Taghuman rights

Fast Internet access becomes a legal right in Finland

Finland has become the first country in the world to declare broadband Internet access a legal right.

Starting in July, telecommunication companies in the northern European nation will be required to provide all 5.2 million citizens with Internet connection that runs at speeds of at least 1 megabit per second. […]

In June, France’s highest court declared such access a human right. But Finland goes a step further by legally mandating speed.

CNN: Fast Internet access becomes a legal right in Finland

(via Disinfo)

It’s unclear to me – does this mean that telecom companies are required to provide this service for free, or does it mean it has to make it available to everyone (including people in remote areas)?

Nigerian Witchfinder Speaks Out

“The Nigerian witchfinder who featured so prominently in the documentary on witch children has spoken about the situation and she comes out of her corner fighting. It is a long (and self-serving) interview but here are some highlights:

Helen Ukpabio is the founder of Liberty Gospel Church. She is noted for her preaching which focuses on delivering people from witchcraft, but ever since the documentary on how children branded witches by pastors in Akwa Ibom are maltreated, the evangelist has been at the centre of the storm following allegation that her movies encourage the stigmatisation of witches.

Ukpabio: End of the Wicked came out in 1999. It is surprising that nine years after, somebody is having a problem with a film that has delivered a lot of families. The story line of End of the Wicked has nothing to do with children. The film simply says if a child is greedy – the type that says give me this, give me that, give me puff-puff, akara or sweet in school, he or she could be easily contaminated with witchcraft. So, saying that the film branded children witches, I didn’t see the people that the film branded witches. Rather, we saw children who were greedy and were contaminated by other children who were witches in the school. That is what the film did. It is worrisome that people can be carried away just because of one wizard. Itauma is a wizard and is trying to preserve the posterity of witches, such that in the near future, Akwa Ibom will become useless.
So, if he says that the film branded children witches, I don’t know about that. Is it people that the film branded witches that are in his orphanage that has suddenly turned into home for witchcraft children? He has been running that thing as orphanage but suddenly, because the United Kingdom government voted so much money to fight child abuse over the problem that the Congolese government had with children, he decided to tap into it.”

(via Damn Data:Cabinet of Wonders)

(Related: Stepping Stones Nigeria)

Stepping Stones Nigeria

Stepping Stones Nigeria is a legitimate charity registered in the UK who help abandoned and abused children unjustly accused of being “witches and wizards”. Even if you’re unable to help financially, please sign the petitions below and spread the word on your blogs and/or send emails to your friends. It is truly shocking and unbelievable that this kind of abuse is still going on in the 21st century.

“Stepping Stones Nigeria works in partnership with local organisations in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria to build sustainable futures for some of the region’s many disadvantaged children. Our approach focuses on four main areas:

Street Children: Working with the Child Rights and Rehabilitation Network (CRARN) and our sister NGO – Stepping Stones Nigeria Child Empowerment Foundation (SSNCEF) to protect, save and transform the lives of children who have been stigmatised as being ‘witches’.

Education: Supporting the Stepping Stones Model School and the Bebor International Model School to provide an outstanding level of education to orphans and disadvantaged children.

Literacy: Training and resourcing primary school teachers in the use of synthetic phonics to significantly raise literacy levels.

Advocacy and Campaigning: Advocating for child rights at a local, regional, national and international level through our Prevent Abandonment of Children Today (PACT) campaign.

Our work focuses on some of the most challenging issues that children face today such as:

* Lack of access to good quality education and resources

* Stigmatisation, abandonment and killings of so-called child ‘witches’

* Child Trafficking

SSN supports our partners to provide welfare, education, skills and hope to disadvantaged children. We believe that access to an education is every child’s right and that this is the key that will unlock Nigeria’s potential. SSN also believes that every child has the right to be protected from violence, trafficking, sexual exploitation, forced labour and deserves a standard of living that is good enough to meet their physical and mental needs. Our work helps to restore the health, happiness and self-dignity of each child, whilst repairing the physical and pyschological trauma inflicted that has so often been suffered by the hundreds of children that we work with.”

(Stepping Stones Nigeria. Thanks Kerry!)

(Petitions: “Help The Child Witches of Nigeria” and “Stop Liberty Foundation Gospel Ministries of Nigeria from Labeling Children as “Witches”)

(Video: “Saving Africa’s Witch Children”. Warning: This video is VERY disturbing.)

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