Category Archives: Transhuman News

Vanuatu: After devastation, UN experts call to protect human rights of all in disaster response

GENEVA (20 March 2015) A group of United Nations human rights experts* called on Vanuatu and the international community to adopt a human rights framework as the basis for recovery in the aftermath of cyclone Pam, while noting that the new global framework for Disaster Risk Reduction adopted this week includes human rights as a guiding principle in mitigating natural disasters.

The experts on the right to adequate housing, and on the human rights of internally displaced persons, persons with disabilities and on older persons expressed their solidarity with the people of Vanuatu and deep concern for the widespread devastation caused by the storm.

The destruction brought upon by cyclone Pam has left thousands of people displaced or insecurely housed. As one of the poorest countries in the world, residents of Vanuatu who already had very little, have now lost everything.

In the wake of such a disaster, and as emergency response and reconstruction plans are discussed, it is imperative that a human rights framework be the foundation for recovery and rebuilding efforts, which must be inclusive of all. Post-disaster recovery and rebuilding activities are essential to ensure the fulfillment of the human rights of all.

Current reports by the UN and international aid organizations note that approximately 4,000 people have found refuge in 39 evacuation centres in Efate. In the capital city, Port Vila, approximately 90% of housing has been seriously damaged.

Temporary housing is an essential aspect of an emergency response, however it must still meet human rights standards and it must not be the sole focus. Those who are staying with relatives or families should also be assisted appropriately. Longer-term housing needs must also be considered and planned for immediately.

Lessons learned from past natural disasters around the world shed light on the way forward. In all phases of disaster response the right to adequate housing should be respected and protected. This means ensuring security of tenure; availability of services, materials, facilities and infrastructure; affordability, habitability and accessibility of housing; an appropriate location for housing; and cultural adequacy.

We are concerned over the conditions in evacuation centres, which reportedly vary enormously, with overcrowding, privacy and security identified as serious issues. We are particularly concerned about the risk of sexual violence against women and girls, as lighting is lacking in most of the centres.

In the coming months as the rebuilding process evolves, access to housing, land or space will become an important part of rehabilitation. We are particularly concerned for the most marginalized groups. They will need special attention for example, womens privacy needs and the rights and needs of those with disabilities must be addressed. An age perspective has also to be included in all stages of disaster management and policies, from their elaboration to their execution.

Link:
Call to protect human rights of all in disaster response

If you look at the business world and the institutional world through the eyes of a little kid or a Martian, or anyone who wasnt raised with our traditional understanding of businesses and institutions, you notice something right away. The first thing you notice is that the business world and the institutional worlds run on a different fuel than normal human life.

They are sustained by and fueled by commands, policies, rules, structures and hierarchies that we dont find in everyday human existence down on the ground. In modern times weve exalted the corporate and institutional systems to nearly the status of religions.

We are adherents to the churches of data and money and organizational power. A lot of people pray to those gods and devote their lives to those religions. The Human Workplace idea is nothing more complex than making work a human place, which it is anyway!

People go to work, and like anything in nature they fight to stay human and plug into their own power sources at work. I sing at a church where the minister said in his sermon one day that the daffodil and lily bulbs in the church garden moved in the dirt ten feet over to poke their shoots out of the soil beyond the concrete patio. Ten feet!

Nature is powerful, and we are part of nature. People naturally bring their best to work unless there are man-made impediments that keep them from doing that. They want to do it. They want to be emotionally invested in their work.

It makes the work more fun and interesting. Work is a communal place. People look for community. It springs up like the daffodils even despite the harshness and grayness of the organizational structure of rules and budgets.

The Human Workplace movement is a global and enlarging conversation about reinventing work for people. As a practical matter, it is easy to build human energy from your own desk or place in the loading dock to other people and from there to larger and larger communities of people who desperately want to be able to be human at work.

Excerpt from:
Stepping Into The Human Workplace