What Image Opened Your Eyes to Human Rights?

Island-Chic — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 19:44:00 +0000

WITNESS is a nonprofit organization who promotes awareness on human rights and its abuse. For 16 years, WITNESS has used the power of imagery to promote human rights issues around the world through videos. They use video and online technologies to create awareness about human rights violations and “empower people to transform personal stories of abuse into powerful tools for justice, promoting public engagement and policy change”.

The organization was founded in 1992 by musician and activist Peter Gabriel and the Reebok Human Rights Foundation.

I came across an interesting campaign launched by WITNESS on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They compiled a short video with some of their staff talking about the specific images that opened their eyes to the issue of human rights and its abuses around the world. It was very touching and made me think back in time to look for the exact moment that made me realize the extent of injustice and suffering around the world due to abuse of human rights.

As a child I watched a video footage of a husband in Bosnia, watching his pregnant wife brutally slaughtered in front of him. I failed to understand the politics behind such actions then, I still fail to see it today. Yet, I understand the need to do our bit individually to the collective efforts put forward by organizations like WITNESS, in its advocacy to advance human rights to stop the suffering of millions.

Join their campaign and contribute to this cause. Tell WITNESS:

“What image opened your eyes to human rights? Was it an image or video that gave you hope, or did it show you how much further we needed to go and inspire you to take action?”

Gang rapists released & harrassing the same victim!

Island-Chic — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 02:27:00 +0000

I was totally in shock when I read about this news on ‘Minivan News’ yesterday. The group of men who confessed to gang-raping a fourteen year old girl on Noonu Holhudhoo, an island in the North part of Maldives, have been released and they are now threatening the girl that they will repeat what they did to her!

Maldives’ Police say that the release of these six men was due to a court order and their case is still under investigation.

According to the people on the island, five of the six men are free on the island and consistently harass and threaten the girl and her family, forcing the family to stay indoors for safety. Their closest authority is the island office, to which the family complained with no positive reaction from them.

Victim’s rights

Now, I’m not from a legal background and I don’t understand how Maldivian law works on such matters. However, as a human being I do understand the human consequences of such an event. I wonder how we fail to understand or react to the enormous physical, mental and psychological suffering and pain this teenage girl has and is going through, not to mention the fact that she must live in constant fear of the very incident being repeated.

Looking at this, I fail to comprehend who the law is protecting here, the victim or the rapists? The law that is supposed to protect the victim of an act of such inhumanity threatens the very thread of life left in her. Which law will protect the rights of this teenage girl who’s been gang raped by six men? Who will rehabilitate her and help her heal? Do we have institutions capable of providing her the physical, mental and emotional security that she deserves? If these men rape her again, do we have laws that can ensure that justice is served to the girl and the family who is now left only with shame, no sense of security and no way to fend for themselves due to constant alienation from the rest of the island population?

Other cases

Similar cases have been reported in the Maldives with no consolation to the victim whatsoever. In July 2008, four men raped a 17-year-old girl in the South island of Fuvahmulah. On 1 August 2007, three men tied a 15-year-old girl to a tree on a beach in Villingili Island adjacent to the capital and molested her, before circulating videos of the assault via mobile phones and destroying forever what little self dignity she had left.

In July 2007 a group said to have raped a 12-year-old girl were sentenced to eight months’ exile, and the court ruled that the victim was a “willing partner” because she did not scream. They did not even have to serve ANY jail time. Wonder if anyone had thought of the psychological shock a 12-year old little girl will go through if a group of grown men had assaulted her sexually for her to not scream?

Report of cases

If you look at these incidents, it isn’t surprising that most cases of sexual and child abuse in the Maldives still go unreported. Until and unless the law, legal and social institutions can provide physical, mental and psychological safety to the victims and not the offenders, such offenses will increase rather than decrease.

Island Chic's Babble» ‘human rights’

What Image Opened Your Eyes to Human Rights?

Gang rapists released & harrassing the same victim!