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UNHCR Urges Support for Syrian Refugees in Jordan

By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Managing Editor

AMMAN, Jordan – The United Nation’s High Commissioner for Refugees has called on the International Community to help alleviate the “desperate living conditions” of Syrian refugees now living away from Jordan’s main camps. According to a recent United Nations study, one in six refugees living outside of Jordan’s main camps is living in extreme poverty. UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres warned large numbers of Syrian refugees continuing to slide into abject poverty at an alarming rate, due to the magnitude of the crisis in Syria and insufficient support from the international community.

Syrian refugees rest in an emergency shelter after their tents collapsed when heavy snows lashed Za’atari refugee camp in northern Jordan. Hundreds of refugee families were effected by the extreme winter storm. (Photo courtesy of the UNHCR)

Commissioner Guterres made a statement on the crisis during the launch of the new UNHCR study, living in the Shadows, which reveals evidence of a deepening humanitarian crisis. The Commissioner made a two-day visit to Jordan, where met with refugees profiled in the UN study in Amman and others at the Za’atari refugee camp. “I am here to express my solidarity with Syrian refugees, as the impact of snowstorm Huda is still tangible and posing an even greater strain on their already dire living conditions,” he said.

Jordan has a registered Syrian refugee population of 620,000. 84 percent of its refugee population live outside of refugee camps.  “This represents a dramatic pressure in the economy and the society of the country not to mention the terrible security impact of the Syria crisis in itself,” Commissioner Guterres said. “The generosity of the Jordanian people and the Government needs to be matched by massive support from the international community – support for the refugees themselves and for the local populations hosting them, but also structural and budgetary support to the Jordanian Government for education, health, water and sanitation and electricity to enable it to cope with this enormous challenge.”

Commissioner Guterres emphasized that the Syrian Civil war and the refugee crisis it has created can be mitigated if the international community steps up efforts to alleviate the suffering of the refugee populations. He praised the efforts of the Jordanian authorities, UNHCR and its partners to address the urgent needs of refugees during the recent heavy snowstorm which threatened the health and safety of refugees.

Extreme winter weather in the region threatened the lives and safety of refugees living in the Za’atari refugee camp. The Za’atari refugee camp is the largest refugee camp in Jordan with a population of nearly 85,000 Syrians. In the camp dozens of families were forced to abandon their family’s tents and camped in emergency shelters after their tents collapsed under the weight of snow.

Fatima, a 20 year old Syrian refugee, and her husband Mohammed were trying to protect their three small children from the cold when the roof of their tent collapsed. “We had a small stove burning in the tent to keep warm, and it fell onto my son and burned his back,” she told visitors from UNHCR to the shelter where she and her children are living with seven other families.

For more information please see:

BBC News – Syria Refugees: UN Warns Of Extreme Poverty in Jordan – 14 January 2015

The UNHCR – UNHCR Study Shows Rapid Deterioration in Living Conditions Of Syrian Refugees in Jordan – 14 January 2015

The UNHCR – Winter Storms Bring More Hardship to Refugees in Jordan’s Za’atari Camp – 9 January 2015

U.S News and World Report – The Challenge of the Syrian Refugee Response – 8 January 2015

Weeks after Oil Spill Bangladeshi Government Response Draws Criticism

By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Managing Editor

DHAKA, Bangladesh – Bangladeshi civilians continue to attempt to clean massive amounts of oil from the waters of the Sundarbans where an oil tanker rammed a cargo ship during the early morning hours of December on the Sela River causing 66,000 and 92,000 barrels to spill into the pristine waters of the Sundarbans, which means “beautiful forest.” So far the government and the oil industry itself has largely failed to manage the cleanup operation in the region where civilians, even children, have been pulling toxic oil from the water by hand without any protective equipment.  The Bangladeshi government’s chief forestry official for the region, Amir Hossain, said on December 16 that “the catastrophe is unprecedented in the Sundarbans, and we don’t know how to tackle this.”

Villagers carry oil in a barrel after removing it from the river surface, after an oil tanker sank in one of the world’s largest mangrove forests. (Photo courtesy of Think Progress)

Even as fisherman and children from the local fishing villages have taken to the waters and mangrove forests of the region to clean the oil by hand Bangladeshi Officials said the damage had already been done. Rubayat Mansur, Bangladesh head of the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, said most of the oil appeared to have already leaked out of the tinkered and surrounding area by December 12 and spread to adjoining rivers and canals where it spread to surrounding mangrove forests. “I visited the sunken trawler this morning. Only few hundred liters of oil remain inside, so almost all the oil has spilled into the Sundarbans,” he said.

“This catastrophe is unprecedented in the Sundarbans, and we don’t know how to tackle this,” Amir Hossain, chief forest official of the Sundarbans in Bangladesh, told the press. The Bangladeshi government has come under fire for its response to the disaster. Critics have said that the government, which has allowed oil shipping and exportation in the region for more than a decade, should have had a plan in place to deal with such a disaster and protect the environment and fishing communities from the threat posed by spilled oil.

Oil from the tankers has created an environmental catastrophe in the waters of Bangladesh’s Sundarbans, the largest contiguous tidal mangrove forest in the world, which are home to several rare species of animals including the rare Irrawaddy and Gangetic dolphins and the highly endangered Bengal tiger. The Sundarbans are also home to fishing communities who depend on the rich waters of the region for economic survival. The Sundarbans delta is a UNESCO World Heritage site that encompasses some 3,850 square miles 1,000 square kilometers. The mangrove forests of the delta are a critical ecosystems, not only supporting thousands of unique species but also performing several important ecosystems functions including acting as one of the world’s largest carbon sinks, absorbing atmospheric carbon-dioxide which helps combat global climate change.

The Bangladeshi and Indian governments have come under fire for ongoing plans to expand fossil fuel exportation in the region, despite the threat to the mangrove ecosystem. Last year, Bangladeshi and Indian lawmakers initiated a plan to build a 1,320-megawatt coal plant 5.5 miles downstream from the Sundarbans. The plant would require a massive quantities of water to be desalinated, threating the region with an estimated half a million metric tons of “sludge and liquid waste” each year.

For more information please see:

Bangladesh News 24 Hours – BNP Probe Faults Government ‘Apathy’ For Sundarbans Oil Spill – 26 December 2014

Think Progress – Experts Arrive To Help Barehanded Children Clean Up Massive Bangladeshi Oil Spill – 24 December 2014

National Geographic – After Oil Spill in Bangladesh’s Unique Mangrove Forest, Fears About Rare Animals – 16 December 2014

Al Jazeera America – Bangladesh Oil Clean-Up Begins Amid Fears of Ecological ‘Catastrophe’ – 12 December 2014

Argentina Town Cancels ‘Sexist’ Beauty Pageants

By Delisa Morris

Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina– A small town in Argentina has banned beauty pageants, because they are considered to be sexist.  The Chivilcoy council, in the Buenos Aires region, said that the pageants encourage violence against women.  The Chivilcoy council further criticized the pageants for emphasizing and focusing on physical beauty.  The council also claimed that the beauty pageants concentration on physical image, encourages illnesses like bulimia and anorexia among the pageant contestants.

Miss Argentina/image courtesy of the Independent

The Chivilcoy council said the pageants are “a discriminatory and sexist practice”, that “reinforce the idea that women must be valued and rewarded exclusively by their physical appearance, based on stereotypes”.

Beauty pageants were also condemned for being “acts of symbolic and institutional violence against women and children.”

The competitions will instead be replaced with an event recognising “people of between 15 and 30 years who, in an individual or collective way, have stood out in volunteering activities aimed at improving the quality of life in neighbourhoods within the city or the district,” the council said.

Latin American beauty pageant winners often use their pageant experience to build careers in entertainment or television.

Beauty pageant competitions are getting a closer look after Julia Morley, the chairwoman of the Miss World pageant announced that the competition would no longer include a swimsuit round.  The swimsuit round was introduced to the competition 63 years ago.

“Miss World should be a spokesperson who can help a community,” said Ms. Wilmer, “She’s more of an ambassador, not a beauty queen.  It’s more about the outreach and what a woman could do with a title like Miss World.”

However, everyone does not agree with banning the pageants.

“If the only value is beauty, that’s bad, I don’t identify with that,” said Nadia Cerri, 41, director of Miss World Argentina and a former pageant contestant.  But she added that an all-out ban goes too far.  “We don’t oblige anybody to take part in the contests,” she said.

Ms. Cerri said that in recent years the Miss World Argentina competition had tried to place greater emphasis on factors besides physical appearance.  A winner must perform well in categories such as social responsibility, for which she may be required to show awareness of social issues like sex trafficking in her home province. Contestants must also demonstrate knowledge of general culture, including current events, and exhibit a talent, which can be a skill like acting, singing or painting.

For more information, please see:

The Independent – Town in Argentina bans ‘sexist’ beauty pageants for reinforcing idea ‘women must be valued on physical opinion’ – 25 Dec. 2014

The New York Times – Argentine City Takes Beauty Off Its Pedestal – 22 Dec. 2014

BBC News – Argentina town bans ‘sexist’ beauty competitions – 21 Dec. 2014

Jezebel – Town in Argentina Bans Beauty Pageants; Miss World Bans Bikinis – 21 Dec. 2014

Sony Pictures Gives In to North Korea; Cancels Christmas Release of ‘The Interview’

By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Managing Editor

Washington D.C., United States of America – Sony Pictures Entertainment announced Wednesday that the study would cancel the December 25th Release of “The Interview” in response to threats from the North Korean regime. Following alleged ambiguous threats to movie goers referencing the September 11th 2001 attacks in the United States several major multiplex companies across the country refused to show the film. Sony referenced this issue in its announcement saying “in light of the decision by the majority of our exhibitors not to show the film.” The decision to cancel the release of “The Interview” comes as the United States government confirms that last month’s cyber-attack on Sony pictures originated form the Korean Peninsula and the North Korean regime was behind the attacks.

Major American theaters pull plans to show “The Interview” after threats from North Korea. The Film, a satirical comedy staring James Franco and Seth Rogen, centers on a plot to kill the North Korean dictator. (Photo courtesy of The New York Times)

“The Interview,” a satirical political comedy staring Seth Rogan and Academy Award Winning Actor James Franco told the story of two Americans tasked by the CIA to assassinate North Korea leader Kim Jung-un, played by Randall Park. The film was deemed offensive by the North Korean regime, one of the world’s most secluded and censored countries where the majority of people live in extreme poverty, which deemed the goal of preventing the film’s releases worth devoting its resources to carrying out one of the largest cyber-attacks ever carried out against an American corporation.

Sony Pictures cited alleged terror threats originating from the North Korean regime as its primary reason for pulling the film. On Tuesday an email, allegedly sent from the North Korean hacking group responsible for last month’s cyber-attack on Sony Pictures, was sent to various news outlets referencing the film and the September 11th attacks. However, The Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday there was “no credible intelligence to indicate an active plot against movie theaters,” but noted it was still analyzing messages from the group. United States President Barack Obama also responded to the alleged threats saying Americans should go to the movies.

Sony’s decision to pull the film is ultimately a business decision rather than a response to alleged future threats. The company suffered an embarrassing blow from the release of documents and personal emails from company expertise and potentially lost millions of dollars in revenue after the hackers released three unreleased movies online and posted full scripts of several upcoming Sony films. “This attack went to the heart and core of Sony’s business and succeeded,” said Avivah Litan, a cybersecurity analyst at research firm Gartner. “We haven’t seen any attack like this in the annals of U.S. breach history.”

Before Sony announced its decision Wednesday, Regal Cinemas, AMC Entertainment and Cinemark Theatres, the three top movie-theater chains in North America announced that they were postponing any showings of film. Regal said in a statement that it was delaying “The Interview” ”due to wavering support of the film ‘The Interview’ by Sony Pictures, as well as the ambiguous nature of any real or perceived security threats.” AMC noted “the overall confusion and uncertainty” surrounding the film.

The North Korean regime, a country with a GDP of just $40 Billion Dollars successfully attacked the servers of the Sony Corporation, an estimated $70 Billion company, stealing more than 100 terabytes of data from Sony Pictures and force the cancellation of an American motion picture.

The cancellation of the release of “The Interview” is reminiscent of the history of one of the greatest political satires of all time; Charlie Chaplin’s “the Great Dictator.” When Charlie Chaplin was producing the film the British Government stated that it would not allow the release of the film in British Theaters out of fear that it would offend the Hitler regime in Nazi Germany, at the time the British government was practicing the policy of Appeasement, refusing to stand up to one of the deadliest regimes in human history.

For more information please see:

ABC News – Sony Cancels ‘The Interview’ Dec. 25 Release – 17 December 2014

Al Jazeera – Sony Pulls N Korea Film Release after Threats – 17 December 2014

The Hollywood Reporter – Top Five Theater Circuits Drop ‘The Interview’ After Sony Hack – 17 December 2014

The New York Times – Sony Pictures Cancels Holiday Release of ‘The Interview’ After Threats – 17 December 2014