Hope in Haiti

This blog is frequently littered with reports of suffering, continued inaction and overall bad news, but today I am excited to write of a hopeful message for human rights in Haiti. This country now has special meaning to students of the Center for the Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights due to the recent visit of Anne Hastings, the commander of the largest micro finance institution in Haiti. Through her visit, we heard a optimistic message of how non-profits are improving the lives of Haitians. Now, there is reason to dream big for Haiti. After the HOPE II Act passed last year in the House of Representatives, Haiti has begun to show improvements. Furthermore next month, international donors will meet in Washington to talk of increasing aid to Haiti.

As many of you know, Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and has long been suffering from famine, corrupt governments and disease. Last year, America proclaimed their commitment to the country by passing a 9 year act that offers Haiti duty-free, quota-free access to U.S. markets (HOPE II). Though this has had an important effect on Haiti, according to Ban Ki-Moon (the Secretary General of the United Nations) with additional aid at this moment in time, there could be a substantial increase in economic development. I found his argument in the New York Times to be quite persuasive. Here is the heart of it:

“HOPE II, as the act is known, offers Haiti duty-free, quota-free access to U.S. markets for the next nine years. No other nation enjoys a similar advantage. This is a foundation to build on. It is a chance to consolidate the progress Haiti has made in winning a measure of political stability, with the help of the U.N. peacekeeping mission, and move beyond aid to genuine economic development. Given the country’s massive unemployment, particularly among youth, that means one thing above all else: jobs.

My special adviser on Haiti, the Oxford University development economist Paul Collier, has worked with the government to devise a strategy. It identifies specific steps and policies to create those jobs, with particular emphasis on the country’s traditional strengths — the garment industry and agriculture. Among them: enacting new regulations lowering port fees (among the highest in the Caribbean) and creating the sort of industrial “clusters” that have come to dominate global trade.

In practical terms, this means dramatically expanding the country’s export zones, so that a new generation of textile firms can invest and do business in one place. By creating a market sufficiently large to generate economies of scale, they can drive down production costs and, once a certain threshold is crossed, spark potentially explosive growth constrained only by the size of the labor pool.

That may seem ambitious in a country of 9 million people, where 80 percent of the population lives on less than $2 a day and half of the food is imported. Yet we know it can work. We have seen it happen in Bangladesh, which boasts a garment industry supporting 2.5 million jobs. We have seen it happen in Uganda and Rwanda.”

For further reading, following this link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/31/opinion/31iht-edmoon.html?_r=1&ref=global

I hope that the international donor committee heeds this advice in Washington and capitalizes on this moment to significantly impact the lives of the Haitian people. Haiti has suffered for too long.

Remembering the Rohingyas Refuges

In recent weeks, Hillary Clinton has become increasingly loud and frustrated in her criticism of Myanmar, a Southeast Asian country formally known as Burma. The country, which has been under military rule since 1962, has been heavily reprimanded for their policies that violate numerous human and political rights. One specific area that the country has shown absolutely no attempt to improve is in their treatment of the Rohingyas ethic group—a Muslim group living in the predominately Buddhist country. For nearly five decades this group has faced radical discrimination—they have been stripped of citizenship, forced into labor, pushed into regions as their land was confiscated without explanation, and denied the right to travel or marry.

This destitute group has come back into headlines this year due to their failed attempt to escape to Thailand. According to survivors, thousands of refugees have in the recent past boarded boats to Thailand in attempts to flee persecution. In December, the Thai government decided this was unacceptable. They gathered these refuges, badly beat them, forced them onto a boat without and engine, limited water and food supply and drifted them off to sea. Three boats and over 800 people have been found, while the other boats are still missing. Thailand has long been a country flooded with immigrants escaping problems in varying countries, yet this accusation rightly caused them to put in a very negative international spotlight.

Yet, there has yet to be a clear solution to the problem. The government refuses to falter on their sharp stance toward this group, while neighboring countries—currently dealing with their own problems of food security, poverty and labor—are overwhelmed with the prospect of taking care of more people in desperate need. Luckily, there has been some help from refugee organizations, but the future still seems bleak. One can understand Clinton’s frustration with Myanmar’s lack of response to any international pressure: “Clearly, the path we have taken in imposing sanctions hasn’t influenced the Burmese junta,” she said last month. “Reaching out and trying to engage them hasn’t worked either.”

It is important that we continue to remember this group of people—a group that has long been suffering and is frequently forgotten in the news and our memory.

the Difficulties of Implementing Justice Internationally: Thoughts on Sudan

Yesterday, President Bashir of Sudan was charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity for playing an “essential role” in the murder, rape, torture, pillage and displacement of large numbers of civilians in Darfur. This appears to be a great move forward for justice on behalf of the victims of Darfur, but unfortunately justice for the victims does not always entail prosperity for them. As soon as the International Criminal Court—which was established in 2002 to convict crimes of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity—made their decision regarding Bashir, nearly all aid organizations operating in Sudan were ordered to shut down and leave.

To give you an idea of what that will do for the people of this region, I will list some important organizations that currently work there and the extent of their aid. To begin, Oxfam was ordered to leave, which might harm the 600,000 people that currently use its services in that region. The Dutch section of MSF was closed, which offers health care to people in South Darfur—the numbers of people that will be affected by their absence is unknown for the moment. The International Rescue Committee, an organization that also provides medical care—was closed, which currently aids 1.75 million people. Also, Mercy Corps will not be allowed to continue their work in the region, and they assist 200,000 people. Other groups that have been expelled include, but are not limited to, the Norwegian Refugee Council, CARE, and Save the Children (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/06/world/africa/06sudan.html?ref=world).

As you can see, the effects of the President’s choice to remove international humanitarian aid will be dramatic. The Sudanese people are dependant on it, and very little will remain after the next few weeks. The Christian Science Monitor and others have been asking the question of whether the courts ruling was actually counter productive. If the point of convicting a felon is to ensure he can’t cause more harm, then as of now, it seems the conviction has done very little. In fact, the president now appears to be less likely to speak of peace negotiations and the people will surely suffer more in future months without the humanitarian aid that he has banished.

But, the hope is that with Bashir convicted, the future for Sudan could be brighter. Furthermore, having strong stance now toward corrupt state leaders could offer incentives for future leaders to not misuse their power. Though this is not a completely parallel example, imagine how people would act in individual societies if there did not exist a justice system that could regulate behavior through bad incentives like prison. If we are to be an international community committed to the laws we create for ourselves—such as human rights, rules of war, and crimes against humanity—then I do think we must stand against perpetrators of those crimes. Though it is terribly horrifying that the charges aimed at helping the Sudanese people might actually harm them, the fact that Bashir is reacting to his charges by pulling aid that his people are dependant upon only further shows that the charges the ICC made were correct. For this reason, despite the consequences, I do support the conclusion of the ICC.

Linked below are articles from the Christian Science Monitor. The discussion is very interesting.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0306/p12s01-wogi.html?page=1
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0305/p99s01-duts.html
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0305/p01s02-woaf.html

The Increase of Modern Slavery

The United Nations recently released a report on the status of human trafficking in the world. Unfortunately, the results were not promising. Though the number of nations which have agreed to condemn the practices of human trafficking has grown, there is real reason to doubt whether their promises are a real commitment to stop trafficking. 40 % of countries where the problem is known to exist have yet to convict one person of trafficking even though all of them have declared their commitment to the cause. The United Nations claims this is due to a lack the legal instruments or political will in these countries to ensure that perpetrators are punished. In the end, the United Nations fears that the problem is only worsening each year.

This is significant not only due to the severity and brutality of human trafficking for victims, but also due to the sheer numbers of new victims each year. The UN has yet to comment on the number of trafficked individuals each year, but estimates range from 800,000 new victims each year, according to the U.S. State Department, to 2.5 million, according to the International Labor Organization. All we know for sure is the amount of people that are reported, which in 2006 was over 21,400 people.

Human Trafficking is said to be the modern form of slavery—and this description is terrifyingly accurate. 80 % of human trafficking is sexual exploitation, with the remaining 20% being mostly forced labor. Both kinds are horrendous. One article that I have linked below describes the experiences of a former sex slave who was able to escape. She was kidnapped at a young age, and woke up beaten and bloody from a man who had purchased her virginity. From that moment on, she never left the building until her escape. She was beaten until she learned to smile and act flirtatious for customers so that they assumed she was complicit in her situation. When she did not act this way, she was literally tortured in the basement. The torture included beatings, massive electric shocks, and days spent in a coffin with biting ants. Many women died in these torture sessions. Now, as an activist, she works under constant threats. In fact, two of her co-workers have had their daughters kidnapped and subjected to sex slavery.

The problem is widespread and a horribly egregious violation of human rights. Governments can do a great deal to deincentivize people from going into the trafficking business, but another obvious solution to the problem is to stop the demand. I hope that human rights activists continue their work to free young women and children that have been trafficked. Additionally, I hope that they focus some attention on educating people about the tactics used by traffickers to make children and women appear consensual, in hopes that such education will fight the rising demand for trafficking.

Below are two links, one to the report given by the UN and the other to woman’s story of human trafficking:
http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/global-report-on-trafficking-in-persons.html
http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/global-report-on-trafficking-in-persons.html