Women's Human Rights in the New York Times

Last week, The New York Times published a front-page story on the state of women's rights in Afghanistan, specifically focusing on the experience of one woman who was imprisoned for engaging in premarital sex when she was raped and was then released under the condition that she marries her rapist. Responding to this article in “Advancing Women’s Rights”, June Zeitlin, director of the CEDAW [the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women] Education Project at The Leadership Council on Civil and Human Rights, writes:

To the Editor:

As you note in “For Afghan Woman, Justice Runs Into Unforgiving Wall of Custom” (front page, Dec. 2), Afghan government decisions on women’s rights are more critical now than ever as American forces prepare to leave Afghanistan.

One way the United States could really advance the “unfinished business of advancing women’s rights” in that country is by ratifying the international women’s rights treaty, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

Women’s rights opponents in Afghanistan and elsewhere now can question our commitment by pointing out that we are one of only six countries in the world (with Iran, Somalia, Sudan and the Pacific islands Palau and Tonga) that have failed to ratify the treaty. Ratification would show that we are ready to walk our talk for women in Afghanistan and worldwide.

(This article was found on page A28 of The New York Times on December 6, 2011)

The Overbrook Foundation is pleased to see this major publication providing coverage of our grantee’s issue areas and the issue of the United State’s refusal to ratify CEDAW. June Zeitlin has appropriately argued that the US decision to ratify this treaty could have a significant impact on human rights for women both in the United States and around the world. In only a few short paragraphs, Zeitlin identifies the United States’ hypocrisy around providing leadership on women’s human rights issues. Moreover, she explains the important link between our stance on women’s rights and these abuses in Afghanistan, a connection that is easily overlooked when reading an article about injustice in extremely different cultural contexts. The Overbrook Foundation hopes that Zeitlin’s message was received and shared by New York Times Readers because a US ratification of CEDAW, an important step for gender rights and human rights, can only be achieved with significant support among the US citizens and politicians.

EDF's Climate Corps mentioned in Financial Times

Environmental Defense Fund's Climate Corps, an Overbrook-funded program, was mentioned in the Financial Times late last week for its innovation and success saving businesses operation costs through energy efficiency measures. The United States lags behind many other countries in its efforts to adopt clean energy, especially in response to the Solyndra scandal and the financial crisis (green tech is often believed to be more expensive than "traditional" energy sources, although hefty health and environmental costs are frequently left out of the equation when calculating those comparisons.)

One program that has emerged as a leading example of how energy efficiency can save businesses significant funds is Climate Corps. Climate Corps is an internship program through EDF that matches business school students with large corporations to identify areas in which those companies can save energy. The appeal for businesses are the financial savings; the appeal for the rest of us is the proof that energy efficiency really works, and the confidence that programs like Climate Corps will push popular U.S. opinion toward a more universal acceptance of clean energy in the United States.

According to the Financial Times article, Climate Corps interns have saved businesses $1 billion in operational costs since the program's inception. In 2011 alone, the savings were $650 million and, most importantly, 440,000 tons of CO2, equivalent to removing 87,000 vehicles from the road.

To read the Financial Times article (Climate Corps is mentioned toward the bottom), click here. Free and fast registration on the Times' site allows a full read of Sarah Murray's article, "Green Technology: Clean Energy Feels the Pinch."

Mr Heck says: “Energy efficiency investments make economic sense and for people who can afford the investment to install them, they’re an even better deal now because they’re saving

Victory for L.A.A.N.E. and a Step Toward a Greener Economy

Back in January 2011, I blogged about Overbrook grantee L.A.A.N.E., the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, and the widely-read report that organization released through its Don't Waste L.A. program. The report detailed a litany of problems with the trash hauling system in Los Angeles -- everything from dirty, gas-guzzling trucks to poor working conditions to overlapping, disorganized, carbon-heavy truck routes. Several months later, on its June docket, the Overbrook board considered and agreed to support Don't Waste L.A.

It seems Overbrook's support, along with the efforts of a large coalition of funders, green groups and individual activists, has come to fruition. Yesterday's Daily News reported that the L.A. City Council voted to give private trash haulers in the city a five-year warning: the current "free for all" for city trash haulers will be converted into a private franchise system in which hauling companies will compete for the city's business. Requirements for contracts will include clean vehicles, good, green jobs for employees (including better wages and safer working conditions), more comprehensive, enforceable recycling, and re-tooled collection routes that eliminate overlapping to save on unnecessary emissions. Franchise fees will go back to the sanitation department of the city.

This is a solid victory for LAANE and its coalition partners! And, since one Don't Waste L.A. objective is to implement a program that can be replicated in other large metropolitan areas, the L.A. City Council decision is good news for the entire country.

WITNESS's new video toolkit

WITNESS has released its new video toolkit, which consists of a series of videos, documents and personalized web pages designed to help Human Rights Defenders plan and film thoughtful, effective advocacy videos. With its commitment to new communications platforms and organizations that support Human Rights Defenders, The Overbrook Foundation is excited about the release of this internet tool and its potential impact on the human rights field and grassroots human rights advocacy work. After working on video advocacy projects with human rights-based organizations in 80 countries for over a decade, WITNESS is in an ideal position to share its best practices and lessons learned with organizations or citizen journalists who may be creating their first advocacy video. While WITNESS Staff may only have the time or resources to train a finite number of organizations, this series of 35 videos can be viewed by a much larger audience. As a result, WITNESS’s impact can grow and more activists will be able to take advantage of the organization’s expertise.

This toolkit includes step-by-step videos and online forms so that users can track their progress and consistently review the objectives of their videos to maintain their focus. It also helps individuals to identify their target audience and optimize the timing for their video’s release. Using interactive videos and a multitude of case studies, the toolkit addresses the need to craft smart objectives for the video, to identify a persuasive messenger and message in the videos, and to pinpoint the outcome or action they hope to inspire in viewers of the video. Additionally, these pages and videos helps users to tackle the difficult decisions of how to show their videos to the target audience and how to integrate this advocacy tool into broader campaigns for human rights. WITNESS continues to welcome feedback on these videos to improve the quality of the program and it plans to release the toolkit in several more languages in 2012. Learn more at http://videoplan.witness.org/.

(The information found in this blog post was either sent to us from WITNESS or found through the author’s personal exploration of the toolkit’s videos.)