DIRITTI UMANI

Botswana: i Boscimani sfrattati dalla loro terra dalla ricerca dei diamanti

La lotta dei Penan contro il disboscamento del Borneo

Le proteste dei Penan del Borneo hanno subito un’escalation. Dodici villaggi si sono uniti per erigere nuovi blocchi stradali contro le compagnie di disboscamento e palma da olio che stanno distruggendo la loro foresta pluviale.(...). Le nuove manifestazioni di protesta arrivano solo settimane dopo i blocchi attuati da due altri villaggi. La distruzione della foresta priva i cacciatori-raccoglitori Penan degli animali e delle piante di cui si nutrono e inquina i fiumi in cui pescano. Senza la foresta, molti Penan hanno difficoltà ad alimentare le loro famiglie.
I Penan stanno lottando da più di vent’anni contro le compagnie di disboscamento che operano sulla loro terra col pieno appoggio del governo. Laddove gli alberi di valore sono stati abbattuti, le compagnie radono la foresta al suolo completamente per aprire le porte alle piantagioni di palme da olio.(...)

L'articolo:

http://www.survival.it/notizie/4891

Altre fonti:

http://www.salvaleforeste.it/malesia-via-le-foreste-ai-penan.html

http://periodicoitaliano.info/2009/08/03/i-penan-non-intendono-mollare/

http://asia.news.yahoo.com/afp/20090823/tap-malaysia-environment-rights-penan-0193655.html

Informazioni di base:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penan

http://landsofshadow.medialighieri.it/griot/penan/penan.htm

http://www.penan.org/

http://friendsofthepenan.com/

http://www.borneoproject.org/index.php

Documentazione video-fotografica:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/tribe/tribes/penan/index.shtml

http://www.rimba.com/

http://blog.panorama.it/hitechescienza/2008/04/29/i-penan-del-borneo-e-il-coraggio-di-un-fotografo-contro-la-deforestazione/

Il sito della Fondazione Bruno Manser:

http://www.bmf.ch/en/?lang=en

 

 

Quando disobbedire è una virtù

 

(...) La Storia ci ha insegnato che non tutte le leggi sono meritevoli di essere applicate. A volte disobbedire è una virtù. E' il caso di Mbaye Diagne, capitano Caschi Blu senegalesi inviato in Rwanda con la missione ONU UNAMIR durante il genocidio. Disobbediendo alle regole di ingaggio ONU che gli avrebbero proibito di intervenire e di salvare civili, salvò la vita a centinaia di persone. (…) Il capitano (senegalese n.d.t.) Mbaye Diagne era stato inviato in Rwanda nel 1993 per far parte dell’UNAMIR, la missione delle Nazioni Unite in Rwanda, e si era ritrovato nella posizione di osservatore militare, lavorando col comandante in capo, il generale canadese Romeo Dallaire. Quando è iniziato il genocidio e le truppe dell’ONU si sono ritirate… ebbene, egli ha molto semplicemente deciso di disubbidire agli ordini: ha deciso di salvare quelli che poteva.(...)

 

L'intervista video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp0FHfMWvGE

 

La trascrizione dell'intervista:

http://www.beppegrillo.it/2009/06/le_interviste_d_4/index.html?s=n2009-06-14

 

Informazioni di base:

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruanda

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocidio_del_Ruanda

 

Passato... presente:

https://www.fabiomanzione.it/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=734:ruanda-a-15-anni-da-genocidio-i-colpevoli-sono-ancora-latitanti-&catid=46:diritti-umani&Itemid=105

 

 

 

El factor bélico: Escalada armamentista con record mundial de gastos militares

Los US$1,464 billones de gastos militares en el planeta y la expansión geométrica de las ganancias de los consorcios armamentistas de Europa y EEUU, son la prueba más irrefutable de la relación simbiótica de supervivencia establecida entre el sistema capitalista con los conflictos armados y las ocupaciones militares. Uno se retroalimenta de los otros, y ambos términos de la ecuación conforman la piedra angular de la existencia misma del sistema que hoy controla el mundo. En sólo una década los gastos militares aumentaron en un 50%, y ante la creciente "militarización" del planeta una pregunta acosa a los expertos: ¿Para qué guerra se preparan las potencias? (...)

El articulo:

http://www.iarnoticias.com/2009/secciones/norteamerica/0049_potencias_sepreparan_guerra_09jun09.html

Articoli in Italiano:

http://www.ariannaeditrice.it/articolo.php?id_articolo=26752

http://www.carta.org/campagne/pace+e+guerra/17703

http://www.enricodigiacomo.org/2009/06/dobbiamo-cambiare-il-mondo-destinato-ad-una-implosione-sipri-nel-2008-litalia-ottava-per-spese-militari-e-nellexport-di-armi/

http://www.radiovaticana.org/it1/Articolo.asp?c=287439

Altri articoli:

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/MUMA-7SU9L9?OpenDocument

Informazioni di base:

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_International_Peace_Research_Institute

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_International_Peace_Research_Institute

SIPRI Website:

http://www.sipri.org/

http://www.sipri.org/yearbook

 

 

UNHCR's annual "Global Trends" report

 The new report says 80 percent of the world's refugees are in developing nations, as are the vast majority of internally displaced people – a population with whom the UN refugee agency is increasingly involved. Many have been uprooted for years with no end in sight.
Although the overall total of 42 million uprooted people at year's end represents a drop of about 700,000 over the previous year, new displacement in 2009 – not reflected in the annual report – has already more than offset the decline. "In 2009, we have already seen substantial new displacements, namely in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Somalia," UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres said. "While some displacements may be short-lived, others can take years and even decades to resolve. We continue to face several longer-term internal displacement situations in places like Colombia, Iraq, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia. Each of these conflicts has also generated refugees who flee beyond their own borders."
The report counts 29 different groups of 25,000 or more refugees in 22 nations who have been in exile for five years or longer and for whom there are no immediate solutions in sight. This means at least 5.7 million refugees are living in limbo.
About 2 million refugees and internally displaced people (IDP) were able to return home in 2008, a decline from the year before. Refugee repatriation (604,000) was down 17 percent, while IDP returns (1.4 million) dropped by 34 percent. Traditionally the largest durable solution for refugees, it was the second-lowest repatriation total in 15 years. The decline in part reflects deteriorating security conditions, namely in Afghanistan and Sudan.
"This is an indication that the large-scale repatriation movements observed in the past have decelerated," the report says, noting that an estimated 11 million refugees have returned home over the past 10 years – most of them with UNHCR assistance.
UNHCR proposed 121,000 individuals for resettlement to third countries in 2008 and more than 67,000 departed to their new homelands with the agency's help.
Of the global total of uprooted people, UNHCR cares for 25 million, including a record 14.4 million IDPs – up from 13.7 million in 2007 -- and 10.5 million refugees. The other 4.7 million refugees are Palestinians under the UN Relief and Works Agency.
In recent years, UNHCR has increasingly been tasked under the UN's humanitarian reform process with providing help to the internally displaced, in addition to its traditional mandate of protecting and assisting refugees who have crossed international borders. Since 2005, the agency has seen the number of IDPs it cares for more than double.
According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), the global total of IDPs has stood at about 26 million for the past two years. No single agency has responsibility for all of them, but the UN has introduced a "cluster approach" in which individual organisations are assigned roles in displacement situations based on their expertise. For UNHCR, that means coordination of protection, camp management and shelter.
"Being forced from your home by conflict or persecution is a tragedy whether you've crossed an international border or not," Guterres said. "Today, we are seeing a relentless series of internal conflicts that are generating millions of uprooted people. UNHCR is committed to working within the UN team and the broader humanitarian community to provide the internally displaced with the help they need, just as we do for refugees."
Colombia has one of the world's largest internally displaced populations, with estimates of some 3 million. Iraq had some 2.6 million internally displaced at the end of 2008 – with 1.4 million of them displaced in the past three years alone. There were more than 2 million IDPs in Sudan's Darfur region. Renewed armed conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and in Somalia last year brought total displacement in each to 1.5 million and 1.3 million respectively. Kenya saw extensive new internal displacement early in the year, while armed conflict in Georgia forced another 135,000 people from their homes. Other increases in displacement in 2008 were in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Yemen.
The refugee population under UNHCR's mandate last year dropped for the first time since 2006 because of voluntary repatriation and because of the downward revision in estimates of refugees and people in "refugee-like situations" from Iraq and Colombia. The 2008 refugee figure was 10.5 million, down from 11.4 million in 2007. But the number of asylum seekers making individual claims rose for a second year, to 839,000 – up 28 percent. South Africa (207,000) was the largest single recipient of individual claims, followed by the United States (49,600 – UNHCR estimate), France (35,400) and Sudan (35,100).
Developing countries hosted 80 percent of all refugees, underscoring the disproportionate burden carried by those least able to afford it as well as the need for international support. Major refugee-hosting countries in 2008 included Pakistan (1.8 million); Syria (1.1 million); Iran (980,000); Germany (582,700), Jordan (500,400); Chad (330,500); Tanzania (321,900); and Kenya (320,600). Major countries of origin included Afghanistan (2.8 million) and Iraq (1.9 million), which together account for 45 percent of all refugees under UNHCR's responsibility. Other countries of origin included Somalia (561,000); Sudan (419,000); Colombia, including people in refugee-like situations (374,000), and D.R. Congo (368,000).

UNHRC Holds Discussion Panel on Human Rights and Climate Change

 

 

During its 11th session, taking place in Geneva, Switzerland, from 2-19 June 2009, the UN Human Rights Council (UNHCR) held a panel discussion on the relationship between climate change and human rights in order to contribute to the realization of the goals set out in the Bali Action Plan.

After opening statements by Kyung-wha Kang, Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Feng Gao, Director for Legal Affairs of the UNFCCC Secretariat, the following panelists took the floor: Atiq Rahman, Executive Director of the Bangladesh Center for Advanced Studies; Dalindyebo Shabalala, Managing Attorney at the Geneva Office of the Center for International Environmental Law; Raquel Rolnik, UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living; and John Knox, Professor of Law at Wake Forest University. The presentations were followed by a discussion with all the participants.

During the panel, the themes addressed included: climate change as a barrier to development; the impact of climate change on the right to life, food, safe water and health, home, land, properties, livelihoods, employment and development; and the vulnerability of the poor in developing countries to the impacts of climate change, and the responsibility of developed countries, which had caused climate change, to help them mitigate its effects.

For information:

http://www.unhchr.ch/huricane/huricane.nsf/view01/B5CB6E6B3F728AF3C12575D600674057?opendocument