Malawi
Head of state and government Bingu wa Mutharika
Death penalty abolitionist in practice
Population 15.7 million
Life expectancy 54.6 years
Under-5 mortality (m/f) 125/117 per 1,000
Adult literacy 72.8 per cent Background
Prison conditions
Rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people
Freedom of expression – journalists
Trial of former opposition politician
Amnesty International Reports
Amnesty International Visits
A same-sex couple were sentenced to 14 years’ imprisonment and then pardoned. Prisons were overcrowded and lacked adequate facilities.
Background
Malawi’s human rights record was assessed under the UN Universal Periodic Review, during which officials stated that an independent police complaints commission had been established to investigate police brutality.
Up to 1.1 million Malawians were in need of food aid despite five consecutive years of maize production surpluses.
Top of page
Prison conditions
Prisons were overcrowded: the prison system, with a capacity of 6,000, was holding around 13,000 prisoners. Prison congestion was exacerbated by prolonged pre-trial detention, with pre-trial detainees forming up to 20 per cent of the prison population. Overcrowding, poor nutrition, poor sanitation and inadequate health facilities contributed to the spread of infections including tuberculosis and measles. Many prisoners relied on families and charities for supplementary food.
In Chichiri prison in June, prisoners were locked in overcrowded communal cells with poor ventilation and had to sleep sitting up. Up to 200 prisoners shared one toilet. One inmate, Alex Mkula, had been held for nine years without trial: he was later released on bail. The female section of Chichiri prison was similarly congested. Eight of the 55 female prisoners were mothers with babies.
In its Universal Periodic Review, Malawi stated it had ended mandatory pre-trial detention to prevent prison overcrowding.
Top of page
Rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people
On 18 May, two prisoners of conscience, Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, were convicted on charges of “gross indecency” and “unnatural acts” after holding a same-sex engagement party in December 2009. Both were sentenced to 14 years with hard labour. On 29 May they were pardoned by President Mutharika, following a visit to Malawi by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. However, Tiwonge Chimbalanga went into hiding in fear of hate attacks.
In its Universal Periodic Review, Malawi stated that it had no plans to legalize homosexuality.
Top of page
Freedom of expression – journalists
In February the Journalists Union of Malawi expressed concern about a government directive advising officials that they should not advertise in newspapers published by Nation Publications Limited, including The Nation, Weekend Nation and Nation on Sunday, after they had published articles considered critical of the government.
Top of page
Trial of former opposition politician
The long-running trial of Malawi’s former President Bakili Muluzi continued at the High Court in Blantyre but was delayed by his health problems. He was arrested in 2005 on corruption charges, but alleged the charges were politically motivated.
SPECIFICALLY:
A same-sex couple were sentenced to 14 years’ imprisonment and then pardoned. Prisons were overcrowded and lacked adequate facilities.
Background
Malawi’s human rights record was assessed under the UN Universal Periodic Review, during which officials stated that an independent police complaints commission had been established to investigate police brutality.
Up to 1.1 million Malawians were in need of food aid despite five consecutive years of maize production surpluses.
Top of page
Prison conditions
Prisons were overcrowded: the prison system, with a capacity of 6,000, was holding around 13,000 prisoners. Prison congestion was exacerbated by prolonged pre-trial detention, with pre-trial detainees forming up to 20 per cent of the prison population. Overcrowding, poor nutrition, poor sanitation and inadequate health facilities contributed to the spread of infections including tuberculosis and measles. Many prisoners relied on families and charities for supplementary food.
In Chichiri prison in June, prisoners were locked in overcrowded communal cells with poor ventilation and had to sleep sitting up. Up to 200 prisoners shared one toilet. One inmate, Alex Mkula, had been held for nine years without trial: he was later released on bail. The female section of Chichiri prison was similarly congested. Eight of the 55 female prisoners were mothers with babies.
In its Universal Periodic Review, Malawi stated it had ended mandatory pre-trial detention to prevent prison overcrowding.
Top of page
Rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people
On 18 May, two prisoners of conscience, Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, were convicted on charges of “gross indecency” and “unnatural acts” after holding a same-sex engagement party in December 2009. Both were sentenced to 14 years with hard labour. On 29 May they were pardoned by President Mutharika, following a visit to Malawi by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. However, Tiwonge Chimbalanga went into hiding in fear of hate attacks.
In its Universal Periodic Review, Malawi stated that it had no plans to legalize homosexuality.
Top of page
Freedom of expression – journalists
In February the Journalists Union of Malawi expressed concern about a government directive advising officials that they should not advertise in newspapers published by Nation Publications Limited, including The Nation, Weekend Nation and Nation on Sunday, after they had published articles considered critical of the government.
Top of page
Trial of former opposition politician
The long-running trial of Malawi’s former President Bakili Muluzi continued at the High Court in Blantyre but was delayed by his health problems. He was arrested in 2005 on corruption charges, but alleged the charges were politically motivated.
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Tuesday, May 24, 2011
What was your country’s record on human rights?: Amnesty International's Annual Report Out
Our annual report is out and you can see that many countries have done poorly in protecting their citizens’ human rights.
How did your own country do?
You can find out by reviewing Amnesty International’s 2011 Annual Report.
A few key findings of the report show that:
89 countries placed specific restrictions on free speech
48 countries imprisoned people for their beliefs; what we call ‘prisoners of conscience’
98 countries tortured and ill-treated their citizens and at least
54 countries put people through unfair trials.
Salil Shetty, Amnesty International Secretary General at the Press launch of the AIR 2011in London, UK @ AI
Amnesty International has been fighting for the protection of human rights around the world for the last five decades.
“Fifty years years since the Amnesty candle began to shine a light on repression, the human rights revolution now stands on the threshold of historic change,” says Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International.
We will mark our 50th anniversary this year by urging you to help us grow our global movement to protect human rights in your country and around the world.
Stay tuned for another year of fighting for rights!
In solidarity,
Online Communities team
Alaphia, Buddha, El-Mutamid, Franziska and Shehzaad
Find us on Twitter and Facebook at the Activism Centre.
Amnesty International
International Secretariat
1 Easton Street
London, WC1X 0DW
United Kingdom
www.amnesty.org
Bulletin of the Oppression of Women and Children: Asian women were subjected to virginity tests at UK's Heathrow Airport
April 7, 2011 - May 18, 2011
April 7, 2011
UK (hat tip to IslaminEurope)
At least 60 schoolgirls were groomed for sex by workers at seedy takeaways that were linked to the murder of a 14-year-old girl. Children as young as 11 were targeted by mainly Asian staff at fast food outlets in Blackpool. They were offered food, alcohol and cigarettes in return for sexual favours.
An unpublicised police report produced after 14-year-old Charlene Downes vanished in 2003 found the girls, most if not all white, had been victims of the ‘honey pot’ premises. There were claims last night that the report was suppressed for reasons of political correctness.
Norway (hat tip to IslaminEurope)
There is a new web site in memory of Norweigan honor killing victims.
Malaysia (hat tip to JihadWatch)
Malaysian men have extramarital sex because of “wives who neglect their responsibilities” to their husbands, a Malaysian lawmaker told Parliament on Thursday, outraging women’s groups. “In Islam, wives are supposed to stop everything to fulfill their husband’s demands.”
April 10, 2011
Indonesia
A woman is caned in front of a baying mob for having an affair. Irdayanti Mukhtar, 34, received nine lashes by Sharia Police for having a relationship with another man, even though she is said to be in the process of divorcing her husband. The harsh punishment was meted out in front of a crowd of 200 people outside the Al Munawwarah Mosque in Jantho, Indonesia.
April 14, 2011
Pakistan
In Pakistan forced conversions to Islam, rapes and forced marriages are on the rise.
April 16, 2011
Turkey
A drastic rise in reported "honor" killings and fatal domestic violence in Turkey has sparked a vigorous debate about the government's recent attempts to address the problem.
US
Iraqi-American Faleh Almaleki was sentenced to 34½ years in prison in Phoenix, Arizona for having "honor murdered" his 20-year-old daughter Noor and for having attempted to murder Amal Khalaf, the woman who was trying to protect her. In October of 2009, he followed the daughter, whom he had tormented all her life, to a shopping mall, lurked outside, then boldly ran over her precious, lovely body with a two-ton Cherokee jeep. He also tried to run Amal Khalaf down and managed to injure her seriously. Then he fled. Faleh flew to England via Mexico, but was arrested at Heathrow Airport and sent back for trial.
Afghanistan
An Afghan girl claims she was raped. 10-year old Nazanin, claimed that one year back her two step uncles raped her, and her paternal grandparents tortured, beat and poured hot oil on her.
April 20, 2011
Bangladesh
Pro-Taliban Islamist clergy in Bangladesh, Mufti Fazlul Haque Amini has threatened to wage jihad in the country if the government will pass any law banning child marriage. He said, two hundred thousand Jihadists of his group are ready to 'sacrifice' lives if any such law, which goes against "Koran and Sunnah" will be passed by the current government in the country.
Mufti Amini said, "Banning child marriage will cause challenging the marriage of the holy prophet of Islam, who also married minor Ayesha, when she was just eight years old". He said, "The new law initiated by the current government will put the moral character of the prophet into controversy and challenge."
Amini further said, "Islam permits child marriage and it will not be tolerated if any ruler will ever try to touch this issue in the name of giving more rights to women."
April 25, 2011
Libya
Children as young as eight are being raped in front of their families by Gaddafi's forces
April 26, 2011
Bangladesh
A judicial commission has concluded that over 200 Hindu women were raped following the 2001 parliamentary election, forcing many terrorized families to flee the country.
April 27, 2011
Somewhere in the Islamic World (Hat tip to barenakedislam)
A discussion with a Muslim about how to sexually enjoy your baby wife.
April 28, 2011
Turkey
A woman narrowly escaped death after she was allegedly stabbed five times with a screwdriver by her ex-husband in Istanbul after being denied official protection.
Tajikistan
A growing number of Muslim men in Tajikistan are using a simple, three-worded text message to divorce their wives.
April 29, 2011
Egypt
Coptic Christians demand the return of eleven girls who have 'disappeared'.
May 1, 2011
Afghanistan
A suicide bomber 'aged 12' kills four.
May 2, 2011
US
A Muslim stepfather is charged with the murder of his 20 year old stepdaughter. More HERE.
US (Hat tip to Frontpagemag)
An update on the reporter Lara Logan's assault in Egypt.
May 3, 2011
UK
An imam found guilty of raping 12 year old girl.
May 4, 2011
US
A man who was angry that his family would not go along with his conversion to Islam was sentenced to life in prison. He had killed five family members including his pregnant wife.
Denmark (hat tip to Newsrealblog)
Freedom of speech and women's rights to protect girls from rape took a major hit in Denmark earlier today when the public prosecutor found Lars Hedegaard, the President of the Danish (and International) Free Press Society, guilty of "hate speech about the prevalence of rape within Muslim familes." More HERE (hat tip to GatesofVienna).
Bangladesh
Eleven Muslim men are sentenced to life for gang rape.
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia keeps the female voting ban.
May 9, 2011
Saudi Arabia (Translation by and hat tip to Tundratabloids)
Little girs between five and 12 years old are sold to wealthy men in Saudi Arabia, where they are held as sex slaves. When they reach maturity, and many are thrown on the street and they end quickly as a prostitute.
Brussels
Domestic violence is 40-75% of married women in the EU.
Sweden
The parents of a man convicted of a so-called honour killing in 2005 have been arrested following a decision by the Supreme Court to review the case.
May 11, 2011
Saudi Arabia
Six girls in an orphanage were flogged with ten lashes each for an act of 'mischief'. There were no details of the ruling for the punishment but the Arabic-language newspaper Okaz said the girls had been convicted of ‘acts of mischief’ and attacking the director of the orphanage. The girls defended their actions, saying they were harassed by the director, Okaz reported.
International human rights groups have criticised the Saudi justice system for applying corporal punishment for petty crimes, as well as limb amputations for thieves and beheadings for murderers under its strict interpretation of Islamic law.
Nigeria
Islamic jihadis kill the wife and children of a Nigerian pastor.
Bahrain (hat tip to Salon)
Bahraini police have reportedly made routine raids on girls' schools, "detaining, beating and threatening to rape girls as young as 12." A video shows an interview with a 16-year-old school girl sharing her experience of a brutal police raid on her school:
May 12, 2011
Pakistan
A student nurse is forced to convert and marry a Muslim man.
May 13, 2011
UK
Muslims object to advertisements with women in swimsuits.
May 16, 2011
India
Two mothers are charged with murdering their daughters in honor killings.
UK
Muslim Women Reformers: an interview.
May 18, 2011
Afghanistan
The Taliban is recruiting suicide bombers as young as nine years old.
UK
Asian women were subjected to virginity tests at Heathrow.
April 7, 2011
UK (hat tip to IslaminEurope)
At least 60 schoolgirls were groomed for sex by workers at seedy takeaways that were linked to the murder of a 14-year-old girl. Children as young as 11 were targeted by mainly Asian staff at fast food outlets in Blackpool. They were offered food, alcohol and cigarettes in return for sexual favours.
An unpublicised police report produced after 14-year-old Charlene Downes vanished in 2003 found the girls, most if not all white, had been victims of the ‘honey pot’ premises. There were claims last night that the report was suppressed for reasons of political correctness.
Norway (hat tip to IslaminEurope)
There is a new web site in memory of Norweigan honor killing victims.
Malaysia (hat tip to JihadWatch)
Malaysian men have extramarital sex because of “wives who neglect their responsibilities” to their husbands, a Malaysian lawmaker told Parliament on Thursday, outraging women’s groups. “In Islam, wives are supposed to stop everything to fulfill their husband’s demands.”
April 10, 2011
Indonesia
A woman is caned in front of a baying mob for having an affair. Irdayanti Mukhtar, 34, received nine lashes by Sharia Police for having a relationship with another man, even though she is said to be in the process of divorcing her husband. The harsh punishment was meted out in front of a crowd of 200 people outside the Al Munawwarah Mosque in Jantho, Indonesia.
April 14, 2011
Pakistan
In Pakistan forced conversions to Islam, rapes and forced marriages are on the rise.
April 16, 2011
Turkey
A drastic rise in reported "honor" killings and fatal domestic violence in Turkey has sparked a vigorous debate about the government's recent attempts to address the problem.
US
Iraqi-American Faleh Almaleki was sentenced to 34½ years in prison in Phoenix, Arizona for having "honor murdered" his 20-year-old daughter Noor and for having attempted to murder Amal Khalaf, the woman who was trying to protect her. In October of 2009, he followed the daughter, whom he had tormented all her life, to a shopping mall, lurked outside, then boldly ran over her precious, lovely body with a two-ton Cherokee jeep. He also tried to run Amal Khalaf down and managed to injure her seriously. Then he fled. Faleh flew to England via Mexico, but was arrested at Heathrow Airport and sent back for trial.
Afghanistan
An Afghan girl claims she was raped. 10-year old Nazanin, claimed that one year back her two step uncles raped her, and her paternal grandparents tortured, beat and poured hot oil on her.
April 20, 2011
Bangladesh
Pro-Taliban Islamist clergy in Bangladesh, Mufti Fazlul Haque Amini has threatened to wage jihad in the country if the government will pass any law banning child marriage. He said, two hundred thousand Jihadists of his group are ready to 'sacrifice' lives if any such law, which goes against "Koran and Sunnah" will be passed by the current government in the country.
Mufti Amini said, "Banning child marriage will cause challenging the marriage of the holy prophet of Islam, who also married minor Ayesha, when she was just eight years old". He said, "The new law initiated by the current government will put the moral character of the prophet into controversy and challenge."
Amini further said, "Islam permits child marriage and it will not be tolerated if any ruler will ever try to touch this issue in the name of giving more rights to women."
April 25, 2011
Libya
Children as young as eight are being raped in front of their families by Gaddafi's forces
April 26, 2011
Bangladesh
A judicial commission has concluded that over 200 Hindu women were raped following the 2001 parliamentary election, forcing many terrorized families to flee the country.
April 27, 2011
Somewhere in the Islamic World (Hat tip to barenakedislam)
A discussion with a Muslim about how to sexually enjoy your baby wife.
April 28, 2011
Turkey
A woman narrowly escaped death after she was allegedly stabbed five times with a screwdriver by her ex-husband in Istanbul after being denied official protection.
Tajikistan
A growing number of Muslim men in Tajikistan are using a simple, three-worded text message to divorce their wives.
April 29, 2011
Egypt
Coptic Christians demand the return of eleven girls who have 'disappeared'.
May 1, 2011
Afghanistan
A suicide bomber 'aged 12' kills four.
May 2, 2011
US
A Muslim stepfather is charged with the murder of his 20 year old stepdaughter. More HERE.
US (Hat tip to Frontpagemag)
An update on the reporter Lara Logan's assault in Egypt.
May 3, 2011
UK
An imam found guilty of raping 12 year old girl.
May 4, 2011
US
A man who was angry that his family would not go along with his conversion to Islam was sentenced to life in prison. He had killed five family members including his pregnant wife.
Denmark (hat tip to Newsrealblog)
Freedom of speech and women's rights to protect girls from rape took a major hit in Denmark earlier today when the public prosecutor found Lars Hedegaard, the President of the Danish (and International) Free Press Society, guilty of "hate speech about the prevalence of rape within Muslim familes." More HERE (hat tip to GatesofVienna).
Bangladesh
Eleven Muslim men are sentenced to life for gang rape.
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia keeps the female voting ban.
May 9, 2011
Saudi Arabia (Translation by and hat tip to Tundratabloids)
Little girs between five and 12 years old are sold to wealthy men in Saudi Arabia, where they are held as sex slaves. When they reach maturity, and many are thrown on the street and they end quickly as a prostitute.
Brussels
Domestic violence is 40-75% of married women in the EU.
Sweden
The parents of a man convicted of a so-called honour killing in 2005 have been arrested following a decision by the Supreme Court to review the case.
May 11, 2011
Saudi Arabia
Six girls in an orphanage were flogged with ten lashes each for an act of 'mischief'. There were no details of the ruling for the punishment but the Arabic-language newspaper Okaz said the girls had been convicted of ‘acts of mischief’ and attacking the director of the orphanage. The girls defended their actions, saying they were harassed by the director, Okaz reported.
International human rights groups have criticised the Saudi justice system for applying corporal punishment for petty crimes, as well as limb amputations for thieves and beheadings for murderers under its strict interpretation of Islamic law.
Nigeria
Islamic jihadis kill the wife and children of a Nigerian pastor.
Bahrain (hat tip to Salon)
Bahraini police have reportedly made routine raids on girls' schools, "detaining, beating and threatening to rape girls as young as 12." A video shows an interview with a 16-year-old school girl sharing her experience of a brutal police raid on her school:
May 12, 2011
Pakistan
A student nurse is forced to convert and marry a Muslim man.
May 13, 2011
UK
Muslims object to advertisements with women in swimsuits.
May 16, 2011
India
Two mothers are charged with murdering their daughters in honor killings.
UK
Muslim Women Reformers: an interview.
May 18, 2011
Afghanistan
The Taliban is recruiting suicide bombers as young as nine years old.
UK
Asian women were subjected to virginity tests at Heathrow.
World Bulletin of the Oppression of Women and Children April 7 - May 18, 2011
April 7, 2011 - May 18, 2011
April 7, 2011
UK (hat tip to IslaminEurope)
At least 60 schoolgirls were groomed for sex by workers at seedy takeaways that were linked to the murder of a 14-year-old girl. Children as young as 11 were targeted by mainly Asian staff at fast food outlets in Blackpool. They were offered food, alcohol and cigarettes in return for sexual favours.
An unpublicised police report produced after 14-year-old Charlene Downes vanished in 2003 found the girls, most if not all white, had been victims of the ‘honey pot’ premises. There were claims last night that the report was suppressed for reasons of political correctness.
Norway (hat tip to IslaminEurope)
There is a new web site in memory of Norweigan honor killing victims.
Malaysia (hat tip to JihadWatch)
Malaysian men have extramarital sex because of “wives who neglect their responsibilities” to their husbands, a Malaysian lawmaker told Parliament on Thursday, outraging women’s groups. “In Islam, wives are supposed to stop everything to fulfill their husband’s demands.”
April 10, 2011
Indonesia
A woman is caned in front of a baying mob for having an affair. Irdayanti Mukhtar, 34, received nine lashes by Sharia Police for having a relationship with another man, even though she is said to be in the process of divorcing her husband. The harsh punishment was meted out in front of a crowd of 200 people outside the Al Munawwarah Mosque in Jantho, Indonesia.
April 14, 2011
Pakistan
In Pakistan forced conversions to Islam, rapes and forced marriages are on the rise.
April 16, 2011
Turkey
A drastic rise in reported "honor" killings and fatal domestic violence in Turkey has sparked a vigorous debate about the government's recent attempts to address the problem.
US
Iraqi-American Faleh Almaleki was sentenced to 34½ years in prison in Phoenix, Arizona for having "honor murdered" his 20-year-old daughter Noor and for having attempted to murder Amal Khalaf, the woman who was trying to protect her. In October of 2009, he followed the daughter, whom he had tormented all her life, to a shopping mall, lurked outside, then boldly ran over her precious, lovely body with a two-ton Cherokee jeep. He also tried to run Amal Khalaf down and managed to injure her seriously. Then he fled. Faleh flew to England via Mexico, but was arrested at Heathrow Airport and sent back for trial.
Afghanistan
An Afghan girl claims she was raped. 10-year old Nazanin, claimed that one year back her two step uncles raped her, and her paternal grandparents tortured, beat and poured hot oil on her.
April 20, 2011
Bangladesh
Pro-Taliban Islamist clergy in Bangladesh, Mufti Fazlul Haque Amini has threatened to wage jihad in the country if the government will pass any law banning child marriage. He said, two hundred thousand Jihadists of his group are ready to 'sacrifice' lives if any such law, which goes against "Koran and Sunnah" will be passed by the current government in the country.
Mufti Amini said, "Banning child marriage will cause challenging the marriage of the holy prophet of Islam, who also married minor Ayesha, when she was just eight years old". He said, "The new law initiated by the current government will put the moral character of the prophet into controversy and challenge."
Amini further said, "Islam permits child marriage and it will not be tolerated if any ruler will ever try to touch this issue in the name of giving more rights to women."
April 25, 2011
Libya
Children as young as eight are being raped in front of their families by Gaddafi's forces
April 26, 2011
Bangladesh
A judicial commission has concluded that over 200 Hindu women were raped following the 2001 parliamentary election, forcing many terrorized families to flee the country.
April 27, 2011
Somewhere in the Islamic World (Hat tip to barenakedislam)
A discussion with a Muslim about how to sexually enjoy your baby wife.
April 28, 2011
Turkey
A woman narrowly escaped death after she was allegedly stabbed five times with a screwdriver by her ex-husband in Istanbul after being denied official protection.
Tajikistan
A growing number of Muslim men in Tajikistan are using a simple, three-worded text message to divorce their wives.
April 29, 2011
Egypt
Coptic Christians demand the return of eleven girls who have 'disappeared'.
May 1, 2011
Afghanistan
A suicide bomber 'aged 12' kills four.
May 2, 2011
US
A Muslim stepfather is charged with the murder of his 20 year old stepdaughter. More HERE.
US (Hat tip to Frontpagemag)
An update on the reporter Lara Logan's assault in Egypt.
May 3, 2011
UK
An imam found guilty of raping 12 year old girl.
May 4, 2011
US
A man who was angry that his family would not go along with his conversion to Islam was sentenced to life in prison. He had killed five family members including his pregnant wife.
Denmark (hat tip to Newsrealblog)
Freedom of speech and women's rights to protect girls from rape took a major hit in Denmark earlier today when the public prosecutor found Lars Hedegaard, the President of the Danish (and International) Free Press Society, guilty of "hate speech about the prevalence of rape within Muslim familes." More HERE (hat tip to GatesofVienna).
Bangladesh
Eleven Muslim men are sentenced to life for gang rape.
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia keeps the female voting ban.
May 9, 2011
Saudi Arabia (Translation by and hat tip to Tundratabloids)
Little girs between five and 12 years old are sold to wealthy men in Saudi Arabia, where they are held as sex slaves. When they reach maturity, and many are thrown on the street and they end quickly as a prostitute.
Brussels
Domestic violence is 40-75% of married women in the EU.
Sweden
The parents of a man convicted of a so-called honour killing in 2005 have been arrested following a decision by the Supreme Court to review the case.
May 11, 2011
Saudi Arabia
Six girls in an orphanage were flogged with ten lashes each for an act of 'mischief'. There were no details of the ruling for the punishment but the Arabic-language newspaper Okaz said the girls had been convicted of ‘acts of mischief’ and attacking the director of the orphanage. The girls defended their actions, saying they were harassed by the director, Okaz reported.
International human rights groups have criticised the Saudi justice system for applying corporal punishment for petty crimes, as well as limb amputations for thieves and beheadings for murderers under its strict interpretation of Islamic law.
Nigeria
Islamic jihadis kill the wife and children of a Nigerian pastor.
Bahrain (hat tip to Salon)
Bahraini police have reportedly made routine raids on girls' schools, "detaining, beating and threatening to rape girls as young as 12." A video shows an interview with a 16-year-old school girl sharing her experience of a brutal police raid on her school:
May 12, 2011
Pakistan
A student nurse is forced to convert and marry a Muslim man.
May 13, 2011
UK
Muslims object to advertisements with women in swimsuits.
May 16, 2011
India
Two mothers are charged with murdering their daughters in honor killings.
UK
Muslim Women Reformers: an interview.
May 18, 2011
Afghanistan
The Taliban is recruiting suicide bombers as young as nine years old.
UK
Asian women were subjected to virginity tests at Heathrow Airport in the United Kingdom.
April 7, 2011
UK (hat tip to IslaminEurope)
At least 60 schoolgirls were groomed for sex by workers at seedy takeaways that were linked to the murder of a 14-year-old girl. Children as young as 11 were targeted by mainly Asian staff at fast food outlets in Blackpool. They were offered food, alcohol and cigarettes in return for sexual favours.
An unpublicised police report produced after 14-year-old Charlene Downes vanished in 2003 found the girls, most if not all white, had been victims of the ‘honey pot’ premises. There were claims last night that the report was suppressed for reasons of political correctness.
Norway (hat tip to IslaminEurope)
There is a new web site in memory of Norweigan honor killing victims.
Malaysia (hat tip to JihadWatch)
Malaysian men have extramarital sex because of “wives who neglect their responsibilities” to their husbands, a Malaysian lawmaker told Parliament on Thursday, outraging women’s groups. “In Islam, wives are supposed to stop everything to fulfill their husband’s demands.”
April 10, 2011
Indonesia
A woman is caned in front of a baying mob for having an affair. Irdayanti Mukhtar, 34, received nine lashes by Sharia Police for having a relationship with another man, even though she is said to be in the process of divorcing her husband. The harsh punishment was meted out in front of a crowd of 200 people outside the Al Munawwarah Mosque in Jantho, Indonesia.
April 14, 2011
Pakistan
In Pakistan forced conversions to Islam, rapes and forced marriages are on the rise.
April 16, 2011
Turkey
A drastic rise in reported "honor" killings and fatal domestic violence in Turkey has sparked a vigorous debate about the government's recent attempts to address the problem.
US
Iraqi-American Faleh Almaleki was sentenced to 34½ years in prison in Phoenix, Arizona for having "honor murdered" his 20-year-old daughter Noor and for having attempted to murder Amal Khalaf, the woman who was trying to protect her. In October of 2009, he followed the daughter, whom he had tormented all her life, to a shopping mall, lurked outside, then boldly ran over her precious, lovely body with a two-ton Cherokee jeep. He also tried to run Amal Khalaf down and managed to injure her seriously. Then he fled. Faleh flew to England via Mexico, but was arrested at Heathrow Airport and sent back for trial.
Afghanistan
An Afghan girl claims she was raped. 10-year old Nazanin, claimed that one year back her two step uncles raped her, and her paternal grandparents tortured, beat and poured hot oil on her.
April 20, 2011
Bangladesh
Pro-Taliban Islamist clergy in Bangladesh, Mufti Fazlul Haque Amini has threatened to wage jihad in the country if the government will pass any law banning child marriage. He said, two hundred thousand Jihadists of his group are ready to 'sacrifice' lives if any such law, which goes against "Koran and Sunnah" will be passed by the current government in the country.
Mufti Amini said, "Banning child marriage will cause challenging the marriage of the holy prophet of Islam, who also married minor Ayesha, when she was just eight years old". He said, "The new law initiated by the current government will put the moral character of the prophet into controversy and challenge."
Amini further said, "Islam permits child marriage and it will not be tolerated if any ruler will ever try to touch this issue in the name of giving more rights to women."
April 25, 2011
Libya
Children as young as eight are being raped in front of their families by Gaddafi's forces
April 26, 2011
Bangladesh
A judicial commission has concluded that over 200 Hindu women were raped following the 2001 parliamentary election, forcing many terrorized families to flee the country.
April 27, 2011
Somewhere in the Islamic World (Hat tip to barenakedislam)
A discussion with a Muslim about how to sexually enjoy your baby wife.
April 28, 2011
Turkey
A woman narrowly escaped death after she was allegedly stabbed five times with a screwdriver by her ex-husband in Istanbul after being denied official protection.
Tajikistan
A growing number of Muslim men in Tajikistan are using a simple, three-worded text message to divorce their wives.
April 29, 2011
Egypt
Coptic Christians demand the return of eleven girls who have 'disappeared'.
May 1, 2011
Afghanistan
A suicide bomber 'aged 12' kills four.
May 2, 2011
US
A Muslim stepfather is charged with the murder of his 20 year old stepdaughter. More HERE.
US (Hat tip to Frontpagemag)
An update on the reporter Lara Logan's assault in Egypt.
May 3, 2011
UK
An imam found guilty of raping 12 year old girl.
May 4, 2011
US
A man who was angry that his family would not go along with his conversion to Islam was sentenced to life in prison. He had killed five family members including his pregnant wife.
Denmark (hat tip to Newsrealblog)
Freedom of speech and women's rights to protect girls from rape took a major hit in Denmark earlier today when the public prosecutor found Lars Hedegaard, the President of the Danish (and International) Free Press Society, guilty of "hate speech about the prevalence of rape within Muslim familes." More HERE (hat tip to GatesofVienna).
Bangladesh
Eleven Muslim men are sentenced to life for gang rape.
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia keeps the female voting ban.
May 9, 2011
Saudi Arabia (Translation by and hat tip to Tundratabloids)
Little girs between five and 12 years old are sold to wealthy men in Saudi Arabia, where they are held as sex slaves. When they reach maturity, and many are thrown on the street and they end quickly as a prostitute.
Brussels
Domestic violence is 40-75% of married women in the EU.
Sweden
The parents of a man convicted of a so-called honour killing in 2005 have been arrested following a decision by the Supreme Court to review the case.
May 11, 2011
Saudi Arabia
Six girls in an orphanage were flogged with ten lashes each for an act of 'mischief'. There were no details of the ruling for the punishment but the Arabic-language newspaper Okaz said the girls had been convicted of ‘acts of mischief’ and attacking the director of the orphanage. The girls defended their actions, saying they were harassed by the director, Okaz reported.
International human rights groups have criticised the Saudi justice system for applying corporal punishment for petty crimes, as well as limb amputations for thieves and beheadings for murderers under its strict interpretation of Islamic law.
Nigeria
Islamic jihadis kill the wife and children of a Nigerian pastor.
Bahrain (hat tip to Salon)
Bahraini police have reportedly made routine raids on girls' schools, "detaining, beating and threatening to rape girls as young as 12." A video shows an interview with a 16-year-old school girl sharing her experience of a brutal police raid on her school:
May 12, 2011
Pakistan
A student nurse is forced to convert and marry a Muslim man.
May 13, 2011
UK
Muslims object to advertisements with women in swimsuits.
May 16, 2011
India
Two mothers are charged with murdering their daughters in honor killings.
UK
Muslim Women Reformers: an interview.
May 18, 2011
Afghanistan
The Taliban is recruiting suicide bombers as young as nine years old.
UK
Asian women were subjected to virginity tests at Heathrow Airport in the United Kingdom.
Support Bradley Manning: Blowing the whistle on war crimes is no crime
BEFORE MAY 29, 2011 COMES:On 29 May, Private Bradley Manning will have been held in US military detention without trial for one year. He faces a battery of charges, including "aiding the enemy" - a crime punishable by execution under US law.
Manning's crime? It is alleged that he blew the whistle on war crimes and cover ups by the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan. If true, the man is a hero. He is a defender of democracy and human rights. His actions are based on the principle that citizens have a right to know what the government is doing in their name. Bradley should not be in prison. The charges against him should be dropped. Set him free. Put on trial those who killed innocent civilians and those who protected the perpetrators.
For nearly a year, 23 year old Manning was imprisoned in harsh, inhuman conditions at Quantico marine corps base in Virginia. He was subjected to long periods of solitary confinement and many extreme deprivations, which amounted to pre-conviction punishment. After worldwide protests, he was recently transferred to a standard medium security military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where his treatment has significantly improved.
Manning is being held on the as yet unproven allegation that he leaked classified US military and diplomatic documents that were subsequently released by Wikileaks. These documents exposed US war crimes, as well as US foreign policy dishonesty and duplicity.
A senior United Nations representative on torture, Juan Mendez, reprimanded the US government in April 2011 for not allowing him to meet Bradley Manning in private and in confidence. This is the kind of censure the UN normally reserves for authoritarian regimes: http://tiny.cc/nq3mq
Mendez, the UN special rapporteur on torture, said: "I am deeply disappointed and frustrated by the prevarication of the US government with regard to my attempts to visit Mr Manning."
US congressman Dennis Kucinich and a representative from Amnesty International were likewise refused permission to visit Manning.
Also in April, more than 250 of America's most eminent legal scholars signed a letter protesting against the mistreatment of Manning during the nine months he was detained in Quantico military brig, arguing that his "degrading and inhumane conditions" were illegal, unconstitutional and could even amount to torture: http://tiny.cc/bs95c
The open letter by these scholars states:
"For nine months, Manning has been confined to his cell for twenty-three hours a day. During his one remaining hour, he can walk in circles in another room, with no other prisoners present. He is not allowed to doze off or relax during the day, but must answer the question "Are you OK?" verbally and in the affirmative every five minutes. At night, he is awakened to be asked again "Are you OK?" every time he turns his back to the cell door or covers his head with a blanket so that the guards cannot see his face. During the past week he was forced to sleep naked and stand naked for inspection in front of his cell, and for the indefinite future must remove his clothes and wear a "smock" under claims of risk to himself that he disputes."
The letter goes on to question the US government's motives for detaining Manning:
"The administration has provided no evidence that Manning's treatment reflects a concern for his own safety or that of other inmates. Unless and until it does so, there is only one reasonable inference: this pattern of degrading treatment aims either to deter future whistleblowers, or to force Manning to implicate Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in a conspiracy, or both."
The list of scholars who signed the letter included Barack Obama's own constitutional law professor, Laurence Tribe, a Harvard professor who is considered to be America's foremost liberal authority on constitutional law. He taught constitutional law to Barack Obama and was a key backer of his 2008 presidential campaign.
You can read this Guardian report about the mistreatment Manning suffered at Quantico: http://tiny.cc/junb2
In summary, the Guardian report states that was being kept in solitary confinement 23 hours a day, in a windowless room 12' x 6', and shackled hand and foot when he was transferred to a room where was allowed only to walk around in a circle. He was fed a daily diet of antidepressant pills which disoriented him, forced to stand naked, forbidden to exercise in his cell, and woken if he attempted to sleep in the daytime. Manning was continually subject to what is called "maximum custody", and also to a so-called "prevention of injury" order, which among other things, deprived him of his clothes at night and also of normal sheets and bedding in favour of a blanket he describes as being like the lead apron used when operating x-ray machines. He was allowed no personal possessions.
This abuse of Manning constitutes illegal "cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment", contrary to the UN Convention Against Torture and the 8th Amendment to the US constitution. It has been condemned by many civil liberties and human rights organisations, including Amnesty International: http://tiny.cc/7sr4w
The International Criminal Court should commence legal proceedings against the head of the US government and military commander-in-chief, President Obama. He bears direct personal and legal responsibility for the mistreatment of Manning. He knew about it, publicly endorsed it and did nothing to stop it.
The transfer of Manning from Quantico to Fort Leavenworth - and the subsequent significant improvement in the conditions under which he is being detained - occurred just days after the legal scholar's letter was publicised, and appeared designed to preempt plans by Manning's lawyers to mount a legal challenge to the harsh conditions of his detention at Quantico. It also followed an online petition by avaaz.org which gathered half a million signatures in one week in early April.
Private Manning, a US military intelligence analyst, was arrested in Iraq following the release by Wikileaks of video footage of a US Apache helicopter attack that gunned down 11 Iraqi civilians in 2007, including two Reuters journalists and men who had gone to the aid of the wounded. Two children were also gravely injured when the US helicopter opened fire on their van. The video records US soldiers laughing and joking at the killings, and also insulting the victims.
The video of the massacre can be seen at: www.collateralmurder.com
This slaughter had previously been the subject of a cover-up by the US armed forces, which claimed dishonestly that the helicopter had been engaged in combat operations against armed enemy forces.
It is only (allegedly) thanks to Bradley Manning that we now know the truth about this slaughter of innocent civilians - and about the killings of hundreds of other civilians in unreported and undocumented incidents.
Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971, which exposed US lies and criminality in Vietnam, has hailed Manning as a hero.
Bradley Manning is openly gay. He has participated in Pride marches and campaigned against the 'Don't ask, don't tell' restrictions on gay military personnel. In 2008, he attended a rally in New York to oppose attempts to ban same-sex marriage in California.
Manning is also a humanist and a man with a conscience. When he discovered human rights violations by the US armed forces and duplicity by the US government, he was shocked and distressed. He became disillusioned with his country's foreign and military policy; believing it was betraying the US ideals of democracy and human rights.
The abuse that first triggered Manning's disillusionment was when he was posted to Iraq in October 2009 as an intelligence analyst. He was shocked to discover US military collusion with the repression of dissent in Iraq; in particular "watching 15 detainees taken by the Iraqi Federal Police....for printing 'anti-Iraqi' literature." The offending literature exposed corruption in the US-backed government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. When he complained that US forces should not be assisting with the suppression of free speech and peaceful protest, he was told to shut up and that the US armed forces in Iraq should be doing more to silence opponents of the Maliki regime.
Manning is a US citizen but also a British citizen via his Welsh mother. Since he has been in detention, he has received no British consular support. Prime Minister David Cameron and his deputy Nick Clegg have failed to help him. They have never spoken publicly against his maltreatment or, as far as we know, made any private appeals to the US government and military to halt the abuse that Manning suffered at Quantico. So much for the coalition's professed commitment to human rights and civil liberties.
Manning's mother requested assistance from UK Foreign Secretary, William Hague, to ensure a British consular visit to her son. This request has been ignored: http://tiny.cc/4e732
TAKE ACTION - What you can do:
1. Write to Bradley Manning. Send him your support: PFC Bradley Manning 89289. Fort Leavenworth Military Detention Centre, 830 Sabalu Road, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, KS 66027, USA.
2. Sign the petition in support of Bradley Manning: www.bradleymanning.org
3. Ask your MP and MEPs to urge the British Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary to ensure a British consular visit to Bradley Manning, and to press the US government to drop all charges and release him. You can email your MP and MEPs direct via this website: www.writetothem.com
4. Phone or write to the US Embassy in London - 24 Grosvenor Square, London W1A 1AE - 0207 499 9000
5. Write to President Obama, The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington DC20500, USA
6. Please tweet this message:
If Bradley Manning blew the whistle on US war crimes, he's a hero. Free him. Sign the petition: www.bradleymanning.org #bradleymanning
Manning's crime? It is alleged that he blew the whistle on war crimes and cover ups by the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan. If true, the man is a hero. He is a defender of democracy and human rights. His actions are based on the principle that citizens have a right to know what the government is doing in their name. Bradley should not be in prison. The charges against him should be dropped. Set him free. Put on trial those who killed innocent civilians and those who protected the perpetrators.
For nearly a year, 23 year old Manning was imprisoned in harsh, inhuman conditions at Quantico marine corps base in Virginia. He was subjected to long periods of solitary confinement and many extreme deprivations, which amounted to pre-conviction punishment. After worldwide protests, he was recently transferred to a standard medium security military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where his treatment has significantly improved.
Manning is being held on the as yet unproven allegation that he leaked classified US military and diplomatic documents that were subsequently released by Wikileaks. These documents exposed US war crimes, as well as US foreign policy dishonesty and duplicity.
A senior United Nations representative on torture, Juan Mendez, reprimanded the US government in April 2011 for not allowing him to meet Bradley Manning in private and in confidence. This is the kind of censure the UN normally reserves for authoritarian regimes: http://tiny.cc/nq3mq
Mendez, the UN special rapporteur on torture, said: "I am deeply disappointed and frustrated by the prevarication of the US government with regard to my attempts to visit Mr Manning."
US congressman Dennis Kucinich and a representative from Amnesty International were likewise refused permission to visit Manning.
Also in April, more than 250 of America's most eminent legal scholars signed a letter protesting against the mistreatment of Manning during the nine months he was detained in Quantico military brig, arguing that his "degrading and inhumane conditions" were illegal, unconstitutional and could even amount to torture: http://tiny.cc/bs95c
The open letter by these scholars states:
"For nine months, Manning has been confined to his cell for twenty-three hours a day. During his one remaining hour, he can walk in circles in another room, with no other prisoners present. He is not allowed to doze off or relax during the day, but must answer the question "Are you OK?" verbally and in the affirmative every five minutes. At night, he is awakened to be asked again "Are you OK?" every time he turns his back to the cell door or covers his head with a blanket so that the guards cannot see his face. During the past week he was forced to sleep naked and stand naked for inspection in front of his cell, and for the indefinite future must remove his clothes and wear a "smock" under claims of risk to himself that he disputes."
The letter goes on to question the US government's motives for detaining Manning:
"The administration has provided no evidence that Manning's treatment reflects a concern for his own safety or that of other inmates. Unless and until it does so, there is only one reasonable inference: this pattern of degrading treatment aims either to deter future whistleblowers, or to force Manning to implicate Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in a conspiracy, or both."
The list of scholars who signed the letter included Barack Obama's own constitutional law professor, Laurence Tribe, a Harvard professor who is considered to be America's foremost liberal authority on constitutional law. He taught constitutional law to Barack Obama and was a key backer of his 2008 presidential campaign.
You can read this Guardian report about the mistreatment Manning suffered at Quantico: http://tiny.cc/junb2
In summary, the Guardian report states that was being kept in solitary confinement 23 hours a day, in a windowless room 12' x 6', and shackled hand and foot when he was transferred to a room where was allowed only to walk around in a circle. He was fed a daily diet of antidepressant pills which disoriented him, forced to stand naked, forbidden to exercise in his cell, and woken if he attempted to sleep in the daytime. Manning was continually subject to what is called "maximum custody", and also to a so-called "prevention of injury" order, which among other things, deprived him of his clothes at night and also of normal sheets and bedding in favour of a blanket he describes as being like the lead apron used when operating x-ray machines. He was allowed no personal possessions.
This abuse of Manning constitutes illegal "cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment", contrary to the UN Convention Against Torture and the 8th Amendment to the US constitution. It has been condemned by many civil liberties and human rights organisations, including Amnesty International: http://tiny.cc/7sr4w
The International Criminal Court should commence legal proceedings against the head of the US government and military commander-in-chief, President Obama. He bears direct personal and legal responsibility for the mistreatment of Manning. He knew about it, publicly endorsed it and did nothing to stop it.
The transfer of Manning from Quantico to Fort Leavenworth - and the subsequent significant improvement in the conditions under which he is being detained - occurred just days after the legal scholar's letter was publicised, and appeared designed to preempt plans by Manning's lawyers to mount a legal challenge to the harsh conditions of his detention at Quantico. It also followed an online petition by avaaz.org which gathered half a million signatures in one week in early April.
Private Manning, a US military intelligence analyst, was arrested in Iraq following the release by Wikileaks of video footage of a US Apache helicopter attack that gunned down 11 Iraqi civilians in 2007, including two Reuters journalists and men who had gone to the aid of the wounded. Two children were also gravely injured when the US helicopter opened fire on their van. The video records US soldiers laughing and joking at the killings, and also insulting the victims.
The video of the massacre can be seen at: www.collateralmurder.com
This slaughter had previously been the subject of a cover-up by the US armed forces, which claimed dishonestly that the helicopter had been engaged in combat operations against armed enemy forces.
It is only (allegedly) thanks to Bradley Manning that we now know the truth about this slaughter of innocent civilians - and about the killings of hundreds of other civilians in unreported and undocumented incidents.
Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971, which exposed US lies and criminality in Vietnam, has hailed Manning as a hero.
Bradley Manning is openly gay. He has participated in Pride marches and campaigned against the 'Don't ask, don't tell' restrictions on gay military personnel. In 2008, he attended a rally in New York to oppose attempts to ban same-sex marriage in California.
Manning is also a humanist and a man with a conscience. When he discovered human rights violations by the US armed forces and duplicity by the US government, he was shocked and distressed. He became disillusioned with his country's foreign and military policy; believing it was betraying the US ideals of democracy and human rights.
The abuse that first triggered Manning's disillusionment was when he was posted to Iraq in October 2009 as an intelligence analyst. He was shocked to discover US military collusion with the repression of dissent in Iraq; in particular "watching 15 detainees taken by the Iraqi Federal Police....for printing 'anti-Iraqi' literature." The offending literature exposed corruption in the US-backed government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. When he complained that US forces should not be assisting with the suppression of free speech and peaceful protest, he was told to shut up and that the US armed forces in Iraq should be doing more to silence opponents of the Maliki regime.
Manning is a US citizen but also a British citizen via his Welsh mother. Since he has been in detention, he has received no British consular support. Prime Minister David Cameron and his deputy Nick Clegg have failed to help him. They have never spoken publicly against his maltreatment or, as far as we know, made any private appeals to the US government and military to halt the abuse that Manning suffered at Quantico. So much for the coalition's professed commitment to human rights and civil liberties.
Manning's mother requested assistance from UK Foreign Secretary, William Hague, to ensure a British consular visit to her son. This request has been ignored: http://tiny.cc/4e732
TAKE ACTION - What you can do:
1. Write to Bradley Manning. Send him your support: PFC Bradley Manning 89289. Fort Leavenworth Military Detention Centre, 830 Sabalu Road, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, KS 66027, USA.
2. Sign the petition in support of Bradley Manning: www.bradleymanning.org
3. Ask your MP and MEPs to urge the British Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary to ensure a British consular visit to Bradley Manning, and to press the US government to drop all charges and release him. You can email your MP and MEPs direct via this website: www.writetothem.com
4. Phone or write to the US Embassy in London - 24 Grosvenor Square, London W1A 1AE - 0207 499 9000
5. Write to President Obama, The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington DC20500, USA
6. Please tweet this message:
If Bradley Manning blew the whistle on US war crimes, he's a hero. Free him. Sign the petition: www.bradleymanning.org #bradleymanning
IDAHO Came and Went: What Did Others Say?
REFLECTION ON MAY 17, 2011 'SILENT' WORLD EVENTS: Today is IDAHO - the International Day Against HOmophobia and Transphobia. In countries all over the world, there are events calling for the universal decriminalisation of homosexuality and equal human rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people.
IDAHO is supported by dozens of governments, including the UK, and by many international government institutions, from the United Nations to the European Union. But the Commonwealth is not lending its support, nor are most Commonwealth countries. They want nothing to do with LGBT rights.
The Commonwealth is a bastion of global homophobia, often bucking the worldwide trend towards sexual orientation equality, with increased state-sanctioned threats and repression in Malawi, Uganda, The Gambia, Malaysia, Cameroon and Nigeria.
The 54 Commonwealth member states comprise one quarter of the UN membership and one third of all humanity. Forty-six of these Commonwealth countries still criminalise same-sex relations in all circumstances, with penalties including 25 years jail in Trinidad and Tobago and 20 years plus flogging in Malaysia. Several countries stipulate life imprisonment: Sierra Leone, Pakistan, Uganda, Tanzania and Bangladesh.
These 46 homophobic Commonwealth countries account for more than half of the 76 countries in the world that still have a total prohibition on homosexuality. http://tiny.cc/f2ixy
Nearly all the Commonwealth's anti-gay laws are the poisonous legacy of British colonialism. They were originally imposed by the British government in the nineteenth century, during the period of colonial rule - and never repealed when the former colonies won their freedom. The post-independence leaders retained the homophobic mindset of their colonial masters. Nowadays, many of their countrymen and women absurdly proclaim that the legal proscription of homosexuality is an authentic expression of indigenous national culture and tradition.
The Commonwealth is failing to challenge homophobia. This is somewhat surprising because the Commonwealth defines itself as a free and equal association of nations committed to the core principles of democracy, human rights, equality, non-discrimination, opportunity for all, liberty of the individual and human dignity. http://tiny.cc/ciuy0
Indeed, one of its catch phrases is Human Rights: More than Words. Shame about the reality. http://tiny.cc/0e1eo
The Commonwealth has never issued a formal declaration in support of LGBT human rights, let alone embarked on a programme of action to challenge the rampant homophobia and transphobia in its member states. Perhaps this is not surprising, since the Commonwealth has a long history of feeble responses to all human rights abuses, including Mugabe's murder and mayhem in Zimbabwe and the current violent suppression of protests in Uganda.
In the case of LGBT people, the Commonwealth's core principles are routinely violated by nearly all Commonwealth countries - and without rebuke by the leaders of the Commonwealth. As a result, millions of LGBT Commonwealth citizens are at risk of discrimination, harassment, arrest, torture, rape, imprisonment and mob attacks.
The Commonwealth Secretary-General, Kamalesh Sharma, stands accused of a systematic, persistent and wilful failure to condemn homophobic discrimination and violence. He offered no strong condemnation of Malawi's arrest and jailing of Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga on charges of homosexuality last year. Likewise, his criticism of Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which proposed the death penalty for same-sex acts, was muted. Although he did say discrimination is wrong, he also said this about the proposed legislation: "The bill is now in the Ugandan parliament - in any Commonwealth country, that is exactly where such a national issue should be debated. Let us see what the people of Uganda decide." This quasi neutral stance is hardly what we expect when a Commonwealth member state is proposing to execute its own citizens for consenting, victimless behaviour.
The Commonwealth Secretary-General has repeatedly ignored letters and appeals from LGBT campaigners. When I wrote Mr Sharma, asking what the Commonwealth was doing to tackle homophobia, he declined to reply. Weeks later, a lower ranking official sent a letter about the Commonwealth's work combating HIV, which did not even mention gay rights. A similar thing happened to Godwyns Onwuchekwa of Justice for Gay Africans. No reply. Our requests for Mr Sharma to meet us and other Commonwealth LGBT campaigners have been spurned.
I get the feeling that the Secretary-General does not care much about the human rights of LGBT Commonwealth citizens. He seems to regard the issue as an embarrassment and distraction.
Whatever excuses the Commonwealth may offer in its defence, one fact is indisputable: in the 62 years of its existence it has never debated LGBT human rights. Its leaders have never issued any policy document specifically dedicated to combating persecution on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity. They have never produced a formal statement calling on member states to decriminalise same-sex acts and provide legal protection to LGBT people against discrimination and hate crimes. This silence shows the true face of the Commonwealth: a bastion of homophobic persecution, collusion and appeasement.
If the Secretary-General can't robustly defend universal human rights and equality for LGBT people, he is unfit for high office and should resign.
IDAHO is supported by dozens of governments, including the UK, and by many international government institutions, from the United Nations to the European Union. But the Commonwealth is not lending its support, nor are most Commonwealth countries. They want nothing to do with LGBT rights.
The Commonwealth is a bastion of global homophobia, often bucking the worldwide trend towards sexual orientation equality, with increased state-sanctioned threats and repression in Malawi, Uganda, The Gambia, Malaysia, Cameroon and Nigeria.
The 54 Commonwealth member states comprise one quarter of the UN membership and one third of all humanity. Forty-six of these Commonwealth countries still criminalise same-sex relations in all circumstances, with penalties including 25 years jail in Trinidad and Tobago and 20 years plus flogging in Malaysia. Several countries stipulate life imprisonment: Sierra Leone, Pakistan, Uganda, Tanzania and Bangladesh.
These 46 homophobic Commonwealth countries account for more than half of the 76 countries in the world that still have a total prohibition on homosexuality. http://tiny.cc/f2ixy
Nearly all the Commonwealth's anti-gay laws are the poisonous legacy of British colonialism. They were originally imposed by the British government in the nineteenth century, during the period of colonial rule - and never repealed when the former colonies won their freedom. The post-independence leaders retained the homophobic mindset of their colonial masters. Nowadays, many of their countrymen and women absurdly proclaim that the legal proscription of homosexuality is an authentic expression of indigenous national culture and tradition.
The Commonwealth is failing to challenge homophobia. This is somewhat surprising because the Commonwealth defines itself as a free and equal association of nations committed to the core principles of democracy, human rights, equality, non-discrimination, opportunity for all, liberty of the individual and human dignity. http://tiny.cc/ciuy0
Indeed, one of its catch phrases is Human Rights: More than Words. Shame about the reality. http://tiny.cc/0e1eo
The Commonwealth has never issued a formal declaration in support of LGBT human rights, let alone embarked on a programme of action to challenge the rampant homophobia and transphobia in its member states. Perhaps this is not surprising, since the Commonwealth has a long history of feeble responses to all human rights abuses, including Mugabe's murder and mayhem in Zimbabwe and the current violent suppression of protests in Uganda.
In the case of LGBT people, the Commonwealth's core principles are routinely violated by nearly all Commonwealth countries - and without rebuke by the leaders of the Commonwealth. As a result, millions of LGBT Commonwealth citizens are at risk of discrimination, harassment, arrest, torture, rape, imprisonment and mob attacks.
The Commonwealth Secretary-General, Kamalesh Sharma, stands accused of a systematic, persistent and wilful failure to condemn homophobic discrimination and violence. He offered no strong condemnation of Malawi's arrest and jailing of Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga on charges of homosexuality last year. Likewise, his criticism of Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which proposed the death penalty for same-sex acts, was muted. Although he did say discrimination is wrong, he also said this about the proposed legislation: "The bill is now in the Ugandan parliament - in any Commonwealth country, that is exactly where such a national issue should be debated. Let us see what the people of Uganda decide." This quasi neutral stance is hardly what we expect when a Commonwealth member state is proposing to execute its own citizens for consenting, victimless behaviour.
The Commonwealth Secretary-General has repeatedly ignored letters and appeals from LGBT campaigners. When I wrote Mr Sharma, asking what the Commonwealth was doing to tackle homophobia, he declined to reply. Weeks later, a lower ranking official sent a letter about the Commonwealth's work combating HIV, which did not even mention gay rights. A similar thing happened to Godwyns Onwuchekwa of Justice for Gay Africans. No reply. Our requests for Mr Sharma to meet us and other Commonwealth LGBT campaigners have been spurned.
I get the feeling that the Secretary-General does not care much about the human rights of LGBT Commonwealth citizens. He seems to regard the issue as an embarrassment and distraction.
Whatever excuses the Commonwealth may offer in its defence, one fact is indisputable: in the 62 years of its existence it has never debated LGBT human rights. Its leaders have never issued any policy document specifically dedicated to combating persecution on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity. They have never produced a formal statement calling on member states to decriminalise same-sex acts and provide legal protection to LGBT people against discrimination and hate crimes. This silence shows the true face of the Commonwealth: a bastion of homophobic persecution, collusion and appeasement.
If the Secretary-General can't robustly defend universal human rights and equality for LGBT people, he is unfit for high office and should resign.
Foreign Office praised for IDAHO contribution
...Unprecedented support for LGBT human rights worldwide
...Support urged for Moscow Gay Pride on 27 and 28 May
"To mark the IDAHO, the International Day Against Homphobia and Transphobia, the British Foreign Office issued an unprecedented message of support for LGBT rights and called for the prevention of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity," said Dan Littauer, Executive Editor of Gay Middle East.COM.
His view was echoed by human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell:
"I commend the Foreign Office for its active endorsement and promotion of IDAHO and for its commitment to LGBT human rights worldwide. This year was its best contribution ever.
"But I also believe the Foreign Office could be doing more year-round to support LGBT communities that are suffering under repressive regimes. While the Foreign Office has been supportive of Gay Pride parades in Poland and the Baltic countries, they have offered no support to the organisers of Moscow Gay Pride, despite the arrests and bashings of the last five years. Moscow Pride is next week. It is again banned by the Mayor. We fear more mass arrests and beatings. I want to see the Foreign Office actively support the organisers and participants by sending the British Ambassador as an observer," said Mr Tatchell.
"This is the most comprehensive effort in support global LGBT rights by the British Foreign Office - or perhaps by any Foreign Office - that I have ever seen," added Mr Littaeur.
"Foreign Office Minister Jeremy Browne recorded a video message of support, and the Foreign Office website hosted, for the first time, two guest contributions from LGBT organisations, one by Gay Middle East and the other by Pride London. Foreign Office diplomatic staff from Beirut to Tokyo wrote on the issue from the perspective of the country in which they are posted."
"We were particularly pleased to be invited to contribute, as it sends a strong message of support to LGBT communities worldwide and particularly in the Middle East and North Africa."
"It demonstrates the readiness of the Foreign Office to help and encourage LGBT NGOs, activists and communities across the world to speak out against discrimination and homophobia in their countries," concluded Dan Littauer.
Gay Middle East.COM is the largest, most comprehensive and senior grassroots information, news and research on LGBT rights and news in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The organisation is non-profit and completely voluntary, members often risk their lives obtaining and reporting important information that would not be available otherwise to the public domain.
More info: Dan Littauer - editor@gaymiddleeast.com and 075 754 59 633
Foreign Office IDAHO actions:
· Foreign Office supports International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (inc. Minister's video): http://www.Foreign Office.gov.uk/en/news/latest-news/?view=News&id=596524482
· Minister's video YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tn9eC1dm_W0
Social media - lots of tweeting (particularly from @FCOHumanRights) and Facebooking across our various channels, using hashtags #IDAHO and #LGBT. Good amount of retweets and likes.
Blogs
· Guest blog from Pride London: http://blogs.Foreign Office.gov.uk/roller/bate/entry/lgbt_across_the_world_today
· Guest blog from Gay Middle East: http://blogs.Foreign Office.gov.uk/roller/bate/entry/will_the_arab_spring_result1
· Paul Arkwright (Ambassador to the Netherlands, The Hague): http://blogs.Foreign Office.gov.uk/roller/arkwright/entry/marking_international_day_against_homophobia
· Christopher Wright, the Second Secretary for Political, Press and Public Affairs (guest entry on Ambassador to Philippines Stephen Lillie's blog): http://blogs.Foreign Office.gov.uk/roller/lillie/entry/international_day_against_homophobia_and
· Tom Burn (Media and Communication Director, Tokyo): http://blogs.Foreign Office.gov.uk/roller/burn/entry/idaho_s_not_a_place
· Greg Dorey (Ambassador to Hungary, Budapest): http://blogs.Foreign Office.gov.uk/roller/dorey/entry/international_day_against_homophobia_and
· Frances Guy (Ambassador to the Republic of Lebanon, Beirut): http://blogs.Foreign Office.gov.uk/roller/guy/entry/international_day_against_homophobia_idaho
Additional content (a couple of examples - there may be more out there)
· British Ambassador to Lebanon Frances Guy met with the Lebanese NGO 'Helem', including embedded video: http://ukinlebanon.Foreign Office.gov.uk/en/about-us/working-with-lebanon2/002-IDAHO
· UK in Nepal supports International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia: http://ukinnepal.Foreign Office.gov.uk/en/news/?view=PressR&id=597058682
...Support urged for Moscow Gay Pride on 27 and 28 May
"To mark the IDAHO, the International Day Against Homphobia and Transphobia, the British Foreign Office issued an unprecedented message of support for LGBT rights and called for the prevention of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity," said Dan Littauer, Executive Editor of Gay Middle East.COM.
His view was echoed by human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell:
"I commend the Foreign Office for its active endorsement and promotion of IDAHO and for its commitment to LGBT human rights worldwide. This year was its best contribution ever.
"But I also believe the Foreign Office could be doing more year-round to support LGBT communities that are suffering under repressive regimes. While the Foreign Office has been supportive of Gay Pride parades in Poland and the Baltic countries, they have offered no support to the organisers of Moscow Gay Pride, despite the arrests and bashings of the last five years. Moscow Pride is next week. It is again banned by the Mayor. We fear more mass arrests and beatings. I want to see the Foreign Office actively support the organisers and participants by sending the British Ambassador as an observer," said Mr Tatchell.
"This is the most comprehensive effort in support global LGBT rights by the British Foreign Office - or perhaps by any Foreign Office - that I have ever seen," added Mr Littaeur.
"Foreign Office Minister Jeremy Browne recorded a video message of support, and the Foreign Office website hosted, for the first time, two guest contributions from LGBT organisations, one by Gay Middle East and the other by Pride London. Foreign Office diplomatic staff from Beirut to Tokyo wrote on the issue from the perspective of the country in which they are posted."
"We were particularly pleased to be invited to contribute, as it sends a strong message of support to LGBT communities worldwide and particularly in the Middle East and North Africa."
"It demonstrates the readiness of the Foreign Office to help and encourage LGBT NGOs, activists and communities across the world to speak out against discrimination and homophobia in their countries," concluded Dan Littauer.
Gay Middle East.COM is the largest, most comprehensive and senior grassroots information, news and research on LGBT rights and news in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The organisation is non-profit and completely voluntary, members often risk their lives obtaining and reporting important information that would not be available otherwise to the public domain.
More info: Dan Littauer - editor@gaymiddleeast.com and 075 754 59 633
Foreign Office IDAHO actions:
· Foreign Office supports International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (inc. Minister's video): http://www.Foreign Office.gov.uk/en/news/latest-news/?view=News&id=596524482
· Minister's video YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tn9eC1dm_W0
Social media - lots of tweeting (particularly from @FCOHumanRights) and Facebooking across our various channels, using hashtags #IDAHO and #LGBT. Good amount of retweets and likes.
Blogs
· Guest blog from Pride London: http://blogs.Foreign Office.gov.uk/roller/bate/entry/lgbt_across_the_world_today
· Guest blog from Gay Middle East: http://blogs.Foreign Office.gov.uk/roller/bate/entry/will_the_arab_spring_result1
· Paul Arkwright (Ambassador to the Netherlands, The Hague): http://blogs.Foreign Office.gov.uk/roller/arkwright/entry/marking_international_day_against_homophobia
· Christopher Wright, the Second Secretary for Political, Press and Public Affairs (guest entry on Ambassador to Philippines Stephen Lillie's blog): http://blogs.Foreign Office.gov.uk/roller/lillie/entry/international_day_against_homophobia_and
· Tom Burn (Media and Communication Director, Tokyo): http://blogs.Foreign Office.gov.uk/roller/burn/entry/idaho_s_not_a_place
· Greg Dorey (Ambassador to Hungary, Budapest): http://blogs.Foreign Office.gov.uk/roller/dorey/entry/international_day_against_homophobia_and
· Frances Guy (Ambassador to the Republic of Lebanon, Beirut): http://blogs.Foreign Office.gov.uk/roller/guy/entry/international_day_against_homophobia_idaho
Additional content (a couple of examples - there may be more out there)
· British Ambassador to Lebanon Frances Guy met with the Lebanese NGO 'Helem', including embedded video: http://ukinlebanon.Foreign Office.gov.uk/en/about-us/working-with-lebanon2/002-IDAHO
· UK in Nepal supports International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia: http://ukinnepal.Foreign Office.gov.uk/en/news/?view=PressR&id=597058682
Obama 'says' Bradley Manning is guilty, before he has been convicted
Bradley Manning: One year in jail, without trial
Cameron and Clegg refuse to support Manning and his Welsh mother
London - 23 May 2011
"US President, Barack Obama has declared Private Bradley Manning guilty of passing classified information to Wikileaks, even before he has gone on trial and been convicted," said Peter Tatchell, Director of the human rights lobby, the Peter Tatchell Foundation
"The President, who is a former lawyer, should know better. This would be contempt of court in the UK. Such a high-level assertion that Manning is guilty must seriously prejudice the likelihood that Manning will receive a fair trial," said Mr Tatchell.
United States President, Barack Obama
When questioned about Bradley Manning in San Francisco in April by Logan Price, Obama declared: "He broke the law....he dumped (classified material)."
See the transcript below and this video recording of Obama: http://tiny.cc/3bu2b
"Manning is a US citizen but also a British citizen via his Welsh mother. During the one year he has been in detention, he has received no British consular support. Prime Minister David Cameron and his deputy Nick Clegg have failed to help him. They never spoke out publicly against the abuse he suffered for many months at Quantico military prison in Virginia. As far as we know, they did not make any private appeals to the US government and military to halt this abuse," said Mr Tatchell
"The coalition government needs to demonstrate its commitment to human rights and civil liberties by pressing the US government to drop all charges on the grounds that what Manning allegedly did was in the public interest and justifiably exposed criminal acts that are illegal under international law," Mr Tatchell added.
There is a House of Commons public meeting in support of Bradley Manning this Tuesday 24 May 2011, 6pm - 7.30pm, Boothroyd Room, Portcullis House, House of Commons. Speakers: Ann Clwyd MP, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Human Rights, David Leigh, The Guardian and Emily Butselaar, Index on Censorship.
"This week marks the first anniversary of the arrest and detention of Bradley Manning, who is accused of passing classified US diplomatic and military documents to Wikileaks," added Mr Tatchell.
"It is alleged that Manning released video footage of a US Apache helicopter attack that gunned down 11 Iraqi civilians in 2007, including two Reuters journalists and men who had gone to the aid of the wounded. Two children were also gravely injured when the US helicopter opened fire on their van in the same attack. The military video records US soldiers laughing and joking at the killings, and insulting the victims. Watch it here: www.collateralmurder.com
"This slaughter had previously been the subject of a cover-up by the US armed forces, which claimed dishonestly that the helicopter had been engaged in combat operations against armed enemy forces.
"It is allegedly only thanks to Bradley Manning that we now know the truth about the killing of these innocent civilians - and about the killing of hundreds of other civilians in unreported and undocumented incidents.
"The US abuses that first triggered Manning's disillusionment occurred soon after he was posted to Iraq in October 2009 as an intelligence analyst. He discovered US military collusion with the repression of dissent in Iraq; in particular "watching 15 detainees taken by the Iraqi Federal Police....for printing 'anti-Iraqi' literature." The offending literature exposed corruption in the US-backed government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. When Manning complained that US forces should not be assisting with the suppression of free speech and the right to protest, he was told to keep quiet, with the admonishment that the US armed forces should be doing more to silence opponents of the Maliki regime.
"If Manning blew the whistle on war crimes and cover ups by the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan, he is a hero. He is a defender of democracy and human rights. His actions are based on the principle that citizens have a right to know what the government is doing in their name. Manning should not be in prison. Instead, the US should put on trial those who killed innocent civilians and those who protected them.
"Even many Americans agree that Bradley Manning is a true patriot, not a traitor. He reveres the founding ideals of the US - an open, honest government accountable to the people, which pursues its policies by lawful means that respect human rights. At great personal risk, he sought to expose grave crimes that were perpetrated and then hidden by the US government and military. These are the characteristics of a man of conscience, motivated by altruism. Any misjudgements he made in his alleged release of certain documents are far outweighed by the positive good overall. Thanks to Manning, we, the people, know the truth.
"Critics say that Wikileaks was sometimes indiscriminate and even reckless in its release of certain documents. This may be true in a small number of cases. Regardless, these releases were done by Wikileaks, not by Manning. He allegedly passed the information in good faith for publication where appropriate. He did not publish the documents. Wikileaks did. Manning cannot be blamed for any shortcomings in the way Wikileaks released the information," said Mr Tatchell.
Further information: Peter Tatchell - 0207 403 1790
peter@petertatchellfoundation.org
Transcript of Obama interview declaring Bradley Manning's guilt:
OBAMA: So people can have philosophical views [about Bradley Manning] but I can't conduct diplomacy on an open source [basis]... That's not how the world works.
And if you're in the military... And I have to abide by certain rules of classified information. If I was to release stuff that I'm not authorised to release, I'd be breaking the law.
We're a nation of laws! We don't individually make our own decisions about how the laws operate. He broke the law.
[Q: Didn't he release evidence of war crimes?]
OBAMA: What he did was he dumped...
[Q: Isn't that just the same thing as what Daniel Ellsberg did?]
OBAMA: No it wasn't the same thing. Ellsberg's material wasn't classified in the same way.
End of interview
Cameron and Clegg refuse to support Manning and his Welsh mother
London - 23 May 2011
"US President, Barack Obama has declared Private Bradley Manning guilty of passing classified information to Wikileaks, even before he has gone on trial and been convicted," said Peter Tatchell, Director of the human rights lobby, the Peter Tatchell Foundation
"The President, who is a former lawyer, should know better. This would be contempt of court in the UK. Such a high-level assertion that Manning is guilty must seriously prejudice the likelihood that Manning will receive a fair trial," said Mr Tatchell.
United States President, Barack Obama
When questioned about Bradley Manning in San Francisco in April by Logan Price, Obama declared: "He broke the law....he dumped (classified material)."
See the transcript below and this video recording of Obama: http://tiny.cc/3bu2b
"Manning is a US citizen but also a British citizen via his Welsh mother. During the one year he has been in detention, he has received no British consular support. Prime Minister David Cameron and his deputy Nick Clegg have failed to help him. They never spoke out publicly against the abuse he suffered for many months at Quantico military prison in Virginia. As far as we know, they did not make any private appeals to the US government and military to halt this abuse," said Mr Tatchell
"The coalition government needs to demonstrate its commitment to human rights and civil liberties by pressing the US government to drop all charges on the grounds that what Manning allegedly did was in the public interest and justifiably exposed criminal acts that are illegal under international law," Mr Tatchell added.
There is a House of Commons public meeting in support of Bradley Manning this Tuesday 24 May 2011, 6pm - 7.30pm, Boothroyd Room, Portcullis House, House of Commons. Speakers: Ann Clwyd MP, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Human Rights, David Leigh, The Guardian and Emily Butselaar, Index on Censorship.
"This week marks the first anniversary of the arrest and detention of Bradley Manning, who is accused of passing classified US diplomatic and military documents to Wikileaks," added Mr Tatchell.
"It is alleged that Manning released video footage of a US Apache helicopter attack that gunned down 11 Iraqi civilians in 2007, including two Reuters journalists and men who had gone to the aid of the wounded. Two children were also gravely injured when the US helicopter opened fire on their van in the same attack. The military video records US soldiers laughing and joking at the killings, and insulting the victims. Watch it here: www.collateralmurder.com
"This slaughter had previously been the subject of a cover-up by the US armed forces, which claimed dishonestly that the helicopter had been engaged in combat operations against armed enemy forces.
"It is allegedly only thanks to Bradley Manning that we now know the truth about the killing of these innocent civilians - and about the killing of hundreds of other civilians in unreported and undocumented incidents.
"The US abuses that first triggered Manning's disillusionment occurred soon after he was posted to Iraq in October 2009 as an intelligence analyst. He discovered US military collusion with the repression of dissent in Iraq; in particular "watching 15 detainees taken by the Iraqi Federal Police....for printing 'anti-Iraqi' literature." The offending literature exposed corruption in the US-backed government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. When Manning complained that US forces should not be assisting with the suppression of free speech and the right to protest, he was told to keep quiet, with the admonishment that the US armed forces should be doing more to silence opponents of the Maliki regime.
"If Manning blew the whistle on war crimes and cover ups by the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan, he is a hero. He is a defender of democracy and human rights. His actions are based on the principle that citizens have a right to know what the government is doing in their name. Manning should not be in prison. Instead, the US should put on trial those who killed innocent civilians and those who protected them.
"Even many Americans agree that Bradley Manning is a true patriot, not a traitor. He reveres the founding ideals of the US - an open, honest government accountable to the people, which pursues its policies by lawful means that respect human rights. At great personal risk, he sought to expose grave crimes that were perpetrated and then hidden by the US government and military. These are the characteristics of a man of conscience, motivated by altruism. Any misjudgements he made in his alleged release of certain documents are far outweighed by the positive good overall. Thanks to Manning, we, the people, know the truth.
"Critics say that Wikileaks was sometimes indiscriminate and even reckless in its release of certain documents. This may be true in a small number of cases. Regardless, these releases were done by Wikileaks, not by Manning. He allegedly passed the information in good faith for publication where appropriate. He did not publish the documents. Wikileaks did. Manning cannot be blamed for any shortcomings in the way Wikileaks released the information," said Mr Tatchell.
Further information: Peter Tatchell - 0207 403 1790
peter@petertatchellfoundation.org
Transcript of Obama interview declaring Bradley Manning's guilt:
OBAMA: So people can have philosophical views [about Bradley Manning] but I can't conduct diplomacy on an open source [basis]... That's not how the world works.
And if you're in the military... And I have to abide by certain rules of classified information. If I was to release stuff that I'm not authorised to release, I'd be breaking the law.
We're a nation of laws! We don't individually make our own decisions about how the laws operate. He broke the law.
[Q: Didn't he release evidence of war crimes?]
OBAMA: What he did was he dumped...
[Q: Isn't that just the same thing as what Daniel Ellsberg did?]
OBAMA: No it wasn't the same thing. Ellsberg's material wasn't classified in the same way.
End of interview
Monday, May 23, 2011
Fuel Shortage Continues
Most parts of Malawi continue to experience fuel shortages, one of the hall-marks of President Bingu wa Mutharika's administration.
Mutharika has made positive strides in economic development, but his track record on governance and human rights remains shady.
Mutharika has made positive strides in economic development, but his track record on governance and human rights remains shady.
Bingu Swallows Humble Pie
Malawi's president, Bingu wa Mutharika, has come down to earth and admitted to Malawi's Parliament Session that he is in serious talks with Britain over the two countries' diplomatic tussle.
Mutharika told Parliament yesterday his government is doing all there is to do to make sure that relations between former colonial master Britain and Malawi get back to normal.
It is the first time Mutharika has spoken on efforts to heal current wounds, and offers some insight into his panic over Britain's announcement it was withholding aid until it reviewed its relations with Malawi.
Mutharika told Parliament yesterday his government is doing all there is to do to make sure that relations between former colonial master Britain and Malawi get back to normal.
It is the first time Mutharika has spoken on efforts to heal current wounds, and offers some insight into his panic over Britain's announcement it was withholding aid until it reviewed its relations with Malawi.
Inclined Bed Therapy (IBT) Varicose Veins Study.
By Andrew K Fletcher
Dear Reader
We are seeking more people with varicose veins who are willing to put
IBT to the test and feel that this is something that your readers and
colleagues will definitely find fascinating and some who have varicose
veins and oedema and wish to avoid surgery may want to Help in this
important trial and join our Free study which has already produced
positive results in only 4 weeks as predicted!
News Release:
An Important Scientific Study into the cause of Varicose Veins and
Oedema and Inclined Bed Therapy (I.B.T.) is now underway, which makes
use of the way the body uses gravity to move solutes through the
vessels to improve circulation and alter the pressure inside the veins
to significantly reduce swelling and oedema. Our study is free for
anyone to participate in. There are no products to be sold or
marketed.
What is Inclined Bed Therapy?
Gravity was identified as the driving force behind circulation in
trees in 1994 and was applied immediately to how circulation in the
body benefits from the same interaction with salts and sugars in the
circulation. A video showing the use of IBT with spinal cord injury
can be viewed here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3D7tBQfCxQ
IBT is simply tilting the bed so that the head end is 15 cm’s or 6
inches higher than the foot end providing a level but tilted bed,
hence the name Inclined Bed Therapy.0 People with varicose veins,
oedema (fluid retention) are needed to participate in an online Diary
Study, in order to prove that simply altering our sleeping position
can have a positive affect on these problems.
If you or someone you know has Varicose Veins, the standard advise is
to raise your legs and tilt your bed the other way to IBT, Or to
undergo risky and expensive surgery that is prone to fail because it
does not address why the pressure inside the vein causes it to bulge.
Which according to current physiology books makes sense. But what if
that logic is incorrect? All the evidence from our study is showing
that gravity is not a force we are struggling to overcome but a force
that drives the fluids within the body.
Are you prepared to take the 4 week challenge and provide us with your
observations? Or do you know someone who has varicose veins and would
like to watch them slowly but surely shrink and improve every night
they go to bed instead of becoming more unsightly and uncomfortable?
Our study is located on the Naked Scientists forum, who have a regular
slot on BBC Radio.
http://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=9843.msg121037#msg121037
My wife’s calf showing clearly her varicose vein shadow, which went
flat after 4 weeks of Inclined Bed Therapy back in 1994 and has not
returned to its former state since.
http://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=9843.msg121037#msg121037
Alun has already confirmed my statement on the study thread that
Varicose veins will shrink after 4 weeks of IBT and has supplied us
with photographic before and after 4 weeks of IBT along with a diary
account of his observations. And he is not alone.
http://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=9843.75
We are hoping to find at least 50 more pioneering volunteers who wish
to avoid surgery and it’s inherent risks and failures, who are willing
to provide us with photographic and a written account of their own
experiences sleeping inclined.
So far our study is running towards a predicted outcome that flies in
the face of current physiology literature.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely Andrew K Fletcher
Dear Reader
We are seeking more people with varicose veins who are willing to put
IBT to the test and feel that this is something that your readers and
colleagues will definitely find fascinating and some who have varicose
veins and oedema and wish to avoid surgery may want to Help in this
important trial and join our Free study which has already produced
positive results in only 4 weeks as predicted!
News Release:
An Important Scientific Study into the cause of Varicose Veins and
Oedema and Inclined Bed Therapy (I.B.T.) is now underway, which makes
use of the way the body uses gravity to move solutes through the
vessels to improve circulation and alter the pressure inside the veins
to significantly reduce swelling and oedema. Our study is free for
anyone to participate in. There are no products to be sold or
marketed.
What is Inclined Bed Therapy?
Gravity was identified as the driving force behind circulation in
trees in 1994 and was applied immediately to how circulation in the
body benefits from the same interaction with salts and sugars in the
circulation. A video showing the use of IBT with spinal cord injury
can be viewed here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3D7tBQfCxQ
IBT is simply tilting the bed so that the head end is 15 cm’s or 6
inches higher than the foot end providing a level but tilted bed,
hence the name Inclined Bed Therapy.0 People with varicose veins,
oedema (fluid retention) are needed to participate in an online Diary
Study, in order to prove that simply altering our sleeping position
can have a positive affect on these problems.
If you or someone you know has Varicose Veins, the standard advise is
to raise your legs and tilt your bed the other way to IBT, Or to
undergo risky and expensive surgery that is prone to fail because it
does not address why the pressure inside the vein causes it to bulge.
Which according to current physiology books makes sense. But what if
that logic is incorrect? All the evidence from our study is showing
that gravity is not a force we are struggling to overcome but a force
that drives the fluids within the body.
Are you prepared to take the 4 week challenge and provide us with your
observations? Or do you know someone who has varicose veins and would
like to watch them slowly but surely shrink and improve every night
they go to bed instead of becoming more unsightly and uncomfortable?
Our study is located on the Naked Scientists forum, who have a regular
slot on BBC Radio.
http://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=9843.msg121037#msg121037
My wife’s calf showing clearly her varicose vein shadow, which went
flat after 4 weeks of Inclined Bed Therapy back in 1994 and has not
returned to its former state since.
http://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=9843.msg121037#msg121037
Alun has already confirmed my statement on the study thread that
Varicose veins will shrink after 4 weeks of IBT and has supplied us
with photographic before and after 4 weeks of IBT along with a diary
account of his observations. And he is not alone.
http://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=9843.75
We are hoping to find at least 50 more pioneering volunteers who wish
to avoid surgery and it’s inherent risks and failures, who are willing
to provide us with photographic and a written account of their own
experiences sleeping inclined.
So far our study is running towards a predicted outcome that flies in
the face of current physiology literature.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely Andrew K Fletcher
HIV and AIDS: An Effective Natural Free Therapy For Africa
BY Andrew K Fletcher
In 1994, I made a very important discovery in circulation, which has
shown beyond any shadow of a doubt that the human body requires the
correct influence from gravity in order to maintain optimum
circulation of bodily fluids! I have been working with people
suffering from a whole range of illnesses since 1994. And have
observed and documented many incredible recoveries and improvements in
conditions ranging from oedema to spinal cord injuries. My work is all
freely available on the Internet. Use my name and Gravity as a search
term, in a search engine. For Example: Healthy Astronauts develop
rapid ageing, muscular and bone degeneration, immune deficiencies,
neurological and visual problems when they are in space and begin to
recover when they come back to Earth!
During several studies, involving many people, it became apparent that
the immune system appears to respond significantly from inclined bed
therapy. Many people appear to fight off influenza, while others
around them develop the condition. Body temperature is maintained and
improved while sleeping on an incline. Respiration, Renal function,
heart performance also appear to benefit! I Firmly Believe that no
person suffering from an illness should be placed on a flat bed!
It is my intention to bring the benefits of my work and discovery in
circulation to the people of Africa. I have tried to reach people who
have AIDS and other infectious illnesses on BBC World Service Radio.
If You are involved with Health Care and would like to test the
effectiveness of this simple intervention. I would very much like to
hear from you with regards to setting up a controlled study to
determine the effects of this powerful free therapy for people with
AIDS and HIV.
Adapt your own bed To sleep as nature intended us to, and as The
Ancient Egyptians did! A bed is raised placing the head end on a
minimum of two 20cm or 8 inch blocks. Hooking the casters or legs over
the blocks helps to stabilise the bed. If your bed is the type that
joins in the centre you will need to support the join with two 3inch
or 7.5 cm blocks. The casters at the foot end of the bed should be
removed to give the correct slope and added stability. Check the
height by measuring from the floor to the top of the mattress. If your
bed is longer than a standard bed then you must adjust the height of
the blocks accordingly.
A wooden wedge placed under the mattress, or even folded blankets will
do the job, but be sure to recheck the angle as the blankets often
compress and more should be added to make up the difference. Be
patient and expect a little discomfort while gravity adjusts your body
to the new posture. You may feel some discomfort in the spine and
neck, this appears to be a threshold which has to be passed and is
probably due to us developing a more upright posture. If you would
like to help me in my ongoing research, or would simply like to
monitor your own progress, see the (enclosed) diary entry form to
record any changes in your health,
20cm (8ins) block-- 10cm (4ins) block----- Castors off bottom
The Importance of Gravity to our Health and Wellbeing, and its
Relation to Rest & Sleep.
The most powerful and least understood force known to man is gravity.
A force, that cements all planets to an invisible grid. A force which,
here on earth, raised mountains, carved out valleys, hurls molten rock
into the air and drives the world's weather and ocean currents. In
fact, the very force that shapes everything we are or will ever see.
From the time we stand up to take our first steps as children, we
sense our correct posture and align ourselves for optimum performance.
By standing on our own two feet, we are not struggling to overcome
gravity as is currently accepted. In fact we stood up as a species in
order to harness and bathe in the earth’s gravitational force. Once
this simple and hitherto overlooked concept is accepted, it becomes
enlightening to understand how we, the most intelligent of all the
species here on earth stand warm blooded and vertical, as opposed to
cold blooded reptiles which do not! Yet, in our wisdom we have chosen
to ignore the very force that powers all our vital functions when we
sleep. We have poured countless £ billions into research and yet
answers to debilitating medical conditions which cause untold
suffering and premature deaths continue to remain life's unsolved
mysteries. Children continue to slip quietly away before they have
managed to take a single step. The average life expectancy has
remained relatively the same: Three score years and ten or seventy
years. Why has this figure failed to change significantly along with
the advances in science and medicine? What common denominator does
each and every one of us share as we sleep safely tucked up in bed?
Ever since the human race began, people have striven to make life more
comfortable and nowhere is this more apparent than in the sleeping
quarters of people around the world. Yet, in our endeavours for
comfort we have never questioned the angle at which we lay down to
sleep? Until now! The rhythms of nature, like the ocean tides, are
irrefutably linked to the influences of the Sun, Moon and Earth’s
gravitational force. It is no coincidence that animals and plants'
synchronies the birth of their offspring. Yet, each of us chooses to
ignore the power of gravity every night as we lay in our flat bed.
Links below are case sensitive:
http://www.the-tree.org.uk/TreeTalk/3Spring2003/Gravity/gravity1.htm
(Theory and Intro)
http://groups.iop.org/ME/archive_newsletter2003014.htm (Published in
Medical Physics Newsletter)
In 1994, I made a very important discovery in circulation, which has
shown beyond any shadow of a doubt that the human body requires the
correct influence from gravity in order to maintain optimum
circulation of bodily fluids! I have been working with people
suffering from a whole range of illnesses since 1994. And have
observed and documented many incredible recoveries and improvements in
conditions ranging from oedema to spinal cord injuries. My work is all
freely available on the Internet. Use my name and Gravity as a search
term, in a search engine. For Example: Healthy Astronauts develop
rapid ageing, muscular and bone degeneration, immune deficiencies,
neurological and visual problems when they are in space and begin to
recover when they come back to Earth!
During several studies, involving many people, it became apparent that
the immune system appears to respond significantly from inclined bed
therapy. Many people appear to fight off influenza, while others
around them develop the condition. Body temperature is maintained and
improved while sleeping on an incline. Respiration, Renal function,
heart performance also appear to benefit! I Firmly Believe that no
person suffering from an illness should be placed on a flat bed!
It is my intention to bring the benefits of my work and discovery in
circulation to the people of Africa. I have tried to reach people who
have AIDS and other infectious illnesses on BBC World Service Radio.
If You are involved with Health Care and would like to test the
effectiveness of this simple intervention. I would very much like to
hear from you with regards to setting up a controlled study to
determine the effects of this powerful free therapy for people with
AIDS and HIV.
Adapt your own bed To sleep as nature intended us to, and as The
Ancient Egyptians did! A bed is raised placing the head end on a
minimum of two 20cm or 8 inch blocks. Hooking the casters or legs over
the blocks helps to stabilise the bed. If your bed is the type that
joins in the centre you will need to support the join with two 3inch
or 7.5 cm blocks. The casters at the foot end of the bed should be
removed to give the correct slope and added stability. Check the
height by measuring from the floor to the top of the mattress. If your
bed is longer than a standard bed then you must adjust the height of
the blocks accordingly.
A wooden wedge placed under the mattress, or even folded blankets will
do the job, but be sure to recheck the angle as the blankets often
compress and more should be added to make up the difference. Be
patient and expect a little discomfort while gravity adjusts your body
to the new posture. You may feel some discomfort in the spine and
neck, this appears to be a threshold which has to be passed and is
probably due to us developing a more upright posture. If you would
like to help me in my ongoing research, or would simply like to
monitor your own progress, see the (enclosed) diary entry form to
record any changes in your health,
20cm (8ins) block-- 10cm (4ins) block----- Castors off bottom
The Importance of Gravity to our Health and Wellbeing, and its
Relation to Rest & Sleep.
The most powerful and least understood force known to man is gravity.
A force, that cements all planets to an invisible grid. A force which,
here on earth, raised mountains, carved out valleys, hurls molten rock
into the air and drives the world's weather and ocean currents. In
fact, the very force that shapes everything we are or will ever see.
From the time we stand up to take our first steps as children, we
sense our correct posture and align ourselves for optimum performance.
By standing on our own two feet, we are not struggling to overcome
gravity as is currently accepted. In fact we stood up as a species in
order to harness and bathe in the earth’s gravitational force. Once
this simple and hitherto overlooked concept is accepted, it becomes
enlightening to understand how we, the most intelligent of all the
species here on earth stand warm blooded and vertical, as opposed to
cold blooded reptiles which do not! Yet, in our wisdom we have chosen
to ignore the very force that powers all our vital functions when we
sleep. We have poured countless £ billions into research and yet
answers to debilitating medical conditions which cause untold
suffering and premature deaths continue to remain life's unsolved
mysteries. Children continue to slip quietly away before they have
managed to take a single step. The average life expectancy has
remained relatively the same: Three score years and ten or seventy
years. Why has this figure failed to change significantly along with
the advances in science and medicine? What common denominator does
each and every one of us share as we sleep safely tucked up in bed?
Ever since the human race began, people have striven to make life more
comfortable and nowhere is this more apparent than in the sleeping
quarters of people around the world. Yet, in our endeavours for
comfort we have never questioned the angle at which we lay down to
sleep? Until now! The rhythms of nature, like the ocean tides, are
irrefutably linked to the influences of the Sun, Moon and Earth’s
gravitational force. It is no coincidence that animals and plants'
synchronies the birth of their offspring. Yet, each of us chooses to
ignore the power of gravity every night as we lay in our flat bed.
Links below are case sensitive:
http://www.the-tree.org.uk/TreeTalk/3Spring2003/Gravity/gravity1.htm
(Theory and Intro)
http://groups.iop.org/ME/archive_newsletter2003014.htm (Published in
Medical Physics Newsletter)
Friday, May 20, 2011
President Bingu wa Mutharika Strikes Reconciliatory Tone
No podium-bashing.
No angry bouts.
No donor-bashing.
No opposition-bashing.
Today, Malawi's President, Bingu wa Mutharika, opened the 23rd International Trade Fair a different man, as he moved from his usual tendency of turning the Trade Fair into a foe-bashing zone.
Instead, Mutharika concentrated on business and trade issues- asking government ministries and departments to start offering universities research projects.
"Elsewhere, be it in the United States of America, Japan, Bangladesh, economies developed because they utilised university institutions. We mast start doing the same in Malawi."
Mutharika's tone has surprised observers. Former colonial master Britain has just announced that it is withholding aid from Malawi. Germany, Norway have expressed similar intentions.
Fuel shortages continue to trouble all facets of life, while most public hospitals have run out of drugs.
Mutharika could not afford to be boastiful.
Malawi is in sombre mood.
No angry bouts.
No donor-bashing.
No opposition-bashing.
Today, Malawi's President, Bingu wa Mutharika, opened the 23rd International Trade Fair a different man, as he moved from his usual tendency of turning the Trade Fair into a foe-bashing zone.
Instead, Mutharika concentrated on business and trade issues- asking government ministries and departments to start offering universities research projects.
"Elsewhere, be it in the United States of America, Japan, Bangladesh, economies developed because they utilised university institutions. We mast start doing the same in Malawi."
Mutharika's tone has surprised observers. Former colonial master Britain has just announced that it is withholding aid from Malawi. Germany, Norway have expressed similar intentions.
Fuel shortages continue to trouble all facets of life, while most public hospitals have run out of drugs.
Mutharika could not afford to be boastiful.
Malawi is in sombre mood.
Bahrain
...Sanctions now against King Al Khalifa's tyranny
...Halt crimes against humanity, protect civilians
...UN, EU, US & UK must withdraw support from Bahraini regime
Speaking at a pro-democracy rally outside the Bahraini Embassy in London on 14 May 2011, organised by Justice for Bahrain, Peter Tatchell, Director of the human rights organisation, the Peter Tatchell Foundation, said:
"We are here in solidarity with the people of Bahrain who are struggling for democratic reforms, human rights and social justice. The state of emergency must be lifted immediately, all political prisoners freed and Saudi Arabian and UAE troops withdrawn. The people of Bahrain should be free to determine their own future by the exercise of their democratic rights, without external interference.
"The international community has failed in its duty to protect the civilian population from arrest, detention without trial, torture and murder by the regime of King Hamad ibn Isa Al Khalifa.
"If the duty to protect civilians applies in Libya, why not in Bahrain?
"The UN, EU, US, UK and Arab League should work together to: halt all arms sales to Bahrain, cease military cooperation, suspend the operation of the US naval base, institute a travel ban and assets-freeze on top regime officials, prohibit the export to Bahrain of luxury items for the rich ruling elite, refer Bahrain's leaders to the International Criminal Court and the UN Human Rights Council on charges of torture and crimes against humanity, and report Saudi Arabia and the UAE to the UN Security Council for their interference in the internal affairs of Bahrain and the role of their troops in the violent suppression of the democracy protests," said Mr Tatchell.
Speaking after the protest, Mr Tatchell added:
"The protesters in Bahrain are demanding democracy and human rights, especially for the Shia Muslim majority who comprises more than 60% of the population. Shias are excluded from political power by the pro-Sunni monarchy and government. They suffer sustained discrimination, especially in housing and jobs.
"Human rights activists in Bahrain report that at least 30 civilians have been killed, including four people who have died in custody after beatings and torture. Around 400 democracy protesters have been injured. Doctors and nurses who treated the wounded and spoke publicly about their injuries have been arrested, beaten and tortured. Forty-seven of them are being put on trial.
"Already four protesters have been sentenced to death, following military trials held behind closed doors.
"Close to 1,000 Bahrainis have been arrested since the start of protests in February, although about 300 of these have since been released. Twenty-one opposition activists and human rights defenders are being prosecuted on trumped up charges. An estimated 1,000 professionals have been sacked from their jobs, accused of pro-democracy and pro-Shia sympathies. The country's only opposition newspaper has been closed down. The editors of Al-Wasat are being put on trial on bogus charges of misreporting the protests and the government's crackdown. Twenty-seven Shia mosques, meeting houses and shrines have been destroyed or damaged.
"A total of 1,500 Saudi and UAE soldiers entered Bahrain in March and are helping with this systematic repression," Mr Tatchell added.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, has condemned the brutal tactics of the Bahraini regime as "shocking and illegal conduct."
See these reports in The Independent:
http://tiny.cc/hpzoa and http://tiny.cc/7gh3y and http://tiny.cc/s0d57
See also Justice for Bahrain: www.justiceforbahrain.com
Even before the current wave of repression, Bahrain had a poor human rights record; having been criticised by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
Amnesty International report:
http://tiny.cc/0lhbp
Human Rights Watch report:
http://tiny.cc/cgtfm
...Halt crimes against humanity, protect civilians
...UN, EU, US & UK must withdraw support from Bahraini regime
Speaking at a pro-democracy rally outside the Bahraini Embassy in London on 14 May 2011, organised by Justice for Bahrain, Peter Tatchell, Director of the human rights organisation, the Peter Tatchell Foundation, said:
"We are here in solidarity with the people of Bahrain who are struggling for democratic reforms, human rights and social justice. The state of emergency must be lifted immediately, all political prisoners freed and Saudi Arabian and UAE troops withdrawn. The people of Bahrain should be free to determine their own future by the exercise of their democratic rights, without external interference.
"The international community has failed in its duty to protect the civilian population from arrest, detention without trial, torture and murder by the regime of King Hamad ibn Isa Al Khalifa.
"If the duty to protect civilians applies in Libya, why not in Bahrain?
"The UN, EU, US, UK and Arab League should work together to: halt all arms sales to Bahrain, cease military cooperation, suspend the operation of the US naval base, institute a travel ban and assets-freeze on top regime officials, prohibit the export to Bahrain of luxury items for the rich ruling elite, refer Bahrain's leaders to the International Criminal Court and the UN Human Rights Council on charges of torture and crimes against humanity, and report Saudi Arabia and the UAE to the UN Security Council for their interference in the internal affairs of Bahrain and the role of their troops in the violent suppression of the democracy protests," said Mr Tatchell.
Speaking after the protest, Mr Tatchell added:
"The protesters in Bahrain are demanding democracy and human rights, especially for the Shia Muslim majority who comprises more than 60% of the population. Shias are excluded from political power by the pro-Sunni monarchy and government. They suffer sustained discrimination, especially in housing and jobs.
"Human rights activists in Bahrain report that at least 30 civilians have been killed, including four people who have died in custody after beatings and torture. Around 400 democracy protesters have been injured. Doctors and nurses who treated the wounded and spoke publicly about their injuries have been arrested, beaten and tortured. Forty-seven of them are being put on trial.
"Already four protesters have been sentenced to death, following military trials held behind closed doors.
"Close to 1,000 Bahrainis have been arrested since the start of protests in February, although about 300 of these have since been released. Twenty-one opposition activists and human rights defenders are being prosecuted on trumped up charges. An estimated 1,000 professionals have been sacked from their jobs, accused of pro-democracy and pro-Shia sympathies. The country's only opposition newspaper has been closed down. The editors of Al-Wasat are being put on trial on bogus charges of misreporting the protests and the government's crackdown. Twenty-seven Shia mosques, meeting houses and shrines have been destroyed or damaged.
"A total of 1,500 Saudi and UAE soldiers entered Bahrain in March and are helping with this systematic repression," Mr Tatchell added.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, has condemned the brutal tactics of the Bahraini regime as "shocking and illegal conduct."
See these reports in The Independent:
http://tiny.cc/hpzoa and http://tiny.cc/7gh3y and http://tiny.cc/s0d57
See also Justice for Bahrain: www.justiceforbahrain.com
Even before the current wave of repression, Bahrain had a poor human rights record; having been criticised by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
Amnesty International report:
http://tiny.cc/0lhbp
Human Rights Watch report:
http://tiny.cc/cgtfm
Azerbaijan to host the 2012 Eurovision song contest
Widespread human rights abuses on all fronts, say human rights groups
Azerbaijan won this year's Eurovision song contest, held in Germany on Saturday 14 May. This means it will host next year's event.
Commenting on the 2012 Eurovision contest being held in Azerbaijan, human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, Director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation, said:
"Azerbaijan is not a welcoming or safe country for LGBT people. Although homosexuality was decriminalised in 2001, the LGBT community suffers police harassment and brutality, including bashings, blackmail, intimidation, bribery and invasions of privacy. LGBT people risk eviction from their homes and dismissal from their jobs. They have no legal protection against discrimination. Homophobic prejudice, threats and violence are systemic problems.
"The Eurovision organisers must seek guarantees from the Azerbaijani government that it will respect human rights, that visitors to next year's competition will not be victimised and that domestic and foreign media covering the event will be able to report freely, without harassment.
"Azerbaijan has a very poor human rights record on all fronts. It restricts religious and media freedom, suppresses peaceful protests, tortures political prisoners and jails opposition activists on trumped up charges. Earlier this month, Jabbar Savalanli, a member of the opposition Popular Front Party, was jailed for two and a half years on bogus drug charges. Nine journalists and bloggers are currently in prison for expressing dissenting opinions," said Mr Tatchell.
For background information about LGBT and other human rights violations in Azerbaijan, see these reports:
International Lesbian and Gay Association
http://tiny.cc/ro8r1
Human Rights Watch
http://tiny.cc/vvlpa
and:
http://www.hrw.org/en/node/87607
Amnesty International
http://tiny.cc/ua7nt
Azerbaijan won this year's Eurovision song contest, held in Germany on Saturday 14 May. This means it will host next year's event.
Commenting on the 2012 Eurovision contest being held in Azerbaijan, human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, Director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation, said:
"Azerbaijan is not a welcoming or safe country for LGBT people. Although homosexuality was decriminalised in 2001, the LGBT community suffers police harassment and brutality, including bashings, blackmail, intimidation, bribery and invasions of privacy. LGBT people risk eviction from their homes and dismissal from their jobs. They have no legal protection against discrimination. Homophobic prejudice, threats and violence are systemic problems.
"The Eurovision organisers must seek guarantees from the Azerbaijani government that it will respect human rights, that visitors to next year's competition will not be victimised and that domestic and foreign media covering the event will be able to report freely, without harassment.
"Azerbaijan has a very poor human rights record on all fronts. It restricts religious and media freedom, suppresses peaceful protests, tortures political prisoners and jails opposition activists on trumped up charges. Earlier this month, Jabbar Savalanli, a member of the opposition Popular Front Party, was jailed for two and a half years on bogus drug charges. Nine journalists and bloggers are currently in prison for expressing dissenting opinions," said Mr Tatchell.
For background information about LGBT and other human rights violations in Azerbaijan, see these reports:
International Lesbian and Gay Association
http://tiny.cc/ro8r1
Human Rights Watch
http://tiny.cc/vvlpa
and:
http://www.hrw.org/en/node/87607
Amnesty International
http://tiny.cc/ua7nt
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
The Fight For Women's Reproductive Rights in Malawi
By Richard Chirombo
Madam Callista Mutharika: Malawi's First Lady and Ambassador for Safe Motherhood
The ‘principle witness’ is a strange entity: it recognizes no court’s jurisdiction, no murmuring word ever escapes its tongue, derives no meaning from the word Malawi, honours no human summons, pays no tax, and is unsure about its own citizenship.
But the case still ends in its favour, anyway- one of the world’s rare incidences where the winner shows no facial expression portraying happiness, and the principle loser is the over-burdened woman. The truth is there for all to see, too; that the winner will never be there, does not understand the meaning of all this, and how it all begun.
There is nothing the perplexed, over-burdened woman can do, anyway; this practice is sanctioned in the law. It does not matter that the laws- covered under Section 149, 150 and 151 of the Penal Code, and enacted in1930- that punish women for attempting to ‘resign from pregnancy’ (that is, abort) might have been overtaken by time and circumstances.
Colonialism, for instance, imposed the law and left it intact when independence called in 1964. One party rule adopted it and, when democracy took to the stage in 1994, left it still standing. Even now, when Malawi is a Fifth Republic, abortion laws remain one of the establishments still standing against the strong winds of historical changes.
“It may be time we reviewed some of these things,” says Faustace Chirwa, executive director for National Women’s Lobby Group (Nawolg).
Chirwa is one of the members in a group of people separated by varying professional interests: law, health, human rights. The issue of abortion draws them together.
On Friday May 13, 2011, group members met in Lilongwe to try, again, to make sense out of the usual question: why does the country give a little and, at the same time, take more away when it comes to the woman’s right to resign from pregnancy?
What this means is that group members want government to be humane. When it gives, it must give whole-heartedly. If it gives partially, then it should just take away.
Chirwa explains: “As things are now, the woman can terminate pregnancy only if her life is in danger. However, the girl child who falls prey to incest and rape- and these are things she could not control, things that were out of her hand- faces punishment if she aborts in her quest to rid herself of the shame and continue with her schooling. It does not make sense, in this case.”
This partial-heartedness in giving the woman personal discretion could be termed as a half-Bourne attempt and, in matters of life and death, (half) does not count. In a British court in 1938, a court ruled that the performance of an abortion on a woman was lawful because it had saved a woman from turning into “a physical and mental wreck”.
While the 1938 English Borne decision has become the reference point for women rights advocates, Malawi is not considered a true disciple of the Bourne precedent for her half-hearted zeal.
Malawi recognizes the right to resign from pregnancy only when the woman’s life is in danger. Section 243 of the Penal Code excuses practitioners from criminal blame when they perform surgical operations upon an unborn child in good faith, with reasonable care and skill. But the operation itself must be reasonable, that is, if the unborn were present, it would have found sense in grounds for forcing it into anonymity.
Other than that, it remains illegal to resign from pregnancy, a criminal offence that attracts seven years of free labour and forced confinement for the woman. The most severe punishment is reserved for those who help other people carry out abortions: 14 years Imprisonment with Hard Labour is the prescription for their will and efforts. Those who knowingly supply items to be used in the act get three years, described by Chirwa as “severe”.
She points to the many exceptional instances where resigning from pregnancy moves from being a question of choice to a matter of necessity and, again, she walks back to the issue of the under-aged girl forced into a condition of unexpected expectancy by the rust-smitten father, brother, or other well-muscled relative.
In such cases, it is not only the laws that stand between the hapless girl and a productive future. In between her and the future also stands such long-term injuries and disabilities as uterine perforation, chronic pelvic pain, and secondary infertility (infertility due to an early date with fertility), cases so frequent.
Or, in case she dies after procuring abortion through unsafe channels, she adds on to the 13 per cent of African women who die due to unsafe abortions. This is so because things turn exceptionally quickly on the pregnant teen-ager. Pregnancy from incest or rape knits together an individual, society norms and the prospect of a court appearance.
The other reality is that decisions to ‘resign from pregnancy’ are often an accumulation of quick, whispered conversations. After the termination exercise come the questions:
When she dies: Who is to blame, government or herself? When she lives but suffers serious health complications: Where else could she go? When caught and in court: Was she to blame?
But society still takes no positive action to put in place enabling laws. At least until recently when Chirwa and others are forming groups to look into the social effects of following some well-intentioned laws. But meetings such as one in Lilongwe on May 13 may yield to a naught if the definition of life remains a matter of personal taste.
“Every person has the right to life and no person shall be arbitrarily deprived of his or her life: Provided that the execution of the death sentence imposed by a competent court on a person in respect of a criminal offense under the laws of Malawi of which he or she has been convicted shall not be regarded as arbitrary deprivation of his or her right to life,” reads Section 16 of the Constitution of the Republic of Malawi.
This raises four immediate questions: what is life? Whose life is it, the citizen’s or that of the foetus? And, legally and not medically, when does a foetus become alive? In fact, is there anywhere in the constitution, or any other statute, a place where life is defined?
Enters Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs- and Solicitor General- Anthony Kamanga: “Well, I don’t want to do research for you on that issue (of defining life in our laws). Do your own research.”
And this research (conducted by this reporter) reveals that life is not defined in the Constitution. This raises legal questions: When a suspect is convicted of murder or abortion, with this apparent lack of specifically laid-down parameters on what constitutes life, is the decision not based on assumptions as opposed to clearly laid down provisions?
Why has the country, through Constitutional Review programmes, left the discretion to decide what life is on human bias and common sense- common sense being subjective? This is clearly a weak link in our perception of life. If life is so important, it must be defined. It is the only way we will know when life really begins, legally; and, if there are conflicts in medical and legal definitions over when life truly begins, the Law Commissioners will be there to guide the harmonization process.
When does life really begin, legally? Is it at conception, when the first medical scan on the expectant mother reveals it is a baby-boy or girl, or at delivery?
“Some say at conception,” says Kamanga.
Legally?
“The issue of abortion is a topical issue. However, I do not want to be drawn into the debate. Let people express their views on the issue, but I don’t want to be drawn into this debate on abortion,” says the soft-spoken, media-friendly Kamanga.
And so ended the short interview on whether there is a Constitutional provision clearly defining life, and what it is made up of.
The second question, naturally, pertains to the parties involved in a court case on abortion. In any other case, there is the prosecution, the presiding magistrate, judge or Justice, the defense, and witnesses. In abortion cases, however, the main witness (unborn) always misses out. But that is not an issue, the issue is its identity- in terms of nationality.
In abortion court procedures, the defendant is a citizen of Malawi, or someone who committed the offense in Malawi. On the other hand, is the unborn child or foetus a bonafide citizen of the Republic of Malawi?
“That is not stipulated in the laws. Try talking to the judiciary on that one,” Peter Kakatera, public relations officer for Malawi’s Immigration Department, advises.
The Immigration Department uses two Acts: the Immigration Act of 1964, and the Citizenship Act enacted in 1966. All these are old pieces of law because The Immigration Act was last amended in 1988, while that of Citizenship last got a second look in 1972.
When it comes to issues of Malawian citizenship, The Citizenship Act clearly stipulates the grounds through which one becomes a citizen of the Republic. These include citizenship by birth, by descent, by marriage, by registration, by conferment, and dual citizenship of minors (though those under this citizenship will have to choose one country at the age of 21, failing which they lose their Malawian citizenship, and can only get it by making an application for Restoration).
The closest a foetus came to ‘getting’ Malawian citizenship is the citizenship by birth clause; unfortunately, the unborn is just that- not yet born or there.
Says Kakatera: “Citizenship by birth means the time we can actually see the child.”
This, too, is the definition of birth in the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, New 7th Edition. Birth is defined as “the time when a baby is born; the process of being born (labour)”.
It seems that the unborn child’s place in both law and society is evasive. Take, for instance, the issue of primitive African society.
Before the Partition of Africa in the late 1880s, African society was highly organized, with especially effective systems in conflict resolution. However, records specifying the common types of disputes settled render no mention to issues of abortion.
It is a practice adopted by organizations who want that traditional set up, where more power was concentrated in the hands of chiefs, back. No wonder, such districts as Mwanza in Southern Malawi are running Primary Justice programmes under the guidance of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace.
Association for Progressive Women’s (APW) Acting Executive Director, Noel Msiska, is the coordinator of the Primary Justice programme- which draws traditional leaders, the District Commissioner, Civil Society Organisations, NGOs , and community members together- in Mwanza.
Msiska confesses: “Ever since we started running the programme (some four years ago), we have never heard of chiefs settling community issues to do with abortion.”
Of the many cases Msiska and others have witnessed being settled at local level are those of land grabbing, pregnancy denials, vandalism of property, “but not abortion. And, in all cases, the disputes were settled, and the community members involved made peace and friends, and lived without any remnants hatred at all”.
This, says Msiska, shows that the primary justice system remains “humane” as it builds relations and promotes peace. The formal justice system, on the other hand, still strikes one as punitive. That is why it throws people away (in jail) instead of reconciling them with society, he says.
In Neno, a neighbouring district to Mwanza, the situation is the same: the formal justice system also throws the offender away. The only difference, says Traditional Authority Chekucheku, is that, even when the under-aged girl decides to keep her pregnancy and delivers safely, the child lives the life of a “dead” individual.
“By dead, I mean two things. The first one is that these children are treated as outcasts in rural communities, and this affects their participation in community activities. It is like they are obscure. Secondly, these children do not use their actual father’s surname but will inherit that of the ‘adopted’ father. It is like adopting a false identity and living a life of pretence.”
These practices contradict Section 23, sub-sections 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the Republican Constitution. Subsection 1 says, for instance, that “All children, regardless of the circumstances of their birth, are entitled to equal treatment before the law”, followed by sub-sections 2 and 3, which say that “all children shall have the right to a given name and a family name and the right to a nationality”, and that “children have the right to know, and to be raised by, their parents”.
Chekucheku acknowledges, as expected, that he has never resolved community issues bordering on abortion. This dry status of pregnancy-resignation issues could be an indication that laws dealing with abortion were either imposed by colonial administrators or are not ‘important’ enough in the ‘normal’ Malawian set up.
“Cases of incest are common in the village, though the parties involved never bring such issues to the attention of the chief because the offending man’s wife is always afraid of losing material and financial help. If a close relative forces himself on a girl, family members shield the real perpetrator and ‘impose’ the pregnancy on an innocent, unsuspecting youth, who may be forced to drop out of school to fend for his new family,” says Chekucheku.
The one striking factor about incest is that it, somehow, collides with the right to education. That is what Dr. Pierson Ntata and other social researchers found some six years ago. In a Centre for Social Research- a Department at Chancellor College- research on the effects of violence against girls on education, it was found that 60 percent of forcible sex cases occur at home.
Dr. Ntata and other researchers also found that relatives (uncle, cousin, brother in law) accounted for 5 per cent of perpetrators of forcible sex. The surprising factor was that only half of these cases were reported to teachers, friends, relatives, head teachers, and parents. There is no mention of police, apparently because people take ‘serious’ issues to people they know and those likely to initiate reconciliation.
That could explain why, while abortion remains illegal in Malawi, it is, somehow, tolerated by society. Perhaps this attitude could one day lead to the decriminalization of abortion, steps already taken by Tunisia in 1965, Cape Verde in 1985, South Africa in 1996 and, most recently in 2005, Ethiopia. Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Guinea and Togo have reviewed their national laws to allow abortion in cases of threats to physical health, rape, incest and foetal impairment.
Observers say, however, that instituting favourable laws does not always produce the desired results. They point at Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Ghana with perplexed minds and say, while good laws abound, women still die from unsafe abortions due to inaccessibility of safer services.
But, at least, they have paved the way towards preventing the death of 35,000 women who die, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), out of the five million who carry out unsafe abortions annually. On average, 100 women die from unsafe abortions each passing day.
WHO statistics fault restrictive abortion laws for high abortion-related mortality. This relationship is established by looking at East Africa and some parts of West Africa, regions loathed for their most restrictive abortion laws. These regions record the highest death rates from unsafe abortions.
For Malawi, unfortunately, adolescents contribute a significant number towards hospital admissions, according to pan-African abortion rights group, Ipas Africa Alliance.
“With limited access to contraceptives and safe abortion, women- especially young women and girls- have no option but to resort to unsafe abortions. Studies in various countries, including Kenya, Malawi, Uganda and Zambia, show that adolescents make up a significant number of unsafe abortion-related hospital admissions- many of which result in death,” reads part of an Ipas Africa Alliance report.
This is a slap in Africa’s efforts over the past decade- where major world conferences on women’s reproductive rights have always come to the same conclusion: unsafe abortion is a huge public health crisis and violation of human rights. Human rights, for a start, are guarantees against degradation of one’s dignity and integrity.
Reproductive rights, on the other hand, offer couples and individuals the discretion to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of children; the right to attain the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health; and the discretion to effect decisions regarding reproduction free of discrimination, coercion or violence. For these rights to be enjoyed, individuals need full, correct information and education on contraceptive methods and sexuality, protection of privacy, and; access to health services, among others.
These can be fully enjoyed only if governments, including Malawi, respect provisions of the Additional Protocol on the Rights of Women to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, adopted by Heads of Government of the African Union in 2003; the Maputo Plan of Action adopted in 2006 by African Union Ministers of Health, and incorporated into the Overall Continental Strategy.
It commits governments to addressing death and injury from unsafe abortion by taking action to “enact policies and legal frameworks to reduce the incidence of unsafe abortion”.
These recent steps will power the will already generated through the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (Cedaw); Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; 1993 Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action; the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development Programme of Action held in Cairo, Egypt; the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women and Beijing Platform; and the International Conference on Population and Development held in 1999 in Cairo, Egypt.
All this paperwork portrays attempts at criminalizing abortion as a kind of morality binge as opposed to rational stance.
Those advocating for legalization of abortion are doing the work in the hope that they are working for history, and not prevailing/current sentimentalism. Age-old knowledge that pregnancy is not merely a phase but a permanent feature in women’s lives is also playing in favour of unlimited women’s reproductive rights’ advocates.
Respect for human rights is an accurate mirror of Malawian society.
Legalizing abortion, or at least formally acknowledging that circumstances exist where abortion is a matter of necessity and not choice, will naturally lead to consensus that pro-abortion campaigns are neither to much for a progressive woman to ask, not too much for advocates of a democracy to give.
To surmise that the war against abortion has been won is to believe, in the face of growing outcries, the optimists who have been wrong in the past. To suggest that the debate can be suppressed is to yield to unreasonable pessimism. To claim that the advocates are in minority it to rush into unsettled conclusion.
The debate on abortion obliterates the distinction between emergency and normalcy. It is simply timely.
What is happening on abortion is not strange. With many changes taking place across social, economic spheres, analysts are holding out the hope of a vast moral regeneration they claim is always embedded/or inherent within the act of change (revolution) itself.
Change may either be difficult, or easy, to defeat based on means through which it occurs. Mainly, change comes in two forms: through imitation or through innovation.
Change that originates from imitation- often happening when an individual or members of a group observe that another person or group is using a new means successfully- is more difficult to suppress than that inspired by innovation because products of innovation lack the benefit of proven history.
That (change by imitation), coincidentally, is the case with the issue of abortion. It has been there, on the world stage, debated and examined like a new piece of terrorism gadget. In Africa, countries such as Kenya have gone half a step towards legalizing it wholesale by allowing it in cases where the woman is in danger. People are now raising questions about the real meaning of the word ‘inalienable’ , that it means no one (not even lawmakers) select what parts to pick out, and which ones are hands-off zones.
Inalienable simply means you accept one, you embrace all. Fortunately, the prevailing debate on rights and justice govern the acceptability of various possible types of citizen choices/practices/ action. As international rights protocols come to be invested in (ratified), and sometimes guaranteed by, the national state, acceptance of hitherto unacceptable practices/concepts themselves becomes nationalized.
Psychological writers like Stanley Milgram have argued in the book ‘obedience to authority’ that no action (including the getting rid of pregnancy) of itself has an unchangeable psychological quality: its meaning can be altered by placing it in particular contexts. In this case, such contexts including medical attempt at saving the life of the woman, preservation of physical and mental health, rape and incest, foetal impairment, and economic or social reasons.
The Ministry of Health’s mandate to administer health services is difficult to perform in the darkness that shrouds pregnancy termination matters. The darkness provides a lee-way to non-professionals who cash in on desperate women, and the threat of the law encourages anonymous deaths or serious health impairments including fistula in teenage parents.
Others, perhaps many, may not be caught in the act to tussle against the law; they then live seemingly productive lives, though traces of ruined lives lie strewn across the mat of 40 years since independence- years of no care. These traces are visible in such social-diseases as fistula (for those who are forced to keep the unborn in fear of the law, and deliver the still-born.
And the warnings posted in newspapers are too late for some of the girls who might have fallen prey to fistula. It is too late for the many who die in the process of saving themselves.
Complications are hugely expensive. And, because the girl patient will more likely seek medical attention from public hospitals, their bills are footed by the very society that neglected them. With the cost pinch, many patients cannot afford private medical facilities.
Fairness, is it, incarcerating the citizen for the sake of the unknown ‘citizen’?
The ‘principle witness’ is a strange entity: it recognizes no court’s jurisdiction, no murmuring word ever escapes its tongue, derives no meaning from the word Malawi, honours no human summons, pays no tax, and is unsure about its own citizenship.
The ‘principle witness’ is a strange entity: it recognizes no court’s jurisdiction, no murmuring word ever escapes its tongue, derives no meaning from the word Malawi, honours no human summons, pays no tax, and is unsure about its own citizenship.
But the case still ends in its favour, anyway- one of the world’s rare incidences where the winner shows no facial expression portraying happiness, and the principle loser is the over-burdened woman. The truth is there for all to see, too; that the winner will never be there, does not understand the meaning of all this, and how it all begun.
There is nothing the perplexed, over-burdened woman can do, anyway; this practice is sanctioned in the law. It does not matter that the laws- covered under Section 149, 150 and 151 of the Penal Code, and enacted in1930- that punish women for attempting to ‘resign from pregnancy’ (that is, abort) might have been overtaken by time and circumstances.
Colonialism, for instance, imposed the law and left it intact when independence called in 1964. One party rule adopted it and, when democracy took to the stage in 1994, left it still standing. Even now, when Malawi is a Fifth Republic, abortion laws remain one of the establishments still standing against the strong winds of historical changes.
“It may be time we reviewed some of these things,” says Faustace Chirwa, executive director for National Women’s Lobby Group (Nawolg).
Chirwa is one of the members in a group of people separated by varying professional interests: law, health, human rights. The issue of abortion draws them together.
On Friday May 13, 2011, group members met in Lilongwe to try, again, to make sense out of the usual question: why does the country give a little and, at the same time, take more away when it comes to the woman’s right to resign from pregnancy?
What this means is that group members want government to be humane. When it gives, it must give whole-heartedly. If it gives partially, then it should just take away.
Chirwa explains: “As things are now, the woman can terminate pregnancy only if her life is in danger. However, the girl child who falls prey to incest and rape- and these are things she could not control, things that were out of her hand- faces punishment if she aborts in her quest to rid herself of the shame and continue with her schooling. It does not make sense, in this case.”
This partial-heartedness in giving the woman personal discretion could be termed as a half-Bourne attempt and, in matters of life and death, (half) does not count. In a British court in 1938, a court ruled that the performance of an abortion on a woman was lawful because it had saved a woman from turning into “a physical and mental wreck”.
While the 1938 English Borne decision has become the reference point for women rights advocates, Malawi is not considered a true disciple of the Bourne precedent for her half-hearted zeal.
Malawi recognizes the right to resign from pregnancy only when the woman’s life is in danger. Section 243 of the Penal Code excuses practitioners from criminal blame when they perform surgical operations upon an unborn child in good faith, with reasonable care and skill. But the operation itself must be reasonable, that is, if the unborn were present, it would have found sense in grounds for forcing it into anonymity.
Other than that, it remains illegal to resign from pregnancy, a criminal offence that attracts seven years of free labour and forced confinement for the woman. The most severe punishment is reserved for those who help other people carry out abortions: 14 years Imprisonment with Hard Labour is the prescription for their will and efforts. Those who knowingly supply items to be used in the act get three years, described by Chirwa as “severe”.
She points to the many exceptional instances where resigning from pregnancy moves from being a question of choice to a matter of necessity and, again, she walks back to the issue of the under-aged girl forced into a condition of unexpected expectancy by the rust-smitten father, brother, or other well-muscled relative.
In such cases, it is not only the laws that stand between the hapless girl and a productive future. In between her and the future also stands such long-term injuries and disabilities as uterine perforation, chronic pelvic pain, and secondary infertility (infertility due to an early date with fertility), cases so frequent.
Or, in case she dies after procuring abortion through unsafe channels, she adds on to the 13 per cent of African women who die due to unsafe abortions. This is so because things turn exceptionally quickly on the pregnant teen-ager. Pregnancy from incest or rape knits together an individual, society norms and the prospect of a court appearance.
The other reality is that decisions to ‘resign from pregnancy’ are often an accumulation of quick, whispered conversations. After the termination exercise come the questions:
When she dies: Who is to blame, government or herself? When she lives but suffers serious health complications: Where else could she go? When caught and in court: Was she to blame?
But society still takes no positive action to put in place enabling laws. At least until recently when Chirwa and others are forming groups to look into the social effects of following some well-intentioned laws. But meetings such as one in Lilongwe on May 13 may yield to a naught if the definition of life remains a matter of personal taste.
“Every person has the right to life and no person shall be arbitrarily deprived of his or her life: Provided that the execution of the death sentence imposed by a competent court on a person in respect of a criminal offense under the laws of Malawi of which he or she has been convicted shall not be regarded as arbitrary deprivation of his or her right to life,” reads Section 16 of the Constitution of the Republic of Malawi.
This raises four immediate questions: what is life? Whose life is it, the citizen’s or that of the foetus? And, legally and not medically, when does a foetus become alive? In fact, is there anywhere in the constitution, or any other statute, a place where life is defined?
Enters Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs- and Solicitor General- Anthony Kamanga: “Well, I don’t want to do research for you on that issue (of defining life in our laws). Do your own research.”
And this research (conducted by this reporter) reveals that life is not defined in the Constitution. This raises legal questions: When a suspect is convicted of murder or abortion, with this apparent lack of specifically laid-down parameters on what constitutes life, is the decision not based on assumptions as opposed to clearly laid down provisions?
Why has the country, through Constitutional Review programmes, left the discretion to decide what life is on human bias and common sense- common sense being subjective? This is clearly a weak link in our perception of life. If life is so important, it must be defined. It is the only way we will know when life really begins, legally; and, if there are conflicts in medical and legal definitions over when life truly begins, the Law Commissioners will be there to guide the harmonization process.
When does life really begin, legally? Is it at conception, when the first medical scan on the expectant mother reveals it is a baby-boy or girl, or at delivery?
“Some say at conception,” says Kamanga.
Legally?
“The issue of abortion is a topical issue. However, I do not want to be drawn into the debate. Let people express their views on the issue, but I don’t want to be drawn into this debate on abortion,” says the soft-spoken, media-friendly Kamanga.
And so ended the short interview on whether there is a Constitutional provision clearly defining life, and what it is made up of.
The second question, naturally, pertains to the parties involved in a court case on abortion. In any other case, there is the prosecution, the presiding magistrate, judge or Justice, the defense, and witnesses. In abortion cases, however, the main witness (unborn) always misses out. But that is not an issue, the issue is its identity- in terms of nationality.
In abortion court procedures, the defendant is a citizen of Malawi, or someone who committed the offense in Malawi. On the other hand, is the unborn child or foetus a bonafide citizen of the Republic of Malawi?
“That is not stipulated in the laws. Try talking to the judiciary on that one,” Peter Kakatera, public relations officer for Malawi’s Immigration Department, advises.
The Immigration Department uses two Acts: the Immigration Act of 1964, and the Citizenship Act enacted in 1966. All these are old pieces of law because The Immigration Act was last amended in 1988, while that of Citizenship last got a second look in 1972.
When it comes to issues of Malawian citizenship, The Citizenship Act clearly stipulates the grounds through which one becomes a citizen of the Republic. These include citizenship by birth, by descent, by marriage, by registration, by conferment, and dual citizenship of minors (though those under this citizenship will have to choose one country at the age of 21, failing which they lose their Malawian citizenship, and can only get it by making an application for Restoration).
The closest a foetus came to ‘getting’ Malawian citizenship is the citizenship by birth clause; unfortunately, the unborn is just that- not yet born or there.
Says Kakatera: “Citizenship by birth means the time we can actually see the child.”
This, too, is the definition of birth in the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, New 7th Edition. Birth is defined as “the time when a baby is born; the process of being born (labour)”.
It seems that the unborn child’s place in both law and society is evasive. Take, for instance, the issue of primitive African society.
Before the Partition of Africa in the late 1880s, African society was highly organized, with especially effective systems in conflict resolution. However, records specifying the common types of disputes settled render no mention to issues of abortion.
It is a practice adopted by organizations who want that traditional set up, where more power was concentrated in the hands of chiefs, back. No wonder, such districts as Mwanza in Southern Malawi are running Primary Justice programmes under the guidance of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace.
Association for Progressive Women’s (APW) Acting Executive Director, Noel Msiska, is the coordinator of the Primary Justice programme- which draws traditional leaders, the District Commissioner, Civil Society Organisations, NGOs , and community members together- in Mwanza.
Msiska confesses: “Ever since we started running the programme (some four years ago), we have never heard of chiefs settling community issues to do with abortion.”
Of the many cases Msiska and others have witnessed being settled at local level are those of land grabbing, pregnancy denials, vandalism of property, “but not abortion. And, in all cases, the disputes were settled, and the community members involved made peace and friends, and lived without any remnants hatred at all”.
This, says Msiska, shows that the primary justice system remains “humane” as it builds relations and promotes peace. The formal justice system, on the other hand, still strikes one as punitive. That is why it throws people away (in jail) instead of reconciling them with society, he says.
In Neno, a neighbouring district to Mwanza, the situation is the same: the formal justice system also throws the offender away. The only difference, says Traditional Authority Chekucheku, is that, even when the under-aged girl decides to keep her pregnancy and delivers safely, the child lives the life of a “dead” individual.
“By dead, I mean two things. The first one is that these children are treated as outcasts in rural communities, and this affects their participation in community activities. It is like they are obscure. Secondly, these children do not use their actual father’s surname but will inherit that of the ‘adopted’ father. It is like adopting a false identity and living a life of pretence.”
These practices contradict Section 23, sub-sections 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the Republican Constitution. Subsection 1 says, for instance, that “All children, regardless of the circumstances of their birth, are entitled to equal treatment before the law”, followed by sub-sections 2 and 3, which say that “all children shall have the right to a given name and a family name and the right to a nationality”, and that “children have the right to know, and to be raised by, their parents”.
Chekucheku acknowledges, as expected, that he has never resolved community issues bordering on abortion. This dry status of pregnancy-resignation issues could be an indication that laws dealing with abortion were either imposed by colonial administrators or are not ‘important’ enough in the ‘normal’ Malawian set up.
“Cases of incest are common in the village, though the parties involved never bring such issues to the attention of the chief because the offending man’s wife is always afraid of losing material and financial help. If a close relative forces himself on a girl, family members shield the real perpetrator and ‘impose’ the pregnancy on an innocent, unsuspecting youth, who may be forced to drop out of school to fend for his new family,” says Chekucheku.
The one striking factor about incest is that it, somehow, collides with the right to education. That is what Dr. Pierson Ntata and other social researchers found some six years ago. In a Centre for Social Research- a Department at Chancellor College- research on the effects of violence against girls on education, it was found that 60 percent of forcible sex cases occur at home.
Dr. Ntata and other researchers also found that relatives (uncle, cousin, brother in law) accounted for 5 per cent of perpetrators of forcible sex. The surprising factor was that only half of these cases were reported to teachers, friends, relatives, head teachers, and parents. There is no mention of police, apparently because people take ‘serious’ issues to people they know and those likely to initiate reconciliation.
That could explain why, while abortion remains illegal in Malawi, it is, somehow, tolerated by society. Perhaps this attitude could one day lead to the decriminalization of abortion, steps already taken by Tunisia in 1965, Cape Verde in 1985, South Africa in 1996 and, most recently in 2005, Ethiopia. Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Guinea and Togo have reviewed their national laws to allow abortion in cases of threats to physical health, rape, incest and foetal impairment.
Observers say, however, that instituting favourable laws does not always produce the desired results. They point at Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Ghana with perplexed minds and say, while good laws abound, women still die from unsafe abortions due to inaccessibility of safer services.
But, at least, they have paved the way towards preventing the death of 35,000 women who die, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), out of the five million who carry out unsafe abortions annually. On average, 100 women die from unsafe abortions each passing day.
WHO statistics fault restrictive abortion laws for high abortion-related mortality. This relationship is established by looking at East Africa and some parts of West Africa, regions loathed for their most restrictive abortion laws. These regions record the highest death rates from unsafe abortions.
For Malawi, unfortunately, adolescents contribute a significant number towards hospital admissions, according to pan-African abortion rights group, Ipas Africa Alliance.
“With limited access to contraceptives and safe abortion, women- especially young women and girls- have no option but to resort to unsafe abortions. Studies in various countries, including Kenya, Malawi, Uganda and Zambia, show that adolescents make up a significant number of unsafe abortion-related hospital admissions- many of which result in death,” reads part of an Ipas Africa Alliance report.
This is a slap in Africa’s efforts over the past decade- where major world conferences on women’s reproductive rights have always come to the same conclusion: unsafe abortion is a huge public health crisis and violation of human rights. Human rights, for a start, are guarantees against degradation of one’s dignity and integrity.
Reproductive rights, on the other hand, offer couples and individuals the discretion to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of children; the right to attain the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health; and the discretion to effect decisions regarding reproduction free of discrimination, coercion or violence. For these rights to be enjoyed, individuals need full, correct information and education on contraceptive methods and sexuality, protection of privacy, and; access to health services, among others.
These can be fully enjoyed only if governments, including Malawi, respect provisions of the Additional Protocol on the Rights of Women to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, adopted by Heads of Government of the African Union in 2003; the Maputo Plan of Action adopted in 2006 by African Union Ministers of Health, and incorporated into the Overall Continental Strategy.
It commits governments to addressing death and injury from unsafe abortion by taking action to “enact policies and legal frameworks to reduce the incidence of unsafe abortion”.
These recent steps will power the will already generated through the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (Cedaw); Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; 1993 Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action; the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development Programme of Action held in Cairo, Egypt; the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women and Beijing Platform; and the International Conference on Population and Development held in 1999 in Cairo, Egypt.
All this paperwork portrays attempts at criminalizing abortion as a kind of morality binge as opposed to rational stance.
Those advocating for legalization of abortion are doing the work in the hope that they are working for history, and not prevailing/current sentimentalism. Age-old knowledge that pregnancy is not merely a phase but a permanent feature in women’s lives is also playing in favour of unlimited women’s reproductive rights’ advocates.
Respect for human rights is an accurate mirror of Malawian society.
Legalizing abortion, or at least formally acknowledging that circumstances exist where abortion is a matter of necessity and not choice, will naturally lead to consensus that pro-abortion campaigns are neither to much for a progressive woman to ask, not too much for advocates of a democracy to give.
To surmise that the war against abortion has been won is to believe, in the face of growing outcries, the optimists who have been wrong in the past. To suggest that the debate can be suppressed is to yield to unreasonable pessimism. To claim that the advocates are in minority it to rush into unsettled conclusion.
The debate on abortion obliterates the distinction between emergency and normalcy. It is simply timely.
What is happening on abortion is not strange. With many changes taking place across social, economic spheres, analysts are holding out the hope of a vast moral regeneration they claim is always embedded/or inherent within the act of change (revolution) itself.
Change may either be difficult, or easy, to defeat based on means through which it occurs. Mainly, change comes in two forms: through imitation or through innovation.
Change that originates from imitation- often happening when an individual or members of a group observe that another person or group is using a new means successfully- is more difficult to suppress than that inspired by innovation because products of innovation lack the benefit of proven history.
That (change by imitation), coincidentally, is the case with the issue of abortion. It has been there, on the world stage, debated and examined like a new piece of terrorism gadget. In Africa, countries such as Kenya have gone half a step towards legalizing it wholesale by allowing it in cases where the woman is in danger. People are now raising questions about the real meaning of the word ‘inalienable’ , that it means no one (not even lawmakers) select what parts to pick out, and which ones are hands-off zones.
Inalienable simply means you accept one, you embrace all. Fortunately, the prevailing debate on rights and justice govern the acceptability of various possible types of citizen choices/practices/ action. As international rights protocols come to be invested in (ratified), and sometimes guaranteed by, the national state, acceptance of hitherto unacceptable practices/concepts themselves becomes nationalized.
Psychological writers like Stanley Milgram have argued in the book ‘obedience to authority’ that no action (including the getting rid of pregnancy) of itself has an unchangeable psychological quality: its meaning can be altered by placing it in particular contexts. In this case, such contexts including medical attempt at saving the life of the woman, preservation of physical and mental health, rape and incest, foetal impairment, and economic or social reasons.
The Ministry of Health’s mandate to administer health services is difficult to perform in the darkness that shrouds pregnancy termination matters. The darkness provides a lee-way to non-professionals who cash in on desperate women, and the threat of the law encourages anonymous deaths or serious health impairments including fistula in teenage parents.
Others, perhaps many, may not be caught in the act to tussle against the law; they then live seemingly productive lives, though traces of ruined lives lie strewn across the mat of 40 years since independence- years of no care. These traces are visible in such social-diseases as fistula (for those who are forced to keep the unborn in fear of the law, and deliver the still-born.
And the warnings posted in newspapers are too late for some of the girls who might have fallen prey to fistula. It is too late for the many who die in the process of saving themselves.
Complications are hugely expensive. And, because the girl patient will more likely seek medical attention from public hospitals, their bills are footed by the very society that neglected them. With the cost pinch, many patients cannot afford private medical facilities.
Fairness, is it, incarcerating the citizen for the sake of the unknown ‘citizen’?
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Dedza District Hospital and Pregnancy Scanning
My sister, Donarta, got pregnant some nine months ago.
She went to her nearest hospital, the government-run Dedza District Hospital in Central Malawi.
Hospital personel carried a scan on her, six times.
Every time, the scan showed that Donarta would deliver a baby-girl.
Six times, the scan and hospital personnel assured her, and us, that it would be a baby-girl.
"It's a baby-girl," she said in her second month of pregnancy.
Six times, Dedza District Hospital medical personnel carried a scan on her, which revealed it was a baby-girl.
Well, two days ago, Donarta delivered.
That was expected: that she would deliver one day.
But out of the expected came the unexpected. Can you guess what we have in our hands now?
A smiling baby-Boy!
She went to her nearest hospital, the government-run Dedza District Hospital in Central Malawi.
Hospital personel carried a scan on her, six times.
Every time, the scan showed that Donarta would deliver a baby-girl.
Six times, the scan and hospital personnel assured her, and us, that it would be a baby-girl.
"It's a baby-girl," she said in her second month of pregnancy.
Six times, Dedza District Hospital medical personnel carried a scan on her, which revealed it was a baby-girl.
Well, two days ago, Donarta delivered.
That was expected: that she would deliver one day.
But out of the expected came the unexpected. Can you guess what we have in our hands now?
A smiling baby-Boy!
Malawi Law Society Closes Door on Vulnerable Society Members
The Maalawi Law Society (MLS) has closed its Legal Resources Centre to less-previleged members of society by imposing a daily entry fee of K150 (equivalent to US$1).
Recent World Bank reports indicate that Malawi has managed to reduce poverty levels from 69 per cent in 2004, to 39 per cent in 2010.
This shows that, by imposing a K150 entry fee on its Legal Resources' Centre materials, MLS has but shut 39 per cent of Malawians out.
People go to MLS's Legal Resources' Centre to read newspapers (these newspapers are now selling at K180 a copy), law books, legal case studies, international magazines, among others.
Law students also utilise the facility to supplement their educational materials.
Now, with the introduction of fees, the Legal Resources' Centre is almost empty.
Zachimalawi has been vising the centre from Monday last week to gauge the effect of the new rates.
Michael Chandamale, a Law student who used to utilise the facility told Zachimalawi"
"This is sad. My parents struggle to pay school fees, and now we have this new fee of K150. Where can we get the money to pay for the books,most of them are donated to MLS, and study from their books? This is sad."
Sources say MLS came up with the new measure after some Malawian lawyers who frequent the Legal Resources' Centre complained that some "common members" of the general public were producing a very bad smell.
Said the source: "Some people were coming here without bathing, and this was making lawyers feel very uneasy. The other reason is that most lawyers simply do not want to be seen by members of the general public doing reserch work (in public); they feel that members of the general public will begin to think that the job of a lawyer is a simple one," said the source.
For weeks now, MLS Legal Resources' Centre has been 95 per cent empty, a development likely to please its membership (Malawian lawyers).
Recent World Bank reports indicate that Malawi has managed to reduce poverty levels from 69 per cent in 2004, to 39 per cent in 2010.
This shows that, by imposing a K150 entry fee on its Legal Resources' Centre materials, MLS has but shut 39 per cent of Malawians out.
People go to MLS's Legal Resources' Centre to read newspapers (these newspapers are now selling at K180 a copy), law books, legal case studies, international magazines, among others.
Law students also utilise the facility to supplement their educational materials.
Now, with the introduction of fees, the Legal Resources' Centre is almost empty.
Zachimalawi has been vising the centre from Monday last week to gauge the effect of the new rates.
Michael Chandamale, a Law student who used to utilise the facility told Zachimalawi"
"This is sad. My parents struggle to pay school fees, and now we have this new fee of K150. Where can we get the money to pay for the books,most of them are donated to MLS, and study from their books? This is sad."
Sources say MLS came up with the new measure after some Malawian lawyers who frequent the Legal Resources' Centre complained that some "common members" of the general public were producing a very bad smell.
Said the source: "Some people were coming here without bathing, and this was making lawyers feel very uneasy. The other reason is that most lawyers simply do not want to be seen by members of the general public doing reserch work (in public); they feel that members of the general public will begin to think that the job of a lawyer is a simple one," said the source.
For weeks now, MLS Legal Resources' Centre has been 95 per cent empty, a development likely to please its membership (Malawian lawyers).
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
President Bingu wa Mutharika Fails to Open the Mzuzu Auction Floors
President Bingu wa Mutharika is yet to open the Mzuzu Auction Floors in the Northern Malawi District of Mzuzu, even though he was 'technically' present during the floors' supposed official opening on Monday.
Among other things, President Mutharika criticised both tobacco farmers and sellers, describing their behaviour as "foolish".
But the President failed- apparently forgot- to officially open the Mzuzu Auction Floors.
How?
How is this possible when Mutharika was physically there, at the Auction Floors, with First Lady Callista Mutharika.
How is it possible for Mutharika, who toured the Auction Floors, and touched some tobacco leaves, fail to have officially opened the floors?
In fact, how is it possible when the President greeted people, and thanked women and Democratic Progressive Party Youth by "Tawonga chomene" whenever they interrupted his speech with songs?
Yes, Mutharika even closed the meeting by blessing the mammoth crowd and Malawi. Yes, the function was officially opened through prayer by an Assemblies of God pastor, and closed by the National Anthem: how come Mutharika failed to open the Mzuzu Auction Floors?
The answer is simple: He failed- or, rather, forgot- to say the words "I declare the Mzuzu Auction Floors officially open".
It is the first time a Malawi leader has failed to officially launch or open the Auction floors.
Among other things, President Mutharika criticised both tobacco farmers and sellers, describing their behaviour as "foolish".
But the President failed- apparently forgot- to officially open the Mzuzu Auction Floors.
How?
How is this possible when Mutharika was physically there, at the Auction Floors, with First Lady Callista Mutharika.
How is it possible for Mutharika, who toured the Auction Floors, and touched some tobacco leaves, fail to have officially opened the floors?
In fact, how is it possible when the President greeted people, and thanked women and Democratic Progressive Party Youth by "Tawonga chomene" whenever they interrupted his speech with songs?
Yes, Mutharika even closed the meeting by blessing the mammoth crowd and Malawi. Yes, the function was officially opened through prayer by an Assemblies of God pastor, and closed by the National Anthem: how come Mutharika failed to open the Mzuzu Auction Floors?
The answer is simple: He failed- or, rather, forgot- to say the words "I declare the Mzuzu Auction Floors officially open".
It is the first time a Malawi leader has failed to officially launch or open the Auction floors.
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