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The Advocacy Project seeks to help community-based advocates produce, disseminate and use information, and so become more effective advocates for human rights and social justice

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Issue 5, February 2003

News From AP Partners

• AP consultant starts media and IT training for Afghan women refugees
  • First diary excerpts
  
  
• Holocaust reparations claim sparks eRider training in Czech Republic
• Kanaks use IMN website to protest the protection of coral reefs in New Caledonia
• Students in the north raises $4,730 for AIDS projects in Africa
• Young Ecologists demand closure of polluting power plant
• ICVA annual meeting calls for impartial humanitarian aid in the event of Iraq war
• World Bank Calls for ‘new approach’ to consultations with civil society

News From The Advocacy Project

• AP and Georgetown University launch internship program
• AP staffer profiled in Dubai newspaper on occasion of e-learning conference
• AP Website: 220,000 page views in seven months

News From AP Partners

Media Training Begins for Afghan Women Refugees

An information specialist, Mary Moore, has begun intensive training in media and website maintenance for Afghan women refugees in Pakistan, as part of a comprehensive program of support by AP for the Afghan Women’s Network (AWN).

Ms. Moore arrived in Peshawar, Pakistan, on February 22 and immediately began training AWN members who are keen to contribute to AWN’s magazine. Ms. Moore is a veteran reporter who spent ten years working on the Los Angeles Times. She has been recruited by The Advocacy Project and Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children (New York).

The AWN is a network of NGOs and individual Afghan women who work for the rights of women on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistan border. Ms. Moore’s assignment, which will last six months, is to help them work together more effectively as a network and as advocates.

This mirrors AP’s work with community networks in Bosnia and with the Roma of East Europe and is consistent with the shift in AP’s own priorities - from profiling the work of its partners to providing substantial support in the field over an extended period of time.

Ms. Moore has spent her first month in Peshawar, where AWN has been headquartered since it was established in 1996. Her first task was to help AWN create a new information and publications unit, under the direction of Sadiqa Basiri, 23.

Ms. Moore’s media training has covered all the basics - from learning how to interview (not something that comes easily to women refugees) to finding a journalistic ‘peg.’ The training has since been taken over by a local Pakistani editor.

Ms. Moore and AWN are now working on an AWN website, to be launched in time for International Women’s Day (March 8). Using money from the project budget, she and Ms. Basiri purchased three computers locally and hired a teacher from the local computer college to train eight AWN members in website design and maintenance. This will ensure the website’s sustainability.

Now that AWN is better organised to manage its own information, Ms. Moore plans to start issuing substantial reports about women’s issues in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and helping the AWN’s two branches work together on common campaigns and publications.

The AWN is lobbying hard to ensure that the new Afghan constitution enshrines some of the gains registered by women since the fall of the Taliban. AP and the Women’s Commission will use AWN material to lobby in Europe and North America.

From Mary Moore's Diary

‘The current restrictions on movement make it incredibly difficult to be a Western woman in Pakistan, and the restrictions are enforced with greater scrutiny in Peshawar. But Western women are not the only ones who are constrained. Local women are expected to follow certain cultural norms when getting around. They rarely walk alone, almost always in a group. Imagine trying to organize a group of women in the U.S. to move together, like a gaggle of geese, every time they need to go somewhere! It would never happen.

‘One of the oddest scenes along a Peshawar road is seeing a large group of women walking at a fast clip, dressed from head to toe in flowing cloths that flap wildly in the wind. They remind me of my days in Catholic school when the nuns would march from the convent to the playground, their heads down and their steps determined.’

• The first two illustrated excerpts of Mary Moore’s personal diary, covering February 22 to January 18, can be read in our Afghan Diary section.

Roma Holocaust Reparations Claim Sparks eRider Training in Czech Republic

Two Roma women in the Czech Republic have documented the persecution of Roma during the Holocaust with such diligence that they have inspired a wider group of Roma women to acquire the skills to use computers and email. This in turn has provided an unexpected catalyst for The Advocacy Project’s program of training for community-based IT specialists (‘eRiders’) among the Roma of East Europe.

The German government has agreed to provide reparations for victims of the Holocaust, which destroyed much of Europe’s Roma population. The two women, both volunteers, were asked to collect testimonies from Roma Holocaust survivors in the Czech Republic by the director of Manushe, a prominent Roma NGO.

Not only did they collect 120 testimonies, which will be forwarded to the Czech Department of Defense, but in the process they taught themselves how to use computers. They have been profiled in a local paper and one has even secured a paying job with the local government offices.

Their success has inspired such a demand for IT skills from other Czech Roma women, that Manushe has asked Gabi Hrabanova, a Roma eRider from the Czech Republic trained by The Advocacy Project, to organize training for its members. The first training for 20 women will take place in March in Ostrava.

Ms. Hrabanova is one of the several Roma eRiders in East Europe being trained by AP in partnership with the Network Women’s Program, Roma Participation Program and the Information Program of the Open Society Institute. Together with two other Roma eRiders, Ms. Hrabanova will participate at the forthcoming annual Circuit Riders conference in Oakland, California.

The Kanaks of New Caledonia Use Indigenous Website to Oppose the Protection of Coral Reefs

The Kanaks of New Caledonia have used a website created by AP for the Indigenous Media Network (IMN) to warn that the inclusion of New Caledonia’s coral reefs on the World Heritage List could threaten their rights and culture.

The warning comes in an article by Kanak journalist Sarimin J. Boengkih which has been posted on the site together with about 80 other articles from indigenous journalists and activists. The site was created for the IMN network by The Advocacy Project in May 2002 in the hope of providing indigenous writers with a virtual meeting place and encouraging international indigenous groups to campaign together. The site is managed by Kal Tara, a Maori journalist.

In addition to attracting new members and articles, the site is beginning to reflect the many common problems that face indigenous people. The Kanaks of New Caledonia are concerned that providing international protection for coral reefs, under the World Heritage plan, would restrict the Kanaks’ traditional fishing practices. This tension between the protection of endangered wildlife and indigenous demands is growing, as natural habitats shrink.

In other news from the IMN website, Moana Sinclair, a Maori from New Zealand who is also the IMN editor, announces the launch of the website of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. The second Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues will be held May 12-23. The deadline for NGO registration is April 12, 2003.

The IMN website also carries a story by Sophie Thomas, from Survival International, disproving a claim by the government of Botswana that it has put an end to diamond extraction in the ancestral land of Botswana’s indigenous Bushmen. According to Ms. Thomas, government maps show a massive increase in diamond exploration concessions on the ancestral land of the Gana and Gwi Bushmen and Bakgalagadi, just months after the government evicted diamond miners from the region.

The Advocacy Project is developing a project with the IMN that will allow the IMN to create a management and editorial structure, engage new members, and report on UN meetings this year.

Youth Against AIDS Raises $4,730 For African Projects

In an impressive demonstration of international cooperation by young people in the fight against AIDS, students in Europe and North America have raised over $4,730 for small AIDS projects designed by their African partners.

The initiative, known as ‘Adopt a Project,’ has been created by Youth Against AIDS (YAA), an international network of young AIDS activists that was established in 2000 to lobby for more involvement by young people in the fight against AIDS. The Advocacy Project helped YAA post a website and profiled the work of its African members in AP’s online newsletter 'On the Record'.

Several YAA groups in Africa have designed projects, which are all featured on the YAA website. Over the past two years, their northern partners have risen to the challenge and organised events:

- Lydiah Bosire, president of YAA, secured a community grant of $2,000 from Cornell University for the Ngware Youth project in western Kenya.

- The Student Global AIDS Campaign, of which YAA is a member, raised $1,500 for an information campaign launched by Clayton Lillienfeldt, the YAA member in South Africa.

- The Southern African Society at the London School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) organised an event that raised $680 (433 pounds sterling) for the Nigerian Youth Action Rangers.

- The Oxford Women’s Church Group, together with Student Partnerships Worldwide, raised $550 (350 pounds sterling) at an event in Oxford, UK, for a project in Uganda managed by Sparks Philip Sentamu, YAA’s representative.

YAA’s Adopt a Project initiative, while highly enterprising, still suffers from the fact that YAA lacks any legal status. Its projects also need systematic monitoring and evaluation. Even transferring funds to Africa is difficult. As a result, AP is hoping to revive its support for YAA, and help the network secure NGO status in Africa and restructure.

Meanwhile, YAA is appealing for volunteers to organise fundraising events and form YAA chapters in northern universities. Anyone interested should contact Lydiah Bosire in the US or Rebecca Maina in the UK.

Kosova Young Ecologists Demand Closure of Polluting Power Plant

The Kosova Young Ecologists (KYE) are seeking to close Kosova A, which is one of Europe’s dirtiest and most damaging power plants.

Kosova A runs off low-grade coal and covers a large part of Prishtina with a noxious pall of grime that even finds its way under the skin of vegetables. The power plant received further unwelcome publicity recently, when it was discovered than an EU official had been embezzling money that was earmarked for the reconstruction of the power plant.

The Young Ecologists were the first indigenous green movement to emerge in Kosovo after the 1999 war. As a prelude to their new campaign they canvassed the opinion of inhabitants who live in the shadow of the plant and conducted a radio call-in show. They are now working with RTK (the national television station) to put together a documentary on the plant.

The next phase of the campaign will involve research into how other East European countries have made the difficult transition from coal-fired plants. Anyone interested, or in a position to help, is invited to contact KYE.

The Advocacy Project helped to design the Young Ecologists’ first website and connect them to the Internet. They have since incorporated IT into their campaigning, and evolved into one of Kosovo’s most sophisticated lobby groups.

ICVA Annual Meeting Calls For Impartial Humanitarian Aid in the Event of War

The annual conference of the International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA) has warned against ‘blurring the line’ between military assistance and traditional humanitarian aid, and insisted that the military should permit humanitarian agencies to act impartially and independently in the event of a war in Iraq.

A statement issued at the end of the two-day conference (February 16-17, 2003) called for a clear distinction to be made between military and humanitarian players in the event of a major humanitarian crisis. One of the themes of the conference was the increasing subordination of humanitarian NGOs to governments, and the encroachment of the military into humanitarian assistance.

The conference was told that this blurring of the roles, combined with the growing dependency of NGOs on government aid, was making it increasingly difficult for NGOs to perform their traditional humanitarian role. One participant even suggested that the US Army had violated the Geneva Conventions by deploying armed soldiers in Afghanistan dressed as civilians.

The Advocacy Project helped ICVA produce a new newsletter, ‘Talkback,’ and post a new website in 1999. ICVA has used both outlets effectively, to keep its network of members informed about humanitarian issues and also coordinate their activities.

For the full text of the statement, issues of ‘Talkback,’ and conference papers, visit the ICVA website.

The World Bank Calls For a New Approach to Consultations With Civil Society

A Senior Vice-President from the World Bank has conceded that the Bank’s dialogue with civil society often leaves both sides dissatisfied, and that a new approach is probably needed. He also said that the Bank might consider conducting human rights assessments of Bank projects through its operations evaluation department.

The comments were made by Ian Johnson, Senior Vice President for the Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development Network at the World Bank at a November 14, 2002 meeting of the Georgetown Human Rights Forum. The Forum is jointly sponsored by the Institute for the Study of International Migration (Georgetown) and The Advocacy Project.

Mr Johnson heads an internal task force on human rights at the World Bank. Pressed to defend the Bank’s record by representatives from Human Rights Watch and ActionAid USA, he said that consultations with NGOs are now the rule rather than the exception, and that the Bank has decentralised its operations outside Washington and appointed civil society representatives in all of its field offices. This makes it much easier for the Bank to respond to community concerns.

At the same time, he conceded that consultations often leave much to be desired. For example, the Bank has consulted with over 1,000 indigenous representatives about a new Bank indigenous policy, yet many indigenous groups still felt excluded. The most obvious solution, he said, was to create new ‘institutions’ to facilitate such consultations.

Mike Jendrzejczyk, Washington Director of the Asia Division of Human Rights Watch, said that the Bank’s consultations with NGOs are often ‘pro forma’ and urged the Bank to intervene more actively on behalf of human rights defenders and NGOs which support for key Bank programs.

For example, he said, the Bank was investing heavily in the Internet and committed to bridging the ‘digital divide.’ Yet it had failed to intervene when the Chinese government had arrested Huong Qi, a computer operator who set up the first human rights website in China. The Bank had also declined to press the Indian government to provide protection for victims of HIV/AIDS discrimination in India – even though ending discrimination could be key to the success of a massive Bank program to combat HIV/AIDS.

AP Offers Internship Program to Georgetown Students

The Advocacy Project has linked up with the Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM) at Georgetown University to find summer interns to work with AP’s field partners.

The scheme was presented to Georgetown students at a February 24 briefing by Aspen Brinton, who is studying for a Master's at Georgetown and also works as AP’s research and internship coordinator.

While Georgetown students will be given preference, AP could consider requests from other quarters, depending on availability. AP partners in Italy, Nigeria, Kosovo, Bosnia, Nepal and the Palestinian territories have all expressed interest in taking a summer intern. For more information contact Aspen Brinton.

AP Staffer Profiled in Dubai Newspaper on Occasion of E-Learning Conference

AP’s Outreach Coordinator, Kelly Kliebhan, has been profiled in the paper Gulf News following her participation at a recent international conference on e-learning in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Ms. Kliebhan and three other International Business Diplomacy students from Georgetown were selected by the University to join 350 students from 75 countries at the conference, named E-ducation Without Borders 2003. Hosted by Sheikh Nahyan Mubarak Al Nahyan, the conference announced the creation of a new global student forum for exploring e-learning technologies in higher education.

Ms. Kliebhan was selected by Georgetown on the basis of a proposal that she has developed to allow young girls in Africa to use online chat rooms to discuss sensitive issues connected with the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

• For more information on the conference email Kelly.

AP Website Receives 220,000 Page Views in Seven Months

Visitors to the AP website have viewed 219,123 pages since the beginning of July 2002, when AP started to collect site statistics. Actual visitor sessions have risen from 8,471 in July 2002 to 12,731 in January 2003.

The statistics show that visits increase sharply when AP posts a new campaign section on the site, or issues a press advisory. 4,556 page views were logged on November 19 2002, the day that AP posted a new campaign page on Srebrenica. This was a five-fold increase over the previous day.

On the site, AP’s mission statement continues to draw most visitors.  The most popular campaign page is the profile of the indigenous struggle against oil companies in Ecuador. 

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