The Best & Worst Human Rights Developments of 2012 -By Mary McGuire | Freedom House

Today is the first day of the new year, 1 January 2013. Before embarking on the new year, I wanted to share a list compiled by Freedom House that reflects back on some of last year’s human rights developments. How did the world do following an eventful 2011?

Unfortunately, the bad seemed to outweigh the good this year, as many authoritarians held on to power and continued upheaval in the Middle East threatened to derail any democratic progress. Internal conflicts in a number of African countries boiled over, and the bulk of the former Soviet Union appeared to be moving in the wrong direction. Meanwhile, widely hailed political achievements in countries like Burma, Egypt and Georgia were complicated by negative twists.

Ongoing ethnic conflicts in Burma have undercut a recent democratic opening that was significant enough to allow the first visit by a U.S. president. Relatively free and competitive elections in Egypt have been overshadowed by continued unrest and authoritarian maneuvers by President Mohamed Morsi. In Georgia, what was considered a historic democratic transfer of power has been potentially jeopardized by what some regard as politically motivated prosecutions of former ruling party officials.

Though this list is far from exhaustive, the following were some of the best and worst human rights developments in 2012.

BEST 

LGBTI Victories in the Western Hemisphere:

There were several important victories in the battle for LGBTI rights in 2012, particularly in the United States and Latin America. A U.S. president voiced public support for gay marriage for the first time, and three states — Washington, Maryland and Maine — passed laws allowing same-sex marriage, bringing the total number of states with such rules to nine. In addition, the first openly gay woman was elected to the U.S. Senate. In Argentina, where same-sex marriage has been legal since 2010, the Senate passed legislation that allows gender to be legally changed without medical or judicial approval, and includes sex-change surgery and hormone treatment in government health insurance plans. The same month, Chile passed an anti-discrimination law that penalizes all forms of discrimination. Although not specifically written to protect LGTBI rights, the measure was spurred by the brutal killing an openly gay man. Even Cuba has jumped on the bandwagon, electing its first transgender person to municipal office. Same-sex marriage is also legal in Canada and some parts of Mexico. Sadly, for all of the progress seen in this hemisphere, the situation for LGBTI people has actually worsened in much of Eurasia and Africa.

Passage of the Magnitsky Act:

Russia’s human rights decline made it an easy choice for this year’s “worst” list, but one development is worthy of celebration — the passage by the U.S. Congress of the Magnitsky Act. The legislation is named after Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in jail after exposing a multi-million dollar fraud by Russian officials. It will place visa bans and asset freezes on Russian officials involved in human rights abuses. The bill received overwhelming bipartisan support as part of a larger measure that normalizes trade relations with Russia and Moldova. President Obama signed the legislation on December 14 despite harsh objections from the Kremlin. This law could set a precedent for how the United States and other free societies address gross human rights violations around the world. The European Parliament has endorsed the adoption of similar legislation.

Conviction of Charles Taylor:

In April, former Liberian president Charles Taylor became the first former head of state to be convicted of war crimes since World War II. He was sentenced in May by a UN-backed special tribunal to 50 years in prison for his role in a decade-long civil war in Sierra Leone. He was specifically found guilty of aiding and abetting the “commission of serious crimes including rape, murder, and destruction of civilian property” by rebel forces in that country. Taylor stepped down as Liberian president in 2003 amid serious domestic challenges to his rule and international calls for his resignation. His departure ended 14 years of intermittent civil war that had killed some 200,000 Liberians. He sought asylum in Nigeria, but was eventually handed over to the special tribunal.

Survival of the Tunisian Revolution:

While the freely elected transitional authorities in Tunisia have been buffeted by public frustration with high unemployment and pressure from conservative Islamists, the country has not yet suffered the fate of many of its neighbors in the aftermath of the 2011 Arab Spring. Varying degrees of instability and repression persist in Libya, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen and particularly Syria, but Tunisia has made slow if uneven gains in its democratic transition. The constitutional drafting process is creeping forward without the bitter conflicts seen in Egypt, and the ruling Ennahda party, which was at one time a radical Islamist faction, has largely followed through on its commitment to govern moderately and work peacefully with secular parties. As the country approaches the two-year anniversary of the revolution, however, economic struggles have led to anti-government protests, one of which left nearly 200 people wounded, and support for the ruling coalition has definitively waned. The constitution is two months overdue, and there have been some concerning violations of press freedom. Despite these challenges, Tunisia continues to provide a positive example to the wider region.

WORST

Civil War in Syria:

The civil war in Syria is the worst human rights and humanitarian catastrophe in the world today. The latest estimates put the death toll at 42,000, with no end in sight. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, an alarming number of reporters — 28 — have been killed while covering the conflict in 2012. President Bashar al-Assad’s regime has been on the verge of collapse for months, with many of his top advisers defecting or fleeing the country, yet he has vowed to remain in Syria, dead or alive. It is not even clear that his removal alone would end the fighting. Meanwhile, attacks by government forces on civilians in rebel-held areas are unceasing, and there are now concerns that the military is arming missiles with chemical weapons. Some rebel groups in the fragmented opposition have resorted to kidnapping and retribution killings, raising serious questions about postwar governance. No amount of diplomacy or international pressure has succeeded in convincing Russia to stop providing arms to government forces, or China to back broad-based demands for al-Assad to step down. And there is simply no political will within the United States or the rest of NATO to hasten the end of the conflict through direct intervention.

Devastation in Congo:

Over the past century, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, one of the most resource-rich countries on the African continent, has been gutted by a combination of colonialism, corrupt and ineffective government, ethnic conflict and a succession of armed militias and rebel groups that have raped and pillaged their way through the countryside, often using conscripted child soldiers. As many as five million people have died since the late 1990s. The fraudulent 2011 reelection of feckless president Joseph Kabila was followed by the mutiny of hundreds of ethnic Tutsi soldiers, who then formed the March 23 (M23) rebel movement, widely believed to be funded by neighboring Rwanda. In November, M23 invaded and took control of Goma, a provincial capital with a population of 1 million, leading nearly 140,000 people to flee their homes. The international community has largely turned a blind eye to the country’s seemingly endless crisis, perhaps because there does not appear to be an easy solution. On a positive note, international pressure forced M23 to vacate Goma after just a few weeks, and the United States and Britain, which had long tolerated Rwanda’s denials that it was contributing to the unrest, cut military aid to the country as a result of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. But these steps on their own appear unlikely end the fighting.

Coup and Extremism in Mali:

As in Congo, the horrific human rights situation in Mali was not caused by any single event. Rather it was a cascade of disasters that included a military coup, a reinvigorated Tuareg separatist movement, an influx of hard-line Islamist militants and the combined effects of long-term drought, poverty and corruption. This perfect storm has created a humanitarian crisis that demands international action. Northern Mali is now controlled by militant groups that blend radical Islam with transnational crime. These militants have quickly introduced a crude imitation of Sharia, banning music, destroying historic sites deemed “un-Islamic,” and summarily punishing alleged crimes like alcohol use and adultery. There are widespread reports of rape and forced marriage, as well as the recruitment of child soldiers. According to the latest UN report, over 200,000 people are currently displaced. The international community, deeply concerned by these violations as well as the broader security threat posed by such a sizeable haven for terrorists, has pressured what remains of the Malian government to overcome its internal divisions and prepare for an international invasion to reclaim the rebel-held north.

Russia’s Precipitous Decline:

Since Vladimir Putin’s tightly controlled reelection as president in March, the political situation in Russia has become increasingly dismal, with some experts comparing it to the Soviet era. As part of an escalating clampdown on anti-corruption activists and political opponents, the government has enacted numerous pieces of legislation that will have a harmful impact on human rights and the functioning of civil society. Most disturbingly, one new law requires civil society organizations that receive foreign funds to register as “foreign agents” or face possible criminal charges. In a related development, USAID was forced by the Russian government to withdraw from the country. Expanded definitions of “treason” and “espionage” in the penal code have opened the door for authorities to round up government critics as well as citizens who consult with foreign firms or simply monitor human rights abuses. Other repressive measures have recriminalized libel, curbed Internet freedom, outlawed “homosexual propaganda,” and imposed additional restrictions on public gatherings. Independent voices, some within the government, who have tried to speak out against this wave of legislation have been expelled, arrested or otherwise muzzled.

Repression in Bahrain, Other Gulf States:

After an independent report commissioned by Bahrain’s King Hamad uncovered widespread human rights abuses committed during the violent suppression of a protest movement in February 2011, the government promised to implement the recommended reforms. That was a year ago. Not only has the regime failed to enact anything other than minor cosmetic changes, seemingly designed to mollify the international community, it has also continued on a path of repression. Impunity for the security forces and censorship persist, and dozens of human rights activists remain imprisoned, including 2012 Freedom Award winners Abdulhadi al-Khawaja and his daughter Zainab. In recent weeks, the government has stepped up the pressure, banning “unlicensed” demonstrations and stripping 31 opposition members of their citizenship. Journalists and human rights groups, including Freedom House, have been repeatedly denied entry to the country to report on these abuses. Sadly, Bahrain is not the only Gulf state in decline. Several neighboring governments have begun to make some alarming moves to silence their critics. Deportations, travel bans and unexplained detentions, as well as disturbing new legal restrictions freedom of expression, have been seen in the United Arab Emirates. A ban on “unlicensed” peaceful demonstrations was passed in Kuwait. And Oman has jailed dozens of people for making critical comments about the regime.

The Menace of Blasphemy Laws:

The online dissemination of an offensive film that mocked Islam and sparked violent anti-American riots and protests in more than two dozen countries served as a reminder of the pernicious nature of laws that prohibit blasphemy in many parts of the world. These laws, which ban insults to religions and religious figures, not only have a chilling effect on free expression but are often used to justify violence, repress religious minorities, and settle personal grudges rather than combat intolerance. According to a Freedom House special report, there is no evidence that restricting speech reduces religious intolerance. In fact, the evidence shows that prohibitions on blasphemy actually lead to a wide range of human rights abuses. This does not prevent some Islamic leaders from using global bodies like the United Nations to push for international norms that prohibit blasphemy. In 2011, after enormous advocacy efforts by human rights groups and a number of countries including the United States, Canada and much of Europe, the push for this kind of legislation was replaced by a more circumspect call for the promotion of religious tolerance and dialogue. Sadly, these moderating efforts were endangered this year by yet another flare-up of religious outrage.

Reprint: The Best & Worst Human Rights Developments of 2012 -By Mary McGuire | Freedom House.

*This piece originally appeared on Freedom House’s blog, Freedom at Issue. To read the original, click here .

Related: Most Popular Human Rights Topics on Twitter in 2012 | HRW

 

The Delhi 14 | Gordon Brown

Just 72 hours ago in the Indian capital of Delhi 14 children were freed from slave labor. They were being held in dark, insanitary conditions and forced to work for up to 15 hours a day making Christmas decorations. Two were just eight years old.

The suffering of these young children, cruelly trafficked into slave labor, is the real Christmas story of 2012. Their plight must become a wake-up call for all concerned about the treatment of vulnerable children around the world. It demands we move immediately to ban all child labor.

The children rescued in Delhi had been beaten and intimidated. Imprisoned in dingy, locked rooms where they were forced to make Christmas goods with no access to light or fresh air. Malnourished and underfed, many had injuries as a result of using glass to make trinkets and because of violent assaults by their gangmasters. All had been sold into slavery and trafficked by middlemen.

The Christmas decorations and seasonal gifts they were making were for export from India to the West. There are near identical items on sale in shops in America and Europe right now.

The courageous morning break-in that freed the children from this slave labor was organized and carried out by Kailash Satyarthi and his co-leaders of Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) and Global March Against Child Labour (GMACL). They faced violent resistance by the gangmasters and thugs.

Because the gangmasters had received a tip off that a raid would take place, most of the children had been whisked away from the workshop and 12 were incarcerated in a pitch-black cell no bigger than 6ft by 6ft.

Only with police help were the locks to the cell broken and all children rescued. They are now receiving rehabilitative care and arrangements are being made for them to go to school.

The ‘Delhi 14′ are just a few of the thousands of children forcibly conscripted into a multi-billion Christmas sweatshop trade in hundreds of hidden factories and workplaces. The child laborers are just a tiny proportion of the 15 million children under the age of 12 who do not go to school because they are forced to work.

Christmas is supposed to be a festive celebration but for the ‘Delhi 14′ it had become a nightmare of exploitation, cruelty, neglect and violence. Their suffering is amongst the most tragic Christmas tales of our times.

The cry for help of a child should be an international language we all are able to understand and respond to immediately.

We must now demand that before the Indian Parliament finishes its session on December the 20th legislation is passed banning all child labor for under fourteens and outlawing hazardous work for under eighteens.

Our petition on EducationEnvoy.org asks concerned citizens around the world to support our call to end child labor.

The figures of child exploitation makes appalling Christmas reading: of the 61 million children who do not go to primary school one in four work full-time. In Africa child labor is rising.

My report on child labor — published with the help of the Brookings Institution‘s Kevin Watkins and a number of organizations including the excellent Understanding Child Work project demonstrates — many children who go to school part-time also work part-time. In total, 215 million children are in some kind of employment.

More alarming is the number of children aged less than 12 who are involved in hazardous forms of labor, 90 million in total. These children are to be found risking their young lives down narrow tunnels mining for gold in Tanzania. They are working on cocoa farms in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire or in garment factories in South Asia. More than half of these vulnerable children are trafficked, forced into prostitution or armed conflict. The anti-slavery organization Walk Free reports that in some parts of the world children as young as five and six are sold as slaves.

People assume all too readily that child labor will simply die out of its own accord. So we fail to press companies and consumers hard enough to demand the policing and enforcement of anti-child labor laws. For too long governments around the world have stood by and not taken sufficient action to eradicate child labor. That’s why I am now calling on governments, donors and UN agencies to come together and put in place the policies needed to get children out of exploitative employment and into education. Just as universal education was the catalyst a century ago for consigning child labor to the history books of the rich world, so it can free a generation of children today.

The new exposé of the children denied schooling because of child labor comes just six weeks after the Taliban’s shooting of Malala Yousafzai simply because she wanted to go to school. The world is discovering that in 2012 millions of children are forcibly prevented from attending lessons because of child labor, child marriage, child militias, child trafficking and the brutal discrimination against girls. In total 32 million girls and 29 million boys are denied their right to education.

We now know from these appalling new revelations the sheer scale, severity and depth of inhumane treatment visited upon young children, it is time for the U.N. to draw up a plan to end child slavery.

The education of all children cannot of course start to happen until we end the exploitation of children. 2012 must be the year when the casual complacency about the plight of 61 million out of school children ends, 2013 must be the breakthrough year that ushers in urgent and practical action. Let this year’s grim Christmas tale lead to a New Year resolution the world will honor – the end of child slavery once and for all.

Reprint: The Delhi 14 -By Gordon Brown | HuffPost

 

Happy International Day of the Girl Child!

On December 19, 2011, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 66/170 to declare October 11 as the International Day of the Girl Child, to recognize girls’ rights and the unique challenges girls face around the world.

For its first observance, this year’s Day will focus on child marriage, which is a fundamental human rights violation and impacts all aspects of a girl’s life. Child marriage denies a girl of her childhood, disrupts her education, limits her opportunities, increases her risk to be a victim of violence and abuse, jeopardizes her health and therefore constitutes an obstacle to the achievement of nearly every Millennium Development Goal (MDG) and the development of healthy communities.

Globally, around one in three young women aged 20-24 years were first married before they reached age 18. One third of them entered into marriage before they turned 15. Child marriage results in early and unwanted pregnancies, posing life-threatening risks for girls. In developing countries, 90 per cent of births to adolescents aged 15-19 are to married girls, and pregnancy-related complications are the leading cause of death for girls in this age group.

Girls with low levels of schooling are more likely to be married early, and child marriage has been shown to virtually end a girl’s education. Conversely, girls with secondary schooling are up to six times less likely to marry as children, making education one of the best strategies for protecting girls and combating child marriage.

Preventing child marriage will protect girls’ rights and help reduce their risks of violence, early pregnancy, HIV infection, and maternal death and disability, including obstetric fistula. When girls are able to stay in school and avoid being married early, they can build a foundation for a better life for themselves and their families and participate in the progress of their nations.

Activities and events to mark the Day are organized by UNFPA, UNICEF, UN Women.

Governments in partnership with civil society actors and the international community are called upon to take urgent action to end the harmful practice of child marriage and to:

• Enact and enforce appropriate legislation to increase the minimum age of marriage for girls to 18 and raise public awareness about child marriage as a violation of girls’ human rights.
• Improve access to good quality primary and secondary education, ensuring that gender gaps in schooling are eliminated.
• Mobilize girls, boys, parents, leaders, and champions to change harmful social norms, promote girls’ rights and create opportunities for them.
• Support girls who are already married by providing them with options for schooling, sexual and reproductive health services, livelihoods skills, opportunity, and recourse from violence in the home.
• Address the root causes underlying child marriage, including gender discrimination, low value of girls, poverty, or religious and cultural justifications.

 International Day of the Girl Child 2012| Ending Child Marriage

Day of the Girl (Website)

 

Glimpses of Modern-Day Slavery | Lisa Kristine

It was 130 degrees when I was first introduced to the brick kilns of Nepal. In these severe temperatures, men, women, and children — whole families, in fact — were surrounded by a dense cloud of dust while mechanically stacking bricks on their heads, carrying them, 18 at a time, from the scorching kilns to trucks hundreds of yards away. These are slaves. Deadened by monotony and exhaustion, they worked without speaking, repeating the same task 16 hours a day. They took no rest for food or water, no bathroom breaks — although their dehydration suppressed their need to urinate.

Around the world human traffickers trick many people into slavery by false promises of good jobs or good education, only to find themselves forced to work without pay, under the threat of violence. Trapped by phony debt, these slaves are hunted by local police and private security guards if they try to escape. Sometimes slaves don’t even understand that they’re enslaved, despite people working 16 or 17 hours a day with no pay. They’re simply used to it as something they’ve been doing their whole lives. Their bodies grow weak and vulnerable to disease, but they have nothing to compare their experience to.

These are not images of “problems.” They’re images of people. There are 27 million slaves in the world today: That’s more than double the number of people taken from Africa during the entire transatlantic slave trade. A hundred and fifty years ago, an average agricultural slave cost over three times the average yearly wage of an American worker, about US$50,000 in today’s money. Yet now, entire families can be enslaved for generations over a debt as small as $18. Slavery is illegal everywhere, but it exists all over the world.

Glimpses of Modern-Day Slavery | Lisa Kristine (Feat. in The Atlantic)

Lisa Kristine (Website)

 

In the Spotlight: Crisis Photographer Stephanie Sinclair

Stephanie Sinclair, b.1973, is an American photojournalist known for gaining unique access to the most sensitive gender and human rights issues around the world. Sinclair graduated from the University of Florida with a BS in Journalism and an outside concentration in Fine Art Photography. After college, she went to work for the Chicago Tribune, which sent her to cover the start of the war in Iraq. She later moved to Iraq and then to Beirut, Lebanon, covering the region for six years as a freelance photographer. Sinclair joined VII Network when it was formed in 2008 and became a full member of VII in 2009. She contributes regularly to National Geographic, The New York Times Magazine, TIME, Newsweek, Stern, German Geo and Marie Claire among others, and is based in Brooklyn, NY.

Sinclair was recently awarded the Alexia Foundation Professional Grant, UNICEF’s Photo of the Year and the Lumix Festival for Young Photojournalism Freelens Award for her extensive work on the issue of child marriage. She also earned the 2008 CARE International Award for Humanitarian Reportage and The Overseas Press Club’s Olivier Rebbot Award in 2009 for her essay A Cutting Tradition: Inside An Indonesian Female Circumcision Celebration. Sinclair’s other honors include the Visa D’Or from the 2004 Visa Pour L’Image photography festival in France, as well as a first place in World Press Photo and the FiftyCrows International Fund for Documentary Photography’s 2004 Central Asia and Caucasus Grant for her work on women’s issues in Afghanistan. Sinclair earned another World Press Photo award for her coverage of the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon and was invited to be part of the prestigious 13th Joop Swart Masterclass organized by World Press Photo.

 

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Too Young to Wed, A Photo-Documentary by Stephanie Sinclair

In Print

The Bride Price – The New York Times Magazine – July 09, 2006

Gaza Settlers – DoubleTake – Spring 2006

Mosul – U.S. News and World Report – Jan 2006

Women’s Work – The New York Times Magazine – Oct 09, 2005

The Most Courageous Woman In Pakistan – Stern – May 2005

Who Will Lead Them Now? – TIME – Nov. 22, 2004

Escape In The Fire – Stern – Oct 2004

Meet The New Jihad – TIME – July 5, 2004

Lessons From The Rubble – TIME – Sep. 1, 2003

 

Stephanie Sinclair

 

Afghan Child Bride Tortured for Six Months | Al Jazeera (Video)

An Afghan child bride is recovering in hospital after being held captive and tortured for six months by her husband’s family. While her case is extreme, it is still often acceptable in Afghan culture for a husband to hit his wife.

Al Jazeera’s Bernard Smith reports from Kabul.

Related: “Opium Brides” | FRONTLINE PBS (Video)

 

Apple, Time to Make a Conflict-Free iPhone –By Delly Mawazo Sesete | Guardian UK

My name is Delly Mawazo Sesete. I am originally from the North Kivu povince in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where a deadly conflict has been raging for over 15 years. While that conflict began as a war over ethnic tension, land rights and politics, it has increasingly turned to being a war of profit, with various armed groups fighting one another for control of strategic mineral reserves.

Near the area where I grew up, there are mines with vast amounts of tungsten, tantalum, tin, and gold – minerals that make most consumer electronics in the world function.

These minerals are part of your daily life. They keep your computer running so you can surf the internet. They save your high score on your Playstation. They make your cell phone vibrate when someone calls you.

While minerals from the Congo have enriched your life, they have often brought violence, rape and instability to my home country. That’s because those armed groups fighting for control of these mineral resources use murder, extortion and mass rape as a deliberate strategy to intimidate and control local populations, which helps them secure control of mines, trading routes and other strategic areas.

Living in the Congo, I saw many of these atrocities firsthand. I documented the child slaves who are forced to work in the mines in dangerous conditions. I witnessed the deadly chemicals dumped into the local environment. I saw the use of rape as a weapon. And despite receiving multiple death threats for my work, I’ve continued to call for peace, development and dignity in Congo’s minerals trade.

But the good news is that your favorite electronics don’t have to fund mass violence and rape in the Congo, and neither do mine.

That’s why I’m asking Apple to make an iPhone made with conflict-free minerals from the Congo by this time next year. Apple has been an industry leader in both supply chain management and making corporate social responsibility a priority. In the past two years, Apple has taken great strides to source minerals responsibly and control their supply chain.

Apple is perfectly positioned to be the first company to create a Congo conflict-free phone, using minerals from Congo that further stability and economic development and don’t use slave labor or fund mass atrocities.

I believe that other Apple customers want what I want: the world’s first conflict-free iPhone. That’s why I launched a campaign on Change.org asking Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, to commit to making an iPhone with conflict-free minerals from the Congo by Christmas 2013. In the five weeks since I launched my campaign, nearly 50,000 people from more than 75 countries have signed on in support.

Apple, if you’re reading this, please give my family and my people a chance for a better future by being a leader for a clean minerals trade in eastern Congo. Commit to purchasing minerals from my country, but do so in a way that benefits communities, not destroys them.

You’ve always shown you know how to think differently. Now it’s time to think conflict-free.

Sign Delly Mawazo Sesete’s petition here.

Reprint: Apple, Time to Make a Conflict-Free iPhone –By Delly Mawazo Sesete | Guardian UK

 

Slavery: A 21st Century Evil –Bonded Slaves | Al Jazeera

It is a form of slavery that is passed down from one generation to the next, enslaving millions.

 

Children Gold Mining in Mali | HRW

(Bamako)– At least 20,000 children work in Malian artisanal gold mines under extremely harsh and dangerous conditions, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The Malian government and international donors should take action to end child labor in artisanal mines, Human Rights Watch said. Artisanal miners rely on low-tech methods and often organize informally.

The 108-page report, “A Poisonous Mix: Child Labor, Mercury, and Artisanal Gold Mining in Mali,” reveals that children as young as six dig mining shafts, work underground, pull up heavy weights of ore, and carry, crush, and pan ore. Many children also work with mercury, a toxic substance, to separate the gold from the ore. Mercury attacks the central nervous system and is particularly harmful to children.

“These children literally risk life and limb”, said Juliane Kippenberg, senior children’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “They carry loads heavier than their own weight, climb into unstable shafts, and touch and inhale mercury, one of the most toxic substances on earth.”

Of 33 child laborers interviewed by Human Rights Watch, 21 said that they suffered from regular pain in the back, head, neck, arms, or joints. Children also suffer from coughing and respiratory disease. One boy about six years old described the pain he felt when digging shafts with a pickaxe for hours on end. Another boy said that “everything hurts” when he comes home after a day’s work underground.

Most children work alongside their parents to supplement the little income adult miners get from selling gold to local traders. Other children migrate to the mines by themselves, and end up being exploited and abused by relatives or strangers who take their pay. Some girls are sexually abused or engage in sex work to survive. Children come to the mines from other parts of Mali, as well as from Guinea, Burkina Faso, and other neighboring countries.

Mali’s government adopted a National Action Plan for the Elimination of Child Labor in June 2011. The plan was an important step, but implementation has been delayed and the government has taken little action on the ground, Human Rights Watch said. There are no regular labor inspections in artisanal mines, and a ban on hazardous child labor, considered a worst form of child labor, has not been enforced. Under both Malian and international law, hazardous labor, which would include working in mines and with mercury, is prohibited for anyone under age 18.

The government has also largely failed to make education accessible and available for child laborers in mines, many of whom never go to school. Schools are often far away, charge fees, and do not encourage children who have migrated from elsewhere to attend. When child laborers do attend school, they often struggle to keep up.

“Mali has strong laws on child labor and on compulsory and free education, but unfortunately, the government has not fully enforced them,” Kippenberg said. “Local officials often benefit from artisanal gold mining and have little interest in addressing child labor.”

The government has done nothing to stop the use of mercury by child laborers and should immediately develop a strategy to address the health effects of mercury on child and adult miners, Human Rights Watch said. Mercury poisoning results in a range of neurological conditions, including tremors, coordination problems, vision impairment, headaches, memory loss, and concentration problems. The toxic effects of mercury are not immediately noticeable, but develop over time. Most artisanal miners are unaware of mercury’s health effects.

Children work in an artisanal gold mine, Kéniéba cercle, Mali. © 2010 International Labour Organization/IPEC

 

Much of the gold from Mali’s artisanal mines is bought by small traders who supply middle men and trading houses in Bamako, the country’s capital. Most of the 12 Malian traders interviewed by Human Rights Watch showed little concern about child labor and health risks from mercury use. One trader said that “our idea is that we just earn money.” The president of the Mali Mining Chamber, a representative body for the mining sector, even denied there was any child labor in artisanal gold mines.

Figures obtained by Human Rights Watch from the Malian Ministry of Mines put the amount of artisanally mined gold exported per year at around four metric tons, worth around US$218 million at November 2011 prices. Most of this gold is exported to Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates, Dubai in particular.

Human Rights Watch has been able to contact three international companies that have bought gold from Mali’s artisanal mines. Kaloti Jewellery International, based in Dubai, and a Belgian company, Tony Goetz, shared with Human Rights Watch the due diligence procedures they use to make sure the gold they buy comes from legitimate sources. Kaloti stopped buying gold from Mali’s artisanal mines after learning about Human Rights Watch’s findings. Decafin, a Swiss company, said it acts at the end of a supply chain composed of at least four intermediaries and has no contact whatsoever with the producing companies or the Malian government. However, the company said that it questions suppliers about the origin of the gold and work conditions and that it would seek further information from the Mali Mining Chamber.

“If businesses have not done so yet, they need to put in place procedures to ensure their gold has not been mined by children,” Kippenberg said. “They should also work with the government and international agencies to eliminate child labor in the mines. Boycott is not the answer.”

Child labor in artisanal gold mining is common in many countries worldwide, particularly within West Africa’s gold belt, which spans Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Niger, Nigeria, and Senegal. Mali is Africa’s third largest gold producer.

There are currently no simple alternatives to the use of mercury in artisanal gold mining, but its quantities can be greatly reduced, and its effects much better controlled, according to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). For example, containers called retorts should be used to capture the mercury vapor, and amalgamation in residential areas should be halted. Industrial gold mines rely on more costly and complex technology without mercury, but use cyanide.

Learn more: Children Gold Mining in Mali | HRW

Video Courtesy NBC Rock Center

 

Slavery Footprint: How Many Forced Laborers Work For You? –By Eleanor Goldberg | HuffPost

If you’re a 20-something renter who owns a laptop, a bike and a fair amount of shoes, you probably have close to 100 slaves working for you.

Slavery Footprint launched a lifestyle survey Thursday to show consumers how many forced laborers–of the 27 million worldwide–have contributed to making anything you might find in a medicine cabinet to a gym bag. The nonprofit crafted the questionnaire, which asks about your food, clothes and hobbies, after investigating what goes into producing about 400 everyday items. The results aim to inform customers and put pressure on companies to disclose their labor practices.

“[Slavery] is in everything,” Justin Dillon, chief executive of Slavery Footprint, told the Huffington Post. “It’s in every product. It’s not just tracing one element on the periodic table.” The nonprofit defines slavery as “anyone who is forced to work without pay, being economically exploited and is unable to walk away.”

Before developing Slavery Footprint, Dillon directed the 2008 documentary on the topic, “Call + Response” and established Chain Store Reaction, a campaign that helps customers ask companies to disclose their labor procedures.

Inspired by the way Chain Store Reaction galvanized people into writing more than 100,000 letters to companies, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asked the organization to develop a model akin to carbon footprinting. She wanted to calculate how connected consumers are with human trafficking.

“People have to own this issue for themselves,” Dillon said. “This has to be something they think about when they go out and buy things, when they look at their kids.”

But Dillon isn’t interested in vilifying companies that turn a blind eye to forced labor. Rather, he hopes to enlighten consumers and encourage them to tell the brands they love to be upfront about the ways they intend to fight slavery practices.

Excerpt, read more: Slavery Footprint: How Many Forced Laborers Work For You? –By Eleanor Goldberg | HuffPost

Slavery Footprint (Website)