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	Nearly 36 million people living as slaves across the globe, according to human rights index by Reuters, Walk Free Global Slavery Index   18 Nov 2014   Almost 36 million people are living as slaves across the globe with a report listing Mauritania, Uzbekistan, Haiti, Qatar and India as the nations where modern-day slavery is most prevalent.   The Walk Free Foundation, an Australian-based human rights group, estimated in its inaugural slavery index last year that 29.8 million people were born into servitude, trafficked for sex work, trapped in debt bondage or exploited for forced labour.   Releasing its second annual index, Walk Free increased its estimate of the number of slaves to 35.8 million, citing better data collection and slavery being uncovered in areas where it had not been found previously.   For the second year, the index of 167 countries found India had, by far, the greatest number of slaves - up to 14.3 million people in its population of 1.25 billion were victims of slavery, ranging from prostitution to bonded labour.   Mauritania was again the country where slavery was most prevalent by head of population while Qatar, host of the 2022 World Cup, rose up the rank from 96th place to be listed as the fourth worst country by percentage of the population.   "From children denied an education by being forced to work or marry early, to men unable to leave their work because of crushing debts they owe to recruitment agents, to women and girls exploited as unpaid, abused domestic workers, modern slavery has many faces," the report said.   "It still exists today, in every country - modern slavery affects us all."   The index defines slavery as the control or possession of people in such a way as to deprive them of their freedom with the intention of exploiting them for profit or sex, usually through violence, coercion or deception.   The definition includes indentured servitude, forced marriage and the abduction of children to serve in wars.   Hereditary slavery is deeply entrenched in the West African country of Mauritania, where four per cent of the population of 3.9 million is estimated to be enslaved, the report said.   After Mauritania, slavery was most prevalent in Uzbekistan, where citizens are forced to pick cotton every year to meet state-imposed cotton quotas, and Haiti, where the practice of sending poor children to stay with richer acquaintances or relatives routinely leads to abuse and forced labour, it said.   Ranked fourth was Qatar. The tiny Gulf state relies heavily on migrants to build its mega-projects including soccer stadiums for the 2022 World Cup.   It has come under scrutiny by rights groups over its treatment of migrant workers, most from Asia, who come to toil on construction sites, oil projects or work as domestic help.   The next highest prevalence rates were found in India, Pakistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Syria and Central African Republic.   The index showed that 10 countries alone account for 71 per cent of the world"s slaves.   After India, China has the most slaves with 3.2 million, then Pakistan (2.1 million), Uzbekistan (1.2 million), Russia (1.05 million), Nigeria (834,200), Democratic Republic of Congo (762,900), Indonesia (714,100), Bangladesh (680,900) and Thailand (475,300).   For the first time, the index rated governments on their response to slavery.   It found the Netherlands, followed by Sweden, the United States, Australia, Switzerland, Ireland, Norway, Britain, Georgia and Austria had the strongest response.   At the opposite end of the scale, North Korea, Iran, Syria, Eritrea, Central African Republic, Libya, Equatorial Guinea, Uzbekistan, Republic of Congo and Iraq had the worst responses.   "Every country in the world apart from North Korea has laws that criminalise some form of slavery, yet most governments could do more to assist victims and root out slavery from supply chains," Walk Free Foundation"s head of global research, Fiona David, said.   "What the results show is that a lot is being done on paper but it"s not necessarily translating into results," Ms David said.   "Most countries got 50 per cent or less when we looked at the strength of their victim assistance regime.   "It"s also striking that ... out of 167 countries we could only find three (Australia, Brazil and the United States) where governments have put things in place on supply chains."   The report showed conflict had a direct impact on the prevalence of slavery, Ms David said, citing the example of the Islamic State militant group which has abducted women and girls in Iraq and Syria for use as sex slaves.   "What our numbers show is the correlation really is quite strong so as an international community, we need to make planning for this kind of problem part of the humanitarian response to crisis situations," she said.   http://www.globalslaveryindex.org/findings/ http://www.ifrc.org/en/news-and-media/opinions-and-positions/opinion-pieces/2014/statement-on-migration-by-francesco-rocca/ http://www.antislavery.org/english/slavery_today/default.aspx http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Slavery/UNVTCFS/UNSlaveryFund.pdf http://www.opendemocracy.net/beyondslavery Visit the related web page
	Tajikistan: Drop draft legislation restricting NGO access to funding by Civic Solidarity, Helsinki Committee, agencies   24 December 2014   ‘No sign of improvement’ for human rights in Belarus, warns Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus, Miklos Haraszti.   Amid the continuing application of death sentences, the harassment of human rights defenders and independent journalists, and a new censorship law clamping down on internet freedom, the Government of Belarus shows no imminent sign of bettering its human rights record, a United Nations expert has declared.   “In 2014, the Belarus Government made welcome efforts to ease the tensions and human rights crisis which evolved in the region,” the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Republic of Belarus, Miklos Haraszti, said today in a press release.   “However,” he added, “despite the expectations of the international community, expressed both bilaterally and multilaterally, the internal human rights situation in Belarus shows no signs of improvement.”   In a five-point media statement summing up the human rights situation and delineating the ongoing abuses still faced by many in Belarus, Mr. Haraszti, an independent expert who serves in his individual capacity, noted that rights to peaceful assembly and association remained “severely restricted” by the authorities who continued to prosecute rights defenders.   “Crackdowns and disbanding of demonstrations resulted in an increased number of arbitrary detentions and so-called preventive arrests of civil society actors,” the UN expert explained.   One activist, Pavel Vinogradov, was arrested fifteen times over the course of the year, Mr. Haraszti continued. Meanwhile, the case of another activist, Elena Tonkacheva, demonstrated “the pervasive harassment of human rights defenders” across the country.   Ms. Tonkacheva, a citizen of the Russian Federation, has been residing in Belarus since 1985 from where she runs the Centre for Legal Transformation, also known as LawTrend, a civil society organization providing reports on the human rights situation in the country to independent media and UN human rights mechanisms, said the expert.   On 30 October, the Government cancelled her residence permit and subsequently issued a deportation order against her – an administrative decision based on an alleged infraction of speeding while driving. Ms. Tonkacheva has since lodged an appeal against what Mr. Haraszti has described as the “clearly disproportionate measure” taken by the Government.   “Unfortunately, Ms. Tonkacheva’s case is typical of the authorities’ recourse to fabricated charges to silence human rights defenders and the fragile independent media in Belarus,” the UN expert said. “I now urge Belarusian authorities to immediately stop all administrative procedures and to reinstate her rights.”   Against that backdrop, Mr. Haraszti warned that the country had entered a “radically new phase of oppression” of free speech following the Government’s imposition of an internet clampdown. Since 19 December, Belarusian authorities have been blocking the country’s main independent websites Ñharter97.org, Belapan.by, Naviny.by, BelarusPartisan.org, as well as several others, the expert noted.   The new directive “practically puts all forms of internet-based communications under direct governmental censorship and jurisdiction,” he continued. “The new regulation places responsibility on the online resources for any material or comment considered to be ‘harmful to the interests of the state;’ and it authorizes government instances to issue warnings over content at their will.”   http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=49682#.VJzFZcCA   25.11.2014   Tajikistan: Drop draft legislation restricting NGO access to funding.   Almost a hundred civil society groups called on the government of Tajikistan to drop new restrictive draft legislation on NGOs and to respect the right of NGOs to have unhindered access to funding for their work.   We, the undersigned civil society organizations, are alarmed at the recent initiative by the government of Tajikistan to regulate and restrict access of NGOs to financial assistance. Draft legislation to this end, which is currently under consideration by the government, runs counter to international standards protecting the right to freedom of association and risks endangering the work of NGOs in the country. We call on the government of Tajikistan to drop this draft legislation and to respect the right of NGOs to have unhindered access to funding for their work, including from sources abroad.   According to draft amendments to the Law on Public Associations prepared by the Ministry of Justice of Tajikistan, all grants and donations received by NGOs from foreign and international sources would be subject to inclusion in a state register of humanitarian assistance. The implementation of programs funded by foreign governments, international organizations and other sources abroad would only be allowed after the registration process has been completed.   The registration requirement would apply to all funds originating from these sources, irrespective of size. In addition, the draft amendments require the registration of funds received “through other physical and legal entities,” an ambiguous provision that leaves it unclear whether funds received from local sources also would be subject to inclusion in the same register.   After a non-transparent drafting process, in which civil society has not been involved, the draft amendments are now being reviewed by other government agencies. It is expected that the draft law will be submitted to the parliament in the near future.   This draft legislation in Tajikistan forms part of a broader trend in many countries in the former Soviet Union, in which governments are stepping up efforts to control and restrict access, in particular, to foreign funding of NGOs.   The arguments used to justify such legislation are typically that it is necessary to enhance the accountability and transparency of NGOs that receive foreign assistance, who are also often the targets of unfounded accusations that they serve the “political interests” of foreign donors.   While NGOs are accountable to the public and should provide information about their activities and sources of funding, any procedures aimed at ensuring the transparency of NGO financing must be necessary and reasonable and must not impede the ability of organizations to obtain and use funding for their work either from domestic or foreign sources.   We are concerned that the proposed registration requirement for NGO funding in Tajikistan would place an additional bureaucratic burden on NGOs, which are already required to account in detail for their activities and the sources and amounts of their funding (including that from foreign and international sources) by submitting regular reports to the Ministry of Justice and the tax authorities. The proposed registration requirement would also only apply to NGOs, not other entities that receive financial assistance.   Moreover, we are concerned that the proposed provisions would unduly restrict access to funding of NGOs. The draft amendments do not elaborate on how the procedure for registering grants with the government would be implemented or what sanctions non-compliance would entail.   However, there are reasons to fear that it in practice would amount to a system of pre-authorization for the use of funds that would involve direct government interference in the activities of NGOs and could result in arbitrary delays and denials to register grants.   As a result, it could jeopardize not only the implementation of NGO projects aimed at, for example, counteracting torture, fighting corruption, promoting environmental protection or assisting members of vulnerable groups, but also the continued existence of NGOs dependent on unobstructed access to funding.   Across the former Soviet Union, measures to increase government control over the financing of NGOs have been taken in the context of an increasingly restrictive climate for NGOs. In Tajikistan, the draft legislation on NGO funding is being put forward at a precarious time for civil society organizations in this country. The Ministry of Justice, the tax authorities and other state institutions have wide powers to monitor and oversee NGO activities.   In the recent period, inspections of NGOs have increasingly been carried out on an unscheduled basis and been followed by warnings and – in some cases -- lawsuits to suspend and close down organizations for alleged violations of the law, including the failure to comply with requirements of a technical nature.   If adopted, the draft legislation would further worsen the climate for NGOs and is also likely to contribute to public mistrust and suspicion of NGOs by singling them out for the proposed registration regime.   http://civicsolidarity.org/article/1048/tajikistan-drop-draft-legislation-restricting-ngo-access-funding http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/tajik-assassination/6326892 http://www.opendemocracy.net/open-security/edin-omanovic/behind-rise-of-private-surveillance-industry-in-central-asia   Economic dystopia in Kyrgyzstan, by Dr Balihar Sanghera, Director of Studies for Social Sciences at the University of Kent.   Despite being hailed as a success story for liberal market reforms, Kyrgyzstan in fact provides an example of how the rentier class have become an integral part of the economy, and how democracy has given way to plutocracy. Sometimes with the assistance of the international donor and financial community, rentiers have shaped public policy in key industries, such as microfinance, real estate and utilities, allowing them to siphon off income from consumption and production.   A rentier lives off the income from investment, property, capital and other assets in the form of interests, rent and capital gains. Rentiers can write the rules of the game as to who gets what and when, as a result of owning and/or controlling assets and occupying positions of legal authority. In contrast, the rest of the population have to do other work, such as farming, cooking, nursing, building and teaching. Inequality is the inevitable result.   The effects have been damaging: sharpening social divisions, corrupting public service, impoverishing rural communities, indebting working families, forcing ordinary people to live in squalid conditions, contributing towards an intensely individualistic and competitive economic life, and causing leakages to the national income flows..   Politicians can be entrepreneurial in developing, privatising, taking-over or negotiating with rent-extracting enterprises, many of which are natural and artificial quasi-monopolies, such as utilities, mining, mobile communication, transport, supermarkets and hotel resorts. Because of their economic and geographical dominance in the market, these companies can charge what are known as ''''economic rents'''', which are the inflated margins over actual production costs. Economic rents create prices empty of cost-value, siphoning off for rights-holders, income that otherwise would be spent on goods and services in the real economy.   To counter the anti-progressive economic system in Kyrgyzstan, public policy discussion requires a re-familiarisation with terms such as ‘rentier’, ‘unearned income’ and ‘economic rent’, which disappeared from public discourse.   In addition, a public policy response to rent extraction must include a progressive taxation of wealth, the nationalisation of quasi-monopolies, anti-monopoly regulation to ensure fair competition and pricing, and participatory democracy to break the current property-politics nexus in the country.   http://www.opendemocracy.net/od-russia/balihar-sanghera/economic-dystopia-in-kyrgyzstan
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