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    Human rights violations and culture of impunity in SouthAsia

    Inter Press Service
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    Human rights violations and culture of impunity in SouthAsia

    South Asian countries are grappling with the erosion of democratic norms, growing authoritarianism, the crackdown on freedom of press, speech and dissent, a report by Human Rights Watch says.

    By Sania Farooqui / Inter Press Service

    As countries across South Asia continue to battle the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, causing serious public health and economic crisis, this region, which is home to almost two billion people, is also grappling with the erosion of democratic norms, growing authoritarianism, the crackdown on freedom of press, speech and dissent.

    Despite the committed efforts of human rights defenders across South Asia, achieving human rights objectives remains a challenging task. Almost all countries in the region – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka – face a common trend of human rights violations and a culture of impunity.

    Afghanistan

    In Afghanistan, the Taliban rule has had a devastating impact on the lives of Afghan women, girls, journalists and human rights defenders. “The crisis for women and girls in Afghanistan is escalating with no end in sight. Taliban policies have rapidly turned many women and girls into virtual prisoners in their homes, depriving the country of one of its most precious resources, the skills and talents of the female half of the populations,” said Heather Barr, associate women’s rights director at Human Rights Watch in this report.

    This report states, “the Taliban’s return to power has made members of some ethnic and religious minorities feel more vulnerable to threats even from those not affiliated with the Taliban. Taliban authorities have also used intimidation to extract money, food, and services. Fighting has mostly ended in the country, but people expressed fear of violence and arbitrary arrests by the Taliban and lack of the rule of law and reported increased crime in some areas.”

    A group of three dozen Human Rights Council appointed experts in this report said, “waves of measures such as barring women from returning to their jobs, requiring a male relative to accompany them in public spaces, prohibiting women from using public transport on their own, as well as imposing a strict dress code on women and girls. Taken together, these policies constitute a collective punishment of women and girls, grounded in gender-based bias and harmful practices.”

    The UN high commissioner for human rights, Michelle Bachelet, has urged the UN security council to hold all perpetrators of human rights violations accountable, “I ask the security council to ensure that the perpetrators of these violations are accountable, I ask all states to use their influence with the Taliban to encourage respect for fundamental human rights.”

    Bangladesh

    While Bangladesh, despite making economic progress and getting upgraded by the United Nations from the category of least developed country to developing country last November, the country continues to be in the news for enforced disappearances, abductions, torture and extrajudicial killings by its security forces with impunity.

    In this letter written by 12 organizations to Under-Secretary-General Jean-Pierre Lacroix, urging the United Nations Department of Peace Operations to ban Bangladesh’s notoriously abusive paramilitary Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) from UN deployment.

    As many as 600 people, including opposition leaders, activists, journalists, business people, and others, have been subjected to enforced disappearance since 2009. In this report, Dhaka–based rights organization Odhikar said that “some of the disappeared persons resurfaced in government’s custody after being arrested under the draconian Digital Security Act 2018.”

    “Human rights defenders, journalists, and others critical of the government continue to be targeted with surveillance, politically motivated charges and arbitrary detention,” says this report. Earlier in November 2021, the United States slapped sanctions on elite Bangladeshi paramilitary force, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), stating it threatens US national security interests by undermining the rule of law and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and the economic prosperity of the people of Bangladesh. Bangladesh is the only South Asian country other than Afghanistan to receive US sanctions since 1998.

    India

    In 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in India was downgraded from a free democracy to a “partially free democracy” by global political rights and liberties US-based nonprofit Freedom House. Following this, a Sweden based V-Dem institute said, India had become an “electoral autocracy”. The country has slid from No. 35 in 2006 to No. 53 today on The Economist’s list.

    The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) recommended India be designated as a “country of particular concern, or CPC, for engaging in and tolerating systematic, ongoing and egregious religious freedom violations, as defined by the International Religious Freedom Act in its report.

    In its World Report 2022, Human Rights Watch said, “Indian authorities intensified their crackdown on activists, journalists, and other critics of the government using politically motivated prosecutions in 2021. “Attacks against religious minorities were carried out with impunity under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Hindu nationalist government.”

    Indian authorities have continued to press charges against students, activities, journalists, including counter-terrorism and sedition laws.

    The ongoing harassment of journalists, including particularly those reporting from and in Kashmir, including the recent crackdown on Kashmir’s independent press club being shut down, arbitrary detention of journalists, alleged custodial killings, and a broader pattern of systematic infringement of fundamental rights used against the local population,” the report said.

    According to this report, calls for genocide have become more common than ever, “where Hindu extremists organized 12 events over 24 months in four states, calling for genocide of Muslims, attacks on Christian minority and insurrection against the government.

    Nepal

    In Nepal, lack of effective government leadership, inadequate and unequal access to health care, and a ‘pervasive culture of impunity’ continue to undermine the country’s fundamental human rights. “A lack of effective government leadership in Nepal means that little is done to uphold citizens’ rights, leaving millions to fend for themselves without adequate services such as for health or education, said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director, Human Rights Watch.

    “Systemic impunity for human rights abuses extends to ongoing violations, undermining the principles of accountability and the rule of law in post-conflict Nepal. The report states that the authorities routinely fail to investigate or prosecute killings or torture allegedly carried by security forces,” the report states.

    In October 2020, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) published 20 years of data, naming 286 people, mostly police officials, military personnel, and former Maoist insurgents, “as suspects in serious crimes, including torture, enforced disappearance and extrajudicial killings”.

    Along with this, the situation of women’s and girls’ human rights continues to be alarming in the country. According to this report, Nepal has the highest rate of child marriages in Asia, with 33 percent of girls marrying before 18 years and 8 percent by 15. Reports also indicate there has been an increase in cases of rape in 2021, with widespread impunity for sexual violence.

    Pakistan

    The Pakistan government, on the other hand, “harassed and at times persecuted human rights defenders, lawyers, and journalists for criticizing government officials and policies,” said this report by Human Rights Watch. Significant human rights issues include freedom of expression, attacks on civil society groups, freedom of religion and belief, forced disappearances by governments and their agents, unlawful or arbitrary killings, extrajudicial killings, torture, arbitrary detentions, terrorism, counter-terrorism and law enforcement abuses.

    “Pakistan failed to enact a law criminalizing torture despite Pakistan’s obligation to do so under the Convention against Torture,” the report said. The country’s regressive blasphemy law provides a pretext for violence against religious minorities, leaving them vulnerable to arbitrary arrests and prosecution.

    According to this report by Human Rights Without Frontiers, 1,865 people have been charged with blasphemy laws, with a significant spike in 2020, when 200 cases were registered.

    This piece highlights the plight of thousands of Pakistan’s Baloch who security forces have abducted. A bill about enforced disappearances, which the National Assembly passed, mysteriously went missing after it was sent to the Senate.

    The continued attack on journalists and activists for violations of the Electronic Crimes Act, the use of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), an anti-corruption agency to target critics, attacks and well-coordinated campaigns and attacks on women journalists on social media, and reported intimidation of nongovernmental organizations, including harassment and surveillance are all crackdowns which are only getting worse.

    Sri Lanka

    In Sri Lanka, the government continued to ‘suppress minority communities and harassed activists, and undermined democratic institutions.’ According to Human Rights Watch’s World Report 2022, “President Gotabaya Rajapaksha seems determined to reverse past rights improvements and protect those implicated in serious abuses. While promising reforms and justice to deflate international criticism, his administration has stepped up suppression of minority communities,” Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said.

    The report highlights the harassment of security forces towards human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers and the families of victims of past abuses and suppression of peaceful protests. As COVID-19 cases surged in the country, military-controlled response to the pandemic “led to serious right violations”.

    A major concern from the minority Muslim and Christian communities in Sri Lanka was the government’s order not to allow the bodies of COVID-19 victims to be buried. According to this report, “several bodies were forcibly cremated, despite experts saying that bodies could be buried with proper safety measures.” This order, which rights activists said was intended to target minorities and did not respect religions, after much criticism was reversed.

    A leading British religious freedom advocacy group, CSW, in its report titled, “A Nation Divided: The state of freedom of religious or belief in Sri Lanka,” said the Muslim community experiences “severe” religious freedom violations. A key factor in the violations is the perception by Sinhalese-Buddhist nationalists that Muslims are a threat to both Buddhism and the Sinhalese. The report also noted attempts to “reduce the visibility of Islam through the destruction of mosques and restrictive stances on religious clothing.

     

    This piece has been sourced from Inter Press Service

    Image: Paula Bronstein for Human Rights Watch 2017

    Inequality doesn’t kill. Destitution kills.

    OWSA Contributor
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    Inequality doesn’t kill. Destitution kills.

    From the perspectives of developmental economics, economic equality is not the greatest of virtues; neither is economic inequality the worst of vices.

    By Anuj Kumar Vaksha

    On 17 January 2022, Oxfam International published a briefing paper titled Inequality Kills, and called for unparalleled action to combat unprecedented inequality in the wake of COVID-19. It also published, on the same day, an India-specific report on the same subject titled, Inequality kills: India Supplement 2022. The report, particularly, the India supplement received wide coverage in print and social media. Most of the media coverage were captioned with alarmist headlines relating to the rise of economic inequality in India.

    There is no denying the fact that economic inequality is bad – greater the economic inequality, the worse it is for the poor. This undeniable fact, however, is not the complete truth. From the perspectives of developmental economics, economic equality is not the greatest of virtues; neither is economic inequality the worst of vices. The general economic impoverishment and destitution arising out of the failing economic processes are far greater vices than the economic inequality of some degree persisting with sound economic processes.

    It is now almost a settled proposition that an open, free and competitive economy brings general prosperity in society, though with inequality which follows the former as a byproduct.  Most modern economies thus, on the one hand seek to build an open, free and competitive economy, while on the other hand, the seek to control inequality. India has embraced economic reforms since 1991 as a resolute decision to shake off socialist biases from the Indian economy and structure it to evolve as a free, open and competitive economy.

    Complex nuances

    By 2022, India has moved far ahead on the path of economic reforms with almost irreversible political gusto. In the new India, economic inequality is not an unpardonable sin. It is an undesirable feature of a rapidly developing economy that needs to be appropriately managed. In a socialist or a communist polity, the most stringent and even repressive measures are used to remove inequality. In a democratic polity like India, the control of economic inequality involves complex economic, policy and political nuances.

    Irrespective of the fact that India has moved far ahead, almost irreversibly, on the path of economic reforms, the socialist and communist brigades have repeatedly attempted to mud-sling the economic reform processes through rhetorical, propagandist and emotive reports on one or other aspect of the Indian economy. The recent Inequality Kills report from Oxfam on India is one such attempt to put in grisly state the issue of economic inequality, particularly in the context of untold human sufferings of the poor during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Billionaires bitterly targeted

    The report particularly targets the government of the day and the billionaires who are the key participants in the economic growth of the country. The billionaires have been targeted so bitterly that, one with soft heart would possibly get sick, if he or she hears the sins attributed to them.

    The report ignores the fact the wealth of the richest people in an open, competitive and free economy are not kept in their safe vaults in hard currencies. The substantive part of their wealth is invested in running enterprises. Thus, except for the numerical value of the notional wealth, the wealth that makes them billionaire does not live with them.

    The Oxfam report completely ignores the herculean measures undertaken by government to address the economic depravity of the poor from time to time and particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this sense, the Oxfam report is biased, misleading and motivated by left philosophical distortions.

    The report does make some good, practical solutions to address the sufferings of the poor during COVID-19 pandemic. To this limited extent, it is appreciated. But it also advocates for radical changes based on the left ideological constructs, against which the people need to be guarded.

     

    Anuj Kumar Vaksha is a Professor with the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi.

    As a platform, OneWorld SouthAsia is obliged to carry all shades of opinions. We respect diversity of views and encourage contributions from readers.

    Image: Wikimedia Commons / Indrajit Das

     

    New tea law brews dissent

    OWSA Contributor
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    New tea law brews dissent

    Trade unions are up in arms against the draft Tea (Development and Promotion) Bill, 2022 mooted by the ministry of commerce and industry to replace the 1953 Tea Act. The unions say that this will impact the livelihoods of over a million tea workers and small tea growers.

    Manan Kumar

    A government move to replace the Tea Act of 1953 is stirring a hornet’s nest in India’s tea growing regions. Lakhs of tea workers and others associated with the tea business fear that their future is threatened by the new law.

    The government is in a hurry to throw open its tea party. The ministry of commerce and industry that handles all matters related to the morning brew came up with a brief 11-day window to record public response to the draft Tea (Development and Promotion) Bill, 2022 that is intended to replace the 1953 Tea Act.

    Oddly, the government did not invite representatives of tea workers and the trade unions to give their suggestions in the draft bill. The last date for recording public response to the draft was 21 January.

    Ten trade unions – AITUC, INTUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, TUCC, SEWA, AICCTU, LPF and UTUC – managed to rush a missive to the ministry on the last day citing grave concerns on certain provisions of the draft bill that can have huge ramifications on the tea industry, its workers, tea estates and gardens and the tea board that currently controls the industry. The BMS (linked to the ruling BJP government) is not part of the body of trade unions representing to the ministry.

    These trade unions have asked the ministry “not to take any unilateral move without appropriately addressing the concerns” of key stakeholders. For this, they have demanded that the government extend the date to record public response and, also to discuss provisions of the bill across the table with stakeholders.

    The new law is replete with disturbing elements, much like the farm laws withdrawn by the government recently, a trade union leader told OWSA. The farm laws had provoked a farmers’ agitation.

    The trade unions see a red herring in the provision of the draft bill that put an end to the regulatory role of the tea board, ostensibly due to the emergence of competitive and open international market and growth of the small tea grower.

    The unions denounce the move as totally unjust and unacceptable. They argue that “India being a major producer of tea in global market, the Tea Board has got a definite and regulatory role to play in national interests and, also in the interests of this highly labour-intensive as well as land-intensive industry, fetching huge foreign exchange earnings for the country.”

    Tea workers’ rights

    The trade union also point out the exclusion of Chapter 3 (Control over the extension of tea cultivation) and Chapter 4 (Control over the export of tea and tea seed) of the Tea Act, 1953 in the draft Bill. This, the unions say, is a ploy to make over 4.2 lakh hectares of land available for unrestricted commercial use. Such a move will adversely impact the livelihood of 1.2 million tea workers and their families besides damaging the fragile ecology comprising of forest cover and water bodies.

    Specifically mentioning the complete exclusion of Chapter 3A, the trade unions point out that this is “tantamount to complete abdication of responsibility by the Government for protecting the interest of the industry, the huge land resources deployed in it and its huge workforce, much to the detriment of national interests.”

    In their letter to the ministry, the trade unions have said that “while the exclusion of Chapter 3A opens, potentially, 4.2 lakh hectares of land under tea plantation for competitive commercial avenues, the Tea Bill, 2022 is completely silent on the rights of workers and worker communities dependent exclusively on these plantations. We find this unacceptable and apprehend that it creates a situation for gross labour rights and human rights violations.”

    The fall guys of Afghanistan’s Sharia legal system

    OWSA Contributor
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    The fall guys of Afghanistan’s Sharia legal system

    Former prosecutors are unemployed have to hide to save their families and themselves from the very criminals against whom they fought in the courts since the Taliban took over.

    Within days of the Taliban takeover, people running the cogs and wheels of the country’s judicial system lost their jobs. There is no place for them in the Sharia legal system.

    Many of them, now unemployed, are struggling to provide for their families.

    “We have been living in misery for several months,” Moshtari Danesh told Radio Azadi, a radio being run by Afghan journalists in exile. Moshtari has been unable to pay the rent for her home.

    Moshtari Danesh is disabled and a woman. She grew up in deeply conservative Afghanistan and overcame great odds to become a prosecutor.

    Afghanistan’s former prosecutors like Danesh who worked with the judicial system are reeling from a devastating economic crisis triggered by the Taliban takeover.

    Not just that, they have to hide to save their families and themselves from the very criminals against whom they fought in the courts. The murderers and drug dealers were freed from prisons by the Taliban as soon as they unseated the elected government and took office.

    Another such person was Humayun (who only goes by his first name). For years before the collapse of the Afghan government, Humayun was tasked with investigating serious crimes in the southern province of Helmand. Working in a region where most of the world’s opium is grown and processed into heroin, his job often focused on those in Afghanistan’s illegal narcotics trade.

    But now, Humayun says he is receiving threats from the criminals he helped to convict. He says they are demanding that he reimburse them for fines they’d paid and property that was confiscated from them as part of their sentencing.

    Humayun recently received a call from a former convict from Helmand’s Nad-e Ali district who held him responsible for the dismantling of his drug business. “He told me (that) I am responsible for the confiscation of his car and that I should return it now,” Humayun told Radio Azadi.

    Humayun is not the lone one facing such demands

    Humanyun is not the only one facing such demands from criminals set free by the Taliban.

    “Many former inmates are now threatening me and my colleagues to demand that we return their money,” he said. “A responsible court imposed penalties or ordered their properties confiscated. Yet they are insisting that we are personally responsible for what happened to them.”

    Several prosecutors, judges, and lawyers have been killed in recent months. Others have been attacked or threatened.

    Western nations have evacuated and granted asylum to hundreds of judicial workers from Afghanistan. But for the thousands who remain trapped in Afghanistan, particularly women, the future is bleak.

    “He shot at me”

    Fatana Mohammadi, a lawyer, was attacked by an unidentified man in broad daylight in her home in Kabul last month.

    “He shot at me once, but I was able to dodge the bullet by throwing a blanket over him,” Mohammadi told Radio Azadi. “After that, his gun jammed,” she said, adding that the attacker then beat her.

    “My cries for help attracted the attention of my neighbors,” who took hold of the attacker and handed him over to the Taliban, she said.

    “I still do not know who he was or why he wanted to kill me,” added Mohammadi.

    Inamullah Samagani, a Taliban spokesman, told journalists in November that the militant group was not targeting former prosecutors. “There is no arbitrary or prejudiced treatment of (former) prosecutors,” he said.

    Taliban tightens grip on justice system

    Afghanistan’s judiciary has undergone a swift and complete overhaul since the Taliban seized power. There is no place for lawyers trained through the pedagogical tools of modern law education under the Sharia legal system that the Taliban have brought with them. The modern way of dispensing justice does not appeal to the Taliban, who feel it is too slow and ineffective.

    In November, the Taliban’s justice minister, Mullah Abdul Hakim, declared that only Taliban-approved lawyers can work in their Islamic courts, effectively revoking the licenses of some 2,500 lawyers and banning women from working in law.

    Dozens of Taliban gunmen also stormed the offices of Afghanistan’s Independent Bar Association (AIBA) in Kabul that month and ordered its employees to stop their work. The Taliban has put the AIBA under the control of its Justice Ministry, stripping the organization of its independence.

    The moves have raised deep concerns about the impartiality and fairness of criminal trials under the Taliban that will be dominated by insurgents and clerics.

    During its earlier rule over Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001, the Taliban courts used their tribal interpretations of Shari’a law to prescribe extreme public punishments, including executions, floggings, and amputations.

    Since returning to power, the Taliban has signalled a return to some of its past methods.

    “There’s no indication that the Taliban are thinking about incorporating the institutional setup of the previous government’s judicial and legal system,” Haroun Rahimi, a self-exiled assistant law professor for the Kabul-based American University of Afghanistan told Radio Azadi.

    “They view that system with disdain,” he added. “They’d like to continue what they perceive as a more Islamic – authentically Islamic – simple version of the adjudication that they were doing with their shadow courts.”

     

    Image: Jan Chipchase, Oxfam

     

    Rohingya rights group urge Biden, Macron to announce sanctions on Myanmar gas revenue

    OWSA Staff
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    Rohingya rights group urge Biden, Macron to announce sanctions on Myanmar gas revenue

    The Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK has said that the policy to protect the profits of American and French companies needs to change urgently.

    An umbrella group of Rohingya rights organizations today urged on the United States and France to impose sanctions on gas revenue in Myanmar. They said that the money earned from the trade of Myanmar’s natural resources helped pay for the Myanmar military’s crimes.

    “We… urge President Biden of the United States of America and President Macron of France to urgently introduce sanctions on gas revenue in Burma (Myanmar),” the group said in a statement released by the London-based Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK (BROUK). The statement further said, “Gas extraction projects which involve American Chevron and French Total provide hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue to the Burmese military annually.”

    BROUK is an umbrella organisation of 21 rights groups worldwide.

    It said gas extraction projects, involving American firm Chevron and French Total, provide hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue to the Myanmar military annually.

    February 1 will mark a year since the military coup in Myanmar. The US, EU, UK and Canada have imposed a number of sanctions on sources of income for the Burmese military, include on timber and gems. “But gas production, which is one of the military’s biggest revenue sources, has so far gone untouched,” the statement read.

    Funding Myanmar army

    Both, President Joe Biden and President Emmanuel Macron have blocked sanctions on the gas industry, the BROUK affiliates said in their statement. In doing so, they are “protecting the profits of American and French companies ahead of the lives of Burmese people,” they said. “This urgently needs to change.”

    Arguing that the two leaders were tacitly funding the war the Myanmar army was waging against its own people, the statement released by the Rohingya organisations said that “sanctions on gas revenue would stop the military getting their hands on hundreds of millions of dollars which currently help fund their crimes against the Burmese people.”

    According to a report by the Ontario International Development Agency, more than 24,000 Rohingya Muslims have been killed since 25 August 2017 and over 34,000 have been thrown into fires, says the Ontario International Development Agency. Over 114,000 Rohingya Muslims have been beaten and up to 18,000 Rohingya women and girls have been raped, the organisation says.

    Nearly a million Rohingya Muslims are currently living as refugees in Bangladesh’s southern district of Cox’s Bazar after fleeing the August 2017 military crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

    The statement added that the Myanmar military are now “attacking people all over Burma, killing children, burning villages and torturing with impunity.”

    Researchers stumble upon a beautiful, large and rare coral reef

    OWSA Staff
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    Researchers stumble upon a beautiful, large and rare coral reef

    An UNESCO supported research mission has discovered one of the largest coral reefs in the world off the coast of Tahiti. The pristine condition of the corals, together with the extensive area these cover makes these rose-shaped corals a highly valuable discovery.

    A team of oceanography researchers have stumbled upon one of the largest coral reefs in the world on the seabed off the coast of Tahiti, the South Pacific archipelago in French Polynesia.

    The rose-shaped coral reefs are in pristine condition, as if untouched by the ravages of time. Each one of the giant rose-shaped corals are up to 2 metres in diameter.

    The highly unusual discovery is invaluable. And it is not news for the mainstream media.

    The reef is located at depths of between 30 and 65 metres. It is approximately 3 kilometres in length and between 30 metres and 60 to 65 metres wide. The dimensions the scientists have provided makes this yet-to-be-named coral reefs one of the most extensive, healthy coral reefs on record.

    “It was magical to witness giant, beautiful rose corals which stretch for as far as the eye can see. It was like a work of art,” says French photographer Alexis Rosenfeld who leads the campaign for the decade of ocean science for sustainable development.

    Ocean mapping is coordinated by UNESCO’s 150-country membership intergovernmental oceanographic commission that claims to be the guardian of unique ocean places, including 232 marine biosphere reserves and 50 marine world heritage sites of outstanding universal value.

    A step forward for science

    This is highly unusual because, up to now, the vast majority of the world’s known coral reefs sit at depths of up to 25 metres. This discovery suggests that there are many more large reefs out there, at depths of more than 30 metres, in what is known as the ocean’s ‘twilight zone’. The world is only now begining to learn about these.

    “To date, we know the surface of the moon better than the deep ocean. Only 20 per cent of the entire seabed has been mapped. This remarkable discovery in Tahiti demonstrates the incredible work of scientists who further the extent of our knowledge about what lies beneath,” says Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO Director-General.

    This expedition is part of UNESCO’s global approach to mapping the ocean. Coral reefs are an important food source for other organisms so locating them can aid research around biodiversity. The organisms that live on reefs can be important for medicinal research and reefs can also provide protection from coastal erosion and even tsunamis.

    “French Polynesia suffered a significant bleaching event back in 2019 — however this reef does not appear to have been significantly affected,” says Dr. Laetitia Hedouin, France’s National Centre of Scientific Research (CNRS).

    “The discovery of this reef in such a pristine condition is good news and can inspire future conservation,” she says. “We think that deeper reefs may be better protected from global warming.”

    Very few scientists have so far been able to locate, investigate and study coral reefs at depths of more than 30 metres. However, technology now means longer dives at these depths are possible. In total the team carried out dives totalling around 200 hours to study the reef and were able to witness the coral spawning. Further dives are planned in the coming months to continue investigations around the reef.

    Does Sinovac help fend off Omicron?

    OWSA Staff
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    Does Sinovac help fend off Omicron?

    Relying solely on the Chinese-manufactured Sinovac inactive vaccine is not enough to reduce transmission rates of COVID-19. Millions of people in 48 countries around the globe have been vaccinated by the mRNA vaccine.

    Results from a new study by researchers at Yale and the Dominican Republic published in the journal Nature Medicine say that vaccinations with the Chinese-manufactured Sinovac inactive vaccine alone are of no help against the widely circulating Omicron variant.

    The research is based on an analysis of blood serum from 101 individuals from the Dominican Republic. The analysis showed that Omicron infection produced no neutralizing antibodies among those who received the standard two-shot regimen of the Sinovac vaccine.

    However, antibody levels against Omicron rose among individuals who had also received a booster shot of the mRNA vaccine made by Pfizer-BioNTech.

    Yet, when scientists compared these samples with blood serum samples stored at Yale, they discovered that even samples from individuals who had received two shots of Sinovac and a booster had antibody levels that were only about the same as those who had received just the two shots of the mRNA vaccines, sans any booster shot.

    Also, the researchers found that individuals who had been infected by earlier strains of the SARS-Cov-2 virus saw little immune protection against Omicron.

    Complicating global efforts

    These findings can complicate global efforts to combat the Omicron strain, which, though less dangerous than the Delta strain, is highly transmissible and is the dominant COVID-19 strain circulating in much of the world.

    An additional booster shot — and possibly two — will be needed in areas where the Sinovac shot has been the chief source of vaccination, said the paper’s senior author, Akiko Iwasaki.

    “Booster shots are clearly needed in this population because we know that even two doses of mRNA vaccines do not offer sufficient protection against infection with Omicron,” she said.

    Omicron has proven particularly problematic to combat because it possesses 36 mutations on the spike proteins on its surface. The virus uses these surface spike proteins to enter cells. The mRNA vaccines available today have been designed to trigger antibody response when the body recognises the spike proteins.

    Iwasaki stressed, however, that the human immune system still has other weapons it can use against COVID-19, such as T cells that can attack and kill infected cells and prevent severe disease.

    “But we need antibodies to prevent infection and slow transmission of the virus,” she said.

    The Chinese-manufactured Sinovac inactive vaccine is used in 48 countries to help reduce transmission rates of COVID-19.

     

    Image Credit: Pixabay/Creative Commons CC0 Public Domain

    A wee bit of seed money ushers in big time change

    OWSA Contributor
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    A wee bit of seed money ushers in big time change

    From tending to a kitchen garden or rearing a cow, to making handicraft items or running a small village shop, some 800-plus women, all homemakers, made it big with a fistful of aid and loads of motivation.

    By Sajid Hasan

    The past year has been a roller coaster ride of discovery for Rashida Begum.

    It was a special year; Rashida, 60, set up a plant nursery in her village in Nilphamari, in northern Bangladesh, bordering India. In this past year, Rashida is proud to be earning an income to meet the needs of her family.

    “My family and I faced a lot of poverty in the past years. We could not manage enough food for ourselves and my children also struggled a lot to continue their education. Now we are well off,” says she with a smile.

    More than 840 women like Rashida have turned their lives around in the rural areas of Bangladesh.

    For the first time in their lives, the women have been in a position to start their own business and earn a reliable income, with support from Bangladesh Red Crescent and the International Federation of Red Cross.

    A longer-term programme, economic empowerment of rural women, is offering women access to cash assistance and skills training so that they can develop sustainable livelihoods and independence.

    The women say it’s reducing inequality in their villages and helping to prevent sexual and gender-based violence.

    The village’s only woman shopkeeper

    A few years ago, Monnuja Begum, faced big financial difficulties for her family after her husband passed away. Monnuja started a small grocery shop, but it was not enough to support her son and daughter.

    Monnuja, 40, agreed to her daughter marrying, typical in rural Bangladesh, to reduce the daily cost of an impoverished family. Yet she still needed to find ways to boost her income to provide enough for her family, including her son’s education.

    Mannuja received 10,000 Bangladeshi Taka (120 US dollars) from Bangladesh Red Crescent and the IFRC to start a bigger grocery shop.

    “I now earn around 5,000 Bangladeshi Taka (60 US dollars) per month from the shop which helps me lead my life smoothly and support my son’s education,” says Monnuja.

    In rural parts of Bangladesh, 60 US dollars a month is just enough to run her small family.

    For a widow like Monnuja, this income is a lifesaver, she explains, as women are not typically able to find a job or another way to support their family. Women are asked to stay inside the house and men do jobs outside.

    “I am, as a matter of fact, the only female shopkeeper in this village,” Mannuja adds, indicating a positive change in her community.

    Vegetable garden pays for schooling

    It seem like months ago when this land was full of weeds. Sudha Rani Roy, smiles with joy as she explains that now, she has transformed this patch of paradise into a big vegetable garden near her house.

    Sudha says this has been one of the best years of her life. She loves growing organic vegetables, as she shows off her bountiful brinjal, gourd and spinach.

    The garden is laden with colourful fruits, papaya bursting from beneath big green leaves, surrounded by spices, ginger and turmeric and leafy greens.

    During recent months, Sudha has earnt 6,000 Bangladeshi Taka (70 US dollars) a month, by selling her winter vegetables, which are in high demand.

    “I hope to earn more during the rest of the winter as there is a huge demand for vegetables in this area,” says Sudha Rani. This has all been made possible with special financial support and training in recent months.

    She has two daughters, one of them goes to school; and she is extremely happy to be able to spend her earning to support her family and her daughter’s education with her vegetable garden.

    A training on handicrafts and cash assistance enabled Momota Banu, 35, to earn more than 9,000 Bangladeshi Taka (105 US dollars) per month that helped her become financially independent and support her family.

    “Now I have the capacity to make customized dresses by pasting batik and I sell those in my own community and in the local market.

    “I invest the earnings in household matters such as for repairing my home, latrine and tube-well and for my daughter’s education,” says Momota.

    Her daughter Jui, 12, is a school student and happily helps her mother in her work.

    Milking a cow and other opportunities

    Parmina Begum, 45, has a large family that used to depend entirely on the income of her husband coming from agricultural work and crop production.

    If the production is hampered any year due to adverse weather, the family used to go through a lot of hardship as they could barely save money for such times.

    Parmina received 17,000 Bangladeshi Taka (200 US dollars) which she spent to buy a cow.

    She also received training on cow rearing and now she can think of supporting her family.

    “As my cow has given birth to a calf, I will have some extra money now by selling milk. I am cheerful and have no worries for the coming days,” she says.

    Women and climate change mitigation

    The impact of climate change is severe in northern Bangladesh resulting in the destruction of rivers, changing the agricultural patterns and affecting typical livelihoods.

    Women are particularly vulnerable in these areas due to the compounding effects of climate change and other socio-economic causes such as early marriage, dowry system, and gender-based violence.

    The women targetted under this programme, including widows and female-headed households, have been supported to strengthen economic capabilities which have ultimately increased their adaptation capacity in facing the impacts of disasters caused by climate change as well as reduced gender inequality in the community.

    Modi’s PMCARES and Gotabaya’s COVID–19 fund: Two similar kitties?

    OWSA Contributor
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    Modi’s PMCARES and Gotabaya’s COVID–19 fund: Two similar kitties?

    Beginning with a lack of accountability, there are a number of interesting similarities between the Sri Lankan president’s COVID–19 Healthcare and Social Security Fund and the PM-CARES fund of India.

    The COVID–19 Healthcare and Social Security Fund established by Sri Lanka’s President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, to strengthen the mitigation activities aimed at controlling the spread of COVID-19 virus in the country and related social welfare programme, have been vested with a set of wide responsibilities.

    The fund has many similarities with the PMCARES fund mooted by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with a prominent sole departure. While the PMCARES fund will be audited by a certified auditor, the Sri Lankan president’s Healthcare and Social Security Fund will be audited by the country’s auditor general. “Fund activities and accounts are subjected to audit by the Auditor General,” a summary statement on the functioning of the stated.

    Only financial contributions

    Like in India’s PM-CARES, the Healthcare and Social Security Fund too welcomes  contributions from local as well as foreign donors. The only provision in both case is to make the donation a “financial contributions” to the COVID–19 Healthcare and Social Security Fund. There is no scope to make donations in kind or services.

    In yet another similarity, the donations will be exempted from tax and foreign exchange regulations. Deposits could be made through cheques or telegraphic transfers.

    Furthermore, the Sri Lankan President’s fund will be managed by a 17-member committee headed by the central bank Governor. The Secretary to the Committee is the Chief Financial Officer at Presidential Secretariat. Among the office bearers are also Secretary to the Treasury, Defense Secretary, Director General Health Services, Acting IGP, Director General Sri Lanka Customs and Lanka Sathosa Chairman.

    The Fund has been set up to provide immediate funding requirement of director general of the island nation’s health services to meet all expenditure connected with COVID-19 related healthcare facilities including drugs, testing equipment and capacity expenses.

    The notification says the the fund will help meet expenses connected to healthcare and safety of health sector employees and all logistic providers working to provide essential public delivery services and to provide basic essentials to children, women, low income, elderly, differently abled and vulnerable people.

    Not accountable to Parliament

    The fund will be managed by a committee tasked to “invest this fund in and securing the necessary purchasing in medicines and testing kits as well as increasing the healthcare capacities; ensuring the health and safety of those in the health sector and in the essential services; financial needs of children, women, low income earners, elders, physically challenged and other vulnerable sectors; integrating public health systems, rural and remote dispensaries, testing and treatment centers and health care systems to reduce the risk of infectious diseases.”

    The government will mobilize the required funding to strengthen public healthcare systems, including village and remote area dispensaries, testing and treatment centers, family healthcare system, to further consolidate Sri Lanka’s public healthcare system to reduce country risks to communicable diseases.

    It will also assist indigenous medicine, sanitary product manufacturing and distribution, promote research to use resources, knowledge and skills to innovate new health and sanitation products based on local raw materials.

    More similarities

    Like in PMCARES, the Sri Lankan fund too is aimed at promoting research and innovation using Sri Lanka’s medical and scientific knowledge and experience to develop protective dresses and sanitation products to global market.

    In keeping with the present Sri Lankan dispensation’s prioritising organic farming, this fund will also be used “to promote healthy living with organic food consumption, valuing traditional, yet rich living styles, through media and educational programmes.”

    It will also coordinate fund raising with WHO, UNICEF, UNDP, World Bank, ADB and Sri Lanka’s major development partner community and agencies based on best guidelines for resource allocations, harmonized national procurement system and governance practices.

    Fund expenditures remain low

    So far, the fund has collected Sri Lankan Rupees 1,827,314,924.65. Of this amount, LKR 100 crore each have been allocated to the PCR testing and advocacy programming. So far, only a sum of 42,605,812 has been spent by the ministry of helath and the university grants commission. On the other had, the advocacy programme has used a mere 24,364,800 from the LKR 100 crore allocated to the ministry of health for this.

    The ministry of health and the ministry of defence together could only spend LKR 38,031,065 on quarantine facilities.

    There has been no confirmation of the expenditures as yet against a fund of LKR 112,140,000. The chart says, “Confirmation is anticipated”. Similarly, “Confirmation is anticipated” also for the meagre amount of 3,522,000 set aside end-October for procuring rapid test kits.

    Afghanistan’s prime minister calls for international recognition for his government

    OWSA Contributor
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    0
    Afghanistan’s prime minister calls for international recognition for his government

    A massive job crisis that threatens to grow further, lack of food and medicines and frozen overseas assets prompted today’s press conference.

    Afghanistan’s acting prime minister, Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, today pleaded the international community to recognize his administration. He was speaking at a press conference called to convey his message to governments across the world for recognizing the Taliban government.

    A financial crisis, together with soaring inflation, unemployment, and cash shortages is impacting access to food, water, shelter, and health care.

    The acting prime minister said that the country is presently passing through a humanitarian crisis. Millions of people have been pushed into poverty and there is a shortage of food while people have no means to keep themselves warm in the middle of the freezing Afghan winter.

    “I ask all governments, especially Islamic countries, that they should start recognition,” Radio Azadi, a radio run by Afghan journalists in exile quoted him as saying. He assured that the Taliban government he heads has restored peace and security.

    Poverty has been aggravated by joblessness. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) predicts that 900,000 people might lose their livelihoods by mid-2022.

    “Economic recovery and a return to stability in the labor market is largely contingent upon the continued support of the international community, which at this point remains unclear, as well as policy decisions of the new administration,” the ILO report said.

    Already, over half a million people in the country are jobless. International humanitarian organisations have spoken of how 22 million people are resorting to negative coping mechanisms this winter by burning their clothes and furniture in order to keep themselves warm.

    Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund also called for the unfreezing of Afghanistan’s assets held overseas. He was referring to the United States and other western nations freezing billions of dollars worth of Afghan banking assets, besides cutting off development funding to the war-torn nation.

    The prime minister’s pleas for official recognition are significant, since the present Taliban rulers have been accused of serious violations of human rights, particularly of women and the country’s ethnic minorities.

    So far, no country has recognized the country’s new rulers, though Russia, China, Iran and Pakistan are sizing up the situation after they seized power in 2021.

    Even during their earlier stint in power between 1996 and 2001, only three widely recognized countries – Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) declared the Islamic Emirate to be Afghanistan’s rightful government.

    According to Mansoor Ahmed, Pakistan’s ambassador to Afghanistan, the banking system in Afghanistan is not operating and this is adding to the problems of the new Afghan government.

    Earlier this month, Pakistan had called a meeting of foreign ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Countries to discuss Afghan issues and to engage the world community to support the Afghan government.

     

    Image: Children use the heat from a firewood stove to keep themselves warm in the hard Afghan winter.
    Credit: Sayed Bidel / UNICEF

    1...193194195...204Page 194 of 204
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