Law Research Seminar - The UN System & Global Governance and Civil Society - UTS

The lunch time lecture by Professor Julian Disney was an informative session on how global and regional groupings can play a part in global governance, especially with regards to economic and social issues.

With 10 years of experience working with the International Council on Social Welfare, which represents tens of thousands of social justice organizations in more than 80 countries, Professor Julien Disney has ample experience on various aspects of global governance .

In his lecture, he mentioned the need for greater international governance. These would include areas but not limited to taxation and the lack of effective international procedures. He touched on the importance of regional and global groupings such as the United Nations, IMF/ World Bank, WTO, G8 and Group of 20 Finance Ministers.

While the UN is seen as the most credible group to tackle issues of global governance, its weakness includes the fact that it is fairly “undemocratic” in the sense that it is “one country one vote” which does not genuinely reflect the population in a country that is being represented. Moreover, there is preeminence given to World War II winners.

He believed that regional groupings are essential to giving smaller countries a greater voice in global governance issues. Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) also need to focus on lobbying agencies which has the power to make decisions.

International Women’s Day - a reminder on gender inequality

Iran has stopped women from protesting outside Parliament on International Women’s Right Day by deploying large number of riot police and plain clothes officers according to BBC. A few who arrived were promptly whisked away.

This was prior to the arrests of more than 32 women who had protested outside a courthouse in Tehran a few days before International Womens’ Right Day to show solidarity with five women on trial for organising a protest last June against laws they claim are discriminatory against women. These five women had organised a demonstration last June that was broken up by police violence.

The commendable and courageous act of these women activists who had exercised their freedom to peaceful assembly will serve as an inspiration to other women activists who are continuing their struggle for women rights.

In a lesser well-known article on Counterpunch by Yifat Susskind, communications director of MADRE, an international women’s human rights organization, she revealed the systematic violence from Sunni and Shiites Islamist militias that has swept across Iraq after the US toppling of Saddam. According to her, “

The “misery gangs” of these Shiite militias now patrol the streets of Iraq’s major cities, attacking women who don’t dress or behave to their liking. In many places, they kill women who wear pants or appear in public without a headscarf. In much of Iraq, women are virtually confined to their homes because of the likelihood of being beaten, raped, or abducted in the streets. As the occupying power, the US was obligated by the Hague and Geneva Conventions to provide security to Iraqi civilians, including protection from violence against women. But the US military, preoccupied with battling the Iraqi insurgency, simply ignored the reign of terror that Islamist militias were imposing on women. In fact, the US enabled these attacks: in 2005, the Pentagon began providing the Shiite Badr Brigade and Mahdi Army with weapons, money, and military training in the hope that these groups would help combat the Sunni-based insurgency.

Perhaps more disturbing is the violence against women taking place in the US military. A Salon.com article by Helen Benedict, who interviewed more than 20 female Iraqi war veterans has all of them agreed that “the danger of rape by other soldiers is so widely recognized in Iraq that their officers routinely told them not to go to the latrines or showers without another woman for protection.”

World-wide, the abuse and discrimination against women continues unabated in different forms and degrees, whether in traditional or more westernised societies. The International Womens Right Day reminds us that there is still work to be done.

==

References:

Iran police stop women’s protest, 8 March 2007, BBC, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6431617.stm

Iran women arrested over protest, 4 March 2007, BBC, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6416789.stm

Violence Against Women Under US Occupation, Iraq’s Other War, Yifat Susskind, 8 March 2007, Counterpunch

The private war of women soldiers, Helen Benedict, Salon.com, http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/03/07/women_in_military/

David Hicks & Sami al-Hajj - Detainees in Guantanamo Bay

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that David Hicks will appear in a military court at Guantanamo Bay on the 20th March. To be charged with providing material support for terrorism, he faces a possible maximum life sentence in a US prison if found guilty. As has been explained in a previous blog posting, trying Hicks in this military commission will likely lead to a miscarriage of justice as it does not withstand acceptable legal benchmarks. For example, coerced and hearsay is admissible as court evidence.

While Australians are concerned about David Hicks, an Al Jazeera article reports of the hunger strike from one of their own cameraman, Sami al-Hajj, who has similarly been detained in Guantanamo Bay since 2002.

Unlike Hicks, he was neither involved in military conflict. Instead, he was merely a cameraman for Al Jazeera covering the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Unfortunately, he was arrested by Pakistani police in December 2001 after its intelligence alleged him of suspected links to al-Qaeda.

Like Hicks, he claims that he was tortured by the Pakistani police and in Guantanamo Bay. According to the report, the Guantanamo Bay interrogators have beaten him up and demanded he incriminate Al Jazeera. He claimed that he was also told to become a spy for the US in exchange for citizenship. The safety of his family was also threatened during the interrogation.

Despite the increasing media and world-wide attention on Guantanamo Bay, with international NGOs such as Amnesty International calling for its closure, the Bush Administration appears intent to proceed ahead with its torture and military trials.

On the other hand, while Hicks may have the support from some Australians, who could organise themselves to pressurise the Howard government to act, the fear is that those, such as al-Hajj, who is merely a reporter without substantial backing from his own government will be left to his own devices.

==

References

Hicks to appear in court in 12 days, Sydney Morning Herald Tribune, 8 March 2007, http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/hicks-to-appear-in-court-in-12-days/2007/03/08/1173166846572.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

Al Jazeera detainee ‘force-fed’, March 7, 2007, http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/19771268-9CA6-4EED-BD24-E01263DDF4A2.htm