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India’s free pass on civil rights

OWSA Contributor

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23 February 2022

The attempt to censor criticism on Twitter illustrated the government’s most notable anti-democratic practice of pressuring social media companies to police criticism of the government. In domestic politics, the jury is still out on the BJP.

By Arun R Swamy / University of Guam

For India, 2021 was a year of trauma and portent. Alongside the continuing COVID-19 crisis — despite an ostensibly successful vaccination drive — the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) anti-democratic tendencies intensified. A year-long protest by farmers eventually resulted in the government withdrawing a bill to liberalise agricultural trade. State elections heralded the strength of regional parties. Yet despite domestic setbacks, India raised its profile regionally and globally.

India’s COVID-19 surge between March and June 2021 was exceptionally high and sharp. By the end of the year, the country had recorded nearly 40 million positive tests, totalling 3 per cent of the population and 500,000 deaths. Both numbers are likely gross underestimates, given the lack of reporting and testing in rural areas. By mid-year, the economy was reeling and the crisis took a toll on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity. This led the government to lash out at critics — including ordering Twitter to shut down criticism of the government’s handling of COVID-19.

The attempt to censor criticism on Twitter illustrated the government’s most notable anti-democratic practice of pressuring social media companies to police criticism of the government. It asked Twitter to shut down hundreds of accounts critical of the government — including news organisations and supporters of the farmers’ protests — and investigated Twitter for labelling a BJP spokesman’s tweet misleading. Facebook dithered over-policing hate speech in India for fear of alienating the government and initially blocked a hashtag calling for Modi to resign, while WhatsApp took legal action to prevent the Indian government from tracing accounts.

Plaudits abroad; muzzling freedom at home

The attacks on social media are an extension of years of effort by the Modi government to control information on the internet, resulting in a low and declining Freedom on the Net ranking. The attempts to intimidate and muzzle journalists also produced a low rank of 142 in the World Press Freedom Index. While elections remain free and fair, the decline of civil liberties and increasingly open attacks on religious minorities are eroding India’s democracy, with watchdog group Freedom House dropping India’s democracy status to ‘partially free’ for the first time.

These crackdowns are notable for their brazen disregard for international opinion, even at a time when India is becoming more assertive internationally. In Asia, the term Indo-Pacific is replacing the old ‘Asia Pacific’ as the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue — composed of the United States, Japan, Australia and India — more actively seeks common ground. And nothing in India’s recent democratic setbacks got in the way of Modi being given a prime speaking slot at US President Joe Biden’s Summit for Democracy.

Globally, Modi won plaudits at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow for committing to a distant deadline for capping greenhouse emissions. At the same time, India’s decades-old security cooperation with Russia, most notably on weapons systems, received a major boost during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s high-profile visit despite US disapproval. This partnership has resulted in the first major sale, to the Philippines, of a jointly developed Indian–Russian missile system.

Jury still out on the BJP

It seems that Modi, in his eighth year in office, has learned that democracy activists and editorialists count for little in the halls of diplomacy, and is making the most of India’s strategic location and flexibility.

In domestic politics, the jury is still out on the BJP. Elections in various states in May 2021 showed it is yet to penetrate much beyond its core regions in the north and west, but also demonstrated the continued weakness of the main opposition Indian National Congress. Many BJP-ruled states are currently holding elections, including the largest state in the country, Uttar Pradesh.

While opinion polls show the BJP ahead in Uttar Pradesh, other states show a tight contest — often between two or three opposition parties. There are also signs that the BJP’s position is eroding in Uttar Pradesh and a defeat there would provide a catalyst for opposition parties to come together for the national elections in 2024.

Poor are suffering

The BJP’s prospects of becoming the first party in over 50 years to win a third consecutive term will depend on the performance of the economy, which is still suffering from the effects of the pandemic. To this end, the government has undertaken a massive stimulus that has taken the fiscal deficit to 9.5 per cent of GDP but eschewed any direct relief for the poor. Various liberalisation measures should also be seen in this light, from the privatisation of Air India to the attempted agricultural liberalisation bills.

India’s stock market boomed over the last year with tech start-ups taking off led by mobile payment apps, but US automaker Ford exited the market, India’s 5G rollout was ‘bumpy’ and agricultural reforms were withdrawn. The poor are suffering the most in the COVID-19 recession.

Above all, 2021 was a year in which Modi and the BJP implemented their authoritarian vision of a resurgent Hindu India. Despite a setback at the hands of the farmers’ movements, domestic opposition is divided and international attention is focussed on India’s usefulness in emerging geopolitical alignments. There is little reason to think that the trajectory of Indian politics or foreign policy will change in 2022.

Arun R Swamy is Professor of Political Science at the University of Guam.

This piece has been sourced from the East Asia Forum of the Australian National University. This article is part of an EAF special feature series on 2021 in review and the year ahead.

Over half of parents and pregnant women exposed to aggressive formula milk marketing: WHO, UNICEF

OWSA Staff

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23 February 2022

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Over half of parents and pregnant women exposed to aggressive formula milk marketing: WHO, UNICEF

A new report details exploitative practices employed by the US$55 billion formula industry, compromising child nutrition, violating international commitments.

More than half of parents and pregnant women (51 per cent) surveyed for a new WHO/UNICEF report say they have been targeted with marketing from formula milk companies, much of which is in breach of international standards on infant feeding practices.

The report, How marketing of formula milk influences our decisions on infant feeding, draws on interviews with parents, pregnant women and health workers in eight countries. It uncovers systematic and unethical marketing strategies used by the formula milk industry – now worth a staggering US$55 billion – to influence parents’ infant feeding decisions.

The report finds that industry marketing techniques include unregulated and invasive online targeting; sponsored advice networks and helplines; promotions and free gifts; and practices to influence training and recommendations among health workers. The messages that parents and health workers receive are often misleading, scientifically unsubstantiated, and violate the international code of marketing of breast-milk substitutes – a landmark public health agreement passed by the world health assembly in 1981 to protect mothers from aggressive marketing practices by the baby food industry.

“This report shows very clearly that formula milk marketing remains unacceptably pervasive, misleading and aggressive,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “Regulations on exploitative marketing must be urgently adopted and enforced to protect children’s health.”

The report surveyed 8,500 parents and pregnant women, and 300 health workers in cities across Bangladesh, China, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, the United Kingdom and Viet Nam. According to it, exposure to formula milk marketing reaches 84 per cent of all women surveyed in the United Kingdom; 92 per cent of women surveyed in Viet Nam and 97 per cent of women surveyed in China, increasing their likelihood of choosing formula feeding.

Misleading marketing messages

“False and misleading messages about formula feeding are a substantial barrier to breastfeeding, which we know is best for babies and mothers,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “We need robust policies, legislation and investments in breastfeeding to ensure that women are protected from unethical marketing practices — and have access to the information and support they need to raise their families.”

Across all countries included in the survey, women expressed a strong desire to breastfeed exclusively, ranging from 49 per cent of women in Morocco to 98 per cent in Bangladesh. Yet the report details how a sustained flow of misleading marketing messages is reinforcing myths about breastfeeding and breast-milk, and undermining women’s confidence in their ability to breastfeed successfully. These myths include the necessity of formula in the first days after birth, the inadequacy of breast-milk for infant nutrition, that specific infant formula ingredients are proven to improve child development or immunity, the perception that formula keeps infants fuller for longer, and that the quality of breast-milk declines with time.

Breastfeeding within the first hour of birth, followed by exclusive breastfeeding for six months and continued breastfeeding for up to two years or beyond, offers a powerful line of defense against all forms of child malnutrition, including wasting and obesity. Breastfeeding also acts as babies’ first vaccine, protecting them against many common childhood illnesses. It also reduces women’s future risk of diabetes, obesity and some forms of cancer. Yet globally, only 44 per cent of babies less than 6 months old are exclusively breastfed. Global breastfeeding rates have increased very little in the past two decades, while sales of formula milk have more than doubled in roughly the same time.

Pass, monitor and enforce laws

Alarmingly, the report notes that large numbers of health workers in all countries had been approached by the baby feeding industry to influence their recommendations to new mothers through promotional gifts, free samples, funding for research, paid meetings, events and conferences, and even commissions from sales, directly impacting parents’ feeding choices. More than one third of women surveyed said a health worker had recommended a specific brand of formula to them.

To address these challenges, WHO, UNICEF and partners are calling on governments, health workers, and the baby food industry to end exploitative formula milk marketing and fully implement and abide by the requirements of the international code of marketing of breast-milk substitutes.

This includes passing, monitoring and enforcing laws to prevent the promotion of formula milk, in line with the international code, including prohibiting nutrition and health claims made by the formula milk industry.

WHO also has called on stakeholders to invest in policies and programmes to support breastfeeding, including adequate paid parental leave in line with international standards, and ensuring high quality breastfeeding support.

It has simultaneously requested industry to publicly commit to full compliance with the international code of marketing of breast-milk substitutes and other world health assembly resolutions while also banning health workers from accepting sponsorship from companies that market foods for infants and young children for scholarships, awards, grants, meetings, or events.

The humble hijab courts an unnecessary controversy

OWSA Contributor

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22 February 2022

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The humble hijab courts an unnecessary controversy

Many Muslim girls chose to wear hijabs. That choice cannot be denied unless they are violating any law or accepted norms of decency in the country. That, the hijab or burqa or naqab certainly do not.

The hijab controversy is an example of some particular sections of our society being targeted by others. This is particularly evident in the manner in which this has unfolded.

First, it is not as if girls have only now started wearing hijabs to college. They have been doing so for long. The question to be asked then is why the people on the premises of the Karnataka college started objecting to it now, almost as if the hijab penetrated their consciousness overnight.

Elections are going on in several states with a lot at stake for all contestants in some of these places. The history of our country, including the elections held recently, has shown that religion is a greater mobilizing force for people. One can thus surmise, however tenuous the link may be, that this unseemly row was created to polarize support for a particular party.

Second, what one person wears cannot affect another. Thus, there should be no ground for anyone to even comment on it. Eminent politician Shashi Tharoor has rightly asked how a girl wearing a hijab, or a person sporting a turban, a crucifix or a saffron shawl affects others. If it does not, why is anyone protesting about it or even talking about it, he asked. These are pertinent questions. Those who want to don a saffron shawl, please do so. However, do not say that you are doing it because someone is wearing a hijab. That does not hold water. No one seems to protest about religious identity in educational institutions when people attend classes with foreheads smeared after morning prayers or with tilak.

One reason for objecting to a particular attire worn by someone in college or a public place can be on the ground that it violates that accepted norms of decency in the country. That the hijab or burqa or naqab certainly do not. To the contrary, they are at the opposite side of the spectrum. Another reason can be if there is a uniform to be worn. However, in the institution where this controversy flared up, no uniform was mandated.

Some media channels are, instead of airing news or the opinions of experts, themselves taking a stand against the wearing of the hijab. Several of these panels do not have any person who will take a stand for the wearing of the hijab but had more than one person arguing against the hijab. This goes against the ethics of journalism. One moderator of a panel even said that the girls wearing a hijab to college are “using the Constitution to do something unconstitutional”. To say that this is ridiculous is an understatement. Wearing a hijab to a college cannot be termed unconstitutional or even wrong unless a particular uniform is meant to be worn.

Many Muslim girls wear hijabs out of choice. That choice is something that they cannot be denied unless they are violating any law.

The wearing of a hijab has also contributed to the greater enrolment of Muslim girls in educational institutions. Many Muslim girls, especially those from families that are not very well to do, attend college in hijab to ensure that their cultural identity is not compromised. It would be a tragedy if the enrolment of Muslim girls in higher educational institutions takes a hit because they are forced out of state-run institutions for wearing a hijab.

This also brings to the fore the question of secularism, which governments can practice in two ways. One, members of the government can ensure that they stay well away from religion in public life. Two, they can involve themselves in religious activities in public life while trying to give equal importance to all religions. In our country, the latter approach is ostensibly taken. However, the problem with this is that there are so many religions that it becomes extremely difficult to cater to all of them in this respect. Besides, the people in governance do not even make a pretence of giving equal importance to all religions. Rather, they cater unabashedly to the majority religion. This makes the others feel like second-class citizens, who are wooed only during election time.

The thing to do would be to rein in the unruly elements who gather in hordes to intimidate young girls wearing hijabs. If this is not done, the situation will surely get out of hand.

The author is a senior journalist who has chosen to write under the pen name Gypsy Scholar.

Image: Wikimedia commons – Algerian baccalaureate students cram before an examination; By Magharebia

Accelerating melt rate makes Greenland ice sheet world’s largest ‘dam’

OWSA Contributor

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22 February 2022

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Accelerating melt rate makes Greenland ice sheet world’s largest ‘dam’

Researchers estimate the power produced by the falling water during peak melt periods was comparable to the power produced by the Three Gorges Dam in China, the world’s largest hydroelectric power station.

By Sarah Collins / University of Cambridge

Researchers say they have observed extremely high rates of melting at the bottom of the Greenland ice sheet, caused by huge quantities of meltwater falling from the surface to the base. As the meltwater falls, energy is converted into heat in a process like the hydroelectric power generated by large dams.

An international team of scientists, led by the University of Cambridge, found that the effect of meltwater descending from the surface of the ice sheet to the bed—a kilometre or more below—is by far the largest heat source beneath the world’s second-largest ice sheet, leading to phenomenally high rates of melting at its base.

The lubricating effect of meltwater has a strong effect on the movement of glaciers and the quantity of ice discharged into the ocean, but directly measuring conditions beneath a kilometre of ice is a challenge, especially in Greenland where glaciers are among the world’s fastest moving.

This lack of direct measurements makes it difficult to understand the dynamic behaviour of the Greenland ice sheet and predict future changes. With ice losses tied to both melting and discharge, the Greenland Ice Sheet is now the largest single contributor to global sea level rise.

Now, in a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the Cambridge-led team has found that the gravitational energy of meltwater forming at the surface is converted to heat when it is transferred to the base through large cracks in the ice.

Lakes drain fast

Each summer, thousands of meltwater lakes and streams form on the surface of the Greenland ice sheet as temperatures rise and daily sunlight increases. Many of these lakes quickly drain to the bottom of the ice sheet, falling through cracks and large fractures which form in the ice. With a continued supply of water from streams and rivers, connections between surface and bed often remain open.

As part of the EU-funded RESPONDER project, Professor Poul Christoffersen from Cambridge’s Scott Polar Research Institute has been studying these meltwater lakes. Together with his team, he is trying to understand how and why these lakes drain so quickly, and the effect that they have on the overall behaviour of the ice sheet as global temperatures continue to rise.

The current work, which includes researchers from Aberystwyth University, is the culmination of a seven-year study focused on Store Glacier, one of the largest outlets from the Greenland ice sheet.

“When studying basal melting of ice sheets and glaciers, we look at sources of heat like friction, geothermal energy, latent heat released where water freezes and heat losses into the ice above,” said Christoffersen. “But what we hadn’t really looked at was the heat generated by the draining meltwater itself. There’s a lot of gravitational energy stored in the water that forms on the surface and when it falls, the energy has to go somewhere.”

To measure basal melt rates, the researchers used phase-sensitive radio-echo sounding, a technique developed at the British Antarctic Survey and used previously on floating ice sheets in Antarctica.

Million square kilometres

“We weren’t sure that the technique would also work on a fast-flowing glacier in Greenland,” said first author Dr. Tun Jan Young, who installed the radar system on Store Glacier as part of his Ph.D. at Cambridge. “Compared to Antarctica, the ice deforms really fast and there is a lot of meltwater in summer, which complicates the work.”

The basal melt rates observed with radar were often as high as the melt rates measured on the surface with a weather station: however, the surface receives energy from the sun while the base does not. To explain the results, the Cambridge researchers teamed up with scientists at the University of California Santa Cruz and the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland.

The researchers calculated that as much as 82 million cubic meters of meltwater was transferred to the bed of Store Glacier every day during the summer of 2014. They estimate the power produced by the falling water during peak melt periods was comparable to the power produced by the Three Gorges Dam in China, the world’s largest hydroelectric power station. With a melt area that expands to nearly a million square kilometres at the height of summer, the Greenland ice sheet produces more hydropower than the world’s ten largest hydroelectric power stations combined.

“Given what we are witnessing at the high latitudes in terms of climate change, this form of hydropower could easily double or triple, and we’re still not even including these numbers when we estimate the ice sheet’s contribution to sea level rise,” said Christoffersen.

Concrete evidence

To verify the high basal melt rates recorded by the radar system, the team integrated independent temperature measurements from sensors installed in a nearby borehole. At the base, they found the temperature of water to be as high as +0.88 degrees Celsius, which is unexpectedly warm for an ice sheet base with a melting point of -0.40 degrees.

“The borehole observations confirmed that the meltwater heats up when it hits the bed,” said Christoffersen. “The reason is that the basal drainage system is a lot less efficient than the fractures and conduits that bring the water through the ice. The reduced drainage efficiency causes frictional heating within the water itself. When we took this heat source out of our calculations, the theoretical melt rate estimates were a full two orders of magnitude out. The heat generated by the falling water is melting the ice from the bottom up, and the melt rate we are reporting is completely unprecedented.”

The study presents the first concrete evidence of an ice-sheet mass-loss mechanism, which is not yet included in projections of global sea level rise. While the high melt rates are specific to heat produced in subglacial drainage paths carrying surface water, the volume of surface water produced in Greenland is huge and growing, and nearly all of it drains to the bed.

Will Pakistan’s blasphemy laws ever be amended?

OWSA Contributor

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22 February 2022

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Will Pakistan’s blasphemy laws ever be amended?

Pakistan’s human rights activists have renewed calls to revisit the country’s blasphemy laws following the latest instance of mob lynching. They want to government to summon political will to curb the blasphemy laws.

Javed Mazher

Pakistan’s latest victim lynch mob victim Muhammad Mushtaq had been diagnosed with chronic schizophrenia years ago, was unstable and unpredictable and had abandoned his family. His siblings sold their farmland in the Khanewal district of Punjab Province to afford his treatment, without success.

Nobody in the village, save his family, liked Mushstaq.

On 12 Februry, a mob tied him to a tree and then stoned him to death after the son of a local prayer leader incited villagers, telling them that Mushtaq had burnt the Koran kept in the mosque.

Desecrating the Koran, the most-oft cited instance of blasphemy is an explosive issue in the Muslim-majority country, capable of stirring instantaneous violence. A local police team explained their helplessness as they were outnumbered by the mob of several hundreds.

Two months earlier, on 3 December, an angry mob in the district of Sialkot, also in Punjab, lynched to death Priyantha Kumara Diyawadanage, a Sri Lankan Christian who worked in the district as a factory manager. His lifeless body was then set on fire. The allegations? Ordering removal of posters of a far-right Islamist party in the premises of the factory. This, the mob chanted, was blasphemous.

Indeed, Punjab province governor, Salam Taseer, was assassinated by his police guard in 2011 for criticising the blasphemy laws.

Law much abused

Not all cases of blasphemy were settled by murders. Most of the accused went through prolonged trials.

According to the Islamabad-based think tank, Centre for Research and Security Studies, Pakistan has witnessed 90 civilian deaths since it became a homeland for SouthAsia’s Muslims in 1947.

A report issued last month by the organization says that over 1,200 of the 1,400-plus cases of blasphemy happened during the past decade alone, marking a notable increase.

The old laws written by the British colonial rulers had outlined punishments for offenses related to religion. But the “Islamization” drive during the reign of military ruler Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq in the 1980s added to the pain. Newly added clauses imposed severe penalties and even a death sentence for insulting Islam.

The floodgates opened thereafter, with the law being used to settle scores by anyone in power in Pakistan’s poor, dusty countrysides. Notably, the law has been the first option to harass the country’s religious minorities.

Prime minister Imran Khan had, in the wake of the killing of the Sri Lankan factory manager, tweeted his dismay.

He did the same after Mushtaq was murdered last week. His tweet read: “We have zero tolerance for anyone taking the law into their own hands,” Prime Minister Imran Khan tweeted on February 13. “Mob lynching will be dealt with full severity of the law,” the tween read further.

Religious Radicalism

Islamic cleric and the prime minister’s adviser, Tahir Ashrafi has said that Pakistanis are united against mob lynching.

“What they did has brought notoriety to Islam and Pakistan,” Radio Mashaal quoted Ashrafi as saying.

But many activists aren’t impressed. They say that the prime minister would do well to walk the talk and repeal the laws and also ensure that these aren’t abused.

Indeed, activists ask why Ashrafi, the prime minister’s advisor had to say that the law, in its current form, has provisions of the blasphemy laws that include punishment by death. This, they say, points to the lack of willingness on the part of the government to seize the bull by the horn.

Instead, Ashrafi spoke about a code of conduct adopted by various Islamist political parties and sects in 2018.

Human rights campaigners and activists point to Pakistan’s failure to rein in hard-line Islamist factions and repeal or reform the blasphemy laws enacted in the 1980s.

Journalist Sabookh Syed who reports on religious affairs in Pakistan was quoted by Radio Mashaal as saying, “The Islamic clergy have formed a narrative that justifies compulsory punishment for blasphemy accusations.”

“In their view, an accused hanged by a court or killed by a mob are the same,” he added. “They preach this view from the mosque’s pulpit and in religious gatherings, which encourages people to participate in such acts.”

“Everyone knows that blasphemy laws are abused to settle scores and this is also what happened with the Sri Lankan manager,” Zohra Yousuf, former head of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan told Radio Mashaal. “If we must have such laws, they should be reformed in ways that are not abused.”

Ukraine crisis: the stakes are high

Inter Press Service

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22 February 2022

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Around 1.5 million Ukrainians have been forced from their homes since fighting in the far east of the country began in 2014. The UN and other humanitarian organizations are supporting those who have been displaced, as they try to adjust to their new lives.

By John Burroughs

If the Ukraine crisis erupts into war – even intensified limited war in Eastern Ukraine with overt Russian intervention – the consequences will be severe and far-reaching.

A non-comprehensive list includes: vastly greater loss of life due to armed conflict in Ukraine; destabilization of global peace and security, not least the always urgent pursuit of nuclear arms control and disarmament; and impairment of the will and capability for cooperation on climate protection, public health, and other vital matters.

The proximate cause of the crisis is Russia’s menacing behavior, including deployment of troops and equipment near the border with eastern Ukraine and in Crimea and Belarus, and conducting a nuclear forces exercise in Belarus.

Especially in context and combined with Putin’s at times bellicose rhetoric, these actions are unlawful threats under the fundamental UN Charter prohibition of the “threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state”.

In the case of the exercise, it is also an unlawful threat because it is contrary to general international law to threaten the commission of an illegal act – here the use of nuclear weapons.

The only rational path is diplomacy

Longer-term causes of the crisis are the utterly reckless declaration, made in 2008, the last year of the second George W Bush term, that NATO membership is in principle open to Ukraine and Georgia; and more broadly the long history since the mid-1990s of US and NATO disregard of Russian security interests and proposals.

To take just one example, when the first GW Bush administration determined that the US would withdraw from the ABM Treaty, Russia proposed renegotiation of the treaty. The US answer was simple: No.

The United States then proceeded to establish missile defense facilities in Romania and Poland that Russia, with some reason, regarded as destabilizing.

The only rational path is diplomacy. At two Security Council meetings on Ukraine, on January 31 and February 17, this was the refrain of all Council members, including Russia.

Diplomacy is indeed mandated by the UN Charter, which requires member states to “settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered.”

Lack of creativity, imagination

As the Russian response to a US proposal conveyed, there is some common ground for negotiation on such matters as limits on military deployments and regional arms control, conventional and nuclear. Former US Ambassador to Ukraine Michael McFaul surveys possible topics in this recent Foreign Affairs article.

However, as Russia has been insisting, what is lacking above all is US interest in addressing Russia’s categorical opposition to even the possibility of NATO membership for Ukraine. Instead, the United States has been mechanically saying that foreclosing that possibility is a “non-starter”.

This displays a lack of the creativity and imagination that diplomats on occasion are quite capable of putting to good use. Among possible courses of action: neutrality for Ukraine; an alternative European security arrangement; a long-term moratorium on NATO expansion; or some combination of the foregoing and other measures.

Also, a resolution of the status of eastern Ukraine will have to be reached, with the people of that region having a voice in the outcome. Similarly, the status of Crimea will have to be addressed or the issue deferred.

The stakes are very high. Energetic, creative, and determined problem solving is imperative.

The writer is Senior Analyst, Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, New York City

Image: UNICEF / Ashley Gilbertson V

Caption: A child walks past a damaged building in eastern Ukraine. Around 1.5 million Ukrainians have been forced from their homes since fighting in the far east of the country began in 2014. The UN and other humanitarian organizations are supporting those who have been displaced, as they try to adjust to their new lives.

On a mission to alleviate chronic pain

OWSA Contributor

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22 February 2022

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MIT scientist Fan Wang’s studies of how the brain controls pain may one day lead to new treatments that could help millions, giving people a chance to get back their control.

Anne Trafton | MIT News Office

About 50 million Americans suffer from chronic pain, which interferes with their daily life, social interactions, and ability to work. (A 2018 study titled ‘The Prevalence of Chronic Pain among Adults in India’ found that 19.3 per cent of the Indian adult population suffers from chronic pain.)

MIT Professor Fan Wang wants to develop new ways to help relieve that pain, by studying and potentially modifying the brain’s own pain control mechanisms.

Her recent work has identified an “off switch” for pain, located in the brain’s amygdala. She hopes that finding ways to control this switch could lead to new treatments for chronic pain.

“Chronic pain is a major societal issue,” Wang says. “By studying pain-suppression neurons in the brain’s central amygdala, I hope to create a new therapeutic approach for alleviating pain.”

Wang, who joined the MIT faculty in January 2021, is also the leader of a new initiative at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research that is studying drug addiction, with the goal of developing more effective treatments for addiction.

“Opioid prescription for chronic pain is a major contributor to the opioid epidemic. With the Covid pandemic, I think addiction and overdose are becoming worse. People are more anxious, and they seek drugs to alleviate such mental pain,” Wang says. “As scientists, it’s our duty to tackle this problem.”

Sensory circuits

Wang, who grew up in Beijing, describes herself as “a nerdy child” who loved books and math. In high school, she took part in science competitions, then went on to study biology at Tsinghua University. She arrived in the United States in 1993 to begin her PhD at Columbia University. There, she worked on tracing the connection patterns of olfactory receptor neurons in the lab of Richard Axel, who later won the Nobel Prize for his discoveries of odorant receptors and how the olfactory system is organized.

After finishing her PhD, Wang decided to switch gears. As a postdoc at the University of California at San Francisco and then Stanford University, she began studying how the brain perceives touch.

In 2003, Wang joined the faculty at Duke University School of Medicine. There, she began developing techniques to study the brain circuits that underlie the sense of touch, tracing circuits that carry sensory information from the whiskers of mice to the brain. She also studied how the brain integrates movements of touch organs with signals of sensory stimuli to generate perception (such as using stretching movements to sense elasticity).

As she pursued her sensory perception studies, Wang became interested in studying pain perception, but she felt she needed to develop new techniques to tackle it. While at Duke, she invented a technique called CANE (capturing activated neural ensembles), which can identify networks of neurons that are activated by a particular stimulus.

Wild idea

Using this approach in mice, she identified neurons that become active in response to pain, but so many neurons across the brain were activated that it didn’t offer much useful information. As a way to indirectly get at how the brain controls pain, she decided to use CANE to explore the effects of drugs used for general anesthesia. During general anesthesia, drugs render a patient unconscious, but Wang hypothesized that the drugs might also shut off pain perception.

“At that time, it was just a wild idea,” Wang recalls. “I thought there may be other mechanisms — that instead of just a loss of consciousness, anesthetics may do something to the brain that actually turns pain off.”

Support for the existence of an “off switch” for pain came from the observation that wounded soldiers on a battlefield can continue to fight, essentially blocking out pain despite their injuries.

In a study of mice treated with anesthesia drugs, Wang discovered that the brain does have this kind of switch, in an unexpected location: the amygdala, which is involved in regulating emotion. She showed that this cluster of neurons can turn off pain when activated, and when it is suppressed, mice become highly sensitive to ordinary gentle touch.

“There’s a baseline level of activity that makes the animals feel normal, and when you activate these neurons, they’ll feel less pain. When you silence them, they’ll feel more pain,” Wang says.

Turning off pain

That finding, which Wang reported in 2020, raised the possibility of somehow modulating that switch in humans to try to treat chronic pain. This is a long-term goal of Wang’s, but more work is required to achieve it, she says. Currently her lab is working on analyzing the RNA expression patterns of the neurons in the cluster she identified. They also are measuring the neurons’ electrical activity and how they interact with other neurons in the brain, in hopes of identifying circuits that could be targeted to tamp down the perception of pain.

One way of modulating these circuits could be to use deep brain stimulation, which involves implanting electrodes in certain areas of the brain. Focused ultrasound, which is still in early stages of development and does not require surgery, could be a less invasive alternative.

Another approach Wang is interested in exploring is pairing brain stimulation with a context such as looking at a smartphone app. This kind of pairing could help train the brain to shut off pain using the app, without the need for the original stimulation (deep brain stimulation or ultrasound).

Help people get back their control

“Maybe you don’t need to constantly stimulate the brain. You may just need to reactivate it with a context,” Wang says. “After a while you would probably need to be restimulated, or reconditioned, but at least you have a longer window where you don’t need to go to the hospital for stimulation, and you just need to use a context.”

Wang, who was drawn to MIT in part by its focus on fostering interdisciplinary collaborations, is now working with several other McGovern Institute members who are taking different angles to try to figure out how the brain generates the state of craving that occurs in drug addiction, including opioid addiction.

“We’re going to focus on trying to understand this craving state: how it’s created in the brain and how can we sort of erase that trace in the brain, or at least control it. And then you can neuromodulate it in real time, for example, and give people a chance to get back their control,” she says.

Reprinted with permission of MIT News

Image: Courtesy MIT

Halt all retaliation attacks against Indian journalist Rana Ayyub – UN experts

OWSA Staff

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22 February 2022

0

Halt all retaliation attacks against Indian journalist Rana Ayyub – UN experts

UN-appointed independent rights experts issued a statement on Monday calling on India to end relentless misogynistic and sectarian attacks against an investigative journalist.

The appeal from special rapporteurs on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Irene Khan and situation of human rights defenders, Mary Lawlor follows what they have called “relentless misogynistic and sectarian attacks” against Rana Ayyub – including death and rape threats.

Rana Ayyub, independent journalist and defender women’s human rights, continues to be the target of intensifying online harassment by far-right Hindu nationalist groups, they said.

‘Maliciously targeted’

They pointed to the attacks as resulting from Ms. Ayyub’s reporting on issues affecting minority Muslims in the country, her criticism of the Government for its handling of the pandemic, and comments that she made on a recent ban on hijabs at schools and colleges in Karnataka state.

“In response to Ms. Ayyub’s efforts to shine a light on public interest issues and hold power to account through her reporting, she has been maliciously targeted with anonymous death and rape threats by organised groups online,” said the experts.

“The lack of condemnation and proper investigation by the Government, coupled with the legal harassment it has itself inflicted on Ms. Ayyub, has only served to falsely legitimise the attacks and attackers and further endangered her safety.”

End the judicial harassment

For a number of years, the Indian authorities have been legally harassing Ms. Ayyub in relation to her reporting, according to the independent experts.

On 11 February, for the second time in six months, the journalist’s bank account and other assets were frozen in response to seemingly baseless allegations of money laundering and tax fraud related to her crowd-funding campaigns to provide assistance to those affected by the pandemic.

As with many of the false and defamatory accusations made against Ms. Ayyub in retaliation for her reporting, the experts said, the bogus allegations can be traced back to a far-right social media group.

Government failing to comply

Previously, UN human rights experts have written to the Indian Government on a number of occasions to express their concerns over threats against and legal harassment of the journalist.

“The Government is not only failing in its obligation to protect Ms. Ayyub as a journalist, but through its own investigations of Ms. Ayyub, it is also contributing to and exacerbating her perilous situation”, the Special Rapporteurs said.

“It is imperative that the authorities take urgent measures to protect her from the onslaught of threats and hate online and end the investigation against her.”

Special Rapporteurs are appointed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a specific human rights theme or a country situation. The positions are honorary and the experts are not paid for their work.

Image: Wikimedia Commons — Rana Ayyub at Times Litfest 27 November 2016.
Picture by Satdeep Gill

Alarm: Every two weeks a mother tongue disappears due to globalisation

Inter Press Service

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21 February 2022

0

Alarm: Every two weeks a mother tongue disappears due to globalisation

At least 43 per cent of the estimated 6,000 languages spoken in the world are endangered. Only a few hundred languages have genuinely been given a place in education systems and the public domain, and less than a hundred are used in the digital world.

By Baher Kamal / Inter Press Service

“Every two weeks a language disappears taking with it an entire cultural and intellectual heritage. At least 43 per cent of the estimated 6,000 languages spoken in the world are endangered. Only a few hundred languages have genuinely been given a place in education systems and the public domain, and less than a hundred are used in the digital world.”

This shocking fact has been highlighted by the United Nations on the occasion of International Mother Language Day, marked 21 February.

Languages, with their complex implications for identity, communication, social integration, education and development, are of strategic importance for people and the planet, says the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

“Yet, due to globalisation processes, they are increasingly under threat, or disappearing altogether. When languages fade, so does the world’s rich tapestry of cultural diversity. Opportunities, traditions, memory, unique modes of thinking and expression — valuable resources for ensuring a better future — are also lost.”

Mother tongues in education

The International Mother Language Day recognises that languages and multilingualism can advance inclusion, and the Sustainable Development Goals’ focus on leaving no one behind.

UNESCO believes education, based on the first language or mother tongue, must begin from the early years as early childhood care and education is the foundation of learning.

This year’s observance is a call on policymakers, educators and teachers, parents and families to scale up their commitment to multilingual education, and inclusion in education to advance education recovery in the context of COVID-19.

A full decade for indigenous peoples’ languages

This effort also contributes to the United Nations International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022-2032), for which UNESCO is the lead agency, and which places multilingualism at the heart of indigenous peoples’ development.

Participants at the High-level event, “Making a decade of action for indigenous languages,” on 28 February 2020 issued a strategic roadmap for the Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022-2032) prioritising the empowerment indigenous language users, UNESCO reported.

More than 500 participants from 50 countries, including government ministers, indigenous leaders, researchers, public and private partners, and other stakeholders and experts, adopted the Los Pinos Declaration, at the end of the two-day event in Mexico City, which was organised by UNESCO and Mexico.

“Nothing for us without us”

The Declaration places indigenous peoples at the centre of its recommendations under the slogan “Nothing for us without us.”

The Declaration, designed to inspire a global plan of action for the Decade, calls for the implementation of the internationally recognized rights of indigenous peoples, expressed notably in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of 2007, the UN System-wide Action Plan (SWAP) on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of 2017, among several others.

On the verge of extinction

In its strategic recommendations for the Decade, the Los Pinos Declaration emphasises indigenous peoples’ rights to “freedom of expression, to an education in their mother tongue and to participation in public life using their languages, as prerequisites for the survival of indigenous languages many of which are currently on the verge of extinction.”

With regard to participation in public life, the Declaration highlights the importance of enabling the use of indigenous languages in justice systems, the media, labour and health programmes. It also points to the potential of digital technologies in supporting the use and preservation of those languages.

Building on the lessons learnt during the International Year of Indigenous Languages (2019), the Declaration recognises the importance of indigenous languages to social cohesion and inclusion, cultural rights, health and justice and highlights their relevance to sustainable development and the preservation of biodiversity as they maintain ancient and traditional knowledge that binds humanity with nature.

But, what is a “mother tongue”?

According to the United Nations Association – UK (UNA-UK), Your ‘mother language’, or ‘mother tongue’, is the language you spoke from earliest childhood. For most people, this is just one language but children in multilingual families may learn two simultaneously.

UNESCO considers mother languages to be an essential part of culture and identity, and carriers of values and knowledge.

They are vital to the preservation and transmission of traditions, expressions, songs, jokes and rituals, which make all our lives richer, adds the Association, which was founded in 1945, advocating for UK action at the UN; and is the UK’s leading source of analysis on the UN; with a vibrant grassroots movement of 20,000 people from all walks of life.

UNESCO recommends that countries that have a bilingual or multilingual education system (where they use one or more official languages) give its school students the opportunity to use their mother tongue as their language of instruction.

Research shows that particularly in early years education, use of a child’s mother tongue helps to create a strong foundation for learning.

“However, in some countries, a particular language might be preferred for political or cultural reasons. This can result in the domination of one language in education and other public services.”

People that don’t speak the dominant language or speak it poorly can thus be disadvantaged and in the worst cases, it can lead to discrimination in daily life, exclusion from jobs or services and even oppression, says UNA-UK. “It can also result in other languages becoming endangered and ultimately extinct.”

This piece has been sourced from Inter Press Service

Image: Danilo Valladares / Inter Press Service

Effects of colonialism ‘still being felt to this day’

OWSA Staff

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21 February 2022

0

Effects of colonialism ‘still being felt to this day’

The consequences of colonialism are “still being felt to this day”, United Nation’s secretary general’s chef de cabinet Courtenay Rattray said at a meeting of the special committee on decolonization on Friday. Decolonization remains a work in progress.

Since the birth of the United Nations in October 1945, more than 80 former colonies comprising some 750 million people, have gained independence.

But the process of decolonization continues as 17 Non-Self-Governing Territories (NSGTs), home to nearly two million people remain.

Completing the mandate will require the special committee to continue dialogue among the administering powers, the 29 different nations that make up the special committee, and the non-self-governing territories.

Speaking at a meeting of the special committee on decolonization on Friday on behalf of United Nations’ Secretary-General António Guterres, his chef de cabinet Courtenay Rattray reminded the participants of the challenges which face the so-called Non-Self-Governing Territories which remain around the world.

“Global cooperation is central to addressing its impacts”, he underscored, urging the Committee, also known as C-24, to “commit to making 2022 a year of recovery for everyone”.

A unique platform

The Special Committee is “a unique platform to promote the implementation of the Declaration on Decolonization”, in accordance with all relevant resolutions, the senior UN official said.

Last year, the C-24 made every effort for the territories and others to engage and be heard.

Rattray drew attention to new working methods, that allow the Committee to hear first from the territories before considering related resolutions.

The C-24 remains committed to the fulfilling its mandate, he assured.

He described transparent and constructive dialogue as “pivotal” in opening further opportunities which could see progress towards full decolonization.

Guided by the UN Charter and relevant resolutions, “the Secretariat will continue to support the Special Committee in its work to promote decolonization”, the chef de cabinet concluded.

COVID in the mix

The under-secretary-general for political and peacebuilding affairs, Rosemary DiCarlo, pointed out that the “health, social and economic consequences of COVID-19” have served to compound the development challenges that territories have long faced.

“Addressing these impacts requires improved global cooperation and solidarity”, including vaccine equity to enable COVID inoculations that are affordable and accessible to all, she said.

“Vaccinationalism is self-defeating and will only delay global recovery”, added Ms. DiCarlo, encouraging countries to stick to the commitment to leave no-one behind.

Constructive relationships ‘indispensable’

This session marks the beginning of the Fourth International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism and December 2020 marked the 60th anniversary of the decolonization declaration.

The committee continues its efforts to implement the declaration and is further determined to strengthen informal dialogues with “administering powers” – the countries which continue to hold or claim sovereignty over territories – and other stakeholders, according to the UN political chief.

“A constructive relationship with all involved is indispensable for the advancement of the decolonization process, on a case-by-case basis”, she said.

In closing, DiCarlo stressed that expediting the decolonization process is “imperative” and urged everyone to “engage in new dynamics” to address the challenges ahead.

Image: United Nations — A man identified as Oumar, who was at risk of statelessness, holds his father’s identity card from French colonial times.

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