The Chilcot inquiry is incapable of addressing the key issue of whether the invasion of Iraq was legal, senior judicial figures have said, adding to the controversy surrounding the inquiry’s legitimacy.
Is this going to be taking two steps back before it’s even begun? It’s certainly customary to question the efficacy of a legal inquiry when it’s in full swing, but in this case, it’s being challenging before it’s even started.
I am 100% in favour of examining the legality of the Iraq war (in terms of Britain’s involvement) but if it’s going to involve a bunch of rich men (nearly always men) sitting in salubrious surroundings haemorrhaging tax-payers’ money for two years before concluding that they ‘cannot reach a definitive conclusion’, then I say they call it all off now.
One senior judge told the Guardian that analysing the war’s legality was beyond the panel’s competence.It does not include a single judge or lawyer. "The truth of the matter is, if the inquiry was going to express a view with any kind of authority on the question of legality, it would need a legal member and quite a senior one," the judge said. "Looking at the membership … it seems to me that legality just wasn’t going to be a question they would be asked to review." Another senior legal figure said: "The panel clearly lacks the expertise to address the question of legality. The members are not experienced at cross-examination – it is simply not their skill set."
So if it’s not within the capacity of this panel to establish legality (illegality), what is the point? Your guess is as good as mine. And here’s the bottom line:
But scrutiny of the panel’s lack of experience on law and cross-examination techniques raises questions about the willingness of the government, which established the inquiry, to look seriously at whether the government acted illegally.
What’s the best thing to do in the face of potentially crippling criticism (or worse)? Hire a bunch of incompetents to return a nil verdict. The Government will still have done its job in having the inquiry, but it will have nothing to fear from the outcome. Genius, when you think about it…
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Quoted material from guardian.co.uk
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Tags: controversy, corruption, iraq, law, legality, politics, war
Tom Freeman and Katherine Doyle, from Holloway, London, hope to make history tomorrow morning by becoming the first straight couple to apply for a civil partnership in Britain. Their application is a protest against discriminatory UK laws that segregate couples by their sexuality, banning same-sex couples from marrying and heterosexual couples from forming civil partnerships. (1)
It is moves such as these which make the world go around, and which keep our collective consciousness current.
A straight couple who believe the ban on marriage for gay people is discriminatory will attempt to register their intention to have a civil partnership tomorrow. … They expect to be turned down by the registrar but plan to get the refusal in writing with view to taking legal advice and making an appeal. They have said they will take the case to the European Court of Human Rights, if necessary. (2)
I expect that they will be turned down as well. They were making application today, so watch this space.
(The Guardian piece, by the way, explores the difference between marriage and civil partnerships, and argues that marriage in its current form is a rather outdated concept and process.)
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Quoted text from guardian.co.uk (1) and Source: pinknews.co.uk (2)
Filed under: guardian | 4 Comments
Tags: homosexuality, law, legality, sexuality, society, sociology
Child rape epidemic in Zimbabwe
Tens of thousands of children have been sexually abused in Zimbabwe in a growing epidemic that has shocked human rights activists. A single clinic in the capital, Harare, says it has treated nearly 30,000 girls and boys who were abused in the past four years ‑ an average of 20 per day. Experts believe that the country’s economic collapse under Robert Mugabe has led to widespread family breakdown and left many children vulnerable.
I don’t see what I can add to this piece to make it any more harrowing or to elicidate any further what a sorry state Zimbabwe has found itself in. I lay the blame firmly at Mugabe’s feet. He neither knows nor cares what is going on in his country, so long as he retains power and wealth. And the international community is allowing him to do so, and is allowing these problems to perpetuate.
A 12-year-old patient at the clinic, part of the main referral hospital in Harare, told the BBC he had been gang-raped in a township last month. "Four men waylaid me on my way from school," he said. "I was taken to a shop where they showed me pornographic material." The boy said he was then drugged and sodomised for more than a week. His father added: "This is unbearable. All I want is justice for now."
Rape happens with impunity because there is no deterrent of prosecution by the criminal justice system.
She said men were able to perpetrate the crime with impunity because of 4,000 known rape cases per year, only 500 resulted in a prosecution. The GCN’s research indicates that on average a man can rape 250 children before his crimes become public knowledge.
I honestly don’t understand how that is even possible, even in a country as fragmented as Zimbabwe.
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Quoted text from guardian.co.uk
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Tags: crime, human rights, law, legality, politics, rape, violence, sexual violence, criminal justice, corruption
Peers have been debating the policing and crime bill. Their deliberations mean that the government will take a historic step: instead of controlling prostitution by punishing women, it will penalise the purchasers – the men.
This is an unpredictable development. (And one I wasn’t sure I’d see any time soon. Although the legislation has yet to be passed, of course.) Instead of criminalising and prosecuting female sex workers, this bill will bring about penalties for the men who buy sex. I’ll say it again: this was a development I did not see coming.
Law and public policy will be unambiguous: buying sex (usually from vulnerable or coerced women) will be treated as a wrong. Legislation will support women to stop selling sex, and encourage men to stop buying it by penalising them: the purchasers risk being fined by the magistrates courts.
This legislation will put the burden of responsibility onto the men who buy sex, and will emphasise coercion. This legal element has become critical with the huge numbers of women and girls trafficked into the UK for sex work each year.
The key term will be purchasing sex from a person who is coerced. And the key message will be: if in doubt, don’t. Purchasers’ liability means giving them the burden of knowledge – not knowing whether a woman is being coerced will be no excuse.
There will, as the author of the piece rightly points out, be absolute outrage over this. Never before have the purcahsers of sex been held so accountable for their actions.
All of this is indicative of something new: positive use of the law to create a new consensus and a new culture. By focusing on the purchaser, the bill will undoubtedly provoke outrage – but it will actually offer a more optimistic scenario than fatalistic representations of women as dogs and men as, well … dogs.
But I welcome this move with open arms. And I see it as one small, but vital, step to turning the patriarchy on its head.
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Quoted text from guardian.co.uk
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Tags: crime, criminology, feminism, human trafficking, law, legality, prostitution, women's rights, patriarchy, sexual violence, criminal justice
Women worked to death in Lebanon
Four Ethiopian domestic workers are thought to have killed themselves in three weeks. Lebanon must protect these women. They mop floors, take out the rubbish, walk the dog, buy groceries and care for the children, the elderly or disabled. Many a well-to-do and lower middle class Lebanese family relies on migrant domestic workers to take care of their household, but when it comes to providing for these women, not all return the favour. (1)
I confess that I had no idea that this was going on, although one assumes nowadays the the mistreatment of migrant workers is rife.
Migrant domestic workers – women who work as live-in or freelance housekeepers, cooks, and nannies – form a vital presence in Lebanon and elsewhere in the Middle East, where women’s increased participation in the workforce has not been accompanied by state-backed social or childcare services. There are thought to be about 200,000 women, mostly from the Philippines, Ethiopia and Sri Lanka, in Lebanon alone. But although they are becoming an intrinsic part of the country’s social fabric, their contribution is often overlooked. While many Lebanese people are careful to ensure their housekeepers are well treated, a significant number abuse them. In extreme cases, migrant domestic workers are killed or kill themselves. (1)
A dedicated blog site – Ethiopian Suicides – follows these cases closely and provides information on what is being done about the mistreatment of, and lack of support for, these women in Lebanon.
For example:
Al-Akhbar newspaper reported today the body of Anget R. (20 years old, from Madagascar) was found hanging from a rope at the bedroom door of her employers in one of the Maten villages (Mount Lebanon). Al-Akhbar added that initial information indicate that she hung herself. (2)
It is not bedtime reading.
And nor is this:
“Domestic workers are dying in Lebanon at a rate of more than one per week,” said Nadim Houry, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. “All those involved – from the Lebanese authorities, to the workers’ embassies, to the employment agencies, to the employers – need to ask themselves what is driving these women to kill themselves or risk their lives trying to escape from high buildings.” (3)
That is a colossal statistic.
And, as usual, these issues centre around the legal rights afforded women in the countries in which they work. In the Lebanon, they have no legal recourse at all, which greatly facilitates mistreatment by employers.
One reason the women are driven to the edge is that, in Lebanon at least, they are not given protection under the country’s labour law. Such exclusion means that those who withhold salaries, confiscate passports, confine their employees to the house or otherwise abuse them, can literally get away with murder. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that five months after parliamentary elections, a Lebanese government is only now being formed. (1)
And I couldn’t have said it better myself:
Many migrant workers come to the Middle East seeking a better life for the families they left behind. The Lebanese themselves have a long history of migration and hardship, and should know first-hand the difficulties of living and working in a foreign country. Just as many Lebanese abroad work hard with the hopes of eventually returning home, the Lebanese should ensure that these women get to go back to their countries – alive and well, not in body bags. (1)
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Quoted text from guardian.co.uk (1), ethiopiansuicides.blogspot.com (2), and hrw.org (3)
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Tags: discrimination, employment, feminism, immigration, law, legality, women, women's rights
The assumption that lies behind the contact hours issue is a deeply mistaken one. It is that universities are a simple extension of school, and that as at school, students should be given as much attention as possible. University is emphatically not about spoon-feeding and hand-holding through courses, but the very opposite. It is not about maximising contact hours, but about autonomy in thinking, researching and writing.
I cannot stress this enough. As a [relatively new] university lecturer, I can tell you that I have been shocked at exactly how much hand-holding students get on some courses and how much spoon-feeding they expect. I was told by a student the other day that ‘I need to be told everything to do… you have to tell me to do this and to do that’. Erm, no! You are in third-level education, I am here to guide you, but telling you exactly what to do every step of the way, I will not do!
We once used to ask, "What are you reading at university?" In those words lies the clue to what a university education is supposed to involve. People who get into university change educational gear and direction on doing so. They read and attend lectures, they write essays and discuss them with their tutors and peers. To do this in a knowledgeable and intelligent way, they have to do a lot of thinking, studying and discovering, the bulk of it for themselves, because no one else can do it for them.
Of course, we are in a user-pays situation in the UK now (which I don’t agree with) so our university students are becoming more and more demanding. But with it, they are losing sight of the whole point of third-level education. This is THEIR journey (not my and their journey) and they have to do it independently.
Their tutors are there to guide their reading, answer questions, and respond to their discoveries and essays… . Their tutors are not there to research for them, think for them, write their essays for them, or take their exams. They most certainly should not be there to coach them for exams.
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The more contact hours imposed on students, the less time they have to read, think and write, these being the three crucial elements of higher study. To wish to increase contact hours is to demonstrate a complete lack of understanding of what university study should be.
But unfortunately idiots like Peter Mandelson seem to be intent on bringing it back to school. Very, very ill-advised.
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Quoted text from guardian.co.uk
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Tags: education, politics, society
As a gay child, and in common with many gay children, I was terrified for most of my school life. My earliest sexual encounters – which all occurred before the age of consent (21 at that time) – were unsafe and I constantly felt that I could somehow be "in trouble" for who I was. If I did receive any sex education that seemed relevant, though appalling to me, it came in the form of an almost annual scandal – the suspension and expulsion of a couple of boys unfortunate enough to be caught in some forbidden clinch. We were either invisible or bullied by our peers and those in authority, denied information about ourselves and denied the right for our sexuality to be just one of the many things that made us who we were. (1)
Recently, moves were made in the UK to make sex education in schools compulsory for children aged 15 and above, and commonplace in both primary and secondary schools. This move brought with it outcry, predictably, with claims that it would make children promiscuous etc. Critics also maintained that more sex education would encourage homosexuality. (Yes, I couldn’t figure that out either.)
This comment piece in the Guardian suggests that increased sex education would help young gay people, and I think it’s right. Here’s what he says.
This is not just about tackling the ever-rising HIV figures. It is good because it is right. It is right that children should be allowed to come of age comfortably into their sexuality, it is right that every child be valued and nurtured, it is right that they should be given the information with which to protect themselves, it is right that they should grow up free from bullying based on a fundamental part of their personalities. It is right that they should grow up free from shame and fully equipped to enter healthily into the adult world of romantic relationships. (1)
There’s very little to argue with in this statement, I think. Information, provided safely and responsibly, is invariably valuable. Whether critics like it nor not, we NEED more sex education in this country because (increasing understanding of homosexuality aside) STDs and teenage pregnancies are continually rising here and we need to do something about that. It’s sensible all round.
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By the way, here’s what the Catholic Church has to say about this move, for those who are interested:
"As age and growing independence brings young people ever closer to pressures, advertising and coercion to behaviour which can undermine the healthy life of young people, we are comforted in the knowledge that our schools and colleges will do an exceptional job in providing Sex and Relationships Education, set within the teachings of the Catholic Church." (2)
Well, so long as it’s within the teachings of the Catholic Church, then. Because we all know how it feels about sex.
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Quoted text from guardian.co.uk (1) and indcatholicnews.com (2)
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Tags: catholicism, education, feminism, homophobia, homosexuality, religion, sex education, society, youth
Can it be true that male doctors earn an average of £15,000 more a year than their female colleagues?
And if it is true, what pray tell, could explain the difference in salaries?
After factoring out differences due to age, experience and area of specialism, it seems that a consultant surgeon working in a busy hospital earns £5,500 a year less if she is female. A female junior hospital doctor scuttling round the wards organising tests and speaking to patients earns on average £2,000 less. And the pay gap worsens the longer women stick it out in their chosen profession. At the top earning end of the profession, men dominate and the pay gap between male and female consultants averages out at £13,729. One of the report’s authors, anaesthetist Dr Anita Holdcroft, says that discrimination accounts for 40-50% of the total difference. Hospital managers know women have little room to negotiate because they are less willing than men to walk away from the job if their request for pay rise is rejected. The higher you get in medicine, the fewer the opportunities, so leaving a job may mean uprooting your family or accepting a lower level and lower paid job.
This piece doesn’t say. (And the author of the piece is wondering as I am.) But even with the few scant details that do exist about the differences in pay, there is a clear need for further investigation and redress. The medical fraternity (and this term seems even more pertinent in the light of this claim) is, of course, traditionally very secretive about many of its practices so how far this pay gap will be investigated is debatable. And I wonder if there is such a pay gap in other countries?
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Quoted text from guardian.co.uk
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Tags: discrimination, employment, feminism, gender differences, gender discrimination, law, legality, sexism
When the supermodel Kate Moss, in a rare online interview this week, told readers that one of her mottos was "nothing tastes as good as skinny feels", the fallout was instant, vitriolic and damning.
How horribly ill-conceived was this remark by Kate Moss? (Let’s face it, she’s neither the smartest nor the most forward-thinking person on the planet.) In a world where celebrity-obsession is rife, where we place more credence on what celebrities say than what politicians, teachers and family say, her remarks could not have been worse. Teenagers, and teenage girls in particular, are surrounded by pressure to be skinny, to be beautiful, to be flawless, to be perfect, and this pressure comes from people exactly like Moss. I can’t believe she was so irresponsible.
Susan Ringwood, chief executive of Beat, an eating disorder charity, said Moss’s words were "potentially very dangerous" because they were strongly associated with pro-anorexia websites. "This phrase is often used as one of their 10 commandments or mantras. And it is young women between the age of 12-20 who are the most at risk from anorexia, which is unfortunately the same group that could be influenced by celebrity culture."
Some of the reaction:
One user of Twitter said Moss should be able to say what she wanted. "Did it really come as such a shock? C’mon," she wrote, adding: "Anyways, she’s right."
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Television presenter Denise Van Outen, said the model was "talking out of her size zero backside", adding "Having been in the industry for so long, she knows the impact her comments will have on vulnerable young women."
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Another regular user of pro-anorexia websites, who did not want to be named, called the comments irresponsible. "She’s making unhealthy attitudes and behaviours seem somehow attractive," she said. "A lot of young girls see her as some kind of an icon so promoting these kinds of attitudes is really inappropriate. It really made me angry when I heard about it."
And many more on the piece.
I dare say that Moss will have to apologise, or issue some sort of retraction, for her statement. But what would be the point at this stage? Her words are already out there, and absorbed, so it will be too late…
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Quoted text from guardian.co.uk
Filed under: guardian | 3 Comments
Tags: beauty-obsession, celebrity-obsession, feminism, health, women, youth
New warning on ‘perfect vaginas’
Women are undergoing surgery to create the perfect vagina amid a "shocking" lack of information on the potential risks of the procedure, a report says. Research published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology also questions the very notion of aesthetically pleasing genitals. Operations to improve the appearance of the vagina for both psychological and physical reasons are on the increase.
I remember the first time I read about vaginal reconstruction/ cosmetic surgery, I was almost sick. That hasn’t changed for it still makes me feel queasy.
I am fully supportive of women making the decisions that they want about their own bodies, but I believe that it should be done in a culture of full and complete information about the dangers of procedures. New research published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology indicates that many of these procedures are taking place without full knowledge of the dangers.
Of course, the pressure to have such surgeries, and to achieve a "homogenised, pre-pubescent genital appearance", is central to this issue, and society/ media/ celebrity-obsession/ beauty-obsession can once again be cited for putting pressure on women to remain young, to never age, and to search for something to keep them ‘beautiful’. Tackling these new and dangerous cultural norms is just as important to me as describing the problems with the procedures they bring about.
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Quoted text from news.bbc.co.uk
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Tags: beauty-obsession, celebrity-obsession, feminism, health, misogyny, patriarchy, psychology, research, society, sociology, women
