Malaria Kills more than 3000 Children every day in Africa
U.S.: Three "Enemy Combatants" Held At Guantanamo Are Under Age 16 IRAQ: UNHCR Plans For Mass Refugee Return; More U.N. Aid Staff Returns As Food Convoys Roll U.S. Floats Security Council Resolution To Lift U.N. Sanctions Quit Iraq, Arab states tell U.S. U.S.: Three "Enemy Combatants" Held At Guantanamo Are Under Age 16 IRAQ: UNICEF Backs Push To Reopen Schools Quickly
Iraq: Garner Must Address Human Rights
Iraq: Garner Must Address Human Rights Call for Human Rights Monitors on the Ground
(New York, April 24, 2003) – Retired U.S. general Jay Garner should
invite independent monitors to check on human rights progress in the
reconstruction of Iraq, Human Rights Watch said today.In a letter today to Mr. Garner, who will oversee the initial stages of
Iraq’s transition, Human Rights Watch drew lessons from the
organization’s experience monitoring post-conflict programs in other
places, including Kosovo, East Timor and Afghanistan.“The key to such transitions is a radical change in the human rights
climate,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch.
“The fall of Saddam Hussein doesn’t automatically bring about a new
climate, and monitors on the ground are critical in assessing the human
rights situation.”Human Rights Watch stressed the obligation of the occupying forces to
restore and ensure public order and safety. The occupying forces may
need to rely on some elements of the existing local police and security
forces to maintain security in the immediate situation, Human Rights
Watch said. But longer-term, occupying forces need to screen and vet all
local officials, police and other security personnel to remove any human
rights abusers from their ranks.Human Rights Watch noted the experience of the Balkans, where abusive
security officials left in place after the conflict continued to commit
human rights violations or obstruct processes of accountability and
reform.U.S. and international personnel contracted through private companies to
assist with law enforcement and security also need to be held
accountable to the highest standards, Human Rights Watch said. It
expressed concern, for instance, about the contract already awarded to
DynCorp to assist with law enforcement efforts.In a November 2002 report on trafficking in Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Human Rights Watch found that DynCorp's personnel had participated in
human rights violations and the company has not done enough to ensure
that adequate safeguards are in place to prevent such activities.Human Rights Watch called on Mr. Garner to ensure that urgent steps be
taken to secure and preserve evidence, such as mass grave sites and
official documentation, which might serve as evidence in prosecuting
Iraqi officials for past human rights abuses, and in identifying remains
of some of the thousands of people who “disappeared” under Saddam
Hussein’s rule. Human Rights Watch has called for the establishment of
an international tribunal to try war crimes, crimes against humanity and
other grave violations.Human Rights Watch also highlighted a range of concerns for the
protection of people who have been internally displaced by the
conflict. The occupying power needs to prevent further forced
displacement, such as that already seen in Kirkuk, and provide security
to internally displaced persons in camps. Conditions need to be created
that allow the displaced to return to their homes, resolve property
disputes and prevent violent acts of revenge and retribution. Human
Rights Watch urged Mr. Garner to ensure that women participate fully in
the reconstruction program, and that special priority be given to the
needs of children.Human Rights Watch called on the United States and its allies to invite
the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights to deploy independent human
rights monitors throughout the country.Human Rights Watch also stressed that humanitarian agencies should be
allowed to operate independently in the country, and that the United
Nations should be given the lead role in coordinating the provisions of
humanitarian assistance.“As the occupying power, the United States and its allies have important
legal obligations for the protection and welfare of the Iraqi people,”
said Roth. “They must fulfill the promises they have made to restore
the rule of law and human rights in Iraq.”IRAQ: UNHCR Plans For Mass Refugee Return;
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees today said it is focusing its efforts on preparing for the mass return of as many as 1 million Iraqis, many of whom have been in exile for decades, but added that the climate in Iraq is not yet conducive to refugee returns. Until now, the agency had been focused on the potential for an exodus out of, not into, Iraq.
UNHCR estimates that 165,000 Iraqi refugees in Iran and other neighboring countries could eventually return home and that 240,000 people without formal refugee status, mainly in Jordan and Syria, may also return. UNHCR said it wants to ensure that all those who return do so without pressure, and it called for unhindered access to all returnees at every stage of the process.
"When the political climate is right and we see an environment that's conducive to voluntary return, and I should emphasize that we're a long way from that right now, UNHCR wants to be ready," said UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond. "While there will undoubtedly be people returning before stability and security are in place, UNHCR will only support return when some basic principles are met. These benchmarks include the ability to provide for the physical, material and legal safety and well-being of the returnees."
Redmond said UNHCR is asking countries to delay any forced returns of rejected asylum seekers (Associated Press/Yahoo! News, April 25).
More U.N. Aid Staff Returns As Food Convoys Roll
U.N. relief agencies yesterday reported the continuing return of international staff to Iraq and predicted an increase in food convoys. The World Food Program said that from now on, its food convoys will travel almost daily from Jordan to Baghdad. "We need to build up a large stock in the capital as well as in other major urban centers in preparation for food distribution next month," WFP spokesman Khaled Mansour said.
U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq David Wimhurst said the security situation remains critical in Baghdad, despite reports of decreased looting. Wimhurst also cited reports in Baghdad of children missing from some of the city's institutions, saying a number of children are believed to have run away but that there are also unconfirmed reports of girls being abducted. Another possible danger to children was raised by UNICEF spokesman Simon Ingram, who cited garbage collection as an urgent concern, saying some child scavengers on piles of refuse in the city have uncovered unexploded munitions, "with predictably horrifying results" (U.N. release, April 24).
U.S. Floats Security Council Resolution To Lift U.N. Sanctions
The administration of U.S. President George W. Bush plans to introduce a U.N. Security Council resolution next week under which the United Nations would lift sanctions against Iraq and the world body's immediate involvement would be limited to a consultative role, the Washington Post reports.
According to senior Bush administration officials, the council would through the resolution direct U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to name a special representative to work with U.S. officials in Baghdad on humanitarian and reconstruction programs, while firmly endorsing U.S. and allied control over international involvement in Iraq until a permanent, representative government is in place.
The resolution also includes specific plans for the Iraqi oil industry, including moving its profits from U.N. control to an Iraqi bank fund to be used for U.S.-designated reconstruction activities. Distribution of the funds would be monitored by an international financial institution such as the International Monetary Fund or the World Bank (DeYoung/Lynch, Washington Post, April 25).
Russia will reportedly present its own draft resolution next week, seeking to give Annan interim control over Iraq's oil, CNN reported yesterday. Russian U.N. Ambassador Sergei Lavrov said, "The secretary general has a role which can be expanded."
One diplomat said the council would through the Russian measure give the United Nations full control over the oil-for-food program, which was extended yesterday until June 3, and over the responsibilities once held by the Iraqi government. A British official, however, called the proposal a "nonstarter" and said the goal should be "transition to full Iraqi control" (Liz Neisloss, CNN.com, April 24).
Quit Iraq, Arab states tell U.S.
DAMASCUS—Arab officials yesterday called for U.S. and British troops to leave Iraqi immediately.In a statement issued after talks on reviving an economic boycott of Israel, representatives of 15 Arab states urged "an immediate and unconditional withdrawal of the invading forces from Iraqi territories" and said Iraq should be governed by Iraqis, the Associated Press Reported.
The statement, issued after four days of meetings in the Syrian capital, also condemned the Bush administration's accusations that Syria sheltered fugitive members of Saddam Hussein's ousted government and possessed chemical weapons. The criticism amounted to "a dangerous precedent in international relations that threatens world peace and stability," the statement said.
Syria said last week it had closed its border to Iraqi fugitives and the U.S. said Damascus was co-operating, the AP report said. The meeting also renewed a call for Arab states to revive their economic boycott of Israel to retaliate for its actions against the Palestinians.
The boycott, which the Arab League began in 1951, has waned substantially with Egypt and Jordan making peace with Israel and the Palestinian peace process. The meeting was attended by officials from Syria, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Algeria, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Morocco, Libya, Lebanon, Kuwait, Qatar, Palestine, Oman and Somalia.
IRAQ: UNICEF Backs Push To Reopen Schools Quickly
UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy today praised what she called "the innate wisdom" of Iraqi parents and educators who are pushing for a quick resumption of classes throughout the country, adding that parents and teachers should be "supported, encouraged, lauded and imitated" for the speed with which children have already begun to return to school.
"I cannot emphasize too strongly the importance of re-establishing and strengthening schooling at the earliest possible date," Bellamy said. "Schools have a vital role in the recovery effort, not only because of their educational function, but as centers around which communities can begin to heal themselves, while serving as entry points for interventions like health education, psychosocial support and nutritional assistance."
Bellamy cited "daily reports of unattended children being injured and killed" in armed conflict and by mines as one reason for reopening schools as quickly as possible. She said schools have not yet resumed operating in the country's capital, Baghdad.
UNICEF said it plans to support efforts to get children back in school by providing emergency education supplies for children and teachers and emergency plumbing repairs.
UNICEF said the country's education system is in tatters after two decades of war and 12 years of sanctions and poor governance. In addition, many schools have been hit by looters who stole furniture, books and teaching equipment and damaged buildings. Some schools were used by Iraqi forces to store munitions, and many have been bombed (UNICEF release, April 25).
U.S.: Three "Enemy Combatants" Held At Guantanamo Are Under Age 16
Three boys between 13 and 15 years old are among the 660 detainees the United States is holding in a camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and will be held indefinitely without legal counsel, the U.S. military said this week.A U.S. military official told the London Guardian the boys were brought to the camp this year from Afghanistan on suspicion of terrorism. Since the boys' ages were confirmed through medical tests, they have been living in a special juvenile facility at the site.
"They are in a secure environment, free from the influences of the older detainees," said camp spokesman Barry Johnson. The spokesman added that the boys are receiving special mental health care and basic education and that efforts were being made to contact their home countries.
Because the United States considers the boys, like other Guantanamo detainees, to be "enemy combatants," they are being held without access to lawyers and for an indefinite period. The boys will remain in captivity "until we ensure that they're no longer a threat to the United States, that there's no pending law enforcement against them, that they're no longer of intelligence value," Johnson said.
Some experts have said the United States is violating international law by holding any of the Guantanamo detainees, no matter what age, indefinitely and without charges or trials. Human rights groups this week expressed particular opposition to the detention of children.
Amnesty International's Angela Wright said U.S. treatment of the three boys goes against U.N. standards that enjoy "near-universal acceptance." The United States is one of two U.N. member countries -- Somalia is the other -- that have not ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, but Washington has signed the treaty and has, according to Wright, "an obligation not to defeat the object and purpose of the treaty" (Oliver Burkeman, London Guardian, April 24).
Although it has not ratified the child rights pact itself, the United States has ratified the treaty's optional protocol on children in armed conflict, vowing thereby to accord "special protection" to "the rights of children" and to help child ex-soldiers to recover physically and psychologically and to re-enter society at large.
"If, in fact, the children were captured during the armed hostilities in Afghanistan," Amnesty International said, "detaining them as 'enemy combatants' in indefinite legal limbo and subjecting them to interrogation without even the basic safeguards to which they are entitled seems grossly at odds with the United States' commitments under the optional protocol."
The human rights group said it is particularly concerned about U.S. interrogation of the boys. It cited "clear international safeguards indicating that children in custody should have access to lawyers at every stage of the proceeding, as well as to family members or a legal guardian" (Amnesty International release, April 23).
25 April 2003
MALARIA IS ALIVE AND WELL AND KILLING MORE THAN
3000 AFRICAN CHILDREN EVERY DAY
WHO and Unicef call for urgent increased effort to roll back malaria
Nairobi/Geneva/New York, 25 April 2003 -- The Africa Malaria Report,
released today by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United
Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), says the death toll from malaria remains
outrageously high - with more than 3000 African children dying daily. It
also stresses that new effective anti-malarial drugs are not yet
accessible to the majority of those who need them and that only a small
proportion of children at risk of malaria are protected by highly
effective insecticide-treated nets (ITNs). The report, officially launched
by President Mwai Kibaki of Kenya in commemoration of Africa Malaria Day,
gives a continent-wide picture of the struggle against the disease and
highlights the urgent need to make effective anti-malarial treatment
available to those most at risk.
"The Roll Back Malaria Initiative has made considerable progress since it
was launched in 1998, but we need to increase efforts to combat a
devastating disease which is holding back the development of many African
countries," states Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, Director-General of WHO.
"Malaria continues to tighten its grip on Africa. By scaling up our
efforts, we can reverse this trend."
An estimated 20 per cent of the world's population - mostly those living
in the world's poorest countries - is at risk of contracting malaria.
Malaria causes more than three hundred million acute illnesses and kills
at least one million people every year. Ninety per cent of deaths due to
malaria occur in Africa, south of the Sahara, and most deaths occur in
children under the age of five.
"Malaria kills an African child every 30 seconds, and remains one of the
most important threats to the health of pregnant women and their
newborns," said Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of UNICEF. "We have the
knowledge and the potential to achieve our target of reducing the global
burden of malaria by half by 2010, but we need much greater investment and
political commitment."
The Africa Malaria Report challenges the global community to step up the
momentum by:
* Increasing global investment to support implementation of programmes
to control malaria in endemic countries;
* According higher priority to malaria on the health agenda of endemic
countries;
* Encouraging greater private sector involvement in the national
supply and distribution of quality antimalarial drugs, and insecticide
treated nets;
* Ensuring the availability of the new generation of highly effective
antimalarial combination drug treatments to populations at risk;
The Africa Malaria Report acknowledges the contribution of global efforts
to the substantial progress already made by a number of countries that
have adopted cost effective strategies to fight the disease with greater
focus on the most vulnerable - women and young children.
The good news is that ITNs offer substantial protection against malaria.
The proper use of ITNs combined with prompt treatment for malaria at
community level can reduce malaria transmission by as much as 60% and the
overall young child death rate by at least one fifth.
In Tanzania a three year community pilot project has seen the proportion
of infants sleeping under ITNs rise from 10% to 50% and the child death
rate fall by more than 25%. Similarly a community programme in Zambia
achieved net coverage of more than 60% of individuals at risk.
Community health workers and mothers of young children in more than ten
districts in Uganda have been trained to recognize the symptoms of malaria
and seek immediate treatment as part of a home-based approach to the
management of malaria. This approach encourages the active participation
of local medicine sellers and the pharmaceutical industry in malaria
control efforts. Interim results suggest a definite decline in the number
of out-patient malaria cases in children under five. Ghana and Nigeria
have also introduced this home-based approach.
"The Africa Malaria Report shows how the partnership established to roll
back malaria is increasing support for endemic countries' continued fight
against this disease. The global partnership is at a crucial juncture; it
needs to sustain and surpass the support galvanised to date. Our challenge
is to live up to the commitments made five years ago and not fail yet
another generation of African children. This would be unacceptable,"
stated Dr Nafo-Traoré, Executive Secretary, RBM Partnership Secretariat.
Background on Roll Back Malaria
Roll Back Malaria (RBM) was launched in 1998 with the declared objective
of halving the global burden of malaria by 2010. Its founding partners -
the United Nations Development Programme, UNICEF, The World Bank and WHO -
agreed to share their expertise and resources in a concerted effort to
tackle malaria worldwide, with a particular focus on Africa.
Since the launch of Roll Back Malaria, international spending on malaria
has more than trebled to a current figure of US$ 200 million a year.
Comprehensive strategic plans to tackle malaria have been developed in
more than 30 endemic African countries and significant additional
resources secured to implement these plans from the new Global Fund to
fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM).
The RBM initiative is a global partnership including malaria endemic
countries, bilateral and multilateral donors, the private sector, and
NGOs, and has succeeded in raising global awareness of malaria, generating
increased resources and achieving consensus on the tools and priority
interventions required to control the disease.
At the Abuja Summit in Nigeria on 25 April 2000, 44 African leaders
reaffirmed their commitment to roll back malaria and set interim targets
for Africa. They challenged other world leaders to join them in
recognizing the importance of tackling malaria as a disease of poverty.
Following the Abuja summit, 25 April was declared "Africa Malaria Day",
and a subsequent UN resolution declared 2001 - 2010 "The Decade to Roll
Back Malaria, especially in Africa", giving prominence to malaria in the
United Nations' Millennium Development Goals.
Of 44 countries that signed the Abuja Declaration in 2000, 25 endemic
countries in Africa have submitted successful proposals to the Global Fund
to fight AIDS Tuberculosis and Malaria for funding support to scale-up
implementation of their national malaria control plans.
Eighteen endemic countries have now reduced or eliminated taxes and
tariffs on anti-malarial products including mosquito nets and insecticides
- helping to make these essential products more accessible.
