At
UN on CSW,
Kenyan
Activist
Denounces
Harmful
Traditions-
UNCA 1st
Questions?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, March
6 -- With the
UN nearly full
with delegates
to the
Commission on
the Status of
Women, a
showdown is
brewing on the
question of
the place of
“tradition and
culture” in
the proposed
outcome
document.
In
that context,
the UN held a
press
conference
Wednesday
morning top
heavy with
references to
indigenous
traditions and
culture and
violence
against
indigenous
women and
girls.
As
the second
questioner,
Inner City
Press put
queries to,
after
offering
welcome from
the Free
UN Coalition
for Access,
Agnes
Leina, the
Executive
Director of
Il’laramak
Community
Concerns in
Kenya and
Shimreichon
Luithui-Erni,
Program
Coordinator of
the Asia
Indigenous
Peoples Pact
in India. Video
here, from
Minute 40:40.
The
question was,
since
tradition is
being cited
against the
proposed
outcome
document, was
it the
speakers'
intent to say
that at least
indigenous
tradition
should not be
used in that
way?
Shimreichon
Luithui-Erni
of the Asia
Indigenous
Peoples Pact
in India
distinguished
between
“supporting
the positive
aspects” of
tradition and
the negative,
that should be
left behind.
But who
decides which
is which?
Agnes
Leina of
Il’laramak
Community
Concerns in
Kenya said
that the UN is
full of talk
about “HTP,”
or “Harmful
Traditional
Practices,”
giving as
examples
under-age
marriage and
female genital
mutilation.
She
said that the
way to proceed
is to ask
“strategic
questions”
about
traditions
that are not
helpful.
People says,
it's always
been
this way, and
you should ask
both why and
what benefit
comes from it
now?
It
brought to
mind the
supposed
tradition of
given the
first question
at
(some) UN
press
conferences to
the UN
Correspondents
Association,
as
was demanded
and given on
Wednesday
morning (video
here, from
Minute 24), but
caused a
fiasco at
the February
20 press
conference of
Evo Morales
who did not
accede to
this
“tradition.”
Not
only does this
monopolization
of the first
question, now
by UNCA
members who
were not
elected but
only pay dues,
not provide
any
benefits -- it
is, in the
phrase used by
Agnes Leina, a
“Harmful
Traditional
Practice.”
It
is harmful
because it
props up the
legitimacy of
UNCA after its
leaders
devoted most
of their
meetings in
2012 to trying
to get the
investigative
Press thrown
out of the UN.
Since then
these UNCA
leaders have
sought to hold
back a new,
necessary
journalist-defense
organization,
the Free
UN Coalition
for Access.
They
did this by
tearing down
flyers. FUNCA
fought for a
bulletin board
separate from
UNCA's glassed
in exclusive
board, which
UNCA's
Executive
Committee used
for months in
2012 to post a
letter
denouncing
Inner City
Press.
They
did it by
opening at
least four counterfeit
social media
accounts to
anonymously
attack
people joining
FUNCA and to
send false
message to
UN Mission to
undermine
Inner City
Press and
FUNCA.
Most
recently,
their ally in
the UN
Department of
Public
Information a
week ago sent
a formal
letter of
complaint or
threat to
Inner City
Press for
having quoted
and run audio
of UNCA
President
Pamela Falk
of CBS and her
first vice
president
Louis
Charbonneau of
Reuters from
a meeting
which Inner
City Press said loudly
was on the
record, and
of which Falk
said “he's
going to write
this up.”
The
false
complaint by
the UN, which
was
immediately
challenged
including
by another
attendee of
the meeting, has not
for one week
and counting
been withdrawn
or
explained.
These are
traditions
that the UN or
at least its
Department of
“Public”
Information
must leave
behind. Watch
this
site.
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