Sergei Magnitsky died in 2009 while awaiting trial on tax evasion charges which colleagues say were fabricated A lawyer whose gruesome prison death spooked investors and blackened Russia’s image was probably beaten to death in pre-trial detention, the Kremlin’s human rights council has said. Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer for the equity fund Hermitage Capital, whose British-based chief fell foul of the government during Vladimir Putin’s presidency, died in November 2009 after nearly a year awaiting trial on a tax evasion charge . Colleagues allege that the case against Magnitsky was fabricated by police investigators whom he accused of stealing $230m from the state through fraudulent tax returns and say his death was the result of a conspiracy led by the same officers. Magnitsky’s death has turned into a test of the Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, who has vowed to reform a justice system he says is badly flawed but is seen as having made little progress since he was steered into the Kremlin by Putin in 2008. The report, which Medvedev’s human rights council presented on Tuesday, added to claims that Magnitsky had been mistreated and denied adequate medical care in jail, particularly in the last days and hours of his life. Shortly before his death, a prison doctor who complained that Magnitsky was acting irrationally summoned a team of eight guards, who handcuffed Magnitsky and took him to a small room, where a first aid unit was denied access, the report said. “Before his death, Magnitsky was completely deprived of medical help. Additionally, there are grounds to suspect that Magnitsky’s death was the result of a beating,” it said. “His relatives afterward found that he had broken fingers and bruises on his body. Moreover, there is no medical record for the last hour of his life.” The council, an advisory body that includes human rights and judicial reform advocates, also accused a judge of committing Magnitsky to pre-trial detention without just cause and suggested the tax fraud charges against him were fabricated. The council said the case against Magnitsky was marred by an obvious conflict of interest, because it was conducted by the same investigators he testified against after Hermitage accused interior ministry officers of a multimillion-dollar fraud. “The case linked to Sergei Magnitsky was investigated by the very same employees of the interior ministry and of the investigative committee against whom he made accusations,” the report posted on the council’s website said. “This conflict of interest testifies either to negligence or to a particular interest on the part of those leading the investigation.” Medvedev, who had ordered an official investigation shortly after Magnitsky’s death, made no public comment but said the report would be handed to investigators. Medvedev ordered the sacking of several prison officials after Magnitsky’s death, but former colleagues, including the Hermitage founder William Browder, say justice will not be done until the officers they blame face criminal charges. Rights activists say the fact that nobody has been prosecuted demonstrates Medvedev’s inability to make major changes and emerge from the shadow of Putin, who may return to the presidency in elections next March. Hermitage was once Russia’s biggest equity fund but Browder, who had campaigned for better corporate governance, has pulled money out of the country after he was denied entry in 2005 and relations soured. Lawmakers in countries including the US and the Netherlands have introduced legislation that puts travel restrictions on dozens of investigators, prosecutors, judges and other officials whom Hermitage blames for Magnitsky’s death. Magnitsky’s death sent a warning to potential investors in Russia, which trades at a discount to other emerging markets because of risks associated with corporate governance and misuse of funds, and drew fierce criticism from foreign governments. Russia Dmitry Medvedev Human rights Vladimir Putin guardian.co.uk
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Eight former officers accused of conspiring to pervert course of justice after wrongful convictions The case against eight former police officers accused of conspiring to “mould, manipulate, influence and fabricate evidence” after the murder of a woman who was working as a prostitute has been opened. One of the former officers is also charged with lying under oath during the trials of five men who were accused of murdering Lynette White in Cardiff in 1988. Two civilians are also in the dock at Swansea crown court accused of lying during those trials. The case, which is believed to be the biggest trial of police officers in British legal history, could last six months. White, 20, was stabbed to death at a flat in the docks area of Cardiff in February 1988. Stephen Miller, Yusef Abdullahi and Tony Paris were convicted of her murder in 1990 but freed on appeal in 1992. Two other men, cousins Ronnie and John Actie, were acquitted. The former police officers, Graham Mouncher, Richard Powell, Thomas Page, Michael Daniels, Paul Jennings, Paul Stephen, Peter Greenwood and John Seaford, deny conspiring to pervert the course of justice. Mouncher, a former detective inspector, also denies two charges of perjury. The two civilians, Violet Perriam and Ian Massey, each deny two charges of perjury. According to the charge sheet read out to the jury, the eight former officers made up evidence “relevant to the investigation of the murder of Lynette White” and the “alleged culpability” of the five men arrested over the killing. Perriam is accused of falsely claiming that she saw John Actie and others at or near the scene of the murder. Massey is alleged to have falsely claimed that Tony Paris had confessed to involvement in White’s murder. Mouncher allegedly lied in court about offering to assist Massey with parole as an inducement. After the jury was sworn in, the judge, Mr Justice Sweeney, warned it not to take notice of media reporting of the current trial or historic ones. He also told them not to talk about the case with their family or with anyone else via Facebook or Twitter. Nick Dean QC, prosecuting, said aspects of the case were unusual and complex. He told the jury that a trial of four others accused of conspiring to pervert the course of justice was likely to follow this one. It had not been possible to try them at the same time for practical reasons. The trial continues. Crime Police Wales Cardiff Steven Morris guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Bernie Sanders: Americans Think it’s Insane to do Deficit Reduction on the Backs of the Working Class and Poor
July 6, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media I think Bernie Sanders is one of the last people in the United States Senate that I can stand to listen to these days with all of this kabuki theater going on over raising the debt ceiling and the demands for deficit reduction on the backs of the working class and the poor along with Republicans drawing a line in the sand with their public refusals to raise taxes. Ed Schultz asked Bernie about former President Bill Clinton tossing the idea about lowering the corporate tax rates in America in exchange for closing some loopholes, which Sanders shot down. We all know how that would turn out after watching how the Republicans are negotiating in bad faith on the budget right now. They’d get Democrats to agree that the tax rates should be lowered and then stomp off when they tried to get them to agree to which loopholes to close. That or the only ones they’d go after are those that affect the middle class and not the rich. Bernie’s still out there asking people to sign his petition, which now has well over 100,000 signatures. If you haven’t signed yet, you can do so here .
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Prime minister says he is ‘appalled’ by revelations about behaviour at News of the World, but BSkyB deal can go ahead David Cameron has bowed to pressure to hold public inquiries into the “absolutely disgusting” allegations of phone hacking by journalists at News of the World, and into the original police investigation into the scandal. The prime minister responded to the outrage provoked by the phone-hacking crisis at the Sunday tabloid after it emerged that Scotland Yard has started to contact the relatives of victims of the 7 July 2005 attacks to warn them they were also targeted by the paper . Pressed by the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, to conduct a full public inquiry, the prime minister said he was “appalled” by the revelations and agreed that it was important that inquiries were conducted that were “public, independent, and have public confidence”. He also signalled that News Corporation’s takeover of BSkyB would be allowed to go ahead. He rejected Miliband’s call for the matter to be referred to the Competition Commission, which he suggested would be illegal. Miliband told Cameron he had made a “catastrophic error of judgment” when he hired Andy Coulson as his director of communications. In a dramatic prime minister’s question time dominated by the hacking scandal, Miliband also accused Cameron of being out of touch with public opinion on the issue of BSkyB. Cameron told the Commons that the inquiries could not be started immediately because of the major police investigation currently under way, though he conceded it “may be possible” to start some of the work earlier. “We do need to have an inquiry, possibly inquiries, into what has happened,” Cameron said. “We are no longer talking here about politicians and celebrities, we are talking about murder victims, potentially terrorist victims, having their phones hacked into. It is absolutely disgusting, what has taken place, and I think everyone in this House and indeed this country will be revolted by what they have heard and what they have seen on their television screens.” He said there were two “vital areas” that needed to be considered: why the original police inquiry failed to “get to the bottom of what happened”, as well as the behaviour, practices and ethics of journalists and media organisations. Cameron said it was important that lessons were learned from “what has become a disgraceful episode”. The Labour leader called on Cameron to appoint a senior figure, possibly a judge, to lead the inquiry, which should have the power to call witnesses under oath. Miliband said the investigation should cover “the culture and practices of the industry, the nature of regulation … and also the relationship between the police and the media”. Cameron said he did not think it would be possible to investigate the original police inquiry until the new one had concluded. “Clearly, we can’t start all that sort of inquiry immediately because you must not jeopardise the police investigation, but it may be possible to start some of that work earlier,” he said. He offered to hold talks on the matter with other party leaders, attorney general Dominic Grieve and the cabinet secretary, Sir Gus O’Donnell. But he resisted separate calls by Miliband that the bid by News International to take control of BskyB be referred to the competition commission, saying that to do so would be “illegal”. Miliband said the public would react “with disbelief” if the deal went ahead in the next few days when News International was the subject of a major criminal investigation. But Cameron said the government had followed the correct legal processes, with Jeremy Hunt, the secretary of state for media, culture and sport, handling the matter in a quasi-judicial role. Only yesterday Miliband himself said that plurality issues were separate from News International ethics. The prime minister also refused to be drawn on whether Rebekah Brooks, News International chief executive, should stand down. Confronted by claims by Miliband that he had made a “catastrophic error of judgment” by taking on Coulson, the former editor of the News of the World embroiled in the latest wave of revelations, the prime minister said he took “full responsibility” for everyone he employs and appoint to work for him. The ramifications of the scandal continued to be felt by the News of the World through other channels as Halifax bank and Virgin Holidays cancelled adverts due to run in this Sunday’s paper. They followed in the footsteps of Ford which said on Tuesday it was suspending its advertising in the paper. Other companies, including the UK’s biggest advertiser, Procter & Gamble, have said they are reviewing their positions amid an online campaign urging firms to withdraw their advertising. The Metropolitan police commissioner, Paul Stephenson, also revealed that members of his force face investigation after it was reported on Tuesday night that News International had handed over details of payments made by the News of the World to police officers. He said the documents appeared to “include information relating to alleged inappropriate payments to a small number of MPS officers”. Stephenson said the matter would be investigated by deputy commissioner Sue Akers in conjunction with the Met’s Directorate of Professional Standards. He added that no senior officer had been implicated. Given that the reports relate to police payments allegedly made between 2003 and 2007, when Andy Coulson was editor, many commentators have suggested they are an attempt to relieve the pressure on Brooks, also a former editor. One of those put on alert that his phone may have been hacked, Graham Foulkes, whose son David was killed in the 7 July 2005 bombings, expressed his horror at the alleged intrusion and said he wanted to meet Rupert Murdoch . He told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme: “I’d really like to meet him face to face and have a very in-depth conversation with him about responsibility and the power that he has and how it should be used appropriately.” Simon Greenberg, director of corporate affairs at News International, told the Today programme that a meeting between Foulkes and Murdoch was “certainly something we would consider”. Greenberg insisted that News International was being “highly co-operative” with the police. In an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live, he said the organisation was “very close” to discovering who commissioned the alleged hacking of Milly Dowler’s phone. Asked whether he was clear that the hacking was not commissioned by Brooks, who was News of the World editor at the time, he said: “We are clear.” Phone hacking Newspapers & magazines National newspapers News of the World News International Newspapers David Cameron PMQs House of Commons David Miliband Hélène Mulholland Haroon Siddique guardian.co.uk
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Using mobile phone abroad to become cheaper under EU laws to allow customers to switch provider for overseas calls Mobile telecommunications firms will be forced to reduce the amount they charge for overseas data roaming to a maximum 80p (90 cents) per megabyte from July 2012, under EU proposals announced today. Customers will also be able to switch to other providers for their overseas roaming, leading to greater competition and potentially even lower charges, according to EU telecoms commissioner Neelie Kroes. Kroes announced that the cap on the cost to consumers of overseas calls and texts, introduced last week , will be lowered in each of the following three years. From July 2012 prices will drop for calls made from phones across Europe to 28p (32 cents) a minute; 25p (28 cents) from July 2013; and 21p (24 cents) from July 2014. But consumer groups have warned that the costs to networks of introducing the first ever cap on data roaming could be passed on to customers through price rises elsewhere. They also argue that the cap should be introduced immediately rather than in a year’s time, and that 90 cents per MB is still too high – though the EU has announced further plans for this to be reduced to 45p (50 cents) per megabyte from July 2014. Monique Goyens, director general of the European Consumers’ Organisation , said: “It’s reassuring that the commission is tackling the market’s structural problems by introducing decoupling of roaming from domestic telecom subscriptions, and at last acting on the increasingly important issue of data roaming. The current cap of 90 cents per MB is a slow start. Consumers should not be ripped off for surfing the net abroad.” At present, mobile data roaming costs vary hugely between provider. O2, for example, charges £3.07 per MB when roaming in Europe and £6 per MB for the rest of the world, whilst Vodafone charges £1 per MB up to 5MB, then £5 for every additional MB after that in Europe. Goyens said the European telecommunications market was currently “a closed shop” and was urgently in need of more competition to force down pricing. Data-roaming bills were automatically limited to €50 per month excluding VAT (unless the customer chose another limit – higher or lower) on 1 July 2010 – but according to the latest EU Barometer survey, only 19% of people who use internet-related services on their mobile phones when abroad think the costs of data-roaming are fair. Brian Boroff from mobile price comparison site Mobilife.com said consumers could see prices for other services rise. “We are glad to see clarity on costs for EU roaming as this has been a huge area of confusion for many years. However, for the mobile operators this move will erode profits for the networks and therefore we may see costs rises elsewhere, such as the recent price hikes we have seen from Orange and Vodafone and a possible rise on phone usage costs outside inclusive allowance of minutes and texts.” Orange and Vodafone have both recently raised the prices on their pay as you go tariffs, but said this was as a result of Ofcom’s recent cap on mobile termination rates , rather than the latest EU announcements. Today’s announcement has no requirement for networks to reduce the cost of data roaming outside of the EU , with costs for downloading data further afield costing consumers $20-30 per MB outside the EU – though consumers can acccess Wi-fi rather than 3G to escape roaming fees. Michael Phillips, product director, Broadbandchoices.co.uk said exorbitant roaming costs apply equally to tablet users “iPads are incredibly useful to take away on holiday but even simple tasks like checking your email can become expensive if you are using your domestic iPad tariff to surf while on holiday abroad,” he said. “iPad roaming costs aren’t necessarily the same as those applied to regular mobile broadband packages, so we strongly urge consumers to check small print, set a usage cap, and use Wi-fi when they can. This can help avoid ‘bill shock’.” He added that consumers should also turn off data roaming when they do not need it, while abroad, though this may not always work. Travellers with iPhones and O2 contracts have recently warned that they have been billed even when turning off data roaming on their phones. Internet, phones & broadband Household bills Mobile phones Smartphones Telecommunications industry Telecoms Consumer affairs Mark King guardian.co.uk
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Why did the media not mock him endlessly like they did Bachmann for her John Wayne gaffe? I’m calling Amtrak for a ticket to Amsterdam right now. Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Sharp Elbows StL Discovery Date : 05/07/2011 15:57 Number of articles : 3
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Moody’s slashed Portugal’s credit rating by four notches from Baa1 to Ba2 with a negative outlook after markets closed on Tuesday Fears that the eurozone crisis was entering a new stage intensified on Wednesday after Portugal’s credit rating was slashed to junk, with European bank shares falling sharply and some government bonds coming under renewed pressure. Portuguese bank shares tumbled in early trading, while the yield – or interest rate – demanded by traders to hold the country’s debt jumped sharply. UK banks also lost ground, pulling the FTSE 100 down. UK government bonds, known as gilts, benefited, however, as investors looked for a safe haven. The euro lost value against the dollar, dropping nearly one cent to $1.438. Traders were alarmed by Moody’s warning that Portugal – like Greece – will need a second bailout , as it became the first credit ratings agency to cut the country’s debt to junk status. “This will weaken hopes that the recently agreed aid for Portugal will put a line under the nation’s woes and could trigger worries that Portugal could follow Greece down the path of possible default,” said Jane Foley, senior currency strategist at Rabobank, who also stated that the eurozone sovereign debt crisis was “back in full swing”. The yield on the Portuguese 10-year government bond climbed to 12.719% from 12.185% on Tuesday. The yield on the two-year bond leapt by nearly 1.5 percentage points to 14.8%. Irish, Spanish and Greek bond yields were also up. The downgrade is likely to push up Portugal’s borrowing costs when it attempts to auction up to €1bn (£900m) of three-month Treasury bills later on Wednesday. Shares in Portuguese banks Banco BPI dropped 4.7% while Millennium BCP were down 3.8% and Banco Espírito Santo lost 3.6%. In London, the FTSE 100 index traded some 18 points lower at 6006.87, a fall of 0.3%. Royal Bank of Scotland dropped by 1.8% to 38.4p. Moody’s slashed Portugal’s rating by four notches from Baa1 to Ba2 with a negative outlook after markets closed on Tuesday. It is the first agency to rate Portugal below investment grade: S&P has a BBB- rating with a negative outlook, while Fitch has a BBB- rating, on watch for a downgrade. Analysts predicted that credit rating agencies will now turn their attention to Ireland. “For a long time in this crisis S&P were the first mover when it came to downgrading European sovereigns, but it appears that Moody’s are now beating them to the punch,” said Gary Jenkins, head of fixed income research at Evolution Securities. “Maybe S&P have hurt their toe? Anyhow considering the rationale for the Portuguese downgrade we are wondering who is going to be the first to cast their beady eye over Ireland’s rating.” Major eurozone banks are meeting in Paris on Wednesday to try to finalise a plan for investor participation in a second Greek bailout . Michael Hewson of CMC Markets warned that traders are also concerned about Italy, where “services are showing signs of contraction, in the face of some budget tightening and political uncertainty”. European debt crisis European banks Europe Portugal Bonds Ratings agencies Julia Kollewe guardian.co.uk
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Ed Miliband hails end to decades-long tradition of elections as ‘excellent result for the party’ Labour MPs have backed Ed Miliband’s plans to abolish elections to the shadow cabinet, leaving the party leader free to appoint his own senior team. The reform, ending a decades-long Labour tradition under which shadow cabinet members are elected by fellow Labour MPs, was approved by 196 of 257 MPs eligible to vote. “This is an excellent result for the party,” Miliband said after the vote, which must still be approved by Labour’s national executive committee later this month and ratified at Labour’s annual conference in the autumn. “We have an important job to do in holding the government to account and preparing for the next election,” he said. “To do that job properly we need to spend our time talking to the public and not ourselves.” The rule will apply only while the party is in opposition, not in government. A senior Labour source told the Press Association that the vote was “an important step forward” for Labour. “It is important that we no longer have the distraction of internal elections whilst we have a job to do of holding the government to account and preparing ourselves for the next election,” the source said. “It is important that we are talking to the public and not ourselves.” Currently, although membership of the shadow cabinet is determined by a ballot of Labour MPs, the leader is able to allocate portfolios. If approved, Miliband will be free to shape his shadow cabinet as he chooses. However, a source close to Labour sought to play down expectations of an immediate reshuffle. Aides had acknowledged ahead of the vote that there would be a “significant” opposition. But few opposing voices were said to have been raised when the parliamentary Labour party met on Monday to discuss the change, despite the proposal being rejected by a margin of two to one in a vote last year. Labour Barry Neild guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Victims’ Commissioner said families often talked about the legal process being as traumatic as the crime itself The families of murder victims receive worse treatment from the courts than the rich and wealthy who want to protect their privacy and they need a statutory ‘victims’ law’ to protect their rights. The call from the government-appointed Victims’ Commissioner, Louise Casey, comes six months after she conducted the largest survey of bereaved families. Casey said the criminal justice system left “families trembling in its wake” with many of the stories she heard just “jaw droppingly awful” and the survey demonstrated that families that had had no involvement with the police and courts actually coped better with their bereavement. She said that families often talked about the legal process being almost as traumatic as the crime itself: “We ask people not to go out and take the law into their own hands. We ask that people come to court and give evidence so that nasty people can be locked up. In return the criminal justice system needs to do better,” said Casey. She said that she sometimes wondered that if murder victims’ families had more money and weren’t facing an untold bill because of their devastation, “would we treat them in the same way?” Casey said the treatment of Milly Dowler’s family in the Levi Bellfield court case had thrown the spotlight “on this rather odd scenario where in one court we have rich people pursuing their civil injunctions … whereas down the road in the criminal court a family is being stripped in no uncertain terms of some of the moments with their family.” The Victims’ commissioner says in her ground-breaking report published on Wednesday that families were often treated as a legal inconvenience. “Families deserve to bury the body of their child without defence lawyers asking for autopsy after autopsy. They deserve not to have to sit next to the defendant’s family in court listening to them laughing, or being intimidated by them. They deserve to be told that their husband’s killer is going to be released before they bump into him in the supermarket. They deserved to be treated with some humanity in the witness box.” The proposed victims’ law would include: • a criminal practice direction to ensure families were treated with dignity and respect during court cases; • judges should clear the court when particularly distressing evidence is about to be heard or at least the families given due warning; • the right to information from the crown prosecution service, including meeting the prosecuting lawyer; • the right to sentencing remarks from the judge in writing and trial transcripts; • release of the body back to the family within 28 days;• courts to have a family meeting to ensure that their needs during the trial are met. The survey of the 400 bereaved families showed that more than 60% faced financial difficulties after the case with each family facing an average bill of £37,000 for funerals, court travel costs and cleaning up crime scenes. Casey said that more than 80% of families suffered symptoms of trauma after going to court and the same proportion had to wait more than a month to bury their loved ones. A quarter stopped working permanently. The justice secretary, Kenneth Clarke, agreed that more could be done to get families the help they needed and tominimise the impact of bereavement. “We are working on our review of all victim support arrangements – this will include consideration of victims’ services, entitlements and redress, designed to ensure that our time, money and best efforts are targeted at those in greatest need. As part of this review, we have been in constant dialogue with the Victims’ Commissioner, victims and victim support organisations,” he said. ends Crime Alan Travis guardian.co.uk
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Flagship report from the new UN agency shows there is a way to go before improvements in the legal position of women are translated into equality and justice for all More than half of working women in the world, 600 million, are trapped in insecure jobs without legal protection, according to the first flagship report of the new agency UN Women . A similar number do not have even basic protection against domestic violence, it finds, while sexual assault has become a hallmark of modern conflict. Michelle Bachelet, the executive director of UN Women, said the document showed that many millions of women had no access to justice. “The report reminds us of the remarkable advances that have been made over the past century in the quest for gender equality and women’s empowerment,” she said. “However it also underscores the fact that despite widespread guarantees of equality, the reality for many millions of women is that justice remains out of reach.” For millions of women in both rich and poor countries, the search for justice is fraught with difficulty and is often expensive; laws and legal systems frequently discriminate against them. In Cambodia, for example, the forensic test necessary to lay a rape charge costs two weeks’ wages, while in Kenya a land claim in an inheritance case can cost $800 and extend across 17 different administrative stages. Progress of the World’s Women: In Pursuit of Justice is a comprehensive survey of women’s access to justice across the globe. The report offers 10 recommendations to overcome the paradox that while huge improvements have been made in the legal position of women over the last century, there is still a dramatic lag in translating that into equality and justice. For example, 127 countries do not have effective laws on marital rape, and attrition rates in cases brought by women are high, ensuring that only a fraction of reported rapes result in conviction. The report cites one 2009 European study which found that, on average, only 14% of reported rapes ended in a conviction. The first of the 10 recommendations is providing support for women’s legal organisations, which often step into the gaps left by inadequate legal aid systems. In a number of countries, women’s groups have been at the forefront of cases that have led to laws being repealed, or new laws created, with a positive impact on women’s lives. In Nepal, for example, the supreme court ordered parliament to amend the rape law in 2002 to allow prosecutions for marital rape after a case brought by the Forum for Women, Law and Development. In Indonesia, a local NGO has trained community-based paralegals to support women to use the religious courts to get the marriage and divorce certificates they need to claim benefits. Other recommendations include further legal reform to ensure paid maternity leave, equal pay and equal property rights, support for the development of one-stop services to deal with crimes such as rape, and an increase in the recruitment of women into the police force. The report highlights best practice around the world, arguing that change can be achieved with innovative policy. Nepal, for instance, has trebled female land ownership in the last decade by offering tax exemptions to drive the adoption of new inheritance laws. In Sweden, the introduction of “daddy leave” – reserved time off for fathers – has helped narrow the pay gap. And in South Africa, the Thuthuzela care centres, which bring together police, health staff and legal advice, have driven up conviction rates to 89% from a national average of 7%. The report offers a clear indication of some of the areas that UN Women, which started work in January under the leadership of the former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet, is keen to prioritise in its work. But the new agency is struggling to raise the funding it needs. Only US$88m has been pledged against a target of $500m. The UK has yet to announce its pledge. Pressure groups are warning that the funding shortfall is jeopardising the success of the agency. Gender has now been identified as a priority issue by many donor agencies, but the report points out how little funding has gone into strengthening women’s legal rights. Of the $874bn spent by the World Bank in the last 10 years, $126bn went into public administration, law and justice systems, but only $7.3m went into programmes aimed at gender equality – 0.001% of the total budget. Access to justice underlies every aspect of women’s lives, not least their access to land and education, and now that gender has been designated as one of four priority areas for the World Bank up to 2014, there is a real need to invest in improving justice for women. Other recommendations in the report include better training for judges to challenge the notion that women’s behaviour may contribute to rape, and using quotas to increase the number of female legislators. Of the 28 countries that have more than 30% female representation in parliament, 23 have used quotas. Looking in detail at six of those countries, there was a clear link between increased female representation and the passage of laws to strengthen women’s rights. Given how sexual violence is used in conflict, the report says more effort needs to be made to increase women’s access to the courts and truth commissions during and after conflict. The report recognises that significant advances in international law in the past two decades have made it possible to prosecute sexual violence crimes. But international courts now need to prioritise gender-based crimes in prosecution strategies. Women have a crucial role to play in peacebuilding, but the report argues that more attention needs to be paid to women’s access to post-conflict justice mechanisms, such as reparations. It points to the example in Sierra Leone, where a reparations programme is helping female survivors of sexual violence, providing small loans and skills training to set up small businesses. The organisation VSO described the report as a “wake-up call” to world leaders who are not providing equal rights to women. “In many countries there are still too many gaps in the law, which leave women without adequate protection. For others, the laws are barely worth the paper they are written on because implementation is so weak, or justice systems actively discourage women from using them,” said Kathy Peach, head of external affairs at VSO UK. “This report clearly highlights that too much aid is still gender blind. How can it be that out of $126bn that the World Bank spent on improving public administration, law and justice, just $7.3m went to make sure that women had access to these vital services too?” UN Women report 2011 Gender Madeleine Bunting guardian.co.uk
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