FIAPFranciscans International Asia Pacific

Background

Aitape DioceseWest Sepik Province

West Papua

Social Justice Issues

• Disabled people exploited in boarding houses

• People with HIV/AIDES and• Homosexual teenagers

struggling to be accepted• Short term imprisonment of

women• Detained Asylum seekers• Asylum seekers not

permitted to work

The 2 Feet of Social Justice

Systemic

Change

Charitable

Works

20052006

Charitable works

Unbalanced

Lessons

• Vulnerable people – intelligent, highly skilled risk-takers

• Immigration process flawed, cruel

• Responsible citizens ashamed

• Powerless

CharitableWorks Systemic

Change

Balance

Franciscans International Asia Pacific

From Local to Global

Women victims of gender-based violence

Asian Womens Groups

Regional MeetingsGovernments

Aust. GovernmentWaR Program

Increased resourcesWaR ProgramAustralia

International Handbook to protect women and girls in camps throughout world

Issues for WaR world-wide Regional Meeings

Improved conditionsUNHCR Geneva

Conclusion Accepted by all Governments

? Unfilled quota

??? Refugee camps‘Only Rape’

Rape = a war crime

New York Geneva

Bangkok

Franciscans International

Formal Structure

FIAP Bangkok Office (2008)

Programs

for grassroots Franciscans

to influence international human rights standards, andto bring witness to human rights violations

Systemic Change

Education

Advocacy

The Right to development

The Environment

Human Rights

Peacemaking

suffering

deprivation

marginalization

understanding meaning

implementing policy

The Right to Development

• Physical survival

• Intellectual, Economic, and

• Political development

Uncontrolled use of natural resources:

Forests

Land

Water

Fisheries A powerful minority’s

over consumption,

over production

The Environment

** Deteriorating ecosystems ** Depleting resources

** Proliferating inequality ** Poverty ** Conflict

Human Rights

Regional/Country Issues:West Africa

Latin AmericaAsia

Eastern EuropeWestern Europe

North AmericaOceania

Thematic Issues:– UN Commission on

Human Rights– Migration in Europe– Religious Freedom– Human trafficking– Violence against

Women– AIDES– Extreme poverty– UN Norms on

transnational businesses

– Optional Protocol to ICESCR

Facilitate peaceful

solutions to

• Violence

• Conflict

• War

Peacemaking

Monitor disarmament processOfficial written and oral interventions at UN forums

Environmental protectionParticipation in resource conservation and environmental protection

Economic DevelopmentIncreases productive capacity of poor people

Social developmentPersonal well-being and community well-being

Partnership of all humanity

F I and

F I A P

•

Submissions to UN 2006

December: Hague Conference on Dalit Women

October: Human Rights Council and the Right to Water

July: General Assembly Informal Interactive Hearings on international Migration and Development

[July: FIAP meeting in Bangkok]

May-June: High level meeting on AIDS in New York

Feb-Mar: Commission on the Status of Women

Human Rights Situation in Papua, Indonesia

Right to Education in Pakistan

Human Rights Mechanisms

Recommendations:1. Uphold and respect

international lawre civilians2. Ensure establishment of a

sovereign Iraqi government3. Programs bring about material,

economic and psychological reconstruction

4. Rebuild infrastructure – health and education and legal institutions

5. Bilateral relationships re aid and cooperation

6. Commission on Human Rights monitoring

Human Rights in Occupied Iraq

West PapuaIssues:1.Indonesia unprepared to dialogue with

Papuans2.Implementation of Special Autonomy

Law unresolved.3.Political interests are destroying social

cohesion4.Heavy Indonesian military presence 5.Cycle of impunity prevents protection

and promotion of human rights6. Judicial system protects perpetrators7. Papuans feel unprotected8. Timber illegally appropriated, illegal

fishing9. HIV and AIDS second highest in

Indonesia; trafficking of persons, and alcohol abuse unchecked

10.Migrants dominate job market11.Benefits from mining, logging and

fishing not invested in public service

West Papua• Peace Initiatives to address conflict

and build peace• Recommend UN Commission on

Human Rights to• Protect the life of the Indigenous

Papuans and treat as equal citizens• Indonesia fulfil international

obligations• Indonesia grant full access to Human

Rights Commissioners• Convention on Elimination of Racial

Discrimination• Mainstream Human rights education• Indonesians fully participat in the

‘Papua:Land of Peace’ program

FI Recommendations:

Franciscans International

The UN Instruments are the sacred ‘scriptures’ for global governance

– understood by every race and every faith.

Written specifically to protect the vulnerable in society and

the environment.

Asia Pacific Update

FIAP

International human rights: the problems and the possibilities of working in Asia Pacific – Chris Sidoti Executive Director, International Service for Human Rights in Geneva

• THE ASIA PACIFIC REGION• One third of the world’s

surface area– but a large part of it is

ocean, mountains and desert

• Two thirds of the world’s people– with nations ranging in

size– from China and India,

each with over 1 billion people

– to Nauru, Tuvalu and Kiribati, each with only a few thousand people

THE ASIA PACIFIC REGION• Not one region but six!!

– The Pacific– South East Asia– North east Asia– South Asia– West Asia– Central Asia

• and in each there is a reflection of the diversity of the Asia Pacific as a whole

SOME COMMON OPPORTUNITIES• The peoples of the Asia Pacific

– their drive and energy and

sheer determination– cultures of ambition and motivation– the hunger for change– the kids!!

• The collapse of authoritarian regimes– but the difficult management of transition

• Natural resources, including good agricultural lands and seas– but the threats of environment disaster

• Wealth!! Asia is not Africa• Diversity itself

WHAT CAN UNITE THE ASIA PACIFIC?

• Contribution of the Christian churches as institutions that are across the region

• Within the diversity of Asia it is impossible to find values that are– common to all Asia and– exclusive of everyone else

• Human rights as the unifying vision

THE UNIVERSALITY OF HUMAN RIGHTS

• The language of rights has its origin in time and place but it is not the exclusive product of any one religious, cultural or political tradition– In fact Catholic Christianity came very late to the

human rights cause, affirmed only in the early 1960s by John XXIII and then by the Vatican Council

• The religious texts of all major religions are silent on rights but they all resonate with the concepts we now call human rights

• Common values of compassion, human dignity and respect

• Justice (“righteousness”) as the basis of vertical and horizontal relationships

Human Rights Training in the regionCross cultural interaction

Malaysia

Philippines

Indonesia

Korea

Vietnam

Japan West Papua

Taiwan

Sri Lanka

India

Australia& NZ

SingaporeThailand

FI Asia

Pacific

Greater awareness of Human Rights Issues from a Franciscan Perspective

Franciscan Spirituality

Peace Poverty

Right Relationships Sustainable Resources

Right Relationships & Resources

People Resources& Intellectual Resources

& Spiritual ResourcesRight relationships with

people

Natural Resources & produced resources

Right Relationships with the Environment

Economic & International UN resources

Right relationships with power

Greater awareness of Human Rights Issues in the Asia Pacific region

Conflicts The arms trade

RefugeesIndigenous Peoples

Debt

Exploitation of (sacred) landMining and sale of Uranium

and disposal of wasteEnvironmental refugees(eg Tuvulu and Kirabati

Bonded labour The small farmerThe death penaltyTrafficked personsThe girl/boy child

People with HIV/AIDS

A specific spiritual approach to human rights and political realities

Franciscans International (FI) works on behalf of the poor

for peace, justice and the care of creation

Resources WE can offer FI Asia Pacific

1. Intellectual: encourage students, ex-students and parishioners to attend Human Rights workshops in BangkokEncourage members of other congregations and parishes to participate in the workshops.Offer personnel: to assist with courses

2. Spiritual: keep the project in our community prayerHost Franciscan youth for World Youth Day

3. Economic: contribute seed funding until the project is self sustaining

2. Economically

it is do-able, if each

congregation in each country contributed

Malaysia

Philippines

Indonesia

Korea

Vietnam

Japan West Papua

Taiwan

Sri Lanka

India

Australia & NZ

SingaporeThailand

FI Asia

Pacific

1.There is a need – there is no specific catholic human rights training in the Pacific

3. Human Rights training and advocacy would have a Franciscan basis

4. FI Asia Pacific would link into FI International’s global vision

ResourcesPoverty

Right relationshipsPeace and non-violence

http://www.franciscansinternational.org/

Franciscans International Asia Pacific

CharitableWorks Systemic

Change