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    Targeting Only Russian Oligarchs, a Historic Mistake

    Inter Press Service
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    Targeting Only Russian Oligarchs, a Historic Mistake

    All illicit financial flows should be targeted, not just those from Russian oligarchs. All assets should be placed in public beneficial ownership registries for everyone to see. These registries should be connected to a multilateral Global Asset Registry. 

    By Matti Kohonen

    The war in Ukraine has highlighted Russian kleptocrats funnelling billions of dollars out of the country and investing them in London and other major global financial centres, prompting political leaders in Europe and USA to crack down on this shady money. Russian oligarchs are believed to hold as much as $1 trillion in wealth abroad, often hidden in offshore companies whose true ownership is hard to determine.

    Focusing only on Russian oligarchs however would be a terrible mistake.

    In a bid to undermine Russian’s war effort, the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, UK, Canada and the US announced the launch of a transatlantic task force against Russian oligarchs and officials close to the Kremlin and their lawyers, real estate agents and other ‘enablers’, aiming to identify and freeze their assets held in their jurisdictions. Yet this declaration does no say anything about kleptocrats everywhere, such as those in developing countries who use Global North tax havens to hide their assets.

    Laundered by criminals

    Last year the Pandora Papers investigation, for instance, showed that hundreds of public officials in 90 countries such as Kenya and Jordan used shell company schemes to hide wealth offshore and avoid taxes with the assistance of global banks and law firms – revealing among others that South Dakota had become the tax haven of choice.

    More recently, the Suisse Secrets investigation led by the Offshore Crime and Corruption Reporting Project showed that Credit Suisse bank handled $100 billion in hidden wealth of thousands of clients – the majority of them from developing countries including Venezuela, Egypt and Ukraine – linked to corruption, drug trafficking and other major crimes.

    Tackling offshore secrecy and tax abuses, not just from Russian kleptocrats, has never been more urgent than today as the world also continues to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Every year $1.6 trillion is laundered by criminals, equivalent to 2.7 percent of global GDP, while $7 trillion in private wealth is hidden in haven countries. Meanwhile 100 million people are expected to be pushed into extreme poverty as a result of the pandemic, while the gap between rich and poor continues to grow.

    A year ago, the United Nations Financial Accountability, Transparency and Integrity (FACTI) panel proposed 14 recommendations to overhaul the financial system, fight tax evasion and crimes and generate a fair global tax system. The report was endorsed in a UN General Assembly resolution in November 2021 and would have helped tackle the growing power and influence Russian kleptocrats, but was largely ignored as rich countries do not want to share the proceeds from these shady deals.

    Target illicit financial flows

    Yet things seem to be changing. Prime minister Boris Johnson’s recent promise to rush forward a public register to reveal the ultimate owners of properties across the UK is welcome news. An estimated $230 billion-worth of UK property is held overseas, much of it anonymously to avoid publicity, and escape money laundering or tax laws, or worse.

    Meanwhile Switzerland is now pledging to freeze assets of 367 sanctioned Russian individuals and companies, a historic step for this country in freezing assets of people linked to illicit funds. Swiss national bank data showed that Russian companies and individuals for example held assets worth more than $11 billion in Swiss banks in 2020, an underestimate given most assets are not held directly.

    But this is not enough. For one, all illicit financial flows should be targeted, not just those from Russian oligarchs, while all assets should be placed in public beneficial ownership registries for everyone to see. Crucially, these registries should be connected to a multilateral system called a Global Asset Registry where all assets would be listed, as suggested by the independent commission for the reform of international corporate taxation (ICRICT) and major economists like Thomas Piketty and Gabriel Zucman.

    Clamp down on kleptocrats

    Currently, organisations or individuals trying to hunt for hidden wealth are still often served with pre-action letters by top law firms and threatened with lawsuits after they are named. For instance, Tom Burgis, who wrote the book Kleptopia about dirty money in conquering the world is being sued now by a London company owned by oligarchs from the former Soviet Union. Similarly, Swiss journalists were not able to participate in reporting the Suisse Secrets due to the country’s draconian banking secrecy laws which make this a crime.

    The Ukraine crisis should be seen as a historic opportunity to clamp down on kleptocrats everywhere, not just the Russians, putting an end to the secret world of finance that enables them to hide and launder their shady money. The last time a similar opportunity arose was following the attacks in the United States on 9/11 when the authorities wanted to uncover terrorist funding networks and assets, but no significant public wealth and asset registries were introduced, and reforms ignored real estate money laundering, ultimately being ineffective. We cannot afford to repeat the same mistake.

    Matti Kohonen is director of the Financial Transparency Coalition, a major global coalition of organisations working on tax crimes, money laundering and illicit financial flows. 

     

    This piece has been sourced from the Inter Press Service.

    Drugs pollute rivers, add to resistance crisis

    SciDevNet
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    Drugs pollute rivers, add to resistance crisis

    Pharmaceutical pollution could contribute to antimicrobial resistance and affect human health, says a river study that finds the highest concentrations in SouthAsia, Africa and South America.

    By Pablo Corso / SciDev.Net

    Pharmaceutical pollution in the world’s rivers is threatening environmental and human health and the attainment of UN goals on water quality, with developing countries the worst affected, a global study warns.

    Active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) could be contributing to antimicrobial resistance in microorganisms, and may have unknown long-term effects on human health, as well as harming aquatic life, according to the report published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

    APIs – the chemicals used to make pharmaceutical drugs – can reach the natural environment during their manufacture, use and disposal, according to the study.

    Researchers say they monitored 1,052 sampling sites along 258 rivers in 104 countries, representing the “pharmaceutical fingerprint” of 471 million people linked to these areas.

    The highest cumulative concentrations of APIs were seen in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and South America, with the most contaminated sites found in low-to-middle income countries where waste water management infrastructure is often poor, the report says.

    Exposure for lifetime

    Concentrations of at least one API at 25.7 per cent of the sampling sites were greater than those considered safe for aquatic organisms, it reveals. The most frequently detected substances were the antiepileptic carbamazepine and the antihyperglycemic metformin.

    Although the risks of consuming these chemicals individually are low, people could be exposed to a complex mixture of pharmaceuticals throughout their lifetime, said co-author Alistair Boxall, a professor of environmental science at the University of York in the UK.

    “Some of the pharmaceuticals we detected act through the same mechanism of action, so we think the effects of these will just add up,” he told SciDev.Net. “The mixture effects of pharmaceuticals with different modes of action is tougher to assess”.

    Following the publication of the paper, the authors began to perform studies to clarify that question. “Early results suggest that some of the more polluted mixes are extremely toxic to plants and invertebrates,” said Boxall.

    Waste dumping, manufacturing

    On-the-ground observations revealed high API concentrations at sites receiving inputs from pharmaceutical manufacturing such as Lagos, Nigeria, or discharge of untreated sewage, such as Tunis, Tunisia, and those receiving emissions from sewage extractor trucks and waste dumping, as in Nairobi, Kenya.

    The highest mean concentrations were detected in Lahore, Pakistan (70.8 micrograms per liter), La Paz, Bolivia (68.9 µg/L) and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (51.3 µg/L).

    “Some of the most polluted sites were associated with waste dumping,” said Boxall. “We suspect they receive waste illegally from Europe and North America. We need to stop these practices.”

    “Manufacturing is also a major contributor so we need to encourage industry to better treat their releases.”

    Marcos Cipponeri, president of Cap-Net, a body of organisations specialising in water resources in Argentina, also singled out wastewater treatment systems.

    La Plata River, in South America, “is both a receptor of sewage flows and a source of drinkable water”, he said. “And most of the treatment plants of Buenos Aires [a province which is home to 17 million people in Argentina] are not properly operated”.

    Climate change and contaminants

    Cipponeri also highlighted the connection between climate change and the presence of contaminants.

    “As the average temperature increases, there is less rain and snow to supply water for rivers. Their dilution capacity is weakened, leading to a higher concentration of pollutants,” explained Cipponeri, who did not take part in the study.

    The compounds with the highest percentage of sites exceeding safe concentrations were sulfamethoxazole (in Africa), ciprofloxacin (Asia), propranolol (Europe), enrofloxacin (Oceania), propranolol and sulfamethoxazole (North America), clarithromycin, enrofloxacin and metronidazole (South America).

    “Sulfamethoxazole and propanol will be affecting the ecology of the rivers whereas ciprofloxacin, enrofloxacin, clarithromycin and metronidazole will be selecting for antimicrobial resistance [AMR] and possibly affecting primary production through their effects on bacteria and cyanobacteria in the environment,” said Boxall.

    Antimicrobial resistance occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites no longer respond to medicines that formerly killed them, due to genetic changes and adaptation. “Lack of clean water and sanitation and inadequate infection prevention and control promotes the spread of microbes, some of which can be resistant to antimicrobial treatment,” the World Health Organization states.

    “The AMR Industry Alliance [a coalition of biotech and pharmaceutical companies] is working to encourage industry to better treat their releases, but there is still a long way to go,” added Boxall.

    “We not only need tighter regulation but also to start introducing low cost and low maintenance treatment approaches that can be applied at a very local scale,” he recommended.

    Need global collaboration

    Low complexity sewage treatment plants, such as stabilisation ponds, are simple to operate and can purify sewage if well managed, says Cipponeri.

    “But they are only useful for isolated households. At a large scale, their nitrate-derived compounds are still contaminants,” he cautioned. “In urban areas, a sewage network should always be the first choice.”

    The researchers warn that API pollution may risk achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6.3, which aims to “improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping and minimising release of hazardous chemicals and materials”.

    As we move toward 2030, environmental monitoring should involve inclusive and interconnected efforts, they suggest. “Only through global collaboration will we be able to generate the monitoring data required to make informed decisions on mitigation approaches,” the study concludes.

     

    This piece has been sourced from SciDev.Net

    Image: Neil Palmer (IWMI)

    Sri Lanka: UN Report Describes Alarming Rights Situation

    OWSA Staff
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    Sri Lanka: UN Report Describes Alarming Rights Situation

    UN’s human rights body has recommended targeted sanctions on Sri Lankan rights violators, pursuing justice for international crimes and providing asylum for Sri Lankans at risk of persecution.

    The report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on Sri Lanka shows the rights situation in alarming decline and contradicts government claims of improvement, Human Rights Watch said today. The report, issued on February 25, 2022, documents discrimination against religious and ethnic minorities and security forces’ targeting of civil society groups, while accountability for past abuses has been blocked.

    UN member states should carry out High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet’s recommendations, including by imposing targeted sanctions on alleged Sri Lankan rights violators, pursuing justice for international crimes committed in Sri Lanka through universal jurisdiction, providing asylum for Sri Lankans at risk of persecution, and supporting the UN Accountability Project mandated by the Human Rights Council in 2021. The UN should apply human rights due diligence standards in its engagement with the Sri Lankan security forces, and review Sri Lanka’s contributions to UN peacekeeping operations.

    “The Sri Lankan government has responded to international scrutiny of its rights record with a false and misleading public relations offensive,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “UN member countries should redouble their efforts to press the Sri Lankan government to make real progress on rights.”

    Sri Lanka’s devastating civil war, from 1983 to 2009, between the government and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) resulted in numerous abuses by both sides. The UN documented large-scale war crimes by government forces and the LTTE in the final months of the war. Instead of providing accountability for abuses, the current government, led by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, is pursuing policies that are hostile to the Tamil and Muslim communities, while using the security forces to intimidate and suppress human rights activists and the families of victims of enforced disappearance. Abuses, including torture, arbitrary detention, and extrajudicial killings, have continued.

    War crimes, disappearances

    The High Commissioner noted in her report that the current government “has continued to demonstrate its unwillingness to recognise those serious international crimes and pursue accountability,” and instead has appointed “some military officials who may have been implicated in alleged war crimes into the highest levels of Government.” Those who held command responsibility for alleged violations include President Rajapaksa, Defense Secretary Kamal Gunaratne, and the army chief, Gen. Shavendra Silva.

    The UN report highlights the case of former Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda, who was charged in connection with the enforced disappearance of 11 people in 2008 and 2009 until the attorney general dropped the charges in August 2021. In December, President Rajapaksa appointed him a provincial governor.

    The High Commissioner described a growing militarization of civilian government functions, including law enforcement. She highlighted the large number of military checkpoints in the Tamil majority Northern Province, where there are “complaints of discriminatory treatment or harassment… particularly for women.” In the Eastern Province, the UN recorded 45 land disputes involving government officials and members of minority communities between January and November 2021. Bachelet found that minority communities fear that a government program to identify and construct Buddhist sites is “being used to change the demographic landscape of the [eastern] region.”

    Targeting civil society

    In addition to Tamils and Muslims, Christians also face abuses and discrimination. Bachelet wrote that the victims of the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings, in which a militant Islamist group targeted churches and hotels, killing over 260 people, “continue to call urgently for truth, justice, reparation for victims and a full account of the circumstances that permitted those attacks, in particular the role of the security establishment.” On February 18, a former senior police investigator filed a petition in the Supreme Court alleging that military intelligence officers had sought to protect the bombers prior to the attacks.

    The authorities have continued to target civil society groups, including human rights defenders and the families of victims of past violations who are campaigning for justice, Bachelet found. Activists are “regularly visited in their offices or homes or called by the police for inquiries,” while, in the north and east, “[o]rganisations report being unable to work without surveillance” and have to “get approval from the [government] district secretariat for any activity.”

    Abusive law

    Bachelet also detailed how the authorities have repeatedly sought to prevent members of the Tamil community from commemorating those who died in the civil war, while “[r]eports indicate that at least 70 people have been arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) for sharing social media posts commemorating victims of the war.”

    The PTA has been used for decades to enable prolonged arbitrary detention and torture. A recent Human Rights Watch report documented that the Rajapaksa administration has used the law to target Tamils and Muslims, as well as civil society figures, including lawyers, journalists, and opposition politicians. On February 10, amid growing international pressure, including from the European Union, the Sri Lankan government submitted amendments to the law.

    In her report, High Commissioner Bachelet found that the “proposed amendments do not comply fully with Sri Lanka’s international human rights obligations and leave intact some of the most problematic provisions of the PTA,” and said that the government should address the “five key benchmarks identified by seven Special Procedures [UN experts] mandates… as ‘necessary prerequisites’ to ensure the PTA is amended to be compliant with international law obligations.”

    On March 2, UN rights experts said the proposed amendments fell short of Sri Lanka’s international human rights obligations. They said there should be an immediate moratorium on the use of the law and that “[t]he actions of the Sri Lankan Government call into question its commitment to reform.”

    Targeting minorities, protecting violators

    Foreign Minister G.L. Peiris has told diplomats that the Office of Missing Persons, which was set up in 2017 to establish what happened to victims of enforced disappearance, and the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, are part of a domestic effort to provide “accountability” and “meaningful reconciliation.”

    However, the UN High Commissioner found that the policy of the Office of Missing Persons “seems to be aimed at reducing the case load and closing files rather than a comprehensive approach to establish the truth and ensure justice and redress to families.” In October, the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions found that the status of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka should be downgraded, due to its lack of independence from the government.

    “The Sri Lankan government is actively targeting minorities and civil society groups, while it protects alleged rights violators and undermines the rule of law,” Ganguly said. “Victims of abuses and vulnerable groups are depending on the United Nations and Sri Lanka’s international partners to keep up the pressure, to help protect what remains of civil society space, and to push for justice and accountability.”

    Myanmar’s pandemic politics goes international

    OWSA Contributor
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    Myanmar’s pandemic politics goes international

    Pandemic control is now materialising as a marker of domestic legitimacy. Effective control of territory, democratic legitimacy and adherence to international law are some of the main criteria for recognition of government.

    By Htet Myat Aung

    Controlling the COVID-19 pandemic is becoming a political battleground and diplomatic tool in Myanmar. The country remains embroiled in political and economic turmoil after the 2021 coup, with political competition between two rival governments — the military junta and the National Unity Government (NUG) — escalating. Both sides are still struggling to gain international recognition as the official government of Myanmar more than one year after the coup.

    Pandemic control is now materialising as a marker of domestic legitimacy. Effective control of territory, democratic legitimacy and adherence to international law are some of the main criteria for recognition of government. Pandemic management operations require both effective control and legitimacy, creating a battleground for both sides to show their capabilities.

    Myanmar’s parallel government, the NUG, has initiated the first phase of its vaccination plan in four border areas. Despite not holding any territory, the NUG has the backing of several ethnic armed organisations (EAOs) that act as de facto governments in their sizable territories, and established the COVID-19 Task Force (CTF) jointly with ethnic health organisations. The CTF did not mention who provided the vaccines for its first joint vaccination program, but they may be imported across borders according to working policy. This indicates strong relations between the NUG and EAOs, as well as territorial control along the border.

    Belt and road

    Paralleling the NUG’s plan, the military junta’s nationwide immunisation plan began with vaccines supplied by Russia and China. Although General Min Aung Hlaing aimed for 50 per cent of the population to be vaccinated by the end of 2021, only 37 per cent were fully vaccinated by January 2022. Deep distrust of the military junta has permeated since their killing of over 1500 civilians and accusations of crimes against humanity — this failure to reach vaccination expectations reflects a lack of acceptance of the military junta by the general population.

    The politicisation of the pandemic in Myanmar is not confined to domestic groups — international actors have also entered the battleground for their own gains. China, an important neighbour of Myanmar, is delivering vaccines and aid to both the junta and some EAOs who have fought for decades against the military — and it has already delivered almost 20 million doses.

    As many Belt and Road Initiative projects in Myanmar are in politically tumultuous areas, China is willing to build strong relations with both sides. Since China vetoed a joint UN Security Council statement condemning the junta in February 2021, anti-China sentiment in Myanmar has intensified and raised concerns that Chinese investments could be threatened. The provision of vaccines is a political play for the Chinese government to build relations with both sides, ensuring the security of Chinese investments in Myanmar without needing to grant political recognition to either side.

    Of ransoms and investments

    Former US diplomat Bill Richardson has also visited Myanmar under the guise of delivering humanitarian aid, including COVID-19 vaccines. But the underlying political purpose of the trip soon became clear — a meeting with coup leaders and other officials aided the release of detained US journalist Danny Fenster.

    Also stepping into the political battleground was Don Pramudwinai, the Thai Minister of Foreign Affairs, with a sudden visit accompanying humanitarian supplies. Sharing a 2400-kilometre border, Thailand is a key foreign investor in Myanmar with PTT — a Thai state-owned oil and gas company — continuing to work with junta-controlled companies.

    Although Don denied that vaccines were among the aid delivered, Thai media sources believe otherwise. Recognising the concern of the Thai private sector, Thailand appears to have established relations with the junta under the pretext of providing aid, but with the intention of ensuring security for Thai investments in Myanmar while also avoiding international condemnation.

    Prioritise humanitarian aid

    The politicisation of the pandemic in Myanmar fails to address much more pressing concerns. The detection of the Omicron variant in January 2022 is quickly becoming a primary concern, with a third wave decimating a barely functioning health system. According to the UN Development Programme, the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with economic free fall due to the coup, has brought nearly half of Myanmar’s population into poverty.

    The international community should prioritise humanitarian aid to Myanmar over political interests and adopt a multi-pronged approach including ASEAN’s five-point consensus for the delivery of humanitarian assistance and COVID-19 relief. Aid received through the military-controlled system should be administered in a way that prevents misuse, noting the disappearance of vast sums of the IMF’s pandemic relief funding under the junta regime.

    The international community should also recognise that negotiations with the military junta when transporting vaccines through military-controlled airports and transport routes does not equate to a recognition of its legitimacy. To ease the impending health crisis as Omicron cases increase, the international community should step off the political battleground and instead prepare to deliver necessary assistance to Myanmar.

     

    Htet Myat Aung is a former peace ambassador to Myanmar for the Institute for Economics and Peace.

     

    This piece has bee sourced from the East Asia Forum of the Australian National University

    Over 56 killed and more than 190 injured in Pakistan mosque suicide attack

    OWSA Contributor
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    Over 56 killed and more than 190 injured in Pakistan mosque suicide attack

    A suicide bomber targeted a Shia mosque in the Koocha Risaldar area of Peshawar.

    At least 56 worshippers were killed and 194 others were wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a Friday prayers congregation inside a Shia mosque located in the Koocha Risaldar area of interior city, police and doctors said.
    Lady Reading Hospital, city’s largest tertiary care hospital, confirmed 52 deaths and 194 injures including 10 critical wounded. On the other hand, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police chief Moazza Jah Ansari said that the bombing was the work of one sole attacker, who first targeted the police guards deputed to protect the mosque.
    Ansari said that a policeman was killed at the gate while the others were critically wounded. The police chief said that he attacker then rushed inside the mosque, where he detonated explosives strapped to his body in the third row of the mosque. He said that six kilograms of explosives were used in the attack.

    UN’s Political Hypocrisy– as Multi-Million Dollar Purchases Continue from a Blacklisted Russia

    Inter Press Service
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    UN’s Political Hypocrisy– as Multi-Million Dollar Purchases Continue from a Blacklisted Russia

    The UN has rules and guidelines for ethical behaviour of suppliers and contractors. But the violation of a country’s sovereignty and the invasion of a member state are not part of those rules.

    By Thalif Deen / Inter Press Service

    The world’s financial institutions, primarily in the US and Europe, have cut off links and economically ostracized Russia for its invasion of Ukraine and violation of the UN charter.

    UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres lambasted the Russians declaring the military invasion “a violation of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine– and inconsistent with the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.”

    The White House announced last week that the United States and allies will kick certain Russian banks out of a major international banking system, a significant step in a bid to cripple the Russian economy.

    Meanwhile, the International Criminal Court in The Hague, has already announced plans to launch a war crime investigation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

    But despite the fact that Russia has been politically and economically isolated as an international pariah, the UN Secretariat is continuing its relationship with Russian companies — buying goods and services, primarily relating to air transportation, information and communication technologies (ICT) and food catering, mostly for the UN’s 12 peacekeeping missions.

    UN trade links

    The approved budget for UN Peacekeeping operations for the fiscal year 1 July 2021 – 30 June 2022 is a staggering $6.38 billion. (A/C.5/75/25) — and payments to Russian contractors will flow largely from this budget.

    An equally valid question is: how will the UN pay for these purchases and services when Russians have been barred from most of the international banking system.

    Last week, the US, Canada and Europe tightened financial restrictions on Russia with a new ban that blocks seven Russian banks from using SWIFT, the global messaging system that enables bank transactions. The move was aimed at disrupting Russia’s ability to do business across borders.

    According to the latest available figures, the UN’s purchases from Russia amounted to about $132.3 million in 2020, with Moscow listed as the fifth largest supplier behind UAE, USA, Kenya and Switzerland.

    The UN also has trade links with Russia’s largest helicopter operator, UTair – Helicopter Services, described as a leading provider of aviation services to companies in the fuel and energy industries, plus the United Nations.

    There have also been rumors that some of the contracting firms have links to Russian oligarchs and high-ranking political officials who have been crippled by US and Western European sanctions.

    But apparently not at the United Nations. An Asian diplomat characterized it as UN’s “sheer political hypocrisy”.

    War and ethical behaviour?

    US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said February 25 the United States is inflicting unprecedented costs on President Putin and those around him for their brutal and unprovoked assault on the people of Ukraine.

    “We are united with our allies and partners in our commitment to ensure the Russian government pays a severe economic and diplomatic price for its further invasion of Ukraine, a sovereign and democratic state”, he added.

    Meanwhile, the head of the UN’s Department of Operational Support, did not respond to two messages — seeking comments on the continued UN trade and economic relationship with Russia.

    But Farhan Haque, the UN’s deputy spokesperson, was more forthcoming, when he told IPS: “What we can say is that if specific UN sanctions were imposed on the Russian Federation, or sanctions against a particular company or their principals that would affect their ability to perform, then of course we would comply.”

    The UN does, however, lay down strict rules and guidelines for ethical behaviour of suppliers and contractors. But the violation of a country’s sovereignty and the invasion of a member state are not part of those rules.

    UN core values

    According to UN guidelines, suppliers and contractors must comply with the United Nations Supplier Code of Conduct and General Conditions of Contract, in particular, the provisions on sexual exploitation, child labour, discrimination, conditions of work and harassment.

    The UN Procurement Division also reminds the UN supplier community, that as a UN registered supplier “you have accepted the United Nations Supplier Code of Conduct, which reflects the core values outlined in the Charter of the United Nations” But a blatant violation of that same charter is apparently not a reason for expulsion.

    Meanwhile, the killing spree continues. As of March 3, more than 250 were killed and over 550 injured in continued attacks by Russian military forces inside Ukraine.

    The UN has warned that while the scale and scope of displacement is not yet clear, it is expecting more than 10 million people to flee their homes if violence continues, including 4 million people who may cross borders to neighbouring countries triggering a major humanitarian crisis in Europe.

     

    This piece has been sourced from Inter Press Service

     

    Image: UN

    Sri Lanka’s fertiliser sell out to China

    OWSA Contributor
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    Sri Lanka’s fertiliser sell out to China

    China’s arm-twisting tactics are adding to Sri Lanka’s woes as the island nation struggles with foreign currency reserves and teeters on the edge of a grim economic precipice. 

    By Shakthi De Silva

    Sri Lanka is saddled with annual foreign debt settlements of US$4.5 billion for the foreseeable future. Notions of an investment friendly hub are satirised by the reality on the ground, with people standing in long queues waiting for daily essentials like milk powder and gas cylinders for cooking. These developments come amid an economic slowdown brought about by COVID-19, poor fiscal and monetary policies, and an abrupt decision to ban the importation of chemical fertiliser which gravely impacted local harvests.

    The decision was made in April 2021 by an ‘out of touch with reality’ President Gotabaya Rajapaksa who believed that a prohibition on chemical fertiliser would increase his popularity as a promoter of organic farming and save much needed US dollars flowing out of the country. His attempt to proverbially ‘kill two birds with one stone’ backfired dramatically. Protests erupted throughout the country as farmers took to the streets demanding the continued importation of chemical fertilisers or the provision of a substitute organic fertiliser.

    Disregarding local laws

    The Gotabaya regime reached out to China and imported organic fertiliser from Qingdao Seawin Biotech. Initial tests on samples carried out in Sri Lanka confirmed that Qingdao’s fertiliser contained a  microorganism identified as ‘Erwinia’ which could cause crop failure. The Ceylon Fertilizer Company halted payments to Qingdao Seawin Biotech for the organic fertiliser. The Colombo High Court promptly ordered Sri Lanka’s People’s Bank to freeze the disbursement. The ship carrying the consignment of Chinese fertiliser was also denied entry into Sri Lankan ports.

    Qingdao Seawin Biotech responded by demanding a US$8 million compensation from Sri Lanka’s National Plant Quarantine Services, asserting that failure to pay the sum in three days would result in legal action. The Chinese Embassy in Colombo tweeted that Sri Lanka’s People’s Bank would be blacklisted for freezing payments, despite the bank simply adhering to the High Court’s ruling. A local journalist observed that, ‘by slapping sanctions on People’s Bank, China could be showing disregard for domestic legal procedures, despite consistently maintaining internationally that it respects each country’s local processes, independence and sovereignty’.

    The ship did not return to China after being blocked from entry to Sri Lanka. Instead, it left for Singapore and reportedly changed its name. Vessel tracking technology helped reporters locate the ship in Hambantota in southern Sri Lanka where China currently manages a port under a 99 year lease.

    China’s heavy-handed approach forced the Sri Lankan government to back down. A government spokesperson stated that 75 per cent of the US$8 million will be paid out as compensation to Qingdao Seawin Biotech, despite Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange crisis. Sri Lankan Agriculture Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage admitted that, ‘we cannot afford to damage diplomatic relations over this issue’. This highlighted the degree of leverage that China exercised.

    China’s bitter pill

    Recent reports indicate that Sri Lanka plans to order a new consignment of organic fertiliser from Qingdao Biotech even though the company doubled the price of fertiliser that was initially agreed upon by the two parties. The Agriculture Minister also designated a committee to alter quality standards to enable Qingdao Biotech’s fertiliser to be imported and, in a move to conform to Qingdao’s demands, fertiliser samples will be tested in a laboratory recommended by the company. The incident reflects Beijing’s ability to arm-twist small states when they challenge a Chinese firm or the Chinese government’s stance.

    Sri Lanka’s weak economic position, coupled with the Rajapaksa family’s past connections with Chinese President Xi Jinping, undermines Sri Lanka’s ability to exercise independent agency and autonomy. The fertiliser debacle also demonstrates the likelihood that small states — particularly ones facing economic hardships relating to debt repayment — will be forced to swallow China’s ‘bitter pill’ regardless of whether it is in the national interest of the country.

     

    Shakthi De Silva is a Visiting Lecturer at the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies and is currently pursuing his postgraduate studies at the National University of Singapore.

    This piece has been sourced from East Asia Forum of the Australian National University

    UN body urges Canadian government to amend discriminatory Indian Act

    OWSA Contributor
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    UN body urges Canadian government to amend discriminatory Indian Act

    Under Canada’s Indian Act, the federal government maintains that indigenous people must have “status Indian” registration to be able to access to rights and benefits.

    The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) called on Thursday, for Canada to fully address long-standing gender-based discrimination in its Indian Act, which continues to affect tens of thousands of descendants of indigenous women today.

    In the findings, the Committee found that, by being prevented from passing their indigenous status onto new generations, J.E.M. – a matrilineal indigenous descendant from a long line of leaders of the Capilano Community – and his children, were victims of violations rooted in the discriminatory nature of Canada’s Indian Act, the primary law used to administer indigenous peoples.
    Native Indigenous Canada Canadian Indian
    Losing his ethnicity
    The committee cited the case of J.E.M., whose grandmother was a member of the indigenous Squamish Nation in British Colombia.
    She was forcibly taken from her community and placed in a residential school to assimilate her and other indigenous children into Euro-Western culture.
    His grandmother was made to learn English and practice Christianity, and later married a non-indigenous man, which, according to the Indian Act, meant that she was no longer indigenous.
    “The entire issue stems from the disrespect of indigenous people’s fundamental right to self-identification,” said Committee member Corinne Dettmeijer.
    Piecemeal exceptions
    Under the Act, the “status Indian” registered with the federal Government, is a condition for gaining access to rights and benefits, such as health-care services, financial support for education, the rights to reside on indigenous territories and hunt and fish on indigenous traditional lands.
    Prior to 1985, the Indian Act contained explicitly discriminatory provisions against women, including taking away their status if they marry non-indigenous men. Since then, despite numerous legal challenges, Canada has only amended the discriminatory provisions with piecemeal changes rather than ending the discrimination entirely.
    As J.E.M. is a disenfranchised matrilineal indigenous descendant, he was denied his indigenous identity until 2011, when he could only recover limited status.
    And it was not until 2019 that J.E.M.’s children were recognized as indigenous.
    However, under the Indian Act, they will not have the right to freely pass their indigenous status on to the next generation.
    CEDAW found that by being prevented from passing their indigenous status on to new generations, JEM and his children were victims of violations.
    “It is further exacerbated by the unequal criteria by which men and women are permitted to transmit indigenous status and identity to their descendants,” Corinne Dettmeijer asserted.
    Legislation need amending
    After multiple failed attempts to challenge the Indian Act in Canada, J.E.M brought his petition to CEDAW, which declared provisions of the Indian Act discriminatory to the descendants of disenfranchised indigenous women.
    “Descendants of indigenous Indian grandfathers would never have lost their status and have always been able to pass on their status to their children,” Dettmeijer pointed out.
    Totem pole Native Indian Vancouver
    The Committee recommended that Canada provide appropriate reparation to J.E.M. and his children, including recognizing them as indigenous people with full legal capacity, and allowing them to freely transmit their indigenous status and identity to their descendants.
    It also called on Canada to amend its legislation to enshrine the fundamental criterion of self-identification, and to provide registration to all matrilineal descendants on an equal basis to patrilineal descendants.

     

    Image: Hippopx, licensed to use under Creative Commons Zero – CC0

    Education: Budget cuts funds for minority education bodies

    OWSA Contributor
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    Education: Budget cuts funds for minority education bodies

    Muslims and other religious minorities in India have been lagging behind on development indicators pertaining to educational attainment, gender equality and workforce participation. 

    Jawed A Khan

    Despite several minority development initiatives by the government, Muslims and other religious minorities in India have been lagging behind on development indicators pertaining to educational attainment, gender equality and workforce participation. It is found that Muslims account for the highest proportion of out of school children (4.43 per cent) in the country.

    Over the last couple of decades, there have been two policy strategies focusing on the development of religious minorities in the country. They are the Prime Minister’s New 15 Point Programme (15 Point Programme) for welfare of minorities and the Multi Sectoral Development Programme (MSDP), introduced in 2006 and 2008, respectively. The MSDP was renamed as the Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikas Karyakram (PMJVK) in 2018. With regard to the interventions under these policy strategies, the 15 Point Programme for the welfare of minorities focuses on enhancing opportunities for education, an equitable share in economic activities and employment, improving living conditions, and prevention and control of communal riots.

    Resources allocated

    No new scheme has been announced for the development of minorities nor have minorities been mentioned in the Union Budget speech for 2022-23. There is a hike of four per cent in the Union Budget over the previous year’s budget (an increase of Rs 210 crore) for the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs, based on a small increase in allocations for the PMJVK. The total budget of the ministry as a proportion of the total Union Budget, however, has declined to 0.12 per cent in 2022-23 (BE) from 0.14 percent in 2021-22 (BE).

    The Minority Affairs Ministry’s budget has been increased from Rs 4,820 crore in 2021-22 (BE) to Rs 5,010 crore in 2022-23 (BE) (the 2021-22 revised estimates figure stands at Rs 4,246.05 crore). The ministry utilised only Rs. 3,920.29 crores in 2020-21 (Actuals) against the BE figure of Rs 5,029 crore for the year.  It also seems that the Union Budget outlays have not been provided in accordance with the demands for funds made by the Ministry. For 2019-20 and 2020-21, Rs 4,700 crore and Rs 5,029 crore were allocated against demands from the ministry for Rs 5,795.26 crore and Rs 6,452 crore, respectively.

    In this budget, schemes relating to the post-matric scholarship, merit cum means scholarships and MSDP/PMJVK have seen small increases in allocation from the previous year’s budget, while several other schemes (such as skill development and women leadership schemes) have seen declines in allocation. The budget allocation for the Maulana Azad Education Foundation (MAEF) has been reduced to Rs 0.01 crore from Rs 90 crore in 2021-22. This will affect the implementation of projects such as construction grants to minority institutions and the Begum Hazrat Mahal Scholarship Scheme for meritorious girls.

    The scheme for madrasas and minorities, which was shifted to the Minority Affairs Ministry from the Ministry of Education last year, has received a reduced budget outlay of Rs 160 crore this year (compared to Rs 174 crore in 2021-22). This might affect the education of children in madrasas due to non-payment of honoraria to teachers. The Ministry of Education has reported Rs 310.22 crore in the revised estimates for 2020-21 for this scheme. The scheme provides financial assistance to introduce modern subjects in Madrasas, teachers’ training and augmenting school infrastructure in minority institutions.

    Implementation of scholarship schemes

    Religious minorities, particularly Muslims, require special attention in the area of educational and economic empowerment. The pre-matric, post-matric and merit-cum-means scholarship schemes face implementation issues with poor coverage of beneficiaries and low unit costs due to inadequate allocations of funds. Usually, utilisation of the budget under the scholarship schemes appears to take place in the last quarter of each financial year. The utilisation in the first three quarters of 2020-21 was only 19 per cent (up to December 2020). Thus, beneficiary students may be receiving their scholarships only towards the end of the academic year.

    The Union Government promised to give one crore scholarships to minorities annually under an umbrella scholarship programme (pre-matric, post-matric and merit-cum-means scholarship schemes) in 2019. As against this benchmark, only 58 lakh students received the scholarships provided by the Ministry of Minority Affairs in 2020-21. During the same year, approximately 1.10 crore applications were received for the scholarships. This shows that 47.5 per cent of the total applicants were deprived of scholarship benefits. As for the post matric scholarship scheme, only 36.7 per cent of total applicants received the scholarship that year.

    Allow for customised interventions

    The amounts given to students as scholarships are not adequate to meet their educational expenses. The unit cost for scholarships in pre-matric, post-matric and merit-cum-means has not been revised since the inception of the schemes in 2007. For instance, only Rs 1,000 per annum is provided to day scholars under the pre-matric scholarship scheme. The scheme for post matric scholarship provides financial support of Rs 7,000 per annum in terms of admission and tuition fee for classes XI and XII and maintenance allowance of Rs 380 per month and Rs 230 per month for hostellers and day scholars, respectively. Only 85 institutes for professional and technical courses have been listed under the merit cum means scholarship scheme. A course fee of Rs 20,000 per annum is reimbursed to students studying in other institutions. Besides, the amount provided as maintenance allowance is a meagre Rs 500 per month for day scholars and Rs 1,000 per month for hostellers.

    The CSS guidelines covered under the 15 Point Programme must allow for appropriate or customised interventions for development of minorities by identifying the development gaps in minority concentrated localities and areas. The design of the 15 Point Programme is not appropriate in terms of comprehensive coverage of the minority population and addressing their development needs until and unless the government initiates / designs some targeted schemes / programmes for minorities. In this respect, instead of the current provision of 15 per cent of funding allocation under the 15 Point Programme, resource allocation should be made as per the diverse needs of minority communities across different sectors. Further, the scholarships should be made demand driven, along with additional financial resources to enhance unit costs. The total budget allocation for the Ministry of Minority Affairs should be significantly increased, given the level of deprivation in the educational attainment of minorities.

     

    Jawed A Khan is with the Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability, New Delhi

    India-Nepal train service struggles to get on track

    OWSA Staff
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    0
    India-Nepal train service struggles to get on track

    Cross border travel will cost a mere 70 Nepali rupees, or less than 50 Indian rupees over a 36 km stretch. But this will have to wait until Nepal’s parliament passes a law to establish the Nepal railway corporation.

    By Laxmi Khanal

    The virtual inauguration of Nepal railway’s service by Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Sher Bahadur Deuba due later this month has run into rough weather – at least for the time being.

    Successful test runs for the railway line between Jayanagar in India and Kurtha in Nepal have been on since 13 February. The daily dry runs have been accompanied by rising hopes by people eager to commute the route. The railway company has yet to confirm when the service will open to public.

    However, there is a spanner in the works as the ordinance to be placed before Nepal’s parliament to allow for an operational railway system has lapsed. The ordinance, according to the rule book of Nepal’s parliament, was valid for 60 days. The Nepal railway company needs a law in sanctioned by the country’s constitution providing for it.

    Renukumari Yadav, Nepal’s minister for physical infrastructure and transport had put in the ordinance on 30 November 2021. She had then argued that any delay to operationalise the train’s commercial service would put the project in jeopardy.

    The Nepal railway company has collaborated with Indian railway’s Konkan railway cooperation for the establishment of the service that will benefit people from both sides of the border. Konkan railway corporation has supplied two diesel locomotives to chug the trains.

    Nepal, on its part, bought two train sets for 846.5 million Nepali rupees in 2020. The trains were kept wrapped under sheets of tarpaulin.

    Nostalgia

    The twice-daily service will service about 5,000 passenger trips over a stretch of 36 kilometres between the two countries for less than 50 Indian rupees (70 Nepali rupees) over 90 mintues with eight stations enroute. A flight ticket from Janakpur to Kathmandu comes for about 25-times that price.

    The railway is not entirely new to the people of Nepal’s plains – it replaces an earlier, extremely crowded but popular, narrow gauge train service. The tracks were laid in 1927 to carry timber from the then-Himalayan kingdom. The route includes the temple town of Janakpur that has a special mythological significance and the train could be a boon for Indian pilgrims flocking there.

    Besides the nostalgia it has evoked, the new railway service has also had its share of controversies, when last year, the Sher Bahadu Deuba government sacked the railway company’s general manager and over a 100 staff hired by his predecessor’s government.

     

    Image: Department of Railways, Government of Nepal

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