LAYINGFOUNDATIONS

● BIOETHICSTHE PHARMACEUTICALINDUSTRY SPEAKS OUT

● CLIMATEA GLOBAL PROGRAMMEFOR LONG- TERM FORECAST

● PORTRAITSA POWERFUL MESSAGEFROM THE VICTIMS OF LANDMINES

● ANNIVERSARYIS GLOBALIZATION A THREAT TO HUMAN RIGHTS?

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CONTENTS

DEVELOPMENT

Laying FoundationsEight grass-roots projects supported byUNESCO, from Maputo to Port-au-Prince,aimed at helping people to improve the qualityof their lives..........................................................4

IN BRIEFNews from UNESCO's different sectors andregions along with new publications andaudiovisual materials.......................................................14

BIOETHICS

Seeking a middle pathThe pharmaceutical industry has its say at theInternational Bioethics Committee’s FifthSession.......................................................18

CLIMATE

What’s the forecast please?The first planet-wide climate predictionresearch programme is born.......................................................20

PORTRAITS

Maimed lives with a namePhotographer Gervasio Sánchez serves aswitness for the countless numbers of peoplewhose lives are blown apart by landmines.......................................................21

ANNIVERSARY

Globalization with a human faceIs globalization a threat to human rights? Thedebate opens at celebrations for the UniversalDeclaration’s 50th birthday.......................................................23

Cairo’sgarbage

collectorsrecycle

themselves.

Getting disabled kids into themainstream helps them and their peers.

Industrybelieves self-regulation isthe best wayto resolve theethical ques-tions newgene technolo-gies areraising.

A devilishdevice thatshatters lives.

is a monthly magazine published bythe United Nations Educational,Scientific and Cultural Organization. English and French editions areproduced at Paris headquarters; theSpanish edition in cooperation withthe UNESCO Centre of Catalonia,Mallorca 285,08037 Barcelona,Spain; the Chinese edition incooperation with the XinhuaNewsagency, 57 XuanwumenXidajie, Beijing, China; and thePortuguese edition in cooperationwith the National Commission forUNESCO, Avenida Infante Santo N° 42 - 5°, 1300 Lisbon Portugal.

Director of Publication : R. Lefort. Editors-in-chief :S. Williams, C. GuttmanAssistant Managing Editor :C. Mouillère Associate Editors : N. Khouri-Dagher, C. L'Homme,A-L. Martin. Spanish edition : L. Garcia (Barcelona), L. Sampedro (Paris). Lay-out, illustrations, infography: F. Ryan-Jacqueron, G. Traiano.Printing:Maulde & RenouDistributionUNESCO's specialized services

UNESCO Sourcesis also accessible on Internet under new or publications at: http://www.unesco.org

TO SUBSCRIBE : Free subscription can be obtained forprofessionals, associations, NGOs IGOs andother organizations working in UNESCO'sfields of competence by writing to UNESCOSources: Subscriptions7 place de Fontenoy, 75352 Paris 07 SP. Tel. (33 01) 45 68 16 72.Fax : (+33 01) 45 68 56 54.

UNESCO

UNESCO

This magazine is destined for use as an informationsource and is not an official UNESCO document. ISSN1014-6989.All articles are free of copyright restrictions and can bereproduced, in which case the editors would appreciate a copy.Photos carrying no copyright mark © may be obtained by themedia on demand.

Cover photo: © Peter Williams/WCC.

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LAYINGFOUNDATIONS

● BIOETHICSTHEPHARMACEUTICALINDUSTRY SPEAKS OUT

● CLIMATEA GLOBALPROGRAMME FORLONG- TERM FORECAST

● PORTRAITSA POWERFULMESSAGEFROM THE VICTIMS OF LANDMINES

● ANNIVERSARYIS GLOBALIZATION A THREAT TO HUMAN RIGHTS?

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EDITORIAL

The report also stresses that realdemocracy is more difficult to esta-blish in a multi-ethnic society. And,contrary to widely held opinion, itappears - says the report - that thosestates that emerged as “products ofnationalist ideas of state organization,tend to be more compatible with demo-cratic rule and political freedom.”Finally, it also insists that democracyand the market economy most often gohand in hand – to the point where

democracy serves vir-tually as a guarantor forbetter economic growth. Examples and counterexamples have been citedendlessly over the pastfew years to demonstrateor contest this link. But ifconfirmed, it puts paid tothe criticism that demo-cracy is a luxury reservedonly for the world’s richcountries. Rather itconfirms democracy as anindispensable tool for theeradication of poverty inthose numerous countriesstill blighted by it.

On the other hand, only equitable eco-nomic and social development – notjust macro-economic growth – canensure democracy really takes root. This is one of the main themes to bediscussed at the second meeting ofUNESCO’s international Panel forDemocracy and Development (PIDD),presided over by former UnitedNations Secretary-GeneralBoutros-Boutros Ghali, onFebruary 8 and 9.

René Lefort

The celebrations for the50th anniversary of theUniversal Declaration of

Human Rights highlighted the failingsrather than the gains in this domain.And rightly so. Universal respect forhuman rights is an unfinished struggleand every possible occasion must beseized to give it new impetus.Nonetheless, much headway has beenmade. All the research carried out byhuman rights bodies confirms thisincluding, most recently,the annual report (A GoodYear for Freedom) ofFreedom House, a NorthAmerican think tank set upalmost 60 years ago andwhich counts among itsfounders one the UniversalDeclaration’s main archi-tects, Eleanor Roosevelt. Freedom House finds thatdemocracy and freedomare the dominant trends inWestern and East-CentralEurope, in the Americasand increasingly in theAsia-Pacific region. Itsreport estimates that theproportion of countries still not freehas fallen from 40% ten years ago to26% today. Over the same period, thetotal population living in countries thatare not considered free has fallen from41% to the record low of 34%. And,since 1987, the number of countriesholding elections judged to be free andfair has climbed from 69 to 117. Ofthese over 75% are rated as being free,up from 64.9% in 1995: an open elec-toral process often precedes the emer-gence of a strong civil society and theaffirmation of civil liberties.

EDITORIAL

A GOOD YEAR...

“Since 1987,

the number of

countries

holding

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judged to be

free and fair

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DATES

TO REMEMBER

● Between 1980 and1990 all of LatinAmerica’s militarygovernments fell, pavingthe way for democraticelections.

● November 1989: theBerlin Wall dividing Eastand West Germany fell –probably the mostpowerful symbol of theend of the Cold War –heralding the collapse ofthe Soviet Uniopn andopening the way fordemocracy in easternand central Europe.

● April 1994: NelsonMandela defeated D.W.Declerc in South Africa’sfirst-ever free elections,ending 46 years ofapartheid rule.

● May 1998, faced witha rising tide of popularunrest, Indonesia’sPresident Suhartoresigned, ending 33 yearsof military rule.Democratic electionshave been promised thisyear.

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November 9, 1989: the fallof the Berlin Wall.

4

Far from the international conference centres, UNESCO works day by dayhelping people and communities to build better lives. Following are eight such grass-roots projects spread from Maputo to Port-au-Prince.

Survival crafts in Mozambique

LAYING FOUNDATIONS

What’s it like to be a youngperson in Mozambiquetoday? Twenty-year oldDelmo Absolao Mahandjanehesitates to answer. For him

the word “young” doesn’t really have muchmeaning anymore. “You see,” he says “we’vegrown old before our time.”

The situation of youth in Mozambique –where 45% of the population is under the ageof 15 – is disheartening. According to recentstatistics compiled by UNESCO and the ILO(International Labour Organization), inMaputo alone it is estimated that up to 70%of children under the age of ten belong to“absolutely poor” households. The situationis equally worrying for older children andyouth, who suffered most from the long yearsof civil war, which ended in 1992. Many aredemobilized child soldiers,orphans or refu-gees, young people who often lackthe basic tools of education toavoid the traps of a worldwhere prostitution, petty

crime or drugs bec-kons. Mozam-bican societyhas yet tocome up with

an effective means of integrating these exclu-ded young people, and their problems riskdestabilizing the whole country unless some-thing is done.

This realization spurred UNESCO, UNDPand the Mozambican authorities to set up the$830,000 Empresa Jovem (Enterprise Youth)project. Taking into consideration both thevast potential of Mozambique, especially asa tourist destination, it opted for arts, crafts-manship and appropriate technologies asthe vehicle for youth basic education. Yet, itwas realistic enough to see that the fastestexpanding economic area was the informaleconomy, estimated to account for 43% oftotal marketed production, and what youngpeople needed were marketable survivalskills that would enable them to create theirown employment opportunities within theinformal sector.

The informal economy is a natural mixof bartering, trading and mutual services.The streets of Maputo testify to the impor-tance of such trading, especially in crafts.Selling sculptures, hand-madefurniture, baskets, pots, pansand other utilitarian goodshelps maintain dignity andoften earns more moneythan is possible in the for-

mal sector.

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Empresa Jovem aims to show that it cangenerate a whole host of employment andtraining opportunities within this framework,as its rules are all perfectly suited to pro-moting and putting non-formal education(functional literacy, numeracy, basic accoun-ting) into practice on a daily basis.

Initially 135 trainees were taken into theproject. Of those 48 remain, having beenselected for their talent and determination.Paid a living allowance, they learn in variousworkshops or any space large enough to setup a loom or lay out carpentry tools: even inthe rooms behind the UNESCO Office inMaputo, where the office work continuesamidst the noise of hammering or carving,and where meetings are regularly interrup-ted by youngsters searching for missing span-ners and nails. Among them is Jorge, who hasbeen with the project for two years. He livedon the streets after losing his home and fatherduring the war. It took him about a year tostart talking with staff and other trainees, buthis hands had begun communicating longbefore, weaving rich and moving patternsthat seemed to tackle the demons of his pastand give life to his hopes. Like his peers atEmpresa Jovem, he is planning to earn aliving as a professional craftsman, using theartistic skills he has acquired and perfectedon the project. “We are privileged to be ableto study and earn at the same time,” saysDelmo Absalao. “Furthermore, we can doour bit to promote our own culture and notthat of others.” This month an Empresa

Jovem centre opens in the heart of Maputo,next to the National Museum of Art. It com-prises a courtyard with a salesroom, surroun-ded by workshops, a cafe and a meeting room.

Several national bodies, particularly theMinistry of Culture, Youth and Sports, havealso been involved in Empresa Jovem sincethe beginning and have encouraged UNESCO

to ensure a follow-up to the project, to anchorthe experience firmly within the nationallandscape. Thus last November Iniciativa

Jovem (Initiative Youth), was launched. Witha budget of $230,000 provided by Germany,it proposes a whole range of basic trainingagain directly linked to production and mar-keting within the popular economy.

Iniciativa Jovem, for example, is deve-loping its own literacy materials and settingup centres around the country, where youngpeople can meet, learn, gather information,receive guidance and counselling on jobsand other aspects of life. Iniciativa Jovem

is now working in one of the most deprivedneighbourhoods of Maputo, the Barrio doAeroporto, to set up a youth centre whereyoung people can follow training in crafts andbasic education. Prior to establishing thecentre, the young trainees visited the com-munity with a door-to-door questionnaire,finding out what people needed or felt shouldchange. The same process is at work inZambezia and Sofala provinces further tothe North, where the project is attempting tocreate sustainable change by setting up youthprogrammes for basket-weaving, silk-farming,apiculture, recycling, carpentry, brick-makingand even a bread and mail delivery system.

Working with local NGOs and youth andcommunity associations is a vital compo-nent of these long-term changes as it is theywho will ultimately be able to voice the hopesof young Mozambicans for the future.UNESCO’s Special Youth Project in theEducation Sector is studying ways in whichthe Mozambican experience can be spreadto other African countries where the youthsituation is just as distressing. The solutions,they say, are on your doorstep.

Benedict Faccini

Special Youth Project

From garbage to gold in CairoMost visitors battling up the sinuous

paths leading into the Cairo suburb ofMokattam, don’t realize they are about toenter a world severed from the rest of the cityand time. Rejected and ignored by the capi-tal, deprived of most basic services,Mokattam is one of the city’s several “garbagevillages”: home to the zabbaleen or garbagecollectors.

When Dr Laila Kamel Iskandar, one ofthe main members of the Association for theProtection of the Environment (APE) speaksof her first visit there many years ago, she des-cribes apocalyptic scenes reminiscent ofDante’s Inferno: an all-invading stench ofsmouldering waste, the painful scars of

disease engraved onto children’s faces, asituation of absolute poverty.

Since then much has changed and oftenin unexpected ways. In 1997, UNESCO joi-ned APE to work with the zabbaleen on ayouth training scheme that, it is hoped, willcarry the aspirations of this marginalizedgroup even further.

Since the 1940s peasant farmers fromUpper Egypt have been streaming intoMokattam, fleeing bad harvests and drought,recreating a rural world with its traditions andrules inside Cairo. These rural roots arestrengthened by the fact that the zabbaleen

live almost exclusively amongst themselves,a group marginalized by the forces of the

6 January 1999 - No. 108

A recycling expert whocan now teach Cairo’s

more affluent a thing or two.

Heading for the centraldump.

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mainstream economy and institutions. Inwaste-clogged Mokattam, everyone couldbe considered a zabbaleen, involved in someway or other in the business of collecting, sor-ting and recycling refuse. They collect up to1,200 tons of garbage a day, recycling up to90% of that refuse at no cost to the munici-pality. Houses serve as both sorting pointsfor waste and accommodation. Each familyhas its own particular skills, some familiesare experts in recycling plastic bottles,others deal in metal, others still have thegrim task of sorting through hospitalwaste.

The Government is beginning to reco-gnize the zabbaleen’s contribution and hasdecided not to raze the informal settlementsof Mokattam, a decision that would have ris-ked evicting many of the almost 20,000 inha-bitants. APE’s work has been pivotal in impro-ving the living conditions in Mokattam andin negociating with the municipal authoritieson behalf of the zabbaleen.

ResultsAPE operates on two levels: first, by

improving physical infrastructures throughbetter waste management, modern machines,building and upgrading systems such as sewe-rage, and second, encouraging attitudinalchanges by linking basic education to pro-duction and income-generation. Results ofthis patient and lengthy work are now visibleeverywhere in Mokattam.

Family-owned micro and medium enter-prises have been established, recyclingmachines and looms set up in many homes,sanitation improved, houses cleared of theirlife-threatening refuse and many youngpeople equipped with basic education, par-ticularly functional literacy. Today, there arethree health posts, two schools and an APEcentre on the edge of the central dump. It istowards this central dump that the zabbaleen,children and adults alike, converge each day,on their carts and trucks, to deposit the orga-nic waste.

It is now a year and a half since theUNESCO Special Project for youth educationbegan a two-year cooperation programmewith APE to combine training in recyclingtechniques with basic education for margi-nalized youth (functional literacy, numeracyand accounting). Under this programme,several teams of five to ten young people –men and women – were selected to becomeagents of change within their communityand trainers of other young people in otherdeprived communities around Mokattam.Once the teams had received their trainingand mastered their newly-acquired tech-niques, they then began working with thegarbage village of Tora, on the outskirts ofCairo. This slum was chosen as the firstbeneficiary of the project because it suffersfrom an almost total lack of services.

The Mokattam youth, in close associationwith their peers in Tora, assessed the com-munity’s most urgent needs and set aboutreplicating the kind of instruction they hadreceived. In intensive training sessions overa two-month period, they showed the youngpeople of Tora how to use crushing and pro-cessing machines, how to separate waste orrecycle solid matter and organic refuse. Theteaching is informal: a mix of practice (howto repair a machine, how to design a work-shop) and functional education (readingmachine instructions, calculating loss andprofit). Training is not pinned down to stricttimetables, since most young people haveto carry on working during their instructionperiod. To ensure the quality of the training,members of APE followed the whole Toraprocess and worked with both sets of youthto introduce or consolidate basic accoun-ting, functional literacy and health informa-tion. Once their training is completed theTora youths will, in turn, become trainers inother deprived neighbourhoods, creating achain of learning and recycling across the city.

Now to the Red Sea and beyondThe project’s repercussions are already

manifold. Another organization (Communityand Institutional Development) has now deci-ded to emulate the experience in the SouthSinai region of Egypt and has called onMokattam’s and Tora’s young recyclers forhelp.

Over the last few years, tourist resorts andmodern cities have mushroomed along theRed Sea at high cost to the environment:piles of plastic bottles and rotting trash dotthe once pristine coast and its magnificentcoral reefs are seriously degraded.

Strengthened by a grant from the na-tional Social Fund, three NGOs, includingAPE, have begun working around the citiesof Dahab and Nuweiba to design an effectivewaste management system for the region.This includes waste separation at source,recycling, control of dumping and sanitation.

7

Haiti: Bringingthe sea back to life

No. 108 - January 1999

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When Jean Wiener returned to Haiti in1995 after many years of studying

marine biology in the United States, it see-med to him that his country was slowly dying.Its shores were strewn with filth and the seawas full of blue plastic rubbish. There werefewer and fewer fish and precious few treesleft.

“It was very urgent to do something andnot let the country decay like that,” he says.So he put together a marine environmentalprotection project based on the idea of“never give orders to fishermen: make sug-gestions and seek solutions by working withthem.”

The 31-year-old Wiener knows that over-fishing (fishing occurs only in the shallowcoastal waters due to lack of capacity),dwindling marine resources, deforestationand pollution are largely responsible forHaiti’s social and economic under-develop-ment and abject poverty. His broad projectis backed by UNESCO, more specifically theplatform for Environment and Developmentin Coastal Regions, which has chipped inwith $33,000 – nearly half the estimated cost.

Specialist shortageWiener has set up a Foundation for the

Protection of Marine Biodiversity(FoProBiM) with financial help from friendsand relatives. But he is almost alone in hisefforts. “There are only two or three peoplein the country with scientific and technicaltraining in marine conservation,” he pointsout. “We have a very serious human resourcesproblem.” Which means that Wiener wearsmany hats, such as secretary, driver and mail-room boy as well as being an investigator andscientific researcher.

He hopes to meet, in a flexible and ima-ginative way, the various needs of “those who

use the sea” and above all to “educate them.”According to a local UN DevelopmentProgramme (UNDP) official, Jean-AndréVictor, “there are some general laws whichapply to navigation and fishing in Haiti, butthey are mostly not enforced.”

Wiener wants the fishermen to organizethemselves. “Existing fishermen’s associa-tions must be strengthened and new onesencouraged where they’re needed,” he says.This will give them “easier access to finan-cial aid and fishing equipment than if theyasked alone. The fishermen (90% of whomare illiterate, against a national average of75%) will also win greater respect in the com-munity.” At present, there are 59 such asso-ciations in Haiti’s nine provinces. Some ofthem are busy picking up the rubbish off thebeaches; 98% of it plastic waste.

Much of the data concerning researchon Haiti’s coastline is scattered throughoutthe world, because specialists working in

Jean Wiener surveys abeach strewn with

plastic in Port au Prince.

And recently, under the umbrella of theAPE/UNESCO project, many Mokattam andTora youth took part in an environmentalawareness day in the affluent Cairo neigh-bourhood of Maadi where they went fromdoor to door informing inhabitants on howthey should separate their garbage at source:organic waste in one bin, plastic in another,paper in another. It is a strange reversal offate, that it should be the zabbaleen, thoseoften villified for their livelihood, who arenow giving lessons in environmental pre-servation to the wealthy inhabitants of thecapital.

The UNESCO Special Youth Project isfollowing these developments closely andelaborating a plan for cooperation on this pro-ject that will take Mokattam youths even fur-ther afield and with greater visibility. Indeed,the experience seems to encompass many ofthe lessons UNESCO is keen to uphold,namely that the oppressed and marginalizedhave not been waiting around for answers buthave organized themselves effectively alone,and that it is governments and mainstreamsociety who have much to learn from them.

Benedict Faccini

”“

8

Samoa: preservingmarine heritage

January 1999 - No. 108

the country have often taken their work withthem. To counter this, Wiener is setting upan information centre and bookshop, withbooks, surveys and marine maps, for stu-dents, enthusiasts and anyone else who wantsto know more about coastal regions. He isalso compiling a guide containing all thepractical and statistical information aboutthe fishing industry, the state of the coun-try’s 1,500 km coastline and basic indicessuch as water temperature, salinity and bac-teria level.

A common languageTo make communication easier between

the local people and marine resources mana-gers, Wiener has over the past six monthsbeen patiently and methodically putting toge-ther an ethno-biological guide to the differentkinds of fish, with their Creole, English andLatin names. “This isn’t easy,” he says,“because some fish have seven differentnames.” He lists them according to wherethey are found and how old they are, andgives them symbolic colours – red, white orblack – “which has nothing to do with thecolour they actually are” but indicates “whocan eat which one and what time of the year,and also which ones can be sold to hotelsand which ones can be given to poorpeople.”

The guide can, for example, help people“work out a fish’s commercial use from itsname,” and ensure that fishermen and mana-gers speak the same language. Wiener wouldalso like to organize meetings to exchangeideas between Haitian fishermen and thosefrom neighbouring Jamaica, who may haveproblems in common.

One of the main obstacles in Haiti is over-fishing and shrinking stocks of fish, so Wiener

is trying to encourage joint management –sharing out responsibility among those whouse the sea’s resources. As he puts it, “popu-lation pressures, poverty and lack of infor-mation lead to overfishing because peoplethink the more they fish, the more moneythey’ll earn. But overfishing wipes out somefish, usually those that fetch the best pricesbecause they’re rare, while other fish sellfor less. And so poverty deepens and thecoastal areas decay irreversibly.”

To break this vicious circle, attitudeshave to be changed and fishermen shown thatthey cannot go on just taking things fromthe sea without protecting it against over-use,pollution and solid waste. There has to beeducation, hence the documentation centre,the bookshop and the guides.

Towards self-managementBut this is not enough. To boost pro-

duction, fish stocks have to be increased.“This can be done by building artificial reefswhich can help some kinds of fish to breed,”says Wiener. Through managing and super-vising things by themselves, the fishermencan protect the resources on their own. Atthe same time, they will have to “find otherwork, in agriculture for example, so theycan earn a respectable living.”

Wiener’s ideas are slowly catching onamong the fishermen. Some have even takenup the challenge and are telling others theymust stop overfishing and stop using theexcuse that “if I don’t, someone else will.”This kind of attitude has contributed to thecrisis in Haiti’s fishing industry and is increa-sing the country’s present poverty.

Cristina L‘Homme

When the missionaries arrived in

Samoa, they were fully dressed, while

the local population was completely nude.

The former obliged the latter to cover up,

until the day they realized that it was very

hot. Then they took off their clothes. Today,

the Samoan missionaries are half dressed,

and the indigenous people fully clothed.”

This story, told by Peter Varghese ofSamoa’s Education Department and coordi-nator of the UNESCO-financed Saanapu-Sataoa project, illustrates the upheaval thatSamoa has experienced over the last twocenturies. The introduction of foreign valuestransformed the inhabitants’ peaceful life

and complex social structure. More recently,local traditions have been confronted head-on with a drive for increased profitabilityand production. The marine environment ispaying the price.

Peter Varghese explains how island-life,- with its dependence on tourism and sub-sistence agriculture - has changed.

P.V.: Most of Samoa’s 165,000 inhabi-tants live on the archipelago’s two mainislands, Upolu and Savai’i. Of these, 60,000live in the cities. Monoculture, the market eco-nomy and - “profitability”, a word alien to theSamoan spirit 20 years ago - have produced a

Never give

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9No. 108 - January 1999

”“There is an

urgent need

to apply

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systems for

renewable

resources.

They’re becoming harderto find.

profound change in mentalities and causedmany conflicts.

How has the marine environment suf-

fered?

Traditional communal fishing which ser-ved the village is becoming less common.The sea worm “palolo”, which was givenaway a decade ago, is now sold. Mangroveswamps have been drained. Traditionalmethods of resource management have beeneroded. Dynamiting for fish has increasedto dangerous levels (because the state policeforce lacks manpower, the policing of thisillegal activity is up to local communities).Today, the Samoan people no longer have ahealthy marine environment and there is anurgent need to apply sustainable manage-ment systems for renewable resources.

When did you realize something nee-

ded to be done?

The cyclones of 1990 and 1991 destroyedthe country’s economy. Fish stocks dimini-shed. The government then passed a lawrelying on technical support from the vil-lages. Inhabitants draw up their own rulesand have the power to prosecute infrac-tions. Marine reserves – where fishing is ban-ned completely – were also established.These measures were taken in the hope ofincreasing fish stocks.

You are organizing a pilot project with

UNESCO’s Environment and Develop-

ment in Coastal Regions and in Small

Islands platform (CSI). What is it

about?

Our project, called “Saanapu-Sataoa”, isnamed after the two villages concerned inthe heart of a mangrove zone, selectedbecause it is still relatively unspoilt.UNESCO has contributed $20,000 to theeffort. To tackle the depletion of naturalresources, we decided to focus on the needto preserve and conserve the marine envi-ronment. We will do this through educationbut also through the direct participation ofvillagers in the project.

What are your main objectives?

They are multiple: we will collect dataand information about the local ecosystems,and the degree of pollution they suffer from,but we also record traditional knowledgeand local ideas about the ecosystems; we willidentify the risks to the environment andencourage the communities to formulatedurable conservation strategies; we hopeto publish information on the subject whichcan be used in primary and secondaryschools; we want to offer training pro-grammes to the local population and youthgroups to enhance more responsible mana-gement of the environment; we also hope toprovide opportunities for students to carryout guided research and field studies.

But if you are encouraging controls over

fishing, fishermen will find it more dif-

ficult to survive. Have you considered

alternative activities?

Yes. We anticipate recommending alter-native income generating projects and if pos-sible, helping the community implementthem. For example, this zone could be visi-ted by Samoa’s 50 primary and 45 secondaryschools. An entrance fee could provide asource of revenue. Tourists could be allowedinto the area in canoes to visit the site withoutdisturbing it.

How does the educative approach fit in?

We are targeting two village primaryschools (part of the Associated Schools net-work) and secondary school students whomwe will encourage to undertake field trips andresearch on the mangrove ecosystem. Thegoal is for them to understand how to pro-tect the biodiversity of the zone and soconserve their natural heritage. We alsohope to develop cultural identity throughthe recognition and application of indige-nous ecological practices and knowledge.This will help the community discover thesymptoms and causes of environmental pro-blems and exercise critical thinking and pro-blem solving skills.

In Samoa, certain NGOs have been cri-

ticized for imposing their own conser-

vation ideas on local populations. Has

the project taken this risk into account?

We don’t have a problem of eco-colonia-lism as far as this project is concernedbecause all the local community is involved.They are the ones doing the work and we areconstantly in touch with them.

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actors, from national and local educationauthorities, school heads, directors of spe-cialized schools for the deaf and blind andrepresentatives of the Ministry of Social,Women’s and Children’s Affairs took part ina national training seminar.

Everyone benefits“This training is an absolute must,“

stresses Ibrahima Keita, a teacher from thepilot school in Conakry. “Without it, I wouldn’thave had the resources to deal with these chil-dren.” Keita describes the case of Hawa-condé, a 12-year-old who suffered fromdepression and had repeated her first yearof school five times. “She was just put intoschool but no one knew what to do with her.It took a lot of patience, but in the end, shewent up to the next class, and all the studentsbenefited from the reinforcement she recei-ved. In fact, I had a much higher overall suc-cess ratio.” In all, some 17 students sufferingfrom various disabilities - polio, epilepsy,hearing problems - have been integrated intomainstream classrooms.

“We don’t have any ready-made modelsto offer,” explained Aliette Verillon, one oftwo consultants from the French NationalInstitute for Pedagogical Research, whoconducted the training. “We take a very inter-active approach: the idea is to confrontpeople with a situation – through a video ora written document – and encourage themto analyze it and develop their own ways ofacting best adapted to their environment.” Tostrengthen the capacity of all teachers in the

Joining the team.

Special needs: Guinealeads the wayHad it not been for a training seminar

held in Guinea on integrating childrenwith special needs in the classroom, RichardDore, a primary school teacher from the vil-lage of N’Zérékoré, would probably havesent eight-year-old Kötô Dopavogui home.Paralyzed down the left side, unruly andprone to fits of laughter and tears, she sho-wed learning difficulties from the outset.

But with guidelines from a five-dayUNESCO-sponsored workshop held inConakry in September 1997, he found waysof making place for Kötô in the classroom.Students took turns keeping a watch on herand making sure she didn’t stray home duringthe break or lose her belongings. Dore star-ted showing her how to hold the chalk in herleft hand.

When it comes to integrating childrenwith special needs into mainstream schools,Lena Saleh, chief of UNESCO’s special needseducation programme, describes Africa as“virgin territory”. Unhampered by heavy struc-tures, the continent, despite scarce resources,tends to show a greater openness toward inno-vation than many developing countries.

Involving six African francophone coun-tries, UNESCO’s Inclusive Schools andCommunity Support Programme encouragescountries to draw up projects for integra-ting children with special needs into mains-tream classrooms. “This might be the onlychance these children have of ever going toschool” stresses Margarita Licht, a formerUNESCO specialist who attended theConakry workshop. Guinea counts six spe-cialized institutions for the disabled, all inthe capital. Estimating that 90% of this popu-lation was excluded from the education sys-tem, the country drew up a project that stoodon firm ground from the outset: it workedhand in hand with staff from the teacher trai-ning colleges, while the four primary schoolsthat would welcome disabled children – onein Conakry and three in other parts of thecountry – were all “demonstration” schoolsstaffed by experienced teacher trainers.

Community awareness“We started by reaching out to parents and

explaining the importance of putting theirdisabled children into school. We explainedthat children tend to develop better than inspecialized schools,” explained KadiatouBah, director of the teacher training collegein Conakry and leader of the pilot project.Local radio stations were tapped to build upcommunity awareness of the inclusiveschools initiative. In September 1997, key

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four pilot schools, local workshops wereheld for each one. “You have to always thinkabout adapting and there are a myriad ofoptions that can be imagined,” continuesVerillon. “In our research, we found that two-thirds of the measures taken to help disabledchildren can benefit all the other pupils in theclass. For instance, not talking with the backturned to students while writing on the black-board is just as valid for a deaf child as foran easily distracted one. With a classroomorganization that recognizes that not all stu-dents learn at the same pace, disabled chil-dren find their place.”

Resistance“Many teachers tend to think that these

kids need something so special that no onecan give it to them,” says Licht. “The mostessential thing is that teachers feel they havesupport from the system and that they canshare their experiences.”

According to Bah, developing this spiritof cooperation is not proving to be an easytask. The project has run into resistancefrom specialized schools, such as the onefor the blind. Bah would like to use educa-tors from these schools as “resource per-sons” but they have not come round to thenotion of inclusive schools. She also pointsto difficulties with several disabled children:“sometimes the parents are too poor to bringtheir children to school, so they go severaldays missing. We’d like to have a bus serviceto reduce absenteeism.”

Sometimes, the project holds thanks tothe sheer will of teachers. “When Hawacondé

Newspapers in action: the living textbook

”“Children

tend to

develop

better than

in specialized

schools

In California (USA), a few years ago, twoteachers created a newspaper column

aimed at helping new speakers and readersof English to improve their knowledge of thelanguage. The “Help a Friend Learn English”feature builds on words associated withvarious sections of an ordinary newspaper:news, sports, weather, health, to name a few.The 900 word-a-day column has since beensold to newspapers in California (with itslarge Spanish-speaking and Asian commu-nities), Oregon and Canada. It has been cho-sen as an example of how newspapers cancontribute to adult education in a sourcebookpublished jointly by the International Consul-tative Forum on Education for All (the EFAForum - founded by UNESCO and a numberof other UN agencies in 1990) and the WorldAssociation of Newspapers (WAN - represen-ting 15,000 publications on the five continents).

“The column was built on the idea thattwo people could work for a few minuteseach day learning a word,” explainedProfessor Carole Silva, a lecturer at CaliforniaState University and one of the brains behind“Help a Friend Learn English”. “But I dis-covered that pupils were using it at home toteach parents. In the end, it is a very inex-pensive form of adult education, given thatmost schools in the larger Californian citiesreceive complementary newspapers.” EllenStone, who co-authored the feature withSilva, found that teachers were cutting outthe column and using it in their classes.

Their experience echoes that of two tea-chers in Mendoza, Argentina, who started aproject using newspapers for children andparents (also featured in the sourcebook“Newspapers in Adult Education”). TheDiario Los Andes newspaper provided

was absent, I would go to her home to findout what had happened,” says Keita.

6,000 future teachersStill, the project is creating waves in the

education system. A module on managingchildren with learning difficulties is now partof the official teacher training curriculumand it is not without a touch of pride that Bahexplains how “6,000 future teachers will beexposed to this module over the next threeyears.” What’s more, last fall, more parentscame forward to enrol their disabled childrenin school. Two more schools are about to beincluded in the project and a campaign isunderway to raise awareness among otherschools. “We are encouraging them to sendchildren with difficulties to one of the pilotschools, or if that is not possible, to send atrainer on the spot to provide guidance,“explains Keita.

Results are promising, even if they onlyinvolve a small number of children. “At first,the children were completely closed, gra-dually, they have opened up and most ofthem are doing well. You nearly have tearsin the eyes when you see these children whoused to be so marginalized. Some of themhave profoundly changed, and their parentsare thankful because they didn’t know whatto do for their children.” Lucien BafodéCamara, a member of the project team,recalls that “at first, the children were tea-sed by their classmates. Now, their disabilitygoes just about unnoticed.“

Cynthia Guttman

12 January 1999 - No. 108

Boosting educationcoverage

copies free of charge to the ComandanteLuis Piedrabuena school in Mendoza as wellas paying for teacher training. Parents (agri-cultural workers, mostly Quechua- speakers)enrolled with their children to participateon assignments such as looking through apaper to identify its major parts, talking aboutthe feelings provoked by photos, and coun-ting using numbers in the paper.

It may sound like commonsense, yet theuse of newspapers in education is far froma foregone conclusion. According to Silvaand Stone, editors and publishers often needto be convinced of the contribution news-papers can make to education. “Editors don’thave any idea of what we are about inschools. They don’t see the educational valueof what we are doing, but we believe that thisis a two-way street and newspapers can alsobenefit through improved circulation,” notesSilva. To promote further use of the “livingtextbook” in schools and in particular, adulteducation, WAN formed a Newspaper inEducation (NIE) committee in 1991. Morethan 700 newspapers in the US now have pro-grammes. NIE projects are also underway inthe Baltic states and in 15 African countries.

“Following our African conferences (seebox),” relates Dr Aralynn McMane, WAN’sdirector of educational progammes, “we havefound publishers in the poorest countrieswilling to give away unsold newspapers toschools. For example, as part of a pilot pro-ject in Burkina Faso, publishers are rotatingto provide papers free for education, whenthey certainly do not have money to burn andwhen unsold copies are still a valuable com-modity even though the news may be out ofdate. There is a real commitment in spite ofthe costs.”

Whether in child or adult education,McMane claims teachers are uniformly

enthusiastic about using newspapers.“During the Durban conference, we heardfrom one trainer, who’d taught in rural SouthAfrica. The only textbooks available wereprinted in France, featured white people,and a context that had nothing to do with thelocal scene. This teacher started with onenewspaper for a class of 70 children, butwith that she was able to show African rea-lities – words, food, animals, plants – thatwere not in the textbooks.”

“Increasingly,” she continues, “newspa-pers are also used in career training, wherepeople are taught to read a classified adver-tisement and prepare for a job.” But the roleof newspapers in education is not restrictedto big dailies. Cooperative ventures inCameroon and Mali are publishing newspa-pers for isolated rural readers. In SouthAfrica, development agencies fund theweekly community supplement Learn With

Echo (in Zulu and English) aimed at readerswith less than complete primary school edu-cation. About half of Learn with Echo’s

50,000 copies are distributed free in KwaZulu-Natal townships. The rest are carried in theThursday edition of the Pietermaritzburgdaily The Natal Witness.

The one condition McMane sees to thesuccessful use of newspapers in educationis a pluralistic press. “We know newspapersare helpful in teaching people to read and inlearning basic math or geography. But whenit comes to civics, teachers need to be ableto provide a comparison to help pupilsbecome critical readers. You need a diver-sity of outlook. We say “newspapers in edu-cation” in plural because where there is onlya government dominated press it is franklynot worth it.”

Ann-Louise Martin

Last year WAN and theEFA Forum combined fortwo regional NIEworkshops in Africa –financed by theEuropean Commission –which were runconcurrently with theEFA Forum’s seminarsfor education journalistsAbidjan, March 29-April4 (Durban, April 16 – 25).While WAN isconcerned withreaching out to teachersand assisting in training,EFA has focused onimproving standards ofeducation journalism,but the treatment ofeducation in the newsmedia is of concern toboth. “The coverage ofeducation in Africa, likeelsewhere isundervalued,” stressesWAN’s Dr AralynnMcMane. Kenyanjournalist David Adudaadds: “Many Africanjournalists do not go outand interview teachers,pupils, parents andother stakeholders.They depend on brief-ings and governmentstatements for informa-tion. Because of staffshortages, editors useeducation journalistsfor general reporting.As a result, education ispushed to the backburner and reportershave little time to focusand follow up issues inthe sector.” “One wayto heighten awareness,”says Ellicot Seade,supervising editor ofGhana’s The Indepen-dent, “is to releasebulletins/newslettersespecially tailored totrends in education.” To strengthen edu-cation coverage inAfrica, UNESCO ishelping establish aNetwork of AfricanEducation Journalists.

More than just a daily dose of news, - newspapers are a relevant teaching tool.

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Namibia: Energy for a village

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The night sky in rural Namibia glows withthe light of thousands of village fires.Electricity is a rare commodity limited mainlyto urban zones in this country of 1.6 millionpeople, 80% of whom live in the countryside.

“The electrification of villages began onlyafter independence in 1990,” explains PinehasAluteni, the first secretary at the Namibianembassy in Paris. “Priority was given to thebiggest rural centres. Most villages are notyet connected to the national grid.”

Namibia is no exception. Some two bil-lion people around the world have no accessto electricity, and more than a billion haveno other fuel source than combustibles suchas wood. Since April 1997 the village ofOnamunhama in the north of the country(population 3,000), has attempted to showthat solar energy is a viable option. Afterlong discussions with community leadersand inhabitants, and confirmation that therewere no plans to hook the centre up to thenational grid for at least another ten years,UNESCO financed solar panels to providepower to the local school, health and com-munity centres.

The initial equipment cost $70,000. Twoyoung people from the village were trainedto maintain it. “The installation has beenworking well for more than a year now,” says

Benjamin Ntim, the science and technolgyadvisor at UNESCO’s office in Pretoria (SouthAfrica), who adds that an extra school build-ing has since been constructed and adultliteracy courses can now be held there inthe evenings.

The Onamunhama project is one of arange being supported by UNESCO’s WorldSolar Programme in 90 countries, aimed atproviding energy in an ecological and sus-tainable manner - from a thermal power plantin Pakistan to a solar powered desaliniza-tion plant in Palestine and micro-hydroe-lectric stations in Côte d’Ivoire.

“Once the solar panels are installed, themaintenance is easy, requiring just that thecharge level of the batteries be checked regu-larly. It’s the initial investment that costs...”says Jacques Mba-Nze, a specialist on theSolar Programme. In Namibia, a domesticsolar panel to provide light, run kitchenappliances and a television costs 6,000 shil-lings ($1,200). But a teacher earns about1,000 shillings a month. “Only a lucky few canoffer themselves this equipment,” notesAluteni, explaining that outside help is essen-tial and priority is given to projects that servewhole communities.

N. K-D

Over one billion people in developingcountries are without access to a safe

water supply, according to the World HealthOrganization. Safe water refers to safe drin-king water available in the home or within15 minutes’ walking distance. Almost withoutexception, women and girls are the water car-riers in any given community. One Kenyanstudy found that women and girls were car-rying loads of 20 - 25 litres over distances of3.5 kilometres for one to two hours dailyand because school-age children are oftenused for this task, class attendance is redu-ced. To help address the many problemsassociated with the lack of clean water,UNESCO launched the Women and Water -Resources Supply and Use project in 1996.

Kobong is a village of 5,000 inhabitantsin the nothern Kenyan district of Siaya. Thearea is dry and poor. Rains are unpredictable.Although considered a “lake shore commu-nity”, technical problems in bringing thewater to the village, and ground water sali-nity had left householders dependent on fourimpoundments or pans. A number of thesehad not contained water for several seasonsbecause they silted up and were abandoned.

Kenya: Water to unburden womenUnder the auspices of the UNESCO pro-

ject, the Kenyan government and villagewomen joined forces to fund the building ofa new, larger water impoundment with a57,000 cubic metre capacity, and to cleanthe existing pans.

The whole operation cost an estimatedKsh640,000 ($US67,000), with Ksh300,000raised by the local community and a furtherKsh100,000 by the Kobong’s women’s groupin Nairobi. Poor rainfall in 1997 meant theKobong community has had to wait to see thefruit of its efforts. Last November’s rainswere promising, but it is still too early to tellto what extent the new dam and clean pans

will serve the village. There are other immediate benefits; the

availability of heavy machinery in the districtencouraged a Danish donor organization tofund the cleaning of two other water pans

near Kobong. More importantly however, theendeavour showed how community mem-bers can move mountains to improve theirquality of life.

Monica Ayieko in Nairobi,

with N. K-D.

She’s got better thingsto do.

”“It’s the

initial

investment

that costs

14 January 1999 - No. 108

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●●● To find out more:World Heritage CentreFax: 33 1 45 68 18 76; E-mail: wh-info@unesco.org

CULTURE

PEOPLE

●●● To find out more:UNESCO Office in MontevideoE-mail: uhcfj@unesco.org.uy

This illustrated bilingualbrochure (French/English)highlights the richness,diversity but also the fragilityof Africa’s cultural heritage.From the nomadic cultures ofdesert environments and theland of the Dogons, a

OceanographyGathered at UNESCO from 17-27November, the Executive Councilof the IntergovernmentalOceanographic Commission(IOC) touched on a broad rangeof concerns in its adopted reso-lutions. These include expan-ding the Tsunami WarningSystems programme to otherregions like the Caribbean Basinand the Mediterranean; sup-porting the project proposal onStorm Surges for the NorthernPart of the Indian Ocean; reduc-ing vandalism of oceanographicequipment at sea and facilitatingthe transfer to African marineresearch institutions and uni-versities of relevant data relatedto this continent’s marinewaters.

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World HeritageFor the first time, sites in Belgium and the Solomon Islands havefound a place on the the World Heritage List. Meeting in Kyoto(Japan) from November 30 to December 5, the World HeritageCommittee selected 30 new cultural and natural sites. The Listnow counts 582 sites in 114 countries. Among the new culturalsites: the Grand-Place in Brussels; the archaeological site of Troyin Turkey, immortalized in Homer’s Iliad; and the Temple ofHeaven in Beijing, an ensemble symbolizing the relationshipbetween earth and heaven. The three new natural sites includeEast Rennell, the largest raised coral atoll in the world, located inthe Solomon Islands.

The Grand-Place in Brussels.

EL NIÑO AND SOUTHAMERICADuring an international seminarheld in Quito (Ecuador) fromNovember 26 to 29 under the aus-pices of UNESCO, experts reflect-ed on the climatic and hydrolo-gical consequences of the ElNiño phenomenon in SouthAmerica. Among the themes debated: pro-gress on research into the localconsequences of global climatechanges; the reliability of fore-casting methods and techniquesthat scientists make available topolicy-makers.

...AND FOR TOLERANCEGhanaian author Meshack Asareand the American Ann R.Blakeslee are the co-laureates of

civilization that flourished inthe 13th and 14th centuriessouthwest of the bend of theNiger, to Lobi housing inBurkina Faso and Swahiliculture of East Africa, thebrochure provides a succinctoverview of this continent’smultifaceted heritage. It alsoexplains how the concept ofcultural heritage has evolvedsince the adoption of the 1972Convention, namely with thenotion of cultural “landscapes”and cultural “itineraries”.

AFRICA REVISITED

A Prize for Human Rights...The 1998 UNESCO Prize forHuman Rights Education wasawarded on December 10 toMichael Kirby, a justice of theHigh Court of Australia. Innaming him the internationaljury commended “his significantcontribution to the teaching ofthe principles of human rightswithin his profession andbeyond.” Justice Kirby has playedan active role in several inter-national organizations. He wasnotably a member of UNESCO’sInternational Bioethics Commit-tee. He recently contributed toUNESCO Sources’ dossier onhuman rights (No. 107).

the 1999 UNESCO Prize forChildren and Young People’sLiterature in the Service ofTolerance. They were selectedfrom more than 300 candidatesfrom 42 countries by an interna-tional jury chaired by SuzanneMubarak, the first lady of Egypt. In Sosu’s Call, which won theaward in the under-13 category,Asare tells the story of a disa-bled boy who wins the respect ofeveryone in his village by savingit from flood. In the 13-18 category,A Different Kind of Hero by AnnBlakeslee is set in a mining campin the 1880s where the arrival ofa group of foreigners provokeshostility. It is the son of the tou-ghest miner who teaches hisfather tolerance towards peoplewho are different. Awardedevery two years, the Prize willbe given during the BolognaChildren’s Book Fair (Italy) inApril 1999.

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“Peace remainsuncertain, the threat

of war persists,” statedDirector-General FedericoMayor during aceremony on December6 marking the thirdanniversary of theassassination of theformer Israeli primeminister Yitzhak Rabin.Avi Shoket, Israel’sPermanent Delegate toUNESCO, described theWye PlantationAgreement as a stepforward towards peace:“Despite everything, itopens a betterperspective for this longand difficult road.”Evoking the spirituallegacy of her husband,Leah Rabin stressed that“only faith, trust andrespect can make itpossible to move aheadtowards peace.”Theceremony was held atUNESCO’s “Square ofTolerance in Homage toYitzhak Rabin,” designedby the artist DaniKaravan.

“The work of ourorganization has

helped re-define in anew way the role andplace of the educator ina modern democraticsociety,” stated MykolaLukashevich, deputypresident of theUkrainian movementEducators for Peace andMutual Understanding.This non-political andnon-religious group,founded a decade ago,was awarded the 1998UNESCO Prize for PeaceEducation on December15. It has organizedworkshops, visits andexchanges involvingteachers and studentsfrom Ukraine andabroad. Presenting theprize, Francine Fournier,UNESCO AssistantDirector-General forSocial and HumanSciences, stressed that:“We all know that themain way to sow theseeds of peace and bringthem to fruition inpeople’s minds and intheir behaviour isthrough education.”

15No. 108 - January 1999

CULTURE OF PEACE

“THE WOUNDED DOVE”In the course of this century, morethan 100 million people have losttheir lives in armed conflicts. Andyet, even in the darkest momentsof history, the spirit of peace hasbeen kept alive, nurtured by indi-viduals who believed that humanbeings can live together withoutresorting to violence. To make these peacemakersknown to a wider audience, aproduction company is prepa-ring a 10-hour documentaryseries entitled The WoundedDove. The quest for peace in the20th century, with support fromUNESCO. The series travels thecentury decade by decade, see-king to capture the spirit of thosewho have given so much of them-selves to prevent, contain or endconflicts. Adventure FilmProductions is still on the loo-kout for stories about people whohave remained on the sidelines,but tirelessly struggled to “revivethe phoenix of peace.”

●●● To find out more:Adventure Film Productions89bis rue Blomet, F-75015 ParisFax: 33 1 42 50 95 32E-mail: holla@cybercable.fr

EDUCATION

At School,Not WarMore than 300,000 childrenunder 18 are mobilized in armedconflicts throughout the world.Their place is at school, not atwar. This reality has promptedUNESCO to expand its action inthe field of EmergencyEducational Assistance. A bro-chure published by this unitexplains how UNESCO, in co-operation with other organiza-tions, is “strengthening itsresources”, namely by drawingup curriculum guidelines, orga-nizing emergency educationalprojects, promoting the cause ofrefugee children and especiallytheir right to education, andimplementing the principles ofeducation for peace and dialoguein the education systems of war-ring countries. “Faced with theemergencies created by wars,we must create and enforce achildhood peace zone in themidst of combat, ” reads the bro-chure. “We must guaranteeimmunity for schools.”

●●● To find out more:Emergency Educational Assistance UnitE-mail: ed.emergency@unesco.org

MEDIA FOR ADULTEDUCATIONA practical guide on using news-papers to improve adult educa-tion and to fight adult illiteracyhas just been published by theInternational Consultative Forumon Education for All (EFA Forum)and the World Association ofNewspapers (WAN). News-papers in Adult Education: ASourcebook describes 10 pro-jects from 9 countries that usenewspapers in a range of adulteducation programmes – helpingchildren teach their parents toread, reaching out to immigrants,writing programmes for youngprisoners, easy reading for thementally disabled, etc. The guideprovides “who-what-where”details on all the projects, withcontact numbers. As an intro-ductory note to educators pointsout, “When properly used, news-papers and magazines can effi-ciently promote learning, criti-cal thinking, creativity andresourcefulness in learners ofall ages” (see p. 10).

ECOLOGY AND EDUCATONSpecialists from the Arab regionin agriculture, medicine, educa-tion, social sciences and nuclearphysics met in Cairo from Nov. 28-Dec. 2 to explore how environ-mental concerns and basic edu-cation can be linked in integrateddevelopment projects. The semi-nar, organized by the UNESCOInstitute for Education, is part of theALPHA 99 worldwide researchproject on this theme. Researchresults will be published in four languages.

●●● To find out more:EFA Forum SecretariatFax: 33-1-45 68 56 29E-mail: efa@unesco.org

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BOOKS

16 January 1999 - No. 108

IN BRIEF IN BRIEF IN BRIEF IN BRIEF IN BRIEF IN BRIEF IN BRIEF IN BRIEF

Mahatma Gandhiand Martin LutherKing JrThe Power of Nonviolent Actionby Mary KingUNESCO Publishing 1999.529pp., 295FF.Part of the Cultures of PeaceSeries, this book explores thestrategy of nonviolent action byfirst detailing Mahatma Gandhi’shistoric campaigns, then show-ing how the father of India’s inde-pendence movement and his phi-losophy influenced MartinLuther King Jr and the Americancivil rights movement. Theauthor, who worked alongsidethe Reverend Martin Luther KingJr during the American civilrights movement as a memberof the Student NonviolentCoordinating Committee, goeson to describe how the wisdomof Gandhi and King inspiredpeoples and popular movementsaround the world - including thePoles, East Germans, Czechs,Slovaks, the Burmese and theThais. The continuing struggle by NobelPeace Prize winner Aung SanSuu Kyi in Myanmar, for example,is set against a history of the pro-democracy movement in thatcountry. The Israeli-Palestinianconflict is discussed at length,with a chapter on the Palestinianintifada that seeks to show themovement’s nonviolent dimen-sion, and an interview betweenIsraeli Professor Edy Kaufmanand the Palestinian scholarMubarek Awad. Nonviolent struggle, has, as aresult of its use, forced the revi-sion of military manuals, politi-cal lexicons and world maps.“Mary King has chronicled themost powerful force for alteringthe human condition in the twen-tieth century,” states for US pre-sident Jimmy Carter. “Thisvolume is UNESCO’s superb gift

COMMUNICATION

to the twenty-first century andthe pursuit of human rights, free-dom and justice.”

Coping with BeachErosionby Gillian CambersUNESCO Publishing, 1998.119 pp., 300 FFThis practical, user-friendly guideprovides expert advice in straight-forward language to beach users,

UNESCO and the Sea GrantCollege Program of the Universityof Puerto Rico.

1998 StatisticalYearbookUNESCO Publishing/Bernan Press 1998.Trilingual English/French/Spanishapprox. 900 pp., 450 FF.Providing key statistical infor-mation from almost 200 coun-tries, this major UNESCO refe-rence book is prepared by theDivision of Statistics, in coope-ration with the UNESCO NationalCommissions and various natio-nal statistical services . The firstchapter consists of tables onpopulation, illiteracy and edu-cational attainment. Figures arealso provided on enrolment ratiosat the various levels of the edu-cation system and public expen-diture. Science and Technologyincludes figures on research anddevelopment, personnel and expenditure. Culture and

ISRAELI-PALESTINIANMEDIA FORUMAn important step forward to fos-tering professional cooperationand promoting better under-standing between Israeli andPalestinian journalists was takenon November 30 with the setting-up, under the auspices ofUNESCO, of the “Israeli-Palestinian Media Forum” (IPMF).Based in Jersualem, it is opento all journalists and other mediaprofessionals working in theregion. Its objectives: to orga-

●●● To find out more:Unit for Freedom of Expression andDemocracy.

nize joint activities, enhance pro-fessional standards in reporting,and take action every time thatpress freedom and the freedomof movement of journalists are injeopardized. UNESCO has given$50,000 to assist the launch ofthe project, which will be finan-ced by public and private dona-tions.

●●● To find out morePublications and periodicals are soldat UNESCO’s bookshop(Headquarters) and through nationaldistributors in most countries.For further information or directorders by mail, fax or Internet;UNESCO Publishing, 7 place deFontenoy, 75352 Paris 07 SP. Tel. (+33 1) 01 45 68 43 00 - Fax (33 1)01 45 68 57 41. Internet:http://www.unesco.org/publishing

Communication covers the massmedia, libraries, book produc-tion, trade in printed matter,paper consumption, film pro-duction, cinema seats andmuseums. This book is a parti-cularly valuable resource forlibraries, documentation cen-tres, research institutions,governmental and non-govern-mental organizations.

builders, homeowners and othercoastal stakeholders concerningthe dangers to keep in mind whenbuying property and construc-ting houses, hotels, etc. in ero-sion-prone beach areas. It offersadvice, for example, on what todo when stones have replaced asand beach or when a reef isthreatened. The question of howto safeguard existing beaches isdealt with by demonstrating well-tested shoreline protection andother management measures.Extensively cross-referenced andillustrated with colour photosand graphs, this book includes aglossary of terms and a subjectindex. Its popularized and well-structured guidelines are basedon technical information gather-ed over a decade and a half offield studies jointly sponsored by

IN BRIEF IN BRIEF IN BRIEF IN BRIEF IN BRIEF IN BRIEF IN BRIEF IN BRIEF

17No. 108 - January 1999

“IN BRIEF”: compiled by Christine Mouillère.

World HeritageReviewAlthough 2,000 years older thanthe other six wonders ofAntiquity, the Great Pyramid ofGiza (Egypt) is the only one tohave come down to us almostintact.“My reign will be greatest,the most glorious, ” had affirmedCheops. His architectural legacyis equal to the ambition of anexceptional monarch of theAncient Empire. In accordancewith his wishes, his pyramid,rising 147 meters, stands as thesymbol of his soul’s journeytowards his father Rê, the sun.Issue No. 9 of the World HeritageReview features an opening storyon Giza’s extraodinary architec-tural complex, formed by thepyramids of Chephren, Cheopsand Mycerinus, and the Sphinx.On a more chillingly contempo-rary note, the Review pays tributeto the Hiroshima Peace Me-morial, inscribed on the WorldHeritage List since 1996. Back inthe heart of Europe, theensemble of palaces and gardenssurrounding the Czech towns ofLednice and Valtice form a beau-tiful cultural landscape. Con-tents of this issue also includea story on the ancient city ofPetra in Jordan, where theNabateans settled around 400BC, and a journey to theNgorongoro Conservation areaand the Serengeti in Tanzania,

PERIODICALS

two natural parks stretching overnearly two and half million hec-tares and home to the greatestand most varied herds of largemammals in Africa.HUMAN RIGHTS

“A woman has the right toclimb onto the scaffold, shemust also have the right tostand up in the House,”proclaimed a defiant Olympede Gouges in 1791. This Frenchprecursor of feminism was theauthor of the Declaration ofthe Rights of Women and theFemale Citizen. Since then,considerable progress has beenmade in advancing “equality ofrights between men andwomen”, as stated by theUnited Nations Charter, but

this ideal is far from being thenorm. According to a study bythe Parliamentary Union, only11.7% of the world’s parliamen-tarians were women as ofJanuary 1997. UNESCO haspublished a book of normativeinternational regional instru-ments specifically related towomen’s rights, as well asresolutions and declarationsadopted over the past 20 yearsduring a succession of worldconferences. Available inEnglish in mid-1999.

Marking the 50th Anniversary ofthe Human Rights Declara-tion, a commemorativeUNESCO medal hasbeen struck in 600copies by the ParisMint. One side fea-tures a world mapwhile the other isengraved with the firstsentence of Article 1:

“All human beings are born freeand equal in dignity and

rights,” as well as thewords “humanrights” spelt out inthe Organization’ssix official lan-

guages: English,Arabic, Chinese,

Spanish, French andRussian.

●●● To find out more:Division of Human Rights, Democracy and Peace.

●●● To find out morePhilatelic and Numismatic Programme

... Women’s Rights

A JUBILEE MEDAL

THE UNESCOCOURIERA “grey” revolution is shakingthe planet: the proportion ofthose over 65 more than doubledbetween 1965 and 2025. At thebeginning of the InternationalYear for the Elderly, under thetitle: “Gearing up for the grannyboom”, January’s Courier exa-mines reactions – or the lack ofthem – in light of this aging of thepopulation. In the North, tradi-tional political means of assis-tance to the elderly are calledinto question with the decline ofthe welfare state; in the South,where aid is virtually non-exis-tant, a traditional solidarity isbreaking down and self-help ini-tiatives are marginalized, whilemore and more elderly peopleare living in absolute poverty. The issue also reports on the gra-dual exhaustion of one of ourmost precious resources: soil.Questions are raised over thedebt-load carried by the world’spoorest countries while anotherstory showcases the latest trendsin museums, looking at how theinstitution has evolved over thelast two decades. The Couriercloses on an interview withYordan Raditchkov, a Bulgarianwriter, who supports use of thegrotesque as an arm against theabsurdity of the world.

18 January 1999 - No. 108

SEEKING A MIDDLE PATH

Self-regulation not rigid legislation says the

pharmaceutical industry at the International Bioethics

Committee’s Fifth Session.

BIOETHICS

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The promise of gene therapies: a scientist detecting “suicide genes” against cancer.

Events have been mov-ing at a blinding pace.

The year 1997 was marked,in February, by the cloningof the sheep Dolly, then inNovember by the adoptionof the UNESCO Universal

Declaration on the Human

Genome and Human

Rights. Twelve months on,American scientists an-nounced the isolation ofhuman embryo cells, knownas “stem cells”, from theembryo itself. “Stem cells”can eventually differentiateinto the body’s vital organs.Scientists believe this break-through may lead to the lab-oratory production of, forexample, nerve cells to treatParkinson’s disease, orblood cells to treat immunedeficiencies. But whatabout the embryo?

NEW TERRITORIES Science it seems, paves

the way. Public debate andpolicy struggle to catch upwhile the rules of the gameare being written. The ques-tion of industrial use of thehuman embryo was raised-during the Fifth Session ofthe International BioethicsCommittee (IBC), held fromDecember 2 – 4 in Noordwijk(the Netherlands). Repre-senting the Church ofScotland and a Europeanecumenical bioethics work-ing group, Dr Donald Brucereflected that “if you have acell line for the part of thebody with which you areconcerned to test a drug,then it could avoid the useof a lot of animals. But if youhave to go through thehuman embryo to do that,then you are raising issuesover the embryo’s status that

very few people have ad-dressed.”

“Personally, I believethat if there are serious ther-apeutic propositions arisingfrom this work, then oursociety will adapt just as ithas towards the pill andabortion,” responded YvesChampey, President of theRhône-Poulenc Rorer Foun-dation. “The opinion of areligious group won’t bestrong enough to brake sci-ence.” Indeed, British sci-entists, concerned aboutfalling behind the US, haveasked their government toreview the law concerningthe granting of licenses onembryo research.

Where does privateindustry stand on theseissues? Do companies fol-low a code of conduct?Representatives from theprivate sector participatingin a session on “Ethics andthe Uses of Genetic Engi-neering in Industry” at theIBC meeting argued stronglyin favour of self-re-gulation.

“We don’t have a writtencode of ethics,” explainedPenelope Manasco, Glaxo

Wellcome’s vice-president,Worldwide Clinical Gene-tics. “We really have tried tobe sensitive to the environ-ment, because it is con-stantly changing. We have topermanently re-evaluate ourpolicies and procedures andask are we meeting com-munity needs?” To this endthe company has recentlyappointed a WorldwideGenetics Policy Advisor.“Her job is to point to theissues and ask if we areresponsible in the way wehandle them.”

“I’m not sure that freez-ing a number of principles inlaw is the best way of meet-ing these issues as theyloom,” stressed Champey.“We need to deploy a realeffort to ensure that our cit-izens can deal with thesequestions. If we freeze themin law, it breaks the processinstead of assisting it. Onething is for sure: the politi-cians involved in this areamust be trained because thedecisions we expect fromthem suppose knowledgeand we do not leave themenough time to acquire it.”

Robin Fears from theleading pharmaceutical firmSmithkline Beecham poin-ted out that his company isa member of Europabio,grouping 40 multinationalsplus 600 smaller companiesinvolved in the develop-ment, testing, manufactureand distribution of biotech-nology products. Europabiohas core ethical values towhich members are invitedto adhere. The general prin-ciples include a call forrespect for cultural values inbiotechnology, exchangebetween developed anddeveloping countries and afirm stance against cloningtechnologies to reproducehuman beings.

PATENT WORRIESAnother area of concern

to ethicists is the patentingof genetic material. WhileUNESCO’s Declaration

states that “the humangenome in its natural stateshall not give rise to finan-cial gains”, there has beencontroversy in the scientificcommunity over just whena company may patent theidentification of geneticmaterial. Some specialistsargue in favour of patentingeven the tiniest gene frag-ments known as “expresssequence tags” (ESTs), oth-ers worry that the “right tolicense” may shut offresearch in the same area.An announcement last yearthat the US Patent Officewould allow the patentingof ESTs caused widespreadconsternation. In Europe,the recently approved Bio-technology Patent Directiveimplies that a partial genesequence “may constitute apatentable invention, evenif the structure of that ele-ment is identical to that of anatural element.”

The International Hu-man Genome Organization(Hugo) has rejected thepatenting of ESTs, pushinginstead for the early releaseof genome data to encour-age the development of ther-apies. “We have to be able tofind a balance between

19No. 108 - January 1999

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Deciphering gene sequences with ultra-violet rays.

Can ethical issues beresolved in the laboratory?

research incentives andhuman rights for patients,”observed the IBC’s newlyappointed president, Pro-fessor Ryuichi Ida. “If wesuppress intellectual prop-erty, then scientists are notgoing to be interested ingenetic research.”

“Not every pharmaceu-tical company has the sameview on patenting,” ex-panded Manasco. “Webelieve you have to not onlyfind the gene but understandwhat it does. You have tohave a biological reasonbefore you patent. We don’tpatent ESTs just for the sakeof it.”

According to ProfessorHuanming Yang, Director ofthe Human Genome Centreof the Chinese Academy ofMedical Sciences and anIBC member, pressure fromthe US and Europe forcedChina to reckon with theissue and to “allow thepatenting of DNA with aknown function.” Further-more, in order to protect itsgenetic heritage, China hasruled that DNA, blood sam-ples, or anything else whichcould be used for geneticanalysis or gene cloning can-not be exported.

Disquiet over foreignattempts to patent geneticmatter from across the bio-logical kingdom in develop-ing countries was echoed byProfessor Muhammed Ka-mil Tajudin, of the IBC. Herelated how the cottageindustry for tempe (one ofIndonesia’s traditional foodstuffs made from fermented

soya beans) has been threat-ened by companies fromabroad attempting to patentthe micro-organisms usedfor making this “poor man’smeat”. “I believe that evenin today’s world in whichtechnology is very ad-vanced, human endeavourscannot be solely evaluatedin the context of materialperspectives,” ProfessorTajudin told the panel. “Theholders of indigenousknowledge, the people whohave conserved and im-proved material – for exam-ple, those who haveimproved the yeast strainsfor the production of tempe– should be protected fromseeing those strains pa-tented by others.”

A common chord at theround-table was the needto keep the debate open andongoing on all fronts. AsProfessor Ida pointed out,the statutes of the Decla-

ration require that the IBC“promote reflection on theethical and legal issuesraised by research in the lifesciences and their applica-tions, as well as encouragethe exchange of ideas andinformation, particularlythrough education.”

“Ethical reflection mustgo hand in hand with tech-nological advances,” insistedobservor Father FernandoChomali of Chile’s Univer-sidad Católica. “It is also upto the private sector to initi-ate debate,” affirmedElizabeth McPherson, GlaxoWellcome’s Genetics PolicyAdvisor. “Progress is like an

WOMEN’S HEALTH AND BIOETHICS●●●Half a million women die every year because of complicationsduring pregnancy. Abortion-related deaths account for roughly a thirdof maternal deaths each year and sexually transmitted diseasesdisproportionately affect women. In releasing a provisional report on“Women’s Health, Bioethics and Human Rights” during its session inthe Netherlands, the International Bioethics Committee reiterated theurgency of improving healthcare for women and drew attention to thegender dimension of medical advances, warning that “progress couldalso be the cause of new forms of discrimination or constraint. ”Gathering data and information from a broad body of work, the report’sten chapters cover issues affecting women’s health across the lifecycle. Several case studies are included. One from India, for example,shows how testing for genetic abnormalities has been used for sexselection. A recent study by the Jaipur Medical College found that3,500 female foetuses are aborted every year after the test in that cityalone. The author concludes that penalties aimed at stopping thepractice should go hand-in-hand with “stringent anti-dowry laws andthe provision of security for the elderly so that parents do not feel theywill have to rely on protection from their sons.”Another study, on the South African Decentralized EducationProgramme in Advanced Midwifery, shows how participating midwiveshave been able to bring about change in the communities andhospitals where they work. The women have been encouraged tostrike at the root of problems such as infant mortality due to isolation,by pushing for the construction of roads. They have learnt how to buildconcrete water tanks and latrines and have a negotiating voice indisputes that affect women and children.“I do think the report breaks new ground,” stressed Professor LorraineDennerstein, from the University of Melbourne (Australia), andrapporteur of the IBC’s working group on Women’s Health, Bioethicsand Human Rights. “There is extensive information available onwomen’s health outcomes showing tremendous disadvantage forwomen across the world, but this hasn’t been looked at before from abioethics perspective. You could say the specialists have had access tothis information before – they can’t say they didn’t know – but still theresponse is not what it should be. So it seems to me that we need amore interdisciplinary approach, a more creative response, and that iswhere I think the IBC can take matters forward.”

A.-L. M.Internet: http//www.unesco.org/ethics

express train and we don’tknow where the terminusis,” added Vigdis Finn-bogadottir, president ofUNESCO’s World Commis-sion on the Ethics ofScientific Knowledge andTechnology. “But the brakeson that train are ourselves.It should never be forgottenthat it is people who give thesignals to decision makers.”

Ann-Louise Martin

Noordwijk

20 January 1999 - No.108

When El Niño devas-tated north-eastern

Brazil in 1982-83, a third lessrain fell and harvests shrankby half. But in 1991-92, thesame phenomenon onlydestroyed 15% of crops.

Why? Because the sec-ond time round, scientistshad been able to predictwhen El Niño would strikeand farmers took precau-tions. Fast-growing, short-cycle varieties of beans –the local food staple – wereplanted and to ensure peas-ant incomes, loans were pro-vided to grow cotton, whichneeds little water, insteadof rice.

In many African coun-tries, more than 90% of GDPcomes from rain-fed crops,so yields can vary as muchas tenfold from year to year.Variations in the monsoonseason in Asia touch thedaily lives of two-thirds ofthe world’s people, forexample by affecting riceproduction in southern Asia.

The most spectacularnatural phenomena occurmainly in the tropics, buttemperate countries in theNorth can be hit by costly

flooding and drought too.And in the era of globaliza-tion, the impact of such localevents can ricochet aroundthe world. Thus the needto better understand thewhims of the weather.

Enormous strides havebeen made in weather fore-casting over the past 20years. To take things further,the World Climate ResearchProgramme (WCRP) –backed by UNESCO’sIntergovernmental Oceano-graphic Commission, theWorld MeteoreologicalOrganization and theInternational Council forScience – is launching thefirst planet-wide climateresearch programme, calledCLIVAR (Climate Variabilityand Predictability).

Coming in the wake oftwo other programmes –TOGA (Tropical OceanGlobal Atmosphere, ad-dressing issues of the trop-ical oceans) and WOCE(World Ocean CirculationExperiment, about the roleplayed by the ocean and itscurrents in the global cli-mate) – CLIVAR will gatherall existing global data, from

Flooding in Baden-Baden(Germany), October 1998:no part of the world isspared from naturalcatastrophes.

UNESCO throws its weight behind the first

planet-wide research programme on climate

prediction, involving some 70 countries.

as far back in time as possi-ble, to study the complexinteractions between atmos-phere, oceans and land, andcome up with forecastingmodels.

TOGA has made it pos-sible to get to know El Niñowell since 1984. CLIVAR willextend the study of El Niñoto the tropical and AtlanticOceans, and will also focuson the North Atlantic, whichhas a critical influence onEurope’s climate. Otherresearch areas include thevast southern oceans andthe extent to which humanactivity affects climate.

Scientists from nearly 70countries met from Decem-ber 2 - 4 at UNESCO head-quarters in Paris to declaretheir commitment, espe-cially financially, to the pro-gramme, which will cost anestimated $100 million ayear for 15 years.

The private sector hasalready grasped the impor-tance of climate prediction.“Mobil and Exxon are nowusing long-range weatherforecasts to work out howmuch fuel they will be sell-ing in winter-time,” says

WHAT’S THE FORECAST PLEASE?

CLIMATE

John Kermond of the USNational Oceanic andAtmospheric Administration.“And the maker of M&Msweets employs two full-time meteorologists to knowwhen and where to buycocoa beans.” Not surpris-ingly perhaps, an Exxonrepresentative attended theUNESCO conference...

Three things have maderecent progress possible –scientific advances, politi-cal commitment and inter-national cooperation. “Thebreakthrough came in the1970s when we discoveredthe role of oceans in the cli-mate,” says WCRP chiefHartmut Grassl. “It wasmade possible by the newtechnologies.”

That oceans redistributeheat and water around theglobe is a well-known fact.But new technologies makeit possible to take tempera-tures deep down – 1,000metres or more – without theuse of ships, something thatwas needed for the inter-annual forecasts. Thanks tosatellites, sea surface tem-peratures and sea levels canbe measured over wide areasand computers can run real-istic models of the ocean andatmosphere.

POLITICAL REACTIONS Science has been helped

too by political determina-tion on the part of somecountries. “We forecast ElNiño for the first time in1986, but nobody paid atten-tion,” recalls Antonio Moura,head of the InternationalResearch Institute forSeasonal to InterannualClimate Prediction. “Thedamage it caused helped topush governments to investin science and technologyfor agricultural production.”

Abdallah Mokssit, ofMorocco’s National Weatherand Meteorological ResearchCentre, believes the demandfor information about the

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Deadly assortment: some of the 350 types oflandmines on the market.

21

Photographer Gervasio Sánchez

chronicles the story of survivors whose lives have

been brutally transformed by landmine explosions.

MAIMED LIVES WITH A NAME

especially affect children.In the American State ofLouisiana for example,drought has boosted themosquito population, lead-ing to the spread of denguefever.

International coopera-tion is vital in this field.“Climate is global, soresearch must be too,” saythe scientists. Satelliteshave made it possible toignore borders, but the endof the Cold War and theemergence of first-class sci-entific communities in sev-eral developing countrieshas also spurred theprocess.

First the explosion. Thennothing. Just a terrible,

heavy silence and dust every-where. Then come thescreams of pain and confu-sion, of rage and despair. Thelandmine had been hiddenin the forest, close to thehouse. Like a secret soldier,as Spanish photographerGervasio Sánchez puts it.

“It wakes up whenyou’re not expecting it toand lies in wait for its victim.It doesn’t sleep or eat.” Itjust explodes and kills sumsup Sánchez.

“It wounded 10-year-oldSofía Alface as she wasgathering firewood. Shewasn’t told right away thatboth her legs had to beamputated very quickly. Hereight-year-old sister waskilled on the spot, a fewyards away. Today, fouryears after this tragedy,Sofía, who comes from apoor peasant family nearMaputo, the Mozambicancapital, is a dressmaker. She

weather from policy and deci-sion-makers has increasedbecause of “the successionof extreme events, such asdroughts and floods over thepast two decades.”

Kevin Trenberth, of theNational Center forAtmospheric Research inthe United States, maintainsthat “compared to the ben-efits for society, the cost ofmaintenance and modellingresources are negligible.”And the consequences ofclimate variations arenumerous. In Nigeria, thedrought which comes withEl Niño brings cholera andmeningitis epidemics, which

is a pretty woman whowears a different dress eachtime she goes out.”

There are many such sto-ries in the 64 countriesaround the world that areriddled with landmines. Alandmine explodes some-where or other on averageevery 20 minutes. They killabout 20,000 people everyyear. But not all the storiesend like Sofía’s, on a noteof hope and enterprise.When landmines maim, theyshatter the lives of the vic-tims. “It shuts them off in aworld of physical and psy-chological agony and mar-ginalizes them, because thesociety they live in has itselfbeen maimed by war and socannot easily look afterthem,” says Sánchez, whosepictures of these post-wartragedies, of living with land-mines, were on show atUNESCO headquarters inParis in December.

After 12 years of photo-graphing all kinds of wars,

PORTRAITS

No 108 - January 1999

he decided in 1995 to “showwhat happens after the figh-ting has stopped.” Wheneveryone else thinks it’s allover, it is only just begin-ning for the civilian popula-tion, he says. “Just whenthe danger from the enemyseems to have vanished andthe refugees are going homewith the hope of leading anormal life,” the mines ripinto people’s lives – in thefields, under a door, in thecorner of a garden or on ariver bank.

“It’s hard to get storiesabout this kind of thing intothe press, which these daysis increasingly disinterestedin such things,” saysSánchez, whose first assi-gnment on the subject camefrom a Spanish women’smagazine. He went to Kuito,in Angola, a town of 125,000people, “4,000 of them mai-med by landmines.” Hecontinued on to Cambodia“where one in every 237people has been mutilated

by mines,” and to Sarajevo“which lived through fouryears of bombing under thecynical gaze of Western poli-ticians unable to make adecision to stop the mas-sacre.”

The powerful photos hebrought back from thesecountries persuaded threeSpanish humanitarian aidorganizations – Intermón,Manos and Médicos sin fron-teras (Doctors withoutBorders) – as well asUNESCO, to help him puttogether an exhibition and abook project about the livesof landmine victims in sevencountries – Cambodia,Afghanistan, El Salvador,Nicaragua, Mozambique,Angola and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The results of CLIVAR’sresearch will be posted onthe Internet, available to all.

How can its forecasts beused? Every year, Indiaannounces the monsoonpredictions, but “manycountries in Africa have notyet grasped the importanceof this,” says Félix Houn-toun, of Benin’s weatherservice. “Their instinct ismore to appeal for moneyafter a disaster has oc-curred.”

Forecasting must gohand-in-hand with preven-tion (like banning con-struction in danger areas orbuilding drainage systems),

as well as better communi-cation. But even with thebest equipment in the world,there will always be an ele-ment of unpredictability, asno scientific forecast can be100% accurate. Natural dis-asters can never be avoided.As Jim O’Brien, of theCentre for Ocean-Atmos-phere Prediction Studiesputs it: “Hurricanes, ty-phoons, rainfall: it hasalways been going on. Butnow we can anticipate thechanges.” Now, like Noah,we will all be able to pre-pare our arks.

Nadia Khouri-Dagher

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LANDMINES WORLDWIDE

Sánchez wanted to tellin pictures the story of thesemen and women whoselives were changed foreverby the explosion of a land-mine. To tell of their sor-row without tears, and totell it with dignity. Also toshow their daily lives, to seehow, despite their injuries,they desperately fight tokeep their chin up.

Sánchez is shocked atthe difference in attitudetowards disaster victims inthe Third World: “they’realways described just interms of numbers – tens ofthousands of dead, hun-dreds of thousands of refu-gees. Meanwhile, in theWest, their surname, firstname and every detail aboutthem are known.”

He illustrates the livesof these Third World casual-ties without exploiting “theeasy emotion of the picture.”Sánchez wants these storiesto spur people to act andthink, “to see the picturesas an attack on landminesand the cynicism of thosewho manufacture them. Theproblem could quickly besolved if there was a realpolitical will to do so. Thiswould mean stopping theirexport and production, help-ing to clear areas of minesand looking after the vic-tims, most of whom have nofuture in their own country.”

January 1999 - No.108

Landmines not onlymaim, they also marginalizevictims, both emotionallyand economically. A mai-med woman will very oftenbe abandoned. This is whathappened to JoaquinaNatchilombo whom Sán-chez met in the Angolantown of Huambo. “A minekilled two of her children in1989 and blew her leg off,”recounts Sánchez. “Her hus-band abandoned her and she

now survives with the helpof the rehabilitation centre,where she has a job andearns enough to feed herfour other children andthree more which belongedto her dead sister.” A mai-med young woman like 18-year-old Wahida Abed fromAfghanistan, who lost bothher legs seven years ago,may well be “hard-working,extremely gentle and filledwith an amazing determi-nation that helps her toteach children how to avoidlandmines,” she will have ahard time finding a hus-band.

A maimed man tends tohave an easier time reinte-grating. Sánchez cites thecase of Manuel Orellana,from El Salvador: “He work-ed on a coffee plantationand two weeks before thecivil war ended, a landmineblew both his legs right off.Though he has little money,he is now married and hasthree children.”

“When you’re poor andmaimed, you quickly be-come a burden,” explainsSánchez, recounting thecase of 14-year-old Sok-heum Man, from Lojong, in

Cambodia. “He picked up amine to take it to the nearestmilitary post. But a smallbump as he cycled along setoff the mine. His best friend,Chai Chun, was killed on thespot and he himself lost halfhis foot... It was the onlyshot I took without permis-sion from the people in it,”says Sánchez. “It was sucha powerful and horribleimage, I just had to take thepicture.” Thirteen days later,the boy’s foot was amputa-ted. “His father sold half hisannual rice crop so he couldstay with him.” Sánchezwent to see him in his villagea few months later. The boywas helping as much as hecould with the rice harvest.But he had become a chargefor his family.

REJECTIONFor Adis Smajic, a

Bosnian teenager fromSarajevo, being maimed hasbecome such a painfulweight that he no longergoes to school. In 1996,when he was 13, he pickedup a half-buried mine. Hewas putting it down againwhen it exploded in his face.His hand was torn off, hisface completely disfiguredand he lost his left eye. Heis now afraid to show him-self in public and feels rejec-ted by society.

“The mine which woun-ded him cost $10, while theplastic surgery to repair thedamage cost $50,000,” saysSánchez. This does notinclude the cost of an artifi-cial hand which will not lastmore than a couple of years“because it is used in therough conditions of dailylife.”

If an NGO does not lookafter them, “these maimedpeople have little chance,”says Sánchez. So organiza-tions like Handicap Inter-national, which teach peopleto make artificial limbs outof local materials, are vital:they help victims regainsome independence.

Cristina L’Homme

Sokheum Man with his father, just after the explosion.

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●●● The 1997 Nobel Peace Prize went to theinternational campaign to ban anti-personnellandmines. The campaign involved about 1,000organizations in 60 countries.In December 1997, 121 countries signed a treatyin Ottawa to eliminate anti-personnel mines.On March 1, 1999, a treaty banning the use,stockpiling, production and sale of anti-personnel mines will come into effect. Signedby 130 countries and ratified by 40 of them, itcalls on governments to destroy their share ofthe world’s estimated 200 million landmines.100 companies in 55 countries produce fivemillion landmines per year. It costs between$250 and $1,000 to clear just one.Africa is the hardest hit continent. The IRCestimates that a child maimed at 10 will need tochange its artificial limb 25 times in a lifetime.Some 5,000 experts cleared 85,000 mines in1994, while in the same year, between two andfive million more were planted.

23

Globalization has chan-ged the way societies

work. Labour markets havebeen transformed, big firmsnow spread their operationsaround the world and fra-gile, temperamental finan-cial markets can bring coun-tries and even regions totheir knees. As such, saidJacques Santer, the presi-dent of the EuropeanCommission, globalizationalso affects basic humanrights – such as the right towork, the right to eat – andundermines the capacity ofpublic authorities to domuch about it.

Witness the Asian finan-cial crisis, said JacquesDiouf, the director-generalof the Food and AgricultureOrganization (FAO). “Un-employment and povertysuddenly doubled inIndonesia, Korea andMalaysia,” he said “wipingout decades of impressivegrowth.”

So much power and res-ponsibility has now beentransferred from the cabi-net to the boardroom, saidMary Robinson, the UN HighCommissioner for HumanRights, adding that “some500 corporations currentlycontrol a third of global GNPand three quarters of worldtrade; a dozen corporationsmay soon dominate allaspects of the food indus-try.” And new technologies,while improving access toinformation and participa-tion in political processes,also allow for grand-scalemanipulation by “powersthat escape – at least forthe moment– all democraticcontrol” said Miguel AngelMartinez, president of the

GLOBALIZATION WITHA HUMAN FACE...

Is globalization a threat to human

rights? A debate at UNESCO was just one of the

events marking the Declaration’s 50th anniversary.

ANNIVERSARY

Council of the Interparlia-mentary Union.

While Mary Robinsonwelcomed the growing rea-lization in the corporateworld that “good ethics aregood business” – which sheattributes largely to betterinformed consumers – forJacques Santer, citizensmust find a way of “preser-ving or reconstituting theirinfluence and their powerof democratic control.” Tothis end, he said, “theEuropean parliament iscontemplating the intro-duction of a code of conductwhich would commit multi-

national companies to res-pecting the principles setdown in international ins-truments, and therebyassure the respect and pro-motion of civil, political,economic, social, culturaland environmental rights.”

Nonetheless, for Martinez,“in the context of globaliza-tion the exercise of politi-cal rights is of little value ifit is confined by territoriallimits...This is the domainthat requires radicalchange,” he said. “If we wantto advance political rightsfurther, we must establishand consolidate them in a

●●●“What’s UNESCO’s position on Afghanistan...on street and working children... on foreigners withoutpapers... on landmines?” The questions put to UNESCO’sDirector-General on December 9 did not come fromjournalists, but from a room packed with 500 childrenand teenagers from across France and its overseasterritories.In their spare time, they belong to aUNESCO Club and all, in their ownway, are doing something to advancehuman rights and share with countriesof the South, spurred along by equallyenthusiastic organizers. Fromplastering articles of the Declarationon classroom doors and organizingexhibitions in their communities tosetting up partnerships with schoolsfrom Togo to Cuba, their actions reflecta commitment to fostering a fairerworld. “We put articles from theDeclaration into our own words, inCreole,” said a high school student from Guyana. “Wealso work on the rights of Amerindian communities andprotecting the environment.” In Grenoble (France),youth organized a local campaign to protest the deathin September of Semira Adamu, a 20-year-old Nigerianwoman. Seeking to flee a forced marriage, she soughtasylum in Belgium and fell into a coma after “muscledattempts” to expel her. “The Universal Declaration isnot that easily grasped,” says Joël Morlinghem, theClub’s animator. “In the Adamu case, the kids understood

the gap between rights and reality. They attend aschool where there’s quite a lot of violence, and theClub is like a breath of fresh air for them. They’re verysensitive to social problems.”“Your voice is absolutely indispensable,” Mr Mayor toldthese militants in the making. He urged them to use

this voice to put pressure on electedrepresentatives to respect everyone’sdignity, stressing that “living togetheris the greatest challenge we face.”Underlining that rich countries hadnot honoured their pledge to help thedeveloping world, Mr Mayor stressedthat “there is no development withouthuman development. Education,especially, means more than justacquiring knowledge, but becomingthe “architect” of one’s life. Much also happened outside theconference hall. During an artworkshop, kids painted their

interpretation of the Declaration’s articles ontoshoeboxes to form a large wall of “rights” while otherscreated a newspaper and reported on the day’s events.More importantly perhaps, many learnt the benefits ofnetworking: kids from Grenoble, for example, spent anevening of talk and dance with their Guyanesecounterparts. Now they plan to stay in touch via e-mailand set up projects. Their dream: a trip to Guyana, butthat, they know, will take a lot of networking.

C.G.

No. 108 - January 1999

world structure that has yetto be articulated, and whichmust be coherent and demo-cratic. In sum, a world orderin which the United Nationswould have much more say,a much wider range of com-petence, recognition andauthority; a more demo-cractic UN, where citizenswould not only be repre-sented by their govern-ments, but also via their res-pective parliaments.” MichelHanssene, the director-general of the InternationalLabour Office also arguedfor “rules that are truly com-mon: communally decidedand communally control-led...We must channel theimmense energy that theworld market represents tobenefit human rights.” Onlyby so doing, will we give glo-balization what JacquesDiouf calls a much needed“human face”.

S.W.

MILITANTS IN THE MAKING

Rising to the challenge.

UN

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on UNESCO’s calendar

next month’s issue :

BIOSPHERE RESERVESBROADEN THEIR HORIZONS

THE LEGACY OF AL ANDALUS

from 13 to 17 February GULF WATERIn Bahrein, the fourth Gulf Water Conference with a focus on challenges for the 21st century. Sponsored by a number of international agencies, including UNESCO.

from 17 to 19 February SMALL COUNTRIES, LARGE NETWORKSIn Valletta (Malta), a seminar to help smaller countries identify their telecommunications needs and to negotiate access and tarifs for Internet use.

from 17 to 19 February HUMAN RIGHTSIn Rabat (Morocco), a regional conference on Human Rights Education in the Arab States will bring together local experts and government representatives.

from 18 to 26 February SOCIAL SCIENCESAt Headquarters, a meeting of the MOST (Management of Social Transformations)Intergovernmental Council.

from 23 to 24 February CREATING A LEARNING CLIMATEIn New Delhi (India), representatives of the nine most populated countries (E9)gather to discuss ‘The Development of a Literate Environment’.

8 March WOMEN IN ALL COUNTRIESInternational Women’s Day.

from 8 to 9 March A NEW LOOK FOR LATIN AMERICAAt Headquarters, UNESCO and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), host 100 young leaders to reflect on the challenges facing their countries in the new millenium.

from 9 to 12 March SCIENCE POLICYIn Beirut (Lebanon), 60 representatives from the Arab region meet to discuss science and technology policy for the 21st century.