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Network Newsletter  Rights and Democracy Network Number 23 October 29, 2008 Newsletter Sections |
The Network Retreat highlights Rights & Democracy’s 20 years of working for human rights and democratic development
In honour of Rights & Democracy’s 20th anniversary, the theme was “Inside Rights & Democracy”. Participants met Rights & Democracy’s staff and directors, discussed our programs and projects, and shared ideas about how to promote human rights and democracy on their campuses.
Highlights included the 20th Anniversary Un-Trivial Pursuit Quiz, hosted by Rights & Democracy Network Coordinator Sophie Rondeau, and a debate on Peace and Justice, where Rights & Democracy’s Director of Programs Razmik Panossian and Women’s Rights in Afghanistan Project Coordinator Alexandra Gilbert faced off against Americas Regional Officer Geneviève Lessard and Africa Regional Officer Karim Laz.
The Delegates decided who will host each of the four regional events, and what the themes will be of each event. The Regional Events are held in February, and bring together a representative from each Delegation in the region.
The Western Regional Event on “Fair Trade vs. Free Trade” will be co-organized by Vancouver Island University and University of Victoria, and will be held in Nanaimo, BC. The Laurentian University Delegation will host the Ontario Regional Event in Sudbury on the rights and responsibilities of journalists. “The Voices of Silence” will be the theme of the Quebec Regional Event, co-organized by a committee of representatives of all of the Quebec Delegations, and held at UQAM. The Eastern Regional Event will be hosted at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick, on war-affected children and families.
Join our bilingual Facebook Group to see more photos of the Retreat!
Human Rights 101: an on-line course for you
The Rights & Democracy Network has launched “Put the World to Rights”, a new on-line training course, available to all, which was developed in collaboration with Equitas, a Canadian NGO which specializes in human rights education.
In this four-hour course, you learn about what human rights are, the main components of the international human rights system, current human rights issues, and how to take action for human rights.
The course uses the Moodle platform, an open-source software for collaborative learning. It includes different types of activities, including discussion forums, quizzes, presentations and videos. The platform is easy to use and allows participants to access a wide variety of web-based resources.
Network members who attended the Fall Retreat were among the first students to take the course. To take it yourself, go to http://dd-rd.net/humanrights101/ to set up your account, and start learning more about human rights!
For any technical questions regarding the creation of your account, or to offer feedback about the course, please contact the Network Webmaster at webnet@dd-rd.ca.
The Delegation Handbook, 2008-2009 edition
To support you in the creation of your Delegation, or in the development of your activities, the Network is proud to offer you a brand new Delegation Handbook with a new format and new content. This 2008 edition offers you new tools, including evaluation forms for your activities and your executive, a code of ethics, and a detailed example of a project budget. The Handbook was launched at the Retreat, where each delegate received enough copies for all of the members of the executive.
The Handbook and Delegation Tools are also available on-line in the Resources section of our website at http://www.rightsdemocracy.net/cms/site/resources-en. This is where you’ll find:
- The Network promotional materials order form;
- The 2008-2009 Handbook;
- The Delegation Tools, including this year’s PFUND form, the model charter, communications and web guides;
- Multimedia files, including Network logos, promotional videos and
a PowerPoint presentation template.
We need your Delegation’s executive committee contact lists!
Has your Delegation elected its new executive for the year? If so, please send us their names and email addresses, by filling out Delegation Tool 3, available on the Resources page of the website, to be sure that your executive members are all in touch with the Network team.
Network members Stand Up and Speak Out
Expectations were surpassed at the 3rd Stand Up Against Poverty action when over 116 million people in over 2,000 events across more than 100 countries registered to Stand Up and Take Action against Poverty and for the Millennium Development Goals, from October 17-19.
Network members participated at the Université de Montréal, at Université Laval, at a joint action in downtown Montreal, and on campuses and in cities across Canada. Overall, 185,000 Canadians at 233 events stood up to remind world leaders of their promise to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.
To see photos of this action from around the world, visit: www.standagainstpoverty.org.
To see a short video of the downtown Montreal event, click here.
Two Network students are trained to defend and promote human rights
Fatoumata Kaba of the Université de Moncton Delegation and Marjolaine Olwell from the UQAM Delegation participated in a four-day human rights training presented every year by the Centre Québécois de Formation pour les jeunes en matière de droits humains (Quebec Centre for Youth Human Rights Training).
With the goal of learning how to defend and promote human rights here in Canada and around the world, this course is open to youth aged 16 to 30, who are interested in the protection and promotion of fundamental human rights.
Mika Lévesque, Rights & Democracy’s Asia Regional Officer was among the invited guests, who also included activists, academics, and community workers. The course trained the participants to do research, advocacy, and to develop action strategies. Marjolaine says that the « course was of very high quality, and was focussed on action for human rights, as opposed to human rights theory ». Marjolaine plans to put her training into action by organizing a workshop for her delegation on lobbying for human rights.
The Network offers several training opportunities on human rights throughout the year. Watch the Network Forum for future opportunities at: http://www.droitsdemocratie.net/network-forum/index.php?login_lang=en.
Youth and Democracy in Canada
Amalia Jimenez of the University of Manitoba Delegation represented Rights & Democracy at a Canadian forum on youth and democracy, just weeks before the federal election.
On September 19, 2008, various youth organizations from all over the country gathered in Halifax, Nova Scotia to participate in a national youth symposium hosted by “Apathy is Boring” and “Democracy 250” to discuss the challenges facing Canadian youth and their involvement in the democratic process. What most young Canadians might not realize is that the first exercise of democracy in what is now Canada took place in Halifax in 1758 with the establishment of the first parliamentary assembly. 250 years later, the Canadian experience proves that allowing individuals the full right to choose their government leads to the flourishing of a free and diverse society. However, part of the challenge to continue in this path is engaging youth to inform themselves and vote, which is what “Apathy is Boring” and “Democracy 250” aim to promote.
Her Excellency, the Governor General of Canada, Michaëlle Jean, also joined the dialogue conveying a powerful message to the youth present by sharing her personal experience in the country she grew up in, Haiti, where the realization of democracy has been a painful process. Canadian youth must realize that living in a democratic society is a gift that should never be taken for granted. Her Excellency encouraged youth to make their voices heard, especially through the cultivation of the arts, in promoting social transformation. A special panel of Canadian musicians including members of Ill Scarlet, the Jimmy Swift Band, and Alert the Medic demonstrated that the arts may be an effective medium to engage youth in democratic development.
Representing the Rights and Democracy Network at this event was an excellent experience as I was able to exchange ideas with other youth organizations on the challenges of piquing the interest of youth in topics related to human rights and democracy. Despite the daunting challenges facing young Canadians it is essential to continue to create spaces for dialogue on democracy because truly only these initiatives will lead to new insights and change. As her Excellency Michaëlle Jean reminded us, the energy of youth empowerment is essential not only for the future, but especially the present.
See all Stories from the field
New report finds pervasive violations of human right to food in Haiti
International experts on right to food to meet in Ottawa Nov. 7
MONTREAL – Oct. 16, 2008 –Rights & Democracy marked World Food Day with the release of a new report detailing pervasive violations of the human right to food in Haiti. The report comes as rising food prices and the devastation of four massive summer storms have left Haitians facing severe food shortages and malnourishment.
The new report is based on the findings of an international fact-finding mission to Haiti led by Rights & Democracy and the Haitian non-governmental organization Groupe de Recherche et d’Appui en Milieu Rural (GRAMIR) in May. Site visits to areas hardest hit by Haiti’s food crisis and interviews with representatives of Haiti’s government, civil society and international donors all revealed that existing policies are failing to alleviate chronic hunger in Haiti.
More : http://www.dd-rd.ca/site/media/index.php?id=2317&subsection=news
New study exposes the human cost of China’s economic miracle
HONG KONG / MONTREAL – Sept. 25, 2008 – A large part of China’s remarkable economic development has been achieved at the expense of the basic rights of millions of former state-owned enterprise workers, says a new report released today by the Hong Kong-based China Labour Bulletin and Canada’s International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development, commonly known as Rights & Democracy.
No Way Out: Worker Activism in China’s State-Owned Enterprise Reforms is based on five years of research. It draws extensively on China Labour Bulletin’s litigation in defense of worker’s rights. The publication studies the many ways the restructuring and privatization of China’s state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the last 20 years have violated the human rights of the workers laid-off in the process. Violations documented include the systematic exclusion of former SOE workers from official channels of redress, criminalization of labour protests, and the denial of workers’ rights to social security, to an adequate standard of living, to freedom of association and to freedom from arbitrary detention.
“The Chinese government insists that the ‘right to subsistence’ takes precedence over human rights but the SOE reform program inflicted great harm on millions of citizens on both these counts,” said Han Dongfang, Executive Director of China Labour Bulletin. “This is a major social problem, and a solution to it is long overdue.”
More: http://www.dd-rd.ca/site/media/index.php?id=2302&subsection=news
Asian refugees get a boost from Beijing Olympics
BEIJING, China, August 27 (UNHCR) – The medals have all been awarded and the sports heroes are heading home, but thousands of refugees in Asia will remember the Beijing Olympics for a long time to come: thanks to the Olympic athletes, they will have new clothes to wear.
Under the "Giving is Winning" campaign, the UN refugee agency and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have collected more than 82,000 items of sports clothing for refugees.
http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/news/opendoc.htm?tbl=NEWS&id=48b56d382
Source: UNHCR
No More Murders of Indigenous People in Colombia!
Paris, Bogota, October 17, 2008 – The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) repudiates the violent repression of the protest carried out by the indigenous communities in several departments of Colombia, which as of October 16 had resulted in one indigenous person dead, more than 100 wounded –many gravely–, and 8 families being evicted. 19 police officers had also been wounded.
Since October 11, approximately 10,000 indigenous persons have been mobilized throughout the country to celebrate the "Minga for Social and Community Resistance" in order to remember the anniversary of the landing of the Spanish on the American continent and to request the respect for their fundamental rights, beginning with their right to life and the reestablishment of their territorial rights, in accordance with the commitments of the Colombian government before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
More: http://www.fidh.org/spip.php?article5951
Young Consumers' Guide to Eco-Friendly Living
UNEP and UNESCO Announce a New and Updated Edition of the Popular YouthXchange Training Kit
Paris/Nairobi – October 1st, 2008. How to balance looking cool and feeling cool with the need to combat climate are among the key tips in the new United Nations YouthXchange Training kit. This updated version of the guide also gets to grips with the mountains of waste emerging across the globe as a result of today’s fast throw-away society from mobile phones to fashion.
The 2008 Training Kit on Sustainable Consumption, produced by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is now in its second edition. YouthXchange is a train the trainer tool that aims to promote sustainable consumption patterns among young consumers worldwide. Among other novelties, this updated guide includes a chapter on how to find a balance between youths’ consumer aspirations of dressing cool and fashionable while at the same time being aware of the impact of their consumption on, for example, climate change.
To read more : http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=548&ArticleID=5933&l=en
Three American university students have won the first-ever YouTube video contest on hunger.
WFP will now send them to Ethiopia to see the reality of hunger first-hand and to film it.
Emma Thompson, Meri Kate Purgason and Collin Butler, who study at Auburn University in Alabama, will be in Ethiopia while their nation is celebrating Thanksgiving. Some of the footage they shoot will later be posted on wfp.org.
The winning video, "Time Is Running Out", available on YouTube, features a sequence of photos of children in groups where some of the children slowly fade out of the picture. The underlying message is that in the world today a child dies of hunger every six seconds.
Read more : http://www.wfp.org/english/?ModuleID=137&Key=2961
October 24: United Nations Day
The United Nations day marks the creation of the United Nations Organization on October 24th 1945. This day gives the opportunity to make UN achievements known to people.
http://www.unac.org/en/news_events/un_days/un_day1.asp
November 20: Universal Children's Day
The date 20 November, marks the day on which the Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, in 1959, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, in 1989.
http://www.un.org/depts/dhl/children_day/index.html
The Network’s on-line forum announces job and internship opportunities in Canada and around the world. To access the forum, you must be a member of the Rights & Democracy Network. Become a member by signing up here: http://www.dd-rd.net/members/
If you are already a member, visit the Forum’s jobs and internships section by clicking here: http://www.droitsdemocratie.net/network-forum/index.php?login_lang=en
Network News is a newsletter published by the Rights & Democracy Network.
The Network Team:
Coordinator: Sophie Rondeau
Liaison Officer: Elana Wright
Administrative Assistant: Diane Migneault
Webmaster: Sylvain Aubé
Rights & Democracy Network
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Phone: (514) 283-6073
Toll-free: 1-877-736-3833
Fax: (514) 283-3792
network@dd-rd.ca
www.rightsdemocracy.net
Available issues :
Issue 23 (October 29, 2008)
Issue 22 (August 27, 2008)
Issue 21 (July 23, 2008)
Issue 20 (April 24, 2008)
Issue 19 (March 27, 2008)
Issue 18 (January 24, 2008)
Issue 17 (December 20, 2007)
Issue 16 (November 27, 2007)
Issue 15 (November 6, 2007)
Issue 14 (October 18, 2007)
Issue 13 (September 25, 2007)
Issue 12 (September 11, 2007)
Issue 11 (Summer 2007)
Issue 10 (April 13, 2007)
Issue 9 (November 2006)
Issue 8 (August 2006)
Issue 7 (May 4, 2006)
Issue 6 (April 12, 2006)
Issue 5 (March 21, 2006)
Issue 4 (March 1, 2006)
Issue 3 (February 16, 2006)
Issue 2 (January 31, 2006)
Issue 1 (January 17, 2006)
