2023-09-21 00:05:19
Despite all peace efforts in recent years and months, the conflict between the Armenian-inhabited Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan has continued to intensify. After a hunger blockade by Azerbaijan that lasted more than 9 months and affected 120,000 people in the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh (formerly the “autonomous region”), which is predominantly inhabited by Christian Armenians, military interventions by the Azerbaijani side began on September 19th with rocket attacks Civilian targets are also affected. The only link for humanitarian logistics, the Lachin corridor between the Republic of Armenia and the regional capital Stepanakert, is virtually impassable.
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#Dramatic #escalation #conflict #NagornoKarabakh #Armenians #shadow #genocide
Tag:
Human rights
Women’s Network Media awards outstanding female journalists
written by Alexandra Hartman Editor-in-Chief
2023-09-18 19:30:27
The Vienna Journalist Prize 2023 goes to Yvonne Widler, the Young Journalist Prize to Clara Poràk, and the Honorary Prize to the Iranian Aliyeh Motallebzadeh
Vienna (OTS) – With the Vienna Journalist Prize, the Young Journalist Prize and the Honorary Prize for International Female Journalists, the Media Women’s Network wants to highlight outstanding achievements by female journalists. “Especially in times when financial and political pressure on the media is increasing, it is even more important to present female journalists who are committed to a self-determined life for all and democratic values as role models for all of us
“says domestic politics and business journalist Martina Madner and chairwoman of the women’s media network. “All of the award-winning journalists use their reporting to point out grievances, look where others do not and explain when others are at a loss for words
“, says Alexandra Maritza Wachterdomestic policy journalist and presenter of “Zeit im Bild” and chairwoman of the women’s media network.
The Women’s Media Network is honoring the “Kurier” journalist and author with the Vienna Journalist Prize 2023 at the ceremonial award ceremony on September 18th in Vienna City Hall Yvonne Widler out of. The jury of the Journalist Prize praised Widler’s persistence in repeatedly dedicating herself to socially and socio-politically explosive topics. She is particularly impressive with her sensitive reporting on femicides and women affected by violence.
The Vienna Journalist Prize is an initiative of the women’s media network to promote outstanding journalistic work with a focus on women’s politics. It is endowed with 5,000 euros. The prize money was donated by Styria Media Group. It is under the patronage of the Vienna Vice Mayor and Women’s City Councilor Kathrin Gaál and the incumbent city council Peter Hanke.
In cooperation with the private broadcaster PULS 4 The women’s network media awards the young journalist prize worth 1,000 euros. This year it’s on Clara Porák, founder and managing director of the inclusive online magazine “another side”. Decisive factors for the award include, among other things, her inimitable way of telling stories and her approach to speaking to people for their stories rather than regarding them. According to the jury, the award is intended to encourage Porák to continue to fight for social justice, to continue her path resolutely and to grow with and through her tasks.
Special prize for Iranian journalist and human rights activist
In order to show support and solidarity with female media professionals in Iran, the Women’s Media Network is awarding an award to the Iranian journalist and women’s rights activist Aliyeh Motallebzadeh. Among other things, she is vice president of the Iranian Association for the Defense of Press Freedom and a board member of the Iranian Association of Press Photographers and has been arrested several times because of her socio-political commitment. The award is given by the Wien Holding sponsored and is endowed with 5,000 euros. The laudatory speech will be given by journalist Solmaz Khorsand, who herself was awarded the Vienna Journalist Prize in 2018.
About the women’s media network
The Women’s Media Network is a non-partisan network for journalists and women in media professions that was founded in Vienna in 1999 and now has more than 400 members. Further information can be found at www.frauennetzwerk.at.
Questions & Contact:
For questions and photos of the evening, please contact
Michaela Reisinger
Tel.: +43 664 332 9411
Andrea Vyslozil
Tel.: +43 676 848 451 427
E-Mail: office@frauennetzwerk.at
1695082150
#Womens #Network #Media #awards #outstanding #female #journalists
General Comment of the UN: Children’s rights mandate for climate protection – also in Austria
written by Alexandra Hartman Editor-in-Chief
2023-09-18 09:26:22
Children’s rights and climate protection organizations are sending a joint signal on the occasion of the launch of General Comment 26 of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child
Vienna (OTS) – Today the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child officially presents “General Comment No. 26 on Children’s Rights and the Environment with a Special Focus on Climate Change”. Change”, GC26 for short). The launch of the GC26 is a cause for celebration and is celebrated with many activities around the world, such as tree planting events organized by young people.
With GC26, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child obliges the states parties to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child to take immediate action in the face of the climate crisis to ensure compliance with children’s rights. “Climate protection is child protection. The GC26 shows this connection and the resulting obligations under children’s rights in concrete terms,” says Sebastian Öhner from the Vienna Child and Youth Advocate. Using specific children’s rights such as the rights to life and development, health, non-discrimination, education, protection from violence or the right to have a say, GC26 explains how states must guarantee these rights in the face of the climate crisis and how the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment can be implemented .
Involve young people
“Many children’s rights are acutely threatened due to the climate crisis,” emphasizes Rihab Toumi, chairwoman of the Federal Youth Representative Council. “GC26 is an important document that shows at the highest international level how important it is to see children’s rights in connection with climate policy. Because climate measures do not sufficiently take children and young people into account. Children and young people have the right to grow up safely and healthily and our voice must also be heard on climate issues.”
Children and young people played a major role in the creation of the GC26. Their global commitment to the climate was the impetus for the creation of the GC26. Twelve “Child Advisors” provided advice during the development process. More than 16,000 contributions from children and young people worldwide were included in the content. “Children and young people in Austria also took part in the development,” reports Teresa Millesi, federal chairwoman of the Austrian Catholic Youth Group. “They report that they are very concerned regarding the state of the environment and the climate. At the same time, they have the feeling that far too little is being done to combat the climate crisis. And this despite the fact that it is very clear that we have to act now. The mandate from children and young people to politicians is clear: effective measures are needed now to save the climate.”
Children and young people are particularly affected
“Due to their physical and cognitive development, children are already particularly affected by the consequences of the climate crisis,” says Corinna Geißler from UNICEF Austria. “Heat waves, food shortages, illnesses caused by contaminated water and the psychological and physical consequences of severe weather disasters have a more serious impact on them than on adults. Girls, children with disabilities and children who live in poverty and remote areas are particularly vulnerable. Almost EVERY child – more than 99% – is already exposed to climate change threats such as droughts, heatwaves and floods.”
“We are firmly convinced that awareness of ecological children’s rights plays a central role in shaping a sustainable and just future,” says Christian Moser, Managing Director of SOS Children’s Villages. “It is not only a necessity, but also an opportunity for all of us to act now and take the needs of the young generation into account in our decisions and actions.” And Christian Zauner from Parents For Future adds: “The GC26 contributes to “Making the inseparable connection between children’s rights and the climate crisis more visible is a clear, concrete mandate to ensure children’s rights.”
Austria event on November 21, 2023
The Children’s Rights Network, together with climate protection organizations, is taking the need for implementation formulated in the GC26 as an opportunity to organize an interdisciplinary conference two months following the launch of the GC26: On November 21st, the GC26 will be held in all its aspects under the title “Children’s rights as an opportunity and mandate in climate protection”. Dimensions illuminated. Political actors, young people, media representatives and other interested parties are cordially invited to take part and jointly explore the opportunities that children’s rights offer in climate protection, share knowledge regarding existing obligations and approaches to action, analyze current hurdles and the need for action to exchange ideas regarding ways, strategies and policies to contain the climate crisis.
Questions & Contact:
Children’s Rights Network Austria
Elisabeth Schaffelhofer-Garcia Marquez
0676 880 11 10 16
elisabeth.schaffelhofer@kinderhabenrechte.at
www.kinderhabenrechte.at
Federal youth representation
Nicole Pesendorfer-Amon
Tel.: 0676 880 11 11 42
nicole.pesendorfer@bjv.at
1695029219
#General #Comment #Childrens #rights #mandate #climate #protection #Austria
Examining the Controversial Legacy of the Chilean Coup: From Dictatorship to Democracy
written by Alexandra Hartman Editor-in-Chief
2023-09-11 04:24:00
The traditional Chilean right, which is grouped in the Chile Vamos coalition, already said on Wednesday that it will be absent from the official commemorative events this Monday and that it will not sign the declaration in favor of democracy promoted by President Gabriel Boric. The same announcement was made by the extreme right of the Republican Party.
LOOK: What the documents declassified by the US say regarding the hours before the coup d’état in Chile
Those who did sign that declaration were former presidents Sebastián Piñera, Michelle Bachelet, Ricardo Lagos and Eduardo Frei.
Allende’s presidency, the coup d’état and the plebiscite. (AFP).
Only Bachelet will attend the official ceremony this Monday. Piñera declined the invitation on Wednesday, while Lagos and Frei, both heads of state during the Concertación, the coalition that led the transition following the end of the dictatorship, had declined earlier.
The text promoted by Boric includes four points: “care for and defend democracy,” “face the challenges of democracy with more democracy,” “the defense and promotion of human rights” and “strengthen collaboration between States.”
Chile Vamos responded to Boric by presenting its own text, without mentioning the dictatorship or the coup d’état, and insisting on also condemning what they consider “the violations of fundamental rights” that occurred during the Popular Unity Government of Salvador Allende.
At this Monday’s event,
which will be held in a square next to the La Moneda palace, several world leaders will attend, such as the Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the Colombian Gustavo Petro, the Argentine Alberto Fernández, the Uruguayan Luis Lacalle Pou and the Portuguese António Costa.
Far-right protesters celebrate the military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet, on September 9, 2023. (JAVIER TORRES / AFP).
/ JAVIER TORRES
The figure of Pinochet on the rise
On March 11, 1990, Pinochet handed over power following losing a plebiscite, but he remained at the head of the army for another eight years. In addition, he was a senator for “life” until 2002.
Pinochet and impunity. (AFP).
In May of this year, a survey by the prestigious firm Cerc-Mori titled “Chile in the shadow of Pinochet” surprised the country: 36% of those surveyed considered that the Armed Forces “were right to carry out the coup d’état.” Just 10 years ago, 18% justified the coup. And in 2013, when 30 years passed since the coup, it was 16%.
In the same survey from May 2023, 41% indicated that the military “is never right” for a coup d’état.
The figures reflect a changing public opinion in Chile. Cerc-Mori has asked the same question for the last 20 years: In 2003, 46% said “there is never a reason to strike a coup,” the figure rose to 65% in 2006, dropped to 54% in 2009. and rose to 68% in 2013.
Furthermore, in the latest Cerc-Mori survey, 39% of those consulted answered that Pinochet modernized the country and 20% saw him as the best ruler of the 20th century.
General Augusto Pinochet (left) poses with Chilean President and Marxist leader Salvador Allende in Santiago on August 23, 1973, shortly following Allende appointed him head of the army. (AFP photo).
/ –
Marta Lagos, director of regional pollster Latinobarómetro and founder of Mori Chile, told The counter that there is no definitive position among those surveyed regarding the Pinochet dictatorship.
“The transition validated Pinochet,” said Lagos, referring to the first governments that alternated power in Chile since 1990.
He recalled that Pinochet left power in March 1990 and that he immediately became commander in chief of the Army until 1998, which did not allow him to confront the atrocities experienced during the dictatorship.
“We have been very tolerant with those who came from the dictatorship. Here there are countless people who participated in major political positions during the dictatorship and who continued trying to represent the people in democracy. That has not happened in any other dictatorship… In other countries you do not find ministers of the dictatorship serving as senators, nor former undersecretaries of the dictatorship being mayors. My conclusion, with this study, is that we have validated Pinochet,” Lagos noted.
For Andrés Gómez de la Torre, a specialist in Defense issues, unlike the military dictatorships of Argentina and Peru, which had disastrous statist and interventionist economic management, Pinochet had some success in economic matters due to the plan and the team he formed. starting in 1974, hence its high acceptance in the last survey.
“There is a reminiscence because the economy was finally stabilized and there were some development indicators, and that compared to other military governments made the difference. It was very clear. And when La Concertación comes to power with Patricio Aylwin, he says growth with equity, but he does not touch in depth the economic model established by Pinochet, but rather he wants to give it a social content, but he failed in that purpose of seeking social equity once morest the economic growth,” says Gómez de la Torre in dialogue with El Comercio.
A young man holds a photograph of the late Chilean president Salvador Allende and Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet outside the La Moneda Presidential Palace, on August 1, 2023. (MARTIN BERNETTI / AFP).
/ MARTIN BERNETTI
Interview
“Authoritarianism is present in an important segment of society in Chile”
Octavio Avendaño, political scientist and academic at the University of Chile
-How does Chile receive the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the coup?
Regardless of the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the coup, there is no shared opinion regarding what the coup was, there is no generalized condemnation: there are sectors that justify it and there are others that condemn. There is also no common opinion regarding what the previous stage was, that is, the experience of the Popular Unity, nor what comes following, the experience of the dictatorship. The sectors for and once morest then are replicated to this day.
Now, this commemoration has something special beyond the 50 years, it has to do with not only including the moment of the coup itself, but also taking stock of what happened, and taking stock means having an opinion regarding it. from the experience of Unidad Popular, the coup, the experience of the dictatorship and the transition process and the democratic governments in the following 30 years. And that generates greater complexity from the analysis point of view. Of course, the most central and controversial element has to do with the coup itself.
-Why do 36% of respondents believe that there was a reason for the coup d’état, why is public opinion in Chile so changing regarding the figure of Pinochet?
It is not that public opinion in Chile is changing, I believe that there has been a positive evaluation for a long time regarding the dictatorial experience and even the figure of Pinochet. Despite the fact that there are sectors that refuse to recognize this reality. Dictatorship experiences leave a mark, a sequel, which is also expressed in cultural terms, recognition and even nostalgia. There are sectors that feel nostalgic regarding the authoritarian past. Every time there are crisis situations or problems associated with citizen security, the instability of the social and political order, voices appear that appeal to an authoritarian solution. So, this authoritarianism is present in a significant segment of Chilean society, some speak of 30% or more. Others say that it can reach 40% of the population.
-What did the center-left governments fail to prevent the figure of Pinochet from emerging as he is doing now?
The center-left governments were unable to reverse the issue because a cultural transformation was required, something that was not achieved. Greater centrality was also required in citizen education and civic education. The educational model tended to be commercialized and focused on productive and pragmatic aspects, leaving aside citizen and civic education. The result is what we have today: an uninformed, apathetic citizenry, disinterested in public affairs and with certain authoritarian inclinations.
-Do they teach what the dictatorship was in schools, do they talk clearly regarding the dictatorship?
In schools now they do talk regarding dictatorship, but for young people dictatorship is something quite remote, it is not something they associate with the reality of the present. We must keep in mind that when we talk regarding the dictatorship in objective terms, we are facing an event that leaves traces and various legacies from the economic, institutional and political point of view, in terms of violations of human rights, and that legacy is present today. Because we have the political institutions, the inherited economic model, the unresolved problems regarding human rights. But for young people who did not live through the dictatorial experience or who were born following the 90s, more than 60% of the population, the dictatorial experience is something very remote, they do not associate it with the present.
Justice, a pending task
Pinochet and impunity. (AFP).
Pinochet died in 2006 without ever going to jail. He was never sentenced for the crimes of the dictatorship. When he died he was 91 years old and was under house arrest for three cases of human rights violations and one of embezzlement of public funds.
Only since 2000 did complaints of kidnappings, rapes, murders and torture during the dictatorship begin to be investigated in depth.
Currently, some 250 soldiers are imprisoned for human rights violations.
And this year the Supreme Court issued final rulings in emblematic cases such as the “Caravan of Death” and the murder of singer-songwriter Víctor Jara, which occurred in 1973.
A poster with a photo of teacher and singer Víctor Jara, who was tortured and shot to death during the Chilean dictatorship, is seen as people demonstrate at the General Cemetery. (Photo by Javier TORRES/AFP).
/ JAVIER TORRES
For Octavio Avendaño, political scientist and academic at the University of Chile, justice for human rights violations is a pending task.
“There is still a long way to go, starting because the sectors of the right that were ultimately complicit in everything that happened have never made a recognition and self-criticism, nor have they assumed responsibility. There are sectors of the Armed Forces that have not wanted to collaborate in clarifying the disappearances. So, in terms of justice, I think there is a lot missing. However, public discourse falls into a simplification that we must move towards greater reconciliation, but how is reconciliation without justice possible? There is a lot ahead here and many pending tasks left by the authoritarian experience and that is why the commemoration of the 50 years is so strong and has such a notable connotation,” says Avendaño in dialogue with El Comercio.
Andrés Gómez de la Torre indicates that on the issue of human rights and Pinochet, President Patricio Aylwin’s motto was justice as far as possible, because it was very difficult to lead that transition.
“We must remember that Pinochet might not be removed from the general command of the army by the president when he requested it. He said that the best guarantee for the stability of his government was his permanence as commander in chief. In Chile in the 90s it was impossible to think of a kind of ‘Argentinization’, that is, what Raúl Alfonsín did with the immediate trials of the military junta, there was no way to do it. The Chilean military, unlike the Peruvian and Argentine military, emerged quite strengthened with the transition to democracy. Justice was not served because Aylwin was very tied up. It was a very complex transition, in slow motion from a political point of view due to the de facto powers that the military retained,” says Gómez de la Torre.
The disappeared in Chile. (AFP).
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#Coup #détat #Allende #years #Chile #commemorates #September #divided #figure #Augusto #Pinochet #rise #Gabriel #Boric #Chilean #dictatorship #CIA #WORLD