Dear All,

Please vote for me. I am standing as a candidate for One Young World. One Young World is a platform where I will be able to represent the youth of today and address the challenges facing the world today.
Please vote for me, so that I can become a delegate in February 2010:

http://apps.facebook.com/oywcandidates/entry/384/


Thanking you in anticipation.

Sincerely,
Wajahat Nassar

Dear All,
I have started a new project Online Model UN, the first training session has been planned on 11 July 2009.
The first conference will be held online from 15 to 18th July 2009.
Please send an email of interest to wajahat.nassar@gmail.com by 10th of July 2009.

Thank you

Yours sincerely,
Wajahat Nassar

The Open Society Institute (OSI) Human Rights Internship is intended to attract recent graduates of Masters and LL.M. programs in the social sciences, law, and humanities to the human rights sector, giving them the opportunity to gain first-hand research experience in the field of human rights, government accountability, or penal reform. Successful candidates receive a locally determined stipend and the opportunity to work in one of the leading human rights and accountability advocacy organizations in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. The program is designed to benefit both the intern and the host organization. Internships are envisioned to last from 6 to 12 months, depending on the research topic and scope. For the upcoming year, OSI will support up to 10 internships.

Eligible candidates must fulfill the following three requirements:
1. Be the recipient of an OSI fellowship from the Network Scholarship Program, or a graduate of the Central European University's Human Rights Program or Comparative Constitutional Law Program.
2. Have graduated in the past three years from LL.M. or MA studies in the social sciences, law or humanities.
3. Be a citizen of a country from Central and Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, or Mongolia.

Deadlines
- Contact potential hosting NGOs: Monday, August 31, 2009.
- Final Internship Application: Submit by Thursday, October 1, 2009.

For host organizations and to apply, please visit the following link:
http://www.soros.org/initiatives/hrggp/focus_areas/internship.

источник - BBC Russian


Россия пятая в мире по военным расходам


За 2008 год военные расходы во все мире выросли на 4% и достигли рекордной суммы в 1,464 млрд. долларов.

По данным Стокгольмского международного института исследования проблем мира (SIPRI), по сравнению с 1999 годом эти расходы возросли на 45%.

В отличие от гражданской аэрокосмической индустрии и пассажирских авиалиний, оборонная промышленность кризиса не испытывает.

За прошлый год на 11% возрос объем миротворческих операций, которые также приносят доход военно-промышленному комплексу.

В частности, были начаты операции в Дарфуре и Демократической Республике Конго. Сейчас, по данным SIPRI, в миротворческих операциях участвуют около 187 600 человек.

Растущая индустрия

В 2007 году 100 ведущих производителей вооружений продали своей продукции на сумму в 347 млрд. долларов.

Почти все эти компании - американские или европейские. Кроме того, в эту сотню входят российские, японские, израильские и индийские фирмы. 61% продаж за 2007 год приходится на 44 американские компании, а 31% - на 32 западноевропейские.

Крупнейшим в мире производителем вооружений является американская компания Boeing, которая в 2007 году реализовала своей продукции на сумму в 30,5 млрд. долларов.

На втором месте - британская BAE Systems (29,9 млрд. долларов), на третьем - американская Lockheed Martin - 29, 4 млрд.

Россия - на третьем месте по темпам роста

Больше всех на вооружения тратят Соединенные Штаты: на них приходится 58% от общего роста расходов на эти цели за последнее десятилетие.

За США следуют Китай и Россия, которые в период с 1999 года утроили военные расходы. По словам SIPRI, у России "есть планы по дальнейшему увеличению [военных расходов], несмотря на тяжелые экономические проблемы".

В 2008 году военные расходы стран Ближнего Востока сократились, но, по оценке SIPRI, это временное явление. "Многие страны в этом регионе планируют крупные закупки оружия", - говорится в докладе SIPRI.

Исключение составляет Ирак, военный бюджет которого в 2008 году возрос на 133% по сравнению с 2007 годом. "Ирак по-прежнему зависит в значительной степени от поставок оружия из США и планирует большое число заказов", - утверждают эксперты SIPRI.

По данным института, военные действия в Афганистане и Ираке пока обошлись Соединенным Штатам в 903 млрд. долларов.

"Идея "войны с террором" побудила многие страны рассматривать свои проблемы через милитаристскую призму и оправдывать с ее помощью высокие военные расходы", - говорит Сэм Перло-Фриман, возглавляющий проект по изучению военных расходов в SIPRI.

Будущие проблемы?

По мнению SIPRI, высокие военные расходы могут вызвать экономические трудности даже в самых богатых странах.

"В ходе восьми лет президентства Джорджа Буша военные расходы США в реальном исчислении выросли до наивысшего уровня за период после Второй мировой войны, - говорится в докладе SIPRI. - Этот рост способствовал росту бюджетного дефицита".

Эксперты SIPRI отмечают, что военные кампании в Ираке и Афганистане финансировались в основном путем утверждения экстренных дополнительных расходов за рамками обычного бюджетного процесса.

"Производители вооружений могут в будущем столкнуться с уменьшением спроса, если правительства сократят военные расходы в ответ на растущий бюджетный дефицит", - отмечает SIPRI.

Kitty and Bug
by John Hollander

Fellowships for Threatened Academics: Professors, Researchers and Lecturers

Application Deadline: 15 June 2009

The Institute of International Education's Scholar Rescue Fund (SRF) provides fellowships for established scholars whose lives and work are threatened in their home countries. These fellowships permit professors, researchers and other senior academics to find temporary refuge at universities and colleges anywhere in the world, enabling them to pursue their academic work and to continue to share their knowledge with students, colleagues, and the community at large.

When conditions improve, these scholars will return home to help rebuild universities and societies ravaged by fear, conflict and repression. During the fellowship, conditions in a scholar's home country may improve, permitting safe return; if safe return is not possible, the scholar may use the fellowship period to identify a longer-term opportunity.

Read our outreach message in Arabic, Farsi, French and Spanish; review eligibility criteria; and download the application form: http://www.scholarrescuefund.org/pages/for-scholars.php

Partner with SRF and host a scholar: http://www.scholarrescuefund.org/pages/for-hosts.php

General information: http://www.scholarrescuefund.org/

Contact Us at: SRF@iie.org


Kind regards,

Sophie Dalsimer
Scholar Rescue Fund
Institute of International Education
Web: www.scholarrescuefund.org

Your Gateway to Country of Origin Information

ecoi.net provides up-to-date and publicly available country of origin information with a special focus on the needs of asylum lawyers, refugee counsels and persons deciding on claims for asylum and other forms of international protection. Access to information is facilitated by a comprehensive search tool and Topics & Issues files, offering thematically structured information on asylum-relevant topics and issues for a set of focus countries.
Read more

Your Gateway to Country of Origin Information

ecoi.net provides up-to-date and publicly available country of origin information with a special focus on the needs of asylum lawyers, refugee counsels and persons deciding on claims for asylum and other forms of international protection. Access to information is facilitated by a comprehensive search tool and Topics & Issues files, offering thematically structured information on asylum-relevant topics and issues for a set of focus countries.

Dear colleagues,

"On-call" Scientists is a network of scientists who are ready to volunteer their time and expertise to human rights organizations in need of science and scientific know how. Nearly 200 scientists, from a variety of disciplines, are enrolled in the program.

As a program of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), we are able to recruit scientists from all fields: behavioral, life, physical and social sciences, as well as engineers. We are now reaching out to human rights organizations that need a scientist or scientific expertise to let them know that we are in a position to help them identify possible volunteers.

If your human rights organization has a project that requires a scientist, we invite you to submit a Request for a Volunteer via our website: http://oncallscientists.aaas.org/default.aspx. Projects will have to be very specific in terms of objectives, time-frame, location, and the like.

We look forward to the opportunity to help advance your human rights work through science.


Yours sincerely,

Mona Younis
Director, Science and Human Rights Program
American Association for the Advancement of Science
1200 New York Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20005 USA
Ph +1 202 326 6796
Fax +1 202 289 4950
oncall@aaas.org
http://shr.aaas.org/

I think I’ve figured it out. There’s something in public health called the “prevention paradox”: measures of disease prevention that offer great benefits to populations at large (such as fluoridation of water sources, wearing seatbelts, lifestyle changes, smallpox vaccinations, etc) offer little benefit or personal incentive to individuals.

But research shows that health education geared toward individuals (counseling on reducing salt intake for hypertension, exercise for diabetes, etc) are less effective when geared only toward individuals and/or used in a short-term approach. People are motivated to act for immediate gain and substantial personal benefits, but “the medical motivation for health education is inherently weak. Their health next year is not likely to be much better if they accept our advice or if they reject it. Much more powerful as motivators for health education are the social rewards of enhanced self-esteem and social approval.” (Geoffrey Rose, Sick Individuals and Sick Populations.)

Physicians also prefer individualized health education because with population interventions (such as anti-smoking campaigns), their success rates are low and results take a long time to achieve.

The US is such an individual-centric society that people have no cultural reason to care about population health as a whole. Most Americans do not see that universal access to healthcare means that problems are detected and treated early (which is less costly), and that sometimes preventive medicine can encourage life-saving behavior change. That the person going into the ER for stomach pain because s/he does not have health insurance is costing the taxpayer literally thousands more dollars than s/he would if s/he’d gone to a primary care physician.

Nor do they understand the concept of herd immunity- if a large proportion of a population is immune to or vaccinated against a particular disease, the likelihood that one individual will get that disease is far less.

The focus on the individual and the apathy toward the well-being of communities and populations is by no means restricted to health alone. The same can be said about the current financial crisis. Individuals who borrowed more than they could pay back, and their unscrupulous lenders have created a global downward spiral of hundreds of economies, with the bottom billion hit the hardest.

I find it ironic and deeply saddening that 30 million more people have been pushed into starvation thus far due to the financial crisis while bankers are taking hefty bonuses and governments are bailing out businesses that were failing even before the crash (GM, Chrysler, etc…)

Call for applications: LLM in International Legal Studies, Specialization in Gender and International Law (Washington D.C.)

Call for Applications
American University Washington College of Law
Master of Laws (LLM) in International Legal Studies

Specialize in Gender and International Law

Defending women's rights requires a commitment to justice, creative approaches to the law, and specialized knowledge of the legal challenges facing women. American University Washington College of Law's unique Gender and International Law Specialization is the only advanced law degree in the United States focused on women's rights and gender equality in an international context.

Use Your Law Degree to Defend Women's Rights

To obtain the LLM degree, students must successfully complete twenty-four credit hours in international legal studies, sixteen of which must be in courses focused on gender and international or comparative law. We frequently offer classes that examine international and comparative approaches to women's rights, such as:

- Gender Perspectives Across the World
- Gender, Cultural Difference and Human Rights
- Reproductive Rights
- International Trafficking in Persons
- Women and Conflict: International Law Responses
- Gender, Labor and the Global Economy
- International Protection of Refugees and Displaced Persons
- Feminist Jurisprudence
- Sexuality and the Law
- Women's Legal History
- Independent Study and Internships

To be eligible to attend the ILSP LLM program, applicants must have completed a law degree either at a U.S. law school accredited by the ABA or at a foreign law school with equivalent standards.

Why American University Washington College of Law?

- Attend the first U.S. law school founded by women: Since its founding over 100 years ago, Washington College of Law has been a leading center for feminist legal scholarship and teaching.
- Benefit from the Women and International Law Program: The program brings in speakers, hosts conferences, and works with scholars and advocates from around the world to further women's rights.
- Be a part of a vibrant feminist community: Our faculty members are known for their expertise in women's legal studies. Our students produce a leading Journal of Gender, Social Policy and Law and work together on women's rights projects.
- Join the Gender Perspectives Across the World seminar: This unique seminar helps students to integrate what they know about the interaction of gender and law in their home countries with the knowledge they acquire in their study and practice.
- Take advantage of opportunities in Washington, D.C.: Many of our LLM students intern at domestic and
international women's rights organizations, making connections and gaining the experience they need to pursue a career in women's rights.

Application Deadlines: Fall Admission- MAY 1st / Spring Admission- October 1st

For more information, please visit the Women in International Law Program at www.wcl.american.edu/go/intlgenderllm1 or email us at wilp@wcl.american.edu.

For an application to the International Legal Studies Program please contact the International Legal Studies Assistant Director of Admissions at llminfo@wcl.american.edu or visit www.wcl.american.edu/ilsp/.

An equal opportunity, affirmative action university. UP08- 309


Women and the Law Program
American University Washington College of Law
4801 Massachusetts Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20016
Phone: (202) 274-4089
Website: http://www.wcl.american.edu/gender/wlp/

Final call for applications DARE Spring Academy (2-9 April 2009)
Human Rights Education in Youth Work -- An international training course for multipliers active in the field of youth work

April 2nd - 9th, 2009

In this spring adacemy a broad spectrum of methods on human rights education for (international) youth work will be presented. First the origin and aims of human rights will be discussed and in the next step we will exchange ideas about how the topic can be integrated into our own practice working with young people.

Methods used will be short specialist lectures, role-plays, simulation games, discussions in small groups etc. A phase of different workshops - held by experienced human rights trainers - will allow individual focus on certain aspects and an intensive work atmosphere in small groups.

The training is open to about 30 participants, aged between 18 and 30 years from the signed up partner countries, that are: United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Italy, Ukraine, Georgia, Lithuania, Cyprus, Bulgaria and Germany.

Participation fee: 145,- Euros / reduced price for Eastern Europeans: 90,- Euros

Place: International House Sonnenberg, St. Andreasberg (Harz Mountains), GERMANY

Working language: English

The training is organised by the International House Sonnenberg and the DARE Network.

Financially supported by the YOUTH in Action programme

70% of Travel expenses will be reimbursed (up to a maximum of 300,- Euros per person).

For more information, please contact:

Katja Poetzsch
k.poetzsch@sonnenberg-international.de
www.sonnenberg-international.de

Funding fears for Lebanese de-mining

Rasha is her mother's biggest helper. Rasha lost a leg in a cluster bomb blast at the age of 15

Seated on the floor of their tiny house in Marake, a village in southern Lebanon, the girl slouches over a bag of thyme placed in front of her.

Her thin, well-trained fingers move fast as she sorts the herbs, separating leaves from the stems.

For Rasha's family, thyme is the main source of income. Her father, Mohammad, harvests the wild herbs, while women sort, dry and sell them.

But Rasha hates the chore, and the memories it brings back.

She was 15 when, two years ago, she picked out a round shiny object from a bag of thyme her father had brought home. It exploded right in the room.

"I'd heard of cluster bombs, I had seen posters of them in school - but how could I imagine that something like that was possible?" she asks.

Her mother, Alia, looks away as Rasha pulls up her jeans and shows me the result of the explosion - her left leg is missing.

"I can't look at it," the woman sighs. "I cry every time I give her a bath. I am worried how it will affect her future." Over the last two years, the bombs have killed and injured hundreds across southern Lebanon.

After the 2006 war between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, the international community poured funds into clearing millions of cluster bombs that the Israeli army had dropped on the region.

Once on the ground, cluster bombs disperse into hundreds of bomblets or sub-munitions, making them even more dangerous and vicious than landmines.

'More difficult'

International efforts to ban cluster bombs gained new force after Israel's use of the weapons in 2006 and a new treaty banning the weapons was signed last year.

Major producers of cluster bombs such as the United States, China, Russia, Israel, Pakistan and India have rejected the pact and are refusing to sign it.

But now the international community is running out of funds to clear the mines. The combination of the global economic crisis and new conflicts elsewhere means that donor countries are no longer giving de-mining organizations in Lebanon the funds they need.

"It's more and more difficult for us to get the funds," says Claus Nelson, the head of the Lebanon operations for Danish Church Aid - one of the many demining organizations that work in Lebanon.

Danish Church Aid is one of the groups still clearing mines
De-miners working in south Lebanon Cluster bombs still blight lives despite the continuing clear up

"The focus of the donors is now elsewhere, Lebanon is no longer in the news - and also there is less money to go around because of the global problems," he says.

The lack of money has recently forced Claus Nelson's organization to cut down the number of teams in the field from five to two.

Some other organizations have been forced to pull out from South Lebanon altogether.

But while the de-mining groups complain about the lack of funds, some argue that the scale-down is justified.

No money

When de-mining operations in Lebanon began two years ago, more than 4,000 hectares of Lebanon's soil were contaminated.


The area could still be full of cluster bombs, but they have been told to leave it - there is no money for clearance
De-miner

Now, there are only 1,200 hectares left to de-mine - and even though this means tens of thousands of cluster bombs, munitions and mines, some believe that with so much of Lebanon cleared, the donors are right to channel the money elsewhere.

But Claus Nelson argues the donor countries should honour the commitments they have made.

"For us to be able to say that we have completed our job, we should not leave until all of Lebanon is cleared," Mr Nelson said.

The price of cutting costs is high. Taher, one of the de-miners, showed me a recently cleared field, marked by red ribbon.

Beyond it, he says, the area could still be full of cluster bombs, but they have been told to leave it - there is no money for clearance. What worries Taher, he says, is that there is a school nearby.

A loud explosion punctuates Taher's words and echoes through the rolling hills and olive groves of the valley.

A team of de-miners nearby have just demolished another batch of cluster bombs of the same kind that exploded in Rasha's bag of thyme.

An old farmer leans on his stick as he watched the smoke rise above the trees.

He tells me he can see his olive grove from the top of the hill but is unable to reach it because of the cluster bombs.

Two years on since the end of the war, cluster bombs still affect tens of thousands of lives in south Lebanon.

And as the global funds dry up, many here fear that they will continue to do so for a long time to come.


from BBCnews

Call for applications: Public Interest Law Fellows Program - China, Nepal, Russia, West Africa

The Public Interest Law Institute (PILI) is pleased to invite applications for its Public Interest Law Fellows Program for 2009-2010. PILI will select lawyers from China, Nepal, Russia, and West Africa for ten months of study and practical experience in New York and Budapest, Hungary. The program targets future leaders in various fields of public interest advocacy.

Criteria for selection, application requirements, and further details about the program can be found at http://www.pili.org/en/content/view/941/209/.

Deadlines to apply are as follows:

* Candidates from China/Nepal: March 31, 2009
* Candidates from Russia: April 13, 2009
* Candidates from West Africa: April 20, 2009

Please feel free to circulate this call among interested networks.


Best regards,
Christine Schmidt
_______________________
Christine Schmidt
Communications Officer
Public Interest Law Institute
Paulay Ede u. 50
1061 Budapest, Hungary
Tel: +36 1 461 5700
cschmidt@pili.org

International Women's Program (IWP)

Call for proposals - February 2009

The mission of IWP is to use grant-making and programmatic efforts to promote and protect the rights of women and girls in priority areas around the globe where the principles of good governance and respect for the rule of law are absent or destroyed because of conflict. IWP seeks to promote the advancement of women's rights and gender equality in law and practice, and the empowerment of women to ensure participation in the democratic processes.

Proposals are solicited for the following countries only:

Asia: Nepal, Tajikistan

Middle East and North Africa: Algeria, Iraq (including refugees in the region), Lebanon, Occupied Palestinian Territories

Europe: Bosnia & Herzegovina

Proposals benefiting other countries will NOT be considered at this time.

FOCUS OF THIS CALL FOR PROPOSALS:

IWP invites proposals focusing on one or more of the following objectives:

1) Reducing discrimination and violence against women

IWP seeks to support initiatives that improve the status of women by:
§ Strengthening legal frameworks and enforcement mechanisms that focus on women's rights
§ Strengthening civil society's capacity to hold governments accountable to implement laws
§ Increasing women's capacity to understand and claim rights

2) Strengthening women's access to justice

IWP seeks to support initiatives that strengthen judicial response to women and reduce the obstacles to access by ensuring:
§ Legal aid, counsel and assistance is available and resourced
§ Judges, lawyers and prosecutors understand and apply gender justice
§ Transitional justice mechanisms are equitable and inclusive of women

3) Increasing women's role as decision-makers and leaders (OSI cannot provide funding for electoral purposes)

IWP seeks to support initiatives that encourage and increase women's role as decision-makers in a number of arenas including the following:
§ Peace and reconciliation processes
§ Electoral and legislative processes
§ Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR), Security Sector Reform (SSR) and reconstruction programs

Grant support

Organizations can apply for general support grant or support for a specific project. General support
grants are intended for organizations which focus on one or more of the listed objectives. A general support grant supports unspecified organizational costs. Such a grant is not awarded for any particular project or purpose. The review process for this grant type will be exceptionally selective. Project support grants are intended to fund targeted initiatives related to one or more of the listed objectives.

Preference is given to:

§ Organizations managed and led by women
§ Organizations that have a five-year plus track record and demonstrate sustainability
§ Organizations that forge partnerships with other civil society groups working on similar issues
§ Local/indigenous independent non-governmental organizations or initiatives that link local and international organizations

Grant amount & funding timeframe

Organizations can apply for one to three year grants ranging from $25,000 to $200,000 per year. Please note multi-year proposals will require an annual assessment report prior to releasing the subsequent tranche of funds.

Timeline

The application template is available at: http://www.soros.org/initiatives/women/news/equality_20090213

Proposals must be received using the template in English by email (preferred), fax or mail on or by March 8, 2009. Incomplete proposals or proposals received March 9 or later will NOT be considered under any circumstances.

Please email the template to: women@sorosny.org (please write "February 2009 call, country, and organization name" in the subject line of your email)

If your organization does not have email access, please fax or mail application to:

International Women's Program / Open Society Institute
400 West 59th Street
New York, NY 10019, USA
(Fax) 1.646.557.2601

Organizations will receive notification of decision by the first week of May 2009. For those awarded grants, funding will be allocated by July 2009.


International Women's Program
Open Society Institute
http://www.soros.org/initiatives/women
E-mail: women@sorosny.org