Impunity Watch: Special Features

Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Blog No Evil?

Internet and the Censorship Age: Iran

Part 1

By Jeff Nelson

    I am sitting across the street from the museum under construction: the name reads "The Newseum" a museum dedicated to free speech and free press. Earlier this year on the Syracuse University campus I watched the S.I. Newhouse School open its third building, this one dedicated to the First Amendment and its protection of free speech and free press. Both events heavily contrast with a society in other countries that can easily be compared to the novel, 1984, by George Orwell. The novel depicts the lengths governments use censorship and other means to stifle the free flow of thought on what American Jurists call the "Marketplace of Ideals."

    The greatest and most recent examples of censorship spawn from Pakistan as the people battle political turmoil.  Pakistan is not the only country where people face the constant governance of thought and ideas by the governing institution. China long known for its censorship of the media, internet, and political challenges maintains a stronghold on access to its people and their access to information: all in the name of governing the nearly two billion people.  Iran censoring books and internet blog sites to stifle the political discourse that stirs within its borders. There are many more countries where freedom of speech and freedom of press are not very free or do not exist.

    So much can be said about every country. However, only a few words shall be dedicated to each of the above mentioned cases. I will start with Iran. Probably a favorite of people to criticize for many reasons, but one of the deserved reasons is its censorship. Now I am in no position to criticize the religious leadership for censoring items based on whether a book is lewd because it talks about sex or racy material. I am not an expert on the Islamic religion. However, I do not have to be an expert to recognize the impunity with which the press and other forms of information are censored or bullied into keeping other points of view out. Free speech and free press are stifled by government censorship.

    The Iranian government is constantly working with internet providers to block sites that contain sexual and politically critical material or provide social networking capabilities.  Blogs and websites that are critical of the government have been blocked.  It's gotten to the point that even President Ahmadinejad's blog was blocked along with Google, mistakenly for a day.  The president of Iran keeps a blog, surprisingly on which the government has allowed some critical comments.  Nevertheless, other bloggers in Iran have been subject to arrest and sentencing for making critical comments about the government online.   

    Journalists and news sources are pressured from the government into self censorship.  Besides the publicity brought to other bloggers and journalists arrested for publishing controversial thoughts or news, the government has employed other tactics.  One such tactic is to arrest an offending journalist, have them tried and convicted in court, but instead of going to jail after being sentenced they are let go.   A form of reminder to the journalists that they are being monitored and one more slip up they will be put in prison alongside their colleagues.  If put in prison, they would face an unknown fate.   Stories have been reported about journalists who were jailed, tortured, and died while in prison, but even those are kept censored by the government because Iran would not want any false news to be published.

    I sit here and wonder if this blog post will be blocked in Iran.  Will the government censor our site Impunity Watch?  Will they stifle the voices of the people who may be experiencing impunity?  This whole blog was created for the purpose of giving those people a voice.  What can be done to make sure those people keep that voice?

    I will continue discussion of this issue focusing on at least two other countries: China and Pakistan.  Censorship of ideas, censorship of information, and censorship of people...

For more information:

Impunity Watch, Cause of Iranian Student Death Questionable , January 26, 2008.

The Los Angeles Times, Unlikely Forum for Iran's Youth ,  January 2, 2008.

allAfrica.com, Africa: Press Freedom Round-Up 2007 , January 2, 2008.

Star Tribune, Iran's president gets personal in blog , December 15, 2007.

CBS  News,  Free Speech In Iran: Crime And Punishment , October 15, 2007.

The Economic Times, Iran blocks Google access , September 17, 2007.

The Christian Science Monitor, Rising Censorship Among World's Oil Powers , Page 3, May 24, 2007.

Global Information Network, Rights-Iran: Bloggers Rebel at New Censorship , January 10, 2007.

Global Information Network, Iran: Govt's Internet "Filtering" Looks a lot Like Censorship , November 27, 2006.

Mine Your Own Business

By: Lara Sewers

As the World Economic Forum takes place this week in Davos, Switzerland, international advocacy organizations keep a close watch on the process with the knowledge that it provides multinational corporations an unparalleled opportunity to influence decision-makers around the world. Organizations like Friends of the Earth International have reasons for the distrust. They complain that the Forum is composed by the world’s elites and richest businesses negotiating behind close doors. No participation is given to advocacy groups representing people that are constantly living with the consequences of corporate and economic policies everywhere in the world.

Multinational corporations from developed countries have already tapped the resources found in the developed world and their attention is now turning to resource-rich countries in the developing world. While one would expect their entrance to bring economic prosperity to these countries, poverty is still pervasive and in addition poor communities now have to deal with health and environmental issues.

As Oxfam notes, countries rich in natural resources often are the ones that suffer from higher rates of corruption, social unrest, and human rights violations. The poorest communities are the ones left to deal with the harmful consequences of extractive industries in their countries while being excluded from the enjoyment of the economic benefits derived from the exploitation of their lands. The issue is not new; many have been struggling with corporate giants for over thirty years. Yet, little effort is made by the government in these countries to hold corporations accountable for their actions. Officials routinely accept bribes in exchange for permits, protection, and immunity while the story continues.

In countries such as Ghana, Peru, Ecuador, Guatemala, Colombia, New Guinea, Philippines, among many others, community lands used for farming are seized by companies. Even though by law, in many of these countries corporations must pay the owners the fair price of the land plus lost profits from agricultural activities, it seldom happens. The community, of which many members are illiterate and ignorant of their legal rights, are tricked into signing agreements that buys them off for a small fraction of the value of their land. Others are promised payments that take years to come. These displaced communities end up losing their land which often is their only source of income and must now settle for the idea of being employed by the corporation that will never hire them.

These communities not only lose their home and income but are then left to wrestle with the environmental problems created by the extracting activities. In Ghana, rivers, which are often the community’s only source of water, have been polluted with cyanide; a chemical used in gold mining. People have developed skin and other health problems as a direct consequence of the pollution of the land and water.

Therefore, it is no surprise that conflict has ensued in many of these communities. In Sansu,Ghana, a mining company has forbidden the use of roads that lead to other villages and farms. After the displacement and imposition of restrictions in the use of agricultural lands, scarcity in this community fueled conflict between the residents and the mining company security. In Sansu and many other places the conflict has escalated into beatings and even deaths. Corporations all over the world employ violent tactics to intimidate and silence poor communities and government officials do little to protect its citizens’ human rights and in many instances, their life.

NGOs have stepped in to protect some of these communities despite constant death threats and intimidation. The Wassa Association of Communities Affected by Mining (WACAM) and the Center for Public Interest Law has undertaken projects to educated communities in West Africa about their legal rights. These people now feel empowered to demand the companies’ respect and negotiate at arms length with knowledge of the rights they are entitled to. Some progress has been made in these communities. However, it is regrettable that the world’s most vulnerable are left to rely on NGOs for protection while their governments stay in bed with the multinationals.

NGOs should not be responsible for enforcing and protecting the rights of a nation’s citizens. Politicians in resource-rich countries must recognize that enforcing fair policies and regulating these corporations benefit all, not just poor displaced communities. While these corporations make billions of dollars annually, 95% of the revenue is channeled out of the country. Rich countries keep getting richer by owning poor countries’ valuable resources. Those in power do nothing, international financial institutions keep funding projects that do nothing to alleviate poverty and promote human rights, and the extracting industry chuckles while the poor just get poorer.

For more information and news updates:

Friends of the Earth International, Tambogrande Victory, (2003).
Friends of the Earth International, Peru: Turning Water Into Copper, Briefing current as of 2008.
Friends of the Earth International, Davos Elites Must Listen to Citizens’ Demands, Jan. 24, 2008.
National Catholic Reporter, Catholics line up against mining operations in Peru, Jan. 25, 2008.
Oxfam America, Caught on the Wrong Side of a Gold Boom, Jan. 23, 2008.
Oxfam America, A Voice for Communities Affected by Mining, March 29, 2006.
Oxfam America, Oxfam America’s oil, gas, and mining program, Project description 2007.
Oxfam America, Environmental Activists Receive Death Threats, Jan. 3^rd, 2008.
Oxfam America, Rio Blanco: History of a Mismatch in Peru, Sept. 14, 2007.
Center for Public Interest Law
Wassa Association for Communities Affected by Mining
Upside Down World

Colombo Process: A Chance for Reform on Migrant Workers’ Laws

On January 23 and 24 labor ministers from Asian and Middle Eastern countries will meet in Abu Dhabi as part of the Colombo Process. The Colombo Process is a series of meetings in which government officials from these countries discuss and address issues affecting migrant workers. The main focus of these meetings is to discuss the rights of contract workers that very often fall through the cracks of flawed immigration and labor laws. These ambiguities in the legal frameworks leave these workers unprotected by the laws and perpetuate a cycle of abuse.

Tens of millions of Asians work as contract migrant workers to meet the high demand for cheap labor in countries in the Middle East while at the same time sending back home billions of dollars annually in remittances. Therefore, it is in the best interest of both sending and host countries to work out a legal framework that defines and protects the rights to which migrant workers should be entitled.

“Labor recruitment agencies overcharge migrants, leaving them heavily indebted.” Immigration laws in many countries tie the migrant worker visas to a specific employer, making it extremely difficult to switch employment when abuse ensues without losing their visas in the process. Furthermore, even though these host countries benefit immensely from migrant labor, their labor laws do not extend protection to these workers, foreclosing their avenues for redress.

In the United Arab Emirates, some employers pay extremely low wages and in some cases withhold wages for months at a time. In order to prevent the worker from quitting, employers routinely confiscate the worker’s passport leading to a situation akin to forced labor. Migrant workers also remain unprotected by health standards in case of injuries suffered in the workplace. They lack the right to strike and organize, women are barred from certain jobs and other categories of workers are altogether excluded from protection under the labor laws.

As part of the International Migrants’ Day, a number of organizations and human rights advocacy groups issued a letter to governments participating in the Colombo Process calling on them to implement reforms that address their equal protection under the labor laws, reformation of the visa system to address instances of abuse, implement stronger monitoring systems of labor recruitment agencies, and ensure that migrant workers have access to legal mechanisms to obtain redress for violations of basic workers’ rights.

While domestic labor movements have resisted granting migrant workers protection under immigration and labor laws, what they must realize is that refusing migrant workers of basic rights and minimum wage law protections affect them as well. Influx of large number of cheap migrant labor decreases the overall wage that employers are willing to pay to workers in general. Also, employers are unlikely to hire domestic labor entitled to protections under health and safety standards when they can contract foreign workers that are not entitled to such protections. Therefore, granting all workers, domestic and migrant the same protections under the law will level the playing field and assure that minimum standards for domestic workers stay at a certain level.

Furthermore, players should recognize the need for uniform rights for migrant workers across countries are essential to protect their economies and the human rights of workers in general. Legislation that accords migrant workers the same protections everywhere will protect economies from “forum shopping” by employers who look for lax labor regulations and cheap labor at the expense of economic development and migrant workers’ rights.

 

For more information:

Human Rights Watch, The UAE's Draft Labor Law, March 2007.

Human Rights Watch, UAE: Meetings Should Address Migrant Workers’ Rights, January 20, 2008

International Labor Organization, International Standards on Labor Migration.

International Organization for Migration, Labor Migration.

Human Trafficking—A Global Problem

By Gabie Hart

Human trafficking is not restricted to any one particular region, as incidences of human trafficking occur globally. Whether it is Asia, Europe, Africa or the Americas, human trafficking is an international problem which needs to be addressed by every level of government. Human trafficking usually involves incidences of forced labor or sexual slavery.

There are a variety of ways in which people end up victims of trafficking—physical abuse, coercion, fraud, duress, all can play a part in the trafficking of people.

It is said that approximately 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders annually. That number could be significantly higher since victims may be reluctant to report their experience as some victims do not identify themselves as being victim, or some victims are too scared to report their perpetrators. The UN reports that it could be as high as 2 million.

Women often are targeted by the traffickers. Some women find themselves entangled in the web of human trafficking by being too trustworthy of those who portray themselves as recruiters. This often occurs in countries where women are oppressed and are treated as if they are second-class citizens. These women may be lured by the recruiters who appear to be providing them with the opportunity of a brighter future, an opportunity to provide a better life for their families.

While many may believe that human trafficking is something that occurs mostly in “developing countries,” countries such as the United States and Canada are not immune from human trafficking.

As was recently discovered this past year, a New York couple “enslaved and tortured” two Indonesian women in their home. The women were “beaten, slashed, burned with cigarettes and scalding water, and forced to choke down hot chili peppers and vomit.” The couple was recently convicted of enslaving and torturing these women.

In Canada, a woman who had been brought to Canada after answering an internet ad for modeling, found herself in the middle of a sex slave ring, and was forced into sexual slavery. Three people are now behind bars and are facing charges. The authorities do not believe this is the end of the situation, as there will be an international investigation, which may lead to more incidences of human trafficking.

It is only recently that New York and Canada have enacted anti-trafficking laws, and these laws are clearly playing a role in allowing the perpetrators of these horrific acts to not receive impunity. Canada’s anti-human trafficking laws only came into effect in November of 2005, and New York’s anti-trafficking law was enacted in 2007.

States and countries who have recently enacted legislation, and are actually enforcing the laws, play an important role in curbing human trafficking and ensuring that perpetrators are brought to justice. It is important that all countries and nations come together in order to stop the trafficking of people.

Sources:

New York Times—Opening Our Eyes to Slavery—23 December 2007.

Toronto Sun—3 Held in Sex Slavery: Cops Women Lured From Overseas—13 January 2008.