Why Burma’s By-Elections Matter

Posted on | april 2, 2012 | No Comments

While the official results of today’s (Sunday April 1 2012) by-elections in Burma will not be formally announced for a few days Aung San Suu Kyi’s party the National League for Democracy (NLD) has already proclaimed that it has won 44 of the 45 seats being contested. While I will give some more detailed analysis later I was asked by a journalist for an Eastern European newspaper to give a few comments on the significance of the vote which I decided to share below.

In practical terms today’s elections will have a very limited effect for two main reasons. Firstly the Burmese parliament (Pyidaungsu Hluttaw) has relatively little power under the 2008 constitution while secondly the 45 seats that were contested in today’s by-elections constitute only about ten percent of the parliament’s total size. So the significance of today’s elections is principally symbolic, both internally and externally.
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Category: election, South-east Asia
Tags: Burma > Pyidaungsu Hluttaw

What Organizations are Doing for Earth Hour 2012

Posted on | april 2, 2012 | 1 Comment

In 2012, Earth Hour is issuing a simple promise and a challenge – I Will If You Will. Here are a few examples of some of the Earth Hour challenges in 2012:

Sharan Burrow ITUC General Secretary inspires action

The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) General Secretary, Sharan Burrow, has challenged trade unions around the world to take action for the environment. As part of Earth Hour’s I Will If You Will campaign Burrow has created a trade union network challenge to further encourage the transition to a more sustainable and low carbon economy. “If 100 trade union federations reach out to their national governments and ask them to invest 2% of the value of their economy (GDP) in green jobs, then I will ask the top 100 CEOs to support unions to run environmental awareness initiatives and to invest in greening their supply chains and products to create new jobs.” In addition to the challenge, the ITUC has also launched the ITUC Earth Hour Workplace Challenge. It encourages individual and workplace environmental changes from eating less meat and turning off computers at night to using technology to reduce travel to work meetings. The Workplace Challenge is open to workers, managers and union representatives, so take a look.
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Category: environment, flora & fauna, global
Tags: Earth Hour 2012 > Elisa Toffoli > HSBC > ITUC > Niccolò Fabi > Siemens > WAGGGS

BANGLADESH: UN expert shared concern over political Victimization of Religious Minorities

Posted on | april 2, 2012 | No Comments

Ms. Rita Izsak, Independent Expert on Minority Issues

I wrote to Ms. Rita Izsák, Independent Expert on minority issues, with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva; which brought a response from Graham Fox, Human Rights Officer, with the Mandate of the Independent Expert on minority issues; Special Procedures Branch, Groups in Focus Team. This is listed below, and below that original letter of appeal.

Dear Mr. Gomes,
Thank you for providing this information to the Independent Expert on minority issues, Ms. Rita Izsák, relating to the rights of religious minorities in Bangladesh. Your information has been provided to Ms. Izsak and we shall return to you should we have questions or require any clarifications. I apologize for the delaying in providing this response.

Information received is given close consideration as the mandate seeks to engage with national governments on issues relevant to the rights of minorities and ensure implementation of international and national human rights standards including the UN Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities. Indeed Ms. Izsak has noted in her annual report to the Human Rights Council on 14 March that one of her priorities will be the rights and security of religious minorities and so your information is of particular relevance.

Category: global, minorities, multilateral organizations
Tags: Graham Fox > High Commissioner for Human Rights > Rita Izsák

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood as yet fields its own candidate for the presidency

Posted on | april 2, 2012 | No Comments

: Khairat al-Shater

The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood came forward with its won candidate for president after all. In a rather dramatic change of mind it put forward the businessman and main strategist of the Brotherhood. Khairat al-Shater, 62. He was chosen by a close vote of 56 to 52, by the Shura council, the Ikhwan’s second highest decision making body and in the meantime has resigned from his post of deputy to the Supreme Guide of the Ikhwan.

The decision to come with its own candidate is a dramatic shift of the former position of the Ikhwan, which after the fall of Mubarak said that it would not field its own candidate, sure as it was to be able to score a big victory in the parliamentary elections. But it seems that the Brotherhood after all got worried that its strong position in parliament wasn’t a guarantee that it would be able to exercise enough power. First it became apparent that there were strong differences of view between the Ikhwan and the military as to what extend parliament could have its way.
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Category: election, Northern Africa
Tags: Egypt > Khairat al-Shater > Muslim Brotherhood

Making a difference

Posted on | april 1, 2012 | 2 Comments

A lovely lady who introduced herself as Sochenda Kann greeted me. I was hot and weary after having been unwell with food poisoning a few days before. I had been in Cambodia for four days. Only a week before I had been freezing in England without the vaguest idea what Cambodia would be like. I could never have imagined that this country would steal my heart completely and that the children of Cambodia would become extremely important to me. As I opened the gate to shake Sochenda’s hand I had no idea that this visit would change my life.
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