30 March 2011; Women's Rights Wednesday

Hey folks; I'm trying out something new and hope to do occasional Women's Rights Wednesday publications here -- let me know what you think and whether you have suggestions for other specific human rights topics I could cover in specialized weekly columns like this one. As always, thanks for your participation and feedback!

Geraldine Ferraro died this past week; she was the first female candidate for Vice President of the United States, running with Walter Mondale in 1984 on the Democratic ticket. That run paved the way for female politicians in local, state and national elections ever since. Her New York Times obituary is online here, the Economist's is here and the Guardian's is here.

AFRICA:

• Egypt = Women must be involved in the rebuilding of Egypt; they were excluded from the official constitutional amendment process on 19^th March, which included the passage of a provision which could be interpreted to mean that only men are eligible for the office of President. Women, who were active and equal participants in the protests and demonstrations, must be included in the parliamentary and presidential elections as both candidates and voters. Citizens – men and women – fought for a free democratic nation and a new Egypt, and all must be included in the nation building. Women demonstrators on International Women's Day were attacked and told to go home and feed their babies, told that they were not proper Egyptians, and “now” is not the time to pursue women's issues. (HRW)

• Egypt = Twice in one week, Egypt? Bummer. But that's what you get when you require female protestors to undergo virginity tests. As an Amnesty rep said, “women and girls must be able to express their views on the future of Egypt and protest against the government without being detained, tortured, or subjected to profoundly degrading and discriminatory treatment.” Having government security forces check your privates to determine whether or not you are sexually active reeks of torture, degradation and discrimination to me. (AI)

• Gambia = A gathering this week brought together leaders, advocates and security officers to discuss the implementation of women's rights in Gambia, on issues including gender-based violence and the Women's Act of 2010. The goal was to educate young people about their rights and the government's obligations toward them. (AA)

• Somalia = A class at the Burtinle Secondary School is involved in a pilot program called the Management of Maturation Project which gives teenagers life-skills classes and tries to prevent school drop-outs, especially of girls. The programming discusses questions such as why girls are most likely to drop out of school (the girls voted for early marriage as the most common reason, while boys thought it was menstruation) and encourages debate in general. (UNICEF)

AMERICAS:

• USA = Walmart is involved in a massive class action suit regarding the allegation that female employees have been subject to a discriminatory policy which determined pay increases and promotion potential. (BHR)

• Guatamala = Canadian company HudBay Minerals is accused in the deaths of eleven indigenous Mayan women who were allegedly gang-raped by mining company security officers, police and military personnel who helped expel the Mayan Q'eqchi community from their homes to make room for HudBay's Fenix mining project. (BHR)

• USA = In Texas, an eleven year old was sexually assaulted on multiple occasions by at least 19 men. Why do we live in world where 19 men think it is ok to have sex with a child? What can we do to address this? (NYT)

EUROPE:

• European Court of Justice = The Court recently decided that it was “inadmissible for car insurance providers to take into account sex-specific differences” in determining insurance rates; men's rates will remain the same and womens rates will increase to match the mens. (ADB)

• UK = The Whitehall government post dedicated to preventing female genital mutilation on girls in the UK is being abolished, to the chagrin of charities and campaigners. Over 20,000 girls in the UK are in danger of having FGM forced upon them. (GRD)

MIDDLE EAST:

• Libya = On 26^th March Attorney Eman al-Obeidi burst into Hotel Rixos in Tripoli where foreign journalists were staying and, appearing bruised and battered, told the journalists that she had been raped by 15 men in Qadaffi's security forces. She had time to show the media her bruised face, thigh, and rope-burn marks on her hands and feet. She was then forcibly removed by security forces and journalists who tried to come to her aid were beaten. She has not been seen since, and the government, which has changed its version of events several times, is investigating her for possible defamation of its forces, claiming she is a mentally ill prostitute (as though that would make the beatings tolerable). Her mother is supporting Eman's claims, saying she is not ashamed of her daughter, but is holding her head up high because her daughter has shown she is willing to break a barrier by talking publicly about being sexually assaulted. She is not the only woman imprisoned, or in danger, as many women who support the rebels have been raped or threatened with rape for their involvement in the protests. (AI, HRW, FIDH)

• If you are on facebook and feel so moved, you can support her cause there.

ALSO OF INTEREST:

• Forbes recently posted this article, on The Power of Investing in Women.

• This event at John Jay College looks interesting: Mona Eltahawy is giving a free lecture on Islam, Women and the American Experience tomorrow, Thursday March 31^st at 6:30pm.

• Sarah Degnan Kambou writes about why she is committed to ending child marriage here.

6 February 2011

AFRICA:

• Egypt = Protests against police brutality and President Mubarak continued this week, despite Egypt’s prior attempts to quash the demonstrations by using live fire against civilian marchers and instituting a nation-wide internet blackout. Egyptian security forces, including the police and the Special Police, have been detaining and abusing Egyptian citizens, activists and journalists, as well as international activists and journalists in an apparent attempt to cover up or at least minimize the reporting of the protests. On Friday, security forces raided a Law Center in Cairo, detaining 30 people including two Amnesty International staff and local human rights activists. (AI, ICTJ)

• Gambia = YAY!! 24 communities in Gambia’s Upper River Region have officially abandoned the practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). (AA, GRD)

• Uganda = After last week’s murder of David Kato, a Ugandan gay rights activist, his local colleagues are calling on both the Ugandan government and American evangelicals to take responsibility for the role they played in spreading the homophobia and hate which led to Kato’s death. (CHNG)

· You can sign a petition to “Tell Evangelicals to Condemn the Murder of a Gay Activist in Uganda” here.

AMERICAS:
• USA = Closing arguments are expected this week in the Arizona murder trial of 9 year old Brisenia Flores and her father, Raul in their Arizona home by anti-immigration extremists. The accused vigilante group leader, Shawna Forde, is a former member of the Minuteman Project and was known to espouse her extremist views to such a degree that she was expelled from some civilian border patrol groups. (IPS, WP)

ASIA:
• Bangladesh = Sometimes “village justice” just isn’t – according to the local human rights advocates. 14 year old Hena Akhter died this week after being whipped by her village elders for having “an illicit relationship with a married man.” (GRD)

· The married man in question is her cousin, who found her outside her home in the early evening one night, gagged her with a cloth and beat her senseless. This attack led her cousin Mahbub’s wife Shilpi to accuse Hena of engaging in a relationship Mahbub. This man Mahbub, Hena’s cousin and attacker, had been found guilty of rape before, but the village elders had him marry that woman—Shilpi—to invalidate any shame on Shilpi’s family.

· Justice did not serve Shilpi, forcing her to marry her rapist, and Shilpi used that same justice system, the shalish—a village meeting led by the elders (elder men only?)—to get her revenge on her husband Mahbub.

· How absurd that Hena got caught up in the middle of this; that village elders, village ANYONE, would think it reasonable to give 101 lashes to a 14 year old girl who could barely stand from the beating her cousin Mahbub had given her.

· The only way to turn this into a positive is to put pressure on the Bangladeshi government to enforce its own laws, which make these village-level punishments illegal. You can contact the Supreme Court of Bangladesh here, and the Prime Minister here.

EUROPE:
• European Court of Human Rights = The Court is introducing fees on applications, which many rights groups fear will deter individuals from filing legitimate human rights claims. (PAMB)

ALSO OF INTEREST:
• Cell Phones = Blood Diamonds? Six African Heads of State are backing a certification plan to track and eliminate conflict minerals from being used in electronic devices, much like the processes that were adopted to prevent the trade in conflict diamonds. The four “dirty” minerals are tantalum, tin, tungsten, and gold – regularly used in our cell phones and laptops. This initiative aims to prevent armed groups from reaping the profits of these minerals. (CHNG)

· You can get in on the action, by signing a petition to “Tell the SEC: Keep Conflict Minerals Out of Our Electronics” here.

• The 2^nd Annual Women in the World Summit is happening in New York City this coming March 10^th-12^th. (DB)

• The Draft UN Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training is available online here.

5 July 2009

AFRICA:

· Darfur, Sudan = Two foreign aid workers, Hilda Kawuki from Uganda and Sharon Commins from Ireland, were abducted Friday from their compound in Kutum, northern Darfur. Six armed men allegedly took them hostage. They have not been heard from since. (AJ, BBC)

o Almost as newsworthy as this clip, is the fact that Sudanese women are often abducted, kidnapped, held hostage … and it doesn’t make international news to nearly this effect … but maybe I’m just a cynic.

• Gambia = YAY! Twenty-four districts in Gambia’s Upper River Region have signed a public declaration abandoning female genital mutilation and cutting (FGM/C). These communities are all from the Mandinka or Fula ethnic groups – because this region has the country’s highest FGM/C rates, with 90 percent of women and girls being cut. FGM/C poses many health risks, including birth complications, maternal death, infertility, and urinary incontinence, including fistula. (IRIN Africa, UNICEF, Tostan)

· Namibia = Two HIV-positive Namibian women allege that they were sterilized, without their knowing consent and against their will, in local public hospitals. The International Community for Women Living with HIV/AIDS (ICW) has been hearing accounts of this type of abuse through its regular forums for HIV-positive young women. The ICW has now partnered with the Legal Assistance Centre, to bring these two cases before a judge. (IRIN)

o Deciding to take legal action is an incredibly difficult step. Many victims are reluctant to come forward due to fears that both their HIV status and their inability to bear children will be made public, both of which are causes of shame. (IRIN)

· Zimbabwe = BOO! This is yet another reason why you should never buy a diamond. Children as young as 13 years old have provided testimony to Human Rights Watch regarding their forced labor in diamond mines. The report is entitled Diamonds in the Rough and also suggests that some of the money from these diamond operations has funded military actions. (HRW)

MIDDLE EAST:

• Iran = The head of the Majlis’ (Iranian parliament) judiciary commission has changed some legal penalties, deeming them unnecessary. So, hopefully, we can say goodbye to stoning and the cutting off of hands. (AWID)
• The Guardian Council holds final approval for these changes. If you speak Persian, I encourage you to be an advocate on this issue.
• Israel = BOO! When one makes a mistake … the best action is usually to correct said mistake. Israel seems not to agree. After forcibly boarding a ship on a humanitarian mission to Gaza, the Israeli Navy detained all of the passengers, and “illegally took them to Israel against their will.” Some of these activists are still imprisoned. (AJ, DN)
• How do we know this was a mistake? That group of “suspicious” activists includes Irish Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mairead Maguire and US Congressperson Cynthia McKinney. You can watch Mairead Maguire on video here. (AJ, DN)
• It’s time to correct this mistake and let these activists advocate. I would imagine that Israel’s actions have significantly strengthened their desire to help Gaza, too. Nice.

CENTRAL ASIA:

• Afghanistan = The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan has acceded to Additional Protocols I and II to the Geneva Conventions of 1949. These Additional Protocols address the protection of victims of armed conflicts. Accession to these Protocols does not mean that they are legally binding in Afghanistan – first they must be incorporated into Afghan domestic law, a step which may or may not follow. Let’s keep our eye on that, noting that the US is notoriously bad about incorporating international human rights standards into our own domestic law. (ICRC)

AMERICAS:

• United States = YAY! President Obama has created a new White House position: Advisor on Violence Against Women. Lynn Rosenthal has been appointed to this position which will focus on domestic violence and sexual assault issues. Vice President Biden, an author of the Violence Against Women Act, announced the appointment. (AWID)

CULTURAL:

• Sweet! IPS News has launched a new gender-focused portal, online at http://www.ipsnews.net/genderwire/. The website “intends to provide a knowledge center (for those) working for gender equality.” (AWID)