NGOs – we & others

2006-03-03: Peacestream.org;
2006-03-03: The Mae Tao Clinic – Thai-Burma Border;
2006-03-07: World Social Forum III – Karachi;
2006-03-10: The Iraqi Women’s League (IWL);
2006-03-16: Ukrainian Parliament Commission for Human Rights;
2006-03-17: NGOs and Groups working for Albania;
2006-03-18: A Costa Rica’s Labour Union;
2006-03-18: MIDDLE EAST REGION WORKCAMPS DIRECTORY 2006;
2006-03-19: Crisis Center SAG SULUTTENG;
2006-03-20: ECOSOC and NGOs;
2006-03-24: The Hamoon Health Center in Afghanistan;
2006-03-25: NGOs seeking status with ECOSOC;
2006-03-26: The Women Institute Initivative in Nigeria;
2006-03-27: Indigenous Webs for Information;
2006-03-28: We have an US Office;
2006-03-30: Public Fund “Kylym shamy”;
2006-03-31: Feminist Dalit Organization (FEDO) – Nepal.

Linked with our presentations of Dalit Women and Reservation Policy, and also of DALIT WOMEN: The Triple Oppression of Dalit Women in Nepal.

and linked with our presentation of Durga Sob – Nepal.

FEDO a Nepal based NGO works in field of caste and gender discrimination. The main activities are Education, Health and Sanitation, Income Generation and Advocacy. Email ma@ahrchk.net, Main Address: Kupandole, Lalitpur, P.O. Box. 4366, Kathmandu, Nepal. (See OneWorld).

Anita Shrestha is a staff of the Feminist Dalit Organization (FEDO): Nepal retains its centuries-old caste system. Dalits, the discriminated people under this system, suffer from restriction on the use public amenities, deprivation of economic opportunities, and general neglect by the state and society.

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Linked with our presentation of Aziza Abdirasulova – Kyrgyzstan.

24.05.2005 – Public Fund “Kylym shamy” is standing for land capturers:

In the press-release as of May 18 2005 PF “Kylym shamy” has distributed
information stating that on May 16 more than 100 citizens who wanted to receive
land were beaten by members of militia in Asanbai micro district. As a result 5
people were hospitalized One of them, Kochkonov Taalai was hospitalized to
hospital #4. His condition was extremely hard.

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ON March 28, 2006 has been registered in the US State of Colorado our new US-Office, Asian-Eurasian Human Rights Forum AEHRF.

You may reach the registering page with this link:, or by putting this URL in your browser: http://www.sos.state.co.us/biz/BusinessEntityCriteria.do;jsessionid=0000l2ZH2vz0y1wWB9Z03BKvq9b:10e81rttv:

Information On File:

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Here some webs giving informations for Indigenous Peoples:

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Linked with our presentation of Limota Goroso Giwa (Hajiya) – Nigeria.

Brief Summary of the Women Institute Initivative in Nigeria and its Activities.

The Women Institute Initiative is based in Ilorin Kwara state of Nigeria with (7) local branches in different district of Kwara State of Northern Nigeria . The total population of the region is about 2.5 million people; out of this are 1.5million women and girls residing in the community.

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(Note prepared by Dr. Kashinath Pandita, Vice President, Asian-Eurasian Human Rights Forum, Geneva)
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• NGOs are initially registered in some country. ECOSOC status, a privilege, is the aspiration of almost all of them.
• ECOSOC has set forth a procedure for NGOs to apply for its status. This enables them to participate in the GA sessions and the sessions of various subsidiary bodies of the UN. It gives them exposure and provides them a vast field for activity. NGO can become the eyes and ears of the civil society.
• Existing procedure is time consuming and rather complicated. It has to be simplified and made time bound
• ECOSOC NGO Committee that recommends applications behaves in a wayward manner. It is oblivious of the implications of its waywardness. The NGO applicants are made to go through an ordeal. The Committee begins with suspecting each applicant and then behaving with it like treating criminals in a court of law.
• The worst thing is politicizing of NGOs. If the country where an NGO is registered happens to be a political rival or antagonistic or ideological opponent of another member country, then the applicant NGO is doomed.
• Influential members in the NGO Committee can manage to obtain status for the applicants in whom they are interested. It takes a few minutes to see them through whereas others with no political support are made to cool their heels for any period say 5 to 10 years. This procrastination defeats the aims and objectives of the UN.
• The Committee is supposed to take decisions in a democratic manner. But allowing politics to supervene, the Committee has laid down the tradition of obtaining consensus of opinion. When that consensus is not forthcoming, applications are deferred year after year. This leads to loss of faith in the UN principles. This trend needs to be arrested.
• The importance of NGOs as a bridge between the civil society and the managers of administration is bound to increase with the passage of time. Therefore it is necessary that the process of admitting NGOs to ECOSOC status is simplified and streamlined.

Linked with our presentation of Malalai Joya – Afghanistan, and Malalai Joya’s Historical Speech in the Loya Jirga.

Hamoon Health Center has room for three doctors, but only one doctor actually works there now because they can’t afford more. Every day 200-300 women come and wait outside the clinic for health care. It’s the only free clinic in the area. There are two other clinics, but you have to pay for them, and most of the women and children who come here have no money. So Hamoon Health Care Center is completely overcrowded and overstretched.

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Written by Kashi Nath Pandita, Secretary General of Asian-Eurasian Human Rights Forum (AEHRF), and Vice-President of the Geneva Office of AEHRF:

The need and importance of NGOs in promoting good governance has been debated for a long time. A majority of commentators has recommended further empowerment of NGOs as they are the real liaising mechanism between the civil society and the government.

However, formulation of an NGO and its accreditation to ECOSOC remain a complicated process. There is need of changing the broad approach to these aspects. Our experience is that at present an NGO seeking ECOSOC status is generally looked upon with some suspicion. Owing to political differences among member states of the UN, these differences are allowed to percolate down to lower levels and take the toll of good intentions of aspiring NGOs.

A reform in the procedures of granting ECOSOC status to aspiring NGOs is badly needed. It makes little sense that the granting of status is deferred for innumerable number of years. Procrastinating the matter badly affects the working spirit of an NGO. This trend has to be arrested. A decision about granting or not granting status to an aspiring NGO should be tie bound.

Yet one more aspect of the issue needs to be addressed. A free and fair discussion on each new application has not been witnessed in the NGO Committee. The member states are conditioned by mutual political relation syndrome. There is more of escapism rather than initiative for helping the civil society move towards good governance.

This matter needs to be discussed by the civil society with all seriousness. K.N. Pandita.

Linked with our presentation of Julien Florence Mona Saroinsong – Indonesia.

I tried to find material about this Crisis Center SAG SULUTTENG. Google presents some links, and we arrive at this:

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Welcome to the Middle East! – Welcome to a life experience in the Middle East.

This year, 2006 landmarks the tenth anniversary for the establishment of the International Palestinian Youth League (IPYL). Ten years of giving and dedication towards a better world. With the end of this season, IPYL will be finishing 49 international voluntary workcamps. IPYL did not just make workcamps, but also encouraged other organizations in Palestine and the Middle East to do so, in order to triple the number of the volunteers who want to live this experience, taking into consideration the increasing demands from our partners and some individuals to visit the region.
Similar to last year, IPYL together with its twin and partner organizations; Youth Development Department at the Orient House (occupied East Jerusalem), the Baladna Youth Association in Haifa and Gudran for Art Development (Republic of Egypt) are very happy to introduce to you our joint Workcamps Directory for the year 2006.

We hope that this directory and the timetable will enable your volunteers to attend one or more workcamps in order to have a clearer idea about this region and its concerns. Wishing you and us all the best in this season. Middle East Work Camps Coalition, IPYL, Baladna ,YDD and Gudran.

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A Labour Union-busting happens at the banana plantations of the Costa Rican banana company named Desarrollo Agroindustrial de Frutales S.A. (formerly known as Caribana). This Company owns 21 plantations. Most of its production is sold with the Chiquita label. The plantation workers’ union SITRAP started organising in two of these farms – Cahuita and Tortuguero – in mid-2004. They successfully recruited members and set up local committees inside the plantations. This unleashed an anti-union campaign with several members sacked, permanent harassment from supervisors and a manager driving members to the union office to give up their membership. The company also maintains a security gate at the entrance to the two farms and has imposed restrictive conditions on the union’s access. On 5th October 2005, a SITRAP organiser was attacked and robbed on his motorbike on his way out of the plantations. The union attributes this to the fact that the company would not allow access until after 4pm, therefore meaning that union personnel would be likely not to leave before nightfall and have to drive through an area noted for its assaults. SITRAP’s appeal is to ask the company to cease its anti-union campaign, give free access to union officials and reinstate union members who have been sacked. You can help … by going to this page of LabourStart and sign their initiative.

And here the Sitrap appeal on their website.

Linked with the presentation of Sevim Arbana – Albania.

Linked also to the presentation of NGO’s Protest for Women’s Rights in Albania.

Sevim Arbana is working for the Groups ‘Useful to Albanian Women’ (UAW), and the ‘Woman Bridge for Peace and Understanding’. It seems, they have no websites, but they are mentionned by many other NGOs or working groups by running common projects or meetings.

Hereafter all these projects and groups working for Albania.

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Linked with our presentation of Nina Karpachova – Ukraine.

Do we know how to protect our rights and freedoms?

In March 2002 Institute of Politics held the investigation under the UN research project “Human Rights and Freedoms in Ukraine”. 1200 of Ukrainians were suggested to answer the questions if the rights of Ukrainian citizens were protected. 65.2% were against that statement and only 10% agreed that they lived in the country, where human rights were protected. 60% told about the violation of their rights and freedoms, but only 7.7% appealed to the court or to Ukrainian Parliament Commission for Human Rights, (see this link, and see also this link).

World practice in democratic state-building convincingly shows that the right to freedom of thought and speech, free opinion and convictions is a cornerstone for the establishment of a democratic, law-governed state and civil society. There is no democracy without freedom of speech.

The Ukrainian Constitution (Article 34) guarantees every person the right to freedom of thought and speech and to the free expression of views and beliefs, free collection, storage, use and dissemination of information. This important constitutional provision completely accords with Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 10 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

Ukraine holds one of the leading places in the CIS as to the number of laws on the mass media intended to extend transparency and society’s access to information. According to international experts, Ukrainian legislation on information makes it possible to exercise the human rights to freedom of speech and thought, although the laws are in need of certain modifications, amendments and additions.

links:

ArtUkraine.com;

UABA;

Legual Advisers and Attorneys, Ukraine.

UPCHR.

Linked with our presentation of Susan Ahmed-Böhme – Iraq.

Their Homepage in arab, and their Homepage in english

The League was founded by middle-class Iraqi women doctors, teachers and lawyers, and in its most active time represented 42,000 members. It offered self-help programs, elementary education classes, health and social services, and perhaps most importantly, counseling services for women’s rights issues. The League was most active in 1958. That year the Iraqi king was executed and a revolution brought to power a moderately progressive military junta, which included the first female minister in the Middle East.

Iraqi Women’s League issues an Open Letter to women in military families, inviting them put the Government on Trial for Crimes at Home and Abroad, as part of the Global Women’s Strike: 6 March 2004, Trafalgar Square, London. Their Letter – Dear sisters in military families,

Invitation to protest with us as part of the Global Women’s Strike on International Women’s Day to defend our loved ones, Saturday 6 March in Trafalgar Square – We write as the Iraqi Women’s League (IWL) UK which is the oldest women’s organisation in Iraq. Since 1952 when it was founded, the IWL , which is independent of all political parties, has played a significant role in the struggle against tyranny and repression in Iraq. Many of our members were executed or disappeared and thousands of our Iraqi sisters were tortured, raped and imprisoned, just for being members of our women’s movement, while the US and UK governments were the friends of our torturers.

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The third part of the WSF Karachi will happen in Karachi , with a series of events that will be held simultaneously in a cluster of venues between March 24th and 29th, 2006. Here some informations:

First, registration for organisations is closed (see on WSF, in the window of the right column);

Then, an ask for help from Dr. Tanveer Ahmed;

DAWN focus on 8 citie’s problems. See also for this item the article on The Nation of February 19;

Karachi News;

Swiss reflections in german;

Same out of Germany;

and out of the german ATTAC;

Linked with our presentation of Cynthia Maung – Burma.

Over the years the Mae Tao Clinic has grown from a small house serving Burmese pro-democracy students fleeing the 1988 crackdown to a multispecialty center providing free health care for refugees, Burmese migrant workers and others crossing the border from Burma into Thailand.

Though exact numbers are difficult because of the fluidity of its patient population, the Clinic serves a target population of around150,000 on the Thai-Burma border. Its staff of 5 physicians, 80 health care workers, 40 trainees and 40 support staff provide comprehensive health services including inpatient and outpatient medicine, trauma care, blood transfusion, reproductive health, child health, eye care, and prosthetics for landmine survivors.

Each year the Clinic trains a new class of medics to serve people throughout the border region.

Services beyond Mae Sot: The Mae Tao Clinic’s reach extends far beyond its base in Mae Sot. It supports mobile clinics serving Burma’s internally displaced persons (IDP). The Clinic’s community service programs include a home at Umphium Mae refugee camp for unaccompanied children.

The Clinic also supports schools and boarding houses that serve the families of local migrant workers and our staff. In addition it sponsors women’s organizations, health education and community awareness events at refugee camps.

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For those liking visible symbols to be shown you may like this link working for peace:

http://www.peacestream.org/initiative.html ,

and here the Homepage of this organisation: http://www.peacestream.org/.