myMADRE

Afghanistan: What's Happened on our Watch?

Many of you have no doubt seen the very disturbing image on the cover of this week's Time Magazine. As a supporter of MADRE you may remember Bebe, the woman on the cover (where she's called Aisha). We wrote about her in May when we activated MADRE's Afghan Women's Survival Fund to raise support for her to receive emergency shelter. At the time, we made a decision not to post photos of Bebe because we were concerned that these brutal images could be used to sensationalize her ordeal and turn her into an Internet spectacle. 

For those of us who have been working to support Bebe and the many other Afghan women who are standing up for their rights, there is something even more disturbing than the photo on the cover of Time. And that is the fact that this type of violence against women is commonplace in Afghanistan.

Time Magazine makes the assumption that US troops in Afghanistan can and will improve prospects for women there. Our friend Lucinda Marshall of the Feminist Peace Network rejects that claim quite forcefully. Here at MADRE, we took a position opposing Obama's December 2009 decision to increase the number of US forces in Afghanistan precisely because we've seen so few indications that the human rights crisis of Afghan women is abating. Bebe after all, was attacked in 2009--eight years after Afghanistan was "liberated" by the US/NATO war. 

It's clear that this war needs to end. The question is how to end the war in a way that safeguards human rights for all Afghans--in particular for women, who are most at risk. As the Afghan women's movement hammers out its demands and proposed solutions for a settlement, MADRE will continue to support women like Bebe whose lives are hanging in the balance. 

Visiting a Camp for Displaced People in Port-au-Prince

In Port-au-Prince, not too far from the collapsed presidential palace, there is a camp called Mosolee.  It sits on the grounds in front of the National Museum, in a large space surrounded by concrete walls.  This morning, we arrived at one of the entrances and were met by a woman who works with a women's group active in that camp, FAVILEK.  She led us through the camp, where we also met with one of the camp leaders.

We had already heard positive things about that camp, and we got more detail from our conversations there.  Comprised of some 600 families, the camp is divided into four segments, each of which elects two representatives to an overall camp committee.  In three of the four segments, one of the leaders elected is a woman.  Together, they have been working to organize better security for the camps, and they have been able to fight to keep sexual violence against women at bay.  Even so, when we arrived, they told us that two women had been raped in the camp in the past week.  The priority in the conversation was organizing themselves to provide their own security, for instance through night watches and patrols.

Delivering Whistles and Flashlights to KOFAVIV

When Lisa and I arrived at the Port-au-Prince airport earlier this week, we were carrying a bag full of items donated by MADRE members through our Helping Hands program, including whistles, flashlights and basic medical supplies.

My computer is having problems uploading photos and videos, and I really wish I could show all of you blog readers what happened when the women of KOFAVIV opened the bag yesterday.  They gathered in the back courtyard of the Bureau of International Advocates (French acronym, BAI), a space that grassroots Haitian women's groups have been using to organize their activities.  Immediately, they began passing out the medical supplies and flashlights, and some women hung the whistles on strings around their necks. 

One by one, they explained what the whistles have meant to women in the camps.  Women in the camps who come under threat, facing an attacker, are able to blow their whistle three times, alerting people nearby to come to their aid.

We recently co-authored a report with IJDH and other organizations on the incidence of sexual violence in the camps and how it continues to be a constant threat against women and girls.  Women's groups -- realizing all too well what the lack of security, the lack of lighting, the lack of secure housing means for protecting women's safety -- have struggled to create their own responses to these threats with little support from the Haitian government or international institutions.

But yesterday, the sun was setting, the air was cooler than it had been all day, and there was an energy in the air as they told the stories of their work.  Because the reality is that, in some cases, whistles in the camps have stopped rapes.  When KOFAVIV can deliver more whistles, they are working to prevent sexual violence against women, and they have seen it happen.

As soon as possible, we will share photos and videos on the blog.

A Peaceful Boycott Should Not be a Crime

In its bid to maintain its occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, the Israeli government has launched a new offensive, this one against its own citizens. A bill that is currently before the Knesset would allow Israelis who support boycotts against Israel to be sued for damages. The bill is part of a government backlash against a small but growing number of Israelis who have taken up the tactic of boycott, sanctions and divestment (BDS) to bring about an end to their government’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. The Real News Network recently presented this report on the bill and the Israeli BDS movement. 

Human rights organizations in Israel and internationally have condemned the bill as draconian and anti-democratic. Human Rights Watch has called on the Knesset to reject it along with three other bills “that would seriously restrict the rights of Israelis to criticize the policies and actions of their government.”  

If passed, the “Boycott Prohibition” bill could be detrimental to Israeli organizations, such as the groups that comprise the Coalition of Women for Peace. CWP, as the Coalition is known, runs Who Profits, a database of corporations that benefit from the Israeli occupation. Last year, the Coalition called on the Norwegian Government Pension Fund to divest from corporations that help to maintain the occupation. 

According to Yasmeen Daher, of CWP, peace and human rights activists in Israel face a range of threats beyond the government’s latest efforts to outlaw political dissent: 

“In the past year, we have seen an increasing wave of assaults against Palestinian and Israeli human rights defenders and civil society organizations– by Israeli officials, security forces, journalists and right-wing organizations. Palestinians who engage in the popular struggle are arrested and terrorized and Israelis who protest the government’s illegal policies are marked as “traitors”. The Israeli policy regarding nonviolent protest is that any opinion that does not serve the so-called “national interest” should be persecuted, silenced and quashed.”

Other groups threatened by the “Boycott Prohibition” bill include the Alternative Information Center, whose reports and perspective MADRE has relied on for many years (and where I worked for five years before joining the staff of MADRE), and the Israeli Committee against House Demolitions, with whom MADRE has partnered to help rebuild Palestinian family homes destroyed by the Israeli military. 

We may not all agree about whether boycotts are the right tactic to use at this time in our efforts to end the occupation. But we should all agree to oppose repression against activists who use non-violent tactics to press their government to comply with international law. That’s what Israeli supporters of BDS are doing and they deserve our support. 

Haitian Women's Organizations Make Their Voices Heard at UN Meeting

On our first day in Haiti, grassroots women's organizations -- including our sister organization KOFAVIV -- stood up in a UN meeting on gender-based violence and demanded that their voices be heard. 

For months, women in the camps for displaced people have faced persistent sexual violence, and they have found few if any effective solutions coming from the UN.  Claims that patrols have increased or that arrests have taken place have paled in the face of accounts from women who have seen little change in the security conditions for the camps.  For more information on this, read this recently released report co-authored by MADRE, Our Bodies Are Still Trembling - Haitian Women's Fight Against Rape.

The reality is that grassroots women's groups have been mostly shut out from the process of crafting a response to the real threat of rapes in the camps.  Meanwhile, they have mobilized their own solutions, distributing whistles to women living in camps and organizing groups of women to accompany each other to vulnerable locations like bathrooms, where many attacks have previously taken place.

Early this morning, the women's groups gathered at the offices of the Bureau of International Advocates (BAI) to strategize their approach to the UN meeting.  They selected representatives of the groups who would speak, and they created a unified message.

Arriving at the meeting -- which was held in French with no translation for Kreyol speakers -- the women did not sit back quietly.  Eramithe Delva, one of the leaders of KOFAVIV, stood up and talked about the innovative solutions that women's groups have put into place to counter the threat of sexual violence.  She asked where was the support of the Haitian government and of the UN system.  And, moments later, the head of the meeting invited KOFAVIV to return to the meeting on gender-based violence next week and do a full presentation.

It's a story of the impact of relentless advocacy.  Grassroots Haitian women's organizations went from being ignored to being invited in as central speakers.  Now, we need to make sure that this gesture has meaning, and that KOFAVIV and other women's organizations are allowed to make real contributions to the UN discussion and solutions on gender-based violence in the camps.

Heading to Port-au-Prince

As I write this blog entry, I am awaiting a connecting flight at the Miami International Airport to travel to Port-au-Prince, Haiti.  Here with me is Lisa Davis, MADRE Human Rights Advocacy Director and a fellow contributor to this blog.

In the coming days, we will be meeting with the women of KOFAVIV, our sister organization in Haiti, who have been hard at work confronting sexual violence against women, before and since the earthquake struck in January.  We will visit camps for displaced people, who still face drastic shortages of basic necessities and a lack of security, more than six months after the earthquake.  And MADRE will join other organizations, like the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, to present our findings to Haitian government officials and UN representatives.

Throughout the week, we'll be posting updates on our work, including photos and videos, so be sure to check back here.

MADRE's 'Born into War', Child Soldiers Photo Exhibit

Wednesday night saw MADRE host the successful ‘Born into War’ event: An Exhibit of Photos and Drawings by Former Child Soldiers in Colombia and Uganda.

Held at the great Salt Space venue, an impressive turnout of both old and new followers of MADRE arrived to show their support and interest for the event. In addition to enjoying an evening of refreshments, an array of photos and paintings by former child soldiers were on display to view and admire. The photos were the results of the invaluable programs being run by MADRE’s sister organizations in Colombia.

Taller de Vida helps former child soldiers express themselves through art therapy. The pictures held a mixture of stories and meanings behind them; while some represented and explained the photographer’s past or their emotions and feelings associated with their time as a child soldier, others depicted their hopes and the dreams for the future.

The evening was designed to highlight how years of war in these regions have had terrible and devastating consequences for the women and children caught up in the conflict. Lisa Davis, MADRE’s Human Rights Advocacy Director spoke of her recent trip to Geneva where she presented a report, written in conjunction with a coalition of Colombian human rights organizations, to the UN Human Rights Committee. 

The findings of the report demonstrated that despite claims from the Colombian government, serious violations of women and children’s rights continue as a result of government policies and the years of conflict. 

Additionally, Anna Safir, a previous MADRE intern who now works at the UN, gave a special presentation detailing her personal encounter with Ugandan children. She shared their harrowing experiences, many of which involved stories of being forced to kill friends, family or other children, but more importantly emphasized how these children can now hope and plan for a better future. 

Throughout the event a silent auction took place, and all of the photographs were sold by the end of the night! The proceeds will benefit MADRE’s work to provide the former child soldiers with the support they need to create alternatives to a life of violence.

 

In Israel, Miscegenation Equals Rape

On Monday, Sabbar Kashur, a young Palestinian man from East Jerusalem, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for something called “rape by deception.” Apparently, Mr. Kashur had consensual sex with a Jewish Israeli woman after assuring her that he was also Jewish. When she found out that he had lied to her, she went to the police.

Imagine living in a society where you can say, “I wish I had never slept with you. I’m going to the cops.” Only it’s not funny because Sabbar Kashur will probably go to jail for a year and a half. Meanwhile, efforts to combat actual sexual violence are undermined by a cynical distortion of the term rape. The real crime here, of course, is miscegenation.

Anyone from the US should recognize the Jerusalem District Court’s ruling for what it is: an anti-miscegenation measure on par with the now-defunct US laws against “race mixing” that were once used to uphold white supremacy. For most of us in the US, dating across race lines now seems about as edgy as wearing white after Labor Day. You can read Angela Davis’ Women, Race and Class for a reminder of how white Americans’ obsession with “racial purity” was codified to keep African Americans and white women in their place. That’s the paradigm in which we should understand this case.

In the US, anti-miscegenation laws were on the books until 1967, when the Supreme Court declared them unconstitutional. That was the same year that Israel began its occupation of Sabbar Kashur’s home in East Jerusalem. Since then, Israelis have fine-tuned their own obsession with racial purity. Only they like to call it “national purity,” since Jewish privilege in Israel depends on maintaining the Jewish character of the state. In fact, race-mixing is perceived as such a threat that more than half of all Israeli Jews agree that Jewish-Arab intermarriage is a form of treason.

In the East Jerusalem “neighborhood” (it’s really a settlement) of Pisgat Ze’ev, a group of men who call themselves "Fire for Judaism” actually patrol the streets in the hopes of spotting and disrupting relationships between Jewish women and Palestinian men. The Israeli towns of Petah Tikva, Kiryat Gat and even super-liberal Tel Aviv have government-sponsored municipal programs to prevent miscegenation. The programs include psychological counseling for Jewish women who stray and a hotline for people to inform on Jewish women who date Palestinians.

The goal of this week’s court ruling (and of Israeli laws governing marriage, adoption and surrogacy) is to prevent Jews and Palestinians from forming intimate or family relationships. In the West Bank, this degree of separation is ensured by a giant concrete wall that runs through much of the territory. But where there is no wall, the state will rely on other forms of power to maintain strict separation between the two peoples of this land. By the way, the Afrikaans word for separation is Apartheid.

Survey for Young Women Activists

We received this information from AWID about their efforts to gather information about young women activists and resource mobilization.  If you have some time, click on the link below to take part!  The survey closes on July 25.

Calling all young women activists... Answer AWID's survey and help design a new funding and resource mobilization initiative to support young women!
 
What are young women doing to advance women's rights globally? What are their sources of funding and resource mobilization needs?
 
AWID's new survey gathers detailed information on the strategies, funding situation and resource mobilization needs of women's rights and gender equality activism led by young women or transgender young people.

CEDAW Committee Meets Again; US Still Has Not Ratified

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) is an internationally recognized human rights treaty that seeks to establish universal gender equality. The Convention addresses existing gender disparity within social, economic, and political spheres. CEDAW also focuses on the rights of vulnerable groups within populations of women such as women with disabilities, rural and Indigenous women, displaced women, and older women.

This month, the United Nations will hold the 46th review of CEDAW in New York. Representatives from national and international non-governmental organizations as well as state delegates will assemble as the CEDAW Committee of Expert assesses the national progress within Albania, Argentina, Australia, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, the Russian Federation, Turkey, and India.

Human rights conventions such as CEDAW provide for increased transparency and accountability of government actions. This transparency is created through the engagement of civil society in the review process. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are encouraged to submit a shadow report that parallels national state delegations assessment of progress. This process provides a voice for critical groups and is extremely vital in improving the status of women globally.

Currently, this treaty has been ratified by 186 countries with the United States notably missing. In the past, efforts to move CEDAW forward in the Senate have been compromised by conservative representatives who have attached harmful reservations to the treaty that strip away many of these protections.

Last December, for the 30th anniversary of CEDAW, myMADRE posted information about the danger posed by the currently attached reservations:

Opponents of the treaty have tried to ensure that if it is ever ratified, the approved version will be so watered down as to actually endanger rights that women already have. Here’s what they did: In 1994 and then again in 2002, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee created a set of conditions called RUDs -- Reservations, Understandings, and Declarations -- to weaken CEDAW. The 11 RUDs undo the treaty’s call for paid maternity leave and access to reproductive health care, including, of course, contraception and abortion.

Join MADRE in efforts to ratify a clean CEDAW without harmful reservations.

Full treaty text of CEDAW: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/cedaw.htm