NEWS FROM THE U.A.E.
SOURCE : THE NATIONAL/GULF TODAY
Gargash focuses on rights of labourers
DUBAI - NOV 08: The UAE needs to make more progress in labour rights, the head of the committee responsible for the country’s first assessment of its human rights record said yesterday.
Dr Anwar Gargash, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Federal National Council Affairs, made the comments at a press briefing to highlight the committee’s report, which is scheduled to be reviewed by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva next month.
“I think we have done very well over the last 18 months at responding to the criticism on labour issues,” he said. “We have done well but we still need to get better.”
He said a potential solution could be a minimum wage, but that such a move would require careful consideration. “We need to go through the debate of whether a minimum wage would work here. There should be a dialogue on this, to address the pros and cons.”
The report was compiled under the framework of a new review procedure under which the human rights records of all UN member nations will be assessed every four years.
The report was compiled with the input of civil society organisations such as the General Women’s Union. It includes such topics as women’s rights and political participation.
“Last year there was a lot of criticism of labour issues,” said Dr Gargash, referring to issues raised by international rights groups. “While we have done well in this, work is still ongoing. The problem is if you don’t address it.”
Over the past year the Government has started to tighten labour standards, including setting up a virtual bank whereby the Central Bank ensures companies electronically transfer wages to workers.
Yesterday police in Dubai also announced they had collected more than Dh52 million (US$14.1m) in unpaid labourers’ wages from a number of firms and warned employers they could be blacklisted if they repeatedly failed to pay their staff.
The reforms are being driven, in part, by fears that disgruntled workers struggling to cope with low wages or irregular salary payments, as well as inflation, might take action that could threaten national security.
On March 18 about 1,500 labourers from an electro-mechanical company demonstrated in the Sajaa area of Sharjah, destroying administration buildings and breaking windows in their housing complex.
Yesterday, Dr Gargash did not shy away from issues that have provoked harsh international criticism, including the treatment of the migrant labour force. But, with more than three million foreign workers in the country, according to the report, striving for labour rights will always be a “work in progress”.
The report identified women’s rights as one area in which significant improvements had been made over a relatively short time, while stressing that progress should not be seen as an excuse to stop working for more participation by women.
“From a country such as ours which is changing every day, we should be proud of our record,” Dr Gargash said. “But, this is not an excuse to stand still. We should keep progressing.” The committee started compiling the report before the summer, after which an early draft was circulated to government ministries, civil society organisations and a number of high-profile figures for comment.
The Cabinet was also informed of the report before it was submitted to the UN council in September. Its contents were reported at that time. The UAE is scheduled to present its report to the UN council on Dec 4. Israel’s human rights record is due to be reviewed on the same day. Dr Gargash said he expected some members of the council to focus on misconceptions based on the UAE being an Arab and Muslim country.
“People might focus on the treatment of women, but they don’t necessarily know our record,” Dr Gargash said. “There might also be issues relating to our Islamic faith and we might have to address that.” After the Dec 4 hearing, three members of the council – Cameroon, Indonesia and Argentina – will discuss its potential recommendations with the UAE.
The non-binding recommendations are meant as benchmarks for each country undergoing the review. In March, UAE officials will return to Geneva and receive a final set of recommendations. Dr Gargash described the UAE’s report as a “panoramic view” of human rights in the country from the point of view of the Government and the organisations that helped to compile it.
“This mechanism is not meant to necessarily evaluate so much as develop the country’s ability to deal with and improve human rights issues,” said Dr Saeed al Ghufli, the executive director of the Ministry of State for Federal National Council Affairs.
Two other reports, one by the UN and another by a group of human rights organisations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Mafiwasta, were also submitted under the new UN framework that present different views on the state of human rights in the UAE. While not entirely negative, the other reports allege violations such as prisoner abuse and discrimination. “I think it is important to note that we listed the report on the website and asked for any points from other organisations to be raised, but no one responded,” Dr Ghufli said.
“I don’t know why the organisations didn’t talk with us.” The committee published its report online so that members of the public could raise issues or make comments before the December session. However, according to Dr Ghufli, the committee has received very little reaction. The full report is available in Arabic and English on the FNC ministry’s website (www.mfnca.ae).
THE NATIONAL
Education reform plan thrown open for comment
ABU DHABI - NOV 08: Principals and parents have been asked for comments on a plan to change radically education in Abu Dhabi.
Highlights from a draft of the strategic plan were released yesterday by the Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec) in a meeting with local principals.
The plan is intended to solve problems in the state school system by offering additional training to underqualified teachers and principals, providing the schools with enough money and increasing the number of days in the school year. Schools will recruit highly qualified instructors and develop a teacher-certification system.
“There are many changes. Some have started and some are yet to come,” said Dr Pauline Greaves, the head of Adec’s professional development department. “The achievement of students is at the focus of everything that we look at and that we are planning.”
Adec plans to develop a centre for professional development that would offer courses to working teachers and establish partnerships with universities to provide teacher-education programmes.
It would also establish a “school office” to provide administrative services, and a centre for curriculum development.
The initiatives are due to be in place by 2010. After that, Adec intends to introduce further changes, including standardised examinations.
The plan was developed by Adec senior management with the assistance of consulting firms McKinsey and Booz Allen Hamilton.
Adec studied high-performing school systems elsewhere in the world, and sought input from parents, teachers and principals in Abu Dhabi.
“We did our own internal analysis and when we brought all of these experts from outside, they told us a lot of things should be reformed,” said Dr Mugheer Khamis al Khaili, the director general of Adec.
Members of the team that worked on the strategic plan travelled to other countries to study their experiences with education reform, positive and negative.
“I am very interested in what went wrong in these countries,” Dr Khaili said. “If we know what went wrong we can design something to overcome the shortcomings of such plans.”
School principals, the heads of Abu Dhabi government departments and parents were asked to comment on the plan before it is submitted to Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, who also is chairman of the emirate’s Executive Council.
“You have to use your own people,” Dr Khaili said. “We can always use the expertise of others but you cannot put your own indigenous people aside.”
On Sunday, highlights from the plan will be posted on Adec’s website. Adec officials want the plan to be made final by the end of the month. A major part of Adec’s strategy was to improve the skills of principals already in the state school system.
A new programme, which was also announced yesterday, will train an estimated 750 principals and vice principals in the emirate. It is a partnership between Adec and DET International, a division of the New South Wales Department of Education and Training in Australia.
Adec’s school-leadership programme is in line with new federal requirements for principals. Most principals have been promoted through the ranks after starting as classroom teachers, and few hold the degrees now required.
A set of national standards for principals was announced in July by the Minister of Education, Dr Hanif Hassan, requiring that newly hired principals hold bachelor’s degrees in education and had earned “outstanding” grades on their last performance evaluations. Principals already working in the system are to be certified after taking a 14-month leadership training programme through a Ministry of Education partnership with Zayed University.
Abu Dhabi has taken a slightly different approach. On Sunday a group of consultants from DET International will begin visits to every school in the emirate, to conduct interviews and evaluate every principal in Abu Dhabi over the next six weeks.
“To be a great leader, one must know one’s strengths and one’s weaknesses, and work to make the weaknesses into strengths by enhancing our skills, strengthening our knowledge,” Dr Greaves said. “By reflecting on our practices, we build both strength and success.”
Adec will work on a professional development plan for each principal after it receives the results of the survey. The goal is to develop a principal qualification certificate.
“You are the pillars and the drivers of change,” Dr Greaves told the principals yesterday. “If we want success we have to really move together and develop and sustain the leadership.”
THE NATIONAL
Services to public waiting in cars banned
SHARJAH - NOV 08: SHARJAH Municipality (SM) has issued a decree banning the provision of services such as meals, clothes delivery, or the service of any kind to the public in their cars.
The decree, which is in place from Oct.25, aims at eliminating the congestion caused by the car waiting for these items before restaurants or other service providers.
A long queue of cars is always obliged to wait for a long time till the first car gets the service required.
Khaled Al Sweedy, the chief of market control at the municipality said that inspectors have recently carried out intensive campaigns to restaurants, cafes and other kinds of stores that provide services to the public in cars. Those were warned and a circular was distributed to all stores in Sharjah noting them about the decree.
Sweedy added that these campaigns will be continual and regular on all restaurants, cafes and stores and they will be performed all around Sharjah.
Sweedy pointed out that the municipality received a number of complaints due to the jam caused by waiting cars.
GULF TODAY