IntLawGrrls |
- Pitching in for Pakistan
- On August 29
- Look On! Hurricane Katrina Documentaries & Series
- "Now is the Time:" Human Rights in the U.S. and Katrina 5 Years Later
| Posted: 29 Aug 2010 03:16 AM PDT  The floods in Pakistan have rendered a reported 20 million homeless, destroyed an estimated 1.7 million acres of crops leading to the threat of famine, and given rise to an epidemic of diseases such as cholera, dengue, and malaria. Yet like the water itself, the crisis seems to have snuck up on the international community.The Pakistan Initial Floods Emergency Response Plan, prepared immediately after the flood, requested $459 million primarily for food, water, sanitation and hygiene, health, shelter and other non-food items. The Financial Tracking Service (FTS) reports that $274 million has been raised, thus reaching a coverage of 59.6%. Despite an outcry that the international communi  ty is leaving Pakistan in the lurch, this is actually a fairly high number. The FTS also reports that other disasters this year, such as the civil unrest in Kyrgyzstan or tropical storm that hit Guatemala, have only been covered to the tune of 36% and 33% respectively. But there's no denying that the international community seems less concerned with Pakistan than it was with say, Haiti. The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports that while twenty-two U.S. aid groups have raised a total of $9.9-million for Pakistan, within two-and-a-half weeks of the earthquake, 40 aid groups had brought in a total of $560-million for Haiti. (photo credit, above).Why? Well, in the UK it is being blamed on persistent negative images of Pakistan in the media and elsewhere. In India, the history of poor neighborly behavior has led to India's refusal to provide aid. And in the U.S., the low death toll, "summer vacation doldrums," and donor fatigue after the Haiti disaster are thought to contribute to the lack of interest in the crisis. But the stakes are high. As an editorial in the New York Times last week put it: The world, especially the United States, must not blow this one.  The editorial reminds us that Pakistan is armed with nuclear weapons, after all, and its destabilization could spell disaster. Moreover, the United States has put an awful lot of effort into suppressing Al Qaeda in the region, particularly along the border with Afghanistan. That work is easily undermined when radical Islamic charities are able to provide shelter and food ahead of the authorities or foreign aid organizations. The Pakistani Taliban has inserted itself, urging the Pakistani government not to accept aid at all, citing a need to maintain sovereignty and independence. The strategic implications (read: politics) of it all are hard to avoid. (photo credit, above left; photo credit below right) While the rhetoric that this is a "battle for hearts and minds" strikes me as overly dramatic, maintaining peace and security in Pakistan through the crisis is an unquestionable must. And to the extent that it is a battle for hearts and minds, an outpouring of support from the international community ought to do the trick. Pakistan is facing a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions. Angelina Jolie gets it. She recently donated $100,000 of her personal funds to help. You can too. But don't worry, the minimum amount is only $15.  |
| Posted: 29 Aug 2010 01:04 AM PDT  On this day in ...... 2010 (today), is our day! Well, in Argentina at least. There, el 29 de agosto is el Día del Abogado/a -- Lawyer's Day. Proclaimed back in 1958, the date chosen to commemorate the birthday of Juan Bautista Alberdi (1810-1884), a jurist, political theorist, diplomat, and noted constitutionalist. The aim was to honor the "fight for the rule of law, justice and liberty," and it was hoped that remembering Alberdi's example would remind people to "conserve fundamental teachings in order to live together peacefully." (credit for photo of La Justicia, sculpture at Buenos Aires courthouse) (Prior August 29 posts are here, here, and here.)  |
| Look On! Hurricane Katrina Documentaries & Series Posted: 28 Aug 2010 07:18 PM PDT  (Look On! takes occasional note of noteworthy films.) To commemorate the 5th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's impact on the Gulf Coast of the United States, here is a quick selection of documentary and fictionalized accounts. All well worth seeing. Previous Intlawgrrls posts on Hurricane Katrina appear here and here. ►Coming Home: The Dry Storm (2009 documentary by filmmaker Michele Stephenson and the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative documenting housing rights activism by MayDay New Orleans) ►Frontline: Law & Disorder (2010 documentary investigating allegations of police brutality and murder post-Katrina) ►If God Is Willing and Da Creek Don't Rise (2010 follow-up to Spike Lee's earlier documentary on Katrina; includes New Orleans' Saints' symbolic Super Bowl victory and impact of BP oil spill on region) ►Treme (fictionalized HBO series set and filmed in post-Katrina New Orleans neighborhood known for its rich and complex cultural and political life) (See also Intlawgrrl Diane Marie Amann's post on Treme here.) ►Trouble the Water: It's not about a hurricane. It's about America. (Tia Lessin and Carl Deal award-winning 2008 documentary; site includes community-based activist materials) ►When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in 4 Acts (Director Spike Lee's 2006 documentary)  |
| "Now is the Time:" Human Rights in the U.S. and Katrina 5 Years Later Posted: 28 Aug 2010 06:25 PM PDT  This weekend presents both a time of remembrance and an opportunity to begin again. 29 August 2010 marks 5 years since Hurricane Katrina (soon to be followed by Rita) struck the Gulf coast of the United States. That disaster, one of many that devastates millions throughout the world each year, revealed catastrophic failures of federal, state, local, and private responsibility to the poorest people in one of the most highly-resourced countries in the world. It demonstrated that life chances are not necessarily determined only by which country one lives in, but also by where one lives on the socio-economic ladder in a divided society. It is the poorest and most vulnerable who bear the brunt of governmental failures to protect or fulfill rights. They also suffer from the deliberate effects of greed, neo-liberal privatizations, corruption, racial prejudice, and violence. A Human Rights Lens Shortly after the storm, Jeanne Woods and I submitted a statement to the UN on the need for international human rights scrutiny on what was essentially a man-made and continuing disaster. The UN Independent Expert on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, Arjun Sengupta, was holding hearings in Baton Rouge, Louisiana at which survivors from all walks of life, lawyers, and human rights activists testified about Katrina's aftermath. Sengupta's report, Extreme Poverty and Human Rights: A Mission Report on the United States is available here. That mission was to be followed by further efforts among local organizers to attract international and national attention to past, present, or potential U.S. human rights violations in the region. Reports, press releases, and official statements were issued by the following: ►the United States Human Rights Network ►Independent Expert on Minority Issues, Gay McDougall & Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing Miloon Kothari ►the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination ►Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance, Doudou Diene ►Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing, Rachel Rolnik Grassroots groups organized peoples' tribunals to air continuing grievances and government failures to respond to the needs of the majority of survivors. (See here for a statement arising out of the 2007 International Tribunal on Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and here for continuing advocacy by the Katrina Information Network about post-Katrina and BP oil disaster human rights issues.) I've reflected on these human rights efforts in Race, Class, and Katrina: Human Rights and (Un)natural Disaster, in Environmental Justice in the New Millennium: Global Perspectives on Race, Ethnicity, and Human Rights (Filomina C. Steady, ed., 2009) Linking Human Rights and Disaster In the early days after the disaster, friends and colleagues asked "What does a storm have to do with human rights?" Certainly, international human rights standards cannot prevent, or provide a single effective response to, a storm or a massive oil gusher in the Gulf, toxic waste releases in Mossville, Louisiana, an earthquake in Haiti, or floods across Pakistan. But international legal standards recognize or impose obligations on state and non-state actors to respect, protect, and fulfill the human rights of individuals and groups before, during, and after such natural and man-made disasters. See, for example, the UN's Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement. Lessons Learned? Civil and Political Rights. Katrina showed us how historical and contemporary discrimination results in racial and ethnic disparities in housing, education, and access to jobs and healthcare. We saw how minority status, internal displacement, and poverty can effectively strip individuals of their rights to vote or to participate in decision-making about rebuilding efforts. We learned that police and criminal justice systems intended to protect the security of communities can be abused or corrupted by some to turn against those same communities when an emergency occurs. Economic and Social Rights. We saw how crucial hospitals, nursing homes, clinics, and other physical and mental health facilities are to the survival of any community. The poorest suffered the effects, not only of the disaster itself, but also the loss of medical records, regular doctors' visits, access to medicines, and mental health care as mortality and morbidity rates rose from suicide, treatable diseases, and barriers to disability access. Rental housing was priced beyond reach, insurance claims unpaid, and viable public housing demolished. Workers' rights to decent wages and safe working conditions were ignored in some rebuilding efforts. Even obvious lessons about the implications of environmental abuse on human and other life forms seemed to remain largely unlearned—workers were exposed to toxic construction materials and survivors to toxic FEMA trailers. Now the BP oil catastrophe has exposed clean-up workers to further contaminants. Cultural Rights. Katrina also illustrated the importance of the right to participate in cultural life. Many focused on the city of New Orleans, influenced at one time or another by Native American traditions, the TransAtlantic slave trade, French colonialism, African-American traditions, Cajun traditions, Haitian traditions, jazz, blues, Catholicism, Mardi Gras, fisheries and seafood industries, and much more. These rich traditions were cultivated over generations and extended neighborhood and family networks that are recognized and to be protected under human rights norms. Another Anniversary Perhaps not coincidentally, 28 August is the anniversary of the great March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington was a historic call for the United States to make its constitutional aspirations a reality for all Americans, including African-Americans. King saw an end to poverty and the protection of economic rights as an important aspect of his dream of justice. But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. …Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children. Human Rights in the United States: Under Review On 20 August 2010, the United States released an important report on its compliance with international human rights standards. Under the UN Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process, the U.S. will be subjected to formal human rights scrutiny on 5 November 2010. (A U.S. Department of State webpage available here provides links to the official country report, summaries of civil society consultations, and summaries of the UN process.) In preparation for this historic review, a coalition of U.S. NGOs organized by the U.S. Human Rights Network has compiled 24 reports on human rights conditions as of April 2010 available here. Five years after Hurricane Katrina, and nearly 50 years after Dr. King's speech, a quick read of these reports indicates that there's still a great deal yet to be learned to make the full enjoyment of human rights a reality in the U.S. At least, the U.S. has begun to recognize the importance of shining the human rights light on its actions at home as well as abroad.  |
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