WUNRN
Tanggol Bayi is an association of women
human rights defenders in The Philippines dedicated to advance women's rights as human rights.
Friday, August 29, 2014
Tribute to Philippines Women Human Rights Defenders
Thursday, August 28, 2014
Philippines: evidence of women rights violations
20 August 2014
Hon. Leila M. de Lima
Secretary
Department of Justice
Padre Faura, Manila
Re: Reinstatement of the Provisions on “Justified Abortions” in the Draft Code of Crimes to Provide an Opportunity for Public Discussion on the Legal and Human Rights Implications of a Total Criminal Ban on Abortion
Dear Secretary de Lima:
We would like to draw the attention of the Department of Justice (DOJ) to the tragic reality that serious and widespread violations of women’s rights are being committed under the country’s absolute criminal ban on abortion and that, through the inclusion of provisions on justified abortions in the draft Code of Crimes by the Criminal Code Committee (the Committee), these violations could finally be publicly discussed and rationally deliberated upon before Congress and not just left to persist with unjustified impunity as has been the case for over 80 years.
In 2010 and pursuant to the directive of President Benigno “Noynoy” the DOJ constituted the Committee. The Committee’s initial draft of Book II of the Code of Crimes provided for “justified abortions” in cases where (1) abortion is performed after implantation of fertilized ovum arising from rape or incest, (2) continuation of pregnancy endangers life of pregnant woman or seriously impairs her physical, mental or emotional health, and (3) sonogram or other diagnostic test show the fetus suffers from incurable disease or serious deformity. However, these provisions on “justified abortions” were deleted from the draft only after one public consultation in Cebu and before extensive consultations in different parts of the country were conducted thereby pre-empting a national discussion about the need to consider exceptions to the total ban in light of compelling evidence of grave human rights violations.
The Philippines has an antiquated law on abortion and one of a handful of countries to criminalize abortion without recognizing clear exceptions allowing the procedure even in circumstances such as to save the life or protect the health of a pregnant woman, when pregnancy is a result of rape or incest, or in cases of fetal impairment. The uncompromising nature of the country’s abortion law becomes even more pronounced when compared to developments in other predominantly Catholic countries and former Spanish colonies as well as in neighboring countries in East and Southeast Asia.
The provision in the Philippine Constitution which declares that the State shall “equally protect the life of the mother and the unborn from conception” must not be so narrowly interpreted as totally proscribe abortion. Other countries with constitutions and laws explicitly protecting the life of the unborn or life from conception such as Ireland, Slovak Republic, Poland, Kenya, Hungary, and Costa Rica have recognized that abortion can be legally performed under certain exceptions and conditions.
The criminalization of abortion does not prevent women from having abortions rather it forces women to resort to unsafe abortions which is a leading cause of preventable maternal deaths. In the Philippines, an estimated 560,000 abortions occurred in 2008 and this number has risen to 610,000 abortions in 2012. The adverse effect of the ban on abortion is also reflected in the latest data on the country’s maternal mortality ratio which has shown a dramatic increase within a four-year period (2006-2010) from 162 to 221 deaths per 100,000 live births – reneging from the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of 52 per 100,000 live births. The incidence of unsafe abortion continues to rise and, in 2012 and 2013, abortion was reportedly one of the top 3 obstetrics-gynecological cases in 8 out of 9 hospitals managed by the Department of Health (DOH).
The problem of women suffering from complications from unsafe abortion is aggravated when they decide to seek post-abortion care (PAC), whether in public or private hospitals or clinics. It is estimated that 90,000 women were hospitalized for abortion complications in 2008 and over 100,000 women in 2012. There is indisputable evidence showing that in these settings, women are exposed to the risks of abuse, harassment, discrimination, prosecution, and punishment. Violations of women’s rights occur in this context due to the absence of clear exceptions to the criminal ban on abortion and the fear of health care providers that they will be subject to criminal proceedings either as accomplices or accessories which is fueled to a certain degree by the practice in hospitals of maintaining blotters and of threatening to report or actually reporting women to the law enforcement authorities.
The risk of criminal prosecution often deters women from seeking urgent medical attention even when faced with serious complications. Evidence shows that not only do health care providers threaten to report women who induce abortions, but they also threaten women who have not intentionally induced abortions but have experienced complications due to fetal death or a miscarriage. Even more appalling is the fact that some of these women who are threatened with criminal prosecution are in fact victims of domestic violence whose pregnancies ended abruptly because of physical violence perpetrated by their husband or partner.
The criminalization of abortion has significantly stigmatized a widely recognized and safe medical procedure. The lack of definitive exceptions under the criminal ban has led health care providers to view women presenting with complications from unsafe abortion as criminals instead of patients in need of urgent medical care, frequently resulting in the denial of non-judgmental and life-saving treatment or significant delays as an informal punitive measure. The ban has rendered nugatory the right of women to compassionate, quality, and humane PAC to which they are statutorily entitled under Republic Act No. 9710 otherwise known as “The Magna Carta of Women” and Republic Act No. 10354 otherwise known as “The Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012,” with the framework for such right having been earlier established in the DOH’s Administrative Order No. 45-B, s. 2000, otherwise known as the “Prevention and Management of Abortion and its Complications Policy.” The medical community itself has recognized that stigma associated with abortion, which stems largely from the criminal ban, has contributed to providers’ negative attitudes towards women who as a result become vulnerable to abusive and discriminatory treatment.
The rights of women to life, health, privacy, equality and nondiscrimination, and to be free from cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment are embodied in several international treaties and conventions voluntarily entered into by the Philippine government such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Convention Against Torture, Convention on the Rights of the Child and most notably, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women which establish binding legal obligations on the state. United Nations treaty monitoring bodies have repeatedly urged the Philippines to review its law on abortion. Clearly, under international law, the Philippines has the obligation to immediately review its legislation on abortion and to take steps to allow abortion on certain grounds as a matter of human rights.
We believe that an evidence- and human rights-based approach is needed to review the criminalization of abortion in light of the human toll of the ban as exposed by the staggering number of unsafe abortions and deaths each year.
Regrettably, on 19 August 2014, the DOJ announced that it has completed work on Book 2 of the Criminal Code on Crimes and Penalties. Reviewing the draft, we are deeply concerned that the Committee decided to continue criminalizing abortion without providing for any exceptions despite the overwhelming evidence of egregious violations of human rights as a result of the total criminal ban.
We are not putting forward before the DOJ the question of whether or not it supports the legalization of abortion but rather seeking its support on the need to talk about the impact of the penal provisions on abortion and the importance of having exceptions to them. It should be emphasized that the drafting of the Code was a crucial opportunity for the DOJ to create the possibility of making our penal statutes “relevant and meaningful to the people.” We are concerned that the Committee precluded an important national discussion by eliminating these proposed exceptions before they can even be considered by the nation’s legislative branch and the people that they represent.
We are concerned that the DOJ turned a blind eye to the persistent and widespread occurrence of unsafe abortions and incidences of unnecessary and preventable deaths in the country. The current situation in the Philippines demands an urgent response as each day approximately 3 women die as a result of abortion-related complications, 274 women are hospitalized for abortion, and 1,671 women undergo medically unsafe abortion procedures despite the risk of criminal prosecution. We remain confident that the DOJ will not continue to condone the serious and widespread violations of human rights and will now take whatever steps are needed to protect the health and lives of Filipino women.
Copy furnished:
Usec. Jose Vicente B. Salazar, Department of Justice
Email: jvbsalazar@doj.gov.ph
Email: jvbsalazar@doj.gov.ph
Asec. Geronimo L. Sy, Chairperson, Criminal Code Committee
Email: glsy@doj.gov.ph and crimcodecom@doj.gov.ph
Ma. Monica P. Pagunsan, Director III, Planning and Management Service
Email: mmpp@doj.gov.ph
Jan Chavez-Arceo, Member, Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT)
Email: jchavezarceo@iacat.net
If you like to be a signatory, please e-mail JJacob@reprorights.org.
Monday, August 25, 2014
A CALL TO WOMEN:
A CALL TO WOMEN:
` LET
US JOIN IN MEANINGFUL TRANFORMATIVE ACTIONS:
EVERY
WOMEN A HUMAN RIGHTS MENTOR, --TO CLOSE THE GAP OF
DIGNITY.
Women around the world calling
for an in depth discussion on: The
Meaning of Human Rights As Relevant to Our Daily Lives. In a joint effort,
each in our Community, accepting this vision and mission, we pledge to: Raise our voice...--evoke and
mentor an ongoing Narrative on unquestionable equality, for
all to realize in full equality, the freedom from fear and want
Closing the gap of dignity between Women and Men, that is
prevalent and hurtful everywhere in the world, is the most important promise,
an imperative, the most important challenge for the 21st century. To
achieve full equality, we women, wherever and whoever we are, must recognize
our responsibility to become active partners in facilitating the implementation
of an ongoing process of Learning. This process, in many forms, aims to have
all women, men, youth and children learn, know, & OWN, human rights as relevant
to our daily lives -as a way of life- and in community take the necessary
actions, accordingly. For
this purpose we must join to create a global conscientiousness that will
channel all people’s actions to achieve sustainable economic, social and human
development in full equality, guided by the promise of the holistic
vision and practical mission of human rights. It may seem impossible but it can
be a dream to come true, Women,
assuming in their communities the responsibility as mentors, can secure a future where all people belong in
equality, in dignity, in community with others! --A
future where all community actions are guided by the comprehensive,
interconnected, interrelated and indivisible Human rights framework; where
meaningful equality is presented in a
wealth of norms and standards. These are Human Rights!! – inalienable – no one can take them
away! As mentors, we women, opening a discussion on Human rights as a
way of life, stand to bring added strength and richness to all cultures and
religions and imbed the recognition of the humanity of women...--of WE the “OTHER”!. In
this process we will give a voice to all human hopes and aspirations. We will
be holding in our hands a powerful tool to break through the vicious cycle of
humiliation. --Away from POVERTY, FEAR and GREED and the three oppressive
“P”s: Patriarchy,
Politics and Power. We call on Women everywhere,
being discriminated against merely because we were born women, to shine the
light on this learning journey and to facilitate in our communities discussions
to re imagine, re-cast and re-define the ultimate meaning of our lives, in
equality that is so well enunciated in the holistic human rights framework. Women as mentors, stand to give real power to human rights; together learning
to identify the difference between symptoms and causes of inequality..
Through systemic analysis, creating new realities for
women as unquestionable full human beings, we will together move “power” to
human rights! .-- a counter and necessary dynamic, to become full owners of economic
and social Justice, fully adopting positive creative alternatives available
to us. Together to curve the road that enables our walk towards new horizons of
our own choice!! --These guided by the
extraordinary roadmap offered to us by the human rights framework, In summation: we must learn to recognize
the humanity of others as our own. We must learn to recognize women as full
human beings with undeniable human rights, and most important: women must lead
the discussions on the issues we are facing. We must learn to redirect our actions
to effectively move on an horizontal plain towards new horizons, achieving new
dreams, new hopes, --using an all together new language of hope, knowing that
food, education, housing, healthcare and work at liveable wages are our
inalienable human rights. No one can
take it away from us!! We
must never again exchange our equality for survival and never abide by
the injustices some call ‘justice’, assert and insure our belonging in
dignity, whatever the life form we choose to abide by, without hurting the other...--whatever
historic memories guide our desires...--whatever culture gives us a sense of
security and being!!. Human
rights close all gaps of unfulfilled dignity. Human rights are about inclusion.
They extricate exclusion, as an important example, provide a meaningful way to
overcome poverty,,,--people learn to claim irrevocably their human rights...--
knowing that these are unacceptable, egregious violation that must be
eradicated!. Whoever we are, we must build trust and respect and design a
new future with full equality at its centre, in full respect and positive
actions,. . Thus,
for the multitudes
that grew in 110 years, from one billion to seven billion, to own, to act and
have the human rights framework guide our action is the way to go!. This
is a call on all women, we who stand to gain the most, join in an intense and
ongoing process of MENTORING that will move
charity to dignity. Human rights learning and mentoring must
become a never ending ongoing process,,,--joining to analyze how our lives
affect the lives of others and together strategize how to close all gaps of
unfulfilled dignity...—to reinvent our lives as we choose it to be...--add a
new link to our past and to our historic memory. --Raising human rights to the
level of a true way of life and self empowerment. . No one should be left
behind. We women --half of humanity --an acknowledged source of moral authority—need
to assume the day-to-day mentoring of others towards integrating the holistic
vision and practical mission of human rights as a world view, the absolute
truth to guide our lives. A covenant must be made, one that assures that the
sanctity of life will never be desecrated or stepped on. This step-by-step process
of women mentoring communities is a sure way to acknowledge and achieve
equality!! --women and men learning to participate
as equals in the decisions that determine our future, for all to learn human rights as a relevant
to our daily lives! Join us in this
effort. The future of humanity is in
your hands! . We have no other
option!! Shulamith
Koenig , Founding President , People’s
Movement for Human Rights Learning . pdhre@igc.org ; www.pdhre.org
Sunday, August 24, 2014
Memorial to women who have been raped in conflict
International
Gender/Post-conflict reconstruction specialist Lesley Abdela will chair a discussion courtesy of the
British Council at their headquarters in London in November 2014 on the idea of
a monument dedicated specifically to the female spirit of survival after rape
used systematically
as a strategy of war.
World-wide there exists a deeply damaging and unfair attitude towards women who
have experienced such sexual violence, and this remains an unconscionable stain
on humanity.
Lesley
Abdela has worked 'boots on
the ground' on gender issues in post-conflict regions including Kosova, Sierra
Leone, Aceh, Afghanistan, Nepal, and Iraq. She asks why men injured or killed in
war are treated with respect, dignity and honour, with statues raised to them in
every Capital, whereas women who have been raped in conflicts are met with shame
and derision. Their dignity is stripped away to the point they can never talk to
anyone about their experience, amplifying the medical and psychological
suffering
'Rape has been a
pervasive feature of war from ancient times. Unfortunately, it is both
a very effective and ‘cost-effective’ tool
of warfare, which has been used systematically and strategically linked to
military objectives in innumerable conflicts. It is only relatively recently
that rape has been recognized as a war crime and that prosecutions have been
undertaken by international courts.'
'Sexual violence in
warfare is the most obvious distinctive experience of women in armed conflict;
it is not something that they experience to any great degree in common with
civilians generally, it results in immense suffering and trauma, unrelated to
any arguments as to military necessity, and is almost universal in all types of
warfare.'
Saturday, August 23, 2014
Women as full human beings
In a long and exciting journey
undertaken to have all people around the world know and own human rights as a
way of life , allow me to share a celebration which guides us on the road to
understand the holistic vision and practical mission of human rights, for which
we have no other option.
On the 3rd of December women and
men around the world are celebrating the 30th anniversary of CEDAW, the
United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
Against Women. Within the existing patriarchal order CEDAW is an
extraordinary revolutionary document, unique in its perception of women as full
human beings.
My friend and mentor, professor Upendra
Baxi writes:
“No single phrase in recent human history has been more privileged to bear the mission and burden of human destiny than [the phrase] “human rights”… -- the greatest gift of classical and contemporary human thought is the notion of human rights. Indeed, more than any other moral language available to us at this time in history, the language of human rights is able to expose the immorality and barbarism of the modern face of power”. --From “Inhuman Wrongs and Human Rights”
Thirty years ago, this single
powerful phrase ‘Human Rights’, was finally recognized as including and
belonging to women too. CEDAW calls for equality and the elimination of discrimination,
it also calls for the transformation of systems of oppression such as
patriarchy and racism. Women’s human rights are about human rights for all,
they speak to a life of shared and respected humanity. The elimination of
discrimination against women is an imperative if we strive in earnest towards
human flourishing through human rights.
CEDAW was a major radical step
forward, an act of transcendence, embarked on in a world dominated by a
Patriarchal order (in which women willingly and unwillingly participate as well
…--differences becoming a liability rather than joy. ) CEDAW is recognizing and
articulating the political, civil, economic, social and cultural human rights
of women. It is a practical yet ground-breaking call that stands to make all religions,
all cultures and economic and social organizations across the globe richer by
accepting women as equal human beings. CEDAW gives women an important role as
agents of change in the center of the State, communities and families.
It is important to stress again that
CEDAW’s places an absolute prohibition on all forms of discrimination against
women. Discrimination is defined as “any distinction, exclusion, or
restriction, made on the basis of sex, with the purpose or effect” of
obstructing the enjoyment of human rights by women and girls. Furthermore, in
addition to demanding that women be accorded equal rights with men, the
Convention prescribes the measures to be taken to ensure that women everywhere
are able to enjoy their full human rights as full human beings to which they
are fully entitled. The Convention covers all areas of life and frames them
from a human rights perspective. Women’s right to political
participation, education, health, equality in the family, a life free from
violence and of an adequate standard of living are some of the human rights
covered in the Convention. CEDAW talks about results, all actions taken by the
government to improve the life of citizens should have lead to equal results
and benefits for women and men. The understanding is that life with human
rights for all is a win/win situation.
Currently, 186 countries - over ninety percent of the members of the United Nations are party to CEDAW. These nations are bound to put the provisions of the Convention into practice and translate human rights into a lived experience for all. The act of ratification of this human rights convention by a specific country is what gives “ teeth” to this call of equality and non discrimination for women. States that are party to CEDAW undertake the obligation to scrutinize their national laws accordingly and inform the population about it. Unfortunately too many States are slow in doing so. More upsetting and totally incomprehensible is the fact that the United States is not one of the 186 countries who are committed to upholding CEDAW. This fact speaks for itself and calls for change.
As part of the celebrations in
commemoration of the adoption of the CEDAW, this article is a call for all
readers to support and join actions to have the Convention ratified by the US
Congress. After all, the Convention sets out internationally accepted
principles that would be legally bounding in the United States after
ratification. Just think about the ways CEDAW would enrich the current
debates about healthcare reform. Imagine the possibility of sending children
you love to learn about human rights in schools. Let’s bring CEDAW home, let’s
make all human rights matter in this country. A first step is calling
for ratification of CEDAW. Since learning about human rights is
essential to the reader’s personal empowerment, I have included some
information about the Convention that may be of use to you.
Yes. Human Rights is a way of
life. We have no other option
Background
information on the Convention
CEDAW was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1979 to reinforce the provisions of existing international instruments and thus making human rights indivisible, interconnected and interrelated designed to combating the continuing discrimination against women. CEDAW identifies many specific areas where there has been notorious discrimination against women, for example in regard to political human rights, marriage and the family, and employment. In these and other areas the Convention spells out specific goals and measures that are to be taken to facilitate the creation of a global society in which women enjoy full equality with men and thus full realization of their guaranteed humanity as full Human beings. When you read the summary below you will find several important areas of our lives that calls for change in the USA as well.
CEDAW is the most important
internationally recognized document to overcome the roots of discrimination
enabling us to decipher between symptoms and causes. It gives the world a new,
unique moral and legal framework to guide our daily, decisions and
relationships. It enables women and men to understand and acknowledge the
energies and creativity women have towards making this a better world for all
as full human beings. We women must participate in the decision that determine
our lives; guided by the holistic human rights framework.
Posted
by Shulamith Koenig
Monday, August 18, 2014
Seyla Benhabib
Seyla Benhabib, born in Istanbul, Turkey, is the Eugene Meyer Professor of Political Science and Philosophy at Yale University and was Director of its Program in Ethics, Politics and Economics from 2002 to 2008. Professor Benhabib is the recipient of the Ernst Bloch prize for 2009 (one of Germany’s most prestigious philosophical prizes) and of the Leopold Lucas Prize from the Theological Faculty of the University of Tubingen for 2012. She was the President of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association in 2006-07 and has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1995. She has previously taught at the New School for Social Research and Harvard Universities, where she was Professor of Government from 1993-2000 and Chair of Harvard’s Program on Social Studies from 1996-2000. A Guggenheim Fellowship recipient (2011-12), she has been research affiliate and senior scholar in many institutions in the US and in Europe such as Berlin’s Wissenschaftkolleg (2009).
Professor Benhabib holds Honorary Degrees from the Universities of Utrecht (2004), Valencia (2010) and Bogazici University in Istanbul (2012).
She is the author of Critique, Norm and Utopia. A Study of the Normative Foundations of Critical Theory (1986; German, Kritik, Norm und Utopie, Fischer Verlag, 1992); Situating the Self. Gender, Community and Postmodernism in Contemporary Ethics (1992; winner of the National Educational Association’s best book of the year award; German, Selbst im Kontext, Suhrkamp 1995) ; together with Judith Butler, Drucilla Cornell and Nancy Fraser, Der Streit um Differenz 1993; in English, Feminism as Critique (1994); The Reluctant Modernism of Hannah Arendt (1996; reissued in 2002; Hannah Arendt und die Melancholische Denkerin der Moderne,Suhrkamp 2006); The Claims of Culture. Equality and Diversity in the Global Era, (2002); The Rights of Others. Aliens, Citizens and Residents (2004), which won the Ralph Bunche award of the American Political Science Association (2005) and the North American Society for Social Philosophy award (2004); translated as Die Rechte der Anderen (Suhrkamp 2008); Another Cosmopolitanism: Hospitality, Sovereignty and Democratic Iterations, with responses by Jeremy Waldron, Bonnie Honig and Will Kymlicka (Oxford University Press, 2006); German, Kosmopolitismus und Demokratie (Campus 2008), and Dignity in Adversity. Human Rights in Troubled Times (UK and USA: Polity Press, 2011).
She has most recently edited, together with Judith Resnik, Migrations and Mobilities: Gender, Borders and Citizenship (NYU Press, 2009; named by Choice one of the outstanding academic books of the year), and also, Politics in Dark Times. Encounters with Hannah Arendt (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010)
Her work has been translated into German, Spanish, French, Italian, Turkish, Swedish, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Hebrew, Japanese and Chinese and she has also edited and coedited 10 volumes on topics ranging from democracy and difference to feminism as critique; the communicative ethics controversy and identities, allegiances and affinities.
Professor Benhabib has held many prestigious visiting professorships such as the Spinoza chair in Amsterdam (2001); the Gauss Lectures at Princeton (1998); the John Seeley Memorial Lectures (Cambridge University, 2002), the Tanner Lectures (Berkeley, 2004) and was the Catedra Ferrater Mora Distinguished Professor in Girona, Spain (Summer 2005).
She has been Adjunct Faculty in Law at the Yale Law School (2011; 2008; 2007); a Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Tel-Aviv’s Zvi Meitar Center for Advanced Legal Studies (2010) and is a Straus Fellow at NYU’s Straus Center for Advanced Studies in Law and Justice (2011-2012).
http://www.yale.edu/polisci/sbenhabib/
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
Equity or Equality
As Shanti Dairiam pointed
out the CEDAW Convention secured a normative framework of substantive equality for women. This has been re-emphasised with all relevant examples of CEDAW General Recommendations and Concluding Observations in the CEDAW Commentary, Oxford University Press, 2012 and in my article on Gender and Democratic Citizenship – Confronting Traditionalism and Neo-liberalism: the Impact of CEDAW, Cardozo L. Rev., 10 International Journal of Constitutional Law 512 (2012).
It is of immediate importance to reassert women's universal human right to substantive equality. Other values such as equity, complementarity and human dignity allow interpretation which is consonant with traditional patriarchal values and does not secure equality for women, either in the public space or in the family. Equity, complementarity and human dignity can only be properly understood where they are well founded on women's right to equality and interpreted in accordance with women's universal right to equality.
The immediate relevance of this issue is evident in the resolutions, in 2010 and 2012, of the Human Rights Council to restore traditional values to the interpretation of international human rights. Furthermore, last Friday the Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on the Protection of the Family.
This resolution on Protection of the Family fails to recognise the diversity of families or to include any reference to the right to equality within the family. The former problem regarding the failure to recognise diverse families was the chief concern expressed by those states which opposed the resolution or proposed amendments to it.
However, the second problem - the failure to assert the right to equality for family members within the family - seems to have passed under the radar of the opponents to the resolution.Since the 1948 UDHR and as later detailed in CEDAW article 16, human rights regulation of the family has recognised the individual rights of family members to equality within families: "equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution".The absence of an equality clause in the resolution threatens the loss of this essential fundamental right, especially for women and girl children. What women and girls must be guaranteed within the family is first and foremost equality.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Raday
Wednesday, August 6, 2014
Femicide: A Global Problem
About 66,000 women and girls are violently killed every year, accounting for approximately 17 per cent of all victims of intentional homicides. While the data on which these conservative estimates are based is incomplete, it does reveal certain patterns with respect to the male v. female victim ratio in homicides, intimate partner violence, and the use of firearms in femicides—defined here as ‘the killing of a woman’.
This Research Note examines lethal forms of violence against women.
It relies on the disaggregated data on femicides produced for the Global Burden of Armed Violence 2011
(Alvazzi del Frate, 2011, p. 113).
The gendered dimension of homicide
When it was coined by the feminist movement in the 1970s, the term femicide referred exclusively to the gender-based killing of women by men. Since then, however, its definition has broadened to encompass any killing of a woman
Diana Russel, an architect of the term femicide, indicates that the concept has been in use for centuries. In 19th-century Britain, for example, it was used to designate the ‘killing of a woman’ (Russel, 2008, p. 3). The feminist movement politicized the use of the word femicide in the 1970s, restricting its meaning to the killing of a woman or a girl based on her sex (Bloom, 2008, p. 178).
With time, this definition has expanded to refer to any killing of a woman. While such an approach dilutes the political connotation of violence against women based on their sex, it facilitates the comparability of cross-national data on lethal violence against women.
A number of recent studies and data collection exercises focus on the issue of femicide in a stricter sense. Qualitative studies of the killing of women in Latin America, for example, seek to assess the intent of the perpetrator. Furthermore, some countries in Latin America have implemented specific laws
on femicide in recent years, such as Guatemala in 2008 and
Chile in 2010 (Guatemala, 2008; Chile, 2010). These laws take into consideration the targeting of a woman for misogynous or gender-based reasons and foresee stricter penalties if there is evidence of such circumstances. Source: Alvazzi del Frate (2011, p. 116)
Friday, August 1, 2014
Istanbul Convention for Women against Violence Europe (WAVE)
The EU Istanbul
On
the 1st of August 2014, the Istanbul Convention will come into force. For Women
against Violence Europe (WAVE) and all of our Focal Points and Partners, the
upcoming event is a tremendous accomplishment in the history of the Women’s
Movement. The Istanbul Convention is the first ever truly comprehensive
instrument at the European level which addresses violence against women. As of
beginning of July 2014, 13 countries have already ratified the Convention, and
23 have signed it. The Convention’s coming into force is an important step, and
strong implementation and commitment of member states is needed to effectively
work towards preventing and combating violence against women and their children.
Important themes of the Convention include Prevention,
Protection, Prosecution, Substantive law and Monitoring. Prevention of violence
against women and domestic violence is essential to save multiple lives and
lower human suffering. The Convention sets requirements for governments for
preventative work to function, including training of professionals who are in
contact with victims, working closely with NGOs, involving the media and private
sector in eradicating gender stereotypes and other points. Along with the state,
it is also important that each individual challenges gender stereotypes, harmful
traditional practices and discrimination against women.
Protection – The Convention strives to provide victims
and witnesses with protection and support, including police intervention and
protection through support services such as specialist service provision
including women’s shelters, telephone helplines, etc. In order to incorporate
protection into a women’s life, it is significant to ensure that victims have
access to adequate information on available services. In addition, it involves
having well distributed women’s shelters and 24/7 telephone helplines free of
charge.
Substantive law – With regards to substantive law, the
Convention tries to push state parties to introduce a number of new offenses
which have not existed before such as psychological and physical violence,
sexual violence and rape, female genital mutilation, forced marriage, forced
abortion and forced sterilization.
Monitoring – Lastly it is essential to make sure that
state parties live up to their obligation, meaning that once the Convention will
come into force, a group of independent experts called GREVIO will measure the
extent to which state parties have implemented the Convention.
Prosecution – The Convention does not stop at the
identification of the different forms of violence against women, but it also
requires state parties to integrate these new offenses into their national
legislation, and ensure the effective investigation of any allegation of
violence against women, and domestic violence. The prosecution and punishment of
perpetrators is essential for survivors to achieve justice, and resume lives
free from violence.
In
order to support the implementation of the Istanbul Convention, at the onset of
16 days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence 2013 Campaign, WAVE launched
the ‘ISIGN’ campaign, part of the Autonomous Women’s Center (Serbia)-led project
‘Coordinated Efforts – Toward New European Standards in Protection of Women from
Gender Based Violence’. The campaign has been simultaneously carried out
together with three Focal Points from two Western Balkan States
(Macedonia and
Serbia ) and
Slovenia , one organization
from Bosnia and Herzegovina ,
one organization from Croatia
The
area of specialist victim support for women survivors of violence and their
children is expected to experience improvement, if states commit themselves to
effectively implement the Istanbul Convention. WAVE’s work in promoting the
establishment and improvement of women’s services is long-standing. On an annual
basis, with support from co-funding by the European Commission, WAVE publishes
the Country Report, providing information on the current situation of available
specialist services across 46 European Countries. Findings of the WAVE Country
Report 2013 indicate an existing gap of approximately 55,242 shelter places in
the 46 countries, while also showing that not every country in Europe has yet established a 24/7, free of charge,
national women’s helpline. In consequence, WAVE recommends improving and
extending services for women survivors of violence, and importantly, women’s
shelters. Moreover, report findings showed that, while women’s helplines exist
in 31 out 46 European countries, only 17 of them operate 24/7 and are free of
charge, resulting in only 37% of covered countries meeting the relevant Council
of Europe Taskforce Recommendation. More importantly, there is currently no
women’s shelters in Hungary ,
Latvia and
Lithuania
WAVE
calls upon European countries to sign and ratify the Istanbul Convention, and
welcomes the progresses made to date. It also recognizes that significant
efforts and commitments by states are still needed to effectively contribute to
preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. WAVE
hopes that, by working cooperatively with governments and the civil society, all
forms and types of violence against women can one day be history.
Contact: Maria Rösslhumer, WAVE Manager -
maria.roesslhumer@aoef.at ;
or
the WAVE Office - office@wave-network.org
For
more information about WAVE activities and publications, and subscribe to the
WAVE Newsletter, go to the WAVE website – www.wave-network.org
Sunday, July 27, 2014
Where Are the Afghan Women?
Declaration: Where Are the Afghan Women?
Afghan Women are concerned of their present status in the current political process in the country!
Kabul, Afghanistan - 23 July 2014 - The continuation of controversies and disputes over the second round of the Presidential Elections process in Afghanistan and news and analysis being published the opinions raised, in one hand has harmed the democratic elections process as well as it has increased many serious concerns among citizens of Afghanistan, especially women, regarding political games and decisions behind closed doors.
Afghan Women’s Network, its 117 member organizations and more than 3000 individual members has had visible contribution and accomplishments in awareness, mobilization and political participation of women during the last three election terms, Loya Jirga’s, Consultation Jirga’s. Looking into recent disagreements and conflicts over the 2014 Presidential Elections, AWN would like to emphasize on protecting the decades gains of women’s role in development and their political participation. Afghan Women’s Network (AWN) declares its position on the latest controversies in Elections as following:
* Afghan Women’s Network calls on the Afghan Independent Election Commission (IEC) and the Independent Election Complaint Commission (IECC) as legitimate authority institutions for conducting the elections process; to proceed the development within the legal frameworks in order to prove a fair, transparent, just and accountable process.
* Afghan women call on both candidates to avoid derailing the democratic process, wait for the final results announcement by IEC and prevent any pre-‐judgmental statements and political bargaining before the final results.
* We call upon both candidates to respect the votes of Afghan citizens, specifically women, and not to forget women’s role and position throughout the entire political consensus and opinions.
* Afghan Women's Network and its members has been performing tirelessly in order to mobilize and encourage women to vote, which was very clearly observed during both rounds of the election, thus we urge both candidates not to disregard women’s contribution and waste their motive.
* We appreciate the role of media in both rounds of elections; meanwhile, there has been a serious observation about the negative role of certain media channels and outlets that has resulted in discrimination and social disorders.
* We urge for the commitment of all the aspects of public rule and democracy, any deal, which will be against the Afghan Constitution and other national laws shall not be acceptable.
* We very seriously call upon thegovernment, both candidates and all the politicians to respect and keep women’s constitutional rights and keep committed to the implementation.
* We have witnessed a complete disappearance of women from the political discussions that were facilitated by the international community particularly the United States and UNAMA. These discussions were extremely important on how the new Afghan government will set up. It has been once again men led.
* While Afghan women are half of the country’s population where they have equal rights and contribution to the development of the society. Despite huge uncertainty and lack of trust we call on both candidates and the national and international mediators for not forgetting women’s role in all the political, social, cultural and economic spheres.
* We call on all relevant authorities to strongly follow laws, commit to rule of law and democratic process.
* We strongly will stand against any fraud, discrimination and disrespect to law implementation.
WUNRN
http://www.wunrn.com
Saturday, July 26, 2014
Opportunities for women’s access and participation to official peace processe
Women gaining access to official peace processes through international support
In 2000, UNIFEM (now UN Women) convened an ‘All-Party Burundi Women’s Peace Conference’ in Arusha, Tanzania, where women drafted specific recommendations for the peace process. Women’s organisations approached and lobbied the conflict parties and Nelson Mandela – one of the chief mediators – to include women in the peace negotiations. Mandela publicly stated his support for women’s equal participation in the peace negotiations. Furthermore, women’s representatives urged the Ugandan President (who also participated in the peace negotiations) to make their voices heard.
The president received a delegation of 100 women and subsequently asked the former president of Tanzania and other chief mediators to push for the participation of women in Arusha. Consequently, seven women attended the talks. These women were not members of any political party; they were representatives of women’s rights organisations. During Kenya’s post-electoral violence in 2008, the mediator Kofi Annan, Chair of the Panel of Eminent African Personalities, along with his fellow panel member, Graça Machel, facilitated women's access to the negotiations. They encouraged women to draft recommendations for the peace process, which were subsequently presented to the Kenyan National Dialogue and Reconciliation
Committee charged with negotiating the terms of the peace agreement.
Women setting up their own peace fora to get access to the official peace process
When excluded from official peace processes, women can set up their own unofficial peace fora. A striking characteristic of these separate women’s peace platforms is that they work across class, caste and ethnic divides – often playing by and subverting established rules.
Friday, July 25, 2014
Persecution of Witches, 21st Century Style
 |
| Bill Bragg |
By MITCH HOROWITZ - JULY 4, 2014
Most people believe that the persecution of
“witches” reached its height in the early 1690s with the trials in Salem, Mass.,
but it is a grim paradox of 21st-century life that violence against people
accused of sorcery is very much still with us. Far from fading away, thanks to
digital interconnectedness and economic development, witch hunting has become a
growing, global problem.
In recent years, there has been a spate of attacks
against people accused of witchcraft in Africa, the Pacific and Latin America,
and even among immigrant communities in the United States and Western Europe.
Researchers with United Nations refugee and human rights agencies have estimated
the
murders of supposed witches as numbering in the thousands each year, while
beatings and banishments could run into the millions. “This is becoming an
international problem — it is a form of persecution and violence that is
spreading around the globe,” Jeff Crisp, an official with the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees, told
a panel in 2009, the last year in which an international body studied the
full dimensions of the problem. A report that year from the same
agency and a Unicef study
in 2010 both found a rise, especially in Africa, of violence and child abuse
linked to witchcraft accusations.
More recent media reports suggest a disturbing pattern
of mutilation and murder. Last year, a mob in Papua New Guinea burned
alive a young mother, Kepari Leniata, 20, who was suspected of sorcery. This
highly publicized case followed
a series of instances over recent years of lethal group violence against
women and men accused of witchcraft.
“These are becoming all too common in certain parts of
the country,” said
the prime minister, Peter O’Neill. Last year, Papua New Guinea finally repealed a 1971 law that
permitted attackers to cite intent to combat witchcraft as a legal defense. But
progress is slow. Although the police charged a man and woman in connection with
the 2013 killing of Ms. Leniata, no one has faced trial, a fact that drew
protest from Amnesty International in February.
One of the ugliest aspects of these crimes is their
brutality. Victims are often burned alive, as in Ms. Leniata’s case and a 2012
case
in Nepal; or accused women are sometimes beaten to death, as
occurred in the Colombian town of Santa Barbara in 2012; or the victims may
be stoned or beheaded, as has been reported
in Indonesia and sub-Saharan Africa.
It is tempting to point to poverty in the developing
world, as well as scapegoating, as the chief causes of anti-witch attacks — and
such forces are undoubtedly at work. But while Africa and the southwestern
Pacific have a long history of economic misery, much of this violence,
especially against children, has worsened since 2000. The surge suggests forces
other than economic resentment or ancient superstition.
In some communities, it is chiefly young men who take on
the role of witch hunters, suggesting that they may see it as a way to earn
prestige by cleansing undesirables and enforcing social mores. That many of the
self-appointed witch hunters are men highlights another baleful aspect of the
phenomenon: The majority of victims are women. The Rev. Jack Urame of the
Melanesian Institute, a Papua New Guinean human rights agency, estimates
that witchcraft-related violence there is directed 5 to 1 against women,
suggesting that witchcraft accusations are used to cloak gender-based
violence.
Another factor, particularly in Central Africa and its
diaspora communities, is the advent of revivalist churches, in which self-styled
pastor-prophets rail against witchery and demon possession. They often claim to
specialize in the casting out of evil spirits, sometimes charging for the
service. Many of those congregations have emerged from Western evangelizing
efforts.
One of Nigeria’s most popular Pentecostal preachers, Helen Ukpabio,
wrote that “if a child under the age of 2 screams in the night, cries and is
always feverish with deteriorating health, he or she is a servant of Satan.” As
that implies, children in those communities are especially likely to be
identified as possessed. The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for
Human Rights reported
that most of the 25,000 to 50,000 children who live on the streets of Kinshasa,
the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, were abandoned by family
members who accused them of witchcraft or demonic possession.
The etiology of this epidemic is complex, but human
rights observers point to overpopulation, rapid urbanization and the hardship of
parents forced to relocate to seek work, as well as the sheer stresses of
raising children amid dire poverty. Superstitions are stoked by local “healers,”
who charge parents to exorcise evil spirits.
Witch hunting is far from limited, however, to acts of
sadistic vigilantism or profiteering. Some legal systems even sanction the
killing of accused witches.
In 2011, courts in Saudi Arabia sentenced
a man and a woman, in separate cases, to beheading after convictions for
sorcery. In 2013, Saudi courts sentenced
two Asian housemaids to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in prison on charges of
casting spells against their employers.
A Lebanese television psychic, Ali Hussain Sibat, was
arrested in 2008, while on pilgrimage to Medina, by the Saudi religious police
for hosting a television show in his native Lebanon, “The Hidden,” where he
would make predictions and prescribe love potions and spells. After an outcry by
Amnesty International and others, the Saudi courts stayed Mr. Sibat’s execution
by beheading, but sentenced him in 2010 to a 15-year prison term.
As in Africa, the wave of anti-witch activity in Saudi
Arabia is fairly new. The Saudi religious police devised an Anti-Witchcraft
Unit in 2009, resulting in the arrests of 215 alleged “conjurers” in 2012.
Some observers attribute this sudden interest in witchery to the royal family’s
attempts to appease its religious inquisitors by keeping them busy targeting a
handful of vulnerable individuals.
A final motive driving modern witch hunting may be more
venal than spiritual: The police in Indonesia, where there were about 100
suspected witch killings in 2000, point
to fraud and graft directed against vulnerable women, who, lacking family or
community protection, fall prey to banishment or murder on slim pretexts, while
their homes and property are seized by their accusers.
Globalization means that paranoia over black magic and
spirit possession are no longer confined to developing nations. Mass migration
has made this a pervasive problem. In January, a Queens, N.Y., man was
arrested for beating to death with a hammer his girlfriend, Estrella
Castaneda, 56, and her daughter, Lina Castaneda, 25; Carlos Alberto Amarillo
told the police that the women were “witches,” who had been “performing voodoo
and casting spells” on him. (Voodoo, more properly known as Vodou, is an
authentic Afro-Caribbean faith based in deity worship and ritual, practiced in
New York and many American cities. Other belief systems that retain or reinvent
ancient nature worship and spell practices sometimes go under the names of Wicca
or neo-paganism.)
It has not been confirmed whether the Queens victims had
ties to Vodou (neither they nor the suspect were Afro-Caribbean). Accusations
like those made by Mr. Amarillo, who is under psychiatric evaluation, often
prove unreliable or are misreported in a sensationalist way. But the theme has
nonetheless become alarmingly familiar in Western news coverage.
In 2012, The Guardian reported
that London police had during the last decade investigated 81 cases of “ritual
abuse” of children accused of possession or witchcraft, a phenomenon that
British social agencies fear
is on the rise, particularly within African immigrant communities. In 2010,
a 15-year-old boy, Kristy
Bamu, was tortured and killed in East London by his older sister and her
boyfriend, both Congolese, who had accused him of sorcery after he wet his bed.
In the wake of that case, the British police started to receive special
training on witchcraft-related abuse.
Because anti-witch violence is rooted in the belief
systems of traditional societies, it would be easy to slip into the fatalistic
view that this crisis is a tragic repetition of ancient aggressions. But where
local superstitions explode into violence or migrate across a wide range of
settings and societies, we can and must act.
Western branches of Pentecostal and charismatic
Christian congregations must work closely with the more fervent ministries of
their denominations among African and immigrant communities to foster an
understanding of how “exorcisms” can spiral into deadly abuse. No African
congregation wants to feel dictated to by the West, but there is a place for
exchange and cultural pressure. Western ecclesiastical bodies can specifically
enact prohibitions against for-profit exorcisms.
Laws should be enacted against accusing children of
witchcraft throughout the countries of Africa and the southwestern Pacific, as
one Nigerian state has
already done. And countries like the Solomon Islands that still criminalize
witchcraft should strike down those statutes.
Police indifference to crimes of witch hunting must also
be tackled, especially in societies where police officers themselves may share
in traditional beliefs about “black magic.” A 2012 British government report
on combating faith-based violence against children provides a valuable guide to
instructing the police on signs of abuse, asking religious leaders to condemn
violence and protecting vulnerable witnesses.
Legal efforts must be paired with increased social
awareness. In a promising model, a 2010 Oxfam International report
noted that some Catholic parishes in Papua New Guinea have been teaching
congregants about the natural causes of death and illness (common triggers for
anti-witch paranoia), providing shelter to accused witches and denying the
sacraments to those who accuse others of sorcery.
Crucial, too, is that the United Nations and
international human rights organizations start compiling yearly statistics on
these crimes. We’re severely hampered in understanding the scale of this crisis
when our most recent global data are already five years out of date.
Most important, witchcraft-related violence should be
branded as hate crimes by international courts and by all jurisdictions where
anti-hate statutes exist. This is vital to gaining wider recognition of this
criminality and preventing it.
In too many places, the accusation of witchcraft has
become an incitement to mob violence. It is time to lay the ghosts of Salem to
rest.
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