Issue
The garment industry plays a key role in the economies of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and there is a need to recognise increased working standards for female workers.
Project
War on Want are improving working conditions in the Bangladesh and Sri Lanka garment industries by strengthening occupational safety and health standards
Through raising awareness of OSH issues, female workers’ rights and related policy processes, garment workers – and the organisations representing them – will be able to jointly advocate for better working standards. This will include setting up a platform for regular dialogue between government representatives, garment retailers and trade unions to improve standards.
By the end of the project, garment workers would have obtained the skills and experience to continue collectively engaging in problem solving with factory owners.
War on Want, UK
War on Want has over 60 years of experience in promoting workers’ rights. The organisation works in direct partnership with grassroots organisations in several countries to address issues of poverty and inequality. It has worked in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka with partner organisations to promote workers’ rights for over ten years. Following the collapse of Rana Plaza, the organisation has developed a campaign entitled “Never again: making fashion’s factories safe” which resulted in the signature of a legally-binding agreement “Bangladesh Safety Accord” by over 150 biggest clothes companies to help prevent such disasters in the future.
www.waronwant.org
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Partner organisations
The National Garment Workers Federation (NGWF) is one of Bangladesh biggest garment workers unions, representing over 45,000 workers. The vast majority of its members are young, female garment workers. The NGWF is a founding member of the Bangladesh Garment Workers Unity Council, an umbrella organisation of 21 garment worker federations. It is also a member of the arbitration committee, a body that negotiates labour law and cases of workers’ rights violations through dialogue between trade unions, government and factory owners. NGWF was involved in a successful campaign to introduce a new minimum wage for garment workers in Bangladesh, which was approved in 2010.
Free Trade Zone & General Service Employees Union (FTZ&GSEU) is the largest trade union in Sri Lanka, with 16,000 members. The FTZ&GSEU focuses on supporting female workers, who are more vulnerable to labour rights abuses. FTZ&GSEU has a long track record of actively and successfully engaging with government as well as with companies. The organisation has been a member trade union of the National Labour Advisory Committee since 2007. The Committee was established to provide for consultation and co-operation between the government, organisations of workers and employers on social and labour policies and international labour standards. It is chaired by the Minister of Labour.
Issue
The UPR aims to improve the human rights situation in all UN Member States by assessing their human rights records. This process provides an opportunity for governments to declare what actions they have taken to improve the human rights situation in their country.
Project
Persatuan Kesedaran Komuniti Selangor (EMPOWER) are working with the Coalition of Malaysian NGOs (COMANGO) to monitor the improvement of the human rights situation in Malaysia in accordance with recommendations made by the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). This project will enable non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to continuously and systematically monitor the implementation of UPR recommendations, and provide evidence-based input into the different stages of the UPR process.
It is expected that by the end of the project, NGOs in the coalition would have acquired the necessary skills and tools to both contribute to UPR recommendations and constructively engage in regular discussions on human rights issues with government officials.
EMPOWER
EMPOWER is a non-governmental organisation that promotes and supports actions that advance justice and democracy. The organisation works with women and youth to realise their potential in the areas of political participation, economic empowerment, and civil liberties. It also promotes civil society participation in national and regional human rights mechanisms.
empowermalaysia.org
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Issue
The South African refugee protection model is based on local integration. This policy promotes refugee integration into society and participation in social and government processes. However, refugees are not integrating effectively into society.
Project
This project recognises that while services provided to refugees by government are important and help to alleviate pressing needs, a long term improvement in the situation will require that refugees themselves are able to influence the policies that affect them. This will be achieved by building the capacity of leaders of refugee organisations to better represent and organise their communities, and for these groups to design and implement issue-based advocacy campaigns.
It is expected that the project will lead to refugee communities engaging in dialogue with the government, and building better relations with their host communities.
Lawyers for Human Rights
Lawyers for Human Rights was established in 1979 (LHR). It strives to promote awareness, protection and enforcement of legal and human rights through the creation of a human rights culture. LHR has a specialist programme that advocates, strengthens and enforces the rights of asylum seekers, refugees and other marginalised categories of migrants in South Africa. LHR also work in the areas of land reform and housing, environmental justice, strategic litigation and penal reform.
www.lhr.org.za
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Issue
The Eastern Malaysian state of Sabah is abundant with mineral and ecological natural resources, but stewardship of these is no simple task.
Project
The Partners of Community Organisations in Sabah (PACOS Trust) is seeking to improve the vital role that indigenous peoples of Sabah play in monitoring and stewarding these resources. State recognition of their roles in protecting indigenous peoples and community conserved areas (ICCAs) has not been consistent and this grant will help to remedy that.
The focus of the work will be to increase the resilience of the traditional practices, protocols and customary laws that indigenous peoples already use to conserve and protect the resources. The people will be supported in documenting their customary institutions, to aid with the development of plans and priorities for increasing their recognition, for greater dialogue between community organisations and government institutions and for the increased participation of local indigenous peoples’ group leaders in regional and international networks. The PACOS Trust also wants to support local groups with participating in international policy development on indigenous peoples’ issues, such as the bi-annual sessions of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. The project will also be supported by Natural Justice, a South African organization that has a strong track record of providing legal and legislative support to civil society organisations working on indigenous peoples’ issues.
The PACOS Trust recognises the expertise of indigenous peoples in natural resource stewardship and the importance of their involvement in a sustainable solution to addressing challenges. By building a strong role for indigenous peoples in the policies of the conservation and restoration of the local ecosystems, habitats and species, the PACOS Trust will forge constructive engagement between the people who know these resources the best and the groups and powers that can help preserve their future.
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Issue
The use of unregulated, under-aged and under-paid child domestic labourers (CDLs) remains problematic in many countries around the world, with around 11.5 million children worldwide still thought to work in illegal situations.
In India, Pakistan and Bangladesh – where millions of these child labourers live – there is an increasing willingness to change their plight, and this project will capture that willingness and use it to support positive movement away from this modern slavery.
Project
Global March is working with partner organisations in each of the three countries and will look to the progress already being made in India’s justice system on the subject and seek to further embed it in the fabric of people’s awareness. Based on the experiences of India’s Bachpan Bachao Andolan, Pakistan’s Grassroots Organisation for Human Development and Bangladesh’s Shishu Adhikar Forum will spearhead action in each of the countries, partnering with civil society organisations (CSOs) to amend laws, raise awareness, advocate for policy change and build the capacity for CSOs, government and law enforcement to work together in the fight against child domestic labour.
There will be training and workshops for CSOs, compilation of legislative literature, expansive regional and national consultations, and extensive analysis of existing structures – all with the aim of enhancing awareness and encouraging the will of many levels of society throughout India, Pakistan and Bangladesh to let their children live their childhoods in peace.
Project updates
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Congratulations to 2014 Nobel Peace Prize winners Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi, two individuals whose causes closely reflect the 2015 Commonwealth Theme: A Young Commonwealth.
Global March Against Child Labour
The Global March Against Child Labour is a worldwide network of trade unions, teachers’ and civil society organisations that work together towards the shared development goals of eliminating and preventing all forms of child labour and ensuring access by all children to free, meaningful and good quality public education. It mobilises and supports its constituents to contribute to local, national, regional and global efforts and support for a range of international instruments relating to the protection and promotion of children’s rights, engaging with the United Nations, international and inter-governmental agencies.
www.globalmarch.org
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Bachpan Bachao Andolan
Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) symbolizes India’s largest grassroots movement for the protection of children, ensuring their quality education. As on October 2014, BBA has rescued more than 83 500 victims of trafficking, slavery and child labour and has helped them re-establish trust in society and find promising futures for themselves.
Since its establishment by the Indian children’s rights activist Kailash Satyarthi in 1980, BBA has led the world’s largest civil society campaign in the form of the Global March Against Child Labour and has been at the forefront of laying down laws against child labour and trafficking in India.
www.bba.org.in
Issue
There are few opportunities to raise funds for Disability rights due to the gap that exists between young disabled people and their civil society organisations (CSOs) and local government.
Project
The Association of Young Disabled People of Mozambique (AJODEMO) is raising its members’ capacity to help local government departments and officials improve how they implement domestic and international legislation designed to support them.
This includes ensuring that the rights and entitlements of young people are better understood, respected, and enforced, with AJODEMO taking the lead in developing and facilitating opportunities for structured engagement between community and local government stakeholders.
The government of Mozambique has shown its commitment towards improving conditions for its young disabled people by ratifying the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and adopting new pieces of domestic legislation.
With a specific focus on the provinces of Maputo and Gaza, AJODEMO is working with the support of the UK-based Disability and Development Partners (DDP) on projects to improve the lives of young disabled people. The project will enhance young disabled people’s ability to engage in the community by fostering dialogue and improved relations with local government, improve their economic prospects, and reduce the stigma and discrimination they face.
AJODEMO President, Cantol Pondja, explained, “We at AJODEMO firmly believe that this project with funding from the Commonwealth Foundation and DDP support has the potential to establish a new way for young disabled people and government officials and institutions to engage with each other for everybody’s benefit – particularly to give young disabled people better chances in life.”
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rSFTW0kpRc?rel=0]
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Issue
The Spirit Child Phenomenon (SCP) is still a problem in northern Ghana’s Bongo region, where traditional soothsayers label certain disadvantaged children as messengers of bad luck, leaving them at risk of being killed by traditional healers known as concoction men.
Project
AfriKids is looking at issues surrounding SCP in order to address how to drive down the problem. The organisation will provide the education, incentives and stakeholder engagement to embed the cultural and technical change into the affected communities that will help to eradicate the phenomenon.
Training and awareness campaigns on child rights and healthcare will be run in local communities. Technical and financial support will also be provided for the concoction men and for families and women’s groups, while there will also be greater engagement between the various community groups and government health and education facilities for children associated with SCP. This culturally sensitive project will also focus on empowering women within the affected communities, helping them to work directly with key male decision makers.
AfriKids has already eradicated the practice in the Kassena Nankana district. It is hoped that the work to embed this change in communities in Bongo will result in it becoming a sustainable operation of continuous education and information that will help to make SCP a phenomenon of the past.
The Honourable Nana Oyer Lithur, Ghana’s Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, said that the work has been transformative.
“I would like to use this opportunity to commend AfriKids Ghana for the extensive work on the subject of the “Spirit Children” in the Kassena-Nankana East and West Districts of the region,” he explained. “We are happy to hear that the practice of killing spirit children no longer exists in these districts. What is even more significant is the involvement of the practitioners of the tradition known as concoction men in the solution process”.
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Issue
In the aftermath of the genocide, women had to live with the social stigma of the sexual violence they suffered. The national government made attempts to improve the rights of those women and the resources available to them, and this project aims to help more women to embrace those reforms and apply them to help themselves and others.
Project
The Faces of Life project, run by Kemit asbl, supports and empowers women to use media and resources to speak up for themselves and to encourage others to do so as well.
Women will be trained to create visual art projects, expressing issues of importance to them. Exhibitions of these art projects will tour throughout Rwanda providing an opportunity for civil society organisations, members of the public and local leaders at various levels of governance to gather together and discuss the issues leading to greater awareness of stigma and taboos on womens’ lives.
KEMIT asbl has worked in cinema and audio visual trainings, film, video and TV productions for 12 years and is using this experience to train the women involved in how to advocate for policy reform for the issues that affect them.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAsN0KDpoW0?rel=0]
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Issue
Kenya’s Constitution requires that no more than two thirds of any one gender represents any elective post. In the 2013 general election only 19 women stood among the 244 candidates that fought for Senator positions in the 2013 General Election and only occupy 9.8 per cent of seats in the Kenyan parliament.
Project
The Institute for Education in Democracy (IED) is now working towards the High Court’s recommendation that positive steps should be taken to increase the representation of women in politics by 2015. It will explore the development of affirmative action in political parties and ensure that the promotion of gender equality is consistent and sustainable, raising the long-term position of women in politics.
The Institute will stage a consultative forum with civil society organisations, political parties and the Registrar of Political Parties to identify strategies for affirmative action. The Registrar – which oversees the law on political parties and has the mandate to ensure gender considerations are integrated into the membership and workings of the parties – will play a pivotal role in the work and will also see its capacity to develop tools to guide political parties in establishing affirmative action regulations built and enhanced. The IED will also develop a new framework with which civil society organisations will be able to monitor the progress being made by political parties on gender equality.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcy8V1a7Ar8?rel=0]
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