Disabled Man Wins Battle over Polling Locations

Disabled Man Wins Battle over Polling Locations

By William Miller

Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

TORONTO, Canada – The Canadian Human Rights Commission ruled against Elections Canada on Friday, February 15, finding that they needed to take steps to improve accessibility to disabled voters across Canada. The complaint was filed by Reverend Peter Hughes after he had difficulty accessing a polling place in Toronto.

Rev. Hughes problems with Elections Canada began in March 2008. When Hughes arrived at the polling site, he found that the voting booths where located at the bottom of a long flight of stairs.  Hughes uses a walker to get around and was unable to negotiate the stairs standing up.

Hughes was forced to sit on the stairs and slide down them one at a time in order to access the polls. As Hughes described the experience, “I sat down on the edge of the stairs and I went down on the seat of my pants down to the bottom of the stairs while somebody carried my walker.”

Hughes problems only got worse when he complained at the polling site. Elections Canada told him it was not their problem and that he was in error. They told him to exit using a snow covered ramp used for maintenance and garbage. “There was no way that a disabled person could easily get up that ramp. It was very difficult for me to struggle up the ramp in the middle of the snow,” said Hughes.

When Hughes found out that the same site would be used again for an election in October he took his complaint to the Human Rights Commission. Hughes said the complaint was not just for himself but for all disabled people across Canada.

Last Friday the Commission ruled in favor of Hughes, finding that Elections Canada had not done enough to address the needs of disabled individuals in Canada. They ordered Elections Canada to improve accessibility in all Canadian polling places, to improve their complaint system, and to report to parliament on the issue of accessibility for physically impaired.

In their ruling the court said “it is disappointing that in the disability rights/accessibility heightened time in which we find ourselves living as we enter the second decade of the 21st century, that Mr. Hughes would have had to experience the humiliation and indignities of those two voting events, followed by the tardy investigation, inaccurate conclusions and poor handling of his verbal and written complaints.”

Human Rights Tribunal decisions can be appealed in the Canadian Federal Courts. Elections Canada is planning to appeal the decision.

For more information, please see:

Canada News Wire – Elections Canada Ordered to Stop Using Inaccessible Polling Stations by Canadian Human Rights Tribunal when Disabled Voter forced to crawl to polling station on seat of his pants – 12 February 2010

CBC – Elections Canada ordered to make voting accessible – 13 February 2010

680 News – Elections Canada ordered to ensure polling stations accessible to all – 13 February 2010

Myanmar Detainee Released After Seven Years

By M.E. Dodge
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

YANGON, Myanmar – Myanmar’s ruling junta, released the deputy leader of the country’s pro-democracy party, U Tin Oo, after spending nearly seven years in detention. There remains, however, no indication whether he or still-detained party leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, will be allowed to take part in this year’s elections for the National League for Democracy Party.

Image: Tin Oo Tin Oo, deputy leader of Myanmar’s National League for Democracy Party, talk to journalists at his home in Yangon after he was released Saturday from nearly seven years in detention. Photograph courtesy of MSNBC: World News.

Oo, now 82-years old, helped propel the National League for Democracy along with Suu Kyi. Authorities arrested Oo in May 2003 on politically motivated charges of disturbing public order after pro-government militias attacked the convoy carrying him and other opposition leaders. He has been held under an annually renewed detention order and denied access to visitors and fellow party leaders since 2003.

The release comes shortly before a United Nations envoy, Tomas Ojea Quintana, is scheduled to visit Myanmar on February 20. The visit is viewed by many as a status report, to evaluate the regime’s progress on human rights. Quintana is expected to meet several key ministers and members of the opposition during his five-day visit. He is also to tour Yangon’s notorious Insein prison and another prison in the northwestern state of Rakhine.

National League for Democracy Party spokesman, Nyan Win, said the party welcomes the U.N. envoy’s visit since gross human rights violations continue. According to Win, “His visit won’t be able to totally address the human rights issue but the visit can certainly cover human rights abuses.”

Mark Farmaner, director of the rights group Burma Campaign UK, commented on Oo’s release, stating it is “very welcome, but we should not attach any political significance to the release.  Burmese democracy activists are regularly released when the generals want to score points with the international community, and are then arrested again later.” Human rights groups say the junta holds some 2,100 political prisoners.

In commenting on his release, Oo said, “I am not happy with my freedom. I am very sorry about my colleagues who are still serving time in prisons.” Oo continues to pray for their early release at Yangon’s Shwedagon Pagoda. Oo, a one-time defense minister, said he hopes to continue to work for democracy. He wants to serve as vice chairman of the league, and coordinate political activities with Suu Kyi and the party’s 20-member Central Executive Committee.

For more information, please see:

Boston Globe – http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2010/02/14/myanmar_releases_deputy_leader_of_opposition_party/ – February 14, 2010

Human Rights Watch – Burma: Release Democracy Leader U Tin Oo – February 13, 2010

MSNBC: World News – Myanmar frees opposition figure after 7 years – February 13, 2010

Mizzima – Hope Mounts Over Tin Oo’s Release –  February 12, 2010

Far-Right British Political Party Amends Bylaws To Allow Non-Whites As Members

By David Sophrin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

LONDON, United Kingdom – A British far-right political party that until how has limited its membership to whites has decided, facing legal potential legal action, to allow non-white citizens the opportunity to apply for membership.

On Saturday the British National Party (BNP) met in Essex, England to met regarding the proposed change in membership rules.  Following the meet, party leader Nick Griffin declared that “anyone can be a member of this party.  We are happy to accept anyone as a member providing they agree with us that this country should remain fundamentally British.”

The BNP change comes when the party has faced recent legal challenges to their long standing rule banning any non-white British citizen from gaining membership.  A recent Central London County Court decision ordered the BNP to alter its bylaws or face potential legal action by the United Kingdom’s Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).  Opponents to the policies of the BNP declared that the party’s shift in membership rules does not reflect any moderation in the long-standing reactionary policies of the BNP.  Weyman Bennett, of United Against Fascism, noted that “regardless of the vote, the changes are cosmetic and have only happened because the courts forced them to stop racist practices.”

Following the membership rules change, the anti-fascist group Searchlight declared that “[the change] was a meaningless gesture by the BNP.  No one seriously believes that thousands of black and Asian Britons will now be queuing up to join Nick Griffin’s party.  The BNP are as racist and extremist as ever.”

While the BNP has never garnered more than a faction of a percentage of support among the British citizenry, in recent elections the BNP won its first seat in the European parliament, the legislative body of the European Union.  Rising national unemployment rates and frustration with the larger national political parties has also led to BNP candidates being elected to a handful of local councils.  One of BNP’s signature policies has been its opposition to the current immigration policies of the United Kingdom.  BNP still has not gained a seat in the United Kingdom’s parliament.

A British court is scheduled to rule in March on whether this BNP membership change goes far enough to comply with EHRC’s race relation laws.

For more information, please see:

IRISH TIMES – BNP votes to accept black members – 15 February 2010

AFP – Far-right party votes to drop white-only rule – 14 February 2010

REUTERS – Britain’s far-right party to ditch whites-only membership rule – 14 February 2010

DR Congo Less Likely to Release Female Child Soldiers

By Kylie M Tsudama
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

(Source: UN News Centre)
(Source: UN News Centre)

GOMA, DR Congo – On Friday the world celebrated International Day against the Use of Child Soldiers.  Meanwhile, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) called on the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) to release all children recruited as soldiers, especially females.

Both the national army and the rebels are recruiting child soldiers.  Young females are especially at risk of being recruited as sex slaves and are therefore less likely to be released.

“Used as combatants, labor and sex slaves, victims of months-long violence and rape, girls are all too rarely freed by the armed forces and groups,” said UNICEF.

Forced child recruitment and re-recruitment is continuous in eastern DR Congo.

Only twenty percent of those children that have been freed to UNICEF were girls.  UNICEF has recognized that a bigger effort needs to be made in order to release more girls who deserve to live like a child and go to school and reunite with their families.

“The place for children, whether boys or girls, is within the family, not in a military environment,” said Pierrette Vu Thi, a UNICEF representative in DR Congo.  “All the children forcedly recruited in armed forces and groups, and especially young girls, are traumatized by their experience and need special attention.  It is vital that they return to a child’s life as quickly as possible.”

UNICEF Eminent Advocate for Children, Grand Duchess Maria Teresa of Luxembourg, said that almost 250,000 children are serving in armed conflicts around the world.

“Oblivious to danger in the face of death, easily impressionable and vulnerable, children are expendable pawns in a deadly game orchestrated by adults,” said Teresa.

UNICEF is taking all necessary measures to end child recruitment in DR Congo.  The Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration program (DDR) was launched in 2004.  Since then, more than 36,000 children have been recovered from armed forces and groups.  Of the 6,000 children that were freed in 2000, only 1,222 of them were girls.

Along with MONUC (United Nations Mission in DR Congo), Save the Children, COOPI (Cooperazione Internazionale), and other NGOs, UNICEF is advocating for the release of as many child soldiers as possible, paying special attention to the release of young girls.

On January 10, 2009, the DR Congo government adopted a law that punishes those who recruit children with a twenty year prison sentence.  While many children remain in armed forces and groups, this law is an important step in moving away from the use of child soldiers.

For more information, please see:

All Africa – Girls Less Likely Than Boys to Be Freed From Ranks of Child Soldiers – UN – 12 February 2010

Examiner – International Day Against (Recruiting) and Use of Child Soldiers Today – 12 February 2010

Relief Web – Forced Recruitment of Child Soldiers in DRC: Where Are the Girls? – 12 February 2010

UN News Centre – Girls Less Likely Than Boys to Be Freed From Ranks of Child Soldiers – 12 February 2010

Fiji Remains Committed to Holding Elections in 2014

By Cindy Trinh
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

SUVA, Fiji – The military regime in Fiji says it remains committed to holding elections in 2014 despite coming under pressure to hold earlier elections during the United Nations review of its human rights record.

During the review in Geneva, there were suggestions that UN representatives could visit Fiji to investigate human rights violations, such as torture and government influence on the judiciary and media bans.

The Permanent Secretary in the office of the Fiji’s Prime Minister, Pio Tikoduadua, says he would like to see the review’s report first, but he does not see the need to implement the suggestions made at the review in Geneva.

Tikoduadua says that elections are not the solution to Fiji’s problems.

He stated: “If allegations for human rights as the UN is putting it, if they think that elections is going to solve all of that for us then we’ve been having elections for 40 years and human rights is a consistent issue, not only in Fiji everywhere, so definitely elections is not the answer.”

Tikoduadua further contended that Fiji has been engaging with the UN, and views it as a partner.

Furthermore, the interim government in Fiji says that Commodore Frank Bainimarama will stand down as Prime Minister when elections are held in 2014, but he will remain as commander of the military.

In a statement made by Bainimarama, he denied media reports that alleged he would retire as military commander after the 2014 elections.

The interim government spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Neumi Leweni, claims a journalist misinterpreted the Commodore’s comments.

Leweni, who is the Permanent Secretary for Information, clarified to the public that Commodore Bainimarama will step down as the Prime Minister, but will stay on with the military to ensure reforms that were implemented by his regime are followed by the administration that will take power after the 2014 elections.

Nevertheless, the Commodore emphasized that he will run for Prime Minister if that is what the people want.

For more information, please see:
Radio New Zealand International – Fiji’s interim regime says it remains committed to holding elections in 2014 – 13 February 2010

Radio New Zealand International – Fiji’s interim govt says Bainimarama will stand down as PM in 2014 – 13 February 2010

Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Radio Australia – Fiji PM will not stand down as military commander – 12 February 2010