Showing posts with label business and human rights. Show all posts
Showing posts with label business and human rights. Show all posts

Message from Oxfam: Where Does the Oil $ Go?

8:55 PM | 0 comments

156 Countries Sing Beatles Love for Africa AIDS Love

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If only it weren't Starbucks....! Don't miss the Qatari dude rocking the oud. For those of you unfamiliar with the song "All You Need is Love" (are those of you out there?) then here is the original Beatles version below.



Kit Kat Gives Fair Trade a Break!

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Kit Kat has gone fair trade-with the certification label to prove it. Here is an article by Rebecca Smithers of The Guardian explaining the move.


The UK's best-selling chocolate biscuit bar, Kit Kat, is to receive ethical certification through the Fairtrade quality mark, it will be announced today.

After lengthy talks between the UK arm of the Swiss food giant Nestlé and the Fairtrade Foundation, the familiar blue and green logo will appear on the wrappers of Kit Kats in the UK and Ireland from January. Initially the certification will only apply to the larger four-finger Kit Kats but it will be extended to the smaller bars.

The move represents a major coup for Fairtrade, which earlier this year certified Cadbury's Dairy Milk, and means chocolate is now a mainstream Fairtrade product alongside bananas, tea and coffee.

It follows the October launch of Nestlé's global Cocoa Plan, a £65m investment programme over the next 10 years to tackle the key economic, social and environmental issues facing cocoa farming communities. Farmers living and working in Ivory Coast, the world's largest cocoa producing country, will be the main beneficiaries.

As well as the Fairtrade price (or market price if higher) for the cocoa, farmers' groups receive extra Fairtrade premium payments to invest in long-term community and business projects of their own choice, such as education and healthcare. The sugar in the product will also be Fairtrade certified, sourced from Belize.

Fair Trade in Kuwait

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I would normally get fair trade products for certain key items, such as coffee and bananas that are personally important to me (I used to live in several countries in Central America). How can we get grocery stores, particularly for example Sultan Center, to incorporate more fair trade products on their shelves. Anybody have thoughts?

2009 Global Corruption Report by Transparency International Now Available

, , 9:13 PM | 0 comments

I would like to obtain a copy of this, as the theme for this year is Corruption and the Private Sector, and I am quite curious as to what has been found for the Gulf region, but it does not seem available by download from the website. However, I am including here some information about the theme for this year's report:

Transparency International’s Global Corruption Report 2009 (GCR09) brings together leading scholars, business practitioners and civil society experts to examine a broad range of persistent and emerging corruption risks for business, assess the efficacy of existing remedies, and propose
practical and innovative measures to strengthen and future-proof corporate integrity.

Topics covered include:

  • Corruption inside the enterprise: responding to
    corporate fraud and conflicts of interest.
  • Needs-tailored strategies: addressing corruption risks in SMEs, high-risk industries and privatisation programmes.
  • The state of play in compliance, reporting, codes and regulation: what works, what doesn’t,
    what’s next?
  • Holistic corporate integrity – aligning values, incentives and market signals: engaging owners,
    lenders and gatekeepers.
  • New and emerging markets: compliance in a changing global economy.

Op-Ed by Dr. Shamlan Yousef Al Eissa at Al-Watan Daily: Dealing effectively with the sponsorship issue

, , , 9:58 PM | 0 comments

Interesting op-ed today warning about the dangers of placing recruitment in potentially corrupt public hands in Kuwait.

"The Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Mohammed AlـIfasi announced that the ministry intends to set up a nonـprofitable government authority to hire and sponsor overseas labor, instead of having citizens and companies as sponsors. He said that the ministry is also mulling over the possibility of allowing laborers to be their own sponsors. Explaining the system, he said that the authority will bring laborers to Kuwait and allocate them to the various sectors based on the requirements of the market. This is aimed at eliminating the need for residency dealers and companies that bring in laborers after charging them huge amounts of money and then set them loose on the streets without any work.

I commend AlـIfasi for his attempts in eliminating the practice of private companies taking advantage of overseas laborers, since they deprive them of their legal rights and also take advantage of the loopholes existing in the local labor laws.

I would however, like to caution the minister against setting up a new government authority to bring in expatriate labor, because the government authority will only be corrupt and unable to execute its responsibilities especially regarding overseas labor, since some employees at the ministry collaborate with residency dealers and they will abuse the law.

Employees in ministries are incapable of eliminating corruption and even indulge in thefts in coـoperative societies. They have also failed to monitor money and donations that flow into Islamic charitable societies and political Islamic institutions that are managed by religious parties." (click here for link)

From My Migrant Rights Post: "Kuwait Makes Baby Steps to Reform Sponsorship System"

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The Al Watan Daily, Arab Times and Kuwait Times newspapers are reporting that Kuwait’s Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor is making small moves towards the abolishment of the “kafeel” sponsorship system, beginning with allowing expatriot workers in the private sector to transfer their residencies without the approval of their sponsor.

This leniency is granted provided on the condition that the worker has been with the sponsor at least three years before transferring residency. The Minister, Dr, Mohammed AlـIfasi, spoke to reporters of Al Rai at a Kuwait Pearl Diving Ceremony and, as the Al-Watan Daily reports, also mentioned that the entire Department would also go under a drastic restructuring to facilitate reforms of the sponsorship and cut bureaucracy.

According to The Kuwait Times, Dr. Al-Ifasi was quoted as saying that, “they are being sold for certain sums of money as if we were living in the age of slavery.”

The Arab Times interviewed several leading politicians and academics about their opinions on the overhaul of Kuwait’s current sponsorship scheme. One of these, Dr Humaid Qanas, exercised caution in implementing proposals without a solid and well-researched understanding of the underlying problems, noting that similiar countries that have abolished the system only did so after many years of conducting studies before implementing policies.

“Stating that Kuwait is fond of putting attractive titles on such a vital issue, but there will be no traces of its functions at the end of the day, Qanas urged the government to assign specialists to study the proposal and put the final touches for its full implementation.

“The issue is similar to many other proposals like the housing, education and healthcare projects, which do not have clear plans or serious inclination for success. We should get it right this time, because the issue has dented Kuwait’s image in the international community,” the academician suggested.”

Op-Ed by Dr. Shamlan Yousef AlـIssa in Al-Watan Daily: "Dealing with human rights abuse in Kuwait"

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An interesting opinion piece that criticizes the pervasive denial among Kuwaiti government officials in reaction to the US State Department's Human Rights Report.


The U.S. State Department''s annual report on human rights abuse has raised a storm of protests and rejection by the Kuwaiti government and members of the National Assembly because the report accused Kuwait of human trafficking and human rights abuse. The report confirmed that there were more than 500,000 women working as domestic workers in Kuwait, most of them hailing from Asia. The report indicated that most of those women are being subjected to forced labor by their sponsors such as physical abuse, sexual abuse and nonـpayment of salaries with the intention of forcing them to continue working under horrid conditions. The report also accused the Kuwaiti government of not committing itself to even the minimum attempts towards the elimination of human trafficking.

Politicians slammed the report and launched a vigorous campaign against the United States. The National Assembly Speaker Jassem AlـKharafi has confirmed that Kuwait is not a "State of Angels" and expressed concern that the U.S. has appointed itself as a watchdog over other countries.

A group of MPs have also rejected the report and accused the U.S. of being biased against Kuwait. The Kuwaiti government deemed the report as unfair and unjust while the minister of Social Affairs and Labor spoke about steps taken by the government in improving the expatriates'' living conditions.

The U.S. State Department''s report however, also mentioned some positive steps taken by the government of Kuwait but confirmed that there were still many existing issues that need to be rectified. Personally, the report did not surprise me because we have repeatedly called upon the Kuwaiti government, through the press and the Human Rights Society, to initiate legal action against all offenders in order to avoid being accused by international human rights organizations. More than 30 years ago, I had written a thesis on employment in Kuwait and I had then stressed upon the magnitude of injustice and human rights violations in the treatment of domestic and expatriate workers. Later, I became a member of the board of directors of the Human Rights Society. The members of that society and I, for more than 10 years, tried and are still trying to urge the government to expedite the enactment of laws protecting foreign workers estimated at about two million and constitute the backbone of the Kuwaiti economy. They represent more than 70 percent of the workers while the percentage of citizens in the labor market does not exceed 18 percent of the total workers and most of them work in the government sector.

The U.S. Department of State''s report is indeed realistic, fair and just because the human rights abuses in Kuwait have exceeded all parameters. Despite attempts by the MPs and the government to conceal the truth, evidence remains crystal clear against Kuwait concerning the inhumane practices imposed on expatriate workers in general and domestic workers in particular.

What is the evidence which proves that Kuwait is indeed involved in violating human rights? The reports of the United Nations and specifically the Arab Human Development reports, from 2002 until 2006 refer to the magnitude of inhumane abuses imposed on domestic workers. The reports of the Kuwaiti Human Rights Society condemn such practices and local newspapers publish, on a daily basis, stories of sexual abuse by the citizens and their children against domestic workers. Newspapers have also reported sexual attacks on domestic workers by police officers.

MPs have raised the issue more than once and formed parliamentary committees but yet nothing has changed and no action has been initiated against visa traders.

Expatriate workers in cleaning companies and other companies have time and again organized demonstrations calling for their rights. How did we deal with all those who simply called for their rights? We assaulted and deported them without any trials. Why didn''t we apply the law? Don''t we always claim that we live in a democratic country?

Finally, I advise the speaker of the Parliament, MPs and media persons to heed the advice of the U.S. which is a friendly country instead of criticizing U.S. policies for personal and partisan reasons. (for link, click here)

Al Watan Daily: "The Butlers Kuwaiti documentary movie to hit movie screens soon"

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Mixed reactions to this movie, but I will definitely be one of the first ticket purchasers. Mr. Al-Anjiri should have a screen filming that allows a question and answer period afterward. He should invite several members of society, including expat associations, human rights groups including the Kuwait Social Work Society and members of government, including the Labor Ministry.

It is no coincidence that Al-Watan Daily is mentioning a movie "to hit soon in theatres" on the Friday edition of news in the same week after Kuwait was attacked by both the Philippines and United States for its human rights record. The last paragraph of the article made me lose my patience. I bolded the parts. THOSE STRAY CASES ARE THE REASONS FOR INTERNATIONAL INDIGNATION. They may be stray, but that does not mean they are few. Also, they are cases with circumstances that just keep repeating and repeating themselves-stories that sound similar-which means that reform is needed to break the cycle. I refer you to the blog of the KSWS (http://q8sws.blogspot.com/).

"Film Producer Abdulaziz AlـAnjiri said that the documentary film titled The Butlers will hit Kuwaiti movie screens soon. He said the movie took almost a year to shoot which was shot extensively in Kuwait and India. The editing process too required a lot of time with considerable efforts put in by the crew. The movie is featured in Arabic with English subtitles thus addressing His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah AlـAhmad AlـSabah''s desire in regaining Kuwait''s reputation over human rights abuse.

Abdulaziz AlـAnjiri commended the wholehearted support and encouragement given by His Highness the Amir, His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser AlـMohammed AlـSabah and the Deputy Minister of Information Sheikh Faisal AlـSabah. He also commended the role of the Assistant Undersecretary for Public Television Fawzi AlـTemimi who was keen on having the film released on prime time television presented by Kuwait Television.

The film is directed by Yareb BuـRahma and Abdulaziz AlـMershed along with Yousef Haider from the public relations management. The movie''s technical crew conducted several interviews with the EditorـinـChief of AlـQabas Newspaper Waleed AlـNesef who gave valuable insights about the freedom of the press in reporting human rights abuses along with interviews with Ghanim AlـNajar who has valuable experience in the field of human rights around the world and the Reverend Pastor Emmanuel Ghraib and many other personalities that have played pivotal roles in the context of the film. He said the film will represent Kuwait at the Global Festival in the documentary films category.

The movie is a social documentary and doesn''t seek to rake in profits like other movies since it intends to send out a message that would positively reflect Kuwait to the entire world and refute some of the allegations made by global human rights associations who project Kuwait in a bad light. The film portrays expatriate laborers in Kuwait enjoying free healthcare facilities, tax free salaries, annual holidays and freedom of religious practices. The movie does not portray some stray individual cases of abuse and violations in Kuwait since many foreigners respect Kuwaiti laws and love to work and live in Kuwait." (for link to article, click here)

Books: "Jungle Capitalists: A Story of Globalisation, Greed and Revolution" by Peter Chapman

, 9:52 PM | 0 comments

It seems this book gives an in-depth account of United Fruit Company's interventionalist history in Central America's banana republics from the 19th to the 20th centuries. Given that I mentioned the Banana Trade Wars between the EU and the US recently in my blog, I thought I would mention the book on my blog. I have not read it yet.



In the university, my professor did once give me a copy of the book The Sovereign State of ITT, an older look (published in the 1970s) at the growing influence of multinationals and weakening sovereignty of traditional states. The book examined ITT's ventures in Chile, including its hand in the assassination of Allende.


In related multinational, foreign intervention news, Shell finally settled its case in "reconciliation" of complicity in the deaths of several Nigerian union leaders and campaigners by Shell-backed military rulers in the mid-1990s. In high school, my friends formed our school's first Amnesty International Chapter largely due to our infuriation over this event. It was one of our main causes.

AL-Jazeera English: "Chiquita: Between life and law; People & Power"

, , 5:55 PM | 0 comments

I have been anti-Chiquita for a long time, especially after having lived in Central America.  Chiquita has a long, sordid history of short-changing small banana republics and is currently a major player in the displacement of small farmers in many banana-exporting countries, which has led to banana trade wars between the United States and the European Union in ongoing WTO disputes.  I'll be happy to share a paper I wrote in graduate school on the topic for a class I took on game theory upon request.  Al-Jazeera's in-depth reports continue to surprise me in their scope.  



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