Let's not get carried away now. . . Abortion & Ireland

The headlines are somewhat misleading.

"Abortion to be legalised in Ireland"

Well, yes but only in the most limited of circumstances. Abortion will be permitted if there is a danger to the life of the mother. It will not be allowed if there is a danger to the health of the mother. It will not be allowed in cases of rape or incest. It most certainly will not be allowed because a woman feels it is the best choice for her.

Obviously, it's a victory of sorts but really, what we had to do to get here? Twenty years after our own Supreme Court ruled on this, two years after the European Court of Human Rights urged Ireland to enact legislation, it took the death of a young woman to finally force an Irish government to act on this issue.

If Ireland were not a mere hour long flight from Britain, we would surely be responsible for the deaths of more women. As it is 12 Irish women a day travel to Britain for an abortion. It's shameful how this country treats its women.

Our constitution explicitly states that the unborn has rights. Allegedly these rights are to be upheld with due regard to the rights of the mother but this is not the case. No Irish man faces any interference in his own bodily integrity or his right to health care. The same is absolutely not true for Irish women. Sexual discrimination is inherently built into our legal system due to our Constitution.

Pro-Life campaigners have claimed the proposed legislation will allow for abortion on demand. Unfortunately, I think they're wrong.

Ngudjolo Acquitted of all charges by ICC

This morning, in only the second verdict by the ten year old International Criminal Court (ICC), Mathieu Ngudjolo Chuiwas was acquitted of all charges against him.

Ngudjolo was charged with seven counts of war crimes and three counts of crimes against humanity relating to an attack against the village of Bogoro on February 24, 2003 by the FNI (National Integration Front), a group of combatants from Ituri in Eastern DRC.

The Judges based their findings on the question of Ngudjolo's authority over the FNI and thus his responsibility for atrocities committed, not whether such atrocities were in fact committed.

The Prosecution claimed that through a hierarchical system of command, Ngudjolo was responsible for the use of child soldiers, mass rape and other atrocities. Ngudjolo pleaded not guilty to all charges. He did not deny atrocities were committed, but claimed he was not in command of the FNI on the day in question.

The Defence, rather cleverly it would seem, claimed the Prosecution did not provide enough evidence linking Ngudjolo to the alleged crimes and instead placed the blame on DRC President Joseph Kabila.

The Judges agreed that the charges had not been proven beyond reasonable doubt. Presiding Judge Bruno Cotte noted "If an allegation has not been proven beyond all reasonable doubt this does not necessarily mean that the alleged act did not occur. Declaring a person not guilty does not mean the Chamber is convinced of the person’s innocence; just that they are not convinced of the person’s guilt as charged,”

Has justice actually been done or merely seen to be done?

The case is not necessarily a blow to those seeking justice for crimes against international human rights law. It proves that due judicial process is followed at the ICC and that is not a court for the already convicted, as critics often claim.

However, as we have seen with the two international ad-hoc  tribunals, lost in the arguments over minute aspects of international law is actual recourse for the victims. It's an extremely frustrating process for those of us not familiar with the intricacies of international law (fully proclaiming my ignorance here).

It reminds me of the cases of the Guildford Four who were wrongfully convicted of bombings carried out by the Provisional IRA and spent almost fifteen years in prison. There were other innocents in similar situations, the McGuire Seven, the Birmingham Six. In these cases, the wrong men were imprisoned for years.  

Innocent men were imprisoned but the general public was satisfied people were being held accountable for the murder or innocents. Justice was not done but it was seen to be done.

I am sure the victims of the IFN in DRC will feel something similar. It goes back to the eternal question of juggling justice and the rights of victims with the rights of the accused and due legal process.

The ICC Judges had ordered the Registrar to take measures to release Ngudjolo immediately and to ensure protection for witnesses who had given testimony against him. ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has requested Ngudjolo not be released immediately and will present arguments to this effect this afternoon.
 
In his excellent and very readable "An Introduction to the International Criminal Court," , Prof. William Schabas notes that "There may well be a denial of the presumption of innocence but it will not have been committed by the Court itself,"  Today's judgement has validated this remark.

#SudanRevolts: The Sequel?

Protests in Sudan this summer fizzled out after a harsh security crackdown jailed many activists and forced others to flee the country. This week, we have seen a fresh outbreak of protests, prompted by the deaths of four Darfuri students, allegedly at the hands of Sudanese security forces.

So what, if anything, is different this time?

Trouble began last week at Gezira University, south of Khartoum, where Darfuri students had been protesting for several days against the university's decision to charge them tuition fees. According to the Abuja and Doha agreements, Darfuri students are exempt from paying such fees. Students affiliated with the ruling Nation Congress Party (NCP), and reportedly heavily armed, clashed with the protesting students and the security services were also called in.

On Friday December 7th, it was reported the bodies of 3 students who had taken part in the protests had been found. A fourth was reported on the Sunday. The bodies were found in an on-campus canal. According to students, many of them had fled through the shallow canal, reportedly about 1 metre deep. As so many students had fled in many directions, it was not immediately realised the students were missing. Students found it hard to believe their friends had drowned in such shallow water, as authorities claimed. They accused the authorities of beating the students to death and dumping their bodies. They protested at the hospital where the students bodies were taken to, demanding an autopsy.

Their claims are not illogical. Sudanese security services are notorious for harassing, beating and torturing peaceful protesters, activists and journalists. They also have well established records of using sexual violence as a weapon and ghost houses to torture opponents of the regime.


Protests and Clashes in Khartoum

A ceremony to honour the dead students was held at the University of Khartoum on Sunday, where the initial protests were sparked in the summer. In anticipation of protests, authorities blocked nearly all exits from the campus. Only about 500 of the few thousand present managed to get out before the police started throwing tear gas. Protesters apparently set two city buses on fire and dozens were arrested.

As protests spread to Tuesday, students were driven from dorms at the Omdurman Islamic University before the dorms were set on fire and burnt to the ground. A number of Darfuri students were also stabbed during clashes on the same day between protesters and NCP supporters and security services.

Students protesting in Khartoum on Tuesday (Girifna Media)

Where is this going?

It's hard to say. There won't be an Arab Spring in Sudan. Any regime change will be difficult, slow and hard fought. Even then, the lack of a credible opposition makes it difficult to see political change on the immediate horizon.

However, activists in Sudan have demonstrated their commitment to regime change. What many of them have gone through- the constant harassment, beatings, rape, torture- is unbelievable. And still they continue in their efforts to overthrow Bashir's regime. Also, these protests differ slightly from the ones we saw this summer, as they did not stem initially from protests aimed at the ruling NCP party. Though at the moment, it appears to be mostly students involved in the protests, in the summer we saw people from many sectors of society supporting the students in their efforts. Hopefully, we will see the same now, but on an even larger scale.

There's no conclusion here. We'll just have to see what the next few days and weeks bring.

Want to know more? Check out the student-led movement Girfina's website. On Twitter, follow @superMojok who has been tweeting info from the ground and also @mimzicalmimz, a journalist and activist who was prominent in this summers protests. Although she is not currently in Sudan, she tweets a lot of relaible info from her own sources.

Budgets, quotas and women in Ireland

It's not easy being a woman in Ireland at the moment.

Sure, we don't face near the same challenges as women in places like DRC or Syria, but as residents of a supposedly developed European nation, we seem to drawing the short straw quite a bit. Not least by the fact that our Constitution places the value of our lives behind that of men and the unborn.

Now, the lack of female representation in our government means that women are the hardest hit by last week's national budget, the harshest austerity budget yet. I must say, I recognise and agree that Ireland needs to be harsh in order to remain within our debt restructuring programmes. Hard choices need to be made. But women have been disproportionately affected by this budget and it's hard not to draw parallels with the fact that there is only a few women in the Cabinet.

Yet another cut in child benefit means that families have been hit hard. Irish women are still the primary caregivers in the home, meaning they are under yet more financial pressure. A family with two children receiving child benefit will see their income drop by 240 Euro. In Ireland, all parents or guardians of children under sixteen who are in full time education, receive children's benefit, regardless of income. Given the high cost of living in Ireland, now exacerbated by widespread debt and high unemployment, it is essential for keeping working and middle class families afloat. Why not take child benefit off the richest in our country, who do not need it, rather than cutting it right across the board to devastating effect?

The harshest measure on women was undoubtedly the announcement that maternity benefit will now be taxed. This is completely outrageous. A woman's maternity benefit is covered by social insurance, a which is funded by the PRSI tax. So, a woman who has been paying into the PRSI all her working life will now find that money taxed even further.

Orla O'Connor, Director of the National Women's Council commented  “Taxing maternity benefit will hit expecting mothers and young families at a time when many of them are already operating on a very tight budget. The additional money that women have received so far through maternity benefit is only a small contribution to the enormous costs of having a baby."

Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton denied the budget was anti-women but Fianna Fail spokesperson on social protection, Willie O'Dea countered this "The slashing of Child Benefit, taxing of maternity benefit, failure to progress child care provision and cutbacks to the vital Back to School Allowance will be felt most of all by women,” said O’Dea. “For an ordinary mother rearing a young family she will be hit by reduced supports, new taxes and no substantial new childcare supports."

The ruling Fine Gael/Labour coalition government have taken some positive steps towards increasing women's public participation, most notably the introduction of statutory gender quotas; 30% of candidates put forward for election by political parties must now be female.

However, currently only 25 out of 166 Irish TDs are female. Since the Irish state was founded, only 260 women have been elected to the Dail, compared with 4,700 men.

It is not the case that there are not enough qualified women willing to enter politics but rather our political scene has not caught up with the times. Simple measures could be put in place allowing women easier participation in political affairs.The introduction of remote voting on Dail measures for instance, as most Dail votes take place late in the evening, would allow female political representatives to vote from home if necessary. 

If you're interested in more info on this, check out 5050 Group who are dedicated to achieving equal political representation in Ireland by 2020. Nothing changes until something changes. Support Irish women in politics.

Stopping sexual violence in Syria

Last week, UK Foreign Secretary William Hague announced the UK was sending a team of experts to gather evidence on the use of rape and other forms of sexualised violence in the conflict. As media reports of the announcement tended to focus more on Angelina Jolie’s support for the move, the true monumental importance of this has been lost somewhat. 

In international law, rape is well established as a weapon of war and genocide. Sexualised violence is used in conflict to humiliate, punish and subjugate, to destroy the social cohesion of communities and even as a form of ethnic cleansing, through forced pregnancy. When the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was established in 1993, the inclusion of rape as a crime against humanity was considered revolutionary. Although important precedents have been set by the ICTY and also the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in defining rape as an act of torture, a war crime, a crime against humanity and a tool of genocide, progress in terms of prosecution has been slow and disappointing. The number of prosecutions for such crimes do not come close to matching the thousands of women, men and children raped in both conflicts. 

Why is this?  

Similar to the prosecution of rape in domestic courts, the issue usually lies with evidence or lack thereof. While the world is well aware of Bosnia's notorious 'rape camps', media reports do not stand up in international law. Cold hard facts and evidence are essential. Without these there can be no meaningful, appropriate prosecution of such hideous crimes. 

Which is why the deployment of UK backed team of 70 people, including doctors, lawyers and forensic experts, is so important. If the horrifying reports of brutal and widespread instances of sexualised violence can be verified, hopefully they can be stopped to some extent and later prosecuted.

Prevention and Deterrence

Obviously, the main goal of this initiative, and others, is prevention and deterrence. At a brainstorming conference on what can be done on sexualised violence in Syria last month, sponsored by the UK FCO's Initiative to prevent sexual violence, participants came up with some concrete actions which can be taken now- including using the resources of the UK and other G8 countries to provide mechanisms for reporting sexualised violence, pressuring Russia to make interventions on this issue and leveraging NATO and the OSCE.

Lauren Wolfe, Director of the Women Under Siege Project and one of the meetings participants who pushed for concrete recommendations has a great piece with more details on this.  

It's a start

It may not seem like much and the notion that we are not stopping such instances, merely documenting them is hard to bear. And there is so much more to be done in places like DRC.

However, it is infinitely better than doing nothing. And hopefully this is just the beginning of more concrete international efforts to halt the use of sexualised violence in conflict.