Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Every municipality must have an equality plan 5/6


If a municipality wants to be attractive and attract new inhabitants, to entice young people with high skills and education levels, then we also need to show that we are innovative. A lack of gender equality is not innovative! Today’s new graduates are young people who take gender equality for granted and we cannot be perceived by them as ‘slow’ or ‘backward’. This means that every municipality must work on this issue and draw up its own equality plan. Annual action programmes should prioritise and identify concrete actions to foster gender equality. Municipalities must also provide 100% nursery coverage to enable all those women who want to play an active part in the labour force to do so. In kindergartens and schools, giving children greater courage and improved selfesteem should be a priority to provide them with the tools to take charge of their own future career choices based on their individual desires and talents, rather than on traditional gender-based expectations. It is also important to involve pupils, parents and staff in the work on gender equality. I love my kids, but I would have been a terrible mum if I had to stay at home all day. It really is possible to live an active life, work full-time and still be a good mother.

Well-educated mothers can support their children better, whether in discussing important matters in life or helping them with homework, and can in general be better role models than mothers who stay at home 24/7. In the south of Norway, many women work part-time; having a full-time job is crucial to being entitled to better welfare benefits: nine out of ten low-income pensioners in Norway are women. Salary, sick leave, maternity leave and pensions are based on income. Having a job contributes to defining who you are, and it influences how others perceive you. Society needs as many people as possible to contribute to maintain our current levels of social welfare and the competitiveness of our businesses and industries. Those who are part of the work force are also more economically independent: women who do not work or have part-time jobs, are for example, the financial losers in a divorce. Women must understand the links between these issues.

By Janne Fardal Kristoffersen

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Monday, June 27, 2016

Ecuador: Pillars of Democracy


Session 117 of the UN committee on civil and political rights (CCPR)
Members of civil society  participating in the events with shadow reports
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Good mothers can also have a full-time job 4/6

! Striving for power and leadership does not come naturally to many of us. We must change these attitudes. We must cheer on success in politics and in the workforce, not just in sports, if we are to have a robust workforce able to compete with the rest of the world.

 In the southern part of Norway, women are still expected to devote the majority of their time to their families; to take most of the responsibility for taking care of their homes, children, parents, in-laws etc. In reality, this means many women have two full-time jobs and often fail to take any time out for themselves, with the consequent risk of falling ill. In some cases, this may reflect their men’s lack of interest in domestic responsibilities. In others, the women themselves may be partly responsible by not allowing men into their home ‘domain’. If women are not willing to let men take over some of their domestic responsibilities, then they are also responsible for men not contributing more on the home front.

By Janne Fardal Kristoffersen
http://ec.europa.eu/justice/gender-equality/files/documents/vision_report_en.pdf
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Saturday, June 25, 2016

Women in politics 3/6

Politicians have power and play an important role in society, so why don’t more women play an active part in politics? We need more women who are willing to make a difference by getting involved at both the local and national level. 

It is vital to involve members of nomination committees in this debate to make them see the importance of getting women on to their party lists at election time. My experience is that it takes time to persuade women to say yes: you have ask them early in the process and explain why their experience and abilities make them interesting for the party. It is a good idea to promise them a mentor if they agree to be a candidate. What does not work well is simply calling them and assuming that they will agree after a ten-minute chat on the phone. Men might do that – and they seldom think that they are not good enough – but most women think that to become a candidate for elected office, they need to be experts on all political subjects. This difference is both striking and sad. 

Norwegian research tells us that women do not give more of their votes to other women, but that may be because the men on the list are better known, are more often in the newspapers and attract more attention. Or could the answer be that we are used to grey-haired men with ties in politics and feel safer giving them our votes? 

There is no doubt that we have a job to do to explain why it is important that more women stand for and get elected to public office.

By Janne Fardal Kristoffersen
http://ec.europa.eu/justice/gender-equality/files/documents/vision_report_en.pdf
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Friday, June 24, 2016

Our country is the whole world


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Thursday, June 23, 2016

Both left- and right-wing parties must pay attention 2/6


It is extremely important that both left- and right-wing parties pay attention to gender equality. I have noticed a big change in public attitudes towards this issue. Those who previously regarded work on gender equality as unnecessary and pointless now see the importance of making it a priority. So my plea to all those working on this issue is to do whatever you can to make conservative parties ‘pick up the ball’. If only left-wing parties focus on this issue, we lose half of the population in Europe; rightwing parties must also engage in gender-equality issues and be active in debates. 

What disturbs me most is the portrayal of women as victims! I believe that it is essential for women to take responsibility for their own lives: we need to see ourselves as strong and resourceful people who can and will make a difference. It is a mistake to see women as weaker members of society, as people who have to be helped and looked after. Instead of angry voices talking about “poor” women, activists should focus on facts, use all the good role models we have and show them to the world. If young people never find female role models, how on earth can they believe that it is normal for women to hold leading positions in business, in board rooms, in the workforce or in politics. For me, it is important to use all our resources to the full, which means that women also must contribute. 

To do this, it is important to evaluate the current degree of equality in all countries and municipalities. Only by focusing on facts can we show how important it is for societies to give everyone equal opportunities.

By Janne Fardal Kristoffersen
http://ec.europa.eu/justice/gender-equality/files/documents/vision_report_en.pdf
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Wednesday, June 22, 2016

COMFORT WOMEN - SEXUAL SLAVES OF JAPANESE IN WORLD WAR II - CALL FOR JUSTICE



This photo was taken by US army after they protected Korean CW

From 1928 until the end of World War II, about 200,000 Asian women were forcibly drafted into sexual servitude by Japanese Imperial Army as “comfort women”. Survivors demand justice, compensation, apology & Japanese Gov. to admit its guilt. To date the Japanese Government has refused all their demands.


The story of Pak Kumjoo, one of the Japanese Army's comfort women during World War II. The story of the army's comfort stations begins in 1932, with Japanese Lieutenant-General Okamura Yasuji. Seeking a solution to the 223 reported rapes by Japanese troops, he asked for comfort women to be sent for his soldiers in China. 

Pak (her surname) was about 17, living in Hamun, Korea, when local Korean officials, acting on orders from the Japanese, began recruiting women for factory work. Someone from Pak's house had to go. In April of 1942, Korean officials turned Pak and other young women over to the Japanese, who took them into China, not into factories.

Pak's history is not unusual. A majority of the women who provided sex for Japanese soldiers were forcibly taken from their families, or were recruited deceptively. Sometimes family members were beaten or killed if they tried to rescue the women, most in their teens. A majority of the 80,000 to 200,000 comfort women were from Korea, though others were recruited or kidnapped from China, the Phillipines, Burma, and Indonesia. Some Japanese women who worked as prostitutes before the war also became comfort women.

"To see what happened to one woman is a way of making history concrete," Berndt says. "I felt I was discovering her history sentence by sentence."

Many women became sterile from the repeated rapes. Women who became pregnant or infected with a sexually transmitted disease were given a shot of the antibiotic terramycin, which the women referred to as "Number 606." "The drug made the women's bodies swell up and would usually induce an abortion," Berndt says.

Nearly all of the two-and-a-half million Japanese soldiers who surrendered to the Allies in 1945 would have known about the comfort system, according to George Hicks' book The Comfort Women. However, after the war the comfort stations quickly faded from public consciousness, and for years the issue received little attention. Accounts of former comfort women reveal that many told only a few family members or no one about their experiences.

The events that led to international awareness of the issue began in 1988. In that year, Professor Yun Chung Ok of Ehwa Women's University in Korea began to lead an activist group that conducted and presented research about the comfort women. In 1990, 37 women's groups in Korea formed the Voluntary Service Corps Problem Resolution Council and demanded that the Japanese government admit that Korean women had been forcibly drafted to serve as comfort women, publicly apologize, fully disclose what happened, raise a memorial, compensate survivors or their families, and include the facts in historical education.

In response, the Japanese government denied that women had been forced to work at comfort stations and maintained that it was never involved in operating comfort stations. In 1991, three Korean former comfort women filed a lawsuit against the Japanese government.

In 1992, Professor Yoshimi Yoshiaki of Chuo University found wartime documents in the Library of the National Institute for Defence Studies that confirmed that the Japanese Forces had operated comfort stations. On the same day that excerpts from the documents were published in Japanese newspapers, the government admitted its involvement.

Berndt says that meeting the comfort women's demands could help Japan discourage what she calls the "commodification" of women, not only in war but in peacetime. According to Berndt's sources, some Japanese corporations still reward hardworking businessmen by organizing "sex tours" of prostitution houses in cities across Southeast Asia.

Berndt also found reports that women from Southeast Asia are recruited by agencies for work in Japan as receptionists, host esses, and waitresses. When the women arrive, the agency takes their passports, and many become prostitutes.

"The idea that these types of practices are so rampant today scares me," Berndt says. "If Japan could address the comfort women issue, it might send a stronger message against current practices."

In 1993, 18 Filipina former comfort women filed a lawsuit against the Japanese government. So far, neither the Korean nor the Filipina women's lawsuits have been resolved, and the Japanese government has not proposed alternative reparations satisfactory to the former comfort women. "I'm feeling pessimistic about the government or the courts giving the women what they want," Berndt says. "But I do think that the women have continued to bond together and affirm their own dignity through their testimonies."


Japanese Comfort Women: One Woman's Story The account of Felicidad de Los Reyes

FROM 1928 until the end of World War II, about 200,000 Asian women were forcibly drafted into sexual servitude by the Japanese Imperial Army.

These women, many in their teens, were often either tricked by offers of legitimate employment or abducted by Japanese soldiers and forced into so-called comfort houses. There they were forced to sexually please their captors, sometimes several at a time up to several times a day. To resist, invited beatings, torture and even death.

According to the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, a Swiss-based international women's rights organisation, they generally received little or no medical treatment even if they were injured in the process of rape and torture or became pregnant or infected with venereal disease.

Towards the end of the War, thousands were executed to conceal the existence of the comfort houses. In the Philippines, a human rights group has documented the cases of three survivors who bear the marks of where the Japanese tried to behead them.

About 60,000 comfort women survived the War and approximately one thousand are alive today, the youngest of whom is in her sixties. After decades of hiding what happened, they are now finding the courage to come out and tell their stories.

In the Philippines in 1993, about 150 women came forward when the Task Force on Filipino Comfort Women asked in a series of popular radio programs for comfort women to contact it.

One of these was Felicidad de Los Reyes. This is her story:

Felicidad was born on November 22, 1928 in Masbate, Philippines.

One day in 1943 three truckloads of Japanese soldiers from the garrison compound at the back of her school visited Felicidad's class. Her Japanese teacher had organised the students to perform songs and dances for the visiting soldiers. The Japanese army often introduced Japanese civilian teachers into schools in its conquered territories.

Felicidad, then only 14, was made to sing. The following day her teacher told the class that the soldiers were so impressed with the students' performance that they wanted to reward them. Felicidad was identified as one who was to be given an award and later that day two soldiers arrived to fetch her. They told her that she would be given the gift at the garrison. Thinking that there might be other students there, Felicidad went along. But when she got there, she did not see any of her school friends. Instead the only other women she saw were doing the soldiers' cooking and laundry.

She became worried. She asked to leave. The two guards refused. Instead they took her to a small room in the compound and pushed her in. They told her that her gift was coming.

A few hours later five Japanese soldiers arrived. Three of them were in uniform and two in civilian clothes. One of them jumped onto her catching her by the arms and forcing her down onto the ground. When she struggled, another punched her in the face while another grabbed her legs and held them apart. Then they took it in turns to rape her.

Felicidad had no knowledge about sex. She did not even have her menstruation. So she did not understand what they were doing to her. She begged them to stop. But they just laughed and whenever she struggled or screamed, they would punch and kick her.

Confused and frightened and tired and in pain, she drifted in and out of consciousness. That night three more soldiers came and repeatedly raped her. For the next three days a succession of soldiers abused her.

The continual raping and beatings finally took their toll and on the third day she fell ill. Her body and mind could take it no more. But even though she was obviously sick, the abuse continued. Not even her fever drew pity from her rapists.

Finally on the morning of the fourth day, a Filipino interpreter working for the Japanese visited her. She told him she was very sick and wanted to go home to recover. Feeling sympathy for her, he let her out of the compound.

When she arrived home, her parents who had no idea where she was, cried after learning what had happened. Just the year before an older sister had been taken by the Japanese. She died in a comfort house.

Fearing the soldiers would come looking for her, her father hid her in a nearby village. She stayed there for about a year until the American army arrived.

After the War, Felicidad returned to her home town. But her experiences at the hands of the Japanese soldiers had left deep psychological scars. She found it hard to socialise and could not face going back to school. She felt dirty. She dared not tell anyone outside her parents. She was afraid of how others would view her if they knew the truth. So she buried it inside.

When she was 25 she moved to Manila where she met her husband. Before marrying, Felicidad decided she could not conceal her experiences from the man she was going to marry, so she told him.

They were married in 1956 and had six children and 15 grandchildren. But outside her husband, she told no one else for almost 37 years.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: ANTHONY BROWN is an Irish-born journalist based in Brisbane. Anthony has written several articles on Filipino women's issues for KASAMA. His most recent book "The Boys from Ballymore" is published by Penguin Books Australia Ltd.

IN late June 1995, Felicidad de los Reyes and Nelia Sancho visited Brisbane as part of a national speaking tour entitled Women's Human Rights: Eliminating Violence Against Women in the Home and on the Battlefield. Organised by the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, the tour was funded by a grant from the Office of the Status of Women.

The tour aimed to galvanise public interest and raise public awareness about gender-specific violence in the Asia and Pacific regions, in the belief that breaking the silence is a preliminary for ending the violence against women in the family and in war.

The final event of the Brisbane visit, a public meeting at the Miscellaneous Worker's Union Building in Spring Hill, enabled Felicidad and Nelia to tell their stories to the local communities, show slides, and raise public awareness about the cause of Filipino "comfort women", the activities of Lila Pilipina, and the issues which still need to be addressed. After an opening by Mary Crawford, MP, Nelia and Felicidad - as always during the tour- spoke powerfully and sensitively about the issues to a hushed audience.

Surviving comfort women throughout Asia are now demanding justice from the Japanese Government for what happened to them.

They allege the Japanese Government during the War not only knew what its soldiers were up to, but that the system of sexual slavery was official government policy.

They argue that the authorities systematically planned, ordered, conscripted, established the army brothels and encouraged the abductions of women in countries occupied by the Japanese Imperial Army.

Besides seeking compensation and prosecutions of those responsible, they want the Japanese Government to admit its guilt. To date the Japanese Government has refused all their demands. 


Photos courtesy of rtsf.wordpress.com, AP Photo /Aaron Favila, Wikipedia, BBC, keithpr / Flickr, Xinhua/Han Yuqing, and AFP / Getty Images

http://www.wunrn.com
https://www.facebook.com/womenandwar/?fref=ts
http://www.worldculturepictorial.com/blog/content/womens-day-hears-voice-comfort-women-wwii-survivorsv

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Tuesday, June 21, 2016

A renewed focus on gender 1/6


 

I must be honest and confess that gender equality was not a topic that interested me at the beginning of my political career. I was not passionate about it at all. It was an issue that had long been ‘owned’ by the socialist parties and was often associated with radical 1970s’ feminists who were referred to often in the media and in discussions. This was not a group that I could identify with – hence my lack of interest. 

Then, in 2004, I received a report showing that my municipality was ranked the fourth worst in Norway for gender equality. This aroused my competitive instincts and marked the start of my engagement on gender equality and the challenges this poses for living standards, even though it was still largely the preserve of politicians from the left at that time in Norway. Now gender equality is a key issue for all Norwegian parties, although we do not always agree on how to achieve it

By Janne Fardal Kristoffersen
http://ec.europa.eu/justice/gender-equality/files/documents/vision_report_en.pdf
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Sunday, June 19, 2016

The role of the European Union 5/5



Research on alternatives is therefore emerging. The EU’s key role is to be less blinkered in its economic thinking and to be open to the work and findings of feminist and heterodox economists. It should also reinvigorate the gender mainstreaming of policies and broaden this analysis in order to assess the impact on different social groups, including class, race, and migrant status, to name but a few. To facilitate this process, Eurostat should ensure that data is sufficiently gender differentiated to facilitate gender budgeting. What is clear is that the existing policies are not working and have extremely negative impacts on those already marginalised. By ensuring that the economy serves society rather than being managed by a few for a few, the EU is more likely to reach its objective for economic and social cohesion and greater gender equality.

Fiscal space can be defined in a number of ways. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) states that it is “room in a government’s budget that allows it to provide resources for a desired purpose without jeopardizing the sustainability of its financial position or the state of the economy” (IMF cited by UNDP 2007). In this definition, the needs of the economy are prioritised and these needs are determined by a neoclassical view of the economy which advocates a small state, low deficit and minimum taxation to allow maximum market flexibility.

By contrast, the United Nations’ Development Programme (UNDP) defines fiscal space as the “financing that is available to government as a result of concrete policy actions for enhancing resource mobilization, and the reforms necessary to secure the enabling governance, institutional and economic environment for these policy actions to be effective, for a specified set of development objectives” (UNDP 2007:1). This definition could be modified by gender mainstreaming to become:

“Fiscal space is the available financing, designated by policy choices, to provide the necessary resources for a specific set of social, economic, and environmental objectives, taking into account the specific needs of marginalized groups using race, gender and class impact analysis” (Ida, 2013). 

In the first definition, the markets become the arbiter of social decision-making, whereas the latter definitions allow social and gender justice to come into play in state decision-making – in effect allowing the economy to work for society rather than vice versa.

By Nancy J. Hirschmann
http://ec.europa.eu/justice/gender-equality/files/documents/vision_report_en.pdf
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Friday, June 17, 2016

Priorities for the future 4/5


Since the original Treaty of Rome, the EU’s commitment to gender equality has waxed and waned over the years, being stronger in periods of economic growth and labour shortage and withering away in periods of low growth, crisis and austerity (Smith and Villa, 2013). 

Perhaps the high point for gender equality policies was the decision in 2000 to enshrine gender mainstreaming in the Lisbon Treaty, which requires that policies and measures should “actively and openly take into account at the planning stage their possible effects on the respective situations of men and women” (EC, 1996). Subsequently, allegiance towards gender equality has weakened in both EU policies and practice, as analysis of recent EU policy documents shows. Attention to gender issues has become less effective than in previous decades, indicating that social policies remain subordinate to economic ones especially the SGP. 

This differential treatment rests on the neoliberal assumption that the economy and economic policies are wealth-creating or productive while social policies are costly and concerned with redistributing rather than creating wealth, and should therefore be side-lined while policy focuses on the urgent task of dealing with the crisis and restoring growth. In the EU Recovery Plan, for example, neither gender nor equality were mentioned (Bettio et al., 2012). The idea that economic growth can be redistributive or that social policy can be economically productive are consequently overlooked (Perrons and Plomien, 2013) - and yet austerity policies are bad for growth and, as discussed below, have marked gender impacts. 

Given the different roles that women and men play in the economy, they have been affected in different ways by the crisis and austerity. Men were more adversely affected in the initial aftermath owing to their over-representation in the construction and manufacturing sectors, but benefitted more from the subsequent expansionary policies which focused on physical infrastructure.. By contrast, women are badly affected by austerity policies owing to their over-representation in public sector employment, among users of public sector services and welfare claimants.

 This seems to be the broad picture, though the experience of different countries varies. In the UK the coalition government is seeking to do more than meet the EU’s stability targets by completely eliminating the public sector deficit altogether and reducing the level of government expenditure as a proportion of GDP to 35% – i.e. to pre-welfare state levels (HM Treasury 2014). Yet House of Commons research found that in the 2010 budget, 73% of the cuts in public expenditure fell on women (see also WBG 2014). The groups that gain from these policies are those with higher income who are largely immune from state welfare spending and creditors whose incomes depend on a stable economy and low levels of inflation. This deflationary bias has negative effects for employment and the well-being of the majority through depressing demand.
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Wednesday, June 15, 2016

What implications does this have for the future gender equality agenda? 3/5




Since the original Treaty of Rome, the EU’s commitment to gender equality has waxed and waned over the years, being stronger in periods of economic growth and labour shortage and withering away in periods of low growth, crisis and austerity (Smith and Villa, 2013). 

Perhaps the high point for gender equality policies was the decision in 2000 to enshrine gender mainstreaming in the Lisbon Treaty, which requires that policies and measures should “actively and openly take into account at the planning stage their possible effects on the respective situations of men and women” (EC, 1996). Subsequently, allegiance towards gender equality has weakened in both EU policies and practice, as analysis of recent EU policy documents shows. Attention to gender issues has become less effective than in previous decades, indicating that social policies remain subordinate to economic ones especially the SGP. 

This differential treatment rests on the neoliberal assumption that the economy and economic policies are wealth-creating or productive while social policies are costly and concerned with redistributing rather than creating wealth, and should therefore be side-lined while policy focuses on the urgent task of dealing with the crisis and restoring growth. In the EU Recovery Plan, for example, neither gender nor equality were mentioned (Bettio et al., 2012). The idea that economic growth can be redistributive or that social policy can be economically productive are consequently overlooked (Perrons and Plomien, 2013) - and yet austerity policies are bad for growth and, as discussed below, have marked gender impacts. 

Given the different roles that women and men play in the economy, they have been affected in different ways by the crisis and austerity. Men were more adversely affected in the initial aftermath owing to their over-representation in the construction and manufacturing sectors, but benefitted more from the subsequent expansionary policies which focused on physical infrastructure.. By contrast, women are badly affected by austerity policies owing to their over-representation in public sector employment, among users of public sector services and welfare claimants. 

This seems to be the broad picture, though the experience of different countries varies. In the UK the coalition government is seeking to do more than meet the EU’s stability targets by completely eliminating the public sector deficit altogether and reducing the level of government expenditure as a proportion of GDP to 35% – i.e. to pre-welfare state levels (HM Treasury 2014). Yet House of Commons research found that in the 2010 budget, 73% of the cuts in public expenditure fell on women (see also WBG 2014). The groups that gain from these policies are those with higher income who are largely immune from state welfare spending and creditors whose incomes depend on a stable economy and low levels of inflation. This deflationary bias has negative effects for employment and the well-being of the majority through depressing demand.

By Diane Perrons

http://ec.europa.eu/justice/gender-equality/files/documents/vision_report_en.pdf
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Monday, June 13, 2016

Gender equality in times of inequality, crisis and austerity 2/5


Contemporary Europe is emerging slowly and unevenly from the deepest recession ever recorded. Following a coordinated and expansionary response to the crisis in 2008, member states experienced a sovereign debt crisis and subsequently, from 2010 - simultaneously yet without collective coordination - embarked on austerity policies to reduce the size of the public sector deficit and debt (Bettio et al 2012). 

To meet the EU’s Stability and Growth Pact’s conditions (SPG), the public sector deficit can be no more than 3% and public debt no greater than 60% of GDP. By 2013, ten member states were still above the deficit guidelines and 16 above those for debt. Potentially of greater potential concern is that public debt is rising in all but two of the countries where it exceeds 60% of GDP (Germany and Hungary), as it is for the EU as a whole (Eurostat, 2014). 

Thus, while the deficit is falling, public debt continues to rise and for this reason austerity policies continue to dominate the policy agenda even though feminist and heterodox economists (Fukuda Parr et al., 2013; Stiglitz, 2012) have demonstrated they are counterproductive for the economy. Such policies also make it very difficult to secure social objectives for inclusion and gender equality. 

 By Diane Perrons

http://ec.europa.eu/justice/gender-equality/files/documents/vision_report_en.pdf
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Saturday, June 11, 2016

ACTION ALERT FOR DR. HOMA HOODFAR IMPRISONED IN IRAN #FREEHOMA


FREE HOMA TOOLKIT IS ATTACHED.



Dr. Homa Hoodfar, a highly respected university professor at Concordia University, Montreal has been arrested and detained in Iran's notorious Evin prison on Monday 6, June 2016. 



Hoodfar, 65, is an internationally renowned and widely published anthropologist who studies a range of issues related to women’s roles and status in Muslim contexts. 



Born in Iran, Hoodfar has been living in Montreal for 30 years. A Canadian, Irish and Iranian national, Professor Hoodfar travelled to Iran in February this year to see her family. Shortly before she was to return home, she was arrested in March, but released on bail. After being interrogated by authorities for months, Hoodfar was once again summoned for interrogation on Monday June 6th and imprisoned without due process. 



It is not clear what the charges against Dr. Hoodfar are. Her arrest is incomprehensible given that she has never been involved in politics of any sort. She is an anthropologist who conducts ethnographic research across the Middle East, as well on Muslims living in the West. Indeed, her research is known to be balanced and several of her studies highlight the opportunities and high status that women have availed of in various Muslim countries, including in Iran. She is very much a patriot when it comes to Iran, and often argues that change must come from within through internal processes in societies and working within religious parametres. For instance, in one of her writings, she showcases women volunteer health workers in Iran, by highlighting how they have “acquired a sense of self-fulfillment and self-worth,” within the religious context of Iran.



Professor Hoodfar is appreciated everywhere for her unprejudiced views of politics and history. She is a great proponent of giving voice to Third-world women, particularly Muslim women. She was among the pioneer scholars to highlight Muslim women’s public roles that have been justified through religious precepts. Her writings have greatly contributed to challenging the essentialised portrayals of Muslim women that was prominent in Western scholarship.  In a ground-breaking book on the Muslim Veil in North America, Prof. Hoodfar writes about the significance of veiling as a visible marker of Islam in the West, as well as an adoptive strategy. 



It is of deep concern that, following her arrest, Dr. Hoodfar is not being allowed to see her lawyer or contact family and that her relatives have not been able to ensure she has the medication she needs. Dr. Hoodfar suffered a stroke last year and has a neurological illness that needs regular medical attention and treatment.



We therefore request the Iranian authorities to:

·        Provide Dr Hoodfar immediate access to her family and lawyer;

·        Ensure Dr Hoodfar has the medicines she requires for her neurological illness, her condition is monitored and the report shared with her family;

·        Release Dr Hoodfar and return her passport and other essential documents so she can travel back to Canada to continue her treatment there and resume her academic work. 



Women Living Under Muslim Laws, International Coordination Office
PO Box 28445, London, N19 5NZ, United Kingdom
Tel:+44 (0)207 263 0285 - Fax:+44 (0)207 561 9882
Website: www.wluml.org / Email: fatou@wluml.org



http://www.wunrn.com
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/concordia-university-prof-jailed-in-iran-s-evin-prison-family-says-1.3622606
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/08/canadian-iranian-professor-arrested-iran-homa-hoodfar



IRAN - WOMEN’S RIGHTS ADVOCATE CANADIAN-IRANIAN PROFESSOR ARRESTED IN TEHRAN 


Homa Hoodfar, 65, detained after passports and belongings confiscated
Case is latest to involve dual nationals in Iran  
Homa Hoodfar was arrested after nearly three months of repeated questioning. Iran does not recognise dual nationality, and treats detainees only as Iranian, depriving them of consular access. 

Saeed Kamali Dehghan in London and Ashifa Kassam in Toronto – June 8, 2016 

Iranian authorities have arrested a Canadian-Iranian professor of social anthropology, the latest in a string of cases involving dual nationals which has prompted concern over the country’s political atmosphere.

Homa Hoodfar was arrested earlier this week after nearly three months of repeated questioning by the Iranian intelligence service, her sister told the Guardian on Wednesday.

Hoodfar is the latest in the ever-expanding list of dual nationals targeted in recent months. Several Iranian dual nationals from the US, the UK, Canada and France are currently behind bars or facing regular questioning, often accused of espionage or collaborating with a hostile government. 

The 65-year-old scholar travelled to her home country in February, principally for personal reasons, but she also continued her academic research while in the country, her family said. Her trip coincided with parliamentary elections during which a record number of women were elected as MPs, mostly allied with the moderate administration of Hassan Rouhani. 

In March, members of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards raided Hoodfar’s flat a day before she was due to fly to London, where she planned to join her family for the Persian new year and the 70th birthday of her brother. The authorities confiscated her belongings and her three passports, and summoned Hoodfar for regular questioning.

Hoodfar’s family had chosen not to go public until now because they believed the interrogations were the result of a misunderstanding and would soon end, according to her sister, Katayoon Hoodfar. “[Homa] was summoned to Evin prison on Monday where she was told she would face yet another session of questioning but instead she was detained,” she said. 

“We are extremely worried for her health,” Hoodfar’s sister said. “She suffers from a rare neurological illness; she often has very bad headaches.” Hoodfar does not have any immediate family in Iran and the Canadian embassy remains closed. Hoodfar’s lawyer and cousin have been denied a family visit, Katayoon Hoodfar said, and were told that she is banned from having any visitors.

Iran does not recognise dual nationality, and treats detainees only as Iranian, depriving them of consular access.

Hoodfar has repeatedly travelled to Iran in the past but the illness of her husband, who died last year, prevented her from travelling there more recently. Hoodfar’s family believe that she has been arrested by the Revolutionary Guards, which act independently of Rouhani’s government and has sought to undermine his administration on various occasions. 

Canada, under the previous Conservative government, abruptly closed its embassy in Tehran and expelled Iranian diplomats from Canada in September 2012. Relations between Canada and Iran had been strained for years, much of the tension stemming from the torture and death of Iranian-Canadian photographer Zahra Kazemi in 2003.

The country’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has said his government intends to reopen the embassy in Tehran, but analysts say it could years before the two countries accredit ambassadors. 

In February, the Canadian government lifted virtually all sanctions against Iran. In announcing the change, Stéphane Dion, Canada’s foreign affairs minister said, “Canada will lift its sanctions but will maintain a level of mistrust for a regime that must not have nuclear weapons, a regime that is a danger to human rights and is not a friend to our allies, including Israel,” Dion said. “We will do this with our eyes wide open.” 

BBC journalist stopped from flying to US over UK-Iranian nationality 
Rana Rahimpour caught by new legislation that means dual citizens of some countries, including Iran, can no longer use visa waiver programme 

Global Affairs Canada, the country’s diplomatic apparatus, said it was aware of Hoodfar’s arrest. “Consular officials and Minister Dion have met with Dr Hoodfar’s family, and remain in close contact with them,” a spokesperson said. “We are working closely with our likeminded allies in order to best assist Dr Hoodfar.” The department said it could not comment further due to privacy considerations. 

Hadi Ghaemi from the New York-based international campaign for human rights in Iran (ICHRI) said Hoodfar’s arrest was “another sign of intolerance and suspicion towards dual nationals who travel to Iran and just want to contribute to their homeland by academic work”.

“These arrests are politically motivated to undermine the opening of the country which is Rouhani’s stated policy,” he told the Guardian. “Ms Hoodfar is a very respected academic who has hugely contributed to the Iranian civil society by her research and trainings.”

“[The arrest] reflects a security and intelligence apparatus out of control in Iran. They are snatching and detaining people without cause and with total impunity, creating a virtual quarantine of Iranian society so that they may more firmly hold it in their grip.”

Family of woman held in Iran for five weeks will be allowed to visit 
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested at Tehran’s airport on 3 April when she and her 22-month-old daughter were returning to UK 

Read more 

Other dual nationals arrested in recent months include the British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who works for the Thomson Reuters Foundation as a project manager, and British-Iranian businessman Kamal Foroughi. 

American-Iranian businessman Siamak Namazi, was also jailed with no explanation in October after visiting his family. His 80-year-old father, Baquer Namazi, a former Unicef official, has also been arrested and denied access to lawyers. A French-Iranian, Nazak Afshar, who is former employee of the French embassy in Tehran, was sentenced to six years in April. 

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Shahenda Maqlad. Prominent rights activist of peasants from Egypt dies


 Thanks for your  life dear Shahenda Maqlad 

We have here an interview of 2013  that teach us about their valuable contributions  : 


“Tell us Shahenda, the mother of the saddened voices, what’s the color of Qanater prison? What’s the color of your prisoner? What’s the color of the friends with you who light up the gardens with light? Our country is a big prison and its clothes are made of prison cells”, these are the words Ahmed Fouad Negm wrote to Shahenda Maqlad and Sheikh Imam sang for her when she was imprisoned in 1981 on the charges of belonging to the Egyptian Communist Party under President Anwar El Sadat.

The female Che Guevara of Egypt, the Egyptian Rosa Luxemburg to Kamshish farmers, the Hoda Sharawy of the 1950s, the Rosa Parks to the Egyptian civil rights and students movement, Shahenda Maqlad is our very own symbol of strength, resistance, human rights, and women rights in the history of Egypt, and she, thankfully, is still fighting among us for freedom today, and played an influential role in the January 25th revolution.

The 75 year old icon spent her life fighting against feudalism in the 1950s, faced the war on Egypt in 1967, lead farmers struggle in 1975, was imprisoned at least 3 times in 1970s and 1981, shared the fight back in the 1990s against more neoliberal policies, mobilized with Kefaya movement and protested for the fall of Mubarak throughout 2000s to finally witness and play a leading role in the Jan 25 revolution. Her first political achievement came as young as the age of seventeen in 1955, when women were granted the right to vote for the first time. She mobilized the women of her village of Kamshish in Munofia governorate going door to door urging women to register to vote.“When I was young I was eager to know about socialism because my dad always told me that this country won’t be fixed unless socialism is established, so I wanted to know what socialism is. He told me when you get older you will know”, she tells us with a cheerful smile as she recalls the past.

Maqlad comes from a middle class family born to a socialist police officer father, and the eldest sister to four brothers and a young sister. Her father raised his children on the principle of equality between sons and daughters, “My father was really progressive for his times, he truly believed in the equality between men and women, and treated us this way unlike others who believed it the slogan but never applied it”, she says. When Kamshish farmers were in the midst of the fight against feudalism, Maqlad’s father sent to President Gamal Abdel Nasser during the revolution saying, “Either you free the farmers of Kamshish or you detain me with them”. Her father had the most influence on her activism and belief system to always fight for what’s right no matter how anyone may judge her choices. With teary eyes she recalls a telegram her father once sent her saying, “To Shahenda; defend your principles until death”.

With a strong socialist spirit at home and growing up during revolutionary times, Shahenda Maqlad was destined to have an unconventional marriage with her revolutionary counterpart martyr Salah Hussein. Not only was he her cousin who left his family when young to go fight in Palestine and returned to lead the armed struggle of farmers against feudalism in early 1950s, he was also the love of her life and the second most influential person in her life. “My dad passed away and I was engaged to a police officer, but I loved my cousin Salah Hussein, who was always being prosecuted for fighting feudalism, so I escaped and broke the engagement to go marry Salah”, she reveals to us. “After I married Salah, my work began in fighting with the farmers against feudalism in Kamshish, our small village. I ran for elections in National Union (Itehad Qawmi) for our local union when the farmers elected me”, Maqlad says. The fierce couple lived and had three children fighting for a better Egypt and for the peasants of their Egypt, who were promised under Nasser to own land after land reform, but in Kamshish the Feki family was untouchable and the land was not redistributed until five years after the armed struggle in which Salah Hussein was imprisoned, and many were killed. The fight for more radical change in land reform continued into the 1960s, but this time with Maqlad in the lead until the Feki family assassinated Salah Hussein.

This devastating moment for Maqlad made her even more determined to continue what Hussein has started, which is to fight until the farmers reach victory. While she continued to enter elections for the National Union and won; the state was keen to not allow her to get too powerful by never exceeding the local level.“Every election I entered I won, then after we were able to form political parties under Sadat I was one of the founders of Tagmoa Party, and I got imprisoned 3 times on charges of being a communist or belonging to the communist party and inside prison I was imprisoned again, after we got our release order and all of the detained got freed, they kept me and Farida El Nakash”, she gives us a brief history of her political struggles and achievements. In the 1970s, Maqlad was banned from ever running in her governorate of Munofia, and when she went to protest this verdict to Mahmoud Salem, who was the prime minister back then, she asked him, “What are the charges against me exactly? And he just said ‘because people love you’”, she says.

Shahenda Maqlad entered elections three times, once in Alexandria and twice in Kamshish, “until 1984 when I told myself I will never enter elections again until these oppressive laws are changed; they haven’t changed election laws until now”, she explains her disbelief in the electoral process.

“I always had no doubt that the revolution was coming, and that the people will rise and this is even under Sadat. People always told me take off the black wardrobe and I told them never unless the revolution happened or Sadat died”, Maqlad expresses her strong belief in the power of the people. While she sits and sips her coffee with tears that come and go as she remembers moments that changed her life, she tells us about her life story. Maqlad recalls one of the best expressions describing Egyptian people and how she felt when the revolution erupted after long life struggle, “Salah used to always tell me ‘Egyptian people are like underground water, you don’t see it moving, but all of sudden it bursts’, and this proved itself true with the January 25th Revolution, but my heart was filled with fear because any traditional revolution has an organized leadership to guide it, but Jan 25 was very spontaneous, so I was uncertain of its future, but even with this I still have no doubt that people will prevail in the end.”

Upon the recent political upheaval in Egypt, Maqlad was subjected to violent discrimination at the December Itahadiya clashes when the Muslim Brotherhood forcefully attacked the peaceful sit-in in front of the Presidential Palace. Maqald was present when Brotherhood members raided the tents and attacked people, “I saw them coming and attacking everyone including Nawara Negm, so I stood up and started chanting ‘La ilaha ila Allah, El Ikhwan are the enemies of God’ and all of a sudden I was astonished to have this guy silence me with his hands over my mouth”, she describes. Thousands of people took to the streets protesting the massacre including Maqlad, who saw a woman carrying Maqlad’s picture, so she shook hands with her and the women told Maqlad, “I went down to the streets because when I saw that man put his hand on you, I got furious and I wanted to cut his hand”, Maqald tells us with tear eyes of joy.

When we asked her what she thinks of ongoing targeting of women to break the revolution using sexual terrorism as a tool to scare women from going to Tahrir her answer was “we have to fight back and be determined that no one will get us our rights, we have to make our voices heard and our present, visible for the whole world to see that they don’t scare us and we will win in the end”.
NOVEMBER 3, 2013 BY GIGI IBRAHIM

http://whatwomenwant-mag.com/2013/11/03/shahenda-maqlad/
http://www.cronicaviva.com.pe/egipto-fallece-destacada-activista-por-derechos-de-los-campesinos/
http://www.mojazeg.com/egypt/277925/
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Gender equality in times of inequality, crisis and austerity: towards gender-sensitive macroeconomic policies. 1/5


“Equal pay for equal work is a founding principle of the European Union, but sadly is still not yet a reality for women in Europe.” Former EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding made this remark on European Equal Pay Day - February 28 2014 - 59 days after the start of the year. 

She chose this date to mark the end of a period in which, given the gender pay gap (16.4% - EC, 2014a), women effectively work without pay. This gap is one indicator of an unequal world in which, for instance, a CEO of one of the FTSE 100 firms in the UK would only have to work one and a half days to earn the annual salary of an average social care worker (High Pay Centre, 2014). These gaps reflect both rising inequality and the persistence of gender inequality - conditions that result from the pursuit of neoliberal economic policies and associated priority given to the economy over society. 

The scale of contemporary income and earnings inequality has generated widespread public concern, demonstrated by activist movements such as Occupy, and is now evident among more orthodox world leaders, some of whom have called for a more inclusive form of capitalism to ensure political and social stability and economic growth. 

In 2014, Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, pointed out that inequality is returning to levels not seen since the onset of the 1929 recession; Pope Francis tweeted that inequality was “the root of social evil”; and European Commission President Jean-Claude Junker said that “it is not compatible with the social market economy that during a crisis, ship-owners and speculators become even richer, while pensioners can no longer support themselves” (EC, 2014b). 

By contrast, gender inequality has not aroused the same degree of public interest, even though women continue to be disadvantaged in the labour market, underrepresented in decision-making and are more likely than men to experience domestic violence (EC, 2014c). Indeed, women are, as Lagarde put it, “underutilised, underpaid, under-appreciated and over-exploited”. What makes this situation in Europe surprising is that there have been five decades of equality policies. 

So why have gender equality policies not been more effective and what scope is there for such policies in times of austerity? This essay addresses these questions and argues that only by ensuring that the economy serves societies rather than vice versa will it be possible to realise the EU’s objectives for sustainable and inclusive development and make it more likely that gender inequality will be resolved.



 By Diane Perrons

http://ec.europa.eu/justice/gender-equality/files/documents/vision_report_en.pdf
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Thursday, June 9, 2016

Elderly women living alone: an update of their living conditions


CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS


 To avoid increases in gender disparities and in poverty risks, it is necessary to assess the potential gender impact of changes in pension and welfare systems.

 Addressing the specific needs of women living alone asks for the individualisation of social rights, irrespective of household and marital relations both in pension and assistance policies and developing integrated policy packages, dealing with all the different aspects of lone women’s living conditions. The involvement of local communities and local actors (usually municipalities, charities and NGOs) in policy design and implementation and guaranteeing the continuity of interventions are also important to sustain the creation of extended support services and networks at the local level.

 As for pension systems, it is suggested to strengthen universal, residence-based or flat rate minimum pensions indexed to wages and pension credits for unemployment and training periods; provide public subsidies to support access to occupational and individual supplementary pensions by women and other groups usually less involved in these schemes; provide adequate pension credits for care periods; adopt unisex life tariffs in both public and private funded pension schemes; provide specific pension credits for atypical and part-time employment and support flexible retirement provisions; adopt individual rather than family related pension entitlements.

 Policies to reduce gender gaps in the labour market and active ageing policies are also needed to guarantee gender equality in old-age living conditions through the adoption of a gender mainstreaming approach to labour market and active ageing, with a focus on measures supporting the reconciliation of market and family work and revising cultural models on gender roles. Multi-sector and intergenerational active ageing strategies should be strengthened to reduce the risk of isolation and improve the conditions of women (and men) living alone also addressing empowerment initiatives to promote active engagement.

 European Institutions could play an important role supporting a stronger integration of a gender equality perspective in pension and welfare policies and active ageing strategies both at the EU and national level. 


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Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Neglect of older persons’ needs


Globally, many politicians neglect long-term care (LTC ) needs of older persons and assign a very low priority to public support provided through social protection – despite the dramatic ageing of the world’s population (PNUD et al., 2014) and the growing number of older persons with physical or mental incapacities in need of LTC. However, currently, very few countries provide such protection or are planning related reforms to offer public support for LTC. Also in the recent discussions around the post 2015 agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), LTC has not been considered as an issue to be addressed with high priority.
One of the reasons the need for LTC is disregarded relates to the perceived availability of “free” care provided primarily by female family members. Stereotypes that female family members can and should take over the full burden of providing LTC are widespread and exist in countries of all regions, developed and developing. However, these viewpoints ignore that LTC requires by far more than compassion for relatives:
 LTC requires professional and skilled workers to provide quality services, as well as coverage of the related expenditure.
 It also requires funds that empower and enable persons in need of LTC, for example to develop enabling living environments.
 Family care involves significant costs due to foregone income of caregivers and associated risks of impoverishment due to a lack of social protection during times of care, for example in case of sickness, accident or old age.
Politicians should also be aware that the number of potential family care givers will shrink due to demographic ageing, growing female labour market participation and the impact of reversing early retirement policies. Thus, while the role of families in providing informal care will remain important, such approaches are not sufficient in the context of demographic ageing and might involve in the longer term higher costs in the form of lost income and productivity than if comprehensive public support was provided through social protection schemes and systems.
The neglect of making public LTC solutions available can also be interpreted in the context of discrimination and negative attitudes towards older persons: Ageism is a global phenomenon that is sometimes even laid down in regulations and legislation, for example higher costs or unfavourable conditions of certain insurance policies for older persons or being refused for specific medical services due to age (Naish, 2012).
Negative myths about older persons can even be found in text books for health and LTC workers that often ignore the potential of health and functional capacity improvements of older persons and under-report positive developments that can be achieved by providing adequate quality LTC services including prevention for older persons.
The situation is aggravated by the fact, that the training and skills development of formal LTC workers is often at very low levels compared to e.g. health workers (Colombo et al., 2011). Thereby the dependency and functional incapacities of older persons are likely to increase and a self-fulfilling prophecy occurs. In the worst cases, ageism results in abuse and violence against older persons in need of LTC, both in institutions and when receiving home-based care. Reasons often relate to a lack of adequate training and skills and result from perceived excessive demands (OHCHR, 2014). It is estimated that in Europe alone at least 4 million older persons experience such abuses every year (WHO Euro, 2011).
Finally, in many countries a cultural aversion to LTC exists, as it is understood as institutional care only while ignoring other forms of care, such as home-based services. In these countries, it is regarded as dishonorable if family members do not take care of older relatives. In Algeria, for example, a study among 115 people (the majority younger than 35 years) revealed that none of the respondents supported the idea of sending their parents to a care institution (Paranque & Perret, 2013).
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Sunday, June 5, 2016

Right to sexual and reproductive health indivisible from other human rights


The right to sexual and reproductive health is not only an integral part of the general right to health but fundamentally linked to the enjoyment of many other human rights, including the rights to education, work and equality, as well as the rights to life, privacy and freedom from torture, and individual autonomy, UN experts have said in an authoritative new legal commentary*.

Yet, the experts from the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) note, “the full enjoyment of the right to sexual and reproductive health remains a distant goal for millions of people, especially for women and girls, throughout the world.”

The commentary, adopted by CESCR’s 18 independent members, highlights the numerous legal, procedural, practical and social barriers people face in accessing sexual and reproductive health care and information, and the resulting human rights violations.

“For example, lack of emergency obstetric care services or denial of abortion often lead to maternal mortality and morbidity, which in turn constitutes a violation of the right to life or security, and in certain circumstances, can amount to torture, or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment,” the experts say in their commentary.

The experts’ guidelines, known as a General Comment, concern Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights which refers to the right to the highest attainable standard of health.

“As a Committee we have spoken before about the right to health, but we thought that given, for example, high maternal mortality rates around the world or harmful practices that women and girls especially go through, like female genital mutilation and early child marriage, it was important to specifically address the issue of sexual and reproductive health,” said Committee member Heisoo Shin.

The General Comment codifies the Committee’s views on this issue to give States that have ratified the Covenant a clear understanding of their obligations and to highlight to government officials, legal practitioners, as well as civil society, where policy, laws and programme may be failing and how they can be improved.

“I think, for example, that governments have not allocated enough attention and resources to tackle maternal mortality. In 2016, we should not see women dying as they give birth because of insufficient facilities or because of lack of attention or because they are poor,” Ms.Shin said.

The General Comment details the importance of sexual and reproductive health for men and boys, but also highlights how the issues are indispensable for women’s right to make meaningful and autonomous decisions about their lives and health. It notes that gender-based stereotypes play a role in fuelling violations of the right to sexual and reproductive health, including assumptions and expectations of women as men’s subordinates and of women’s role as only caregivers and mothers.

The General Comment also pays special attention to other groups of individuals who may face particular challenges and multiple forms of discrimination.

“People with disabilities need more attention and extra sensitivity to their situation; we see examples of doctors and nurses not treating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people equally; adolescents can be afraid to go to the gynaecologist because they are not supposed to have any sexual encounter; taboos around sex also affect the ability of single women in many countries to access services,” said Ms.Shin. 

The General Comment details the obligations of States regarding sexual and reproductive health, including:

  • An obligation to repeal, eliminate laws, policies and practices that criminalise, obstruct or undermine an individual’s or a particular group’s access to health facilities, services, goods and information;
  • An obligation to ensure all have access to comprehensive education and information that is non-discriminatory, evidence-based and takes into account the evolving capacities of children and adolescents;
  • An obligation to ensure universal access to quality sexual and reproductive health care, including maternal health care, contraceptive information and services, safe abortion care; prevention, diagnosis and treatment of infertility, reproductive cancers, sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS.
The General Comment states that ideologically based policies or practices, such as the refusal to provide services based on conscience, must not prevent people from getting care, and that an adequate number of health care providers willing and able to provide such services should be available at all times in both public and private facilities. 
“Even in one country, there are wide differences, between different generations, between urban centres and rural areas, differences between men and women, so you cannot say there is always one position, and even culture changes over time,” said Ms Shin. “The ultimate goal should be what is best for people to enjoy the right to sexual and reproductive health.”
- UN experts

GENEVA (8 March 2016) 
 http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=17168&LangID=E#sthash.dGpOvQiH.dpuf
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Friday, June 3, 2016

WOMEN AND GIRLS: CATALYSING ACTION TO ACHIEVE GENDER EQUALITY


The five proposed core commitments are aligned to all Core Responsibilities outlined in the Secretary General’s Agenda for Humanity:

• Commitment 1: Empower Women and Girls as change agents and leaders, including by increasing support for local women’s groups to participate meaningfully in humanitarian action.

• Commitment 2: Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductiv rights as agreed in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action and the Outcome documents of their review conferences for all women and adolescent girls in crisis settings.

• Commitment 3: Implement a coordinated global approach to prevent and respond to gender-based violence in crisis contexts, including through the Call to Action on Protection from Gender-based Violence in Emergencies.

• Commitment 4: Ensure that humanitarian programming is gender responsive.

• Commitment 5: Fully comply with humanitarian policies, frameworks and legally binding documents related to gender equality, women’s empowerment, and women’s rights

http://www.wunrn.org/pdf/gender.PDF

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Wednesday, June 1, 2016

Bibata Ouédraogo




Bibata Ouédraogo is an activist committed to the promotion and protection of women’s rights, including sexual rights and reproductive rights and the right to maternal health in Burkina Faso.

Bibata Ouédraogo is an activist committed to the promotion and protection of women’s rights, including sexual rights and reproductive rights and the right to maternal health. Her work focuses on community outreach on HIV/AIDS, maternal health, violence and discrimination against women, FGM, forced marriage, early.

Bibata Ouédraogo is the president of the Ouahigouya branch of AFEDEB, a women's association for the development of Burkina Faso. Ouahigouya is a town approximately 180 km from the capital Ouagadougou. The association covers 15 sectors surrounding Ouahigouya and nine of the 36 villages of Ouahigouya.

Bibata Ouédraogo is a former teacher. She is married and mother of six children. Her passion for human rights has led her to continue working despite her retirement from teaching in 2013.
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