengthening peace movements across the world;
• To improve research, analysis and critical practices of participants on peace and non-violence issues.   Continue Reading…