Hey overseas volunteers- it's not you, it's us

Two years ago, fresh from my first development internship experience, newly conscious of how unqualified and generally useless I was in the world, a friend mentioned she wanted to volunteer in Africa. An English graduate, I could barely contain my scorn as I asked her what would she volunteer as. A teacher she replied or in an orphanage or something, just for like two weeks or whatever. What you want is a holiday, I pointed out. No, she insisted, I want to help. I, in reply, went on an unmitigated rant about people with no skills insisting on travelling to developing countries to work with orphans, why doesn't she volunteer at home, etc. etc. The term poverty porn was used numerous times and the friendship strained.

I don't think I was angry at my friend, more ashamed of my own naievety which had once matched hers. Only the year previous to that conversation, I had spent the summer combing websites looking for volunteer opportunities at home or abroad with NGOs or charities, genuinely shocked that no one wanted my free labour. Of course, it didn't occur to me that my years of waitressing experience and a whole two years of college education qualified me to do nothing useful. In my mind, I was a body willing to work for free. Surely, the poor charities should be begging me for my help?!

Oh, how we've all learned. People working in development (of which I only barely class myself, having the minimum of experience. However, I continue.) are scornful of voluntourism and with real, concrete reason. Too often, volunteering is aimed at enriching the volunteer's experience and not contributing anything meaningful to the community. I once got talking to a guy in Camden's Barfly who proudly told me he had volunteered in Africa. It transpired he spent one week planting trees and one week teaching maths in Ghana (I wish I was making this up by the way). I laughed too much to get angry at him and he flounced away, presumably to try and woo a more amenable girl with his tales of aid worker hardship.

This post from the always excellent WhyDev clearly sets out the serious issues with voluntourism.  Aside from English grads trying to pack some meaning into their holidays however, there is the issue of aspiring development professionals, probably still at university, who volunteer - often paying to do so- because they can't get any internships. Internships as an undergraduate are literally like gold dust. I will forever thank my university for establishing an internship programme within my degree. Nervous about graduating with literally zero experience, many students spend a summer or two on these programmes working with street kids in India or the like and for their efforts, develop a hefty slice of debt and nothing but scorn from development professionals. They're not bad people, these young volunteers! They're just thinking about the career prospects.

The thing is, a two week volunteer placement in Zanzibar for example, won't impress any NGO. Experience is obviously a plus but why not volunteer at home, in a women's shelter or a soup kitchen or a homework club for children of asylum seekers? If you can't afford to volunteer abroad and have spent your time at university working part time, shout that proudly. Everyone describes themselves as hardworking on a CV but you can actually demonstrate it. Trust me, that's more impressive than a few weeks volunteer work.

Again, this is not meant to be a dig at those who do volunteer abroad. I understand why and that the motivation is usually good. A lot of the problem actually stems from the NGO sector and it's stubbornly middle class expectation that parents will fund young people to work for free (look out for an upcoming post on how development needs more working class!). So, young volunteers, ignore the scorn you receive from development workers. It's all their bloody fault in the first place. 

Dodging hipsters in Portland and being Beat in Big Sur

Earlier this summer, I spent a few weeks in the US visiting family in Portland, Oregon and Santa Cruz, CA. I've been to California a number of times but it was my first time visiting Oregon.

Portland is rainy (even in June) and full of hipsters but has great coffee, tonnes of food carts serving cheap and tasty food, lots of beautiful scenery and a book shop that occupies an entire city block- what more could one want?! Portland is known for its craft beers but despite my best efforts, I didn't get to sample as many as I would have liked! I did try some Oregon wine though, which was really good. The Oregon coast is also beautiful and I loved the countryside driving north towards Washington.

I took the train from Portland to San Jose- 22 hours on the Amtrak Coast Starlight. It was a gorgeous way to travel, slow but comfortable with amazing scenery along the way. Going by train always feels like a more romantic way of travelling. I've loved long train journeys since I was 17 and flew into Warsaw then boarded a train across the Belorussian border to Brest. The Coast Starlight has a viewing carriage with floor to ceiling windows and the economy carriages were extremely comfortable. It was cheaper than flying and a much more enjoyable way of travelling. 

I stayed with my aunt in her beautiful home in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Although we did a lot for the three weeks or so I was there- hiking in the Redwoods, visiting San Francisco, walking along the coast in Santa Cruz, driving down to Big Sur- most days I was quite content to just lie out on the deck. .

. . . I know, it's hard to imagine why!

Santa Cruz is one of my favourite places on earth and San Francisco is a great city but the highlight of the trip for me was driving down the coast to Big Sur. It was simply amazing. Bizarrely, the countryside reminded me of the West of Ireland at times, with the yellow and red flowers in the rolling hills- and of course the grey skies!

We also visited Berkeley; there's some amazing views from the top of the campus right across the Bay. 

We spent 4th of July in San Francisco and I visited the Beat Museum for a second time. I first went when I was 16 and obsessed with Jack Kerouac. Now, I prefer the overlooked female Beat writers who lacked the freedom and recognition of their male counterparts. The Beat Museum is small but well worth a visit, with a great gift/book shop. They also pay due recognition to the many women Beat writers. I love this quote from Gregory Corso.

I had an amazing time and managed to do it all on an extremely small budget, staying with family and flying standby (my father works for an airline). Overall, I spent less for a month in America than I did for two weeks in Northern Spain two years ago! 

On being a Western harlot in other countries

There was worldwide shock and outrage earlier this month at the news that a Norwegian woman who was allegedly raped in Dubai had been sentenced to prison for extramarital sex, consuming alcohol without a licence and perjury. Marte Dalev was charged with extramarital sex because under UAE law, she was not raped. Rape is not easy to prove in any legal jurisdiction. Under Sharia law however, a rape only occurs if it is witnessed by four adult Muslim men or if the rapist confesses. This makes it almost impossible to prove a rape occurred.

Dalev's story is unfortunately not an isolated case. Australian Alicia Gali spent eight months in prison in 2008, after reporting being raped at the hotel where she worked. Her case was not widely publicised by her family, apparently due to advice from the Australian government. Dalev's case was barely reported in Gulf media outlets and when it was, it was mostly to express outrage at the evil Western media who were besmirching Dubai's good name. It was pointed out that Dalev was drinking and so was partly to blame if she was raped. The idea that a rape victim is to blame if she has been drinking is still prevalent here in Europe too, lest we forget.

Dubai, UAE

I'm moving to Oman next month, which has a similar, sharia-influence code of law to the UAE. I've seen calls to boycott Dubai as a holiday destination on Twitter and have been reading countless articles on this terrible case (Dalev's case was since suspended, thankfully). It's made me think a lot about travelling to countries which have laws I not only disagree with but actually abhor; laws which offer me little protection as a woman- especially a Western woman who likes a drink.

Some of my friends and family have questioned why I would want to live in a country such as Oman, especially as I am such a proponent of women's equality. I obviously don't see living there as condoning women's second class status but I am extremely interested in living in a completely different culture for a year and learning Arabic. In Uganda, I was lucky enough to meet some amazing Sudanese women. I hope to travel to Sudan sometime in the next two years. This is not because of their government's fantastic human rights policies or their heavily corrupted Public Order Laws but because I find Sudanese culture interesting and beautiful and Sudanese people friendly and warm. No one travels to a country because of governmental policy, you travel to see and experience new and different things. The things you see are not always good.

At the Gadaffi Mosque, Kampala in 2011. 

Dalev committed no crime. Her only mistake was to go to the Dubai police. As a resident of Abu Dhabi, it's surprising she was not aware of the UAE's draconian laws regarding rape. However, it is completely understandable that probably shocked and traumatised she automatically did what we European women are always taught to do if we are attacked; report it to the police.

Many young European women I've met who have travelled in Africa or the Middle East are unaware of the current political and legal situation of the countries they're visiting. In Uganda in late 2011, as Somali militants upped their terrorist activities in neighbouring Kenya, many people in Kampala became nervous they would soon strike Uganda. Discussing the situation in a typical expat bar,  I remember being shocked at a Dutch girl who scoffed at such an idea. She was completely unaware, having failed to adequately Google the country she was moving to, that just the previous summer, two suicide bombers had killed over 70 people in downtown Kampala.

Being aware of the laws in UAE would obviously not have protected Dalev against rape. However, knowing how rape is treated by the legal system there would have saved her some of the extra trauma she was forced to go through. As we all know, it doesn't matter where in the world you are as a woman or how careful you are- whether you're in jeans and a headscarf or a miniskirt, drunk or sober- rape happens. Stories like Dalev's does not stop me travelling to the countries I wish to visit but it certainly does remind me to know as much as possible about the country I am travelling to.

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Sexual Violence in Peacetime and War: It's not a Competition

In recent years, there has been an increased focus, from the media and international institutions, on the use of sexual violence in war. This is significant as it is important to recognise sexual violence in conflict not as something which just 'happens' but as a weapon of war and/or a tool of genocide. Recognising this includes taking into account the wider political situation and also considering gender inequalities in society. The use of sexual violence during war is a symptom of societal misogyny which also causes sexual violence during peacetime. Theses two 'types' of sexual violence are inextricably linked and cannot really be separated. We cannot speak of the reasons for one, without touching on the reasons behind the other. I always assume this fact to be self-evident.

But write an article about sexual violence in war and someone will inevitably comment 'what about rape or sexual violence that occurs in the home, during peacetime? That's under reported too.' This is of course a valid point. But what baffles me is the juxtaposition of the point, as if sexual violence in peacetime and war are somehow in competition with each other for attention. Similarly, writing about rape or sexual violence, whose victims are predominantly female, will almost always cause someone to say 'men are raped too, why are you ignoring that?'. No one is ignoring that men are also raped (in peacetime and war) but the simple fact is the vast majority of victims of sexual violence are female. As such, most of the discussion is framed around female victims.

Sexual violence occurs in war because it also occurs in peacetime. These two forms of sexual violence cannot be isolated from one another as they largely occur because of the same political, cultural and societal reasons. Speaking about one is not to belittle the other; highlighting one is not meant to detract from the other. In fact, speaking about one should draw attention to the fact that sexual violence is unfortunately a pervasive problem around the world, in peace time and war, in many different countries and societies.

Kids Club Kampala in Kentishtowner

My latest piece for The Kentishtowner, North London's only daily online magazine (and now once a month in print!), is an article on Kids Club Kampala.

Kids Club Kampala is a great charity I first came across on Twitter, which works with slum communities in Uganda. It was established by Olivia and Corey when they were just 18, fresh out of some gap year volunteering in Kampala. The organisation impressed me with their community led projects, the fact that all their staff are local (apart from the girls running the fundraising/operational side of things in London) and that it's a very young, ambitious NGO.

Read the piece here to find out more.

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I'm back. . .

I haven't really posted in a few months. I've been quite busy finishing up my BA (nearly there!) plus applying for Masters, jobs etc. Now, I have less than a month of university left and I have a job which begins in August; I'm moving to Oman, to teach in a private primary school there. Excited does not begin to cover it.

I started this blog when I stopped working full time for Justice Africa and returned to the Irish Centre for Human Rights, as a way of staying immersed in the issues I enjoyed working on- mass atrocity prevention and memorialisation and sexualised violence in conflict.

So, I will be distracted no more. Expect lots of (not so cheery) pieces on the above plus probably stuff on the current abortion debate in Ireland- which never seems to end.

Thank you sincerely to The Gender Jurisprudence and International Criminal Law Project who included my 'Women and Conflict' section on their resources page. They have inspired me to write a lot more on these issues, to justify my inclusion!

A healthy dose of liberal guilt

I really enjoyed this piece 'Hey aid worker! It's not about you,' by Weh Yeoh over on WhyDev last week. It points to wider issues with our generation's habit of over sharing online (she said earnestly, on her blog) and highlights the problems this causes for those who work in aid or development.

A lot of the commentators on the piece got their knickers in a twist and quite unnecessarily. I think Weh probably exaggerated his point slightly at times in order to drive it home but he's right to question aid workers posting online selfies on donor funded trips, etc.

Instead of taking offence, people who work in development should take on board what he's saying and maybe think a bit harder about what they share on FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram or whatever. Aid beneficaries are not exotic backdrops for your profile photos.

Women in South Sudan: Falling through the cracks

The Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA) Network this week released a report entitled Falling through the Cracks- reflections on customary law and the imprisonment of women in South Sudan. The exhaustive report was compiled for SIHA by Deirdre Clancy of International Refugee Rights Initiative (IRRI). Yours truly also assisted in some of the researching and editing, as a lowly intern back in the day (ahem, yeah not that long ago. . .).

The report is about 110 pages long but is quite readable. It's definitely worth a look for anyone working on/interested in South Sudan, the integration of customary law systems or gender issues. Any legal geeks amongst you will definitely want to give it a look.

The report is extremely critical of the customary law framework. The interpretative nature of customary law leaves it open to misuse and abuse. In South Sudan, it is women who primarily suffer from such a system.

SIHA are quick to dispel any attempts of those who attempt to claim cultural relativity prohibits any criticism of customary law practises:

". . this paper focuses on the narratives of women in South Sudan who have been victimised through repression under customary law systems. Accordingly, this paper challenges the now popular notion that customary law should be empowered as a tool for conflict resolution, which without strong rule of law behind it, can become dysfunctional, leading to massive conflict within and between communities. Using customary legal frameworks without due consideration for the consequences of their application, as well as the basic capacity of traditional institutions has resulted in women being held hostage to the dowry system," (pg8).

In South Sudan "the use of customary law systems has led to the dehumanisation and detainment of women and is something that needs to be addressed with the universality of human rights in mind and with women’s contribution to the livelihoods of their families and communities being disassociated from the dowry system altogether."

The malleable nature of customary law means there were great variations from state to state in its applications. Certain states have extremely poor records in terms of providing justice for women. The report found that imprisonment is often used to coerce women, usually to change their mind about seeking a divorce.

Although rape can be prosecuted under customary law procedures, 'justice' is considered in terms of a woman's bride price i.e. reparations are for the raped woman's family, who have 'lost' money. Justice is not for the raped woman. The rape of an older, married woman will not be punished as harshly as the rape of a young, unmarried woman for this reason.

As the constitution making process continues in South Sudan, the difficult task of codifying customary law system is underway. SIHA's report is well worth a read for its findings and recommendations on the issue.

Beyond the catch phrases: why the memorialisation of mass atrocities matters

I detest the phrase 'Never again'. I hate how it is wheeled out whenever genocide or mass atrocities are discussed, the implication being that such events will not be allowed to happen again. I don't need to begin listing instances where such a notion has been proved tragically false.

Holocaust Memorial, Berlin

Aside from the use of silly catch phrases however, I believe the memorialisation of mass atrocities is extremely important. It is not just about remembrance but also about preventing future atrocities. Societies which have gone through mass atrocities are deeply wounded. With such large scale violence committed, with so many perpetrators, it is impossible to hold all the guilty to account. Inevitably, some justice will be found through truth commissions or international tribunals, but with many perpetrators walking freely amongst victims, memorials serve as an important reminder that the atrocities, nor the dead, have not been forgotten.

I worked on this issue a lot last year, working on the African Union Human Rights Memorial which will (initially) memorialise the Ethiopian Red Terror, the genocide in Rwanda and Apartheid in South Africa. The irony of working on such a memorialisation project with the African Union is not lost on me, given the protection it affords to certain heads of state who are certainly guilty of committing atrocities. It is however a worthy project.

I'm reading this fantastic book at the moment about the legacy of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, which claimed the lives of 3,500 people. It may seem like a small number but Northern Ireland is a small place; according to McKay, if conflict on a comparable scale occurred in the UK, the dead would number 150,000.

Memorialising the Troubles in print form

With the much celebrated peace process, Northern Ireland has made incredible process since the late 90s (despite recent flare ups of violence). But it comes at a price. People who had bombed, tortured and killed, on both sides, were set free. In the interests of peace, 'moving on' was now what was needed. Speaking of those who had been killed or disappeared did not fit into this new narrative.

As Primo Levi described, there is much pain in 'the unlistened -to story'.

There is great difficulty in balancing a society's grief with it's need to move on and heal. How do we combine recovery with remembrance?

Sites of conscience are considered to be more than 'just' memorials. Without getting into technical differences, sites of conscience are memorials which seek to tap the power and potential of memorialization for democracy by serving as forums for citizen engagement in human rights and social welfare (www.sitesofconscience.org). They are memorials which engage new generations. Memorials should not be static or undermine their own goals. They should be inclusive, participatory if at all possible and should stimulate and encourage debate.

One criticism I often dealt with when speaking about the importance of memorialisation was that it wasn't an important issue; that people needed 'real' help after conflict or atrocities. This is not a hierarchy. Many needs are more immediate than others, the obvious ones been food, shelter, etc. But post-conflict societies will not fully recover without properly addressing their pasts and if they fail to do so, the danger of conflict re-emerging is great. We can see this in cases such as Northern Ireland or indeed Rwanda, which has not adequately dealt with many of the issues arising from the 1994 genocide.

Names of the dead line the walls at the Kigali Genocide Memorial

Skulls on display at the Kigali Genocide Memorial.

If done incorrectly, memorialisation can be extremely damaging to societies, causing further divisions and exacerbating tensions. It is an extremely delicate process but also a necessary one.

Why I wrote an 'angry human rights' piece about rape and international law

Yesterday, A Safe World for Women published my piece on the International Criminal Court's acquittal of DRC warlord Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui.

It's not a balanced piece. Ngudjolo is guilty. His acquittal is not the fault of the ICC judges but of the prosecution team who presented an extremely weak case.

There was no excuse for such a weak case. There is an abundance of evidence in the DRC, where hundreds of thousands of women and children have been raped and millions killed in the last ten years or so.

It's not a PC thing to admit, especially for a human rights folk, that the ICC is essentially 'a court for the guilty' and that an acquittal is unacceptable. But this is the harsh truth. I talk about this further in the piece; thousands and thousands of women have been raped by thousands of militias and soldiers. The DRC does not have the will or capacity to hold them all to account. So the International Community, working through the ICC, attempts to provide some form of justice or recourse for victims. They cannot try the thousands of guilty. So they choose a handful, to make an 'example' of.


And they fail in even that.

It's not enough to have rape listed as a war crime. Last year, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) produced a documentary about the prosecution of sexual violence in international law entitled 'The Triumph of Justice'. It's worth a watch as it is interesting. Although the ICTY has done much for the advancement of the prosecution of sexual violence, the title is disingenuous in the extreme. About 30 individuals have been convicted on charges related to sexual violence by the ICTY. Around 50,000 women were raped during the conflict in Bosnia alone.

Let's not speak about the triumph of anything here except impunity.

What's been going on. . . .

. . . in the world

Well, an awful lot obviously, but here are the stories I've been following closely.

Ireland

It's been all fun, games and abortion debate here in the Emerald Isle. Two weeks ago, the Oireachtas (the Irish Parliament) held a hearing on the proposed abortion legislation which will clarify the existing legislation surrounding medical terminations in cases when the life of the mother is at risk.

I cannot stress this point enough: Abortion will only be legalised in cases where the life of the mother is at risk. It will remain illegal in cases of rape, incest or when a pesky woman decides she has autonomy over her own health care. 

The majority of debate in Ireland at the minute is surrounding the issue of suicide. The Supreme Court ruled that abortion be permitted in cases of where the risk to the mother's life is suicide. Many people don't like this. Many people however (yours truly included) are not really qualified in such matters however and it was good to hear the opinions of those who are. 

The Journal.ie had great live blogging of the hearings and this piece "13 things we learned from Oireachtas abortion hearings this week," is well worth a read.

Kenya

Elections in Kenya are set for March 4th. Although a new constitution, election commission and a reformed judiciary have been introduced since the outbreak of political violence that marred the country in 2007-2008, sporadic outbreaks of minor political violence have fuelled fears of the potential for wider conflict. The International Crisis Group have warned the potential for local violence is especially high, due to candidates campaigning along ethnic lines and exacerbating tensions within and between communities. The ongoing ICC case against four individuals relating to the 2007 election, has raised the stakes for this years election even higher. 

allAfrica.com has a good commentary on the upcoming election, heavily based on a report by the ICG, here.

Sudan

The wonderfully effective police state in Sudan continues its crackdown on independent civil society. Human Rights Watch detailed the crackdown here.

In good news however, South Kordofan activist Jalila Khamis was yesterday released after being imprisoned for ten months on trumped up charges. Although charged with treason, which carries a death sentence, she was found guilty of lesser charges and the judge ruled her time served. This piece from back in October is a good summary of the ridiculous charges brought against Jalila and of the terrible price often paid by civil society activists in Sudan.

Europe

It snowed, as it does every year, and everyone lost their shit, as they do every year (London, I'm looking at you). To be fair, particularly heavy snow which grounds flights, closes schools and businesses etc. is a nightmare. But it does make for some awfully pretty pictures 

. . . in my world

It's January so, inevitably, I'm detoxing- in my own, special half-assed way; caffeine is still in, most carbs are gone. Foregoing my beloved spaghetti and meatballs has made me quite cranky (crankier I hear you yell; yeah alright, well done), plus my GHD broke so I'm full of curly headed rage at the minute. It's a terribly attractive sight.

In case you missed it, just before Christmas I wrote a piece for A Safe World for Women on the frequency of suspended sentences for sexual and domestic violence convictions in Ireland. You can read it here.

Last week I had the pleasure of hearing Mary Robinson speak at NUI Galway, which I blogged about here.

Resolutions and all that? Read more, blog more, exercise more. For Christmas I got these two books, both of which I loved.

 


And I'm currently alternating between this. . .

 


. . .and this

 

It's good to have varied interests after all.

Also, like any good political junkie, my Borgen obsession has been reignited by BBC4. I have a girl crush on Brigitte and an actual crush on Kasper. See below.





It's my birthday in a couple of weeks. Last year, I celebrated by spending a few days in Marseilles and Aix-En-Province with two of my best friends. We drank a lot of wine, walked miles from bakery to bakery to try as many different macaroons as possible and generally had a fantastic time!

This year will probably involve slightly less macaroons but just as much wine I'm sure.

New pieces coming up on human rights vs development, renewed violence in Northern Ireland and the ICC's involvement in the DRC; don't miss out:)