Do-gooder

What I did on my summer vacation

2008-09-09T06:59:00.002-05:00

The other day as I was trying to get every ounce out of what remained of summer, riding my bike up the Hudson River, I became really aware of the changing light and the presence of Columbia University just over the hill of Riverside Park. Summer was over. But it was also, compared to last year, a really good one. Last year I was still recovering from a really stressful job and trying to find my way in the new post-work identity. This summer, I took every opportunity that would get me closer to my goals and turned down others that would be less productive. The end result? Here's what I did with my summer vacation:

Hosted a birthday picnic for my 30th in Central Park with close friends
Ran lots of races with New York Road Runners
Hiked Bryce Canyon and Zion with my mom
Took a course in global public health in Geneva
Took another course in Amsterdam on post-conflict development
Traveled by myself for the first time in years
Took myself out to a lovely dinner on the river in Geneva
Ran a half-marathon through the street of New York City!
Went on a billion interviews and met some great people and organizations
Learned how to negotiate better for what I deserve
Swam in the ocean
Had many a lovely Thursday night out with my girlfriends
Started knitting again and made a dress for my friend's baby
Cleaned my closets and organized all my work and school stuff
Grew tomatoes, herbs, and flowers

I'm sure there's more, but with classes starting and some interviews just a few hours away they are escaping me. But it was a really good summer.

Letter to the Editor

2008-07-30T08:10:00.003-05:00

Well, if the NYT won't publish my letter on the Afghanistan/Narco-State article then I'll do it myself! :)

Dear Sir:

Thomas Schweich's assertion that eradication must at all counts be pursued is flawed (Is Afghanistan a Narco-State?, July 27, 2008). There is a middle way to the poppy problem: pay farmers to grow the crop and turn the harvest into much-needed pain medication.

When more than 80% of the world's cancer patients and more than half of those with HIV/AIDS suffer severe pain but can not access drugs to ease their pain, to destroy crops with medicinal value is an enormous missed opportunity. By directing a portion of the funds now directed to eradication, the U.S. and its allies could help the Afghan government channel the crop into legitimate uses and be seen as a force for development instead of livelihood destruction.

This isn't a new idea. Turkey's government also refused eradication requests made by the U.S. in the 1970's and the two countries brokered an agreement that permitted the cultivation of poppy crops for medicine. The result? Millions of dollars each year to Turkish poppy farmers and 80% of the U.S. supply of poppy for medicine. Afghanistan's poppy problem requires creative solutions based in human rights and development, not military enforcement.

Alicia Meulensteen, New York, NY

Pain Relief for the Poor

2008-07-21T12:08:00.005-05:00

Are we content to allow more than half of the world's cancer patients die in severe pain? Current global policy on opiate access says that we are. I was never aware of the global shortage of opiates for pain management for terminally and chronically ill patients until a very moving series published in the NYT last fall brought it to my attention. In this paper I explore the barriers to increased access and call for a review of existing restrictions on production and access to opiates, as well as an overhaul of regulations in developing countries that constrain the use of these powerful drugs for people in pain.

Pain Relief for the Poor:
Increasing opiate access in developing countries
Before death, agony. The World Health Organization estimates that 80 percent of the six million people who die from cancer each year suffer severe pain, as do 50 percent of those dying from AIDS.1 As development progresses and the world's population lives longer, people in developing countries now have the perverse “opportunity” to suffer and die from the diseases of the developed world—cancer, diabetes, and heart disease being the most common—while lacking the diagnostic and treatment tools that could help manage their illnesses and accompanying pain. Lack of diagnosis and unavailability of or inability to pay for treatment make palliative care and access to potent painkillers more than just an issue of proper medical pain management, but also an issue of inequality and social justice. This paper presents compelling health, political, and human rights arguments for making increased opiate access a priority in global health policy. It then proposes possible measures to greater access that have benefits for stakeholders in both the developed and developing world.

Palliative Care and Health Policy
Palliative care covers symptom management of acute and chronic illness as well as end-of-life care.2 When it is no longer possible to prevent a patient from dying, palliative care aims to alleviate suffering, make the final days as good as possible for both patient and family, and to help the patient die peacefully.3 Palliative care offers the dying patient and their family a support system to live as actively as possible until death occurs. Pain-relief medication such as morphine by no means constitutes the entirety of a comprehensive palliative care program, however, it does play a key role in advanced pain management. Other palliative care treatments include discussing anxieties, spiritual guidance, support of family and friends, physical comfort, and other measures.4 At its essence, palliative care is about enhancing quality of life. Palliative care is an essential part of public health, but one that is often overlooked. The World Health Organization writes:

“Assessing cancer palliative care needs is in many ways equivalent to assessing an urgent humanitarian need to reduce unnecessary suffering of patients and their families. It is important to bear in mind that although – in the medium to long term – effective prevention, early detection and treatment will reduce palliative care needs, palliative care needs will never be eliminated, because some types of cancer will inevitably remain fatal for some patients.”5

The World Health Organization defines essential medicines as “those that satisfy the priority health care needs of the population.”6 Opiates are on the WHO list of essential medicines for all countries, but access to opiates is obstructed by lack of availability of drugs, regulatory and policy barriers, and lack of education about the drugs.7 Recognizing that misperceptions persist around pain management and treatment, the World Health Organization created a three-tier ladder for pain treatment for cancer patients. This logic has been replicated and applied to pain relief and palliative care in other treatment settings as well, such as HIV/AIDS. The first “rung” on the ladder of pain treatment is non-opioids, such as aspirin and paracetamol. Then, as pain intensifies to what the WHO classifies as “mild to moderate” levels, and the first rung of treatment options are no longer effective, mild opioids such as codeine are administered. When the patient is in what they would consider moderate to severe pain, opioids are added to treatment options.8

Misperceptions about addiction—by the patient, their family, and even the medical community—present barriers to medicinal pain relief. The American Cancer Society acknowledges that fear of addiction is a major reason people with access to opiates opt not to take them, even though there is a difference between continued medicinal use of opiates and addiction, and that “when opioids—the strongest pain relievers available—are taken for pain, they rarely cause addiction.”9 Developing countries have additional barriers to comprehensive pain management. Poor health care system infrastructure development, staffing shortages, and limited funds for public health all conspire to prevent palliative care from becoming a priority in national health policies. The WHO reports that “there is a close correlation between the proportion of the population needing palliative care and the proportion of adults living with HIV/AIDS. The highest proportions are found in Botswana and Zimbabwe.”10 Given the lack of access to anti-retroviral drugs for HIV/AIDS and the fact that the majority of cancer cases in Africa are incurable by the time they are diagnosed, palliative care needs to be incorporated into national health priorities.11 The emphasis on national plans that address HIV/AIDS by countries and funders have also directed efforts away from creating national public health plans that deal with the emerging challenges of chronic disease. The World Health Organization found that Ethiopia, for example, inadequately addressed cancer in its national health plan.12

Political Barriers to Opiate Access
Morphine and other opiates appear on the list of essential medicines published by the WHO for inclusion in all national health programs. There is no doubt that opiates are powerful drugs with potential for abuse and that their use must be carefully monitored in the course of treatment. All opiates derive from the same source, the opium poppy, and include heroin, morphine, oxycodone, methadone, codeine, fentanyl, buprenorphine, tradmadol, and others.13 All opiates create a sense of euphoria for the user, but they can also kill by suppressing breathing. Long term use can create dependence, and with use over time greater and greater doses are needed to achieve the same high relief. However, opiates can be used for shorter-term management of severe pain without addiction.

Opiates also have the distinction of being listed as both essential medicines and class 1 narcotics. Two of the best-known derivatives of the opium poppy, morphine and heroin, are both included on the list of Class 1 narcotics, as are several other products of the opium poppy.14 Opium production is tightly controlled by regulations in the 1961 Convention; five articles govern the cultivation and distribution of opium poppy, while only two dictate control and cultivation of coca leaves and cocaine. Yet because of the relatively low cost of production and high resale value of the crop, the end result of these numerous articles and qualifications is restrictions on poppy cultivation and export that limits legitimate medical use while at the same time fueling a lucrative market for illicit drug use.

Legalizing opium poppy production in developing nations is one possible answer to the medical shortage of opiates, and this is not the first paper to propose such measures. The International Narcotics Control Board's 2007 Annual Report acknowledges such advocacy in a recent annual report, though it falls back on its earlier stances and regulations instead of opening the door to further discussion of creative alternative policies.15 Yet the current restrictions on the cultivation and transformation of opium poppy ignore the realities on the ground of the trade in opiates. Article 23 of the 1961 Convention calls for the creation of a national oversight office to closely regulate the cultivation of poppy crops, determine which land and farmer can grow the crop, collect the harvest, and have the exclusive right of import, export, and trade of the crop.16 All of which, upon initial inspection, do not seem overly onerous until one thinks of the top opium poppy producer, Afghanistan, and its government whose rule of law extends not much farther than the city limits of Kabul. Afghanistan produces over 90% of the world's opiates, with 30% of its population engaged in poppy cultivation and production.17 With help from Western military and contractors, the Karzai government continues to routinely destroy poppy crops in an attempt to decrease the supply of raw poppy for the heroin market.

This approach is problematic for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the destruction of a crop whose medicinal use is much needed for poor patients around the world. Destroying crops without compensating farmers creates hostility towards Western forces and countries, including those engaged in peacekeeping and relief efforts. Such actions also deprive farmers in Afghanistan, a country with a GDP per capita of $1,000,18 of the means to support their families, which may lead the men or boys to join rebel movements, become even further indebted to creditors, and ultimately face the decision to give up a daughter as payment or emigrate to Pakistan.19 None of these scenarios are beneficial to the development of Afghanistan.

Human Rights and Access to Opiates
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights states that the right to health is a fundamental human right, upheld in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, where it is included as part of an adequate standard of living, as well as in the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. According to the High Commissioner, “every State has ratified at least one international human rights treaty recognizing the right to health.”20 What is included in that right, however, is often truncated in the conversation on this human right.

By now, the medical and NGO community is well-acquainted with the rhetoric surrounding the debate on access to essential medicines. Arguments on access to essential medicines usually start and end with access to anti-retroviral medicines or malaria and TB treatments. This narrow focus on treatments for only contagious diseases overlooks the growing problem of treatment for chronic illnesses in developing countries. Disease prevention should of course be a priority in all nations, prevention being cross the board a more cost-effective approach than treatment. Yet the right to health seems to be increasingly construed to the right to a long life, without as much emphasis on a productive life.

Worldwide, most cancer patients are in advanced stages of illness when diagnosed. For them, the only realistic option is pain relief and palliative care. Treatment is no longer an option, if indeed it ever was due to availability of chemotherapy, radiation, and other treatments. In the absence of early and effective treatment, having all the resources available for proper pain management becomes even more necessary to a country's health policy. The vast majority of the world's legally produced opiates—more than 85%—are consumed by just 20 developed nations.21 Pain medication should not be the luxury of those who die in hospitals or hospice only in the developed world.

The economic benefits of pain management are also an important consideration in advancing access to opiates. Coping with chronic illness and disease can drive families living on limited resources even deeper into poverty. Proper pain management allows poor patients to remain active and productive members of their communities. It may even allow them to return to work, which in even a limited capacity can help earn income to feed their families and continue to send children to school.

Solutions: Pay the Farmer, Place Reasonable Restrictions
Patients in the developing world need access to pain medication. Nations developing and developed all want a decrease in illegal drug use and trade for their own security and the health of their citizens. Afghanistan's development must improve for state security and regional and global stability. To address these goals, a two-fold solution is needed: increased access to raw materials for medicinal opiates and rational restrictions on its trade and use.

Destroying poppy crops is not the answer to any of the objectives above. Achieving increased access to medicinal poppy requires that there be adequate crops. Farmers sell the product because there exists a demand. A World Bank study on market prices for Afghan opium poppy shows that prices have varied widely over the past few years, ranging from a low of $30 to a high of $600. Prices over the past few years have stabilized somewhat, to around $150/kg, likely due to bumper crops in the opinion of the Bank.22 According to the Bank, “Just as the de-facto legal status of the opium trade under the Taliban regime may have helped keep prices low, increasing criminalization and law enforcement efforts subsequently have tended to induce higher prices through higher risk premia, even if success in reducing opium production has been limited.”23 This creates a perverse incentive for farmers to gamble on producing poppy: if their field is the one not destroyed, their returns can be quite great. Legalizing poppy production for medicine would instead provide farmers with predictable, steady income. While some may still decide to gamble in the illicit market, the majority likely will not, preferring instead to be able to feed their families and earn a steady income. Further, making opium poppy a mainstream crop and legal would generate tax revenue to help build up weak government institutions in Afghanistan, while also freeing up hundreds of millions of dollars that could be used for development.

This is not uncharted territory. Since becoming independent, India has legalized poppy production, bringing $40 million in revenue for that nation and its farmers.24 In the 1970's, the United States and Turkey developed a legal poppy production agreement to divert that nation's crop to medicinal uses after total eradication of the crop was rejected by Turkey. Today, the United States gets 80% of its medicinal poppy from Turkey, which in turn earns that nation $60 million a year in export revenue.25 Given that Turkey and India's poppy production still do not meet the global demand for opiates in palliative care, adding Afghanistan to the list of legal providers would create competition, but not an insurmountable amount, for both these countries whose economies are increasingly dependent on other industries for economic growth. Afghanistan will need serious assistance in developing proper controls to regulate its poppy crops but these efforts, supporting farmers and their livelihoods, would likely be received with more enthusiasm by the Afghan people.

Availability due to limited crops is one obstacle, but national and state laws restricting the administration, prescription, and handling of the finished products of opium poppy are perhaps easier to alleviate in the short term. In some cases, countries may have legitimate concerns about expanding access to such powerful drugs, particularly if they are operating in a post-conflict environment where drugs may have fueled wars, either by providing funds for different groups or by manipulating child soldiers, such as in Sierra Leone or Liberia. It is here that the World Health Organization needs to provide more guidance and assistance on implementing reasonable restrictions on these powerful drugs. In a recent survey of sub-Saharan countries and their palliative care policies, the WHO found significant deficiencies in pain management policies, including misperceptions of opiates, lack of workers trained in palliative care, non-existent policies on opiates, and overly-strict regulations on prescription of opiate drugs.26 In India, states issue their own policies on opiate access and regulation, creating a complex web of bureaucracy to navigate when looking to transport opiates across state borders.27 Simplified, national guidelines and licensing schemes would significantly ease the burden facing pharmacies and hospitals seeking opiates and other strong painkillers for their patients.

Increasing access to opiates for those in severe pain will require the participation of several stakeholders. Developed countries and donor institutions have a role to play by easing restrictions on the funds they provide for national health in developing nations and looking beyond infectious diseases when deciding on funding priorities. Global health and regulatory institutions need to help developing countries create reasonable restrictions on opiates that take into account each country's particular development challenges, especially those in post-conflict environments. States need to take assessments of their own internal policies on opiate production and use. Finally, the global community needs to reassess the benefits of opium poppy eradication when considering the effects of such a policy on global access to painkillers, the development of poppy-producing countries and their economies, and the use of funds which could otherwise be spent on regulation and development. Patients suffering around the world deserve better than the status quo currently on offer.

1 McNeil, Donald (September 10, 2007) “Drugs banned, many of the world's poor suffer in pain.” The New York Times. Retrieved on June 3, 2008 from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/10/health/10pain.html
2 World Health Organization (2004) Palliative Care: Symptom Management and End-of-Life Care. pp.2 Retrieved on June 20, 2008 from http://ftp.who.int/htm/IMAI/Modules/IMAI_palliative.pdf
3World Health Organization (year unavailable) Care for the Dying Patient and the Family. pp.205 Retrieved on June 7, 2008 from www.wpro.who.int/internet/files/pub/85/205-210.pdf
4Ibid, pp.208-209
5World Health Organization (2007) Cancer Control, Knowledge into Action: WHO Guide for Effective Programmes, Palliative Care. pp.15 Retrieved on June 15, 2008 from www.who.int/cancer/modules/en/index.html
6World Heath Organization. (2008) “Selection and Rational Use of Medicines.” Retrieved on July 8, 2008 from http://www.who.int/medicines/areas/rational_use/en/index.html
7World Health Organization (2000) Narcotic and Psychotropic Drugs: Achieving Balance in National Opioids Control Policy, Guidelines for Assessment. pp.7 Retrieved on June 9, 2008 from http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/2000/WHO_EDM_QSM_2000.4.pdf
8World Health Organization (2008) WHO's pain ladder. Retrieved on July 17, 2008 from http://www.who.int/cancer/palliative/painladder/en/
9American Cancer Society (2007) Pain Control: A guide for patients with cancer and their families. Retrieved on July 11, 2008 from http://www.cancer.org/docroot/MIT/content/MIT_7_2x_Pain_Control_A_Guide_for_People_with_Cancer_and_Their_Families.asp
10World Health Organization (2007) A Community Health Approach to Palliative Care for HIV/AIDS and Cancer Patients in Sub-Saharan Africa. pp.5 Retrieved on June 8, 2008 from http://www.who.int/cancer/media/FINAL-Palliative%20Care%20Module.pdf
11Ibid, pp.6
12 Ibid, pp.21
13International Narcotics Control Board (1997) INCB Report 1997: Drugs of Abuse. pp.1 Retrieved on June 22, 2008 from http://www.incb.org/pdf/e/press/1997/e_bn_09.pdf
14United Nations. (1961) “List of Drugs Included in Schedule 1.” Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961. pp.41 Retrieved on June 5, 2008 from http://www.incb.org/pdf/e/conv/convention_1961_en.pdf
15Ibid, pp.49
16Ibid, pp.26
17World Bank (2006). South Asia-Afghanistan: Drug Industry and Counter-Narcotics Policy. Retrieved on July 15, 2008 from http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/SOUTHASIAEXT/0,,contentMDK:21133060~pagePK:146736~piPK:146830~theSitePK:223547,00.html
18CIA World Factbook. (2008) Afghanistan. Retrieved on July 11, 2008 from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/af.html#Econ
19Vanda Felbab-Brown (March 23, 2006) Hasty Poppy Eradication in Afghanistan Can Sow More Problems. Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved on July 11, 2008 from http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0323/p09s01-coop.html
20United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights, World Health Organization (2008) The Right to Health: Fact Sheet No.31, pp.5. Retrieved on July 19, 2008 from http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/Factsheet31.pdf
21 David E. Joranson, MSSW (1994) Global Opioid consumption: trends, barriers, and diversion. IASP Newsletter. 4-5. Retrieved on June 21, 2008 from http://www.painpolicy.wisc.edu/publicat/94iaspg.htm
22World Bank (2006). South Asia-Afghanistan: Drug Industry and Counter-Narcotics Policy. Chapter 5: Prices and Market Interactions in the Opium Economy. Retrieved on July 15, 2008 from http://siteresources.worldbank.org/SOUTHASIAEXT/Resources/Publications/448813-1164651372704/UNDC_Ch5.pdf, pp.3
23Ibid, pp.5
24Romesh Bhattacharji (2007) India's experience in licensing poppy cultivation for the production of essential medicines: Lessons for Afghanistan. Retrieved on July 11, 2008 from http://www.selinascouncil.net/documents/india_case_study
25Jorrit Jamminga (2006) The Political History of Turkey's Opium Licensing System for the Production of Medicines: Lessons for Afghanistan, pp.6. Retrieved on July 15, 2008 from http://www.senliscouncil.net/documents/Political_History_Poppy_Licensing_Turkey_May_2006.
26World Health Organization (2008) A Community Health Approach to Palliative Care for HIV/AIDS and Cancer Patients in Sub-Saharan Africa. pp.21 Retrieved on June 13, 2008 from http://www.who.int/hiv/pub/prev_care/palliativecare/en/
27M.R. Rajagopal, David Joranson, Aaron Gilson (2001) Medical use, misuse, and diversion of opioids in India. The Lancet. Vol. 358, pp.140.

Books not Bombs

2008-07-14T12:02:00.002-05:00

Great Op-Ed in today's NYT on the efficacy of putting money spent on military actions into education and human development instead. Click here to read the full piece.

It reminds me a bit of my current research on increasing access to medicinal opiates in developing countries. What if we took the money currently being used to try to destroy Afghan poppy crops and instead bought the harvest from farmers, turning the materials around into subsidized pain medication for people dying in developing countries who currently do not have access? I'll be posting that paper next week, once it is finished.

I have many interviews this week and lots to catch up on, in addition to still trying to shake off my epic jet lag. More posts later when I have a moment to spare!

WHO, WIPO, and Wagner

2008-06-25T14:55:00.003-05:00

So here I am in Geneva, taking a class through NYU on Global Public Health. And we're acting like such UN groupies. We spent Monday at the ICRC, Tuesday at the WHO, and this morning at WIPO (world intellectual property organization--who knew?).

Geneva is, of course, lovely. It is a cozy, relatively multi-cultural city, and one that seems to blend both the lovely old Europe style with a very diverse population of ex-pats from the UN and migrant workers from everywhere else. It's rare that an European city does it well--I'm jaded on the subject from so much time over here--and from what I've seen on the admitted surface of Geneva it seems to get along better than other cities.

The ICRC was, unfortunately, a big disappointment, mostly due to our speaker. I really wanted to press someone on the issue of neutrality. What was the ICRC's position on Rwandan refugee camps, when other groups pulled out because they realized they were aiding people who had committed genocide? How far can one take the topic of neutrality--and is there such a thing in so many of today's modern conflicts? Sadly, topics I will have to explore on my own, so it seems.

WHO was much better. We spent a lot of time on malaria and also on non-communicable diseases. We don't think about them too much in the context of developing countries, but cancer, diabetes, hypertension, and other things you can't catch are a growing problem in the developing world, largely because the treatment we get in the developed world just aren't afforable to people elsewhere.

Which actually ties into the topic of my research here: the lack of opiods for palliative care in the developing world. Between late-stage AIDS, rising cancer rates, and an utter lack of diagnostic or surgical care in many developing countries, palliative care is needed yet terribly lacking. Something like 3 countries in the developed world consume 85% of the world's opioids, even though they are grown in India and--hello--Afghanistan. Morphine is listed by the WHO as an esstential medicine, but burdensome regulations and misinformation in the medical community prevent their use in many places where people suffer from stages of cancer and AIDS that the developed world doesn't see too much of anymore. People die in agony. More of this happy topic later once I post my paper, but here is a link to the article that woke me up to this issue.

At WIPO today we heard from someone working on the issue of patents and IP issues of folklore, local medicine, culture, and biological material. That was a highlight. One of the big issues in health care equity and ethics is what to do when developing countries provide the raw material for influenza vaccines but developed countries develop the actual "flu shots." Shouldn't the countries that provided the virus receive a supply of the vaccine that otherwise they couldn't afford? How can developed countries and their pharma companies place patents on medicines from plants in the developing world that have been used by communities for generations? We often only think of patent issues when it comes to AIDS medications but it goes far deeper than that.

Tomorrow we go to UNHCR, which I am ridicuously exicted about, having spent several years working for a refugee organization. More on that later. Right now it's back to the EuroCup, which everyone around here is utterly transfixed by, and rooting for underdog Turkey.

Off to summer courses

2008-06-18T06:57:00.002-05:00

This is just a quick post to say that it's been really busy since the end of classes and tomorrow I leave for Geneva and Amsterdam for yet more school fun so no chance of getting a post of any depth until I come back! I'll be taking a course on global public health policy in Geneva (and researching palliative care and opioids policy in the developing world) and post-conflict development (researching the role of women and youth in reconstruction) in Amsterdam.

I've been really preoccupied with my job search and the interviews and finally starting to roll in. Here's hoping there are some more meeting requests when I get home.

Until July...

Xenophobia in South Africa

2008-05-19T07:08:00.002-05:00

For my Politics of International Development course this semester, I had to follow one country through various themes and research them for two papers. The first paper was posted in March, on South African state-building and reincorporation of the "homelands" post-apartheid. My last topic, the sorry state of South Africa's refugee processing, dealt a lot with rising xenophobia in the country and the shameful scape-goating of immigrants from the rest of the African continent. Sadly, more and more articles on this issue cropped up every day that I wrote the massive paper. Over the weekend it seems the kettle boiled over.

The NYT reports that over 200 people were arrested in and around Johannesburg over the weekend in one of the country's largest waves of anti-immigrant violence. Twelve people were killed, beaten by sticks, shots, or burned alive.

It would be easy to dismiss this as repressed anger unleased in the face of high unemployment, HIV/AIDS edipemics, massive poverty unresolved after apartheid's fall, etc. But it's not just ordinary people who scapegoat immigrants and refugees from Zimbabwe and other nations--government officals have done their share of blaming, as have government ministries and the police force, which has at times encouraged citizens to assist them in outing illegal immigrants. As a result, people are targeted if they appear "foreign" and a lot of apartheid's racial classifications are rearing their heads again as people judge whether someone looks "too black" to be South African.

I wasn't planning on posting my paper because it was, after all, 20 pages long, but I'm going to post a few excerpts below today for some background:

The Rainbow Nation ends at the fence
The end of apartheid was a literal and figurative end to South Africa's “fortified boundaries.”1 Under apartheid, the electric fence along South Africa's border was set to “lethal” and claimed close to 100 lives of those seeking clandestine entrance into or out of the country.2 Under the new government, the electric fence has been in non-lethal mode, but South Africa's borders are not considered any less threatened by many in its government, media, security forces, and indeed even by some in the South African population.

South Africa has long wrestled with its identity. For a nation where race had determined citizenship, redefining what it meant to be South African was an enormous undertaking. To forge a new national identity, South Africa's leadership referred to its peoples past, invoking their common, if divisive, history.3 Experience of this “divided but shared history is used to identify true 'South Africans'...those who are deemed to stand outside this shared history are excluded from its unifying implications.”4 South Africa also tied its new identity to its national borders. Peberdy writes that “the reinvented nationalism and national identity of the 'new South Africa' is 'derivative' in that it continues to identify with the territorial boundaries and national models of the apartheid state.”5 While simplistic, using recognized borders to define the nation allowed the new government to side-step demands for independent territories by both black and white groups within the country during the handover from the old regime to the ANC.

South Africa has created an image of itself as separate from the rest of Africa. The nation historically felt a certain superiority when compared to its neighbors, not uncommon amongst immigrant-receiving countries, who tend to view the desire of other people to move to their country as stronger than it may be in reality, while viewing their own borders as vulnerable to this onslaught of people fleeing poverty and conflict.6 Some South African websites describe migration to South Africa in almost religious terms: “For many, post-apartheid South Africa has become both an imagined Mecca of economic opportunity, or a haven from war-torn or troubled homelands.”7 Under apartheid black South Africans were denied educational and economic opportunities; nonetheless, the apartheid government played up statistics of black migration to South Africa as proof of apartheid's success and the country's position in comparison to other African nations, promoting a view internally that without tight restrictions on black immigration South Africa would be flooded by the rest of the continent.8 This idea supported the racist views of many of South Africa's white citizens. In also created a xenophobia amongst South Africans at large. The nation is struggling with its promises to deliver greater opportunity and equality for its citizens, and this xenophobia is now proving problematic in the country's dealings with refugees and migrants who are viewed as competing for scarce resources and causing violent crime, economic downturns, and rising HIV infection rates.9

Creating “illegal people”
Regardless of how they enter the nation, South Africa's laws for refugees and migrants, and the practices of their security forces and government institutions charged with processing asylum claims, create a system where attainment of the rights on paper is incredibly difficult. It has been argued that the cause of South Africa's hostility to refugees and migrants is not the sheer number of asylum seekers but is instead that South Africa's ministries tasked with handling asylum applications are simply overwhelmed due to chronic under-staffing and poor training.1 Departments lacking translators and other key staff are overwhelmed with any increase in volume of asylum applications, and may be more apt to deny asylum in order to clear cases off the docket. Indeed, part of UNHCR's recent campaign in South Africa was to train more officials to facilitate the processing of additional asylum claims, but many of those trained soon found work in other, more lucrative, areas.2

South Africa's strict refugee laws have been likened to that of Spain, a European nation on the receiving end of migration from developing countries. Other researchers have argued that Spain's laws “are written in a way to marginalize third world immigrants, to regularize the notion of the 'irregulars.'” Barriers to normal status are constructed through long waits for permits and other restrictions.3 South Africa creates similar hurdles. Its government states that asylum claims can be filed at any of its refugee reception offices.4 However, these offices are all located in the country's major cities, not at its border crossing, and are notorious for long lines that are sometimes patrolled by security forces picking up undocumented migrants.5 These centers also make migrant and refugee populations highly visible and vulnerable to abuse from the community.

Several different departments have interactions with refugees and migrants; the majority of them involve security issues. The South African National Defense Force, the Department of Home Affairs, the South African Police Service (SAPS), and the SAPS Border Policing component all have a role in enforcing South Africa's Alien Control Act.6 South Africa's laws similarly not only construct the migrant and refugee as “illegal” by their very nature of being in the country without authorization, but South Africa goes one step further by creating a category of “prohibited persons” who, by their nature, are “without legal standing as persons.”7 This language dehumanizes migrants and effectively categories them as criminals, making abused by police, security, and local populations seemingly more justifiable.

Apart from Africa
South Africa's neighbors are some of the world's poorest countries, and with large income disparities between neighbors often comes a flow of documented and undocumented migrants. The cases of the countries on South Africa's borders also test the largely artificial distinction between “refugee” and “economic refugee.” Zimbabwe is one such case. In the past decade, the inflation rate in Zimbabwe has escalated from 32 percent to over 100,000.8 Today, Zimbabweans face not only hyperinflation but unemployment rates of 80%, food shortages, and an increasingly oppressive government.9 Human rights groups within South Africa have warned that Zimbabwe is near collapse.10 Initial asylum claims from people crossing over the South African border were dismissed by the South African authorities, who stated that “Zimbabwe is not at war” and so any claims were invalid.11 At the time of writing, results from Zimbabwe's March 29 election had just been released, with results pointing to a run-off, and reports of violence and persecution against opposition-party members and sympathizers on the rise. A shipment of arms destined for Zimbabwe came under international pressure to return to China, but violence against the political opponents and suspects opponents of President Mugabe has been increasing. According to the BBC: “The defense minister in neighboring Botswana said Zimbabweans were fleeing the violence, with almost 100 people arriving in the past three days. He said in the past, Zimbabweans had been economic migrants but now they were seeking political asylum. There have been similar reports from Mozambique.”12 If one looks to Kunz's theory that refugee migrations are signaled by the early migrations of a few, and then examines the situation in Zimbabwe, it makes little sense to categorize those fleeing Zimbabwe now as legitimate refugees but not those who left earlier in the unraveling of the state.

Numerous human rights abuses have been documented in the arrest and detention of undocumented migrants, refugees, and those suspected of being non-citizens by security forces in South Africa.13 Several human rights NGOs have also highlighted growing abuse of asylum seekers.14 These abuses include frightening parallels to apartheid's police state. Police have used “irrational standards to determine whether individuals are 'illegal immigrants,' including skin color and location of vaccination marks.”15 People report being stopped and interrogated based on perceptions of their race or nationality due to “texture of hair and breadth of nose.”16 This has led to persecutions of naturalized South Africans by police forces who have determined them to fit one of their arbitrary conditions, a troubling allusion to apartheid's pass laws when black South Africans could be stopped and forced to produce their papers.17 Such actions now violate South Africa's Bill of Rights and the right to privacy of all its citizens.18

Host governments of refugee populations often argue that refugees “present serious economic, environmental, and security threats, and that they can no longer keep their borders open.”19 Over 50% of South Africans still live in poverty,20 and despite an end to formal segregation and discrimination, the majority of the country's wealth still resides with its non-black population. These economic disparities contribute to the scape-goating of migrants and refugees. Maharaj writes that “xenophobia is rife in the townships, where migrants are referred to as kwerekwere (disparaging word for African immigrant). It has been argued that xenophobia thrives where economic deprivation and hardships are acute.”21 Regarding its treatment of Mozambican refugees, even UNHCR criticized South African xenophobia.22 In recognition of the problem in South Africa, national ministries, working with UNHCR, launched a campaign against xenophobia in the country in 2000.23 Even as of last month, South Africa's government offices were still taking steps to address the issue.24 It is a sign of progress that the government seems acutely, and uncomfortably, aware of negative perceptions of its treatment of asylum seekers.25 How the government chooses to continue to address the problem will be illustrative.

1Jeff Handmaker. (2001) No Easy Walk: Advancing Refugee Protection in South Africa . Africa Today, Vol. 48, No.3, pp.98
2UNHCR. (2005) UNHCR Global Reports: South Africa. Retrieved on May 3, 2008 from http://www.unhcr.org/publ/PUBL/4492678e0.pdf
3Jonathan Klaaren; Jaya Ramji. (2001) Inside Illegality: Migration Policing in South Africa after Apartheid. Africa Today, Vol. 48, No.3, pp.39
4South Africa Department of Home Affairs. Directorate: Home Affairs. Retrieved on May 5, 2008 from http://www.home-affairs.gov.za/refugee_affairs.asp#3
5Refugees International. (2004) Zimbabweans in South Africa: denied access to political asylum. Retrieved on May 6, 2008 from http://www.refugeesinternational.org/content/article/detail/3012
6Jonathan Klaaren; Jaya Ramji, pp.40
7Ibid.
8CIA World Factbook. (2007) Zimbabwe. Retrieved on May 1, 2008 from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/zi.html
9J. Anthony Holmes; Sasha Polakow-Suransky. (April 17, 2008) The Silence of Mbeki. The International Herald Tribune. Retrieved on April 21, 2008 from www.cfr.org/publication/16059/silence_of_mbeki.html
10Zimbabwe Standard (November 26, 2007) Zimbabwe: AU Probes Abuses of Refugees. Retrieved on February 6, 2008 from http://allafrica.com/stories/200711261669.html
11Human Rights Watch (2006) Uprooted Migrants: Zimbabweans in South Africa's Limpopo Province. Retrieved on February 7, 2008 from http://www.hrw.org/reports/2006/southafrica0806/
12BBC News. (May 2, 2008) Zimbabwe announces poll results. Retrived on May 2, 2008 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7382319.stm
13Klaaren; Ramij, pp.35
14U.S. Committee for Refugees and Migrants (2007) World Refugee Survey. Retrieved on May 6, 2008 from http://refugees.org/countryreports.aspx?subm=&ssm=&cid=2020
15Klaaren; Ramij, pp.43
16Maharaj, pp.52 See also Peberdy, pp.21
17Peberdy, pp. 21
18Southern Africa Migration Project. (2001) The South African White Paper on International Migration: an analysis and critique. Migration & Policy Brief No.1, pp.10. Retrieved on April 14, 2001 from http://www.queensu.ca/samp/sampresources/samppublications.
19Karen Jacobsen (2002). Can Refugees Benefit the State? Refugee resources and African statebuilding. The Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. 40, No.4, pp.579
20CIA World Factbook (2007) South Africa. Retrieved on May 1, 2008 from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sf.html#Econ
21Maharaj, pp.51
22Klotz, pp.833
23Humanitarian Practice Network (2008) “We are not treated like people: the roll-back xenophobia campaign in South Africa.” Retrieved on May 5, 2008 from http://www.odihpn.org/report.asp?id=2208
24South Africa Department of Home Affairs (2008) Deputy Minister to hold a discussion with youth immigrants/Refugees and stakeholders in Pretoria. Retrieved on May 6, 2008 from http://www.home-affairs.gov.za/media_releases.asp?id=467
25South Africa Department of Home Affairs (2008) Press release, Refugee Day remarks by President Mbeki. Retrieved on May 6, 2008 from http://www.home-affairs.gov.za/documents/refugee_article.pdf

Diary of an Overachiever?

2008-05-16T06:56:00.004-05:00

It occurs to me that I don't write about myself...well, ever, really...and given that it is going to be a lazy, reflective kind of Sunday around here it seems a good enough time.

The past few weeks have been really busy. Wrapping up final projects--20 page paper in 2 weeks? Statistical analysis and two exams to boot?--oh, and client budget reprojections due the same day at Stats final, and really, why not sign up for that 6.2 mile race while you're at it? But the day before the race make sure you are the only volunteer who agrees to stand out in the pouring rain and wind at the animal adoption event trying to get folks off the street to come in and meet the cats, cook dinner with your 4 girlfriends, and go to a board advisory council meeting for a small non-profit in the city. All of which has been crammed into the last 2 weeks alone. I just *do* all this stuff, and it doesn't feel like "overachieving" because I honestly love doing all of it.

A friend of mine often calls me an overachiever, joking in part because he's somewhat the same way himself, and to be honest I've never quite known what to make of that. I always think of overachievers as people who wear their accomplishments on their sleeves and won't ever shut up about their Harvard GPA, work in Guatemala, or whatever. And I don't think I've ever really been like that. I always wonder if those boasting people do what they do just so they can brag about it or because they really enjoy it.

I think some people get energy from the things they do, and others lose energy from it, and we all handle it our own way. Which is not to say that I don't need copious amounts of quiet time to recharge or that I don't run myself into the ground sometimes, but in the process it's a great time. I am ambitious and I do have very high standards for myself. Maybe I cram it all in because I want to advance faster, or maybe it's just because the more things on my plate the more I seem to thrive on it. I'm not sure, but regardless I don't like the overachiever badge very much.

The next three weeks are a little more on the downtime scale for me: hiking out west first week of June, then my birthday, then off to Geneva and Amsterdam for summer courses and then it's July. I'm in the full job-search mode at the moment, and I hope when I come back from hiking there will be some promising interviews waiting. In the meantime, I'll keep running and volunteering and have a million other little projects going because, in the end, I'm creating my life the way I want to, and there's a certain joy to that.

Commentary

2008-05-16T06:56:00.003-05:00

My Op-Ed on reducing maternal mortality and achieving the heart of the MDGs is published today on RH Reality Check. Check it out here.

I spend a lot of time at the Union Square Farmer's Market, and I recently started serving on the advisory council of a group called Just Food that helps connect farmers with community supported agriculture programs, supplies farm-fresh produce to food banks, and advocates for better food policy. So I've definitely noticed that the global food crisis impacts the prices farmers have to charge for their bread; it hits them, too.

My paying an extra dollar for bread is a hassle but not a hardship. Most of the world lives on less than $2 a day. We all know this by now, right? So an increase in commodities hits them hard. Families have to decide between one meal or two, or maybe even who doesn't eat a meal altogether. And when someone has to go hungry, most often it is a woman or girl in the family.

The NYT piece on food security and overall security in Afghanistan got me worried today. Here is a nation that really doesn't need any more instability or another event to shake up an already fragile state. This is also the perfect environment for breeding warlordism: if the government shows it can not provide food, someone else will step in who can, even if they have to use force. Which is really how Afghanistan's warlord problem started in the first place.

It is hard to imagine a lasting stability in Afghanistan, or anywhere, if the country does not have the means to feed itself, whether growing its own crops or paying for food imports. Afghanistan relies heavily on international aid; the donor community needs to do better to address this pressing need.

Countdown

2008-05-08T08:02:00.002-05:00

One final behind me, two more to go. Well, three. I have a big ol' paper due tonight, an exam tomorrow morning, and a project due in a week. All of which I feel, strangely, are under control. I've been somewhat laser-focused on getting all these things reined in after a few moments of panic two weeks ago and it seems to be working.

I have been mentally compiling a list of all things I plan to do once the finals are behind me, and I figured I'd actually take a minute to write it down.

1. First, buy some trashy magazines with no information on the following: finance, statistics, international development, foreign policy, humanitarianism, or aid
2. Pick up the sweater I started knitting a year ago and attempt to make some progress on it
3. Go out with my friends
4. Take a long aimless walk around the city

That's the fun stuff. The rest is just a list of things to do, like buy clothing for an upcoming hiking trip and finish up some work projects before said hiking trip.

Send good karma for the remaining finals...

Getting to the root of the MDGs

2008-05-01T15:14:00.002-05:00

Reducing maternal mortality will require tackling the politics of reproductive health
Promoting women's health holds the key to development. Two years ago, Kofi Annan, then Secretary General of the United Nations, stated: “The Millennium Development Goals, particularly the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, cannot be achieved if questions of population and reproductive health are not squarely addressed. And this means stronger efforts to promote women's rights and greater investment in education and health, including reproductive health and family planning.”

Millennium Development Goal #5, reducing maternal mortality by three-quarters by 2015, has been called the heart of the MDGs. High levels of maternal mortality are linked to a chain of negative consequences, including decreases in infant survival and education and increases in poverty. With attainment of many of the MDGs already in jeopardy, reducing maternal mortality has become all the more urgent. Reducing maternal mortality needs not only the provision of more and better pre-and ante-natal care but also comprehensive reproductive health services—including safe abortion. Unless the politics of reproductive health and abortion are confronted head-on, MDG#5 and its accompanying targets may remain only a goal, and not reality, for millions of women in the developing world.

Maternal mortality is a phenomena largely confined to the developing world, with 99% of maternal deaths—over half a million women per year—concentrated in low income countries. While hemorrhage, eclampsia, sepsis, and obstructed labor account for many maternal deaths, the most easily prevented of the top maternal death culprits, unsafe abortion, remains a political, rather than health, issue in most of the world. The World Health Organization estimates that almost 13% of all maternal deaths are caused by complications from unsafe abortions.
Reducing maternal deaths from unsafe abortion is one of the most straight-forward public health problems to remedy. It requires increases in access to safe abortion and contraceptives. It is well-documented that countries with the lowest rates of abortion are those with the greatest access to legal abortion services and contraceptives. According to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive rights research center, Belgium, where abortion is legal and accessible, has an abortion rate of 7 per 100,000 women. Contrast this to Peru, where the procedure is illegal, and the rate skyrockets to 56 per 100,000. Despite the evidence, reproductive health targets were not initially included in the MDGs. These targets came late to the process in 2006--almost half way to the end date of the campaign—and were added under the goal of reducing maternal mortality only after significant pressure from UN member states, including members of the EU and several developing nations such as Cambodia, Cuba, Madagascar, and Nigeria.

MDG subgoal 5B sets out to have universal access to reproductive health by 2015. Unlike other MDG's, reducing maternal mortality and achieving universal access to reproductive heath care will take more than technical expertise and material resources. Reducing maternal mortality, unsafe abortion, and increasing access to reproductive health care requires that governments, societies, and donors confront not only the issue of abortion but also medically-accurate sex education for women and girls and access to contraceptives. These measures alone would decrease by 90% incidents of unsafe abortion—and go a long way to reducing maternal mortality.

Abortion is a reality of many women's reproductive lives. The underlying political gap is standing in the way of women's access to comprehensive reproductive health care. Without added pressure from donor governments, local women's health advocates in the developing world can only do so much to stop deaths from unsafe abortions in their countries. Donors who place restrictions on reproductive health funding, such as the United States which prohibits any organization accepting these funds from offering abortion as part of their comprehensive reproductive health care programs, do so at the peril of women's lives. Other developed nations, such as Great Britain and EU members, have made a commitment to unrestricting their reproductive health funding.

Reducing maternal deaths is a laudable goal, and one that must be achieved if the rest of the millennium development goals are to be realized. But reductions in maternal mortality can never be fully realized unless the global community of donors, governments, and public health starts including abortion in realistic approaches to protecting women's health. If the world wants to promote development, it needs to start promoting comprehensive reproductive health care.

Female condoms and foreign aid

2008-04-24T14:23:00.002-05:00

From the Lancet Global Health Network:

Female condoms and foreign aid
Few people would disagree that there is a huge need for interventions that allow women to initiate protection against HIV infection. But while the research community is not having much luck in the development of a microbicide is another, already existing intervention-the female condom-being overlooked? Yes, according to the Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE). In a report just released, CHANGE argues that the female condom is an effective tool for HIV prevention that is getting little attention from international donors and governments, who are instead ploughing millions of dollars into microbicide and vaccine development. Ineffective programming and lack of political will continue to deny women access to female condoms, say the report authors.

Now, I *know* I just read another report that talked about the success of getting female condoms to work in Thailand among female sex workers. The women were able to get customers to use them by touting them as sex toys, even talking about how much better it made sex for them. Clever!! The result was more sex workers using female condoms and even some clients requesting to use them when visiting a sex worker.

You always run into the argument about unequal power relationships and condom use. I thought the study on female sex workers and getting clients to use them was a refreshing change. I'll have to dig that up, but probably won't until finals are over!

The Right to Health

2008-04-21T11:31:00.003-05:00

Not a lot of time to write today, but wanted to share this piece from the Lancet's Global Health Network. Great site, great features and podcasts, and this piece on what it means to have a universal right to health is very interesting:

http://www.thelancetglobalhealthnetwork.com/archives/269#more-269

And some more links to the UN special Rapporteur's reports on the right to health:
http://www2.essex.ac.uk/human_rights_centre/rth/reports.shtm

Food crisis, women, and agriculture

2008-04-16T07:27:00.004-05:00

Check out my latest post in my other blog, Our Planet, Ourselves, on the current price spike in commodities and the impact on agriculture and women:

http://www.zimbio.com/Our+Planet%2C+Ourselves/articles/12/Food+crisis+women+agriculture

Like a coffee van, but with cats

2008-04-12T14:44:00.003-05:00

Thursday was ASPCA day which, due to impending finals and class that evening, I was unable to partake in this year. I was, however, able to work my first mobile adoption event for the ASPCA yesterday and it was so much fun. I'm definitely hooked on public outreach!

In the afternoon we loaded up a selection of cats into what is possible the world's greatest vehicle. The ASPCA's mobile adoptions van not only has a plexi-glass side that is exposed when you roll up the metal side so people can see all the gorgeous kitties, it has a big ol' dog face above the windshield. It is fantastic. Someone on the street called their friend and described the van as follows: "You know how the coffee and bagel vans lift up the side and then the coffee stand is there? Well, it's like that but instead of coffee it's cats." Brilliant.

We adopted out a third of the 9 cats we brought on board. They were largely not impressed with the van ride, nor being moved from their boxes to the display windows (one was so worked up he peed on me), but they all warmed up to the new digs after we had been parked for a little while.

It was a lot of fun to be the defacto "hawker"--standing outside the van, handing out leaflets, answering questions talking to people who were interested in the cats, and encouraging them to go inside and take a look and fill out an adoptions application. It was really nice to see people's faces as they went home with cats right then and there.

Tomorrow I am running a race in Central Park for the TGL foundation again--their annual race for lung cancer research funding. 9am--a little on the early side for a Sunday, but I'm really looking forward for the chance to see Central Park in Spring--all the flowers should be out by now. Here's hoping for good weather!

Rise in food prices hurts developing countries most

2008-04-07T07:05:00.006-05:00

Paul Krugman has a great editorial that quite neatly summarizes why we've seen a rather sudden increase in the price of commodities. Climate change, increased demand for meat in middle income countries, and subsidized corn to produce ethanol (not the green fuel it is made out to be) have been driving up the price of wheat and other grains. Add to that a fall in production in Australia and you have a shortage that had caused the World Food Program to appeal for funds.

You can read the full piece here.

There is also a piece up on reliefweb that gives the humanitarian perspective in more depth.

Microfinance for profit?

2008-04-07T07:05:00.005-05:00

I may be a little late to this debate, but I attended a conference last week where the keynote speaker, president of ACCION International, was asked about the growing trend of microfinance NGOs morphing into microfinance banks with a for-profit goal.

Micro-finance began with the goal of increasing access to credit for some the world's poorest people who otherwise would never have the means to get a loan with a non-exploitative interest rate. It's not that the poor had no access to loans in the past, it's that when they did, the terms and interest rates were so excessive it only drove them further into poverty.

Micro-finance, which gaves loans at reasonable rates, used a more community-based model that held people accountable to a small group of other investors if they defaulted on their loan. The result was near zero default rates, community empowerment, and the chance for many to finally embark on sending a child to school, starting a business, seeking medical care, etc.

The success of micro-finance has propelled some to take it to a for-profit model, typically by starting micro-finance or micro-credit banking institutions. As I understand it, there is not a lot of regulation in this area yet. Further, one has to wonder about the goals of such an institution with two bottom lines: decrease poverty but make money for the bank owners.

The NYT had two recent articles on this very topic:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE4DD113DF930A3575AC0A966958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/05/business/worldbusiness/05micro.html?em&ex=1207713600&en=a2d7c7eef5743078&ei=5087%0A

Midterms are over!

2008-03-14T07:50:00.003-05:00

Well, almost. The light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter. I have one more paper to pound out today and then I am done. Today, after a 2 hour panel on expanding women's roles in Afghan society through civil society organizations, my schedule is to get said paper finished and, depending on what time is left over, catch up on a million other things I need to get done. But, to be truthful, things like calling the insurance company and checking retirement accounts will probably wait until next week when I am *on break.* Except I still have to work. But, whatever, it's still break because I'll only be getting home past 9 if I want to :)

I know I'm getting to the end of my rope when the podcast listening increases and the long-forgotten pile of knitting starts looking really appealing. There was a NYT article recently on taking a digital day off each week. No blackberry, no blogging, just taking downtime. Wow, it's been a while since I managed that. But in the spirit of trying to calm down, I have planned a digital day off for tomorrow. No emails, no blackberry buzzing, no work. No one said it would be easy. I'm going to take a long run in the morning, work on my plants outside, read something non-academic, get a massage, and hopefully end the day with dinner and a movie out (not Netflix! It's great and all, but a girl has to get treated to going out once in a while). True, that paper may not be done, but I can make notes on paper and finish Sunday if need be. I think my addled brain needs the time off more than the paper needs to get done right now.

Off to start my busy day today...

State-building in South Africa

2008-03-10T08:20:00.002-05:00

Reconstructing the Veld: Challenges of state-building in post-apartheid South Africa

“South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity”
--Preamble to the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996

South Africa's past and present is one of state building and reconstruction. The new South Africa would not be a state forged by modern wars, but by hundreds of years of accumulated conflicts. Post-apartheid, South Africa needed to change more than just hearts and minds to become a new nation. Apartheid rule had tried to carve out South Africa as a country reserved for whites only. The “rainbow nation” would strive to be different. Black, white, or colored, the qualification to be South African was now to have shared in South Africa's success and its suffering. South Africa, the new Constitution stated, “belongs to all who live in it.”1

Post-1994 South Africa's goal and challenge was to build “a new inclusive identity based on citizenship and national territorial integrity.”2 Territorial integrity and representation would prove to be key. Apartheid had yoked citizenship with elaborately gerrymandered borders and boundaries. Years of forced relocation of blacks to government-designed “homelands” outside the major urban areas and economies had created majority black areas plagued by under-development, lack of basic social services, and malnutrition and rates of child mortality common in sub-Saharan Africa. Black South Africa, though the vast majority of the country's population, was squeezed onto a mere 13% of its land.3 Most of South Africa's rural land still remains under state ownership, with those living on it for generations having little to no say in the fate of its use or redistribution.4

Debates of land reform and redistribution raised questions of claims to the land and who should oversee its administration: the state, local authorities, or individuals? As Lungisile Ntsebeza writes: “One of the key problems contributing to the constitutional obligation to establish law guaranteeing tenure security for all South Africans...is the unresolved issue of the roles, powers and functions of traditional authorities in land matters and, indeed, in the new democracy.”5

Bantustans and borders
Even before the term “apartheid” was coined in 1948, the white leadership of South Africa was creating a legal structure that would fundamentally challenge the notion of what it meant to be South African living in South Africa. A series of laws, starting in 1913, began removing blacks' claim to land as well as their physical presence on it. Over subsequent decades, dozens of laws and acts were passed with the goal of creating a white South Africa. The Native Affairs Act of 1923, the Slum Act of 1934, the 1951 Bantu Authorities Act, and finally from 1976-1980 the “independence” of a series of “homelands,” also known as bantulands, removed black South Africans, often forcefully, from their places of residence to distant sections of South Africa that had been decreed by the government to be their “true” homelands. Resettlement to the homelands was the final stage in the campaign to redefine South African citizenship as the exclusive domain of whites.6 Each homeland was “legally” outside the boundaries of South Africa as a state. Initially blacks resettled to the homelands were granted “dual citizenship” in their homeland and South Africa, but as homelands were “granted” their “independence,” those residing in them found they were no longer South African citizens. It is illustrative of the white perception of the homelands that some apartheid-era academics went so far as to classify them as “less developed countries” and used the language of development studies to explain the challenges and reforms needed to improve social conditions in these overcrowded, poverty-ridden areas.7

The homeland areas did not reflect traditional landholdings of different tribes but were instead drawn to remove black populations from important white landholdings, gold or coal rich areas, and urban areas of economic importance.8 Homeland economies were largely dependent upon “migrant” labor to South Africa's cities and suburbs.9 Despite claims of homeland independence and self-governance, the Bantustan Administrations were dependent upon the South African government for financing two-thirds to three-quarters of their meager budgets.10

Too Many Institutions
Ironically, post-apartheid South Africa suffered from a surplus of institutions, but few of them functioning. In an effort to build legitimacy for the homelands, the apartheid government had invested in the establishment of homeland bureaucracies. Homelands such as QwaQwa, an arid land surrounded by mountains, by the late 1980's had not only their own self-administered police force, jails, president, cabinets, parliament and civil service but also their own rigged elections, patronage networks, and repression.11 The ANC's official position on bantustan structures was favoring their eradication.12 When the party was banned, the UDF picked up the struggle, and in standing for a united South Africa advocated for not only the abolition of homelands but also homeland governments and the role of chiefs.13

Institutions alone would not have been enough to keep up the appearance of homeland self-governance. The apartheid government “made extensive use of headmen and traditional authorities as a way to extend the rule of the state into the rural areas of the country, and the appointment of tribal authorities and headmen generally reflected the power dynamics of the apartheid state.”14 During apartheid, chiefs were instrumental in implementing and maintaining homeland rule. Widely derided as puppets of the state, chiefs were either appointed from existing traditional structures or simply created by the state to fill a governance position in the homelands. The 1951 Bantu Authorities Act gave power to a hierarchy of chiefs, but compliance with the ruling government was essential. Uncooperative chiefs would find themselves displaced by a government-sanctioned successor.15

When the opportunity of a reunified South Africa arose, not all homeland governments welcomed the idea. Despite the early approval by the prominent homelands of Transkei and Ciskei, other homeland chiefs balked at the prospect of losing the rights and power they had accumulated under homeland rule.16 After all, some of the chiefdoms were creations of apartheid, with no historical claim to their positions.17 Part of the challenge in rethinking South Africa's local administrations is that both those who promote the retention of chieftaincies and those who call for their end can point to South Africa's history to bolster their argument. The country does not have a good track record of the central state looking out for the best interests of the majority of its population. In contemporary South Africa, the ruling ANC has also neglected the needs of many South Africans through a strong urban bias in its early reconstruction plans.

There were fundamental problems with adopting chieftaincy into the new South African government structure. For a country striving to base its laws on human rights and inclusion, how could an institution based on heredity—and one that often relegated women to second-class status—have any legitimacy? While chieftaincy did allow some measure of popular concern to be voiced during apartheid, it remained a largely apartheid power construction.18 Linked to the trouble with local chiefs is the challenge of reconstructing South Africa's civil service for provincial and local governments. Provinces were rebuilt from fragments of the old provincial and homeland systems. New local-government structures will also have to be “built up from an inheritance of racially segregated and duplicative institutions.”19 In a nation with limited resources, homelands created redundant institutions that sapped funding that could be spent on other programs:

“One major headache for the government of the Northern Province was the incorporation of three former bantustans: Venda, Ganzankulu (destined for the South African TsongaIShangaan; the majority of the Shangaan live on the other side of the border in Mozambique) and Lebowa (Northern BaSotho). The government inherited the costly legacy of Grand Apartheid. The bureaucracies of the former bantustans, reputed to be inefficient and corrupt, had to be absorbed in the new provincial administration. Traditional leaders, until recently maligned as the faithful servants of the apartheid government and the bantustan despots, had to be incorporated in provincial and local government and in the ANC's ambitious five-year development plan, the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP).”20

Conclusions
South Africa's inequality is still quite heavily drawn along racial lines, but perpetuation of apartheid-era governance structures further divides the population, this time splitting black South Africans into those who “have” and those who “have-not.” As Pickles and Woods foresaw in the late 1980's:

“...the artificiality of homeland governments and their corrupt bureaucracies threaten
those not part of the patronage system...and second, that the ongoing restructuring of social relations in the homelands is creating concrete social structures and ideologies, and entrenching the mythology of ethnic difference within the political discourse of South African society.”21
South Africa today is increasingly accepting and proud of its multi-racial identity. The latest edition of the Economist reported on a survey showing that most South Africans belief race relations are improving, while “an emerging black middle class is slowly blurring racial and social lines.”22

Overcoming the social class divide will not be accomplished by retaining institutions like chieftaincies that perpetuate class divisions. The ANC states its commitment not to “perpetuate the separation of our society into a First World and a Third World—another disguised way of preserving apartheid,” but rather to “meet the basic needs of people,” particularly in the rural areas.23 Along with promoting rural people's land tenure should be a commitment to fostering community organizations and boards where ordinary citizens, for a fixed term of service, have a direct role in land reform and local administration. This is a challenge in any society with high levels of illiteracy, such as South Africa, but it would be a step towards incorporating historically marginalized people directly into the governance process, making them key stakeholders in the new rainbow nation in more than just rhetoric.

1Sally Peberdy. (2001) Imagining Immigration: Inclusive Identities and Exclusive Policies in Post-1994 South Africa. Africa Today, 48(3), pp.16
2Ibid.
3Lungisile Ntsebeza (2003) Land Rights and Democratisation: rural tenure reform in South Africa's former bantustans. Transformation: Critical Perspectives on Southern Africa (52). pp.77
4Ibid, pp.71
5Ibid, pp.78
6Joseph Lelyveld. (1985) Move Your Shadow: South Africa, Black and White. New York: Penguin Books. pp.124
7Ibid, pp. 79
8Nial MacDermot. (1984) Self-Determination and the “Independent Bantustans.” United Nations Centre Against Apartheid. pp.9
9Ibid.
10Ibid, pp.13
11John Pickles; Jeff Woods (1992) South Africa's Homelands in the Age of Reform: the case of QwaQwa. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Volume 82, No. 4. pp.637
12Ineke van Kessel; Barbara Oomen (1997) “One Chief, One Vote”: The revival of traditional authorities in post-apartheid South Africa. African Affairs, Volume 96, No. 385. pp.567
13Ibid, pp.568
14Noah Zerbe (2006) Democracy Compromised: Chiefs and the politics of the land in South Africa. African Studies Review, Volume 49, No.3. pp.144
15Kessel; Oomen. pp.581
16Pickle; Woods. pp. 647.
17Kessel; Oomen. pp.581
18Ibid, pp.585
19Charles Simkins. (1996) Problems of Reconstruction. Journal of Democracy.7.1 pp.85
20Kessel; Oomen. pp. 578-579
21Pickle; Woods. pp. 658
22The Economist. “South Africa: Skin Deep.” March 8-14, 2008. pp.55
23Fred Judson (2006) The Dynamics of Transition Governance in South Africa: Voices from Mpumalanga Province. Africa Today. 60. pp.7

The trouble with warlords

2008-02-28T22:14:00.002-05:00

On Kim Martin's piece, "Warlordism in Comparative Perspective" International Security 31.3 (2007) 41-73

It is rather shocking that anyone would think aiding warlords in a country riddled with conflict would actually be a good idea, of benefit to the country in turmoil or the greater global community, but time and again we have seen the United States and other nations siding their interests with warlords and rebel groups. Kimberly Marten writes that anything resembling a state is preferable to rule by warlords, whose very presence is a huge obstacle to development. She writes of the conditions that lead to the emergence of “warlordism,” its destructive impact on societies, and the conditions needed to end it.

Marten defines warlords as: 1) trained, armed men who seize control of small territories in the absence of central authority; 2) whose actions are based on their own self-interest and not ideology; 3) whose authority is based on charisma and patronage; and 4) whose personalistic rule leads to segmentation of the political and economic arrangements across the country (Marten, 48). It is worth nothing that Marten's second condition, acting based on their own self-interest, is also an issue raised in Collier, who notes that rebel movements often use ideology or appeals to national identity as a smokescreen for their own greed. One might hope that governments would look more towards the actions of warlords rather than their rhetoric when deciding to side with or support them, but here again history has proven us wrong.
Warlords take over some of the functions of a state, often taking for themselves what Weber has described as the purvue of a state: “the claim to the monopoly of legitimate physical violence within a certain territory (Marten, 43).”

Marten notes that in some cases warlords actually do provide for the people living within the territory they rule, but when they do it is with the goal of keeping their armies full of recruits and the population more or less complacent (Marten, 47). For the few benefits warlords can provide—some measure of stability and goods if a government can not provide for its citizens—their impact on an economy is destructive. By raising transaction costs between regions and/or expropriating natural resources for their own gain, warlords inhibit economic growth. Marten writes that one of the main conditions for the overthrow of warlords is a group of people who organize around the protection of their economic interests.

Lack of public services is not the only reason that warlords can emerge. Marten writes that countries with large landmass and spread out populations are more vulnerable than smaller countries or those with high urban concentrations. A dispersed population makes organizing to overthrow warlords harder and less likely, as does a high level of illiteracy (Marten, 70). I found this last point noteworthy, since it illustrates how few public benefits warlords actually provide to the people in the regions they rule. Despite lending a measure of stability and services that might be lacking in the absence of a strong central government, warlords rarely concern themselves with the long-term benefit of society, evidenced in this example by the lack of investment in education. Keeping a population illiterate may help to keep them ignorant of their rights or the ability to effectively organize, but it also has the side effect of slowing economic growth (Marten, 69). Power is tenuous, and one who comes to power through force or coercion, as warlords often do, no doubt realize that they too can be easily displaced, so best to get what they can while then can.

Marten looks at warlords and their demise in the histories of medieval Europe, China, and a brief period in Japan before she turns her attention to contemporary warlord states in Somalia and Afghanistan. Using history as a guide, she looks at the conditions in both countries to see whether conditions exist for them to move beyond warlordism. For Somalia, Marten sees a glimmer of hope, but Afghanistan's fate does not look as promising.

Somalia's hope is in its diaspora, Marten asserts. With no central state in Somalia and no public services, formal education has become nonexistent. Marten believes that Somali ex patriots living in developed nations of the West would have the education necessary to promote change at home, in addition to some funds from their jobs abroad. In addition, technology is in Somalia's favor. The country has a strong network of mobile phones, connecting those within Somalia's borders to each other and family living abroad (Marten, 69). Looking back at the fall of warlords in China and Europe, Marten points to the discovery or rediscovery of alternative forms of law as a decisive factor (Marten, 59). Through channels such as cell phones (one could also imagine through the Internet, assuming it was available and not censored), these ideas could flow into Somalia, helping to plant the seeds of change.

Afghanistan has few of the positives of even Somalia. Geographically quite isolated, its diaspora exists mostly in neighboring Iran and Pakistan, hardly enlightened democratic states (Marten, 71). The country's population is largely rural, with strong ethnic identities the often override loyalty to a national identity. Little to no infrastructure exists for technology, as it does in Somalia, so the exchange of ideas from outside the country is severely constrained. In addition, some warlords in Afghanistan have been granted an unfortunate measure of credibility by being appointed to high ministerial positions in the fledgling US-backed government of Hamid Karzi. This has two unfortunate consequences: 1) it encourages warlordism by other opportunists who see the rewards that come from wielding power over small territories and 2) for those who have suffered at the hands of these warlords, it further cements their distrust in the new government. Distrust in the central government unfortunately only leads people to seek out alternative leaders, which in turn breeds more warlords, and the cycle repeats.

I left Marten's piece wondering what the solution is. Yes, we need to promote stronger state governments, but it seems to me that at the root of warlordism is a very short-term world view both within the states in question and leadership in the developed world who rush to realign themselves with the powerful warlord de jour. As we have seen recently, in both Iraq and Afghanistan, siding with a corrupt or brutal leader who seems to be acting in our interests today seems to come back to bite the US and other developed nations in the long term. It also seemed to me that if there was a focus on providing people's basic needs, the warlord would be cut out of the equation. This might mean long-term relief programs that work simultaneously with state building efforts, with the idea of transitioning out as stability increases. Regardless, it requires a long-term view.

My questions for further discussion would be:

What role does the relief and development community play in cutting warlords out of the equation? And does a role in state building put them at unnecessary risk of not only stretching their mandate but of personal security (acting against a powerful warlord could after all get you killed)?
What role does the diaspora community of a country play in its development, how can that be fostered, and how do we stay conscious of the pitfalls? These people are, after all, not at direct risk of violence to themselves since they live abroad.
How could technology be made more accessible so people within troubled states have more exposure to different ideas of governance and norms?
Marten talks a lot about the economic incentives behind overthrowing a warlord, but how you can get an economy running without a stable government? Is this a chicken and egg problem, or are there creative ways to promote economic growth around the obstacles of warlords?

Campaign to end small arms

2008-02-26T22:15:00.003-05:00

I heard about the campaign to end small arms on a podcast of the Lancet Student. I thought it was great--and surprising--that the medical student community was signing on to a campaign to ban the light, available weapons that cause so much suffering in conflicts around the world. It's not just the obvious (weapons kill people) but there's another link here: conflicts cause displacement which in turn causes diseases through unsafe conditions, malnutrition, etc. Conflicts today arguably kill more people through disease and displacement than from injury.

Check out the campaign here: http://www.controlarms.org/

Shot in the arm for one health system is leathel injection for another

2008-02-22T08:55:00.006-05:00

Interesting piece in today's NYT on the flow of doctors and nurses from Africa into the health systems of welathy nations. Yes, this has been going on for years and is nothing new. But what *is* noteworthy is that the Lancet published an article by international health experts calling the efforts to lure the doctors and nurses into western health systems "a crime."

Read the story on the NYT here, and the Lancet story here (registration required).

Quite the proposal...

2008-01-30T22:16:00.000-05:00

I am so so sooooo busy that I'm not really able to keep up with this blog right now. I have 2 blogs to maintain for 2 different classes, am still working 2 jobs and decided to take 5 instead of 4 classes this semester because I want to move this program as quickly as possible.

And right now I'm just procrastinating for a brief moment.

I'm also appearing in a debate put on by Bates College, my alma matre, tomorrow night to debate whether U.S. foreign policy should be based on pragmatism or idealism.

In preparation for Valentine's Day, here's a paper I just wrote for a class on human rights ;)

Lifting the Veil: Tactics for Ending Bride-kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan

International law dictates that marriages should take place only with the clear consent of both people. Article 1(1) of the Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages states that “no marriage shall be legally entered into without the full and free consent of both parties.”1 In modern-day Kyrgyzstan, however, far too many women have their human rights violated by the entrenched practice of bride-kidnapping. This paper outlines an action plan for social change that uses public awareness campaigns to influence underlying social norms and legal education for key law enforcement to end bride-kidnappings.

Background
Some estimates suggest that today over half of married women in of the Kyrgyz ethnic group in Kyrgyzstan were kidnapped.2 Bride-kidnapping has been defined by Human Rights Watch as “the act of taking a woman against her will, through deception or force, and using physical or psychological coercion to force her to marry one of her abductors.”3 The 2007 Central Asian survey states that a recent Kyrgyz dictionary has three different descriptions of bride-kidnapping, or kyz ala kachuu, only one of which is the abduction of a woman without her or her parents' consent, while the others refer to either elopement or staged abductions.4

In most of the cases reported in human rights journals, women state that their “groom” was unknown to them prior to the abduction. In a scenario typical of the accounts collected by Human Rights Watch, a woman is kidnapped by a group of men, either by force or through coercion, and taken to a man's family home, where often his female relatives have prepared for the new “bride's” arrival. The female members of the man's family exert tremendous pressure to place the wedding scarf on the woman's head and to get her to stay. This process can go on for anywhere from several hours to several days.

Human Rights Violations of Bride-kidnapping
A laundry list of human rights are violated by the practice of bride-kidnapping. Women are deprived of their rights to freedom of movement as protected by Article 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), their right to education under Article 13 of the International Covenant of Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ICESC), the right not to be held in servitude (Article 8, ICESC), their right to liberty and security of person (Article 9, ICCPR), and their right to life and physical integrity (Articles 6 & 7, ICCPR).5 Kyrgyzstan ratified several international treaties and covenants on human rights after its independence, including the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights, the Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage & Registration of Marriages, and the International Covenant of Economic Social and Cultural Rights.6

In addition to the violent act of the kidnapping itself, the physical and psychological coercion that follow in the period when the young woman is essentially held captive at the man's family home could be construed as torture. While this may seem like a strong word to apply to what some describe as a cultural practice, especially in this day and age when issues of military torture are in the news, the emotional and physical stresses on this young woman certainly fit many elements of torture. Sleep deprivation, physical restraint by female members of the man's family, psychological coercion, and sometimes rape are all tools employed to convince the young woman to stay.7

Cultural Obstacles
A major obstacle to ending bride-kidnapping is renewed Kyrgyz pride in the aftermath of Soviet rule. In The Transformation of Central Asia: States and Societies from Soviet Rule to Independence, Pauline Jones Loung writes, “From its inception, the Soviet state tried to transform the patriarchal nature of Central Asian society...the state attempted to reduce gender inequality by banning a number of marriage practices that limited a woman's freedom of choice...bride-kidnapping did not disappear.”8 Jones writes that by the 1970's the practice had transformed into a performance, consensual elopement staged to look like an abduction. After independence, however, bride-kidnapping re-emerged in a more negative incarnation.9 There is debate within Kyrgyzstan over whether or not bride-kidnapping is in fact part of the Kyrgyz culture. Conversations reported with both older people and youth, and a recent discussion section of a local newspaper in Kyrgyz claim that it is not a tradition.10

In addition to the efforts of the man's family to pressure the kidnapped woman to stay, there is enormous social pressure on the abducted woman to agree to the marriage. Both men and women face social pressures to be married before their mid-twenties; men have reported being pressured by their families to secure a wife to help with work on family farms and provide help with household work to their mothers. Should a woman manage to escape or be allowed to choose to leave, she is often threatened by the man's female family members with curses or threats that she will never find another mate. Women who spend an evening in the new man's home but still choose to leave are assumed to have lost their virginity either willingly or through rape, and are considered “ruined.”11 Many women stay to avoid the shame of being a “girl who returned home.”12

Lifting the Veil
The history of rule by the Soviet Union bodes ill for any organization looking to promote the end of bride-kidnapping from the outside-in in Kyrgyzstan. Due to the belief of many Kyrgyz people that the practice is part of their tradition, it must be countered by people within the society. It is important to note that changing social norms takes time; there will likely not be an immediate benefit to women who may be victimized by the ongoing practice. To address their needs, legal and judicial reforms will need to be implemented.

Step one of this proposed campaign is to enlist the help of these existing local women's organizations to collaborate on a campaign to stop the practice of bride-kidnapping, as well as to form a larger coalition to lobby for ending violence against women in general. Human Rights Watch estimates that there are about a dozen women's organizations operating in Kyrgyzstan, mostly focusing on ending domestic violence. As a coalition, these groups could call public forums on ending violence against women and highlight bride-kidnapping. Such public events could be held around prominent international days marketing women's rights, such as International Women's Day.

Once internal support has been built, a social marketing campaign can be launched to change the existing norms surrounding bride-kidnapping. The Social Marketing Institute defines social marketing as “the planning and implementation of programs designed to bring about social change using concepts from commercial marketing.”13 The organization lists several examples of successful social marketing campaigns that this campaign could look to for best practices. For example, as in the oral re-hydration campaign in Honduras,14 Kyrgyzstan has a highly literate population of 98.7%15, so billboards and print ads in newspapers and local magazines could also be used. The print and media ads could use slogans to play to the patriarchal attitudes that underly the culture.

Breakthrough, an organization that uses media to promote social change primarily in India, has other campaigns that serve as inspiration. Started in 2005, it's “What Kind of Man are You?” campaign sought to promote condom use among men in India by highlighting the increased vulnerability of women to HIV/AIDS infection. The campaign launched with press conferences and then employed TV, music video, print ads, radio and commercials in movie theaters. The campaign also partnered with books stores to distribute bookmarks with campaign slogans and toll-free numbers for more information.16

Since this campaign seeks to change the behavior of young men as well as the beliefs of different generations, it is important that the print ads and campaign slogans be diverse and targeted to different audiences as appropriate. For example, a special ring tone associated with the advocacy campaign could be downloaded from the campaign website for younger people, since cell phone communications and internet are growing in Kyrgyzstan,17 while print ads in newspapers might urge parents to rethink how and why they want their sons to marry. Young men of marrying age and slightly younger should be the primary audience for behavioral change, while young women would be targeted more with information about their legal rights and with numbers to call for help and/or support. Kyrgyzstan has a limited number of television stations, but almost 30 radio channels, so public service announcements on popular channels could also be used. Ideally, a Kyrgyz celebrity or national figure with credibility amongst young women and women could be found to do the PSAs. School-aged children are the next wave to work with, as they are often early-adopters of new social norms. Education programs for schools should be developed to work with this demographic, with possible outreach to young parents, many of whom would have themselves been kidnapped.

Enforcing the Law
New Tactics.org writes that local organizations have a greater ability to approach local police about specific cases of human rights abuses.18 In Kyrgyzstan, bride kidnapping is illegal (Article 155 of the Criminal Code),19 but punishment is rarely enforced. The crime is the only one in its category of severity where the offender has the option of paying a fine or going to jail. In addition, Human Rights Watch quoted a policeman as saying that many people view the “people's law” as higher than written law.20

While societal changes will take time, certain reforms must not be allowed to lag, such as police reform. Police forces should have gender awareness trainings, in addition to a greater understanding of human rights laws. The hiring of female officers may help promote change within the ranks and have the added benefit of creating a safer environment for victims of bride kidnapping to come forward to press charges. Changing social acceptance of bride kidnapping will make a bigger impact for the women of Kyrgyzstan in the long term. In the short term, however, these police reforms will help safeguard women and protect their human rights.

1Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages. Retrieved on January 25, 2008 from http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/convention.htm.
2 Kleinbach, Russ and Salimjanova, Lilly (2007) 'Kyz ala kachuu and adat: non-consensual bride kidnapping and tradition in Kyrgyzstan', Central Asian Survey, 26:2, 217-233. Retrieved on January 26, 2008 from htt p://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02634930701517466. p218
3Human Rights Watch. (2006) Reconciled to Violence: State Failure to Stop Domestic Abuse and Abduction of Women in Kyrgyzstan. Volume 18, No. 9 (D). Retrieved on January 14, 2008 from http://hrw.org/reports/2006/kyrgyzstan0906/kyrgyzstan0906web.pdf. p90
4 Kleinbach and Salimjanova, p.218
5 Human Rights Watch, p20
6International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. Retrieved on January 27, 2008 from http://www.unhcr.ch/html/menu3/b/a_cescr.htm
7 Human Rights Watch, p.108
8Pauline Jones Luong. (2004) The Transformation of Central Asia: States and Societies from Soviet Rule to Independence. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. p.60 Retrieved on January 26, 2008 from http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=KefvEz9bfyEC&oi=fnd&pg=PP11&dq=Frequency+of+Non-Consensual+Bride+Kidnapping+in+Kyrgyz+Republic&ots=cktv45OHpL&sig=EG_iV5mAn4_x3mDS8rMm_SqGuKA#PPA60,M1. p60
9Jones, p.60
10 Kleinbach and Salimjanova.. p217.
11Human Rights Watch, p.114
12Jones, p.60
13Social Marketing Institute. Retrieved on January 28, 2008 from http://www.social-marketing.org/sm.html.
14Social Marketing Institute. “Success Stories: Mass Media and Health Practices Project.” Retrieved on January 28, 2008 from http://www.social-marketing.org/success.html.
15CIA World Factbook: Kyrgyzstan. Retrieved on January 24, 2008 from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/kg.html
16Breakthrough. Retrieved on January 28, 2006 from http://breakthrough.tv/Campaign_detail.asp?cid=12&id=2.
17The CIA World Factbook cites that in 2005 the number of mobile phones outnumbered landlines in Kyrgyzstan (541,700 registered as opposed to 440,400 registered landlines), and 298,100 internet connections were reported for 2006.
18New Tactics in Human Rights: A Resource for Practitioners. “Prevention.” Retrieved on January 20, 2008 from http://www.newtactics.org.
19Human Rights Watch, p. 123
20Human Rights Watch, p.93

Empty Promises to Women: Overturn TVPRA

2007-12-21T15:15:00.001-05:00

The administration just can't keep its hands off USAID funding.

First it was reinstating the Global Gag Rule, and barring what NGOs could say or advise women on regarding abortion. Then it was sex workers in the crosshairs of USAID funding restrictions, and effective HIV/AIDS prevention programs are suffering with the "Trafficking Prevention Reauthorization Act."

Do we really want to be that nation, the one who withholds money from HIV/AIDS prevention because we feel the need to take some perceived moral highground on sex work? Because, really, that's all TVPRA is. It's dressed up as an anti-trafficking initiative but--wait for it--provides no funding for actual prevention of trafficking. It just stops NGOs from working with sex worker unions or community groups. It is brutally unfair to women who really are suffering from trafficking in the sex industry than telling them the United States is serious about ending trafficking and then holding out little but empty promises like TVPRA.

For my final project in public policy I wrote an analysis of TVPRA and advocated for its hasty removal. I'll be posting it in parts.

Executive Summary

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Congressional leadership have an opportunity to significantly increase the impact of U.S. foreign aid on the global AIDS crisis by overturning the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) attached to United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funding in 2008. At present, TVPRA ties the hands of any non-governmental organization conducting HIV/AIDS programs abroad by forcing them to adopt government-mandated language condemning sex work, curtailing effective programs that could protect thousands of people from acquiring HIV/AIDS next year.
TVPRA should be overturned because it denies funding to effective programs, places unconstitutional restrictions on US non-governmental organizations, tarnishes the image of the U.S. as a leader in the fight against HIV/AIDS, and is counter-productive to its stated goal of actually decreasing trafficking in women.

Keeping 'We' in 'We the People'

2007-12-12T20:28:00.000-05:00

Until finals are over (1 more week) I'm planning on running re-runs of my papers this semester. At least there will be new posts...and some quite appropriate as we are about to enter hunting season--I mean, election year 2008.

My public policy midterm asked "Is the US public too ignorant to govern itself?"

Removing the American public from the governance of this country, even if as Hardin states they would get the same outcome if they did not vote, would fundamentally undermine the very concept of a country built on the principle of restrained government power and explicit rights of the individual from government protected in a constitution. If the people are taken out of “We the People,” it in effect cements into place every discrimination and social inequality that has to date not been resolved. The representatives of the American people are not representative of the people, and without public involvement in the process, however limited, there is no incentive for their interests to be considered.
Congress is overwhelmingly white, male and middle-aged. The hundreds of thousands of constituents per representative of the House largely do not fit that profile, at least half of them after all being biologically female. As mentioned in class, only 16.3% of Congress is female, 3% of the Senate is Latino, and there is one lone African-American in the Senate. If this group of representatives were left to make decisions for constituents they share little to no common life experiences, with no input or threat of ouster by the people they represent, there is more than a fleeting chance that social services would be distributed even less equally than at present and laws preventing racial and sexual discrimination in the workplace would not be made into law. Such issues of discrimination would simply not have been experienced by the vast majority of officials.
Historically, the view that "the people" could not govern themselves and needed the help of an aristocratic and benevolent elite to guide them was widely accepted. Some might say that with the emergence of professional politicians in the U.S. we are returning to this school of thought in some regard. As we discussed in the class, the more highly specialized a field becomes, the easier it is for political decisions to pose as technical ones. Removing the people from the process of governance removes yet one more barrier to keeping corruption in check.
Hardin has a dim view of how Americans make decisions on important political issues such as spending on foreign policy. However, one can argue that it is not the ignorance of the average American so much as it is the politicization of the (mis)information she has access to that lies underneath the problem of a misinformed citizenry. Increasingly polarized parties and media outlets shape the course of debate, skewing statistics as it suits the issue. The prevalence of interest groups in theory provides one recourse for citizens to speak truth to power. Groups with the largest numbers of members sharing their concerns are by and large the most effective groups in Washington. Their power comes from the number of engaged citizens they bring to the table with them when meeting about their issues. Yet even with this power, placing politicians above the reach of the public's vote would remove the bulk of their leverage in getting the ear of members of Congress.
It is a slippery slope to remove power from people to have a place at the table of governance. We routinely point fingers at other nations with less democratic participation—perhaps China one day or Russia the next—and decry the ways the will of the people living there is suppressed and ignored. We see the results in exposes on levels of pollution in Chinese rivers, injured miners, or patronage in Russian political circles. We do not say that the people in those nations are too ignorant to question their leaders or fight for change; instead, we applaud them. We should hold ourselves to a higher standard, but we do not do that by removing our power as citizens.

Commerce Clause: Who Knew?

2007-11-04T18:06:00.000-05:00

I never knew just how many ways the Commerce Clause had been sliced, diced, twisted and turned over the years to justify the promotion or restriction of pretty much anything. It was very much a lightbulb-moment for me reading some papers on the commerce clause and realized how it was used to restrict reproductive rights while I was working at a women's health organization not long ago.

Citizens as Commerce?

The Commerce Clause, a seemingly straight-forward enough clause regulating trade between states, has in a relatively short time frame been used to both give and take away individual rights and liberties. Lens writes that since the 1990's, the Supreme Court has handed down decisions trending towards using the clause to “invalidate federal legislation to address social problems.”1 Having once seen enshrined in the Commerce Clause the means to outlaw segregation and promote civil rights, the Court has increasingly moved in the direction of erring on the side of favoring laws and legislation of states over the greater national public welfare on issues like violence against women.2

The definition of commerce has been stretched and molded according to political motivations, both progressive and conservative. Used to restrict states' attempts to enact progressive federal laws on child labor and civil rights through much of this country's history, the tide was turned through the heavy-handed threat of FDR's court-packing plan after the Court ruled against some of his New Deal legislation.3 From that point forward, “the Commerce Clause was no longer construed as limiting that [federal] power. The utility of the Commerce Clause as a basis for Congressional action was restored and then expanded...broadening the distinction between manufacturing and commerce to include even non-commerce type activities.”4 Lens goes on to write that the Commerce Clause was used as justification to pass laws addressing perceived moral and social wrongs.

A recent Congressional effort to prevent young women from crossing state lines in order to seek abortion services illustrates the reach of the interpretation of the Commerce Clause today. Recently, the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act, or CIANA, proposed to make it a crime for any adult, including immediate family, to transport a woman under the age of 18 across state lines for the purposes of obtaining an abortion. This law, which would have potentially imprisoned concerned grandmothers, aunts, and clergy members potentially helping young girls--who potentially faced physical harm if they informed their parents—used the Commerce Clause as the basis of its legal justification.5 In fact, the law was following a long line of precedent. In addition to its application in ending segregation, “with the passage of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (1938)....consumer protection, health, and safety also fell within the legitimate scope of the Commerce Clause.”6

What about a young woman seeking abortion services in a neighboring state qualifies as commerce? She is certainly not a business nor is she seeking to trade goods or make a sale for profit. She is a consumer of a medical service. Clearly the consumer is not the target of legislation such as CIANA. For anti-abortion members of Congress the reproductive health centers she seeks to access are an industry and, in their view, a negative one that consumers need protection from. As much as the Commerce Clause can be seen to protect state rights and individuals from the overreaching power of the federal branch, so too it can just as easily be used to restrict the rights of individuals. This legislation is a remarkable change of tack from just thirty years ago, when New York was one of the only states with legal abortion services. New York clinics would advertise their services to out-of-state women, and early morning shuttle flights to New York would be filled largely with affluent women from other states.

Rights for Whom?

In the case above, what rights would the young woman seeking services expect to have? She likely would not expect her state of residence to provide her with the medical services she seeks free of charge. She would not expect the state to provide her with transportation enabling her to access services out of state. She would, however, expect to be able to travel across state lines unimpeded. According to Stone, a right of this nature would be classified as a negative substantive right. Negative substantive rights, according to Stone, are the right to do something free of restraint. These rights “create relationships of non-interference” and in this aspect function as social regulatory systems.”7

Where would this young woman in question get the idea that she has the right to seek a medical procedure without her parents' consent, or even to cross a state line without their permission? She might state that as an individual she has the right to bodily autonomy, and as a U.S. citizen she has the right to travel the country unimpeded. In the U.S., Stone writes, the idea of “natural rights” has been an incredibly successful and influential philosophy, going so far as to be “exemplified in the Declaration of Independence.”8 With the passage of CIANA, the young woman would that her rights are dependent on the ideas of the political power of the moment9, and the protection of her rights dependent upon the character and ideology of the Supreme Court of the era.

1Ibid, 319.
2Ibid, 319. Lens writes that the Court invalidate the Violence Against Women Act's provision for a victim to sue her attacker in federal, not just criminal, court.
3Ibid, 322-323.
4Ibid, 323.
5 http://boustany.house.gov/LatestNews.asp?ARTICLE3149=3186&PG3149=7, last access 10/26/2007.
6V. Lens, 324.
7D. Stone, Policy Paradox, New York: W.W. Nortan & Company, 1997. p327-327.
8Ibid, 334.
9Ibid, 350.

How responsible is corporate responsibility?

2007-09-22T20:48:00.001-05:00

Popular convention holds that any company wishing to remain competitive in the market needs some element of corporate social responsibility (CSR).1 Consumers, it is argued, demand that the companies reflected in their stock portfolios and shopping cards make a contribution to ending environmental degradation, social inequalities, human rights abuses, and the like. Companies have both expanded their CSR programs and turned back out to consumers products that are co-branded with charitable organizations, a portion of whose sales are promised to go toward ending breast cancer, saving whales, and other such noble causes.
Vogel rights casts a skeptical eye towards the prevalence of CSR in today's marketplace, writing that CSR in itself “reflects both the strengths and the shortcomings of market capitalism.”2 While it may prompt certain business to create new environmental safeguards and gives a certain voice to employee and consumer social values, in most cases it does so on only the most superficial of levels. In addition, Vogel writes that since CSR is completely optional, companies treat CSR as any other research and development project, using CSR only if it will produce a return on their investment.3

Corporate social responsibility programs are often appealing for the wrong reasons. Since the definition of CSR is unclear, companies can point to activities that would normally fall into their strategic planning as examples of CSR.4 There are no guidelines for CSR, so even token programs with no real impact can be listed proudly in the company annual report to shareholders. Vogel cites Enron as one prominent example, which before its notorious downfall was well-known for its local philanthropy.5 Philip Morris/Altria Group is another example of a company giving hundreds of millions of dollars to the non-profit sector. Does such philanthropy—no doubt called “corporate social responsibility” by the company—undue the fact that instead of defrauding investors Philip Morris/Altria instead produces a known carcinogen?

The prevalence and trendiness of CSR can also induce a certain social laziness in consumers, the effect of which can be fairly readily seen in the non-profit world. Co-branded products with “a portion going to support” the work of charities from health to children to animals can lull people into thinking that all they need to do to make a difference is consume. The beneficiaries of such actions are more likely to be companies than non-profits, who have hardly had a chance to convert the customer into a loyal donor or educated activist through their purchase. Fundamentally such initiatives reduce philanthropy and activism to market transactions instead of social movements. While co-branded products, rubber bracelets, and t-shirts hardly paint the entire picture when it comes to examining the flaws of CSR, they do show the superficial nature of both some CSR programs and consumer 'activists.'

Social Changes and the Market
Stone challenges the claim of programs like CSR that market competition increases social welfare.6 She writes that organizing activities people enjoy and care about as market exchanges actually decreases their motivation to pursue them and can actually even decrease the net social benefit.7 By this view, providing an alternative to direct social action, such buying a T-shirt instead of writing a member of Congress or donating directly to a political advocacy organization, people are not only becoming less engaged in social change but they are also less satisfied. The unfortunate, and no doubt unintended, consequence is that citizens become disenchanted with social service and advocacy organizations—and possibly even philanthropic activities as a whole—leading to an even greater decrease in social change.

Both Vogel's critique of CSR and Stone's of market failures boil down to the central issue of power. In CSR, while consumer demands may have produced some tangible changes, the fact of the matter is that the products being put back on the shelves for them to consume are being chosen and shaped by the company bottom line. Stone summarizes this argument by stating, “if consumer preferences are not really individual but shaped by sellers, we can no longer assume that each transaction does increase the welfare of both parties.”8 Indeed, by linking corporate and social goals consumers may actually be doing more harm than good. Certain social issues rise and fall in trendiness for both the average consumer and larger institutional donors. Africa, after years of funding neglect, suddenly finds its HIV/AIDS endemic being used to sell Product(Red) sneakers. Should the problems in Africa prove to be longer-lasting than the seasonality of sneakers, will consumers attention span on the issue last? Or will they turn away from the disappointment and onto another product claiming to alleviate a different injustice in another region of the world?

Perhaps the issue lies not with consumers, as Americas truly are a philanthropic and civic-minded group, more generous with their income to social causes than almost any other nation. The solution, then, lies in reclaiming social issues and their power to move people to action from corporate branding and 'green-washing' campaigns to the activist and community organizations actually making real impacts. How to do that, however, will be more difficult than launching the next co-branded cell phone.

1 D. Vogel, “Corporate Social Responsibility” (Market for Virtue, 2006), p.2. Jeffrey Hollender is quoted that “Corporate Social Responsibility [is]...the future of business. It's what companies have to do to survive and prosper in a world where more and more of their behavior is under a microscope.”
2Vogel, p.3
3Ibid, p.3-4
4Ibid, p.4
5Ibid, p.5
6D. Stone, Policy Paradox, New York: W.W. Nortan & Company, 1997. p73
7Ibid.
8Ibid, p.74

News Round Up

2007-08-29T07:48:00.000-05:00

Blame summer and many other things on the fact that I haven't made time to keep up with this. I've lived in the city for 7 years now and this is the first year I've used the public bike paths and parks. My new-found favorite Sunday activity (after coffee and the NYT, of course) is a 90 minute ride up the west side bike path and the Hudson River. It is a gorgeous ride, fun and a really good time out for my brain.

So many thanks to groups like Riverkeeper, NY Restoration Project, and many others who help keep the outdoor spaces in this city beautiful.

But never fear--"vacation" such as it has been is nearing it's end with a jarring stop. School is a week away; expect to be reading a LOT of papers!

CARE made headlines recently when they decided to turn down US food aid. The process of sending US crops to, for example, African programs costs aid organizations money that could otherwise be used to deliver other much-needed services, and undermines local markets. Oxfam America's president also backed CARE's decision in a letter to the NYT.

Iraqi refugees still face hurdles in seeking asylum in the US--including those who have worked for the US military in Iraq. The US refuses to accept asylum applications from Iraqis still residing in Iraq, forcing them between a rock and a hard place: make the risky trip to cross into Syria and Jordan, or make the risky trip into your own backyard?

Finally, the BBC reports that an inflatable boat filled with 59 people trying to reach Europe from Africa is adrift in Africa waters. Human traffickers set the boat loose after telling the passengers they were in Italian waters already. With no engine, they are at the whim of ocean currents. The BBC has a good feature on what motivates people to undertake the risky journey to reach Europe. When your life expectancy in sub-Saharan Africa is 37 years shorter than the average in Europe, I find it hard to label you as 'just' an "economic refugee."

Nurses in Libya freed

2007-07-24T09:28:00.000-05:00

Wow! The nurses accused by the Libyan government of intentionally infecting children with HIV have been released after years of imprisonment. Read the full story on the NYT website.

Water, Water Everywhere...

2007-07-20T08:02:00.001-05:00

....but not a drop to drink.

This old rhyme would be cute if only it weren't true.

Over the past weekend I read three separate articles on water, appearing in Fast Company, Good, and the Sunday NYT Week in Review. It would appear that some people in the philanthropic communities are starting to realize that water safety and access lies at the heart of many other public health and development issues.

Don't have access to clean water? Then your wife or daughter can walk 4 hours roundtrip to collect it. If there's water to be collected. She can't start a small business to earn extra money, and she can't go to school because collecting water takes so much time. She might face assault on her way to the water source. But someone has to collect the water.

You walked 4 hours to collect water, so you don't want it wasted. So you don't wash your vegetables, or yourself, as often as you'd like because water is precious and your family needs it. You get skin problems; your child has diarrhea. Lots of children in your town have died from diarrhea--and you've seen worse caused by the water.

In the interest of full disclosure, I'm doing some work for a water org now and learning more about all these issues that intersect with water. In a previous life and org we did work with water but in an emergency relief context. I have to admit it's shocking to see just how bad these issues are even in stable, if extremely poor, countries.

More to come...

Follow the Money

2007-07-20T08:02:00.000-05:00

Part 4 of 5

U.S. Policy in Colombia: The Money Trail

Economically, geographically, and politically important, Colombia has been and continues to be the focus of U.S. policy in the Southern hemisphere. The U.S. Department of State reports that the U.S. represents the largest source of foreign direct investment in Colombia, and last year Colombia was the fifth largest export market in the Western Hemisphere for U.S. goods. The country has natural resources of interest to the U.S., including modest stores of petroleum and natural gas and represents one of the more stable economies in its region.1

Current U.S. foreign policy continues to focus on the war on drugs and assisting the Colombian government's counter-insurgency efforts. Since 2000, the U.S. has spent close to $3 billion in
Colombia, of which 75% was directed towards military and policy assistance.2 For fiscal year 2007, the Congressional Budget and Justification for Foreign Operations listed a request of $78 million for foreign military training (FMT) in Colombia, and $1.68 million for International Military Education and Training, the part of their work that encompasses the “human rights” part of military work.3 The Center for International Policy reports these figures at $90 million and $1.68 million, respectively.4 However, these two figures represent a very small part of the total military spending package for Colombia. For FY07, International Narcotics Control was projected at $366.55 million, and “Section 1033” Defense Department counter-narcotics programs were projected at $122 million. When all budget lines are added, the total is $584.44 million.5 Comparatively, in 2004 USAID spent an estimated additional $122 million in humanitarian aid directed to Colombia through non-governmental programs.6

The amount of money directed at counter-narcotics and other military programs in Colombia—coupled with the country's human rights record—has not escaped the scrutiny of Congress. The Leahy Provision prohibits military aid from being sent to foreign military units accused of human rights violations until reports show redress of grievances to the satisfaction of Congress.7 Congress has gone so far as to include specific human rights provisions specific to Colombia when funding for military operations for that country were increased. Under the Leahy Provision, funds have been withheld from Colombia in the past, but the executive branch has the power to sign a waiver to override Congress. One such instance of the use of a waiver for Colombia occurred in 2000 by then-President Clinton. Human Rights Watch contends that by signing the waiver the White House “sent a message to Colombia's leaders that overshadowed any other related to human rights...that as long as the Colombian military cooperated with the U.S. anti-drug strategy, American officials would waive human rights conditions and skirt their own human rights laws.”8

International foreign policy, and with it military spending, are not immune from domestic politicking and, in an age of globalization, nor should it be. In addition to the power of the purse Congress has through the Leahy Provision and other measures, a current bill before Congress would move to have the U.S. take an active role in ending the use of child soldiers. Senate Bill 1175, the 'Child Soldier Prevention Act of 2007' a bi-partisan bill presented in April of this year, states that Congress believes “that the United States Government should support and, where practicable, lead efforts to establish and uphold international standards designed to end this abuse of human rights...expand ongoing services to rehabilitate child soldiers...work with the international community...on efforts to bring to justice rebel organizations that kidnap children for use as child soldiers, such as the FARC.”9 In addition the bill calls on State and Defense to coordinate on programs to end the use of child soldiers and that no military funding or training be made available to countries known by the Department of State or Defense to use child soldiers. Many of the provisions in the bill echo the language of the Leahy Provision, but the bill notably requires that foreign officers of the State Department be trained on matters pertaining to child soldiers.

1United States Department of State, “Background Note: Colombia,” http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/35754.htm . Last accessed July 1, 2007.
2 Sweig, Julia E, “Challenges for U.S. Policy Toward Colombia: Is Plan Colombia Working—the Regional Dimensions?”, Testimony to U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, October 29, 2003, Council on Foreign Relations, www.cfr.orf/publication/6511/challenges_for _US_policy_toward_colombia.html. Last accessed June 22, 2007.
3United States Department of State, FY07 Congressional Budget and Justification for Foreign Operations, www.state.gov/documents/organization/60656.pdf. Last accessed June 25, 2007.
4Center for International Policy, “Just the Facts: A civilian's guide to U.S. defense and security assistance to Latin America and the Carribean,” www.ciponline.org/facts/co.htm, June 25, 2007
5Center for International Policy, “Just the Facts: A civilian's guide to U.S. defense and security assistance to Latin America and the Caribbean,” www.ciponline.org/facts/co.htm
6United States Agency for International Development, “Colombia: Overview,” http://www.usaid.gov/locations/latin_america_caribbean/country/colombia/. Last accessed June 30, 2007.
7 Human Rights Watch, “Sixth Division,” hrw.org/reports/2001/colombia/6theng.pdf. Last accessed June 26, 2007, 4
8Ibid
9 United States Senate, “S.1175, Child Soldier Prevention Act of 2007,” The Library of Congress, http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/C?c110:./temp/~c110K3DOWe,. Last accessed May 30, 2007.

No Place for Children: Foreign policy and security rationale for the U.S. to move to end the use of child soldiers in Colombia

2007-07-08T09:13:00.000-05:00

Part 3 of 5

Cycles of Violence

Modern warfare ignores the traditional rules of the battlefield. Today, more than 90% of all war casualties are civilian, and children are increasingly not only victims of the violence but direct actors in it.1 As recently as 2001, it was estimated that 300,000 children were participating in armed conflicts around the world, and thousands more were facing recruitment or serving in armed forces not engaged in conflicts.2 The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict bans the involvement and recruitment of children under 18 in armed conflict.3 Despite 110 countries signing onto the Optional Protocol, both state and non-state actors continue to actively recruit and use children under 18 in both formal and non-formal militias. Currently, 20 countries are known to have children fighting in their conflicts; 10 of these have state militias implicated in the use of child soldiers. The United States provides 9 of these states with military assistance, one of which is Colombia.

Colombia has been in the throes of an internal conflict for 40 years. An estimated 1.4 million of the country's 43.3 people are internally displaced within Colombia itself, while hundreds of thousands more have fled to neighboring countries.4 The vast majority of children engaged in Colombia's conflict serve in two guerrilla organizations. Colombia's largest and oldest guerrilla group, Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) began in the late 1960's in response to a U.S.-sponsored attack on a Communist-inspired peasant cooperative in the southern Tomila department.5 Today FARC also has the dubious distinction of being the largest guerrilla group in the southern hemisphere, financing itself through kidnapping and ransom, extortion, and the drug trade. National Liberation Army (ELN), the other main guerrilla group, is significantly smaller than FARC. It primarily targets the oil sector and energy infrastructures in its attacks. Finally, United Self-Defense Groups of Colombia (AUC) is the largest paramilitary organization in the country. Though groups like the AUC were declared illegal in Colombia in 1989, funded by the drug trade and support of wealthy landowners, AUC is known for close and open collaboration with Colombia's official armed forces.6

Human Rights Watch reports that “in the debate over U.S. policy in Colombia, the recruitment of children by Colombia's illegal armed groups has been a secondary issue. Concern has focused more intensely on the Colombian military's tolerance and complicity in other grave (human rights) abuses.”7 Previously, the Colombian government and official armed forces were also actively recruiting and using child soldiers. In recent years the Colombian government has made some good faith efforts to end the use and recruitment of child soldiers within its own forces. In 1991, Colombia signed the Optional Protocol, although it has not yet been ratified. In 1997, documentation showed more than 15,000 children serving as soldiers in Colombia's government forces. Two years later the Colombian government demobilized 800 under 18-year-olds from government forces. While there are no current credible reports of children serving in Colombian government forces, there have been reports of the use of children as spies and informers by police and army units. In addition, the government has offered financial incentives for minors to become “peasant soldiers”, a scheme launched by the government at the end of 2002 to build a peasant army of 20,000.8

The phenomena of child soldiers in Colombia is a reflection of deep-rooted poverty and instability due to years of conflict. While some children are abducted into service, others, with few options for either security or sustenance, join militias out of desperation.9 The United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research writes that “the lines between compulsory, voluntary, and forced recruitment are often blurred.” Once in service, child soldiers in Colombia are not protected from the horrors of combat. Human Rights Watch, in an interview with demobilized child soldiers in Colombia, found that children not only fought but also participated in human rights crimes such as torture, assassinations, and executions of non-military actors. Despite some efforts being made by the Colombian government to reintegrate demobilized child soldiers, the lack of an overall campaign to end the practice amounts to a failure to protect the human rights of these children on the part of the Colombian government.10

The lasting effect of child soldiering is recognized in the Optional Protocol, and states that agree to its terms are “disturbed by the harmful and widespread impact of armed conflict on children and the long-term consequences it has for durable peace, security and development.”11 Effects to children include physical and emotional scarring, disrupted psychological development, violent tendencies when removed from the conflict setting, and a lack of any peacetime skills.12 The impact is not confined within a country's borders. One need only to look to contemporary situations such as the recent fighting in Liberia to see militarizing children endangers the stability of entire regions. While it has been argued by some states that recruiting and using minors in armed service could be necessary for national security, the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research counters this claim in a report, stating that “the effects of armed conflict on children are devastating, not only for children themselves but for their societies.”13 Singer writes that “a particularly pernicious characteristic of child soldiering is the potential to ruin the lives of children and, in doing so, lay the groundwork for future conflict.”14 According to the CIA World Factbook, almost 30% of Colombia's population is under the age of 1415--a substantial population that could be the future hope or the future fighters of their country.

1 McManimom, Shannon and Stohl, Rachel. 2001. “Use of Children as Soldiers.” Foreign Policy in Focus, Vol. 6. , 1
2Ibid
3Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, “Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict,” http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu2/6/protocolchild.htm. Last accessed July 5, 2007.
4 United States Agency for International Development, “Latin America and the Caribbean: Colombia Overview,” http://www.usaid.gov/locations/latin_america_caribbean/country/colombia/, June 30, 2007.
5Center for International Policy, “Colombia Program,” www.ciponline.org//colombia/infocombat.htm. Last accessed June 12, 2007.
6Ibid
7 Human Rights Watch, “You'll Learn Not to Cry: Child Combatants in Colombia,” hrw.org/reports/2003/colombia0903.html, June 22, 2007, 21
8Ibid, 25
9Ibid, 20
10Ibid
11Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, “Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict.”
12Singer, P.W. “Addressing the Global Challenge of Child Soldiers,” Geneva Center for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces, www.dcaf.ch/_docs/Yearbook2005/Chapter6.prf, 117. Last accessed July 5, 2007.
13 Alfreson, Lisa, “Child Soldiers, Displacement and Human Security,” United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, www.unidir.org/pdf/articles/pdf_art1728.pdf, June 22, 2007.
14Singer, 119
15 Central Intelligence Agency, “Colombia,” The World Factbook, https://www.cia.gov/library/
publications/the-world-factbook/geos/co.html, June 26, 2007

People smarter than me agree...

2007-07-02T23:31:00.000-05:00

I assume this is the point of the all-important paper literature review? So be it. I promise things will get more interesting after this post. I'll remind you again that I'm still polishing things. Paper is due Sunday--there are many days for fine-tuning.

Donnelly writes of the many tools with which states have pursued human rights goals, including but not limited to investigations, cancellation of ministerial visits, embargoes, withdrawal or increasing of aid, and direct aid to both peaceful and military opposition—but rarely direct military action on behalf of human rights. When U.S. military policy has been addressed in relation to human rights, it is often in the context of either modern day imperialism or abuses carried out by U.S. forces past and present. It can be argued that it it simply not the role of an army tasked with providing national defense to end human rights abuses of foreign governments against their own citizens, as has certainly been the habit of more conservative circles within the United States itself. However, the military has increasingly been given the task of global public relations ambassador on top of national defense, charged with promoting a favorable impression of the U.S. abroad, for example through showing that U.S. troops can “use our combat skills to drop...supplies to those in need” in the aftermath of the tsunami . Recently the Defense Department has been expanding its control over foreign military training programs formerly run by the State Department, moving a former tool of foreign policy out of State's hands and into the pervue of the U.S. military. With arguably the world's largest skilled and highly-trained army, the U.S. is also uniquely positioned to use its military operations for both security protection and the greater good. While he was not explicitly discussing military objections, Donnelly bolsters this point when discussing the unique role of the U.S. in leading by example on the issue of human rights: “On the one hand, America has been seen as a beacon, the proverbial city on a hill, whose human rights mission was to set an example for a corrupt world...On the other hand, the American mission has been seen to require positive action abroad. The United States must teach not simply by its domestic example but by active international involvement on behalf of human rights.”

Recommending the U.S. to use its considerable monetary and international influence to end the recruitment and use of child soldiers in Colombia does is not a prescription that readily lends itself to categorization as a realist, liberal, or constructivist approach to the problem. As described in greater detail in a later section, the U.S. has pressing strategic interests in maintaining its influence in Latin American through Colombia. Therefore, there is “an intrinsic concern for power” that Donnelly writes as being a characteristic of a realist approach . However, a realist would likely see the prioritization of ending human rights abuses in Colombia as a non-central component of U.S. foreign policy in that country, especially when such large military operations and budgets are at play. The Center for International Policy, in a recent report on the increasingly blurring lines between State Department diplomatic programs and Department of Defense programs, writes that historically U.S. policy was often formed in agreement with a realist principle, as the “executive branch generally dislikes the idea of human rights conditionality in the law governing military assistance, since it may disrupt the flow of military aid.”

The case for U.S. involvement in stemming the use of child soldiers is a policy rooted somewhere between the liberal and constructivist schools of thought. Liberals, concerned with absolute gains from cooperation, have trade at the heart of interests in promoting human rights. However, in the case of Colombia and the United States one could argue that the interest is in ending trade—at least in the primary product of trade, narcotics. That said, the U.S. desire to maintain a stronghold of influence in the region, with particular regard to systems of government and social system, could be seen as tied closely to trade interests. The U.S. has already seen what can happen to trade in oil, for example, when a government becomes hostile to the U.S., as is the recent case of Chavez in Venezuela. Finally, constructivists view human rights as powerful forces with the potential to change international politics. Actors, both individual and collective, are shaped by the norms espoused in human rights doctrine. Societal change is possible through the promotion of human rights at all levels. In the case of Colombia, ending the use of child soldiers will break the cycle of violence in the civil conflict, at least in the long-term. Therefore, because of balance of U.S. strategic interests and the hopes for societal change, the policy prescription advanced in this study has its basis in both these schools of thought.

In Human Rights and National Security: The Strategic Coorelation, Burke-White advances a theory of “correlation between the domestic human rights practices of states and their propensity to engage in aggressive international conduct." As a result of this correlation between advancing rights and decreasing aggression, Burke-White recommends that the U.S. adopt a foreign policy informed by human rights so as to enhance its own security. It can be argued that while the risk of aggression on one's own soil is perhaps a nation's most paramount security concern, a state need not attack its neighbor or a far-away rival to pose a security threat. Refugee flows from a conflict-ridden nation across the border to a neighboring state can be equally disruptive. A January 2007 release from the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR) described the growing need for refugee processing centers on the Venezuelan border to deal with the increasing number of Colombians seeking security outside their country. According to ReliefNet, a respected resource for humanitarian workers, UNHCR and the Venezuelan government estimate 200,000 Colombians are seeking protection in Venezuela.

Both Burke-White and Robert Dahl advance the theory that democratic states do not abuse the human rights of their citizens. In citing the situation in Lebanon at the time of his piece, Dahl notes that negative impact of long-term conflict on the development of democratic institutions that protect human rights--an observation as relevant to Colombia and its 40 year conflict as to Lebanon.

Human Rights via the barrel of a gun?

2007-06-27T09:06:00.000-05:00

This is not the working title of my paper for the class I am taking "The Politics of Human Rights." In fact, I am still working like mad on the paper as well as trying to think of a catchy title. My focus is on making the case for the US to put ending the recruitment and use of child soldiers in Colombia as a top priority of their foreign policy. Below is an excerpt from the paper (still in progress). If anyone actually reads this, I would love to hear your thoughts.

" If, as Neumayer states, human rights play, at best, “a limited role in the allocation of aggregate bilateral and multilateral aid”, it should then come as no surprise that human rights plays almost no role in the disbursement of military aid. However, just as Neumayer suggests that one expects human rights to play some role in decisions surrounding development aid because of the assertions of donor countries that it does, so too one could also expect military involvement and aid to take into account human rights—if only because countries like the U.S. increasingly use human rights as grounds for engagement.

Historically, human rights has been the stepchild of U.S. foreign policy, and the promotion of human rights abroad seen as secondary--if no outright contrary to--the protection of national security and interests. While the importance of human rights is often discussed in the context of development aid, the amount of aid from most developed nations pales in comparison to their military spending in the developing world. To place the onus of human rights improvement squarely on the shoulders of development aid is both unfair and inefficient. As the U.S. proceeds to engage in military force on the premise of protecting and advancing human rights—as well as its own strategic interests—it should look to its military assistance and spending in the developing world to actually play a strategic role in the advancement of human rights. Without a defined policy on preventing the recruitment and use of child soldiers in states to which it supplies military support, the U.S. is party to the continuation of human rights abuses in countries like Colombia. This paper makes the case for the United States to place human rights at the top of its agenda for Colombia and use its significant military spending to promote the end of the use and recruitment and use of child soldiers for the interest of its, and Colombia's, long-term national security."

Stay tuned for part 2 ;)

At what cost economic growth?

2007-06-21T12:00:00.000-05:00

Today's NYT features an article on child labor in China, a subject that we've been discussing in the context of human rights in my summer course at Columbia (and you know I'm going to be writing my paper soon, so expect several posts of that as I work out the kinks).

For a while now, the standard response to human rights abuses in China is that human rights need to be sacrificed, at least to some extent, to get the country to a stronger place economically. Governments who trade with China tend to chime in that a stronger economy will lead to a decrease in human rights abuses and will also promote democracy. There are some studies that back that up, and no one can really argue that the standard of living hasn't increased remarkably for many Chinese. The problem is that human rights were never something intended to be put on the table in bargaining.

People are entitled to the full exercise of human rights simply by the fact of being human, not by being American or French but not Pakistani or Chinese. Your human rights are supposed to be protected and respected whether you live in the developed world or the developing one.

Human rights abuses against children are some of the most disturbing. Certainly the most vulnerable members of society, children have little or no influence in upholding their own rights. They depend on the adults of the society they live in to look out for their best interests. And, sometimes, that does mean working.

International standards on child labor have changed in the recent past to accommodate the harsh reality that, in the developing world, if you don't work you simply may not eat. Rules against child labor for those under 18 have been amended to outlaw the worst forms of child labor only. However, the Chinese examples cited in the NYT article, among others, show how the government is trying to side-step laws by making work part of a "school internship." My guess is that by working 15 hour days in factories most of these 12-15 year olds are only going to learn that they might want to emigrate someday.

Loving my home state

2007-06-15T17:09:00.000-05:00

I've been MIA due to school and interview demands. Someday I'll pull it together. In the meantime, a tribute to my home state, pulled off of Feministing:

"I knew I liked NJ for a reason.

New Yorkers (us in the city, anyway) have a certain level of disdain for all things New Jersey. Not quite the same level as for, say, Long Island--but there's an expected amount of mocking of the garden state. Don't ask me why, it's a NY thing.

Well mock no more, my NYC brethren. Cause NJ just took it up a notch.
A pharmacy would be required to fill prescriptions for any drug it stocks such as birth-control pills regardless of a pharmacist's moral beliefs under a bill that cleared the Legislature on Monday.

The bill, approved 56-18 by the Assembly, establishes a pharmacy's duty to fill lawful prescriptions without undue delay and without consideration for a pharmacist's moral, philosophical or religious beliefs.

If a pharmacy doesn't have a prescription in stock, the pharmacy would have to either obtain it under expedited ordering or find a nearby pharmacy to fill the prescription.

NJ, I knew I loved you for a reason."

The American Dream Project

2007-06-03T20:09:00.000-05:00

As a former member of the Brooks Quimby Debate Council at Bates College--as well as a proud Bates Democrat--I can really geek out on these super-early presidential debates. The Democrats are on right now, and Gov. Richardson just came out with something that got my blood boiling a bit.

The Dems were discussing their positions on the newly proposed immigration/amnesty/citizenship/call it what you will plan. And Richardson, defending his support of the bill, said he is against breaking up families. And yet the very bill he supported requires the head of household to return to their home country (and let's all acknowledge this is only going to apply to Mexico and Central America) for up to--get this--13 years.

13 years. Tell me how this isn't going to fundamentally disrupt families.

The Huffington Post recently covered a project that is seeking to draw attention the issue of immigration in this country from the opposite position. It's called the American Dream Project and they are touring this country.

Obama just responded that we would all do well to remember that ours is a country founded by immigrants, built great on the backs of their labor and ambitions. We would all do well to recall that our families were not welcomed into this country either, yet now many of us stand on our pedestals of privilege and proclaim that 'our families came here legally.'

Let me tell you something: no, they didn't. There were no laws in place, or if there were they were based on xenophobia and racism (curbing the number of Chinese, for example). And if it were you, and your family, today, seeking a better life, tell me right now that you wouldn't also break the law for your children.

That's what I thought.

Not in our backyard

2007-05-28T07:57:00.000-05:00

Four years after the start of the invasion of Iraq, that country is now experiencing a refugee crisis. Refugees International reports that it is the fastest-growing refugee crisis in the world.

At the start of the conflict, many refugee and relief organizations were poised to act, expecting the largely urban population to flee from Baghdad, in particular, into neighboring countries. In the immediate aftermath, that didn't happen and, as the country grew less stable and their mandate remained unclear, many refugee relief organizations pulled out.

Yesterday Frank Rich wrote in the NYT Op-Ed section that an estimated 2 million Iraqis had fled their country and another two million remain displaced within it--totaling 15% of the total population. Relief Net also commented on the the urgency of the issue earlier this month.

We don't often hear about the millions of desperate Iraqis who have packed up their things and moved to escape the chaos around them. And it turns out there is a reason: only 466 Iraqis have been given asylum in the US since the invasion. For comparison, Sweden, which was not part of the invading coalition, has accepted 25,000. And neighboring countries in the region, such as Syria and Egypt, have absorbed tens of thousands more.

The Iraqi people are being blamed for the chaos in their country, while the US has blatantly failed in its obligation to replace Saddam's government with functioning institutions--not to mention ensuring security. It is unconscionable that we as a country would turn away those who are forced to flee due to a security vacuum of our own making. This is about basic accountability. Iraqis are being turned away not because of security because we as a country don't want to face their pain and the results of the war on our doorstep.

Frank Rich, who of course makes his living from eloquent writing, sums it up better:
"While it seems but a dim memory now, once upon a time some Iraqis did greet the Americans as liberators. Today, in fact, it is just such Iraqis--not the local Iraqi insurgents...--who do want to follow us home. That we are slamming the door in their faces tells you all you need to know about the real morality behind Operation Iraqi Freedom."

"P" is for pregnancy, and also for pariah

2007-05-24T23:00:00.000-05:00

Quick, what do you think better constitutes a geometry lesson: a) learning how to use a protractor, or b) sewing quilts?

If you answered b) sewing quilts, then you will be sad to hear that the NYC 'pregnancy schools' are closing.

Someone in my human rights class raised this issue tonight to ask if the city's deliberate removal of pregnant teens from their regular schools to these so-called pregnancy schools--which by all indications have, since their inception in the 1960's, set these girls up for academic failure--could be considered an abuse of their human right to education.

The consensus in class--this includes the professor and people smarter than me--was that yes, this would be a clear violation of their human rights. I would probably go an additional step and say not only is it a violation of their human right to education, but also a violation of other charters because it is based clearly on their gender...since the boys who got them pregnant aren't sewing quilts.

The corresponding article in the New York Times doesn't mince many words, either.

The city is--finally--shutting them down, and will hopefully start concentrating on a) preventing teen pregnancy through thorough and accurate sex ed and b) working harder on getting teen parents to finish their diplomas.

Role of NGOs in protecting human rights

2007-05-24T09:58:00.000-05:00

Tonight is my second class in the politics of human rights at Columbia. The first class went well, although I must admit it is a little unnerving going back into academia, even if this is just one summer graduate course.

In my reading thus far one of the points I took particular notice of regarded the role of NGOs in protecting human rights. In an article from Human Rights Quarterly back in 1995, Rolf Kunnemann writes: "The United Nations is an organization of States. Although these States principally recognize human rights, many of them are not willing to have their own freedom of action restricted by precise obligations. Therefore, the United Nations can only be expected to do something in favor of implementing human rights if nongovernmental organizations do the necessary political preparatory work."

Part of the reason this resonated with me if because it makes very clear how valuable the work of NGOs is in the process of protecting rights. Kunnemann goes on to write that without NGOs there will never be any implementation of human rights.

So human rights depend on the vigilance of the people. But perhaps in my over-idealism I have to think that there is something bigger to our work that being perpetual watch dogs. While documenting abuses, rallying the public, and other public education efforts are all important, and serving your clients is humane and central to your mission, the end goal is to ultimately change the political environment so that, one day, you can go out of business because your work is done.

Maybe that day will never come, maybe you will always have to be vigilant, but the big goal is to no longer have a need for your work because the rights you seek to protect and the wrongs you seek to address are taken care of. I think we often get so caught up in the day to day listing of abuses, the logistics of keeping our heads above water and watching our funding, that it's easy to lose perspective of the ultimate goal of really building a better world.

I don't think that Kunnemann is wrong in stating the role of NGOs. But I also don't think we need to be limited by it.

Politics of Human Rights

2007-05-22T08:50:00.000-05:00

The boxes are (almost) unpacked, things are planted outside, and I've cooked three meals in the new apartment. It is starting to feel like home.

Tonight kicks off my summer program at Columbia's school of continuing education. I'm taking a 6 week course on the politics of human rights, so expect to hear a lot on that over the coming posts.

I'll post more after my reading assignment later today.

A rose by any other name...

2007-05-14T11:30:00.000-05:00

I'm moving in 2 days and woefully behind on my packing. This, plus several interviews (yeh!) is going to put a dent in this week's reporting, I'm afraid. However, I just came across something that deserves comment to the non-profit community, and my friends in fundraising in particular.

Last year, the Salvation Army took Greenpeace to court over a bequest--because the deceased donor in question had failed to update his will to reflect Greenpeace's new name. Wait, it gets better: there were 8 charities named in the will, each set to receive $33 million--and the Salvation Army was the only one to let greed cloud their vision. Greenpeace argued that the donor's intent was more important under Washington State law, and a judge appears inclined to agree. As, I imagine, are most reasonable people, some of whom do not appear to work at the Salvation Army.

This kind of behavior is what you expect of the worst of the corporate world, not of those who work to make the world a better place. Don't get me wrong--in fundraising especially you need to be more than an idealist. You need to be driven, professional, and watching the bottom line. But whoever authorized this lawsuit at the Salvation Army--and I imagine it goes all the way up to the executive director--should be hauled in the front of the board, along with the planned giving director and their legal counsel.

I've always enjoyed the collaborative and open nature of the fundraising community. We share ideas, we learn from each other, we recognize we're all out there for the greater good. Apparently some of us forgot that along the way. It's worth remembering.

Public health or the Pope?

2007-05-10T12:06:00.000-05:00

The Pope hadn't even set foot in the country yet, but he managed to set off a debate in Brazil over the country's abortion law.

Brazil is the latest country of the Latin and South American nations to consider liberalizing its abortion law to protect women's health. Mexico City recently legalized abortion within its city limits, and last year Columbia's high court found the country's outright ban on abortions unconstitutional.

Brazil's president rightly sees the issue of abortion--and illegal abortion--as a matter of public health. On Monday, Mr. da Silva gave an interview to Roman Catholic radio stations stating that though personally opposed to abortion, as president he believes that “the state cannot abdicate from caring for this as a public health question, because to do so would lead to the death of many young women in this country.”

There are an estimated 1-2 million illegal abortions in Brazil every year.

There was a great quote from the president in the NYT piece: “No one is in favor of abortion,” Mr. da Silva said Tuesday, as the controversy was intensifying. “But the question is: should a woman be imprisoned? Should she die? It’s necessary to look at the woman as a human being.”

And who exactly should be deciding about the woman's health and body, anyway? The woman, or, perhaps, an 80 year old celibate man?

Visit International Planned Parenthood Federation's website on Brazil for more information on reproductive health programs in that country, or to contribute to their work looking out for women's health and lives.

Expanding access, increasing hope

2007-05-09T09:00:00.000-05:00

Yesterday the Clinton Foundation announced plans to provide reduced cost second-line anti-retroviral drugs as well as a new, once-a-day pill that is currently cost prohibitive in the developing world but considered the 'gold standard' in developed nations. These agreements lower the prices for 16 formulations of ARVs, which will be available to 66 developing countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean through the Clinton Foundation’s Procurement Consortium.

Last month, the UN reported that an estimated 2 million people around the world were receiving treatment for AIDS, but the number fell short by a third of what the UN had hoped to reach by this year. However, in 2003, only 400,000 people were being treated.

Increased access to anti-retroviral medication is a huge step forward in enabling people and entire communities to be able to return to work, support their families, and live longer and healthier lives. However, the distressing news to come out of all this is that prevention of transmission is still far from where it needs to be.

I'm currently reading Jeffrey Sach's "The End of Poverty" and for someone without a lot (ok, any) economics background I have to say to his credit very complex issues are written in a manner that even I can actually grasp. One of Sach's points is the enormous toll taken on productivity by preventable illnesses such as malaria, TB, and HIV/AIDS--all preventable, and with the exception of AIDS, curable. If the adult population of your already impoverished village is hit with AIDS it condemns the entire village to an almost unending cycle of poverty. Farming can not be done and crops fail. People go hungry and are more susceptible to disease. Income dwindles and no fertilizer can be bought to increase crops. Adult heads of households die and the young are now in charge of raising their siblings--and not able to finish schooling.

All heavy stuff for first thing in the morning, perhaps, but increasing access to medications is good news and certainly a step in the right direction. Kudos to the Clinton Foundation for their continuing efforts.

Divesting in Sudan

2007-05-07T08:41:00.000-05:00

Philanthropy News Digest picked up a piece from May 4th LA Times regarding investments held by Berkshire Hathaway in companies that profit from Sudanese oil . Now ordinarily this probably wouldn't have raised so many eyebrows except that Bill Gates is a director at Berkshire--and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is an investor in these same companies.
However, the Gates Foundation's biggest connection to the companies, according to the articles, is through Berkshire Hathaway.

Berkshire holds a $3.3-billion stake in PetroChina Co., a subsidiary of the China National Petroleum Corp., or CNPC, the biggest player in Sudanese oil. Buffet has both previously decried the violence in Sudan but said a divestment in Sudanese oil would not change the situation on the ground.

Since 2004, the Foundation has been giving grants to refugee and relief organizations working to aid the victims of the genocide in Darfur, including CARE and the International Rescue Committee.

This isn't the first time the Gates Foundation has been called out on the carpet for its investments, particularly companies that cause environmental damage in developing countries and large pharmaceutical companies accused of overpricing or withholding life-saving drugs from the world's poor.

One could certainly make the case that by holding such large shares in pharma companies the Foundation is able to exert much more influence on their practices of donating or withholding medication. However, I'm doubtful the same could be said about Sudanese oil.

Divestment to impact social change is nothing new. It worked to help bring the end of the shameful practice of apartheid in South Africa. Other companies withdrew investments surrounding the Vietnam war. And it should be clear that those calling for divestment in Sudanese companies are not looking to hurt ordiniary citizens but rather are targeting their calls for divestment at companies closely involved with the Khartoum government and others with links to the janjaweed.

You can find more information about Sudan divestment on the Sudan Divestment Task Force website.

Medics behind bars can't save lives

2007-05-06T21:10:00.000-05:00

Now, if you had a team of qualified international medics trying to save children in your country, one might say it doesn't make sense to blame them for the sickness of the children in your hospital.

This story always gets me so angry I can barely see straight.

The BBC reports that six Bulgarian medics previously convicted by a Libyan court of infecting children in a hospital with HIV are on trial--again--now for supposedly making false claims of torture that they say were used to extort confessions.

The medics have been in prison in Libya since 1999, accused of infecting over 400 children with the virus that causes AIDS. Libyan courts, and the government, have refused to acknowledge that HIV was present in their town prior to the medics' arrival in 1998. They were convicted a second time on appeal late last year. A new trial for the infection allegations is due to open later this month after the accused successfully appealed against their death sentences. More information on the case can be found here.

Experts from the French medical team that first discovered HIV have testified on behalf of the medics that the infections were likely caused by unhygienic conditions in the hospital that predate the arrival of the medics.

These people have been in prison for almost ten years. How many lives could they have saved if they had been free all this time?

A woman's place is in the house...

2007-05-03T09:10:00.000-05:00

...and the senate, and the white house. But in Australia, apparently only if she isn't "willfully barren." Or so says Australian senator Bill Heffernen of Julia Gillard, Labor Party deputy leader. It's so nice that in this day and age women can still be judged not by the content of their character but by the content of their wombs. I can just imagine if she did have a small litter of kids that she'd still be judged unfit to lead because clearly no good mother would spend so much time outside the home. But it's not as if we in the US are immune from such perceptions (see Nancy Pelosi surrounded by a dozen children, or imagine what pummeling Hillary would be getting right now if not for the presence of Chelsea).

France's presidential debates yesterday are garnering a fair share of media attention this morning. Royal was accused by Sarkosky of "losing her cool" in the debate once or twice--oh, those emotional women--but there is a real chance that France could have a woman president after Sunday's election. The BBC has a piece on the "family affair" of the current French presidential campaigns and, thankfully, does not focus only on the fact that yes, Royal has children. At least we know she'd be qualified to lead in Australia ;)

Finally, the NYT has a piece today featuring CARE's rebranding and restructuring of its programs to focus more on helping women. CARE, which spawned the original 'care package' many moons ago, is actually quite blunt about why they changed their approach: "(The old brand) didn’t cause CARE to appeal to any defined audience in the United States, like great brands do,” said Adam Hicks, director of marketing. “We went back and studied our work, and it became pretty clear to us that our most effective investment was in programs like education, micro-enterprise and small-business development aimed at empowering women.”

Their "I am Powerful" campaign targets wealthy women age 35+ to donate to CARE programs helping less fortunate women around the world. This is a notable campaign for a few reasons: 1) it demonstrates to a certain extent how organizations are increasingly tailoring their missions to meet funding needs (and, at times, to meet the needs of funders); 2) it is seeking to engage a relatively young cadre of donors (35+); and 3) they are explicit that they are seeking private money to offset the 45% of their budget that comes from the US government and is therefore unable to be used to, say, provide condoms to prostitutes in Thailand or birth control to a young mother in Bangladesh.

A moot court?

2007-05-02T08:53:00.000-05:00

The New York Times reports that the International Criminal Court in the Hague has issued warrants for two Sudanese leaders--one in Khartoum and the other a janjaweed leader--suspected of involvement in war crimes in Darfur.

Sudan does not recognize the ICC (like some other countries we know and live in) so it remains to be seen if the warrants will prove anything other than symbolic, or at best a warning to others who may wish to take similar actions in their own countries. The court is only allowed to act on Sudan due to a UN mandate.

The BBC has a good round up of the charges and the suspects here.

Yesterday UNHCR decried the temporary abduction of six of its staff in West Darfur.

Monday morning quarterback

2007-04-30T09:45:00.000-05:00

My legs may be recovered from yesterday's run but my brain doesn't appear to be so here's a short recap of newsworthy items from the past few days:

Major European cities held protests over the weekend to highlight the fourth anniversary of the conflict in Darfur. Apparently protests were also held in over 200 US cities--but I can't find a shred of coverage. The Christian Science Monitor reports on why it's hard to get a genocide charge to stick in Sudan. My short take on it: should the reason behind the death and displacement of hundreds of thousands of people be cause for inaction? Racially-motivated genocide or crime against humanity--it's not as if one option here is more understandable than the other.

Amnesty International reports that China is taking a step in the wrong direction, cracking down on dissent in the buildup to the 2008 Olympics. Good news: China has been making some progress on its human rights record under the watchful eye of international markets for some time. Bad news: China is worried about the impression of the Olympics to the watchful eye of international markets.

The ASPCA was part of a bust on a dog fighting operation in the south. This country is long overdue in ramping up animal cruelty laws and humane education. Sentences for animal cruelty need to reflect the anti-social behaviors of those who commit the abuses. First it's animals, then it's people. That's not rocket science.

Finally, three progressive organizations consider taking the US Government to court over wasteful spending on ineffective and medically-inaccurate abstinence only programs. Teens who don't get accurate sex ed don't stop having sex--they just don't protect themselves when they do. Ignorance doesn't equal 'innocence' people!

And for an amusing take on abstinence only programs, a clip from Family Guy.

"For my entire life, I have lived with war"

2007-04-29T17:15:00.000-05:00

If people knew that children were being terrorized and used as weapons of war in conflicts around the world, would they do more to help?

The words above were spoken by a Ugandan girl trying to raise awareness of the impact of conflict on adolescents in her country.

Sadly, she is far from alone. Today's NYT Week in Review featured an article on the troubling prevalence of child soldiers in modern wars. Focusing mostly on conflicts in Africa, Jeffrey Gentleman's piece rightly points out that these children are as much the victims of current conflicts as those they inflict harm upon.

Child soldiers are defined by UNICEF as "any person under 18 years of age who is part of any kind of regular or irregular armed force or armed group in any capacity – including, but not limited to, combatants, cooks, porters, messengers and anyone accompanying such groups, other than family members. The definition includes girls recruited for sexual purposes and for forced marriage." Those too young to fight are often kidnapped for use as porters and messengers; those who survive and grow up in the militias move on to fighting--and killing. It is not unknown for the children to be given copious amounts of drugs, essential for warding off hunger and exhaustion, and the brutal reality of their lives. Girls, forced to serve as cooks and sex slaves, often emerge from conflict with the children of their tormentors.

In Northern Uganda, an area notorious for the use of child soldiers, around 40,000 children, called "night commuters," flee from their homes in villages and into the cities each night to escape kidnapping by the Lords Resistance Army. Their fear is warranted. According the UNICEF, since the mid-80's the LRA has kidnapped almost 25,000 children. Those not forced to fight find their lives and educations disrupted by conflict, diminishing their prospects as adults--and increasing the likelihood of instability for their country in the future.

The Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children rightly points out that displaced youth are a group on the brink: given resources they are the future leaders and peace-builders of their troubled nations. Ignored, and left at the mercy of circumstance, they can too easily fall into violence. You can read about the experience of young people in conflict-affected areas, in their own words, here.

Working with former child soldiers and integrating them back into their homes and villages is a daunting task, but well worth the effort as children and teens removed from battle but not accepted back into society are more likely to turn back to violence. Unfortunately adolescents are an often overlooked target of relief programs. But without addressing their needs, the donor community will find itself right back where it started in only a matter of time.

Some current reading on this topic: Ishmael Beah, a former child soldier in Sierra Leone’s brutal civil war and resettled refugee in NYC, has written A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. Starbucks is selling his book in its stores.

Now you know.

Run as One Tomorrow

2007-04-28T14:30:00.000-05:00

This time tomorrow I will be found icing my shins and begging for a back rub after running the annual Thomas G. Labrecque's "run as one" event in Central Park. The Foundation raises money for lung cancer treatment and awareness and, having lost my father a long time ago to this illness, I am happy to do my part.

About a month ago I learned of the event and started training and raising money. With only 4 weeks to go I set a modest fundraising goal of $500, but thanks to my wonderful family and friends I actually exceeded my goal. Many thanks again to everyone who gave so generously!!

I picked up my race number yesterday--I'm 7550--and I have to admit, this being only my third race ever, I'm both nervous and inspired by how many other folks are running. Those number bibs are very thin and there were many, many boxes of them. Yikes! I hope the other runners will take pity on me.

If you are up early for some reason tomorrow, stop by Central Park and cheer us on--I think I, at least, will need it! And, if you can't go but still want to help, you can make a donation to the Foundation any time on their website.

Somalia didn't go away...

2007-04-26T22:29:00.000-05:00

...We just stopped caring about it.

As newspapers and some media cover the continuing unrest in Somalia's capital, John Holmes, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, warned that Somalia had become the most dangerous place in world for aid workers.

Meanwhile, the Somali prime minister claims victory and declares that Ethiopian and government troops are in control of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, after nine days of battles.

Let's pause for just a moment here. The past nine days have certainly seen as escalation in violence in an already war-ravaged capital (and country) but it's not as if the situation in Somalia hasn't been in a downward spiral for, oh, over fifteen years, while the international community (and by this I mean governments and heads of state) hasn't exactly been working too hard to remedy it.

And what of the people still in Somalia? A recent report from OCHA estimates up to 300,000 people have recently been displaced. Aid relief is estimated to be reaching about 60,000--when it can get to them. Apparently the government 'checks' on aid shipments are necessary to prevent insurgent attacks. Hhhhmmm....right.

BBC Arabic asked for Somali viewpoints on the situation in their country; you can read it here. Also worth noting is an interview on the BBC with Asha Hagi Elmi, a Somali woman who founded her own party, the Sixth Clan, to represent women, in the now-in-exile (again) Somali government.

Want to do something? You can find a list of groups working in Somalia on ReliefWeb here.

As goes Mexico, the US runs in the other direction

2007-04-25T09:15:00.000-05:00

Yesterday the Mexico City legislature voted to legalize abortion in the first trimester, setting off both cheers and controversy. Now Mexico's capital city is the largest in Latin America to allow women to have abortions on demand in the first trimester. It also impacts 10 million women in Mexico City and its suburbs who will now have easy access to an abortion, and allows anyone living in Mexico to travel there for abortion services.

The debate in Mexico City, pitting women's rights advocates against the Catholic Church, centered on protecting women's health. Due to the strict laws in Mexico, each year scores of women die or suffer permanent damage to their health due to self-induced or clandestine abortions. Cheers to the legislature in Mexico City for realizing that its primary obligation is to ensure the health and safety of 10 million of its female citizens.

But, sadly, as Mexico and other countries in Latin America step up and liberalize their laws to protect the human rights of women, homosexuals, and other groups, the US appears to be running, shrieking, in the other direction.

The Kaiser Network reports that in the past week three US states have either passed or tried to pass laws further restricting abortion and abortion access. Georgia and South Carolina both continue to press the idea of forcing women to view ultrasound images of the fetus before consenting to an abortion, while Oklahoma's Governor thankfully vetoed a provision that would have banned the use of state money for abortion unless the woman's life was in danger (ignoring the needs of women who have been raped or survived incest--nice one, guys).

It's interesting social commentary that many countries are passing laws on abortion in the interest of protecting women's health, while here in the US we're still tied up arguing whether or not a woman has the right to do what she wants with her own body. Of course the real answer is "yes" on both counts. Last week's Supreme Court dissent hopefully laid the groundwork for a new conversation about the right to abortion in this country...but it won't be easy.

So You Wanna Be a Rock Star?

2007-04-24T10:43:00.000-05:00

A friend of mine who is also passionate about making the world a better place for women and girls has organized an online auction to support the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls.

Founded in 2004, Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls is a non-profit summer day camp serving girls aged 8-18 in New York City. The program offers girls the chance to learn how to play musical instruments, write songs, perform, learn about different types of music, and generally "rock out" in a supportive environment that fosters self-confidence, self-esteem, creativity, tolerance, and collaboration.

Items up for grabs in the auction include a guitar signed by the Beastie Boys, a bag by Marc Jacobs, weekend getaways, recording studio time, and much much more. The auction runs April 23 thru May 7. 100% of your winning bid will go straight to scholarships for girls. Visit williemaerockcamp.cmarket.com. Let the bidding begin!

Doing good for the earth the other 364 days a year, too

2007-04-22T09:15:00.000-05:00

Unless you've managed to somehow escape (or ignore) the recent onslaught of everything green advertising, you know that today is Earth Day.

Many people will do the symbolic ride the bike instead of drive thing today, or maybe bring their own reusable bag to the supermarket. All these small things are great steps in the right direction. Trying to be greener myself, I ride my bike when convenient, use eco-friendly cleaning products, and recently switched to Con Edison's green power alternative for my home--all painless things that I can do year-round.

Greenpeace has a blog today that sums up both the benefits and problems of how we act on Earth Day (and don't act the rest of the time) better than I can on only one cup of tea this morning. Taking the idea that a picture is worth a thousand words, Environmental Defense developed a hard-hitting video ad a few months back to highlight the consequences of not acting on global warming.

Historically there was a bit of tension between the environmental and relief communities. If, for example, you as an aid agency are trying to provide help to displaced people in the forests of the Congo, your top concern would not be whether or not they were killing gorillas for food. On the other hand, if you were a conservationist working for a wildlife group, your primary concern would have been the protection of the gorillas. You can see the dilemma, especially when both groups are right! The past few years have seen a positive change and with the mainstreaming of green thinking the relief and human rights community is increasingly working with the environmental groups, recognizing the link between environmental justice and human rights.

And, finally, here's my favorite piece for this Earth Day from treehugger.com: how to green up your sex life.

Happy Earth Day! ;)

Day of service part 2: covered in primer

2007-04-21T16:15:00.000-05:00

I just got back from a great morning participating in Bates College's National Day of Service. In 2005, Bates College started the program to connect alumni around the country with non-profit groups around the nation for an annual day of service. This is the first year I've participated and it was a great experience.

As the only representative of the class of 2000 at the NYC event (where were you all, slackers?!) it was a great chance for me to meet with alums from earlier years as well as recent grads. And I think I speak for all the Batesies in attendance today that we were incredibly impressed with the professionalism and energy of not only the paid publicolor staff but also the high school and middle school students who really ran the show.

Publicolor has an interesting story. Their mission is to use color, collaboration, design and the painting process to empower students to transform themselves, their schools, and their communities. They teach inner city students--many of whom will not be going on to college--the marketable skill of commercial painting. They also instill pride in the students, who paint their own schools and also nearby community sites.

Many thanks to Bates for giving us all alums a kick in the pants to get out there and contribute to our communities, and to publicolor for taking on a bunch of old desk jockeys and teaching them to paint, too ;)

Bates College National Day of Service

2007-04-21T09:15:00.000-05:00

I'm off to participate in my Alma matres national day of service today! NYC Bates alums will be painting a school on the lower east side, working with an organization called Publicolor.

I have to go get covered in paint, but will report back later on the great work of Publicolor and my fellow fabulous Batesies who are doing their part today to make schools better for NYC kids.

Sad Day for Women's Health

2007-04-18T20:45:00.000-05:00

Today the Supreme Court of the United States decided that it is not important to allow a doctor to perform a procedure that can be in the best interest of a woman's health. This is a very sad day for women's reproductive health, indeed.

You can find the full text of the decision--and Ginsburg's eloquent dissent--on the website of the Center for Reproductive Rights. I would strongly encourage you to read both the Court's decision and the dissent before reading much more in the mainstream media. The decision and dissent are telling.

The Court's decision makes it very clear they are opening the floodgates for an assault on the right to abortion and reproductive choice in this country. That Justice Kennedy can actually espouse the medically-inaccurate theory that abortion causes depression and serious long-term health issues for women is shocking and scary.

I just read through about 100 posts on the NYT website regarding the decision.
Why is no one in these posts talking about women forced to make what is, for many, a tragic decision? What of the woman who desperately wants her child, only to find it is horribly deformed? In those cases an intact D&E is the only way the doctor can perform an autopsy--so she is informed before she tries to conceive again. Don't think this never happens--I have family who faced this wrenching choice. Where is the discussion of the woman who wants her child but is medically unable to carry to term? Our highest court has ruled that acting in the best interest of women's heath is not important. This is a tragic day.

If you are looking to do something with your anger in the aftermath, here are some groups working to protect choice and women's health in this country:

Planned Parenthood Federation of America
Center for Reproductive Rights
NARAL Pro-Choice America

Ending Gun Violence in America

2007-04-17T08:40:00.000-05:00

It's impossible this morning not to find coverage of the hideous shooting rampage at Virginia Tech.

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence issued a statement: "...Details are still forthcoming about what motivated the shooter in this case to act, and how he was able to arm himself. It is well known, however, how easy it is for an individual to get powerful weapons in our country. "Eight years ago this week, the young people in Littleton, Colorado suffered a horrible attack at Columbine High School, and almost exactly six months ago, five young people were killed at an Amish schoolhouse in Pennsylvania. Since these killings, we've done nothing as a country to end gun violence in our schools and communities...It is long overdue for us to take some common-sense actions to prevent tragedies like this from continuing to occur."

The National Rifle Association, meanwhile, issued a terse, 6 sentence statement, buried in their site.

The scale of this tragedy has obviously attracted every major media outlet, but I think it's important to note in all this that every day people are needlessly killed and harmed by guns in this country. Visit the Brady Campaign's website for more facts on gun violence--and what you can do to change it.

Monday morning quarterback

2007-04-16T11:42:00.000-05:00

The BBC reports that the Sudanese government has finally agreed to allow a small number of UN troops into Darfur. There are currently about 7,000 African Union soldiers in Darfur. Will UN troops be able to make a difference? Here's hoping Sudan's compliance to international pressure on Darfur will make more a difference to those in Darfur than the troop presence. Meanwhile, Oxfam has announced a campaign to raise almost $10 million for their work in the region.

The New York Times features an article on first quarter fundraising results of the Clinton and Obama campaigns, including an interactive where you can search your zip to see if any of your neighbors have supported a campaign, similar to the idea of FundRace.org during the last presidential race. Now, yes, the numbers of both donors and dollars are awe-inspiring, especially to those of us with a background in fundraising. These people know what they're doing. But I for one would really appreciate some discussion of issues instead of dollars for a change in the frenzy around 2008.

And, finally, it's spring so we're back to fighting over abortion in South Dakota. Last year at this time, the legislature in that state attempted to pass a sweeping abortion ban. The law was defeated by South Dakota voters in November, but just last week Planned Parenthood was in the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals fighting against a so-called "informed consent law" that would require doctors to present biased, medically-unsound state sponsored information to women seeking an abortion. Language surrounding the abortion debate has always been important, and now we're seeing two emerging themes: 1) the language of feminism being co-opted by the anti-choice crowd and 2) the argument that women need to be 'protected' from abortion--and, one can infer, from themselves.

The new price of doing good?

2007-04-12T11:30:00.000-05:00

Should dedicating your career to the service of others put your life at risk?

Outspoken opponents of corrupt governments have long put themselves on the line to improve the lot of their fellow citizens, but as international conflicts grow ever more complex aid workers are finding themselves in serious danger.

Earlier this month, the American Prospect reported on the tragic murder of three French aid workers in Brazil. The issue of violence against the relief community has been simmering for years, with violence against relief workers being a huge problem in places like Chechnya, where some organizations insist their staff be accompanied by security. Conversations about the issue reached new intensity within the relief world early on during the US invasion of Iraq. Soldiers were in communities wearing civilian clothes, and the sheer number of outsourced private companies on the ground only added to the confusion over who was working in the name of the US--and who was there doing true relief work. As a consequence, aid workers were targeted for kidnapping and assault--and that was the best case scenario.

When civilians now account for the majority of casualties in conflicts around the world, it should perhaps come as no surprise that relief workers are in the cross hairs. But simply because someone chooses to dedicate their life to working in the world's most dangerous places should not mean they forfeit their right to come out of it alive. As the US and other world governments increasingly rely on private charities to conduct their relief missions in conflict zones they can not shirk off responsibility for ensuring security.

It's sad that the security of private relief workers--and not the safety of, say, fleeing refugees--might be the issue that gets folks to sit up and take notice. The UN has struggled with this issue in Darfur for some time, but it seems that the violence in this region gets the most media attention when yet another relief org has to make the terrible decision to pull out (see this piece from MSNBC and this from the BBC).

Googling Darfur

2007-04-11T19:07:00.000-05:00

Right on the heels of yet another warning from the US to the Khartoum government to please stop killing people in Darfur, thanks, the BBC reports on the efforts by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in DC and Google Earth to highlight the evidence of ongoing genocide in the region.

Visitors to Google Earth can see a detailed map of Darfur, complete with visuals of burned-out villages. International relief and human rights groups such as Amnesty International have used such detailed images in their work to raise the world's awareness about the genocide in Darfur.

The conflict in Darfur has been allowed to continue for years, while the international communtiy shakes its head and issues idle threats. Thousands of people in Darfur have been killed, raped, and driven from their homes. Relief workers are unable to work in some regions without an international security presence. UN Missions to assess the situation in Darfur have been stymied, including one from the UN's own Human Rights Council in February. You can read a report with details on that mission as well as background on the situation on Darfur from the UN's Human Rights Council here.

I'm thrilled to see a company like Google take on something like this and work with so many great organizations like the Holocaust Memorial Museam. This is a great example of collaboration between the corporate and non-profit sectors to highlight an important issue. No doubt the relief and human rights organizations using Google Earth to document the atrocities in Darfur never would have been able to get technology like this up and running on the budgets they are forced to work wonders with.

ASPCA Day: Go Orange for Animals!

2007-04-10T11:30:00.000-05:00

Today, April 10, the ASPCA celebrates its 141st anniversary of making the world a better place for animals. I'm a monthly supporter of the ASPCA and, as the D0-Gooder, I also volunteer at their 92nd Street shelter a few times a week. Conveniently, orange is my favorite color and I will be in my orange best at Union Square this afternoon spreading the word with the ASPCA!

Many of you may know the ASPCA from Animal Planet's "Animal Precinct," but Humane Law Enforcement, while sexy, is only part of their work. The less glamorous work is educating the public (especially school kids) on how to treat animals properly, taking care of sick and abandoned animals, and making the country a no-kill nation whenever possible. In my personal experience, it's been amazing to see the time and effort the ASPCA puts in to rehabilitating cats and dogs who otherwise would have been euthanized before finding their "forever homes."

Earlier this year, the ASPCA launched it's "Mission Orange"--an effort to create humane communities around the country. You can read more about their plan here:http://www.aspca.org/site/PageServer?pagename=missionorange_overview

Read more about ways you can Go Orange for Animals today:http://www.aspca.org/site/PageServer?pagename=aspcaday_orangeideas

Changing Women's Lives in Columbia

2007-04-09T11:00:00.000-05:00

Late last week I attended a lecture at the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy ( http://www.reproductiverights.org/) about how abortion law in Columbia was changed from a harsh, no-exceptions rule enshrined in the constitution to a law permitting abortion in the first trimester under certain circumstances. Monica Roa, the young Colombian attorney who argued the case, presented on how the law was changed.

Perhaps the major reason that the case in Columbia brought forth by Women's Link Worldwide was successful in changing the Colombian law was that international law is recognized in the Colombian constitution. Let me repeat that again: international law is recognized in their constitution. This means that any declaration on human rights that the Colombian government recognized gives the rights enshrined in that treaty full constitutional weight. The constitution in Columbia is recognized as a living document. This is apparently also the case in South Africa's exceedingly progressive constitution, and in those of other states who have rewritten their constitutions during the 1990's.

Colombia has ratified all of the major international treaties, including the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, International Covenant on Economic, Cultural and Social
Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, the Convention
Against Torture, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. In addition, Colombia is a party to the American Convention on Human Rights and had been censured by the Commission for the health and life risks to women caused by its restrictive abortion laws
(source: amicus brief, Harvard Law School Advocates for Human Rights, http://www.womenslinkworldwide.org/pdf/sp_proj_laicia_amicus_Harvard.pdf).

I was thinking about this case this morning as I tried to finish up yesterday's New York Times. What brought it to mind again was Linda Greenhouse's article "For the Chief Justice, a Dissent and a Line in the Sand" where wrote about the recent decision from the Court in Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/08/weekinreview/08greenhouse.html?ref=weekinreview). Apparently Chief Justice Roberts was outraged that the case was even allowed to proceed (not the mention that the verdict was handed down in Massachusetts' favor) because he believes the case did not meet the criteria for standing as the plaintiff had no actual injury, proof of injury caused by the defendant, and no proof that any injury could be redressed by the defendant. Compare that to the case mentioned above in Columbia, where the country's constitution allows any regular Jane to bring a case before the Constitutional Court if she believes a law is unconstitutional. No injured plaintiff needed.

Imagine how many years earlier we could have had a decision in Roe v. Wade, or Brown v. Board of Education, or Loving v. Virginia, if laws that were unconstitutional didn't require an injured party willing to testify against them.

You can find out more about the amazing work of Women's Link Worldwide here:
http://www.womenslinkworldwide.org/whoweare.html

Fighting TB in Bangladesh

2007-04-03T19:42:00.003-05:00

Today's NYT features an article on the work of the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, or BRAC, which employs nearly 70,000 women across the country as TB outreach workers. These women, mostly housewives, earn $2.50 per patient they identify and monitor, administering treatment and other health care advice. Their role in ensuring patient compliance with the long treatments required for TB is especially important, as TB-treatment that is not followed can lead to the development of resistant strands of the disease.

Beyond the health benefits of the program, it has also elevated the status of the women enrolled in the program. Reported one participant, "When she started doing the rounds 12 years ago, some of the village leaders, all men, waved sticks and shouted insults...They said it was unbecoming of a Muslim woman to go door to door through the village. Now, she said, one of her most strident former critics salutes her when she crosses his path. She thinks it is because she sold some cough syrup for one of the children in his family and it made the child feel better.
Her own financial health has improved as well. She makes her own money, modest though it is, from the sale of medicines. No longer, she said, must she cup her hands before her husband, who works as a rickshaw driver."

Learn more about BRAC here: http://www.brac.net/about.htm and read the entire NYT article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/world/asia/05bangla.html?pagewanted=1

TB isn't something most of us regularly worry about in the US, but worldwide it is a devastating illness. Doctors Without Borders/MSF reports that in countries with high rates of HIV/AIDS, multi-drug resistant strands of TB%

Iraq's Women: the other victims of the war

2007-04-03T19:42:00.000-05:00

We hear an awful lot about the latest American troop fatalities on CNN and other news outlets on an almost daily basis, and in a way I'm thankful that they are still covering a story most Americans would rather forget. This morning at the gym I caught a brief CNN piece on work being done to help Iraqi widows. We hardly ever hear about the Iraqi victims of the war, so props to whoever at CNN managed to get the story through. Without, exactly, reporting on how or why they ended up being widows in the first place. But I digress.

When Iraq 2 started, many in the international relief community feared a refugee crisis. Four years later, it is finally coming to pass. According to the International Rescue Committee (full disclosure: I used to work for them), "The exact number of refugees who have fled to Syria and Jordan is not clear, but estimates are as high as two million—creating a massive strain on two countries that struggle to provide adequate services for their own populations."

Iraq before the US invasion was, despite the hideous abuses of the Saddam regime, relatively progressive in terms of women's rights--at least in comparison to its neighbors in the region. According to Women for Women International: "Women in Iraq have traditionally not suffered the same type of gender repression found in some other societies in the region. Earlier laws ensured education for girls, family rights (such as the rights to divorce and to own property), and the right to serve in the government and in security forces. As a result, some Iraqi women, particularly those from Baghdad and other urban areas, made significant professional gains in areas such as law, medicine, and the arts." Amidst the current instability, however, those freedoms are largely a thing of the past.

It's all well and good to say the responsibility lies with the new Iraqi government to ensure that Iraqi women don't see the clock turned back on their rights. But until the government has a leg to stand on, its up to aid agencies to fill the void (I'd like to think the US would help out more here, but we all saw how they relied on private agencies during Katrina and, well, Iraq isn't ever part of the continental US).

Find out more about what some of these groups are doing to help:
Women for Women International: http://www.womenforwomen.org/iraq.htm
International Rescue Committee: http://www.theirc.org/news/urgent-help-needed-for-iraqi.html

Central African Republic

2007-04-02T12:06:00.000-05:00

Today's New York Times featured a piece on the Central African Republic (CAR). Caught between its neighbors Congo and Sudan, suffering its own internal unrest, and overshadowed by the media blitz over Darfur, CAR has been quietly seen approximately 50,000 of its citizens turn into refugees.

Despite two years of fighting, CAR has received only $50 million in international aid to feed and protect its civilians. Compare that to the almost $1 billion currently allocated for Sudan. Where's Angelina when you need her?

The Times piece doesn't point out how instability in CAR threatens progress in Congo and Sudan. At best, an influx of refugees into already-troubled nations threatens to unsettle any progress towards piece. At worst, it threatens the very lives of those seeking sanctuary in a neighboring state.

Read the full Times piece here: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/02/world/africa/02car.html?ref=world

Get more background on the situation in CAR here: http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/dbc.nsf/doc108?OpenForm&emid=ACOS-635NQG&rc=1