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RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVES ON HUMAN RIGHTS

E-Newsletter
Vol.3 No.26
June 26, 2001


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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) UNITED NATIONS INTERNATIONAL DAY IN SUPPORT OF VICTIMS OF TORTURE
2) MILK PRICES - An Issue of Fair Trade and Human Rights
3) UN ASKS BHUTAN TO UPHOLD CHILDREN'S RIGHTS
4) NEWS IN BRIEF: Sri Lanka, Indonesia and East Timor
5) AHRC HOME NEWS

1) UNITED NATIONS INTERNATIONAL DAY IN SUPPORT OF VICTIMS OF TORTURE:

26 June - AHRC Message-2001

Invest Money to eradicate Torture; Mere talk is just hypocrisy

Perhaps, the only day that really reflects the reality of Asia is this day which remembers the victims of Torture. This is a continent that is so sick with torture. What is worse is that, the most educated and the sophisticated classes of this society tolerate torture and have no hard feelings against it.

Asia's victims of torture find very little support from their communities. Those who hold moral and ethical leadership are almost mute about torture and quite many of these persons directly or indirectly tolerates the use of torture. The political leaders, while signing UN Convention Against Torture and Other Inhuman, Degrading Treatment or Punishment and thus acquiring respectability in the international community, cynically laugh at efforts to stop torture and do every thing to protect the torturers and not the victims. Even the judiciary for most part, is determined not to stop this practice. Above all the National Human Rights Commissions who are supposed to be using their mandate to promote human rights play humbug when it comes to the stopping of torture.

It must also be said, that in Asia, the contribution of the United Nations to stop torture is so insignificant that hardly anything has been achieved in this area. Even the countries where there are habitual practices of barbaric forms of torture like India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia and others, had received hardly any intervention from the United Nations agencies that are worth mentioning.

One of the worst mockeries of justice is to leave the investigation of torture to the very institutions that perpetrate torture. Without law enforcement agencies with genuine power to investigate the police and other agents who engage in torture, lot of talk that goes on about torture will only generate further cynicism and demoralization. This in real terms means investment of money and other resources to prevent torture. There is no way to escape this: financial commitment to prevent torture is a moral responsibility.

The Meditations and reflections on this day must be on the failures of protection. If anything really different is to happen in the coming years the extent of the colossal failures to prevent torture or to protect the victims must be genuinely reflected upon.

Real and strong movements against torture are long overdue in Asia. It is time to face the challenge. Those who can lead, are the people's organizations themselves. It is their duty to awaken their communities against the prevalent barbarities. It is also their duty to critique those who hold positions of moral leadership in their countries, including the religious leaders. In the political field this issue must be brought to surface, so that the actions and positions of the political leaders on this matter are brought to the public scrutiny.

The only way to alter the present situation is to treat Torture as a heinous crime and genuinely enforce the law against perpetrators. This can be done by getting the agencies to investigate and prosecute the perpetrators, genuinely. For the proper functioning of these agencies there should be sufficient financial allocations.

On this day, we must say good bye to mere paying of lip service to the prevention of torture. Instead, the following actions must be undertaken urgently;

• Activities to make this a public issue of highest priority
• All governments must be questioned on the extent of the financial commitments to prevent torture.
• The leaders of moral and ethical opinions including religious leaders, who refuse to raise the issue of real safeguards against Torture, must be exposed and shunned.
• The issue of torture must be kept very visible all the time through such methods as erection of -monuments to symbolize struggle against torture, constant publication of advertisements, constant critiques on this issue, putting up of web-sites on torture victims and torture practices, keeping vigils, constant use of urgent appeals and other relevant activities-.
• A sense of urgency must be kept up throughout the year.

2) MILK PRICES - An Issue of Fair Trade and Human Rights

In the last three months the prices of all milk and milk foods have increased to really unbearable levels. Sri Lanka, just two decades ago, was a country in which fresh milk was freely available and very cheap. In 1981 under the policy of liberalization and privatization the Government took a decision to close down the National Milk Board and signed an agreement with "Nestle" to develop the dairy industry. After 20 years we do not have any fresh milk available in the market and the entire milk foods sector is in the hands of just two or three big companies such as Nestle, Anchor and Maliban (marketing only milk powders imported from the West).

The price of a 400gram packet of milk powder in 1977 was around Rs 6. It increased to about Rs 50 by 1994. Today, this packet of milk costs Rs 100. In April 2001 the Government was given a stand by loan of US $ 253 million by the IMF on the agreement that the government would introduce immediate tax increases and take other measures to reduce Government expenses and increase revenue. The Government decided to get a bigger tax from the milk companies (at present the government gets 19.5 % of the earnings from milk powder sales), allowing companies to increase their prices as they wish. This was done earlier with tobacco and alcohol, but milk, including infant milk, is a very different commodity. Nestle recently introduced a new variety of full cream milk named "NIDO" saying that they were doing it since there was no longer any fresh, full cream milk available in Sri Lanka and that full cream milk was essential for nutrition of children. This milk too is Rs 119 per 400 grams.

This trade is not only unfair, but is totally criminal in the situation of poverty, hunger, malnutrition and anemia suffered particularly by mothers and children in all parts of the country.

According to the figures of the official poverty alleviation program, half the population receives less than Rs 750 per month family income. The World Bank standard for poverty is less than US $ 1 per day per person. But the above income is about US $ 8 per family per month. In such a situation, a family with just one child below 5 years of age, who requires essentially to be fed with milk, will have to be provided with at least 10 packets a month. Such a family will have to spend Rs. 1190 per month for the child's milk alone. Therefore, we now have about half the population of the country unable to feed their children with their essential milk requirements, even if they spend their entire family income on this alone, without any food or any other expenditure for any other essential need. These are all figures given by the official sources. These are figures that the IMF and World bank wants us to accept as realities. These are figures that they have created for us.

We would like to invite you to begin to refuse to accept these as measures to alleviate poverty and help us to achieve, poverty reducing growth. The injustice of this situation goes far beyond this, since the money that is extracted from the starving mothers and hungry children would be spent for the most criminal process of killing, for the continuation of the war. We would like to propose that Commercial Advertising of MILK FOODS should be stopped immediately, which can reduce the prices by 50 % immediately. Government tax should be removed to reduce the prices further by about 19.5 %. The total monopoly of importing and marketing of milk now in the hands of a few monopolies should be removed by the Government. We feel that milk of same or better quality could be given much cheaper if the Government decided to compete. It would not be necessary to do any advertising if milk could be made available in the market at its real value.

We also have proposals in developing domestic fresh milk production, at a much lower cost and with much more efficiency, compared to the type of efficiency that TNCs claim to have in producing milk in some Western Countries, with cattle feed shipped across the world, milk powdered, picketed, shipped again, advertised at great expense, retailed at large profit margins, to be purchased by the poor mothers and children in our villages, plantations and war torn areas at impossible prices, to be re dissolved in hot water to be converted to milk. This seems to be totally inefficient and foolish in a country when milk from a cow grazing just in the next plot of land, freely could be made available to all people in the country, just as fresh milk or pasteurized milk.

- The Movement of Mothers to Combat Malnutrition (MMCM) and Movement for National Land and Agricultural Reform (MONLAR)

Email: monlar@sltnet.lk
http://www.geocities.com/monlarslk

3) UN ASKS BHUTAN TO UPHOLD CHILDREN'S RIGHTS

In a landmark observation the UN Committee on the rights of the child made strong recommendations to the Royal Government of Bhutan to uphold the rights of the Bhutanese children without discrimination. The Committee on the Rights of the Child during its 27th session meetings held in Geneva on 5 June considered the initial report of Bhutan and subsequently came out with its concluding observations and recommendations. The issue of Bhutanese refugee children has figured prominently in the recommendations wherein the committee has recommended the Bhutanese government to make greater efforts to expedite the verification process, and consider the possibility of repatriating individuals within a reasonable time following verification; consider a mechanism to allow individuals to appeal against decisions; ensure that repatriation and resettlement of returnees are carried out in safety and dignity, to their place of origin or choice; consider acceding to the 1951 Convention Relating to Status of Refugees, its 1967 Protocol, and the Conventions on Stateless; and in the best interest of the children, consider seeking assistance from the UNHCR.

- The Refugee Post (Volume 1.6, June 2001)

4) NEWS IN BRIEF
4-1) LARGER FAMILIES ENCOURAGED IN SRI LANKA

The Sri Lankan Government is urging people to have larger families, to swell the ranks of the army and the clergy. Prime minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake said it was time to ignore the Small is Beautiful family planning program established in the 1970s. He said the low birthrate meant fewer recruits for the army, handicapping its fight against separatist Tamil Tiger rebels.

- BBC South Asia, Tuesday, 19 June, 2001

4-2) EXXONMOBIL SUED FOR ATROCITIES IN INDONESIA

The Indonesia Human Rights Network applauded a lawsuit filed on 20 June in Washington naming the oil giant ExxonMobil corporation as responsible for murder, torture, kidnapping and twelve other charges at its liquefied natural gas operations in Aceh, a region on the northern tip of Sumatra, Indonesia. The suit, filed on behalf of eleven Acehnese villagers, claims that ExxonMobil hired the Indonesian military to provide security for the corporation¹s facilities in Aceh. These troops, under the employ of ExxonMobil, committed human rights abuses against the local population

4-3) EAST TIMOR TO SET UP TRIBUNAL AND RECONCILIATION COMMITTEE

East Timor's National Council passed several important regulations yesterday, most notably the establishment of a truth and reconciliation commission and an international tribunal to try those accused of human rights violations.

- UN Wire

4-4) WORLD CONGRESS AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY

The first World Congress Against the Death Penalty opened today in Strasbourg, France, attended by representatives of 110 countries, including 18 heads of European legislative bodies.

- UN Wire

5) AHRC HOME NEWS

5-1) AHRC welcomes Shakirah Hudani, our new intern from Kenya!
5-2) SRI LANKA: Human Rights Concerns for Reforming the Judiciary

UPDATE (MALAYSIA): U.N. Letter-Writing Campaign for the Release of ISA Detainees