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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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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The DC Appeals Court sided with Facebook and founder Mark Zuckerberg Friday in a case over several pages on Facebook, such as “Third Palestinian Intifada,” which called for Muslims to rise up and kill Jews. The ruling was based on the protections given to all Americans using the internet under a section of a 1996 law.

Three years ago, Klayman saw the Facebook page “Third Palestinian Intifada,” of which there were 360,000 members, as well as three similar, smaller pages, and complained to Facebook because the pages called for Muslims to rise up and kill Jews. After receiving a letter from Israel’s Minister for Public Diplomacy as well as from Klayman, Facebook removed the pages, but not fast enough, according to Klayman, who filed suit against Facebook and Zuckerberg. Klayman alleged that the delay of “many days” constituted intentional assulat and negligence.

Mark Zuckerberg

The district court which heard the suit found for Facebook and Zuckerberg on the basis of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) (1996), Section 230. Klayman appealed the decision, and Friday the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit upheld the decision of the district court.

“In enacting the Communications Decency Act,” wrote the court in its decision, “Congress found that the Internet and related computer services ‘represent an extraordinary advance in the availability of educational and informational resources,’ and ‘offer a forum for a true diversity of political discourse, unique opportunities for cultural development, and myriad avenues for

intellectual activity.”

The court concluded that Facebook and Zuckerberg–internet providers under Section 230–could not be held responsible for any content on their site(s), no matter how egregious it may seem to another user. “Facebook is not responsible for the actions, content, information, or data of third parties,” the court found.

“Congress accordingly made it the ‘policy of the United States’ to ‘promote the continued development of the Internet,’” the court continued, “and ‘to preserve the vibrant and competitive free market that presently exists for the Internet and other interactive computer services, unfettered by Federal or State regulation[.]‘”

The Communications Decency Act (CDA) was passed in 1996. It was in part an effort by the US Congress to regulate internet pornography, but in 1997 the US Supreme Court unanimously struck the “community standards” provision of the CDA in Reno v. ACLU because the provisions violated the First Amendment guarantee to freedom of speech.

Another part of the CDA, however, has been strengthened by court decisions over the years. Section 230 protects operators of internet services–such as Facebook–from being construed as publishers. Section 230 protects social media sites, ISPs and users by making them not liable for words posted on their sites by other people (except  regarding federal criminal liability and intellectual property). The section reads, “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.” Providers are even protected if they fail to take action after receiving notifications that harmful or offensive content exists on their sites.

Section 230 is considered a main protection of free speech online. Last year, after 47 state attorneys general signed a letter to Congress requesting the civil immunity in Section 230 be removed, the ACLU wrote, “Section 230 is directly responsible for the free, messy, uncensored, and often brilliant culture of online speech. By prohibiting most state civil or criminal liability for something somebody else writes or posts, it created the single most important legal protection that exists for websites, bloggers, and other internet users… If Section 230 is stripped of its protections, it wouldn’t take long for the vibrant culture of free speech to disappear from the web.”

CADC

ACLU

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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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In the war-ravaged though officially at peace Democratic Republic of Congo, 12 percent of the population has been raped. Nearly 50 women and girls are raped every hour.

“It’s true that we raped here. We found women because they can’t escape. You see her, you catch her, you take her away and you have your way with her,” one Congolese soldier told a reporter after a leave was ordered to “go and rape.” “Sometimes you kill her. When you finish raping then you kill her child. When we rape, we feel free.”

Soldiers of Congolese bands are frequently given leave by their commanders to “go and rape women.”

“How do you see someone who is hitting you in the eyes? How will you know someone who is inserting a gun barrel in your mouth?” one Congolese woman described the event of being raped by three soldiers. The woman had been raped before the incident with the soldiers, however, by a schoolteacher. The militia raped her two daughters as well, and afterward killed her husband.

Shamed, she was ostracized from her family and sought shelter with an aid organization. She has been raped three times since then.

1,152 women are raped every day–48 per hour–in the DRC, according to the American Journal of Public Health.

“Every day, they take the women and rape . You see a three-year-old child who has been raped. Why would they do that?” said film-maker Fiona Lloyd-Davies, whose documentary “Seeds of Hope” premiered at the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict Tuesday.

“[T]here is very little about sex there, it’s mostly about an experience of horror and power,” commented Rob Williams, the chief executive of War Child UK, a charity working to reduce rape in the Congo, on the issue.

Lloyd Davis said of Congolese rape victims, “I do think that women and girls expect to be raped, there is a sort of tired acceptance. More so in rural areas, where you need to walk far to get water, tend to your crops, or go to the forest and dig for cassava. The perpetrators could be militiamen from different groups, but it could also be soldiers from the Congolese army. It has become part of society, which is terrifying for women and girls.

The soldiers who commit these crimes are not always, but often, young men kidnapped and forced into the militia life from a young age. “They’re numb, they have been skewed, they have a different sense of what is normal. But this doesn’t mean they’re not aware of what they’re doing,” said Lloyd-Davies. Some soldiers express remorse, such as a man in “Seeds of Hope” who also said he would not admit his crimes unless his superiors were prosecuted. “They are the ones who sent us,” he said. “If those who committed these crimes can be arrested and judged, then that would be good.”

“Up until now, there have been very few trials, and the trials that we have seen have not been very effective,” Lloyd-Davies commented recently on the question of justice and accountability in the Congolese conflict.

She cited Bosko Ntaganda, an indicted war criminal, who had been sought by the International Criminal Court since 2006 for war crimes and crimes against humanity. In 2011 Ntaganda was in charge of 50,000 Congolese army troops and was working for the government.

Not only lack of accountability for perpetrators of rape, but shame of victims of rape also contributes to its perpetuation.

“There is a huge stigma attached to it,” said Lloyd-Davies. “Husbands and families often reject them. If they become pregnant, young women have told me that their family makes them choose between coming back to them and keeping the baby. Mostly the women seem to choose to stay with the baby, even though they often have difficult relationships with them, especially if they are boys.”

Ted Talks

DW

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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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Stay-at-home dads have increased so sharply in recent years that the number of fathers who do not work outside the home has doubled since 1989, according to a Pew Research findings based on US Census Bureau data.

Although high unemployment during the 2007-2009 Great Recession also contributed to the trend, Pew found that fathers were choosing to care for family at home in 21 percent of the 2 million cases of fathers who did not work in 2012. In 1989, the number was 5 percent.

Dads also accounted for 16 percent of all stay-at-home parents in 2012, up six percent since 1989. Of these stay-at-home dads, 23 reported that they could not find a job. For mothers, 73 percent reported that they were home in order to care for their family.

The trend is at odds with cultural values. Pew found that only 8 percent of survey respondents thought that children were better off if their father did not work, but 51 percent said children are better off if their mother did not work.

Pew’s research included analysis of US census data from a nationally representative sample from 1989 through to 2012. It included all stay-at-home dads with kids ages 17 and younger. Stay-at-home dads were defined as men who did not have jobs during the prior year.

US Census Bureau

Minnesota Population Center

Pew Social Trends

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Telangana State, India–where approximately 5000 Indians have self immolated for the cause of an independent state–has unanimously elected its first Speaker of the Telangana Assembly Tuesday, unopposed, one week after the creation of India’s 29th state.

Protests both for and against the formation of a separate Telangana state have often been fierce over the years. Approximately 5000 Indians have self immolated for the cause. The first wave of large numbers of self immolations took place in 1990 protesting the Reservation in India–a system whereby the government sets aside a percentage of seats for “backward” and underrepresented communities, which discouraged the merit-based system and encouraged vote bank politics while diminishing social gaps.

Then, in 2000 an estimated 1,451 self immolations were recorded protesting the Reservation, followed in 2001 by 1,584 self immolations.

In 2012 another large wave of self immolations took place by protesters demanding Telangana statehood. Groups advocating the movement claimed at least 800 Indians immolated themselves between 2010 and 2013. Most of the self immolators were reported to be students.

The elected speaker of the assembly is Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) MLA, S. Madhusudanachari. Madhusudanachari was a member of the TRS since its 2001 foundation and is a trusted lieutenant of TRS chief, K. Chandrasekhar Rao. He had previously been an MLA of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) between 1994 and 1999. He worked in TDP from 1982 to 1995 and subsequently sailed with NTR-TDP (Lakshmi Parvati) after change of guard in the party

The conflict over Telangana statehood dates back to the Independence of India in 1947. The Indian government annexed Hyderabad into the Indian Union against the will of the Hyderabad monarch. Telugu-speaking areas were carved out of Madras and Andhra State was created in 1953. Beginning in 1946, though, a violent peasant revolt led by the Indian Communist Party (CPI) began, called the Telangana Rebellion. In 1951 the movement began to seek a more peaceful, moderate strategy, seeking ultimately to invalidate the conjoinment of Telangana and Andhra.

In 2009, the Indian government began the process of the formation of Telangana state, sparking violent opposition which caused the government to put its plans on hold. Protests were impassioned on both sides, and included the hundreds of self immolation protests demanding separate statehood.

The resolution to form a separate Telangana state was passed in July 2013 by a unanimous Congress, and the state was officially formed June 2.

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