Statement on Section Three to the Consultations on Political Declaration on the Use of Explosive Weapons in Populated Areas

Delivered by Steve Goose, Executive Director

Thank you, Mr. Ambassador.  I am making this statement on behalf of the

 International Network on Explosive Weapons.

The impact and success of the Political Declaration will depend on the strength of Section 3, and in particular paragraph 3.3. Paragraph 3.3 is the core commitment in the declaration, and it must be bold and carefully crafted. This commitment can maximize the power of the declaration to protect civilians from the use of explosive weapons in populated areas.

There are two main changes that need to be made to 3.3. First, the phrase explosive weapons with wide area effects should be reinserted. As noted yesterday, this should be accompanied by language in section 1 of the preamble that when used in populated areas, explosive weapons with wide area effects inevitably and significantly increase the risk of harm to civilians and damage to civilian objects given their concentration in populated areas. The preamble text should also describe factors that produce wide area effects - a wide blast and fragmentation radius, inaccuracy of delivery, the firing of multiple warheads across an area, or a combination of these factors.

The second key change to paragraph 3.3 is to replace “restricting or refraining” with “avoiding”.  A commitment to “avoid” use of explosive weapons when they have wide area effects in populated areas would provide clarity and boldness to the core commitment in the declaration and in doing so, help to ensure the strongest protection to civilians. This would reflect recommendations from the United Nations Secretary-General, the ICRC and other field-based humanitarian organizations, and states. A change of mindset is urgently needed, and a commitment to avoid use encompasses an approach of needing to undertake prior assessments and changes to policies to establish a presumption against such use.

This commitment could be further strengthened by suggesting specific assessments that would facilitate and promote a clear understanding and implementation of this commitment, including undertaking prior assessment of the area effects of specific types of explosive weapons and assessments of the specific contexts of use and of the urban environment.

Moreover, the reference to “in accordance with international humanitarian law” should be removed, as the paragraph is a policy commitment under this declaration.

This commitment should also be higher up in this operative section, given its centrality to the declaration and that other commitments such as training stem from this.

"[A]dopt and implement a range of policies and practices to avoid civilian harm, including by avoiding the use of explosive weapons with wide area effects in populated areas, that is when the effects may be expected to extend beyond or occur outside of  the military objective, and undertaking prior assessment of the area effects of weapons and the operational context, including both the generic urban environment and the specific context of use.”

In addition to 3.3, a new paragraph 3.4 bis would be vital. While the political declaration recognizes the importance of tracking civilian harm in military operations in the preamble, it does not provide a corresponding commitment to do so in section 3. New text should be inserted, 3.4 bis. Tracking civilian harm in ‘real time’ means tracking the number and rate of civilian casualties to inform how many civilians are being killed and injured, as well as tracking damage to civilian objects. It would also involve assessing whether the situation is improving or getting worse, which can help to shape both operational and policy responses to better protect civilians. Matched with commitments to be transparent over data sharing, and to investigate credible allegations of civilian harm, it can help to provide better protection to civilians and promote compliance with international law. Battle Damage Assessments and Collateral Damage Estimation Methodologies are useful military tools but are not designed as tools to assess humanitarian impacts and have some fundamental limitations.

“Establish capabilities to track, analyse, respond to and learn from incidents of civilian harm, including damage to civilian objects”.

We have brief comments and suggestions for the other paragraphs in Section 3.

3.1       This commitment could be more prescriptive in driving specific actions that would be most effective in protecting civilians from the use of explosive weapons in populated areas by adding “in particular from the use of explosive weapons in populated areas”.

Also, replacing the phrase “with regard to” with “to enhance” would clarify and strengthen the commitments.

This commitment should reference measures and good practices not only during – but also and after - conflict.

“Review, develop, implement, and, where necessary, develop or improve national policy and practice to enhance the protection of civilians during and after armed conflict, in particular from the use of explosive weapons in populated areas.”

3.2       This commitment should ensure training on the declaration itself, rather than international humanitarian law, which is already a legal requirement. It should be focused on the use of explosive weapons in populated areas. And it should be applied both during and after armed conflict.

“Ensure comprehensive training of our armed forces on this Declaration, and on the measures and good practices to be applied during and after the conduct of hostilities in populated areas to protect civilians and civilian objects from the use and impact of explosive weapons”.

3.4       We welcome a commitment that focuses on addressing the reverberating effects of explosive weapon use, which are considerable. The commitment could be strengthened further by clearly stating that armed forces should specifically assess and take steps to mitigate the different foreseeable effects rather than simply taking them into account. It should delete the clause regarding battle damage assessments, which, as already noted, focus on the military effectiveness rather than the civilian impact of military operations.

“Assess and take steps to mitigate the direct and reverberating effects on civilians and civilian objects which can reasonably be foreseen in the planning of military operations and the execution of attacks in populated areas.”

3.5        This commitment should include references to risk education, and should replace explosive remnants of war with explosive ordnance, a broader term.

“Ensure the marking, clearance, and removal or destruction of explosive ordnance as soon as possible after the end of active hostilities, and the provision of risk education.”

3.6       This commitment should focus on dissemination and understandings of the operative commitments in this political declaration, rather than disseminating IHL, which is already a legal obligation.

“Facilitate the dissemination and understanding of this Declaration and promote its respect and implementation by all parties to armed conflict, including by non-State armed groups.”

INEW’s detailed comments and specific language suggestions have already been submitted in writing. Thank you.

War on women: the trauma of Ukraine's pregnant rape victims

16-Apr-2022
Zofia Melanczuk

CGTN

VIDEO Cases of sexual assault emerge in Ukraine - CGTN

Women in Ukraine who have reportedly been raped are fleeing the war-torn region for neighbouring countries such as Poland. There, some are discovering they are pregnant.

With their homes destroyed, their livelihoods gone and most of their friends and family either dead or missing, the women are now faced with the hardship of an unwanted pregnancy.

Oleksandra Matviichuk, head of the Center for Civil Liberties in Ukraine, explains that her colleagues are having firsthand experiences of dealing with pregnant victims.

"[There are] instances in which Ukrainian women who were raped by Russian soldiers now have problem with pregnancy," Matviichuk says.






The Kyiv-based human rights lawyer tweeted 'Ukrainian women raped by Russians'./ Twitter

It's difficult to assess the scale of sexual violence that has taken place since the conflict erupted in Ukraine on February 24. Many victims are yet to come forward - if they will at all - given the chaos caused by the conflict and the continuing fighting.

According to the U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), an initial report by a mission of the body's experts documents a "catalogue of inhumanity" by Russian troops in Ukraine, including rape, claims Moscow denies. The OSCE also said it found evidence of human rights violations perpetrated by Ukrainian forces, but said these appeared to be on a far smaller scale.

UN political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo said last week UN human rights monitors were seeking further evidence to support the allegations.

In the meantime, more accounts of sexual assaults continue to emerge.

Bodies are exhumed from a mass grave in Bucha, a town devastated by suspected war crimes.

 /Sergei Supinsky/AFP


Victims who have escaped west to Poland only to find out they are pregnant, now face the trauma reality of being forced to continue with their pregnancies.

Catholic Poland implemented a near-total ban on abortions in 2021. It now has some of the strictest laws on abortion in the world. Though the procedure is legal in cases where "the pregnancy is as a result of a criminal act," most health clinics in Poland have generally refused to carry out the abortion.

"It's problematic for Ukrainian women who have suffered from sexual violence to be in situations where they are in the territory of a foreign country which has other laws," Matviichuk continues.

According to the UN, more than four million people have fled the conflict so far, 90 percent of whom are women and children. Given the risk of abuse, gender-based violence and trafficking in a time of conflict, Oleksandra suspects that the number of victims will only increase.

Ukrainian refugees arriving to cross the Ukraine-Poland border, after fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine, at the border crossing checkpoint in Shehyni, Ukraine. Reuters/Hannah McKay

But she worries that there are already many unreported cases of assault, with women reluctant to reach out for support.

"Sexual violence is a hidden crime and victims do not often apply for law enforcement bodies. They do not apply for assistance from others. There are a lot of others who will keep silent for years," she said.

Against an ever-growing number of suspected human rights abuses, Matviichuk and her team are struggling with how best to help these women, given their vulnerability.

"You have to be qualified not to harm and provide additional trauma to survivors of sexual violence," she explains.

"Our documenters are not prepared to work with such sensitive cases but even we have received several cases from different regions of women who have been raped by Russian troops in Kharkiv and Kyiv."

For now they will hope to do what they can for the victims they encounter.

"If they need an abortion they will be transferred to other countries where such abortion is allowed. This is our solution from this situation because we just don't know how many women potentially will need such assistance."

Since the beginning of the conflict, Russia has argued its military operation is aiding oppressed people in separatist regions of Ukraine. Moscow has denied allegations by Ukraine, other western nations and international bodies that its forces have committed war crimes.

Good ol’ days: In Putin’s Russia, people increasingly identify with the Soviet Union

Many Russians hanker for the old USSR, but it has more to do with cultural and economic nostalgia than wanting the old Soviet empire back.

Stephen Whitefield& Paul Chaisty, The Conversation

File photo of Russian Communist party supporters at Red Square in Moscow. 

| Dimitar Dilkoff / AFP

The view that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, wants to restore territories of the Soviet Union has been a big part of the commentary on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But how much is he in tune with the wishes of the Russian people? Our research suggests that while Russian citizens increasingly identify with the Soviet Union, this is only partially explained by their desire to expand Russia’s borders.

People’s identification with the Soviet Union appears to have a clear and growing basis in Russian public opinion. Surveys we have conducted throughout the Putin period show that Soviet identification among the general population – something that had been steadily declining after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 – began to increase in 2014 when the Russian government annexed Crimea and supported rebellions in the Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk. By 2021, almost 50% of those surveyed identified with the Soviet Union rather than the Russian Federation.

Survey asks respondents to consider the statement: ‘I identify more strongly with the Soviet Union than I do with the Russian Federation.’ The responses are reported in percentages.

 Data: Survey conducted by R-Research Ltd, Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford, Author provided

This pattern was also evident among Putin’s supporters. As the graph below shows, after we have controlled for age and affluence – two variables that are strong predictors of identifying with the Soviet Union, with older and less affluent people more inclined to identify with the Soviet Union – the probability that Putin voters are likely to be Soviet rather than Russian identifiers increases significantly after 2014.

In this figure, we report the differences between the predicted probabilities that Putin voters would identify with either the Russian Federation or the Soviet Union, holding all other factors (including controls for age and economic affluence) at their means.

 Data: Survey conducted by R-Research Ltd. Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford, Author provided

But is this growth in Soviet identity motivated by support for Putin’s expansionist policies? In other words, did the annexation of Crimea create a bedrock of expansionist support for the Kremlin’s military assault on Ukraine in 2022?

Hankering for past

Identification with the Soviet past can derive from many sources. These tend to include nostalgia for Soviet-era economic and welfare policies as well as a cultural nostalgia for a particular Soviet “way of life” and traditional values. It can also manifest as a desire for direct worker participation in politics, and a rejection of “elitist” forms of representative liberal democracy.

Finally – and in line with the primary focus of our research – identifying with the Soviet Union may stem from hostility towards perceived western interference and a desire to expand Russia’s borders to include parts of the former Soviet Union – the so-called “near abroad”.


So which of these is most important among Russian citizens? Our data do not support the idea that expansionist or anti-western attitudes are the primary reason people want to identify with the Soviet Union, although they may have been a strong catalyst in 2014.

The chart below reports the probabilities for a direct measure of support for “expanding Russian borders to include the ‘near abroad’”, which we asked in 2001, 2003, 2014 and 2018. We also asked about people’s views of the market economy, whether they had conservative cultural views, “Leninist” notions of worker political participation and anti-western sentiment.

Our findings suggest that expansionism played a little role for Russian citizens in 2001 or 2003 – and was not the most significant element driving Soviet identity in 2018 either. Its effect was greatest in 2014, which is consistent with the “rally around the flag” effect that followed Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

Note: Each variable is binary. In this figure, we report the differences between the predicted probabilities for each explanatory factor, holding all other factors (including controls for age and economic affluence) at their means. 

Data: Survey conducted by R-Research Ltd, Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford, Author provided

Likewise, anti-western sentiment has not been the main driver of recent Soviet identification among Russians. Our fourth graph, below, summarises probabilities for the effects of anti-western attitudes across all the surveys we conducted from 2001 to 2021, along with the other measures.

As can be seen, the effect of anti-western attitudes has largely diminished over time. In most years, we find that cultural conservatism and anti-market sentiment have been the main reasons why people might prefer to identify with the Soviet Union.

Note: Each variable is binary. In this figure, we report the differences between the predicted probabilities for each explanatory variable, holding all other factors (including controls for age and economic affluence) at their means. 

Data: Survey conducted by R-Research Ltd, Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford, Author provided

Support for Putin

The magnitude of the current conflict has the potential to deepen anti-western attitudes in Russia and to stimulate a further bout of “rallying around the flag” in support of Putin’s expansionist war.

Yet the economic and cultural bases of Soviet identity are likely to remain key to Putin’s support. These factors have enabled Putin to broaden his political coalition since returning to the presidency in 2012.

Support for Soviet-style social benefits featured in his election campaign in 2018 and was part of the political offer made to the Russian people in 2020 to secure constitutional changes that could keep him in office until 2036.

The economic costs imposed on Russians through sanctions could undermine this appeal, but as we argue in other research, this is unlikely to have an immediate impact.


Stephen Whitefield is a Fellow in Politics and Paul Chaisty is Professor of Russian and East European Politics at the University of Oxford.

This article first appeared on The Conversation.

Post-Soviet Transformations as a Shame-Mediated “Civilizing Process”: Neoliberalization, Academia, and the War in Ukraine

Iveta Ķešāne

We at the Jordan Center stand with all the people of Ukraine, Russia, and the rest of the world who oppose the Russian invasion of Ukraine. See our statement here.

Iveta Ķešāne is an Assistant Professor at the Latvian Academy of Culture.

I recently attended a workshop where each participant presented their observations about the state of national identity in the Baltic States. One of my arguments in the workshop was that emotions of (national) pride and shame are relational facets of national identity, and that in the post-Soviet space this emotional dynamic has been affected by Western expertise. Diplomats and others introduced neoliberal reforms and ideas to the Latvian “transformation elite,” a term I use to denote the Latvian political leadership that guided and governed the country’s post-Soviet transformation.

Relationships between the transformation elite and Western experts in post-Soviet Latvia established a specific discursive logic in the arena of national pride. Specifically, I noted that only after Latvia was recognized by the West could the ruling elite and the people feel proud of it. After my presentation, I was asked to expand on the idea that national pride relates to neoliberal transformations. I explained that by the end of the 1990s, the Latvian transformation elite, as well as the Latvian diaspora abroad, had been socialized into neoliberal ways of thinking through travel and contacts with Western diplomats, experts from international organizations, and representatives of the European Economic Community (later European Union). Among diplomats and experts of the time, neoliberal thought was considered development gospel. To think otherwise was shameful; to disagree meant signaling that the Latvian ruling elite did not want to cooperate with the west or switch from a Soviet to a Western mode of thought. To assimilate to Western norms, to be “like” the West meant to neoliberalize. In this way, neoliberalization became one mechanism for achieving national pride.

These relational and emotional dynamics within post-Soviet transformations, I argue, fit well with the idea of a “civilizing process,” articulated by the German-Jewish sociologist Norbert Elias nearly a century ago. For Norbert Elias, a “civilizing process” entails the historical homogenization of rules of conduct, rules historically shaped by powerful Western elites. Over time, these rules would dominate the globe, and, as they developed, came to include a specific socio-emotional dynamic. This domineering standard entailed a certain “threshold of shame” and, as such, implicitly worked as a moral instrument, since to deviate from the accepted standard constituted “bad” behavior. Elias contended that non-Western elites felt the anxiety of not “looking good” in the eyes of the more developed and powerful West, and were therefore eager to comply with the behavioral standard.

In my 2021 article, “Neoliberalization and Politics of Shaming: Ruling Elites’ Response to Protests by Schoolteachers and Farmers in Post-Soviet Latvia (1994–2000),” I suggested that, if Norbert Elias is right, neoliberalization could be seen as one such “civilizing process.” The secondary literature offers ample support for the idea that, during the post-Soviet period, Westerners helped socialize the Latvian ruling elite into a neoliberal behavioral standard. In my own research, I observe that the Latvian ruling elite used shaming in public rhetoric to discipline people according to neoliberal ideals. Borrowing from historian Bonnie Morris I call this phenomenon a “politics of shaming.”

My article follows the two largest protests of the 1990s, which were staged by school teachers and farmers. I was especially interested in finding out how the ruling elite responded to the protests, which were generally directed at neoliberal reformers. The schoolteachers’ protests took place in the autumns of 1994, 1996, and 1999, while the farmers’ protests occurred during the spring and autumn of 1997, in the spring of 1999, and in the summer of 2000. The schoolteachers protested against deteriorating working conditions and low wages; farmers were concerned about agricultural policy and issues like protecting the domestic market, state subsidies, and taxation. Neoliberal economic policies, which significantly reduced state protections for agriculture and subjected it to global competition, put Latvian farmers in a difficult situation.

The ruling elite tended to disregard the protesters’ demands, dismissing them as unreasonable. Instead of showing empathy with schoolteachers and farmers due to their impoverished condition, the ruling elite used the tactic of shaming and pitted various groups against one another to possibly tame further protests. Consistently with the neoliberal ideas of individual responsibility and marketization, the protesters were advised to find individual solutions to their problems and work hard rather than expecting any care to come from the state.

The protesters’ opponents also presented them as ignorant of the broader development issues at stake. For example, in his December 1994 response to protesters, Valdis Birkavs, head of the leading political party Latvijas Ceļš, labelled them “little men” incapable of understanding the overall socioeconomic and political situation and thus threatening “to destroy the whole structure of the national budget.” This lack of knowledge was said not only to jeopardize Latvia’s national development, but also threaten its belonging to the West.

During the farmers’ strike in 1999, Minister of Finance Ivars Godmanis explicitly stated that the needy ministries, including the Ministry of Agriculture, would not receive the funds the protesters demanded to avoid violating the austerity measures imposed by Western donors. This individualizing and essentializing rhetoric was supplemented by pitting various groups against one another. For example, an announcement by the Cabinet of Ministers published in response to teachers’ protests in November 1994 in the daily newspaper Diena [The Day], pitted groups like pensioners, doctors, and the needy against one another. The announcement shamed schoolteachers by stating that their demands could only be met at the expense of these other groups. Political leaders used a similar discursive strategy in response to farmers’ protests, which they framed as destructive to national development and endangering the well-being of other groups.

I argue that such shaming by the ruling elite is evidence of neoliberalization as a broader “civilizing process.” To gain Western recognition, the Latvian ruling elite felt compelled to resist any actions that  would deviate from the adoption of Western-approved neoliberal ideas and policy norms. Perceiving teachers and farmers’ protests as a threat to the process of assimilation to the Western political economic order, the elites sought to quell them through shaming rhetoric.

Yet this shaming, I believe, also alienated people from the state and divided societal groups from one another. Divisive language and individualizing rhetoric taught people not to seek solidarity with one another, but instead to look for individual solutions to collective problems. Accordingly, shaming acted as a discursive instrument to silence democratic voices in the post-Soviet space. The politics of shaming, which cast protesters as somehow impaired in terms of their expectations toward the state and national development, enfeebled people’s initiative to stand up for themselves in Latvia and socialized them to see protesting as morally wrong.

Shaming was also likely injurious to people’s personal self-confidence, a quality that, according to sociologist Jack Barbalet, is important for one’s “willingness to act” — in particular, to seek a democratic dialogue with the state. Despite the notion that people in a now-democratic Latvia should be active participants in the fashioning of the state and their own well-being along with it, when they expressed their will through protest and strike, the ruling elite routinely shamed them. Although I studied the Latvian case, if neoliberalism is a “civilizing process” that imposes uniform norms and standards across the world, it is entirely possible that similar episodes of shaming took place elsewhere.

To return now to the workshop I mentioned at the beginning of this post: one participant, a professor in religion and cultural history from a neighboring Baltic country, eagerly shared an example from academia that fit well with the idea of a “civilizing process” enacted through shaming. Although she herself had books and articles published by the recognized Western university presses and peer-reviewed articles in acclaimed international journals, she said she and other Baltic colleagues now felt anxious that monographs and articles published in their native languages and journals no longer “counted.” Only those research results recognized by Western publishers and internationally known peer-review journals were deemed “worthwhile.” Those academics who write for national outlets may begin to feel inferior and even ashamed in relation to those who are oriented towards international publishers. This workshop participant’s example demonstrates again how post-Soviet transformation more broadly followed the logic of what Norbert Elias called a “civilizing process.”

As I was writing this post, Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine began. As the mother of two toddlers, I felt great anxiety and simultaneous empathy and sadness for the desperation many Ukrainians and their families had to face. I was angry at Putin for his devastating ambition. Yet Norbert Elias’s argument made me see in Vladimir Putin a frantic will to stop the “civilizing process” the Western institutions and governments were encouraging in Ukraine, to limit the space this process invaded, and instead maintain the space run by Putin’s own standards, no matter what it takes. It is as though Putin resists accepting the logic of a “civilizing process” (the logic we in the West call “rational,” as opposed to all the irrationality Putin has unleashed), and the shaming which underlies it, instead replacing these emotions with deep anger and a desire for revenge.

Although Russia has not escaped capitalistic development, just as it has not escaped a post-Soviet neoliberalization that subordinated many of its institutions to a kind of Western standard, Putin continues to resist the Western “civilizing process” through the domain of power and its most brutal mechanism—war.

Panama Calls for Promotion of Renewable Energy Projects

Panama seeks to encourage renewable energy use. Apr. 15, 2022. 

| Photo: Twitter/@FreezoneAruba
Published 15 April 2022


The Panamanian government has asked public institutions to promote renewable energy projects amid rising fuel prices.

The country needs to prioritize solar and wind energy programs and promote electricity savings in the face of the problematic scenario the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine have brought about, the head of the National Energy Secretariat (SNE), Jorge Rivera, said.

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Panamanian Trade Unions Protest Against Fuels & Food Price Rise

According to the official, the SNE is directing efforts to ensure a reduction in energy consumption in transportation, households, buildings, and state institutions.

The country aims to raise public awareness of the importance of energy-saving through rational usage of private vehicles and moderation in the consumption of energy resources for air conditioning.

The president of the Panamanian Chamber of Solar Energy, Rafael Galue, addressed the press on the impact of planning for sustainable energy.

 


During a forum on thermal solar power and energy efficiency that took place in the country's capital this week, Galue commended the strategy's pursuit of using natural resources wisely, protecting the environment, and incorporating energy sources that are low in carbon.

Honduran Congress To Repeal Hourly Employment Law

A citizen work in coffee production, Honduras.

 | Photo: Twitter/ @BancoMundialLAC
Published 15 April 2022
 

This law entitles employers to boost half-time or hourly contracts, something articles 46 to 48 of the Labor Code forbids.

On Thursday, the Honduran pro-government Freedom and Refoundation (Libre) Party confirmed that it has sufficient support in Congress to repeal the hourly employment law, which was adopted under the far-right President Porfirio Lobo’s administration (2010-2014).

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Such law entitles employers to boost half-time or hourly contracts, the payment of which shall be agreed by them and the worker exclusively. The Honduran Association of Labor Lawyers (AALH) argued that this policy violates articles 46 to 48 of the Labor Code, which sets permanent hiring as a general rule in all employment relations.

"This law has worsening working conditions for Hondurans," the AALH added, recalling that workers hired part-time or hourly only receive a layoff payment of just 4 percent.

A Beverage Industry Workers Union (STIBYS) and Rights Center for Women (CDM) report showed that 57 percent of workers hired under this regime have worked the same hours as in full-time employment.



This report also revealed that about 75 percent of Honduran women with part-time work have not had access to maternity licenses or have been denied the right to breastfeeding.

"This situation has benefited employers who have amassed wealth as a product of exploitation," the AALH stated, recalling that poverty increased by 20 percent since the hourly employment law was passed.

"We expect Congress to repeal this law soon after Holy Week. More policies in favor of the Honduran people will be approved under President Xiomara Castro’s administration,” Libre legislator Juan Barahona stated.

Anti-Asian Racism Rising in the US


China Society for Human Rights Studies released a report saying that anti-Asian racism continues growing in the U.S. Apr. 15, 2022. 

| Photo: Twitter/CGCHINA_CTP
Published 15 April 2022 

On Friday, the China Society for Human Rights Studies issued a report which indicates that anti-Asian racism is growing in the U.S.

According to Friday's release of the China Society for Human Rights Studies in the U.S., anti-Asian racism has a growing tendency.

The report says that the U.S. still takes pride in recognizing itself as a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant country, adding that Asian Americans, African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans are objects of discrimination and violations in several forms, pricing them off from enjoying their rights as human beings.

The report issued by the China Society for Human Rights Studies is subdivided into three sections: Asian Americans facing a rise in racist attacks amid the coronavirus pandemic; racism against Asian Americans not unique to the coronavirus pandemic; and reasons behind the rising anti-Asian sentiment amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The document refers that the increase in anti-Asian feelings has come along with some U.S. politicians' racist coronavirus attacks on China; the effects of white supremacy; "the model minority" label which entangles Asian Americans; the hostilities between Asian Americans and other U.S. ethnic minorities; as well as U.S. politicians' actions that seriously affect China-U.S. relations.



The report urged the international community to pay attention to the matter as it can be foreseen that in the post-pandemic era, even if the anti-Asian racism could be reduced, but in the other hand the racial attacks against Chinese Americans will continue to grow under the manipulation of anti-China politics promoted by U.S. diplomats and officials.

Ecuador: Parliament Fails to Rule on Veto of Rape Abortion Law


Ecuador's National Assembly failed to override presidential veto of abortion bill. Apr. 15, 2022. 

| Photo: Twitter/LifeNewsHQ
Published 15 April 2022

On Thursday, Ecuador's National Assembly (NA) 's plenary session was suspended without any resolution regarding President Guillermo Lasso's veto of the Law on Abortion in Cases of Rape.

During the debate, parliamentarian Pierina Correa presented a motion to amend the presidential veto of the law, which received only 17 votes in favor, 73 against and 40 abstentions.

For the motion of the Assemblywoman of the opposition bloc Union for Hope (UNES) to prosper, it was required to be supported by an absolute majority, namely 70 legislators.

Afterward, the president of the NA, Guadalupe Llori, adjourned the session without allowing the debate to continue.

The Parliament had until this Friday to pronounce itself on Lasso's veto to the law approved by the NA last March and which regulates the voluntary interruption of pregnancy in cases of rape in Ecuador.



According to the legislative procedure, this norm will be published in the Official Gazette but incorporating the objections formulated by Lasso's government.

Among those modifications made by the Executive Branch to the regulation voted in Congress is that in cases of rape, abortion may be performed up to 12 weeks of pregnancy and not up to 18 weeks as it was established for girls, adolescents, indigenous and rural women. In this respect, Lasso's government included that for this purpose, a complaint, a sworn statement, or a medical examination proving the sexual aggression must be presented.

Ecuadorian feminist groups have said that the Executive's objections impose impossible conditions for the victims to meet.

Argentine Carriers End Strike After Attaining 20% Freight Rise

Carriers protesting in Buenos Aires, Argentina, April 13, 2022. 

| Photo: Twitter/ @RadioPuntoGT
Published 15 April 2022
 

They argued that recent increases in diesel prices prompted by the Ukrainian conflict should be compensated with an increase in their freight rates.

The Argentinean Transporters Federation (FETRA) and the agricultural businessmen reached an agreement on Thursday so that grain, cereal, and oilseeds carriers receive a 20 percent increase in their freights.

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The Argentinean carriers argued that recent increases in diesel prices prompted by the Ukrainian conflict should be compensated with an increase in their freight rates.

In February, the price of freight transport in Argentina was about US$17.3 per ton for a distance of 151 kilometers. In March, however, it increased up to US$21.6.

"In these circumstances, we were forced to stop working because we did not manage to sustain our costs," FETRA member Ariel Juarez pointed out.

Carriers and businessmen on Wednesday held a four-hour meeting, which was called and conciliated by the administration of President Alberto Fernandez. Since this dialogue was unsuccessful, the parties agreed to hold a second round of negotiations on Thursday.



Juarez thanked the participation of Transport Minister Alexis Guerrera in the second dialogue process. "His contribution was decisive in agreeing on the tariff amount increase and summoning new negotiations meeting if fuel prices continue to increase,” he said.

During three days of strike, thousands of truck drivers paralyzed the roads of Argentina, the world's largest exporter of soybean meal and oil. This South American country is also one of the main exporters of wheat, soybeans and corn.

Synod for the Amazon: Cardinal Stella hails the ‘great beauty’ of celibacy in a priest’s life

THE FAILURE OF CELIBACY IS WHY THE CHURCH COVERS UP SEX ABUSE

“The Church has remained the only institution that preaches a commitment that last forever, for priests, consecrated life and marriage,” said Card Stella. This is “a great challenge and a tremendous inner need.”


Vatican City (AsiaNews) – Today the editorial committee reviewed and approved the final text of the final document of the Synod for the Amazon, two days before the final vote on the document, which will then be handed over to the Pope.

Speaking at today’s daily briefing, Card Beniamino Stella, prefect of the Congregation for the clergy, defined celibacy as "the great beauty in the life of a priest, but it must be nurtured because it is a treasure that we grow in clay pots”.

"I always tell the bishops: ‘Train the priests well, be very vigilant on the human aspects of the person as well’,” he said. “The Church has remained the only institution that preaches a commitment that last forever, for priests, consecrated life and marriage.” This is “a great challenge and a tremendous inner need.”

"The gift of celibacy today represents a great personal challenge for young people and for priests as well,” one that “must be taken up with great inner awareness after a time of training and personal preparation.”

For the prelate, “Prayer, discipline and personal commitment” are the three requisites that ensure that "celibacy can be lived, aware that we live in a world that does not view it as a value”. For this reason, "We must speak to young people and present the needs of the Latin priesthood as a great commitment and [something of] beauty.”

Celibacy indeed "is a vocation that, in order to be accepted, needs the balance of a healthy mind and transparent affectivity as well as preparation in a context of great human quality.”

With respect to the ordination of older married men, "what the Synod will be able to say about the new ministry paths, we leave it to the discernment of the Synod Fathers and the final discernment of the Holy Father, who has the task of the discernment of Peter.”

Mgr Ricardo Ernesto Centellas Guzman, bishop of Potosì in Bolivia and president of his country's Bishops' Conference, also spoke about the ministries.

Interviewed by Vatican News, he said he was "confident that the final document will give an indication so that the Church can work, starting with the Amazon, including highlighting the need for social compromise. Since the situation in the Amazon is not just about Latin America but a global issue, we must find a global solution."

As for the role of women, they could “for example officially take on the leadership of Christian communities and play a role in parish pastoral councils and diocesan councils. I see positively the future work of women in all this.”

Tatars in solidarity with Ukrainians

by Vladimir Rozanskij

After Dagestan, Tatarstan has the highest number of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine. The Tatar authorities support Putin. Tatars in exile want to bring the Russian president to an international court. They do not want to submit to the "great-Russian" ideology.


Moscow (AsiaNews) - The Tatars of Russia are among the most shaken by the war events in Ukraine, which involve many young people sent into disarray with numerous victims among their ranks. Tatarstan is among the territories most tragically affected by the conflict, second only to Dagestan, even if the numbers of human losses among the Russians are not published. The Kazan authorities support Putin's war, but the population expresses a decidedly less favorable sentiment, which cannot manifest itself openly due to the strong repression at home.

Instead, the "exiled" Tatars expressed themselves, especially the representatives of the "Idel-Ural" independence movement, many of whom now live in Poland, where they have given life to a large demonstration against the Russian war. Leading it was Nafis Kašanov, against whom, together with his brother Rafis, an arrest warrant is pending in Russia for "extremism", as their organization is banned by the Russian authorities. The accusation dates back to 2015, and the two brothers were among the first convicted of "an attack on the territorial integrity of Russia".

The Kašanov brothers had condemned the annexation of Crimea, and their words were regarded as "discrediting the actions of the Russian Federation", the accusation that today is leveled against any internal criticism of the army and the authorities. After three years of concentration camps, Rafis is sheltered in Great Britain and Nafis in Poland, and they lead the protest of the Tatars from abroad. In Warsaw, Nafis spoke at the meeting stating that “Putin's bandits will end up before an international court… we Tatars are with you, Ukrainians! Your victory will be the liberation of Russia from the fascism of this regime ”.

Kašanov denounces the servility of the president of Tatarstan, Rustam Minnikhanov, who with his predecessor Mintimer Šaymiev "swims in the millions received by Putin ... at first they supported us, then they convinced them with the money to kill us". According to Tatar opponents, Putin's regime is destined to collapse after this war, and therefore "not only the Tatars, but all the peoples of the Oltrevolga, Siberia, the Caucasus, even the Finno-Ugres will claim their freedom".

One of the peoples who have always sought autonomy from Russia, the Tatars recall, is made up of the Chechens, now also heavily involved in military operations. As Nafis recalls, "all the true leaders of Chechnya have been killed: Maskhadov, Dudaev, Kadyrov sr., Who was a worthy leader of his people, while his son Ramzan today in power is a traitor to Chechnya, a servant of Putin who he will end his life ”.

The aspiration for independence of the various ethnic groups is a significant factor in the motivations of the conflict in Ukraine, which constitutes an example and a stimulus for the ex-Soviet peoples since the 2014 uprising in Kiev in Maidan Square. Russia instead intends to suffocate them in every way, both with weapons and with cultural campaigns for the "traditions and values" of the Russians, to be integrated with those of the subjugated peoples.

Kašanov promises that "finally we will be able to use our native languages, our customs and our culture ... we will no longer be put in prison for our religious beliefs, for Islam or shamanism, which are accepted only in a sweetened and subjected version. 'Great Russian ideology ”.

Ambedkar's Vision Of Democracy: Why Its Revival Is Important For India

Babasaheb Ambedkar's version of democracy depicts a society devoid of any glaring inequality. According to him, there must not be a class that has got all the privileges and a class that has got all the burdens to carry.

Statue of Dr BR Ambedkar, the Father of the Indian Constitution PTI

 DALIT LEADER AND A MARXIST

Anjali Chauhan
UPDATED: 15 APR 2022 

As we celebrate yet another birth anniversary of Babasaheb BR Ambedkar, while lamenting the state of democracy in our country, it’s instructive to look back at his vision of democracy and analyse where we are going wrong.

Jean Dreze stressed that the future of Indian democracy depends a great deal on the revival of Babasaheb’s visionary conception of democracy. Ambedkar strongly believed that democracy is always changing its form and is always in flux. He believed that modern democracy not only places a check on an autocratic rule, but also brings about the welfare of the people.

He moved a step forward from Walter Bagehot, for whom democracy was a government by discussion and from Abraham Lincoln, for whom democracy was a government of the people, by the people and for the people. Ambedkar defined democracy as “a form and a method of government whereby revolutionary changes in the economic and social life of the people are brought about without bloodshed”.

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For the successful functioning of such a democracy, he puts forward certain conditions. Firstly, there must not be any glaring inequalities in society and there must not be an oppressed class. There must not be a class that has got all the privileges and a class that has got all the burdens to carry. At present, in the post-pandemic world, we are experiencing increasing socio-economic inequalities which are making democratic nations mere empty vessels.

Secondly, he emphasized on the existence of a strong opposition. Democracy means veto power. Democracy is a contradiction of hereditary authority or autocratic authority, where elections act as a periodic veto in which people vote out a government and opposition in parliament act as an immediate veto that curbs the autocratic tendencies of the government in power. Unfortunately, we now witness the weakening of democracy with a weakened opposition.

He also argued that parliamentary democracy develops a passion for liberty; liberty to express one’s thoughts and opinion, liberty to lead a respectful life, liberty to do what one values. But we can see a parallel fall of India in the Human Freedom Index along with a weakened opposition and consequently falling democratic credentials.

In its annual report on global political rights and liberties, US-based non-profit Freedom House downgraded India from a free democracy to a "partially free democracy". A Sweden-based V-Dem Institute said India had become an "electoral autocracy", and later described as a "flawed democracy". India has slipped two places to 53rd position in the latest Democracy Index published by The Economist Intelligence Unit.

Ambedkar also upheld equality in law and administration. Likes should be treated likely and there should be no discrimination based on class, caste, gender, race and so on. He brought forward the idea of constitutional Morality. For him, the constitution contains only the legal skeleton, but the flesh is what he calls constitutional morality. Noted academic Pratap Bhanu Mehta sums up Babasaheb’s idea of constitutional morality as a state marked by self-restrain, respect for plurality, scepticism about the authoritative claims to popular sovereignty and open culture of criticism. But India is now facing fundamentalism and growing intolerance towards oppressed groups and communities.

Lastly, Ambedkar stresses that democracy requires a functioning moral order in society, a vibrant public conscience, as there is no place for the tyranny of the majority over the minority in a democracy .

For him, parliamentary democracy was the negation of hereditary rule. However, the hereditary rule has modernised itself into dynasticism to suit the present time. This was made visible by Christophe Jafferlot, who profiled the 17th Lok Sabha to find out that a number of elected representatives belong to some political families across parties.

Ambedkar's vision of democracy needs to be rediscovered to fight hatred, violence, sectarianism and fundamentalism, to use it as a shield against casteist and religious fanaticism. To realise democracy not in its narrow sense, not only by counting votes while conducting elections but as Babasaheb in his vision explains it: “Democracy is not merely a form of Government. It is primarily a mode of associated living, of conjoint communicated experience. It is essentially an attitude of respect and reverence towards our fellow men.”

(Anjali Chauhan is a PhD scholar from the University of Delhi.)

India remembers Ambedkar, but for disadvantaged groups little has changed

by Alessandra De Poli


Born 131 years ago, the Indian jurist fought for social equity for Dalits, Adivasi and women. Indian politicians like to cite him, but in practice nothing is being done to improve the situation of the poorest, who, according to the latest studies, are still discriminated with respect to the economy, healthcare and law. An award to honour him has not been given for years.



New Delhi (AsiaNews) – Yesterday India marked the 131st anniversary of the birth of Bhimrao Ramji “Babasaheb” Ambedkar, father of the Indian Constitution, an activist for Dalit, Adivasi and women’s rights who lived in the first half of the 20th century.

Political leaders and prominent individuals paid tribute to Babasaheb, the Respected Father. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that yesterday was a day to “reiterate our commitment to fulfilling his dreams” of social justice. President Ram Nath Kovind described Ambedkar as “the architect of the Constitution” who “laid the foundation for modern India”.

Yet, after the Modi administration came to power in 2014, the Ambedkar awards have not been handed out, and Ambedkar’s dreams have not been turned into reality; Dalits (scheduled castes, formerly known as untouchables) and Adivasi (scheduled tribes) still lag behind in terms of economic opportunity, legal protection as well as access to water and sanitation.

Ambedkar, a convert to Buddhism, was born Bhimrao Ramji Ambavadekar (later changed to Ambedkar) into a Mahar family, a Dalit caste. Between 1913 and 1917 he studied economics at Columbia University in New York and at the London School of Economics and also trained in the law at Gray's Inn, London.

After India’s independence in August 1947, he became Law Minister and set out to draft India’s republican constitution, to ensure a broad spectrum of civil and individual rights and freedom and abolish “untouchability”.

The constituent assembly included in the final text the principle of positive discrimination thereby reserving certain public service positions for members of disadvantaged castes and tribes. However, since the constitution was adopted (1950), little has changed for such groups.

According to a recent government report, the upper castes own over 60 per cent of small and medium-sized enterprises; by comparison, scheduled castes (Dalits) own 6.8 per cent and scheduled tribes (Adivasi) only 2.1 per cent. Scheduled castes and tribes are India’s historically disadvantaged ethnic and social groups.

Discrimination against these groups is clear even in Indian law, a situation acknowledged by Orissa High Court Chief Justice S Muralidhar who says that Indian laws are drafted in such a way that they penalise the poor.

More than half of the people awaiting trial are from disadvantaged groups, he told a conference yesterday. About 21 per cent of the prison population belongs to a scheduled caste, while 37.1 per cent belongs to "Other Backward Classes”, a collective term used by the Government of India for the disadvantaged. More than 17 per cent of the people on trial and 19.5 per cent of the detainees are Muslims.

In late March, Indians commemorated the anniversary of Ambedkar’s satyagraha (non-violent resistance) of 1927. At the time, lower caste Indians were not allowed to use water in public places used by upper caste Indians.

Ambedkar drank water from a tank in front of everyone in the city of Mahad, near Mumbai (then Bombay), and invited Dalit women to wear sari like women from upper castes.

Despite the struggles, official government data show that members of scheduled castes and tribes as well as Muslims have a shorter life span, with discrimination as the main cause.

About 26 per cent of upper caste children suffer from malnourishment, a percentage that rises to 40 per cent for scheduled castes and tribes, worse than in sub-Saharan Africa (30 per cent).

For women, access to hospital care varies according to social status and religion. Yet it is precisely the poorest sections of the population who need public services the most, argues Preshit Ambade, a public health policy researcher.

Developing an efficient welfare system based on Ambedkar’s concept of social equity would benefit a country with below than average socio-economic indicators.

But poverty and marginalisation are not aspects of Indian life that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government wants to show.

The Dr. Ambedkar National Award was created in 1993, followed three years later by the Dr. Ambedkar International Award, assigned each 14 April to individuals and organisations fighting inequalities in accordance with Babasaheb Ambedkar’s ideas.

Yet for the past eight years, the award has not been assigned, officially for “administrative reasons”, The Wire reported.

According to the Ambedkar Foundation’s guidelines, the call for submission of names takes place months before the award is given.

Everyone in India has used Ambedkar’s name for electoral purposes, but so far no one has said anything about the award not being handed out.

SEE LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for DALIT 

Brazil’s Lula da Silva Announces Running Mate

April 15, 2022


Last Friday, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva—the leading candidate in October’s presidential election—announced Geraldo Alckmin as his running mate during a press conference in São Paulo. Lula da Silva and Alckmin, who were once political rivals, appeared together at the press conference and expressed the importance of creating a united front against the Bolsonaro government, which they said threatens Brazilian democracy and institutions. On Wednesday, the national board of Lula’s Partido dos Trabalhadores officially approved Alckmin’s vice-presidential candidacy with 68 to 14 voting in favor. Lula and Alckmin are expected to kick off their campaign in May.

The 69-year-old Alckmin is a career politician who served as governor of the state of São Paulo three times and co-founded the center-right Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira (PSDB). In Brazil’s 2006 presidential elections, Alckmin lost to Lula da Silva in the runoff election after receiving 40 percent (versus Lula’s 60 percent) of the votes. In 2018, he campaigned again in the presidential election but did not make it to the second round. Since then, Alckmin has criticized President Jair Bolsonaro, calling him an “authoritarian.” Late last year, Alckmin resigned from the PSDB and joined the center-left Partido Socialista Brasileiro–a move that many perceived as a way to seek a political alliance with Lula da Silva to unseat Bolsonaro.

This political development was followed by Brazil’s electoral authority inviting the European Union (EU) to oversee the upcoming electoral process in order to “amplify the transparency of its electoral system and make cooperation possible.” Similar talks are already underway with organizations that have previously overseen Brazilian elections, including the Organization of American States, the Carter Center, and the Mercosur Parliament. President Jair Bolsonaro, who has repeatedly cast doubts on the Brazilian electronic voting system, opposes the invitation extended by the electoral authority to the EU.

HALAL IS KOSHER AND VICE VERSA
In France’s election, a meaty issue unites Jews and Muslims

By JOHN LEICESTER

1 of 6

A butcher cuts halal meat in a butcher shop, in Paris, Wednesday, April 13, 2022. Far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen is alarming both Muslims and Jews in France with a pledge to ban the ritual slaughter of animals if elected. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

PARIS (AP) — As she cooks lunch and talks politics, Sarah Gutmann has a nasty feeling — of would-be French president Marine Le Pen invading the privacy of her home and meddling with her Jewish faith and the plates of chicken and kosher sausages that she is frying for her husband and their eldest son.

That’s because the far-right candidate wants to outlaw ritual slaughter if she’s elected next Sunday. And that could directly impact how Gutmann feeds her family and exercises her religious freedom. She and her husband, Benjamin, say they would have to think about leaving France if a far-right government interfered with observant Jews’ kosher diets. Their fear is that under Le Pen, targeting ritually slaughtered meats could be just the start of steps to make French Jews and Muslims feel unwelcome.

“Attacking the way we eat impinges on our privacy and that is very serious,” Gutmann said as she busied herself in the kitchen of their Paris home.

“The intention is to target minority populations that bother her and send a message to voters who are against these minorities: ’Vote for me, because I will attack them and perhaps, with time, make them leave.’”

Muslim shopper Hayat Ettabet said her family might be forced to illegally slaughter at home to stay within their religious rules, bleeding out animals “in the bathroom, back to the way it was.”

Le Pen says all animals should be stunned before slaughter, and frames the issue as one of animal welfare. That’s unacceptable to observant Jews and Muslims who believe stunning causes unnecessary animal suffering and that their ritual slaughters for kosher and halal meats are more humane.

With the largest populations of Muslims and Jews in western Europe, the issue has major potential repercussions for France and could hit communities elsewhere that buy French meat exports. The issue is one of the many fault lines between Le Pen and incumbent President Emmanuel Macron and the starkly different visions of France they are presenting for next Sunday’s election runoff vote. It is expected to be far closer than in 2017, when the centrist Macron beat Le Pen by a landslide.

 

“We have never been so close to having an extreme-right regime,” Gutmann said. “The alarm bell is ringing.”

States scale back food stamp benefits even as prices soar

THIRD WORLD USA CAUSED BY AUSTERITY

By SCOTT McFETRIDGE

Tara Kramer sits in her apartment with her cat Busy, Friday, April 8, 2022, in Des Moines, Iowa. Month by month, more of the roughly 40 million Americans who get help buying food through the federal SNAP program are seeing their benefits plunge even as the nation struggles with the biggest increase in food costs in decades. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)


DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Month by month, more of the roughly 40 million Americans who get help buying groceries through the federal food stamp program are seeing their benefits plunge even as the nation struggles with the biggest increase in food costs in decades.

The payments to low-income individuals and families are dropping as governors end COVID-19 disaster declarations and opt out of an ongoing federal program that made their states eligible for dramatic increases in SNAP benefits, also known as food stamps. The U.S. Department of Agriculture began offering the increased benefit in April 2020 in response to surging unemployment after the COVID-19 pandemic swept over the country.

The result is that depending on the politics of a state, individuals and families in need find themselves eligible for significantly different levels of help buying food.

Nebraska took the most aggressive action anywhere in the country, ending the emergency benefits four months into the pandemic in July 2020 in a move Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts said was necessary to “show the rest of the country how to get back to normal.”

Since then, nearly a dozen states with Republican leadership have taken similar action, with Iowa this month being the most recent place to slash the benefits. Benefits also will be cut in Wyoming and Kentucky in the next month. Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, South Dakota and Tennessee have also scaled back the benefits.

Republican leaders argue that the extra benefits were intended to only temporarily help people forced out of work by the pandemic. Now that the virus has eased, they maintain, there is no longer a need to offer the higher payments at a time when businesses in most states are struggling to find enough workers.

But the extra benefits also help out families in need at a time of skyrocketing prices for food. Recipients receive at least $95 per month under the program, but some individuals and families typically eligible for only small benefits can get hundreds of dollars in extra payments each month.

The entire program would come to a halt if the federal government decides to end its public health emergency, though the Biden administration so far hasn’t signaled an intention to do so.

For Tara Kramer, 45, of Des Moines, the decision by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds to end the emergency payments starting April 1 meant her monthly SNAP benefit plunged from $250 in March to $20 in April. Kramer, who has a genetic disorder that can cause intense pain, said the extra money enabled her to buy healthier food that made her feel better and help her to live a more active life.

“My heart sank,” Kramer said. “All the memories from before the emergency allotment came rushing back.”

Alex Murphy, a spokesman for Reynolds, noted the extra benefits were always intended to help people who lost jobs because of the pandemic and said, “we have to return to pre-pandemic life.” Murphy pointed out that Iowa has over 86,000 job openings listed on a state unemployment website.

But Kramer said she’s not able to work and that even getting out of her apartment can be a struggle at times.

Vince Hall, who oversees public policy for the nationwide food bank network Feeding America, said ending the extra benefits ignores the reality that even as the pandemic wanes there hasn’t been a decline in demand at food banks.

Wages have been increasing in the United States and the national unemployment rate in March dropped to 3.6%, but those gains have been offset by an 8.5% increase in inflation compared to a year ago. Food is among items rising the fastest, leaving many families unable to buy enough groceries.

“The COVID pandemic is giving way to a hunger pandemic,” Hall said. “We’re in a real, real struggle.”

Feeding America, which represents 200 food banks, reports that demand for food has increased just as these organizations are seeing individual donations dwindle and food costs rise. The organization estimates the nation’s food banks will spend 40% more to buy food in the fiscal year ending June 2022 as in the previous year.

For people like Annie Ballan, 51, of Omaha, Nebraska, the decision by Ricketts to stop participating in the program reduced the SNAP payments she and her son receive from nearly $500 a month to $41. Both have health problems and can’t work.

“From the middle of the month to the end of the month, people have no food,” Ballan said, her voice rising in anger. “This is all the governor’s fault. He says he loves Nebraskans, that Nebraskans are wonderful, but he’s cut off our food.”

The demand on food banks will only grow as more states reduce their SNAP payments, which typically provide nine meals for every one meal offered by food banks, Hall said.

Valerie Andrews, 59, of St. Charles, Missouri, said the SNAP benefits that she and her husband rely on fell from $430 a month to $219 when Missouri ended the extra payments in August 2021. Andrews, who is disabled, said she tries to budget carefully and gets food regularly from a food pantry but it’s difficult.

“We’re barely making it from paycheck to paycheck,” she said. “It gets pretty rough most of the time.”

Officials at food banks and pantries said they will do their best to meet increased demand but there is no way they can fully offset the drop in SNAP benefits.

Matt Unger, director of the Des Moines Area Religious Council network of food pantries in Iowa’s capital city, noted the pantry’s cost for a 5-ounce can of chicken as jumped from 54 cents in March 2019 to a current price of $1.05.

“Costs are just going through the roof,” he said.

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AP writer Grant Schulte contributed to this story from Omaha, Nebraska.

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Follow Scott McFetridge on Twitter: https://twitter.com/smcfetridge

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The spelling of Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts’ last name has been corrected on first reference.