Index September 2006

Thierry Falise – Belgium & Thailand

Linked with Working out of disaster, with The Online Burma/Myanmar Library, and with stolen innocence.

Also linked with Vanida S. Thephsouvanh – Laos & France, with Lao Movement for Human Rights LMHR, with Les Lao-Hmongs et leurs droits de l’homme, and with about human rights in Laos, with Texts about Economy and Indigenous Peoples, with Douangdeuane Bounyavong – Laos.

The Belgian photojournalist Thierry Falise has covered South-East Asia and beyond since the mid-eighties, both features and news reporting (as a correspondent for Gamma photo agency and today for Bangkok-based Onasia photography agency). In 2003, TV colleague Vincent Reynaud and Falise were arrested in Laos after completing a forbidden story on a Hmong minority waiting for the return of its former American ally. Sentenced to 15 years of prison, the two reporters were released after five weeks in jail thanks to an international solidarity campaign. Falise also worked on corporate, NGOs and institutional assignments. In 2005, he published his first novel in French, “Les Petits Généraux de Yadana” – Anne Carrière). He is Based in Bangkok. (Read all on Thierry Falise).

Thierry Falise two - Belgium & Thailand redim 30p.jpg

Thierry Falise – Belgium & Thailand

Look at some of his photos made in Far-East.

He is a Belgian freelance reporter and a regular contributor to the French weekly magazine L’Express. He and the freelance French cameraman Reynaud were arrested in Xieng Khuang province (northeast of Vientiane) on 4 June 2003, along with the Rev. Naw Karl Mua, a US citizen of Hmong origin, and four Laotians.

Continuer la lecture de « Thierry Falise – Belgium & Thailand »

Theodor Rathgeber – Germany

Linked with Adivasi.

He is Teaching assistant (Lehrbeauftragter) at the University of Kassel, Germany.

UN Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations: Theodor Rathgeber, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, April 2006 – Theodor Rathgeber summarizes the essential arguments for attributing responsibilities for human rights to transnational corporations, seeking in particular to respond to the concerns of trade unionists, but also business representatives. He reminds that on the whole, past experience with voluntary codes indicates the need for a coherent approach that can subject the natural dynamics of global systems to minimum standards of human rights. The easiest way to organize a body of rules like this would be within an international institutional framework that can apply a minimum of democratic, transparent and participatory procedures to implementing the contractual instruments … (Read all on Geneva-Office of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung).

Theodor Rathgeber.jpg

Theodor Rathgeber – Germany / see a better photo on Adivasikoordination.

He works for the German Human Rights Forum of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Germany. And he works for the Adivasikoordination.

Read: NGOs call on Member States to adopt Draft Convention on Enforced Disappearance, March 22, 2006.

Reform of the Commission on Human Rights: An introduction into the present debate on the reform of the Commission on Human Rights was given by Theodor Rathgeber on the basis of his paper “Reforming the UN Commission on Human Rights.

Continuer la lecture de « Theodor Rathgeber – Germany »

Aida Touma-Suliman – Israel

Linked with Women agains Violence WAV.

She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

She says: « The majority of women feminists in our society are aware of the repression against them and reject it silently. But very few of them take the initiative to change the situation. »

She says also: « There is an increased awareness by Israel Arab women that they are no longer passive victims ».

Aida Touma-Suliman - Israel two.jpg

Aida Touma-Suliman – Israel

She works for Women Against Violence WAV.

13 years ago in Nazareth, Aida Touma Suliman – a Palestinian with Israeli citizenship – and six other women founded Women Against Violence (WAV), an organization that advocates Palestinian women’s rights. In 1993, WAV founded the first shelters and crisis centers for battered women in the Arab world. The group also established a halfway house for women trying to rebuild their lives after leaving abusive husbands.

Continuer la lecture de « Aida Touma-Suliman – Israel »

Vanida S. Thephsouvanh – Laos & France

Linked with Lao Movement for Human Rights LMHR, with Les Lao-Hmongs et leurs droits de l’home, and with about human rights in Laos.

And with Thierry Falise – Belgium & Thailand and Douangdeuane Bounyavong – Laos, with Promoting the Rights, Voices and Visions of Indigenous Peoples, with
Texts about Economy and Indigenous Peoples, with The Online Burma/Myanmar Library, and with Indigenous Webs for Information.

She says, that « the health system (of the Lao-Hmong minority) is characterized by high mortality and morbidity, low use, poor quality of services and inefficient public spending … nearly a third of children between the age of 6 and 14 do not attend school », and « about one half » of the students who start school drop out before completing Grade 5″, according to this report. Its conclusion suggested that in order to ensure the success of the LPDR’s eradication of poverty plan, the LPDR government « must do all that is possible to ensure that all national budget allocations, international loans or donor funds reach their intended project targets, and do not become part of the cycle of externally funded corruption ». She also denounced the desperate plight of the Lao-Hmong minority from the Saysomboun and the Bolikhamsay regions, « which is being tracked down day and night in the jungle by the armed forces, which is being denied the right to food and is forced to live out of roots and leaves, unable to cultivate the land or pick the fruits from the forest, unable to build permanent homes, for fear of being spotted and killed by the army ».

Vanida Thephsouvanh - Laos one redim 40p.jpg

Vanida S. Thephsouvanh – Laos & France

She works as Président for the Lao Movement for Human Rights

LAOS –Absence of the Economic and Social Rights denounced at the UN – Geneva, Wednesday 30 March 2005: At the 61st session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, Vanida S. THEPHSOUVANH, president of the Lao Movement for Human Rights (LMHR) and member of the General Council of the Transnational Radical Party, on behalf of which she spoke on Wednesday afternoon, denounced the situation of health service and education in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (LPDR) as being « at the very limit of what is acceptable », pointing more particularly at the situation of the 80% portion of the population living in rural zones, in spite of the hundreds of million euros of aids received from the international community.

Continuer la lecture de « Vanida S. Thephsouvanh – Laos & France »

Sihem Bensedrine – Tunis

Linked with Police terror in postcard state.

In 1980, she became a reporter for the independent journal Le Phare. When the journal stopped publication, she became political chief at Maghreb, and then at Réalités. When Maghreb ceased publication because of the food riots in 1983, she became editor-in-chief of Gazette Touristique and founded l’Hebdo Touristique. At the same time, she was overseeing the opposition newspaper El Mawkif. (wikipedia).

Sihem Bensedrine - Tunis.jpg

Sihem Bensedrine (born October 28, 1950) is a Tunisian journalist and human rights activist. She was born at La Marsa, near Tunis and went to France to study at the university in Toulouse, where she took a degree in philosophy. She founded the publishing house Arcs in 1988, but it became bankrupt in 1992 because of the human rights crisis. In 1998, she became literary chief for the publishing house Noir sur Blanc.

Continuer la lecture de « Sihem Bensedrine – Tunis »

Gabriela Ngirmang – Palau

Linked with LA SUBSISTANCE ET LA POLITIQUE.

She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

She says: « All I am trying to do is to make a little difference so that future generations may enjoy a beautiful and peaceful future, united with respect for one another and respect for the environment ».

She says also: « I came here because the women feel that our interests are not being satisfactorily protected, and out of concern for the Palauan citizens. The Compact is hundreds of pages long, it is written by lawyers, and the political education on the document is biased to support the political needs of the President of Palau. Despite much public relations and efforts to sell the Compact, we clearly understand that the implementation of the Compact gives the United States the right to conduct military operations on as much as one-third of our land – forever. We see that the Compact says military rights may end in 50 years if mutually agreed. This means, we understand, that if the United States wishes to continue its control of our land, it needs only say so and this will go on forever. This is unacceptable. »

Gabriela Ngirmang - Palau redim 50p.jpg

Gabriela Ngirmang – Palau

Whatever view you hold of Gabriela Ngirmang as a peace activist (unheard of in Palau) or a Mirair (traditional title), a matriarch of Ikelau clan, she has made a lasting impression.

Continuer la lecture de « Gabriela Ngirmang – Palau »

Hedwig Vinyou – Cameroon

Linked with Action by Christians Against Torture ACAT.

She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

She says: « They are my brothers and they love me. All of them feel that I am one of them and they even call me ‘the chief of prisoners’. Indeed – I am one of them », and:“ Wouldn’t it be wonderful if I should die in active service?” .

Hedwig Vinyou - Cameroon rogné.jpg

Hedwig Vinyou – Cameroon

She works for Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture ACAT.

Sister Hedwig Vinyou was born in 1955, in Mbiim Djottin, North-Western Province of Cameroon. From 1962 to 1968, she attended St. Peter’s School, Mbiim. In 1973, she entered the Franciscan Congregation, committing her life to religion and service. She now lives in Bamenda, West of Cameroon, and has worked for many years among prisoners and fought for their rights. Since 1998, she has decongested the Bamenda Central Prison by negotiating and obtained the release of some 2000 prisoners who, for a long time, had been awaiting trial for minor offences.

Continuer la lecture de « Hedwig Vinyou – Cameroon »

Nils Daulaire – USA

Linked with Nils Daulaire’s speech, with ‘about available health care‘, with Nils Daulaire’s Keynote address, with Importance of Global Alliances … , and with Global Health Council.

Listen to the GHC Panel, Intro with Nils Daulaire, Stan Bernstein, By Ian on Tuesday, May 30, 2006.

Read: Hands on Health Care. He is president and CEO of the Global Health Council, the world’s largest membership alliance dedicated to advancing policies and programs that improve health around the world. The Council, founded in 1972*, has built a global coalition in more than 100 countries that promotes improvement and equity in health for all the world’s citizens.

Listen audio or see video about: The Global Health Crises and Child Survival.

He says: « It is wrong when a woman dies because she cannot afford the basic care that could save her life. And it is socially and politically destabilizing to have a world divided into medical ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ « .

Nils Daulaire - USA one.jpg

Nils Daulaire – USA

He works as President and CEO for the Global Health Council.

Read his Keynote Address at International Conference on Healthcare Resource Allocation for HIV/AIDS.

Continuer la lecture de « Nils Daulaire – USA »

Millicent Obaso – Kenya

Linked with The African Women’s Initiative AWI, and with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

She says: « My long-term goal is to save the lives of women. There is so much death in Africa, and so much disease — malaria and AIDS are just part of the problem. I want to work with the most vulnerable to improve their lives. »

Millicent Obaso works as a reproductive health officer in the Great Lakes region of Africa – she works in fourteen countries. She is married for the second time and has three children. But she says she has paid a price for her professional career – the cost was a painful divorce from her first husband which was not accepted at her first by her family. (Listen to her video on BBC).

Millicent Obaso - Kenya four.jpg

Millicent Obaso – Kenya

She works as Senior Officer for the African Women’s Initiative AWI, and for the American Red Cross. See also: the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Earlier this year, American Red Cross President Dr. Bernadine Healy appointed Millicent Obaso as special advisor on international women’s health issues.

Continuer la lecture de « Millicent Obaso – Kenya »