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Reflecting on Messages from Our Sister Organizations in Guatemala and Mexico

Earlier today, I blogged about celebrating International Women's Day in Guatemala City, where I arrived yesterday. I met with the Director of one of our sister organizations here, the Women Workers' Committee, Sandra Gonzales. She shared with me a powerful statement honoring International Women's Day and demanding action against violence against women in Guatemala. She writes:

This March 8, we declare ourselves once again voices of change, promoting the adoption of measures to protect women, children and girls from the violence that prevails in our country. Under the banner of International Women's Day on this March 8, it's time to make way for the elimination of discriminatory cultural attitudes and economic inequalities that reinforce the subordination of women in society.

As Sandra and I spoke, I also received an International Women's Day message from our sister organization in Mexico, K'inal Antzetik. Their message echoed the demands of the Women Workers' Committee in Guatemala; similar challenges, like outright impunity for violence against women, plague both communities. This link between threats faced by women around the globe is well articulated in K'inal Antzetik's statement:

We send a hug of solidarity to our sisters in Sahara, Palestine and Colombia, to all those anonymous women in the world who are resisting on a daily basis and develop strategies for survival, to our Indigenous sisters, feminists and lesbians of Latin America and the world who will be holding events and forums, who will take the streets and will break the silence to denounce the violation of our rights as women, marching for a life free of violence, for sexual diversity, for sexual and reproductive rights, against military occupation, against patriarchy, for the rights of Indigenous women and against all forms of violence against women…

Our commitment as women will be to continue forward in our resistance, fueled by creativity, art, our motto, our march, participation in forums…and in an active and ongoing permanent commitment for a dignified life for all women worldwide.

To read the statement from the Women Workers' Committee in full, click here. To read the entire statement from K'inal Antzetik, click here.

Climate Change Conference in Cancún, Mexico Comes To A Close

The UN Conference on Climate Change in Cancún, Mexico began on November 29th and ended today. Following last year's highly anticipated but extremely disappointing conference in Copenhagen, this time around attendees were not only much fewer in number but also much less optimistic.

The bleak outcomes of last year's conference produced the Copenhagen Accord, a vague document that failed to legally bind any of its signatories to an effective agreement. Contrast that with the Kyoto Protocol, adopted at the climate change conference in 1997, which set binding targets for 37 industrialized countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. The Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012, adding urgency to this conference and next year's conference in South Africa.

But as international leaders and officials negotiate climate change within the walls of a luxury resort, members of grassroots organizations continued to protest outside, demanding policies that acknowledge those people most directly affected by climate change, including Indigenous Peoples.

MADRE and our partners have long advocated that Indigenous Peoples possess valuable knowledge about climate change and must be involved in the decision-making concerning climate change. MADRE's projects in Guatemala, Nicaragua and Panama, address this link between Indigenous rights, climate change, and food sovereignty. Friends of MADRE, like Tarcila Rivera of our partner organization CHIRAPAQ and Victoria Tauli-Corpuz of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, were also in Cancún pressuring officials to recognize the central role Indigenous Peoples and women must play in the climate change conferences.

(For more information on the links between women's rights and climate change, see our resources entitled "Climate Change and Women's Human Rights: The MADRE Model" and "A Women's Rights-based Approach to Climate Change".)

Unfortunately, civil society and officials alike remain pessimistic about the outcomes of the Cancún conferences. Even as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon acknowledged that "nature will not wait while we negotiate", most acknowledge that no overarching, binding agreement to reduce greenhouse gases will come out of this year's conference. And as Tom Goldtooth, one of the most prominent North American Indigenous activists was barred from attending the conference on Wednesday, the UN's readiness to engage with Indigenous Peoples in the process has been called into question.

But you can support Indigenous rights and Indigenous participation in combating climate change by supporting MADRE's various projects on climate change and environmental justice by clicking here.

http://unfccc.int/home/items/5262.php

Abortion Laws in Mexico and Nicaragua Endanger Women's Human and Reproductive Rights

The New York Times recently featured a disturbing article about the current state of women's reproductive rights in Guanajuato, Mexico. In Guanajuato, a state located in central Mexico, women who receive abortions are being prosecuted as murderers.

Guanajuato's government has traditionally been headed by Roman Catholic conservatives, which is one reason for their radical approach to abortion, but as women's rights advocates and some health officials have said, Guanajuato is no exceptional case. According to them, a "broad move to enforce antiabortion laws has gained momentum in other parts of Mexico," most likely as a backlash against Mexico City's 2007 decision to legalize abortion for women in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

Under these strict antiabortion laws, women who do not give birth to a healthy baby are often suspected of "homicide." The result is that many women are too scared to seek medical care in cases of miscarriage or stillbirth, severely endangering their own health. Eight women in Guanajuato have been convicted of homicide and jailed in recent years, and according to women's health advocates, 166 investigations on abortion have been opened in Guanajuato in the past ten years.

MADRE stands firm against laws restricting access to abortion, especially in situations where women are criminalized for their choices. Such laws violate women's human rights. Mexico is unfortunately only one of many countries in which women are denied access to safe abortions.

In 2006, Nicaragua became the third country in the Western hemisphere to completely outlaw abortion. While most forms of abortion have been illegal in Nicaragua for over 100 years, the 2006 vote banned therapeutic abortion, thereby outlawing abortions in cases of incest, rape, or danger to the women's health or life. The result is the degradation of women's reproductive rights and an increase in cases of women seeking unsafe, illegal abortions. MADRE continues to work in Nicaragua to lift the ban. Together with other US-based and Nicaraguan organizations, MADRE took part in preparing an international legal challenge to Nicaragua's abortion ban. The complete ban on abortion has yet to be revoked, but MADRE has continued to advocate for the protection of Nicaraguan women's reproductive and human rights and for the end of the abortion ban.

Human Rights in Mexico: A Casualty to Calderon's War on Drugs?

The war on drugs has raged within Mexico for years and casualties now number in the thousands.  No citizen is safe from violence, and civilians are often caught in the crossfire.

Recently, President Felipe Calderon has asked for patience from the Mexican people. He has defended all past efforts of his military-led offensive and has pledged to not withdraw the thousands of soldiers and federal police battling gangs across the country. Many Mexican citizens remain doubtful as these same forces are widely regarded as corrupt and unable to address threats to civilian well-being.

The Mexican government has also failed to implement policy that addresses gender-based crimes. Specifically in Juarez, these crimes have resulted in the deaths and disappearances of hundreds of women.Juarez currently sustains a rate of 191 murders per 100,000 residents and was named the most violent city in the world in 2009.

What, then, explains the specificity of the crimes and torture and murder of so many women? As MADRE blogger Medina del Castillo noted, "Since 1993, more than 500 women between the ages of 12 and 22 years of age have gone missing." The gender-based nature of these crimes have been linked to a prevalence of violence against women produced through the direct challenge of gender roles. As Lien De Coster writes for The WIP:

Several factors influence the extreme sexist violence in Ciudad Juárez. This border town across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas has a flourishing economy. Not only is it an important transit point for illegal drugs and immigration into the United States, but many multinational companies from the USA have moved their factories over the border because of lower operating costs, including taxes and wages. A large number of the femicide victims in Juárez once worked in these factories under horrible labor conditions, including long shifts day and night . 35% of the inhabitants of Juárez are immigrants who either moved to Juárez or stayed awhile before heading to the United States. These factors have resulted in a constantly changing population and a lack of a social safety net. 

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But it is a fact that the societal situation in Juárez is putting pressure on traditional gender roles. A lot of women working in Juárez reach a certain level of autonomy and are economically independent from men. On top of this, traveling to and from work, they systematically penetrate public space, even at night. In this way they don’t conform to the sociocultural gender codes of their society. This behavior sets off a reaction from macho men who don’t want to lose their power. Combined with the exceptional economic, political, and judicial situation in town this response too often manifests in its worst form; femicide.

Similarly, this culture of violence has extended to human rights defenders within Mexico. These activists are frequently the target of police aggression and intimidation. Activists working on cases linked to the drug war and to Indigenous Peoples' rights are particularly targeted.  Murders of human rights defenders, such as Beatriz Alberta Carino Trujillo, have become all too common.

International exposure, provided through the efforts of local groups, has led to the incorporation of the December 2009 decision by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights into the European Parliaments strategic plan for Latin American relationships. 

Defending the use of violence to stop violence Calderon described his anti-drug offensive as an effort to protect the human rights of all Mexicans against powerful criminals. Clearly, this anti-drug offensive has done very little to protect Mexican citizens. Reform of government and state policy must now be enacted with special attention to human rights. As, UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston stated, "Human rights must not be permitted to be a casualty in the fight against drugs and crime."

But it is a fact that the societal situation in Juárez is putting pressure on traditional gender roles. A lot of women working in Juárez reach a certain level of autonomy and are economically independent from men. On top of this, traveling to and from work, they systematically penetrate public space, even at night. In this way they don’t conform to the sociocultural gender codes of their society. This behavior sets off a reaction from macho men who don’t want to lose their power. Combined with the exceptional economic, political, and judicial situation in town this response too often manifests in its worst form; femicide.

Women of Juarez - Just Another Number?

We have all heard the stories of the recent number of deaths connected with Mexico’s current drug violence.  Since 2006, more than 22,700 people have been killed.  In 2009 alone, 9,635 people were killed. 

However, what have not often been mentioned in the news is the often gender-based nature of the killings that have occurred and still occur in Juarez.  Since 1993, more than 500 women between the ages of 12 and 22 years of age have gone missing.  They have later been found sexually abused, mutilated, or left for dead.   More than 50 have been killed since January 2010.  The deaths mainly have occurred among poor women who travel home late at night from the maquilas.  Many believe the murders have been linked to gang initiations, domestic violence, or selling of organs.

In 2004, the Mexican government set up a task force to investigate these crimes, but this failed due to corruption, incompetence, or witness intimidation.  Alicia Elena Perez, a special prosecutor for crimes against women, who resigned in 2007 out of frustration of the system stated, “Our culture in general is one of abuse of power. Violence against women is just part of this dynamic.”

However, local organizations refuse to give up and have set up their own task forces in response to the government's failed efforts.  Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa AC (Civil Association for the Return Home of Our Daughters), an organization comprised of mothers and family members of victims, has raised awareness and pressured the Mexican government to take action.  Some mothers have sent their cases to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.  As a result, in December 2009, the court found the Mexico government negligent on preventing the violence, ordered the Chihuahua state government to reopen investigations, punish officials associated with corrupt investigations, and to build a monument in memory of the victims by end of the 2010.  Hopefully, these investigations will bear fruit. It will take more than a monument to bring justice for these women.

Women's Human Rights Defender Bety Cariño & Finnish Activist Tyri Antero Jaakkola Killed in an Ambush

We received the terrible news that three days ago, in a violent paramilitary ambush in Oaxaca, Mexico, the women's human rights defender Beatríz Alberta (Bety) Cariño Trujillo and an international observer from Finland Tyri Antero Jaakkola were both killed.

A caravan of human rights activists was traveling to San Juan Copala, carrying provisions for the Indigenous communities in that area whose access to basic supplies and services has been cut off by paramilitary activity.  As they approached the town of La Sabana, they came under fire. Bety Cariño and Tyri Antero Jaakkola were killed in the attack, and others have gone missing.

For more information, click here for a statement from Front Line.

Bety Cariño worked with the Centro de Apoyo Comunitario Trabajando Unidos CACTUS (Centre for Community Support Working Together).  In February, she spoke at an event organized by Front Line, an organization dedicated to the protection of human rights defenders.  You can watch the video (in Spanish) from Front Line here:

Survivors of Domestic Violence May Be Eligible for Asylum, After Shift in US Policy

Today, we saw the news that a shift in US immigration policy may create the possibility of granting asylum in the US to survivors of domestic violence.  In the New York Times, this article retells the heartbreaking story of a Mexican woman known in US immigration court documents only as L.R., who was held captive and repeatedly raped by her common-law husband.  Fearing for her life, she applied for asylum in the US, and a court filing by the Obama Administration has opened up the possibility of a positive decision.

Below is a statement that MADRE released today on this development:

With a recent court filing in the case of a woman from Mexico seeking asylum in the US, the Obama Administration has signaled a shift in immigration law to make it possible for women survivors of severe domestic and sexual abuse to seek and obtain asylum.

In a marked departure from the Bush Administration position, the new policy holds that battered women do meet the standard of membership in a "persecuted group."  This change in categorization by the Obama Administration recognizes that domestic abuse is not simply a private or family matter.  Rather, it represents a violation of women's human rights and merits consideration in asylum cases.

While this express change in policy creates possibilities for battered women, it remains to be seen whether the unidentified Mexican woman in the case in question will actually be granted asylum.  The policy also maintains strict limitations in order for women to qualify.  Women must be able to provide evidence of the severity of their abuse and of the lack of recourse in their own countries.  In one specific exception, the shift in policy does not apply to women escaping genital mutilation.

MADRE welcomes this opening in US immigration law, calling for the full realization and implementation of this important policy shift.  We emphasize that freedom of movement is a fundamental human right not only for asylum seekers, but for all, and that additional policy changes are needed to bring all of US immigration law into compliance with the full range of international human rights standards.

10 Examples of Women Changing Their World

It’s always great to be able to uplift success stories and inspiring accounts from women’s organizing worldwide.  That’s why we wanted to showcase a report released last fall by the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID).  As part of their Building Feminist Movements and Organizations initiative, AWID brought together ten case studies illustrating the strategies of women’s movements.  The report is titled “Changing Their World”, and the following are short examples and excerpts from their publication.

Mexico’s National Coordinating Committee of Indigenous Women is a network found in 14 states of Mexico and consists of Indigenous women’s groups and statewide women’s networks. The initial goal of the CNMI was to provide a broad, inclusive space in which the voices of Indigenous women could be heard but has broadened to include defending the demands of the national Indigenous movement as well as political participation.

“The dialogue carried on in various meetings and forums between feminists and Indigenous women’s activists has led to many advances that includes broadening the comprehension of how to relate gender identity to other identities; dismantling the view of Indigenous women as a vulnerable group lacking the ability and power to bring about changes in their own condition; and recognizing the needs to create alliances with other social movements.”

“The voice of the Indigenous women of Mexico resounds more intensely day by day and there’s no doubt that these women have become a fundamental political anchor in re-founding the nation.”

Those of the lowest castes in India, sometimes known as “untouchables,” adopted the name “Dalit,” meaning crack or split in Sanskrit, in the late sixties. The term Dalit refers to those who have been broken, ground down by those above them in a deliberate way. The Dalit Mahila Samiti (DMS) is an organization of over 1500 Dalit women located in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh who are working to end this discrimination.

“The collective nature of the leadership of the DMS is a major strength as it is based on collective decision making and not on one or two charismatic leaders. The leadership also comes from a large geographical area, and draws on the extensive experience of many women.”

“This movement of over 1500 women from a remote area in a very feudal, backward part of India has shown its power to challenge injustice and oppression, and enhance equality, justice and dignity for both Dalit women and men.”

What differentiates GROOTS Kenya is that it sees itself as a movement and not as a network or NGO. GROOTS Kenya works within four main areas: community response to HIV/AIDS, community resources and livelihood, women and property, and women leadership and governance.

“GROOTS Kenya has been one of the lead organizations pushing for a change in Africa from traditional NGO organizing towards having grassroots women at the forefront of advocacy, with NGOs providing back support.”

“…the politics of exclusion and inclusion generally, and due to geography specifically, continue to be a problem that causes major rifts in what could otherwise be a coherent women’s movement in Kenya. For this reason, there are many ways in which the work that GROOTS Kenya is doing is laudable, in terms of its efforts at building a grassroots based movement that spans geographical and ethnic divides of Kenya.”

25th Anniversary Video Countdown: “Zapatista” 1998

In 1998, four years after the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) came into effect, MADRE Executive Director Vivian Stromberg took part in a documentary that profiled another four-year-old phenomenon: the Zapatistas. Emerging from Chiapas, one of the poorest states in Mexico, the Zapatistas placed themselves in opposition to the neoliberal policies and corporate globalization that threatened Indigenous livelihoods and cultures. As the movement grew, disenfranchised peoples around the world aligned themselves with the Zapatistas.

Below is a clip from the film, produced by Big Noise Films.