Tuesday, July 17, 2007

UPDATE: Blind Chinese Human Rights Activist Chen Guangcheng On Prison Hunger Strike After Being Beaten

Beijing, China (AHN) - A leading Chinese human rights activist was ordered beaten by other prisoners in his Chinese prison after he refused to allow guards to shave his head until he has a chance to complete the appeal of his sentence. Guards ordered other prisoners to beat Chen Guangcheng, who is blind. He was jailed in 2006 on charges of destroying property and disrupting traffic.
Chen said he was beaten for being disobedient for refusing to give up on appealing his sentence. He told his wife that guards ordered six prisoners to beat him, then denied him medical care for his injuries. He has started a hunger strike to protest, BBC news reported Friday.
His wife visited him shortly after the beating and told his lawyer Li Jinsong what she found.
"She saw that his mood was unhappy, that his knees and ribs were red, injured and swollen," Li told the Washington Post in a telephone interview Friday. "She was afraid one of the ribs might be broken. He began rejecting food and water after the beating," the Washington Post reported Friday.
Chen, 35, lost an appeal in January and his current appeal has been delayed because his blindness requires him to have assistance to write it, but jail officials limit visits by his wife and attorneys to 30 minutes a month.
His lawyers and the human rights group Amnesty International have said that the case against Chen was politically motivated and that it resulted from his exposure of China's enforcement of its one-child policy.
Amnesty International has said that with the approaching World Olympics focusing attention there on China's broken promises to improve its human rights record that the government needs to stop persecuting it's citizens who stand up for human rights.
Chen landed in trouble with Chinese law after "helping villagers sue local authorities for carrying out forced abortions and sterilizations," according to a statement on Amnesty International's Web site.
In the past Amnesty International has objected to Chen's "frequent beatings by the local authorities" and has called for his immediate release. The group has also declared Chen a "prisoner of conscience -- someone imprisoned solely for the peaceful expression of their beliefs."

Sunday, July 1, 2007

There are more slaves today than were seized from Africa in four centuries of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

The modern commerce in humans rivals illegal drug trafficking in its global reach—and in the destruction of lives.

With 27 million people in slavery today, how can we ever hope to eradicate this horror? In fact, this generation, after 5,000 years of human slavery, can bring it to an end.
The anti-slavery movement was the world's first human-rights campaign. Growing not from politicians, but from everyday people, it swept away legal slavery. In the early 20th century courageous campaigners, fighting both financial interests and governments, brought an end to the continuing slavery in places like the Congo.
Those heroes won great battles for us. Today we do not have to win the legal argument—laws against slavery exist in every country. In the past many national economies were based on the profits of slavery, but now we do not have to win an economic argument. If all slavery stopped today, no industry or country would suffer economically; Only the criminals who profit from slavery would be disadvantaged. And today we do not have to win the moral argument; almost everyone in the world agrees that slavery is wrong.
To bring people to freedom and to end slavery, three things have to happen: 1. Public awareness has to grow, and there has to be public agreement that it is time to end slavery once and for all. This public commitment must be communicated to politicians.2. Money needs to be spent to eradicate slavery, but not nearly as much as you might think. For the price of a bomber or a battleship, the amount of slavery in the world could be dramatically reduced.3. Governments must enforce their own anti-slavery laws. To make this happen every country has to understand that they must take action or face serious pressure. We all know about the United Nations weapons inspectors, who enforce the Conventions against Weapons of Mass Destruction, but where are the United Nations Slavery Inspectors? When the same effort is put behind searching out and ending slavery, there will be rapid change.
While the 27 million people enslaved today are the largest number of slaves alive at any time in human history, they are also the smallest proportion of the world population to ever be held in slavery. No one wants to live in a world with slavery. Today the slaveholders are weaker than they have ever been, and there is universal agreement that slavery must end. In South Asia whole villages come to freedom when others help them form institutions such as small credit unions, inform them of their rights, and show them how to organize to fight for them. Slaves everywhere outnumber their masters. When we all stand with the slaves, their masters cannot keep them in bondage. It is true that criminal mafias control some of the traffic in people, and they will be difficult to root out. But slavery will end if corruption is tackled, victims are treated with respect, and those of us who are free decide to support all those who help others to freedom.
Imagine that after 5,000 years of slavery we commit ourselves to achieving its eradication in our lifetimes.Imagine that your generation will be the one that is looked back on in history as the generation that ended slavery. Imagine that your children and your grandchildren will grow up in a world where slavery is just seen as an ugly blot on our history.Imagine a world where every person is born in freedom and lives in liberty.
All this is possible, just follow these three steps:
1. Learn! Become aware of how slavery touches your life. For more information, visit http://www.freetheslaves.net/, and read "Disposable People." Then download our Teaching Pack.2. Join! Work with others who want to live in a world without slavery. Free the Slaves is one American organization fighting slavery worldwide.3. Act! Bring your strength and imagination to ending slavery.
National Geographic online map reflecting slavery geographically:
Related Organizations:
Amnesty Internationalwww.amnesty.orgAmnesty International is a worldwide campaigning movement that works to promote internationally recognized human rights.

Anti-Slavery International
www.antislavery.orgFounded in 1839, Anti-Slavery International is the world's oldest international human rights organization and the only charity in the United Kingdom working exclusively for the elimination of all forms of slavery. Anti-Slavery International has consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. Through campaigning, research, supporting local NGOs' work, and pressing governments to implement national and international laws against slavery, the organization works to end this abuse throughout the world.

Bilateral Safety Corridor Coalition
www.omnigon.com/~bsccThis organization works on prevention of sexual exploitation of people from Central America, Mexico, and the United States.

Children of the Night
childrenofthenight.orgChildren of the Night has rescued more than 10,000 American children from prostitution since 1979. It is dedicated to assisting children between the ages of 11 and 17 who are forced to prostitute on the streets for food and a place to sleep.

Coalition Against Trafficking in Women
www.catwinternational.orgThe Coalition Against Trafficking in Women is a nongovernmental organization that promotes women's human rights. It works internationally to combat sexual exploitation in all its forms, especially prostitution and trafficking in women and children, particularly girls.

Coalition of Immokalee Workers
www.ciw-online.org/The CIW is a community-based worker organization with a member base of mostly Latino, Haitian, and Maya Indian immigrants working in low-wage jobs throughout the state of Florida. CIW works for fair wages, better working conditions, stronger laws and law enforcement of workers' rights, and respect.

Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking
www.castla.orgCAST is the first and only organization in the United States dedicated exclusively to serving survivors of trafficking. CAST is a nonprofit organization that provides comprehensive social services to survivors of trafficking and conducts advocacy through training and outreach to raise awareness on the needs of trafficking survivors.

ECPAT International
www.ecpat.net/eng/index.aspECPAT is a network of organisations and individuals working together for the elimination of child prostitution, child pornography and trafficking of children for sexual purposes.

Free the Slaves
www.freetheslaves.netFree the Slaves fights slavery all over the world by helping people to freedom and to stable lives after liberation, by removing slave labor from the products we buy, and by helping governments enforce their own anti-slavery laws. Free the Slaves is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that is leading U.S. work against slavery.

Global March Against Child Labour
www.globalmarch.orgChild labor and its worst forms are a problem affecting every part of the world, be it slavery, prostitution, armed conflict, or hazardous work. Children are being used as an expendable commodity, to be used and discarded. Global March works to put an end to child labor worldwide.

Human Rights Watch: Campaign Against the Trafficking of Women and Girls
www.hrw.org/about/projects/traffcamp/intro.htmlHRW investigates and exposes trafficking and slavery incidences around the world. This site links to numerous reports about trafficking in countries in every region of the world.

International Human Rights Law Group
www.hrlawgroup.org/initiatives/trafficking_persons/default.aspThe International Human Rights Law Group is a nonprofit organization of human rights and legal professionals from over 20 countries engaged in advocacy, human rights lawyering, and training around the world. IHRLG's Initiative Against Trafficking in Persons assists advocates and NGOs in building their advocacy, legal-literacy, and case-monitoring skills; encourages governments to protect the rights of victims of trafficking and also to prosecute traffickers; disseminates up-to-date information on trafficking cases and anti-trafficking legislation in countries around the world; and seeks to increase the awareness of the link between trafficking and the subordinate status of women and other vulnerable groups in all societies.

International Justice Mission
www.ijm.org/ijm_home.htmlIJM's legal and law enforcement professionals use investigation strategies, legal expertise, and cutting-edge technology to rescue individual victims of injustice and abuse around the world.

International Organization for Migration
www.iom.int/IOM's counter-trafficking activities are geared toward the prevention of trafficking in persons, particularly women and children, and the protection of migrants' rights.

Interpol: Children and Human Trafficking
www.interpol.com/Public/THB/default.aspThe main aim of Interpol is to promote assistance among all criminal police authorities. It provides a structured platform for raising awareness, building competence, and identifying best practices within law enforcement worldwide. Trafficking in human beings is considered one of the top priorities at Interpol, and only by ascertaining the true character of trafficking can we hope to adapt appropriate measures against it.

Minnesota Center Against Violence and Abuse
www.mincava.umn.edu/traffick.asp#A101280100The Minnesota Center Against Violence and Abuse Electronic Clearinghouse provides a quick and user friendly access point to the extensive electronic resources on the topic of violence and abuse available online. It also has a section of links to trafficking articles and resources.
Polaris Project
www.polarisproject.orgVisit the site of Polaris Project, a non-profit organization that researches and combats the sex trafficking of women and children.
The Protection Project
www.protectionproject.orgThe Protection Project is a human rights research institute based at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C. The project documents and disseminates information about the scope of the problem of trafficking in persons, especially women and children, with a focus on national and international laws, case law, and implications of trafficking on U.S. and international foreign policy.
Rugmark
www.rugmark.org/RUGMARK is a global nonprofit organization working to end child labor and offer educational opportunities for children in India, Nepal, and Pakistan. The RUGMARK label is your best assurance that no illegal child labor was employed in the manufacture of a carpet or rug.
United Nations Children's Fund
www.unicef.orgUNICEF works to protect the rights of children worldwide, including protecting them from trafficking and slavery.

U.S. Agency for International Development, Trafficking in Persons
www.usaid.gov/wid/pubs/trw01a.htmUSAID is funding direct anti-trafficking activities that include prevention through economic and educational opportunities targeted at groups that are especially vulnerable to traffickers, public awareness, protection and rehabilitation of trafficked victims, and legislative changes.

U.S. Department of State, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons
www.state.gov/g/tipThe Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons assists in the coordination of the U.S. government's anti-trafficking efforts, both domestically and abroad, guided by the vision of eradicating trafficking worldwide. It also releases an annual report on the state of trafficking worldwide.