Archive for October, 2012

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17/10/2012

EU in Crisis? But It Is a Major Arms Exporter!

Human Wrongs Watch

In the period 2007-2011, the United States was the largest exporter of major conventional weapons, accounting for 30 per cent of the volume of exports, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)*.

**Baroness Ashton of Upholland, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy | Photo: World Economic Forum

“However, in the same period, EU member states’ combined exports from the EU area made up 32 per cent of the volume of global exports of major conventional weapons.”

Six of the top 10 exporters in the period were EU member states: Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Spain, the Netherlands and Italy, according to according to SIPRI’s recent Data on the European Union.

Arms Production

Of the top 100 arms-producing and military services companies in 2010 (ranked by arms sales in 2010 and excluding China), 27 had their headquarters in an EU member state and one, EADS, was trans-European, SIPRI reports.

Military Expenditure

The combined military spending of the EU member states in 2011 was $293 billion in current US dollars, it adds

“Spending by the EU has gradually declined since its post cold-war peak in 2009: $294 billion (constant 2010 dollars) in 2009, $279 billion (constant 2010 dollars) in 2010, and $271 billion (constant 2010 dollars) in 2011.”

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17/10/2012

Bangladesh: ‘Tanneries Harm Workers, Poison Communities’ – Report

Workers in many leather tanneries in the Hazaribagh neighborhood of Dhaka, the Bangladesh capital,  including children as young as 11, become ill because of exposure to hazardous chemicals and are injured in horrific workplace accidents, Human Rights Watch said in a report.

**© 2012 Arantxa Cedillo for Human Rights Watch

“The tanneries, which export hundreds of millions of dollars in leather for luxury goods throughout the world, spew pollutants into surrounding communities.”

The 101-page report, “Toxic Tanneries: The Health Repercussions of Bangladesh’s Hazaribagh Leather,” documents an occupational health and safety crisis among tannery workers, both men and women, including skin diseases and respiratory illnesses caused by exposure to tanning chemicals, and limb amputations caused by accidents in dangerous tannery machinery.

“Residents of Hazaribagh slums complain of illnesses such as fevers, skin diseases, respiratory problems, and diarrhea, caused by the extreme tannery pollution of air, water, and soil. The government has not protected the right to health of the workers and residents, has consistently failed to enforce labor or environmental laws in Hazaribagh, and has ignored High Court orders to clean up these tanneries.”

“Hazaribagh’s tanneries flood the environment with harmful chemicals,” said Richard Pearshouse, senior researcher in the health and human rights division of Human Rights Watch. “While the government takes a hands-off approach, local residents fall sick and workers suffer daily from their exposure to harmful tannery chemicals.”

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17/10/2012

‘Cooperatives Movement Suits Women and Crisis’ – Research

Human Wrongs Watch

Special Report by EurActiv*, 17 October – Working in cooperatives is better for women’s chances of promotion, work- life balance, professional development and pay, according to research unveiled yesterday (16 October) in Brussels.

Boardroom voice – in the coop |  EurActiv

The findings come on the heels of a report published in the summer (26 June), which claimed that cooperatives also offer the most resilient form of organisational structure in the face of the economic crisis stifling Europe.

Representatives from Italian, French and Spanish cooperatives – usually classed as SMEs because they employ fewer workers than large companies – presented survey findings to a seminar held in conjunction with European SME week, which has taken female employment as one of its themes this year.

Giving results from research conducted by the French cooperative organisation, CGS Coop, Catherine Friedrich said that three-quarters of respondents to the survey had indicated that they were content with their promotion opportunities within cooperatives.

She said that the findings were especially significant because cooperatives are generally too small to fall under French rules requiring larger companies to ensure that women receive equal promotional treatment.

Almost the same number (72% of respondents) said that there was no difference between pay levels for men and women within their workplaces.

“Although 20% recorded that there were differences on the payscale, the result must be put in the context of the French average, in which men receive salaries 9% higher than women for equivalent labour across the board,” Friedrich said.

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17/10/2012

World Food Day – Economic Crises, Climatic Shocks, High Prices…Voracious Consumption

Human Wrongs Watch

Amid economic crises, climatic shocks, and high and volatile food prices in a world of plenty where nearly 870 million people still go hungry, the UN on 16 October marked World Food Day by highlighting agricultural cooperatives as vital weapon in the war on poverty and hunger.

**Image: Photo: World Bank/Julio Pantoja | Source: UN News Centre

“Owned by their members, they can generate employment, alleviate poverty, and empower poor and marginalized groups in rural areas, especially women, to drive their own destinies,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a message, stressing that the number of people still going hungry is unacceptable in a world where every person would have enough to eat if food were distributed properly.

“As enterprises with a social conscience, cooperatives have also proven to be an effective vehicle for social inclusion, promoting gender equality and encouraging the involvement of youth in agriculture.”

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16/10/2012

Egyptians Bitter over President Morsi’s ‘Broken Promises’

Human Wrongs Watch

By Shahira Amin for RIA Novosti* , Cairo, October 15 – A million-strong protest organized by Egypt’s secularists, political forces, and revolutionary youth-activists turned violent on Friday October 12, when clashes broke out in Cairo’s Tahrir Square between President Mohamed Morsi’s opponents and Muslim Brotherhood supporters.

Mohamed Morsi.png: Jonathan Rashad

Organizers held the protest, dubbed “Accountability Friday,” to demand a more egalitarian constitution, and express their anger at Morsi’s record in his first 100 days in office.

They accuse him of failing to fulfill his campaign pledges to tackle issues such as security, traffic, fuel, bread, and garbage collection.

Ahead of Friday’s protest, Morsi gave a nationwide televised speech defending his policies. He insisted that he had delivered on most of the pledges in his100-day plan, including those related to security, traffic and garbage.

Morsi’s supporters were protesting against the acquittal of former regime loyalists in the “Battle of the Camels” case, when men riding camels and horses charged at peaceful protesters in Tahrir Square on February 2, 2011.

The acquittal of all the suspects, including senior members of the former regime, in this high-profile case sparked a new wave of anger among Islamist groups and youth-revolutionaries alike. They have repeatedly called for “kassas,” or retribution for the martyrs of the revolution.

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16/10/2012

Arab Countries: 10 Million Young People Fail to Complete Primary School

Human Wrongs Watch

 In the Arab States, over 10 million people aged 15 to 24 have not even completed primary school and need alternative pathways to acquire basic skills for employment and prosperity, according to the United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO)*. 


The tenth Education for All Global Monitoring Report*, Putting Education to Work, reveals the urgent need to invest in skills for youth.

This is equivalent to one in five of the region’s youth population, rising to one in four in Iraq.

More than half of the population in the region is under 25-years-old.

Worldwide, one in eight young people are unemployed; one quarter are trapped in jobs that keep them on or below the poverty line.

As the effects of the global economic crisis continue to be felt, the severe lack of youth skills is more damaging than ever.

Despite significant progress in enrolling children in school in countries like Morocco, the Report shows that few are on track to meet the six Education for All goals set in 2000, and some, such as Yemen, are a long way behind.

Along with Sub-Saharan Africa, the Arab States have the worst rate of girls to boys in school of any region in the world.

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16/10/2012

‘Crime Syndicates Evade Justice – World, Civil Society to Work Together’

The United Nations’ top anti-crime official called for integrated international and civil society initiatives to choke off crime syndicates that have shown they can evade justice by quickly shifting to a new location when the law catches up with them at an initial location.

**Forensic police officers examine evidence collected at a crime scene. UN Photo/Martine Perret

“Our collective goal must be to end the ‘era of displacement,’ which sees crime simply move elsewhere when challenged, and to begin a time of interconnected cooperation, coordination and communication against crime,” the Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Yury Fedotov, said in Vienna on 15 October, at the opening of the sixth session of the conference of parties to the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.

He added, “Where the criminals are smart, we must be smarter, where the criminals are sophisticated, we must be even more sophisticated and where crime transcends borders, so must our cooperation.”

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16/10/2012

China, Japan Brewing a Serious Conflict

Human Wrongs Watch

By Roberto Savio*

Tokyo, October 2012 – From time to time, we read about the confrontation between Japan and China over some insignificant islands called the Senkaku by Japan and Diaoyu by China, which are also claimed by Taiwan. Japan also faces claims by South Korea over the Dodko islets, called Takeshima in Japan.

**Aerial Photo of Kitakojima and Minamikojima of Senkaku Islands, Ishigaki City, Okinawa, Japan

The fact that tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in their respective capitals in the last few weeks, and that China took the extraordinary step of deserting the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in Tokyo a few days ago, should not be taken lightly – it is the opening of a very serious regional conflict.

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15/10/2012

‘I Do Not Support the Nobel Peace Prize to the EU’ – Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire

Human Wrongs Watch

By Mairead Corrigan Maguire*, Nobel Peace Laureate, TRANSCEND – Alfred Nobel was a visionary who believed in a demilitarized peaceful world.  In his Will he left his Nobel Peace Prize to those who would work for ‘fraternity among nations’, ‘abolition or reduction of standing armies’, and ‘holding and promotion of peace congresses’.

**Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate (1976) | Free Gaza movement

In Nobel’s Will the award for Peace was to go to Champions of Peace, those working to replace militarism with an international order based on law, and the abolition of national military forces.  Nobel’s vision and dream was to replace the power of militarism and war with the power of law.

I believe the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union does not meet the criteria of Alfred Nobel’s vision and spirit of a demilitarized peaceful world.

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15/10/2012

World Day: ‘End Discrimination against Rural Women’

Human Wrongs Watch

New York, 15 October 2012 – Highlighting the role in women in producing much of the world’s food and caring for the environment, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in his message marking the International Day of Rural Women, today said that eliminating discrimination that prevents rural women from realizing their full potential is crucial to ending global hunger and poverty.

Women lag far behind men in access to land, credit and decent jobs. Photo: UN Women

“By denying women rights and opportunities, we deny their children and societies a better future,” he said, noting that the daily reality for too many rural women is one in which they do not own the land they farm and are denied the financial services that could lift them out of poverty.

Established by the General Assembly in December 2007, the Day – observed on 15 October – recognizes the role and contribution of rural women, including indigenous women, in enhancing agricultural and rural development, improving food security and eradicating rural poverty, the UN reports.

In his message, the UN chief said rural women often live without the guarantee of basic nutrition, health services and amenities such as clean water and sanitation, while unpaid care work imposes a heavy burden and prevents their access to decent wage employment.

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