López narrates how her 19-year-old daughter, Jahaira Guadalupe Vaena López, was abducted in Tlacolula, Oaxaca. She describes her efforts to get the authorities to investigate the crime, how she was warned not to press the matter, how informants told her that her daughter was murdered in a turf battle between fractured drug gangs. Just days before leaving for the United States with the Caravan for Peace, she faced one of the assassins who had been apprehended and listened as he described in detail how her daughter was raped and beheaded.

Margarita has joined some 50 grieving family members to accompany caravan leader Javier Sicilia on a trip across the United States. Sicilia, a poet who lost his son to drug war violence in March of 2011, catalyzed a movement of victims and Mexican citizens fed up with the bloodshed that has claimed more than 60,000 lives and left tens of thousands more disappeared since former President Felipe Calderon launched the drug war five years ago.

Mexico’s Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity decided to organize the U.S. caravan after taking two caravans from Mexico City–one north to Ciudad Juarez on the U.S. border, and one south to the border with Guatemala. Both drew out victims of the drug war and registered their cases to provide support for family members seeking justice and solace.

The decision to take their pain across the border came after discussion with the San Francisco-based group Global Exchange. Soon a coalition came together that included Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, the Latin American Working Group, the RFK Center, the Washington Office on Latin America, our CIP Americas Program, the Drug Policy Alliance, and the National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities, among the key players. The coalition later expanded to include the NAACP, and local organizations in each of the cities along the route.

A binational meeting in June defined five demands of the U.S. caravan: to open public debate on humane alternatives to drug prohibition, to ban the import of assault weapons and crack down on illegal gun smuggling over the border, to combat money-laundering with full investigation and strict enforcement, to suspend all aid to the Mexican armed forces and end the war on drugs abroad, and to halt the militarization of the border and criminalization of migrants.

I joined the caravan on the final east coast leg of its 6,000-mile trip. I had heard most of the stories before in Mexico, having accompanied the northern caravan and numerous marches and meetings.

I was curious to see the impact on people in the United States. As the women in the room told their stories, each one struck like a cold blade in the heart. Although women are a minority of the war’s deaths, attacks on women usually include brutal sexual violence, and women make up the majority of those actively seeking justice and an end to the war.

Along the route, caravan members like these women have become confident and eloquent spokespersons to end the drug war. They speak from the heart and appeal to the heart. Their empowerment as leaders is one of the most important achievements of the caravan. Another is the sympathy and outrage their testimonies evoke.

And it’s not a one-way street. Caravan members also listened to the stories of U.S. citizens. Like Kimberly Armstrong in Baltimore, whose 16-year-old son was shot and killed by a 14-year-old in endemic drug violence. Or Carole Eady, who struggled her way out of the stigma and life disruption of imprisonment for a drug offense in New York City.

The threads begin to come together. In her brilliant book The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander notes that in Washington, D.C., the caravan’s last stop, it’s estimated that three out of four black men can expect to serve time in prison. She calls this mass incarceration of black people a new racial caste, the latest Jim Crow system of social control, where young black men and women are jailed, stigmatized, and in many cases disenfranchised for life by discriminatory drug laws.

Based on the shared sorrow of losing loved ones to jail, violence, death, or disappearance, Mexicans and Americas found they fight the same unjust system of social control of the poor and people of color. The drug war generates profits for the defense industry and siphons public funds into perpetuating itself. It rips apart families and communities, north and south of the border. The bogus attempt to eliminate rather than regulate something in great demand creates a multibillion-dollar black market run by groups that become more violent as they are selectively attacked. It pits security forces against the public, providing them with the tools to violate human rights and life with impunity. It erodes democracy and the rule of law it purports to uphold.

Whether it’s through imposing a military/police state in Mexico or shunting youth into the margins of society, the drug war machine runs on the human lives it destroys.

A binational peace movement?

The caravan’s call to end the drug war resonated in city after city. But has the caravan forged a binational movement for peace?

Not yet. As the Mexican caravaners go back home, their U.S. hosts return to daily life. Many will simply guard the memory of Mexico’s pain and begin to read the news a little differently.

But others will act. The Peace Caravan has already achieved something remarkable. It brought together groups in U.S. cities that scarcely knew each other before. Some community organizers in the scores of cities from San Diego to the nation’s capital plan to continue the dialogue with the Mexican movement and among themselves.

In New York City, the Latino and African-American communities plan a meeting to discuss the impact of mass arrests and detention. In Baltimore, the movement to block construction of yet another multimillion-dollar prison in one of the nation’s most economically devastated cities is making common cause with movements for drug policy reform, racial justice, and youth rights.

In Texas, faith-based organizations advocating stricter enforcement of gun laws are intensifying their campaign against gun show sales and arms smuggling after seeing close up the human cost of the flow of guns to Mexico. In Arizona, human rights organizations working against the militarization of the border and the death and detention of migrants came face-to-face with activists protesting Mexico’s militarized drug war in a cross-border reflection. In Washington, members of Congress received caravan lobbyists whose power to convince came not from money or influence, but from human empathy and reason.

The way many U.S. citizens understand the drug war has changed through meeting the Mexicans who bear the brunt of it. While U.S. politicians and media portray it as a necessary fight against the threat that organized crime supposedly poses to national security in both countries, the victims spoke of the violence that resulted from the war on drugs itself. Audiences and congressional representatives were surprised to learn that many of the victims on the caravan accused not gangs but the U.S.-funded Mexican police and military for the murder or disappearance of their loved ones.

Organizers now face the question of how the moral victory can lead to a political one. On the drug policy front, U.S. society seems to be moving toward a tipping point despite push-back from law enforcement and private prison interests that make big money off incarceration, as well as from politicians who convert insecurity into “law and order” votes. A recent poll shows Colorado could legalize marijuana in the November elections after a similar measure narrowly lost in California. The award-winning film The House I Live In presents a stunning indictment of the domestic drug war through the words of its enforcers, its participants, and its victims.

But the federal government continues to be on the wrong side of the trend. Some hope that President Obama, if he is reelected, could make bolder moves toward reorienting a policy that imprisons so many mostly African-American youths and costs the nation $51 billion a year, according to the DPA. I’m inclined to agree with a LEAP editorial that warns the reform movement to watch the actions, not the rhetoric, of the Obama administration. It will take a stronger push from constituents to get the administration to take on the interests that benefit from sustaining America’s longest war.

Moral victories plant seeds that are often slow to bear fruit. Evaluating the experience on the last morning in a church hall, exhausted caravan members saw a mix of catharsis and consciousness-raising that gave them strength. Lopez noted that the “the tragedy I’m living through can be useful to a lot of people.” Melchor Flores, whose son was arrested in January of 2009 in Monterrey and never seen again, stated that the caravan had “touched consciences”.

He added, “Wherever my son is, he should be satisfied because he knew I wouldn’t let him down.”

Teresa Carmona, a tiny, white-haired woman whose son Joaquin was murdered in Mexico City, has become a powerful voice before the public and the media. She believes the caravan met its goal.

“We brought the faces of our beloved children, parents, and relatives all the way here, and so we legitimated this pain and this reality.”

In the nation that first invented the drug war and exported it to their country with deadly results, the Mexican bereaved have left a mark in the hearts of thousands of men and women. Sometimes it takes tragedy to make change. The cumulative histories recounted in the peace caravan represent a tragedy of mammoth proportions.

That should be more than enough to act on.

AUTHOR: Laura Carlsen
URL: www.cipamericas.org and http://americasmexico.blogspot.com
E-MAIL: lecarlsen [at] gmail.com

Simon Denyer/The Washington Post – Children rescued from a bangle-making factory in New Delhi after a police raid on Sept.5, 2012. More than 90,000 children go missing in India every year, many of them sold into forced labor on farms and in factories.

Every six minutes, a child goes missing in India.

They are boys like Irfan, drugged and abducted at the age of 9 by two men on a motorbike as he walked home one day after playing with friends.

“It was living hell these past two years, trying to figure out where we could find him,” said his father, Iqbal Ali. “I used to run a biscuit bakery, but from the day he disappeared, I got so caught up trying to meet politicians, police and people who claim to do magic to get children back, that I had to shut down my bakery. I had no time for it.”

More than 90,000 children are officially reported missing every year, according to data compiled and released late last year by leading children’s rights group Bachpan Bachao Andolan, which showed the problem was far greater than previously thought.

Up to 10 times that number are trafficked, according to the group — boys and girls, most from poor families, torn from their parents, sometimes in return for cash, and forced to beg or work in farms, factories and homes, or sold for sex and marriage.

It is an epidemic that, until a few years ago, remained unreported and largely ignored by the authorities.

But years of tireless work by activists, a few crucial victories in court — and the shocking discovery of the bones of 17 slain girls and young women around a businessman’s home in a suburb of New Delhi called Nithari in 2006 — have gradually put the issue on the nation’s agenda.

India’s 24-hour news channels have also played a role in highlighting an issue long tolerated by the country’s middle classes. The media frenzy surrounding the Nithari killings was a watershed, reminiscent of the way the disappearance of Etan Patz in Manhattan in 1979 helped spark the missing-children’s movement in the United States.

In recent weeks, footage from surveillance cameras — a new phenomenon in modern India — has also been repeatedly broadcast on television here, showing infants being brazenly snatched from train stations and hospital lobbies as parents slept nearby.

“A couple of decades ago, there was no understanding of the issue of missing children or trafficking for forced labor — child labor was not even considered a crime,” said Bhuwan Ribhu, an activist for the children’s rights group. “Though things are slowly changing, the biggest issue is the lack of political and administrative will to enforce the law, which is often outside the reach of the common person.”

Irfan suffered perhaps the most common fate — kidnapped to satisfy India’s insatiable demand for cheap, agricultural labor.

In India and many other developing countries, children often work in agriculture. What is only now becoming apparent is the huge trafficking industry that has grown up outside the law.

Irfan’s story, though, has a happy ending. Last month, after more than two years away, he finally made it home to his joyous parents, after climbing on a chair in the shed where he was held and breaking a window with an earthen vase to escape.

“I was supposed to bathe the buffalo, to feed them, to pick up the dung,” he said, describing his life imprisoned in virtual solitary confinement in a room adjoining a buffalo shed outside the town of Mullanpur, some 200 miles northwest of Delhi.

“I was fed just once a day, just leftovers. When I used to shriek and make a fuss, they would tie my hands and feet at night.”

After escaping, Irfan found shelter with another family for several months. Then, last month, as the media furor about missing children reached its peak, he saw photographs of his parents and himself on a TV show.

Only then did he journey back to the New Delhi district of Nangloi, the only address he had in his memory.

“I took the train to Delhi, and a bus to Nangloi,” he said, “but when I arrived it had all changed. Before, there was no overpass, no metro. It looked like a completely different place to me.”

After half an hour of wandering, Irfan says he bumped into a friend, who took him home.

“We were just overwhelmed with happiness,” said his mother, Shabnam. “We went and got new clothes made for all of us. All his old clothes were too small, because he had grown so tall.”

Young laborers

Kidnapping represents just the tip of the iceberg of a vast child-trafficking industry in India. Many young children are sold by their parents or enticed from them with the promise that they will be looked after and be able to send money home. Never registered as missing, many simply lose touch with their parents, working long hours in garment factories or making cheap jewelry.

Globally, trafficking of children for forced labor and sexual exploitation remains a “largely hidden crime,” says the International Labor Organization, with no reliable data even existing on the scale of the problem.

The organization makes a “conservative estimate” that 5.5 million children around the world are trapped in forced labor, but in India alone the government uses estimates of 5 million to 12 million children forced to work.

On a recent raid with activists and police, 36 children were rescued from a series of tiny rooms where they were making bangles for 10 hours, some for just $4 a month.

One was just 6 years old, the son of a rickshaw puller from the faraway city of Patna, his hair and skin covered in glitter from the work. “They didn’t let me talk to my mother on the phone,” he said.

Last month, the Indian government proposed a blanket ban on the employment of children younger than 14, building on a 2009 law that established a child’s right to education until that age. Activists hailed the proposal, which now needs parliamentary approval, as a major step forward, but warned that enforcement will remain a significant challenge.

The U.S. State Department says India is making “significant efforts” to comply with minimum global standards for the elimination of trafficking, but notes challenges in enforcement and “the alleged complicity of public officials in human trafficking.”

Little help for the missing

The parents of several missing children interviewed in the past month said they had received little or no help from the police, largely, they said, because they were poor.

“The police were very cold. They just kept saying: ‘A lot of kids are missing. What can we do?’ ” said Kunwar Pal, 48, whose son, Ravi, was 12 when he went missing two years ago after going out to ride his bicycle. “Maybe if I had the money to pay a bribe, they would have found my kid.”

Nearly 450,000 cases of children trafficked for labor were reported in the past three years, but prosecutions were launched in just 25,000 of those cases and 3,394 employers were convicted, official figures show.

Twelve years ago, Pal’s wife died in childbirth, their infant daughter succumbing to diarrhea soon after. Now, in his bare one-roomed house, he pines for his favorite son, an obedient, undemanding and studious boy who dreamed of becoming a detective.

“He liked soap operas on TV, one called ‘CID,’ and he used to say he wanted to study and be educated and become a policeman,” said Pal, before breaking down in tears. “I am always expecting a call. ‘Papa, can I come home?’ ”

Rama Lakshmi and Suhasini Raj contributed to this report.

THIS ARTICLE WAS ALSO PUBLISHED IN THE WASHINGTON POST.

AUTHOR: Bachpan Bachao Andolan
URL: http://www.bba.org.in
E-MAIL: info [at] bba.org.in

CONTENTS

1. TIPNIS consultation extended after community resistance
The MAS government has extended the consultation in the TIPNIS for an extra two months after delays in reaching isolated communities in the region. The new deadline will be 7 November, after the government rejected calls by some MAS deputies to keep the process open-ended.

According to the Ministry of Public Works, 32 out of 69 communities had been consulted by the end of the original August deadline. Minister of Government Carlos Romero blamed the delay primarily on weather conditions, as low water levels had made it difficult for the consultation brigades to travel by river in the region. However, many communities continue to refuse to cooperate with the consultation, which has also impeded the process. Following a meeting between local community leaders and CIDOB, the lowland indigenous people’s confederation, twenty communities in the north of TIPNIS announced they will peacefully resist the consultation.

In La Paz, the Justice Tribunal threw out a legal challenge against the consultation made by the indigenous leader Fernando Vargas. Vargas had launched an appeal directed against state ministers, authorities in the Plurinational Legislative Assembly, and the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), arguing that the judicial ruling on the consultation should have been made in front of a public audience, as required by the Constitution.

Finally, the indigenous magistrate Gualberto Cusi, a member of the Plurinational Constitutional Tribunal, has withdrawn charges he made against the government, which he had accused of political interference in an earlier case challenging the legality of the consulta law.

2. Freedom of expression concerns as government takes legal action against newspapers
Two newspapers and a Catholic news agency have been charged by the government with ‘disseminating and inciting racism or discrimination’, prompting media in Bolivia and international watchdogs to express concern for freedom of expression. Agencia de Noticias Fides (ANF), El Diario and Página Siete were accused by the government of distorting the meaning of President Morales’s comments on differences between east and west Bolivia in a way that could provoke regional confrontation.

During a speech on food security in Tiwanaku, ANF reported Morales as saying that ‘In the east of Bolivia, where there is production all year round, I would say that it is only a lack of will that makes us poor or not have food. In the Altiplano, it’s different. If there is frost, if there is no rain or if there is hail, then there is no food. But in the east, we only go hungry because of laziness’. The two newspapers later picked up the story under headlines ‘Evo accuses eastern Bolivians of laziness’ and ‘Morales thinks the east is lazy’. The government then brought charges against all three media under the Law against Racism and Discrimination, which was sanctioned in 2010 despite considerable protest from press groups about its possible effect on free speech.

Press groups demonstrated against the charges in La Paz and in other cities, The National Association of Journalists (ANP) has argued that if there has been distortion of the president’s words, then the matter is covered under the Press Law. This would mean that the issue would be dealt with by newspaper editors through a self-regulatory mechanism, rather than being treated as a criminal matter. The ANP’s position has been supported by the international press freedom NGO, Reporters Without Borders, while the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists has also urged the MAS government to drop the lawsuit.

3. Protests over illegal coca plantations and ‘ecological’ military deployment
Consensus has been reached between the government and coca growers (cocaleros) in the Yungas de Vandiola region following protests over the eradication of crops. Cocaleros imposed a blockade at Epizana, blocking transport on the old Cochabamba-Santa Cruz road, while reports suggested that several people were injured in clashes with the authorities. Government Minister Carlos Romero denied there had been any confrontation.

Following talks between community leaders from Machu Yungas and the vice-minister for social defence and controlled substances, Felipe Cáceres, it was agreed that 42 catos (a traditional measurement equalling around 40m2) planted by recent arrivals to the area could be eradicated by the government. Local leader Mario Torrico said that the coca growers who are to lose their plantations would be given help in growing fruit as a substitute.

There was further anger at government plans to send in three hundred soldiers to the Carrasco National Park to prevent further illegal plantations once the programme of eradication had been completed. The Juan Maraza ‘ecological regiment’ will also to be deployed in other protected areas, including the TIPNIS, to prevent illegal logging and drug-trafficking.

4. Tensions mount over Colquiri mine
Tensions are mounting in a three-way conflict between the government and two groups of miners in Colquiri, following the nationalisation of the site in June. After the Swiss-owned commodities giant Glencore had its licence revoked by the government, the majority of the mine was given to the state Mining Corporation (Comibol), but a section (the Rosario seam) was awarded to the 26th February Cooperative. Salaried miners insist the mine belongs wholly to Comibol, and have prevented the cooperative from working its concession. Over eighty soldiers and twenty police have been deployed to prevent a deterioration of the situation, while vice-minister for mining Freddy Beltrán has called for tripartite discussions to overcome the tensions.

Comibol has offered to absorb those who work for the cooperative into its ranks as a solution, and many have already taken up the offer. Héctor Córdova, president of Comibol, has said his organisation has the capacity to hire the remaining cooperativistas, but said he needed consensus between all those involved before taking this step. Meanwhile, the cooperativistas are threatening to bring large numbers of their people to La Paz to make their point heard.

Cooperativistas have also seized part of the San Vicente mine, Potosí department, demanding employment. Although the mine is owned by Comibol, it is managed by the Canada-based Pan-American Silver Cooperation, which apparently has been limiting job opportunities to local miners. Conflicts in the mining sector have continued to trouble the Morales government in recent weeks, including a dispute over the Mallku Qhota mine that resulted in its nationalisation.

5. MAS plans to eradicate extreme poverty by 2025 Bicentenary
In a speech given at the Plurinational Legislative Assembly to mark the 187th anniversary of Bolivian independence, President Morales set out the challenges facing the country which he hoped would be overcome by the time of the bicentennial celebrations in 2025.

Morales, who was recently nominated by MAS as its presidential candidate for the 2014 elections, said his government would work to eradicate extreme poverty by 2025, and ensure that everyone in Bolivia had access to electricity, drinking water, sewerage and telephones. Morales also said that he hoped Bolivia would become self-sufficient in food production during the same period. The president stressed that his government had successfully met previous targets contained in the 2006-2011 National Development Plan, although he accepted failings in terms of tackling corruption and undertaking a programme of reforestation.

Analysts have reacted with scepticism to Morales’s targets. The former president of the Central Bank, Armando Méndez, suggested that even if Bolivia were to achieve annual growth rates of 10% (around twice the current figure) it would take twenty-five years to eradicate extreme poverty. Javier Gómez, the director of the Bolivian think tank CEDLA (Centre for Labour and Agrarian Development Studies) argued that if the government wanted to reduce poverty, it must do more in terms of job creation. Gómez also said that more must be done to reduce economic dependency on natural resources.

6. Sacha Llorenti named as ambassador to the UN amid questioning
Former minister Sacha Llorenti has been controversially appointed as Bolivia’s ambassador to the United Nations, replacing Rafael Archondo. The move has been criticised by indigenous groups, human rights organisations and opposition politicians due to Llorenti’s alleged role in events during the march against the proposed TIPNIS road in September 2011.

Llorenti resigned as minister of government following a violent police intervention against the march in Chaparina, Beni, but denies ordering police to use force against the protesters. Llorenti’s appointment to the UN came soon after he was excluded by the Public Prosecutor’s Office from its inquiry into the Chaparina events, raising fears that no-one will be held responsible for the repression. Ombudsman Rolando Villena criticised the prosecutor’s decision, suggesting it could create a climate of impunity in Bolivia.

7. National census to take place
The government has announced that a national census will be conducted on Wednesday 21 November this year, with two additional days scheduled for rural areas. Planning and Development Minister Viviana Caro said the information gathered on population and housing would help improve government policies. More than thirty institutions will cooperate under the umbrella organisation La Ruta del Censo to undertake the work and around 230,000 census takers will work across the country to collect data.

Some controversy has arisen over the type of information the government has decided to collect in the census. The ethnic category of mestizo will not be included in list of options for self-identification, with the government arguing that the racial dimension of the word is potentially discriminatory. The census will also not collect information on either religion or sexual orientation. Caro insisted that while the government strongly supported human rights in those areas, but the information was not relevant for public policy. Religious groups and sexual equality campaigners criticised the decision.

AUTHOR: Bolivia Information Forum
URL: http://www.boliviainfoforum.org.uk/
E-MAIL: enquiries [at] boliviainfoforum.org.uk

Mrs. Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of Bangladesh, pm@pmo.gov.bd

Re: Bangladesh: Immediately release illegally arrested gay men by police

Dear Prime Minister,

I am William Nicholas Gomes, Human Rights Ambassador for Salem-News.com.

I have been informed regarding an alarming situation by Boys of Bangladesh, popularly known as BoB, is the oldest and the largest network of self-identified Bangladeshi gay men from home and abroad. Based in Dhaka, this non-registered, non-funded and non-formal group is run by a pool of volunteers.

I came to know that three gay men were illegally arrested by Bangladesh in Sylhet. While Bangladeshi young gay men Sumon, Jakir and British citizen Alen were enjoying their time in a hotel in Sylhet, the Kotwali police breach the privacy and illegally detained them in custody.

I have been informed by local sources that police have physically and mentally tortured Sumon and Jakir upon arrest.

The kotwali have filed a case against british citizen Alen and charged under Section 377A of BPC, for adult homosexual sex acts with Sumon and Jakir.

I want to remind you this 377A is an unconstitutional law and against the basic human rights and breach the inspiration of the constitution.

I am really concern with this inhuman law the three innocent men may be punished with fines and/or up to 10 years, sometimes life imprisonment.

I want to remind you that this law is inhuman and against the inspiration of our constitution:

• Part II Article 19 – Promises equal opportunity for all citizens.
• Part III Article 27- Promises equality before the law for all citizens.

I also want to remind you that all people, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity, should be able to enjoy their human rights.

I urge you to prosecute the kotwali police who are involved in human rights violations by arresting the three young men who identify them as gay and the police based on sexual orientation or gender identity arrested them because they are different from them, please bring the perpetrators held accountable and brought to justice.

I also urge you to take all necessary legislative, administrative and other measures to prohibit and eliminate prejudicial treatment on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity at every stage of the administration of justice;

AUTHOR: William Nicholas Gomes
URL: www.williamgomes.org
E-MAIL: williamgomes.org [at] gmail.com

“Child maltreatment has harmful long-term consequences, not only for the children suffering the abuse, but also for the families and societies in which they live,” UNICEF’s Regional Child Protection Specialist, Amalee McCoy, said in a news release. “Understanding the prevalence of child maltreatment is a first step towards identifying the right measures to make every child in the region safer” (UN News Center).

In the report, all facets of abuse — emotional, physical, sexual, child labor, etc. — were studied to give an overview of all aspects and effects of maltreatment in the region.  While the levels of abuse varied by country, the overall results remain shocking.  The reports research revealed such shocking statistics as one in three North Korean children and nearly four out of five Chinese children report experiencing emotional abuse. Child labor was also a notably common form of abuse, ranging from 6.5 percent in Vietnam to 56 percent in a fishing area in Cambodia.

The report estimates of the frequency of physical abuse of children vary from country to country and from study to study, but  found that the best case scenario suggests 1 in 10 children experience physical abuse whereas the worst case scenario illustrates that some 30.3 per cent of children suffering abuse.  The decade of research found that between 14 percent and 30 percent of both boys and girls reported being forced into sexual acts or intercourse.   The prevalence of girls forced into sexual acts being higher for girls in most all cases.  For example, in Cambodia, 51.2 percent of girls — compared with 1.9 percent of boys — reported having been forced to have sexual intercourse.

The effects of the physical and sexual abuse on children, while cumulative, have led to many long-term effects such as depression, high-risk behavior and mental health issues. Children who are victims of abuse, neglect, exploitation — whether verbal, physical or sexual — or experience violence are more likely to be depressed and experience other types of mental health problems, to think about or attempt suicide, to have more physical problems – that can be both medically explained and unexplained – and to engage in more high-risk behaviors than their non-abused counterparts.

The report’s findings were reviewed the following week by child protection experts from various governments, the U.N. and civil society members at a meeting in Bangkok, Thailand.  However, follow-up reports have not yet been issued.  The report, while a milestone in seeking to address the all-encompassing issues of maltreatment and abuse of children in the region, is only one of many necessary steps we must take to end the abuse of children.  Despite the best efforts of the many who work daily to address this problem, we continue to fall far short in applying our knowledge.  Hopefully this report will lead to increased measures of protection and prevention in the region.

AUTHOR: Cassandra Clifford
URL: www.bridgetofreedomfoundation.org and http://children.foreignpolicyblogs.com
E-MAIL: Cassandra [at] btff.org

With Valentine’s Day almost upon us, (14 February) a new survey shows that the best gift a man can give to his partner is love.

The results of a global survey from Durex, released to coincide with Valentine’s Day, reveal that almost eight out of 10 South African women (79%) and 62% of men say that the emotional aspects of sex – feeling loved, respected and intimate – are more important for women than for men.

Almost nine out of 10 South African women (89%) agree that sex brings them closer to their partner emotionally. And it seems that South African men are succeeding in getting in touch with their softer sides, as 87% of South African women say they feel loved during sex.

South African men and women are also doing well in making their partners happy, with 85% of men and 82% of women saying their partner is good at giving them sexual pleasure.

“It is great to see that South African men seem to be getting it right when it comes to love and sex,” says, Durex South Africa. “But there is still plenty of room for improvement and it seems that the message is that you should not neglect the emotional side of your relationship.

“Couples should try to include talking and closeness in their relationship and perhaps a relaxing and sensuous massage to help improve the experience further for both partners.”

More than 29,000 people in 36 countries took part in the Durex survey, carried out online and in face-face interviews by Harris Interactive.

AUTHOR: Shout Africa
URL: http://www.shout-africa.com
E-MAIL: news [at] shout-africa.com

Introduction

The idea that the onset of democratization gave rise to leadership is a flawed conception grounded in the assumption that during colonization political organization was at best non-existent. The investigation of politicization in Latin America a few years ago revealed surprising details on early politicization and political organization. For example Blanco (1835, Uruguay) and Colorado (1836, Uruguay) parties in the Southern cone of the continent are typically very old traditional parties, depicting elite organization and networking. Also surprising was the ancienity of the communist parties in for example Chile (1933) and Argentina (1918) and parties of the right in Colombia, Mexico and other Latin American political systems are indicative of long term trending of political organization.

In Suriname, Guyana, Jamaica and other parts of the Caribbean political organization was less tangible, political participation typically occurred in cadre-type political organizations, were like-minded local notables were recruited for parliament. In the case of Caribbean matters were complicated the cleavage that divided people of color, dark-skinned Blacks versus lighter skinned blacks was the first noticeable cleavage of the plantation. The fact that this cleavage came to be because of Black-White sexual interaction has always been viewed from the experiences of Blacks, and not from the experiences of people of mixed race.

Donald Horowitz in his seminal work Ethnic Groups in Conflict categorizes this specific type ethnic conflict, admonishing that this specific type of conflict is often swept under the rug because of its apparent atavistic and controversial nature. What is known about this specific type of conflict is oftentimes translated from the Black experiences, from the experiences of slavery, and not from the experiences of that what constitutes ethnicity. Within the colonial framework, the concept of ethnicity is often analyzed from a hybrid perspective, the collusion of races that came together because of slavery, indenture and settling.

But its sheer atavistic connotation of black-brown ethnic relationships also grab back to the nature of the plantation, the fact that the plantation was in fact that settling in the Caribbean did not occur because these places were seen as inhabitable. White men who came to work as administrators, adventurers or agents on the plantations as direct result engaged in sexual relationships with female slaves. The off-spring of said relationships sometimes in some cases was taken care of by their white father and they could as free citizens pursue an education, gain possessions.

The intermittent position of people of color, specifically in the case of Suriname has never been properly researched. I found one publication, which cannot be used to underpin possible empirics. Other works do mention the role of the mixed race people, but only to argue that this specific racial category impeded politicization of other racial categories in Suriname. Noteworthy is the find that none of these publications actually researched claims on the impeding role of what they call mulatto elites.
Researching the onset of politicization in Suriname by delving into archives in search of evidence on how political organization in Suriname came to be brought on a different reality. There is no evidence on the impeding role of the so called ‘mulatto elites’, political developments occurred according to a universal pattern, early identified by seminal scholars such as Giovanni Sartori, Seymour Martin Lipset and Stein Rokkan.

One of the fallacies of earlier research of the Surinamese and other transitional societies is the absence of information on political leadership, the formation of political elites and how said elites organized the political landscape. One of the challenges of researching political processes is that quantitative analysis of long term demographic, economic and social developments using statistical data takes time and requires extra funding that at this point is only scantly available to scholars.

Forefront in this blog is the dominant role of the colonizer within that framework is oftentimes overlooked; scholars and laypeople alike typically attenuate ethnic conflict to certain ethnic cues, “the laziness of Blacks”, “thriftiness of Indians” and so on. It was therefore interesting to find that people of the Caribbean, specifically people in Suriname merely echo colonial perceptions and ideas of the colonizers, but fail to look at empirical at the historical complexities of plantation societies such as Suriname and why actually political systems churned out the way they have.

Qualitative Data

To circumvent the lack of funding, and to ensure progression of research, I decided to look at the other available sources, apt to answer some pivotal questions on the emergence of political leadership and exigencies for political representation by the people.

Relevant was also the social cleavage structure base, a term developed by Lipset&Rokkan (1967), denoting the set of fault lines of any given society. This specific set of fault-lines corresponds with the formation of the party system of a given society. Imperative is therefore to scrutinize the presence of cross-cutting cleavages, rather fault-lines that cut across race, class and social status, because said cleavages in turn teach us something about incipience and level of social integration of the people.
As I mentioned earlier, the first clearly identifiable cleavage that became translated politically in Suriname was the black/brown cleavage, the cleavage between what they termed volkscreolen (Blacks) and Creolen (mulatto). There is ample evidence to underpin the claim that the Surinamese mulattoes gave rise to politicization under the strictest conditions possible allowed by the colonial system.

The colonial authorities from the beginning resisted politicization of the locals and used divide and rule tactic to prevent unification. It is uncanny to note how strong and prolific their message actually has been, because it gave rise to flawed perceptions and ideas on racial relations that keep on persisting into the contemporary. One of the strongest perceptions is that lighter skinned Creoles prevented Blacks from getting the vote. This perception is based on claims propelled into the society by the colonial authorities, to shift the attention away from the fact that they prevented nascent civility among Blacks from growing.

The Governor General, Baron van Asbeck writes in a letter to the minister of Colonies on the 28th of February 1914 about people of “color” have no race, they are lower than whites, The Dutch. They are however the possessive classes and are closest to power, but if they get the power they would destroy each other. The people of color have the press, the Colonial Assembley (…..) they are anti-colonial and anti-Dutch

‘ die geen ras zijn en ras eigenschappen missen van de blanken , de Hollanders. De kleurlingen zijn de middenstand, zij staan het dichtst aan de macht en zouden niets liever willen dan die in handen hebben. Geen ogenblik later zouden zij elkaar verdelgen. De kleurlingen hebben de pers, de koloniale Staten (……..). Zij zijn nog sterker anti-gouvernementeel en anti-Hollandsch….

This writing is exemplary of the way Europeans saw people of mixed race. More recent a BBC series of documentaries revealed even more shocking details on treatment of people mixed race (so called half-casts and half-bloods) during the first half of the Twentieth Century. The far-reaching effects of this agitation became apparent when I found that the Netherlands, rather certain political organizations were directly involved in Suriname to drive a wedge between people of different color belonging to the same ethnic category.

In dept research of other data revealed more information on the level of agitation, the involvement of Dutch Trade-Unions and possible the predecessor of the Dutch Labor Party SDAP. Their role became apparent as the economic situation in Suriname during the World crisis of the 1930s worsened and the workers needed leaders to represent them. There are two, possible three works on Trade Unions in Suriname, but these findings were not incorporated in the publications. Their relevance is immense, because they volumes teach us myriad things about the nature and the structure of colonialism, its pervasiveness, grabbing into the personal of the people in the colonized societies.

Although very unclear why the Dutch Trade Union Nederlandse Verbond voor Vakverenigingen became involved in the organization of the Trade Union in Suriname, its mission is not. It is very apparent that the NVV wants to ‘help’ set up a modern-style trade union, compatible to that in the Netherlands. It tries to teach and influence Surinamese trade-union leaders how to organize workers and expand their organization with dues-paying membership. It is not clear if the Surinamese counterpart asked for help, nor is it not very apparent what the NVV tries to achieve when looking at the material superficially.

Putting the documentation in historical context however brings about a new set of information, directly linked to the conflict between the so called Mulatto political elites and the Governor Kielstra. Said conflict came to be as the Governor enfolded plans to turn the Surinamese society into segregated society, centered on new immigrants from Indonesia who would become the new farming class, living in specific administrative units, separated from the rest of society.
Argumentations against these plans were viewed by the colonial authorities as subversive, and local politicians were branded fascists and nazi’s, because they argued that local farmers (Hindustani and Javanese) could hardly make ends meet.

Member of Parliament Mr Simons argues:

(….) in de tweede plaats is te wijzen op de overproductie van de kleine landbouw waarvan de afzet naar de buitenlandsche markten tegen prijzen welke de concurrentie aldaar kunnen doorstaan tot nog toe niet bevredigend is (….) terwijl door overproductie de binnelandsche productie naar beneden wordt gedrukt. [Dat het kleinbedrijf] over het algemeen niet lonend is uit te oefenen [hetgeen] verklaart en rechtvaardigt ,,de trek naar de stad”.

This reality is corroborated by the NVV, but their counter argumentation was that this specific category indentured was designated to work in the mechanical agriculture, that this plan would not affect the Creoles because they worked in other sectors. Indeed, the notion that Blacks were not suitable for agriculture was based on ideas of the colonizers, and not on actual research that established such fact.

Reading the NVV bulletins more than anything provided an impression of how the Dutch conducted an effective agitation-propaganda against what they perceived as local political elites. By consistently branding people as fascists and NAZI’s without actual prove in hand. These writings also give evidence of the disdain and contempt of the editor of this pamphlet called “De Surinamer”.

“het fascisme en zijn tweelingbroertje het nationaal-socialisme toch kenmerken door het te stroven, rassenverschillen in rassentegenstellingen en rasongelijkheden in rassenhaat om te zetten. Dat in dit geval de Creolen tegen de Javanen in het harnas te jagen (,……) is iets huichelachtigs. Want het is overbekend dat fascisten en Nationaal Socialisten (……) dat zij op de zwarten evenzeer uit de hoogte neerzien als op de bruinen (en op de Joden) (geschreven onder Pseudoniem van ene Ypsilon).

The seriousness of these allegations, specifically when placed against the events of the 1930s, the Kristallnacht in Germany, and hostilities toward Jews, calls for a revaluation of the Surinamese history during that specific period. The effectiveness of this negative propaganda, its racist connotation was not without consequence it robbed Members of Parliament of their good name and kindled disrepute of honorable people who all in their own way fought for a better society.

Wim Bos verschuur, one of the MP’s accused of NAZI sympathies was actually interned during the early years of the war, comments in Juni 1945 on the events:
De aanwezigheid van Bos Verschuur werd geacht gevaarlijk te zijn voor de rust en de algemeene veiligheid zoals de considerans luidde en zo werd bij resolutie Kabinet Geheim NO. 1066 besloten hem in bewaring te stellen zonder eenig commentaar.

Noteworthy is that “Het Kaderblad” derives the bulk of its information from local informants, they consistently comment on the fact that many letters arrive with insufficient postage. The consistent messaging to anonymous sources is also tell-tale of the degree of betrayal that occurred in Suriname. There are however limited available sources on what actually transpired, even if the assumption of spying and betrayal are correct.

Relevant is that this period gave rise to a new political reality in Suriname, rather a complete transformation of the political landscape that halted the politicization and civility indefinitely. The allegation that the mulatto elite refused to share power became played out after 1945, during decolonization. Both Hindustani and Javanese ethnic categories became organized along ethnic lines; Creoles were organized along the lines or religion and race (lighter and darker-skinned). Early on the process Dutch civil servants started fueling feelings of distrust among Hindustani leaders:

De Mohammedaanse vereenigingen in Paramaribo hebben een telegram gestuurd naar Koningin Welhelmina over de staten delegatie: ‘wij hebben geen waarborg dat de delegatie de belangen van de Mohammedaansche Partij dient. Wij vragen uitstel van vertrek van de delegatie tot na de algemeene verkiezingen en de nieuwe indeeling van Staten Generaal. Het blijkt dat een Nederlandse ambtenaar van de Regeerings Voorlichtingsdienst als hoofd van de Gouvernements Persdienst, zich intensief met deze zaak bemoeid. Hij lekt dit telegram door naar het persbureau Aneta, die het stuk plaatst in de Amigoe op Curaçao.

These feelings proved to be a negative breeding ground for inter-ethnic co-operation, but they also delegitimized the position of the incumbent political leaders. From the standpoint of the Dutch, it was easier to work with inchoate politicians, whose support base was confined to a certain ethnic or religious category. They argued that all Surinamese should be represented in parliament, which in reality meant that certain ethnic categories had to represented, American Indians and Marroons were not relevant.

In the absence of inter-ethnic co-operation came ethnic co-optation or the politics of fraternization, a specific type of politicking that is grounded on the political will of two leaders, whose power is based on elite-bargaining, ethnic headcount and zero-sum game co-operation strategies (ADAMA 2006). Through ethnic co-optation the first plans for development co-operation also mentioned in “De Surinamer” (Het Welvaartsplan) took shape. Wageningen Mechanical Rice factory was one of the flagships of Governor Kielstra that ironically came to be in the early 1960s.

But in the end, the old political nomenclature was correct in their observation that small scale farming did not work, and would not work without insufficient funding for the improvement of crops, that would give impulse to export abroad. Today this issue still determines agriculture in Suriname, and Wageningen is no longer……………………………

AUTHOR: Natascha Adama
URL: http://natascha23.blogspot.com
E-MAIL: nataliapestova23 [@] yahoo.com

Transactional sex is a form of prostitution whereby the trade-off consists of material goods, low- end mix drinks, phone cards; high end, brand-name goods (smart-phones, designer bags, shoes).

Striking is the fact that many of these victims come from poor social backgrounds, being raised in foster care or by a single mother. Neglect and poverty stand at the heart of this phenomenon: many people in the Caribbean are forced to live in cramped conditions with the extended families, situations where children oftentimes become the prey of adult perversion. Child abuse is not tied to certain social categories, child abuse is wide-spread, pervasive and persistent and transcending.

Studies carried out by the CARICOM revealed that sexual and physical abuse of children is socially accepted, and despite increasing awareness, prevalence remains high as the examples in the case of Suriname show.

In the case of Suriname, the new government blamed the high prevalence of abuse on TV and proposed to curb the media instead of taking actual action to stop abuse. Government overlooked the fact that at the heart of child abuse lay a distorted attitude toward children and their social status. Other social and political issues such as poverty and the mall-functioning of the police were left hanging in mid-air. By shifting the blame to the media, government in fact denied the seriousness of child abuse, sticking their heads in the sand and focusing on the morals of foreign TV-shows.

One of the issues of the Caribbean is the influence of religion the fact that sex and sexual behavior is ensconced in crypts of religiosity poses a serious problem, because it means that sexual abuse of children is in fact tabu. This conservative stance does not rhyme with the reality of the Caribbean society, a society economically and socially driven by matrifocality but politically influenced by ideas and images of masculinity and machismo.

But why have women consistently failed to take stance against child abuse? One of the problems is that the eradication of child abuse starts at the grass-roots, the care-taker, the mother. Mothers should be made aware to take action, to protect their children and break the cycle of abuse. But many women are afraid to take action because it oftentimes means implicating the breadwinner or financial contributor. Many women therefore have chosen to close their eyes, or to simply go on ignoring the signals of sexual abuse, failing to protect their child(ren) in order to keep a roof over their head. In some cases women have chosen men over their children, because they deemed having a man more important than protecting their children. In such a love-less environment, children easily fall prey to men seeking opportunity to have sex with minors.

Interesting is the notion that a child who had sex is no longer considered a child. In other words ones the child has had sex, it does not need protecting, it can take care of itself. In Suriname, many young girls who had so called‘consensual’ sex were also regarded as adults by the system and by their families. The thirteen year old rape victim was deemed fit for marriage by the justice system, because the perpetrator argued that he asked for her hand in marriage! Indeed cultural ideas on the definition of childhood also clash with what is generally qualified as child abuse.

Conclusion

Sexual abuse in the Caribbean is massive and underreported. Newspapers only depict a fraction of cases, oftentimes the cases that were brought to court. Many governments fail to address the unwanted byproducts of sexual abuse,( unwanted pregnancies, increasing risk of STD’s, HIV/AIDS, the increase of wanton sexual behavior of the adolescent population, and increasing percentages of single family households), and continue to stick their heads in the sand. But sexual abuse is not a proclivity of poverty, in fact sexual abuse in the higher social classes typically occurs in an even murkier and obscure environment, cloaked by social standing and mores, impeding elements that make the reporting of the abuse more difficult than in the lower classes. Policy makers and the justice system should take lesson from the cases that are reported and tried in court to develop policy and a protocol to help victims of abuse. But its Governments that remain responsible for the education of the population on the negative effects of sexual abuse of children, and the importance of protecting children against predators and pedophiles, no matter what social background they come from.

REFERENCES

1. http://www.actionforchildren.org.uk/media/143143/child_sexual_abuse_in_the_eastern_caribbean.pdf
2. http://www.dbsuriname.com/archief/nat/2011/okt11/21-10-11/Nat_Verzoek%20tot%20invrijheidstelling%20in%20zedenzaak%20kinderhuis%20Commewijne%20afgewezen.asp

AUTHOR: Natascha Adama
URL: http://natascha23.blogspot.com
E-MAIL: nataliapestova23 [@] yahoo.com

“From a law enforcement perspective, the African continent is a vast prison camp for females who are treated far worse than cattle and animal livestock. The penalty for poaching Ivory is far tougher than the penalty for raping a teenager,” said former New York police officer Edie Santiago.

Several other police officers, many of whom investigate sex crimes, believe Clinton would be performing more of a service if she worked to stop the violence in Africa and stop the politically-correct attitudes prevalent in the U.S. State Department.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), violence affects millions of women in Africa. In a study on women’s health and domestic violence, the WHO found that 50 per cent of women in Tanzania and 71 per cent of women in Ethiopia’s rural areas reported beatings or other forms of violence by husbands or other intimate partners.

In South Africa, reports Amnesty International, about one woman is killed by her husband or boyfriend every six hours. In Kenya, the attorney general’s office reported that domestic violence accounted for 47 per cent of all homicides.

In Africa, violence against women goes beyond beatings. It includes forced marriage, dowry-related violence, marital rape, sexual harassment, intimidation at work and in educational institutions, forced pregnancy, forced abortion, forced sterilization, trafficking and forced prostitution.

Such practices cause trauma, injuries and death. Female genital cutting, for example, is a common cultural practice in parts of Africa. Yet it can cause “bleeding and infection, urinary incontinence, difficulties with childbirth and even death,” reports the World Health Organization. The organization estimates that 130 million girls have undergone the procedure globally and 2 million are at risk each year, despite international agreements banning the practice.

In other African countries, women are experiencing a living hell. For example:

Zimbabwe

In Zimbabwe, a camp is known as “Diamond Base”, which includes a collection of military tents as well as a prisoner camp enclosed in an outdoor razor wire. It is about a mile from Mbada mine from where the 27-nation bloc wants to partially lift the ban.

“They beat us 40 whips in the morning, 40 in the afternoon and 40 in the evening,” said the man, who could not use one of his arms and legs properly. “They used logs to beat me here, under my feet, as I lay on the ground. They also used stones to beat my ankles,” one victim told the BBC.

He added that most of the women are being raped and then released soon afterwards.

South African

Across South Africa a rising tide of rape and violence is being used to suppress lesbian women. The South Africans actually have a politically-correct name for it: Corrective Rape.

In addition, if someone is arrested for raping a heterosexual woman, all he must do is allege that his rape victim is a lesbian.

According to the American Journal of Public Health, statistics show that a South African woman has a higher chance of being raped than learning how to read.

Congo

War, ethnic conflict and the greed of neighboring countries have turned the eastern part of Democratic Republic of Congo into an utterly lawless nation where the strong and well-armed prey upon the weak and defenseless, especially women, children and the elderly.

Whether they be soldiers or rebels, women are viewed as sexual objects to be used between battles.

More than 1100 women are raped every day in Congo, a study published in the American Journal of Public Health on concluded in May, 2011.

Uganda

There is great concern about the absence of laws to address the high incidence of violence against women in Uganda. In the absence of a domestic violence law, the police and courts rely on laws that cover assault and homicide. The committee strongly recommended the speedy enactment of two bills that have languished in parliament for a decade: the Domestic Relations Bill, which is intended to consolidate laws on marriage and divorce, and the Sexual Offenses Bill.

But political leaders described the bills as “not urgent.”

AUTHOR: Jim Kouri
URL: http://www.renewamerica.com/
E-MAIL: COPmagazine [at] aol.com

Since Saturday 3rd of September at least 10 people have been executed in Iran according to the official sources.

On Sunday September 4, six people were hanged in the prison of Ahvaz (southwestern Iran). Three of those executed were men convicted of homosexual practice, also called Lavat (sodomy).This was one of the rare occasions where the Iranian authorities admit conducting death penalty for sexual practice.

According to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) a man identified as Ehsan Sha’bani who was allegedly executed for drug trafficking. The official sources haven’t confirmed the news. Iran Human Rights has warned about a new wave of executions in the coming weeks. Several of the executions are scheduled to be carried out in the public.

AUTHOR: Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam
URL: http://iranhr.net/
E-MAIL: amirymoghaddam [at] gmail.com