Day 2: Turning the Tables Over

Today I travel to Sri Lanka to do some work on a water, sanitation and hygiene project that we have designed for some of the most vulnerable and disempowered people living in the Northern Province. So, I find myself thinking about asylum seekers, and specifically about those locked away in the hold of an Australian Customs ship by the policies of my government. I am ashamed, I am frustrated, I am sorry.

I am not suggesting this is an easy fix; I don’t want to see people dying at sea in an attempt to reach the only hope they can imagine. So how about, instead of drastically cutting our Aid budget and spending multi-millions on detention centres, we commit the money to “those” people and partner with them at home to improve their livelihoods and develop their infrastructure and services? Maybe then many would not be desperate enough to risk the voyage from home or the separation from family. (I know, I know… there are numerous other factors in the decision to seek asylum, but this is one thing we could and should do.)

Keep trying to Turn the Tables Over in Canberra.

Day 1: Turn Over the Tables

It is good to be thankful, (I think the Bible mentions that) but it seems to me that sometimes even Jesus decided it was time to turn over some tables and be angry. So, how about a 5 day challenge: I'd like to call it the - Turn Over the Tables challenge?

Day 1. I am disappointed by Christians that use the Israeli-Palestinian war (and just about every other fight) as an excuse to demonise Islam and Muslims. It seems to me that there is as much (if not more) documented evidence to support a theory that Christians have been responsible for apartheid, genocide and hatred. This is not just, or perhaps even, a religious issue, this is a human rights issue - on all sides - and the people being hurt are the most vulnerable and the least powerful.

Christians should be advocating (and praying) for peace and reconciliation - not publishing messages that perpetuate hate and discord (I think Jesus mentioned something about that and would have turned those tables over.)

60,000 Children seeking asylum

60,000 unaccompanied children are expected to attempt to cross the U.S. border in 2014. (It was 24,000 in 2012, and next year the number is anticipated to be 130,000)

The exponential growth of unaccompanied children traveling through various countries in Central America to reach the United States is a humanitarian crisis. In addition to these 60,000 children who are exposed to abuse, exploitation, starvation, violations and even death during their journey, the numbers of people seeking asylum in countries in the region has grown by 435% since 2009.

Most of these children come from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. While poverty in these countries has always been a reason for emigration, in the last few months the number of children fleeing these countries has grown enormously. In addition to having one of the highest rates of violence in the world with death rates even higher than countries with ongoing armed conflicts or war, like the Democratic Republic of Congo and Afghanistan, the recently escalating violence targeting specifically children and youth is considered the main reason for this increase. 58 percent of children interviewed by UNHCR indicated they were forcibly displaced because of armed violence by organised actors, such as drug cartels and gangs, domestic violence, and in the case of Mexico, forced recruitment by human trafficking networks. US President Barack Obama has declared the growing influx of these unaccompanied children as humanitarian crisis for the US.

What can we do?

• Support migrating children – especially in shelters and detention centres
• Work with churches and others to help reintegrate children and their families that have been deported from the USA and Mexico 
• Work with UN organisations and others to create awareness about the risks for the migrating children in their communities and countries 
• Work with governments on improving child protection measures and systems to avoid the further expulsion of children 
• Strengthen our engagement with communities and partners to address the root causes of this exodus, specifically violence and lack of opportunities 
• Work to influence policy and public opinion in the USA to better understand the reasons for this unprecedented growth and provide a more balanced response to the affected children and countries.

Due to the complexity of the situation and the multi-causality of displacement and violence, we need to make working in partnership with other stakeholders, especially UN agencies, national governments, churches and faith based organisations (FBOS), local and international Non-Government Organisations (NGOs), civil society organizations, as well as donors and the private sector.

Somehow we need to get involved to change the options for these kids.

Webs of Interconnectedness

I was sitting in a room of unfamiliar faces, in an unfamiliar country. It was that first day of a conference - that day I dread when, for the first time, we all look around the room pretending not to judge and stereotype as we measure one another. In these moments of uncertainty people sought out the comfortable and the familiar as small groups formed around the room: Swahili speaking Africans, Indians, Filipinos, Francophone Africans, Indonesians, Sri Lankans, Eastern Europeans, Americans and the Aussie – all coming together in language groups, simultaneously forming bonds of friendship and barriers of protection.

But, as the conference got underway, and the theme began to unravel, the single purpose that brought this disparate group together in the middle of nowhere Kenya, began to break the barriers, expand the bonds and create a new web of interconnectedness that seemed unlikely but quickly became the comfortable and the normal.

As much as I find the first moments of an event like this uncomfortable, eventually I love being in a varied group of people like this, hearing new stories, understanding issues through a different worldview and learning once again that it is through this diversity and difference that I learn to be more. And at the end of the time I have made new friends, new connections and together we have begun to fulfil our expectations.

Vinoth Ramachandra writes; “The theological understanding of human personhood is that we image God in relationality. Just as God's being is dynamic relationality, so we are constituted as persons through webs of interconnectedness. We become the occasion for each other’s self-fulfilment. Those who love us make us what we become; we only learn love by being loved.”

People are designed to be in relationship, to explore and become enveloped by webs of dynamic interconnectedness. It is by being loved that I become more than I am and that I learn to love others. But that is often messy and sometimes painful, it takes effort and time, it takes intention and perseverance and it often leaves you vulnerable and open to criticism. But, after fighting with it for a long time, (and watching it modelled by someone I love), – I am nevertheless convinced that it remains the only way to be real, to be human, to be!

Lukenya IPACS

Flying into Nairobi this afternoon reminded me of flying over North Western or Central Victoria (Australia). The landscape is brown, flat and arid. It's not the red dirt of the Centre, but the browns and blues of the desert. It should be wet, the monsoons should have started, but the wet season has not come yet, which the tourists are loving, but the locals are worried, it means hardship for them.

I'm here attending (and helping to facilitate) a course to be accredited to train the art and science of Integrating Peace-building and Conflict Sensitivity into Programming (IPACS). And here is in the bush at the Lukenya Getaway, off the Mombassa-Nairobi Highway, in the middle of nowhere. The drive in found us slowing down and navigating around herds of Zebra and Impala (Zulu for gazelle). In the evenings, they tell me, we will be visited by giraffe and other animals.

But for now, I sit looking out over the wide empty brown, sparse trees dot the horizon, tall with high branches and flat tops. I sit separated from the 'wild' by a fence of brilliant red bougainvillea, listening to the birds and some annoying loud neighbours. In the other direction a dusty, slow parade of trucks carrying goods along the african arterial from Mombassa to Nairobi and beyond to Uganda and Rwanda is constant and apparently unending. It feels like a long way from anywhere here in Lukenya.

1,100 FACTORY DEATHS ONE YEAR ON: COLES STILL USING BANGLADESH SWEATSHOPS

One year after the Rana Plaza collapse that resulted in 1,100 factory deaths, the Transport Workers’ Union (TWU) has notified the National Human Rights Commission of Bangladesh of suspected human rights abuses by Australian retailer Coles.

In the wake of the tragedy, the Bangladesh Government is urging western firms like Coles to sign a Fire and Safety Accord, setting legally enforceable minimum working standards for garment workers.

Transport Workers’ Union National Secretary Tony Sheldon said other Australian retailers such as Woolworths, K-Mart and Target had signed the Fire and Safety Accord. But Coles refuses to sign.

“At Coles’ AGM last year, they said they had stopped buying clothes from Bangladesh, but as recently as January, Coles was still selling Bangladesh clothing, likely sourced from sweatshops and firetraps like Rana Plaza," Mr Sheldon said

“We’ve made this notification to the Human Rights Commission because basic labour rights are protected in the Bangladesh constitution and it is unconscionable that Coles believes they are above the law – it has to stop.

Today marks the first anniversary of the factory collapse in Rana Plaza, Bangladesh, which killed 1,100 people.

The TWU has organized a candlelight vigil to pay respects to the victims of Rana Plaza and honour their memories by fighting for safe work everywhere.

The Bangladesh Fire and Safety Accord is an initiative of the Bangladesh Government and key NGOs, and sets minimum standards for safe work, fair pay and enforcement of workplace rights in Bangladesh.

OP3 CRC - Third Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a Communications Procedure

Children whose human rights have been violated will be able to bring their grievances directly to the United Nations after a historic international treaty entered into force on Monday 14 April.

The treaty, called the Third Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a Communications Procedure – or OP3 CRC for short – sets out an international complaints procedure for child rights violations. It allows children from States that have ratified the protocol to bring complaints directly to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. The UN will then investigate the claim and can direct governments to provide remedies.

Despite the near universal ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, it was the only international human rights treaty that had no means for victims to seek justice when they have not found a solution at the national level.

“Every day we witness violations of children’s most basic rights. Children are fighting to survive, let alone thrive. They experience discrimination, violence in their communities, schools and homes, as well as a lack of access to basic services,” says World Vision child rights expert Sara Austin, who will address a special event at the UN in New York to mark the entry into force of the treaty.

“Tragically, the rights of children are often neglected by decision makers and children’s views and opinions ignored. This new treaty gives children the ability to be heard directly by the United Nations and have a say in holding governments accountable.”

So far only 10 countries – the threshold required for the treaty to become international law – have ratified, including Albania, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Gabon, Germany, Monténégro, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain and Thailand. An additional 45 countries have signed the protocol, indicating their intention to ratify - but Australia is not one of these. (Click here for a list of states who have ratified or signed the treaty.)

“We congratulate the first 10 countries that have ratified the protocol, and we urge all others to follow this positive example. States must demonstrate their commitment to promoting and protecting children’s rights by ratifying this new treaty so more children can access international justice,” says Austin.

Want to know more about OP3 CRC?

• Ratify OP3 CRC 
• For Children
• Downloadable Publication
• UN Convention on the Rights of Children

Failings of History – “Never again”?

20 years ago, on this date, the Rwandan genocide began: the murder of 1,000,000 people in 100 days (400 people per hour). It is called genocide because it was the intentional mass murder of people belonging to one particular group. The murders occurred because of tension between the African ethnic groups, the Tutsis and the Hutus. Most of the people killed were Tutsis and it was a group of rebels (RPF) led by the Tutsis that stopped the killings.

It took 6 weeks and about 500,000 lives before the UN agreed that genocide might be happening in Rwanda. And the international community never responded because the UN and international community (particularly the U.S.) couldn't agree how to pay for an intervention. And it took 16 years after the event before the UN recognised it could have done more to prevent the genocide.

In 2007 and 2008 I had the privilege of working with a community of 70 families to build a new home, a new community. It was a life changing event for me (and my family). Next month, I have the privilege of returning to Kigali (the capital city of Rwanda) to participate in a Peace-building Network Conference and to attend some of the 20 year genocide memorial functions.

I also hope to revisit that community in Gituro; that barren hilltop in the middle of nowhere, to meet some of the people and to see the development that has occurred in the last 6 years. I remember the changes I saw when I revisited a year after my stay with the community, I can only hope and imagine the changes that I will see this time are not limited to infrastructure, but that they extend to lives transformed, society reformed and people continuing to live lives committed to following Jesus, even when that road has taken many of them through the valley of the shadow of death.

Can you imagine how tough these memorials are for this nation and her people? Let’s pray that the never again pronouncement screams so loud in these months of memorial that it bounces around in the thick skulls of our leaders, (political and religious). In the meantime we, the lucky nation, the luck people could learn to be more hospitable and more compassionate of those who are vulnerable, abused and dispossessed.

April 7, 1994	The genocide begins.  Armed forces from Rwanda and a Hutu militia called Interahamwe begin the mass murder of Tutsis, as well as Hutus who sympathize with Tutsis.
April 8, 1994	The Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front tries to end killings.  A group of Tutsi rebels called the Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) tries to rescue its troops and end the killings.
April 11, 1994	The Red Cross states that tens of thousands of people have been murdered.  Less than a week after the murders begin, tens of thousands of Rwandans are dead. About 2,000 of them are killed after United Nations soldiers are removed from a school that they are protecting.
April 15, 1994	20,000 people are murdered at the Nyarubuye church.  Approximately 20,000 people seek refuge from the murders at the Nyarubuye Roman Catholic Church. Most are killed by attackers carrying spears, hatchets, knives, and automatic rifles.
April 21, 1994	The United Nations removes most of its troops.  Only 270 United Nations soldiers are left in Rwanda after the UN removes 90 percent of its troops. The UN is afraid that its peacekeepers will be killed.
April 30, 1994	Rwandan refugees flee to nearby areas.  As the mass killings continue, tens of thousands of people from Rwanda try to escape. Most go to nearby Zaire, Burundi, and Tanzania.
May 1994	A half of a million Rwandans are murdered.  With no help from other countries, Tutsis continue to be murdered. By the middle of the month of May, the Red Cross states that nearly a half of a million people have been killed.
May 17, 1994	The UN says that genocide may be happening in Rwanda.  Reluctant before now to say that the killings in Rwanda are genocide, the UN now agrees that the murders could be genocide. It plans to send in 5,500 new troops to help, but the United States and the UN cannot agree on how to pay for it and sending the troops is delayed.
June 22, 1994	Operation Turquoise begins.  The UN sends 2,500 French troops to Rwanda to create a safe zone. The action, called Operation Turquoise, is not successful as Tutsis continue to be killed in the safe zone.
July 18, 1994	The genocide ends.  Pastor Bizimungu is named president and Faustin Twagiramungu is the new prime minister.
April 2000	The UN admits it could have done more to stop the killings.  The United Nations Security Council announces that it did not do enough to prevent the genocide in Rwanda 16 years ago.

The Pied Piper: A Modern Day Fairy Tale

The Pied Piper stole away the children of the town of Hamelin after the town's leaders did not keep their promises to him. 

In this version World Vision relates the infamous tale to the idea that a slew of modern "pied pipers" - major killers like pneumonia, malaria and diarrhoea - are stealing away our children because world leaders have not kept their promises. What will it take to make convince our leaders that it matters?

Stopping Cost Blowouts with Sovereign Borders

PM Tony Abbott says his Government is "stopping the border protection costs blowout", and Mr Morrison has cited the closure of a number of mainland detention centres as one of the first cost savings made because the arrival of asylum seeker boats has slowed.

So what are the costs?

Ending Modern Slavery

27 Million people are today enslaved, that's more than double the number of people removed from Africa during the entire transatlantic slave trade.
This horrific indictment on our society was highlighted again this week with yet another attempt to do something about it. Mining magnate Andrew Forrest launched an organisation (The Global Freedom Network) to end modern slavery. The Network is supported by Pope Francis, the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and the Grand Imam of al-Azhar, (the senior Sunni Muslim authority). Leaders of other faiths have been invited to join the network.

Mr Forrest said he was moved to act after meeting a nine-year-old Nepalese orphan who had been a victim of human trafficking. "She looked at me with this look of abject terror - this horror, this disgust, this revulsion - and she screamed," he said.

"Since that time, Nicola, my wife, and I can't actually get that sound out of our heads. We committed ... to do something about it and that's when I came and ordered a full audit of Fortescue's supply chain and discovered slavery there as well."

But initiatives like Forrest's can only be successful if we support it too. So, I would urge you to find 20 minutes and sit down with your computer and take a look at this presentation by Lisa Kristine.

[http://www.ted.com/talks/lisa_kristine_glimpses_of_modern_day_slavery]

Sri Lanka: Detention of human rights defenders Ruki Fernando and Rev. Praveen Mahesan

On 16 March 2014, human rights defenders Mr Ruki Fernando and Rev. Praveen Mahesan were arrested and questioned by officers of the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) in Killnochchi, in northern Sri Lanka. The police confirmed that they will be transferred to Colombo. It is unclear whether charges under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) have been formalised. Ruki Fernando is an adviser to INFORM, a human rights documentation centre in Colombo and a well known Human Rights defender in Asia, and Rev. Praveen Mahesan of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) is the director of the Centre for Peace and Reconciliation in Jaffna. (Ruki has also been very much involved in Sri Lankan asylum seekers and returnees work.)

The two human rights defenders were arrested at approximately 10:00pm on 16 March while visiting the Tharmapuram area of the Kilinochchi district to investigate the arrest, the previous day of Ms Balendran Jaykumari, a human rights defender campaigning against enforced disappearances, and her 13-year-old daughter. 

The police initially denied detaining Ruki Fernando and Rev. Praveen Mahesan, but later confirmed that they had been arrested by a specially appointed unit of the TID. The office in charge of the Kilinochchi police further stated that they had been arrested as “they behaved in a suspicious manner” as they visited families of disappeared individuals.

It is reported that they were questioned separately at the Killnochchi police station and that they were transferred to Vavuniya at approximately 1.30am on 17 March. In the morning of 17 March, Ruki Fernando’s parents were issued with a Notice of Arrest stating that he was arrested by the TID on alleged acts of terrorism and would be held for further investigation. It is not clear whether the family of Rev. Praveen Mahesan was issued such notice. At 1.30pm, their lawyers received confirmation that the human rights defenders had been brought to the TID Headquarters in Colombo. A police spokesperson announced that they will be charged under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, however it is unclear whether charges have been formalised. As at the time of writing neither individual has been allowed access to their lawyers.

The arrest of the two human rights defenders occurred while the United Nations Human Rights Council discusses a draft resolution on reconciliation, accountability, and human rights in Sri Lanka.