Reporting on Conflict | Media Watch BlogPeacemakers Trust posts news, reports or announcements of interest to people studying or working in the field of dispute resolution, conflict transformation and peacebuilding. Inclusion of an item on the media watch blog does not imply endorsement or agreement of Peacemakers Trust with views expressed by authors of posted items.
Sociologists have developed elaborate theories of who spreads gossip and news — who tells whom, who matters most in social networks — but they’ve had less success measuring what kind of information travels fastest. Do people prefer to spread good news or bad news? Would we rather scandalize or enlighten? Which stories do social creatures want to share, and why?
(...more)KIEV, Ukraine — The apparent victory of Russia’s preferred candidate in the Ukrainian presidential race may be a relief to Vladimir V. Putin, who has long sought to discredit his neighbor’s raucous democracy and its drift to the West.
But it comes with a catch: the election won by the candidate, Viktor F. Yanukovich, was highly competitive, unpredictable and relatively fair — just the kind of major contest that has not been held in Russia since Mr. Putin, the prime minister, consolidated power.
On Monday, for example, European election monitors praised the election that was held Sunday, calling it an “impressive display” of democracy. Ukraine’s election, in other words, did not follow the Kremlin blueprint and, if anything, seemed to highlight the flaws in the system in Russia. As such, it presented a kind of alternative model for the former Soviet Union.
The official tally released on Monday showed that the opposition leader, Mr. Yanukovich, defeated Prime Minister Yulia V. Tymoshenko by three percentage points, giving him a comeback from his loss in the 2004 Orange Revolution.
Ms. Tymoshenko helped spearhead the Orange Revolution, which first brought Western-style democracy to Ukraine.
(...more)Nepal has discharged all of the under-aged combatants from the army of the former Maoist rebels. That is being hailed as the closing of a critical chapter for the peace process in the poor, landlocked country between China and India.
More than 200 former child soldiers boarded buses in the rugged highlands of mid-western Nepal for a ride back into civilian life.
(...more)On 20 November 1989, the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child. To commemorate this landmark, UNICEF is dedicating a special edition of its flagship report, The State of the World’s Children, to child rights… full report
(...more)This report … describes indigenous forest peoples in Africa from an anthropological point of view [and] highlights both historical principles of international law that have affected the situation of indigenous peoples and contemporary human rights standards…
(...more)The surge in the US presence in Afghanistan is unfolding rapidly. CMI and PRIO recently invited a small group of experts to a workshop and a public seminar in Oslo… centered on three main themes: the role of the US and the UN, the role and perceptions of Afghans, and the dynamics of a negotiated settlement.
(...more)Christians and Muslims in Wales have come together for a two-day consultation aimed at strengthening relations and enabling practical cooperation in tackling religious extremism and discrimination.
The meeting, held over the weekend of 6-7 January 2010, was the eighth to be held as part of the Finding A Common Voice initiative launched in 2007 by the Church in Wales and the Muslim Council of Wales.
The relationship between gender and violence is complex. Evidence suggests, however, that gender inequalities increase the risk of violence by men against women and inhibit the ability of those affected to seek protection…
(...more)Three weeks ago I blogged about bananas being packaged (in South Korea) in plastic wrappers. Extra packaging for a banana seemed odd. A week later I posted an update with an explanation from Starbucks: the plastic wrappers, they had told me, reflected Korean ‘cultural norms’ dictating that premium produce be individually wrapped.
OK, interesting answer.
But now, in a recent issue of MacLean’s magazine, there’s a story (by Kate Lunau) that gives a much more plausible explanation — and it’s about bananas being sold right here in Canada. According to Lunau’s story, retailers package banana’s for individual sale to help extend the very small window of time during which bananas are the pristine yellow colour that consumers demand, rather than either too green or too brown…
(...more)Election fever is already gripping Burma even though a date for the polls has yet to be announced. The election law which will govern the process is now expected to be published in May, with the elections at least six months away, according to Asian diplomats who closely follow events in Burma. “The elections will be held whether we like it or not,” a young Arakanese student in Rangoon, Nyi Nyi said.
“We know we will have no choice but to vote, our only hope is that there will be some candidates who are not stooges of the military regime,” he added. At the moment that seems a forlorn hope, though the main pro-democracy party, the National League for Democracy (NLD) has yet to make up its mind whether it will field candidates in this year’s elections.
In the last elections, held on May 27, 1990, Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), won convincingly, but Burma’s military rulers never allowed them to form a civilian government. This time the generals are not planning to make the same mistake, and are tightly controlling everything to ensure they do not lose.
(...more)B’Tselem has written to demand that Board members of the Canadian organization Rights and Democracy stop maligning B’Tselem’s name. In a letter by B’Tselem Executive Director Jessica Montell, to Aurel Braun, Chairman of Rights and Democracy, Montell demands that he cease his ongoing public attacks on the Israeli human rights NGO.
B’Tselem read in the Canadian press that the board of Rights and Democracy voted to “repudiate” its grant to the organization. “We were outraged to read quotes in the press in which some members of the Board cast baseless aspersions on B’Tselem and the integrity of our work”, writes Montell. “These statements reveal profound, even offensive ignorance about B’Tselem’s work and its role in Israeli society”.
In its twenty years of activity, B’Tselem has earned a reputation both in Israel and around the world as the most reliable source for information on human rights in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Leading journalists, policymakers and academics consistently cite B’Tselem as their primary source for reliable information about human rights and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. B’Tselem is proud of its role in generating Israeli public discussion regarding human rights, and in fostering real improvements in Israel ’s human rights policies.
In addition to its documentation and advocacy activities, B’Tselem works closely with the Israeli military authorities in order to promote accountability. Israel ’s Judge-Advocate General has repeatedly praised his cooperation with B’Tselem, including in a recent feature in Israel ’s Haaretz newspaper: “My goal is to get at the truth, and they definitely help us do that. The cooperation with B’Tselem stands out in particular. They help us speak to witness, to examine complaints. They do their job and I do mine. The interests are not identical, but with all the criticism of these organizations of us, their goal is to seek out the truth.”
B’Tselem is motivated by a deep commitment to Israeli society, as well as a commitment to universal human rights principles. It strives for a future in which Israelis and Palestinians alike will live in freedom and dignity.
Two Palestinian organizations – al-Haq and al-Mezan – were similarly attacked in the Canadian press. B’Tselem also protested these attacks, citing the reputation both organizations have earned for their courageous work against human rights violations by Israeli as well as Palestinian authorities.
For further information contact:
Sarit Michael i, Press Officer, at +972 (0)50-5387230 or saritm@btselem.org
Mitchell Plitnick, Director of US Communications mitchell@btselem.org Phone: +1-202-783-0629
Sarit Michaeli
Press Officer
B’Tselem
+972 (0) 73-2509305 (office)
+972 (0)50 5387230 (cell)
http://www.btselem.org/
The Hamas government in Gaza on Saturday backtracked on its apology earlier this week in which it expressed regret for harming Israeli civilians in rocket attacks…
Hamas wrote to the U.N. that its primitive rockets were not intended to hit civilians, but often strayed from their course. It said the rockets were meant to defend Gazans against Israeli military strikes, but also maintained that the Palestinians have a right to resist Israeli occupation.
“We apologize for any harm that might have come to Israeli civilians,” the Hamas government wrote.
On Saturday, the government claimed the response to the U.N. was misinterpreted.
“The report that was submitted regarding the Goldstone report does not include any apologies and what took place was an incorrect interpretation of some of its wording,” the government said in a statement.
(...more)Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said Wednesday that the Harper administration will not seek the repatriation of Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr… Cannon said that while the government is considering options to remedy the violation of Khadr’s constitutional rights, it will not press for his return because he faces charges in the US…
This announcement follows last week’s ruling…, which held that the interrogation of Khadr by Canadian officials while in detention violated section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms… (see Jurist story with links)
On February 4, 2010, in a landmark decision, the African Union adopted the decision by the African Commission on Human and People’s RIghts (ACHPR), which found the Kenyan government guilty of violating the rights of the country’s indigenous Endorois community, by evicting them from their lands to make way for a wildlife reserve. The commission ruled, in May 2009, that the Endorois’ eviction from their traditional land for tourism development violated their human rights. The decision creates a major legal precedent by recognizing, for the first time in Africa, indigenous peoples’ rights over traditionally owned land and their right to development.Victory for Indigenous People’s Rights in Kenya
(...more)For all the big money boys and their obscene bonuses, there are, thankfully, those who choose to work in the trenches to help make the world a better place for folks up against it.
One of them is Rev. Ric Matthews of First United Church. Over the years, his church on the edge of the Downtown Eastside has become a sanctuary for the homeless and disadvantaged.
Now, with you-know-what a mere week away… Father Matthews has a dream, an Olympic dream, and it’s got nothing to do with luge.
Why not harness the same energy and resources that have gone into staging the 2010 Winter Games to take on what the good reverend calls “the Olympian challenges of alienation, addiction, poverty and homelessness”?
(...more)New York – A ruling by the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights condemning the expulsion of the Endorois people from their land in Kenya is a major victory for indigenous peoples across Africa, Human Rights Watch, WITNESS, and the Endorois’ lawyers said today. The Commission ruled on February 4, 2010 that the Endorois’ eviction from their traditional land for tourism development violated their human rights.
The Kenyan government evicted the Endorois people, a traditional pastoralist community, from their homes at Lake Bogoria in central Kenya in the 1970s, to make way for a national reserve and tourist facilities. In the first ruling of an international tribunal to find a violation of the right to development, the Commission found that this eviction, with minimal compensation, violated the Endorois’ right as an indigenous people to property, health, culture, religion, and natural resources. It ordered Kenya to restore the Endorois to their historic land and to compensate them. It is the first ruling to determine who are indigenous peoples in Africa, and what are their rights to land. The case was brought on behalf of the Endorois by CEMIRIDE and Minority Rights Group International.
(...more)The Belfry Theatre offers one of its most powerful productions in years with Where the Blood Mixes, a moving and personal examination of the residential school legacy.
Penned by First Nations playwright Kevin Loring, this amalgam of comedy and drama grapples with the devastation caused by Canada’s notorious residential school program. For years, children were pulled from their families and confined within prison-like institutions. Youngsters were beaten, sexually molested and cruelly kept from their parents — who sometimes lived within sight of the schools. This abuse, an example of ethnocentrism gone mad, is one of the darkest chapters in our country’s history. The schools were closed in the 1960s.
Loring has won a Governor General’s Award for Where the Blood Mixes which, remarkably, is his first full-length play. With this 90-minute piece, he enters an arena fraught with peril — artistically as well as politically. Loring’s ethnicity gives him licence not permitted to others. Nonetheless, it is highly difficult to navigate such hot-button history, especially as the wounds are so fresh.
Achieving the right balance is tricky. Yet Loring, director Glynis Leyshon and a talented cast of mostly aboriginal actors nailed it Thursday night. This is a socially conscious show that fires on all cylinders — a rare thing. It is important, redemptive theatre that makes us laugh and weep.
(...more)The head of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has set up an expert group to find ways to increase tolerance around the world, as part of her commitment to promoting a “new humanism” to pursue a rapprochement of cultures.
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