Update: Kajal Bheel - January 26th, 2015

January 26th, 2015: Kajal Bheel’s next hearing will be on the 11th of February. Global Human Rights Defence calls for the return of Kajal to her parents. We await the judge’s decision and will keep you updated on Kajal's 7th hearing.

Full case of Kajal Bheel here:

www.ghrd.org/get-involved/petitions/save-kajal/the-case/

Kajal Bheel and Forced Conversions in Pakistan

GHRD is currently working on the case of Kajal Bheel. Kajal is a 12-year-old girl from the Sindh province in Pakistan. On the 21st of October this year, Kajal was home alone with her brother when the perpetrators broke into the family house and abducted Kajal. Her uncle witnessed the incident from across the street but could not intervene as the perpetrators were carrying weapons.

Her parents later found out that their daughter had been forcefully married to one of the perpetrators and tried to lodge a First Investigation Report (FIR). However, the police were unwilling to help them. The family was summoned to the court where man unknown to them handed over a marriage certificate on which Kajal’s name had been changed.

Child marriages and forced conversions are illegal in Pakistan, and minors (people under the age of 18) are not allowed to marry. Because of this Kajal has been ordered by court to take a medical exam to prove that she is 12 years old, despite having a valid birth certificate. The medical exam stated she is 17 (which means she is still a minor). Nevertheless, the judge has decided to apply Sharia law instead of The Sindh Child Marriages Restraint Act and according to Sharia law, a girl is considered to be an adult as soon as she reaches puberty. Therefore, the court is claiming Kajal is an adult and there is no claim to a legal case, as Kajal has given evidence in court that she wanted to marry the perpetrator. However, there is reason to believe she was pressured to make this statement as the perpetrator was present during the court session.

Kajal’s second court hearing was supposed to be held on December 3rd. However, it was postponed as the judge felt he did not want to deal with the case anymore. The following court hearing was supposed to be held on December 9th. The court hearing was once again postponed until the 19th of December; during which two other similar cases on forced conversions will also take place. At present, Kajal is still with her perpetrators.

Demonstrations and seminars have been held in the Sindh province of Pakistan in order to stand up against forced conversions and child marriages and  raise awareness. Tomorrow, December 10^th, demonstrations will be held in Washington D.C. on the same topic.

We have seen many similar cases like the one of Kajal. It is very common for young girls to be the victim of abduction, forceful marriages and religious conversions. The only way to stop this is to put pressure on the national government and encourage them to take action against forced conversions of young girls.

You can sign the petition here: http://ghrd.org/get-involved/petitions/save-kajal/

You can also follow the hash tag #SaveKajal on Facebook and Twitter in order to stay updated. 

Youth in Action: Power to You(th) training program by Anna Donath, Human Rights intern

Between 30^th October and 4^th November I participated in a Power to You(th) training course on Youth Empowerment, Employability and Entrepreneurship. The training was organized for youth workers and youth leaders working directly with young people. It took place in Beaufort, Luxemburg, a small village in the beautiful region called “Little Switzerland” which is approximately 30km away from Luxembourg City. The training was organized by the Luxembourg National Agency and the 21 participants represented 15 different countries (Austria, Croatia, Check Republic, Finland, France, Hungary, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Turkey

       

Power to You(th) aimed to provide youth workers and youth leaders with creative, adaptable tools and the inspiration to facilitate youth empowerment and to promote entrepreneurship and employability of young people. We explored the tool of Youth Exchanges as part of the Erasmus+ programme to be able to use it in our work to inspire and empower young people to actively participate in society.

                                       

Using non-formal education methods and activities (such as outdoor work, experiential learning, and theatre and community interaction), this training aimed at creating an inspiring, active and creative space for the development of new ideas and exploring possibilities for youth employability and entrepreneurship by focusing on youth empowerment tools. It gave us, the participants, the possibility to discover meaningful roles and develop different tools in our work around youth projects.

                                                                 

We also had the chance to explore – as the locals calls - the City (aka Luxembourg City). We had an amazing walk through the city and thanks to the local participants we learned a lot of the history and culture of Luxembourg. We also had a great dinner there with the Luxembourg National Agency and were treated to the local specialities.

                                    

One of my favourite exercises and memory’s is definitely when we spent a day on exploring the world of Erasmus+ and whether it can be used as a tool for supporting the empowerment process and how youth workers and youth leaders can support young people in this process of reflecting and recording and learning to harness their skills to increase future employability (with the aim that we will be able to create powerful activities and projects with and for young people). To familiarize ourselves  with the whole process of organizing/participating in a Youth Exchange we received the most empowering task in the training. We were randomly assigned groups, received a  map of the neighbouring forests, lunch bags and an exercise of coming up with an imaginary person (complete with a detailed socio-economic description) and to take that person with us for a small hiking tour.

                                                                  

During the tour each group had to discuss each level of the process of a Youth Exchange project (getting informed, applying, organizing, participating and reflecting on a Youth Exchange project). We were walking in the most beautiful, fairy tale like forest for 4 hours and created a whole story. Not just about the imaginary person and her experiences, but we also created an imaginary Youth Exchange program, with actual training plan, with the budget and its objectives. But overall the hiking tour was more than a training exercise. The peaceful environment, the beauty of the nature gave us new perspectives and provided a perfect situation for self-reflection.

                                                   

Overall the training was a big success, not only  did I gain new knowledge, skills and experiences but also made new friends and professional partners for future projects.

                                       

GHRD Report: Youth in Action: Keep Active and Change your Life, Puente Genil, Spain by Syd Boyd, Communications Intern

In October 2014, I attended a week long training for Youth in Action in Puente Genil, Spain. The training was called “Keep Active and Change your Life” and was organised by the Spanish NGO Camaleon Rojo. The aim of the course was to empower European youth by providing greater understanding of the European job market, as well as methods to approach the job-hunting process. The programme was attended by four groups from different nationalities, the Italian team, the Austrian team, the Spanish team, the Polish team, and last but not least, the Dutch Team. Drawing on the resources compiled by teams from five countries, the trainee was provided with a comprehensive understanding of the European job-market and was equipped with skills to deal with the difficulties of securing a career in a difficult economic time. It was a fantastic experience and I feel privileged to have attended. I gained massive cultural experience and learned a lot during the training, and had the opportunity to meet highly motivated and inspirational people.

The training was intensive, starting every day at 08.00 and ending every day at around 22.00. The training consisted of a lot of role-playing and presenting. Main activities included, playing the Stereotypes game, partaking in Cultural Evenings, doing Energizers, defending a point of view, preparing an Interview and a CV, learning about news ways to present a CV such as the Video Curriculum format, and creating a song based on our experiences during the training. All team exercises were highly educational, especially as they involved interacting with people from different cultures with different mind-sets. I found I could deal with it quite well, and felt that despite different cultural approaches, there were basic human similarities that we could lock on to.

Besides activities directly related to the Youth in Action training, we were invited to participate in several cultural outings. Of course, being with so many different cultures was a training in itself, and we learned loads about the various cultures that were represented. Cultural excursions were an important part of the trip. Our first excursion was a visit to the town hall of Puente Genil, to meet with the Mayor. Local journalists were present, and country group leaders were asked to speak about the Youth in Action programme. It was nice to make the Puente Genil newspapers. An excellent part of the trip was the visit to Cordoba, what a fantastic city. It was about 28 degrees, and we spent the day sight-seeing. It was an amazing experience. The city used to be an important part of the Muslim Caliphate, and had impressive Muslim architecture. I was blown away by a mosque we visited, which had been converted to a Christian church. I had never seen anything like it. It was a bizarre mixture of Mosque and Church, with Christian paraphernalia adorning three of the walls, the fourth wall was still covered in Muslim temple art. The vast hall was like some ancient Middle Eastern prayer room, with sand coloured columns a sprawling flagstone floor. The ceiling was very high, and the whole thing looked like a massive desert cave, and very impressive. For the rest of the afternoon we walked through the historic part of the town, as well as the beautiful bridge leading out of Cordoba. A few of us spent a considerable amount of time shopping for souvenirs. It seemed to be no obstacle that pretty much every tourist shop was exactly the same, as we nipped into the next tourist shop available after having just left the first.

In conclusion I found the whole experience tremendously valuable. Meeting the people from the other countries and developing a close relationship with them provided us all with a profound experience of each other’s culture, as well as throwing light on our own culture, and the things we do without thinking about them, as they are supposedly normal. The training was interesting too, as it enabled me to unravel my thoughts about job hunting, as well as passing on some information that had been very helpful to me. The atmosphere was fantastic and reflected in the ongoing Facebook group, which for two weeks after the training is still used as a contact point for participants from all teams, and where all photos are uploaded and further arrangements are made for meeting up in the participant countries. Everyone made a great effort, and people who at the start of the week were having difficulties with English improved in leaps and bounds. It was a pleasure to see people’s confidence and expertise improve in such a short time. Public speaking skills were greatly improved, as everyone was expected to get up in front of the group and present various role playing activities. Initially, some people were considered designated public speakers, but as the programme went on, everyone gained confidence and the skill to present, and present well in English no less. To some the experience was even life changing, as confidence increased and new horizons were delineated. Whereas previously participants had a fixed view of life and how it should be lived, now opportunities were limitless, and not bound by past conditioning. In short, the Youth in Action training programme contributed to the personal freedom of the participants, and as such achieved a worthy goal. I was inspired by the other people I met, as they were all outgoing, positive, and adventurous individuals, who had faced and overcome various challenges in their lives, and had a wide array of skills and pursuits. Certain characteristics I noticed in some of the participants I will emulate, as I was deeply impressed by them. In short, it was a privilege to have been able to attend the Youth in Action training.

Pakistan Hindu Seva Welfare Trust: Goals and Partnerships

I am Sanjesh Dhanja from Karachi, Pakistan. I am currently running an organization called the Pakistan Hindu Seva Welfare Trust (PHS) which is based in Karachi. Pakistan Hindu Seva is a non-political, secular, non-profit, non-discriminatory and progressive humanitarian charity organization. PHS strives for the betterment of deprived communities in Pakistan and also provides legal support for different victims affected by human rights violations in all of Sindh. PHS focuses on the rights of women and education of children which are affected to a high extent.  

Minorities in Pakistan are not enjoying their full rights, and are facing many problems. Minorities in Pakistan are being treated as second class citizens. To date we, minorities, are not free and are unable to enjoy our rights. As stated by the founder of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah; “You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship in this State of Pakistan ... You may belong to any religion or caste or creed—that has nothing to do with the business of the State".

Some of the major problems Hindus in Pakistan facing are: discrimination within the community, land grabbing, lack of education, lack of health facilities, water shortage, unemployment, low wages, child labor, child marriage,  bonded labor, rape cases, forced conversion, the Blasphemy Act and demolition of temples.

I belong to the Hindu community. Being from a minority group in Pakistan and facing discrimination has motivated me to initiate my own organization to work and fight for equal rights.

PHS has been affiliated with Global Human Rights Defence (GHRD) since 2012. GHRD has given different trainings on development, communication, strategy planning, advocacy and lobbying.  These trainings have empowered me and the employees of PHS. Positive changes are made on documenting, reporting, reaching out to society, conducting fact findings and lobbying for cases.

I learnt to analyse, verify and monitor and follow up the cases which involve human rights violations . I learnt to summarise case files for websites and other publications, to write articles for the website, newsletters and how to improve communication with international organizations. I learned to write strategy plans, advocacy, lobby and legal assistance cases and a fundraising strategy for my organization.

I have learned many skills during my training which includes skills of communication, fundraising, administration and writing.

I have shared my experience as a Pakistani Hindu with the GHRD team. I have informed them of various social and economic issues that the Hindu community face in Pakistani society. I talk about forced conversion, discriminatory laws, bonded labour which are, among others, some of the most urgent human right issues for Hindus in Pakistan.

My goals were to explore my organization and community work through learning at GHRD. It was great to learn from the GHRD team about communication and reporting. I was given tasks for formulating strategic and fundraising planning as I was unknown to all this and I learnt a lot.

It was good time with the GHRD team at Hague.  It was nice to be a part of this training where I learned a lot which remains helpful to me and my organization. I would also like to say that I expect GHRD to create further opportunities for my organization as well.

I would like to thank GHRD for inviting me to their Head office in the Hague for this eminent training.  I will implement all my learning from GHRD in PHS and continue to use these skills to enhance the effectiveness of PHS.

What does it mean to violate human rights? Do we  know when our rights are violated? If you can answer these questions you probably know that human rights are “the rights a person has simply because he or she is a human being”, which are embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Officially, there is a universal consensus about them. Nevertheless, I sincerely doubt whether this universal consensus is put into practice in the world we live in.

As rights and values are defined and limited by cultural perceptions and there is no universal culture which all human beings identify with, denial of universal rights is frequent in our modern multicultural society. Even though we might think that human rights violations do not occur in the countries we live in, the reality is that no single country is left unaffected.

Human rights violations take many forms and are rampant in developing countries, where government corruption is part of everyday life and resources to fulfill the basic rights of the population are scarce. Extreme poverty and insecurity are the common denominators, which make people even more vulnerable. Without options and government protection, they are often treated as less than human beings. For instance, endless human rights abuses in the form of mass atrocity crimes are being perpetrated in countries such as the Central African Republic, South Sudan, and in the Democratic Republic of Congo; prisons with inhuman conditions and strong repression against freedom of expression have been reported in Cuba, Argentina, Venezuela, China, Malaysia and in many African countries; child labor is particularly common in Haiti and chronic gender-based violence in India, where gang-rapes are frequent. Stoning and religious intolerance have been found in the Middle East and in African countries; cases of systematic torture and arbitrary detentions are committed in countries from South-East Asia and Latin America, where the abuse of non-democratic powers also restricts minorities’ rights; modern forms of slavery such as child marriage and bonded labor are widespread, as well as terrorism; the list goes on and on.

However, we should not make the mistake of believing that developed countries are free from all guilt. Global interdependence has engendered human trafficking and human rights abuses by powerful transnational corporations, which are characterized by forced labor and sexual exploitation. And behind these cruel practices, there are always individual perpetrators who authorize the ordeal and ignore the most basic rights of the victims.

But, do human rights violations affect all of us in the same way? Definitely they do not. Since a victim from a developing country is usually exposed to extremely cruel situations in their home regions, accepting the offer of a “better job” abroad – usually in a developed country – is seen as the only escape. But the job is a fantasy. On arrival in the destination country, isolated and with no knowledge of the language, this person can be forced to work under appalling and deplorable conditions; totally at the mercy of the traffickers. If they escape, they usually end begging on the streets, homeless, where they risk dying without anyone noticing their “absence”. On the other hand, a victim from a developed country can see her social, economic and cultural rights limited or even reduced[1]; as a consequence, the present gap between rich and poor people becomes bigger. For instance, this situation is occurring in some Western European countries where the economic crisis has had a strong impact.

Additionally, more and more people have ended begging in the streets; torture of people who have participated in demonstrations by authority forces is also an increasing tendency concerning human rights violations in some developed countries that suffer from the economic crisis; and discrimination based on skin color, gender, religion or even for just being a “poor” person is increasing, which can even turn into violence or aggression. Human rights are alleged to be guaranteed by law, but despite the multitude of international instruments, governments are rarely willing to ensure that those who profit from vulnerable people are punished; and civil society remains passive towards such injustices.

Reflection on human rights abuses from a global approach is therefore more necessary than ever. The interdependent world we live in makes us all responsible for human rights violations (when we buy products from companies that use forced labor; when we do not take action against corruption and violence against women; or when we do not claim for equal opportunities, to mention a few). Even though it is very difficult to eradicate human rights violations, knowing our rights is the first step. The second consists of attacking discrimination, combating poverty, promoting respectful and tolerant education, and providing access to justice for all. We need to ask ourselves what kind of world we live in when we allow such outrageous practices to persist. We cannot deny the fact of the human condition, which encompasses both the unique and common features of every human being, making us all equal on the face of the Earth.

[1] According to the United Nations, “economic, social and cultural rights include the rights to adequate food, to adequate housing, to education, to health, to social security, to take part in cultural life, to water and sanitation, and to work”.

Disclaimer: Blog posts do not necessarily reflect the views of Global Human Rights Defence.

Youth in Action in Spain: Get Transnational!

At the end of June, GHRD’s European Volunter Service (EVS) volunteer, Barbara Mojzes attended a Youth in Action training programme in Spain, targeting transnational youth initiatives within the new Erasmus+ Programme. 

The training organized by Spanish National Agency and took a place in Cercedilla; a picturesque Spanish village just a half an hour ride to Madrid. 24 participants representing various organisations from all around Europe, Turkey and even Nigeria guaranteed the diversity of opinions and perspectives during the whole week.

 The priority of the seminar was to promote European projects through transnational youth initiatives within the framework of Erasmus+ Programme and to establishing platforms for people who are interested in developing youth initiatives focusing on entrepreneurship.

Our trainers were experts on non-formal education and working methods, as all of the training sessions involved games, energizers, simulations and amusing exercises, which created a positive and cheerful atmosphere for further fruitful cooperation.  

In the very beginning of the training, participants got an opportunity to present their organisations and activities during the Project and NGO market. The session gave us an overview of organisations’ focus areas and their capacities. Since the core aim of the training programme was to establish transnational collaboration among various NGOs and set up projects (transnational youth initiatives) that are suitable for future realization.

One of my best memories is definitely the international night organized  during the first evening we spent in Cercedilla. The aim of the night was to present your own traditional cuisine. We had so much fun while tasting various (and sometimes peculiar) foods and drinks from Latvia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Croatia, Romania, UK, Spain, France, Turkey and the Netherlands.

Following four days of intensive training and project management, we spent a pleasant afternoon in Madrid; the amazing Spanish capital that never sleeps. The timing was perfect since we all needed  some rest and inspiration during the last days of our great journey. So, we enjoyed the sightseeing led by local hosts and delicious dinner as much as possible.

It was not always easy to work with people with different cultural backgrounds and views, but I wanted to cherish this multicultural environment to the fullest. I mean what a boring and dull world it would be without this incredible diversity. Wouldn't you agree?