The news that Swiss authorities are freeing film producer and child molester Roman Polanski is simply sickening. The LA Times looked at the important question as to how Polanski’s original sentence for having sex with a 13-year-old girl compared against the sentences of others who committed the same crime and had the same plea deal, in which a person admits to unlawful sex with a minor in exchange for dropping a rape charge. Polanski faced a 90-day jail sentence when he fled the country in 1978. The Times’ finding: Statutory rape convictions similar to Roman Polanski’s typically result in sentences at least four times longer today than the 90-day punishment a judge favored before the director fled the United States in 1978, a Times analysis of Los Angeles County court records shows.

It’s a shame that a legal technicality and Polanski’s stardom have shielded him from getting an appropriate sentence that would reinforce the societal and legal prohibition against an adult having sex with a minor. There’s a good reason for prohibitions in both of those realms: Children shouldn’t even be put in a situation in which they have to fend off an adult who is making sexual advances or worse. Nor, even if they are curious, are most kids — and I do mean most — emotionally mature enough to make a decision about whether to have sex, which can have serious consequences.

Over the years, the entire notion of childhood ash been eroded by such moves as states lowering ages at which a child can be tried as an adult, and by parents who fail to provide the kind of supervision and teaching a youngster needs from the most important adults in their lives. In Polansky’s case, responsibility for this latest episode rests with US authorities who did not provide information the Swiss requested and with the Swiss for essentially shrugging at the severity of a man who ADMITTED having sex with a child. Adults — and governments — are supposed to protect children. The opposite happened on many levels in this sordid story.

Nate Henn

Nate Henn, 25, was one of the victims in yesterday’s bombing in Kigali, Rwanda of a rugby field where the World Cup final was being televised on a giant screen. Nate listed himself as a 2007 graduate of the University of Delaware. When I was on the Inquirer’s editorial board writing about Northern Uganda from about 2005 through 2007, a group of students from UD was extremely passionate about and active in efforts to raise US awareness about the war in northern Uganda in which children were targeted and terrorized. A number of them walked in Philadelphia’s portion of the first, national Gulu Walk, in an effort to teach people around the world about that conflict. I suspect Nate was one of those participants, since he was in Uganda working with the NGO, Invisible Children, which seeks to help the kids of northern Uganda who still feel the aftereffects of a war in which they were kidnapped and forced to become soldiers and sex slaves.

A surge of activism beginning around 2005, helped propel the end of that war in northern Uganda, though the Lord’s Resistance Army, led by international war-crimes suspect Joseph Kony, continues to wreak bloody havoc on children and other bystanders throughout that region of Africa.  While the LRA’s continued existence is troubing, today let us simply herald the role individual activists who coalesce into a larger group, can play in an issue, no matter how big or small or how far away it may be.

One person can make a difference. Nate Henn made a difference. My condolences to his family.

Your computers' bloody contents

The Enough Project has produced this great spoof of the Mac-PC commercials to educate the public about how computers, yes, the ones in our homes and offices, are made with conflict minerals from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Militias do the mining and then use the considerable profits to finance the continued fighting in DRC that has been going on since 1998. It’s a helluva good, worthy public-awareness campaign — let’s even call it a public health campaign, since the violence there has hurt and killed so many. Kudos to Enough for the idea and the creative execution of it.  As, Nickolas Kristof mentioned in his Sunday column on the topic, these minerals also are used in the fabrication of cell phones and digital cameras. Western consumers especially, since we are the ones who consume so much, need to be aware of this and demand that manufacturers of these products use resources that can be verified as coming from clean, legitimate sources, not bloody ones such as Congo’s. For more information on the topic and the campaign visit the Enough Project. Read Steve Job’ response on WIRED’s Gadget Lab blog.

Here’s part of a great story from IRIN that raises the same question: How can such a small group of rebels endure and cause such havoc in so many countries, including in the Democratic Republic of Congo as examined by IRIN. The story doesn’t give many satisfying answers, except to say that the LRA uses such brutal tactics that it instantly terrifies its victims into submission. It’s more complicated than that — let us never forget the influence of money (which reminds me, I’ll be posting a story soon in which the Ugandan Army is asking Kampala for more money to track down the LRA) in starting and perpetuating wars. But even if that brutality plays a small role, well, God help us all. Here’s the beginning of the IRIN story. The full version on the IRIN Web site is here.

Photo: Anthony Morland/IRIN

Sense of security… but the LRA has even infiltrated towns where UN and Congolese forces are based

NIANGARA, 5 May 2010 (IRIN) - They may number as few as 100 men, women and adolescents, but Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) units scattered across the forests of northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s Orientale Province have sown sufficient terror to make some 318,000 people take flight, abandoning their homes and fields, in many cases to the uncertain sanctuary of urban centres.

Their fear is far from misplaced, for extreme brutality is a tactic in the survival strategy of the northern Ugandan rebel group, which has killed almost 2,000 people in Orientale since December 2007, mostly in the districts of Haut- and Bas-Uele.

Lacking supply lines and widely dispersed since a botched air raid in December 2008, the small groups of LRA fighters operate independently of each other and live off the land; that is to say, off the local population’s produce and livestock. Since this population has no desire to share what little they have with a rebellion in which they have no stake at all, they are made to leave.

“The violence of its attacks and the suffering it causes are intended to frighten villagers into not giving its pursuers the information they need to wage a counter-insurgency campaign and to frighten civilians away so they can move with less chance of being spotted,” the International Crisis Group said in a recent report on the LRA.

Such calculatedly brutal logic is hard to explain to the victims of violence.

“What can you tell a woman who’s had her lips and ears cut off for nothing?” UN humanitarian chief John Holmes said after visiting the Haute-Uele town of Niangara, the geographical centre of Africa, during a tour of DRC’s most troubled areas.

It’s the NGO’s annual State of the World’s Mothers report and it’s just out and available here from Save the Children. A cause being important and worthy, and a product about it, such as this report, coming from a well-regarded organization, doesn’t mean journalists and others will automatically give them attention. Advocates who want attention for their issues are smart to find news pegs for them, such as Save the Children releasing this report near Mother’s Day. Smart stuff, effective advocacy.

AlertNet has posted a blog article today written by a Myanmar Red Cross worker and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent on how some Myanmarese are doing two years this month after Cyclone Nargis struck the already-troubled Southeast Asian nation. It by no means gives a complete picture of the situation there, but highlights some of activities Red Cross/Red Crescent are doing. Most importantly, it serves as a reminder that the impact of Nargis is still being felt, and efforts still are being made, long after the media has turned away from it. If I find other reports online regarding Nargis, I’ll post links to them here.

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I got the following press release this morning from the International Crisis Group, which points out the continued, bloody existence of the Lord’s Resistance Army. As much as I respect the crisis group, the conclusions in its new report aren’t new at all. The LRA has been a regional menace for years. Think tanks and humanitarian groups need to go deeper and answer these questions: How, really how, has the LRA stayed alive for so long? And, what in the world will it take to end this group and its hideous ways? The military approach clearly hasn’t worked. Western governments, including the United States and Britain (and Canada, just because it’s a country that cares about these issues and has worked on the terror that once gripped northern Uganda) need to look at ending the LRA and its attacks on civilians through a counterinsurgency strategy that includes winning the hearts and minds of the LRA’s rank-and-file. Nations need to put as much time and energy into that as they have into trying to squash the LRA militarily. 

Though the crisis group’s press release doesn’t say it, it is always important — and accurate — to emphasize the enormous damage the LRA always, always wreaks upon kids. Children are LRA chief Joseph Kony’s favorite target because they are so vulnerable and, therefore, more easily manipulated. Ending the LRA is a children’s rights issue foremost. Here’s the press release.

INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP - NEW REPORT

Nairobi/Brussels, 28 April 2010: To make an end of the brutal Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) once and for all, national armies, the UN and civilians need to pool intelligence and coordinate their efforts in new and creative ways.

LRA: A Regional Strategy beyond Killing Kony, the latest report from the International Crisis Group, examines how what was once an insurgency in northern Uganda has become a regional humanitarian and security problem that requires a regional solution. Operation Lightning Thunder, the Ugandan army’s latest attempt to crush the LRA, has been a military fiasco. After the initial attack on their hideout in a Congolese national park in December 2008, small groups of fighters dispersed more widely in the Congo (Democratic Republic), South Sudan and the Central African Republic (CAR). They immediately committed a series of massacres of villagers to show they retained their power and continue to survive by preying on civilians.

“National security forces are too weak to protect their own people, while the Ugandan army, with U.S. support, is focused on hunting Joseph Kony, the group’s leader”, says Edward Dalby, Crisis Group’s Central Africa Analyst. “The Ugandans have eroded the LRA’s numbers and made it difficult for scattered groups to communicate. But, even if they eventually kill or capture Kony, LRA fighters will remain a terrible danger to civilians in this mostly ungoverned frontier zone”.

The LRA has exploited the inability of the Congo, South Sudan and the CAR to control their border areas and benefited from insufficient coordination between their armies. Small, fast-moving groups of fighters attack unprotected villages to resupply with food and clothes and abduct new recruits before heading back to the cover of the forest. Killing and mutilating are part of a strategy of terror to dissuade survivors from cooperating with the Ugandan and other armies. The weakness of all three state security forces where the LRA now operates and the limited capacity of the UN missions in the Congo and South Sudan have left civilians no choice but to fend for themselves. The UN Security Council must ensure that the planned and gradual drawdown of MONUC (UN Mission Congo) leaves sufficient forces in the LRA-affected areas in the Congo.

“To put an end to what has become a causeless and homeless rebellion, a new strategy is required that prioritises civilian protection, as well as a united effort among military and civilian actors within and across national boundaries”, says Thierry Vircoulon, Crisis Group’s Central Africa Project Director. “Because the need for security is urgent, flexible and innovative forms of cooperation between international, state and non-state actors are needed to counter the threat that operates in and exploits this semi-stateless zone”.

But not even a complete military victory over the LRA would guarantee an end to insecurity in northern Uganda. To do that, the Kampala government must treat the root causes of trouble in the area from which the LRA sprang more than twenty years ago, namely northern perceptions of economic and political marginalisation, and ensure the social rehabilitation of the north.

This from a UNICEF press release:

UNICEF mobilizing for Qinghai earthquake disaster

Majority of primary schools collapsed, urgent need for tents, winter clothing

BEIJING, 15 April 2010 –UNICEF will send urgently needed relief supplies for children affected by yesterday’s massive earthquake. The response will be coordinated with other UN agencies. The quake heavily damaged parts of remote Yushu Prefecture, a region mostly populated by Tibetan herdsmen. The quake, which was measured 7.1 by Chinese scientists, destroyed much of Jiegu (Pop. 100,000), the main town of Yushu Prefecture.

Approximately 617 deaths have been reported along with 9,110 injuries. Some 313 persons are missing and 100,000 are without shelter. On Wednesday night, many of Jiegu’s residents slept outside in sub-zero temperatures. The total population of Yushu Prefecture is 357,000 and the child population is 122,700.

According to Qinghai health authorities the maternal and child health hospital in Yushu County has collapsed in the earthquake. There is an urgent need for medical supplies and childbirth equipment.
 
“We are organizing assistance to support the Chinese government’s disaster response with a focus on the special needs of children and women,” said Dr. Yin Yin Nwe, UNICEF Representative and UN Disaster Management Team Chair in China. “We are in constant consultation with our government partners to gather necessary information and it appears that there has been extensive destruction to homes, health facilities and schools.” 

According to local education bureau officials, 80 per cent of primary schools and 50 per cent of secondary schools in Yushu have been severely damaged affecting 22,719 students and 1,086 teachers. Although the quake struck before the start of classes on Wednesday morning, about half of the students in the sparsely populated region attend boarding schools. Authorities have requested UNICEF support to provide school tents, warm clothing, quilts and learning kits. 

As of late Wednesday at least 56 students and five teachers had been reported killed in the quake. Many more students are missing and thought to be buried. Complete information is still difficult to obtain in the remote mountainous area on the border between Qinghai Province and Tibet.

The most urgent humanitarian needs right now are for food, water, tents, shelter, clothes, blankets, quilts, essential household items, medical supplies and rescue equipment. At this time of year in this mountainous region temperatures reach below freezing overnight. UNICEF has emergency stocks of school tents, children’s winter clothes and blankets on hand and ready to be dispatched.

About UNICEF in China:
UNICEF first assisted China between 1947 and 1951, providing emergency services, food and nutrition, health and hygiene training during and after the war of liberation. In 1979 UNICEF officially commenced its cooperation with the Government of China to support child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is on the ground in over 150 countries and territories to help children survive and thrive, from early childhood through adolescence.

Courtesy of Unicef

Just got this press release in my email today anf thought it was worth posting in its entirety. Even as the media spotlight on Haiti fails, let’s not forget the threats facing its children, who are multilayered vulnerable - on top of the vulnerability they had before the earthquake because of their poverty, they now also face threats that come with homelessness, hygiene, disease and a shattered or shaky adult support system around them that would otherwise (or should otherwise) be watching out for them. So it’s good that groups such as ECPAT, Unicef, and Mais, the Movement for the International Self-Development of Solidarity, and the National Council for Children  are building and maintaining child protection efforts. Here also, is a link to a just-released Unicef report detailing what the agency has done for children in the three months following the Jan. 12 earthquake.  It can be found at: Here’s the release I talked about first:

ECPAT-USA’s (End Child Pornography and Trafficking), Dominican Republic Counterpart, MAIS (Movement for the International Self-Development

ECPAT-USA’s (End Child Pornography and Trafficking), Dominican Republic Counterpart, MAIS (Movement for the International Self-Development of Solidarity), along with border organizations, UNICEF and the National Council for Children (CONANI), will begin a coordinated effort to detail the extent of the trafficking crisis and recommend an appropriate response to the problem.

ECPAT-USA has donated $15,000 to MAIS to help them with this project. Below is the latest press release by ECPAT-USA detailing how MAIS will use these funds.

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March 12, 2010 (New York, NY) – ECPAT-USA, a nonprofit organization that advocates for policies to protect sexually exploited and trafficked children, announced that it has donated $15,000 to its Dominican Republican counterpart, MAIS (Movement for the International Self-Development of Solidarity).  The funds will be used to document the increasing numbers of trafficked children crossing the northern region of the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic following Haiti’s devastating earthquake in January.

MAIS will work with representatives of other child welfare agencies, including UNICEF and the National Council for Children (CONANI), as well as border organizations in a coordinated effort to detail the extent of the crisis.  A combined report on their findings from the six-month project will be submitted to Dominican authorities, along with recommendations to help establish appropriate responses to the problem.

Leading the monitoring program are MAIS coordinators Maria Josefina Paulino and Luis Mendez Jimenez. They noted that the deadly earthquake has severely weakened border control, and this has led to more young children being trafficked out of Haiti and transported to the streets of Dominican Republic.  The children are compelled to earn money through such activities as begging, shining shoes, and selling peanuts or eggs to meet quotas established by their adult captors. They are often subject to physical and psychological abuse, or used as mules in drug trafficking and delivery.

“The situation has been worsening for several years, but we have especially noticed an increase in the presence of pre-adolescent children after the earthquake in January.  The children turn up in major tourist destinations such as Santo Domingo, Santiago, as well as Bavaro, Puerto Plata, and Punta Cana,” said Mr. Jimenez.  “They can be found begging at traffic lights, shopping malls and bus terminals, usually controlled by adults who pay for their capture in Haiti and their illegal transfer to the country.”

Carol Smolenski, Executive Director of ECPAT-USA, said donations to MAIS and similar organization are critical to help address a problem that has quickly become a global epidemic. 

“Children have always been easy victims for traffickers, but major disasters such as Haiti’s devastating earthquake create social and political chaos that disrupt families and severely impact the ability of law enforcement agencies to maintain civil control.  Criminal elements move in to exploit the situation at a time when governments and normal social safety nets are at their weakest.”

She added: “When offering donations, supplies and medical assistance to these devastated countries, it’s important to also consider agencies like MAIS, who sometimes are the last hope for many of these exploited children.”

In the past year, ECPAT International partnered with ethical retailer The Body Shop to campaign against global sex trafficking.  In the U.S., 60% of the proceeds from the sales from The Body Shop’s “Soft Hands, Kind Hearts” Hand Cream go to ECPAT-USA.  The organization also promotes the adoption of the Code of Conduct within the hotel industry and among tour operators and other members of the tourism sector.  The Code requires them to implement practical measures to prevent child sex tourism.

For more information, visit www.ecpatusa.org/.  You can also join ECPAT-USA on Facebook http://bit.ly/d63Xie) and follow them on Twitter (twitter.com/ecpatusa).