Showing posts with label Global Village. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Global Village. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Tuesday, June 07, 2011
A new way to measure human rights may revolutionize global advocacy
Change Agent
A new way to measure human rights may revolutionize global advocacy
The SERF index, a new way to measure human rights in a country, may provide a more accurate assessment of a country's human rights effort.
A small group of scholars based at The New School in New York City and the University of Connecticuthave created what they hope will be a more rigorous and globally applicable index of human rights, focusing on social and economic rights, called the SERF index.
Courtesy of Dowser.org
By Rachel Signer, Dowser.org / June 6, 2011
In 1948, the United Nations passed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the hopes of creating a world in which individuals lived without oppression. In the decades that have passed, human rights advocacy has grown into a worldwide community of organizations, academics, and think tanks.
But the task of protecting and improving human rights faces numerous challenges: the problem of using standardized indexes to measure rights in highly heterogeneous cultural and national contexts is one. And for many human rights scholars, the tendency to concentrate advocacy efforts on political and civic rights, like the right to vote or the right to a fair trial, rather than social and economic ones, like the right to education or health care, is another significant limitation.
A small group of scholars based at The New School in New York City and the University of Connecticut, with support from the Social Science Research Council, have created what they hope will be a more rigorous and globally applicable human rights index that focuses on social and economic rights, called the SERF index. The Economic and Social Rights Empowerment Initiative launched the index on May 13, in a public panel at New York University’s Institute for Public Knowledge.
GALLERY: World's worst human rights violators
The SERF index aims to break away from other rights indicators by accounting for not only the rights-bearers, but also duty-bearing state governments. Focusing on the “core rights” of adequate housing, education, food, healthy, work, and social security, SERF takes a substantive and contextual approach that asks, firstly, the extent to which a nation’s people are enjoying these rights and, secondly, the extent to which countries are feasibly obligated to fulfill these rights.
In order to deal with the immense variety of governments around the world, SERF is relying on GDP as a proxy for state capacity, something which New York University law professor Margaret Satterthwaite suggested may be problematic at the panel.
For an example of how the indicator works, the panel showed how Equatorial Guinea and Moldova measure nearly equal on the Human Development Index, but drastically different according to SERF. The gap is a result of accounting for how much a national government is measuring up to what it is capable of doing, given its economic situation.
Indicators define goalposts and policy objectives for human rights advocates. Therefore, in order for an indicator to be effective, it must be put into use by these activists, explained Larry Cox, the US director of Amnesty International. For an indicator to acquire authority it must be replicable, clear, and backed up by solid academic research – and, Mr. Cox said, this one certainly merits all three claims. Furthermore, Cox emphasized that the indicator’s methodology must be made comprehensible to larger civil society audiences.
Still, limitations exist for the SERF index. There are missing data sets that may be difficult to obtain in many cases, there is a need to address broader questions of moral imperatives and judgment in the face of cultural differences, and there is the challenge of bringing the indicator to activists who can use it to work toward policy reforms.
Nevertheless, the SERF index represents a new direction in the field of global justice by attempting to tackle significant problems that are a result of divergent histories and unequal power relations around the world.
Source
.
A new way to measure human rights may revolutionize global advocacy
The SERF index, a new way to measure human rights in a country, may provide a more accurate assessment of a country's human rights effort.
A small group of scholars based at The New School in New York City and the University of Connecticuthave created what they hope will be a more rigorous and globally applicable index of human rights, focusing on social and economic rights, called the SERF index.
Courtesy of Dowser.org
By Rachel Signer, Dowser.org / June 6, 2011
In 1948, the United Nations passed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the hopes of creating a world in which individuals lived without oppression. In the decades that have passed, human rights advocacy has grown into a worldwide community of organizations, academics, and think tanks.
But the task of protecting and improving human rights faces numerous challenges: the problem of using standardized indexes to measure rights in highly heterogeneous cultural and national contexts is one. And for many human rights scholars, the tendency to concentrate advocacy efforts on political and civic rights, like the right to vote or the right to a fair trial, rather than social and economic ones, like the right to education or health care, is another significant limitation.
A small group of scholars based at The New School in New York City and the University of Connecticut, with support from the Social Science Research Council, have created what they hope will be a more rigorous and globally applicable human rights index that focuses on social and economic rights, called the SERF index. The Economic and Social Rights Empowerment Initiative launched the index on May 13, in a public panel at New York University’s Institute for Public Knowledge.
GALLERY: World's worst human rights violators
The SERF index aims to break away from other rights indicators by accounting for not only the rights-bearers, but also duty-bearing state governments. Focusing on the “core rights” of adequate housing, education, food, healthy, work, and social security, SERF takes a substantive and contextual approach that asks, firstly, the extent to which a nation’s people are enjoying these rights and, secondly, the extent to which countries are feasibly obligated to fulfill these rights.
In order to deal with the immense variety of governments around the world, SERF is relying on GDP as a proxy for state capacity, something which New York University law professor Margaret Satterthwaite suggested may be problematic at the panel.
For an example of how the indicator works, the panel showed how Equatorial Guinea and Moldova measure nearly equal on the Human Development Index, but drastically different according to SERF. The gap is a result of accounting for how much a national government is measuring up to what it is capable of doing, given its economic situation.
Indicators define goalposts and policy objectives for human rights advocates. Therefore, in order for an indicator to be effective, it must be put into use by these activists, explained Larry Cox, the US director of Amnesty International. For an indicator to acquire authority it must be replicable, clear, and backed up by solid academic research – and, Mr. Cox said, this one certainly merits all three claims. Furthermore, Cox emphasized that the indicator’s methodology must be made comprehensible to larger civil society audiences.
Still, limitations exist for the SERF index. There are missing data sets that may be difficult to obtain in many cases, there is a need to address broader questions of moral imperatives and judgment in the face of cultural differences, and there is the challenge of bringing the indicator to activists who can use it to work toward policy reforms.
Nevertheless, the SERF index represents a new direction in the field of global justice by attempting to tackle significant problems that are a result of divergent histories and unequal power relations around the world.
Source
.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Rotary Clubs Honor Traditions While Facing Change
Rotary Clubs Honor Traditions While Facing Change
By Susan Kim, STAFF WRITER
Connecting with other businesspeople and helping others were the top reasons cited by local Rotary club members as their reasons for joining in the first place. Now they find themselves honoring the traditions of Rotary while, at the same time, facing changes that have shifted their trends on fundraising, membership and global outlook.
Betty Loafmann, owner of the 4 East Madison Inn in Baltimore, moved to Baltimore from Chicago in 2003 and promptly joined the Baltimore club, which will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2012.
"A friend said it would be an excellent place to meet people, and it was," said Loafmann, who is now president of the club.
Meanwhile, the North Anne Arundel club is just 3 years old but is already forging close ties between its members. Architect Peter Notari, president of Notari Associates in Baltimore, became a member when the chapter started.
"When we chartered there were 24 of us," he said. "I was intrigued because, while my business is in Baltimore, I live in Linthicum, and I didn't have a lot of business connections to Anne Arundel County. The other thing that attracted me to Rotary is the idea of civic work to better the community."
A Better World, Locally and Globally
Across the board, Rotary members said they appreciate the chance Rotary offers to not only make their community a better place, but to reach out locally to those in need.
"It's something to help the community," said Jeff Blitz, owner of Laurel Automotive and president of the Laurel club. Blitz said that, currently, the club is focusing on enhancing education in the community in a variety of ways.
Like other local clubs, the Laurel club also has a global outlook. In the wake of the catastrophic earthquake in Haiti in January, the club raised funds for an international aid kit that contained a 10-person tent, portable stove, blankets and other survival tools.
The Bowie Club is also focused on meeting the needs of others, and is currently in the planning stages of a bus shelter for the C. Elizabeth Rieg Regional School in Bowie, a public special education school.
Abba Polangin, president of the Bowie club and a local architect, said the club, though fairly new, is already immersed in the project.
"We chose a bus shelter because, every day, 12 to 14 buses pull up in front of the school and each child has to be unbuckled from the seat, rolled to a lift, and lowered to the ground, where an adult picks them up. Then, it's the reverse in the afternoon. They do that completely in the weather right now," he said.
Changes Afoot
Rotarians also reported that, though their organization is steeped in tradition, clubs are extremely adaptable to change.
David Newman, president of the Clarksville club and pastor of New Hope Adventist Church, said he has been a Rotary member since before women were officially admitted to Rotary. The Rotary club was established in 1905, but it wasn't until 1989, after a legal battle, that women were admitted to the international service organization. Today all clubs in the United States and Canada permit female members.
"When I joined, Rotary was very much a men's club - and it's been so much better since women have joined the ranks," he said.
Rotary clubs always have thought on a global level, but now are working more effectively on a larger scale, reflected John Contreras, president of the Columbia Town Center club and general manager of business affairs at Athelas Institute.
"Clubs are coming up with bigger and better ways to help worldwide with big disasters, and with nearly eradicating polio in countries such as India," he said.
Constantly Evolving
As the community around them changes, local clubs change, too. Sometimes that means taking a hard look at the habits of a club, said Michael Maultsby, president of the Glen Burnie club and a senior accountant for Clark & Anderson.
"The club has gone from being one of the larger clubs in the district to a smaller club, and now to a growing club. Over the years, as we shrunk a little, we really needed to take a good hard look at ourselves and work to find who we are. While we have numerous dedicated Rotarians, we, like most organizations, have had to accept that change happens, and we are not the same club we were when we started 81 years ago, or that we were 10 or 20 years ago."
The Glen Burnie club is one among many local clubs that has had to work to redefine itself and its parameters, explained Maultsby. "For a number of years we had followed the normal migration of age, though this year we have been working on growing, and also trying to attract younger members."
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Thousands Tour ADRA's Global Village on Opening Day
School children surround the Stilt House at ADRA's Global Village Washington, D.C., USA ... [ANN] VIP representatives from the United States government, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), World Bank and other organizations, and thousands of visitors...
19 Apr 1998,
School children surround the Stilt House at ADRA's Global Village
Washington, D.C., USA ... [ANN] VIP representatives from the United States government, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), World Bank and other organizations, and thousands of visitors and schoolchildren visited the opening day of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency's (ADRA) Global Village on Thursday, April 16, on the United States Capitol Mall in Washington, D.C.
At the opening ceremony, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Delegate for the District of Columbia, said, "I am pleased that ADRA and its sponsors have brought the world to Washington. When the President went to Africa a few weeks ago, I don't know if he went into a mud hut, but I am thrilled that children from the district will have a chance to be in a mud hut and to experience how people live in other places."
Other visitors to the opening day of ADRA's Global Village (AGV), the one-of-a-kind traveling, educational exhibit, were Brian Atwood, USAID administrator; Elaine Wolfensohn, educator representing World Bank; and Charles T. Manatt, International Business Council chairman of the D.C. Board of Trade.
Almost 1,000 school children from as far as New York state also came to tour the event. At least 200,000 people and 10,000 school children are expected to visit AGV before its closing day on April 29. The five-acre event is open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, located directly in front of the Smithsonian Castle, between Jefferson and Madison streets.
"The impact of ADRA's Global Village in the Washington, D.C. area and abroad will last long after the habitats are gone," said ADRA President Ralph S. Watts, Jr. "It's something you have to experience for yourself by stepping inside the temporary home of a refugee, or grinding cornmeal from the seat of a bicycle. The experience is unforgettable."
AGV features 10 life-size habitats including a southeast Asian stilt house, African Masai kraal and Latin American choza. At the 10 learning stations, visitors discover the importance of clean water, "beasts of burden," bridges, and marketplaces. At the Pack-A-Box station, the last stop on the 2- to 3-hour tour, school children are taking direct action against the poverty they've just learned about.
"At Pack-A-Box they are busily packing boxes of clothes and personal hygiene items for needy children overseas," explains Casey Bahr, ADRA Central Office director of development education and one of the creators of the village. "We also talk with students about what they've learned and encourage them to think about how to continue helping others."
At this particular event, the items the children are packing will go to Haiti and, as Norton happily noted in her opening speech, some of the boxes will benefit three charities right here in the district: Martha's Table, For the Love of Children and Bailey's Making the Grade.
"Global Village is cool!" said a couple of Maryland schoolchildren while taping up a box of items at the Pack-A-Box tent. "You get to see how other people live. We're not used to what other people are used to." One of their mothers added, "It makes me appreciate what I have and what others don't."
"Isn't it great to be doing something worthwhile," said eight army cadets after personally packing a box.
ADRA developed Global Village as a way to expand children's world views and to foster an understanding of universal human needs, equality, interdependence, and the importance of cultural differences. The goal is to help children learn how to make a difference in a world shared with many people. The first AGV in October 1992 brought more than 24,000 people to the campus of La Sierra University in Riverside, California. AGV has also been displayed in Rome; Utrecht, the Netherlands; Dayton, Ohio, and other locations.
ADRA, developed in 1956, is an independent, humanitarian agency supported by the Seventh-day Adventist Church with the specific purpose of individual and community development, and disaster relief. As a nongovernmental organization (NGO), ADRA helps people in more than 145 countries without regard to ethnic, political or religious association.
This year alone, among other projects, ADRA has shipped close to US$2 million worth of aid to North Korea as part of its ongoing humanitarian assistance to the famine-stricken country. Approximately one-third of the inhabitants of the Naxcivan Autonomous Republic (NAR) now have access to immunization and health education after the opening of ADRA's health education center in Naxcivan City and 44 health posts in outlying districts and villages. ADRA also provided 348 senior high school students of ADRA's Education Program for Liberian Refugees in Cote d'Ivoire with high school diplomas.
"We want to thank all the sponsors and hundreds of volunteers who helped make this event possible," said Watts. "An event like this can't be done with just a handful of people. It really takes the effort of hundreds. By the time this event is over, we will have a total of almost 3,000 volunteers from our own organization, the World Bank, NBC4-TV, USAID, and others helping to make this possible."
Sponsors for ADRA's Global Village include ADRA International, the World Bank, NBC4-TV, InterAction, Adventist HealthCare, Target Stores, Citibank, Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission and other partners. [Report: Beth Shaefer; pictures: Dixil Rodriguez]
19 Apr 1998,
School children surround the Stilt House at ADRA's Global Village
Washington, D.C., USA ... [ANN] VIP representatives from the United States government, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), World Bank and other organizations, and thousands of visitors and schoolchildren visited the opening day of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency's (ADRA) Global Village on Thursday, April 16, on the United States Capitol Mall in Washington, D.C.
At the opening ceremony, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Delegate for the District of Columbia, said, "I am pleased that ADRA and its sponsors have brought the world to Washington. When the President went to Africa a few weeks ago, I don't know if he went into a mud hut, but I am thrilled that children from the district will have a chance to be in a mud hut and to experience how people live in other places."
Other visitors to the opening day of ADRA's Global Village (AGV), the one-of-a-kind traveling, educational exhibit, were Brian Atwood, USAID administrator; Elaine Wolfensohn, educator representing World Bank; and Charles T. Manatt, International Business Council chairman of the D.C. Board of Trade.
Almost 1,000 school children from as far as New York state also came to tour the event. At least 200,000 people and 10,000 school children are expected to visit AGV before its closing day on April 29. The five-acre event is open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, located directly in front of the Smithsonian Castle, between Jefferson and Madison streets.
"The impact of ADRA's Global Village in the Washington, D.C. area and abroad will last long after the habitats are gone," said ADRA President Ralph S. Watts, Jr. "It's something you have to experience for yourself by stepping inside the temporary home of a refugee, or grinding cornmeal from the seat of a bicycle. The experience is unforgettable."
AGV features 10 life-size habitats including a southeast Asian stilt house, African Masai kraal and Latin American choza. At the 10 learning stations, visitors discover the importance of clean water, "beasts of burden," bridges, and marketplaces. At the Pack-A-Box station, the last stop on the 2- to 3-hour tour, school children are taking direct action against the poverty they've just learned about.
"At Pack-A-Box they are busily packing boxes of clothes and personal hygiene items for needy children overseas," explains Casey Bahr, ADRA Central Office director of development education and one of the creators of the village. "We also talk with students about what they've learned and encourage them to think about how to continue helping others."
At this particular event, the items the children are packing will go to Haiti and, as Norton happily noted in her opening speech, some of the boxes will benefit three charities right here in the district: Martha's Table, For the Love of Children and Bailey's Making the Grade.
"Global Village is cool!" said a couple of Maryland schoolchildren while taping up a box of items at the Pack-A-Box tent. "You get to see how other people live. We're not used to what other people are used to." One of their mothers added, "It makes me appreciate what I have and what others don't."
"Isn't it great to be doing something worthwhile," said eight army cadets after personally packing a box.
ADRA developed Global Village as a way to expand children's world views and to foster an understanding of universal human needs, equality, interdependence, and the importance of cultural differences. The goal is to help children learn how to make a difference in a world shared with many people. The first AGV in October 1992 brought more than 24,000 people to the campus of La Sierra University in Riverside, California. AGV has also been displayed in Rome; Utrecht, the Netherlands; Dayton, Ohio, and other locations.
ADRA, developed in 1956, is an independent, humanitarian agency supported by the Seventh-day Adventist Church with the specific purpose of individual and community development, and disaster relief. As a nongovernmental organization (NGO), ADRA helps people in more than 145 countries without regard to ethnic, political or religious association.
This year alone, among other projects, ADRA has shipped close to US$2 million worth of aid to North Korea as part of its ongoing humanitarian assistance to the famine-stricken country. Approximately one-third of the inhabitants of the Naxcivan Autonomous Republic (NAR) now have access to immunization and health education after the opening of ADRA's health education center in Naxcivan City and 44 health posts in outlying districts and villages. ADRA also provided 348 senior high school students of ADRA's Education Program for Liberian Refugees in Cote d'Ivoire with high school diplomas.
"We want to thank all the sponsors and hundreds of volunteers who helped make this event possible," said Watts. "An event like this can't be done with just a handful of people. It really takes the effort of hundreds. By the time this event is over, we will have a total of almost 3,000 volunteers from our own organization, the World Bank, NBC4-TV, USAID, and others helping to make this possible."
Sponsors for ADRA's Global Village include ADRA International, the World Bank, NBC4-TV, InterAction, Adventist HealthCare, Target Stores, Citibank, Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission and other partners. [Report: Beth Shaefer; pictures: Dixil Rodriguez]
Global Village attracts people from Media coverage at Global Village all walks of life...
. Source: Adventist News Network
Note: Bolds and Highlights added.
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