The 10th of December is Human Rights Day and in 2009 the focus is on non-discrimination. 60 years ago the United Nations established the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. You can learn more about Human Rights Day and what is happening around the world here.

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights"
UN Declaration of Human Rights

So what about some of the simple ways we can make constructive contributions to supporting human rights for all? Here are a few ideas:

• Attend a lecture, seminar or event in your community to learn more about a pertinent social justice issue. Check for event listings in your local newspaper. Learning is a catalyst for creating powerful positive change.
  
  
• Instead of walking by the charity collector outside your train station or supermarket, donate your lose change.
  
  
• Instead of skimming over the world news, have a read about what's going on in Iran.
  
  
• Pick up a copy of your favourite national newspaper and write a letter to the editor in response to an article on a national or international humanitarian issue that was covered in the paper ie. Tamil asylum seekers on route to Australia or reaching a fair and binding deal in Copenhagen.

Photo by isafmedia, simminch.

• Wear a badge, patch, bag or create your own slogan t-shirt showing support for a humanitarian cause. Craft a succinct, non-patronising response to give when you get asked what your badge, patch, bag, t-shirt is about.
  
  
• Instead of buying a latte or bottle of coke today, donate a few dollars to a charity such as Oxfam who are currently assisting the survivors of Myanmar's 2008 cyclone to rebuild their communities.
  
  
• Help sponsor Jeanima in Haiti. An initiative by one clever blogger that allows us to come together to provides Jeanima with food, clean water, medical care, and fees for school.
  
  
• Visit the websites of non-government organisations and read about what's happening around the world. Find out about how you can get involved in eradicating human rights abuses. Amnesty International's How You Can Help page is a great place to start.
  
  
• Spread the word of a cause you feel passionate about by tweeting from act.ly, or you could even start your own twitter petition campaign for others to join with you in a call to action.
  
  
• Support the work Oxfam International does in seeking social justice for all by choosing a truly unique Christmas gift from the Oxfam Unwrapped catalog.

Causes that need your support right now:

• Call on Belarusian President to Free Youth Activists
  
  
• Call on Honduras to Hold Security Forces Accountable for Human Rights Abuses
  
  
• Help stop Catastrophic Climate Change

What will you do to mark Human Rights Day 2009? What humanitarian cause (in your own country or abroad) concerns you most at present?

It can be easy to become trapped into wondering how we can help and make a difference in the world when we don't have a lot of money to throw at a cause. Money certainly goes a long way towards improving the social standing of disadvantaged individuals, families and communities but so too do other contributions. In times when money is tight it's important that rather than discounting the opportunity to contribute to a charitable organisation, we rather take a fresh look at the ways we can contribute.

So how can progressive & positive change be achieved when money is not something we have in abundance? Let's take a look at just a few ways:

Donate clothing, books, cd's, movies, homewares. The old saying is true: one mans junk is anothers treasure. Don't throw out your old belongings if they still have some life in them. Charity stores are always looking for new bits and pieces to sell and raise funds for their cause, without donations these sorts of stores would not be able to operate. Try and take a look around your house quarterly. At the beginning of each season, look at what you may have that has sat in your apartment collecting dust for the past few months. Ask yourself if someone else would find greater value in the item? And while you're at the charity store donating your goods, why not purchase a few items that you may require. Buying at charity stores is eco-chic and charitable too!

Donate time. To local school, charity stores, outreach programs. Life can get hectic and charities often have difficulty filling volunteer slots at their organisations. Look for charities that operate locally and see if they are looking for help - even a few hours a week can make for a valuable contribution to the life of an individual or group that is at present less fortunate.

Swap your purchases. Instead of buying Marie Claire buy The Big Issue; instead of shopping at Top Shop try the British Heart Foundation charity store.


Photo by rofanator.

Spread awareness. Chances are there is a social issue that makes your stomach churn and conjures up exciting thoughts in your mind. Think about the topics that rile up passion and anger and leave you with an urge to set things right. Put your thoughts to paper, or screen. Blog it, submit a piece to your universities magazine, write to your member of parliament, organise a fundraising event, speak to your friends. Be a conversation starter! Words create ideas, ideas become actions and actions change the world. It all starts small, but someone needs to start it, why not be that someone?

These actions are just as important as giving big sums of cash, your time is valuable, as are the possessions you no longer require. Don't underestimate how important what you have can be to someone else.


What are your good deed ideas?

Linguistically playing on the word 'whitewash' and utilising the colour green, as is now intrinsically linked to the concept of environmentalism, GREENWASH refers to "...the practice of companies disingenuously spinning their products and policies as environmentally friendly" (source).

'Greenwash' is not a new concept. The word was first used by environmentalist, Jay Westerveld, in 1986, when referring to the hotel industry and specifically the concept of guests being encouraged to re-use towels. The concept was spruiked as a way for the guest to 'save the environment'. However, the hotel industries business policies remained unenvironmentally conscious, leading one to inevitably consider that this was more an exercise in cost cutting than in genuine support of a cleaner, greener environment.

Climate change is an inevitable and globally pertinent issue and as such, we as consumers from across the world are becoming more aware of the simple ways that we can contribute to acting ethically when it comes to environmentalism. In becoming aware of the existence of greenwash we can avoid supporting companies that are deliberately misleading us, as consumers, by cashing in on our desire to shop ethically.

Driving company profitability can be a key factor behind employing this sort of tactic - that is utilising public relations companies or advertising campaigns to push products and services as an eco-friendly option, or going further, to rebrand a company on a whole.

Companies are very aware that 'green' sells. A key reason why it is so important to ensure we are do not support these companies that falsify or exaggerate their environmental pursuits is that we are allowing them to profit and gain greater power within their industry - essentially, we enable their growth.

Actions Speak Louder Than Words

For more information about how to identify whether companies are genuine in their support of environmentalism, click to download the pdf 'The Seven Sins of Greenwash'.

By making smarter environmental choices we can be the change that the world so desperately needs.


When you are shopping is an environmentally friendly product/service important to you? Would you purchase an obviously 'greener' product/service if you had the option?

Apathy
Originally uploaded by Toban Black

When you don't see first hand the detriment of gun crime, it can be difficult to gauge the scale of the problem. It's like all of the television commercials about poverty in third world countries - it can be simple to switch off when you can't relate. The key to overcoming this sort of apathy is to become aware.

So let's break it down a little and get across the agenda of the United Nations and in particular, the first committee - because right now, it may just seem like a whole bunch of guys and girls in suits, shaking hands and pushing paper, but what happens inside the walls of the United Nations Headquarters in New York City is pretty spectacular. There may not be designer gear and post-conference parties that see delegates spilling out of cabs at 5am looking scandalously worse for wear - and for this reason the UN won't make the cover of People magazine - but the work that is done at the UN? It's well worth page space and it's well worth your time.



Photo by scazon.

The United Nations: It's an international organization, founded in 1945, comprised of 192 member states (see full list here). These member states have agreed to accept and uphold the obligations of the Charter (view the charter here). In brief, the UN does not make laws, what it does do is provide a global body that works towards "solve[ing] problems that challenge humanity" (source). The UN has a focus on peacekeeping, development and human rights. You can learn lots more about the United Nations at the official UN website.

General Assembly (GA): The GA provides a forum for the 192 member states to discuss and make recommendations on the issues outlined in the Charter of the United Nations. For a more detailed outline of the functions and powers of the General Assembly, click here.

First Committee - Disarmament and International Security Committee: This is a committee within the General Assembly at the United Nations. It deals with issues surrounding international security and disarmament ("the act of reducing, limiting, or abolishing weapons" source)

Treaty: A treaty, in the context of the United Nations, is a binding agreement that the UN member states can opt to sign and uphold.



Image by JimBowen0306.

Arms Trade Treaty (ATT): An ATT was first addressed in the UN in 2006. Since then, diplomats have been discussing this potential treaty. Also since then, 2.1 million people have died, that's 2000 a day, as a result of armed violence (source).

The ATT is about regulating the conventional arms trade. There is presently no international regulation standard governing the import, export and transfer of conventional arms. This means that conventional weapons, like guns, that are intended for military purposes end up in the hands of criminals and other human rights abusers. These weapons are used to kill and maim civilians, as well facilitating the narcotics trade and other crimes such as armed burglary and rapes. This sort of criminal activity at the hands of conventional weaponry holds direct links to lack of development, which in turn makes for economic underdevelopment and poverty.

A key focus of an ATT would be on Risk Assessment - where are these weapons going? For what purpose? Does the end user have a history of negligent use of weaponry?

In 2006, 153 of the UN member states voted in favour of Resolution 61/89, a document that set out to achieve support on implementing an common international standards for the conventional arms trade (view Resolution 61/89 in full). 24 countries chose to abstain from voting (these counties included: Bahrain, Belarus, China, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Kuwait, Laos, Libya, Marshall Islands, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, UAE, Venezuela, Yemen, Zimbabwe (source). Only 1 country voted against the resolution, that country was the United States.

For more information about why an Arms Trade Treaty is needed urgently, watch the short video below:



For a more in depth look at the reason an Arms Trade Treaty is required, download the Oxfam report 'Dying for Action' (pdf).

What are your thoughts on an Arms Trade Treaty and the role of the United Nations?

"You don't know how to fix the holes in our ozone layer. You don't know how to bring back an animal now extinct. And you can't bring back the forest that once grew where there is now a desert."

"If you don't know how to fix it, please, stop breaking it."

Skeptics of twitter will spend boundless energy on discouraging it's use and dismissing it's value. Their argument based on the belief that the tool is used primarily as a means to promote ones self and in particular, the mundane aspects of ones day. However, the value of twitter as a platform truly transcends that of Facebook style status updates. Twitter offers an outlet for all people to become citizen journalists and break up-to-the-minute news. It allows us to connect with politicians and celebrities with whom we would otherwise have had no level of conversation with. It also offers an opportunity to learn about topical issues through use of the search function.

The immediacy of Twitter has allowed for access to groundbreaking news from around the world, even before it has been picked up by traditional media outlets, such as television networks and radio stations. What follows are some examples of how twitter has been used to break and share up to the minute news:

In November 2008 twitter saw a flurry of texts offering accounts of the terrorist attack in Mumbai, as the tragedy unfolded. Soon after, twitter was used as a means of communicating the urgent need for blood donors to assist with those injured in the attacks (source).

January 15 2009 saw Janis Krums posting a photograph of the US Airways flight that crashed into the Hudson river, he was soon contacted by television networks to offer an eyewitness account of the events.

At London's G20 demonstrations in April 2009, Alok Jha reported on the Police tactic of kettling demonstrators and noted that those disallowed to leave the guarded pen outside of the Bank of England included accredited press (Alok Jha is a science and environment correspondent at The Guardian).

Examples of this sort of news reporting are limitless and citizen journalism will continue to see social networks like Twitter at the forefront of eyewitness accounts on breaking news stories from across the globe. For this reason, we will continue to turn to online for the latest news.



Images by mfilej and treslola.


As well as offering citizen news reporting, twitter is also a great tool for communication with those who we may otherwise have the opportunity to reach. From Ashton Kutcher to the Mayor of London, The X Factor to the United Nations - everyone who is anyone is using twitter to share with the world, 140 characters at a time. And you too can use Twitter to share with them, in fact, it would be inopportune not to.

Let's consider the ways that we could make best use of this dynamic online tool: from tweeting a politician or ambassador to act on pressing issues to sharing petitions and promoting causes - twitter has the power to transform and we, as individuals can provoke transformation.

Tweeting a Treaty, an Oxfam initiative held at the Beekman Hotel, just uptown from the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, was an event that saw international diplomacy and social media collide. Speakers from Avaaz, Witness and Social Change Camp as well as Ambassadors to the UN from both Netherlands and the United Kingdom gathered and shared how they were able to use social media as part of their humanitarian and diplomatic outreach.

Avaaz is a global movement with a simple goal 'to close the gap between the world we have, and the world most people everywhere want'. Brett Soloman spoke of their campaigns which
have seen Avaaz members rapidly responding to calls to demonstrate on urgent humanitarian issues, from petitioning for justice in Guinea to Climate Change demonstrations that saw Gordon Brown agreeing to attend Copenhagen. Avaaz are leading the way when it comes to global humanitarian calls to action.

Bukeni Waruzi from Witness, a website that 'uses video and online technologies to open the eyes of the world to human rights violations', spoke about The Hub. The Hub, he said, is essentially 'a humanitarian youtube', where users are able to watch and upload videos to create global awareness for humanitarian causes or to share their own human rights stories.

UK Ambassador to the United Nations for Multilateral Arms Controls and Disarmament is particularly passionate about twitter as a means to reach an audience that has opted in to the information he is sharing on twitter. In a separate conversation with John Duncan that took place earlier in the week in the United Nations delegates lounge, Ambassador Duncan spoke of the twitter as a very powerful tool with international reach that allowed for the formation of relationships, but not before recommending his Twitter client of choice, Hoot Suite. Duncan said Twitter was 'unlike the press', explaining that it had allowed him to reach '700 people who are articulate and informed and interested in what I want to say'.

John Duncan speaks further on 'digital diplomacy' and his use of social media in the video below.

So how can you make greater use of twitter, right now? The ways are many and varied but why not start by tweeting a petition? David Miliband will meet with Hillary Clinton this Sunday and he needs to persuade her that the United States should support a strong Arms Trade Treaty. You can show your support by clicking the little red button below - tweet your support, click now:

Act.ly is a fantastic tool by which to tweet for change - check it out, tweet your cause and encourage your followers to do so too.


How are you using twitter?

I'm in New York City, sitting across from me in the United Nation's cafeteria is Novelette Grant. Novelette cuts a chic yet bold figure and as she introduces herself there is no mistaking that Grant is a woman on a mission. As Jamaica's Assistant Commissioner of Police, Grant is here to address diplomats at the UN's First committee and explain why it is that an Arms Trade Treaty is so important to Jamaica.








Photographs by fightingtheboss, Radio Capsula.

For most people the most pertinent image of Jamaica is that which was forever cemented in our minds after the release of the 1993 box office hit Cool Runnings: Jamaica as a a pretty island nation, and it is. However, Jamaica is not all dreadlocks and cool vibes - there is a gritty criminal underbelly that is facilitated by the transfer of guns and ammunition into Jamaica.

'Gun crime numbers are horrendous ... a huge percentage of sexual assaults and robberies are accompanied by the use of fire arms' Grant explains, 'Jamaica does not manufacture guns and yet we are on the receiving end of the misuse of fire arms'. Grant goes on to tell me that that weapons intended for military purposes are on the streets, in the hands of criminals and that a staggering 77% of murders are committed by guns.

The dilemma facing Jamaican police is that seizing guns and ammunition from criminals is having little impact on the rate of violent crime, this is due to the continuing flow of illegal arms and ammunition into the country. So where are the guns coming in from? Grant says 'If we knew, we'd stop them'.

After our conversation Novelette Grant addressed diplomats at an Amnesty event, held in the United Nations headquarters, where the question was asked 'How can an Arms Trade Treaty help stop arms fuelling human rights abuses?'.

For Jamaica, the persistent and cyclical nature of the guns trade has so many detrimental effects on the nation: murder and abuse of innocents, facilitation of the narcotics trade and direct economic cost and impact on development. To put a monetary figure on the cost to Jamaica, Grant told delegates, that the cumulative loss to Jamaica since 1960 is about 75% of GDP.

Grant is determined to see a resolution, she explains that her expectations as a police officer are simply that there needs to be proper governance and regulation over the arms trade, just as there is for all other trades. Speaking on the need for an Arms Trade Treaty be put in place, Grant asks delegates '[to] consider that the arms trade is no less important than any other legal trade that criminals are misusing .... we are asking you to come up with the kinds of standards necessary'.

Her argument is simple and befitting, just like all other trades, governance is necessary, there needs to be accountability when it comes to the transfer of guns. Finishing her impassioned address, Grant puts it simply, 'Look at countries like Jamaica and look at the devastation'.

Get involved - tweet your questions or comments on an Arms Trade Treat to @conflictvoice and watch the event at http://www.conflictvoice.org, live streamed from the United Nations at 1.15pm 7/10 New York time.

No I'm not talking about Peter Andre's latest musical offering - today I am inside the United Nations headquarters in New York City. It's big, it's secure and I'm still waiting for someone to tell me and my shiny red dell netbook that we really don't belong here and to kindly move along....









Photographs by Fox Fotography.

I am here as part of ConflictVoice, an Oxfam initiative that is taking discussions out from behind the closed doors and into a more accessible realm. ConflictVoice is about encouraging conversation between mates and colleagues as well as between diplomats and officials. We all know that change can only happen when the masses shout loud enough - and to be impassioned we need to be educated and aware - so let's get across it and be part of the progress towards an international, legally binding Arms Trade Treaty (ATT).


"Every day 2000 people die from armed conflict. Since the UN's process towards and arms trade treaty started in 2006, 2,1 million people have died. Unnecessarily. In October, diplomats are meeting again (the UN's first committee on Security and Disarmament) to discuss the next steps. Oxfam, with its partners Amnesty, IANSA and others, are calling for negotiations to start in 2010 with an end date in 2012. We demand a treaty that will stop irresponsible arms transfers fueling conflict, poverty and serious human rights abuses."


It can be really difficult to start conversation like this as it's something that seems so far from home. When we don't see direct consequences in our day to day lives, understanding the scale of impact can be a difficult task. Essentially, an Arms Trade Treaty would prevent the illegal movement of weapons from country to country. The reason an Arms Trade Treaty is necessary is because arms are currently being flowed into countries where they are being used in a way that abuse human rights. This is a nice way of saying that guns are being sold between countries and used to kill and maim people. This is happening every single day.

To break it down even further, this means that American guns could potentially be being used to kill and injure American peacekeepers. By not supporting an international Arms Trade Treaty we are placing our military peacekeepers in harms way - the threat is coming from within and we need to start regulating the arms trade to prevent this.



You can learn more about the unregulated arms trade and what Oxfam is doing here.

Tomorrow Oxfam are launching a report called 'Dying for Action'. This event will be live streamed from Conflict Voice website and will be interactive so if you have a comment or better yet, a question to be put to international diplomats or Oxfam, please tweet it to @conflictvoice and use the hashtag #conflictvoice.