Under the guise of relieving the country of COVID-19 measures, the corruption of the Ugandian government increased and human rights were further violated. A group of female activists from activist organisation The Alternative Uganda organised a march to the parliamentary building.
In 2014 the social movement The Alternative Uganda was founded to fight corruption and human rights violations, demanding fair governance, freedom and equal opportunity for all. Since then, they have led peaceful demonstrations and organised trainings for young Ugandans on creative activism and non-violent social movement building.
During the coronacrisis, the Ugandian government has taken advantage of food distribution programs by appropriating their funds, thus deteriorating the quality and quantity of food aid in times of crisis. Moreover, social distancing, disinfection measures and curfews have been used by state agencies to justify measures and actions that violate human rights.
The activists from The Alternative Uganda organised a protest march to occupy the avenue in front of parliament, wearing overalls, carrying banners and megaphones, to draw attention to the government’s malpractices, demanding change. Following this, The Alternative Uganda aims for widespread social and mainstream media attention for the issues. Het Actiefonds supports the organisation in their actions.
Civil Defense Public Association was founded in 2013 by a group of human rights activists. The NGO promotes the protection and monitoring of labour and other socio-economic rights and freedoms of citizens in Kazakhstan. It does so through legal assistance, research, information provision, training of unions, organising conferences, and public campaigns. On November 9th, Civil Defence organised a rally in Almaty (the capital of Kazakhstan), leading to media coverage, the mobilisation and inclusion of many labour rights activists, and eventually parliament met some of the demands made.
Just after Civil Defence was founded, in 2014 a law passed that made it illegal for minor trade unions to exist independently. They were forced to be a part of larger Republican trade unions. As a result, many independent trade unions ceased to exist. This was followed by a new Labour Code in 2015 that restricted workers’ rights. In 2016, the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions was officially shut down, followed by the imprisonment of three of its leaders. In 2018, another social rights activist was beaten up by unknown individuals.
On november 9th last year, Civil Defence organised a rally in the capital to tighten control measures in enforcing labour rights and democratising trade union legislation. Overwork and the non-payment of labour have become commonplace in the country as a result of the eroding position of the workforce. Demands were made, among other things to stop the criminalisation of independent trade unions, to expand the rights of workers in labour legislation and to expand the staff of labour inspectors.
Around 30 activists attended, after which the action gained a lot of national and international media attention. Among which was a conversation, in January, Civil Defense had with Dirk Wiese, a national politician of the German Social Democratic Party of Germany, and the Commonwealth of Trade Unions in Kazakhstan. Social activist were again able to raise a number of issues. This eventually led to legislative changes made by the government. The obligatory membership of independent trade unions to larger Republican unions, and the minimum requirement of organising at least half of the workers in an industry in order to form a union, were abolished, among other things, leading to an increase of the freedom of association.
Over the last few years, Cambodia’s biggest coastal city of Sihanoukville has seen an explosion in so-called “development”. Attracted by the convenient infrastructure of the Sihanoukville port, investors from China built countless commercial venues like hotels, restaurants and casinos. The numerous new casinos painfully show the complete disregard for the Cambodian values, as gambling is illegal for Cambodian locals. The towering skyscrapers, littered streets and neon signs decorating every building have transformed Sihanoukville beyond recognition in less than four years.
As there continues to be an explosion of new buildings across the city, the resentment among locals grows. Besides the encroachment of their land, the construction work is also bringing about huge environmental problems. The citizens face problems like shortages of water, rubbish piled up in the streets and sewage being dumped openly in the sea.
Mother Nature Cambodia is one of the organisations using their platform to expose these destructive ‘developments’. A group of young environmental activists has turned to direct action to stop the illegal encroachment of their beaches and the massive garbage and sewage crisis. They have organised several protests like demonstrations, a community beach clean-up and an utterly peaceful bicycle ride that was nevertheless stopped by the police (read more about this here).
The environmental activists take quite a risk to protect their city and stand up for their rights. Under the Hun Sen dictatorship the repercussions against civil disobedience are grave, which is also one of the reasons they feel the necessity to speak out. Since the Hun Sen dictatorship had decided to abandon any pretense that Cambodia was a democracy (for instance by closing down the few independent media outlets and closing down the main opposition party) the only way to achieve change was through movements of people, demanding that the dictatorship makes way for a new truly democratic government. The only way to achieve this was to start by resuming peaceful protests and gathering people to unite for a better future. Cambodians in general have come to realize that uprising of the population is the only way that meaningful regime change will take place.
Het Actiefonds supports the environmental activists in Cambodia in their fight against the Hun Sen dictatorship and the destructive encroachment of Sihanoukville.
In Tanzania activists fight against the systematic oppression of human lives. Specifically focused on health and environmental problems, an organisation* aims at bringing about transformative change for a sustainable and just society where the abuse of power and exploitation do not longer exist. By forming coalitions with community leaders, citizens and human rights activists they campaign for equity and equality. Under the increased threat of Covid-19, actions have taken place to take seriously the international safety standards promoted by the WHO—The Tanzanian government has refused that so far, which brings to light how marginalised groups are threatened by Covid-19 the most.
The Tanzanian government has undertaken little action to curb the spread of Covid-19. At the regular livestock auctions in the town of Pugu disinfection measures are scarcely implemented, while the country’s president called for the continued attendance of places of worship. The lack of instructions and measurements will impact vulnerable and marginalised groups the most. People with a low income, living in informal neighbourhoods, have little to no access to medical care and testing kits, as of which the virus will be able to spread fast in places where social distancing is difficult.
The organisation called for action together with citizens and activist by demonstrating in Pugu. The local government was asked to take seriously the international standards for safety measures to tackle the spread of Covid-19, especially in places where social distancing is difficult. Het Actiefonds supported the organisation further with flyers and other materials for campaigning and starting a petition.
The action has been successful. The livestock auctions in Pugu were temporarily closed to take disinfection measurements. Moreover, the national government started to do more to tackle the spread of the virus, among other things through the regular availability of information to take preventive measures.
*For safety reasons the organisation remains anonymous.
In 2017, in the rural forest in Brazil, the collective Agentes Agroflorestais Quilombolas (AAQ) was born. As a unity of young quilombolas, they are following in the footsteps of their older leaders who preceded them in the fight for land and territory. They take actions to resist the human rights and environmental violations committed against them by the public authorities and governments.
The National Department of Transport Infrastructure (DNIT) of the Brazilian government has attempted to extend a highway passing through the lands of the quilombolas, a population of black men and women kidnapped in Guinea Bissau in the 18th and 19th centuries and enslaved in Maranhão by Irish invaders. This highway invaded their lands in 1940, and now the Brazilian government wants to extend it to increase the flow of soy and ore production to Europe, Japan and China. The construction work began without the quilombolas being consulted. Trees were felled, streams were silted, houses were damaged and people were threatened by government agents.
Through direct action, the AAQ stopped the machines in 2017, and through justice, they suspended building permits in 2018. Now, with the election of the fascist president Jair Bolsonaro, DNIT wants to complete the extension of the highway. If that happens, we will face the destruction of the quilombola culture. Over 2.000 people will be expelled from their lands, and their centennial way of life will be destroyed to feed transnational capital with their bodies and natural resources.
In order to stop this, the AAQ took direct political action by taking 200 young black quilombola to camp for three days at a public agency in the city of São Luís, capital of the state of Maranhão. The purpose of the camp was to draw national and international attention to the threat of environmental and institutional racism and to prevent extension of the highway through political pressure.
Het Actiefonds supports AAQ in their fight for their rights! Stay informed and follow their actions through their website and follow their Instagram page for updates and videos on the matter.
The LGBTQIA+ community in Kenya faces extreme violence. The government does not know how to handle the situation. Activists take to the streets to protect the community.
Homophobia
In June 2019, Nairobi police lifted a group of 76 LGBTQIA+ refugees from their beds in the middle of the night. The refugees were put on a bus and taken with a police escort to refugee camps miles away from the city. The police had failed to guarantee the safety of the refugees and had therefore decided to move them elsewhere. But the camps where the refugees were taken were the same ones they had fled a few months earlier. After a few extremely violent incidents, the organization had indicated once again that they could not guarantee their safety. However, the police did not care about that.
“Everywhere we have lived we have faced homophobia. We no longer know where we can flee, ”said one of the members of the group in an interview with the BBC.
Petition
Unfortunately, this powerlessness and violence are not unknown to the LGBTQIA+ community in Kenya. There doesn’t seem to be a safe place for them anywhere. The government responds to this as in the example above: by means of forced relocations to other camps. But as said, the LGBTQIA+ community is not safe there either.
The Community Support Initiative for Refugees (COSIR) takes action against this. They will hold a petition and have it signed by various social organizations. Through two different marches, they will offer the petition to the responsible government agencies in the hope that the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community will be better guaranteed. They do all this with the support of Het Actiefonds.
Photo: United Nations Photo at https://bit.ly/37NyrBZ from Flickr / CC BY-SA
Het Actiefonds supports Sounds of Silence in their protest to show solidarity with the ongoing revolution in Sudan.
A silent protest will be held to raise awareness for the current situation in Sudan. Actiongroup Sounds of Silence invites everyone to gather at Vredenburgplein this afternoon to protest against the inhumane circumstances for Sudanese refugees. They are kept in temporary custody in The Netherlands, awaiting their eviction to unsafe territories.
Even though the Sudanese political situation has changed in the past year, no actual improvements were made for the living conditions of the civilians. Violence and corruption are still thriving and anti-government protesters find themselves in life-threatening situations. This afternoon at Vredenburgplein we will show solidarity with the ongoing revolution in Sudan.
Please wear your facemask to the protest and dress in white to make a strong visual statement.
On June 19th 2020, action groups We Promise, Building the Baileo and Dekolonisatie Netwerk voormalig Nederlands Indië organised a peaceful demonstration for the removal of the statue of Jan Pieterszoon Coen in Hoorn. Het Actiefonds supported this demonstration.
J.P. Coen is one of the many controversial VOC leaders and is falsely revered as a national hero. Since 1607 he established a violent trade monopoly in the Indonesian Banda Islands and is responsible for the murder of about 14,000 Bandanese. His nickname “The Slaughterer of Banda” illustrates a painful picture of these atrocities. The city of Hoorn has been campaigning for decades to have this statue removed, but the Municipality of Hoorn continues to maintain it. This demonstration is therefore a continuation of a long struggle against colonial glorification and racism.
Hundreds of protesters gathered last Friday to speak up and request the Municipality of Hoorn to remove this image. Despite some uproar caused by rioters who had nothing to do with the demonstration, the protest has been widely covered in the media. Hopefully this will lead to the eventual realisation of the removal of this statue.
The protests against the statues of controversial ‘heroes’ are an extension of the worldwide Black Lives Matter movement. In the fight against systematic racism, the question arises why Dutch colonialists are still glorified on a pedestal in public space. The fact that the protesters are dealing with so much resistance, proves how the glorification of the Dutch colonial past is still deeply rooted in our society.
Het Actiefonds urges everybody to continue to speak up against racism. This battle is not over yet.
In The Netherlands shelters are over-capacity, asylum procedures are temporarily stopped, and there is a shortage of protective means against the corona virus. In other European countries the situation is often worse. Also before the outbreak of the coronavirus was the oppression of refugees and migrants a daily reality. On World Refugee Day (20 June) a protest was organised in Amsterdam for solidary and humane asylum policies.
The spread of the coronavirus has put refugees under pressure in The Netherlands. Since March 19th the Dutch borders have officially been closed for non-necessary travels for people outside of the EU. At the same time, asylum procedures were stopped and shelters were closed. Refugees that needed a place to stay could move in emergency shelters, although they were not allowed to leave the premises nor to welcome visitors (read: detention).
Aside from organising emergency shelters, the Dutch government barely took action to guarantee a safe living environment for refugees. There has been a shortage of protective means in shelters, and people are living closely together. The Dutch immigration office started only recently with testing telephonic procedures with asylum seekers.
From the onset of the coronavirus, the Dutch government pushed inhumane asylum policies. There is a widespread fear that the recent measurements will only be partially reversed in the future. Meanwhile asylum policies have been under scrutiny for years, due to major budget cuts in 2017. At the beginning of March this year almost nine thousand refugees were waiting to start their asylum procedure for longer than allowed, which on top costs the government tens of millions of Euros (source: Trouw). Moreover, there has been controversy on topics of unfair asylum procedures and inhumane living conditions in shelters.
The deteriorating asylum governance is symptomatic for the systemic oppression of migrants and refugees in the postcolonial world orde. This oppression is partially legitimised by representation. Since the “refugee crisis” of 2015, the public discussion around asylum procedures and refugees heightened. In newspapers, rapports, books and party lines, specific images, symbols and words led to an increased “de-humanisation” of refugees.
Illustratively, the word “crisis” suggests an abnormal situation in which the government is legitimised in unlawful practices, in the interest of public safety. In a similar vein, an expression such as “a wave of refugees” that “floods the country” suggest that the nation-state is being threatened by an uncontrollable, non-human force of nature; a natural disaster. Such imaginaries caused asylum policies throughout Europe to focus on decreasing the risk of migration as much as possible, creating a European Fortress. Guaranteeing human rights was something that got shoved to the back.
De-humanising imaginaries played an important part in shaping asylum policies and procedures in The Netherlands. They legitimised indirectly both the budget cuts of the Dutch immigration service as well as the recent measurements taken during the spread of the coronavirus. In other European countries refugees often face even more criminalisation and violence, in impoverished and harsh environments.
On World Refugee Day (20-06-’20) a demonstration took place for truly humane asylum procedures, on Museumplein in Amsterdam. Het Actiefonds supported the organisation, so that flyers could be distributed. Especially not that refugees are put under increased pressure due to the coronavirus, we call to replace the violence against migrants with solidarity.
Since the murder of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis, there has been a surge in public outrage in the US. For weeks protesters have been rising up against institutional racism. Also in The Netherlands a number of demonstrations took place. Black Lives Matter Wageningen organised one on the 14th of June in solidarity with the global movement, and to attract attention to the necessity of truly inclusive municipal policies.
The organisation of Black Lives Matter Wageningen points out that, despite differences between the US and The Netherlands, institutional racism is also a Dutch problem. It is manifested in a tax-related affair where Dutch people with a double nationality (read: non-white citizens) were subject to additional checks. Moreover, ethnic profiling causes non-white citizens to be systematically discriminated against on the labour market.
At the same time, extreme right-wing views have gained momentum in recent years, also gaining popularity within conventional political institutions. Therefore, Black Lives Matter Wageningen is also protesting against the normalisation of extreme right-wing ideals, for truly inclusive policies for the society as a whole.
More than a thousand people attended the demonstration in Skatepark Noordwest. The organisation marked the grass so that people could follow the COVID-19 guidelines. Het Actiefonds supported hiring first-aid support, walkie-talkies, transport and sound equipment.
A day after the protest the municipal office of Wageningen announced to give in to some of the demands made, by abolishing blackface practices during the parade of the national holiday of St Nicholas.
Black Lives Matter Wageningen will continue to be active by joining ThuisWageningen, a community of organisations and individuals that promote a sustainable, inclusive city. Regularly workshops, concerts and lectures are organised, to bring together people and promote progressive voices in Wageningen.
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