1.- The Right to Education in the World: a look to the goals of Education for All

Read here Vernor Muñoz’s speech, UN Special Rapporteur on Right to Education, in the III Assembly of the Global Campaign for Education

27 January, 2008

Invited by the Latin-American Campaign for the Right to Education, the UN special rapporteur on Right to Education, Vernor Muñoz, from Costa Rica, stood in São Paulo from 24 to 26 January. The rapporteur coordinated the workshop “Justiciability of the Right to Education”, promoted by the CLADE; he participated in the III Assembly of the Global Campaign for Education as well as in the seminar “Education in the World - A Balance", within the framework of the World Social Forum. Below is the complete transcription of his opening speech in São Paulo, on the challenges of Education for All.

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The right to education does not limit itself to the pedagogic experience, given that it implies everything that, being beyond - or near - the school, affects it profoundly.

In this way, education can transform social structures and has the ability to give a new dimension to living practices, to teaching and learning processes and, certainly, to the constitution of citizenships.

For this reason, policies insensitive to children and adolescents’ protection and to the special needs of adults living in illiteracy, for instance, aggravate the exclusion of more than one thousand five hundred million people whose right to education is currently denied.

Social discrimination and the lack of educational opportunities, though, also occur when students have to face a school environment insensitive to their rights, needs and cultures due to a curriculum that hurts human diversity.

There exist enough historical grounds to understand that the basis of an important part of education exclusion is found in the very structure of traditional school.

In fact, the need to standardize and make the “input” performance efficient was the reason that motivated the creation of a concept of school based on the elimination of the differences between people, thus imposing an asymmetric patriarchal model based on the market needs.

During the last decades, the creation of a legal and axiological body having human rights as a reference has implied a substantial change in educational conceptions, but also a renewed understanding of learning processes.

The challenges imposed to advance in the construction of a human rights culture are, though, huge.

We all know that we live in a world with eight hundred million adults who don’t know how to read and write or make basic arithmetic operations, and 64% of these people are women.

Most conservative opinions estimate that 80 million children still don’t go to school, that 58 countries won’t reach universal primary education by 2015 and that 72 countries won't be able to reduce illiteracy rates to half by 2015, as proposed by Dakar goals.

Despite the important advances in sub-Saharan Africa and in Southern and West Asia, it is precisely in these regions where girls most deeply suffer the lack of educational opportunities: while in the South of Asia 23.5 millions of girls do not go to school, in the centre and the west of Africa almost half of the girls are also excluded.

To this discouraging situation has to be added 25% of people older than 15 years of age which are illiterate in Central America, mainly girls and women living in poverty, natives and residents of rural areas.

As a general rule, poorest and most unprivileged children do not have access to early childhood assistance and education programmes and, taking into account the most optimistic projections, the goal of achieving universal primary education will take at least ten more years than expected, as by 2015 there will still be 47 million children not going to school and 47 countries that will not meet the goal of universal provision of educational facilities almost until the first half of the century.

In these countries, 75% of girls and boys mothers don’t receive education either. Besides, it is now clear that 72 countries will not be able to reduce, before 2015, their adult population illiteracy rates to half given that, among other causes, a great deal of the external financing required for education is destined to middle income countries and not to fragile states or to the most impoverished ones. Many of these countries still charge for education.

The lack of concrete opportunities, school infrastructure, didactic materials, qualified teachers, direct and complementary services for the accomplishment of the right to education (like feeding, sanitary facilities and security to and from the school), as well as problems of quality and appropriateness, are a task delayed year after year.

Economic obstacles that developing countries have to face, like an unfair and unpayable external debt and the absence of public policies centred on the needs of girls and boys contribute to the difficulties to increase the finance resources destined to education at least to 6% of the gross national product, as recommended by international standards.

Even worse, in many cases the budget destined to armies continue to grow to the detriment of education. For instance, in African and South and West of Asia countries, hardly an average equal or inferior to 3.5% of the gross national product is assigned to education.

The lack of girls and boys rights accomplishment responds to decisions or omissions only attributable to adults; but as it is stated in the Convention of the Right of the Child, it will be impossible to find the best solutions to these problems without the participation of people under age in the matters that concern them.

The fact that no country has managed to eliminate the gender gap in all aspects of social life constitutes an upsetting reality. This means that gender inequality is not a mechanical consequence of poverty, as it has also been widely documented in North America and in Europe, for example, where persistent inequalities in the access and significant barriers in detriment of women negatively affect girls’ education and their life opportunities.

Rhetoric in favour of children’s rights has not prevented education from continuing to be one of the last priorities within the budget considerations and one of the last favoured within public policies.

Domestic child labour, the one paid and the one carried out under quasi slavery conditions, continue to be the main cause of exploitation and violence, and one of the factors that has moved millions of children away from school in the most perverse way.

Child labour has worse education consequences to the girls as they have to face other forms of aggression and exclusion associated to their tasks and, to make it worse, they don’t even receive an economic recognition for the domestic tasks, usually reserved for them, that can go up to seven hours a day.

Even if gender inequality in education has local and regional characteristics, there is a series of elements shared in many countries, like poverty (that also expresses multiple exclusions), dangerous schools environments, textbooks stereotypes, the lack of will of parents to invest or get interested in girls and teenagers’ education, child labour, social and cultural discriminatory practices, restrictions to freedom of movement and expression of girls and teenagers and, certainly, war.
It is estimated that at least half of the 80 million boys and girls that do not receive education live in countries with conflict situations or that have suffered conflicts recently. In eight of those countries, net enrolment ratios are less than 50% and of the 17 countries of sub-Saharan Africa where enrolment was reduced last decade, six were affected by wars.

Almost half of the 3.6 million people who died in war since 1990 were children.

Besides this terrible impact, the persisting recruitment of boys and girls by armies, militias and rebellious movements in at least 60 countries must be also added.

At the end of 2005 it remained clear enough that the goal of gender parity considered by the Millennium Goals and Education for All failed in 94 of the 149 countries from which there is information available.

Eighty six countries run the risk of not achieving the gender parity even for 2015; 76 countries have not even reached gender parity in primary education and girls and teenagers continue to suffer the disparities.

Had the goal been achieved, today there would be 14 million more girls in primary education. But the truth is that in 41 countries -that correspond to 20 million girls not attending classes- the gender gap is becoming deeper or it is tighten so slowly that equality won’t be achieved until 2040.

Anyway, the concept of “parity”, that implies a simple quantification of girls and teenagers enrolled, does not reflect the substantive concept of “gender equality”, that considers the Beijing Declaration and its 1995 Platform of Action and thus, it is not useful either to value the progress in quality education.

Despite the global situation, some countries have made enormous efforts in all continents, increasing general enrolment and reducing the gender gap, like the cases of Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, India, Mozambique, the United Republic of Tanzania, Yemen and Zambia. Some countries have created mechanisms for the participation of boys and girls in educational decisions, like in Morocco. Other countries fight against the processes of marketing of education, like Nicaragua; others make progress in adults’ literacy, like China, and others assign more financial resources to it, like Bolivia and Malaysia.

I have consistently pointed out in all my reports that school access in itself is not a guarantee and the need to encourage quality education based on learning and experiencing human rights is a requirement to develop an efficient resistance against forms of exclusion and discrimination.

One of the causes of the difficulties to make the right to education effective is the opposition to consider this right as the space in which human rights converge, particularly when it is about discriminated cultures that are subject to social and economic domination.

The resistance to the fact that education works according to its basic purposes turns on the denial of the human right to education, since the knowledge that is not built within the development of a personality respectful towards human rights is low quality knowledge.

In other words, education from and within human rights is a condition to the adequate development of the personality and to an integral protection of human dignity and the ecosystems.

The goal of education is then to promote those changes by building capacities in all people that respect and accomplish human rights; it is about an education for equality and therefore, for a more fair, supportive, equitable and pacifist society.

The disconnection between purposes and actions in education operates within the framework of structural inequalities and asymmetries, in which the false idea that economic development is the main goal of education is also promoted, generally considered as a cost and not as a human right.

It is true that we all expect economic effects from education and literacy, but it is different to believe that those effects are its essential purpose.

For these reasons, many of the debates and demands related to the need to invest on education –including the well-meaning campaigns from non-governmental organizations - reduce girls, boys and teenagers’ rights to fuzzy components of macroeconomic factors, like when it is said that one of the main goals of enrolment is the possibility to increase per capita growth.

Economic growth not always leads to human development. Therefore, it is inappropriate to propose the accomplishment of the right to education as a determining factor of productive efficiency, given that per capita income dos not have either an evident relation to social equity.

This utilitarian perspective attacks human dignity and distracts the essential purposes of education; this is why it has failed as a strategy to raise awareness in governments and international financing entities.

On the other hand, it is obviously true that educational systems must change their purposes and strategies if they do not dignify Life, but it is also true that many of the huge problems of education do not have to do with school systems but with the essentially discriminatory socio-economic environment.

Investments on girls’ education, specially those which purpose is to improve its coverage and quality, have a social return demonstrated in the reduction of mortality rates and not wanted birth rates, in the fight against poverty, HIV/AIDS and malnutrition.

These positive effects should lead to strengthen human rights integration into actions and policies from the States and the World Bank, instead of reducing educational matters to an instrumental matter.

It has been also said that the measurement of the progress around the performance of the goals of Education For All strongly lies in the use of statistical data, which leads to a real paradox, considering the inexistence or the limited development of qualitative indicators with enough capacity to determine the nature and incidence of specific obstacles that produce and promote exclusion, discrimination and denial of human rights to millions of people, including native, Romany and Dalits peoples.

The use of general quantitative indicators that mediate enrolment increase rates and are usually applied to measure “progresses” is not useful enough.

These indicators do not reflect the complexity of inequalities and social exclusion; rather, they don’t see the needs of children, of people with disabilities and minority groups, and they conspire with damaging practices to human rights, by avoiding a specific characterization of the causes of the delay, violence and segregation and the denial to modify public policies that validate and perpetuate these practices.

These exclusions also appear in developed countries where many times escape the attention of governments due to the lack of visibility of migrant populations, for example, and of people with intellectual disabilities who, in Europe, continue to face prejudices and obstacles that prevent them from accomplishing their rights, including education.

The discrimination that is reproduced and nourished within the school field is also a consequence of the almost generalized lack of an inclusive education which purpose would be to eliminate discrimination and favour educational opportunities equally.

It is also reproduced in the absence of educational models culturally placed and that respect diversity; in the long distances girls and boys have to walk to go to school, in the lack of a secured transport, in the absence of integral and permanent processes of gender sensitisation and training addressed to teachers, in the few interest for the reinsertion and permanence of mothers and pregnant teenagers, in the lack of sexual education and in the costs of registration, uniforms, feeding, textbooks and didactic materials that families have to defray and that have a more adverse impact on the girls.

The long way towards human equality and dignity has also suffered deep delays due to the outrageous rhetoric of a world political class reluctant to consider education as a human right that must be respected and developed.

We have been witnesses of countless moves that delay state obligations regarding economic, social and cultural rights and that, stealthily, transform those obligations in wordiness or in plans and purposes that never become real.

But we also know there are those who hold the World with their daily hope. You, fighters; you, a testimony of courage and enthusiasm.

Each dream and each fight open grooves. In the same way, we know that each rule of law in the old shelves of UN deals with the living memory of peoples, persons, girls, grandmothers who lived raising their voices against oppression and death.

Those voices got here and you pick them up and boost them. Now is our turn to give a sense to this memory in order to eradicate inequality; never again closed doors, never again empty classrooms.


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2.- Letter in support of the Regional Cooperative Center for Adult Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (CREFAL)

Important personalities of youth and adult education in Mexico are spreading a letter addressed to the Mexican authorities with a view to solving the critical situation this institution of wide experience and recognition for the defence of the right to education of young and adult people in all Latin America is currently living.

Benito Fernández
aaealpz@entelnet.bo
Asociación Alemana para la Educación de Adultos
Calle San Salvador 1450 - La Paz - Bolivia
Tel. 00591-2-2223784 / Fax: 00591-2-2221043

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Dear friends,

We hope you are all right and making progress in your personal and professional projects. We are attaching a letter supporting CREFAL in which the activity performed by this International Organism for Youth and Adult Education is highlighted; the importance of this educational field and the need to continue joining efforts to strengthen is also mentioned.

We invite you to subscribe to it by adding your name, the institution where you work and your country at the end of this message.

If you join this initiative, once your details added, please send it to redepja@upn.mx , the address where signatures are being joined, before 25 February. We want to submit this letter on the last week of this month.

We also ask you to forward this message to other people interested in supporting this initiative.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Yours sincerely,

Sylvia Schmelkes - Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico
Carmen Campero- Universidad Pedagógica Nacional - Mexico

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Mexico D.F.,
12 February, 2008

JOSEFINA VÁZQUEZ MOTA
SECRETARY OF PUBLIC EDUCATION

Dear Ms. VÁZQUEZ MOTA,

The Center of Regional Cooperation for Adult Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (CREFAL), since its foundation in 1951, has developed an important task to strengthen adult and youth education (EPJA) in Mexico and the Latin American Region.

This educational field is essential as it constitutes one of the universal rights and is the path for the accomplishment of other rights, it is the factor of social justice and it contributes to the economic and social development. Its task is wide and complex; according to the approaches of the Fifth International Conference on Adult Education (CONFINTEA V), it covers basic education (literacy, primary and secondary education), training in and for work, education aimed for the improvement of quality of life, for the promotion of culture and for the strengthening of identity, as well as for citizens organization and participation. In Latin America, impoverished and marginalized population care has been a priority.

Specialists emphasize the importance of EPJA for the achievement of a better formed and active citizenship; families more interested in their children’s education and more capable of supporting them; persons having more job possibilities and being more productive; a more plural and vigorous democracy, a more inclusive society; and also for the prevention of violence and addictions.

Throughout its history, CREFAL has joined this important educational action encouraging its educators training, developing projects on educational participation, making researches to support decision making on policies, projects and programs, as well as spreading experiences and knowledge through their publications and magazines collections. Besides, this Center has been the key to favour bonds and exchanges among institutions, specialists and educators working on youth and adults' education, which has resulted in the enrichment of different projects and actions, and that of their participants.

Currently, it is essential to strengthen the institutions and programs related to this educational field, as a consequence of some situations existing in Mexico: the alarming poverty rate; the millions of people who have not finished their basic education; increasing internal and external migration; informal work and unemployment; multiculturality; the need of training on citizenship and values on life together, just to name some of them. These situations are shared by many countries in Latin America.

The undersigned, people from the academic community, interested and engaged in youth and adult education, want to highlight the educational activity performed by CREFAL, and to express our concern for the situation of crisis and ambiguity this institution is going through, an institution that has achieved a national and international position as a center of thought and action, and a reference necessary for everyone wanting to tackle or to study in depth this educational field.

From CREFAL, Mexico has been in the van of many subjects regarding youth and adult education, and it would be regrettable that Our Country looses this position.

Finally, we express again our interest in and the importance of continuing joining efforts to contribute to the economic and social development of peoples, based on the respect of human dignity, on social justice, on equity and on democracy.

YOURS SINCERELY,

Sylvia Schmelkes – Universidad Iberoamericana – Mexico
Carmen Campero – Universidad Pedagógica Nacional –Mexico


Carlos de Alba, C.c.p. Ambassador – Director General of International Relations of SEP.

José Antonio Zabalgoitia Trejo- Director General of American Regional Organizations and Mechanisms, SRE

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3.- The Jamaican Council for Adult Education

The Learning City Conference

Vilma McClenan
vilma_mcclenan@flowja.com

Theme: The Learning City: a Vehicle for Community Transformation
Date: Monday, March 7 – 19, 2008
Venue: Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, Kingston

Organizers: The Jamaican Council for Adult Education (JACAE) in collaboration with the Jamaican Foundation for Lifelong Learning (JFLL) formerly JAMAL and HEART Trust /NTA

Objective: To develop a greater understanding of how the Learning City can facilitate participation in community renewal and transformation, and stimulate and guide national development.

Opening Session: Monday, March 17, 2008 at 9:00 a.m.

Keynote Speaker: The Hon. Andrew Holness, MP, Minister of Education

Background: In September 2005, JACAE in association with the JFLL held a Symposium with the main objective of sensitizing participants to the concept of the Learning City, and to obtain their views on its potential for the Jamaican society. Consequent on the positive reaction of the participants to the idea, an international conference is being organized (a) to deepen the understanding of how a community can be transformed by embracing the concept of lifelong learning and (b) to examine some of the negative forces which inhibit economic and social development within communities, and show how these forces can be reduced or eliminated through lifelong learning.

Format of the Conference: The Learning City Conference Programme will include:
• Background papers to provide information about Learning Cities and their potential to transform the attitudes and values of communities;
• Situational papers in which current issues that constrain social and economic growth and development are examined;
• Case Studies, drawn from India, Israel, the United Kingdom and Jamaica, showcasing examples where communities have been purposefully using learning to create change;
• Opportunities to exchange ideas, to engage with the principles of the Learning City and to network;
• Drafting of a provisional Action Plan.


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4.- Leadership Crisis in Tanzania costs women leaders.

Just two years since the 2005 General Elections, the United Republic of Tanzania, in the past week, has been going through an important political transition though the peaceful and orderly nature this transition was steered made it relatively invisible to the world media. The President was forced to dissolve his cabinet late on February 7, 2007 following the resignation of the former Prime Minister, Edward Lowassa, earlier that same morning after he and two other ministers were implicated in an energy deal that put the national electricity supplier, the Tanzania Electricity Supply Company Limited (TANESCO) into massive debt by entering into a contract with a non existent company to supply emergency power following an energy crisis experience in 2006 as a result of a long spell of drought.

Salma Maoulidi
smlidi@yahoo.com


This was a first in Tanzania’s history for a Prime Minister to resign following calls for public accountability for what transpired under his leadership. This toppling of the premier has however had more grave consequences in other leadership ranks. Indeed the 2005 General Elections recorded important milestones for women in Tanzania. More women stood as candidates, and won. Also for the first time 6 women were appointed to key cabinet positions like Foreign Affairs, Finance, Constitutional Affairs, Education, President’s Office (Civil Service) and Community Development.

The cabinet appointed on Monday February 11, 2008 and sworn in on Wednesday February 13, 2008 still has 6 women ministers but they have lost the key positions they held for two years. In the Cabinet appointed immediately after the 2005 General Elections, Hon. Zakia Meghji headed Finance. Dr. Asha Rose Migiro headed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Hon. Safia Simba, a new face in 2005, headed the Ministry of Community Development, Gender and Children, Hon. Margaret Sitta who had successfully headed the Tanzania Teachers Union was appointed to head the Ministry of Education and Culture; Hon. Hawa Ghasia also a new comer was appointed to head civil service and public management and Hon. Mary Nagu heading the Ministry of Constitutional Affairs.

As matters stand at present only one woman has retained her ministry i.e. Hawa Ghasia. Women lost the Ministry of Foreign Affairs when she was appointed to be the UN Deputy Secretary General. Hon. Zakia Meghji lost the Ministry of Finance to a man probably because of her error in judgment with regards to authorizing funds requested by the former Governor of BOT, the disgraced Daudi Balali, in another corruption scandal implicating senior government officials. Hon. Margaret Sitta on her part has been moved to the Ministry of Community Development, Gender and Children probably on account of the poor performance in the 2007 national primary education test scores compared to the high performance in 2006. She replaces Hon. Sophia Simba who now takes care over Good Governance in the President’s Office. Hon. Mary Nagu now assumes the Industry, Business and Markets portfolio.

The new faces in ministerial positions include Dr. Batilda Buriani who formerly was a deputy minister, and now heads the Ministry of Environment and Hon. Shamsa Mwangunga who also was a deputy minister but now heads Natural Resources portfolio. Six other women have been appointed as deputy ministers and include Hon. Celina Kombani (Local Governments), Hon. Asha Kigoda (remains in Ministry of Health and social welfare), Hon. Mwatum Mahiza who remains as deputy minister in Ministry of Education; Dr. Maua Daftari waho remains in the Ministry of Communications which now also assumes oversight over science and technology, Hon. Gaudensia Kabaka in the Ministry of Education; and Dr. Lucy Nkya appointed to the Ministry of Community Development, Gender and Children.
The February 2008 appointments are accompanied by changes in the mandate of ministerial portfolios. Some ministries have been merged, others scrapped and others reorganized. Nonetheless, some interpret this as a lack of confidence in the performance of women ministers in ‘vital’ ministries. Nonetheless, because it comes at a time when the government has been shaken at the highest places, and veteran politicians being publicly shaken over their dealings on matters of national interest many see the reshuffle as an unavoidable consequence of the shake up that does not only affect women leaders.

Amidst the leadership crisis, women all over Tanzania have every reason to be proud over the bold pronouncement made by women legislators in parliament that fundamentally contributed to the report tendered by a Parliamentary Committee appointed to investigate the energy deal dubbed “Richmond” to have the consequences it did. Women from the ruling party such as Hon. Anna Kilango, Hon. Eng. Stella Manyanya and Hon. Tatu Ntimizi were broke ranks with their party culture of protecting members publicly calling for heads to roll to clean up their party. Hon. Ntimizi went as far as calling for the government to be prosecuted for its negligence. Women from opposition parties like Hon. Maulida Komm, who was a running mate in the 2005 elections showed equal strength challenging the business as usual culture that continues to impoverish Tanzanian people.

It remains to be seen what the larger activist and feminist community will do to capitalize on the constitutional opportunity this saga of bad governance presents especially to push forth the campaign against impoverishment and plunder of resources ran by the Feminist Activits coalition (FemAct). Activists demonstrated in support of the Richmond Report on Saturday Febuary 9, 2008 but we are still to put forward to the government more concerete demands as a pressure group.


Salma Maoulidi
Dar es Salaam.

Dodoma, Tanzania
Info: A bill to create the UNESCO National Commission has been tabled for the first time in Parliament early February 15, 2008. The Bill was delayed and not discussed following the leadership crisis that led to the temporary suspension of the Parliament following the impromptu resignation of the former Prime Minister Edward Lowassa.
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5.- Vienna Forum to Fight Human Trafficking, 13-15 February 2008 - Passport wanted: combating human trafficking and forced labour

The biggest ever international conference on human trafficking represents a unique opportunity to forge a global alliance against this form of modern slavery. At least 2.4 million people are victims of trafficking for the purpose of forced labour around the world generating an estimated US$32 billion in annual profits. A recent study by the ILO and the Portuguese Government shows how the search for a better life can lead to labour exploitation and human trafficking of people in both developing and developed countries.

http://www.ilo.org/global/About_the_ILO/Media_and_public_information/Feature_stories/lang--en/WCMS_090351/index.htm

LISBON, Portugal (ILO Online) – When “L” answered an advertisement in a Portuguese newspaper offering jobs in the Netherlands for 6 Euros an hour; she could hardly know that the dream of a better life would turn into a nightmarish scenario.

Shortly after arriving, she was forced to work in a menial job cutting roses in greenhouses, made to share a room with six other people, and when she complained, had her room searched. To make matters worse, a Turkish national from a temporary employment agency proposed she marry his nephew so he could obtain an EU passport. And in the end, she was never paid for her work.

Trafficking and labour exploitation are commonly seen as rooted in the poverty that characterizes some developing countries. But the case of L, a Portuguese national lured into exploitation by promises of a better job, illustrates how citizens of a developed country can also fall prey to deceitful practices.

Roger Plant, head of the ILO’s Special Action Programme to Combat Forced Labour, says L’s experiences show two things: “First, this pinpoints the real danger that abusive recruitment practices can spill over to forced labour and trafficking. Secondly, trafficking remains a low-risk criminal enterprise generating US$ 32 billion in annual profits worldwide despite growing awareness and more effective law enforcement over the last years”.

While the study (Note 1) on Portugal cites similar examples of Portuguese workers trapped in forced labour situations in Spain, it also makes it clear that the brunt of human trafficking in Portugal involves trafficking and exploitation of people from developing countries in Lusophone Africa, Brazil and Eastern Europe.

In one case, a 16-year-old girl from Africa was invited by a Portuguese woman to live with her in Portugal with promises to the girl’s family of a better life for their daughter, an employment contract, an above-average salary and to help her settle in.

Instead, the girl had her documents confiscated as soon as she arrived in Portugal and was forced to work 15 hours a day with only a half-day rest during the week. Her employer later told her that her salary was being deposited into an account under her name, but she never saw the money.

After three years, the girl got in contact with the Portuguese Centre for the Support of Immigrants, but she soon abandoned its rehabilitation programme. The officer dealing with the case thinks she never managed to escape her employee.

Forging a global alliance against trafficking and forced labour
According to a new ILO report for the Vienna Forum on Human Trafficking, while 44 per cent, most women, men and children were trafficked for sexual exploitation, 32 per cent were trafficked into labour exploitation, and 25 per cent for a mixture of both. The ILO also estimates that half of the victims of trafficking are minors under 18.

The fight against trafficking is at the heart of the ILO’s Decent Work Agenda.

“Trafficking violates the most basic rights of any person – the freedom from coercion at work, the freedom to set up associations and bargain collectively, and the freedom from discrimination at work”, explains Roger Plant.

These are among the four core principles enshrined in the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work adopted by ILO member States in 1998. The Declaration is based on eight core Conventions, two of which are most closely related to trafficking (No. 29 on Forced Labour and No. 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour). Furthermore, the ILO’s Migrant Workers Conventions No. 97 and No. 143 provide a normative framework for the protection of migrant workers as well as trafficked victims.

The ILO is promoting a Global Alliance to achieve this, with partner agencies pooling their efforts to wipe out all forms of forced labour worldwide by 2015. In its numerous activities around the world, the ILO addresses trafficking from a labour market perspective seeking to eliminate the root causes, such as poverty, lack of employment and inefficient labour migration systems.

The ILO’s work in 12 countries of Central and West Africa has resulted in significant strengthening of national laws and policies against human trafficking as well as increased inter-State cooperation to curb trafficking in children. In Europe, the ILO has started a project in Albania, Moldova and Ukraine in 2004 contributing to the adoption of stronger laws on migration and strengthening national migration institutions and cooperation between source and destination countries. In China, an ILO capacity building project promotes safe migration for the more than 120 million migrants within China and those often undocumented workers emigrating from China.

As a tripartite organization, the ILO not only works with governments, but also consults and involves employers’ and workers’ organisations in its anti-trafficking activities.

The Vienna Forum to Fight Human Trafficking is organized by the UN Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking (UN.GIFT) and involves six international organizations, including the ILO, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNOCD), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

“This is a unique opportunity to forge a global alliance against human trafficking and wipe it out once and for all”, concludes Roger Plant.

Note 1 - Combating human trafficking and forced labour, by Sónia Pereira and João Vasconcelos, International Labour Office, Special Action Programme to Combat Forced Labour, Geneva, 2007.


Forum de Vienne contre la traite des êtres humains, 13-15 février 2008 - Passeport exigé: combattre le trafic d’êtres humains et le travail forcé

La plus grande conférence internationale jamais organisée sur la traite des êtres humains représente une occasion unique de créer une alliance mondiale contre cette forme d’esclavage moderne. Au moins 2,4 millions de personnes dans le monde sont victimes de la traite à des fins de travail forcé, générant environ 32 milliards de dollars de profits annuels. Une étude récente du BIT et du gouvernement portugais montre comment la quête d’une vie meilleure peut être exploitée et conduire au trafic de personnes aussi bien dans les pays en développement que dans les pays développés.

http://www.icae.org.uy/fre/nouvelles.htm

Foro de Viena para Combatir la Trata de Personas, 13-15 de febrero de 2008 - Se busca pasaporte: combate contra la trata de personas y el trabajo forzoso

La más importante conferencia internacional sobre el tráfico de personas que se haya organizado jamás representa una oportunidad única para forjar una alianza mundial contra esta forma de esclavitud moderna. En el mundo, al menos 2,4 millones de personas son víctimas de trata con la finalidad de trabajo forzoso, una actividad que genera beneficios por alrededor de 32.000 millones de dólares anuales. Un reciente estudio de la OIT y el gobierno portugués 1/ muestra cómo la búsqueda de una vida mejor puede llevar a la explotación laboral y al tráfico de personas, tanto en los países en desarrollo como en los desarrollados.

http://www.icae.org.uy/spa/sfsm2004.htm

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6.- European Literacy Research Meeting

Hamburg, 18-19 February, 2008

Maren Elfert
UNESCO
m.elfert@unesco.org

Institute for Lifelong Learning
Announcement, 13 February 2008

Literacy is a concern not only of developing countries but also of many countries in Europe.
In the region, an increasing proportion of the population lacks the basic competencies to
tackle the demands of everyday life. It is in this context that the UNESCO Institute for
Lifelong Learning, with support from the European Commission, organized the European
Regional Meeting on Literacy in 2005 in Lyon, France in collaboration with the Agence
Nationale de Lutte Contre l´Illettrisme (ANLCI) and the French National Commission for
UNESCO. Framed within the United Nations Literacy Decade (UNLD) (2003-2012), the main
objectives of the regional meeting were to present and analyze trends on literacy and
develop possible areas for collaboration and corresponding action plans.

While an issue of measuring literacy was a main preoccupation in the Lyon meeting, it was
clear that a broader research agenda was needed to develop and/or reinforce policies and
improve quality of programmes. Among the recommendations were 1) to start building a data
base of good practices at the European level and 2) to strengthen institutional linkages with
research centers to ensure that results of studies are disseminated and immediately utilized
for policy formulation and strengthening program development. As UNESCO´s international
clearing house for literacy, UIL is required to respond to the needs of Member States with
state-of-the art evidence that can help to improve their literacy policies, strategies and
practices.

To follow up on the recommendations of the Lyon Meeting, UIL is organizing a meeting of
representatives from key education and research institutes who are involved in literacy
research. The meeting will be held on 18 and 19 February 2008 in Hamburg. Aside from
sharing the results of the latest researches in the countries, a session will also be devoted to
discussing the policy and programme implications of such results. As the Institute is
coordinating one of UNESCO´s key education initiatives, LIFE (or Literacy Initiative For
Empowerment), it is expected that lessons drawn from this meeting could also be fed back to
the series of LIFE activities. A support research strategy will be developed and put in place.

Finally, as the Institute is preparing for the Sixth International Conference on Adult Education
(CONFINTEA VI) where literacy is one of themes, the results of this researchers meeting will
also be used as inputs for recommendations for CONFINTEA VI. The meeting will result in a
report on the trends and policy implications for literacy as well as further development of
UIL’s planned database for dissemination of research findings.

Contact: Carol Medel-Anonuevo
(c.medel-anonuevo@unesco.org )



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7.- Grasping the size of WSF2008

More than 800 actions in 80 countries. That is the span of World Social Forum in 2008: a decentralized mobilization process that culminated in a Global Day of Action on January 26th.

- access 800 action spaces in http://wsf2008.net/eng/og
- access 800 actions in http://wsf2008.net/eng/findaction
- access directory of 2500 organisations having participated in http://www.wsf2008.net/eng/taxonomy/vocabulary/1
- browse 80 countries in http://www.wsf2008.net/eng/countries

As a result of this journey, hundreds of thousands of people gathered in their home towns and cities, exchanged information, discovered different organisations and movements, demonstrated on the streets for local and global change, celebrated alternatives and acted togheter against any kind of exploitation and for another possible world.

Global day of action inaugurated a new form of mobilization, that can grow to gathering millions of people

In order to make this rich and diverse global journey visible to all the participants and beyond media coverage, we invite you to build the collective memory of World Social Forum 2008.


Visualizing richness and diversity of GDA

- Visit http://wsf2008.net/eng/node/6893 to view all the memory built so far. The content is separated into countries and is being constantly updated from information posted on WSF Blog and from emails received through report@wsf2008.net.

- Use the “Search” menu of the site for any word: http://www.wsf2008.net/eng/search/node

- Click on any “tag” you want you will have both action description and some report: http://www.wsf2008.net/eng/tagadelic/chunk/2

WSF Bulletin
February 13th 2008
gerente@forumsocialmundial.org.br


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8.- New Book / The arts and social justice: Re-crafting Adult Education and community
cultural leadership (2007)

Darlene E. Clover and Joyce Stalker (Editors)

The purpose of this book is to extend the notion of adult education as an overtly political action by exploring activist dimensions of arts- and crafts-based learning practices from around the world. The authors contend that ‘the arts’ are important ways to engage the disinterested and the disenfranchised in social change and activism. They argue that within the realm of arts and crafts there exist alternative spaces and practices of critical social learning, in which engagement with symbolic aesthetic media can raise issues of critique, choice, debate and control.
ISBN 978 1 86201 250 9
£19.95/US$38.00/Û32.00

Please send me ______ copies of The arts and social justice. UK
Postage:add 10% for orders of £50 and below, add 5% for orders above £50.
Overseas customers:add 25% postage and packing. Please remit payment with order. 20% discount for NIACE members NIACE members are entitled to a 20% discount on all NIACE books and subscriptions to journals. To receive your discount, quote your membership
record number in the space provided.*
*If you can’t find your record number contact the Membership Office tel: +44 (0) 116 204 4242, email: membership@niace.org.uk
NIACE is registered under the Data Protection Act. Personal information may be stored securely and used in relation to NIACE’s work.

Please return to: Publication Sales, NIACE, 20 Princess Road West,
Leicester LE1 6TP, England
Tel: +44 (0) 116 204 4211/4216 Fax: +44 (0) 116 204 4276 Email:
orders@niace.org.uk
NIACE works to develop increased participation in education and training for all adults. Registered charity number 1002775


Dr. Darlene E. Clover
University of Victoria
Faculty of Education, Leadership Studies
MacLaurin Building, P.O. Box 3010
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9.- Call for Participants from Latin America and the Caribbean with experience in the use of mobile telephony in the area of health

Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC)/ Institute for Connectivity in the Americas (ICA), in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organization - PAHO and the IEB-UFSC Institute of Biomedical Engineering of the Federal University of Santa Catarina, announce the organization of a Regional Workshop to discuss the potential of mobile telephony for improving access to health services in Latin America and the Caribbean for poor and marginalized populations.

Deadline: February 15, 2008.

Forms available at: http://www.idrc.ca/ev_en.php?ID=120277_201&ID2=DO_TOPIC

1. GENERAL INFORMATION

1.1. OBJECTIVE

The objective of this Regional Call is to identify academic and research centers in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), with experience in projects/initiatives that involve the use of mobile telephony in the area of health, with the aim to invite them to present their experience at the Regional Workshop which will take place on the 17th and 18th of March 2008 in Florianópolis, Brazil.

The costs of the travel to Florianópolis, lodging and food for the selected participants for the duration of the event will be covered by IDRC/ICA.

1.2. SELECTION CRITERIA FOR PARTICIPANTS

1.2.1. The nomination should be sent with the form from Annex 1 completed.

The participants must also present a text (minimum 2 pages) in free form, with the following content:

• An executive summary of your institution’s projects and experience related to the theme of the event (maximum 2 pages);

• A brief project description (identification of the health problem to which you are responding, project objectives, the system’s functioning and architecture, target audience, and other necessary information for understanding your work);

• Description of results (if applicable) and expected results;

1.2.2. The projects described must use cellular telephones (smartphones or mobile telephones) as part of the implemented communications platform, in the area of health in LAC.

1.2.3. Initiatives that respond to the needs of disadvantaged, rural or indigenous communities will be prioritized.

1.2.4. The summaries of the work presented at the Regional Workshop will be included in a report to be published and widely disseminated by the organizing institutions.

1.2.5. Sending the Proposal

The proposals should be sent by e-mail BEFORE the 15th of February 2008 to proj.ec@ieb.ufsc.br and workshop_telefonia@ieb.ufsc.br

The selected nominations will be announced on the 20th of February 2008.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

For further details, please email questions to proj.ec@ieb.ufsc.br and workshop_telefonia@ieb.ufsc.br

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10.- Course on "Monitoring Economic, Social and Cultural Rights" in Geneva

(5-9 May 2008) for staff from small and medium organisations (in particular NGOs) with the know-how to get started in monitoring ESC rights, or in-depth knowledge to enhance their ESCR monitoring work.


New deadline for application: 3 March 2008 (no more scholarships available, but few more places available).

The course is organized by Huridocs, Prof. Riccardo Bocco and the Research Unit on the Right to Food of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (www.righttofood.org ). At the end of the course, it is expected that participants will be familiar with the content of economic, social and cultural rights, be able to devise realistic strategies for monitoring ESC rights and documenting the violation and realisation of an ESC right of particular concern to them or their organization, be able to present findings effectively, and be able to devise an advocacy strategy which makes use of the international human rights mechanisms.

More information at:
www.huridocs.org/training/escr

Marta Antunes
IFSN Global Coordinator
www.ifsn-actionaid.net


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11.- Call for Applications - Asia Regional Training of Trainers on CEDAW - IWRAW AP

WUNRN <wunrn@WHATHELPS.COM

Greetings from International Women’s Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific!

We’re happy to announce that IWRAW Asia Pacific will conduct a Regional Training of Trainers for women’s rights leaders in the Asia Pacific region who wish to promote equality and the human rights of women through engagement with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

The training will be held from 25-31 May 2008 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.


Participants in the training will gain an understanding of the social construction of gender and the systemic nature of discrimination; the law and its potential to empower women; the international human rights system; the theoretical framework, principles and procedures of CEDAW; and how CEDAW can be applied in the local context through a rights-based approach. At the end of the training, participants will be able to lead trainings on CEDAW at the local and national levels and use the knowledge gained to mobilise others to activism and powerfully advocate for the advancement of women’s rights.

We’re writing to ask your help in identifying potential participants who will be strong trainers and advocates for women’s rights using the principles and promise of CEDAW. Although not all of you are in the Asia Pacific region, you can pass it on to your colleagues and friends who have an Asia Pacific base.

Participants will be selected based on the strength of their applications and the following criteria:

They must have experience and a solid grounding in gender and human rights;
They must have some experience and skills conducting women’s rights trainings (experience with trainings on CEDAW is not essential);
They must have an institutional base in the Asia Pacific region that works on women’s rights and has a training agenda or plans to introduce a training agenda on CEDAW AND/OR must be interested in conducting trainings on CEDAW for IWRAW Asia Pacific and national level organisations.
Full funding is available on a limited basis. Due to the limited number of spaces, not all applicants will be selected to participate in the training.

To apply for the training, APPLICATION FORM email to iwraw-ap@iwraw-ap.org or +603 2283 2552 along with the following documents by Friday, 22 February 2008:

Current CV (maximum 3 pages).
Letter of recommendation/support from the organisation you are affiliated with (if applicable). This letter should include information on how your participation in the training will benefit the organisation; in what way the organisation works on CEDAW or plans to incorporate CEDAW into its activities; and to what extent the organisation plans to organise or support future CEDAW trainings in your country.
International Women's Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific
80-B, Jalan Bangsar
59200 Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA
Telephone: (603) 2282 2255
Fax: (603) 2283 2552
Email: iwraw-ap@iwraw-ap.org , iwraw_ap@yahoo.com
Website: www.iwraw-ap.org


International Women’s Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific (IWRAW Asia Pacific) was founded in 1993 to work towards the realisation of the human rights of women through the use of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and other international human rights instruments. The crosscutting premise justifying IWRAW Asia Pacific’s past, present and future areas of work is the need for the mobilisation of women’s groups to draw accountability from their governments on the domestic application of human rights standards. It views CEDAW and other international treaties as tools for bringing about change at all levels and in a wide range of contexts (e.g., violence against women, employment, marriage, citizenship, rural development). IWRAW Asia Pacific currently works in 14 countries in South and Southeast Asia and over 100 countries globally. For further information visit our website, http://www.iwraw-ap.org.


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