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RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVES ON HUMAN RIGHTS

E-Newsletter
Vol.2 No.38
September 18, 2000


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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.

Please notify us in case your e-mail address is changed.

1) SRI LANKA: JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED 

Ten lawyers intervene on behalf of the 60 ill treated detainees; courtesy JRS A visit of 10 human rights lawyers from Colombo to a prison in Badulla town, Uva Province, was sponsored by JRS last month. The majority of the 60 detainees interviewed by the lawyers have been remanded under the Prevention of Terrorism Act or the Emergency Regulations.

The detainees rarely receive visits from lawyers as they were arrested in a different province (Eastern Province) to that where they are detained. Their cases will be heard in Amparai High Court in Eastern Province. So lawyers from Badulla do not visit them and lawyers from Eastern Province do not visit either as the prison is
too far away. The detainees interviewed by the lawyers have complained of torture and ill treatment at the hands of police while in custody. Action has been taken to bring this to the notice of the proper authorities. Apart from providing legal assistance to the detainees when they appear in court, JRS has also set up a program of support for the families of detainees, particularly for children's education. 

When the family breadwinner is arrested and detained for a long period without trial, the rest of the family faces pressing financial problems. Two or more years can pass before the trial of the detainee is concluded. The JRS program allows children to continue their education until their father is released from prison.

2) MIGRATION AS A HUMAN RIGHT ISSUE

Mr.Basil Fernando who returned from the experts Meeting held in Bangkok in preparation for the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and related Intolerance, has this comment on the subject of migration, trafficking and sex-trafficking.

It can be said that the over all emphasis on Migration at the Experts Meeting was from the Western Government perspective rather than from a human rights perspectives. However, a few experts and almost all NGO representatives who made submissions, did try to bring in humanitarian and human rights issues involved in Migration. As the subject was discussed on the basis of inputs by the experts, some very strong positions based on Western Government's perspectives were more prominently heard. Some key aspects of such inputs were as follows:

(I) De-linking Migration from poverty; This theme which was repeated many times was achieved in following ways.

(a) Lumping all migrations together- for example professional migrants and other privileged migrants together with those who migrate for very low paid jobs such as laborers, domestic helpers and other work usually considered as menial.

(b) Characterizing even migration of the poor, as a middle class migration.

(c) De-linking poverty factor from greater awareness factor:
According to this view people migrate because they are more aware of opportunities now, than due to poverty.

(d) Creating a dichotomy between victims and people having greater opportunities. For example positions like " Even poor Migrant women are not victims; They are people who have gained greater opportunity." This can be said of any one, including the slaves. They may be better off, than those who could not become slaves, as their masters gave them food, drink and shelter. This approach ignores human rights issues and the issues of discrimination.

(e) Failure to deal with Sex-trafficking and trafficking of children as separate issues from the general issue of illegal migration and trafficking.

(f) Failure to discuss restrictive migration policies of richer countries as a cause of illegal migration.

(g) The failure to consider structural issues of relationships between riche and poor nations and the impact of this on migration, legal or illegal

(i) Dealing with illegal migration almost like an issue of terrorism

(II) The Asian Reality and Migration

Migration in Asia is very much linked to poverty factor; Following factors are linked; The poor are increasingly becoming wage laborers while in the past more people may have had their livelihood in agriculture or other forms of tradition employment such as fishing etc. As people move from rural forms of employment, there is greater unemployment. Under- developed economies do not expand fast enough to absorb the new mass of people who seek jobs. Mean while, depending on money for everything, rural safeguards which poor had in the past also disappear. That unlike in rural economy the poor become more mobile. Meanwhile globalization reduces social safeguards, such as health and education. These have to be purchased now. The pressure to make more money for survival becomes urgent. The poor also begin to learn of the other possibilities for employment outside of the region or country. Added to this mobility and greater exposure to modernity, the poor also lose toa greater or lesser degree the age old habits of fatalism and resignation, and become de-rooted in some degree from their traditional social milieu and culture.

All this does not make the poorer "richer". In fact the poor, now becoming more dependant on money which they do not have and more dependant on  employment. If they cannot find such employment at home or what they find at home is not sufficient to meet their requirements or of families migration becomes imperative. Thus the impulse for migration become quite common among the poor. The stories of persons migrating form poorer sections of society will show, payments of debts, needing money for health issues of family members, feeding of older or younger members of their families are among the more common motives for migration. Rather than becoming richer, surviving at levels they had in the less complex societies with traditional safeguards becomes motivation for migration.

The assimilation of persons seeking migration depend on available opportunities outside. However, there are vast numbers who can not find such employment legally or can not find legal migration immediately. Illegal migration rise from among these. A part of such illegal migrants seek the help of traffickers. 

(III) The Issue of Sex-trafficking and Child Trafficking need to be taken separately and as a more serious issue

Lumping of the Issues of Sex-trafficking and Child Trafficking with the general trafficking of migrants, the seriousness of the sex and child trafficking is diminished. It may even be argued, that sex and child trafficking is used only to give a greater weight to general illegal migration. Instead, more attention must be paid to sex and child trafficking from the point of view of moral and social issues involved. Considered separately it is possible to evolve means to deal with this issue more urgently and comprehensively. While the general issue of migration must be dealt with through economic policies for solving root causes in both sending and receiving countries, sex and child trafficking must be dealt through an effective legal mechanism on the one hand and assistance to victims on the other. If this is left in the hands of those who generally legal with the illegal trafficking, it is unlikely to receive the attention it need to receive. Besides sensitivities needed in both
areas are very different.

3)Neo-liberalism excludes the poor from health and medical care : Two soul-stirring cases of suicides and what is common to both? 

by Dr. Mervyn D. De Silva - courtesy lacnet.org 

Two soul-stirring cases of suicides in two countries separated geographically by thousands of miles; one in rural Sri Lanka and the other in urban Argentina, one by a small-scale farmer named R. G. Somapala at the bottom end of the professional ladder and the other by a brilliant cardiac surgeon named Dr. Rene Favaloro at the top-rung of the professional scale; one because the structural adjustment policies of the IMF and World Bank had made it increasingly difficult for him to meet his basic domestic and social needs as a small-scale farmer, the other because the adoption of the Neo-liberal economic policies by his government in 1990, resulted in subsidies given to the Heart Institution he set up, where ground breaking research as well as sophisticated organ transplants and coronary surgeries were performed, were slashed as a consequence. 

Although private insurance companies in Argentina reigned in the cost, the millions of people who were pushed out of work by public and private downsizing, lost health care coverage altogether and inevitably access to treatment. As a champion of the cause of universal health-care, Dr. Favaloro had grown distraught seeing that only the rich and powerful enjoyed what he called, the right to live. The soul searching dilemma that he faced was that he could not refuse or turn away uninsured patients whose condition was so chronic that only his Heart Institution could offer hope, when, in fact, it stood at the point of bankruptcy with uncollected bills amounting to US$ 70 million. The local medical fraternity should be inspired by this resplendent role model. 

Both R. G. Somapala and Dr. Rene Favaloro symbolise the sacrificial offerings that are being made throughout the Third World at the altar of Neo-liberal economic dogmatism which is the linch-pin of the IMF and World Bank concensus. 

"I drank poison to die. There is no need to save me. I want to die in my fields. But I shall return as a re-incarnate cobra or viper and attack those who made me die". Those are the embittered last words of farmer Somapala. "I have always practised medicine with a profound social pledge. For me, all patients are equal. Every patient, paying or not paying will continue to receive the very same attention. I tell you that this foundation is for everyone". These are the angry
last words of Dr. Rene Favaloro.

4)WORLD BANK: Annual Report Broadens Definition Of Poverty-UN Wire 

In a departure from previous World Bank policy, the latest World Development Report says growth alone will not end poverty. The annual report, Attacking Poverty broadens the definition of poverty by incorporating the criteria of "powerlessness, voicelessness, vulnerability and fear as aspects of poverty," Inter Press Service reports (Gumisai Mutume, TerraViva, 13 Sep).

"What we're seeing in this analysis is that actually growth may not be enough -- that in order to increase poor people's share of this growth, we're going to have to address inequalities," said Nora Lustig, the study's director (Michael Phillips, Wall Street Journal, 13 Sep).

To address this expanded definition of poverty, the report suggested policies in the areas of opportunity, empowerment and security (World Bank Release, 13 Sep).

FOR;

a) Bangkok Statement of Understanding on Peace Process in Sri Lanka,
b) Past copies of E-Newsletter, you may visit www.ahrchk.net