Women's Views on News |
- More scandal of silence around TIPP
- Set Her Free protesters: close Yarl’s Wood
- Another step against sexual violence in conflict
| More scandal of silence around TIPP Posted: 12 Jun 2015 05:49 AM PDT
By Molly Scott Cato MEP. Faced with a possible shock rejection of TTIP by MEPs, Brussels simply cancelled the vote this week – and now Washington moves swiftly to speed up the publicly unpopular trade deal. For a while there, it looked like the EU/US TTIP deal – the monumental power grab by corporations over democracy – was, far from "fast-tracking" in the US, crawling along the slow lane, or maybe even stalled in the hard shoulder. Democrat senators dug their heels in last month on TTIP (and the equally contentious Trans-Pacific Partnership (TTP) deal), claiming these trade deals would drag down US wages and cost American jobs. But these Democrats eventually decided to switch sides. And now it looks like Obama is going for a high-stakes vote to renew the 'fast-track' TTIP negotiation process (minimising democratic oversight) as early as 12 June. It's in this light that we have to view the scandalous decision by the EU presidency to deny myself and other MEPs a vote on TTIP this week. A vote on the deeply unpopular deal was due on Wednesday – the first big test of all MEPs on TTIP. In recent days, a shock upset looked possible. Both socialist and conservative groups alike were coming under massive public pressure. A network of 170 European civil society organisations have denounced the deal as a threat to democracy and an attempt to put the interests of big business before the protection of citizens, workers, and the environment. Almost two million people have signed a European Citizens' Initiative petition against TTIP, and there have been large demonstrations across Europe. During the last week or so, MEPs including myself have received thousands of emails every day – an unprecedented level of interest from the public who normally find EU issues somewhat remote. The public were in particular urging MEPs to rally behind a Green amendment (supported by other Left MEPs including Jude Kirton-Darling) to put on record parliament's unequivocal opposition to one of the most contentious aspects of TTIP – the Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism. This would involve the setting up of special courts to allow corporations to sue governments if they pass laws which limited a corporation's profits or activity – even their future profits. Political parties were running scared. It looked increasingly possible that the EU parliament would, in defiance of its leadership, put on record either its opposition to these 'investor courts' – or even to TTIP as a whole. Such a defeat in Brussels, whilst not ultimately decisive, would have made matters extremely awkward in Washington as they approached a highly sensitive stage – and maybe even derailed the whole process. But then, in a highly unusual move, the EU vote was pulled at the last minute. The official line from the parliament is that because more than 200 amendments were tabled the vote should be postponed to enable the trade committee to consider the amendments before tabling them for a future plenary session. Actually, this was a scandalous attempt to remove the right of all MEPs to vote, or even speak out in parliament, on this very important report on TTIP, at a critical juncture on both sides of the Atlantic. The vote now returns to the trade committee for redrafting, and it's currently unclear if MEPs will get a vote on it this side of the summer. Meanwhile in the US, in an attempt to win over wavering Republicans on the trade deal, the US government has promised that it will be prevented from containing any requirements for the US to take any action on climate change. The EU leadership is cheating MEPs of our rights to represent the will of our constituents. Our rights to defend hard-fought-for regulations on workers' rights, environmental protection, public services and animal rights, which are all threatened by the 'harmonisation' of standards and a potential race to the bottom on standards. And our right to oppose investor courts (ISDS). TTIP is a good example of the democratic deficit in the EU and how this can be exploited by corporations to further their interests, often at the expense of Europe's citizens. Because the EU is not a nation state, democratic representatives in the member countries have little oversight of the negotiation of treaties. In the case of TTIP this negotiation is delegated to officials working for the Commission. None of the people involved have a democratic mandate. True, the Treaty that is eventually negotiated will have to receive a vote of approval in the European Parliament and can be vetoed by any member state in the Council of Ministers. But – whilst Obama has to fight for his "fast track", in the EU, the Commission has a permanent fast track. The disgust that many in Europe are now feeling about the threats from TTIP cannot be used to put pressure on their elected representatives, who have very little power in this process. Corporate lobbyists, by contrast, are free to lobby trade negotiators and employees of the Commission, who never have to account to citizens for their actions. Private interest groups overwhelmingly dominated the European Commission’s TTIP consultations. With nine out of ten lobby contacts during the preparatory phase of the negotiations being with companies and corporate lobby groups, they have effectively co-written the TTIP agenda. And it is clear that citizen's voices are being ignored. Since the results of the Commission's own consultation on the insidious Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) clause were released, showing a 97 per cent rejection rate by respondents, a panicked Commission has desperately sought to come up with magic language to save it. But they only talk about what sort of ISDS we want, and never about whether we want to keep it at all. Those of us who are supportive of the EU project on the whole, but critical of TTIP, must challenge the positive assumptions shared by many EU governments, including our own, that TTIP is a “win-win” for citizens here and in the US. The debate taking place in the US shows this to be a false premise. We need to defend our European democracy and our values, by joining those standing up to big business interests.
The European Union delivers many positive impacts for its citizens and for the wider world; but the secret negotiations surrounding TTIP are undermining trust. To restore citizens’ faith we need our representatives in the European Parliament – the Union’s only elected body – to be given a real voice in such negotiations, and full disclosure of all negotiation texts. This will allow citizens and their representatives to judge whether TTIP will see everyone win, as promised by its proponents, or whether the deal will indeed be a serious threat to health, welfare and environmental standards as feared by its many opponents. A version of this post appeared in openDemocracy on 11 June 2015. Molly Scott Cato is Green MEP for the South West of England and Green Party speaker on finance.  |
| Set Her Free protesters: close Yarl’s Wood Posted: 12 Jun 2015 03:38 AM PDT
Protesters joined campaigners demanding the closure of Yarl’s Wood detention centre on 6 June. Over one thousand people made their way to a rally outside Yarl's Wood detention centre, near Bedford – in the middle of the English countryside on the edge of a business park – to protest against the unlawful imprisonment and abuse of asylum seekers and refugees in the UK. They called for the immediate closure of the detention centre, and the freedom of those detained. This #SetHerFree protest, organised by Women For Refugee Women and Movement for Justice, came three months after an undercover Channel 4 documentary revealed the routinely racist, sexist and aggressive behaviour of members of staff working at Yarl’s Wood towards the female detainees there. Staff supplied by the controversial outsourcing group Serco. Protestors tore down outer fences as women inside waved, flew homemade flags, and joined in with chants from the slight gap in their windows. One woman held notes up reading 'freedom', 'human rights' and 'we want to live life'. Many women are imprisoned in detention centres like Yarl's Wood for months at a time with their freedoms and rights suspended indefinitely until immigration clearance is received. Most of those detained have fled hostile political climates of persecution and torture. Interviews conducted recently by Women for Refugee Women found that the majority of women had experienced rape or some form of sexual abuse before arriving in the UK. Addressing the crowd of protestors, Maimuna Jawo, former detainee at Yarl's Wood, said asylum seekers are criminalised. But while criminals are afforded basic rights and protection, asylum seekers and refugees are dehumanised by deeply racist immigration policy and rhetoric which succeeds in silencing and hiding the thousands of people who are detained, people who are in desperate need of safety. The inhumane treatment of detainees violates not only the strong human rights ethos the UK claims to uphold, but several articles in the UN Declaration of Human Rights, which explicitly prohibit the practices in detention centres legitimised by UK government. Juliet Stevenson echoed these rights to protestors on Saturday. Rights which include Article 9: no one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile; Article 14: everyone has the right to seek and enjoy, in other countries, asylum from persecution; and Article 30:no government, or groups, should destroy any of these rights or freedoms. The scapegoating of refugees and asylum seekers in right wing media and politics frames the discourse of immigration in the UK as one of fear and necessarily harsh control. But, as Green Party leader Natalie Bennett told protestors, of the 50 million people displaced last year by war, violence and hunger, "the number of asylum seeking applications we get is half the European average per head of population…we are not taking our fair share of refugees, we should be taking more refugees". That was 6 June. And now this week a report compiled by the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) for Yarl's Wood, a group of Home Office-appointed local people charged with ensuring standards are maintained, has expressed grave worries about deteriorating physical and mental health services at Yarl's Wood. The Guardian said how the report described a "serious deterioration" in the centre's healthcare service. Specific incidents included one woman waiting almost three weeks for blood tests for a medical condition, and a family left without asthma and diabetes medication for a week. Since September the detention centre’s health service has been provided by the equally controversial outsourcer G4S, a private firm, on behalf of NHS England. The medical service was understaffed and lacking proper management for much of 2014. New commissioning arrangements and a change of contractor ‘made matters worse’. The IMB also points out that the detention of pregnant detainees, who often number more than 10 in Yarl's Wood, contravening the Home Office’s own guidelines. It also noted claims of inappropriate conduct by male officers, such as entering detainees' rooms without knocking, and called on Serco to redouble its efforts to recruit more female officers to look after 'these vulnerable women'. All this horror and misery, even though, as the report said, two-thirds of detainees are eventually released rather than deported. The report formally recommends that no one be held at Yarl's Wood for more than six months – although last year 68 women remained there for longer, up from 51 in 2013. Detention, the report concludes, should only happen when removal from the UK is "inevitable and imminent". The Yarl's Wood IMB Annual Report for 2014 is published in full on the Ministry of Justice website, and can be read by clicking here. Britain cannot present itself as a bastion for human rights while innocent people are secretly incarcerated like criminals. Saturday was a testament to the groundswell in support and awareness for the #SetHerFree campaign and the propensity for integrated, collective action, led by refugees and asylum seekers. The IMB report should mean the issue is not clear: Yarl’s Wood should be closed. Should the need still be, the next demonstration at Yarl’s Wood on 8 August. And in the meantime you can show your solidarity by tweeting the #SetHerFree and #ShutDownYarlsWood hashtags and signing the online petition. Thanks.  |
| Another step against sexual violence in conflict Posted: 12 Jun 2015 02:55 AM PDT
The Prime Minister David Cameron has announced the appointment of Baroness Anelay, Foreign Office Minister of State, as his new Special Representative on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict. This appointment has been made to underline the government's commitment to leading the world in tackling sexual violence in conflict. Baroness Anelay's appointment comes exactly a year after the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, which was hosted by the former Foreign Secretary, William Hague, and the Special Envoy of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Angelina Jolie Pitt. That Summit brought together representatives from over 120 countries to address the political and practical barriers to ending the use of rape and sexual violence as weapons of war. Speaking on the news of her appointment, Baroness Anelay said she was honoured to have been asked to take over from Hague in leading this vital work 'across government' and she looked forward to taking the government's efforts to end the appalling scourge of sexual violence in conflict to the next level. She was, she said, "proud of everything the Initiative has achieved in the last three years including the launch of the International Protocol on the Documentation and Investigation of Sexual Violence in Conflict, our support for conflict-affected countries such as the DRC, Iraq and Bosnia and of course the enormously successful Summit last June." "There is still much more to do," she continued. "I am looking forward to working with civil society, governments, international organisations and survivors to ensure that we drive forward the campaign to end sexual violence in conflict once and for all." Joyce Anelay is a Conservative member of the House of Lords. She was raised to the peerage in 1996. She was a history teacher from 1969 to 1974, served as a magistrate between 1985 and 1997, and was associated with the Citizens Advice Bureau in Woking from 1976 to 2010, including periods as a voluntary adviser, Chairman of the Management Committee and President of the CAB. As Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) her responsibilities include all FCO business in the House of Lords; human rights; the UN, international organisations and International Criminal Court (ICC); migration; climate change; and international energy security policy. And as the Prime Minister's Special Representative (PMSR) on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict she will work with governments, the United Nations, civil society and others to strengthen accountability and tackle impunity; provide greater support for survivors; ensure gender equality is fully integrated in all peace and security efforts; and deliver a more effective multilateral response to crimes of sexual violence in conflict. She will also promote and implement the commitments made at the June 2014 Global Summit. She will also chair the cross-Whitehall ministerial committee which brings together the FCO, the Department for International Development (DFID), the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the Home Office which looks at the implementation of UK commitments as well as what additional support the UK can provide, politically and practically, key partners with in order to secure measurable progress. She will also chair the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative (PSVI) Steering Board with NGOs, academia and experts. She will undertake these activities on behalf of the Prime Minister and will report to him. Earlier this week Anelay presented the Ambassador of Kosovo, Lirim Greicevci, with her contribution to a powerful installation by British-Kosovan artist Alketa Xhafa dedicated to the victims of sexual violence in the Kosovo conflict. Alketa Xhafa’s 'Thinking of You' installation is in Pristina's central stadium, and is formed of 10,000 skirts and dresses, representing victims of sexual violence during the Kosovo conflict. The skirts and dresses will be hung on clotheslines across the field of the Prishtina stadium and they will be installed in the stadium for 12 June, the anniversary of the end of the 1999 conflict in Kosovo. Alketa Xhafa-Mripa, a Kosovo native who is also a British national, has already created a similar but smaller, more intimate installation for her London exhibition, You Just Don't Talk About It, held in March this year. A caption at that exhibition read: "Xhafa-Mripa 'airs out the laundry':" "'Air dirty laundry in public' is a way of saying, 'Talk about your private issues in public,' but in this case the laundry is washed, clean, like the women survivors who are clean, pure, they carry no stain." The idea is to create a vast and visible solidarity. And men will not be discouraged from participating. Baroness Anelay contributed the skirt she wore at the 2010 State Opening of Parliament, when she acted as Captain of the Gentlemen at Arms, only the third time a woman has held this position since it was created in the 16th century. Her contribution mirrors those of other prominent public figures, including that of Kosovo-born singer Rita Ora. Anelay's contribution was to reinforce the UK's campaign to end sexual violence in conflict and ensure that survivors receive the recognition and support that they need. Speaking following her meeting, Baroness Anelay said she was delighted to have the chance to make her own contribution to the 'Thinking of You' installation in Pristina. "Alketa Xhafa's installation will serve as a powerful reminder of those lives irrevocably altered by the scourge of sexual violence in conflict; and of the need to end sexual violence as a tactic of war once and for all," she said. "As the Foreign and Commonwealth Office minister who is responsible for driving forward the UK's Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative, I am pleased to support the leadership of the Kosovan President Atifete Jahjaga in championing her country's work on tacking this once taboo issue. "Learning from the horrors of the past, and driving a cultural shift in attitudes towards victims and their experiences, is crucial to our work to ensure they are never repeated in the future."  |
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