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If politics, international relations, human rights, etc. does not
interest you, do not waste your time reading this. I thought I would
finally write a little bit about my time at Asian Human Rights Commission
in Hong Kong and in Sri Lanka since I have not done so yet.
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is a non-governmental
organization (NGO) with a small professional staff that work on
a variety of issues related to human rights in Asia. Staff and volunteers
were from China, Malaysia, Korea, Sri Lanka, Australia, the US,
Nepal, Pakistan, and Denmark. They educate, advocate for, and work
to change policies that help ensure that the human rights for people
in Asia are secured. They are a group of "think-tank"
type people who form opinions and are looked to for leadership on
human rights issues in the region. The organization has a special
consultative status with the UN, and the Executive Director, Basil
Fernando, is very respected and recently won an award for his work
in the field of human rights. Basil was travelling during most of
my time at AHRC, but my few interactions with him left me very impressed
with his character, his passion, and commitment to creating a world
free of violence where all people are respected.
For those of you not familiar with "human rights" language
and what exactly that is, I can say these are things we in the U.S.
probably take for granted. The U.S. is not free of problems, but
our rule of law, our separation of powers, our constitution, and
many other factors give us the many freedoms and liberties we enjoy.
Many in other countries are not as fortunate.
I have also been able to meet some very interesting people as AHRC
has many visitors. One man from India stopped by on his way back
home after being in New York at the UN during the attacks of 9/11.
He was very interesting and we had much to talk about as he had
photos with Mother Teresa, The Dahli Llama, Hilary Clinton and copies
of letters he received from other world dignitaries that he has
met several times. Any of you who know me, know how much I adore
these people and I was so interested in his interactions with them.
Another man was from the Philippines and had presented some human
rights issues present in his country at a conference in Hong Kong.
A group of law students from China has been at AHRC learning about
human rights and be engaged in dialogues and discussions from lawyers
and judges all over Asia.
There are many "human rights" issues that this agency
works with.
Let me give you the calendar of the staff and volunteers at the
agency based on my arrival and the subsequent weeks to give you
an idea of what types of things they are involved in.
· 2 staff were absent during my arrival putting on a conference
in India to educate people about the caste system in India. It was
geared toward the religious community and how it may be involved
in creating positive change for the Dalits (the lowest caste group
in India) and other injustices created by this system.
· 1 volunteer was preparing to leave and be an election monitor
for the upcoming election in Bangladesh
· One staff was in New York assisting with some preparatory
work related to the ICC: The International Criminal Court. You may
have heard about this in relation to the trials of Milosovich.
· One staff person recently returned from South Africa as
he was attending the International Conference on Racism that you
may have heard about.
· Another few staff people were preparing to present information
and have a conference in East Timor related to "torture"
with lawyers, community leaders, judges, etc.
Here are a few examples of things I did during my time there. They
kept me plenty busy for those weeks and I learned so much.
· Collected info and wrote a few newsletters about current
human rights in Asia circulated to Email lists of people in religious
communities.
· Visited Malaysian embassy with a group of activists to
present the diplomat with a statement related to the ISA - which
is a law that allows the government to detain people without cause.
· Collected themes discussed at a staff meeting in response
to the 9/11 incident and upcoming actions to undertake related to
terrorism.
· I transcribed some tapes from interviews which was very
interesting. Somewhat tedious compared to some of my other tasks,
but so interesting.
· Collected stories from their many publications in an effort
to put together a collection of stories from a cross-section of
people who have suffered, lost loved ones, etc. due to crimes considered
human rights abuses. The organization hopes to publish a collection
of stories that may give victims a voice.
· Doing research related to Burma, its militarized government
and the effect on the citizens of that country that will provide
an update for the People's Tribunal, which presented their findings
to the UN in 1999.
· Did some research for an urgent appeal related to Australia
and a current issue that came up related to asylum seekers. In August,
a Norwegian line saved nearly 500 asylum seekers from a sinking
ship. The Australian government would not let the ship on Australian
soil and it was sent back to International waters. This was considered
a humanitarian crisis, not an immigration one and the Aussie gov't
came under harsh criticism for their reaction.
· Did some research related to election and political processes
in Sri Lanka as I was an international observer for the Dec. 5 elections.
Aside from learning so much about human rights issues present in
Asia, I left AHRC with some different perspectives, some renewed
commitments, and some different ideas about global governance in
the past, present, and future. It was a nice opportunity to flush
out some of the things I have learned over the last 2 years in grad
school. AHRC has a great model base for their work. There are no
actions done on the part of people without community members, volunteers,
and advocates to make the changes for themselves. The organization
works to educate, train, and empower individuals to create change
for themselves while serving as an advocate and raising awareness
about a variety of issues to the public.
Tony and I were discussing the impact of this trip after being
½ way finished with our journey. My time at AHRC, but even
more so, this trip, has been a major lesson in the far reaching
impacts of globalization, interconnectedness, and cooperation. It
has given me different perspectives of our country and its role
in the world.
SRI LANKA
AHRC was asked by the Peoples Action for Free and Fair Elections
(PAFFREL) for 5 nominees to come to Sri Lanka for the 12th Parliamentary
Elections which would be held on Dec. 5th. Since many of their staff
were not available due to scheduling conflicts, I was asked to go
on their behalf. Just a few words about this endeavor as it may
interest some of you as to where a small part of your federal tax
dollars are going. The delegation 80 other individuals and I were
part of was funded primarily by the governments of about 6 European
nations and a very small fraction by the U.S. The U.S. federal budget
has a category commonly known as "Foreign Aid." This represents
less than 1% of our total federal budget, which means that for every
$100.00 in federal taxes you pay, less than $1.00 goes into the
foreign aid budget. Of the total amount spent on foreign assistance
(your $1.00), the vast majority goes to Israel and Egypt in the
forms of military assistance. (You may have heard criticism about
the U.S. and its unfair support of Israel - this is primarily because
of the large amounts of military aid given to Israel). What remains
is used for what most of us typically think of as "foreign
aid." It goes for food, programs, and other humanitarian causes
throughout the world. Our decision-makers believe that peace in
certain regions of the world is in the national interest of the
United States. I think many Americans after Sept. 11 may also see
some new importance in this endeavor as unstable political situations
are breeding grounds for terrorism which pose a threat to everyone.
Sri Lanka, prior to 1970 had no problems with elections. But in
the late 70's, the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka believed the country
needed a strong presidency with tremendous political powers. A new
constitution was created subtracting the checks and balances of
the political structure creating tensions between parties resulting
in malpractice and violence during elections in the country. In
October, the current president after some defections from her party,
dissolved Parliament (she has the power to do this for no reason)
and called for new elections. It is believed she did this in an
attempt to preserve her power. This election was expected to be
one of the more decisive ones in history as the opposition party,
with much public support, hoped to win control of Parliament and
change the constitution and reform some problems given the incredible
power of the presidency. This is a vast oversimplification of the
issues, but I hope that gives a little bit of a picture.
We were sent briefing emails prior to our arrival in Sri Lanka.
The first day we had the day to relax at the Trans Asia Hotel in
Colombo. It is a five-star hotel and one of the nicer ones I have
been in. Due to the economic problems in Sri Lanka, this hotel gave
our delegation discount. I spent the day catching up with my friend
William from AHRC at the pool, eating dinner at a nice Thai restaurant
with a few new friends, and that evening we had an informal gathering
of the international observers around the hotel pool. I met so many
interesting people from all over the world, although mainly Asian
countries. I enjoyed hearing the stories of these people, what they
did for a living, what the issues were in the countries they worked
in, etc. Many were election observation veterans, but I found a
few green individuals like myself so I was not the only rookie.
SWEW!
The next few days were briefings at our hotel. We were briefed about
the background to the current election, what international observation
is, and details about election laws. We heard from an election commissioner
about the electoral process in Sri Lanka, we were given explanations
of the reporting forms we were to fill out, area situation reports,
security briefings by the head of election security, what to do,
what not to do, logistics, etc. One of the more interesting talks
was about the importance of this election to the confidence of democracy
in Sri Lanka. Prior to this election, if violence broke out or there
were any reports of malpractice in a voting district, that district
was left out of the tally when votes were counted. This seemed to
contribute to the incidents that occurred in areas where the political
leanings were obvious. For example, if an area were typically a
republican district, democrats would benefit from creating problems
there as that district's votes would be cancelled and vice versa.
The speaker spoke of the apathy of the voters due to the corruption
(the police in many countries are perceived to be manipulated by
the politicians) and have little confidence in this democratic system.
Some new laws stated that if there were malpractice or incidences
at the polls, they would be re-polled. This and other new laws found
many hoping this election would restore some confidence in the democratic
process. After 3 days of intense briefings, we were given our photo
ID's, yellow arm bands, official bags and deployed to our district.
After a fiasco about where exactly I was going to be deployed I
ended up in Pollanorawu district with a journalist from Burma living
in India and a government official from Cambodia. This district
is located in the central part of the country and one with great
historical and religious significance. Our team was assigned 2 translators
who were both lawyers living in Colombo. They proved to be a great
help with many things during our time in the district. "Chintaka"
and "Vibhavi" had quite a task translating conversations
for long days. We were all very appreciative of their efforts. They
were great tour guides as well…anxious to share Sri Lanka culture,
ideas, and food with us. At midnight we finally arrived in our district.
The next few days were 15-16 hour days. We met with the local PAFFREL
coordinator to get instructions when we arrived in our district.
So, our first stop was at a school where 20-30 local people were
gathered and being talked to by the local coordinator. We were escorted
to the front of the school while our translators introduced us and
the local coordinator was talking. We later found out these people
were volunteers who would be stationed at polling districts on election
day to observe. We were essentially there to help these individuals.
Our teams would be mobile and these individuals were going to be
staying at various polling districts on election day. We met with
local police to let them know of our presence and inquire about
security procedures. We met with individuals at election offices
and gathered local information about the districts. We met with
individuals and attempted to get a handle on where malpractice and
incidents were likely to occur so we could chart our route accordingly.
We met with local party candidates to let them know of our presence
and get their perspectives on the fairness of the election process.
One of the days we met with a local group in our regions at a monastery
and the head of this was a Buddhist monk. So we arrived and all
sat on the floor while the monk sat above us in a chair. I was panicking
as I watched everyone, our translators and my team members from
Burma and Cambodia, bow to his feet upon entrance of the meeting
room (They were all Buddhist, and I am not). I wanted to be respectful
and do what was appropriate, but was not sure if bowing to a monk
if you are not Buddhist is appropriate. Thankfully, my wonderful
interpreters told me it was not necessary for me to do this and
I just sat down reviewing in my mind what I knew about etiquette
in this area. I knew in some forms of Buddhism, women are not to
touch a monk and are to pass objects through another man. But I
was unsure what type of Buddhism this particular monastery practiced
and some sects are stricter than others are. Everything went well
after the initial greeting. So we sat on the floor with about 10
others and a large district map and planned a tentative route for
election day. We were then invited to lunch at the monastery which,
we were told is a real honor. We were served a simple, yet wonderful
meal we were told is from the best fruits and vegetables of the
village. It is the custom for local people to bring their best crop
foods, fruits, etc. to the temple as an offering. The monks use
these foods to prepare special meals for honored guests to the village.
It was strange to eat the food knowing this, but a real honor at
the same time. During our time in the district, we were always offered
tea and met with much enthusiasm. We were treated somewhat like
minor celebrities…very strange.
It was interesting to drive through the small villages and towns.
The scenery was beautiful and it was very different from any country
I had been to. Sri Lanka had virtually no tourism due to some recent
incidents related to the civil war taking place in the northern
part of the country. You may be familiar with the Tamil and some
of their radical political parties. The economic development in
general seemed non-existent. In fact, trade was one of the opposition
parties hopes as a means of economic development for Sri Lanka.
As we drove we often would pass irrigation ditches with water that
women and children were bathing and washing clothes in. One of our
translators began laughing at one of my team members inquiring about
getting bottled water in a civil war area with no stores or anything.
I should explain the voting process as it is very different than
in the U.S. Just a few notes to give you a picture. Eligible voters
were sent a voting card weeks before the election. Upon entering
the poll, they would show the card and their name was called out
and checked off a list. The names are stated out loud so the local
party officials and election officials are able to verify the identity
of the voter. This prevents some impersonations. After the person's
name was called, an election official would put indelible ink on
the pinkie of the left finger. This would prevent voting twice.
The next person would give the voter a ballot that had names and
party symbols to make voting possible for all eligible voters. The
voter would then proceed to a table that had a cut cardboard box
that provided privacy. When the vote was cast, it was put into a
wood box and a person with a ruler would make sure the ballot got
stuffed into the box.
In the poll, there is a Senior Presiding Officer (SPO) and a few
assistants who oversee the process. These people are all local from
the particular district. As the poll is entered, there is a long
table with local people who facilitate the process. I will explain
more about this in a minute.
There is also a group of 7-15 party representatives to observe all
day. This number depended on who was running in each particular
district. To illustrate, if we went to our polls, there would be
2 democrats, 2 independents, 1 green party, 1 reform party, etc
On Election Day we were up early as polls opened at 7 a.m. My team
visited 16 different polling stations and kept documentation about
the day and any incidents, malpractice, etc. My translator would
introduce me and ask the SPO the questions I asked her to gather
the information and found a few of the older SPO's spoke English
perfectly as it used to be the primary language in Sri Lanka. My
region was quite peaceful with just a few minor issues needing reporting.
At the end of the day we went to the counting center to watch the
counting - all by hand of course.
The days after the elections were interesting as well. We were to
get back to Colombo as soon as possible and our trip went quickly
as there were national curfews due to some incidences. It was nice
as the roads were empty, but we had to stop at so many checkpoints
and explain why we were on the road, that the trip still took a
long time.
This is all for now. I can explain more to some of you that may
be interested when we return, but I wanted to get this up before
out trip ended.
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