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FOR PUBLICATION
AHRC-ART-004-2010
January 8, 2010
An Article Series on Human Rights and Culture by the Asian Human Rights Commission
HUMAN RIGHTS & CULTURE - Vol. 2, ISSUE NO. 32
Welcome to Vol. 2, Issue No. 32. We would like to wish all our readers a very Happy New Year for 2010 and hope that it will be a good one for all. Also, we wish to apologise for the absence of Human Rights & Culture during the previous weeks which was due to extraneous circumstances.
In this issue we are pleased to bring you a black and white image showing detail from the Human Rights Monument in Paris. Next we have a further selection of the work of our new contributor, Ms. Hasina Kharbhih from her collection, Unknown Destination. We then have two poems from our regular contributor, Airyn R. Lentija. We then have a poem by an anonymous author entitled, Women for Women. Heart of Healing is a picture accompanied by a short poem by Ms. Rita Loyd. Following this, female genital mutilation is a topic that Human Rights & Culture has covered in the past and in this issue we have the article, Uganda bans female genital mutilation. This article which appeared in the BBC was submitted by WUNRN.
Publications -- We are pleased to announce the release of two new publications, they are the book, The Phantom Limb: Failing judicial systems, torture and human rights work in Sri Lanka and the latest issue of Article 2. Details of these publications may be found in the Publications section.
As always, the AHRC is grateful to all our contributors and we would like to remind our readers that your comments on this issue and contributions for future issues may be sent to ahrc@ahrc.asia.
You may view the previous issues at: http://newsletters.ahrchk.net/hrc/.
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Black and white image showing detail from the Human Rights Monument in Paris, France, near the Eiffel Tower and the Champs de Mars. This picture was provided ‘Royalty Free? by FOTOSEARCH, details of which may be found at: http://www.fotosearch.com/
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Two poems by Hasina Kharbhih
Free
I want to roam like wind
Free the world I dream
To evaporate
With the sea’s water
Free in these moments
Is...
My dream
My world /
My mind
Will I be free
My anguished heart is bleeding dry
Does anyone care to know
The reason why
My feelings is going off
the track. Will I achieve a helping hand to
gain it back?
Do We Still Have Vision
The starting point of human revolution
Is is everything in nothing?
Or
Is it just vastness! Nothing?
To select an ideal man to rule the nation
Eternal, for death has no power,
He will smile until our own elected
Idiotically presses a button
An atomic bomb
drops
Mushrooming into million deaths
Inhaling of bitter smoke is for a second
reflected in the eyes of
The multitude
Then skeleton-like bodies
Is the gate to the new century
Do we still have vision.
 Hasina Kharbhih is the founder and president of Impulse NGO Network, an organisation working for chuild rights issues, especially child labour and combating trafficking of woman and children. The organisation is also involved in adolescent health and HIV education training, curriculum building, a village adoption programme and income generating. Hasina was the second person from india to be awarded the Commonwelth Youth Programme Asia Award in 2000, for social development. She has travelled widely through Asia as well as the US and Sweden. She has been a freelance journalist for almost 10 years, writing for newspapers and magazines and is presently writing for Wash Rag, a New York based magazine. In addition to editing books, her poems have been published widely in anthologies in India, China, Japan, Korea, USA, Canada, Ireland and also translated into French. (From the About the Author section in Ms. Kharbhih’s book, Unknown Destination)
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Two poems by Ms. Airyn R. Lentija
Shangri-la
The sizzling Sun smiling
above the dazzling clouds,
that lurch on the vastness of the turquoise sky,
upon hearing the song
of the halcyon air.
Beneath the grasslands
the polished river was indeed
like a virgin; unalloyed,
flowing freely to the sea,
reflecting the nirvanic images
of the World and its gems.
And the Birds of Paradise,
beaming with innocence,
standing on the river banks,
enjoying the chipper Maya;
tiptoeing on the branches
of the Mango trees.
Over the florid hill
stands the verdant boys,
laughter echoing on the wind,
as their kites rising,
tracing the docile current
of the complaisant air.
Sometime before I came
and inhale the tainted air,
where "Modern Artificials";
chemicals, stainless steels...
were still unknown to earth,
Shangri-la does exist here.
Ode to Filipino Media Men
Words are Thy swords
with hopes, fears and dreams
to enter the battlefields
of the tainted world
and deliver the truth
to every men's eyes.
In the rushing wave
of reality and flame
you gathered your strength
from the "words-of-truth",
buried deep within your soul,
to be your Land's tongue.
Awake are Thy senses
for the awards in store
and on the opposite shore
is the land of honorable death.
Sill your passion kindled
for freedom and fair speech.
Not the angry Mayon Volcano
knock'd your head down
to light your nation.
No hours gone to waste
as you battled the storms
and cast your voice to the stones.
Yet when the envying light
strikes you with its merciless beam
and Fate drags you down
six feet below the ground,
your wind-worn battles will be gone
but your words lives on and on.
 Ms. Airyn Lentija works as a domestic helper in Hong Kong. She has enjoyed reading and writing poetry since her days in elementary school. This is Airyn’s third submission and we look forward to receiving more of her work in the future. Further details of Airyn’s work may be found at: http://poetsforhumanrights.ning.com/profile/airyn?xgs=1
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WOMEN FOR WOMEN - POEM
Anonymous
Time passes.
Life happens.
Distance separates.
Children grow up.
Jobs come and go.
Love waxes and wanes.
Men don't do what they're supposed to do.
When you have to walk that lonesome valley and you
have to walk it by yourself, the women in your life
will be on the valley's rim, cheering you on,
praying for you, pulling for you, intervening on
your behalf, and waiting with open arms at the
valley's end.
Sometimes, they will even break the rules and walk
beside you...Or come in and carry you out.
Girlfriends, daughters, granddaughters,
daughters-in-law, sisters, sisters-in-law, Mothers,
Grandmothers, aunties, nieces, cousins, and extended
family, all bless our life!
The world wouldn't be the same without women, and
neither would I. When we began this adventure called
womanhood, we had no idea of the incredible joys or
sorrows that lay ahead. Nor did we know how much we
would need each other.
Every day, we need each other still. Pass this on
to all the women who help make your life meaningful.
Hearts break.
Parents die.
Colleagues forget favors.
Careers end.
BUT.........
Sisters are there, no matter how much time and how
many miles are between you. A girl friend is never farther away
than needing her can reach.
When you have to walk that lonesome valley and you
have to walk it by yourself, the women in your life
will be on the valley's rim, cheering you on,
praying for you, pulling for you, intervening on
your behalf, and waiting with open arms at the
valley's end.
Submitted to WUNRN by Jody Peterson Lodge
Further details of WUNRN may be found at: http://www.wunrn.com
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"Heart of Healing"
?2004, Rita Loyd
Healing is possible
when we can gently and compassionately
go inward
and honestly
examine, explore, question and understand
who we are.
Rita Loyd’s work has graced our pages on several occasions and once again we are grateful to WUNRN for forwarding this latest piece.
For further details on Ms. Loyd’s work please see: http://www.nurturingart.com/inner_child.html
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Over the past year we have published several articles on the issue of Female Genital Mutilation. This article was kindly submitted by WUNRN, details of which may be found at: http://www.wunrn.com
Uganda bans female genital mutilation
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8406940.stm
 In some countries FGM is seen as a way to ensure virginity
Ugandan MPs have voted to outlaw female genital mutilation - also known as female circumcision.
Anyone convicted of the practice, which involves cutting off a girl's clitoris, will face 10 years in jail, or a life sentence if a victim dies.
The BBC's Joshua Mmali in Uganda says it is not officially condoned but is still practised in several rural areas.
Rights groups welcomed the move, but urged awareness campaigns to ensure the centuries-old practice stops.
Genital mutilation is seen in some countries as a way to ensure virginity and to make a woman suitable for marriage.
It's cruel, it traumatises people, it's led children to drop out of school, it's a health hazard.
Our reporter says it is still practised by the Sabiny, some Karamojong sub-groups and the Pokot in eastern Uganda and the Nubi people of West Nile.
MP Alice Alaso said the move was "a very significant achievement".
"It's a very bad practice. It's cruel, it traumatises people, it's led children to drop out of school, it's a health hazard," she told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.
"This is a warning signal - whoever dares practice female genital mutilation will be subject to the law."
Another MP, Lulume Bayiga, said the law would liberate both men and women - who often face being ostracised for shunning the custom.
"Women will start for the first time to enjoy sex and it's going to do away with various diseases," he told the BBC.
According to the UN, about three million girls each year in Africa are at risk of genital mutilation, with more than 91 million girls and women living with the consequences of the procedure.
These include bleeding, shock, infections and a higher rate of death for new-born babies.
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Publications
The Phantom Limb: Failing judicial systems, torture and human rights work in Sri Lanka
A Study of Police Torture in Sri Lanka by Morten Koch Andersen and Basil Fernando
 The Asian Human Rights Commission wishes to inform you about the publication of a new book on the failing judicial systems and the issue of the endemic torture practiced at police stations in Sri Lanka.
This study is a result of the cooperation between the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) and the Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Torture Victims (RCT).
The study was done in January 2008 and the data was processed during April and May 2008 at the AHRC office in Hong Kong. The idea and outline of the study was developed by Basil Fernando of the Asian Human Rights Commission and the processing and analysis of the data and the writing of the report was completed by Morten Koch Andersen of RCT.
The study seeks to explore the routine use of torture by the police and illuminate the widespread violence and human rights violations that are part of everyday life in Sri Lanka. It seeks to show the apparent neglect of the Sri Lankan state to stop these atrocities and provide adequate protection and remedies for the victims by ignoring publicly available information provided by state commissioned investigations and reports on the continuously declining state of affairs in the police force and the general deteriorating of human rights in the country.
Much human rights reporting that focus on crisis and immediate risks, dangers and sufferings tend to overlook historic processes and social ordering systems -- such as caste -- in their (often case based) illustrative descriptions of repressive practices, misuse and mismanagement of authority and the inadequacy of the justice system to protect the citizens. However, it is the proposition of the study that to investigate torture practices and the apparent inability to change the current state of affairs one has to explore the logics based in deep rooted social systems and attitudes. This insight offers an explanation for the socioeconomic bias in the enactment of torture and the reluctance and resistance to change in the criminal justice and political system. In this regard, caste as an ever present social ordering system in South Asia and Sri Lanka appears to be a viable and fundamental issue to include in the analysis to understand current human rights abuses.
The argument is that a 'debris' of the caste system somehow orders social perceptions, relations and actions in the unfolding of the criminal justice system, especially in the images of the mariginalized laboring poor. To do this, we will look into the interconnectedness of the early judicial system and administration and the caste system.
[Published in November 2009 jointly by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), Hong Kong and the Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Torture Victims (RCT), Denmark. 80 pages, ISBN: 978-962-8314-47-8]
Article 2, Vol.8. No.4 is now available.
Article 2 is a quarterly publication of the Asian Legal Resource Centre
 This issue covers the following:
An essay on abysmal lawlessness & the zero status of Sri Lankans
By Basil Fernando, Director, Asian Human Rights Commission & Asian Legal Resource Centre, Hong Kong, with staff of the commission
The distinction between genuine and counterfeit actions for justice
The lost meaning of legality
The predominance of the security apparatus
The disappearance of truth through propaganda
The superman controller
Destroyed public institutions
The zero status of citizens
Further information on Article 2 may be found at: www.article2.org
 We are also pleased to announce that the next issue of Ethics in Action is now available. In this issue, Vol. 3 No. 5, we have an article on the appeal to help flood victims in the Philippines; there is a report on the abuse and humiliation of three Pakistani women and how the case casts shame on the country's justice system; and also in Pakistan the issue of love marriages - women and the rule of law. The continuation of the Prevention of Terrorism Act in Sri Lanka is a crime against the country's children and the terrible situation in the Philippines that makes it necessary for the Police to offer guns to journalists at risk are just some of the articles included in this issue.
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The Asian Human Rights Commission is regularly issuing this article series on Human Rights and Culture in which various cultural expressions, poems, stories, pictures and other forms of cultural expression that are based on the theme of justice, will be published. A pivotal issue in modern literature is justice, particularly the enormous unleashing of injustice under fascist, communist and other authoritarian regime including those that pursue an unbridled market economy have generated responses from created writers. This search for justice is at the very essence of being human. Human beings are part of nature and part of each other. Perhaps the lines of John Donne are most relevant: ?.. any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde;?
Contemporary mass culture promotes violence and destruction. There are those who are opposed to mass culture and want to reclaim the best traditions of human culture within which justice remains a core issue. This column will provide space for those who wish to share their creative initiatives.
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About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.
Posted on 2010-01-08
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