Nobel Peace Prize Assignment

Outline what the Nobel Peace Prize is, the origins of the prize.

The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded every year since 1901. It is awarded to people for their achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and for peace. It is an international award authorised by the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden. In 1968, Sveriges Riksbank created The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel who was the founder of the Nobel Prize. Each prize consists of a medal, personal diploma, and a cash award.

Brief biography of Adolfo Perez Esquivel. This should include their DOB, any education of work history details and their major achievements (include a picture).

On the 26^th November 1931 in Buenos Aires, Adolfo Perez Esquivel was born. He trained as an architect and sculptor and later was appointed Professor of Architecture. In 1974, Adolfo gave up his teaching to dedicate all his time to the work of coordinating activities of various non-violet elements in Latin America. Two years later he began an international campaign that was aimed to persuade United Nations to start a Human Rights Commission and then a document was drawn up recording breaches of human rights in Latin America. During spring of 1977, Adolfo Perez Esquivel was imprisoned with no cause being shown, then in May 1978, he was released but had to report to the police as well as having various restrictions. These restrictions eventually ended and he visited Europe in 1980.

Servicio Paz y Justicia is a well established organisation in which Adolfo Perez Esquivel is the leader. Latin America is divided into three regions each with their own offices then followed by the national organisations. The activities that are run within these offices are all organised in Esquivel’s office in Buenos Aires.

Servicio Paz y Justicia is based on a Christian view of life and loves close contact with clergy and bishops critical of present-day situations in Latin American. This organisation’s main task is to encourage respect towards human rights; this should include social and economic rights. This means that this organisation provides assistance towards rural workers in their struggle for land, and to the trade unions in their struggle to protect the rights of their workers. This is done in the form of legal aid.

Despite the problems Adolfo Perez Esquivel has faced, he demands that the struggle must only be pursued with non-violent means.

When and why Adolfo Perez Esquivel was awarded the prize.

Even though Adolfo Perez Esquivel recognised as a sculptor, he wanted to bring out the peace and fortune for the poor. In 1980, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize; he won this award for his defence to ease human rights in South America.

Explain why Adolfo Perez Esquivel became involved in the work.

Adolfo dedicated a lot of his adult life to championing fair conditions for the continent's peasants, or landless farmers, and he gained some measure of fame in his country for criticizing a brutal military system that kidnapped, tortured, and killed thousands during the 1970s.

Refugees

Refugee Definition:

·         Refugees are people who have left their homeland because they fear that they will lose their lives on their freedom if they stay. People become refugees because one or more of their basic human rights has been violated or threatened.

·         International law defines a “refugee” as a person who has fled from and/or cannot return to his/her country due to a well-founded fear of persecution, including war or civil conflict.

A Person is a refugee if...

·         Refugees have to be outside their country or origin

·         The reason for their flight to be a fear of persecution;

·         The fear of persecution has to be well-founded , i.e. they have to have experienced persecution or be likely to experience if they return;

·         The persecution has to result from one or more of the five grounds listed in the definition;

·         They have to be unwilling or unable to seek the protection of their country.

Who protects refugees?

·         UNHCR

·         Protecting refugees is the core mandate of UNHCR (United Nations Commissioner for Refugees)

·         Lets visit their website to see what they do;

·         Who do they help? Where are they involved?

They help Asylum seekers, refugees, returnees, children, men, women, internationally displaced people, older people, people with disabilities and stateless people. They are involved in Asia and the Pacific’s, Americas, Europe, Africa and the Middle East and North Africa.

Top ten countries and continents

1. Asia – 18 567 061

2. Africa – 10 475 567

3. Pakistan – 4 744 098

4. Thailand – 3 615 552

5.  Dem Republic Congo – 2 362 295

6. Iraq – 2 026 798

7. Somalia – 1 576 544

8. Sudan – 1 426 412

9. Syrian Arab Republic – 1 357 546

10. Iran – 1 072 346

Aus Aid- 8 Millennium Goals

Goal	Target	Australia is doing...
One: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.	Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than $1.25 a day.	-Australia is providing 1.6 million Bangladesh disadvantaged children with access to pre-primary and primary education. -Providing affordable housing.
Two: Achieve universal primary education.	Ensure that by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling.	-Funded the construction of new schools in Laos. -Introduced teacher training. -Implementing nutritious food.
Three: Promote gender equality and empower women.	Increase proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments. Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education.	-Increasing Australian Development Scholarships for East Timor women. -Encouraging women in East Timor to register for jobs. -Supporting leadership and governance training for women in the Asia Pacific women.
Four: Reduce child mortality.	Reduce by two thirds between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate.	-Training more skilled birth attendants in rural and remote PNG to help reduce infant deaths. -Increasing births supervised by skilled staff is an important focus of the PNG-Australia Partnership for Development. -Working with governments and other donors to improve the supply of vaccinations and immunisations globally.
Five: Improve maternal health.	-Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality rate. -Achieve universal access to reproductive health.	-Helping to train the next generation of midwives and providing specialist surgical services and training in East Timor. -Supporting outreach clinics, which target remote and rural villages with information on health, nutrition and family planning. -Helping to fund maternal and reproductive health activities in developing countries across the region and in Afghanistan.
Six: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.	-Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS. -Achieve by 2010, universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS for all who need it.	-Committed up to $100 million to work in partnership with Indonesia to combat the spread of HIV and improve the quality of life for those living with the virus -Supporting needle syringe programs, voluntary counselling, testing and prevention services and methadone programs in Indonesia. -Committed $160 million in 2009-10 to combat the spread of the pandemic through its global HIV/AIDS initiative, up from $130 million in 2008-9.
Seven: Ensure environmental sustainability.	-Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs. -Halve the number of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.	-Providing $150 million, through the International Climate Change Adaption Initiative, to help vulnerable countries in our region increase resilience to the unavoidable impacts of climate change. -Working to improve understanding of current and projected climate change impacts to help Pacific Island countries make informed adaption decisions. -Funding monitoring stations to ensure Pacific Island countries have access to accurate data on sea level rise.
Eight: Develop a global partnership for development.	·         -Address the special needs of least developed countries, landlocked countries and Small Island developing states. ·         -Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system. ·         -Deal comprehensively with developing countries’ debt. ·         -In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries. ·         -In cooperation with the private sector, make available benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications.	Australia is working closely with developing countries and development partners to build global partnerships which address poverty.

Etching out a life on Smokey Mountain Reflection

Smokey Mountain is a rubbish dump. A place where tens of thousands of people scavenge for their livelihood, it has been adopted by many of the world's poor who live below the poverty line. Here in the Philippines, it is almost half the population.

Smokey Mountain is a mass of decomposed rubbish; almost twenty metres high, from a distance it looks like an enormous mound of earth, but at a closer view you can see all the layers of plastic bags, bottles and tires all squashed together, fifty years worth of Manila’s rubbish. There is a filthy rope dangling from the top and a well trodden path people use to scramble up this steep mountain.

There are people who walk around covered in dirt, office people whose clothes are ripped and ratty old plastic sandals that are way too big!!! Homes are very old and run down, a piece of iron is used as a roof and plastic and sheets are used as walls. A timber palette is used as the floor with a mat on top to keep people and inch above earth.

Men and women are seen scavenging around looking for rubbish, they move around depending on where work is and they have to pull their children out of school because they can’t afford to pay the school fees.

There seems to be money and wealth everywhere, but on top of Smokey Mountain people will never know what that means.

The Philippines

The Philippines is made up of more than 7,000 tropical islands and had a population of 90 million. The country has a tropical marine climate with a dry season (Nov-April) and a rainy season (May-Oct).

The capital Manila – Metro Manila – is a sprawling cluster of 17 cities with municipalities such as Manila, Quezon, Makati, Pasay, and so on generating a populace to guess at; perhaps start at ten million and keep counting.

Manila has a high population density, with one district having over 68,000 people per square kilometres so at times it may feel a little crowded especially if you have just arrived from London which has about 8,000 people per square kilometres.

Tagalog is the national language and English is used for official/business purposes.

There are 54 other languages with over 140 dialect variations.

The Philippines has the world’s third largest English speaking population.

The Good Samaritan Sisters in the Philippines:

The Catholic Religious of Japan (even though few in number), had the desire to stand in solidarity with the poor in Asia in the 1980’s.

In 1990, two Japanese sisters established a community in Bacolod on the island of Negros, one of the poorest areas in the Philippines.

In 2004, the sisters started a Kinder School for poor children. This is the gateway to education because even though government schooling is free, very few attend unless there is access to early education. A health clinic and feeding programme is also available at the kinder school.

Today, the community is comprised with sisters who desire to seek in God and the way of life.

Universal Declaration Articles

Article 12:

No one shall be guided to random interference with someone’s privacy, family, home or communication, or attacks upon a person’s respect and status. Every individual has the right to be protected by the law against obstruction or attacks.

This article explains that people have the right to privacy and they don’t have to allow some stranger through their front door which could then interfere with an individual’s belongings or life.

Article 13:

Everyone should be able to have the right for traveling to countries such as leaving their own and also returning to their country. Also being able to have the right of freedom from within the borders of each state.

This means that people should be able to go to countries, and return from countries whenever they want without being hassled and not being able to leave.

Article 15:

This article explains that everyone in the world has the right to their own choice of nationality. Nationality is one of the most common forms of right that isn’t being supported, which has and can result in fights and wars. Everyone in the world has different beliefs and their nationalities are all different, no one is the same and everyone should accept that and move on although unfortunately some countries are removing the right to their own nationality choice.