myMADRE

US Announces Support for Declaration on Indigenous Rights

More than three years ago, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples after decades of advocacy by Indigenous rights activists.  The result was a document that embodies progressive principles of human rights, collective rights, environmental justice and more.  In October 2007, just days after the Declaration was adopted, MADRE Communications Director Yifat Susskind wrote:

Passage of the Declaration was propelled and informed by the perspectives of Indigenous women, whose priorities are reflected throughout the text. The result is a Declaration that links the economic and social well-being of Indigenous Peoples at large to the rights of Indigenous “elders, women, youth, children and persons with disabilities.” The understanding that economic viability depends on broad recognition of human rights is one that could benefit all people working to build a more sustainable future.

In 2007, four countries voted against it: Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the US.  They did so seeking to prevent Indigenous Peoples from using the Declaration to advance claims to land, resources and rights that they are denied.  But in the years since, one by one, these four countries have let their opposition drop.  Just a few weeks ago, Canada joined Australia and New Zealand in voicing support for the Declaration, responding to the pressure and advocacy of Indigenous Peoples. 

Yesterday, President Obama announced that the US would finally sign the Declaration, ending the country's status as the last remaining hold-out and boosting recognition of the Declaration.  Nonetheless, When Canada signed on, it attached conditions and reservations to limit the impact of the Declaration, a move the US may attempt to repeat. In his announcement, Obama said:

"And as you know, in April, we announced that we were reviewing our position on the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. And today I can announce that the United States is lending its support to this declaration. The aspirations it affirms, including the respect for the institutions and rich cultures of Native peoples, are one we must always seek to fulfill."

 MADRE joins Indigenous rights advocates ready to hold him to that promise.

Obama Administration Chooses to Stand with Militaries That Expoit Child Soldiers

Last week, we learned that the Obama administration had made the appalling decision to subvert a rule designed to prevent US funding from supporting militaries that use child soldiers.  Immediately, we saw the impact that this would have on communities worldwide, including those of our sister organizations, that are grappling with this human rights violation. 

To denounce this policy move, I wrote this letter to the editor to the Washington Post:

This week, the Obama administration had a choice: Stand with children exploited as soldiers or with the militaries guilty of exploiting them ["Obama grants waiver that allows U.S. aid to continue to four countries using child soldiers," news story, Oct. 28]. It opted for the latter.

Despite claims to be putting the four offending countries "on notice," the decision to waive a cut-off of military aid has exactly the opposite effect. The United States has sent a clear message to Yemen, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Chad that they run no serious risk of sanctions. Other governments have also gotten the message.

Take Colombia, the staunchest of U.S. allies in South America. Recently, we conducted dozens of interviews with former Colombian child soldiers, including some used as spies by the military. They told us of their long struggle to overcome the trauma of a childhood abruptly ended as they were forced into a life of violence and combat. Thanks to the waiver, the Colombian government now has even less reason to end this human rights violation.

Unless the administration reverses its position, U.S. taxpayers will continue to foot the bill for militaries that turn children into killers. 

Take Action for World Food Day: Tell USAID to Buy Local in Sudan

Today is World Food Day, a chance for us to recognize the lethal threat that hunger poses to millions across the globe and to uplift innovative solutions.  MADRE sister organization in Sudan, Zenab for Women in Development, is creating just those solutions.  We've written on this blog about how their successful efforts to create a union of women farmers has helped them to see more fruitful harvests that generate income for their communities.  Women have pooled their resources to pay for their daughters' educations, to build a community center and to expand opportunities for themselves and for their families.

You can support women farmers, like the ones supported by Zenab for Women in Development and MADRE.  Sign this petition today and call for your tax dollars to support women farmers--not giant agribusinesses. 

Here's how it currently works in Sudan: Our tax dollars are used to buy grain from US factory farms—the same giant corporations that already receive $26 billion in tax subsidies. Then the grain is transported halfway around the world, using thousands of gallons of fossil fuel and releasing tons of harmful carbon emissions into the atmosphere. The transport typically takes months while hungry people grow more desperate. Once the food finally arrives, it floods agricultural markets, weakening farmers' abilities to make a living from their work. Small-scale farmers are the first to go bankrupt. Most are small-holder women farmers, who work small plots of land hoping to sell enough at market to buy cooking oil, flour, a bar of soap and a pair of shoes so a child can stay in school. This kind of globalized distribution method undermines the very people it seeks to help.

Click here to send a message to US policymakers: food aid crops should be purchased directly from women farmers in the regions targeted to receive assistance.

"Wars don't end, they live on."

Yesterday, Laura Flanders, a MADRE board member and the host of GRITtv, made a commentary about the cycle of war, as a NATO attack in Afghanistan took more civilian lives this week.  She wonders about what path we are forging, as violence leads to more violence.  Watch the video on her site or below:

More GRITtv

The False End to the Iraq War

Last night, many watched as President Obama announced that “the American combat mission in Iraq has ended” and that “Operation Iraqi Freedom is over.”

These words, with all their sense of finality, ring false.  US politicians may have decided that the war is over, but we know that Iraqi women and families continue to suffer as a result of the invasion.  For years, our sister organization, the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), has countered the threats against women triggered by war and occupation.  They have offered shelter to women widowed and displaced by violence.  They have stood up against targeted killings of women who defied religious restrictions by holding down professional jobs or by engaging in political activism.  The US invasion and occupation entrenched political and religious differences in a previously secular country, and women will continue to face the consequences.

We recently heard from Yanar Mohammed of OWFI, who also appeared on an episode of Democracy Now.  She explained more:

There is a lot of mending to be done after seven years of occupation in Iraq.
 
The withdrawal of US troops is always good. Nevertheless, the oppressive measures which stand in the way of freedom of speech and freedom to organize have been already established. Corruption levels are one of the highest in the world. Laws allowing women's enslavement are protected by our "democratic" religious\nationalist rulers.

In addition, it is clear that the removal of “combat brigades” will not mean the end of US military presence in Iraq.  President Obama made as much apparent when he stated that a “transitional force of US troops” will remain.  Meanwhile, thousands of private military contractors are rushing to fill any gaps left by US troops, and then some.  In fact, their number is projected to more than double in the coming months.

Despite the eagerness of President Obama and other US policymakers to “turn the page,” the conflict is Iraq is far from over.  MADRE remains committed to stand with our sister organization as they rebuild their lives and country on the basis of human rights.

President Obama to Ease Restrictions on US-Cuba Relations?

News has emerged lately of potential changes in US policy towards Cuba that would loosen long-standing restrictions.  According to some reports, President Obama is readying to partially undo obstacles to travel and to slightly open avenues for economic support long blocked by a decades-old embargo.

However, these proposed alterations will barely begin to approximate the real changes that have been demanded by MADRE and other social justice organizations for decades: an end to the embargo, a lifting of the travel ban and a normalization of US-Cuba relations.  Instead, the changes in the making from President Obama’s Administration would merely set back the clock to Clinton-era policies and only undo the more severe restrictions imposed by the Bush Administration.

Cuba has been the target of the longest-running embargo in US history, which has blocked access to necessities like food and medicine and undermined the well-being of Cuban women and families.  Travel restrictions hamper the ability of Cuban families to visit each other and restrict people’s freedom of movement.  Some members of the US Congress have recognized that these are failed policies and have voted HR 4645 through the House Committee on Agriculture, taking an important step towards an end to the embargo and travel ban.

President Obama is right to begin to undo these restrictions, but the job is only partially-done.  As new announcements of these incremental changes to US-Cuba policy emerge, we must continue to call for a complete end to these unpopular and harmful policies.

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. 

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

The Role of the US in Colombia's Conflict

We just released a public education resource on the war in Colombia called "MADRE Talking Points: The Role of the US in Colombia's Conflict."  It gives a broad overview of human rights issues in Colombia and how US policy has impacted people's lives in Colombia.  An excerpt is below.

The Conflict in a Nutshell

• For over 40 years, Colombians have endured an armed conflict over their country’s highly concentrated sources of natural wealth, especially land.
• In the mid-1960s, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) arose as a peasant movement demanding land redistribution and social reform from the government.
• Since the 1990s, the conflict has been a three-way war: the FARC is battling the government; the government is fighting to eliminate the FARC; and brutal paramilitary groups function symbiotically with the government and Army to protect the interests of powerful elites.
• Instead of battling one another directly, Colombia’s armed groups usually attack civilians suspected of siding with their enemy. The main victims of the conflict are women and families, hundreds of thousands of whom have been assaulted, displaced from their homes or killed.

Read the rest here.

Looking Back on the US Social Forum

Detroit is often portrayed as a city in crisis. Presently, Detroit has the highest unemployment rate of any major city with 23.2% (nearly 1 in 4 citizens) of the population without jobs. Michigan has held the number one position in the nation for unemployed for nearly 4 years.

Calling for social justice and demanding their rights, the people of Detroit have developed a culture of resistance. This mobilization extends to a variety of issues including "combating violence against youth, struggling against utility shutoffs, opposing pickups by the ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] in southwest Detroit and fighting the closing of schools." Detroit is one of the most active sites of social mobilization in the nation and the perfect site for the second US Social Forum that ended just this past weekend.

The US Social Forum allowed participants to actively engage in a five day discussion on multiple social, racial, gender, economic, and ecological concerns. Defined as a "multi-racial, multi-sectoral, inter-generational, diverse, inclusive, internationalist movement" the US Social Forum is a regional component of the similarly structured World Social Forum.

Attendees of the US Social forum are estimated to have amounted to over 20,000 with more than 1,000 workshops held.  While organized groups and interested individuals spanned both nationally and globally, about 17% of registered participants hailed from Detroit. Indeed, local activists utilized this opportunity to highlight the conditions within the city.

The US Social Forum was structured as an interactive conference in which participants were encouraged to lead discussions. The many broad themes of these workshops include democracy and governance, climate justice, and Indigenous sovereignty.

The topic of gender and women's rights was present throughout these various themes. On the second day of the forum MADRE human rights advocacy lawyer Lisa Davis participated in a panel on sex work. Calls were made for the increased accountability of the United States government through close scrutiny of its human rights record. Additional discussions concerning gender included the topic of media and the politics of race and gender. 

The US Social Forum provides individuals, ignored by legislative policies and continually silenced and victimized by mainstream media coverage, with a legitimate outlet to voice their concerns. Imagining a different world is integral to create social change. As the US Social Forum slogan reads, "Another World is Possible. Another US is Necessary."