Latest Campaigns

Burma Campaign

Cross border aid is needed to reach the most vulnerable people in eastern Burma

Changes to Australia’s aid policy are needed in order to reach the most vulnerable people in eastern Burma.

Military attacks targeting villagers and systematic human rights violations have caused a humanitarian crisis in eastern Burma where one in five children die before their fifth birthday. Currently there are half a million extremely vulnerable people living in Burma’s civil war zone as internally displaced people (IDPs).

These populations are in dire need of essential services, such as medical assistance and basic health provisions, food aid and education.

These communities cannot be reached via Rangoon based aid because of severe restrictions imposed on humanitarian assistance by the military regime. However, these extremely vulnerable populations can be reached via cross-border aid.

Australia is committed to the Principles and Good Practices of Humanitarian Donorship, which states that assistance should be directed towards the greatest need.

Australia needs to join the USA, UK, Norway, Spain, Denmark, Ireland and Canada in funding cross-border aid activities which support civil society organisations working in essential service delivery and grassroots programs.

The benefits of cross border aid

Border based civil society organisations including; women’s groups, health organisations, youth groups, education organisations, are democratic in their processes and have adopted international standards of transparency, which has meant that many enjoy funding from the international programs listed above.

However this funding is not sufficient enough to meet the needs. And there are many people who will be at risk of dying in Burma’s eastern border states of treatable and avoidable illness because of policies such as the one AusAID is committed to which do not allow for cross border funding.

We call on the the government to:

1. Examine AusAID’s Burma policy and their spending priorities;
2. Investigate if Australia has provided cross-border assistance at other times and what was the criteria used to deem this acceptable; and
3. Raise questions in parliament regarding Australia’s aid to Burma

Aid to conflict-affected populations in Eastern Burma

Communities in these conflict zones have organized themselves to provide health care, education and community development in the absence of aid from the Burmese military regime (SPDC) and Rangoon-based UN and INGO agencies.

Given the unstable and unpredictable political situation in Burma, these programs are currently the only and most appropriate way to access well over half a million conflict-affected people in the ethnic states of Eastern Burma.

The interventions of these community organisations often mean the difference between life and death. In the absence of peace, support for these programs is the only way to bring increased health and food security to these populations, which allows them to remain in their country and not flee as refugees.

Cross border aid is the most effective form of aid into Burmese communities most at need, the following are the reasons why

• Cross-border programs are community-run and therefore strategic and sustainable

  Cross-border programs are implemented by communities themselves inside Burma. It is only due to the current conflict that they are forced to be supplied from neighbouring countries. Support and capacity building of these community-based programs is the most sustainable form of assistance, and is laying the foundation for development of a future peaceful Burma.

• Aid provided cross-border to community-run programs is highly cost-effective

  The health and education programs run by communities in Eastern Burma are low-cost; the majority of funds go towards medical or education supplies and focus especially on reducing childhood and maternal mortality and combating infectious diseases, particularly malaria. These interventions are amongst the most cost-effective in public health.

• Cross-border health programs are a key component of any efforts to combat infectious disease in Burma

  Malaria infection and mortality rates in Eastern Burma are among the highest in the country, a problem not confined by international borders. Official treatment and control programs are non-existent or inaccessible, and international assistance, including the 3 Disease Fund, is barred from the most severely affected communities in Eastern Burma. Cross-border efforts combating major infectious diseases, including malaria and vaccine-preventable illnesses, have consistently demonstrated that this is effective and sustainable.

• Donors can simultaneously support aid cross-border and through Rangoon

  It is a misconception that providing aid cross-border will lead to repercussions by the Burmese regime against programs funded through Rangoon. Donors such as the USA, Norway, Denmark and Britain are currently supporting cross-border programs, and this has not had any negative impacts on their programs through Rangoon. In fact, providing aid both via Rangoon and via neighbouring countries enables donors to access a greater area of the country, and assess and address needs more holistically.

• Many governments are funding cross-border programs, but there remains an urgent need for support

  As many governments provide funding for cross-border programs, including Canada, USA, Denmark, Norway, Spain, Ireland and UK, there is a misconception that IDP programming in Eastern Burma is “well-funded.” Aid per capita figures in the refugee camps in Thailand are sometimes cited as evidence of this. However, these figures do not include the IDPs. Cross-border programs in Eastern Burma do not receive sufficient funding. For example, in 2009 the Backpack Health Worker Program that provides primary medical care and community health education to over 160,000 people in Eastern Burma has so far not managed to raise even half of its Au$1.1 million needs.

• Cross-border aid programs have well-developed monitoring mechanisms

  The community based organizations running cross-border programs have extensive internal monitoring mechanisms. For example, health programs conduct regular detailed reviews of medical case log books to ensure that treatment is in accordance with internationally recognized medical protocols. Extensive community surveys are also carried out to assess program impacts and prioritize needs.

  At the same time, donor agencies based in Thailand can send local staff to directly monitor programs across the border, and can also organize independent evaluations of cross border programs.

• Providing support to community-based programs via the border reduces risks faced by these communities in their daily lives

  The health indicators of Eastern Burma are on par with health disasters in countries such as Sierra Leone, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo; these extremely high death rates are largely driven by widespread human rights abuses committed by the Burmese military.

  Support for community programs in these areas is improving health and food security and thus saving lives. It is therefore reducing rather than increasing the risks faced by these people.

• Cross-border aid programs benefit Thailand

  Aid given to conflict-affected populations in Eastern Burma enables them to continue surviving in or near their home communities without having to flee to Thailand. It is therefore in Thailand’s interests to allow such aid to be delivered to these people so that they will not become refugees.

  Furthermore, the community-run health programs in Eastern Burma form the front-line against infectious disease for Thailand.

Important Reports

Published May 2009 by the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School, Crimes in Burma examines more than 15 years of the documentation produced by the United Nations of human rights abuses in Burma. On the basis of its review of the UN’s own documentation, the report calls for the UN Security Council to establish a Commission of Inquiry into potential war crimes and crimes against humanity in Burma.

Village Agency: Rural Rights and Resistance in a Militarized Karen State, released by the Karen Human Rights Group in November 2008, documents the success of villagers in Karen State and elsewhere in rural Burma in resisting abuse and transforming their own lives for the better. The report argues for the inclusion of villagers in the political processes that affect them.

In September 2006 the Back Pack Health Worker Team released Chronic Emergency: Health and Human Rights in Eastern Burma. This report documents the devastation of public health for internally displaced persons (IDPs) living in the eastern areas of Burma, and directly links this devastation to human rights abuses by the Burmese military junta.

In 2002 the Shan Women’s Action Network and Shan Human Rights Network jointly released the License to Rape Report, which documents the Burmese military regime’s systematic use of sexual violence in Shan State.


Burma's "Saffron Revolution" is not over - 19 January 2008
International trade union and human rights organisations say international community must seize the opportunity now!Read the ITUC-FIDH report on the current situation inside Burma....
>> READ MORE

EU Extends Sanctions against Burma - 26 April 2007
April 23, 2007 — The European Union extended diplomatic and economic sanctions against Myanmar by another year, saying Monday that the country was making no "tangible progress" in improving its shaky human rights record. ...
>> READ MORE

Appeal to UN Following Attack on Burmese Rights Activists - 26 April 2007
A prominent Burmese civil rights activist has lodged a formal complaint with senior UN officials about last week’s attack on two human rights workers by members of a regime-backed organisation....
>> READ MORE

Malaysia Hopes Junta Will Restore Democracy - 26 April 2007
Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said on Monday that member countries of Asean continued to hope for reform in Burma but recognized that it would take time....
>> READ MORE

Burma’s Junta Vows to Crack Down on Human Rights Activists - 26 April 2007
Burma’s military government stated its intention to crack down on human rights activists operating in the country in order to maintain the peace, according to a report today in the country’s official press....
>> READ MORE

Human Rights in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe was once a model African country, achieving the highest economic growth rates and the highest levels of education on the continent. But Robert Mugabe, in power since independence, has become increasingly erratic, eccentric and autocratic as he pursues policies which have crushed human rights, repressed opposition and crippled the economy. He and his corrupt allies keep themselves in power through terror and intimidation. On Valentine’s Day several hundred women were arrested and tortured as they were protesting against the unbearable poverty, hunger, unemployment and high inflation.

East Timor Boundary Dispute

Act NOW to preserve East Timor’s rights

Following requests from our partners and human rights organisations in East Timor (now officially called Timor-Leste), Union Aid Abroad – APHEDA, along with Australian unions, churches and development agencies, supports campaigning on the issue of East Timor’s just share of the oil and gas resources in the Timor Sea.

TIMOR SEA LOBBY GROUP SKEPTICAL OF 'GRINCH' DOWNER - 02 December 2005
The Australian Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, has told Parliament that officials had initiated a resource sharing agreement with East Timor that is expected to be signed at a ceremony in mid January....
>> READ MORE

Stop Child Labour

The number of child workers between the ages of four and fifteen years is now estimated at 250 million. Working full-time, their work also deprives them of their health, their childhood and their future.
10 to 13-year-olds Sewing "I Love My Wal-Mart" Shirts - 03 April 2006
An undercover investigation by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's "Zone Libre" program found children 10 to 13 years of age sewing blue "I love my Wal-Mart" shirts in several Bangladesh factories. The children were paid less than ten cents an hour and forced to work long hours in dimly lit and dirty conditions. The children also sewed t-shirts carrying Wal-Mart's "Simply Basic" private label....
>> READ MORE

Talking Point - 13 October 2003
Wouldn't the abolition of child labour have a negative effect on those who rely on the income to survive? ...
>> READ MORE

Workers Rights are Human Rights

Article 23, Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

• Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
• Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
• Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration for ensuring for themselves and their family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
• Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of their interests.

These rights are not granted or given to workers by governments or employers - they are basic universal human rights that we all are entitled to by virtue of our humanity.

Please note that the salary figures for the Global Teaching Industry and the Global Nursing Industry Comparative are for the year 2000, and the figures for the Global Manufacturing Industry Comparative are for the year 2001. The figures are all in US dollars, which have been calculated using the average $US/$AUS exchange rate for 2000 of .5771 US cents.

Urgent Action Campaigns from Labourstart

ACT NOW!
Campaign Updates from Labourstart - 16 December 2003
...
>> READ MORE

Burma Education Resource

The Burma Education Resource presents you with a number of ideas and issues inspiring a variety of lessons dealing with key issues of human rights in Burma. The kit is designed to encourage students’ awareness and understanding of the many complex issues facing the country today. The political climate in Burma constantly changes, and many hope to see significant change towards democracy sooner rather than later. Therefore, use of this Resource Pack should be complemented with materials on any current developments in the country.
Four Foreign Companies Quit Burma - 16 March 2006
Austrian Airlines has finally dropped its flights between Rangoon and Vienna and three other foreign companies have also said they want no more business with Burma, according to the Burma Campaign UK on yesterday. By Shah PaungDecember 08, 2005...
>> READ MORE

Make Poverty History

Union Aid Abroad – APHEDA, the overseas humanitarian aid arm of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), supports the Make Poverty History campaign internationally and in Australia. The international solidarity of working people against oppression and poverty has always been central to our movement. The aim of this campaign is to put pressure on governments around the world to take action for global poverty, focussing on three slogans:

• More and better aid
• Drop the debt
• Trade justice

Fair Trade

The Fair Trade movement has become a powerful force in fighting injustices that are a result of free trade policies. When it emerged, in the early 1970s, few imagined it would ever be more than a form of charity, aimed at a dedicated few. Today, everyone can buy Fair Trade goods and it is becoming increasingly popular for people to buy with a conscience. One in five cups of coffee drunk in Britain is fairly traded; so are half the Bananas eaten in Switzerland. Five million producers in Africa, Latin America and Asia benefit from Fair Trade terms. In the west it’s the fastest growing retail area – expanding by 20-30% a year since 2000.

Fair Wear Campaign

This Campaign aims to stop exploitation of homebased workers in the clothing industry. The Campaign is a coalition of unions, churches and community organisations and uses consumer pressure to fight for the rights of all homebased outworkers.
Fair Wear Campaign Updates - 16 December 2003
...
>> READ MORE

© Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA 2003.

Last Modified: Tuesday, 12-Jan-2010 21:09:59 EST
This page: http://apheda.org.au/campaigns/index.html