More recently, they have made international headlines as prisoners of conscience. Members were arrested and charged with “hooliganism” — which carries a maximum sentence of seven years in prison — for crashing a service at Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral and singing this anti-Putin song:

Now, Amnesty International has got involved, with a petition to free the prisoners and a Tumblr called where people can upload solidarity pics in their own headgear:

See the content of the petition, and some Tumblr shots, after the break.

We wrote before about a campaign trying to rally opposition to North Carolina’s “Amendment One,” which would put the statement “Marriage between a man and a woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized” into state law. Despite a valiant effort by the state’s more progressive groups, the amendment passed on May 8.

Following a flurry of bad press for the people of NC, Missiongathering, an inclusive San Diego church, wants likeminded people across the United States (and elsewhere) to fund the above billboard as an expression of apology and support for NC’s LGBT community.

On their Givimo page, the church states: “We at Missiongathering Christian Church want to print and display the following Billboard in Charlotte, N.C. that offers an APOLOGY to the LGBT community who were discriminated against with the recent passing of Amendment One… We’ve launched this Givimo Campaign as a way to raise the funds for this project, as well as invite you to partner with us in sending this apology to those in N.C. who were denied rights and equality.”

Their goal is to raise $3000 for the production and posting of the billboard. As the campaign has just launched, as of this writing only $75 has been pledged.

There is also a campaign Facebook page: OurHeartsAreWithYou

Europe’s open borders and differences in laws help those trafficking in humans. Add to that the violent and chaotic societies in countries just at the limits of Europe and pimps can go about their business – with humans as commodities! – relatively safe. One such haven is Kosovo, which has not come to rest after 20 years of turmoil and war. Even worse, those sent to help the people of Kosovo - may they be Serbs, Bosnians, Albanians, Muslims, or Christians – are often involved in the crimes. With 50,000 KFOR soldiers stationed far from home, brothels “shot up like mushrooms” as Pasquale Lupoli, local head of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) once put it. Women from Moldova, Ukraine, Romania, and Bulgaria are auctioned off to Kosovo’s pimps for between 1,000 and 2,500 dollars.In another war-torn country, also used as a transit for human goods, Bosnia, Kathryn Bolkovac started her tour as a police force instructor in 1999. She came as a UN peace keeper. Little did she know then she would become a sole fighter against human trafficking. Like so many others in the new imperial wars, she was not directly employed by the UN but by DynCorp, a private military contractor from Falls Church, VA in the USA, commissioned by the UN.

Kathryn Bolkovac accidentally found proof that employees of contractors - there to make Bosnia safe, ensure peace and a democratic society - were involved in human trafficking and abuse of children. Although she was on her own, was threatened, isolated, and eventually fired from DynCorp, she took it upon herself to expose the perpetrators. On August, 2nd, 2002 a court in the UK, where she had filed a lawsuit against DynCorp for wrongful dismissal, ruled in her favour: The company should not have dismissed her for exposing internal defects. Or ‘whistle-blowing’ as it is now widely known. Thanks to Kathryn Bolkovac’s efforts military contractors, who are only loosely supervised by democratically elected authorities, had to explain themselves in court. However, none of the US or European personnel has been punished, yet, regardless of how good the evidence collected by Bosnian police for weapons trafficking, buying women for a few hundred dollars, or forced sex with children is. Whenever possible law violations emerged, soldiers and employees were suspended, sent home, and dismissed. As long as they remain on US soil, it is impossible to prosecute them, since the US will not put their own citizens under the jurisdiction of a non-US court.

US courts see crimes during a UN mission as outside their province, local authorities in Bosnia and Kosovo are powerless. The International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague would be a solution, but since its inception no US President has acknowledged its jurisdiction over US citizens. I talked with Kathryn Bolkovac about her experiences, which she wrote down in her book The Whistleblower. (Bolkovac, K.: The Whistleblower: Sex Trafficking, Military Contractors, and One Woman’s Fight for Justice, Palgrave MacMillan 2011 / Upcoming editions: Polish and Serbian) Under the same title her story has been filmed starring Rachel Weisz in 2010.

The copy is hard to read in this scan, but it begins, “The government of a Middle Eastern state is recruiting a senior torturer to work in a well-equipped prison. Our ideal candidate would be prepared to inflict extreme pain and suffering...”

It then goes on to describe the excruciating details of common methods of torture in glowing HR-speak terms like “inspire a small and enthusiastic team to go way beyond what they ever believed possible” before hitting yopu with the punch.

It’s a gut-wrenching approach to making people aware of what is happening around the world. But is the irony appropriate? And will it incite action? Or will people just turn away in horror?

After the break, see the entire series in legible form.

Cool, simple and effective! How more straight to the point can it be?

This short video that was made for War Child UK pro-bono by Ogilvy. It’s aimed at highlighting how children are often recruited as soldiers by rebel groups because they’re easier to manipulat/drug/exploit and they have a a lesser developed sense of fear and danger.
And most important, it is a fundraising campaign.
“Text ‘GUNS25 £2’ to 70070.”

Update: Warchild UK sent us some gorgeous print ads from the same campaign. See below.