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	Global Union Bodies Demand Justice for Cambodian Workers by International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC)   13 January 2014   An international trade union mission to Cambodia has today called for the government to act immediately to investigate the killing of four garment workers during strikes on 3 January, release all 23 detained unionists, and set a minimum wage on which workers and their families can at least meet their basic needs.   The mission has expressed particular concern over the fate of union president Vorn Pao, who was severely beaten and remains in jail despite his poor physical condition.   In a statement issued by the ITUC, its regional body ITUC-AP and the regional office of Global Union Federation IndustriALL, the mission demanded the establishment of a credible, independent inquiry to investigate the killings and for those responsible to be held accountable. This demand was put to Cambodia’s Labour Minister today.   The delegation also informed him that the plan announced to set up a government-controlled inquiry is seen as insufficient, given that government such committees have produced few results in the past.   Calls for urgent action to raise the minimum wage and a government pledge to fully respect ILO Convention 87 on Freedom of Association, which Cambodia has ratified, were also put to the Minister. A government proposal to set up a new Commission on wages, headed by the Finance Minister, was described as inadequate. No meeting of that Commission has been scheduled yet, and further delay in establishing a decent minimum wage is likely to lead to further industrial action as workers seek justice.   Threats by the garment employers body GMAC to take legal action to effectively bankrupt unions were also denounced by the delegation.   Cambodia’s garment industry, with an annual turnover of US$5.1bn, can afford to pay more than the monthly minimum wage of US$ 100 according to the statement, which points to IndustriALL research that a minimum of US$260 is needed to cover basic expenses of a family of four.   6 January 2014   The ITUC , Global Union Federation IndustriALL and UNI Global Union have expressed horror at the violent repression of garment worker strikes by security forces and government-backed vigilantes.   Workers had been demonstrating peacefully demanding an increase in the minimum wage. At least four workers were killed and 39 injured during a crackdown by security forces on Friday. Trade unionists and labour rights supporters have been targeted for attack as workers demanded a minimum wage above the government offer of US$100 per month, which is woefully insufficient to meet the rising cost of living. Over 23 have been arrested, their whereabouts unknown, and summonses have been issued for several union leaders.   “Cambodia’s government must return to the negotiating table and agree to a fair wage for garment workers and cease the dictatorial repression of legitimate strike action by workers. It should immediately release all those detained, and ensure that those responsible for the killings and violence are brought to justice,” said ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow.   Jyrki Raina, General Secretary of IndustriALL, said “The right to strike for a higher minimum wage is solidly protected by the international right to freedom of association, enshrined in ILO Convention 87 – which Cambodia ratified in 1999. The threats, arrests, and the killing of trade unionists for the exercise of that right is an extremely grave violation and must be condemned. Any encouragement of that violence by garment manufacturers must end.”   UNI Global Union’s General Secretary Philip Jennings said, “In Bangladesh we’ve witnessed how the race to the bottom in the garment sector has led to death and destruction. The Cambodian garment workers are also in jeopardy. This current wave of protests is the legitimate reaction of those workers who deserve a fair wage and decent conditions and must not be silenced by violence.“ Jennings added, “The global brands with connections to these Cambodian factories have a responsibility to raise standards. We’ve seen with the Bangladesh Fire and Building Safety Accord that a sea-change is possible.”   Cambodian unions are seeking a minimum monthly wage of up to US$ 160. Factory owners have responded by offering “no-strike” bonuses and wage adjustments well below the level needed for workers to make ends meet. Employers in the garment sector, a US$5bn annual export industry which increased production by over 20% last year, have been resisting attempts to improve and enforce labour laws and to publicly expose companies which breach the law. Indeed, the Garment Manufacturers’ Association of Cambodia (GMAC) has played an insidious role, threatening to move production if labour unrest was not quashed and even recently praised the government for the lethal use of force against the protestors.   http://www.hrw.org/reports/2015/03/11/work-faster-or-get-out Visit the related web page
	10 Days of activism against torture and ill-treatment by World Organisation Against Torture & agencies   Torture and ill-treatment continues to occur all over the world and these human rights violations remain too often unpunished.   Anyone, anywhere can do something to support the global fight against torture! To celebrate Human Rights Day, OMCT calls on everybody to speak out against torture! You can watch all the videos of the Campaign "10 Days of activism against torture" in the the links on this page.   Created in 1985, the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) is today the main coalition of international non-governmental organisations (NGO) fighting against torture, summary executions, enforced disappearances and all other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. With 311 affiliated organisations in its SOS-Torture Network and many tens of thousands correspondents in every country, OMCT is the most important network of non-governmental organisations working for the protection and the promotion of human rights in the world.   Based in Geneva, OMCT’s International Secretariat provides personalised medical, legal and/or social assistance to hundreds of torture victims and ensures the daily dissemination of urgent appeals across the world, in order to protect individuals and to fight against impunity.   Specific programmes allow it to provide support to specific categories of vulnerable people, such as women, children and human rights defenders. In the framework of its activities, OMCT also submits individual communications and alternative reports to the special mechanisms of the United Nations, and actively collaborates in the development of international norms for the protection of human rights.   OMCT enjoys a consultative status with the following institutions: ECOSOC (United Nations), the International Labour Organization, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, and the Council of Europe.   http://www.omct.org/human-rights-defenders/events/2013/12/d22465/   22 Jan 2014   Report claims Syrian officials commit "industrial-scale" torture.   Syrian officials could face war crimes charges based on photographs from a defector proving the "industrial-scale" torture and killing of 11,000 detainees by the regime, international prosecutors say.   Evidence smuggled out by a former Syrian military police photographer was reminiscent of the conditions in the death camps in Nazi Germany in World War II, the three investigators said on Tuesday.   A report by the prosecutors - commissioned by Qatar, which backs the Syrian rebels - provides "clear evidence" of the starvation, strangulation and beating of detainees in President Bashar al-Assad"s prisons.   The release of the report, which was first revealed by The Guardian newspaper, CNN and Turkey"s Anatolia news agency, comes a day before talks are due to begin in Geneva aimed at negotiating an end to Syria"s bloody civil war.   "There is clear evidence, capable of being believed by a tribunal of fact in a court of law, of systematic torture and killing of detained persons by the agents of the Syrian government," the report said.   "Such evidence would support findings of crimes against humanity against the current Syrian regime. Such evidence could also support findings of war crimes against the current Syrian regime."   Syria has previously denied torturing detainees but the government had no immediate reaction to the report.   The report was written by Desmond de Silva, former chief prosecutor of the special court for Sierra Leone; Geoffrey Nice, the former lead prosecutor in the trial of former Yugoslavian president Slobodan Milosevic; and David Crane, who indicted Liberian president Charles Taylor.   It also features testimony from a forensic pathologist, an anthropologist who investigated mass graves in Kosovo and an expert in digital images.   The defector, identified only as "Caesar" for his own safety, presented forensic experts commissioned by a London legal firm representing Qatar with around 55,000 digital images of 11,000 dead detainees since the start of the uprising in Syria in March 2011. The images were on memory sticks.   He claims the victims all died in captivity before being taken to a military hospital to be photographed.   The report says that all but one of the victims were male. Most appeared to be aged between 20 and 40. The defector photographed as many as 50 bodies a day, the report said.   * Human Rights Watch: Thousands of Homes Destroyed in Syria: http://www.hrw.org/node/122732   Targeted for doing their job: doctors in Syria forced to flee, by Sophie Cousins. (SBS News)   Mohammed is one of 15,000 Syrian doctors who was forced out of his country, unable to continue treating the wounded in a bloody conflict that forced the United Nations to stop counting the dead.   In late 2012, he was working as a field doctor in rural Damascus when he became the target of a brutal crackdown on those providing medical assistance to the injured in opposition-held areas.   “I left Syria after I was detained three times,” he said. “In none of the times I was detained I admitted that I was helping people or treating injured civilians so I could be released. I was tortured for only being suspected of helping people in need who don’t have any access to medical care.”   Mohammed, who has since resettled in the US and who asked that his real name not be used because his family is still in Syria, said he was one of thousands of doctors who were targeted for their work.   “At every checkpoint they (the government) were inspecting me just for being a doctor. Some of my friends were killed under torture for treating injured people and others have been detained for longer than 18 months.”   In July 2012, the Syrian government passed an anti-terrorism law that effectively made it a crime to provide medical care to anyone suspected of supporting the opposition.   An investigation by the Human Rights Council concluded last September:   “By … targeting medical personnel and interfering with patients receiving treatment, Government forces have perpetrated a concerted policy of denying medical aid to those affiliated with or part of the armed opposition,” it wrote.   Half of the certificated physicians in Syria have left over the past three years, according to a recent report by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), leaving behind a crippling healthcare system that was once the envy of the Arab world.   Of the 6,000 physicians practicing in Syria’s largest city Aleppo before the war, 250 remained as of July 2013, according to the PHR report, serving a population of 2.5 million.   In the Damascus suburbs where Mohammed worked, a pre-war figure of 1000 doctors had been cut down to 30 by last December, the report further added.   Not only have doctors fled – nurses, ambulance drivers and technicians have also been forced out of the country, unable to provide life-saving medical care because of the deliberate and systematic attack on medical facilities by forces on both sides.   As of January 24, 2014, at least 398 medical personnel had been killed since the beginning of the conflict, including 149 doctors and 80 medics, the Violations Documentation Centre in Syria reported.   Dr Zaher Sahloul, president of the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS), said most doctors who had fled Syria had gone to the Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia, followed by Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Europe and the US.   “Most of them will not return based on previous experience with Syrian diaspora, especially given the security and economic situation will take many years to get back to pre-crisis level,” he said.   Mohammed, who must first pass certification exams to resume his work, is one of up to 1200 Syrian doctors who have resettled in the US since the conflict began.   “Nowhere could be substituted with my home country but the Assad regime forced me to leave Syria or I would have simply become an addition to the number of detainees or torture victims while the world is enjoying watching our disaster,” he said.   The doctor shortage in Syria continues to take a massive toll.   Dr Sahloul estimates there is a “secondary death toll” that is even higher than those killed by firearms and other crude weapons.   He estimates up to 300,000 excessive deaths because of a lack of access to routine medications for chronic diseases such as diabetes and lung disease, along with premature deaths from infectious diseases, malnutrition and neonatal problems.   Dr Annie Sparrow, assistant professor of global health and deputy director of the human rights program at Icahn School of Medicine, agreed.   “There’s a huge secondary death toll. It’s not as sexy as ‘war trauma’ but it’s the reality.”   The destruction of medical facilities has also left 70,000 cancer patients and 5000 dialysis patients without necessary treatment.   But as the war continues unabated, health experts warned that the destruction of Syria’s healthcare system and its doctor shortage, would generations to restore. Visit the related web page
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