Statement by Ms. Navanethem Pillay United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights At Forum On Faith, Belief...

The Carter Center, Atlanta, Georgia of Heaven and Earth - 
A Forum on Faith, Belief, and the Advancement of Women’s 
Human Rights, Statement by Ms. Navanethem Pillay, 
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Atlanta, 4 April 2011

President Carter,
Dear Colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is always a pleasure to be at the Carter Center, and particularly to participate in this Forum on Faith, Belief and the Advancement of Women. This topic is very pertinent in light of the events which have taken place in the last few months in the Middle East and North Africa.

It is not surprising that women have played a key role in the protest movements in those regions. Wearing jeans, headscarves or the full hijab, with secular or religious views, they were at the forefront of the demonstrations.  They claimed public space and public attention.  They demanded change. They knew that they were likely to suffer most from a perpetuation of the status quo.

Who Says The Liberal Democrats Isn’t Significant

At the start of the coalition, most people, even I, thought that the Liberal Democrats would barely have an impact in the government. Apart from the believed sale-out, it was thought that the party has become a second-fiddle to the Conservatives.

But wait a minute; whose opinion is it that is now ‘saving’ the NHS or delaying its untimely death?

Since the Lib Dem’s Spring Conference at which the party’s grassroots voted against the reform of the NHS, it has been a different ball game.

Prior to that event, the Health Secretary Andrew Lansley thought he

Is Quiet Zone In UK Trains Being Implemented Discriminatorily?

Quiet Zone Sticker in Chiltern Railways trains

Today for the first time, I happen to sit in the acclaimed ‘Quiet Zone’ [coach] in a Virgin train from London to Manchester. Without realizing it, I went about doing my job which involves many phone calls, and as it is working hours, I fired on.

Three minutes into the first call, a woman passenger sitting across the aisle from me, called my attention to the little stickers that proclaims the hallowed ground. I immediately ended my call, apologised and took to sending text messages where possible while not making a whole other bunch of calls.

Later into the trip, it dawned on me of the huge discrepancy in the implementation of policy. Although I was unsure at first, a lot other passengers were chatting, but I noticed that only those who used phones were cautioned; in fact, a train staff did same to another passenger while ignoring those that were chatting. This included my initial law-enforcement fellow woman passenger who has indulged in non-stop chatting with the passenger next to her. Wonders.

Thoughts ran through my mind as I try to understand this extraordinary policy. Does it only apply to phone calls? If so, what is the difference between the act of talking into a phone and talking to someone next to you that makes the former a noise? I thought over and over without any answer.

I took to reading while ignoring the entire hushed voices, but until a young lady sat in the empty sit next to me and spoke quite calmly into her phone. This fired up the Quiet Zone law enforcement woman across the aisle to stop from her on-going chat and call the young woman to order;” it’s a quiet zone”. Injustice! I felt.

Something has to be done I thought. It must not go on. Since there was no proper train officer around, I knew I have to equate this folly and find out how others feel.

So as our law enforcement fellow woman passenger resumed her conversation again, I turned over and asked her, “does the ‘quiet zone’ only apply to phone calls?” Spot on. She lost the colour in her face. And I could hear a ghostly silence take over the whole coach as all voice went dead. Guilty consciences…

It took her about 5 seconds to recover and muttered an endless and unstable sorry with shame written all over her face. Disgustingly, I ignored her but felt really satisfied to have brought sense.

Here again in a Chiltern train on way back to London via Birmingham, the ticket officer has just called me to order for being on the phone in the adorable ‘Quiet Zone’; yet again?

Well, I wont let this go on. I took an excuse from the person on the other end of my call and asked him if he could hear any other voice/s? But his answer:  “phone calls are not allowed?” My response? But chatting is? He shut up in embarrassment as well as the rest of the talking people.

What a foolish and unwise policy. I noticed on the stickers in Chiltern trains do have icons depicting phone calls, music and talking. However, it seems their staff probably only enforces phone calls and music which must be a rarity. And this seems to be the norm by other train staff including Virgin.

If so, it is discriminatory and ill-executed. What would work is to wish that people be considerate in their manners. If a quiet zone is necessary, then it must be fully implemented without exemption. If the implementation has been dwindling and focusing on technology, the usual suspect, then a review could help.

And if only applicable to phones, then may be, a mobile phone jamming technology would be the answer just as suggested for prisons in today’s Evening Standard by Lord Justice Hughes, Vice president of the Court of Appeal’s criminal division (see page 32).