Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies

Dear HumanDHS Friends

Please find below the PEC Newsletter July 2010.

Kind Regards
Brian Ward

PEC NEWSLETTER July 2010

Dear HumanDHS Friends

Please find below an opportunity to assist Pakistan flood victims via. Zahid Shahab Ahmed at the South Asia Centre for Peace.

Kind Regards
Brian Ward

Dear Evelin,

As you are one of the advisors of the South Asia Centre for Peace, therefore in times of crisis in Pakistan we need your support in any way possible to help the victims of floods in Pakistan. You might know that roughly 20 million people have been affected by recent floods in Pakistan therefore at the South Asia Centre for Peace we are collecting donations to expand the scope of our relief efforts in the country.

Please, find attached our appeal for donation and circulate it widely through your social and professional circles along with the flood report from the areas where we are doing the humanitarian work.

Flood Report of Raheem Yar Khan 19 August 2010

SACP appeal for donation

Thanking you in anticipation!

Regards,
Zahid Shahab Ahmed
Executive Director
South Asia Centre for Peace,
Islamabad, Pakistan.

E-mail: sacp.pakistan@gmail.com

–
South Asia Centre for Peace (SACP)
#49, Street 3, Shahzad Town, Islamabad, Pakistan.
E-mail: sacp.pakistan[@]gmail.com

Dear HumanDHS Friends

Please find below information on a New Book: Crescent and Dove: Peace and Conflict Resolution in Islam.

Kind Regards
Brian Ward

CRESCENT AND DOVEPeace and Conflict Resolution in Islam

Edited by Qamar-ul Huda
Preface by HRH Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal

(click for larger cover)

$19.95 $16.00 (Paperback)
978-1-60127-060-3

USIP Press Books
October 2010
336 pp. , 6″ x 9″

“Crescent and Dove, a groundbreaking book edited by Qamar-ul Huda, is a ‘must read’ for policymakers, scholars, and students of international affairs in a world that too often fails to distinguish between the acts of a tiny minority of extremists and the religion of Islam.”
John Esposito, Georgetown University

In the face of overwhelming attention to extremist movements and the fundamentalist Islam they often espouse, exploration of peacemaking and conflict resolution in Muslim communities is especially timely. Crescent and Dove looks at the relationship between contemporary Islam and peacemaking by tackling the diverse interpretations, concepts, and problems in the field of Islamic peacemaking.

More at:

http://bookstore.usip.org/books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=271228

Dear HumanDHS Friends

Please find below a note from Ian Harris inviting contributions to a special edition of the Journal of Peace Education.

Kind Regards
Brian Ward

Dear Peace Educators,

We are hoping that you will contribute to a special edition of the Journal of Peace Education dedicated to the many contributions Elise Boulding has made to the field of peace education. Please distribute this call widely.

thanks,
Ian

Ian Harris
imh@uwm.edu

Dear HumanDHS Friends

Please find below a call for proposals for the 32nd Annual Ethnography in Education Research Forum.

Kind Regards
Brian Ward

Greetings!

We are pleased to announce that the 32nd Annual Ethnography in Education Research Forum, to be held at the University of Pennsylvania, February 25 – 26, 2011 is now accepting proposals! Please go to http://www.gse.upenn.edu/cue/forum/proposals for more information.

Thank you!

Center for Urban Ethnography
University of Pennsylvania
Graduate School of Education
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Dear HumanDHS Friends

Please find below the Common Ground Newsbulletin 17-23 August 2010.

Kind Regards
Brian Ward

Common Ground Newsbulletin
Inside this edition 17 – 23 August 2010

Malaysia moving forward in matters of Islam and women
by Marina Mahathir
Marina Mahathir, women’s rights activist and daughter of Malaysia’s fourth prime minister, celebrates the first-ever appointments of female judges to the country’s religious courts and discusses some of the long-standing patriarchal traditions that are giving these judges a rocky start.
(Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 17 August 2010)

Ramadan around the world: Morocco, Pakistan and the US
by Juliette Schmidt
In this first article of a two-part series exploring how Ramadan is experienced in various parts of the world, Juliette Schmidt, Assistant Director of Search for Common Ground’s Partners in Humanity programme for Muslim-Western understanding, interviews colleagues in Morocco, Pakistan and the United States.
(Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 17 August 2010)

Mending the Israeli-Turkey fracture
by Andrés Mourenza
Following the recent fallout in Israeli-Turkish relations over the flotilla incident, Spanish journalist Andrés Mourenza considers what steps can be taken by both countries to re-establish positive relations and drive the Middle East peace process forward.
(Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 17 August 2010)

Lend Pakistan a helping hand
by Sana Saleem
Features Editor at BEE Magazine and Karachi-based blogger Sana Saleem asks that the world reach out to help the victims of the floods in Pakistan not out of fear of greater insecurity and radicalism, but on the basis of our common humanity.
(Source: DawnBlog.com, 8 August 2010)

Muslim American rapper growing up in post-9/11 America
by Madeline Dubus
Staff writer for Campus Progress, Madeline Dubus offers a profile of a young Muslim growing up in post-9/11 America who uses his rap performances to address the issues many Muslim Americans are facing today.
(Source: Campus Progress, 2 August 2010)

Malaysia moving forward in matters of Islam and women
Marina Mahathir

Kuala Lumpur – In early July this year, the Prime Minister of Malaysia Najib Razak announced that two women had been appointed judges in the country’s Syariah Courts. One of two court systems in Malaysia, these courts rule on cases that are subject to sharia law, which is based on Islamic principles.

Women’s groups, including Sisters in Islam (SIS), the group I belong to, hailed this as a long awaited move given the many problems that women face in the Syariah Courts, especially in matters related to the family. Long an advocate for justice and equality for Muslim women, SIS has been calling for female appointments since at least 1999.

Malaysia’s civil laws are under the province of the federal government. But the federal constitution gives its 13 states jurisdiction over two areas: land and laws governing “persons professing the Islamic faith”, which involve family matters such as marriages, divorce, custody and inheritance. Syariah Courts have no jurisdiction over non-Muslims and matters related to Islamic practices are not heard in the civil courts.

The government has talked about reforming the court system for some time, and though the appointment of women to the Syariah Courts was made only last month, the actual decision to appoint female judges was made in 2006. Though these two judges practice in the federal-level Syariah Courts, this is an important move as their appointments set an example for Syariah Courts to follow at the state-level.

Unfortunately, the initial euphoria women’s groups felt about these female appointments was much dampened about two weeks after the July announcement: a committee of 20 Syariah Court judges – all men – held a meeting to discuss which cases female judges could preside over.

An Islamic Appeals Court Judge Datuk Md Yusup Che Teh stated that this needed to be straightened out because there were certain cases that women could not preside over, such as divorce and wali hakim cases, that concern the role of male guardians.

The problem is that it is primarily in divorce cases that many Malaysian women face injustice, whether in issues of custody or division of assets. Furthermore, cases involving male guardians naturally affect only women who, for example, are not allowed to get married without their consent. In most cases, guardians are their own fathers, but in cases where fathers are absent and no other male relatives are available, courts need to appoint guardians for the bride, which can cause delays.

Women’s rights groups were excited about the prospect of having female judges precisely because they could oversee such cases in which women feel they are treated unfairly. The hope is that female judges would rule more fairly when dividing assets in cases of divorce or custody, and would confirm the appointment of guardians more quickly in cases where the biological fathers of brides are missing.

“The appointments were made to enhance justice in cases involving family and women’s rights, and to meet current needs,” said Razak. And while this move seems to have alarmed some of the more conservative judges in the Syariah Courts, the concerns of women’s groups have turned out to be unfounded: at the end of July, a special panel decided that female judges do indeed have jurisdiction over the same cases as male judges.

It should be noted that the Qur’an enjoins judges to use their wisdom to ensure justice, stating that “…if ye judge between mankind, that ye judge justly” (4:58). The verse emphasises justice without stating whether judges should be male or female. There is therefore no barrier for women to be judges in the Syariah Court system, as they have long been in the civil courts. The task now is to ensure that male or female, judges uphold justice.

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* Marina Mahathir is a distinguished columnist, socio-blogger, women’s rights advocate, board member of Sisters in Islam, daughter of Malaysia’s fourth Prime Minister and United Nations Global Expert (www.globalexpertfinder.org). This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).

Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 17 August 2010, www.commongroundnews.org
Copyright permission is granted for publication.

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Ramadan around the world: Morocco, Pakistan and the US
Juliette Schmidt

Toronto, Canada – Working with an international, multi-faith team at Search for Common Ground (SFCG), a non-profit conflict transformation organisation, Ramadan impacts not only colleagues who adhere to a diet and lifestyle that affords greater time for spiritual reflection, but also cross-time zone team meetings that are scheduled around fast-breaking iftar dinners, and greater understanding for those working long days with no food or water.

Certainly Ramadan is about more than just daytime fasts and evening iftars; for many it is a month-long journey toward spiritual enlightenment and a practice in self-discipline and humility, when Muslims try to refrain from gossip, profanity, angry discourse, sexual contact (during the daytime fasting hours) and negative thoughts, all the while continuing their daily routines.

The journey differs not only from person to person, but also from country to country. Some worry about whether they are meeting their own high standards when it comes to fasting and work performance, while others experience a renewed all-around sense of calm and focus. And around the world, spiritual and cultural aspects of Ramadan blend in unique ways.

In Islamabad, Rashad Bukhari, Advisor to our Pakistan programme and Urdu editor of the Common Ground News Service, explains: “With the beginning of Ramzan, as it is known in Pakistan, life changes overnight. There’s not only a shift in eating habits and people’s daily routines, but also a change in atmosphere. People feel more conscious about their relationship with God and other human beings through prayer, supplication and giving.”

For many it is both a spiritual and cultural experience. “My family is awake by 3 a.m.,” describes Bukhari. “My wife prepares parathas (a flaky, fried bread), omelette, a bowl of yoghurt and other items for sehri (the pre-dawn breakfast, known in Arabic as suhoor) to provide enough energy to sustain us until iftar, which almost always features delicacies such as pakoras (fried dumplings made with chickpea flour), samosas, dahi bhalleys (a yoghurt dish with dumplings and onions), and chaat (a spicy mixture of chopped fruits).”

And there is a buzz in the air: “Markets are open before dawn and bustling with people before iftar. Mosques are full during prayer times. However, this year Ramzan came amid the worst flood in Pakistan’s history,” notes Bukhari. “The usual festivities have been overtaken by the gloom of lives lost and displaced. This Ramzan’s spirit in Pakistan is – and should be – that of reaching out to those most in need of urgent food and shelter.”

Alae Eddin Serrar, Morocco Programme Manager based in Rabat, describes how “Ramadan has fallen during a hot summer this year. Yet, as always, it has come with the same spirit of peace, mercy and happiness. For a month, Ramadan transports Muslims throughout Morocco to a world of serenity and spirituality.”

Serrar adds, “For most Moroccans, this holy month is the annual opportunity to purify themselves through self-restraint, to strengthen their inner souls by refreshing their relationship with God and to engage in self-reflection in the hope of becoming better human beings.”

It’s a time for looking outward as well as inward. “Ramadan is a time when people visit their family and share hearty meals together,” Serrar continues. “Special dishes, such as harira (a tomato herb soup), chebekia (popular fried honey cookies) and sellou (an almond and sesame seed sweet), are popular features of this holy month. Many spend their evenings going out, meeting friends in cafes or watching new shows on television. Children in particular delight in new clothes for Eid ul-Fitr, a celebration which marks the end of Ramadan.”

And in the United States, where restaurants keep regular hours and most of the population does not fast, Leena El-Ali, Director of Muslim-Western Relations and Middle East and North Africa Programmes, reflects, “It’s a funny thing, this idea that many ‘back home’ have of how hard it must be for me to participate in Ramadan while living in the diaspora, in Washington and, in years past, London (rather than Lebanon).”

In fact, she feels that “it’s during the past 21 years in the West that the deeper meaning of Ramadan has been revealed to me: first, through the example of the Western converts I’ve met, who almost by definition embrace Islamic rites’ underlying purpose more consciously; and then through the relative solitude of not living in a Muslim-majority society, so that a self-sufficient sense of purpose and reflection develop in the absence of a social system that would naturally facilitate things for those within its radius.

“In any non-Muslim country where freedom of religion is assured, there is no need to pity any Muslim: it’s an environment that implicitly nudges us toward the greater jihad – the inner struggle – which more than makes up for any undue outer difficulties we may encounter.”

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* Juliette Schmidt is Assistant Director of the Partners in Humanity programme on Muslim-Western Relations at Search for Common Ground. Next week’s second of this two-part series on Ramadan around the world will feature perspectives from Lebanon and Indonesia.

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Mending the Israeli-Turkey fracture
Andrés Mourenza

Istanbul, Turkey – The government of Israel recently announced its willingness to cooperate with a UN investigation into the raid on the Freedom Flotilla in which eight Turks and a US citizen of Turkish origin were killed. However, Ankara’s insistence that Israel admit its role as an instigator and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s stance on the flotilla incident, insisting that Israel was forced to act, has further undermined the relations between two of the United States’ main allies in the Middle East.

Turks have grown upset about Israel’s operations in Gaza and Lebanon in recent years, which have disrupted Turkey’s efforts to promote peace in the region. These efforts include a revitalisation of the Erez industrial zone project in Israel – a project that would have given hundreds of Gazans the opportunity to work – and Turkish diplomats’ efforts to promote dialogue between Israeli and Syrian officials.

For their part, Israelis and some groups within the United States and the European Union are concerned that the government of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has embraced a conservative Middle East because of it growing contacts with the Iranian and Syrian governments. This, coupled with the political Islamic roots of Turkey’s current Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, has caused the right-leaning members of Israel’s government to suspect Turkey’s motives of being more political than humanitarian in providing aid to Gazans, unfortunately deepening their divide.

At this point in Israeli-Turkish relations, some steps need to be taken to help re-establish positive people-to-people and government interaction between the two countries – and to improve the political climate in the Middle East.

The first step in re-establishing positive ties would be for Israel’s government to first apologise to Turkey for the flotilla incident. In the raid’s aftermath, Turkish nationalism cannot be ignored, and the Turks will not soon forget the deaths of their compatriots and the attack on a ship carrying the Turkish flag. Turkey is unlikely to send its recalled ambassador back to Israel in the absence of an apology. Without any concessions on Israel’s part, the potential for nationalist solidarity within each country could occlude either country’s desire for renewed diplomacy.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu must consider not just the humanitarian reasons for lifting the blockade of the Gaza Strip, but also the benefits of doing so for the sake of good public relations both in the region and globally. Allowing aid into Gaza would reduce hostility toward Israel, not only in Turkish public opinion, but also in Israel’s neighbouring countries with Muslim-majority populations.

On the Turkish side, Erdogan and other members of his cabinet should gracefully accept this move and declare relations back to normal, leaving the inflammatory rhetoric against Israel aside going forward and re-focus on mediation in the peace process and development projects that help Palestinians. Both sides must keep in mind the long-term need for continuing dialogue. This is essential for the future of the entire region. Ankara’s role in Israeli-Syrian mediation, for example, has been the most promising in a while when it comes to resolving the dispute over the Golan Heights.

As Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said during his July visit to Spain, Syria wants to see Turkish-Israeli relations recover because Turkey is playing the most vital role in furthering the Middle East peace process.

At the same time, Turkish business owners with investments in Israel are urging the Turkish government to resolve the current crisis.

Neither Syria nor Israel can afford to lose Turkey as a peace-broker, as Turkey’s interests as an emerging regional power are realistically bound to healthy diplomacy with Israel.

The European Union has a role to play as well. Every time Brussels has rejected a Turkish bid to join the EU – in 1989, 1997 and possibly again in the current rounds – Ankara has turned its gaze eastward, which the West views nervously for geo-political reasons. A decisive and inclusive stance by the EU as far as Turkish accession is concerned would greatly help Turkish-Israeli relations, since it could allay Israeli fears of an eastward-looking Turkey.

Turkey still stands as a reputable broker for disputes in the region. Without solving its current issues with Israel, however, Ankara’s role as mediator may be undermined in some of the most intractable and urgent conflicts.

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* Andrés Mourenza is a coordinator of Eurasian Hub (www.eurasianhub.org) and a Spanish journalist based in Istanbul since 2005. He writes for Spanish EFE news agency (www.efe.com) and El Periodico de Catalunya (www.elperiodico.com). This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).

Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 17 August 2010, www.commongroundnews.org
Copyright permission is granted for publication.

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Lend Pakistan a helping hand
Sana Saleem

Karachi, Pakistan – “It looks like the number of people affected in this [Pakistani flooding] crisis is higher than the Haiti earthquake, the tsunami or the [2005] Pakistan earthquake. And if the toll is as high as the one given by the [Pakistani] government, it’s higher than the three of them combined,” Maurizio Giuliano, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told the Associated Press.

For the past couple of weeks, I have been looking at images from the flood-affected areas: pictures of men and women carrying their children on their shoulders as they make their way in waist-deep water, carrying what little is left of their family and home with uncertainty. Then there are images of rescue helicopters dropping food items as a people vie to grab them for their families, fear, anger and uncertainty apparent on the faces of many. Over the years only faces have changed; from the internally displaced placed people of Swat Valley to the flood survivors from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the only constant is devastation.

“It would have been better if we had died in the floods as our current miserable life is much more painful,” said Ahmed, a man who fled with his family from the town of Shikarpur in Sindh province and spent the night shivering in the rain.

Undoubtedly, this appears to be the biggest disaster in the country’s history. Much has been said about the devastating condition of the flood victims. From sympathy towards the plea of the victims, to anger at the apathy of the Pakistani president, we have analysed the situation far too many times.

Last week, a BBC News report noted that over 14 million people may have been affected by the floods. In one of the following sentences, however, the report claimed that charities connected to a group with alleged Al Qaeda links has been providing victims of the flood with relief. This is not the only report of its kind; most of the coverage by the Western media emphasised the “Taliban angle” while covering the floods.

I understand that the grievances of the unattended victims are at risk of being exploited, but should that be our sole reason for helping them?

Rather than criticising what is happening and why that is so, we should focus on pressuring the Pakistani government to ensure better disaster management policies. After all, it is the lack of an apt disaster response that leaves no option other than to rely on independent relief organisations for assistance. The state has had plenty of opportunities in the past to learn from its mistakes and to develop a better disaster management policy. But it appears that this has clearly not been its top priority.

This apathy has created a void between the authorities and the Pakistani people, with most of us opting to trust independent relief organisations rather than the president. If some of these relief organisations have links to terror groups, it is due to the failure of the government to fulfil their responsibilities.

The people of Swat and the adjoining areas have already suffered enough at the hands of the Taliban. This war has cost them their life and properties. And if that wasn’t enough, they have been hit by the worst floods in 80 years. The world should help them not because of insecurity and fear, but on the basis of humanity.

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* Sana Saleem is Features Editor at BEE Magazine and blogs at Global Voices, Asian Correspondent and her personal blog Mystified Justice. This article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) with permission from Dawnblog.com.

Source: DawnBlog.com, 8 August 2010, www.dawnblog.com
Copyright permission is granted for publication.

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Muslim American rapper growing up in post-9/11 America
Madeline Dubus

New York, New York – When Cyrus McGoldrick takes the stage, he’s not himself. McGoldrick raps as The Raskol Khan, often with the Freddy Fuego Sextet, an evolving group of musicians based in Harlem.

The name Raskol is based on the main character in Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment, Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov. McGoldrick describes the first part of his pseudonym as “a rebellious force in society who’s trying to do the right thing but struggles with his environment and self.” Khan, Arabic for king or chief, “channels a vestige of an imperial mindset, a long history of conquest,” he says. It is a history McGoldrick hopes to cleanse himself of.

McGoldrick is not famous. He’s not revolutionary. He is a college student, a musician and a writer. He is also Muslim in America. McGoldrick is part of the first generation of young Muslim Americans to go through their adolescence and early adulthood post-9/11.

“9/11 was the first day of high school,” McGoldrick recalls. In the years since 9/11, he feels there has been a weakening of the Muslim identity.

When forced to identify in relation to others, “the identity loses its pride in itself,” he says. “The worry is that to be a good Muslim in America you need to not be something, as opposed to what you can be.” McGoldrick wants to serve others and foster a unified Muslim community in America.

The son of an Iranian mother and an American father of Irish descent, McGoldrick was born on 22 January 1988 in Newport, Rhode Island and raised in Perkasie, Pennsylvania. His mother was born and raised in Tehran; she left the country at age 17, just before the Iranian revolution in 1979.

McGoldrick doesn’t believe that one day people from every culture will get along, but he does believe that we have the potential for greater acceptance of the Muslim people.

The shift between coexistence and acceptance to fear and hate is evident. It should not even be a question in our society anymore, but McGoldrick hopes there is a way to restore balance. “Just by being us,” McGoldrick says, “[we could] make Islam a normal part of people’s lives.”

The misconception of Islam leaves those in the Muslim community feeling alienated for defining themselves in their own positive terms. McGoldrick is not immune to this feeling; in fact, it seems to be the source of both his hope and uncertainty in life. “Sometimes I feel lost,” he says, pausing to look down at his hands. “I trust that I’ll see good come from this time – sometimes we don’t have time to pause and see where we are.”

He ultimately finds his music and The Raskol Khan to be the greatest forum for addressing issues he and Muslim Americans face today. “Music is part of my ministry,” McGoldrick says.

When he raps with the Fuego Sextet, as he often does, he speaks about his personal struggles and the political and social issues that resonate in him the most. After the Israeli Navy raided the largest ship in the Gaza-bound aid flotilla on 31 May, killing at least nine people and wounding dozens of others, the band organised an upcoming show into a memorial.

“Some people didn’t agree [with the message],” he says of the night, “but everyone was into [the music] and got something out of it.”

McGoldrick believes the power of hip-hop music lies in the opportunity to reach a more progressive audience which he believes are “automatically more receptive”, considering the genre’s history of confronting political, social and racial injustice.

And therein lies the purpose of The Raskol Khan: by honestly depicting McGoldrick and his history, he believes the audience can then see themselves more fully.

“Rappers represent themselves as the height of achievement,” he says. “But this character is the beginning.”

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* Madeline Dubus is a staff writer for Campus Progress and graduated from The New School University in May 2010 where she was named a writing fellow in journalism. This abridged article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) with permission from the author. The full text can be found at www.campusprogress.org.

Source: Campus Progress, 2 August 2010, www.campusprogress.org
Copyright permission is granted for publication.

Dear HumanDHS Friends

Please find below the AfricAvenir Newsletter August 2010.

Kind Regards
Brian Ward

Berlin-Premiere: “Nothing but the Truth” von John Kani
Am Donnerstag, 19 August 2010 um 20 Uhr lädt AfricAvenir zur Berlin-Premiere des vielfach preisgekrönten Spielfilms “Nothing but the Truth” (OenglU) von Südafrikas Theater und Film-Ikone John Kani. Basierend auf dem gleichnamigen erfolgreichen Theaterstück beleuchtet der Film einen wichtigen, oft vernachlässigten gesellschaftlichen Konflikt der Apartheid-Ära und gegenwärtigen Realität in Südafrika: Die Thematik der unterschiedlichen gesellschaftlichen Anerkennung der Freiheitskämpfer, die entweder ins Exil gingen, um gegen das Unrechtsregime zu kämpfen oder in Südafrika blieben. Kani hinterfragt mit Nothing But the Truth nicht nur den Mythos der Freiheitskämpfer, er macht auch den Weg für eine Versöhnung frei. Im Anschluss an die Filmvorführung findet ein Gespräch mit dem Filmemacher Thabo Thindi statt.

|+| weitere Informationen
Dekolonisierung im Zeichen von Trauma, Vergessen und Erinnerung am Beispiel Algerien
Vom 2.-4. September 2010 widmet sich AfricAvenir im Rahmen des Jahresthemas “50 Jahre afrikanische Un-Abhängigkeiten – Eine (selbst)kritische Bilanz” dem Thema “Dekolonisierung im Zeichen von Trauma, Vergessen und Erinnerung am Beispiel Algerien”. Eingeladen haben wir Daho Djerbal von der Université d’Alger-Bouzaréah, der neben einem Vortrag auch einen Tagesworkshop zum Thema durchführen wird. Wir nehmen seine Präsenz außerdem zum Anlass, mit “Die Schlacht um Algier” (OenglU) einen der beeindruckendsten Filme, der jemals über den Kolonialismus und den antikolonialen Widerstand gedreht wurde, zu zeigen und anschließend mit ihm zu diskutieren.

|+| weitere Informationen
Wir sind umgezogen!
Nach mehr als zwei Jahren im Haus der Demokratie und Menschenrechte ist AfricAvenir International e.V. nun in neuen Räumen zu Hause. In der Kurfürstenstr. 33, 10785 Berlin, arbeiten wir Tür an Tür mit dem deutsch-äthiopischen Verein Listros e.V. Das neue Büro ist zu erreichen mit der U1, M85 Kurfürstenstraße.
Weitere AfricAvenir Events & Kooperationen
African Perspectives: “From a Whisper” by Wanuri Kahiu with Tsitsi Dangarembga as Special Guest
On Saturday, 21 August 2010 at 7 p.m. AfricAvenir Windhoek presents the movie “From A Whisper” by Wanuri Kahiu (2008, Kenya, 79 min, Orig. with Engl. Subtitles) in the presence of Zimbabwean novelist, filmmaker and women rights activist Tsitsi…

|+| zum Artikel
Influx Controls: I wanna be wanna be – Eine Tanz-Performance von Boyzie Cekwana (Südafrika)
Der Südafrikaner Boyzie Cekwana gehört zu den radikalsten Tanzschaffenden seiner Generation. (L.Weber, Neue Zürcher Zeitung) In Influx Controls: I wanna be wanna be untersucht der Choreograph und Tänzer seine menschliche Identität vor dem Hintergrund…

|+| zum Artikel
Dialogforum & Workshop: Dekolonisierung im Zeichen von Trauma, Vergessen und Erinnerung am Beispiel Algerien
Am Donnerstag, 2. September 2010 um 19 Uhr laden wir zum Dialogforumforum mit dem algerischen Historiker Daho Djerbal zum Thema “Dekolonisierung im Zeichen von Trauma, Vergessen und Erinnerung” ins August-Bebel-Institut. Für…

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Film: Die Schlacht um Algier (OenglU) am 3.9.2010 um 20 Uhr
Im Rahmen des AfricAvenir Jahresthemas “50 Jahre afrikanische Un-Abhängigkeiten – eine (selbst)kritische Bilanz” laden wir am Freitag, 3. September 2010 um 20 Uhr ins Hackesche Höfe Kino zur Vorführung von Pontecorvos Klassiker…

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Dear HumanDHS Friends

Please find below introductory information on articles in the Nonviolent Conflict News Digest August 13th 2010. Link to Newsletter here.

Kind Regards
Brian Ward

http://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/

Nonviolent Conflict News Digest August 13th 2010

Words without Borders “dialogue” violates Palestinian boycott call
By: Haidar Eid, The Electronic Intifada, August 12, 2010
An initiative recently launched by the prestigious online literature magazine Words without Borders entitled “Cross-Cultural-Dialogues in the Middle East,” rings alarm bells in light of the Palestinian civil society call for boycott divestment and sanctions (BDS) on Israel. The initiators of this series of articles are Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi, who describes herself as being of Iranian Muslim background, and Chana Morgenstern, an Israeli fiction writer, who met as graduate students at Brown University in the United States.
Read full article…

Besieging Israel’s siege
By: Omar Barghouti, The Guardian, August 12, 2010
Despite Israel’s siege of Gaza, and the escalating displacement in the Negev and East Jerusalem, Palestinians have some reason to celebrate. In Washington a food co-op has passed a resolution calling for a boycott of Israeli products, confirming that the boycott movement – five years old last month – has finally crossed the Atlantic.
Read full article…

International outrage spurs Iran to commute stoning sentences to hanging
By: Saeed Kamali Dehghan, The Guardian, August 12, 2010
Iran appears to be quietly changing the sentences of Iranians awaiting death by stoning to hanging after international outcry following the case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a 43-year-old mother of two.Mariam Ghorbanzadeh, 25, who was six months’ pregnant and miscarried after being beaten up in Tabriz prison this week, was initially sentenced to death by stoning for adultery but her sentence has been commuted to hanging in a rapid judicial review.
Read full article…

Iran: Woman sentenced to death by stoning reportedly appears on television
By: Robert Mackey, NY Times, August 12, 2010
Sakineh Ashtiani, an Iranian woman whose sentence of death by stoning for the crime of adultery has sparked an international campaign to save her, reportedly appeared on state television in Iran on Wednesday night. Because the woman Iranian television said was Ms. Ashtiani appeared on screen with her face blurred out and her words translated from Azeri into Persian, it was impossible to confirm her identity.
Read full article…

Iranian activists face execution as ‘enemies of God’
By: Edward Yeranian, VOA News, August 11, 2010
Human rights groups and the families of a number of Iranian opposition activists condemned to death as “enemies of God” are warning that their loved ones may soon be hanged after their sentences were recently confirmed by Iran’s supreme court. The Iranian government has come under scrutiny once again for its human rights record, as political prisoners condemned for being so-called “enemies of God,” or mohareb, appear to be nearing the gallows.
Read full article…

Iranian regime may initiate military action in the region
By: Michael Eisenstadt and David Crist, Foreign Policy, August 11, 2010
The media has recently been rife with speculation about the possibility of a U.S. or Israeli preventive strike on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure. But, given recent developments in Iran, it is at least as likely that an increasingly belligerent Tehran will be the one that makes the move that sparks a conflict with the United States unless Washington, acting with both caution and firmness, moves to avert such an eventuality.
Read full article…

Make Ramadan torture-free in Egypt
By: Osama Diab, Guardian, August 11, 2010
Ramadan, which starts today, is the month during which the Qur’an was first revealed more than 1400 years ago. Given the altruistic nature of Ramadan, we can only hope that torture and beating people to death are on the police’s list of sins to wash away this month.
Read full article…

Israeli army close down shops in Hebron
By: International Solidarity Movement, August 11, 2010
Yesterday, in response to peaceful Palestinian resistance to the military occupation of Hebron – and ongoing settler violence – the Israeli army decided to collectively punish Palestinian shopkeepers in the Old City. They had been threatening for weeks to close certain shops because they are located by the yellow gate that closes off Shuhada street, where a weekly peaceful demo has started each Saturday for the past few months.
Read full article…

Congressman calls on Obama to protect Camp Ashraf residents against inhumane treatment
By: National Council of Resistance of Iran, August 10, 2010
In a Capitol Hill briefing, Congressman John Lewis, described by the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as “the conscience of the U.S. Congress,” spoke to a number of his colleagues, Iranian-Americans and supporters of Camp Ashraf in solidarity with the Iranian Resistance. A former colleague of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Lewis has been and continues to be one of the most prominent leaders of the civil rights movement in the United States. During the past quarter century, he has been enthusiastically elected by the people of Georgia as one of their representatives in US Congress.
Read full article…

Israel: Netanyahu fuels fears of flotilla inquiry whitewash
By: Catrina Stewart, The Independent, August 10, 2010
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday defended as lawful a deadly assault on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla amid concerns that a domestic commission of inquiry will whitewash Israel’s conduct. Giving evidence to a state-appointed panel, Mr Netanyahu sought to distance himself from the fateful chain of events that led to the death of nine Turkish pro-Palestinian activists.
Read full article…

Israel: After successful student campaign US college divests for the occupation
By: International Solidarity Movement, August 10, 2010
Hampshire College is often credited with being the first US college to divest for the occupation, and this video attempts to understand the group and the campaign that made it happen. The video is constructed from interviews with over a dozen student activists from Hampshire College’s Students for Justice in Palestine.
Read full article…

Iran: Protests by mothers of prisoners of conscience
By: Elahe Amani and Lys Anzia, Truthout, August 10, 2010
Outside the prison walls of ward 350, in the IRI – Islamic Republic of Iran’s Evin Prison, a group of brave demonstrators hold placards and pictures of their loved ones who are part of a hunger strike. The demonstrators are mostly women – Iranian mothers, family and friends who have chosen to publicaly defend the rights and dignity of those incarcerated.
Read full article…

Israeli soldiers open fire at a nonviolent protest in Gaza
By: Palestine News Network, August 9, 2010
Israeli soldiers opened fire on Monday midday at a group of Palestinians protesting the Israeli fence surrounding the Gaza strip. Palestinians along with a number of international supporters gathered in the Abssan town near the southern borders with Israel.
Read full article…

Iran: Programming for internet freedom in Iran
By: William J. Dobson, Newsweek, August 6, 2010
A new generation of hacktivists is fighting back. They are not seeking silver-bullet solutions but scalable technologies that will unlock the one advantage the people always had-the sheer power of their numbers.Rigid structures are unable to adapt as quickly to a rapidly changing environment as a decentralized system.
Read full article…

Iran: Leaflet distribution in Tehran about Reza Shahabi’s arrest
By: International Alliance in Support of Workers in Iran, August 3, 2010
After 43 days of Reza Shahabi’s arrest,- he’s a worker of Vahed Bus Co. of Tehran, today Tuesday 12th of Mordad, a huge amount of leaflets,- authored by ” A Group of Workers and Labour Activists in Iran,”- were distributed. This statement which condemns Reza Shahabi’s arrest emphasizes workers’ initiatives to release him and other incarcerated workers from captivity, while continuing workers’ struggle to achieve their demands, was produced on a two-sided single sheet and distributed amongst the bus drivers throughout Tehran.
Read full article…

Interrupted lives: Portraits of student repression in Iran
By: Human Rights and Democracy for Iran, August 2010
Throughout the more than thirty-year history of the Islamic Republic of Iran, there have been thousands of cases of human rights abuse. Students have been among those arbitrarily arrested, imprisoned, tortured, and executed. “Interrupted Lives” is a travelling exhibit that tells the story of Iranian students who have been punished for expressing their beliefs.
Read full article…

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CENTRAL ASIA
Kyrgyzstan: Opposition to OSCE police forces grows
By: Erica Marat, Eurasia Daily Monitor, August 11, 2010
Infringement of the country’s sovereignty, limited capacity to improve the situation in southern Kyrgyzstan, and the potential for increased instability are cited as arguments against the OSCE mission. A group named “Kyrgyzstan against foreign forces,” even threatened to block Osh airport when OSCE forces arrive in the city.
Read full article…

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SOUTH ASIA
India threatens to ban BlackBerry services
By: Amy Willis, Telegraph, August 12, 2010
Government officials met with the makers of the BlackBerry – Research In Motion (RIM) – to address fears that the handsets could be used by insurgents for terror attacks like the 2008 Mumbai bombings. They have given RIM until the end of August to address the security issues before they impose the country-wide ban.
Read full article…

India: 100,000 people will march for land rights
By: Holly Williams, The Independent, August 12, 2010
In 2007, 25,000 people marched for a month across India, to campaign for improved land rights. PV Rajagopal, an Indian activist for charity Ekta Parishad, has been visiting the UK prior to another – much larger – march that will be taking place in 2012. A staggering 100,000 dispossessed people will walk for a month, living and sleeping at the side of the road, before arriving in Delhi to lobby the government.
Read full article…

India’s shameful Burma ploy
By: Sanjay Kumar, The Diplomat, August 12, 2010
For better or worse, countries will often sacrifice their principles at the altar of geopolitics. It’s a fact no more evident lately than with India, which appears to be disregarding the muzzling of democracy in eastern neighbour Burma (Myanmar) to cosy up to the ruling military junta there.
Read full article…

Kashmir cries out for justice
By: Siddharth Varadarajan, One World South Asia, August 11, 2010
Continuing protests in Kashmir have jolted the system to the extent that the entire gamut of relief packages has not appeased the people. Siddharth Varadarajan feels that the route to justice is the only viable option left for the authorities to control the situation in the valley. Whatever his other failings, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah deserves praise for acknowledging that the protests which have rocked the Kashmir valley these past few weeks are ‘leaderless’ and not the product of manipulation by some hidden individual or group.
Read full article…

Maldives: Constitutional disaster averted as Parliament approves Supreme Court
By: JJ Robinson, Minivan News, August 10th, 2010
The Maldives has appointed a new Supreme Court and narrowly averted constitutional catastrophe, after a series of parliamentary sessions today demonstrated remarkable and uncharacteristic cooperation between the two major parties. Chief Justice Ahmed Faiz took the oath of office this evening in a ceremony at the President’s Office, and then administered the oath to five of the other appointed judges.
Read full article…

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SOUTHEAST ASIA
Burma: Junta intimidating opposition party members
By: Mizzima, August 12, 2010
Burmese junta intelligence staff have called at the homes of Democracy Party members uninvited and intimidated them, party chairman Thu Wei outlined in a written complaint to the Union Election Commission in Naypyidaw on Monday. “Police Special Branch officers visited the residences of our party members and asked them to provide two passport photos along with bio data and personal profiles,” Thu Wei said. “This is intimidation of our members and cannot be tolerated.”
Read full article…

Burma: UDP still unsure whether to stand in polls
By: Mizzima, August 10, 2010
Union Democratic Party new chairman Thein Htay declared yesterday the party may be at risk if it chose to take part in the forthcoming election and expressed doubts as to whether it would stand. The former UDP chairman Phyo Min Thein pulled out of the junta’s elections and quit the party as he believed the elections would be neither free nor fair.
Read full article…

UN human rights rappoteur meets Burma activists in Thailand
By: Ron Corben, VOA News, August 10, 2010
The United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Burma has met with human rights groups and former political prisoners during a visit to Thailand. The information he gathered from the meetings is expected to be part of a report to the United Nations.
Read full article…

Burma: Can the opposition remain relevant?
By: Min Zin, Irrawaddy, August 2010
The opposition in Burma should be measured both in terms of the public support it draws and its ability to achieve both its intermediate and ultimate goals. Since Burma won independence from Britain in 1948, the country has been fraught with a spectrum of contentious politics ranging from armed insurgencies to nonviolent movements against the state.
Read full article…

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EAST ASIA
More rights, but less space?–A Chinese conundrum
By: Julian Baird Gewirtz, Huffington Post, August 12, 2010
China’s failure to provide adequate education for the marginalized children of migrant workers in urban centers is widely recognized as a major civil rights problem. These children have been largely excluded from their legal entitlement to “compulsory education” as a result of China’s outdated household registration (hukou) system. So migrant families have had to turn to cheap private schools known as minban xuexiao, meaning “schools run by the people.”
Read full article…

Tibetan writer’s intellectual journey leads to trial
By: Andrew Jacobs, NY Times, August 11, 2010
As officers searched his home, carting away computers, handwritten notes and copies of the offending book, Mr. Tragyal, who like many Tibetans uses one name, stood by silently. “He was perfectly serene in front of the policemen, and this somehow calmed my fears,” his wife wrote in an e-mail. His trial is expected to begin this month in the provincial capital, Xining.
Read full article…

Mugabe thanks China for steadfast support
By: AFP, August 11, 2010
Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe Wednesday thanked China for its steadfast support as he visited the World Expo in Shanghai and called for help in reviving his country’s shattered economy. Mugabe expressed his deep gratitude to Beijing and called for deeper cooperation, at a time when his country is struggling with a decade of acute food shortages.
Read full article…

Chinese hospitals are battlegrounds of discontent
By: Sharon LaFraniere, NY Times, August 11, 2010
Forget the calls by many Chinese patients for more honest, better-qualified doctors. What this city’s 27 public hospitals really needed, officials decided last month, was police officers. And not just at the entrance, but as deputy administrators. The goal: to keep disgruntled patients and their relatives from attacking the doctors.
Read full article…

Ai Weiwei documents Sichuan earthquake petition, police attack on Twitter and Youtube
By: Ai Weiwei, August 10, 2010
Ai Weiwei, the artist who designed the Olympic Bird’s Nest Stadium has documented his recent run in with the police with his Twitter account (@aiww). His photos and videos have found their way onto many Chinese websites and blogs despite the presence of national firewall that blocks the site. Upwards of 150,000 Chinese internet users utilize various tools to circumvent censorship and access restricted sites such as Twitter.
View pictures…
Watch full video…
Watch New Yorker video interview with Ai Weiwei about his Twitter activism…

Tibetans jailed for up to one and half years
By: Tibetan Review, August 10, 2010
Two men, Kalden and Sonam Topden, arrested on May 16 this year, were on July 30 jailed for two and half years each in Sertha County of Karze Prefecture, Sichuan Province. Police arrested them while they were putting up wall posters calling for Tibet’s independence and the Dalai Lama return home. The report said they had thrown in the air hundreds of leaflets with similar message and slogans.
Read full article…

Uyghur web moderators get life
By: RFA, August 8, 2010
A court in China has sentenced three ethnic minority Uyghurs to life in jail for alleged separatist offenses, according to a Uyghur woman who attended the trial. One of those handed a life term was Gulmire Imin, 32, who held a local government post and worked for the Uyghur-language Salkin website, which called for a demonstration on July 5, 2009, the witness said in an interview.
Read full article…

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OCEANIA
Censorship rife in Fiji’s newspaper industry
By: Michael Morrah, 3 News, August 12, 2010
At the Fiji Sun they print positive government stories. It’s not because they want to, but rather that they have little choice. “As journalists, it is our duty to be fair to all. But we cannot report all this because the censors are here …because they have their own guidelines,” explains Weekend Editor Meika Bolatiki.
Read full article…

Australia: Indonesia tries to stop Papuan lecture
By: Daniel Flitton, Sydney Morning Herald, August 11, 2010
Indonesian officials have tried to put a stop to a public lecture in Melbourne tonight to discuss the troubled province of West Papua. In an echo of the pressure brought by China last year to dump the Melbourne screening of a film about a separatist struggle, an Indonesian official this week asked the Victorian branch of the Australian Institute of International Affairs to cancel the event.
Read full article…

West Papua: Journalist’s death overshadows launch of Papua food project
By: Gordon Douglas, WestPan, August 11, 2010
The death of a local journalist has increased concerns about a giant food estate launched today in Merauke, Southeastern Papua by Indonesia’s Minister of Agriculture. The suspicious death of the journalist, Ardiansyah Matra’is, in late July, following threats against him, has been linked to his coverage of this week’s local elections for the district head in Merauke.
Read full article…

Fiji wants to replace Pacific allies with China
By: AFP, August 11, 2010
Fiji’s military leader Voreqe Bainimarama wants to ditch traditional ties with Australia, New Zealand and the United States, and align his Pacific Island nation with China, it was reported Wednesday. Speaking to Fijivillage News website during a visit to China, the self-appointed prime minister said China was the one country that understands the reforms he is trying to implement.
Read full article…

Indonesia welcomes foreign NGOs in Papua
By: West Papua News Network, August 7, 2010
Indonesia still opens its door to NGOs that want to operate in Papua, as long as they benefit the people without involvement in politics and commercial activities, an official says. Sunu M. Soemarno, director for Socio-Culture and International Organizations at the Foreign Ministry, said the government through an inter-department meeting including his office, the Social Services Ministry and intelligence bodies, police and the State Secretariat, will decide and review whether NGOs can help build Papua.
Read full article…

West Papuans condemn PNG ‘betrayal’ after Forum failure
By: Ben Bohane, Cafe Pacific, August 6, 2010
West Papuan leaders are warning of a “total intifada” in their Indonesian-ruled homeland, saying the failure of the Pacific Islands Forum to discuss their independence may mean the end of its diplomatic attempts to resolve their plight peacefully. They are disappointed that Vanuatu, as the new chair, did not address the matter as promised but they have also singled out Papua New Guinea for “betraying” them with its insistence on Indonesian sovereignty.
Read full article…

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AFRICA
Africa’s path to press freedom goes online
By: Ramata Soré, CPJ, August 12, 2010
Journalists prod the elites, who are allergic to criticism, and require that they account for their handling of power and assume responsibility in the face of the various scandals they cause. Recently in Burkina Faso for instance, a government minister had to resign after the print media revealed his extramarital affair with a married woman. This was unthinkable a few years ago.
Read full article…

Burundi: Opposition to run outside parliament for next five years
By: Judith Basutama, All Africa, August 11, 2010
Burundi’s main opposition bloc, the Democratic Alliance for Change, has announced it will form an extra-parliamentary opposition for the next five years. The announcement follows the group’s decision last month to boycott the whole electoral process in Burundi in protest at poll rigging.
Read full article…

Rwanda: “Climate of repression” as voting concludes
By: Zack Baddorf, IPS, August 9, 2010
As voting concluded in Rwanda’s presidential elections, with incumbent President Paul Kagame expected to win by a landslide, fears remain that not all citizens will accept the results amidst claims the elections were neither free nor fair. Critics claim the Aug. 9 elections were not fair as in the run-up opposition candidates were arrested to allegedly prevent them from standing against Kagame.
Read full article…

WHO happy with counterfeit bill, activists not
By: Rosebell Kagumire, IPS, August 10, 2010
Of specific concern to activists is that the government, and therefore the bill, should “separate intellectual property issues from the issue of the quality of medicines”. Activists will therefore continue lobbying government to clarify the distinction between counterfeit and substandard drugs.
Read full article…

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NORTH AMERICA

US: LGBT groups support boycott over Arizona immigration law
By: Shaun Knittel, EDGE, August 11, 2010
As the debate over Arizona’s Senate Bill 1070 continues to rage, a myriad of LGBT organizations and activists have come together to demand action under a unified “Boycott Arizona” banner. The National Council of La Raza, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the Human Rights Campaign are among the more than two dozen groups that have expressed their support of the boycott in their opposition to SB 1070.
Read full article…

US: Nine protesters arrested at Bangor Gate
By: Kitsap Sun, August 9, 2010
Nine protesters were arrested for blocking the main gate to Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor on Monday. They were among members and supporters of Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, which holds an annual vigil at the base on the anniversaries of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Bangor is home to several ballistic missile submarines.
Read full article…

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CENTRAL AMERICA/CARIBBEAN

Campaign in solidarity with the Cuban five in New York
By: Mathaba, August 12, 2010
Speaking to Prensa Latin news agency, a member of the solidarity group, Benjamin Lamas, said that an exhibition on the artistic work of Antonio Guerrero -one of the Cuban Five, as they are internationally known- will be inaugurated in New York on September 3. The Committee in Solidarity with Cuba in New York will begin in September a campaign in support of the five Cuban anti-terrorists who remain unjustly imprisoned in the United States since 1998.
Read full article…

Thirty thousand Dominican truck drivers protest proposed tax
By: AP, August 10, 2010
More than 30,000 truck drivers in the Dominican Republic are staging a 24-hour strike to protest a government proposal to raise the fuel tax. The shutdown that began Tuesday is expected to cause more than $16 million in losses for the Caribbean nation. Union leader Blas Peralta says drivers for the National Dominican Transportation Federation move about 90 percent of the country’s food, merchandise and fuel.
Read full article…

Caribbean: Taino Indians counted out of existence
By: The Latin Americanist, August 10, 2010
Monday was the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People, an occasion that serves to remember that some indigenous groups in the Americas face problems related to poverty and culture clashes. The following video examines the decendents of the Taino peoples of the Caribbean whose numbers were greatly diminished after coming into contact with European explorers centuries ago.
Watch full video…

TOP

SOUTH AMERICA
Suriname: The dictator who came in from the cold
By: Tim Padgett, TIME, August 12, 2010
South America gave up its dictator habit two decades ago. It’s fallen off the wagon at times, evidenced by the authoritarian binge of then-Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori in the 1990s. But compared to past generations, and despite critics’ charges that Venezuelan President Hugo ChÁvez and his leftist allies are Fidel Castro wannabes, the region today is largely tyrant-free and democratically sober.
Read full article…

Potosi protests hit Bolivia mining output
By: BBC News, August 12, 2010
Anti-government protests in the Bolivian region of Potosi have entered a third week, hitting mining production and disrupting normal life. A Japanese-owned silver, zinc and lead mine has had to suspend many of its operations and other mines have also seen output disrupted. With road and air links blocked, food supplies are running low and some foreign tourists have been stranded.
Read full article…

Peru’s Amazonian groups to launch political party
By: BBC News, August 11, 2010
Peru’s indigenous Amazon groups say they plan to launch their own political party ahead of elections next year. Indigenous leader Alberto Pizango said it would campaign to protect the rainforest and indigenous rights in the Andes mountains as well as the Amazon.
Read full article…

South American indigenous protests highlight development tensions
By: David Dudenhoefer, Off News, August 6, 2010
With the entire western Amazon experiencing oil and mining booms, indigenous groups in the Amazon Basin and the Andes have now stepped up their resistance to efforts to exploit oil reserves, mineral deposits and other natural resources in and nearby their communities. In response, the region’s presidents have accused native leaders and environmentalists who help them of everything from terrorism to being U.S. lackeys.
Read full article…

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EUROPE
As state fumbles fire response, Russia discovers a new strength: People power
By: Daisy Sindelar, August 12, 2010
With stifling heat still enveloping Moscow, the last place some people might want to be is packed into a crowded office answering panicked phone calls and packing boxes full of heavy supplies. But at Spravedlivaya Pomoshch (Fair Help), a 3-year-old charity organization based within walking distance of the Kremlin, dozens of volunteers have gathered to help deliver food and other aid to regions devastated by the ongoing summer wildfires that have killed more than 50 people and burned entire villages to the ground.
Read full article…

Arrest in response to appeal to Education Ministry of Belarus
By: Charter 97, August 12, 2010
On August 12 an activist of “Tell the Truth” campaign was detained near “Minsk” hotel Mikhail Pashkevich was detained. A reporter of Radio Svaboda Halina Abakubchyk was almost hurt in the result of the arrest.
Read full article…

UK: Edinburgh festival comedians stand up for Burmese protester Zarganar
By: Vanessa Thorpe, The Guardian, August 11, 2010
Edinburgh comics have come together to support a new Amnesty International campaign to free a comedian jailed for 35 years for criticising the Burmese government. Amnesty’s Stand Up for Freedom show on 19 August will highlight the situation of Zarganar, 49, who was imprisoned after speaking out against the official response to cyclone Nargis in 2008, which left more than 140,000 people dead.
Read full article…

Orange peels: Ukraine after the revolution
By: Adrian Karatnycky, The American Interest, November/December 2010
The Orange Revolution led to the election of Viktor Yushchenko, a banker and former Prime Minister who had joined the opposition and challenged Viktor Yanukovych, handpicked successor of the authoritarian Leonid Kuchma. But the Orange Revolution’s rhetoric of democracy, reform and NATO integration never lived up to reality.
Read full article…

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ARTICLES OF INTEREST
Clicktivism is ruining leftist activism
By: Micah White, The Guardian, August 12, 2010
A battle is raging for the soul of activism. It is a struggle between digital activists, who have adopted the logic of the marketplace, and those organisers who vehemently oppose the marketisation of social change. At stake is the possibility of an emancipatory revolution in our lifetimes.The conflict can be traced back to 1997 when a quirky Berkeley, California-based software company known for its iconic flying toaster screensaver was purchased for $13.8m (£8.8m).
Read full article…

Experiments with truth
By: Eric Stoner, Waging Nonviolence, August 11, 2010
Eric Stoner highlights recent nonviolent struggles in the news such as a public worker strike in South Africa, a subway construction workers’ hunger strike in Kazakhstan, an anti-government demonstration in Bolivia and 30,000-strong truck drivers’ strike in the Dominican Republic.
Read full article…

Indonesia, Brazil, and Venezuela lead global surge in Twitter usage
By: PR Newswire, August 11, 2010
“Twitter.com has experienced an explosion in global traffic over the past year, establishing itself as one of the most-visited social networking sites across each of the five worldwide regions,” said Graham Mudd, comScore vice president, search & media. “Today nearly 3 out of 4 global Internet users access social networking sites each month, making it one of the most ubiquitous activities across the web.”
Read full article…

How to revitalise democracy assistance
By: Richard Youngs, FRIDE, July 23, 2010
Democracy assistance needs to be re-energised. The author lays out the main concerns of civil society organisations in states on the receiving end of democracy support and offers recommendations on how to improve donor strategies and design more demand-led policies. This working paper is contributed by FRIDE to a project ‘Assessing Democracy Assistance’, carried out by the World Movement for Democracy. FRIDE is also contributing 13 country case studies to the project.
Read full article…

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NOTICE
Odessa Woolfolk Gallery: Let your motto be resistance
By: Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, August 10, 2010
Presented by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, “Let Your Motto Be Resistance: African American Portraits” opens at Birmingham Civil Rights Institute August 28, 2010 and will be on view until November 21, 2010. The exhibition consists of 69 modern prints made from the National Portrait Gallery’s collections highlighting 150 years of African American resistance in the U.S.
Read full article…

TOP

The International Center on Nonviolent Conflict is pleased to circulate twice weekly this selective digest of world news related to present, past and potential nonviolent conflicts, including active civilian-based struggles against oppressive regimes, nonviolent resistance, political and social dissidence, and the use of nonviolent tactics in a variety of causes. We also include stories that help readers glimpse the larger context of a conflict and that reflect on past historical struggles.

If you have specific items that you would like us to include in the daily digest, please send them to us. If there is a news or information source that you believe we may not be accessing, for purposes of selecting items, please bring that to our attention.

Please also note that each story is provided because it contains factual or analytical information related to civil resistance, a campaign or a movement, or its overall context, and its inclusion does not necessarily indicate that ICNC embraces or accepts any ideological or political view which might also be expressed in that analysis or held by those who are resisting.

Dear HumanDHS Friends

Please find below the Conciliation Resources News Bulletin Summer 2010.

Kind Regards
Brian Ward

Conciliation Resources News Bulletin Summer 2010

News and events

http://www.c-r.org/

© Aubrey Wade

Exploring cross-border issues in West Africa
‘Talking Borders’ is a new docudrama by Conciliation Resources (CR) which aims to act as a catalyst for social change, through giving a voice to those living in the border communities of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. Based on 300 separate interviews, the film tells the stories of a young female trader, a policeman and an ex-fighter whose lives are blighted by petty corruption and harassment. The film was launched earlier this year in Freetown and has since been screened in Bo and Bumpe, taking the film back to the communities where the issues were raised. Watch Talking Borders on-line.

Film screenings prompt discussion in the Caucasus
CR’s long-standing partner, Mamuka Kuparadze, travelled recently to Abkhazia for a TV screening of his new film ‘Absence of Will’. The screening demonstrates the powerful role the media can play in raising awareness of issues connected to conflict and peacebuilding, as it led to a fierce debate. In addition, screenings of the new series of short films in CR’s ‘Dialogue through Film’ project, jointly produced by Karabakh Armenian and Azerbaijani young people, are being seen by Armenian and Azerbaijani audiences across the region.

Ending wars peacefully just got harder
“Peacebuilding work, already dangerous to do and difficult to fund just got harder” comments Andy Carl, CR’s Executive Director, in two separate articles on the BBC and Open Democracy websites. In upholding the law, The US Supreme Court has clarified that offering ‘material support’ to groups listed as ‘terrorist’ includes knowingly providing conflict resolution services like expert advice on how to peacefully resolve disputes. Read the BBC article and Open Democracy article.

Engaging future leaders in the Caucasus
Brussels was the location of the latest meeting, the fifth so far, in CR’s Georgian-Abkhaz Youth Dialogue Project. ‘Future leaders’ – mainly students and recent graduates – were able to exchange views on developments in the region, the state of the negotiations process and the perceptions of EU and NATO in their societies. In addition they had the opportunity to meet with international experts, EU and NATO representatives. Read more about our youth dialogue work.

Promoting racial harmony and tolerance in Fiji
‘Enduring Hope’, is a short film produced by the Citizens’ Constitutional Forum (CCF) with support from CR. The film aims to promote racial harmony and multiculturalism in Fiji by telling the story of two friends, Saula and Babu, who grew up together in Ba and whose friendship is tested by events in the country but ultimately survives. Read more on the Citizens’ Constitutional Forum website.

From peacemaking to peacebuilding: presenting CR’s new policy briefs to the UN
CR’s policy team travelled to New York at the end of May to present three recent policy briefs to a United Nations audience consisting of representatives from key member countries. During a lunchtime event co-organized by CR, 45 participants gathered to discuss how civil society should be included in every step of the peacebuilding process. As Irene Santiago, a CR partner and the Chair of the Mindanao Commission on Women said: “the only way to manage people’s expectations and fears is to ensure that significant publics are part of the peace process”. View the Policy Briefs.

Bringing communities together in East Africa
Over the past few months, despite huge logistical challenges, CR and local partners have organized several meetings for communities and their leaders to discuss peacebuilding challenges in response to the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) conflict. The meetings, which harness the resilience of communities and provide a rare opportunity for various groups to get together, enable communities and their leaders in LRA-affected regions to share their experiences on peacebuilding and prepare for the return and reintegration of the abducted people, mainly children, back into their communities. The meetings took place in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and Sudan. Read more about our work in East and Central Africa.

Sharing learning between Colombia and the Philippines
Most conflict-affected countries share comparable peacebuilding challenges, and are therefore keen to learn from each other. Colombia and the Philippines have much in common – both are mid-income countries with formal democratic institutions that have suffered armed conflict for over four decades. In July, CR facilitated exchange visits between ten individuals from each country in order to encourage the exchange of ideas and experiences. The groups included academics, priests, indigenous people, politicians, journalists, military and NGOs. Participants are currently writing reflective documents and follow-up activities have been identified.

New cross-border peacebuilding project
As part of our latest Accord project on cross-border peacebuilding, CR held a residential workshop on 22 and 23 June at Homerton College, Cambridge. Some 30 people participated in plenary discussion and group work on themes and case studies likely to feature, helping us to develop the focus and content of the publication, due out this autumn. Read more about our cross-border peacebuilding project.

Publications

© Mark Bradbury

Somali version of Accord 21
The Somali translation of Accord 21: Whose peace is it anyway? Connecting Somali and international peacemaking, was launched earlier this year in Nairobi and is available on-line.

Northern Uganda Accord update and French translation
This update to the 2002 Northern Uganda Accord explores the lead up to the Juba talks and the negotiations themselves. Chris Dolan traces the escalation and internationalization of the conflict between 2002-2006, Mareike Schomerus analyses the Juba process and Barney Afako considers the impact of justice. Four interviews with people involved provide direct insight into the peace process. In order to make the learning from this publication accessible to people in Francophone states, a French translation is also available. Read the Northern Uganda Update.

The Citizens Path to Peace. How to end the War? Beyond Victory and Negotiations (Spanish language)
Colombia has been struggling to find a solution to the long-running conflict in the country, often shifting between a military approach to peacebuilding and elitist-driven negotiation. CR and our partner Indepaz, have co-edited a book in Spanish that brings fresh-thinking to the situation. Many local peace initiatives advocate for resumption of talks but few of them have tried to suggest new methods for transforming the armed conflict. Download the book (in Spanish).

Review of Our Work in 2009
The latest review of CR’s work focuses on stories from our partners and highlights a number of specific projects and achievements throughout 2009. Download a PDF version of the review.

Organizational news

Funding
We’d like to thank the Swedish International Development Agency and the Norwegian Foreign Ministry’s Peace and Reconciliation Section, for their support for our work in 2010, The Norwegian Ministry for enabling us to participate in the peace talks between the Filipino government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Rest Harrow Trust, the Eva Reckitt Trust and the Rowan Charitable Trust for their generous contributions to our work.

Conciliation Resources will be linking European decision-makers to people directly affected by violent conflict in 25 countries through a new joint project with Saferworld. The project, “People’s Peacemaking Perspectives”, supported by the European Commission, will run for eighteen months from the 1 October 2010.

Staff news
Welcome to Sophie Haphaslagh as Policy Analyst, Sonia Sinanan as Operations Director, Sarah Bradford as Communications Manager, Lyndall Herman as Executive Assistant and Janet Adama Mohammed as West Africa Programme Director.
Vacancies

Fundraiser
East and Central Africa Projects Manager
People’s Peacemaking Perspectives Project Manager
People’s Peacemaking Perspectives Finance Officer
For details of all vacancies please visit our vacancies page.

Support our work

Conciliation Resources (CR) is an international non-governmental organization registered in the UK as a charity (no. 1055436). We rely on support from voluntary donations and institutional grants to help people most affected by conflict. If you would like to support our work please click here.

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We always welcome your comments. If you would like to contact us about any of the above please email: communications[@]c-r.org.

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Conciliation Resources

Dear HumanDHS Friends

Please find below information on a peace award received by women inmates in the USA.

Kind Regards
Brian Ward

Prison Inmates to Receive Prestigious Peacemaker Award

Fifteen women, all inmates, most, “lifers,” will receive the 2010 Cloke-Millen Peacemaker of the Year Award by the Southern California Mediation Association. How is it that women, with dark pasts, serving time for murder and manslaughter, can be honored as Peacemakers? Their story is one of personal commitment to a community in which most are destined to live out their lives. “This is an environment filled with conflict and violence. There is a dire need and want for change,” said Susan Russo, a lifer at Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla, CA, who believes that this will have a lasting affect on the institution.
Beginning her quest in 2007, Ms. Russo wrote over 50 handwritten letters to California Mediators requesting training for inmates. Her letters went unanswered until August of 2009 when one made it to Laurel Kaufer.
“I read the letter and was hooked, but I couldn’t do it alone. Still at my mailbox, I called my colleague Doug Noll, an expert in Restorative Justice, and read him the letter,” said Kaufer. “He was silent, then said, ‘I’m in. What next?’” It took six months to convince authorities to permit this “pro bono” project, which began in April, 2010. Twelve weeks later, 15 inmates were fully trained Peacemakers and had conducted dozens of mediations and peace circles within the prison. “Instead of running from conflict, I now run to it,” says Peacemaker, Anna Humiston “The secret,” said Kaufer, “is to build skills slowly with continued accountability throughout the process.” Every Wednesday for 10 weeks, Kaufer drove the 500 mile round-trip, between her home in Woodland Hills to the prison in Chowchilla. Noll, in Clovis, provided their base of operations. “These women have transformed. They began shut down, skeptical. They’re now empowered and making peace within the prison,”
said Noll. “This program may make a real, systemic difference within a community.” “I already see the difference in the Prison, as other inmates now model the Peacemakers,” said participant Betty Mills. Noll and Kaufer are committed to making this project self-sustaining. Through the next phases, they will also be preparing members of the initial groups to be trainers and mentors. There is currently a waiting list of inmates that will take them beyond 2010, and hope to have 75 peacemakers fully trained by the end of the year, with the program fully embedded in the institution by mid-2011. For more information on Prison of Peace,
contact: Doug Noll Laurel Kaufer (559) 903-2011 (818) 445-5287 doug[@]nollassociates.com laurel@kaufermediation.com

http://www.mediate.com//articles/kauferprison.cfm

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/prnewswire/2010/07/07/prnewswire201007070635PR_NEWS_USPR_____LA31415.html.