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RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVES ON HUMAN RIGHTS
E-Newsletter
Vol.2 No.47
November 20, 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.
1)
Ibu SULAMI: THE WINNER OF Bp.TJI HAKSUN JUSTICE AND PEACE AWARD
A woman who spent most of her life in prison for crimes
never committed coming out intact and whole and working
tirelessly to collect and compile the missing victims of 1964/65
revolution. Her book entitled WOMAN - TRUTH and PRISON carries
this poem in the first chapter A Plaintiff in Search of Truth
quite reflective of her life long stuggle:
"How relative Truth is
Whose truth?
Whose untruth?
Yet, amidst these relativity,
There is something
Still and undistorted,
The Truth itself
This Truth is the truth incessantly I look for".
( You may refer to our e-newsletter Vol.2 No.41 for more
information on Ms. Sulami)
2) HUMAN
RIGHTS TRAINING IN EAST TIMOR
The Asian Human Rights Commission in collaboration with
FREEDOM HOUSE in initiating a training program in human
rights for a group of partners (ten partners ) in East Timor. The
training will be based on the initial assessment of needs.
The training will be for the purpose of providing a foundation of
general principles of human rights based on the UN
instruments. Attempts will be made to relate these pronciples to
the nature of political, social, legal and structural
developments in East Timor. Mr. Basil Fernando and Sanjeewa
Liyanage are already in E.Timor making the initial
assessment.
3)
AMAN CELEBRATES 10th YEAR as an ASIAN MUSLIM ACTION
NETWORK
AMAN is a "network of individuals and groups, formed in
October 1990, seeking to respond to the numerous challenges that
people in the Region are faced with ranging from mass poverty,
elite corruption, materialistic lifestyle, increasing ethnic,
religious and communal conflict, environmental degradation, and
violence against women and children. AMAN seeks active
collaboration with other faith communities in order to promote
human dignity, social justice, tolerance and peace for all".
4) A
Prayer for Good Government by Bruce
(The following prayer is based on my recent role as an
election monitor of the parliamentary elections in Sri Lanka on
Oct. 10 and my involvement with a network of primarily Filipino
migrant organizations in Hong Kong who have come together to seek
the resignation of President Joseph Estrada of the Philippines
because of
allegations that he has received millions of dollars in kickbacks
from illegal gambling proceeds and from the country's tobacco
tax.)
O, Lord, we pray for good government in Asia and elsewhere in
the world. We are particularly saddened by the violence and
vote-rigging that have tainted the parliamentary elections in Sri
Lanka in October and the ongoing scandal of corruption that has
been revealed in the Philippines involving President Estrada. We
pray for government leaders who will seek to use their positions
of power to serve their people instead of themselves; for without
your presence in their hearts, Lord, the poverty of your people
in Asia and in too many other places in today's global village
cannot be alleviated. We thus pray, Lord, that good government
based on compassion and justice will replace today's bad
government based on greed and oppression, that government leaders
will come to see and know the power and joy of your love instead
of mistakenly chasing after misguided and unfulfilling temporal
power rooted in money and violence. Amen.
5)
2001 -INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF MOBILISATION AGAINST RACISM
The UN Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee Friday
approved without a vote a resolution proclaiming 2001 the
International Year of Mobilization Against Racism. As directed in
the resolution, the UN General Assembly will now begin
preparations for the World Conference on Racism, to be held from
31 August to 7 September 2001 in Durban, South Africa. The slogan
of the international anti-racism conference will be "United
to combat racism: equality, justice, dignity."
6)
TORTURE AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR
PUNISHMENT: THE MOTHER OF ALL HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS DECLARATION
ON ELIMINATION OF TORTURE IN ASIA (second part)
4. We, the participants at this seminar, note that the
widespread use of torture poses the greatest threat to
development of democratic institutions in Asia. So long as the
people perceive law enforcement agencies as fearsome places where
violent persons exercise their power over civilians with
impunity, no trust can be built for cooperation. Such fear exists
everywhere in Asia. The use of law enforcement agencies for
political ends has aggravated the situation. All aspects of
democratic life, such as free and fair elections, fair trial and
the participation of people in economic development are vitiated
by the use of torture and degrading punishment.
5. In international law, torture is today considered among the
highest of crimes, the gravity of which is comparable to crimes
against humanity and war crimes. The jurisdiction against torture
is not confined to domestic courts, but is extended universally.
However an examination of case law in the Asian region does not
reveal a
reflection of international law on this matter. Often local
courts in the region seem to take a less serious approach and
thereby condone the wide practice of torture and other inhuman
treatment. A change of approach in the local courts, in keeping
with international law on torture, is an essential element in
altering this age-old practice ingrained in Asian societies. To
create an atmosphere of intolerance to torture among the
judiciary, education of international law on torture and
sharpening of judicial sensitivity by way of social criticism are
essential.
7) NEWS IN BRIEF
NEPAL:Hindu Fundamentalist Frenzy Catching up in Nepal! Fr.
Bogati reports of the arrest of four Christian preachers in
Nepal. "They were detained in eastern part of Nepal in a
place called Rajbiraj; about five hundred kilometers away from
Kathmandu. They were falsely accused of trying to convert Hindus
to Christianity" writes Fr.Bogati.
BURMA:The International Labor Organization decided last
week to proceed with sanctions against Myanmar, after considering
the country's efforts to eradicate forced labor.
UN Global Climate Change Summit; US and European Union
representatives were moving slowly toward an agreement last night
on several contentious issues at the two-week
United Nations global climate change summit at The Hague.
Despite reports the United States had made minor concessions over
forests and nuclear power, it had not made compromises that would
force it to cut domestic greenhouse gas emissions. Some
environmentalists criticized the US plan yesterday, claiming it
is a cynical scheme to transform forests into carbon sinks that
effectively transfer the problem of global warming to developing
countries. Pessimism has grown that the Hague summit will be
unable to resolve problems with the 1990 Kyoto climate change
treaty that governs the international efforts to reduce
greenhouse gases.
Research conducted for the Organization of Economic
Cooperation and Development has shown that reduction of
greenhouse gases would have broad benefits, beyond simply
reducing global warming. The study said pollution-induced lung
diseases could be alleviated by a reduction in greenhouse gases.
WOMEN IN CONFLICT: Bangladeshi PM Lauds Security Council
Action Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina writes in a
Christian Science Monitor commentary that it was high time the
United Nations took action to include more women in peacekeeping
negotiations and operations, referring to last month's UN
Security Council adoption of a resolution urging a more active
peace role for women.
Hasina says that including women in peace processes could
advance peace efforts in Kosovo, ast Timor, Sierra Leone, Central
Africa and other regions "where violence continues to take
too many lives."
INDIA: World Bank May Not Fund Controversial Dam Amid protests
from labor unions and left-wing groups, World Bank President
James Wolfensohn yesterday hinted to a group of
environmentalists that the bank would not finance a controversial
dam project in western India.
The State of the World's Refugees: Only 6 million of the
world's 20 to 25 million internally displaced persons are under
the protection of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees,
according to the agency's new report, The State of the World's
Refugees,released last week.
TORTURE: UN Panel Concerned About Overdue Reports
The UN Committee Against Torture opened its 25th session today in
Geneva by expressing concern over the large number of overdue
country reports.
The 123 parties to the Convention against Torture and Other
Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment are required
to report periodically on efforts to eradicate torture.
Posted on 2000-11-20
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