Fallen short in commitments to alleviate poverty

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 1: United Nations officials have expressed disappointment that five years after a global summit on social development, the international community has fallen short in its commitments to alleviate poverty, cut unemployment and reduce income gaps between rich and poor.

‘The world has clearly regressed in many ways,’ laments secretary-general Kofi Annan, although he admits there has been ‘some clear progress’ in areas of social development since the 1995 social summit in Copenhagen.

But overall, he says, social development has been ‘severely tested’ since 117 world leaders meeting in the Danish capital pledged to eradicate poverty, provide full employment and foster stable, safe and just societies.

A 161-page UN report assessing the ‘achievements’ of the Copenhagen summit pithily summarises the current state of affairs: ‘inequality is up, poverty is up, insecurity is up, and more countries have been economically marginalised due to globalisation.’

The study, released last week, says that many Governments have reported levels of poverty, income inequality and unemployment which are ‘unacceptable in human terms.’

The United Nations predicts that the number of people living in extreme poverty may rise from the present 1.3 billion to 1.9 billion by 2015. Currently, world population is about six billion people.

The study says that wars, local conflicts and natural disasters have also had a devastating negative impact on social development in many countries.

Caroline wildeman of the Netherlands Organisation for International Development Cooperation (NOVIB), a leading non-governmental aid agency, told that rich and poor countries are blaming each other for the lack of social development.

The poor countries say they are not only being denied market access by industrial countries but are also being deprived of any form of significant relief from their debt burdens, she added.

At the same time, Wildeman said, the poorer nations also accuse the rich of reneging on their commitments to provide the targeted 0.7 per cent of their Gross National Product (GNP) as Official Development Assistance (ODA).

Since that target was set by the general assembly in 1970, only four out of 24 of the world’s richest industrial countries have exceeded it: Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.

ODA, meanwhile, has continued to decline, averaging about 50 billion dollars annually in the late 1990s, from about 58 billion dollars in the early 1990s.

Wildeman said that rich countries, on the other hand, are blaming the poor for the lack of good governance and endemic corruption in most developing nations.

‘In the final analysis,’ she said, ‘while the north and the South are blaming each other, social development has come to a standstill.’

‘The situation does not look good,’ she noted, ‘but still we are optimistic that something positive could eventually come out of it.’

John Langmore, director of the UN division for social policy and development, told reporters last week that the United Nations had received reports from about 80 of the 188 member states indicating that each of those countries were now paying more attention to social development issues, including poverty eradication, employment growth and social integration.

Langmore said that two countries - China and Ireland - have registered major achievements in reducing poverty since 1995. Both had experienced rapid economic growth while increasing the range and effectiveness of their social policies, he added.

But many other countries had experienced little economic growth, renewed internal conflicts or international wars, spread of the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), and a lack of resources, he said.

The UN General Assembly will be holding a special session -labeled ‘Copenhagen plus-five’ - in Geneva in late June to determine what new actions should be taken to ensure that the goals of the social summit are met.

A UN Preparatory Committee for the special session, Langmore said, has commissioned 25 papers from within the UN system suggesting new initiatives to address the goals of social development.

Didier Le Bret of France, a member of the preparatory committee, said the credibility of the entire UN system will be at stake at the special session in Geneva in June.

‘To maintain credibility, the United Nations must bring to Geneva concrete initiatives that would help social development goals become more of a reality than they were now,’ he said.

Langmore pointed out that new initiatives currently being negotiated included increasing market access for third world products, and reduction of tariff and non-tariff trade barriers.

How far these would be acceptable, he said, would depend on negotiations between rich and poor countries at the Geneva meeting.

Meanwhile, the UN study says that the world has ‘become a more unequal place, both within and between nations, with increasing inequalities in income, in employment, in access to social services and in opportunities for participation in public and civil society institutions.’

Contrary to the commitment made at Copenhagen to strengthen cooperation for social development through the United Nations, resources allocated for this purpose have declined, the study adds.

‘The decline in external assistance, for one reason or another, is reported to have impacted negatively on social development programmes in several developing countries,’ the report points out.

The burden of debt has also grown markedly, further squeezing resources available for social development.

The only ‘clear progress,’ on the other hand, is greater awareness of and commitment to social development and continued progress in literacy and life expectancy.

The study also notes that following the Copenhagen summit, there has been increased attention to the goal of full employment and incremental movement towards equality between men and women. (IPS)

Can woman also perform last rites of parents ?

KATHMANDU, Mar 1: Seven years ago she created a stir in Nepal’s social circles when she shaved off her hair, donned the white apparel of mourning and lit her mother’s funeral pyre, the sole privilege of Hindu sons.

‘It was a challenge to society,’ says Indira Rana, one of Nepal’s highest ranking female judicial officials.

‘A daughter has every right to perform ‘kriya kaaj’ or mourning rituals. Nowhere in Hindu religion does it say it is the sole right of the son. That’s a twisted version. I have read the religious texts. That’s what I told the priest who initially refused to perform the rituals.’

Seated in a room lined with shelves of law books and walls adorned with religious paintings, Rana, now retired for a year, is still issuing a challenge to society. In pants and close-cropped hair the bespectacled reformer remains single, ‘out of choice’, and a staunch advocate for women’s rights.

Her decision was born out of a close view of social injustices both in her professional and personal life.

‘As a judge, I’ve presided over numerous cases where women were usually the victims. Patriarchal attitudes and discriminatory laws make it difficult for women to get justice,’ says Rana who today, is fighting a legal battle with her brother for an equal share of parental property.

Under Nepali laws, daughters are denied equal inheritance rights. A woman has to be over 35 and unmarried to get an equal share of parental property.Rana remembers the shock among family, friends and relatives at her lighting her mother’s funeral pyre.

‘No daughter in a Hindu Rana (high caste) family had done that before.’

The act also resulted in a flood of media coverage. But it is the letters, she remembers. ‘So many people wrote. From all around the country. One person wrote that I’d broken down a barrier for women,’ recalls Rana.

Breaking down barriers has been a part of this former teacher’s life. A close family friend remembers Rana’s rebellious streak from childhood. Wearing jeans and trousers, flying kites, cycling, driving she did everything a boy would do.

An illustrious career has seen her as the first woman Secretary of Nepal’s Judicial Council, responsible for hiring and firing and transfer of judges. She was also the first woman Under Secretary at Nepal’s Ministry of Law and Justice where she worked in the international law section, advising the Government on ratifying the treaties including humanitarian law.

She has served as judge in Lalitpur district court where she presided over criminal and civil cases, as Acting Assistant Registrar at the Supreme Court and as Acting Registrar at the Central Regional court.

Today, there are five women judges in Nepal’s district and appellate courts. As an advocate and private attorney of the Supreme Court of Nepal, she has pleaded numerous constitutional issues and criminal cases including on rape, infanticide, abortion, murder, and trafficking.

Working her way up the judicial ladder has not been easy, says Rana. ‘The judiciary is very conservative. Despite being able, women are rarely nominated to important positions.’

The conservative attitude of the courts which interpret discriminatory laws in favour of established family and social behaviour norms, culture, tradition, activity and conduct has slowed the process of legal reform in Nepal.

‘Unfortunately, the advent of democracy in 1990 has brought about little change. It’s a pity but many women’s pressure groups are divided on political lines and do not unite on major issues concerning women’s rights,’ says Indira Rana.

In 1975, as Coordinator of a legal committee looking into women’s rights, Rana was able to raise the legal age of marriage, to introduce the concept of alimony in Nepali law and to introduce stricter punishment for polygamy. Prior to that polygamy offenders could get off by paying a fine of one rupee.

In the mid-nineties, Rana, representing the Government at Nepal’s Ministry for Women and Social Welfare, drafted a bill on property rights. The bill has yet to be passed in Parliament.

As the Vice Chairperson of the Nepal Law Society, Rana has little time to enjoy her retired life. Her phone rings constantly she is busy attending meetings of numerous legal, social, welfare organisations and NGOs she is affiliated to.

Rana who has an M. Phil from Harvard, is the recipient of numerous national and international honours. An awardee of the Nafis Sadik award for courage and a Paul Harris fellow, she is presently involved in travelling to Nepal’s rural districts and increasing awareness among grassroots women about social justice and equity.

Her advise to women: ‘nominated or elected, many women say little at the decision-making level, either because they’re intimidated, illiterate or think it’s there place to keep quite. Women must learn that they’re not stamp pads, yes-yes people, that they have an equal say in the development process.’ (IPS)

Sharif faces corruption charges in a new
case of chopper deal

ISLAMABAD, Mar 1: Pakistan’s beleagured former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif now faces possible trial in a new case involving alleged fraudulent purchase of a Russian-made MI-8 helicopter and hiding the deal from tax authorities.

Country’s National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has filed a reference along with an investigation report in the Ehtesab (Accountability) Court against him and his close associate Saifur Rehman for purchasing the helicopter worth 2.05 million dollars and prayed the court to take cognizance of the matter.

If found guilty, Sharif may be awarded life imprisonment and also be disqualified from holding public office, court sources told private NNI news agency.

It was not immediately known when the reference was filed. But the sources said Sharif and Rehman, who are in judicial custody in Landhi jail, were examined in this connection on January 24.

A number of witnesses from the civil aviation authority, income tax department, customs and other persons, including former ministers Sartaj Aziz and Capt (retd) Haleem Saddique, allegedly involved in the transaction were examined and their statements recorded, they said.

NAB sources claimed that they had obtained valid information and a list of documents, which made a strong case against Sharif and Rehman.

The investigation report said Sharif purchased the hepter bearing serial number 5948060502 from Moscow in 1993, but did not declare it as his personal asset before the income tax authorities.

The report, made available to NNI, said the purchase, ownership and maintenance which amounted to 2.05 million USD was not proportionate to Sharif’s known sources of income.

NAB authorities claimed it has been established from the record that Sharif and Rehman manipulated the import of the MI-8 helicopter from Russia on wet lease through one Niaz Hussain Siddique of Orient Air Private Limited as his frontmen againt 15 per cent service charges.

After negotiations, Sharif allegedly paid 40,000 USD as advance to Siddique on July 3, 1993.

Siddique then hired the services of Meridian Consolidated Private Limited to settle the deal with the owners of the helicopter in Russia. For this he paid 20,000 USD to one Dr Sajid Latif Khan of Meridian Consolidated for arranging a trip to Moscow for themselves.

There they contracted the helicopter on wet lease of 550 USD per flying hour and made a contract on August 9, 1993.

However, when the negotiations were still underway at Moscow, the license of orient air was cancelled due to an internal corporate dispute, which rendered the company incapable of operating the chopper in Pakistan.

In order to cover this up, Rehman inducted Javed Iqbal of Javed Aviation Service Private Limited to operate the helicopter and was paid a lumpsum of (Pakistani) Rs 7,50,000 for three months, the report said. (PTI)

A film on Mahatma Gandhi’s struggles screened in US

WASHINGTON, Mar 1: ‘A force more powerful’, a film depicting the power and triumph of Mahatma Gandhi’s weapon of non-violence has been screened here before a large gathering of Congressmen, diplomats and community leaders.

The film, highlighting the Father of the Nation’s struggles in three different settings under different leaders - against British Colonialism in India, racial segregation in the US, and in destroying apartheid in South Africa, was screened at a reception here yesterday.

The occasion was also unique - a reception at the new wing of the library of Congress jointly hosted by Indian Ambassador Naresh Chandra, South African Ambassador Sheila Sisulu, and the black caucus in Congress.

Chandra announced amidst cheers that Mahatma Gandhi’s statue is expected to be installed in the city within three months, as all clearances have been obtained and the statue itself has arrived in Washington.

Chandra pointed out that in Washington it is not easy to get clearances but mention of the name of Gandhi worked magic. (PTI)

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