Human Rights Watch Urges Yemen to Install Marriage Age Minimum

By Carolyn Abdenour
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

SANA’A, Yemen – Human Rights Watch (“HRW”) released its 54 page report “How Come You Allow Little Girls to Get Married?: Child Marriage in Yemen” to urge Yemen to ban marriage for girls under the age of eighteen.  This age floor would improve educational opportunities for girls and protect their human rights.  Child marriage in poor Arab countries preserves females’ status as second-class citizens and jeopardizes girls’ health.

Protesters Support Banning Child Marriage. (Photo Courtesy of CBC News)

Presently, Yemen does not have a legal minimum age for marriage.  In 2009, the Yemeni government presented a bill to set seventeen as the minimum age for marriage.  Arguing the proposed law conflicted with Islamic law, a group of conservative Yemeni lawmakers stopped the bill’s passage.  Several countries who follow Islamic law have instituted the age of eighteen as the marriage age minimum.

Yemeni demonstrators called for reforms such as guaranteed gender equality in recent months.  HRW advocates the government should place banning child marriage as a reform priority.

Data from the United Nations and the Yemeni government indicate eight-year-old girls were married, and some of their husbands engaged in martial rape and domestic abuse.  Often, these child brides forcibly marry much older men.  Last year, a nine-year-old wife published her account of marrying a man three times her age.  A thirteen-year-old also died after having sex with her husband twice her age that caused internal bleeding.  Boys are rarely subjected to child marriages.

Nadya Khalife, HRW’s women’s rights researcher for the Middle East and North Africa and the report’s author, stated “Girls should not be forced to be wives and mothers…The government…needs to show that it has the political will to do this by adopting this law.”

The girls’ families force them to marry.  These new brides do not control their lives or childbearing decisions.

While fifty-two percent of girls are married before the age of eighteen, about fourteen percent of Yemeni girls wed before the age of fifteen.  Once these future child brides reach puberty, they usually do not attend school.  The young child bearing age associated with early marriage results in lasting reproductive health issues.

One of the thirty girls interviewed testified, “I reached sixth grade, and left school to get married.  Now, when I see my daughter, I say to myself, ‘Who’s going to teach her?’  Because I can’t.  I understood [the value of education] when I got older.”  Another girl said, “My father insisted that I get married.  I wanted to go to college, to become a lawyer, but there’s no chance now because I’m going to have a baby.”

For further information, please see:

CBC News – Yemen Child Marriages Targeted By Rights Groups – 8 Dec 2011

Human Rights Watch – Yemen: Child Marriage Spurs Abuse of Girls and Women – 8 Dec 2011

Reuters – Rights Group Urges Yemen To Ban Child Marriage – 8 Dec 2011

Taiwan News – Rights Group Urges Yemen To Ban Child Marriage – 8 Dec 2011


Opposition Led Strike in Syria Results in Bloodshed

By Tyler Yates
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

DAMASCUS, Syria — Renewed clashes in Syria have resulted in the deaths of at least 23 people as opposition activists initiate a general strike.

The general strike called by the opposition activists was being observed in southern Syria on Sunday with school children and civil servants staying at home.  Fear of pro-government militias did keep some shopkeepers from joining the strike.

Many shopkeepers who didn’t open on Sunday had their property burned by troops.

There were reports of heavy machine-gun fire and pre-dawn clashes between activists and loyalist forces.

The Syrian National Council, an opposition umbrella group, has been warning of a potential bloodbath for days in the city of Homs, where tanks and checkpoints have been massing for days.  The government has denied that a conflict is imminent.

The Syrian government has long blamed the bloodshed on Islamic militants and armed gangs, which it says are supported by outside states.

The Syrian state news agency SANA said that the deaths on Sunday occurred as authorities confronted members of “an armed terrorist group.”

Syria allows only severely restricted access to foreign media so it is hard to verify the content of its reports.

The United Nations estimates that over 4,000 individuals have died thus far in the over nine-month conflict.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is currently under international pressure to end his continued crackdown on the anti-government protesters.

It is reported that the Arab League will hold two emergency meetings in the coming day to discuss Damascus’s response to a League plan to send monitors into Syria.

Last month the League suspended Syria’s membership to protest the continued government crackdown on the protests.

The country’s economy is already beginning to hurt from economic sanctions imposed by the European Union, Arab League, United States, and Turkey, however it is still getting support from Iran, Russia, and China.

In neighboring Jordan there have been some violent protests at the Syrian embassy, in the capital city of Amman.  The embassy said that protesters stormed the building and attacked staff, however sources close to the protesters argue that they were assaulted when they went into the embassy wearing opposition flags.

For more info, please see:

Al Jazeera — Syrian army and defectors ‘battling in south’ — 11 Dec. 2011

BBC — ’18 killed’ in fresh Syria clashes, say opposition — 11 Dec. 2011

Los Angeles Times — General strike launched in Syria amid fierce clashes — 11 Dec. 2011

Day Press — Opponents, Supporters of Syrian Gov’t — 10 Dec. 2011

 

Gay Rights are Human Rights: Clinton’s Speech on International Human Rights Day

By Brittney Hodnik
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON, United States – December 9 officially marked “International Human Rights Day” throughout the world.  Many celebrated by making others aware of current human rights issues.  Among these discussions was a speech given by Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton supporting gay rights throughout the nation and the world.

Hillary Clinton wants to promote gay rights not only in the United States, but throughout the world. (Image courtesy of The New York Times)

Clinton used her platform not to discuss more obvious human rights abuses, but to talk about the “invisible minority” that is the gay community.  The speech about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals took place in Geneva.  According to the Huffington Post, the speech was far from political, avoiding any praise of the United States; rather, she described the American record as “far from perfect.”

International Human Rights Day commemorates the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations in 1948.  Generally, the document serves as a reminder that all people are entitled to fundamental human rights and freedoms.

“Being gay is not a Western invention; it is a human reality.  And protecting the human rights of all people, gay or straight, is not something that only Western governments too,” Clinton said.  The Huffington Post reports that she continued on to give examples of countries where men and women can still face death for being gay.  She reinforced the fact that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, if not applied equally in all countries, is not “universal” at all.

The Los Angeles Times reports that Clinton used the speech to announce the creation of a Global Equality Fund to assist in obtaining civil rights for gays abroad.  The United States has committed about $3 million to the new fund.  President Obama issued a memorandum further explaining the purpose of the fund.

According to the New York Times, the fund is in place to actively combat efforts by other nations that criminalize homosexual conduct, abuse gay men, lesbians, bisexuals or transgendered people, or ignore abuse against them.

Listeners were impressed and humbled by the speech.  A senior State Department official in Geneva said that Clinton “came not to wag a finger, but to really invite a conversation,” reports the Los Angeles Times.

The New York Times reports there are still many countries that use violence against gay individuals.  In Turkey, there are still reports of harassment.  In Saudi Arabia, homosexuality is banned and sex between two men or two women is punishable by death or flogging.

Overall, Clinton’s speech was well received by the congregation.  The New York Times reports that she received a standing ovation as she left the stage.  International Human Rights Day takes place every year on 9 December, encouraging people to be tolerant of other cultures and values, and recognize some of the atrocities ongoing today.

For more information, please visit:

CatholicCulture.org — Promotion of Gay Rights  Worldwide is a U.S. Foreign Policy Priority, says Clinton — 9 Dec. 2011

The Huffington Post — It’s Not Gay Rights; It’s Human Rights: Clinton Breakd Down the Wall — 8 Dec. 2011

The Los Angeles Times — Hillary Clinton Calls on World  to Not Discriminate Against Gays — 6 Dec. 2011

The New York Times — U.S. Backs Gay Rights Abroad, Obama and Clinton Say — 6 Dec. 2011

Labor Minister Carlos Lupi Resigns Amid Corruption Scandal

By Paula Buzzi
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

SANTIAGO, Chile — Labor minister Carlos Lupi resigned on Sunday after being accused of corruption by news agency Agencia Brasil. The news agency accused him of misusing public funds and supporting certain NGOs over others. Lupi is the seventh minister to resign since President Rousseff took office in January.

Brazil's Labor Minister steps down. (Photo Courtesy of BBC News).

Suspicions surrounding Lupi’s work ethics first arose in November after Brazilian news magazine Veja reported that Lupi and some of his aids were receiving kickbacks from NGOs in exchange for government funding. Additionally, Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper also reported allegations that Lupi was receiving dual government salary for six years as a federal congressional employee and state legislature of Rio de Janeiro at the same time; a violation of Brazilian law.

Lupi has denied the accusations and is confident that the truth will come out. In a statement on the labor ministry’s web site, Lupi wrote “In the face of political and personal persecution in the media that I have been suffering for two months without the right of defense and without proof, and taking into consideration the report of the Ethics Commission of the Presidency — which has also condemned me in a summary fashion based on these same media reports without giving me a right to defend myself — I’ve decided to irrevocably resign my position.” He has not yet been charged with a crime.

Lupi will be replaced by the ministry’s executive secretary, Paulo Roberto dos Santos Pinto starting on Monday.

President Rousseff has publicly thanked Lupi for all his work in her government and that she expects him to “continue contributing to the country.” She has lost six ministers to scandals this year alone which has weakened her relationship with coalition parties in congress.

Opposition groups have suggested that the scandals and resignations surrounding President Rousseffs government show that her government is tainted by corruption. President Rousseff, however rebuts those claims, stating that there has always been corruption in Brazilian governments– the only difference now is that the scandals are being made public and investigated appropriately.

 

For further information, please see:

BBC News – Brazil Labour Minister Carlos Lupi is Latest to Resign – 04 December 2011

CNN – Brazil’s Labor Minister Quits AmidAllegations of Corruption – 04 December 2011

Reuters – Brazilian Labor Minister Quits Amid Scandal – 05 December 2011

MercoPress – Countdown for Brazil’s Labour Minister: Sixth Cabinet Loss on Corruption Allegations – 01 December 2011

Philippine Soldiers Placed on School Grounds

By: Jessica Ties
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine government is being pressured by rights groups to end the conducting of military practices on school grounds.

Rights groups are urging the Philippine government to remove soldiers from schools (Photo Courtesy of Human Right Watch).

In an investigation lasting little over a week on northern Luzon island, Human Rights Watch found five cases since 2009 in which schools were being used simultaneously as educational institutions and as military barracks or military.

According to the investigation’s findings, the use of schools lasted anywhere from three months to over a year.

Over twenty principals, teachers and officials were interviewed during the course of the investigation and many expressed significant concern for the danger that the military use could potentially bring to school children.

In addition to the potential conflict between the Philippine government soldiers and the communist insurgents, many of those interviewed also fear that the government soldiers will act inappropriately around or toward the students.

One teacher states that, “[Soldiers] staying there is a big threat. They just leave arms lying around and you know that kids may play with them.”

Other teachers complained that the presence of the soldiers also distracts students from their learning and causes students to be exposed to alcohol and pornography while at school.

During an investigation of Gueday Elementary School, Human Rights Watch discovered that troops had occupied a building on the school and used it to store their weaponry. In addition, the soldiers were known to ask the children to run errands for them and one occasion a soldier threatened to shoot a child who he believed had returned the wrong change.

At another school, Sadanga National High School, soldiers were forced to walk or drive their military vehicles through the school to reach their encampment. The only access road to the school was overlooked by a sentry and according to school personnel, at one time there was a sentry stationed at the school’s only entrance.

Despite concerns about soldier occupation, there have also been reports of positive results from soldier occupation. For example, one school reported receiving a health center while another school reported that soldiers installed a basketball hoop, led morning exercises for the children and cut their hair.

Conflict between the Philippine government has lasted for over forty years and has led both sides to guilty of violating the laws of war.

The use of schools for military purposes is a violation of both Philippine law and international law. Military use of schools was banned by the Philippine government in 1992 after reports of abuse.

The laws of war forbid the attacking of a school unless the schools are being used in the military effort. In addition, the distraction caused but he soldiers have led to concerns that the children’s right to education is also being violated by the military presence.

For more information, please see:

Philippine Daily Inquirer – Gov’t Urged to Stop Soldiers from Using Schools as Barracks – 3 December 2011

Reuters – Philippines Must Stop Using Schools as Military Bases – Rights Group – 1 December 2011

Human Rights Watch – Philippines: Soldiers on the School Grounds – 30 November 2011