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President Barack Obama's recent visit to Ghana was the first public appearance in official capacity and it was also the most tweeted, facebooked and SMS'ed event so far for his web savvy team.
For the first time, the Metaverse was firmly integrated: Second Life & Metaplace hosted connected viewing parties and a panel discusssion.
Is this the start of a continuous effort by the White House to use virtual worlds as an added layer to their media strategy? Will president 2.o soon enter the virtual realm himself?
Draxtor Despres can't help speculating......
Wendy Levy from SF based Bay Area Video Coalition is at the helm of the annual Producer's Institute, which brings filmmakers together with technologists to develop new media strategies for their projects. Centered around social and human rights issues, the film projects touch on subjects from healthcare crises to sex trafficking. Draxtor Despres worked around the clock on bringing SL as a possible place to engage to this diverse crowd.
A series of interviews starts off with this chat with BAVC's own Wendy Levy. She was instrumental in bringing Nonny dela Pena and Peggy Weil together in 2007 to pursue the virtual Guantanamo project in Second Life.
virtual worlds like Second Life are places, where intercultural dialogue is happening every day.
In the case of the response to Israel's Gaza offensive, targeting Hamas installations in December 2008, SL residents engaged in heated discussions on the Middle East issue and many avatars were protesting the reported human rights violations by Israeli soldiers. Draxtor Despres attended lectures on peace efforts and interviewed researchers in the field of conflict resolution, even went out into the physical realm to find answers about how to engage in more fruitful debates that have real world impact.
Ce dimanche 15 mars 2009, les soldats de l’Eufor changent de béret pour revêtir le béret bleu de la mission des nations unies en République Centrafricaine et au Tchad, la MINURCAT 2.
La force européenne passe le relais ce dimanche, 15 mars 2009, à la MINURCAT 2. Déployée un il a un an, la Force Européenne est arrivée au terme de son mandat opérationnel à l’Est du Tchad.
Déployée à l’est du Tchad et au nord de la République Centrafricaine depuis mars 2008, l’Eufor, qui est au terme de son mandat, passe le relais à une composante militaire de la Mission des Nations Unies en République Centrafricaine et au Tchad, Minurcat 2. C’était au cours d’une cérémonie qui a eu lieu ce dimanche, 15 mars 2009, à Abéché dans le Camp des Etoiles. Cérémonie qui a vu la présence du ministre français des affaires étrangères Bernard Kouchner, le secrétaire général adjoint des Nations Unies chargé du maintien de la paix Alain le Roy, ainsi que plusieurs autres personnalités tchadiennes et européennes.
Dans son intervention le lieutenant général Nach, chef Eufor, a estimé que la mission de ses hommes est accomplie. "Cette journée marque à la fois la fin d’un chapitre et le commencement d’un autre sur la présence internationale à l’est du Tchad et au nord-est de la République Centrafricaine. Un encagement au service de la paix et de la sécurité des populations de ces deux pays". Souligne t-il.
Les casques bleus de l’ONU vont continuer à apporter le même niveau de protection à l’est du Tchad que sous l’Eufor. À terme, la Minurcat doit mobiliser 5200 hommes. Sur les 3 300 soldats européens, 2 300 restent surplace. parmi les 23 pays que compte l'Eufor, la Pologne, l'Irlande, l'Autriche et la Suède, maintiendront l'essentiel de leurs troupes sous les couleurs de l'ONU pour plusieurs mois avant d’être remplacés, dans les semaines à venir, par des Népalais, des Ghanéens et des Togolais. Les casques bleus vont continuer à soutenir les éléments du Détachement Intégré de Sécurité - DIS. Explication du secrétaire général adjoint des Nations Unies chargé du maintien de la paix, Alain le Roy. Pour le ministre français des affaires étrangères, Bernard Kouchner, cette nouvelle force pourrait d’accueillir les réfugiés soudanais à l’est du Tchad dans des meilleures conditions. "Maintenant ce qu’il faut c’est la paix" estime Bernard Kouchner.
Mandatée par la résolution 1861 du conseil de sécurité des Nations Unies, la MINURCAT2 compte plus de 5200 éléments. Elle a pour mission de sécuriser les réfugiés soudanais, les personnes déplacées internes et la population locale.
Ce transfert d'autorité était un peu tendu de fait les humanitaires craignent un aflux des réfugiés suite à l'expultion de certaines humanitaires du Soudan.
Le départ de dernières troupes de l’EUFOR est prévu pour le mois de juin prochain.
Le ministre Tchadien des Droits de l'Homme vient d'effectuer une visite à l'Est du Tchad pour constater de visu la situation de Droits de l'Homme sur le terrain. Il a animé une conférence de presse ce vendredi, 13 mars 2009...
« La situation en matière de droit de l’Homme à l’Est du Tchad est déplorable, voire même inamissibles ». Déclare le ministre tchadien des droits de l’Homme.
Le ministre chargé des Droits de l’Homme et de la promotion des libertés vient d’effectuer une visite à l’Est du Tchad. L’objectif de cette visite est de constater de visu la situation de droit de l’Homme sur le terrain et prendre les mesures qui s’imposent. Abderaman Djasnabaille souligne que « quand on est dans son bureau, malgré les rapports et les coup de fils qu’on reçoit, on ne peut pas se rendre compte de ce qui se passe sur le terrain ».
L’enroulement des enfants dans l’armée, le viol, le déplacement des personnes et le problème de coupeurs de route sont entre autres les points saillants sur lesquels le ministre a eu à travailler.
Après avoir rencontré les autorités administratives, traditionnelles et judiciaires de la place ainsi que la communauté humanitaire oeuvrant à l’Est du Tchad, le ministre des Droits de l’Homme s’est rendu successivement à Goz Beida, Farchana et Iriba pour la même mission.
A la fin de sa visite, Abderaman Dasnabaille a animé une conférence de presse ce vendredi, 13 mars 2009. Lors de cette conférence, le Ministre tchadien des Droits de l’Homme déclare la situation est déplorable et inadmissible. « Quand les gens ne peuvent plus sortir à partir de 20 heures, ça veut dire qu’ils sont privés de leur liberté. La question de sécurité prime dans cette partie (Est du Tchad) » fait savoir le ministre.
Parlant des réfugiés soudanais et des personnes déplacés, Abderaman Djasnabaille indique que la situation des réfugiés s’est améliorée avec la prise en charge des humanitaires et la présence du Détachement Intégré de Sécurité. Mais, selon lui, les personnes déplacées sont abandonnées à eux-mêmes. « Le gouvernement tchadien a débloqué 8 milliards de FCFA en direction des personnes déplacées Internes (IDPs) et a mis sur pied une commission pour essayer de s’occuper de ces personnes déplacées. Mais, malheureusement ces 8 milliards ont pris d’autres directions, ils ne sont pas arrivés à destination » ajoute le ministre. Il rassure par ailleurs que ceux qui ont mal gérés cet argent doivent répondre de leur acte. Le ministre chargé des droits de l’Homme et de la promotion des libertés rassure que des mesures fermes seront prises pour trouver des solutions à tous ces problèmes.
Millions of migrant workers worldwide live and work in conditions of enslavement. Currently there are over 200 million migrant workers worldwide – and roughly half of them women.
After Sunday prayers. Simba Russeau. 2008.
Audio Documentary
Millions of migrant workers worldwide live and work in conditions of enslavement. Currently there are over 200 million migrant workers worldwide – and roughly half of them women. Unemployment and household poverty, which have significantly affected developing countries, pressured these women to find jobs abroad. Join us today, as FSRN’s Simba Russeau brings us The New Slavery: The Plight of Lebanon’s Domestic Workers.
Lebanese filmmaker Dima Al-Joundi's documentary, "Bonne à Vendre/Maid for Sale," about the plight of Sri Lankan domestic workers in Lebanon, will be screened by Courrier International in Paris next month. Simba Russeau sat down with Al-Joundi in Beirut.
By SIMBA RUSSEAU, Special to MENASSAT
BEIRUT, LEBANON – Lebanese filmmaker Dima Al-Joundi never did care much for the stereotypes about her country: "The Paris of the Middle East," "The Riviera of the Arab World," "The Swiss-like Arab country..."
So when she set out to make a film about the plight of Sri Lankan domestic workers in Lebanon, she had no qualms about exposing some of the less rosy aspects of her motherland.
Al-Joundi's cleverly named documentary, "Bonne à Vendre/Maid for Sale", couldn't come at a more opportune time.
A string of reports have come out in the last year, both in newspapers and from human rights organizations, highlighting the abuses and exploitation of African and Asian domestic workers face, especially Sri Lankan maids. Human rights groups contend existing laws don't protect foreign domestic workers in Lebanon, and the country does not have a clear national policy to fight abuses against workers.
'Modern-day slavery'
Human Rights Watch in Lebanon released a report in August that said that 95 migrant domestic workers had died in Lebanon since January 2008. About 40 of the cases were suicides, while 24 were described as workers falling from high-rise buildings, often in an attempt to escape their employers, the report concluded.
A classic documentary filmmaker, Al-Joundi told MENASSAT that "Bonne à Vendre" was her attempt at shining a light on the situation, "and to give voice to these silent women" who have been suffering within a system that Al-Joundi doesn't hesitate to characterize as "modern day slavery."
In a way, the subject chose her.
Al-Joundi was living and working in Sri Lanka in the nineties, just when Lebanon, which was starting to recover from the 1975-1990 civil war, was becoming a destination of choice for the Sri Lankan recruitment agencies.
She remembers the scene vividly.
"It was dawn and I was on a bus with these Sri Lankan women – there must have been sixty of them, and they were all going to Lebanon to work as maids. The women were squeezing me against the window as they rushed to say a last goodbye to their families," Al-Joundi recalls.
"They were crying and I found myself crying with them. I said to myself, 'There is something wrong with this situation. These women are leaving their own babies behind!' So I decided to begin researching the subject, which is when I discovered that there was this major business in domestic workers between Sri Lanka and the Middle East."
Back in Lebanon, Al-Joundi embarked on a one-and-a-half-year cinematic project to highlight the life of the Asians in Beirut's streets, the markets, the beach and in the Lebanese homes where they worked.
To set the stage, the film introduces Janika, a domestic worker from Sri Lanka, in her traditional pink maid's uniform, cleaning the vegetables, preparing dinner and washing the dishes in the home of her Lebanese employer.
"While working I think always about my country," says Janika. "My heart is with my husband and my children. Although I am here, for more than three years I have cried for my daughter."
Soon, Al-Joundi decided she had to go back to Sri Lanka to find the other side of the story. As a Lebanese woman in Sri Lanka, it wasn't hard to find.
"Every time I would take a 'tuk-tuk' or the bus, men would ask me, 'Madame, can you please take my wife to Lebanon?' It got so bad that after a while I started telling everyone that I was French."
The maids and their employers are only part of the story; the recruitment agencies are another.
A lucrative business
In her film, Al-Joundi highlights the role of the Sri Lankan recruitment agencies that target the poor, the uneducated and the desperate.
In one scene, a woman doesn't have the money to pay for the burial of a loved one. So in a matter of minutes, a recruiting agent is able to convince her to sign a contract.
As part of their recruitment campaign, Sri Lankan agents often lure these women by presenting Lebanon as a land of plenty and a place where one can earn high salaries.
Many women go into debt in order to pay the fees for training, visa, travel expenses and guaranteed work abroad.
At the same time, the Lebanese employer typically pay up to $3,000 in fees to the recruitment agencies.
The agency collects on both ends.
Once they arrive in Lebanon, the maids discover the reality of being a domestic worker in the Arab world.
"For the Lebanese, maids are like having a DSL connection where you pay a monthly fee and you have 24 hour access, and when you leave the house you leave it connected because anyways it won't affect your bill," Al-Joundi said.
There is little the maid can do once she is in the country.
Her legal status in Lebanon depends on the "kafalat," or guarantee, that the employer has obtained on her behalf for the duration of her contract. To protect their 'investment,' recruitment agencies encourage the employer to confiscate the maid's passport and other identity papers.
"I put it to the Sri Lankan recruiter I interviewed for my film like this: 'What if I take you out of your country, take away your passport, make you work more than 20 hours a day for only $100 per month as well as lock you in the house? What would you call this? It’s not only racism, it’s slavery."
Training schools in Sri Lanka offer newly exported domestic workers a 10-day Arabic course, household appliance training and how to please their new employer.
"I was the first in 1996 to visit these training schools, which no one from the outside had ever seen before," says Al-Joundi. "This is where the women learn how to tend to their household duties because the Arab woman is very picky about hygiene."
Funding the war
According to the Sri Lankan Bureau of Foreign Employment, there are now over 86,000 Sri Lankan women employed as domestic workers in Lebanon. They constitute the largest population of female migrant workers in the country. (Women from the Philippines, another big category, are more often employed as nannies.)
The economic impact of the domestic workers trade in Sri Lanka is huge.
In 2006, Sri Lanka received $3.4 billion in remittances from migrant workers abroad, making it the second-highest form of foreign exchange, and twice the amount the country receives in foreign aid and direct foreign investment. In fact, domestic workers now surpass tea as a Sri Lankan export product.
Recently, Kingsley Ranawaka, chairman of the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE), was quoted as saying that Sri Lanka is planning to cut the number of women migrants exported to the Middle East due to the growing number of complaints of ill-treatment, breach of contract, sexual and physical abuse and unpaid wages.
Until now, it seems the Sri Lankan government has been quite content to allow the trade to go on.
"One of the things I discovered while making this film was that the Sri Lankan government was very happy to export their women abroad and treat them like they are cattle because their contribution to the national income is helping to fund the war against the Tamil Tigers," Al-Joundi says.
"So neither the Middle Eastern nor the Sri Lankan governments want this business to stop." _uacct = "UA-3273187-1"; urchinTracker();
By: Simba Russeau BEIRUT, (IRIN) - Loud screams break the quiet of a Beirut neighbourhood in the early hours of Sunday 15 June: It’s Angelique, a 26-year-old domestic worker from Congo, crying for the police as she runs to the balcony. From inside the apartment, a man’s voice yells her name, swearing in Arabic and French. There are the sounds of fists and slaps and more screams, before all falls silent. “I have only six months left and then I will go back to the Congo,” says Angelique, speaking to IRIN from across the balcony the next morning. “You see, Madame has cut off all of my hair. Every day I clean and cook. I sleep on the floor in the kitchen and I can’t take any more of this life.” Angelique escaped the conflict in her country and travelled to Lebanon on a six-year contract to work as a house maid. Woken daily at 5:30am, she works 18 hours confined to the apartment, without any time off. “Even the dogs are allowed to go out but we’re stuck,” says Angelique, who did not want to give her real name for fear of retribution. “We’re like slaves here.” Angelique earns just US$100 a month, three times below the minimum wage, and sends all of it home to Congo.
Abused and unprotected
In an attempt to re-launch their campaign, “Put yourself in her shoes,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) has recently started reaching out to media outlets and has been distributing flyers in supermarkets and malls throughout Lebanon.
In early May, HRW launched “Put yourself in her shoes” a campaign intended to highlight the abuses that migrant domestic workers continually endure at the hands of their employers in Lebanon.
The campaign was stalled, however, due to the violent clashes that occurred shortly thereafter.
“The campaign is targeted mostly at Lebanese employers, specifically women, because our research shows that in most relationships with migrant domestic workers, the worker is managed by the female employer,” says Human Rights Watch Beirut-based researcher Nadim Houry.
HRW estimates that there are approximately 200,000 domestic workers in Lebanon, mainly Sri Lanka, Ethiopia and the Philippines. These workers remain excluded under Article 6 of Lebanese labour laws and are often victims of abuse by both employers and agencies.
“You’ll find that there are non-payment of wages, delayed payment of wages, lack of a day off, restriction of movement, the conditions where they work; either they are not being provided adequate food or adequate housing, etc.,” adds Houry.
Recruitment Agencies
©2007. Simba Russeau
In November of 2007, Human Rights Watch released “Exported and Exposed.” The 131-page report criticizes several Gulf states, Lebanon and Sri Lanka for failing to protect Sri Lankan migrant women workers.
“We have these agencies who take money and this money is what creates this problem,” says Migration lawyer Roland Tawk.
Human rights observers have reported on the growing use of agencies bringing in migrant workers. In many cases – these employment agencies are illegal and operate as black-market businesses.
One of the main causes of abuse is that migrant workers in Lebanon are covered under the Kafala or sponsorship system, which states that women must attain a legal sponsor by a Lebanese employer of kafil for the duration of their contracts.
The employer confiscates the maid’s passport and other identity papers, which are returned when the employee is “released.” Lebanese employers spend up to $3000 to a recruitment agency for a domestic worker.
“That’s why they confiscate the passport to protect their money. To confiscate passports, to lock the door, to not allow a woman to have a day off or to communicate with other workers from balcony to balcony or their families is because he doesn’t want to offer an opportunity for the employee to leave his house. He would lose his money,” adds Tawk.
©2007. Simba Russeau
Sri Lankan recruitment agencies prepare the women for travel abroad. In “Maid in Lebanon,” by documentary filmmaker Carol Mansour, 16-year old Sureika is getting ready to leave Sri Lanka for Lebanon. Her village has no electricity.
“In 12 days they have to learn the language, the electricity, the vacuum and washing machine. They come here they are traumatized. I think it’s a huge problem,” says Carol Mansour
While making her film, Carol discovered several cases of mal-treatment.
“They beat them and they think it’s ok. Oh come on I just send her to the agent and they beat her and then she will come back and know how to behave.”
In Lebanon, a new agency replaces the contract signed in the workers’ home country, which is in Arabic and the worker is unaware of the rights they are relinquishing.
“Now we are working on a unified contract that is clear for both parties and signed by both parties in two languages. One would be in Arabic and the other in the language of the worker,” says Tawk.
Summer of 2006
Domestic workers have long been considered second class-citizens in Lebanon.
The plight of domestic workers in Lebanon rose to the spotlight during the summer of 2006, when Israel launched a 34-day military offensive on Lebanon.
“Lebanon is a country of immigration that draws a lot of immigrants from the developing world,” says 2006 International Organization for Migration Coordinator (IOM), Jean Phillipe Chauzy.
Many domestic workers were reportedly denied the right to return home while others were left stranded either by their employers or their government.
“This time the situation is very, very ripe for them to run away. Since the very start there have been horrible stories – it never stops – up to this time it gets more horrible it gets more unbelievable,” says Sister Amelia – a Jesuit nun and nurse who has been in Lebanon for over 19 years.
Currently there are over 500 domestic workers in prison and many have reported ill-treatment while in custody. Runaways, when they are found, are imprisoned and then deported. Without her passport, the worker cannot travel home.
“Maybe they break the penal code or Lebanese criminal law and they are treated like any Lebanese who breaks the law,” says Roland Tawk. “But most of them are in the detention centers because they break only the law of papers. That means work permit and residence card to stay in Lebanon.”
For women who evacuated in 2006 almost empty handed had a direct impact on their families’ source of funding.
“The money they have been sending back month after month to their families’ going to stop. So the impact of the crisis goes beyond the immediate needs of the migrant workers you have to also bear in mind the impact of this evacuation on the financial well beings of extended families,” says Chauzy.
Remittances
Remittances from domestic workers in countries like Lebanon are a key pillar of the workers’ national economies. Foreign remittances currently account for about 13 percent of the Philippines’ total gross domestic product (GDP), according to the Philippine’s Overseas Employment Administration, POEA.
Sri Lanka received $3.4 billion in remittances last year from migrant workers abroad, while according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), between 2000 and 2005, remittances to sub-Saharan Africa increased by more than 55 percent, to nearly $7 billion. Travel bans But the absence of protection for their nationals has prompted key labour-source countries to restrict travel to Lebanon. Ethiopia officially bans its citizens from coming to work in Lebanon, while since November 2007, migrant Philippine workers are only legally permitted to travel to Lebanon if paid a minimum of $400 per month. Currently, the set rate is $200 for Philippines, $100 for Africans and $150 per month for Sri Lankan workers. Sri Lanka is now considering banning women migrant domestic workers from going to many countries in the Middle East, including Lebanon, starting in 2009, according to HRW.
Legislation
Government efforts to improve labour laws, backed by the UN, Afro-Asian embassies, the Labour Ministry, employment agencies and Caritas (the Roman Catholic non-profit organisation), have stalled.
Domestic workers remain excluded under Article 6 of Lebanese labour laws and though many are treated kindly by their employers and stay with them for years, stories of abuse, including sexual harassment, abound. Last year at least four domestic workers reportedly committed suicide. Rights organisations have documented widespread abuse of domestic workers across the Middle East.
Unlike Lebanon, some countries have successfully changed their laws and practices.
Earlier this month, Qatar announced a new law that would include migrant workers in their labour laws. The law aims to ensure that workers are paid their monthly salary by requiring the sponsor to provide evidence of payment either via bank statements or other proof that monies have been paid in full.
However, the Lebanese government has stalled in signing and ratifying the UN Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families mainly due to political instability in the country.
“The Lebanese government has failed in protecting the rights of these workers. We have seen an official steering committees for the last two years debate a proposal but they are not getting anywhere,” adds Houry. “So we can’t wait for the current political situation in Lebanon to clear before we start addressing this issue.”
According to recent statistics by the Philippines Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), 60% of the total overseas Filipino migrants are based in the Middle East. It is also reportedly, where the most reported cases of abuse and inhumane treatment have occurred.
In response, The Philippines will host the second UN Global Forum on Migration and Development on October 28-31 to highlight the importance of protecting the rights of migrant workers and linking development with migration.
By: Simba Russeau
BEIRUT, LEBANON – Official figures published in 2005 by the United Nations World Migrant Stock estimates that women represent 57.5% of the migrant population in Lebanon. Although most domestic workers leave their children in their home countries, there are an increasing number of children of domestic workers. Many children of domestic workers face marginalization and racism within the Lebanese society because of their parents’ social status.
Mona, 15, has a Sri Lankan mother and a Jordanian father. Her mother came to Lebanon 20 years ago to work as a domestic worker. Like many domestic workers in Lebanon Mona says that her mother’s Madame began verbally and physically abusing her.
“I don’t like it here. I would like to go to Sri Lanka and live the life of the people there,” says Mona.
Several years after Mona was born her parents split and her mother was fortunate to find another job as a household maid. Now she lives in a small apartment in Achrafiyeh with her single mother and younger brother; who was conceived from a different father.
“Because of my mother’s work status she has been afraid to obtain papers for me from the Sri Lankan embassy for fear that she may be deported,” adds Mona. “My father could have gotten me Jordanian citizenship but decided not to so I am stuck here.”
According to the ILO, the number of women migrant workers among all migrant workers has more than doubled since 1965.
Domestic workers’ wages average between 100-250 dollars per month. They work up to 110 hours a week with no off days.
Children face racism
In Arabic, the term “Abed” is used to denote a “black” person or “slave” and the word is sometimes heard in reference to Africans or Sri Lankans. Non-Arab Afro-Asian migrants in Lebanon are physically looked upon as inferior due to their positions as servants.
Nisha, 11, was born in Lebanon. Her parents, originally from Sierra Leone, decided to seek employment in Lebanon during the mid 90’s due to the ongoing civil war in their country. A few years after Nisha was born her father was deported because he lost his legal sponsor and was caught by the Lebanese security without legal work papers.
Nisha’s mother stayed behind and continues to work as a household worker.
“She’s not treated very well and she works a lot. My mother doesn’t like her work but she has to be able to provide for us,” says Nisha. “I wish we could go to Sierra Leone but because I was born here I don’t have my papers to travel. But soon I will have papers. My mother started the process two years ago to get my papers for Sierra Leone and now I just have to wait and see what happens.”
One of the main reasons Nisha wants to leave Lebanon is because she is tired of the racism.
“I get into fights all the time with my Lebanese friends because they make racists remarks about me. Usually they start something with me and I return the favour,” adds Nisha.
“One of the main problems that hinders the children is the issue of racism, which comes from the Lebanese society and especially the children,” said Charles Nasrallah, director of the Insan School.
Three years ago, the Insan School was established in the Beirut suburb of Sin el Fil with the goal of assisting these children by providing a center where they can make up for gaps in their education and eventually accepted into Lebanese schools.
Nine nationalities are represented at the Insan School and last year they were successful in enrolling twelve students into Lebanese schools.
Helping the children integrate into Lebanese society can sometimes improve their legal status as well.
“For Sri Lankans, Filipinos, and West Africans, the Lebanese law allows for a child that is already registered in a Lebanese school to have residency. So by providing an education also helps the kids in becoming legal,” said Nasrallah.
Sitting off to the side on a ledge in the courtyard of the Insan School, 10 year-old George watches his theatre class rehearse a scene for a performance they’ve been preparing.
He says his favourite subject in school is English and plans to one-day travel to France and further his studies. George’s father is originally from Nigeria and his mother from Sri Lanka. Both met while working as migrant workers in Lebanon.
“My mother cleans in a hotel,” says George. “I want to one day do the same work as my father. He’s an electrician.”
Once completing their primary education most children of migrant workers will remain in Lebanon and take on the same profession as their parents.
“Many of these migrant workers don’t have legal status in Lebanon so sometimes they borrow the papers of a fellow worker who is legal and register their children with a false identity,” says Human Rights Watch researcher, Nadim Houry.
According to Human Rights Watch there are no official statistics on children of domestic workers because they are an invisible segment of the population.
Le Tchad a celebre ce dimanche, 15 fevrier 2009, la Journée internationale de lèpre.
Le ministre tchadien de la santé publique déclare à cette occasion que presque tous les lépreux de N’Djamena sont intégrés dans la société et qu’aucun d’entre eux ne mendie.
Cependant, les lépreux d’Abéché sont délaissés pour compte.
Ils sont près de 400 personnes vivent dans la léproserie d’Abéché, située derrière l’hôpital régional. Construite en paille et en pêle-mêle, cette léproserie est exposée à toutes les intempéries. Soleil, pluie, incendie et j’en passe.
Vulnérables abandonnés à eux-mêmes, ils essayent comme ils peuvent de vivre au jour le jour avec ce qu’ils gagnent de fruit de leur mendicité.
Comme ils l’on toujours fait, ces vulnérables lancent un cri d’alarme aux bonnes volontés.
Ces lépreux sont dans la plus part de cas marginalisés, vus comme la classe la plus basse de la société et personne ne s’approche d’eux. Même quelquefois leurs proches. Pourtant, la lèpre n’est qu’une maladie comme toute autre comme le dit le point focale lèpre pour la région sanitaire du Ouaddaï Mohamad Hassan Barka.
Ils sont comme nous et peuvent faire beaucoup de choses pour le pays. Malheureusement, la délégation de l’action sociale n’a pas une ligne budgétaire pour leur intégration dans la société. Le délégué Mohamad Hussein leur demande par ailleurs de s’organiser en association pour s’entraider.
Il est à signaler que rien n’a été fait au niveau d’Abéché par rapport à la journée internationale de la lèpre. Le délégué régional de l’action social appelle, lui aussi, les bonnes volontés à venir en aide à ces vulnérables.
Email this pageGerman public broadcaster ZDF ran a brief story on my work in Second Life and the Paris award week. Has recently been posted on YouTUbe as well.
While there are a few factual inaccuracies, the story was done well I thought. I regretted the omission of Louis Moreno-Ocampo, who we spoke to just before the press conference. Moreno-Ocampo has appeared in Second Life a few times, speaking about human rights and international law, he is also subject of "The Reckoning", a film my friend Paco de Onis produced.
Anway, ZDF says they cut for time, I believe there might be other motives. After all, this aired within their computer magazine show "neues" which is not necessarily a political programme!
Les artistes de la ville d’Abéché ont organisé trois jours de manifestations culturelles à l’occasion du nouvel an. C’était le 30 et 31 décembre 2008, et le 1er janvier 2009 à la Maison de la Culture d’Abéché. Durant ces trois jours, comédiens, musiciens et karatékas ont adressé beaucoup de messages de paix, de solidarité et de cohabitation pacifique à la population, à travers des pièces théâtrales, des chansons et des démonstrations. La non violence en milieu scolaire, les violences faites aux femmes, la bonne gestion, le pardon et la culture sont entre autres les thèmes abordés par les artistes au cours de ces manifestations. Parmi les démonstrations faites par les karatékas, on cite la casse de briques cuites par la tête et par la main.
Pour le président du comité d’organisation de ces manifestations, "c’est une occasion de montrer les talents artistiques, mais c’est également un lieu de brassage et d’échange entre les jeunes". Il ajoute que c’est une occasion "d’appeler tous les fils du Tchad, pays de Toumaï, berceau de l’Humanité, à la paix et à la solidarité pour un Tchad prospère". Il souhaite aussi et surtout que 2009 soit une année de développement culturel et artistique au Tchad.
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long back from Paris, still in thoughts there, sitting on a bunch of unedited video, that now I am finally able to sift through. Imam's story was powerful, this little video is just a glimpse into his reporting world, which is often dominated by, what he calls a "ping-pong" match between journalists and officials, stalling and delaying inquiries into human rights violations in East Timor, going back to the 70ties....
Imam is happy with the global exposure he gets from his blog, but the mainstream media in Jakarta he says is his focus: they need to publish those stories in order to not forget.....
Rama Yade, Secrétaire d’Etat aux Droits de l’Homme, a procédé ce jour 10 décembre 2008, 60ème anniversaire de la Déclaration Universelle des Droits de l’Homme et 10ème anniversaire de la Déclaration sur les Défenseurs de Droits de l’Homme, à la remise de prix aux associations lauréates, au ministère des Affaires Etrangères et Européennes. Ce prix dit "de Droit de l’Homme de la République Française" est remis par la Secrétaire d’Etat elle-même aux femmes dirigeantes des associations de Droit de l’Homme, venues de quatre coins du monde. Dans son discours, Rama Yade fait savoir que "les Droits, aussi universels et sacrés soient-ils, ne sont pas traduits dans les faits. Des hommes et des femmes à travers le monde luttent pour donner un sens à ces droits. Et c’est pour honorer ces défenseurs de Droits de l’Homme, porte-parole, délaissés pour compte, que la France a crée ce prix". Les associations lauréates de ce prix sont entre autres :
Rama Yade insiste dans ses propos sur les violences faites aux femmes et surtout en RDC où, selon elle, plus de 100 mille femmes sont violées depuis 2003.
La Secrétaire d’Etat aux Droits de l’Homme reconnaît que les conditions de femmes restent préoccupantes partout dans le monde, mais elle rassure que des efforts seront entrepris pour que cette situation change.
Email this pageAs a result of the Every Human Has Rights sponsored trip, my newspaper dedicated eight pages in four days to the anniversary of the Universal Declaration, and gave the story the cover on december 10ht. Below are the main contents published, and their web links: The Elders statements in Paris, interviews with Human Rights Watch Executive Director Ken Roth an with Internation Federation of Human Rights president Souhayr Belhassen, and an analysis on what should be on the agenda for human rights organizations. A summary of Amnesty International annual report completed the coverage. A full view of the lay out can be downloaded in http://www.publico.es/estaticos/pdf/
Trafficking young girls from all over Africa, using Ghana as a transit point: this is the story Anas Aremeyaw Anas & Mary Fianko Akuffo investigated. They exposed a chain of people, making obscene amounts of money by exploiting the plight of impoverished families. If the market for prostitution and support system in Europe would not exist, the African traffickers would have much less succcess in their dirty trade.
Mary and Anas were able to put faces to a phenomenon that many believed was happening in Ghana. Hidden video cameras exposed details about this story. Although Ghana only serves as intermediate place for the girls with their ultimate destination being European countries, where they will work as sex slaves, a few of them stay in Ghana indefinitely. Deemed "too ugly to make enough money" they stay in camps, outside of the major cities, ashamed and too afraid to call for help.
a local radio station ran a story on my trip to Paris and what I do in Second Life. Really solid reporting, providing some context on global communities in virtual worlds, including a few comments by USC researcher Doug Thomas.
you can listen to the story at
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kazu/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTI...
Il y a 60 ans, le 10 décembre 1948, l’Assemblée générale des Nations Unies adoptait à Paris la Déclaration Universelle de Droit de l’Homme (DUDH). La France et le monde entier célèbre le soixantième anniversaire de cette déclaration, un anniversaire qui vise à défendre l’Universalité et l’Indivisibilité des Droits de l’Homme et à vulgariser et prévaloir ces Droits.Dans le cadre des festivités marquant l’anniversaire de la DUDH, une interview a été accordée, par François ZIMERAY, Ambassadeur de Droit de l’Homme pour la France, à Hassan Abdoulaye HASSAN, journaliste venu du Tchad. Une interview qui porte sur la question des réfugiés darfouris et les déplacés internes vivant à l’Est du Tchad.F. Zimeray, qui avait visité les camps de ces réfugiés, indique qu’il "pense toujours à ces réfugiés et demande au président soudanais de changer d’attitude…". A la question de savoir ce que la France attend exactement du Président soudanais El-Bechir, l’Ambassadeur pour les Droits de l’Homme en France indique que El-Bechir doit "arrêter les massacres, les violences, le viol utilisé comme arme de guerre, ainsi que toutes les choses qui font honte à l’humanité et qui se passent depuis des années dans cette région", le Darfour. François ZIMERAY ajoute par ailleurs que "la diplomatie française est complètement engagé pour favoriser une solution pacifique et rapide", afin que les réfugiés puissent retourner dans leurs pays d’origine en vivre en paix. A l’Est du Tchad, vivent également plus de deux cent mille Personnes Déplacés Internes (IDPs). "Ces personnes déplacées souffrent plus que les réfugiés soudanais parce qu’elles ont moins d’assistance et moins de reconnaissance internationale…" reconnaît M. ZIMERAY
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