Day: December 7, 2004

The UN’s Money-For-Peace Scam

Via ScrappleFace.Com,

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan today vigorously denied allegations that he has overseen a complex, fraudulent scheme to pilfer billions of dollars from 191 nations under the guise of providing “global peace services.”

. . .

Mr. Annan brushed off suggestions that he should step down, and insisted he has fulfilled his role of fostering global peace by “holding meetings, eating in fine restaurants and speaking very softly in a charming accent.”

European Parliament Addresses Female Genital Mutilation

The European Parliament met in November to discuss female genital mutilation, which is believed to be on the rise in Europe as the continent receives more immigrant families from African countries where female genital mutilation is practiced.

Despite this, female genital mutilation is specifically outlawed in only three European countries — Sweden, Norway and the United Kingdom. Other countries do ban the practice under broader anti-mutilation statutes, but regardless there doesn’t seem to be a lot of effort to enforce such laws. According to a report in Afrol.Com, France has been the only European nation to undertake vigorous prosecution of female genital mutilation, with 25 such prosecutions so far. Sweden has apparently conducted a single prosecution for female genital mutilation. And that’s it.

Part of the problem is that most immigrant families are believed to have their daughters mutilated while they are visiting their country-of-origin. According to Afrol.Com, “Most countries do not follow up their legislation or can not prosecute if FGM was carried out abroad.”

The European Parliament essentially punted the issue back to individual European states. European Commission’s Social Affairs Commissioner Anna Diamantopoulou, who last year was keen on an EU-wide censorship plan, said that tackling female genital mutilation was simply beyond the European Commission. Afrol.Com reported,

After assuring that “the European Commission and the international community have recognised female genital mutilation as a profound violation of the human rights of women,” she stated that “any legislative measures, however, to combat FGM are not within the competence of the EU, and neither are provisions for the deinfibulation to be performed under proper medical conditions.”

According to the World Health Organization, as many as 100-140 million women worldwide have been subjected to female genital mutilation, and another 2 million girls are likely to face pressure to have the procedure each year.

Source:

Genital mutilation ‘on the increase in Europe’. Press Association News, November 26, 2004.

Europe impotent in fighting female mutilation among African women. Afrol.Com, November 30, 2004.

Amnesty International: Violence Against Women Is Factor in Spread of AIDS Epidemic

Amnesty International released a report in November, Women, HIV/AIDS and human rights, arguing that a failure of governments to tackle violence against women in AIDS-ravated regions of the world is contributing to the spread of that disease.

According to the report,

The increasing spread of HIV/AIDS among women and sexual violence are interlinked. If governments are serious in their fight against the disease they also have to deal with another worldwide ‘pandemic’: violence against women.

The report cites three specific traditional practices which Amnesty International says contribute to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. They are early marriage, in which very young girls are entered — often against their will — into marriage; wife inheritance, in which a wife is passed along to her husband’s brother in the event of the husband’s death; and female genital mutilation.

The report also notes that rape and violence against women are a major outcome of persistent wars in some parts of the world, especially Africa which has been hit hardest by the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Sources:

Amnesty: Violence against women is spreading AIDS. Reuters, November 24, 2004.

Women, HIV/AIDS and human rights. Amnesty International, November 24, 2004.

UN Investigating Sex Abuse Claims Against Congo Peacekeeping Force

In November the United Nations announced it was investigating as many as 150 allegations of sexual abuse carried out by the UN peacekeeping force in the Congo.

The actions followed a May 2004 announcement by the United Nations that peacekeepers were alleged to have committed about 30 cases of sexual abuse in the northeastern Congo town of Bunia.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said of the allegations,

I am afraid there is clear evidence that acts of gross misconduct have taken place. This is a shameful thing for the United Nations to have to say, and I am absolutely outraged by it.

There are close to 11,000 United Nations peacekeepers in the Congo. The United Nations cannot punish offending soldiers directly, but instead must return the soldiers to their country of origin and ask it to take action against the accused.

Sources:

UN: 150 Sex Abuse Charges in Congo Peacekeeping. Evelyn Leopold, Reuters, November 22, 2004.

UN Congo peacekeepers guilty of sex abuse. China Daily, November 20, 2004.