Translation

.يولد جميع الناس أحرارا متساوين في الكرامة والحقوق. وقد وهبوا عقلا وضميرا وعليهم أن يعامل بعضهم بعضا بروح الإخاء‎
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Thursday, September 13, 2007

HIV rates rise in gay New Yorkers under 30

HIV infection rates among New York City gay men under 30 years of age rose during the last six years, health authorities reported.

The majority of the new cases occurred among gay African-Americans and Latinos. Among gay men under 20 years of age, more than 90 percent of those diagnosed with HIV belonged to one of those two ethnic groups, the report read.

According to a study by the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, new diagnoses of HIV among gays in New York City increased by 33 percent during the last six years, from 374 in 2001 to 499 in 2006.

Gays between 13 and 19 years of age registered a high increase in HIV infection rates -- from 41 new cases six years ago to 87 in 2006.

Every borough in the city except Staten Island witnessed an increase in infection rates.

The Department of Health report did not offer possible explanations as to why rates of infection have risen among gay men under 30, and adolescents between 13 and 19 in particular.

Dr. Donna Futterman, director of the youth AIDS program at Children's Hospital of Montefiore, said teenagers in minority groups may feel more pressure to hide their sexual orientation.

"The pressure to hide their identity puts them in riskier situations than if they could openly date and express their wishes and expectations," Futterman said.

Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden urged young people to reduce their number of sexual partners, and use condoms more consistently.

Frieden pointed out that the current generation of young people is growing up without having seen friends die of AIDS, which could be giving them the false impression "that HIV is not such a terrible disease."

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

MAURITANIA: UN refugee agency calls for funds to get Mauritanian refugees home


An 18-year-old Senegalese government-issued refugee card. Cards like these were issued to Mauritanians expelled from their homes in 1989
The UN refugee agency is asking donors for US$7 million to help tens of thousands of Mauritanians return home nearly 20 years after ethnic fighting forced them to leave.

Forced from their homes and livelihoods in 1989 the refugees – living in Senegal and Mali – have long insisted that their return be supervised and backed by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR). In June the Mauritanian government formally requested UNHCR assistance with the repatriation.

“We call on the international community to help Mauritania turn this painful page in our history,” Moustapha Toure, spokesperson for the Mauritanian refugees, told IRIN.

Some 25,000 Mauritanians are expected to set off from Senegal and Mali next month in UNHCR-operated boats and trucks, with the refugee agency providing food and protection along the way as well as assistance to local communities.

Part of the funds – about $1.7 million – is earmarked for protection and monitoring of refugees’ legal rights. “The authorities will provide returnees with the necessary documentation to ensure their access to civil rights, land and property in a dignified manner,” UNHCR says in its appeal.

After years of refugees’ apprehension about their status upon returning home, the newly elected Mauritanian government in July formally invited them, saying they could return safely and with dignity.

Of some 60,000 people who originally fled Mauritania, about 30,000 remain in northern Senegal and some 6,000 in Mali.

An initial survey conducted by UNHCR and Senegalese officials in July and August found that some 24,000 refugees in Senegal expressed a wish to return home. A few hundred refugees living in Mali are also expected to return.

UNHCR says given “the limited absorption capacity of return areas”, it expects to assist 7,000 people to return by the end of this year and the rest in 2008.

Helping local communities

Part of the funds will be used to build up health and education facilities as well as boost agricultural capacity in communities where refugees will return, UNHCR says.

“It is assumed that returning refugees have maintained regular contact with their relatives in Mauritania, which will improve reintegration prospects in their communities of origin,” UNHCR says in the appeal document. “However, as communities in Mauritania are already facing a shortage of resources, returnee families, consisting often of up to nine members each, will put an important strain on already scarce food and water sources.”

The appeal covers the construction of 35 wells and the building or rehabilitation of 20 health centres and 20 classrooms. In addition, it calls for agricultural tools and seeds for returnees as well as host communities.

Refugees will receive two months food rations from UNHCR and three months basic food rations from the World Food Programme to further mitigate the strain on local communities.

UNHCR says it is negotiating a tripartite agreement with the Senegalese and Mauritanian governments, intended to provide a legal framework covering property rights and legal documentation for refugees. The agreement is expected to be finalised before repatriation begins in October, the agency says.

Truth and reconciliation

While refugees have welcomed the assistance of their government and UNHCR, many are calling for a truth and reconciliation commission to discuss the events of 1989 once repatriation is completed, refugee spokesperson Toure told IRIN.

Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi said in a speech in June: “I am urging all Mauritanians to get mobilised in order to welcome, as warmly and in as brotherly a manner as possible, our fellow countrymen and women in solidarity.”

“Our president has recognised the state’s responsibility to restoring our human rights,” Toure said. “We hope the international community will fully support that initiative so we can put ourselves firmly on the path of national reconciliation.”

Some 60,000 black Mauritanians were expelled from their country to neighbouring Senegal and Mali in 1989 when a border dispute erupted into ethnic violence. Thousands of Mauritanians living in Senegal at the time were also forced out.

Sunday, September 2, 2007

“Tactical Momentum” in Iraq and Our New Sunni “Friends”

In an August 25 article in the New York Times (”Hear a General, Hug a Sheik: Congress Does the Iraq Circuit,” by Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Damien Cave) we learn that the encouraging, but misleading, phrase “Tactical Momentum” is apparently being used by General David Petraeus in his briefings of the many Congressmen making the pilgrimage to Iraq of late. This phrase, or something similar, is likely to feature prominently in Gen. Petraeus’ report this month on the situation in Iraq.

That choice of words suggests that a process is underway inside Iraq of expanding and sustainable stability, which would have to involve the resolution of the deep ethno-sectarian rifts that have been tearing that already battered country apart. Gen. Petraeus and others speaking out in support of the current surge also commonly assert or imply strongly that the gains made in recent months in predominantly Sunni Arab areas of Iraq are the direct result of the surge. This simply is not the case.

By far, the gains made in mainly Sunni Arab portions of Iraq, especially al-Anbar province, are the result of rising anger among many Sunni Arabs over the abuses associated with al-Qaeda in Iraq cadres in their midst — resentment that has been building since 2004. This has very little to do with the current surge. Indeed, only around 5,000 additional US troops of almost 30,000 sent to Iraq since the beginning of the surge have gone to al-Anbar because the focus of the surge was the Baghdad area.

Furthermore, this alliance of convenience between US forces and Sunni Arab tribal notables and insurgents is bitterly opposed by the Shi’a-dominated Maliki government and its supporters because there is no desire on their part to have armed Sunni Arabs assemble more freely, acquire still more arms one way or another without US interference, or join local Iraqi security forces in large numbers. In effect, what has been going on is the formation, with US acquiescence, of Sunni Arab militias. Yet, by encouraging and exploiting this phenomenon, American troops, alongside such forces, have dealt severe blows to al-Qaeda in Iraq — perhaps the most encouraging successes in Iraq since 2003.

Nonetheless, those now helping us in al-Anbar and other largely Sunni Arab strongholds remain deeply opposed to the American occupation and fiercely oppose the Shi’a and Kurdish dominated government in Baghdad. This is why one senior American commander working with these elements reportedly has instructed his men not to trust our new best friends. If and when al-Qaeda in Iraq has been crushed, these same Sunni Arabs might well turn once again against the next two parties on their hit list. As a result, we would want to make sure that when that time arrives, we get out of their way as expeditiously as possible. This is almost certainly why General Odierno mentioned recently the possibility of pulling out of some areas in al-Anbar once they are “stabilized” (i.e. made free of al-Qaeda in Iraq).

There should be little reason to fear that once these Sunni Arab elements have defeated al-Qaeda in Iraq that, in the absence of US forces, these elements would invite the terrorists back in. Having betrayed such fanatical jihadists and fought against them alongside US forces, allowing them to return would carry the very real risk of bloody retribution.

Meanwhile, the profound political problems plaguing Iraq, which the surge was supposed to resolve by creating the necessary “space” or security environment, continue unabated. In fact, they appear to be worsening, in part because of the military cooperation between US forces and Sunni Arabs. Additionally, the Iraqi government remains dysfunctional. It is not only unable to pass the benchmarks so earnestly desired by Washington but, in fact, seems unwilling to do so because the idea of providing Sunni Arabs with a greater share of the political and financial pie (so Sunni Arabs will more readily buy in to the political process) is something anathema to many Shi’a and Kurds.

Unfortunately, many political figures across the political spectrum back here in the US don’t understand what is happening in Iraq. Supporters of the Bush Administration believe recent successes relating to Iraq’s Sunni Arabs are the result of the surge and that Iraq can be progressively stabilized by a continued US presence. Many of those on the other side of the political spectrum believe there has not been much success and to the extent there is, any progress would support the Administration’s case for remaining in Iraq.

Neither view holds water. The success in Sunni areas is real, but Iraq’s lethal ethno-sectarian fault-lines remain and opposition to occupation among our new Sunni Arab allies has not waned. The latter almost certainly will demand that we withdraw from their areas of Iraq once we finish helping them destroy the terrorists in their midst.

Consequently, lest we risk renewed resistance in predominantly Sunni Arab areas of the country farther down the road, the US should do just that. This would allow us to pull out of the previously most dangerous portions of Iraq in a more orderly and peaceful fashion. To avoid getting caught in the middle between Sunni and Shi’a, Washington should not wait too long before ordering a withdrawal from the rest of the country too.

Wayne White

Child marriage a neglected problem

Two years ago, in the western Malian village of Korera-Kore, a 13-year-old girl was forced into marriage during her school summer holiday. She died after complications during sex on her wedding night.

This young Malian, whose case was documented by a local organisation called the Coordination of Women’s Associations and Non-governmental organisations (CAFO), is one of more than 60 million women globally who were married or in union before the age of 18, according to estimates by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Campaigners say forced early marriage, or child marriage, is a problem that has been largely untouched by the international community. In Mali it is considered by the research organisation Population Council as “one of the most severe crises of child marriage in the world today”; the few workers in this field say progress is too slow.

“There hasn’t been a really concerted effort to address the issue [at the international level],” said Naana Otoo-Oyortey, a founding member of the Forum on Marriage and the Rights of Women and Girls, a network of mostly UK-based organisations who campaign against early marriage and violence against women. “It’s been a neglected issue.”

Otoo-Oyortey said unlike female genital mutilation/cutting, which is prohibited in many international conventions, child marriage receives little visibility and little funding from donors for programmes to reduce the practice, despite its link to increased rates of maternal mortality, fistula and HIV/AIDS.

Legal framework

In Mali, a girl is legally allowed to wed at the age of 15 with the consent of her parents. In some cases, girls younger than 15 can wed with the authorisation of a judge.

A government bill that would, among other things, raise the legal age of marriage to 18 has been on the books for five years, but has yet to be passed.

“Now, it’s a question of political will,” said Bakary Traoré, technical adviser on children at the Malian Ministry for the Promotion of Women, Children and Family.

According to Founé Samaké, lawyer and member of the Clinique juridique des femmes maliennes, a legal aid clinic, Malian law punishes the abduction of women for forced marriage by one to five years in prison. When the abducted girl is less than 15 years old, the sentence is up to 10 years of forced labour and, at the discretion of the judge, an injunction banning the convicted person from specified places for up to 20 years.

But enforcing the law is an “arduous task”, Samaké said, because family members are often accomplices in the forced marriage.

Slow decline

In Mali, according to the latest statistics from the 2001 Demographic and Health Survey, 65 percent of women aged 20-24 were married by the age of 18, one of the highest rates in the world. Nationwide, 25 percent of girls were married by the age of 15, and one in 10 married girls aged 15-19 gave birth before age 15.

While this marks a decrease since 1987, when 79 percent of Malian women married as children, advocates say the numbers are not dropping fast enough, largely because not enough people are working on the subject.

“The global trend has been a slow decline,” said Nassra Abass, a consultant in UNICEF’s child protection section in New York. “[But] there’s definitely a lot more that we can do.”

She said UNICEF’s focus has been on reducing female genital cutting (FGC), a movement that has “momentum”, unlike child marriage, honour killings and other traditional practices considered harmful by the UN.

“There have not been very many resources or much time invested in early marriage. There aren’t many programmes running. That’s why the decline is slow,” Abass told IRIN.

Dangers

The mild decline in early marriage in Mali has been attributed to the few education and awareness raising programmes that do exist.

In the western Malian region of Kayes, where 83 percent of girls are married by the age of 18, particular effort has been paid to informing people of the risks of early marriage.

According to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), girls aged 15-19 are twice as likely to die during pregnancy or childbirth as women aged 20-24. Among girls aged 10-14, the risk is five times greater. Early onset of sexual activity has also been linked to increased risk of HIV/AIDS because child brides are less likely to be educated and more likely to have unprotected sex with older men who have had more sexual partners.

New research by CAFO of Nioro du Sahel, one of Kayes’s largest cities, showed that in Kayes, between 2005 and May 2007, at least 10 girls - many not yet teenagers - lost their lives because of complications after their wedding nights, sometimes due to haemorrhaging after forced intercourse.

Education

As a result, in July, CAFO joined with UNICEF, the government department responsible for the promotion of women, and the union of independent radio and TV stations, to organise the first public awareness campaign in the region of Kayes. It included a three-day workshop with religious and community leaders, informing them of the dangers of early marriage and helping them produce messages against early marriage to be broadcast in the local media. A similar workshop took place in the eastern region of Gao in June.

“We were ignorant. We married girls at 9, 10, 11 or 12 years old. Now, we’ve seen the reality. We will no longer practice this,” Diawara Mamadou, head of the town of Gogui and one of 12 community representatives present at the workshop, told IRIN.

For the last two years, UNICEF has also been working with communities in three regions of Mali - Segou, Mopti and Kayes - to inform residents of the risks, help them abandon the practice, and set up committees that will intervene in cases of early marriage. UNICEF in Mali has set up an internal working group to better coordinate work on early marriage, and hopes to extend these programmes nation-wide.

“[In Mali], we are the only ones interested in this problem,” said Fabienne Dubey, assistant programme officer for education at UNICEF-Mali. “I don’t know of other organisations working on this. It is still very rudimentary.”


Photo: IRIN
Women do a lot of cooking, cleaning and manual work in Mali. Education is poor
UNFPA runs educational programmes focusing on reproductive health that include, but do not specifically target, early marriage. Starting in 2008, UNFPA will make early marriage more of a priority, according to reproductive health programme officer Mariam Cissoko.

What works

“The most important thing that a national government should do is ensure enforcement of its own laws,” said Kathy Selvaggio, senior policy advocate at the Washington, DC-based International Center for Research on Women, an organisation lobbying the US government to spend more of its aid money fighting early marriage.

She said legal enforcement must be combined with programmes that provide alternatives to early marriage by increasing the levels of education and economic opportunities of girls.

“Where you have successes in combating child marriage, [as in India and Ethiopia], they’ve been these comprehensive approaches,” Selvaggio told IRIN.

The Malian government does consider child marriage a form of violence against women, and “there is a whole policy to fight against violence done to women,” according to Kanté Dandara Touré, national director for the promotion of women at the Ministry for the Promotion of Women, Children and Family.

She said the national committee for the fight against detrimental practices does include early marriage in its sensitisation work, using media, community leaders and theatre, but no government programme targets early marriage exclusively.
''...It's a question of priorities, and right now female genital cutting is at the top...''

“It’s a question of priorities,” and right now “female genital cutting is at the top,” Touré said, noting that more than 90 percent of Malian women are circumcised.

Priorities

Making early marriage a political priority is a necessary first step for change, according to maternal mortality research by Professor Jeremy Shiffman, of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs of Syracuse University.

“In Honduras, safe motherhood became one of the country’s foremost health priorities, and between 1990 and 1997, the country experienced a 40 percent decline in its maternal mortality ratio, one of the most significant reductions in such a short time span ever documented in the developing world,” he wrote in a May 2007 article in the American Journal of Public Health.

He found that nine factors shaped the degree to which maternal mortality reduction emerged on the national policy agenda, including efforts by international agencies to establish a global norm concerning its unacceptability; financial and technical resources from international donors; the degree to which national advocates coalesced as a political force; the generation of national attention for the cause; and the existence of competing health causes.