U.S. Chides Russia by Leaving Bilateral Group on Human Rights

By Mark O’Brien
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON, United States — In a protest of Russia’s repression on civil rights and activism, the U.S. State Department announced on Friday that it was leaving a bilateral group aimed at promoting civil society in both countries.

U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Rights and Democracy Thomas Melia announced the U.S. withdrawal from a bilateral group aimed at promoting civil society in the United States and Russia. (Photo Courtesy of Russia Beyond the Headlines)

Thomas Melia, deputy secretary of state in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, said the Working Group on Civil Society of the Russian-American Bilateral Presidential Commission was not working.

“[The group] is no longer an appropriate or effective forum that would facilitate the development and strengthening of civil society,” Melia said in an interview with Interfax.

A spokesperson for Russian President Vladimir Putin called the United States’s decision to withdraw “regrettable.”

But Matthew Rojansky of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace blamed Putin’s government for the U.S. withdrawal.  Rojansky told the Washington Post that the Russian government is not taking any of the necessary steps to ensure a civil society.

“We take these things seriously,” Rojansky said in the Post interview, characterizing the American message.  “And you have shown you don’t take them seriously.”

The American pull out comes amid tense relations between Washington and Moscow.

In the last year, Russia has clamped down on demonstrations amid opposition protests that the government blamed the United States for supporting.  Putin’s government also began prosecuting many political activists, as well as requiring nonprofit electoral and human rights groups receiving money from abroad register as “foreign agents.”

In December, the United States imposed financial and visa sanctions against corrupt Russian officials.  Russia responded by banning American adoption of children from Russia.

Russia also has outlawed the U.S. Agency for International Development.  And most recently, just last month, Putin signed a law that bans American organizations considered involved in political activity.

When asked the U.S. withdrawal from the working group, Melia’s Russian counterpart, Konstantin Dolgov, said he had not received official notice yet.

“We have not yet received any written official documents on Washington’s decision to withdraw from this format of dialogue with Russia,” Dolgov told Interfax.

“We will react officially when we get official notification,” he added.  “We can now say that Russia has made specific proposals to our U.S. colleagues to call another meeting of the working group, which was to be held in Moscow throughout 2013.”

The working group was one of about 20 in a bilateral U.S.-Russia commission started in 2009 by President Barack Obama and Russia’s then-president, Dmitry Medvedev, as relations between the two countries were warming.

For further information, please see:

RT — Moscow Regrets US Pullout from Bilateral Commission on Human Rights — 26 January 2013

Chicago Tribune — U.S. Quits Bilateral Civil Society Group in Rebuke to Russia — 25 January 2013

Russia Beyond the Headlines — Washington Quits U.S.-Russia Civil Society — 25 January 2013

Washington Post — U.S. Quits Joint Panel with Russia on Civil Society — 25 January 2013

Apple Terminates Contract with Supplier Using Underage Workers

By Karen Diep
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – Yesterday, Apple terminated its contract with Chinese circuit manufacturer, Guangdong Real Faith Pingzhou Electronics Co. Ltd., after learning that seventy-four (74) workers were underage.

Apple logo on a rainbow backdrop. (Photo Courtesy of Huffington Post)

“Given the high turnover rate in the factories and the production pressure in the peak season, the factories may not strictly comply with labor laws and the code of conduct,” shared Debby Chan, a spokeswoman for Hong Kong-based Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior.

After being criticized for working conditions of suppliers including Foxconn, Apple joined the Fair Labor Association last year.

Apple has conducted three hundred and ninety three (393) audits, a 72% increase from 2011, of its suppliers as part of its investigation of staff working conditions.

Per The Telegraph, Apple has audited both small and subsidiary suppliers and larger ones such as Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co, for working conditions. From the foregoing audits, Apple learned that 95% of the sites conformed with underage labor requirements.

According to BBC News, Apple relayed that a regional recruitment company, Shenzhen Quanshun Human Resources Co., Ltd., provided the underage workers to PZ and even supplied said workers with false identity papers.  As a result, Shenzhen Quanshun Human Resources Co., Ltd.’s business license has been revoked.

Guangdong Real Faith Pingzhou Electronics Co Ltd, or PZ, makes “a standard circuit board component used by many other companies in other industries,” read a report. Moreover, the report stated that 92% of the 1.5 million workers covered by the audit worked a maximum of 60 hours per week.

“We go deep in the supply chain to find it,” explained Jeff Williams, Apple’s Senior Vice-President of Operations.  “And when we do find it, we ensure that the under-age workers are taken care of, the suppliers are dealt with,” continued Mr. Williams.

In October 2012, Foxconn, a China-based iPhone and iPad manufacturer, Foxconn confessed to hiring 14-year-old interns in one of its factories.

“We recognise that full responsibility for these violations rests with our company and we have apologised to each of the students for our role in this action,” read a statement Foxconn issued.

For more information, please see:

BBC News – Under-age workers found in Apple supply audit – January 25, 2013

Bloomberg – Apple Says China Agent Forged Papers for Underage Workers – January 25, 2013

The Telegraph – Apple audit finds underage workers in China – January 25, 2013

 

Syria Deeply: 25 January 2013

All information and videos contained in this post are original content posted with permission from Syria Deeply, an independent digital media project.  For further information, please visit their website.

Videos

A tank comes under fire in Darya on 25 January 2013.

 

The Forum

Interview: I’m an FSA Battalion Leader –  by Karen Leigh

 

Recent Headlines

Iran Reaffirms Syria, Assad as Key to “Resistance Front” Against Israel – Huffington Post
First Patriot Missile to Defend Turkey Against Syria Goes Active – Rueters
Syria Says Troops Raid Damascus Suburb, Discover Rebel Tunnels – Washington Post

 

Community Op-Eds

Why Syria’s 60,000 Deaths Should Not Shock Us – by Lionel Bechner

This Week in Syria Deeply: 25 January 2013

Estonian Authorities Have Traced $10 Million of Stolen Russian Government Money Uncovered by Sergei Magnitsky

Press Release
Hermitage Capital

25 January 2013 – Estonian authorities have discovered that $10 million of the $230 million of funds stolen from the Russian government and uncovered by Sergei Magnitsky had been transferred through Estonia according to public prosecutor Piret Paukštys. The discovery of funds was reported by Baltic Business News yesterday (http://balticbusinessnews.com/article/2013/1/24/paper-10m-usd-laundered-in-estonia-in-magnitski-case).

It was also reported that the Estonian authorities had found that ten different companies have been used to transfer the money, according to the Business TASS agency in Talinn (http://www.biztass.ru/news/id/55661).

According to the Estonian authorities, the money was wired via internet banking to various persons in other jurisdictions.

“The uncovering of the trail of money is a substantial breakthrough in the investigation of the criminal conspiracy exposed by Hermitage and Sergei Magnitsky,” said Hermitage Capital representative.

In total, $230 million that had been paid in taxes to the Russian government by the Hermitage Fund in 2006 was stolen the following year from the Russian treasury by a group of corrupt Russian officials working together with organized criminals. Sergei Magnitsky discovered and testified about the thefts and was subsequently arrested and killed in Russian police custody at the age of 37. Three years later, no one has been convicted for his death.

 

For further information please contact:

Hermitage Capital
Phone:             +44 207 440 1777
Email:              info@lawandorderinrussia.org
Website:          http://lawandorderinrussia.org
Facebook:        http://on.fb.me/hvIuVI
Twitter:           @KatieFisher__
Livejournal:     //hermitagecap.livejournal.com/