Showing posts with label human rights. Show all posts
Showing posts with label human rights. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Human Rights Day
Today is Human Rights Day and Refugee Women's Network, Inc. is very proud to be a sponsor of tonight's event. Additionally, one of the speakers, Ms. Anne Olson, is an RWN board member.
Friday, May 18, 2007
Belgrade Schedule
This was my schedule in Belgrade, Serbia, March 23 to 28, 2007.
Serbia was part of the former Yugoslavia that broke up into 6 new countries in a civil war in the 1990s. This war was the first time that gang rape of women (Bosnians Muslims, mostly, but other women too, by Serbian Christians) were recognized as a tactic of war, and the massacre of Bosnians, Croatians, and other ethnic groups in Yugoslavia were recognized as genocide. Several war criminals, including Ratko Mladić and Radovan Karadizic remain at large, and believed to still be in Serbia.
Serbia wants to join the European Union and become a modern state. A major challenge is locating and apprehending the war criminals and sending them to the Hague to stand trial. However, as we heard over and over again, 30% of the population are nationalists and don't want to join the EU and regard the war criminals as war heroes.
I travelled with Natasha Jones, Communications Manager for King County government: Jeff Merritt, Eastern Regional Director for Government and Public Affairs for KB Homes; Hussein Samatar, Executive Directorof African Development Center; and Michael Webber, Associate Director of the Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy and Professor at the University of Texas-Austin. We were joined part way by Todd Culpepper, Executive Director of the International Affairs Council.
March 23, Friday
Afternoon -- arrive in Belgrade from Rome. This process involved a layover in Vienna.
7:30pm to ? -- welcome dinner with Balkan Trust for Democracy, a project of the German Marshall Fund, and our local host
Back at the hotel room, I watched a CNN documentary about the Bosnian children of war. During the war, tens of thousands of Bosnian Muslim women were abducted and held in concentration camps and gang raped by Serbian men. The systematic use of rape led to the U.N. war crimes tribunal to recognize ethnically motivated rape as a war crime, part of the Serbs’ campaign of ethnic cleansing.
The women who didn't die in the rape camps were held captive until birth. Many children were abandoned because the women could not face the constant reminder of their ordeal, or were killed. Others were adopted. Most do not know about their origin and are now old enough to ask where their mothers and/or fathers are. The show also profiled Bosnian women going to Belgrade to testify against their Serbian rapists. These women are so brave to go into enemy territory to do so.
At RWN, we work with refugees who are fleeing exactly this kind of persecution and do work with many Bosnian women. It just absolutely blows my mind that I was actually in Serbia and my first night there, to see this program.
March 23, Saturday
10:30 to 12pm -- meeting at Civic Initiatives, Citizen's Association for Democracy and Civic Education. This organization was founded in 1996 by activists in opposition to Milosovic. The purpose is to educate citizens to be active participants in building a democracy. We met the founders, Mr. Miljenko Dereta and Ms. Dubravka Velat. A longer post about democracy in Serbia will follow. Several of our meetings were with pro-democracy activists.
12:30 to 6:30pm -- visit to the US Steel mill in Smederevo.
During the war in the 1990s, the steel mill was shut down. Recently it was bought by US Steel and the Serbs are very happy, as it is an indicator of economic stability that will allow more foreign investment.
We also learned that Serbs eat lunch at 3pm. We Americans were not used to it, and can now confirm that it is true that hunger deters learning.
The tour itself was fascinating and our guide said that watching molten metal turned into thin sheets of steel never got old for her.
8pm to ? -- dinner with civil society representatives:
Dragan Popovic, Youth Initiative for Human Rights
Jelena Rankovic and Srdjan Mitrovic, Hajde Da...
Miljenko Dereta and Dubravka Velat, Civic Initiatives
Miodrag Shrestha, Group 484
Daniel Sumter, Euro-Atlantic Initiative
March 25, Sunday
12 to 2:30pm -- tour of Belgrade, including the Kalamagdan park, the Military Museum, Sava Church, and Tito's grave. We also saw many buildings that were bombed by NATO during the war such as the Chinese embassy (an accident) and the headquarters of the secret police (not an accident). Amazingly, the buildings on either side of those buildings were untouched. Talk about precision bombing. Underneath the highway overpasses, we saw families living among trash dumps. The guide told us they were gypsies/Roma.
This tower was built by the Hungarians in the 1800s to mark Serbia as a part of the Hungarian empire. You can see a bit of the graffitti at the base. Our guide said that 14 ethnic minority groups live in Serbia, a legacy of centuries of being part of different empires, such as the Hungarian, Bulgarian, and Ottoman empires.
Part of the exhibit at the Military Museum 
The tan waters of the Sava river meets the blue Danube river
10:30 to 11:30 -- individual meetings. I met with Ms. Maja Bobic of the European Movement in Serbia. We discussed their women in government project, as there are very few women in the decision-making positions in the government.
In 2006, they conducted a virtual campaign to create an all-women government slate. There are 2 executive posts and 18 ministry posts in the governement and therefore they published in the newspapers the profiles of 161 women already holding office and invited the public to text message which of the women they would vote for to hold each of the 20 posts. During the 21 day virtual campaign, they received 30,000 votes. There was significant media coverage and there was an increase in women holding office from 10% to 21%.
The women who won the virtual election have been meeting regularly and have created their own nonprofit organization to continue this work.
Serbia was part of the former Yugoslavia that broke up into 6 new countries in a civil war in the 1990s. This war was the first time that gang rape of women (Bosnians Muslims, mostly, but other women too, by Serbian Christians) were recognized as a tactic of war, and the massacre of Bosnians, Croatians, and other ethnic groups in Yugoslavia were recognized as genocide. Several war criminals, including Ratko Mladić and Radovan Karadizic remain at large, and believed to still be in Serbia.
Serbia wants to join the European Union and become a modern state. A major challenge is locating and apprehending the war criminals and sending them to the Hague to stand trial. However, as we heard over and over again, 30% of the population are nationalists and don't want to join the EU and regard the war criminals as war heroes.
I travelled with Natasha Jones, Communications Manager for King County government: Jeff Merritt, Eastern Regional Director for Government and Public Affairs for KB Homes; Hussein Samatar, Executive Directorof African Development Center; and Michael Webber, Associate Director of the Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy and Professor at the University of Texas-Austin. We were joined part way by Todd Culpepper, Executive Director of the International Affairs Council.
March 23, Friday
Afternoon -- arrive in Belgrade from Rome. This process involved a layover in Vienna.
7:30pm to ? -- welcome dinner with Balkan Trust for Democracy, a project of the German Marshall Fund, and our local host
Back at the hotel room, I watched a CNN documentary about the Bosnian children of war. During the war, tens of thousands of Bosnian Muslim women were abducted and held in concentration camps and gang raped by Serbian men. The systematic use of rape led to the U.N. war crimes tribunal to recognize ethnically motivated rape as a war crime, part of the Serbs’ campaign of ethnic cleansing.
The women who didn't die in the rape camps were held captive until birth. Many children were abandoned because the women could not face the constant reminder of their ordeal, or were killed. Others were adopted. Most do not know about their origin and are now old enough to ask where their mothers and/or fathers are. The show also profiled Bosnian women going to Belgrade to testify against their Serbian rapists. These women are so brave to go into enemy territory to do so.
At RWN, we work with refugees who are fleeing exactly this kind of persecution and do work with many Bosnian women. It just absolutely blows my mind that I was actually in Serbia and my first night there, to see this program.
March 23, Saturday
10:30 to 12pm -- meeting at Civic Initiatives, Citizen's Association for Democracy and Civic Education. This organization was founded in 1996 by activists in opposition to Milosovic. The purpose is to educate citizens to be active participants in building a democracy. We met the founders, Mr. Miljenko Dereta and Ms. Dubravka Velat. A longer post about democracy in Serbia will follow. Several of our meetings were with pro-democracy activists.
12:30 to 6:30pm -- visit to the US Steel mill in Smederevo.
During the war in the 1990s, the steel mill was shut down. Recently it was bought by US Steel and the Serbs are very happy, as it is an indicator of economic stability that will allow more foreign investment.We also learned that Serbs eat lunch at 3pm. We Americans were not used to it, and can now confirm that it is true that hunger deters learning.
The tour itself was fascinating and our guide said that watching molten metal turned into thin sheets of steel never got old for her.
8pm to ? -- dinner with civil society representatives:
Dragan Popovic, Youth Initiative for Human Rights
Jelena Rankovic and Srdjan Mitrovic, Hajde Da...
Miljenko Dereta and Dubravka Velat, Civic Initiatives
Miodrag Shrestha, Group 484
Daniel Sumter, Euro-Atlantic Initiative
March 25, Sunday
12 to 2:30pm -- tour of Belgrade, including the Kalamagdan park, the Military Museum, Sava Church, and Tito's grave. We also saw many buildings that were bombed by NATO during the war such as the Chinese embassy (an accident) and the headquarters of the secret police (not an accident). Amazingly, the buildings on either side of those buildings were untouched. Talk about precision bombing. Underneath the highway overpasses, we saw families living among trash dumps. The guide told us they were gypsies/Roma.
This tower was built by the Hungarians in the 1800s to mark Serbia as a part of the Hungarian empire. You can see a bit of the graffitti at the base. Our guide said that 14 ethnic minority groups live in Serbia, a legacy of centuries of being part of different empires, such as the Hungarian, Bulgarian, and Ottoman empires.
Part of the exhibit at the Military Museum 
The tan waters of the Sava river meets the blue Danube riverevening -- dinner in, at the hotel, just by ourselves.
March 26, Monday
10:30 to 11:30 -- individual meetings. I met with Ms. Maja Bobic of the European Movement in Serbia. We discussed their women in government project, as there are very few women in the decision-making positions in the government.
In 2006, they conducted a virtual campaign to create an all-women government slate. There are 2 executive posts and 18 ministry posts in the governement and therefore they published in the newspapers the profiles of 161 women already holding office and invited the public to text message which of the women they would vote for to hold each of the 20 posts. During the 21 day virtual campaign, they received 30,000 votes. There was significant media coverage and there was an increase in women holding office from 10% to 21%.
The women who won the virtual election have been meeting regularly and have created their own nonprofit organization to continue this work.
11:45 to 12:30pm -- individual meeting with Marcel Grogan, Balkan Trust for Democracy regarding philanthropy and support for nonprofit organizations / NGOs (nongovernmental organizations) in Serbia. Essentially all NGOs are funded by foreign sources, mostly governmental, such as the US Agency for International Development (USAID). There is no philanthropic infrastructure to support charities and NGOs.
12:30 to 1:30pm -- tour of the Museum of Contemporary Art. Stretching your mind in a totally different way. There was an exhibit of British art, called Breaking Step / U Raskoraku. The most memorable pieces were:- M-path by Adam Chodzko -- shelves and shelves of shoes, arranged by size. Viewer are invited to borrow a pair and to literally walk in another person's shoes while in the museum. Hence the play on the word empathy. The shoes were donated by the residents of Belgrade and at the end of the show, will be donated to charity. This piece resonated with me, because in Serbia the alphabet is Cyrillic not Latin and I was rendered absolutely illiterate and dependent on our city coordinator in Belgrade. It reminded me of how difficult resettlement is for refugees and immigrants.
- Replica of a witness box at the Hague tribunal -- don't have the name of the piece or the artist, but it was relevant, given the issue of genocide and war criminals yet to be sent to the Hague.
- Translated letters -- again did not write down the name of the piece or the artist. The British artist had written a letter to a museum, proposing an art piece involving mindwaves and telepathy. The letter was only a few lines long. It was translated into French. The French letter was translated into Chinese, the Chinese letter into another language and so on, and back into English. The last letter bore no resemblence to the original English letter.
2 to 3pm -- Lunch with Obrad Savic, editor in chief of Belgrade Circle journal. He is also a professor of journalism and spoke about the need for a free media in a democracy. He is writing a book called Post-Secular Europe. Religion is re-emerging in post-communist, secular, small Eastern European countries which are also panicking about globalization. There is a need to find ways to balance religion and democracy. He spoke at length about the Turkey being Europe's change to build a bridge to Islam and for the European Union to come into the future.
4 to 5:30pm -- visit to CeSID, Center for Free Elections and Democracy. One of their major activities is election monitoring. They also monitor the monitors to ensure that they have not been "disappeared" by the nationalists. They also do public opinion polling, voting trends analysis, and get out the vote campaigns.
CeSID finds that there are 5.5 million registered voters (people are registered at birth) but half a million do not vote. Of the 5 million who do vote, about 1.4 million steadily support the right wing parties, and 2.5 million identify more with the democratic parties. There is a 30% of the population that are very traditional, looking to past, to 500 years ago (side note -- in the US, we barely have half that much history to look to.). They are nationalist, patriarchal, and anti-European. They are those who did not benefit when Yugoslavia fell apart, when communism ended, and so they are afraid, uncertain, and angry, so they vote conservatively.
Another universal truth.
8pm to ? -- dinner with media representatives:
Duska Anastasijevic, Vreme Magazine
Dejan Anastasijevic, Vreme Magazine
Slavica Vuceljic, TANJUG News Agency
Katarina Zivanovic, B92 Fund
Lidija Bartus-Vasiljevic, Studio B
Milica Mancic, BETA News Agency
Jeta Xharra, Balkan Investigative Reporting Network -- Kosovo
Krenar Gashi, Balkan Investigative Reporting Network -- Kosovo
It turns out that one of the journalists is a member of the Hapsburg royalty, but she didn't make a big deal out of it. It was more along the lines "Oh, my father is a Hapsburg count."
Later in the evening, two of us wanted to go dancing. Our city coordinator suggested a club managed by his cousin. In the end it was the city coordinator, another AMMF, and myself getting into a cab to go to the club. The club turned out to be a rave in an empty warehouse under a highway overpass.
We were not on the guest list and we waited at least 15 minutes as the city coordinator tried to call his cousin's cellphone and talk our way in. With each passing minute, the other AMMF and I began to get a bad feeling. I looked into the dark rave and considered that I didn't speak the language, couldn't read any signs, and if I were to go into the loud, dark rave with hundreds of dancers, it could end badly. I could be human trafficked and the other AMMF if he was with me, just killed. Eventually, he and I jumped into a cab and returned to the hotel.
March 27, Tuesday
10:15 to 12pm -- Kosovo Roundtable discussion with
- Chad Rogers, National Democratic Institute -- moderator
- Isak Vorgucic, Radio KIM
- Krenar Gashi, Balkan Investigative Reporting Network
- Nenad Djurdjevic and Danijela Nenadic, Center for NonViolent Resistance
- Gyrogy Kakuk, United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK)
- Nenad Sebek, Center of Democracy and Reconciliation in South East Europe
This will be discussed in another post.
12:30 to 2:30pm -- visit to the European Union Integration Office. We met Tanja Miscevic, the executive director, and professor of political science. The EU Integration office is the department within the Serbian government that liaises with the EU and monitors and coordinates Serbia’s progress in meeting the criteria for joining the EU. This office also communicates with the general public about the process and the media has identified their office as the most transparent governmental agency. They are also designed to cover the western Balkans.
The biggest challenge Serbia faces in this process are:
Ø the fact that war criminals still have not been apprehended and sent to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia or ICTY, a body of the United Nations (UN) established to prosecute serious crimes committed during the wars in the former Yugoslavia. It is located in the Hague in the Netherlands.
Ø At the time of our visit, Serbia had no government. Elections were held in January, but for some reason, the government had not formed. An interim government was running the country until a permanent government could be seated. (That occurred in May 2007.)
Ø 20% to 30% of the population that is very conservative, isolationist, and nationalistic and do not want to join the EU and consider the war criminals to be war heroes.
Ø Lack of communication with the general public of the EU states, who have a vote on whether or not Serbia will be allowed to join.
Serbia also thinks Turkey’s inclusion is necessary. If Turkey is shut out, there will a rise in Islamic fundamentalism. Given that Serbia’s history with Muslims, that could be problematic.
However, Serbia’s concerned more with the integrity of the EU process. If they (Serbia, Turkey, any other countries) meet the EU criteria, they should be included. There has to be faith that following the rules will result in EU membership. Serbia is also concerned that EU expansion fatigue will set in and Serbia, the Western Balkans, and Turkey will be shut out.
I found it interesting that Ms. Miscevic said that they want to join the EU even though there is no clarity on what the EU means and where it is going.
They are hoping Serbia, the Western Balkans, and Turkey will join the EU by June 28, 2014, the 100th anniversary of World War I. I knew WWI began with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. However I did not know the killer was Serbian.
3 to 4pm – lunch with European Marshall Memorial Fund fellows and selection committee members:
Ø Lazar Mricevic, Center for Development of Serbia
Ø Dusan Vasiljevic, OSCE Head of Economic and Environmental Development
Ø Vera Didanovic, journalist and Balkan MMF fellow
Ø Senad Sabovic, International Crisis Group (Kosovo), and Balkan MMF fellow
Ø Lana Pavlovic, Coordinator of the Deputy Mayor Cabinet of the City of Belgrade and Balkan MMF fellow
Ø Aaron Presnall, Jefferson Institute
Ø Nenad Sebek, Center for Democracy and Reconciliation in South East Europe
4:45 to 6pm – Tour of B92 Omnimedia studios. B92 began in 1989 as a youth radio station and has been active in opposing oppressive government and advocating for human rights. They have now grown to include a TV network, internet providing service, book publishing, audio recording label and a cultural center. The co-founder and chair of the board of directors, Sasha Mirkovic said that their visibility is their protection. They are so popular that if the government tried to silence them, the public would protest.
8pm to ? – farewell dinner with the staff of the Balkan Trust for Democracy at a riverside restaurant. There was a live band who performed three songs in English, including “Love Shack” and “New York, New York.”
March 28, Wednesday
8am – flight to Brussels, Belgium for the last stop on the fellowship trip.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Telefono Rosa, hotline for women in Italy
On March 22, 2007 I visited the office of Telefono Rosa (TR), a national hotline for women in Italy, with offices or partners in Rome, Turino, Merona, and Montova.
I met with Luisa Rizzitelli, a volunteer who also runs a communications business. Ms. Rizzitelli has been selected as a European fellow and will be traveling to the US later in the year. I hope she comes to Atlanta, as I would like to reciprocate.
Telephono Rosa's mission to help women in trouble, be it economic, violence, etc. They have a call center with 4 phones, and the services are completely free. In addition to the hotline volunteers, they have 12volunteer lawyers, 12 psychologists, and 2 bankers who advise about personal finance and help women open bank accounts.
The executive director of TR is Ms. Gabriella Moscatelli, who was the first women to become a bank manager in Italy. That occurred some years ago, but Italy still has the glass ceiling that allows women to see the top positions, but prevents them from achieving it. Except Ms. Rizzitelli called it the crystal ceiling. Even the bad things in life sound good when spoken by Italians.
The gender situation in Italy is not very good. Only 15% of the parliment are women and 6 of the ministers in the administration are women. However, 4 of the 6 do not have a portfolio. That is, they have no funding for their responsibilities and have to rely of the prime minister for funding. In the business sector, many women are managers, but none are CEOs, CFOs, and other decision makers.
In contrast, they hold Spain as the best example of gender equity, where there is equal pay for equal work.
Ms. Rizzitelli was very proud that TR operates "like a business." I asked what that meant and she explained that the hotline is available 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. Made me think that if this a great achievement, which is it, then they must been able to provide less services in the past.
TR makes a deliberate effort to serve the international population of Italy. They have offices in the embassies of Argentina, Equador, Ethiopia, and Peru and thus are able to help women from those countries. However, they are having difficulty reaching out to the Muslim community.
They have opened the International Home of Human Rights, in Rome, the only such kind in Italy. It is a shelter for women fleeing violence based on religious or cultural issues. Examples include women who have had acid thrown on their faces or fleeing female genital mutilation. They provide medical and health services, including therapy.
In additon to International Home of Human Rights, there are also domestic violence shelters in Italy. They are very interested in learning about laws to stop batterer and batterer intervention programs to stop abusers from abusing again. They found that 30% of batterers batter again.
Each year, TR receives 7000 calls and see 1000 women in person in the office.
As we spoke, a reporter from La Corriere della Sera newspaper arrived to work with Ms. Moscatelli on a domestic violence public awareness article. As in many parts of the world, violence against female family members are considered private concerns and not a legal or human rights issue.
They were very proud of the facts that the wife of the president of the Czech Republic visited their organization and that they were able to recruit 4 Olympic athletes to tape a public service announcement to say that domestic violence is unacceptable.
It's sad to see that violence against women, in their own homes by the people who are supposed to love and support them, is such a global problem. I know that for a fact, in my head and my heart, but it is still very sad to encounter it again.
On the other hand, it was very uplifting to see what TR has done to serve and support the women in Italy. The meeting ended much too soon, and I left feeling very inspired and thinking at RWN we must do more.
I met with Luisa Rizzitelli, a volunteer who also runs a communications business. Ms. Rizzitelli has been selected as a European fellow and will be traveling to the US later in the year. I hope she comes to Atlanta, as I would like to reciprocate.
Telephono Rosa's mission to help women in trouble, be it economic, violence, etc. They have a call center with 4 phones, and the services are completely free. In addition to the hotline volunteers, they have 12volunteer lawyers, 12 psychologists, and 2 bankers who advise about personal finance and help women open bank accounts.
The executive director of TR is Ms. Gabriella Moscatelli, who was the first women to become a bank manager in Italy. That occurred some years ago, but Italy still has the glass ceiling that allows women to see the top positions, but prevents them from achieving it. Except Ms. Rizzitelli called it the crystal ceiling. Even the bad things in life sound good when spoken by Italians.
The gender situation in Italy is not very good. Only 15% of the parliment are women and 6 of the ministers in the administration are women. However, 4 of the 6 do not have a portfolio. That is, they have no funding for their responsibilities and have to rely of the prime minister for funding. In the business sector, many women are managers, but none are CEOs, CFOs, and other decision makers.
In contrast, they hold Spain as the best example of gender equity, where there is equal pay for equal work.
Ms. Rizzitelli was very proud that TR operates "like a business." I asked what that meant and she explained that the hotline is available 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. Made me think that if this a great achievement, which is it, then they must been able to provide less services in the past.
TR makes a deliberate effort to serve the international population of Italy. They have offices in the embassies of Argentina, Equador, Ethiopia, and Peru and thus are able to help women from those countries. However, they are having difficulty reaching out to the Muslim community.
They have opened the International Home of Human Rights, in Rome, the only such kind in Italy. It is a shelter for women fleeing violence based on religious or cultural issues. Examples include women who have had acid thrown on their faces or fleeing female genital mutilation. They provide medical and health services, including therapy.
In additon to International Home of Human Rights, there are also domestic violence shelters in Italy. They are very interested in learning about laws to stop batterer and batterer intervention programs to stop abusers from abusing again. They found that 30% of batterers batter again.
Each year, TR receives 7000 calls and see 1000 women in person in the office.
As we spoke, a reporter from La Corriere della Sera newspaper arrived to work with Ms. Moscatelli on a domestic violence public awareness article. As in many parts of the world, violence against female family members are considered private concerns and not a legal or human rights issue.
They were very proud of the facts that the wife of the president of the Czech Republic visited their organization and that they were able to recruit 4 Olympic athletes to tape a public service announcement to say that domestic violence is unacceptable.
It's sad to see that violence against women, in their own homes by the people who are supposed to love and support them, is such a global problem. I know that for a fact, in my head and my heart, but it is still very sad to encounter it again.
On the other hand, it was very uplifting to see what TR has done to serve and support the women in Italy. The meeting ended much too soon, and I left feeling very inspired and thinking at RWN we must do more.
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