Answering a global outcry for urgently desired action against caste-based rape and violence against women, the UN Human Rights Council held a side-event Tuesday dedicated to the issue.

Many human rights organizations, policy makers and India’s UN representative had asked rights groups to address the problem after it received attention following the gang-rape and hanging of two girls in India May 27.

The event, “Caste-based Violence against Women: The role of the UN in combating caste-based violence and discrimination,” was co-sponsored by Human Rights Watch, the International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR), Minority Rights Group, Franciscan International, and the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development, Norway, Denmark, and the International Dalit Solidarity Network (IDSN) at the Palais des Nations in Geneva and urged member UN members to speak up about the problem, which is thought to be increasing.

Asha Kowtal, leader of a delegation of Dalit women to the Human Rights Council, stated, “Caste-based rape and violence against Dalit women and girls is escalating as we fight to claim justice.”

“Words and legislation is not enough,” said UN Women policy director, Saraswathi Menon. “We need concrete action. Legislation alone does not address structural discrimination. The UN has an important role to play and must step up to the plate to help stop caste-based violence against women.”

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said, “I urge governments to fully implement all the recommendations made by international human rights mechanisms, as well as those arising from national processes. Our outrage is not enough. We must take real and focused action to mend our societies’ dramatic failure to support the rights of people of discriminated castes, particularly women and girls.”

Caste-based violence and discrimination affect women in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Yemen and other cultures that value caste.

IDSN

Human Rights Watch

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One day after Russian tanks crossed the Russia-Ukraine border, the EU invited Russia to participate in EU-Ukraine trade agreement talks. The EU continues to include Russia in efforts toward peace in Ukraine, despite the continued violence of pro-Russian fighters in Ukraine, who, according to the Ukrainian government, the US government, NATO, the EU and others, are aided by Russia–allegations which, although supported by proof, Russia continues to deny.

EU president Herman Van Rompuy made strong statements Saturday on Russia’s involvement in Ukraine. On Saturday, Van Rompuy said, “There is … no doubt that the armed fighters that are terrorizing and disrupting the lives of citizens in Ukraine, are enjoying external support, including arms supply and reinforcement through foreign fighters.”

“As a neighboring state, Russia bears a primary responsibility in ensuring that any such traffic and external support through its borders is immediately stopped,” Van Rompuy further commented.

The US State Department recently confirmed reports that Russian tanks had entered Ukraine, saying, “We assess that separatists in eastern Ukraine have acquired heavy weapons and military equipment from Russia, including Russian tanks and multiple rocket launchers… Russia will claim these tanks were taken from Ukrainian forces, but no Ukrainian tank units have been operating in that area. We are confident that these tanks came from Russia.”

Russia Has Sent Tanks Into Ukraine, Says US State Department

NATO supplied evidence about the veracity of the claims of Russian tanks entering Ukraine over the border. “The tanks do not bear markings or camouflage paint like those used by the Ukrainian military. In fact, they do not have markings at all, which is reminiscent of tactics used by Russian elements that were involved in destabilizing Crimea.

“These images raise significant questions concerning Russia’s role in facilitating instability in eastern Ukraine and its involvement in the movement of military equipment from Russian territory into Ukraine. If these latest reports are confirmed, this would mark a grave escalation of the crisis in eastern Ukraine in violation of Russia’s Geneva commitments”.

Last Friday, however, the president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, restated its willingness to include Russia. “[C]oming back to the agreements with Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia that we are going to sign in Brussels in June 27,” said Barroso, “I want to reiterate our willingness, as European Union, to pursue talks with Russia, to discuss the concrete implementation of these agreements, in case there are any concerns on the Russian side. Of course we have to respect the content of these agreements, what was already decided by the governments of these countries, but if there are some concerns, if there are technical issues that the Russian authorities want to clarify, we are ready for it.”

“So our message, as European Union, is a message of dialogue and cooperation, not a message of confrontation. At the same time we have to be firm in the respect of the sovereign right of any country to decide its own future.”

The EU leader reiterated “an appeal to Russia to engage constructively with Ukraine and to give concrete steps and clear evidence of de-escalating efforts.”

Meanwhile, the fighting in Eastern Ukraine continues. A second Ukrainian troop carrier plane was shot down at an airport near Luhansk airport Friday. The Il-76 transport plane was shot down with a MANPADs and was carrying 40 paratroopers and 9 crew.

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Reuters

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UNESCO’s The Division of Ethics, Youth and Sport has issued a call for Ethics teachers. The teachers will attend an Ethics Teacher Training Course (ETTC) in Amman, Jordan, between October 19 and 23 of this year.

The course is a part of a collaborative effort between UNESCO, the Jordanian National Committee on Ethics of Science and Technology (NCEST), Hashemite University, and the Jordanian National Commission for UNESCO to improve the teaching of ethics worldwide.

The course will be taught by a team of international experts in ethics teaching.

UNESCO has specified that applicants should submit a registration form to their Bioethics Section secretariat with a letter of intent. The registration deadline is July 1. Participants must cover their own travel meals and accommodation expenses.

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Global education aid has fallen significantly. It fell six percent between 2010 and 2011, and another 3 percent in 2012. The drop has brought funding levels back to par with 2008 funding. The figures were released recently by UNESCO’s Education For All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report. This is the first time aid funding for education has fallen since 2002.

The report was published in anticipation of UNESCO’s Global Partnership for Education’s Replenishment Pledging Conference, which will take place June 25-26 in Brussels. Donors are being faced with a request to raise $3.5 billion to educate the world’s poorest.

Over 50 million children and 70 million adolescents are currently not in school. The hardest hit by the funding cuts include the countries that need the funding most, such as sub-Saharan Africa–the home of more than half the world’s out-of-school children.

Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, said, “When so many girls and boys are still out of school and not learning, the continuing drop in funds for education is cause for serious concern. Increasing external support for education is an ethical and development imperative. We know the difference that well-targeted aid can make in helping countries to put quality education first.”

Education is not the only area of aid funding that has declined. Overall aid has decreased by a percent globally, which has caused UNESCO to state that education is not a priority development goal at present. Education aid accounts for two percent of humanitarian appeals–half the target amount set by the UN in 2013 and one of the smallest proportions of requests made for funding.

Two of the countries with the most out-of-school children, India and Pakistan, have the largest funding cuts to basic education.

The Global Partnership for Education, which will meet later this month, has the stated goal of ensuring “sufficient and sustainable financing for education in our partner countries and achieve GPE’s vision of all children in school and learning…” Two hundred and fifty children in the world today cannot read and write by grade four.

UNESCO

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As more inhabitable land is swallowed by rising water due to climate change, the United Nations University (UNU) and Nansen Initiave have published a report warning governments to integrate considerations of people and populations displaced by climate change into national policy, or face conflict and insecurity.

The report, “Integrating Human Mobility Issues within National Adaptation Plans,” was completed by the United Nations Univeristy Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) and the Nansen Initiative, a project that studies how internationally displaced people can be helped, and that was formed in 2012 by the Norwegian and Swiss governments.

The Pacific, Central America, the ‘Greater Horn of Africa’, and South-East Asia and South Asia in particular have already been affected by climate change, causing problems with migration.

People are migrating due to sea level rise, violent storms, droughts and other effects of climate change, according to the report. The migrations are massive and unplanned. Some are temporary, some are permanent. The report also said that the conflict and insecurity that will result from sudden movements of populations due to lack of land should be planned for and accommodated.

The first large migrations have been due to both environmental and economic factors associated with the beginnings of climate change. An example from the report is of the Kiribati islanders, who, threatened with immanent displacement by the submersion of their island, have partially migrated to countries such as Australia, where they were trained in fields such as nursing and other skills useful in foreign lands. The wages from the employment, sent back to Kiribati, help other islanders to stay for the time being.

Other migrations considered in the report include the migration from North Africa across the Mediterranean to Europe to seek a new life. In 2009 in Kuna, Panama, 65,000 people were relocated from low-lying regions due to irregular rainfall and draught. In Africa’s Greater Horn area, significant migrations have resulted from droughts and floods, including migrations of hundreds of thousands from Somalia into Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti in 2010-2011.

The report also studied the national adoption programmes (NAP) of 50 countries affected by climate change, which fear upcoming migrations, such as low-lying Bangladesh, dry African nations, and Pacific and Caribean islands.

Specifically, displaced families will need the basics: land, housing, financial services, health, education, jobs, water and sanitation.

The conclusion of the report is that many things are needed to meet the upcoming challenges. The migrating populations will need to be provided land, homes and jobs to support their families, as well as other of the basics: financial services, health, education, water and sanitation. NAPs should aim at integrating newcomers into existing communities and political structures, and the particular needs of the vulnerable, the elderly, children and women should be considered, the report said. At the same time, efforts should be made to preserve the cultural and spiritual identieies of the migrants.

The UNU-Nansen Initiative’s first project was to develop various plans to meet the needs of different types of displaced human mobility. The secong project was applying their understanding to meaningful planning and operations. “. Hence,” the report reads, “this document explores how NAPs can address human mobility and help strengthen theadaptive capacity of countries. This will allow for better and more informed responses and policies around adaptation and human mobility”

“Integrating Human Mobility Issues within National Adaptation Plans”

UNU-EHS

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Russia took over the chairmanship of the UN Security Council (UNSC) June 1, and Ugandan Minister of Foreign Affairs Sam Kutesa took over the Presidency of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) June 11. One of these nations is currently at the top of world headlines for aggression in Ukraine, and both have recently made headlines for passing strict anti-gay legislation–in contravention of and threatening the guarantees of the UN Charter of Rights and Freedoms, according to top UN representatives.

When Russia passed anti-gay laws before the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, the UN took several measures to condemn the laws. “The United Nations stands strongly behind our own ‘free and equal’ campaign,” said UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon in condemning Russia’s legislation. “Hatred of any kind must have no place in the 21st century.”

“As I have been repeatedly and consistently stating in the spirit and framework of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” Ki-Moon continued, “that everybody is born free and equal and everybody has a right to be equal, regardless of age, and sex, and sexual orientation, and gender identity. This is a fundamental principle of human rights.”

When Uganda signed into law its strict Anti-Homosexuality Act in February–for which some Ugandan legislators were proposing the death penalty, although the proposal was dropped in favor of life in prison–the UN spoke out against the legislation, saying it violates basic human rights and endangers homosexuals and others.

“This law will institutionalize discrimination and is likely to encourage harassment and violence against individuals on the basis of their sexual orientation,” stated UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay. “It is formulated so broadly that it may lead to abuse of power and accusations against anyone, not just LGBT people.”

Pillay and Ki-Moon voiced deep human rights concerns. “This law violates a host of fundamental human rights,” continued Pillay, “including the right to freedom from discrimination, to privacy, freedom of association, peaceful assembly, opinion and expression and equality before the law – all of which are enshrined in Uganda’s own Constitution and in the international treaties it has ratified.”

The June agenda for the UNSC will include a meeting in Afghanistan and meetings on African issues–particularly on Mali, Cote d’Ivoire, the Sahara-Sahel, Sudan and South Sudan.

The Middle East is also on the agenda for the UNSC, particularly Yemen, Libya and Syria. Other matters upcoming include armed drones and new peacekeeping missions where force may be mandated.

No talks on Ukraine have been scheduled. Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said, however, that Russia was “ready for any surprises here,” noting that every UNSC member can call a meeting on any situation which poses an internatioal threat to peace and security.

Russia is one of the five permanent members of the UNSC, along with the US, China, Great Britain and France. There are 10 non-permanent members.

The UNSC makes decisions for the UN regarding peace and international security, and all UN members are supposed to heed UNSC decisions, in accordance with the UN Charter.

Russia will hand over the chairmanship of the UNSC to Rwanda on July 1.

Uganda to Lead United Nations General Assembly

The UNGA is composed of 193 member nations. The UNGA is the organ of the UN wherein all members have equal representation. The UNGA oversees the UN budget, receives UN reports and makes recommendations, and appoints non-permanent members to the UNSC.

The Presidency of the UNGA is a rotating one-year position, and is a largely ceremonial post.

The election of Ugandan Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Kutesa to the Presidency has drawn some criticism. Kutesa has a history of corruption and has been censured for corruption by the Ugandan Parliament. The government to which Kutesa belongs is also a cause for the criticism. The Ugandan government, headed for 28 years by Yoweri Museveni, has been accused and found guilty of international war crimes by international courts.

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Uganda’s Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Kutesa is set to become President of the UN’s General Assembly on June 11. The election of Kutesa has caused some criticism because the Ugandan government–for which Kutesa forms foreign policy–has been under the 28-year rule of President Yoweri Museveni, and has been accused and found guilty by international courts of international and humanitarian crimes.

Kutesa himself has been accused by the UN, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International of crimes. Kutesa was indicted for corruption several times, and was censured by the Ugandan Parliament in 1999 for corruption–in the form of diverting millions of dollars away from Ugandan Airlines into a private company.

The government for which Kutesa serves has been accused and found guilty of war crimes. The Ugandan government has been accused of wars of aggression against neighbor countries, ethnic cleansing and plunder of resources. These international and humanitarian crimes were committed by the Ugandan government against the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), for example, accoding to a ruling by the International Court of Justice. The World Court ruling, which was handed down in 2005. In 2006, the International Criminal Court also also launched a criminal investigation of the Ugandan government’s actions in the DRC. Uganda has been accused of similar crimes in Rwanda and South Sudan. The leadership of the government–and the man Kutesa answers to– is President Yoweri Museveni.

Museveni took office in 1986, when he restricted the activities of other political parties. Political parties were allowed by Museveni to exist, but were not allowed to campaign in elections or field candidates directly. The ban on political pluralism was ended by a constitutional referendum in 2005. Museveni won the vote in 2006, but the Ugandan Supreme Court ruled that the election was marred by intimidation, voter disenfranchisement, violence and other irregularities, but voted 4-3 in favor of upholding the results of the election. Museveni was again elected in 2011 with 68 percent of a 59 percent turnout. The 2011 election was called “illegitimate” by the opposition parties and the EU election observer team said the vote was “marred by avoidable and logistical failures, which led to an unacceptable number of Ugandan citizens being disenfranchised.” After the 2011 election, opposition leader Kizza Besigye was arrested on charges of attacking authorities, although the event was reported as Besigy’s car being attacked during “Walk to Work” protests, in which several people died and hundreds were wounded, prompting the UN to urge the Ugandan authorities to sop using “excessive force” against peaceful protesters. The next election is set for 2016.

Recently–in 2013–Human Rights Watch accused the Ugandan government of oppressing press freedom, saying, “Between January and June, a media watchdog organization registered 50 attacks on journalists, despite multiple pledges to respect media freedom.” During this time, two large publications were shut down and seized by the government in response to a leaked letter that mentioned a plot to assassinate opposition leaders of Museveni, as well as Museveni’s plans to hand over power to his son upon retirement.

The anti-homosexuality law was signed by Museveni earlier this year, claiming homosexuality was “disgusting” and was a learned trait. Attacks against LGBT have increased 10 times since the law was signed, as reported by the Guardian.

The punishments for homosexuality in Uganda include maximum sentences of life imprisonment for homosexuals and seven years for assisting homosexuals remain undetected.

The election of Kutesa has been objected to by at least two US Senators–Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand– who cited Uganda’s homosexuality laws, and Ugandan newspaper publisher Milton Allimadi–who lives in New York City–filed a petition to US Secretary of State John Kerry, who weeks ago publicly denounced Uganda’a Anti-Homosexuality Act, and UN members, saying that “Mr. Kutesa could become the President of the UN General Assembly in a few weeks unless the international community stops this travesty. This would be a mockery of all the ideals that the UN is supposed to stand for.” Allimadi called on Kerry to deny a visa to Kutesa, citing similar actions taken against Iran’s UN representative designate Hamid Aboutalebi. Allimadi also said that the election “would seriously undermine the United Nations and expose it to more ridicule and humiliation.”

The post of UNGA President is a rotating one-year position, and this year Africa is to provide the official. The UNGA President presides over the General Assembly and other meetings.

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Ban Ki-moon, secretary general of the UN, announced Tuesday that rebel SPLM/A leader Dr. Riek Machar has agreed to face-to-face talks with South Sudanese President Salva Kiir. Ki-moon spoke with Machar via satellite telephone shortly after his arrival in South Sudan. Last Friday, Kiir also agreed to attend the face-to-face meeting.

“He [Machar] said that he has been invited by Prime Minister of Ethiopia Hailemariam Desalegn in his capacity as a chair of IGAD to come to Addis Ababa and he responded positively that he will be in Addis Ababa for meeting in time,” the secretary general stated, “but he said he will try his best because he is now in a very remote area.”

Ki-moon arrived in Juba, capital of South Sudan Tuesday, with plans to meet with President Salva Kiir in order to push for a ceasefire, as well as hold discussions with the leaders of South Sudanese civil society groups, especially women’s and religious groups. Ki-moon will also visit the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) protection compounds on his visit, where thousands of South Sudanese are currently seeking shelter, and where Ki-moon will meet with community leaders as well as UN staff and peacekeepers.

Monday US U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry threatened sanctions against South Sudan’s government if they should continue to evade peace talks.

Sources:

Eye Radio

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