Monday, November 29, 2021

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Wednesday, November 24, 2021

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Saturday, November 13, 2021

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Monday, November 8, 2021

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Wednesday, July 21, 2021

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MANILA BULLETIN

Rule of law and pitiful plight of Filipino maids overseas

Published July 12, 2021, 12:10 AM

by Jun Concepcion

OFW Forum

Jun Concepcion

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III announced on July 6 the temporary suspension of new workers to Saudi Arabia following recent sexual abuses of two Filipino women in that country. They came home last month, with “Michelle” two months pregnant with the child of one of her two Saudi rapists. More likely than not, she will be emotionally scarred more in the long term than her fellow victim as her child will haunt and remind her in the years to come of the traumatic rape that she suffered in Saudi Arabia.

Michelle worked one after the other for two Saudi employers, both of whom raped her, probably disabling her from pinpointing which of the two culprits fathered the child that she’s now bearing.

Expressing his outrage, Bello said: “If we don’t get justice for our OFWs, the president may again consider declaring a ban to Saudi Arabia.” Beyond mere expression of outrage, hardly anything can be expected in Michelle’s bid for justice.

In recent years, there have been no media reports about perpetrators of rapes, serious physical abuses and killings of Filipino women in the Middle East being made accountable and getting prosecuted for their crimes. Simply put, the rule of law in different countries across the Middle East historically does not protect and apply to foreign workers, especially if they belong to a very low strata in society, like domestic helpers, who are routinely “sold” from one employer to the other under the decades-old Kafala scheme that remains prevalent in the region. Victims’ pleas for justice can therefore be likened to feeble voices in the wilderness.

More likely than not, Michelle will simply be added – just like a faceless statistic – to the ever growing list of Filipino women brutalized in the Middle East who are conveniently forgotten over time by labor officials more engrossed in overseeing the country’s continuing manpower exports to feed the economy’s insatiable hunger for more foreign currencies.

In sharp contrast to the Middle East, the rule of law in Asia provides ample protection to imported workers comparable, if not equal, to that of local citizens. Recent cases in point are a Singaporean employer of Indian descent who was jailed for 30 years over the killing and starvation of her young Myanmar domestic helper.

In Hong Kong, a male employer raped her 29-year-old Indonesian helper in February this year and he was arraigned in court in May to be made accountable for his crime.

Are there prospects in the foreseeable future of Filipino women enjoying the rule of local law across the Middle East? Sadly, hardly, if at all. From various indications, there aren’t much reasons to be hopeful. In a surprising move, President Duterte reportedly wrote to the King of Saudi Arabia in June, asking for labor reform initiatives and the removal of the sponsorship or Kafala system. Sadly, no signs have since emerged that the government will press further this isolated initiative.

With the Kafala employer-foreign worker sponsorship system put in place in the 1950s, it is more than likely than not that resistance to any change to the scheme will be very stiff. The government will therefore need to employ an entirely different tack than simply asking for amendments to the Kafala scheme.

What will it really take for a labor exporting country, specifically the Philippines, to obtain more favorable treatment of its workers in Saudi Arabia and in other countries in the Middle East? The current temporary suspension of deployment of more workers to that country, especially domestic helpers, is certainly a good start. But if it softens its stance, just like what it did in its brief deployment suspension in Kuwait over the horrific killing of a Filipino maid, any prospect of gains easily goes down the drain.

If work conditions for Filipino women in Saudi Arabia are to improve, the government should stand pat on the deployment ban to that country until and unless Filipino workers there, especially women, enjoy the full protection of the country’s law and criminal justice system.

Unless this firm position is maintained, rapes and other atrocities on Filipino women, like those inflicted on Michelle, are likely to be repeated with impunity again and again in the coming months and years.  While Saudi Arabia can push back and shut its doors on the entry of additional Filipino workers, the government should not fear adverse consequences. If not Saudi Arabia, other countries in the Middle East, Asia and elsewhere across the world can always provide employment opportunities to Filipinos bold enough to work overseas.

If Filipino women are treated shabbily again and again in Saudi Arabia or elsewhere in the Middle East, the government has and should fulfill its obligation to find lasting and effective solutions to resolve the problem by conducting more intensive and diligent research and forging the necessary labor agreements that will secure and guarantee work conditions that won’t put Filipino women in harm’s way. Failure to do this will simply reflect incompetence and dereliction of duty of the country’s senior labor officials.  There is absolutely no reason and justification for labor officials not to ensure that Filipino women are not unduly exposed to harm’s way thousands of miles away from their loved ones in dire circumstances that can also make it extremely difficult for government agencies, notably POEA and OWWA, to rescue and send them home.

Contact writer at jchk94@yahoo.com

 

Sunday, June 27, 2021

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Wednesday, June 23, 2021

Somalia, Congo, Afghanistan, Syria Among Most Dangerous for Children in Conflict

 VOA


A girl stands near a woman on the rubble of a damaged building in the rebel-held town of Nairab, in northwest Syria's Idlib…
FILE - A Syrian woman cries as her wounded child lies on an operating table following artillery fire on the regime-held city of Aleppo, March 21, 2021.

Somalia, Congo, Afghanistan and Syria top the list of the most dangerous conflict zones for children, the United Nations said Monday, accounting for nearly 60% of all violations among the entries on its annual blacklist of countries where children suffer grave abuses. 

"Children can no longer be the last priority of the international agenda nor the least protected group of individuals on the planet," Virginia Gamba, U.N. special representative for children in armed conflict, told reporters Monday at the report's launch. "We need to give children an alternative to violence and abuse. We need peace, respect for children's rights, and democracy." 

Gamba said the most widespread violations in 2020 were the recruitment and use of children by security forces and armed groups and the killing and maiming of children.  

FILE - Children play outside their family's shelters at an Afghan refugee camp in Islamabad, Pakistan, Feb. 13, 2020.

"We are extremely alarmed at the increase in the abduction of children by 90% compared to previous years, as well as the increase in rape and other forms of sexual violence, registering an increase of 70% compared to previous years," she added. 

More than 3,200 children were confirmed abducted in conflict situations in 2020, and at least 1,268 were victims of sexual violence, the report said. 

Of the worst offenders, Gamba said Somalia had the "most violations by far," primarily perpetrated by al-Shabab terrorists. In Afghanistan, she said the Taliban was responsible for two-thirds of violations, and the government and pro-government militias the rest. 

Myanmar also ranked high on the list of grave violations, including for the highest numbers of children recruited and used, while Yemen has among the highest figures for children killed or maimed. 

FILE - Ahmed Abdo Salem, a 2-year-old Yemeni child displaced by conflict and suffering from malnutrition (weighing only five kilograms), is measured at a health clinic in the war-ravaged western Hodeida province, Feb. 15, 2021.

Attacks on schools and hospitals remained high last year at 856, mostly in Afghanistan, Congo, Syria and Burkina Faso. 

"Education against girls was particularly targeted," Gamba said. 

As with everything else in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic only complicated matters. 

The report found, for example, that the use of schools by militaries rose last year. Many schools were closed temporarily because of the pandemic, making them easy targets for military occupation and use. 

New to the list are Cameroon, Burkina Faso and the Lake Chad Basin region. 

The report contained some good news. Due to advocacy efforts, armed groups and security forces released 12,643 children. And the number of actors engaging with Gamba's office, signing on to action plans and making new commitments toward children is growing. 

FILE - Flag-draped caskets of seven children who were killed by unidentified assailants in a classroom of a secondary school are pictured during their mass funeral in Kumba, Cameroon, Nov. 5, 2020.

However, human rights groups have criticized the report over the years, saying that double standards apply to the creation of the blacklist and that some countries escape accountability. 

"We strongly urge the (U.N.) Secretary-General to reconsider his decision and hold parties to conflict all over the world to the same standard," Inger Ashing, CEO of Save the Children International, said in a statement. 

"Secretary-General (Antonio) Guterres is letting warring parties implicated in the deaths and maiming of children off the hook by leaving Israel, the Saudi-led coalition (in Yemen) and other violators off his 'list of shame,'" said Jo Becker, children's rights advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. "His repeated failure to base his list on the U.N.'s own evidence betrays children and fuels impunity." 

Responding to the criticism, Gamba said that regarding Israel, violations carried out during the recent fighting in Gaza would be examined in next year's report. 

She added that she did not experience any political pressure from parties in terms of who would be listed. 

Read more: https://www.voanews.com/africa/somalia-congo-afghanistan-syria-among-most-dangerous-children-conflict

Grave violations against children in conflict ‘alarmingly high’, latest UN report reveals

 


UNOCHA/Giles Clarke
Two children, who recently returned home after they and their family fled fighting in 2017, look out over the Al Gamalia neighborhood of Taiz City.
21 June 2021

More than 19,300 boys and girls affected by war last year were victims of grave violations such as recruitment or rape, and the COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult for experts to reach them, the UN said in its annual report on Children and Armed Conflict (CAAC), published on Monday. 

Grave violations against children remained “alarmingly high” at nearly 26,500, while the pandemic increased their vulnerability to abduction, recruitment and sexual violence, as well as attacks on schools and hospitals. 

 

“The wars of adults have taken away the childhood of millions of boys and girls again in 2020. This is completely devastating for them, but also for the entire communities they live in, and destroys chances for a sustainable peace”, said Virginia Gamba, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative on CAAC. 

Recruitment and use, as well as killing and maiming of children, were the most prevalent violations in 2020, followed by denial of humanitarian access and abduction, the report said. 

Abductions, attacks on girls’ education 

More than 8,400 youngsters were killed or maimed in ongoing wars in Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, and Somalia, while nearly 7,000 more were recruited and used in fighting, mainly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, Syria and Myanmar. 

Researchers reported “exponential growth” in abductions, which rose by a staggering 90 per cent last year.  Rape and other forms of sexual violence also shot up by 70 per cent.  

Meanwhile, attacks on schools and hospitals “remained excessively high”, which included serious attacks perpetrated against girls’ education and against health facilities and personnel. There was also an increase in the military use of schools, as the temporary closure of schools during the pandemic made them easy targets for military occupation and use.  

The report further revealed that girls made up a quarter of all child victims of grave violations. They also were mostly affected by rape and other forms of sexual violence, comprising 98 per cent of victims, followed by killing and maiming. 

 “If boys and girls experience conflict differently and require interventions to better address their specific needs, what the data also showed is that conflict doesn’t differentiate based on gender,” Ms. Gamba stated. 

Progress and commitments 

Despite the sobering statistics, the report also details tangible progress in dialogues with warring parties in Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, Nigeria, the Philippines, South Sudan and Syria.   

Some 35 new commitments or other engagement were reached last year to better protect children, including two new action plans signed in Myanmar and South Sudan. 

Additionally, armed groups and forces freed more than 12,643 children from their ranks following UN engagement, and many more boys and girls were spared from recruitment due to age screening processes in situations where the UN has action plans with governments to stop child recruitment and use. 

The report stated, however, that progress has taken place as child protection capacities on the ground are both overstretched and underfunded.   

Promote peace, child rights and democracy 

Ms. Gamba praised teams working in the field throughout the pandemic, and in challenging environments.  

She underlined the need to secure resources for child protection at a time of extreme suffering for children, given the many setbacks in democratic processes at the beginning of this year, and the rise in violence between warring sides. 

“This is an opportunity to stop and reflect on the suffering we are causing our children, who are our future,” the senior UN official said. 

“We need to give children an alternative to violence and abuse: we need peace, respect for child rights and democracy. We need hope in good governance. We need to act to build a future where peace prevails. Please, give children that alternative.”

‘A stolen childhood’ 

Measures to curtail coronavirus spread, also complicated the work of UN child protection monitors and experts, according to the report which is entitled A Stolen Childhood and a Future to Repair: Vulnerability of Girls & Boys in Armed Conflict Exacerbated by COVID-19 Pandemic.

Read more: https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/06/1094392

Tuesday, June 22, 2021

Forced organ harvesting reports in China spark UN concern

 

Organ harvesting speak free


Human Trafficking

Forced organ harvesting and organ trafficking are interlinked crimes where organs are taken from victims through coercion or without informed consent and sold illegally, often making their way into the organ tourism transplant market.

UN experts have expressed alarm this week at reports of forced organ harvesting of detainees, organized by authorities in China. Ethnic and religious minorities such as Uyghurs, Falun Gong practitioners, Tibetans, Muslims and Christians, are being detained, often with no reason given for their arrest, and allegedly targeted to have their organs forcibly removed.

Serious allegations of state-sanctioned forced organ harvesting have been made against China’s government as far back as 2006 leading UN human rights experts to raise the issue with authorities.

However, lack of sufficient data from the Chinese government has shrouded this alleged practice in secrecy preventing the effective identification and support of potential victims trafficked for the purpose of forced organ removal.

Last year, an independent people’s tribunal in London chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice QC concluded that “forced organ harvesting has been committed for years throughout China on a significant scale”.

The UN reports:

The experts said they have received credible information that detainees from ethnic, linguistic or religious minorities may be forcibly subjected to blood tests and organ examinations such as ultrasound and x-rays, without their informed consent; while other prisoners are not required to undergo such examinations. The results of the examinations are reportedly registered in a database of living organ sources that facilitates organ allocation.

“According to the allegations received, the most common organs removed from the prisoners are reportedly hearts, kidneys, livers, corneas and, less commonly, parts of livers. This form of trafficking with a medical nature allegedly involves health sector professionals, including surgeons, anaesthetists and other medical specialists.”

UN experts including the Special Rapporteurs on trafficking in persons, torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment are calling on the Chinese government to respond to allegations of forced organ harvesting.

Freedom United is powering calls in partnership with the International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China and the Human Trafficking Foundation, for governments to pass legislation that will tackle forced organ harvesting and organ trafficking at the international level.

Read more: https://www.freedomunited.org/news/forced-organ-harvesting-reports-spark-concern/?trk_msg=I2K2APKF5IM476042LV89LT5F0&trk_contact=AEHU67OKAF413GHENKTO07JSKO&trk_sid=EUJ1IB9I0IJRQ69ONV4DA1U664&utm_source=Listrak&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Read+more...&utm_campaign=News+Digest_6.20.2021&utm_content=News+Digest_6.20.2021

Sunday, June 13, 2021

Allentown man convicted of human trafficking for keeping woman in sexual slavery

 The Morning Call.

A Lehigh County jury convicted an Allentown man of human trafficking after a woman testified in his trial this week that he forced her to have sex with as many as 10 men a day and kept most of the money they paid.

Ramell Scott Hurdle, 36, of the 400 block of East Susquehanna Street was convicted of most of the charges against him, including felony human trafficking, promoting prostitution and criminal use of a communication facility. The jury acquitted Hurdle of assault charges based on allegations that he burned the victim with cigarettes.

Judge Anna Christine Marks scheduled sentencing for July 16.

Defense attorney David Knight said Hurdle took the witness stand Wednesday.

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“Mr. Hurdle never denied he was a pimp,” Knight said. “The two things he denied were that he forced her to do it … and he adamantly denied that he burned her.”

Knight said Hurdle acknowledged that he helped the woman to engage in prostitution and that she was a willing participant, noting that the woman referred to them as a team during her testimony.

Prosecutors said Hurdle kept the woman he trafficked under his control for six months before Allentown police and a Department of Homeland Security agent made contact with the woman in an undercover operation and arrested Hurdle. Hurdle took pictures of the woman in provocative poses and posted them in online advertisements for sex for money. He instructed the woman to charge the men who responded to the ads $150-$800, but Hurdle kept almost all of it.

The 26-year-old woman testified in open court, but The Morning Call generally does not publish the names of victims of sex crimes.

She told jurors that she was working as a bartender to save enough money for an apartment for herself and her two children when a friend introduced her to Hurdle. The friend suggested that she could make money on the side by working as an escort, going on dinner dates with men, and that Hurdle would protect her.

The woman testified that after she was assaulted in her hotel room as she prepared for a date, she believed that Hurdle cared for her and fell into a routine of daily prostitution. She also testified that Hurdle controlled when she left the home where she was staying and often left her without access to food.

Hurdle was arrested in May 2019 after an undercover officer responded to Hurdle’s ad and met the woman at a south Allentown motel. The woman agreed to let officers use her phone to lure Hurdle back to the motel.

Morning Call reporter Peter Hall can be reached at 610-820-6581 or peter.hall@mcall.com.


Peter Hall covers federal courts and legal issues for The Morning Call. A native of the United Kingdom, Hall grew up in the Philly suburbs and has covered everything from school boards to the Supreme Court for newspapers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. He is an alumnus of Susquehanna University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism.
 

Illegal Fishing Is a Global Threat. Here’s How to Combat It.

Council on Foreign Relations.

Fishing provides a critical source of food and income for many countries, but much of it occurs unlawfully, harming vulnerable populations and eroding maritime governance.  

June 4, 2021 1:06 pm (EST)

Chinese fishing boats band together to thwart an attempt by Korea Coast Guard ships to stop alleged illegal fishing in the Yellow Sea.
Chinese fishing boats band together to thwart an attempt by Korea Coast Guard ships to stop alleged illegal fishing in the Yellow Sea. Park Young-Chul/AFP/Getty Images

Illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing—known as IUU fishing—is a global scourge. Carried out by malicious actors in the shadows of the world’s oceans, it can devastate ecosystems, degrade food stocks, and undermine fragile fishing economies. A broad network of international partners, including U.S. civilian and military agencies, should work to eradicate this threat to the world’s shared prosperity.

Illegal fishing refers to fishing activities in contravention of applicable laws and regulations. Unreported fishing refers to fishing activities that are not reported or are misreported to relevant authorities. And unregulated fishing is done by vessels without nationality or that are not regulated by their flag state, the country in which a vessel is registered. It also occurs when vessels fish in areas or for stocks for which there are no applicable conservation or management measures.


IUU fishing is a global problem, occurring in the South China Sea, off the west coast of Africa (where estimates put illegal catch at 40 percent), off both coasts of South America, in the eastern Indian Ocean, throughout Oceania, and around Antarctica. According to the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime’s IUU Fishing Index, which benchmarks countries’ vulnerability to, prevalence of, and response to IUU fishing, four of the top five worst-scoring countries are in Southeast Asia. China tops the list, and Russia is the sole non–Southeast Asian country, at number four.

In one particularly egregious example last year, a fleet of 350 Chinese vessels was observed conducting predatory high seas fishing around Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands, a UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage site. The fleet was targeting squid and scooping up other valuable and vulnerable marine life. Locals sounded the alarm, fearing the vessels were depleting fish populations, hurting the livelihoods of small-scale fishermen in the islands, and devastating the sensitive ecosystem. Ecuador called for help, and the U.S. Coast Guard deployed a national security cutter to help patrol the area.

What are the concerns?

IUU fishing threatens ocean ecosystems, including sustainable fisheries, which are critical to global food security, and it puts those that abide by the law in the United States and abroad at a disadvantage. In 2020, the U.S. Coast Guard said that IUU fishing has replaced piracy as the leading global maritime security threat. It is estimated that up to one in every five fish caught around the world is obtained through IUU fishing, representing about a $23 billion annual loss for the legal fishing industry. And, in large part, the poorest countries in the world, which depend on fisheries for food and livelihoods, are hit the hardest.

Listen
What’s the Threat of Industrial Overfishing?
Why It MattersFish is an essential protein source for over 40 percent of the global population. IUU fishing can decimate fish stocks, undermining a country’s ability to feed its people. Further, IUU fishing can disrupt and destabilize fragile economies of coastal states. Small island nations are particularly vulnerable, in that many have vast ocean resources but very limited capacity to patrol their exclusive economic zones, or EEZs. Many of these small nations also struggle to apprehend and prosecute transgressors.

What is the threat beyond the illegal fishing itself?

IUU fishing often happens along with other unlawful activities, including human trafficking and forced labor. Interpol reports that fishing vessels are often used to smuggle people, drugs, and weapons, as well as to carry out acts of piracy and terrorism. IUU fishing activities are highly mobile, increasingly sophisticated, and sometimes conducted with logistical and security support from fishers’ flag states.

These acts undermine internationally recognized fishing regimes, the work of regional fisheries management organizations, and international bodies such as the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s Fisheries Division. Broadly speaking, it erodes collective global maritime governance.

How does the United States work to combat IUU fishing?

Various U.S. government agencies work with foreign partners or participate in different multilateral forums to combat IUU fishing. For instance, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration works with the United Nations and regional fisheries management organizations. The U.S. military, particularly the coast guard and navy, provides maritime security assistance and training to coastal state partners in regions around the world. At the same time, the United States works to model responsible maritime behavior through a strict fisheries management program and ranks in the top five countries [PDF] in the world in responding to IUU fishing.

What can other governments do to fight IUU fishing?

Roles and responsibilities for a government vary depending on its relationship to the vessel and the catch. A vessel’s flag state has exclusive authority over it on the high seas, including with regard to matters such as labor standards and ship safety. Therefore, flag states must ensure that regulations are in place and enforced to deter IUU fishing and associated crimes from occurring on their vessels. Ignoring the duties of being a flag state can, and often does, allow illegal activity to take place. In addition, there are particularly concerning cases where flag states willfully abet IUU perpetrators by encouraging or assisting vessels that encroach on sovereign waters and EEZs of other nations or intimidate local fishermen.

Port states also can play a significant role by blocking vessels engaged in IUU fishing from using their ports and landing their catches. Governments have a framework to do so pursuant to the Agreement on Port State Measures, a UN treaty that came into force in 2016 and was the first binding international agreement that specifically targets IUU fishing. Approximately one-third of the world’s countries are party to it, but UN members should collectively work to increase that number.

Meanwhile, coastal states have a responsibility to assist in curbing IUU fishing. They are responsible for conservation and management of the ocean resources to which they have sovereign rights (within their EEZs). Finally, market states, where the fish are sold, should work to ensure that their seafood is coming from legal, legitimate sources.

What other multilateral efforts are there?

IUU fishing can only be combated by a whole-of-world approach, presenting an opportunity for state-to-state cooperation. Regional fisheries management organizations are working with the International Maritime Organization to boost accountability requirements aboard commercial fishing vessels across the globe. Other international bodies and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are contributing to the fight as well. Interpol’s Project Scale is succeeding in catching much illegal fishing. Technology initiatives such as the Pew Charitable Trusts’ Oversea Ocean Monitor and Global Fishing Watch’s satellite-based platforms have been highly effective tools for spotting suspect activity across large spans of the ocean. And NGOs such as the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and Greenpeace, which operate on contributions from private donors with vessels crewed by volunteers, also help build maritime domain awareness.

The world needs to collectively continue to fight the scourge of IUU fishing in order to protect sensitive marine environments and food sustainability, prevent irreparable damage to coastal economies, counter corruption and associated criminal activity, and uphold the sovereignty and security of the world’s maritime nations.

Where is it happening?

More on:

International Law

Oceans and Seas

Global Commons

United States

 

 Read more: https://www.cfr.org/article/illegal-fishing-global-threat-heres-how-combat-it