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RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVES ON HUMAN RIGHTS
E-Newsletter
Vol.1 No.27
December 13, 1999
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Religious Perspectives on Human Rights is now available online at: http://www.rghr.net
Religious Perspectives on Human Rights is a weekly e-newsletter issued by Buddhist, Muslim, Catholic and Christian Groups on Human Rights, initiated by the Asian Human Rights Commission.
Celebrating the International
Human Rights Day - Dec.10. 1999
A Foundation
Stone for a Monument Dedicated to the Disappeared Persons
Ms. Jayanthi Dandeniya
and her friends conducted the ceremony on the 10th of
December at Raddoluwa, Seeduwa, Sri Lanka to commemorate the
disappearance of the two members of her family (younger brother
on 5th October 1989, elder brother on 10th
October 1989), her fiance (fiance and his lawyer on 27th
October 1989), the lawyer and all the other disappeared persons
in Sri Lanka numbering over 30,000, according to official
statistics published by the Commission of Inquiry Into
Involuntary Removal or Disappearance of Persons.
The memorial constructed
in co-operation with the Asian Human Rights Commission marks a
very important stage in the attempt to keep alive the memory of
disappeared persons, to create social awareness required to
prevent its recurrence, and to seek justice on behalf of the
disappeared and their families. This is the first of such
monuments to be constructed in Sri Lanka.
The land for the
memorial was offered by the local authorities at the request of
Jayanthi and her friends who have kept alive the memory of the
disappeared by organising a number of activities though out the
last ten years.
It is hoped that this
monument will serve as a gathering place for the families of the
disappeared persons and those concerned with the issue. The human
obligations towards persons who have been so much wronged by the
society needs to be faced, and the attempts by some to prevent
this issue being kept alive, must also be considered inhuman.
Asian Human Rights
Commission Commemorated the last Human Rights Day (1998) by
creating the Cyber Space Grave Yard on Disappearances, a web-site
providing detailed information on disappearances in Asia. The
Website has contributed significantly in generating greater
interest on the issue of disappearances both at the level of the
community and at the higher echelons in the United Nations.
It is hoped that this
monument erected this year will push further this discussion on
disappearances, leading eventually to the construction of many
more monuments during the coming year.
We request you to write
to Ms. Jayanthi Dandeniya letters of sympathy and solidarity for
her courageous endeavor.
Suggested letter
Dear Jayanthi,
I am writing this to
extend my warm support for your and courageous endeavor to keep
the memory of your dear ones and the vast number of others
disappeared under tragic circumstances. I hope that the monument
you are putting up today, will receive the public attention that
it justly deserves. The work of others and yours who are the
direct victims of such inhumane acts will inspire others to take
a more humane view of life. I wish you to know, that I sympathize
with, and support you and others who suffer from such great
injustices. You can rely on my continuos support for your cause.
Email; C/o Sudarshana
Gunawardene <alrcsl@sltnet.lk>
RIGHTS-BANGLADESH:
Choiceless, Resident Servants Suffer Abuse
By Tabibul Islam
DHAKA, Nov 22 (IPS) -
When Rehana, a child domestic in the Bangladesh capital,
was beaten to death allegedly by her employer last June,
there was an uproar in the media and activist groups
demanded "exemplary punishment" for the accused woman.
Newspapers published special reports highlighting the life
of drudgery of the country's domestics, their daily
ordeal, overwork, and hopes and aspirations. The police
arrested the dead girl's employer for homicide, and high
police officials assured the public that no one was above
the law. But that was only to appease the public. Rehana's
employer has secured bail, and the case has not progressed.
In fact, most often such
cases of torture, rape or killing of resident servants,
many of them minors, are dropped because of lack of
evidence and witnesses. The victims families are extremely
poor and unable to pursue the case against the accused.
'Shoishob' or childhood,
an organisation working with child domestics in Bangladesh,
has just published a survey which estimates that there are
between 250,000 and 300,000 resident child servants in
Dhaka. They are children of very poor families, who send them to
work with middle-class families because it represents one
less mouth to feed. Their earnings, if any, are between 50
and 400 takas (dollars 1 and 8). For some, their payment is
food and shelter.
Shoishob covered 10,000
middle-class households in Dhaka in its survey. In these
households, nearly 8,000 resident servants were counted, of
whom 2,500 are minors, more than 80 percent of them girls.
'Shoishob' said it asked the female domestics why they
continued to work in households even though they were
physically and sexually abused. A lack of choice was the
most common reply to the question. "Most of these
domestic workers were unwanted even in their own village
homes where the parents could not provide them food, cloth
and shelter," said Lopita Huq of 'Shoishob. According to
Helen Rahman of 'Shoishob', domestic labour needs to be
included among hazardous work like child workers in lathe
workshops, in plastics, chemical and repair shops. Child servants
are the "largest and most open, yet invisible, form of
informal child labour," she said. She estimates there
are as many maids as "number of households in the country,
with some exceptions in the very low income groups."
A recent UN children's
agency, UNICEF, report estimated there are 6.3 million
working children in Bangladesh. According to the recently-formed
Bangladesh Domestic Workers Association (BDWA), the first
of its kind here, 15 cases of servants being tortured to
death was brought to their attention in the months of July
and August this year. The Association, which will pursue the
legal rights of resident servants, said it also knows of
seven young maids being forced into prostitution, and over
300 being trafficked out of the country during the same
period.
Writes Jeremy Seabrook,
'Third World Network': "In Dhaka, there are three
options for young women. All involve clothes. They can make
clothes ... in the garment factories; they can wash
clothes, ... or they can take off their clothes, whether as
sex workers to service strangers or as youthful brides. It
is far from evident which is the least onerous."
(END/IPS/ti/an/99)
Asian Group
Highlights Regional Problems - UN Wire Foundation
The Asian Human Rights
Commission (AHRC), an independent group based in Hong Kong, said
that during the last year, there have been several
"significant achievements" for democracy and human
rights in Asia and some "very bad drawbacks." Among the
issues highlighted by the AHRC:
- REFUGEES: According
to AHRC, there is "hardly any international
effort" being given to the problems of refugees and
displaced people in Asia. Community organizations and the
news media have little access to such people, so very
little is known about their situation.
- WOMEN: Asian women
tend to suffer from a lack of education, economic
opportunity and abuse, the AHRC says.
- MALAYSIA: Known as
the "sick man" of Southeast Asia in terms of
democracy and human rights, Malaysia needs to
"recreate" its democratic institutions, the
group says.
- SRI LANKA: This
island nation is one of the most violent places in Asia
because of its "non-working" democratic system.
Ethnic conflicts are made worse by the impunity of the
military and police in dealing with them (AHRC release, 9
Dec).
(The complete text can
be obtained on request by mail, e-mail)
Posted on 1999-12-13
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