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	The rights of many women in India continue to be violated by OHCHR, Hindustan Times, agencies   May 2013   ‘Opportunity lost’ as new anti-rape laws in India fail to address root causes – UN expert   Laws recently passed in India to prevent and prosecute rape and other sex crimes “do not go far enough,” a United Nations independent expert said today, lamenting that the legislation failed to address systemic gender inequalities in Indian society.   “The opportunity to establish a substantive and specific equality and non-discrimination rights legislative framework for women, to address de facto inequality and discrimination, and to protect and prevent against all forms of violence against women, was lost,” said Rashida Manjoo, the Special Rapporteur on violence against women.   Just back from a 10-say visit to India, she said that while the reforms were commendable, they did not fully reflect the recommendations in the report produced by the Verma Committee – named after former Chief Justice Jagdish Sharan Verma – which was set up in the wake of the death of a 23-year-old woman whose gang-rape in New Delhi sparked nationwide protests.   The report made a series of recommendations to tackle violence against women in India, and UN human rights officials urged the Government to follow through with them. Ms. Manjoo reiterated those calls, pressing authorities to address the multiple and intersecting inequalities and discrimination that women face.   “My mandate has consistently voiced the view that the failure in response and prevention measures stems from a Government’s inability and/or unwillingness to acknowledge and address the core structural causes of violence against women,” she said, adding: “The unfortunate reality is that the rights of many women in India continue to be violated, with impunity as the norm.”   Violence again against women and girls in India manifests itself in numerous ways, including domestic violence, caste-based discrimination, dowry-related deaths, witch-hunting, sexual violence, conflict-related sexual violence, and forced marriages.   During her visit, the independent expert met with Government authorities and civil society in New Delhi, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Tamil Nadu, among other regions.   31 December 2012   Calls for profound change in India in wake of rape tragedy   Expressing deep sadness at the death of a 23-year-old woman whose gang-rape in India has sparked nationwide protests there, the top United Nations human rights official today called for “urgent and rational debate” aimed at ending violence against women in the country.   “What is needed is a new public consciousness and more effective and sensitive enforcement of the law in the interests of women,” said the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, amidst media reports that India remained in mourning two days after the woman, a physiotherapy student whose name has not been publicly released, died in a Singapore hospital of internal injuries inflicted by her attackers.   “The public is demanding a transformation in systems that discriminate against women to a culture that respects the dignity of women in law and practice,” she noted, according to a news release from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Geneva.   The woman was reportedly attacked after boarding a bus in the Indian capital of New Delhi with her boyfriend, who was also assaulted and injured, but survived. Six men have been charged with both her rape and murder, and could face the death penalty if convicted.   For her part, Ms. Pillay cautioned against such a response, which she noted was among the demands amid the “escalating protests” that reports say are demanding immediate government action.   “However terrible the crime, the death penalty is not the answer,” Ms. Pillay said, as OHCHR noted she called for “urgent and rational debate on comprehensive measures to address such crimes.”   The UN official highlighted that the attack was the latest in a series of rape cases, a fact reflected in statistics showing that reported rapes increased by 25 per cent from 2006 to 2011.   Ms. Pillay also pointed out that attacks are occurring against women of all social classes. While the 23-year-old New Delhi victim was reportedly from India’s rising urban class, Ms. Pillay cited the gang-rape in October of a 16-year-old girl of the Dalit designation – a grouping traditionally regarded as ‘untouchable’ even though untouchability is prohibited under India’s Constitution.   Following that attack in north India’s Haryana state, the girl committed suicide by self-immolation, Ms. Pillay noted, as she went on to describe Haryana as a place from where “an alarming level of sexual violence has been reported.”   “This is a national problem, affecting women of all classes and castes, and will require national solutions,” Ms. Pillay said. She also expressed serious concern about the number of rape incidents of children and called for “accelerated actions to address this,” OHCHR said.   The High Commissioner said she joined Indians in “all walks of life in condemning” the attack on the New Delhi student. She also expressed confidence that India could emerge reformed in the wake of this “terrible crime.”   “Let us hope that 2013 will be the year the tide is turned on violence against women in India and all women can walk free without fear,” she said, adding that “India has shown through its social reform movements of the past that it can rid itself of a scourge like rape.”   Ms. Pillay welcomed the Indian Government’s announcement it would establish a Commission of Inquiry into public safety of women in New Delhi and a judicial panel to review India’s legislative framework on violence against women.   She also observed that India had, in 2012, passed landmark legislation on the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences.   “Now is the time to strengthen India’s legal regime against rape,” Ms. Pillay said. “I encourage the Indian Government to consult widely with civil society and to invite the United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women to visit the country to assist in this process.”   Special Rapporteurs are independent UN experts who serve as unpaid appointees of the 47-nation Human Rights Council in Geneva, and are tasked to investigate and report back on issues related to their particular mandate.   Ms. Pillay said OHCHR also stood “ready to support the Indian Government and the people of India.”   “I am particularly heartened by the ground swell of energy of the young women and men on the streets of India and their resolve to turn the tide,” she added.   In its focus on India, the OHCHR-supported Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) recommended in February 2007 that the country should “widen the definition of rape in its Penal Code to reflect the realities of sexual abuse experienced by women and to remove the exception for marital rape from the definition of rape.”   The Committee also recommended the Government “consult widely with women’s groups in its process of reform of laws and procedures relating to rape and sexual abuse.”   Made up of 23 independent experts on women’s rights from around the world, CEDAW monitors implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which the UN General Assembly adopted in 1979, and is often described as a bill of rights for women.   http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/committee.htm http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cedaw/   Jaipur, December 23, 2012   A history of victimization, by Urvashi Dev Rawal. (Hindustan Times)   Indian women are speaking out against violence, enraged by the gang rape of a 23-year-old inside a moving bus in Delhi. But past records show that women – especially in the hinterlands – who dare to speak up usually fight a lone battle against the system.   Hindustan Times profiles a few courageous rape victims in Rajasthan, who are still awaiting justice.   Bhanwari Devi (Bhateri, Jaipur district)   Bhanwari Devi was gang raped in 1992 by a group of upper-caste men in Bhateri village, 50 km from Jaipur, while trying to stop a child marriage.   At the time, she was a grassroots worker with the Women’s Development Project, run by the Rajasthan government.   The gang rape case got widespread media attention; and the Supreme Court for the first time defined sexual harassment at the workplace, in a landmark judgment popularly known as the ‘Vishaka Judgment’. And yet twenty years on, Bhanwari still awaits justice.   When she spoke out against the perpetrators, she was accused of fabricating the entire incident. Her alleged rapists offered her money to withdraw the case, and she was shunned by her family and community. The rapists were let off by a lower court in 1995. The state government appeal against the acquittal in the high court in 1996 still drags on. The feisty Bhanwari, now 55, who dared to come forward and speak out is now resigned and bitter. "I did not get justice. Why do you want to highlight my case again? It does not serve any purpose," she said.   Seema (Bhilwara district)   Seema (name changed) from Bhilwara was abducted by her neighbour six years ago when she was just 13 years old. The neighbour, Anil Chipa, was a married man with three children. He took her to Chittor, Ajmer and Kota, where he had planned to sell her to a pimp. However, when that plan failed, he took her to Madhya Pradesh.   When they got off at Ruthiai station in Madhya Pradesh at night, Seema saw three Railway Protection Force (RPF) policemen and she shouted for help. The policemen took Seema and Anil to the RPF quarters, where they raped her the whole night and left her bleeding.   The next morning, Anil took her back to Kota, where Seema again appealed to some police personnel to help her. The police contacted her family in Bhilwara and she returned.   Seema"s parents, who are masonry workers, ran around trying to get an FIR lodged but Anil had bribed the police and they refused to help.   Tara Ahluwalia, a women"s rights activist, then took up Seema"s case and complained to the superintendent of police. "The SP suspended the entire Subhash Nagar thana including the station house officer Abhay Singh for failing to lodge an FIR," said Ahluwalia.   Police did arrest the two RPF constables and Anil, and the case went on for four years. In 2010, all of them were acquitted after bribing the assistant public prosecutor, said Ahluwalia.   "I don"t want to talk about it. I am married now and live in fear of them as they are influential people and can harm us," said Seema.   "The police personnel tried to pay us off and wanted us to settle the case out of court. But my parents and I wanted them to be punished, and we persevered. But for what? They were let off because they were influential. I did not get justice."   Parveen (Sikar district)   Eleven-year-old Parveen (name changed) was forced into a jeep by some men and gangraped in Sikar.   It was Eid, and her mother’s friend Munni had taken Parveen and her three siblings for a movie. They were returning when Parveen was snatched by the men.   Four months down the line, and after four major surgeries, she is still unable to sit.   "She had been brutally injured," said Dr LD Agarwal, professor of paediatric surgery at JK Lone Hospital in Jaipur.   The rapists were caught and are in jail, but still threaten the family.   Hamira Ram has been making rounds of police stations and courts, pleading with the authorities to find his 16-year-old daughter Savita (name changed).   Savita was first abducted in July by a distant relative, who took her to Goa where he repeatedly raped her for over two weeks.   "He was a relative of my wife"s sister. He lured my daughter to elope with him, even though he is married. She ran away with Rs. 50,000 and some gold. The police were initially uncooperative till I approached the superintendent of police (SP). The police traced them to Goa, and returned only with the man. I again went to the SP, and then they rescued my daughter and brought her back from Goa."   Savita told police she was kept in confinement and raped, but the man was not arrested. On December 3, Savita was again abducted and there is no news of her since.   "Police did not register a case of rape but of abduction. They have not produced the challan in court and demand a bribe from me," says Hamira Ram, who works as a labourer and earns about Rs. 7,000 per month. He lives with his wife and five children.   He says he feels angry but can"t do much. "My daughter"s life is ruined. I spent more than Rs. 2 lakh to try and get her back. But no one helps the poor."   Kalpana (Bansur, Alwar district)   Four years ago, then 15-year-old Kalpana (name changed) from Bansur in Alwar district was kidnapped on her way to school by a man from Jharkhand and his two friends.   "She left that morning and did not return. She was missing for 15 days,” said her mother. “Then she somehow managed to call us and provided us her location.” The police went and rescued her from the three men who had kept her in confinement and raped her.   "When my daughter came back she was ill and very scared. The men had raped her repeatedly and beaten her. She had to be admitted to a hospital," she said.   The family filed a case of rape and kidnapping, but the pace of investigation has been slow. In the meantime, Kalpana got married. "We wanted punishment for the rapists, but the police did not act.”   Police finally arrested two of the accused four months ago. "My husband earns around Rs. 6,000 per month, so we have borrowed money to fight the case. But the police and lawyers only make us run around and harass us."
	Kindergarten students gunned down at Sandy Hook Elementary School by NYT, Huffpost, Reuters & agencies USA   14 Dec. 2012   Vigils are being held across the US as communities struggle to come to terms with one of the worst school shootings in which a gunman killed 20 young children aged six and seven and seven adults in the small community of Newtown, Connecticut.   Carrying four weapons and wearing a bulletproof vest, the gunman opened fire on the mostly kindergarten students at Sandy Hook Elementary School shortly after 9:30am (local time).   Police say he was later found dead at the scene as they launch an extensive investigation into the horrific shooting.   US president Barrack Obama says "our hearts are broken" and the Connecticut governor told the media that "evil visited the community today".   A local nurse tells WCBS news of the scene: "One of the cops, you know, said it was the worse thing he"d seen in his entire career, but it was when they told all these parents waiting for children to come out. They thought that they were, you know, still alive. There"s 20 parents that were just told that their children are dead. It was awful."   Parent Brenda Lebinski says she rushed to the school where her daughter is in the third grade. "It was horrendous. Everyone was in hysterics - parents, students.".   A visibly emotional US president Barack Obama held a press conference on the shooting:   "The majority of those who died today were children. Beautiful little kids between the ages of five and 10 years old. Their entire lives ahead of them, birthdays, graduations, weddings, kids of their own. Among the fallen were also teachers, men and women who devoted their lives to helping our children fulfil their dreams. So our hearts are broken today.   "For the parents and grandparents, sisters and brothers of these little children and for the families of the adults who were lost. Our hearts are broken for the parents of the survivors as well for as blessed as they are to have their children home tonight they know that their children"s innocence has been torn away from them too early and there are no words that will ease their pain."   "As a country we have been through this too many times, whether it"s an elementary school in Newtown or a shopping mall in Oregon or a temple in Wisconsin or a movie theatre in Aurora or a street corner in Chicago, these neighbourhoods are our neighbourhoods and these children are our children. And we"re going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this regardless of the politics."   Connecticut governor Dan Malloy addressed media at the scene:   "What has happened and what has transpired at that school building will leave a mark on this community and every family impacted. I only ask that all of our fellow citizens here in the United States and around the world who have already offered their assistance remember all of the victims in their prayers.   "Earlier today a number of our citizens, beautiful children, had their life taken away from them. As well as adults whose responsibility it was to educate and supervise those children. The perpetrator of the crime is dead as is an individual who the perpetrator lived with."   There have been a number school shootings in the United States in recent years and the latest massacre has sparked renewed calls to toughen the country"s gun laws.   Newtown is a small town in south-eastern Connecticut, about 130 km north-east of New York City   Dec. 2012   Looking for America, by Gail Collins. (NYT)   “I’m sorry,” said Representative Carolyn McCarthy, her voice breaking. “I’m having a really tough time.”   She’s the former nurse from Long Island who ran for Congress in 1996 as a crusader against gun violence after her husband and son were victims of a mass shooting on a commuter train. On Friday morning, McCarthy said, she began her day by giving an interview to a journalist who was writing a general story about “how victims feel when a tragedy happens.”   “And then 15 minutes later, a tragedy happens.”   McCarthy, whose husband died and son was critically wounded, is by now a practiced hand at speaking out when a deranged man with a lot of firepower runs amok. But the slaughter of 20 small children and seven adults in Connecticut left her choked up and speechless.   “I just don’t know what this country’s coming to. I don’t know who we are any more,” she said.   President Obama was overwhelmed as well, when he attempted to comfort the nation. It was his third such address in the wake of a soul-wrenching mass shooting. “They had their entire lives ahead of them,” he said, and he had trouble saying anything more.   It was, of course, a tragedy. Yet tragedies happen all the time. Terrible storms strike. Cars crash. Random violence occurs. As long as we’re human, we’ll never be invulnerable.   But when a gunman takes out kindergartners in a bucolic Connecticut suburb, three days after a gunman shot up a mall in Oregon, in the same year as fatal mass shootings in Minneapolis, in Tulsa, in a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, in a theater in Colorado, a coffee bar in Seattle and a college in California — then we’re doing this to ourselves.   We know the story. The shooter is a man, usually a young man, often with a history of mental illness. Sometimes in a rage over a lost job, sometimes just completely unhinged. In the wake of the Newtown shootings, the air was full of experts discussing the importance of psychological counseling. “We need to look at what drives a crazy person to do these kind of actions,” said Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, one of the highest-ranking Republicans in the House.   Every country has a sizable contingent of mentally ill citizens. We’re the one that gives them the technological power to play god.   This is all about guns — access to guns and the ever-increasing firepower of guns. Over the past few years we’ve seen one shooting after another in which the killer was wielding weapons holding 30, 50, 100 bullets. I’m tired of hearing fellow citizens argue that you need that kind of firepower because it’s a pain to reload when you’re shooting clay pigeons. Or that the founding fathers specifically wanted to make sure Americans retained their right to carry rifles capable of mowing down dozens of people in a couple of minutes.   Recently the Michigan House of Representatives passed and sent to the governor a bill that, among other things, makes it easy for people to carry concealed weapons in schools. After the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School Friday, a spokesman for House Speaker Jase Bolger said that it might have meant “the difference between life and death for many innocent bystanders.” This is a popular theory of civic self-defense that discounts endless evidence that in a sudden crisis, civilians with guns either fail to respond or respond by firing at the wrong target.   It was perhaps the second-most awful remark on one of the worst days in American history, coming up behind Mike Huckabee’s asking that since prayer is banned from public schools, "should we be so surprised that schools would become a place of carnage?"   We will undoubtedly have arguments about whether tougher regulation on gun sales or extra bullet capacity would have made a difference in Connecticut. In a way it doesn’t matter. America needs to tackle gun violence because we need to redefine who we are. We have come to regard ourselves — and the world has come to regard us — as a country that’s so gun happy that the right to traffic freely in the most obscene quantities of weapons is regarded as far more precious than an American’s right to health care or a good education.   We have to make ourselves better. Otherwise, the story from Connecticut is too unspeakable to bear.   Nearly two years ago, after Representative Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head in a mass shooting in Arizona, the White House sent up signals that Obama was preparing to do something. “I wouldn’t rule out that at some point the president talks about the issues surrounding gun violence,” said his press secretary at the time, Robert Gibbs.   On Friday, the president said: “We’re going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics.”   Time passes. And here we are.   Dec. 2012   What? Discuss Gun Laws?, by Robert Walker.   In less time than it takes to fire off two 9 millimeter handguns and kill dozens of people, the politicians, from the White House on down, will be putting out public statements deploring the school shooting in Connecticut, calling it tragic, and immediately adding that "now is not the time" to discuss new gun laws. When it comes to the deplorable state of America"s gun laws, it"s always "mañana."   It"s always tomorrow, never today, because the gun lobby would not have it any other way. It doesn"t matter how many people are killed or how innocent the victims, now is not the time to talk about sensible gun laws. It does not matter what the motive of the shooter is, or the age of the victims; it"s never time to address the never ending carnage of guns in America. Nor does it matter how the shooter acquired his gun or how many rounds of ammunition were in the magazine; now is not the time to do anything. There will be plenty of time to do something after countless more tragedies like this one take place.   Yes, Americans must grieve for the victims and their families. Having counseled dozens of grief-stricken victims and their families during the seven years that I worked on this issue, I know all too well the enormous anguish that they are going through, and I cannot begin to conceive the terrible sense of loss that they must feel. But observing a never-ending political silence about new gun laws will do nothing to diminish their sorrow; it will only ensure that others will suffer a similar fate.   Yes, I fault our political leaders for their lack of courage on this issue, but politicians will not do or say anything about the weakness of America"s gun laws until the American people demand it. If your heart goes out to the victims of this shooting, it"s also time to raise your voice. (Published in the Huffington Post)   http://lawcenter.giffords.org/ http://www.bradycampaign.org/ http://www.mayorsagainstillegalguns.org/ http://www.csgv.org/   * Dec 14. 2012   Knife-wielding man slashes 22 children at elementary school in China.   A knife-wielding man has slashed 22 children at an elementary school in central China, the latest in a series of attacks on schoolchildren in the country.   The man attacked the children at the gate of a school in Chenpeng village in Henan province, the Xinhua state news agency reported.   Police arrested a 36-year-old man, identified as villager Min Yingjun, Xinhua said. It did not give further details of the extent of the injuries.   There have been a series of attacks on schools and schoolchildren around China in recent years, some by people who have lost their jobs or felt left out of the country"s economic boom.   The rash of violence has prompted public calls for more measures to protect the young in a country where many couples only have one child.   In 2010, a man slashed 28 children, two teachers and a security guard in a kindergarten in eastern China.
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