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Resources > News Service > Newsletters > Issue 6, March-Ap...

Issue 6, March-April 2003

News From AP Partners


News From The Advocacy Project



News From AP Partners

Iraq War Prompts Evacuation of AP Consultant From Pakistan

After spending two months working with the Afghan Women’s Network, AP consultant Mary Moore was abruptly evacuated from Pakistan on the eve of the attack on Iraq. Ms. Moore, who is formally under contract with the International Rescue Committee (IRC), was relocated to Bangkok, where she has continued to communicate with the AWN. It is expected that she will return to the region late this week.

Two more extracts of Ms. Moore’s diaries are now posted on the AP site. In the first extract, Ms. Moore describes her visit to three refugee camps near Peshawar and explains why over a million Afghan refugees in Pakistan have declined to return home. About 75 percent of these refugees are women and children, and they believe health services are better in the camps than in Afghanistan. Even so, writes Ms. Moore, services in the camps remain extremely basic and often expensive.

The weeks leading up to her evacuation were busy ones for Ms. Moore. In particular, she helped the AWN prepare for a March 6 press conference in Kabul. This allowed the AWN to launch a major new AWN campaign to demand that womens’ rights be given more prominence in the new Afghan constitution. Sadiqa Basiri, the AWN Director of External Relations, also unveiled the new AWN website. This was designed by AP and has now been taken over by the AWN. A local language version is in preparation. Visitors viewed 1,550 pages on the site in March, from 27 different countries.

The project is being funded by the Central Eurasia Project of the Open Society Institute, and the East-West Management Institute.

AP Attends the Mass Funeral of 600 Victims of the 1995 Srebrenica Massacre

On March 31, The Advocacy Project attended the mass burial of 600 victims of the notorious 1995 massacre in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica. AP is working with two prominent Srebrenica-based NGOs - the Srebrenica Forum of NGOs and Bosfam.

The funeral ceremony attracted thousands of mourners from all over Bosnia, and prompted an extraordinary outpouring of grief. Photos of the event, taken by AP Coordinator Iain Guest, can be seen at the link below. AP will publish a written account of the ceremony shortly.

In spite of their grief, the 600 families derived some measure of comfort from being able to identify and bury a loved one. So far, only 1,240 victims have been tentatively identified, out of the roughly 8,000 who died in 1995.

Meanwhile, AP’s Field Coordinator Peter Lippman is returning to the Srebrenica area this week to work with Bosfam and the NGO Forum. Three new NGOs have joined the Forum: SAROS, a Sarajevo-based association for displaced persons; LEPTIR, a group that lobbies for the rights of disabled people in the Srebrenica area; and SNAGA ZENE (‘Strength of Women'), a group that works with women and children. Mercy Corps-Scotland and the Danish Refugee Council - have both withdrawn from the Forum, while a third - the Serb Citizens Council - has disbanded.

Under a grant from the Dutch Refugee Foundation, AP is helping the Forum and Bosfam create websites. The work has been undertaken by the Center for Information Technology, a Tuzla-based group, which is also training Forum members in website maintenance.


Palestinian Civil Society is Hurt by NGO Funding Scandal

Palestinian civil society has been badly compromised by news that one of the largest and most prominent NGOs, named LAW, has misused an estimated 40 percent of the $10 million it has received from Western aid sources.

The funding scandal broke recently, when a consortium of Western aid donors publicly announced a suspension of aid to LAW. Many Western diplomats feel a deep sense of personal betrayal at LAW’s dishonesty, and are warning that they plan a thorough investigation of NGO practices.

The scandal has called into question a cardinal principle of Western policy - that Palestinian nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) can create an independent ‘Third Way’ between two implacable enemies and lay the basis for a Palestinian state based on the rule of law and human rights.

But a new commentary from The Advocacy Project argues that this was never realistic. In fact, it served as an excuse by donors to avoid addressing the root cause of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - particularly Israel’s policies of annexation and closure.

Notwithstanding the LAW scandal, the AP commentary argues that Palestinian civil society still has a vital role to play in monitoring the reform of the Palestinian Authority. Using the example of an AP partner - the Democracy and Workers Rights Center (DWRC), based in Ramallah – the commentary argues that Western donors should not let LAW’s misdeeds weaken Palestinian civil society as a whole, at such a critical juncture.


Women's Consortium of Nigeria Launches Campaigns to Halt Domestic Trafficking and Monitor Elections

The Women’s Consortium of Nigeria (WOCON) has launched a campaign to put an end to domestic trafficking in Nigeria and neighboring countries. The practice involves the selling of women and girls into domestic slavery.

According to Olabisi Olateru-Olabisi, the founder and director of WOCON, domestic trafficking is widespread within Nigeria, but largely unresearched. Certainly, the practice has received far less publicity than the international trafficking of Nigerians to Europe which was exposed by WOCON, with help from The Advocacy Project, in 2000.

WOCON is now applying its advocacy skills to domestic trafficking. One of the first cases brought to court involved a thirteen-year-old girl, Amina Mohammed, who was forced to work for five years in a marketplace after being trafficked from the north of Nigeria. She was so hungry that she ‘stole’ a piece of meat from her trafficker, and was then doused in kerosene and set on fire in the marketplace as a ‘punishment.’ The girl is is now in WOCON’s protective custody after suffering burns over three-quarters of her body.

WOCON has received grants from the International Program for the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) to take 468 children out of prostitution and domestic work, and place them in school or training. A parallel program is also under way to train their parents.

Meanwhile, WOCON is also serving as Vice-chair of the Transition Monitoring Group, a civil society coalition that will be monitoring the forthcoming April 19 presidential elections in Nigeria. WOCON will be deploying 700 monitors in two provinces, Ondo and Ogun.


Trafficking in Eastern Europe

Several anti-trafficking experts from Russia, Ukraine and the United States met at Georgetown University on October 30, 2002 to discuss unified strategies by civil society to combat trafficking. The meeting took place under the auspices of the Human Rights Forum, which is jointly sponsored by The Advocacy Project and the Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown.

The Ukraine receives trafficked girls and also exports them to Russia. This makes cooperation between the two governments essential. Unfortunately, anti-trafficking laws in both countries are at different stages of development and also lack teeth. Official cooperation is minimal. This makes it essential for civil society to work together.

Eastern European activists are keen to learn from the US, which has enacted a law that allows for sanctions against governments that decline to prosecute traffickers. But this approach was denounced by Teresa Loar, President of the US-based group Vital Voices. Ms. Loar called for more US aid to support grassroots programs in countries like the Ukraine, instead of ‘finger-pointing.’


New Campaign Seeks to Profile Victims of War Crimes and Press US to Join Criminal Court

A new campaign has been launched by the World Federalist Association (WFA) of the US. Its goal is to provide reparations to victims of war crimes through a trust fund that has been established under the International Criminal Court, and in the process to generate support for the ICC among Americans.

The ICC will use the Trust Fund to help victims of war crimes cover the cost of medical and psychological care, as well as rebuild their communities. This could include schools for orphans, local memorials, peace education, and the proper burial of the dead.

Peter Lippman, AP’s Field Project Director, has written one of the four profiles of victims that are being used by WFA in its campaign. Mr. Lippman profiled Magbula, who lost several family members at the 1995 massacre at Srebrenica and is one of the weavers at the women’s group Bosfam.

The WFA expects to distribute 2,000 kits that tell the story of four survivors like Magbula, and hopes to attract up to10,000 visitors to its website.



New International Roma Women's Network Attracts Attention

Roma women from 18 European countries have launched a new network, the International Roma Women’s Network (IRWN), to lobby governments for better living conditions and to fight for Roma women’s rights.

The new network was launched on March 8 - International Women’s Day - and is the first that brings together Roma women’s groups from West as well as Eastern Europe. The IRWN has drafted a charter, and established an informal committee of five women from Sweden, England, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Rumania. The Advocacy Project recently conducted two days of training for the IRWN committee at the Council of Europe (Strasbourg, France).


AP-Trained Roma eRiders Shine at Tech and Nonprofits Oakland Meeting

Several young Information Technology specialists (eRiders) from Eastern Europe, who have been trained by The Advocacy Project, made a splash at a high-powered meeting of IT specialists in Oakland, US.

The meeting was the seventh annual session of the Circuit Rider Round Up, which brings together experts to review how IT is serving the needs of the nonprofit community. Past Round Ups have tended to focus on the US, but this session featured 30 international participants. They included eight eRiders who participated in an AP training course for eRiders from 14 different countries that took place in November 2002 in Prishtina (Kosovo) with funding from the Open Society Institute (OSI).

eRiders are local information technology experts who service the needs of community advocates. With help from OSI, AP is promoting this approach to IT in three field projects in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Eastern Europe.

AP was represented at Oakland by AP’s Technical Director, Teresa Crawford, and Technical Coordinator Ginger Bazar. Ms. Bazar has produced a video on AP’s work with Roma eRiders, based on the Kosovo training sessions, that will shortly be posted on the AP website.

AP’s delegation was able to explain how eRiding can work internationally during a panel discussion at Oakland (‘Taking eRiding Global’), which drew over 40 participants, and was facilitated by Ms. Crawford. The panel received high ratings from conference participants.

The growing interest in international eRiding shows how far support for this model of IT support has come since AP first attended the Round Up meeting in 2000 as a newcomer. Over the last three years, OSI has - with AP’s help - exported the eRider model abroad. There are currently over 30 eRider projects under way around the world.

AP was asked how US riders could support their global colleagues. One answer might be through mentoring and internships, and AP is exploring an internship program with the Michigan affiliate of the national Npower network. Under the plan, Npower Michigan might host global eRiders for 3-6 month internships where they would work with Npower consultants to provide technical support to NGOs in the Detroit area. Npower has nine US affiliates that serve thousands of organizations.


First eRider Articles are Published on the Web

Four Roma eRiders who work with The Advocacy Project have written articles about their work for one of the largest IT web portals. The Tech Soup portal is managed by Compumentor and aims to help nonprofits make better use of technology in their work.

The four articles are among 12 that have been commissioned by Tech Soup for a new section on the website called ‘Taking eRiding Global.’ This is the first time that the Roma eRiders have written about their work in this way. It is also rare for individuals from an informal network (as opposed to organization) to work together and produce write articles for a major website.

One of the articles, written by eRider Gyula Vamosi from Hungary, has been highlighted in Tech Soup’s newsletter ‘By the Cup,’ which goes out to 27,000 subscribers. Mr. Vamosi recalls how he persuaded Roma parents in Hungary to email the Hungarian Prime Minister Medgyeddy Peter. The Prime Minister replied and the parents were emboldened to take their desegregation campaign to new heights. ‘The latest Pentium IIII computer will probably not change the world, but a single email from the Prime Minister might,’ writes Mr. Vamosi.

The series was developed for Tech Soup in partnership with Tom Battin, from Compasspoint. New articles will be posted in the next few weeks and an online discussion of global eRiders was hosted by Tech Soup in April.


Kosovo Internet Project to Grant 50 High-Speed Internet Connections

IPKO Institute plans to grant 50 high-speed wireless connections to civil society organizations outside Prishtina, the capital of Kosovo.

The grant competition was formally announced on March 15, through radios, newspaper and TV stations in Kosovo. Successful applicants will be able to use the connections (which are worth about 400 Euros a month) to run computer labs, do video-conferencing, and also host web or mail servers.

IPKO was launched following the war in 1999, by Teresa Crawford, the AP Technical Director, Akan Ismaili and Paul Meyer, with the goal of serving the IT needs of international NGOs and local civil society. In the last four years it has given away more than 600,000 Euros worth of Internet connectivity to local civil society in Prishtina.

IPKOnet, the for-profit spin off of IPKO Institute, is now expanding its network to cover all of Kosovo and the 50 new connections from IPKO Institute will open up the Internet to civil society in 6 cities: Prizren, Gjilan, Peja, Mitrovica, Ferizaj, and Gjakova. One of the groups that plans to apply is the women’s group Motrat Qiriazi, which has set up a computer lab for girls in the isolated region of Has, in northwest Kosovo. AP worked with Mortrat Qiriazi to train Kosova Women’s Network (KWN) in 2001.


Survivor Describes the 1982 Rio Negro Massacres in Guatemala

Jesus Tecu Osorio, a prominent Guatemalan indigenous leader, has written an autobiography that gives a dramatic first-hand account of the notorious March 13, 1982 massacre at Rio Negro, in which 177 women and children were murdered by paramilitaries.

The massacre occurred after the inhabitants of Rio Negro refused to move from their traditional land, to make way for a dam that was being constructed with a World Bank loan. Mr. Osorio escaped the massacre and went on to become one of Guatemala’s most respected indigenous leaders. He is a co-founder of ADIVIMA, a community campaign that has led the fight for justice and reparations in the Guatemalan province of Rabinal.

Tecu’s book is entitled ‘The Rio Negro Massacres,’ and it includes reproductions of original drawings by the author. It is available at $15 from Rights Action, a Toronto-based group which has supported ADIVIMA since its establishment. To order, email Rights Action.


'Moving the Mountain'- A Student's View of the AIDS Crisis in Asia

Adam Frankel, a student at Princeton University, has written a detailed and graphic account of the fight against AIDS in Asia. Mr. Frankel visited several Asian countries in the summer of 2002 in a scholarship from Princeton. Prior to his Asian mission, Mr. Frankel worked with AP during the Special Session of the UN General Assembly on Children. He also visited South Africa and Botswana on behalf of Youth Against AIDS in the summer of 2001.

News From The Advocacy Project

AP Website

Visitors to the AP website viewed 38,988 pages during February - an increase over the 37,546 pages viewed in January. There was a slight reduction of visitor sessions, from 12,731 to 12,367, but the number of unique visitors rose by 563 in February. Each visitor spent an average of 10.30 minutes on the site. The top three pages in February featured Indigenous people in Ecuador; Palestinian civil society; and the campaign for justice in Guatemala. Visit these campaign pages for more information.

Submissions Requested for 'Women's Voices in War Zones'

A contest to express the voices of women and girls on the concepts of terror, war and security is being sponsored by Women’s World, a global free speech network. The organization hopes to bring forward women’s ideas on the post Sept. 11th world, and enable them to be heard in the public arena. For detailed information on the contest visit this site.

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