Dignity NewsBulletin - June 2006
Dignity NewsBulletin
Dear friends,
this is the new issue of Newsbulletin.
DIGNITY INTERNATIONAL
MONTHLY NEWSBULLETIN - June 2006
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Dignity News
* The New Dignity Website!
* Get Up - Stand Up - The Bob Marley Song Enjoys Renewed Popularity!
* East Africa - Call for Applications
Other News
* Fighting Rent Increases - A Grassroot Success Story
* Mumbai Evictions - Update
* Abuja Evictions
* 5th European meeting of people experiencing poverty - How do we cope with everyday life?
* Labour Rights Violations in Mexico - UN Committee on ESCR Expresses its Concern
* Global Labour Rights - Annual Survey of Trade Union Rights Violations
* AIDS: Wealth Before Health - UN meeting on AIDS a failure say CSOs
* Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
Publications
* 3D Annual Report 2005
* The Gender and Media Handbook: Promoting Equality, Diversity & Empowerment
Announcements
* Seeking a Social Scientist Researcher
* Crime and Justice News Letter
Forthcoming Events - Highlights
* CIVICUS World Assembly
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DIGNITY NEWS
*** The New Dignity International Website - We are pleased to announce that our new website is now done!! We hope you will find the new website friendly and useful in your work. Please check out www.dignityinternational.org and see our special features:
* Excluded Wisdom: Voices of Reality - a space dedicated to the voices and faces of the invisible in our society;
* Calendar of Events for NGO activists outlining the key events at local and global levels;
* Photo Gallery to view online the photos of the Dignity International family;
* Resource Centre on human rights in development containing a range of documents, audio/visual materials, donors;
* Membership to join the Dignity International Family.
Special thanks to the web team Aleksandar, Luis and Simone for their hard work over the past months for this new website.
We will continue to build this website to provide you with a good service in our venture to achieve lasting social change.
*** Get Up - Stand Up - Stand Up for Your Human Rights - The Bob Marley song - Get Up Stand Up is enjoying a new lease of popularity in Nairobi as community leaders from the different people's settlements use the song title for their community human rights project.
From 20-27 May, 27 community leaders from the most deprived areas of Nairobi gathered at the Kolping Vocational Centre for a 7-day learning programme "Get Up - Stand up - Stand up for You Human Rights". The programme used simple and creative tools to link the daily struggles of the community (water, sanitation, housing, education, healthcare) to human rights. The programme further helped to equip the community leaders with a range of skills to claim their human rights.
Towards the end of the programme participants formed a joint plan of action that included: reporting back of the Programme to the Communities; further networking & information sharing with those present; joint action related to devolved Funds (CDF and LATF) and input into the new Housing Bill, which is currently under discussion in Kenya.
Participants also requested a Training of Trainers as a next natural step in the Get Up Stand Up project to multiply knowledge and skills to other members of the community. Participants also marked 10 December Human Rights Day as a major day in the community calendar and pledged to build the "Torch of Struggle" process that was started last year by the community in partnership with a range of national NGOs including Hakijamii and with the support and collaboration of Dignity International. The "Torch of Struggle" which is linked with the December Human Rights Day Celebrations will be an important building block to mobilise the communities for the World Social Forum which will take place in Nairobi one month later.
All credit to the participants and, as they declared during the programme: One World - One People.
Full Report of the Get Up - Stand Up Learning Programme on Human Rights at 2006_GetUp_Report .pdf
*** East Africa - Call for Applications - Building on the success of the recent Global Learning Programme on Human Rights in Development, Dignity International and its partners Tanzania Council on Social Development (TACOSODE) and Hakijamii (Centre for Economic and Social Rights) are pleased to announce a new programme: Regional Learning Programme on Human Rights in Development for East Africa, Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, 4-14 September 2006. Applicants should be from one of the following countries: Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea.
Applicant profile: Development actors from grassroots, national, regional and international development NGOs that are beginning to integrate human rights in development work including NGOs beginning work on Rights Based Approaches. Applicants should be in key positions within their organisations and with solid experience and responsibility in a range of areas, including programming, advocacy and campaigning.
Summary of the programme: The programme will be based on the rich development experience of the participants themselves who, in a non-formal and participatory learning framework, will explore together the meaning of human rights in development work and how integration of human rights into development work translates into concrete strategies and development programming at the grassroots and international levels. For the Information Document, please see 2006_HRD_eastafrica.pdf
For the Application form, please see:
2006_HRD_eastafrica_form.pdf (pdf file) or 2006_HRD_eastafrica_form.doc (word doc)
If you have difficulties accessing the documents from the website and would like the documents to be sent via e-mail, please send a mail to: applications@dignityinternational.org
DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS: 7 JULY 2006
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OTHER NEWS
*** Fighting Rent Increases - A Grassroot Success Story - In early April, all the tenants of plot No. 730 in Kariobangi South in Nairobi were issued with a notice to increase rent with effect from 1 June 2006. All the tenants of plot no. 730 gathered together to prepare a 3 page comprehensive letter objecting to the rent increase and stating the reasons, signed by all the tenants with copies to Chairman of the Rent Restriction Tribunal and to Odindo Opiata, Advocate of the High Court. A few days later the tenants received a notice cancelling rent increase. The letter states: "...to inform you that due to the current renovations taking place at the Plot, the Landlord feels that it is not necessary to increase rent at the moment and therefore the said notice of earlier is hereby withdrawn"! This is a clear example of power in numbers and power in collective action! For the copy of the letter from the see Kariobangi_Response.pdf
*** Mumbai Evictions - Update - 300 children from demolished communities along with other vulnerable children got together at Azad Maidan, Mumbai, India on 24 May to assert the right of the child to a safe and a secure home. The event was organized by various child rights groups in Mumbai, in solidarity with the struggle against slum demolitions, to highlight the problems of children who are being denied a house.
The day witnessed children's testimonies of 'what a house means to a child' and what 'demolition' means to a child from their own perspective. The children's Mayor of Mumbai also addressed the gathering. The other programs included songs, games, drawing on huge cloth/ paper etc. A dream house was inaugurated in solidarity with all the children who have been denied a home and in celebration of the child's need for safe housing. Source: Eviction Watch.
*** Abuja Evictions - Nigeria, have received disturbing news about mass evictions in the city of Abuja. Your urgent action is required in Nigeria. Abuja is a part, with the appointment of FCT Federal Minister Mallam El-Rufai in 2003. Since then, evictions have taken place in nine communities, of a total 49 settlement areas earmarked for demolition. The communities affected by these demolitions thus far include: Wuse, (2004), Mpape (2004), Dantata (November 2004), Old Karimo (November 2004), Jabi/Kado (April 2004), Chika (November 2005), Idu Karimo (2005-2006), Kubwa (June 2005-April 2006), and Dei-dei (April 2006). Source and for further information, please contact: Angie Balata
*** Fifth European meeting of people experiencing poverty
- 'How do we cope with everyday life?' -
This Austrian Presidency event, organised with the assistance of the European Anti Poverty Network took place in Brussels on 12-13 May 2006, in the premises of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) and the Committee of the Regions (CoR). It brought together more than 120 delegates from 27 European Countries to dialogue with over 40 representatives of policy makers from EU and Member State institutions. The aim was to improve the mutual knowledge about the daily lived realities of people experiencing poverty and social exclusion in the different Member States. For further information see www.eapn.org/event/; concluding press release at www.eapn.org/news/
*** Labour Rights Violations in Mexico - UN Committee on ESC Rights Expresses its Concern - Severe restrictions on trade union rights denounced - On the 22nd of May 2006, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights published its concluding observations on the periodic report of Mexico, which was examined in its 36th session (1-19 May 2006). In these observations, the Committee expressed its concern about violations of economic, social and cultural rights, and particularly, about violations of labour rights in Mexico, meeting thereby a number of concerns expressed by FIDH in a report of April 2006 on the effects of the NAFTA on labour rights in Mexico. See FIDH website: www.fidh.org
*** Global Labour Rights - Annual Survey of Trade Union Rights Violations - 115 trade unionists were murdered for defending workers' rights in 2005, while more than 1,600 were subjected to violent assaults and some 9,000 arrested, according to the ICFTU's Annual Survey of Trade Union Rights violations. Nearly 10,000 workers were sacked for their trade union involvement, and almost 1,700 detained. Source Choike at www.choike.org
*** AIDS: Wealth Before Health - UN meeting on AIDS a failure say CSOs - Civil society groups from around the world denounced the final UN Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS, released after marathon negotiations during the UN High Level meeting on AIDS that took place 31 May to 2 June at UN Headquarters. Civil society groups have been working to strengthen the document's language and commitments on critical aspects of sexual and reproductive health and rights. For full article see www.choike.org ( Source: Choike)
*** Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues - the fifth session of this forum met from 16th - 17th May in New York and the forum recommends the adoption of Declaration on Indigenous Rights by the 61st General Assembly. The text Address Indigenous Participation in Achieving, Anti-Poverty Goals, Africa's Indigenous, Second International Decade, among Others. For full details see: www.un.org/News/Press
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PUBLICATIONS
*** 3D Annual Report 2005 - 3D´s 2005 Annual Report is out. The report highlights 3Ds activities in 2005 including the use of human rights tools to question unfair intellectual property rules, publications on issues ranging from agriculture to migration, coherence issues in Thailand, and a new Practical Guide to the WTO in Spanish. You can also read it on our website at www.3dthree.org
*** The Gender and Media Handbook: Promoting Equality, Diversity & Empowerment - 2005 - The Mediterranean Institute of Gender Studies has prepared this online manual (pdf version) which aims to promote gender equality and diversity in and through the media. It is a valuable resource and practical manual containing critical background on the current challenges and opportunities around gender and media issues. Document available at www.medinstgenderstudies.org/Downloads/Handbook_final.pdf
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
*** Seeking a Social Scientist Researcher - The Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR) is in the process of developing an innovative methodology to monitor economic and social rights by integrating a socio-economic analysis conducted by development economists and other social scientists to the legal analysis of international human rights standards. To help us develop this methodology on a solid basis - CESR is seeking to hire a social scientist researcher for a full-time consultancy of six months (or part-time term consultancy of one year). The consultant will help adapt quantitative social-science methods to monitor multiple dimensions of economic and social rights and undertaking a series of case studies that will test the use of these methodological tools in different contexts. If anyone is interested please contact Alexander Gordon; You can also find it on-line at http://cesr.org/node/750
*** Crime and Justice News Letter - A New Publication from the Inter Press Service - already available the two firts issues:
www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/deathpenalty/issue_1.pdf
www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/deathpenalty/issue_2.pdf
For further information on the IPS project funded by the European Commission: Death Penalty Abolition (DPA) project. You may like to visit: www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/deathpenalty/index.asp
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FORTHCOMING EVENTS - HIGHLIGHTS
*** CIVICUS World Assembly - Power to the people and peace for all: The 6th CIVICUS World Assembly will be held in Glasgow, Scotland from 21- 25 June 2006. CIVICUS World Assembly is a forum for international civil society representatives to get together, exchange ideas, experiences and build strategies for a just world. Acting Together For A Just World. For further information, see: www.civicus.org
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This is a monthly electronic news bulletin of 'Dignity International: All Human Rights for All'. Dignity International does not accredit, validate or substantiate any information posted by members to this news bulletin. The validity and accuracy of any information is the responsibility of the originator.
If you are working in the area of human rights with a special attention to different aspects of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, we would love to hear from you. To contribute, email us at info@dignityinternational.org
