Poor children in Manila. Political patronage often influences how local development aid is spent in the Philippines and other countries. Credit: Jessica Huang-La

By Lydia Lim
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 31 2013 (IPS)

Despite global efforts to provide development aid, the world’s poorest are getting poorer, says a new report by the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD).

“What we found through the research with people living in poverty is that overall, the most marginalised and the poorest communities have experienced greater exclusion from development processes,” Neva Frecheville, CAFOD’s post-MDGs policy analyst, told IPS.

Several factors beyond the control of poor communities, such as government corruption, natural disasters and economic barriers, have exacerbated or displaced many poor people’s livelihoods, according to the report, “Setting the post-2015 development compass: voices from the ground,” a part of the agency’s COMPASS 2015 research project.

The participatory research interviewed 1,420 people in 56 communities living with poverty in Uganda, Bolivia, the Philippines and Zimbabwe.

Poverty is a complex issue driven by many power dynamics that pose challenges for development aid to operate properly and reach the people it needs to reach, Frecheville told IPS.

Government corruption and political patronage, which means that communities are punished or rewarded for their support of a specific political group, are one case of exclusion from the benefits of services and resources meant to reach the poor, Frecheville explained.

“If you do not belong to the same political party as the incumbent local government chief executive, it is very difficult to get support for development projects,” said Mapulog of Philippines, who was interviewed for the CAFOD report.

Other issues present themselves as barriers to people trying to access the full benefits of development aid, such as education.

“Education is one instance where particularly under the MDGs, focus on enrollment over quality has meant that people have been sending their children to school, a major investment for them, but haven’t had the benefit of quality education,” Frecheville said.

“This process has further entrenched their poverty and limited their options again that they have in the future.”

Not all findings from the report were negative indicators of poverty, however.

The report found communities with significant improvements on changing discriminatory norms, such as increased political participation for indigenous people and government policies with reduced stigma attached to being HIV-positive.

“Sometimes, we face discrimination. When someone knows that you are HIV-positive, they avoid your stall and buy from the next person, as if HIV is transmitted through the products that we sell. [But] cases of discrimination are few now, people are now aware,” said Rosemary from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, in her interview for the CAFOD report.

The CAFOD report is part of the Participate initiative, which aims to bring evidence on the reality of poverty from the ground level and make suggestions for the post-2015 development agenda, when the MDGs expire.

Thea Shahrokh, research officer of Participate, noted that the global research initiative “connects the unfiltered voices of those most affected by poverty and exclusion with the U.N. and intergovernmental deliberations.”

The findings of the report also reflect the major policy areas that need to be addressed – such as prioritising conflict prevention, disaster and conflict risk reduction and promoting the creation of decent jobs – by policymakers at multiple levels.

“While the negotiations for the post-2015 global development agenda are held by the U.N., a complex process involving many different actors, such as the multilateral institutions, the private sector, and various U.N. agencies, are engaging at multiple levels from local to national, regional and beyond,” Sharokh told IPS.

By making heard the voices of those who are meant to benefit from global aid, the participatory research is “incredibly important” in its contributions to the post-2015 debate, Frecheville told IPS.

“[The report] enables the people to really define and articulate how they understand their own situations and their aspirations for what they want in the future,” Frecheville said. “Too often, that’s something that can be externally determined, particularly in global policy processes.”

Although the 193-member U.N. General Assembly remains sharply divided over gay and lesbian rights, the U.N. human rights office Friday launched an unprecedented global public education campaign for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality.

“Free & Equal,” a year-long project that will aim to raise awareness of homophobic and transphobic violence and discrimination, is the first campaign of its kind launched by the United Nations, High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay announced.

The situation regarding LGBT rights remains uneven in various countries, Pillay noted. “In more than a third of the world’s countries, consensual, same-sex conduct remains a criminal offence—exposing people to the risk of arrest and imprisonment, hard labour, even, in five countries, the death penalty just because of who they are and whom they love,” Pillay explained.

Homosexuality, though broadly accepted in North America, the European Union and much of Latin America, has been rejected in many Muslim countries, in Africa as well as parts of Asia and Russia, according to a survey of 39 countries by the Pew Research Center.

This international divide is echoed by the U.N. General Assembly’s dismissal of creating an international day to promote LGBT rights, though it has declared over 100 commemorative days dedicated to various human rights and social issues.

Despite the lack of support from the General Assembly, the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has steadily raised awareness for the LGBT community.

In May, OHCHR and the Joint U.N. Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) hosted a press conference to commemorate  International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO),,  but without the blessings of the General Assembly.

The campaign also follows an OHCHR report published in December 2011, which was the first official U.N. report that documented violence and discrimination against LGBT people.

Pillay stressed that the “Free & Equal” campaign is critical because the widespread discrimination against people who are LGBT is a violation of universal human rights. “The Universal Declaration of Human Rights promises a world in which everyone is born free and equal in dignity and rights – no exceptions, no-one left behind,” Pillay said.

“Yet it’s a hollow promise for many millions of LGBT people forced to confront hatred, intolerance, violence and widespread discrimination on a daily basis.”

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu of South Africa, who joined Pillay in Cape Town to launch the campaign, noted that he could not worship “a homophobic God,” expressing his support of the campaign.

The recent brutal killings of lesbians in South Africa, despite strong laws in the country when it comes to protecting the rights of LGBT people, have shown that “people are literally paying for their love with their lives,” Pillay noted.

The U.N. campaign will point to the need for legal reforms as well as public education to counter homophobia and transphobia over the next year.

Pope Francis in St. Peter's Square. The Vatican will have until Nov. 1 to respond to the list of demands by the Geneva-based U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Credit: Edgar Jiménez/cc by 2.0

By Lydia Lim
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 18 2013 (IPS)

Mary Caplan was just 14 years old, and her father was dying of cancer. When she went to the local priest in her hometown of Jersey City to ask for prayers and help, he sexually abused her, and went on to do so for the next two and a half years.

“[The priest] told me there was a way that I could have a miracle for my father,” Caplan told IPS. “If I did certain things to him, because he represented Jesus, my father would have a miracle.”“For me, what’s worse than the original abuse is to know that it is still happening. That’s re-traumatising, and just tragic for society." -- Abuse survivor Mary Caplan

The priest continued to abuse her until her father passed away.

“When my father died, I went to the priest and asked, ‘What did I do wrong?’ I reported [the abuse] to the pastor, and he said, ‘That couldn’t be – I must be in deep grief’,” Caplan said.

The Vatican has largely kept mum about cases of child sexual abuse committed by members of the clergy, despite its signing of the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

In what was a historic moment for survivors like Caplan, last week, the Geneva-based U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) publicly called for the Vatican’s disclosure of cases of child sexual abuse committed by members of the clergy.

The Vatican will have until Nov. 1 to respond to the list of demands, and representatives are expected to meet with the Committee in January to answer further questions.

Caplan, who is now a regional director at the U.S.-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), one of the non-profits that works with the U.N. panel to speak out against this sexual abuse, applauded the action.

“We hope that this will prod other secular international organisations to do to the same,” she told IPS.

Katherine Gallagher, a senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), which represents SNAP, noted that the list of questions brought forth by the U.N. Committee regarding the systematic practices of the Church were both “necessary” and “most welcome”.

“After hearing the voices of survivors, the Committee came out with such a strong list of questions for the Vatican on the policies that we see at the Church, [such as] shifting priests from one country to another to evade accountability and pressuring survivors to stay quiet,” Gallagher said at a press conference in New York Tuesday.

Megan Peterson, an active member of SNAP, directly witnessed this practice of “priest-shifting”. In 2004 and 2005, she was abused by a priest from India at her church in Minnesota when she was barely a teen – yet the priest fled and the Church stayed silent when she revealed his offences.

“I came forward when he was still abusing me, but was shut down by the church,” Peterson told IPS. “He fled the country when I came forward, and we’re still in the middle of an extradition process.”

Last October, the Vatican, which had long been called to report on the abuses, finally released a report on the U.N. Committee website.

“The Holy See is a sovereign subject of international law having an original, non-derived legal personality independent of any authority or jurisdiction,” the report stated.

“Many bishops believe that the Church is above the law,” said Sally Butler, a nun who works at Catholic Whistleblowers. The U.S.-based group of priests and nuns banded together in May to speak out against the Church’s past and current handling of sexual abuses.

“The [bishops] feel they have to protect the Church, and they’ve taken an oath to that effect,” Butler told IPS. “They take their oath very seriously.”

In response to the Vatican’s report, SNAP and the CCR filed an additional report, “putting in a whole set of facts that the Vatican simply left out” and prompting a more complete list of issues raised by the U.N. panel, Gallagher said.

SNAP’s report noted that experts have estimated that there were as many as 100,000 victims of clergy sexual abuse between the years 1981 and 2005 in the United States alone.

Caplan said that although she is hopeful about the results of the U.N. demands, she is somewhat sceptical because the Church has withheld information on this ongoing problem for decades.

“For me, what’s worse than the original abuse is to know that it is still happening. That’s re-traumatising, and just tragic for society,” Caplan said.

“As we extend our best wishes to President Mandela on his 95^th birthday, let us also give tangible meaning to our feelings of concern by taking action on behalf of others.”

At a special United Nations General Assembly meeting to celebrate Nelson Mandela International Day, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon praised the global leader as a “model of compassion” and called on people around the world to dedicate time on this day to community service.

Mandela Day marks the former South African president’s birthday and honours his commitment to the struggle against apartheid in his country, his spirit of reconciliation, and his work for continental peace across the globe.

Ban said that this year’s commemoration of Mandela Day “comes at a moment of deep reflection on the life and work of Madiba, as the universally revered leader remains in the hospital.”

The ailing leader’s daughter, Zindzi Mandela, said in a television interview on Thursday that he was making “remarkable progress,” though he remains in critical condition. “We are united in concern; we are also joined in admiration for a towering figure in the worldwide fight for equality and justice,” Ban said.

The U.N. joined the Nelson Mandela Foundation in its “Take Action, Inspire Change” campaign, which calls on people around the world to volunteer 67 minutes of their time to community service on this day to honour Mandela’s 67 years of public service.

To commemorate this year’s Mandela Day, the U.N. staff in New York helped build homes destroyed by Hurricane Sandy last fall, Ban said. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton also spoke at the conference, reflecting on his first meeting with Mandela in 1993 and their friendship ever since.

“His heart was so big and his humanity so great, we often had trouble keeping our official roles apart from our personal friendship,” Clinton said of the South African leader. Mandela’s 95 years teach us several lessons, Clinton noted.

“First, you can’t save anybody else unless you save yourself,” Clinton said, explaining that Mandela walked out after 27 years of imprisonment, “a greater man than he went in,” having forgiven the very people who jailed him.

Clinton also emphasized, “[Mandela] proved that you don’t have to be in public office to serve others. That is what this day is all about.”

South African Member of Parliament Andrew Mlangeni, also a former political prisoner like Mandela, said at the conference that South Africans owe their freedom from apartheid to Mandela and the international community’s support.

“Today, I’m a free citizen now in my country and able to enjoy the freedom that our people were denied for so many centuries,” Mlangeni said.

U.N. Spokesperson Martin Nesirky told reporters Thursday that, on the occasion of Nelson Mandela International Day, U.N. staff around the world are commemorating the spirit of Mr. Mandela by devoting at least 67 minutes of their time today to community service.

In New York, more than 70 staff from the United Nations Secretariat, agencies, funds and programmes, as well as the Permanent Mission of South Africa, are helping to rebuild homes destroyed by Hurricane Sandy in Long Beach and Far Rockaway.

The effort is coordinated by two grass-roots organizations — We Build New York and Respond & Rebuild.  In addition, United Nations offices around the world are organizing various volunteer actions.

By Lydia Lim
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 12 2013 (IPS)

Apart from being an actress, film producer and writer, Geena Davis is a leading advocate of equal gender portrayal in the entertainment media.

Courtesy of Geena Davis

In 2007, Davis launched the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, which has sponsored the largest research project to date on gender in children’s entertainment. Now, the Geena Davis Institute has partnered with UN Women, with support from the Rockefeller Foundation, to undertake its first-ever global study to analyse the depiction of female characters in family films.

Davis believes that the media industry remains discriminatory in its portrayal of women simply because these stereotypes have remained the status quo for a very long time. After playing a power role as the first female U.S. president in “Commander in Chief” and seeing enthusiastic public reactions to the TV series, Davis is convinced that media’s limited portrayal of women can and must change.

IPS correspondent Lydia Lim spoke to Davis about the gender disparity in media images, as well as the entertainment media’s potential to better depict women’s empowerment.

Q: Women and girls are often depicted negatively on-screen due to gender stereotypes in the media. We’re now in the 21^st century: why is the media industry so behind on portraying gender equality?

A: My non-profit has looked at television and family films made in the United States, covering a 20-year span, and unfortunately, the percentage of female characters only went up 0.7 percent during those 20 years. That would mean we’d achieve [gender] parity in around 700 years.

So clearly, we need to become very proactive about improving the quantity and quality of female characters, especially in what children see. I had assumed that in the 21^st century, surely we were showing kids boys and girls sharing the sandbox equally.

My theory is that since the ratio of male to female characters has been exactly the same since 1946, pretty much everyone was raised seeing fictitious worlds with far fewer female characters than male characters, so much that it started to look normal. I think that’s probably why universally, people seem not to notice that there are far fewer female characters unless you point it out.

Q: What kind of effect does this negative depiction of women on-screen have on young girls?

A: We’re training children to see girls and women as not taking up half the space in the world, if this is the image that is reflected to them. And also, with the limited and negative portrayals of the female characters that are there, we’re teaching them that women and girls are not as important as men and boys.

They don’t do the important things; they don’t hold the important jobs; and very often, they’re not integral to the plot. We also found that the function of a female character in a film or a children’s television show is to serve as eye-candy, rather than having an occupation or aspiration.

Q: Does this gender disparity have to do with few women holding positions of power behind the scenes, such as in the roles of directors and screenwriters?

A: Definitely. Currently, female directors are at about seven percent, writers at about 13 percent and producers, 20 percent – which are all very low numbers. And we know from our research that if there’s a woman director, producer or writer, the percentage of female characters on screen goes up. So another way we can attack the problem is to increase the number of women behind the camera as well.

Q: In “Commander in Chief” (a U.S. television series in 2005), you portrayed the first female president of the United States. Were you satisfied that your character depicted women’s empowerment?

A: I was thrilled to do it. My first thought when I was offered the job was, what could be more iconic than that? And I had already been fortunate to play some parts that really resonated with women, so I relished the opportunity.

Unfortunately, my administration was very short – we only had one season of the show – but a group called Kaplan Thaler did a study after the show was on the air and found that people were 68 percent more likely to say they’d vote for a female candidate for president if they were familiar with the show.

Just by seeing my character behind the desk 19 times, it was enough to profoundly change a lot of people’s minds about the possibility of a female president.

Q: Are you confident that this global study under the partnership with UN Women will change the way people around the world perceive women?

A: I’m very excited about this first-ever global study of the depictions of female characters around the world. [By examining] the 10 top box-office grossing countries, we’ll look at character representations, what role they’re playing, and their physical depictions.

And we’re able to do this broad-reaching study because of the participation of UN Women and the Rockefeller Foundation. We think it will be very impactful, and I think this will be very valuable information for everyone and also critical to any NGOs conducting global programmes because of the profound influence media images and messages have on civic, cultural beliefs and behaviours.

Excerpt:

The Syrian food crisis has become so severe that without aid from the World Food Programme (WFP), millions of Syrians would go hungry.

The ongoing armed conflict in Syria, which began early 2011, has caused serious damage to farms and infrastructure and has left millions of people displaced. According to a joint report by WFP and the  Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), about four million Syrians are unable to buy or produce food, a number that is expected to rise in months to come.

“Assuming that the present crisis remains unresolved, domestic production over the next 12  months will be severely compromised,” the report stated.

Muhannad Hadi, WFP Emergency Coordinator for Syria, highlighted the urgent need for WFP to continue delivering food aid in Syria because the people would have no means of sustaining themselves otherwise.

“The situation in Syria is getting very difficult,” Hadi told reporters Tuesday. “[The people] don’t have credit cards; they can’t borrow; prices have skyrocketed where food is available. We’ve gotten to the stage in many places that it’s either food delivered by WFP, or people will go hungry.”

WFP delivered food aid to 2.5 million people in Syria in June and seeks to feed three million people in July. By October, WFP plans to reach four million, Hadi said.

In some parts of the country, the price of wheat flour has doubled between 2011 and 2013, according to the WFP report. As a result, WFP began to distribute wheat flour, in addition to rice, pasta, canned beans, oil and sugar in each package designed to meet the needs for a family in Syria.

The WFP operation team currently reaches all 14 governorates of Syria, but each region has its own complexities, Hadi explained. The team delivers food aid to both government and non-government controlled areas. Often, explosions and crossfire prevent the staff from entering certain regions and from implementing pre-planned operations.

“Our main challenge is in conflict areas,” Hadi said. “We are reaching all 14 governorates, but there are those pockets of the hotspots that we’re not reaching.”

Hadi warned that funding for WFP’s Syrian operation is vital. The humanitarian agency needs $27 million every week to feed the four million people in Syria and approximately 3 million Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries.

“It’s important that the international community stands by the Syrian people until this crisis is over,” Hadi said.

Two Tuareg girls playing at Goudebo Refugee Camp in Burkina Faso. The crisis forced 170,000 refugees, mostly Tuaregs and Arabs, to flee north Mali in fear of retaliation from the Malian army. Credit: Marc-André Boisvert/IPS

By Lydia Lim
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 5 2013 (IPS)

As the new 12,600-strong United Nations peacekeeping forces don their blue helmets and prepare to take over from African-led forces in Mali, a nation consumed by corruption and extremism, concerns remain whether U.N. troops will successfully execute this transfer of authority.

The African-led International Support Mission to Mali (AFISMA) contributed its 6,237 troops to the U.N. peacekeepers under the U.N. Multidimensional Integrated Stabilised Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) on Monday.

“Mali has experienced what can only be described as a phenomenal collapse in the last 18 months,” Corinne Dufka, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch, told IPS."Mali has experienced...a phenomenal collapse in the last 18 months."
-- Corinne Dufka

After being identified as a relative success story among developing nations, with a few largely democratic elections under its belt, in early 2012 Mali was confronted by a Tuareg movement, along with Islamic armed groups, that led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people.

“The current situation in Mali is a result of many human rights violations, so there are certainly concerns that the U.N. troops deployed are setting the right example and that they are beyond any reproach themselves,” Philippe Bolopion, United Nations director of Human Rights Watch, told IPS.

Several human rights organisations have spoken out against the inclusion of Chad, a country censured for its persistent use of child soldiers, among MINUSMA’s troop-contributing nations. Chad was placed on U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s list of shame for countries that recruit children in armed groups.

Chad’s participation in the U.N. peacekeeping mission could be seen as a potential credibility issue, Watchlist Research and Reports officer Layal Sarrouh told IPS.

“We (Watchlist) think from a global standpoint that listed parties who are on the secretary-general’s annexes for committing grave violations against children, should not be included in peacekeeping missions,” Sarrouh said.

Watchlist monitors and reports on the situation of children affected by armed conflicts in specific countries around the world.

Bolopion told IPS that Chad must deliver on its promise to take all necessary steps to end child recruitment. Otherwise, the country should be expelled from the U.N. mission, he said.

Currently, the U.N. does not have a policy to stop Chad from joining MINUSMA, but it does have a screening policy to check for child soldiers before deploying peacekeeping troops.

“We can only hope that the U.N. will deploy every effort to screen its own troops,” Bolopion said.

Other concerns remain that are unique to MINUSMA. Unlike other missions, which typically carry out pre-deployment training for troops in their respective countries before collectively entering the country in conflict, MINUSMA is a consolidation of troops old and new to Mali.

Some peacekeepers are setting foot in Mali for the first time, while others have been active for half a year under AFISMA, with varying levels of training under their belts.

U.N. Security Council Resolution 2085, which authorised AFISMA in December 2012, had strong human rights safeguards and good language on pre-deployment training, according to Sarrouh. However, many of those safeguards were not in place when AFISMA was deployed to combat insurgents only a month after the Security Council’s approval.

“They (AFISMA) were deployed much more quickly than was expected and in such a rapid and unexpected way that certain steps that were to be followed got skipped over,” Sarrouh told IPS. “Now, (MINUSMA) is trying to figure out how to catch up, essentially.”

Watchlist’s new report detailing violations against children by armed groups in Mali points out that over the past year, AFISMA had no standard operating protocols in place for the transfer of child soldiers to Malian authorities.

“The troops have a very large role to play in child protection, and they require training to understand how they should approach that role,” Sarrouh said.

Sarrouh also stated that there have been increased reports of prostitution and sexual exploitation in Mali by AFISMA troops over the past year.

“That’s not unusual, unfortunately, in conflict, and it is very problematic as (AFISMA) troops become peacekeepers,” Sarrouh said. “Under a U.N. peacekeeping mission, there is a higher standard set and more strict guidelines and protocols to be followed, including ones on sexual exploitation and abuse.”

These gaps in training and human rights protocols that were identified with AFISMA will be carried over by MINUSMA unless the new peacekeepers receive sufficient training to uphold standards appropriate to the U.N. mission.

Bolopion said that “Despite the pressure to quickly deploy, we hope the U.N. will take these obligations very seriously.”

British Foreign Secretary William Hague and United Nations Special Envoy Angelina Jolie successfully urged the U.N. Security Council to adopt a resolution on prevention of sexual violence in armed conflict.

The 15 members of the Council unanimously voted in favor of the resolution on Monday.

The decision comes after the Security Council’s historic adoption of Resolution 1325 in 2000 on Women, Peace and Security—the first of its kind to require parties in a conflict to respect women’s rights and include the special needs of women and girls in a post-conflict situation.

At the Security Council meeting on Monday, Hague called on the international community to address a “culture of impunity” in which perpetrators commit rape in the almost certain knowledge that they face no consequences.

“I am appalled that the vast majority of survivors never receive justice, support or recognition despite years and even decades of waiting, and that it is victims, not the perpetrators, who still bear the shame and stigma,” Hague said.

At the meeting, Jolie also criticized the Security Council for its lack of action to prioritise warzone rape. In many of these conflict situations, there is no government to take responsibility for the rape victims, in which case the Security Council must step in to provide leadership and assistance, Jolie stressed.

“I understand that there are many things that are difficult for the U.N. Security Council to agree on. But sexual violence in conflict should not be one of them,” Jolie said.

Jolie and Hague called for the political will of the countries represented at the Council to shoulder shared responsibility for the prevention of sexual violence in conflict.

“It is time to say that rape and sexual violence used as a weapon of war is unacceptable, that we know it can be prevented, and that we will act now to eradicate it,” Hague said.