NGOs to be overseen
Imphal, February 18 2012: An official from Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs would look into various projects taken up by different NGOs with funds from the Ministry in Thoubal district.
Director of the Ministry Asit Gopal would take stock of the projects being undertaken by four NGOs in the district from February 21 to 23, said an informed source.
-----------------------------------------
Egypt trial of foreign NGO activists on Feb 26: MENA
CAIRO — Egypt was set to further widen a row with the United States by announcing on Saturday that it would go ahead with a trial of foreign democracy activists, including 19 Americans, on February 26.
A court set the date for the start of the trial of 43 suspects -- who also include Serbs, Norwegians, Germans, Egyptians, Palestinians and Jordanians -- in a crackdown on NGOs accused of receiving illegal foreign aid, state media announced.
The defendants are charged with "establishing unlicensed chapters of international organisations and accepting foreign funding to finance these groups in a manner that breached the Egyptian state's sovereignty," official MENA news agency reported.
Officials had previously said 44 suspects would face trial.
Several of the American suspects have sought refuge in their embassy in Cairo as Washington hinted that the crackdown could harm its longstanding ties with the Egyptian government.
The main suspect, Sam LaHood, is the son of US transportation secretary Ray LaHood and heads the Egyptian chapter of the International Republican Institute.
The other foreign NGOs targeted are the National Democratic Institute, the US International Centre for Journalists and Freedom House, all from the United States, and the German Konrad-Adenauer Foundation.
In the list of charges, the five groups are accused of receiving roughly $48 million (36.5 million euros) in illegal funds.
Prosecutors, backed by police, raided the groups' offices in December, confiscating their equipment and sealing their doors.
Activists say the raids, which coincided with growing dissent against Egypt's military rulers, was part of a campaign to stamp out opposition to the generals who took charge after an uprising overthrew president Hosni Mubarak a year ago.
The trials of the activists have sparked an increasingly acrid row between Egypt and Washington, which annually funds Egypt's military with more than one billion dollars.
US lawmakers from both parties have stepped up their warnings that Egypt's crackdown will force a review of the $1.3 billion in US military aid to the longtime Middle Eastern ally if the crisis is not quickly resolved.
"I truly believe we are approaching a precipice beyond which our bilateral relations could suffer permanent damage," Democratic Representative Gary Ackerman said last week.
Fayza Abul Naga, the Egyptian international cooperation minister widely seen as the driving force behind the probe, told investigating judges Washington funded them to cause "chaos" in Egypt.
"The United States and Israel could not create a state of chaos and work to maintain it in Egypt directly, so they used direct funding to organisations, especially American, as a means of implementing these goals," she said in her recently published testimony.
On Saturday, the government's flagship Al-Ahram newspaper reported that the top US military general, Martin Dempsey, had asked during a visit to Cairo this month for Egypt to allow the American suspects to fly back with him.
His request was turned down by Egyptian officials who told him it was up to the judiciary to lift the travel ban in place on the defendants, the newspaper said.
--------------------------------------------
Uzma Ayub, family starving as govt help stops
ISLAMABAD: The gang rape victim Uzma Ayub, who now is a mother of an infant girl, has suddenly been dumped by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and is virtually close to starving. She has appealed to the chief justice of Peshawar High Court (PHC), provincial government and the NGOs to provide her food and help on an emergency basis.
She told The News on phone that when the CJ had ordered to provide her a residence in Peshawar, he had also directed the authorities concerned to facilitate them with all the needs but now food and rations have finished and she and her daughter and family are starving.
Uzma said that a few days back when an NGO woman had taken away her baby, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain had come to her along with the minister for women development and assured her full support and all needed provisions but then no one bothered to call back.
“As for the NGOs, the chairperson of the women rights Zubaida Khatoon has asked me never to contact her again. Is this the way the NGOs work and help the needy?” she questioned. She said her only brother left earns Rs5,000 which is not enough to meet the expenses of two families as her father and other siblings are still in their village home in Karak.
When asked about the DNA test of her daughter she said the report has not been released yet but when her daughter was hospitalised a few days back, she and her brother Zafranullah had heard from the doctor that one accused Nasibullah had been declared as the father of her daughter Zeba.
“But the report has not been confirmed yet and it has not been presented before the court,” she added. Uzma Ayub also appealed to the chief justice of PHC to arrest Ibrahim, the alleged murderer of her brother Alamzeb, who is still at large and moving freely in Karak while the police over there have given him a free hand.
----------------------------------------------
Egypt sets start date for criminal trial of foreign-funded NGO workers for Feb. 26
CAIRO — Egypt will begin hearing the criminal trial of 19 Americans and 24 others on Feb. 26 in a politically charged case against foreign-funded pro-democracy groups, the country’s state news agency said Saturday.
The trial represents an escalation in what has become the deepest crisis in U.S.-Egyptian relations in decades. American officials have said the investigation could hinder the more than $1 billion in U.S. aid that Cairo receives. Egyptian authorities have blasted what they call U.S. interference in legal affairs.
Egypt’s state news agency reported that the trial would open before a Cairo court on Feb. 26. It said 19 of the 43 defendants are Americans and 16 are Egyptians. The rest are Germans, Palestinians and Jordanians.
The Americans work for four U.S.-based groups: the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute, Freedom House and a group that trains journalists.
Only seven of the Americans are in Egypt, and all have been barred from travel. Some have sought refuge at the American Embassy in Cairo, including Sam LaHood, who heads IRI’s Egypt office and is the son of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.
It remains unclear if they will attend the trial. U.S. Embassy officials were not immediately available for comment.
The report said all the defendants had been charged with founding and managing offices of international organizations without licenses from the Egyptian government, and with receiving foreign funding. The groups’ operations “infringe on Egyptian sovereignty,” it said.
The setting of a trial date by Egypt, in addition to a campaign against NGOs in the state media, are likely to inflame a crisis that U.S. officials have tried to solve through diplomacy.
President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta have personally met with top officials in Egypt’s military-led government, and urged them to end the investigations and allow the U.S. citizens under investigation to leave the country. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey visited Cairo last week in another unsuccessful bid for a solution.
Cairo’s failure to respond has prompted Washington lawmakers to advocate withholding the United States’ annual aid package to Egypt. U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., will lead a congressional delegation on yet another mission to Egypt in the coming days.
But administration officials are hesitant to push too hard. The U.S. is eager to preserve an alliance with Egypt that has been a foundation of stability in the Middle East since the late 1970s, ensuring peace between the Arab world’s most populous country and Israel.
Ending U.S. assistance programs only a year after Egyptians braved the repression in Cairo’s Tahrir Square to call for the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak would hardly be a vote of confidence in Arab democracy.
--------------------------------------------------
More NGO bannings feared in Zimbabwe
Harare, Zimbabwe (IRIN) – Twenty-nine NGOs providing services ranging from alleviating food insecurity to assisting the disabled in Zimbabwe’s Masvingo Province have been banned, sparking fears that this could be the start of new wave of restrictions like the blanket ban placed on the activities of civil society organizations during the violent and disputed parliamentary and presidential elections in 2008.
Titus Maluleke, governor of Masvingo Province and member of President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party, announced the immediate banning of the NGOs on 14 February, claiming that they had failed to register with his office.
”What has happened in Masvingo can easily spread to other provinces, with undesirable consequences,” Abel Chikomo, director of the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, said at a hastily convened media briefing in the capital, Harare, on 16 February.
A joint statement on behalf of various civil society organizations – including the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), the Crisis In Zimbabwe Coalition, the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, the National Association of Non Governmental Organizations (NANGO), the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, and Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights – said Maluleke’s actions were “blatantly illegal…and are a nullity at law.”
“The law in this country clearly shows that he has no regulatory authority; nor does he have the power to register or de-register NGOs. Even the Provincial Council that he heads in terms of the Provincial Councils and Administration Act does not have regulatory powers over NGOs. The council exists solely to foster developmental projects initiated and carried out by central government and local government,” the joint statement said.
”The governor’s rash and ill-advised utterances merely seek to confuse matters and are regrettably likely to worsen the humanitarian crisis in Masvingo Province. This is because the list of organizations he seeks to ban includes NGOs that are currently providing food, medication, water and other social and economic support [services] to the community.”
The civil society organizations urged the affected NGOs to “ignore the [banning] order by the governor”.
Maluleke’s banning order – made in the presence of senior army and police officials – was accompanied by what has become a repeated claim by ZANU-PF that civil society is collaborating with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, which in turn is a front for Western governments.
Operating in fear
Harassment, detention and arrests of NGO workers are common, even when they are not banned. NGOs were outlawed in the weeks leading up to the disputed 2008 elections when there was widescale food insecurity. Civil society organizations claimed the ban was instituted to prevent documentation of the political violence during the election period.
In the aftermath of the 2008 poll, Mugabe and Tsvangirai formed an uneasy government of national unity in 2009. Recently there have been growing calls by ZANU-PF for fresh elections, but the MDC wants certain guarantees, such as an overhaul of the voters’ roll and adoption of a new constitution, before assenting.
Machinda Marongwe, of NANGO, said there was ”a tense environment” in Masvingo. ”Pronouncement of the ban has limited our movement in Masvingo. An official of the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP), which monitors human rights abuses, told IRIN: “There is so much fear among the NGOs.”
“It is clear that the move by the governor is linked to talk within ZANU-PF about holding elections this year,” said the official, who declined to be named
“The party wants to monitor our movements but communities are the ones that will suffer most. ZANU-PF has used the tactic before, and soon other governors aligned to the [ZANU-PF] party will follow suit.”
---------------------------------------------------
Ray LaHood: US pressing Egypt on NGO workers
A US cabinet secretary whose son faces charges in Egypt says "top officials" are working "night and day" to ensure he and his colleagues can leave.
Sam LaHood, son of Transport Secretary Ray LaHood, is one of 43 foreign workers facing charges.
Egypt's ruling military council has accused foreign groups of funding street protests against them.
Washington has warned it could review US aid to Egypt unless Cairo respects the rights of non-governmental groups.
Mr LaHood's son runs the Cairo office of the International Republican Institute (IRI) in Egypt, a group that promotes democratic governance.
He was banned from leaving the country in January, along with several other Americans working for non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
Egypt says it is to put on trial 43 people, including the Americans and other foreigners.
'Puzzling'
The elder Mr LaHood told CBS News that he was "grateful" his son and his colleagues were safe, and was assured by the White House that the US was doing everything possible to resolve the situation.
"There are a lot of people in our government, really top officials in our government, working night and day to resolve this issue," Mr LaHood said.
But he added: "Frankly, I don't know how it will be resolved."
The transport secretary said he was puzzled as to why US and foreign NGOs were suddenly in the spotlight.
"These NGOs have been working for years in democracy-building efforts, and they thought they were well within their right to do it," he said. "So it's a little bit puzzling to many people what's happening there."
At least 17 NGO offices in Egypt, including IRI's, were raided in late December 2011.
Aid under threat?
The chairman of the US Joint Chief of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, visited Cairo last week in an unsuccessful attempt to negotiate with Egypt's military rulers.
US Senator John McCain will lead a congressional delegation to the country this weekend.
State department spokesman Victoria Nuland has said that putting the NGO workers on trial "may have an impact on all kinds of other aspects of our relationship with Egypt, including our ability to support them economically".
For military assistance to go through, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton must certify to Congress that Egypt is promoting freedom of speech, religion and the rule of law, Ms Nuland noted.
"She has not made those decisions yet,'' Ms Nuland said.
But in congressional testimony on Thursday, Gen Dempsey said he was "reluctant to come to the stark conclusion about cutting aid".
"Cutting off aid and therefore cutting ourselves off from them means that the next generation won't have that benefit, and I don't know where that takes us, to tell you the truth," he said.
------------------------------------------------------
NGOs call US to Establish Int'l Accountability Mechanism on Sri Lanka at UN Human Rights Council
NGOs Call on U.S. to Establish Independent International Accountability Mechanism on Sri Lanka at UN Human Rights Council.
February 17, 2012 /24-7PressRelease/ -- We are pleased to hear that the United States has decided to press for action at the March session of the Human Rights Council on accountability for wartime abuses in Sri Lanka. This issue has long been a high priority for us due to the massive scale of abuses committed in the final months of the war and the Sri Lankan government's resistance to any serious domestic inquiry.
In September, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon referred to the President of the HRC and the High Commissioner the report of his Panel of Experts, which finds considerable evidence of war crimes and other abuses committed by both sides during the Sri Lankan civil war. According to the report, up to 40,000 civilians were killed in the final five months of the war, mainly due to indiscriminate shelling of civilian-populated areas, including hospitals and food distribution centers. The rebel group LTTE used civilians as human shields. A documentary by UK's Channel 4, Sri Lanka's Killing Fields, released in June 2011, records some of the abuses through graphic video of executions allegedly by the Sri Lankan security forces.
The UN Panel and international organizations have rejected a domestic mechanism, the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), as inadequate and lacking the independence necessary to conduct an impartial and effective investigation of these abuses. The LLRC report issued in December made some helpful recommendations, but was dismissive of serious abuses by government forces and the need for accountability. Now is the time for the HRC to demonstrate its commitment to justice for victims and their families by taking effective action toward establishing an independent international accountability mechanism.
This statement is endorsed by the following:
Suzanne Nossel, Executive Director, Amnesty International USA
Karin D. Ryan, Director, Human Rights Program, The Carter Center
Don Kraus, Chief Executive Officer, Citizens for Global Solutions
Allison Garland, Project Coordinator, Democracy Coalition Project
John C. Bradshaw, Executive Director, Enough Project
Norma R. Gattsek, Government Relations Director, Feminist Majority Foundation
Paula Schriefer, Vice President for Global Programs, Freedom House
Tom Malinowski, Washington Director, Human Rights Watch
E. Robert Goodkind, Chair, Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights
Kathryn Cameron Porter, Founder and President, Leadership Council for Human Rights
Jerry Fowler, Senior Policy Analyst, Open Society Foundations
Hans Hogrefe, Washington Director, Physicians for Human Rights
Bama Athreya, Executive Director, United to End Genocide
Aung Din, Executive Director, U.S. Campaign for Burma
- Sri_Lanka_Public_Statement_2_17_12.docx
-----------------------------------------------------
NGO Forum On Human Rights And Governance
The association of Non Governmental Organisations on Tuesday 12 February had a panel discussion on human rights and governance as part of the NGO week celebrations 2012.
Speaking at the occasion Sheikh Lewis from the International Society for Human Rights (ISHR) spoke about the importance of human rights in our communities; noting that there cannot be any meaningful development without the people knowing their rights. He said: “You don’t have to be a graduate to be human rights defender, what you need to know are the requirements which are available to ensure that human rights are observed.” Lewis said there are regional mechanisms and international instruments, all of which are tools that can be used to understand and protect the rights of people. He referred to international instruments such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 and opined that the same people who make these instruments are the very people who violate them. He however noted that, it is time for us to observe the rule of law and not the rule of wars, adding that before we can cure an evil we must know its root cause first.
He opined that it is important for the NGOs and Civil Society to be capacitised and be trained for them to understand their rights. He said if you don’t know your rights you would not be able to claim them and defend them. He also quoted an example on human rights violations in Libya; and said if there is proper observation of the rule of law and fundamental human rights in place, then NATO would not have come and destroyed Libya. “Let us stop discriminating each other, he appealed.
Lewis gave an example and said when the journalists or the lawyers are in trouble we all fold our hands and say it is their business. He said in order for rights to recognised and valued we have to fight every single thing which infringe our rights. He said one fundamental issue we need to put at the back of our minds is that every human rights defender needs to sacrifice and observe the rule of law in any undertaking.
Mr. Yaya Sanyang of Concern Universal spoke about the role of NGOs in enforcing human rights and governance. He said there are lots of instruments, policies and protocols designed or clearly spelt out what fundamental human rights are and what to do towards the attainment of the rights. He said the NGOs work closely with the communities to fight against anything that will limit our enforcement of rights.
Mr. Sanyang further said human rights and governance are very broad in terms. He explained the difference between human rights and governance and said Human rights principles provide rules to guide the governance, and provide performance standard to help promote the defence and enforcement of those rights. In general, Sanyang said human rights principles reinforce the content of good governance; adding that without human rights there will be no good governance. He said the NGOs are supposed to be closer to the communities and therefore are in a better position to disseminate the information especially in terms of crisis or in terms of emergency.
“We also help the committees in prioritization of need and also mobilise resources to address those issues”, said Sanyang.
The representative of African Center for Democracy and Human Right, Mr. Amadou Ceesay also spoke at length by explaining the content of the African Charter for Human and People Rights. He said African leaders came out with a charter since 1981 to respect human rights and promote the awareness of human rights protection, but still human rights violations are the order of the day even though the charter has been existing for more than 31 years now. He said a lot of human rights violations have taken place and asked why this should happen after having a treaty body that is established by African leaders purposely to ensure that this charter is implemented at the level of the state. He pointed out that they are the major role players when it comes to human rights violations. “It is very clear to all of us that despite all these treaties human rights violations are still increasing, even though it is ratified by them. But when you come to implementation of the charter, the main problem is people are not even aware of the instruments that have been ratified by our own leaders,” he asserted. He noted that a lot of people have accused the Commission itself for not doing enough for its citizen simply because some observation has been made by the Commission and those representatives of the Commission are nominated by the African leaders. So he said, imagine you nominate somebody who has to look into activities and examine and put you on tract and punish you if you fail to comply, it is always difficult, he stressed. He added that even if they have to visit a country where human rights violation is taking place, they have to seek permission from the country in question, even though they will prevent them from meeting the NGO community to get reliable information. He said the African Commission makes a provision for any citizen whose right is violated to take it there after observing all the court systems in the country. “We have witnessed a lot of cases, a lot of violations that are reported by African citizens and nothing has been done about them,” said the representative of African Center for Democracy and Human Rights, Mr. Amadou Ceesay.
The same Charter made provision for the establishment of the African Court, since 2004 but according to him, up to date no single case has been reported to be ruled by the court; that there is only one case which is reported by Senegal but was prevented because of the fact that there was no declaration made by Senegal for a case to be filed by an individual or an organization. He said this was so because there is a provision that a country should make declaration so that your citizen can file a case.
Mr. Lamin Nyangado of Action Aid International The Gambia started with the history of human rights. He said human rights activism dates back to the French revolution of August, 1789 and declared “Men are born and remain free and equal in rights.” He also pointed out some of the basic human rights everybody is entitled to such as the right to food, not to suffer from disease, to enjoy better economic condition and so on. He also talks about the evaluation of development practices, failed development models at national levels, constraints, human rights as a development approach, etc. He opined that we cannot decide to defend only those rights we agree with and reject others because they challenge our beliefs. So he asserted that without good governance there will be no proper implementation of human rights.
-------------------------------------------------------
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram reviews International border work
Shillong, February 19, 2012: With the Centre setting timelines for securing the country's borders in the North East, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram today reviewed the progress of work at the international boundary in Meghalaya.
"We have taken a decision today to accelerate the process and we want to complete it as much as possible before monsoon sets in," he told reporters after the review meeting.
He said phase-2 of construction of roads and floodlighting will begin.
The Home Minister also met members of the Coordination Committee on Border Fencing (CCIB), a conglomeration of influential NGOs in the state opposing border fencing, for a discussion on how to end the stalemate.
While the Centre wants to construct the fence 150 yards inside and away from the zero-line, CCIB has been pressing for fencing at the actual line to prevent loss of agricultural land.
The CCIB is also against the Indo-Bangladesh land pact signed by both countries in September last year.
They said, the border survey conducted by the Joint Boundary Working Group was done without consultation with land owners, the traditional bodies and the CCIB.
On December 9, the Centre had agreed to a suggestion made by the Meghalaya government to undertake a single row fencing along the zero line in those areas on the Indo-Bangla border where people are objecting to the 150 yard buffer.
According to the home ministry, the Indian side of the India-Bangladesh border passes through West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram.
The ministry, on its website, said the total length on the India-Bangladesh border sanctioned to be fenced was 3,436.56 km, of which about 2,735 km of fencing has been done so far.
The remaining work is to be completed by March, it added.
------------------------------------------------------------
US 'used NGOs to create chaos in Egypt': minister
CAIRO — An Egyptian minister seen as the driving force behind impending trials of democracy activists, including 19 Americans, told investigators that Washington funded their groups to create a state of prolonged chaos in Egypt, official media reported Monday.
International cooperation minister Fayza Abul Naga, believed to be the instigator of a judicial probe into foreign-funded civil society groups, made the accusation in testimony to the investigating judges in October.
Abul Naga, one of the few remaining ministers from president Hosni Mubarak's era, added that the United States and Israel wanted to hijack Egypt's uprising that toppled Mubarak a year ago to serve the interests of Washington and the Jewish state.
"The United States and Israel could not create a state of chaos and work to maintain it in Egypt directly, so they used direct funding to organisations, especially American, as a means of implementing these goals," the official MENA news agency quoted her as saying, in the first public disclosure of the claims.
The impending trials of 44 activists, including 19 Americans, have deepened a rift between the traditional allies, with the State Department hinting that the crackdown could jeopardise American aid to Egypt.
Abul Naga said "the January 25 uprising came as a surprise to the United States, and it slipped from its control when it transformed into a people's revolution."
"That was when the United States decided to use all its resources and instruments to contain the situation and push it in a direction that promotes American and also Israeli interests," the agency quoted her as saying.
MENA reported that a judicial investigation into the funding of several civil society groups found that the United States had diverted aid promised for infrastructure to the NGOs.
Cairo prosecutors backed by police in December stormed the offices of the US-funded International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute and Freedom House as part of a probe into the NGO's alleged illegal foreign funding.
They were among 17 offices of local and international NGOs raided.
The crackdown was part of a wider campaign by Egypt's military rulers to silence dissent after months of criticism of its human rights record, analysts said.
The ruling generals, who took charge of the country after an uprising forced president Hosni Mubarak to resign a year ago, traditionally had close ties with the United States, the Egyptian military's most generous foreign benefactor.
The aid workers are accused of "setting up branches of international organisations in Egypt without a license from the Egyptian government" and of "receiving illegal foreign funding."
--------------------------------------------------------------
Workers face uphill fight for rights
SHENYANG - When Wang Xiaoming and three of her co-workers had to work on the first day of the lunar Year of the Dragon, cleaning up the tons of firecracker refuse left on ground, it wasn't the potential danger or sub-zero temperatures that occupied their minds.
Instead, as the women toiled in a residential community in Northeast China's Shenyang, they wondered whether their company would pay the extra money owed them by law for working on a national holiday.
Days after the nation finished celebrating Spring Festival, their worries proved well founded. Not one of them got a single extra cent, even though under law, workers are entitled to at least two to three times their normal daily wage for holiday work.
"You can't imagine how painful it is to work on national holidays," said Wang, 59, a cleaner for a property management company. "You miss almost every family celebration."
What's more, after she worked five and a half days of the weeklong holiday, which ended on Jan 29, she only got her regular 1,000 yuan ($160) monthly salary at the end of the month.
She said that small companies in the region rarely pay employees the extra money owed them by law.
Wang's grievance, shared by many workers on the bottom rung of society, underscores the prevalence of labor rights violations in this segment of China's labor force despite the nation's persistent efforts in the past decade to protect workers.
Aside from the missing holiday pay, workers at small private companies often work long, intensive hours for low salaries, and get no social insurance or adequate protection from work hazards, workers' advocates and lawyers say.
Small, privately owned companies typically have more labor rights violations than large factories because investments or orders from foreign companies bring pressure from the overseas owners or clients to eliminate sweatshop conditions, workers' rights advocates say.
Small businesses are also less likely to come under scrutiny from the media, trade unions and law enforcement agencies.
More than 80 percent of labor disputes and most strikes are at small or medium-sized enterprises, said Zhang Mingqi, vice-chairman of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), at a labor relations conference in Beijing in December.
To make matters worse, small businesses made less than a 3 percent profit from January to July because of slowing economic growth, rising labor costs and financing difficulties in China, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. The smaller companies' poor performance led to a rise in labor disputes and strikes.
To address the problem, the ACFTU is sending more than 100,000 union officials to workshops across the country to alleviate strained relations between business owners and workers, Zhang said. It has also been promoting collective bargaining systems and the establishment of trade unions.
China adopted a series of measures to improve labor protection and workers' quality of life.
Labor contracts were signed among 97 percent of all enterprises, and 65 percent of small enterprises as of 2010, according to the latest figures released by China's Information Office of the State Council in July.
In 2009 and 2010, the State investigated and dealt with 819,000 cases of violations of workers' rights in which employers would not sign labor contracts, pay salaries promptly, or participate in social insurance programs in accordance with the law.
In those two years, 2 million illegal acts were investigated and dealt with, 33,400 companies and projects that engaged in illegal production and operation were closed or canceled, and 13.6 million workplace safety hazards were eliminated.
More than 95 percent of workers in the city had signed collective contracts as of 2011, while petitions filed for labor disputes plunged 33 percent over the previous year, showed statistics from the Shenyang Federation of Trade Unions.
But significant problems remain. China saw an increasing number of labor disputes in recent years. ACFTU figures showed that mediation organizations received 406,000 labor dispute cases across the country in 2010, a 12.1 percent year-on-year rise.
Late last year, thousands of workers walked out at an LG Display factory in Nanjing to protest shrinking year-end bonuses. The company ended up paying workers a bonus equal to two times their monthly pay.
Range of abuses
Labor rights violations are as varied as the different working groups in China.
In Zhejiang province, sick leave often goes unpaid - though by law, workers must receive at least 60 percent of their regular wage on sick days - and employers often demand excessive overtime work at labor-intensive businesses, said Huang Xinfa, a lawyer and member of the Hangzhou Lawyers Association, who specializes in labor and social insurance.
In addition, the minimum wage in the province - 1,300 yuan a month in the highest of the province's three categories - is too low, Huang said.
It's estimated that about 60 percent of companies in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province, do not pay employee leave unless asked by inspectors, Huang said.
In many cases, excessive overtime is demanded. In an extreme case, he said, workers were required to put in 200 hours of overtime a month, nearly six times the maximum overtime permitted in China.
In the Pearl River Delta region, manufacturers often illegally withhold the last month's salary of workers who quit, local activists said.
At the end of the year, many businesses were shorthanded and went to great lengths to discourage workers from leaving jobs, said Su Yuan, head of Xiaoxiaocao Information Center, a Shenzhen-based organization that protects workers' rights.
"Many companies in the region would regard workers' resignations as quitting without notice, and would not pay them salaries for the last one or half month," she said. "They broke the law, which says employees have a right to quit and go to new jobs if they give 30 days' notice."
Another common violation is forcing workers to take paid leave instead of giving them the legally mandated extra pay for holiday work. Some companies simply wiped holiday attendance records clean to avoid being caught by labor department inspections, Su said.
One reason all this is possible, experts said, is that although China has adequate labor laws, they are poorly enforced, at times because infractions go unreported.
Regarding non-payment of holiday pay, many workers said they would not report violations for fear of retaliation or dismissal.
"I saw the news scrolling on TV that there was a hotline for workers to report companies that wouldn't give them their extra holiday pay," said Xu Peiying, who works for a mid-sized supermarket in Northeast China's Liaoning province and did not get extra compensation for working five of the seven days of the Spring Festival holiday.
"But what would the company do to informants if it found out they were tipping off authorities?" she said.
If labor inspectors do not audit businesses, workers have to cope with the violations.
Some business owners, however, object to the universal application of the holiday pay policy, saying they will suffer losses if they comply.
Qiao Fan, who runs a foot massage shop in Chongqing, said the shop's income was not enough to cover labor costs if workers were paid three times a normal wage. He had to close shop during Spring Festival.
The inefficiency of grassroots trade unions is also blamed for the labor rights violations.
Some grassroots unions have not properly represented or protected workers' rights, said Chang Kai, a human resources professor at Renmin University of China. None of the 300 strikes across the country in 2010 was organized by the trade unions, he said. Some of the strikes, in fact, demanded the restructuring of grassroots trade unions.
Meanwhile, grassroots organizations that advocate workers' rights are sprouting up across the country, but they are struggling to gain legal status.
Existing social organizations, such as trade unions, are sufficient to eliminate labor rights violations, said Liu Jun, founder of Honghuacao, an organization in Shenzhen to protect workers' rights. "But their performance falls short."
"Workers don't have faith in these organizations," he said. Therefore, many turn to NGOs like Honghuacao for help.
But many organizations like Honghuacao are seen as troublemakers by authorities, and have a hard time registering as NGOs so that they can exert more influence than providing legal education and entertainment for workers.
"No government department is willing to serve as their business administrators, which is required of civil service agencies that intend to register as an NGO," said Zhang Zhiru, head of Chunfeng, one of the largest and earliest grassroots organizations in Shenzhen to offer consulting services to workers.
Referring to his experience trying to find a business administrator for Chunfeng years ago, he said: "They passed the buck to each other."
Chunfeng had to register as a commercial enterprise instead of an NGO.
Liu Ce contributed to this story.
-------------------------------------------------
NGO worker cases sent to Egypt court in funding row
The cases of 40 U.S. citizens, other foreigners and Egyptians embroiled in a dispute over the activities and funding of pro-democracy groups have been referred to court, judicial sources said on Saturday, deepening a row with the United States.
Washington has strongly criticized the crackdown on the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and an unspecified number of U.S. citizens involved have sought shelter in the U.S. embassy.
Egypt, among the largest recipients of U.S. aid since its 1979 peace treaty with Israel, has been told by U.S. lawmakers assistance may be cut because of its treatment of the groups.
Several U.S. and others involved have been barred from leaving Egypt. They include Sam LaHood, the country director of the International Republican Institute who is the son of the U.S. transportation secretary.
"The cases of 40 foreign and Egyptian suspects have been transferred to the Cairo criminal court related to foreign funding," a judicial source told Reuters. State news agency MENA also carried the report.
Egyptian officials say the crackdown is part of a probe into foreign funding of NGOs. But civil society groups say the ruling military council ordered the raids to harass activists who were at the forefront of the anti-Mubarak revolt and have been pressing for the army to swiftly hand power to civilians.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Saturday a crackdown by Egypt's military rulers on U.S. and local pro-democracy groups could jeopardize aid for the Arab nation.
The NGO activists include 19 Americans alongside others who are Serbian, Norwegian, Lebanese as well as Egyptian, according to a statement issued by judges overseeing the probe and seen by Reuters. One judge involved said the list included LaHood.
The charge listed in the statement was "running organizations without getting the required licenses." One of the judges running the investigation said that investigations were continuing with Egyptians in other similar cases.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr told Clinton during his meeting with her that all groups, regardless of country of origin, had to abide by Egypt's laws on registration, the ministry's spokesman Amr Rushdy said in a statement.
The National Democratic Institute, one of the U.S.-funded groups whose staff are facing travel bans, said it began work in 2005 and sought to register the same year but after responding to some official queries after that no progress was made.
However, the group says it has operated openly since then, engaging with officials regularly.
Imphal, February 18 2012: An official from Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs would look into various projects taken up by different NGOs with funds from the Ministry in Thoubal district.
Director of the Ministry Asit Gopal would take stock of the projects being undertaken by four NGOs in the district from February 21 to 23, said an informed source.
-----------------------------------------
Egypt trial of foreign NGO activists on Feb 26: MENA
CAIRO — Egypt was set to further widen a row with the United States by announcing on Saturday that it would go ahead with a trial of foreign democracy activists, including 19 Americans, on February 26.
A court set the date for the start of the trial of 43 suspects -- who also include Serbs, Norwegians, Germans, Egyptians, Palestinians and Jordanians -- in a crackdown on NGOs accused of receiving illegal foreign aid, state media announced.
The defendants are charged with "establishing unlicensed chapters of international organisations and accepting foreign funding to finance these groups in a manner that breached the Egyptian state's sovereignty," official MENA news agency reported.
Officials had previously said 44 suspects would face trial.
Several of the American suspects have sought refuge in their embassy in Cairo as Washington hinted that the crackdown could harm its longstanding ties with the Egyptian government.
The main suspect, Sam LaHood, is the son of US transportation secretary Ray LaHood and heads the Egyptian chapter of the International Republican Institute.
The other foreign NGOs targeted are the National Democratic Institute, the US International Centre for Journalists and Freedom House, all from the United States, and the German Konrad-Adenauer Foundation.
In the list of charges, the five groups are accused of receiving roughly $48 million (36.5 million euros) in illegal funds.
Prosecutors, backed by police, raided the groups' offices in December, confiscating their equipment and sealing their doors.
Activists say the raids, which coincided with growing dissent against Egypt's military rulers, was part of a campaign to stamp out opposition to the generals who took charge after an uprising overthrew president Hosni Mubarak a year ago.
The trials of the activists have sparked an increasingly acrid row between Egypt and Washington, which annually funds Egypt's military with more than one billion dollars.
US lawmakers from both parties have stepped up their warnings that Egypt's crackdown will force a review of the $1.3 billion in US military aid to the longtime Middle Eastern ally if the crisis is not quickly resolved.
"I truly believe we are approaching a precipice beyond which our bilateral relations could suffer permanent damage," Democratic Representative Gary Ackerman said last week.
Fayza Abul Naga, the Egyptian international cooperation minister widely seen as the driving force behind the probe, told investigating judges Washington funded them to cause "chaos" in Egypt.
"The United States and Israel could not create a state of chaos and work to maintain it in Egypt directly, so they used direct funding to organisations, especially American, as a means of implementing these goals," she said in her recently published testimony.
On Saturday, the government's flagship Al-Ahram newspaper reported that the top US military general, Martin Dempsey, had asked during a visit to Cairo this month for Egypt to allow the American suspects to fly back with him.
His request was turned down by Egyptian officials who told him it was up to the judiciary to lift the travel ban in place on the defendants, the newspaper said.
--------------------------------------------
Uzma Ayub, family starving as govt help stops
ISLAMABAD: The gang rape victim Uzma Ayub, who now is a mother of an infant girl, has suddenly been dumped by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and is virtually close to starving. She has appealed to the chief justice of Peshawar High Court (PHC), provincial government and the NGOs to provide her food and help on an emergency basis.
She told The News on phone that when the CJ had ordered to provide her a residence in Peshawar, he had also directed the authorities concerned to facilitate them with all the needs but now food and rations have finished and she and her daughter and family are starving.
Uzma said that a few days back when an NGO woman had taken away her baby, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain had come to her along with the minister for women development and assured her full support and all needed provisions but then no one bothered to call back.
“As for the NGOs, the chairperson of the women rights Zubaida Khatoon has asked me never to contact her again. Is this the way the NGOs work and help the needy?” she questioned. She said her only brother left earns Rs5,000 which is not enough to meet the expenses of two families as her father and other siblings are still in their village home in Karak.
When asked about the DNA test of her daughter she said the report has not been released yet but when her daughter was hospitalised a few days back, she and her brother Zafranullah had heard from the doctor that one accused Nasibullah had been declared as the father of her daughter Zeba.
“But the report has not been confirmed yet and it has not been presented before the court,” she added. Uzma Ayub also appealed to the chief justice of PHC to arrest Ibrahim, the alleged murderer of her brother Alamzeb, who is still at large and moving freely in Karak while the police over there have given him a free hand.
----------------------------------------------
Egypt sets start date for criminal trial of foreign-funded NGO workers for Feb. 26
CAIRO — Egypt will begin hearing the criminal trial of 19 Americans and 24 others on Feb. 26 in a politically charged case against foreign-funded pro-democracy groups, the country’s state news agency said Saturday.
The trial represents an escalation in what has become the deepest crisis in U.S.-Egyptian relations in decades. American officials have said the investigation could hinder the more than $1 billion in U.S. aid that Cairo receives. Egyptian authorities have blasted what they call U.S. interference in legal affairs.
Egypt’s state news agency reported that the trial would open before a Cairo court on Feb. 26. It said 19 of the 43 defendants are Americans and 16 are Egyptians. The rest are Germans, Palestinians and Jordanians.
The Americans work for four U.S.-based groups: the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute, Freedom House and a group that trains journalists.
Only seven of the Americans are in Egypt, and all have been barred from travel. Some have sought refuge at the American Embassy in Cairo, including Sam LaHood, who heads IRI’s Egypt office and is the son of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.
It remains unclear if they will attend the trial. U.S. Embassy officials were not immediately available for comment.
The report said all the defendants had been charged with founding and managing offices of international organizations without licenses from the Egyptian government, and with receiving foreign funding. The groups’ operations “infringe on Egyptian sovereignty,” it said.
The setting of a trial date by Egypt, in addition to a campaign against NGOs in the state media, are likely to inflame a crisis that U.S. officials have tried to solve through diplomacy.
President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta have personally met with top officials in Egypt’s military-led government, and urged them to end the investigations and allow the U.S. citizens under investigation to leave the country. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey visited Cairo last week in another unsuccessful bid for a solution.
Cairo’s failure to respond has prompted Washington lawmakers to advocate withholding the United States’ annual aid package to Egypt. U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., will lead a congressional delegation on yet another mission to Egypt in the coming days.
But administration officials are hesitant to push too hard. The U.S. is eager to preserve an alliance with Egypt that has been a foundation of stability in the Middle East since the late 1970s, ensuring peace between the Arab world’s most populous country and Israel.
Ending U.S. assistance programs only a year after Egyptians braved the repression in Cairo’s Tahrir Square to call for the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak would hardly be a vote of confidence in Arab democracy.
--------------------------------------------------
More NGO bannings feared in Zimbabwe
Harare, Zimbabwe (IRIN) – Twenty-nine NGOs providing services ranging from alleviating food insecurity to assisting the disabled in Zimbabwe’s Masvingo Province have been banned, sparking fears that this could be the start of new wave of restrictions like the blanket ban placed on the activities of civil society organizations during the violent and disputed parliamentary and presidential elections in 2008.
Titus Maluleke, governor of Masvingo Province and member of President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party, announced the immediate banning of the NGOs on 14 February, claiming that they had failed to register with his office.
”What has happened in Masvingo can easily spread to other provinces, with undesirable consequences,” Abel Chikomo, director of the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, said at a hastily convened media briefing in the capital, Harare, on 16 February.
A joint statement on behalf of various civil society organizations – including the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), the Crisis In Zimbabwe Coalition, the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, the National Association of Non Governmental Organizations (NANGO), the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, and Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights – said Maluleke’s actions were “blatantly illegal…and are a nullity at law.”
“The law in this country clearly shows that he has no regulatory authority; nor does he have the power to register or de-register NGOs. Even the Provincial Council that he heads in terms of the Provincial Councils and Administration Act does not have regulatory powers over NGOs. The council exists solely to foster developmental projects initiated and carried out by central government and local government,” the joint statement said.
”The governor’s rash and ill-advised utterances merely seek to confuse matters and are regrettably likely to worsen the humanitarian crisis in Masvingo Province. This is because the list of organizations he seeks to ban includes NGOs that are currently providing food, medication, water and other social and economic support [services] to the community.”
The civil society organizations urged the affected NGOs to “ignore the [banning] order by the governor”.
Maluleke’s banning order – made in the presence of senior army and police officials – was accompanied by what has become a repeated claim by ZANU-PF that civil society is collaborating with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, which in turn is a front for Western governments.
Operating in fear
Harassment, detention and arrests of NGO workers are common, even when they are not banned. NGOs were outlawed in the weeks leading up to the disputed 2008 elections when there was widescale food insecurity. Civil society organizations claimed the ban was instituted to prevent documentation of the political violence during the election period.
In the aftermath of the 2008 poll, Mugabe and Tsvangirai formed an uneasy government of national unity in 2009. Recently there have been growing calls by ZANU-PF for fresh elections, but the MDC wants certain guarantees, such as an overhaul of the voters’ roll and adoption of a new constitution, before assenting.
Machinda Marongwe, of NANGO, said there was ”a tense environment” in Masvingo. ”Pronouncement of the ban has limited our movement in Masvingo. An official of the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP), which monitors human rights abuses, told IRIN: “There is so much fear among the NGOs.”
“It is clear that the move by the governor is linked to talk within ZANU-PF about holding elections this year,” said the official, who declined to be named
“The party wants to monitor our movements but communities are the ones that will suffer most. ZANU-PF has used the tactic before, and soon other governors aligned to the [ZANU-PF] party will follow suit.”
---------------------------------------------------
Ray LaHood: US pressing Egypt on NGO workers
A US cabinet secretary whose son faces charges in Egypt says "top officials" are working "night and day" to ensure he and his colleagues can leave.
Sam LaHood, son of Transport Secretary Ray LaHood, is one of 43 foreign workers facing charges.
Egypt's ruling military council has accused foreign groups of funding street protests against them.
Washington has warned it could review US aid to Egypt unless Cairo respects the rights of non-governmental groups.
Mr LaHood's son runs the Cairo office of the International Republican Institute (IRI) in Egypt, a group that promotes democratic governance.
He was banned from leaving the country in January, along with several other Americans working for non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
Egypt says it is to put on trial 43 people, including the Americans and other foreigners.
'Puzzling'
The elder Mr LaHood told CBS News that he was "grateful" his son and his colleagues were safe, and was assured by the White House that the US was doing everything possible to resolve the situation.
"There are a lot of people in our government, really top officials in our government, working night and day to resolve this issue," Mr LaHood said.
But he added: "Frankly, I don't know how it will be resolved."
The transport secretary said he was puzzled as to why US and foreign NGOs were suddenly in the spotlight.
"These NGOs have been working for years in democracy-building efforts, and they thought they were well within their right to do it," he said. "So it's a little bit puzzling to many people what's happening there."
At least 17 NGO offices in Egypt, including IRI's, were raided in late December 2011.
Aid under threat?
The chairman of the US Joint Chief of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, visited Cairo last week in an unsuccessful attempt to negotiate with Egypt's military rulers.
US Senator John McCain will lead a congressional delegation to the country this weekend.
State department spokesman Victoria Nuland has said that putting the NGO workers on trial "may have an impact on all kinds of other aspects of our relationship with Egypt, including our ability to support them economically".
For military assistance to go through, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton must certify to Congress that Egypt is promoting freedom of speech, religion and the rule of law, Ms Nuland noted.
"She has not made those decisions yet,'' Ms Nuland said.
But in congressional testimony on Thursday, Gen Dempsey said he was "reluctant to come to the stark conclusion about cutting aid".
"Cutting off aid and therefore cutting ourselves off from them means that the next generation won't have that benefit, and I don't know where that takes us, to tell you the truth," he said.
------------------------------------------------------
NGOs call US to Establish Int'l Accountability Mechanism on Sri Lanka at UN Human Rights Council
NGOs Call on U.S. to Establish Independent International Accountability Mechanism on Sri Lanka at UN Human Rights Council.
February 17, 2012 /24-7PressRelease/ -- We are pleased to hear that the United States has decided to press for action at the March session of the Human Rights Council on accountability for wartime abuses in Sri Lanka. This issue has long been a high priority for us due to the massive scale of abuses committed in the final months of the war and the Sri Lankan government's resistance to any serious domestic inquiry.
In September, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon referred to the President of the HRC and the High Commissioner the report of his Panel of Experts, which finds considerable evidence of war crimes and other abuses committed by both sides during the Sri Lankan civil war. According to the report, up to 40,000 civilians were killed in the final five months of the war, mainly due to indiscriminate shelling of civilian-populated areas, including hospitals and food distribution centers. The rebel group LTTE used civilians as human shields. A documentary by UK's Channel 4, Sri Lanka's Killing Fields, released in June 2011, records some of the abuses through graphic video of executions allegedly by the Sri Lankan security forces.
The UN Panel and international organizations have rejected a domestic mechanism, the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), as inadequate and lacking the independence necessary to conduct an impartial and effective investigation of these abuses. The LLRC report issued in December made some helpful recommendations, but was dismissive of serious abuses by government forces and the need for accountability. Now is the time for the HRC to demonstrate its commitment to justice for victims and their families by taking effective action toward establishing an independent international accountability mechanism.
This statement is endorsed by the following:
Suzanne Nossel, Executive Director, Amnesty International USA
Karin D. Ryan, Director, Human Rights Program, The Carter Center
Don Kraus, Chief Executive Officer, Citizens for Global Solutions
Allison Garland, Project Coordinator, Democracy Coalition Project
John C. Bradshaw, Executive Director, Enough Project
Norma R. Gattsek, Government Relations Director, Feminist Majority Foundation
Paula Schriefer, Vice President for Global Programs, Freedom House
Tom Malinowski, Washington Director, Human Rights Watch
E. Robert Goodkind, Chair, Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights
Kathryn Cameron Porter, Founder and President, Leadership Council for Human Rights
Jerry Fowler, Senior Policy Analyst, Open Society Foundations
Hans Hogrefe, Washington Director, Physicians for Human Rights
Bama Athreya, Executive Director, United to End Genocide
Aung Din, Executive Director, U.S. Campaign for Burma
- Sri_Lanka_Public_Statement_2_17_12.docx
-----------------------------------------------------
NGO Forum On Human Rights And Governance
The association of Non Governmental Organisations on Tuesday 12 February had a panel discussion on human rights and governance as part of the NGO week celebrations 2012.
Speaking at the occasion Sheikh Lewis from the International Society for Human Rights (ISHR) spoke about the importance of human rights in our communities; noting that there cannot be any meaningful development without the people knowing their rights. He said: “You don’t have to be a graduate to be human rights defender, what you need to know are the requirements which are available to ensure that human rights are observed.” Lewis said there are regional mechanisms and international instruments, all of which are tools that can be used to understand and protect the rights of people. He referred to international instruments such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 and opined that the same people who make these instruments are the very people who violate them. He however noted that, it is time for us to observe the rule of law and not the rule of wars, adding that before we can cure an evil we must know its root cause first.
He opined that it is important for the NGOs and Civil Society to be capacitised and be trained for them to understand their rights. He said if you don’t know your rights you would not be able to claim them and defend them. He also quoted an example on human rights violations in Libya; and said if there is proper observation of the rule of law and fundamental human rights in place, then NATO would not have come and destroyed Libya. “Let us stop discriminating each other, he appealed.
Lewis gave an example and said when the journalists or the lawyers are in trouble we all fold our hands and say it is their business. He said in order for rights to recognised and valued we have to fight every single thing which infringe our rights. He said one fundamental issue we need to put at the back of our minds is that every human rights defender needs to sacrifice and observe the rule of law in any undertaking.
Mr. Yaya Sanyang of Concern Universal spoke about the role of NGOs in enforcing human rights and governance. He said there are lots of instruments, policies and protocols designed or clearly spelt out what fundamental human rights are and what to do towards the attainment of the rights. He said the NGOs work closely with the communities to fight against anything that will limit our enforcement of rights.
Mr. Sanyang further said human rights and governance are very broad in terms. He explained the difference between human rights and governance and said Human rights principles provide rules to guide the governance, and provide performance standard to help promote the defence and enforcement of those rights. In general, Sanyang said human rights principles reinforce the content of good governance; adding that without human rights there will be no good governance. He said the NGOs are supposed to be closer to the communities and therefore are in a better position to disseminate the information especially in terms of crisis or in terms of emergency.
“We also help the committees in prioritization of need and also mobilise resources to address those issues”, said Sanyang.
The representative of African Center for Democracy and Human Right, Mr. Amadou Ceesay also spoke at length by explaining the content of the African Charter for Human and People Rights. He said African leaders came out with a charter since 1981 to respect human rights and promote the awareness of human rights protection, but still human rights violations are the order of the day even though the charter has been existing for more than 31 years now. He said a lot of human rights violations have taken place and asked why this should happen after having a treaty body that is established by African leaders purposely to ensure that this charter is implemented at the level of the state. He pointed out that they are the major role players when it comes to human rights violations. “It is very clear to all of us that despite all these treaties human rights violations are still increasing, even though it is ratified by them. But when you come to implementation of the charter, the main problem is people are not even aware of the instruments that have been ratified by our own leaders,” he asserted. He noted that a lot of people have accused the Commission itself for not doing enough for its citizen simply because some observation has been made by the Commission and those representatives of the Commission are nominated by the African leaders. So he said, imagine you nominate somebody who has to look into activities and examine and put you on tract and punish you if you fail to comply, it is always difficult, he stressed. He added that even if they have to visit a country where human rights violation is taking place, they have to seek permission from the country in question, even though they will prevent them from meeting the NGO community to get reliable information. He said the African Commission makes a provision for any citizen whose right is violated to take it there after observing all the court systems in the country. “We have witnessed a lot of cases, a lot of violations that are reported by African citizens and nothing has been done about them,” said the representative of African Center for Democracy and Human Rights, Mr. Amadou Ceesay.
The same Charter made provision for the establishment of the African Court, since 2004 but according to him, up to date no single case has been reported to be ruled by the court; that there is only one case which is reported by Senegal but was prevented because of the fact that there was no declaration made by Senegal for a case to be filed by an individual or an organization. He said this was so because there is a provision that a country should make declaration so that your citizen can file a case.
Mr. Lamin Nyangado of Action Aid International The Gambia started with the history of human rights. He said human rights activism dates back to the French revolution of August, 1789 and declared “Men are born and remain free and equal in rights.” He also pointed out some of the basic human rights everybody is entitled to such as the right to food, not to suffer from disease, to enjoy better economic condition and so on. He also talks about the evaluation of development practices, failed development models at national levels, constraints, human rights as a development approach, etc. He opined that we cannot decide to defend only those rights we agree with and reject others because they challenge our beliefs. So he asserted that without good governance there will be no proper implementation of human rights.
-------------------------------------------------------
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram reviews International border work
Shillong, February 19, 2012: With the Centre setting timelines for securing the country's borders in the North East, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram today reviewed the progress of work at the international boundary in Meghalaya.
"We have taken a decision today to accelerate the process and we want to complete it as much as possible before monsoon sets in," he told reporters after the review meeting.
He said phase-2 of construction of roads and floodlighting will begin.
The Home Minister also met members of the Coordination Committee on Border Fencing (CCIB), a conglomeration of influential NGOs in the state opposing border fencing, for a discussion on how to end the stalemate.
While the Centre wants to construct the fence 150 yards inside and away from the zero-line, CCIB has been pressing for fencing at the actual line to prevent loss of agricultural land.
The CCIB is also against the Indo-Bangladesh land pact signed by both countries in September last year.
They said, the border survey conducted by the Joint Boundary Working Group was done without consultation with land owners, the traditional bodies and the CCIB.
On December 9, the Centre had agreed to a suggestion made by the Meghalaya government to undertake a single row fencing along the zero line in those areas on the Indo-Bangla border where people are objecting to the 150 yard buffer.
According to the home ministry, the Indian side of the India-Bangladesh border passes through West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram.
The ministry, on its website, said the total length on the India-Bangladesh border sanctioned to be fenced was 3,436.56 km, of which about 2,735 km of fencing has been done so far.
The remaining work is to be completed by March, it added.
------------------------------------------------------------
US 'used NGOs to create chaos in Egypt': minister
CAIRO — An Egyptian minister seen as the driving force behind impending trials of democracy activists, including 19 Americans, told investigators that Washington funded their groups to create a state of prolonged chaos in Egypt, official media reported Monday.
International cooperation minister Fayza Abul Naga, believed to be the instigator of a judicial probe into foreign-funded civil society groups, made the accusation in testimony to the investigating judges in October.
Abul Naga, one of the few remaining ministers from president Hosni Mubarak's era, added that the United States and Israel wanted to hijack Egypt's uprising that toppled Mubarak a year ago to serve the interests of Washington and the Jewish state.
"The United States and Israel could not create a state of chaos and work to maintain it in Egypt directly, so they used direct funding to organisations, especially American, as a means of implementing these goals," the official MENA news agency quoted her as saying, in the first public disclosure of the claims.
The impending trials of 44 activists, including 19 Americans, have deepened a rift between the traditional allies, with the State Department hinting that the crackdown could jeopardise American aid to Egypt.
Abul Naga said "the January 25 uprising came as a surprise to the United States, and it slipped from its control when it transformed into a people's revolution."
"That was when the United States decided to use all its resources and instruments to contain the situation and push it in a direction that promotes American and also Israeli interests," the agency quoted her as saying.
MENA reported that a judicial investigation into the funding of several civil society groups found that the United States had diverted aid promised for infrastructure to the NGOs.
Cairo prosecutors backed by police in December stormed the offices of the US-funded International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute and Freedom House as part of a probe into the NGO's alleged illegal foreign funding.
They were among 17 offices of local and international NGOs raided.
The crackdown was part of a wider campaign by Egypt's military rulers to silence dissent after months of criticism of its human rights record, analysts said.
The ruling generals, who took charge of the country after an uprising forced president Hosni Mubarak to resign a year ago, traditionally had close ties with the United States, the Egyptian military's most generous foreign benefactor.
The aid workers are accused of "setting up branches of international organisations in Egypt without a license from the Egyptian government" and of "receiving illegal foreign funding."
--------------------------------------------------------------
Workers face uphill fight for rights
SHENYANG - When Wang Xiaoming and three of her co-workers had to work on the first day of the lunar Year of the Dragon, cleaning up the tons of firecracker refuse left on ground, it wasn't the potential danger or sub-zero temperatures that occupied their minds.
Instead, as the women toiled in a residential community in Northeast China's Shenyang, they wondered whether their company would pay the extra money owed them by law for working on a national holiday.
Days after the nation finished celebrating Spring Festival, their worries proved well founded. Not one of them got a single extra cent, even though under law, workers are entitled to at least two to three times their normal daily wage for holiday work.
"You can't imagine how painful it is to work on national holidays," said Wang, 59, a cleaner for a property management company. "You miss almost every family celebration."
What's more, after she worked five and a half days of the weeklong holiday, which ended on Jan 29, she only got her regular 1,000 yuan ($160) monthly salary at the end of the month.
She said that small companies in the region rarely pay employees the extra money owed them by law.
Wang's grievance, shared by many workers on the bottom rung of society, underscores the prevalence of labor rights violations in this segment of China's labor force despite the nation's persistent efforts in the past decade to protect workers.
Aside from the missing holiday pay, workers at small private companies often work long, intensive hours for low salaries, and get no social insurance or adequate protection from work hazards, workers' advocates and lawyers say.
Small, privately owned companies typically have more labor rights violations than large factories because investments or orders from foreign companies bring pressure from the overseas owners or clients to eliminate sweatshop conditions, workers' rights advocates say.
Small businesses are also less likely to come under scrutiny from the media, trade unions and law enforcement agencies.
More than 80 percent of labor disputes and most strikes are at small or medium-sized enterprises, said Zhang Mingqi, vice-chairman of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), at a labor relations conference in Beijing in December.
To make matters worse, small businesses made less than a 3 percent profit from January to July because of slowing economic growth, rising labor costs and financing difficulties in China, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. The smaller companies' poor performance led to a rise in labor disputes and strikes.
To address the problem, the ACFTU is sending more than 100,000 union officials to workshops across the country to alleviate strained relations between business owners and workers, Zhang said. It has also been promoting collective bargaining systems and the establishment of trade unions.
China adopted a series of measures to improve labor protection and workers' quality of life.
Labor contracts were signed among 97 percent of all enterprises, and 65 percent of small enterprises as of 2010, according to the latest figures released by China's Information Office of the State Council in July.
In 2009 and 2010, the State investigated and dealt with 819,000 cases of violations of workers' rights in which employers would not sign labor contracts, pay salaries promptly, or participate in social insurance programs in accordance with the law.
In those two years, 2 million illegal acts were investigated and dealt with, 33,400 companies and projects that engaged in illegal production and operation were closed or canceled, and 13.6 million workplace safety hazards were eliminated.
More than 95 percent of workers in the city had signed collective contracts as of 2011, while petitions filed for labor disputes plunged 33 percent over the previous year, showed statistics from the Shenyang Federation of Trade Unions.
But significant problems remain. China saw an increasing number of labor disputes in recent years. ACFTU figures showed that mediation organizations received 406,000 labor dispute cases across the country in 2010, a 12.1 percent year-on-year rise.
Late last year, thousands of workers walked out at an LG Display factory in Nanjing to protest shrinking year-end bonuses. The company ended up paying workers a bonus equal to two times their monthly pay.
Range of abuses
Labor rights violations are as varied as the different working groups in China.
In Zhejiang province, sick leave often goes unpaid - though by law, workers must receive at least 60 percent of their regular wage on sick days - and employers often demand excessive overtime work at labor-intensive businesses, said Huang Xinfa, a lawyer and member of the Hangzhou Lawyers Association, who specializes in labor and social insurance.
In addition, the minimum wage in the province - 1,300 yuan a month in the highest of the province's three categories - is too low, Huang said.
It's estimated that about 60 percent of companies in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province, do not pay employee leave unless asked by inspectors, Huang said.
In many cases, excessive overtime is demanded. In an extreme case, he said, workers were required to put in 200 hours of overtime a month, nearly six times the maximum overtime permitted in China.
In the Pearl River Delta region, manufacturers often illegally withhold the last month's salary of workers who quit, local activists said.
At the end of the year, many businesses were shorthanded and went to great lengths to discourage workers from leaving jobs, said Su Yuan, head of Xiaoxiaocao Information Center, a Shenzhen-based organization that protects workers' rights.
"Many companies in the region would regard workers' resignations as quitting without notice, and would not pay them salaries for the last one or half month," she said. "They broke the law, which says employees have a right to quit and go to new jobs if they give 30 days' notice."
Another common violation is forcing workers to take paid leave instead of giving them the legally mandated extra pay for holiday work. Some companies simply wiped holiday attendance records clean to avoid being caught by labor department inspections, Su said.
One reason all this is possible, experts said, is that although China has adequate labor laws, they are poorly enforced, at times because infractions go unreported.
Regarding non-payment of holiday pay, many workers said they would not report violations for fear of retaliation or dismissal.
"I saw the news scrolling on TV that there was a hotline for workers to report companies that wouldn't give them their extra holiday pay," said Xu Peiying, who works for a mid-sized supermarket in Northeast China's Liaoning province and did not get extra compensation for working five of the seven days of the Spring Festival holiday.
"But what would the company do to informants if it found out they were tipping off authorities?" she said.
If labor inspectors do not audit businesses, workers have to cope with the violations.
Some business owners, however, object to the universal application of the holiday pay policy, saying they will suffer losses if they comply.
Qiao Fan, who runs a foot massage shop in Chongqing, said the shop's income was not enough to cover labor costs if workers were paid three times a normal wage. He had to close shop during Spring Festival.
The inefficiency of grassroots trade unions is also blamed for the labor rights violations.
Some grassroots unions have not properly represented or protected workers' rights, said Chang Kai, a human resources professor at Renmin University of China. None of the 300 strikes across the country in 2010 was organized by the trade unions, he said. Some of the strikes, in fact, demanded the restructuring of grassroots trade unions.
Meanwhile, grassroots organizations that advocate workers' rights are sprouting up across the country, but they are struggling to gain legal status.
Existing social organizations, such as trade unions, are sufficient to eliminate labor rights violations, said Liu Jun, founder of Honghuacao, an organization in Shenzhen to protect workers' rights. "But their performance falls short."
"Workers don't have faith in these organizations," he said. Therefore, many turn to NGOs like Honghuacao for help.
But many organizations like Honghuacao are seen as troublemakers by authorities, and have a hard time registering as NGOs so that they can exert more influence than providing legal education and entertainment for workers.
"No government department is willing to serve as their business administrators, which is required of civil service agencies that intend to register as an NGO," said Zhang Zhiru, head of Chunfeng, one of the largest and earliest grassroots organizations in Shenzhen to offer consulting services to workers.
Referring to his experience trying to find a business administrator for Chunfeng years ago, he said: "They passed the buck to each other."
Chunfeng had to register as a commercial enterprise instead of an NGO.
Liu Ce contributed to this story.
-------------------------------------------------
NGO worker cases sent to Egypt court in funding row
The cases of 40 U.S. citizens, other foreigners and Egyptians embroiled in a dispute over the activities and funding of pro-democracy groups have been referred to court, judicial sources said on Saturday, deepening a row with the United States.
Washington has strongly criticized the crackdown on the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and an unspecified number of U.S. citizens involved have sought shelter in the U.S. embassy.
Egypt, among the largest recipients of U.S. aid since its 1979 peace treaty with Israel, has been told by U.S. lawmakers assistance may be cut because of its treatment of the groups.
Several U.S. and others involved have been barred from leaving Egypt. They include Sam LaHood, the country director of the International Republican Institute who is the son of the U.S. transportation secretary.
"The cases of 40 foreign and Egyptian suspects have been transferred to the Cairo criminal court related to foreign funding," a judicial source told Reuters. State news agency MENA also carried the report.
Egyptian officials say the crackdown is part of a probe into foreign funding of NGOs. But civil society groups say the ruling military council ordered the raids to harass activists who were at the forefront of the anti-Mubarak revolt and have been pressing for the army to swiftly hand power to civilians.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Saturday a crackdown by Egypt's military rulers on U.S. and local pro-democracy groups could jeopardize aid for the Arab nation.
The NGO activists include 19 Americans alongside others who are Serbian, Norwegian, Lebanese as well as Egyptian, according to a statement issued by judges overseeing the probe and seen by Reuters. One judge involved said the list included LaHood.
The charge listed in the statement was "running organizations without getting the required licenses." One of the judges running the investigation said that investigations were continuing with Egyptians in other similar cases.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr told Clinton during his meeting with her that all groups, regardless of country of origin, had to abide by Egypt's laws on registration, the ministry's spokesman Amr Rushdy said in a statement.
The National Democratic Institute, one of the U.S.-funded groups whose staff are facing travel bans, said it began work in 2005 and sought to register the same year but after responding to some official queries after that no progress was made.
However, the group says it has operated openly since then, engaging with officials regularly.
