An Old Post that Never Made the Blog (but has a lot of good information to offer on human rights)

On September 24, the former UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, Louise Arbour, came to the Institute for Peace and Justice. She gave a lecture in the evening, and during the day the School of Peace Studies students got a chance to meet with her. The following are some highlights of things she said.

Spoken from the mouth of one who knows a lot about these things:
• Human rights protection is “best achieved closest to home.”
• In December, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights will be 60 years old.
It is broken into two covenants:
1) The Covenant for Political and Civil Rights
2) The Covenant for Economic, Cultural, and Social Rights
(The United States has signed the first one but not the second.)
• The problem is that Western democracies favor political rights but not economic rights. This serves as a “pretext for developing countries to denounce human rights as a Western idea.”
• For example, when she traveled to Sri Lanka, she saw a sign that said, “Arbour, keep your neo-colonial hands off Sri Lanka.”
• The most significant deficiency in the area of human rights has been the United States violation of them in its actions like with the use of torture.
• Guantanamo Bay is an example of the U.S. creating double standards in the area of human rights, which other countries view as a lack of moral standards in the U.S.
• The current economic crisis in the United States may change America’s hostility toward recognizing economic rights as human rights. This would be good because this hostility is costly politically.
• The United States has a bad record when it comes to signing human rights treaties. For example, they have not signed the Convention on the Rights of a Child.
• No Western countries have signed the Convention on the Rights of Migrant Workers, which other countries view as a lack of emphasis on economic rights.
• How can the U.S. expect developing countries to sign and obey human rights treaties if they are unwilling to do so themselves?
• The United States needs to rejoin the international community.
• If one of the United States’ goals is security, they need to embrace rights as a way to achieve and maintain this security. This is the way to a more secure world, because without doing this, other countries develop negative views of the United States, and that leads to insecurity.

This lecture was a part of the Women PeaceMakers Conference, which was one of my favorite events I got to be a part of this semester. Here is a picture of me with women from all over the world working for peace (I am second from the right in a white shirt).

Africa, Part Four: Become a Peace Advocate from Your Living Room

We each play a role in the conflict in Africa because our demand for electronic resources is what fuels it and guns from our country perpetuate it. Therefore, we should each play a role in peace.

John Prendergast discussed the need for a mass movement of people in the United States who want to stop genocide. It is up to us to put political pressure on Congress and the president to act. We must use our political voice. When we raise our voices in unison, it makes a difference.

Prendergast outlined several things each American can do to bring peace to the region, which could save millions of lives, and it would only take about fifteen minutes. Start by just trying one of the following:
1) Join the anti-genocide movement. Sign up for an organization like Save Darfur, STAND, or Enough. These organizations lobby members of Congress, and have power simply because they have a large number of people behind them. It is free and easy, and even if you don't read the emails they send you, you are helping just by being on the list.
2) Call Congress and/or the White House directly. They tally up the number of calls they receive. There is even a special phone number for this issue: 1-800-GENOCIDE. You can call as many times as you want.
3) Tell Obama your opinion. He has set up a special website to hear people’s concerns before he even enters office: http://change.gov/page/s/yourvision
4) Get in touch with members of Congress. For California Senators: Click here to email Barbara Boxer. Click here to email Dianne Feinstein. Click here to get information on how you can write to your representative in the House. According to John, if you don’t vote or write to the people you vote for, you don’t really exist in the system. We elect them and are their bosses, so they listen to us.
5) Write to your local media or call them. Tell them that you want to see more news about what is going on in war-torn places like Africa. We are their bosses also, because we buy their newspaper.

The biggest changes have come about because of large-scale people’s movements. Think about the abolitionists, the women’s movement, the civil rights movement, the anti-apartheid movement, and others. Now is time for an anti-genocide movement. This may be the most compelling moral issue of our time, according to John. We must raise our voices to stop the first genocide of the 21st century. This is our chance to prevent the deaths of millions of people.

Africa, Part Three: Peace is Possible

There is great hope for peace in Africa, because it has been accomplished many times in the past. Over the previous twenty-five years, more conflicts have been resolved on the continent than not. Peace agreements have been signed in Ethiopia and Eritrea, Burundi, Mozambique, South Africa, Southern Sudan, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and others.

The problem is that the current approach is not working. The symptoms of conflicts are being addressed as billions of dollars are being spent on humanitarian concerns, but the root of the problem is not being focused on. The goal should be peace.

According to John Prendergast what is needed is a Peace Surge in Africa, using the soft power of U.S. diplomacy to create international coalitions to end these wars. Since Obama has voiced interest in using dialogue and diplomacy instead of only the U.S. military, there is a lot of hope that this could happen soon. The U.S. does have the largest military in the world, but it also has the largest diplomatic core. This would not cost the U.S. extra money; it would just have to use the resources it already has. Ultimately in the long run, it would save the United States money, and there would be positive byproducts for the country, like a better relationship with China. China has a rooted interest in the region, because they have already invested billions of dollars there that they would not benefit from if war continues and spreads. For example, China has invested 8.5 billion dollars in Southern Sudan in oil, which if war were to spread to this region, China would not be able to have access to this investment.

John Prendergast suggests that Obama send high power officials to China, and then launch the Peace Surge. This would include a multilateral approach to peace where experienced negotiating teams are sent to the region, backed up by Obama, so they have credibility there. The time is quickly approaching for this Peace Surge to begin, because these leaders in Africa are waiting to see what will happen with this new president. John received several phone calls from Africa when Obama was elected, because people are excited for what this means for the continent. Many in Africa have trust in and respect for Obama, so this presents an incredible opportunity for peace there.

Each American has a key role to play in achieving peace in Africa. This will be addressed in the next and last post on this topic.

Africa, Part Two: Sudan and Uganda

In the DRC, an inhumane war is taking place where widespread rape is used as a tool to advance political agendas, and genocide is being committed in Darfur, Sudan. John Prendergast calls this area the 21st century version of the Holocaust. In Sudan and the DRC, 7.5 million people have died. In Northern Uganda, the Lord’s Resistance Army has kidnapped thousands of children to use as soldiers in their military (the United Nations estimates that there are about 250,000 child soldiers worldwide). They often make these children kill people in their family or their community so they are too scared to go home. Uganda currently has the highest child abduction rate in the world, and this abduction is spreading into Eastern Congo and Southern Sudan. Another grave aspect of these conflicts is the displacement of people, which results in a large part of the population living in refugee camps. In Northern Uganda, 1.5 million people have been displaced. In Darfur, 2.5 million have been displaced, and in the DRC over 1 million people have been displaced, with 250,000 of those occurring in September and October 2008 (according to the UN).

On average, the countries in Africa are only fifty years into their independence. When our country was at this stage of its formation, we were experiencing economic explosion on the backs of African slaves, who were completely dehumanized and killed in the process. We were still in the process of displacing Native Americans from their land, a development that resulted in the destruction of almost an entire people and their culture. And we hadn’t even fought our civil war yet, which ended up being one of the most deadly wars in history. We are not too different than Africa then, except for that they are trying to build their country in the midst of a military-industrial complex, where they have easy access to affordable weapons. The United States and Russia are the leading arms dealers in the region. Once again, we are already playing a role in this area.

However, there is hope for Africa, and we have a role to play in bringing peace to the region. More to come on this in the next few posts.

Africa, Part One: The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)

For the past two weeks, we have been incredibly fortunate to have John Prendergast at the School of Peace Studies as a guest scholar. John has worked in Africa for years, including under the Clinton administration, where he played a key role in establishing a peace agreement between Ethiopia and Eritrea. He led many events, lectures, and discussions while he was here, so I will do a series of posts on Africa as a result based on what John spoke about.

The war going on in the DRC is the world’s deadliest war since WWII. 5.2 million people have died in the past decade. One of the especially devastating aspects of this current conflict is how rape is being used as a tool of war. Mass rapes are taking place throughout the DRC right now, and have been incredibly effective in removing people from their land and humiliating the population affected. The DRC is the most dangerous place in the world to be a woman. Rape is being used as a “weapon of mass destruction.” If we allow this to continue, historians will look back and say it was a turning point where rape was proved to be so effective as a war tactic that others began using it.

Every American has a role in this conflict, because this is a conflict over resources that we all use. We are all personally benefiting from the War in Congo because the minerals extracted from the country are used to produce our electronic devices such as computers, i-pods, and cell phones. The atrocities taking place are fueled by our insatiable demand for resources.

This is not a hopeless situation though. Peace has been achieved in various parts of Africa, it can be attained here, and we can all be a part of the achievement of peace in this region. More to come on these topics in the next few posts.

Interfaith Dialogue

This past Wednesday, the three very inspirational authors of The Faith Club came to speak at school. The Muslim, Christian, and Jew wrote the book to tell the story of how interfaith dialogue transformed their lives and strengthened their faiths. I have not read the book, but hope to in the future. The following is what they spoke about.

Their story began in New York after 9/11, when the Muslim woman wanted to write a children’s book about the three Abrahamic faiths: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and was looking for a Christian and a Jew to coauthor it with her. The Muslim woman felt like there were increasingly prominent stereotypes of her faith throughout America after 9/11, and she wanted her children to realize that Islam had strong roots in Judaism and Christianity. After all, she said, Muslims believe in the prophet Moses, the virgin birth of Jesus, and the sacred text of the Torah and the Gospels.

The Christian woman entered into this conversation feeling like her faith was the best of the three, and came to realize that she had been stereotyping people of other religions. Through the relationship with her newfound Muslim friend, she discovered that the stereotypes of Muslims she had believed were not true. The Qur'an does not reward people for killing, and a true form of Islam is not oppressive to women. The Jewish woman began by quoting a priest, who told her, “The opposite of faith is not doubt, it is certainty.” Throughout this interfaith dialogue, she had a lot of doubts, but was strengthened by the common foundation these religions have of loving God and loving others.

These women had difficult discussions throughout their journey together, but came to agree that each religion has been used to promote both good and evil in the world. The Muslim woman, who was also Palestinian, began having challenging conversations with the Jewish woman about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Jewish woman had never met a Palestinian before, but her Rabbi had verbally shown support for the Israelis in the conflict. She gained a new understanding through this conversation and began to give a voice to Palestinians when discussing the conflict with her Jewish friends, because she said, it doesn’t serve anyone to compare suffering. The Christian woman began to reflect on how the Bible had been used both to justify slavery, and as a foundation for the abolitionists who fought against it. She said that today it is being used in America both to empower the marginalized, and to justify the unjust treatment of women and homosexuals. In this discussion, all three women agreed that it is extremely important to read the Bible contextually and historically.

Each woman became stronger in her faith through this dialogue. The Christian woman has been criticized for not being an exclusivist (one who believes that no other faiths lead to eternal life), and she said that she’s okay with that, because she is not an exclusivist. She thinks that Christians say that they respect people of other faiths or walks of life, but fail to have relationships with them and learn from them, and therefore, easily condemn them. The Jewish woman said that nobody has a monopoly on the truth, and that no religion is perfect, because it is man’s attempt to understand God.

These women say they are trying to create a passionate middle for each faith, realizing that there are extremists in every religion. They believe that religion is a part of what divides people and causes conflict, but they think that religion can be a part of the solution. In their opinion, part of this solution needs to include interfaith dialogue, where people come to the conversation not from a place of righteousness, but with a heart for learning and growing. The Jewish woman concluded with this statement: “I am so grateful that I can find God in so many different places as a result of this experience.”

Narayanbhai Mahadevbhai Desai: Worker, Student, and Friend of Gandhi

Last Monday, October 13, we had the privilege of hearing a guest speaker by the name of Narayanbhai Mahadevbhai Desai. He was born in 1924 in Gandhi’s Ashram and grew up with Gandhi as a teacher and friend. His father worked as Gandhi’s secretary for twenty-five years and then he worked in the same position for ten years. Here are some interesting things he had to say about Gandhi:
(Note: If you want to skim, the parts in bold are the ones I liked the best.)

Gandhi as a person:
• His father said working for Gandhi was like “living on the face of a volcano,” because there were two sides to Gandhi. One was that of a friend and one was like a volcano that would erupt if provoked, because he was so passionate and strong in his viewpoints.
• He was also like this to his wife.

Gandhi’s education system:
• Mediums of teaching: teach through craft/ creativity, teach through community action, teach through nature
• Education through experience: love, freedom, self-expression
• He was a “silent teacher.”

Gandhi as a leader:
• He based his leadership on specific strategies.
• He was a part of three big national movements, but the way he got people involved was through satyagrahas.
-These were smaller movements in between the larger movements that had achievable goals.
-This kept people involved because they felt like they were seeing change happen.

Gandhi as a lonely walker:
• In February 1947, Indian independence was announced by Britain, and the Indian National Congress never called upon Gandhi again.
• On January 30, 1948, he was assassinated.
• In a letter late in his life he wrote: “I feel there is fire all around me, above me and below me, but inside I only feel calm,” because he felt like God was taking care of him.
• In his autobiography he wrote, “I don’t remember a single time my prayers weren’t answered by God.”

Question and Answer Time:
Q: What do you think is the most important thing about Gandhi?
A: Gandhi always said, “My life is my message.” And he followed this.

Q: How can people today still hold onto the belief of non-violence, when it doesn’t seem to be working in areas like Tibet for example? A: What is happening in Tibet is important for the whole world because a whole culture is trying to be erased. However, violence is still not the answer, because it will not create a good future. You really have to think about what type of future you want to create. Martin Luther King, Jr. said we only have one alternative to non-violence: non-existence.

Q: How did Gandhi transform the lives of people?
A: He poured himself into the life of the other person.

Tony Campolo at USD

Yesterday, Tony Campolo spoke, actually mostly shouted, at USD. He is definitely a Baptist preacher. His talk was amazing, so please do read on. (Note: Words in parentheses are mine; the rest are from Tony. This is a summary of what he said. Comments in quotations are his exact words.)

On Living Like Christians:
• Growing up, church for him (and me) was all about getting people into heaven. That shouldn’t be what it’s all about. It should be about transforming the world, which must start by helping the poor and oppressed in society.
• “Jesus said, ‘If you want a relationship with me, you’re going to have to have a relationship with them. As you encounter them, you encounter me.’”
• People accuse Tony of not focusing on grace enough, but Jesus says you can only be transformed through having relations with the poor and oppressed.

On the Economy:
• The economic mess was created because highly educated people focused only on profits not on values. As Christians we are called to something higher than this.

On the Iraq War:
• This war is costing $250,000 per minute.
• What should the U.S. do? Three years ago the Arab League offered to replace U.S. and British soldiers because the Arab League said they could take care of it themselves. The U.S. should empower the Arab League and let them do this, not try to control the situation to promote our power.

On Abortion:
• Tony is pro-life.
• However, he doesn’t agree with Christians voting for Republicans just because they are supposedly pro-life. Republicans controlled all three branches of the government for the first 6 years of Bush’s presidency and did not even try to overturn Roe vs. Wade.
• In addition, 70% of women who have abortions do so for economic reasons, so rather than focusing on trying to overturn a law, people who are pro-life should focus on eradicating the poverty that leads to abortions.
• Political rhetoric around this issue is useless if there is still economic deprivation.
• So which party addresses issues of economic disparity? (The answer is the Democrats.)

Where is the Church in all of this?
• The Church needs to start living sacrificially for the poor and oppressed if it once again wants to have authority. Until it does that, it won’t.
• The Bible clearly says don’t build temples, but we do.
• Would Jesus prefer a stained glass window or the money going to feed the poor in Tijuana? (The answer is he would prefer the money going to feed the poor.)
• He quoted someone who said, “The Church is a whore, but she is my mother.” What this meant to him was that although the church has been unfaithful, it has been a place that has provided and cared for people.
• The Church is too concerned with power, and in that, they have relinquished their authority.

Some of the things Tony said would be very controversial to many people. I am curious to hear your opinions on any of this.

Women PeaceMakers Conference

"Crafting Human Security in an Insecure World"

This past week the Institute for Peace and Justice hosted this conference and all of us students were able to be a part of it. It was an incredibly empowering feeling to sit in a room full of women and men from all over the world who were meeting together to foster peace and justice.

I will write more about the specifics of what I learned in upcoming posts, but I would love to hear if there is anything about the topics that you are interested in that I could address. Here are the sessions I attended:

Lecture:
Louise Arbour, Former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
"Integrating Security, Development and Human Rights"

Panel One:
"Ending Cycles of Conflict through Gender-Inclusive Peacebuilding"

Breakout Session One:
Captain Margaret Grun Kibben, Office of the Chief of Navy Chaplains
"The role of religion and religious in areas of conflict"

Panel Two:
"Protecting Civilians in Armed Conflict from Violence, including Sexual Violence"

Breakout Session Two:
Binalakshmi Nepram, Manipuri Women Gun Survivors Network and Control Arms Foundation of India
"Women and Micro-disarmament"

Panel Three:
"Advancing Inclusive Security in Multiple Settings: Strategies and Best Practices"

Breakout Session Three:
Kathleen Staudt, University of Texas, El Paso

"Violence and Activism at the U.S.-Mexico Border"

Fellow Masters Students Cheryl, Jill, Sangita of Nepal, Cassidy, and Qiuwan of China

Lunch at the Conference

The Institute for Peace and Justice
My Dutch brother Wilco and IMasters Student Wadri of Uganda with Binal of India, a conference presenter

Fellow Masters Students Marcia, Wilco, and Greg

“Human Rights in Post Olympics China: Has Anything Changed?”

Carroll Bogart, of Human Rights Watch, spoke at the IPJ last night. Here’s what she had to say:

A little history:
• In 1993, China applied to host the Olympics but was turned down due to human rights issues.
• In 2001, they applied for the 2008 Olympics and made some promises regarding human rights in order to get approved.

Did they keep their promises?
• China promised freedom of speech.
- The Chinese government set up three protest zones. In order to protest, one had to be a Beijing resident and apply five days in advance to get a permit. Seventy-seven people applied and many were arrested and went straight to jail for merely applying.
• China promised complete freedom for the foreign press.
- Journalists reported that there was always someone from the Chinese government with them during interviews so that Chinese people couldn’t voice their real opinions.
- Many foreign correspondents received death threats.
- There was no freedom of access to Tibet.
• China promised fair practices in the building of Olympic sights.
- Six people died building the Bird’s Nest.
- One million migrant laborers came to Beijing from poorer provinces to build sights. Because they were not Beijing residents, while working in the city they received no health or accident insurance. Many were only paid once a year and were often not paid what they were promised.
- People were evicted from their homes to make way for new buildings. Many homes were bulldozed and no compensation was given. Most of the time private developers did this, but the government did nothing to help these people.

The bottom line:
• China did not keep their promises regarding human rights.
• The International Olympic Committee did nothing about this.

What can the United States do?
• We need to uphold human rights as a universal idea and try to delink it from being a Western idea.
- This means that we can’t use it as a tool when we engage in power politics or only when it is convenient for us.
• We need to try harder to live up to human rights standards ourselves, which we are failing to do by detaining people without a trial and engaging in acts of torture.
• Our legitimacy in the world depends on our ability to follow universal laws about human rights issues, especially if we expect others to do so.

There are many other thought-provoking upcoming events at the IPJ like this one. If you are interested, it’s free, and there was even free dessert and coffee!