Day: February 11, 2004

Amnesty International: Violence Against Women “Most Pervasive Human Rights Challenge”

In November, Amnesty International marked International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women by arguing that violence against women is the “most pervasive human rights challenge” facing the world today. Unfortunately, Amnesty International appears to be relying on inflated activist figures for some of its claims.

Here’s a couple paragraphs from the BBC, for example, on Amnesty International’s take on women and human rights,

‘Violence against women and girls is the most pervasive human rights challenge of our times,” said Amnesty International.

According to the organization, 120 million women around the world are subjected to brutal female circumcision every year and in the United States alone 700,000 women are raped annually.

Huh? According to the National Crime Victimization Survey — which relies on interviews to estimate crime rates, including those that are never reported to police — in 2000 there were roughly 100,000 rapes in the United States. Even if you add in the crimes labeled as sexual assaults by the NCVS, you still end up with a number that’s more than 2/3rds lower than the Amnesty International figure.

If Amnesty International is willing to rely on such specious figures for its estimates of violent crime against women in the United States, how can its estimates for crime in other parts of the world be trusted?

Source:

Attacks on women ‘biggest issue’. The BBC, November 26, 2003.

Nigeria — The Next Pakistan?

On January 7, the BBC had a brief report about clashes in northern Nigeria between the government and radical Muslim youth who have formed an organization they call the Taleban, after the Afghanistan Muslim extremists.

Clashes and riots involving Muslims in northern Nigeria are nothing new, anad soldiers apparently crushed the Nigerian Taleban’s version of an uprising. But the numerous incidents — the rioting over the Miss Universe beauty pageant, the use of sharia to sentence people to be stoned to death for adultery, and the emergence of radicalized Muslim youth (who have little else to do given Nigeria’s poverty) is troubling.

It becomes even more troubling in light of a January 29 BBC report that Nigeria admits to planning meetings with North Korean officials about acquiring ballistic missile technologyies from that country. Nigeria says it is not pursuing nuclear technology, but the possibility of Nigeria acquiring advanced ballistic missile technology and then falling to a Muslim insurgency or civil war is not a very comforting one.

PCRM Is an Animal Rights Group

The news stories about Robert Atkins being obese when he died were appalling for a number of reasons, not the least of which that much of the coverage deceived people like John Robb into believing that the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is a run-of-the-mill nonprofit run by doctors.

It’s not — it’s a front group for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. The groups use a third nonprofit front group, The Foundation to Support Animal Protection to hide the fact that PCRM is little more than a PETA branch office.

Why? Because PETA knows that the press and public are increasingly skeptical of claims coming from animal rights groups. But if you make the exact same information appear to be coming from a nonprofit doctors group, the media and the public will sit up and take note.

Food Aid to North Korea Begins to Dry Up — Should the World Give Food to States like North Korea?

worlTwo separate but closely related stories emerged within a few days of each other in January. First, the World Food Program announced that it had received so few donations to feed hungry people in North Korea that it would have to temporarily eliminate aid to more than half the 4.2 million neediest people it serves there.

Just a few days later, Amnesty International released a report claiming that North Korea had used food as a political weapon. According to Amnesty International, North Korea strictly circumscribes where humanitarian workers can visit and distribute food,

The continued restrictions on access for independent monitors, food donors, inter-governmental organizations and NGOs impede efforts to assess needs and fulfill these obligations. They appear to be a playing a significant role in the continuing food shortages. About 20 percent of North Korea’s land-mass, containing some 13 percent of its population, is not accessible to international humanitarian agencies. In 2003 NGOs complained that the government had “placed real limits on where and when NGO representatives could travel, what type of activities they could pursue, and with whom they could interact…NGO representatives quickly became frustrated as DPRK officials blocked some [of] the most common monitoring devices, including morbidity tracking, nutritional surveys, market surveys, and price surveys…”(59)

Humanitarian NGOs such as Médicins Sans Frontières (MSF),(60) Oxfam,(61) Action Contra La Faim (ACF), the Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere, Inc. (CARE),(62) the U.S. Private Voluntary Organization Consortium (PVOC) and Médicins Du Monde (MDM) have withdrawn from North Korea, citing inadequate access and their consequent inability to account for the eventual use of their aid supplies. MSF stated that restrictions on access had made it impossible to deliver aid in a “principled and effective” manner. It called on donor governments to review their aid policies towards North Korea, to exact greater accountability and to ensure that agencies were able to assess needs impartially and have direct access to the population. Several sources claim that international aid has been distributed by the North Korean authorities to those who are economically active and loyal to the state, while some of the most vulnerable groups have been neglected.

According to Amnesty International, North Korea also uses public execution to punish those who steal food or leave the country looking to escape the famine in China,

There are reports that people have executed in public for famine-related crimes such as stealing crops or livestock for food. There have also reportedly been executions of North Koreans repatriated from China who had crossed the border in search of food. Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all instances as the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. As a State Party to the ICCPR the North Korean government is obliged to uphold Article 6(2) which states: “In countries which have not abolished the death penalty, sentence of death may be imposed only for the most serious crimes…”(75) Other UN safeguards stipulate this should not go beyond intentional crimes with lethal or other extremely grave consequences.”(76) The Human Rights Committee has also determined that public executions are “incompatible with human dignity”.(77)

The United States, Australia and the European Union have all agreed to send more aid to North Korea, though as the WFP notes that can take up to three months to arrive in North Korea. Those countries should follow the lead of MSF, Oxfam and others and withdraw aid from North Korea until it corrects the problems that Amnesty International outlines. Continuing to feed and clothe the North Korean dictatorship is simply prolonging the pain of the North Korean people.

Sources:

Donor shortfall forces WFP to cut North Korea’s food aid. UNWire, January 20, 2004.

Group says North Korea Used Food as Political Weapon. UNWire, January 21, 2004.

Starved of Rights: Human Rights and the Food Crisis in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea). Amnesty International, January 20, 2004.

UN Population Fund Holds Forum on Europe’s Low Fertility Rates

The United Nations Population Fund recently held a forum in Europe to examine an odd topic — the extremely low fertility rates that most European countries are currently experiencing.

Over the last 25 years, European countries have seen an unprecedented, sustained drop in total fertility rates. As United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Executive Secretary Brigita Schmögnerová noted,

Europe is currently in a unique epoch in its population history. Europe is moving into a new demographic regime.

Since this has never happened to a human society that was not facing some sort of crisis, the implications for Europe’s future are still hotly debated. Europe is likely, for example, to soon become the society with the oldest average age ever — how will that affect it? How will Europe handle the decline in younger workers and the attendant increase in older people?

Sources:

UN’s European population forum to examine region’s low fertility. UN Wire, January 12, 2004.

Experts Examine Europe’s Population, Reproductive Health Concerns. Press Release, United Nations, January 12, 2004.