VOA慢速英语 2008 0531

IN THE NEWS - Why Child Abuse by Peacekeepers, Aid Workers Often Goes Unreported
A new report calls attention to the problem. Also, good news and bad news about the use of child soldiers, and Amnesty International's 2008 report on human rights. Transcript¹ of radio broadcast:
30 May 2008

This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.
　

Commission on Human Rights chair Leila de Lima, right, and the British Embassy's Chris Wright, observe the worldwide launch of the 2008 annual report of Amnesty International in Manila

Amnesty International, in its yearly report, marks the sixtieth anniversary this December of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The group says that sixty years after the U.N. declaration, people are still tortured or mistreated in at least eighty-one countries. At least fifty-four countries hold unfair trials. And, it says, at least seventy-seven countries do not let people speak freely.

Amnesty International says the most powerful countries must lead by example. It says China must honor the human rights promises it made around the Beijing Summer Olympics. The group called on China to permit free speech and freedom of the press and to end the use of "re-education through labor²."

It says the United States must close its Guantanamo detention³ camp and secret detention centers, and give detainees fair trials or release them.

Another demand is that Russia show greater acceptance of political dissent⁴, and no acceptance of human rights abuses in Chechnya.

Amnesty noted⁵ an increase in big demonstrations⁶ around the world, saying it signals a growing demand for justice and equality.
　

A woman refugee and a child stand near a United Nations peacekeeping police patrol in the Abou Shouk refugee camp in North Darfur, Sudan

A separate report this week dealt with sexual abuse of children by aid workers and United Nations peacekeepers. A study by Save the Children, a British charity, showed that children affected⁷ by conflict or natural disaster rarely report abuse. They fear that the abuser might come back and hurt them, or that they might lose their aid, or even that their families might punish them.

Save the Children spoke⁸ with more than two hundred girls and boys in southern Sudan, Ivory Coast and Haiti. The group says peacekeepers and aid workers traded sex for food, money, soap and, in some cases, mobile phones. Children as young as six were abused.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called the issue very serious. He says the cases will be carefully investigated and that his policy is "zero tolerance⁹" for abuse.

The United Nations cannot punish peacekeepers for crimes; it can only send them back to their own countries to be tried.

The charity says the United Nations and other agencies have taken some action but not enough to solve the problem quickly. The report says Save the Children itself dismissed three workers in the past year for sex with seventeen-year-old girls.

Save the Children wants the U.N. to establish local reporting systems and create an agency to supervise international efforts to stop abuse.
　

Child soldiers in Burma

And, finally, there was this report last week from the Coalition¹⁰ to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers: The number of armed conflicts involving children decreased in the last three years, from twenty-seven to seventeen. Progress came as some conflicts in Africa and elsewhere ended.

But tens of thousands of children remain in armed groups in at least twenty-four countries or territories. The report says Burma, also known as Myanmar, remained the worst government offender¹¹.

And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I’m Steve Ember.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

3 detention   

n.滞留，停留；拘留，扣留；(教育)留下

参考例句：

• He was kept in detention by the police.他被警察扣留了。
• He was in detention in connection with the bribery affair.他因与贿赂事件有牵连而被拘留了。

4 dissent   

n./v.不同意，持异议

参考例句：

• It is too late now to make any dissent.现在提出异议太晚了。
• He felt her shoulders gave a wriggle of dissent.他感到她的肩膀因为不同意而动了一下。

5 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

6 demonstrations   

证明( demonstration的名词复数 )； 表明； 表达； 游行示威

参考例句：

• Lectures will be interspersed with practical demonstrations. 讲课中将不时插入实际示范。
• The new military government has banned strikes and demonstrations. 新的军人政府禁止罢工和示威活动。

7 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

8 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

9 tolerance   

n.宽容；容忍，忍受；耐药力；公差

参考例句：

• Tolerance is one of his strengths.宽容是他的一个优点。
• Human beings have limited tolerance of noise.人类对噪音的忍耐力有限。

10 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

11 offender   

n.冒犯者，违反者，犯罪者

参考例句：

• They all sued out a pardon for an offender.他们请求法院赦免一名罪犯。
• The authorities often know that sex offenders will attack again when they are released.当局一般都知道性犯罪者在获释后往往会再次犯案。