2010 Grantee Successes

The Fund’s grantees are changing the world for the better, every day.  Here are just a few of their accomplishments in 2010:

· In Thailand, labor rights organization Council of Work and Environment-Related Patients' Network won a fifteen-year legal battle to enforce protections for workers' health.

In November 2010, the Supreme Court found the Bangkok Weaving Company responsible for working conditions that led thirty-eight textile workers to contract serious lung disease. The Bangkok Post calls the case “a landmark in the history of the labour movement” in Thailand. 

· Women's Action for Human Dignity advanced the rights of Sierra Leonean women and children to health care.

A new law mandates free health care for pregnant and nursing women as well as children under five. UNICEF identifies Sierra Leone as having the highest child and maternal mortality rates in the world.  

· Guatemalan groups Peace and Ecology Commission and San Miguel Association for Integral Development helped secure a groundbreaking decision to protect the rights of indigenous communities.

In 2010, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights directed the Guatemalan government to suspend operations at a mine operated by Canadian corporation Goldcorp until there is a full investigation of the adverse health and environmental effects of the mine.

· The Women's Legal Bureau helped a Filipina rape victim bring the first ever rape case heard by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.

In September 2010, the Committee found that the Philippines had violated the victim's rights and directed the government to both provide her compensation and remedy existing legal obstacles to justice for rape victims.

· Information furnished by Tunisian grantees was critical to a French court decision convicting a Tunisian official for human rights crimes.

The judge in the case relied heavily on this documentation in his decision to sentence a high-ranking Tunisian diplomat to twelve years in prison for torture committed during his time as police chief of Jendouba.  

· A multi-year campaign designed and coordinated by women's rights organization Law-Uganda led Uganda's constitutional court to declare the practice of female genital cutting unconstitutional.

This ruling bans the practice and enforces new punishments for perpetrators—up to ten years in prison, or a life sentence if the victim dies as a result of the practice.

· Association for Peace and Human Rights (APDH) helped women exercise their political rights by running for office in ever greater numbers.

In Ngozi province, Burundi, fifteen women—compared with only one in the previous election—were elected to their communal councils after APDH urged women to vote and run as candidates. Already, their political presence in Ngozi has led to increased funding for maternity wards and efforts to promote school attendance by girls.

· Mexican labor rights organization Workers Support Center (CAT) fought back against violations of workers’ rights.

As a result of their efforts, in June 2010, the Johnson Controls company recognized the right of its employees to be represented by an independent union of their choice.  CAT provided labor rights education to workers at the plant, as well as crisis response when two Johnson Controls employees who were leading the charge for an independent union were violently attacked.

· An emergency grant to Rights Action enabled a groundbreaking case on accountability for gross human rights violations and war crimes in Guatemala to move forward at a critical juncture. 

In September 2010, a Guatemalan judge ruled that three soldiers must stand trial for their role in the 1982 “Dos Erres” massacre, during which more than 200 people were murdered by government forces. This is the first time members of the armed forces will be tried in a Guatemalan civilian court for a massacre.  

· Interactive Resource Center (IRC) and Potohar Organization for Development Agency (PODA) campaigned successfully for the passage of a groundbreaking March 2010 law protecting Pakistani women from workplace harassment.

IRC conducted a media campaign around the bill, performing theater plays about sexual harassment, while PODA facilitated rural and working women’s participation in negotiating sessions of the National Assembly and Senate.

· Fund grantees played a leading role in the Ugandan coalition created to fight back against a proposed anti-homosexuality bill seeking to punish lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) persons. 

The coalition managed to strip the most egregious provisions (death penalty and life in prison) from the bill, which has been effectively stalled for over a year.  For the first time in Uganda, mainstream human rights organizations worked together with LGBT organizations to speak publicly against discrimination and violence targeting people for their sexual orientation or gender identity.