Earlier this week these two photos were uploaded from the Middle East onto the “I Am Syria” webpage. A group of young children show their support for the Syrian people by joining the campaign.
2 Easy Steps to get Involved with the “I Am Syria” Campaign
Like us on Facebook. We can be found by typing in “Iamsyria” and our group pops up. Make sure to enter it all as one word because there are other Syria groups.
2. Buy a t-shirt. They are $15 and can be paid for by paypal. Find them at the website www.iamsyria.org
By Alexandra Sandacz Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe
BRUSSELS, Belgium – Recently, the European Council and the European Parliament have struggled over the lack of women on the European Central Bank’s governing council.
Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank is on her way to a parliament survey. (Photo Courtesy of Reuters)
Currently, women hold only 17 percent of the top positions in the central banks of the 27-member European Union. Their representation in higher positions falls dramatically and is non-existent at the top levels.
As of 1998, only two women have occupied positions on the ECB’s executive board. Moreover, unless a woman is appointed to the current vacancy, another woman could not be appointed until May 31, 2018, when ECB Vice President, Vitor Constancio, is expected step down.
Although Parliament does not explicitly hold veto power as to the appointment of council members, Parliament questions candidates through public hearings and floor debates. The European Commission and lawmakers at the European Parliament have strived to push for a woman to be a member of the ECB executive board since 2010.
In a letter to the EU governments, various members of the European Parliament wrote, “We notice that the EU member states’ nominations to some of the most important… EU institutions result in an appallingly monotonous line-up of nominees.”
Sylvie Goulard, a European member of parliament, wrote a letter to Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, stating, “At issue is discrimination” and requested “that at least one woman is immediately appointed to the ECB Governing Council.”
In a push to appoint a woman to the ECB executive board, Parliamentarians postponed hearings to fill the seat on the executive board of the European Central Bank because not enough women were promoted as candidates. Also, Parliament continues to delay Luxembourg’s Yves Mersch appointment to the ECB.
In order to achieve their goal, the European Parliament will have to produce a satisfactory candidate because their only authoritative power is a limited legislative power over the European Banking Authority. Consequentially, the European Parliament’s wish to appoint a woman could be ignored.
Ironically, this current gender equality struggle occurs simultaneously as the European Commission plans to introduce a potential requirement for private companies’ non-executive boards to be at least 40 percent female by 2020, otherwise facing fines and other sanctions. Nine European states are opposed to this potential quota plan.
Viviane Reding, the European Union’s justice commissioner, said on Monday, “Thankfully, European laws on important topics like this are not made by 10 men in dark suits behind closed doors, but rather in a democratic process with a democratically elected European Parliament, which will decide on an equal footing with the council.”
By Brendan Oliver Bergh
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America
CARACAS, Venezuela – The political climate heat turned violent in Venezuela as three political activists were shot and killed. Supports of the Presidential challenger Henrique Capriles, political opposition leaders Omar Mereno and Antonio Avila were pronounced dead at the scene.
Pro Hugo Chavez Supporters Rally The Presidents Cause. (Photo Courtesy of El Universal).
According to CNN, the caravan the activist leaders had been attached to had been stopped by a blockade. The opposition leaders Mereno and Availa exited the caravan, requesting permission to pass, when a gunmen opened fire upon them. Two other people were wounded. One the wounded, Hector Rojas latter succumbed to his wounds at a nearby hospital.
Survivors indicated that the blockade had been formed by a group of militant Chavez supporters.
Each of the dead were leaders of smaller groups that had grouped together to form the opposition coalition Democratic Unity Table (MUD). Each group has come together to challenge current President Hugo Chaves. The incident occurred shortly after a rally for Presidential Hopeful Henrique Capriles. The rally was held in Caracas and was aimed to be the final push in the Coalition leaders’ bid for the presidency.
While this is the first incident of actual violence and homicide, the political battle for Venezuela has been fraught with fraud. Both sides have accused each other of fraud and misconduct. Chavez supporters claim that the opposition is intending to create a chaotic conflict that will destabilize the country. This would slow anarchy, encourage a coup, and allow the old bourgeois to return to power. They continue that these attempts for a “coup” are looking to ignore the legitimacy of Venezuelan institutions and among his despair at the loss of the elections.
Henrique Capriles believes that he is the first real opponent Hugo Chavez’s cult of personality, and that the Socialist dream he is presenting has led to a widespread meltdown of the country’s wealth, social institutions, and public trust.
Hugo Chavez, the current President of Venezuela, is seeking reelection for a third term on Sunday October 7. According to Chavez, “I have not cheated or failed” as he perpetrates that a vote against him would be akin to revoking all the social changes that Venezuela has seen in the past ten years. He has called on his supporters to avoid provocation and retribution. He continued with his message that “Not with violence that we will face off. It is with votes… with ideas.”
Within hours of the shooting six people were arrested for their alleged involvement in the crime. Three women and three men have been arrested including the supposed perpetrator of the fatal shooting.
NAIROBI, Kenya—Early this morning, Sunday, September 30, 2012, a grenade attack on an Anglican church in Kenya’s capital city of Nairobi left a child dead and seven other children injured. This attack has been viewed as a response by the Somali militant group Al Shabab to the Kenyan troops’ capture Al Shabab’s stronghold a couple of days ago on Friday.
One Child Was Killed in the Attack and Seven Others Were Injured. (Photo Courtesy of The Christian Science Monitor)
Currently, no suspects have been caught but suspicions have been placed on this group as there have been several other attacks on churches and public gathering spots in Kenya that have been attributed to Al Shabab.
Kenyan officials, however, noted that they do not believe that some of the smaller attacks are the work of Al Shabab. They commented that typically Al Shabab members have been trained in terrorist tactics and have often killed hundreds of people with large suicide bombs. But, the police also added that Al Shabab’s supporters in Kenya probably do not have the skills or the supplies to carry out a large scale operation and have now turned to less complicated attacks like the one today.
The Kenyan police chief Moses Nyakwama told the press that thirteen people were injured in this revenge attack and that two police officers were killed in the nearby town of Garissa—near the border of Somalia.
The reports of the attack suggest that many of those injured at the church were actually injured in the stampede after the attack. Police spokesman, Charles Owino, said, “These are the kicks of a dying horse since, of late, Kenyan police have arrested several suspects in connection with grenades.”
Irene Wambui, a woman who was at the church at the time of the grenades described the attack saying, “We were just worshipping God in church when suddenly we heard an explosion and people started running for their lives. We came to realize that the explosion had injured some kids who were taken to hospital and unfortunately one succumbed.”
The Kenyan military pushed deeper into Somalia and braced themselves for this kind of reprisal attack after the military staged an attack on Kismayu, the stronghold for Shabab militants, which allowed them to control a large area of the country. However, the Shabab have been slowly losing territory this past year against the Kenyan national army.
A member of the country’s Parliament appealed to the nation’s people when he said, after the attacks, “Religious wars have destroyed countries everywhere. That should not be replicated in Kenya.”
By Emily Schneider Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Sunday marked the deadliest day in Iraq in nearly a month with a number of bombings that killed at least thirty-two people and wounded approximately one hundred. The insurgents seem to be targeting Iraq’s Shiite Muslim community.
Residents inspect the rubble at the site of a bomb attack in the town of Taji. (Photo courtesy of Rueters)
Baghdad’s Shiite-majority government blames the recent attacks on Sunni insurgents with ties to al Qaeda. A local news source noted that insurgents are have recently been regarded as weaker than before by the public but are still able to carry out mass-casualty attacks. Twenty people were killed in the seven explosions in and around Baghdad, while at least thirty-seven others were wounded in explosions in al-Mashada and al-Amel, neighborhoods closer to the city center.
“I was in my shop and I heard the sound of a very powerful explosion,” said Abu Ihab, a shop owner in central Baghdad’s Karada district. “Dust was everywhere.”
“We were sitting in the shop while police were collecting flesh,” he said. “Human flesh was on the sidewalk, being collected and put in plastic bags.”
“When the explosion happens…I sit in my shop and I am afraid for my life,” Ihab told reporters.
Abu Ihab had good reason to be afraid, as the blast was followed by another car bomb that hit the same area.
Later in the day, a Shiite shrine in al-Madaan, about 20 kilometers southeast of Baghdad, was the target of a car bomb. Four people were killed by the blast, and nineteen others were wounded. Four of the wounded were Iranians who had traveled to the shrine on a religious pilgrimage from Iran.
In Kut, a predominately Shiite city about 110 kilometers south of Baghdad, a car exploded at a police checkpoint, killing six people. Three of those killed were members of the Iraqi police.
These explosions demonstrate a marked increase in violence after a relatively calm period. The last outburst of violence occurred on September 9, when 63 people were killed and around 200 wounded. Most of those victims were Iraqi security forces and took place in Shiite areas.
Infighting among Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds has been common in Iraq, and was particularly terrible in 2006. Although the level of violence has generally been on the wane since the war in 2005 and 2006, recent months show that the violence is escalating again. This past July, the death toll reached a two-year high of 325 reported casualties.
The recent events have raised concerns that the political conflict will continue to escalate and return to the high level of violence that plagued the country a half-dozen years ago.
