White Ribbon Campaign UK

SlutWalk Edinburgh

2011-06-20T09:17:00.001+01:00

All photographs courtesy of David Lesault http://cowidget.demotix.com/users/lesault/profile

White Ribbon Campaign UK adds it support for Edinburgh SlutWalk - 'Whatever we wear, wherever we go, Yes means Yes and NO means NO' - and rape is rape.

200 peaceful protesters marched down Edinburgh's Royal Mile to the Scottish Parliament to raise awareness of attitudes to rape and sexual assault. Edinburgh, Scotland. 18th June 2011

Protestors pose for photographs in West Parliament Square at the start of the Edinburgh SlutWalk.

At 2pm on Saturday 18th June, the SlutWalk movement arrived in Edinburgh to raise awareness of attitudes to rape and sexual assault.

A group of around 200 people marched from West Parliament Square down the Royal Mile to the Scottish Parliament buildings at Holyrood. The aim of the march was to raise awareness of attitudes to rape and sexual assault, specifically that what a person wears does not give a rapist an excuse to attack them.

Protestors began gathering outside St Giles Cathederal around 1:30pm and the march began at 2pm. Many of the participants were wearing stockings, suspenders, corsets and mini-skirts and chanted "However we dress, wherever we go, yes means yes and no means no." People held placards with messages such as "It's a skirt, not permission", "My dress was not a yes" and "No means no whatever you're wearing". Many of the placards called for the sacking of Kenneth Clarke after his recent comments on the seriousness of rape.

There was a fairly large police presence with police motorcycles clearing the road in front of the march but the protest was good natured and passed peacefully.

There were some short talks from support groups, the SlutWalk organisers and rape survivors outside the Scottish Parliament building.

INTERNATIONAL: Violence against women: an international epidemic

2010-09-09T10:35:00.000+01:00

These are extracts from an article written by Gerald Caplan, published in Canada, the original home of the White Ribbon Campaign.

Twelve girls and women have been murdered by family members in Canada since 2002; these grisly deaths, perversely known as honour killings, have all taken place in certain minority communities. But these minorities have no monopoly on such savage brutality. In Ontario alone between 2002 and 2007, 202 women were murdered by their partners, an astonishing average of 42 each year.

About 20 years ago I was part of a small group of men who founded the White Ribbon Campaign – men working to end violence against women. It was one of the best things I've ever done. The campaign continues to operate both in Canada and many other countries, doing its best to make men aware that any kind of physical violence against women is completely unacceptable, full stop. There are no exceptions. The best-known of the founding members of the White Ribbon Campaign was Jack Layton and he has never tried to exploit his contribution for political gain, a rare example of integrity that I have long admired.

The full article can be found at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/violence-against-women-an-international-epidemic/article1657795/

Adriana Running London Office

2010-05-21T20:15:00.002+01:00

A warm welcome to Adriana who will now be running the London office. We are sorry to lose Kaitlin but are equally enthusiastic about Adriana taking the helm. Best wishes to her in her new capacity as London co-ordinator for the White Ribbon Campaign

A Fond Farewell

2010-04-23T15:34:00.001+01:00

My time with the White Ribbon Campaign UK has come to an end and I am moving on to another human rights organisation. It's been a delight working with the White Ribbon Campaign and I look forward to supporting this campaign in the future. This blog will likely be inactive for a few weeks until my replacement is settled in London.

While you're waiting for the blog to start up again, check out these books and movies relating to male violence against women:

Books

(1) This Charming Man by Marian Keyes - A story of four women and one very "charming" man

(2) A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini - an amazing story of two women in Afghanistan and how they're lives converge over several decades

(3) The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson - The first of the Millennium series, this gripping thriller was originally titled "Men Who Hate Women." It's a bit slow at the beginning, but takes off about halfway through. The Swedish film adaptation of this book is in theatres now. Though not as good as the book, it is still a decent film. Warning: it is a bit graphic.

(4) The Woman Who Walked into Doors by Roddy Doyle - this infamous novel is about Paula Spencer, abused by her husband. The novel is narrated from her perspective.

Movies

(1) North Country - Based on a true story, this film tells the story of a group of female mine workers who win a landmark sexual harassment case.

(2) Behind the Smile - A short documentary on prostitution and trafficking in the UK, produced by the Anti-Trafficking Alliance. It can be seen here.

(3) The Stoning of Soraya M. - I first saw this at the Toronto Film Festive almost 3 years ago, and it has stayed with me every since. It tells the true story of an Iranian woman who is falsely accused of adultery and is consequently stoned. An amazing film, the climactic stoning scene is very difficult to watch, but extremely important to convey the horror of the act.

(4) There are several other films relating to violence against women. Hollywood films include Precious: Based on the novel "Push" by Sapphire, Sleeping with the Enemy, the Colour Purple, and Enough.

Take care, and continue to never commit, condone, or remain silent about violence against women! And keep checking our new and improved website: www.whiteribboncampaign.co.uk

x Kaitlin Bardswich

Women in Politics

2010-04-22T13:20:00.015+01:00

As the second political party leaders' debate takes place this evening, it's fitting to ask - Where do women's rights fit in? Last month, our friends at Eaves hosted Women's Question Time. The panellists were Vera Baird QC MP (Labour), Theresa May MP (Conservative), Lynne Featherstone MP (Liberal Democrat), and Caroline Lucas MEP (Green). The panel was chaired by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, columnist for The Independent. This panel gave us a rare look at the women in politics, when the focus is usually on the men - and the male party leaders. Yesterday, an an article appeared in The Guardian on this topic:

Women in a very male general election
Election 2010 sees increased emphasis on party leaders which MPs say is marginalising female political voices

Amelia Gentleman
The Guardian, Wednesday 21 April 2010
Article history
‘A woeful lack of representation’… (Left to right) Labour MPs and parliamentary candidates Meg Hillier, Stella Creasy, Joan Ruddock, Tessa Jowell, Harriet Harman and Diane Abbott. Photograph: John Stillwell/PA/PA
The increasingly presidential style of the UK general election campaign has edged senior women politicians out of the forefront of the political debate, shifting focus instead on to the wives of the three party leaders, a number of prominent female Labour MPs conceded today.
Women in all three main parties have been at the margins of the political campaign, with greater attention paid to the activities and outfits of the leaders' spouses than to the roles played by senior women politicians, in a shift described as a significant regression by campaigners for improved representation of women in parliament.
The shift in focus has been exacerbated by the increasing prominence that the leaders' debates are playing in the campaign, concentrating attention on the three male party leaders rather than a wider spectrum of politicians, and triggering an intensified interest in the supporting role played by their partners.
"As we watch this election, it is clear that women politicians are markedly absent. We have a lot of wives, but not many women MPs," said Kat Banyard, co-founder of UK Feminista and author of The Equality Illusion, a recent study of modern feminism. "All the main players are white men. The lack of female role models is really stark."
Ceri Goddard, chief executive of the Fawcett Society, which campaigns for greater equality between men and women, said: "There is still a woeful lack of senior representation of women in politics and that is reflected in the election campaign."
At an event yesterdaythis morning to celebrate the record number of women standing as Labour candidates, Tessa Jowell, Cabinet Office minister, acknowledged that traditional aspects of the campaign, such as press conferences, had been supplanted by the leaders' debates, shifting more attention to the male leaders, but she stressed that she and other women politicians still "feel at the forefront" of the campaign.
"This is the most activist-led, grassroots-led campaign that I have worked on, largely driven by the internet. Women MPs are all over the country getting votes."
Harriet Harman, deputy leader of the Labour party, said: "Politics has always been male-dominated – that's why we have much more work to do."
"There is a growing celebrity culture in this country," said Joan Ruddock, an undersecretary in the Department of Energy and Climate Change. "It is inevitable that the leaders' families are more prominent than a decade ago. The Obama election has played into that as well."
Defending the party's record, Harman said Labour had attracted many more women into parliament than the other two main parties, with three times more female MPs in the last parliament than all other parties put together – 94 women MPs, compared with 18 for the Conservatives and nine for the Lib Dems. In seats where Labour MPs are retiring, 53% of Labour candidates are women.
Diane Abbott, Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, said that, when she first stood as a candidate in 1987, "Many people didn't believe that I could win because the notion of an MP was of a middle-aged white guy in a suit. Things really have moved on. If you raised subjects like work-life balance or childcare 20 years ago, people would say, 'But that's not really politics.' Now the party leaders are all talking about it. Things have progressed – perhaps not as much as I would have liked, but they have progressed."
Jowell argued that the number of policies benefiting women and children during Labour's administration was a reflection of the increased representation of women, citing Sure Start, better childcare facilities and child tax credits.
Campaigners such as Goddard believe the way politicians have tried to appeal to female voters marks a regression.
"There is a focus on women as mothers and only mothers, particularly as the polling is showing that middle-class mothers are a key voting group and all three parties are targeting them. This has had the unfortunate knock-on effect that much of the coverage of women in the campaign has been about women as mothers."
The Conservative party's drive to alter the male-dominated profile of its shadow cabinet has failed, according to a poll published in the Financial Times this week, in which most people questioned could not name a single female Tory MP. Theresa May, shadow work and pensions secretary, is a lone female figure in the Conservative campaign. But party officials point out that a third of its candidates are women, most in winnable seats.
"If the Conservatives have a majority of one we will have 60 female MPs in parliament," May said yesterday. "However, I realise we need to continue the process of getting more women involved in politics."
Banyard is despondent about the proportion of women MPs. "There was massive progress in 1997 when we saw the number of women MPs doubling. But that has ground to a halt and we only have six more women MPs today than we did in 1997," she said. "We have slipped to 73rd place in the world league table for women's representation as MPs."

And if you want to read about Conservative MP Theresa May, who has been a keen supporter of the White Ribbon Campaign UK, check out The Guardian's December article here.

Women's Link Worldwide's Gender Justice Uncovered Awards

2010-04-21T15:21:00.003+01:00

Women's Link Worldwide is an international human rights non-profit organization working to ensure that gender equality is a reality worldwide. They annually judge the Gender Justice Uncovered Awards, deciding on the best and worst decision made in English or Spanish relating to gender justice. There is also a People's Choice Award based on the public's vote. So make sure you vote by May 10!

Check out the video on the Gender Justice Uncovered Awards:

Across the world, people are uploading videos to explain why they are voting for the Gender Justice Uncovered Awards. Here's a video from Iceland:

And here's a short video I made of my friend Paul Goldsworthy discussing the Awards in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

The White Ribbon Campaign UK supports the Gender Justice Awards. Vote by May 10 here.

Earthquakes Caused By Promiscuous Women

2010-04-20T19:28:00.002+01:00

Today the BBC reported on a story from Iran, where a senior cleric said that promiscuous women are responsible for earthquakes. While most will find this laughable, it is also an example of hate speech that could lead to violence against women if they are viewed as being "promiscuous" and therefore responsible for earthquakes. Let's hope that does not happen.

Iranian cleric blames quakes on promiscuous women

More than 25,000 people died in the Bam quake

Promiscuous women are responsible for earthquakes, a senior Iranian cleric has said.
Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi told worshippers in Tehran last Friday that they had to stick to strict codes of modesty to protect themselves.
"Many women who do not dress modestly lead young men astray and spread adultery in society which increases earthquakes," he said.
Tens of thousands of people have died in Iran earthquakes in the last decade.
Mr Sedighi was delivering a sermon on the need for a "general repentance" by Iranians.
"What can we do to avoid being buried under the rubble? There is no other solution but to take refuge in religion and to adapt our lives to Islam's moral codes," he said.
'Disappoint God'
Young Iranians sometimes push the boundaries of how they can dress, showing hair under their headscarves or wearing tight fitting clothes.
Mr Sedighi also referred to violence following last year's elections, which occurred when thousands of - mostly young - Iranians protested against the result, as a "political earthquake".
"Now if a natural earthquake hits Tehran, no one will be able to confront such a calamity but God's power, only God's power. So lets not disappoint God."
More than 25,000 people died when a powerful earthquake hit the ancient town of Bam in 2003.
Seismologists have warned that the Iranian capital Tehran is situated on a large number of tectonic fault lines and could be hit by a devastating quake soon.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said many of Tehran's 12 million inhabitants should relocate.
There are plans to build a purpose built new capital near Qom.

A Year Ago Today

2010-04-14T17:27:00.001+01:00

Here's an article from The Guardian that was printed on April 14, 2009.

Child trafficking into Britain accelerating, figures show

• Victims hidden in lorries or pass with false papers • Case workers say rescued are told to flee care centres

Robert Booth
The Guardian, Tuesday 14 April 2009

Suspected victims of child trafficking from Asia, Africa and the Middle East are being smuggled through Britain's leading ports and airports at an accelerating rate, new figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act reveal.

A total of 957 children, including more than 400 from Afghanistan and 200 from Africa, were picked up by local authorities in the eight months between April 2008 and the end of the year.

At least 53 came from Iraq in a development that appears to back up warnings this week from aid agencies and police in the war-torn country of a growing trade in child trafficking to countries including Britain and Ireland.

The figures, obtained by the Guardian, represent a 90% increase compared to the annual rate of arrivals over the previous three years.

The children are often hidden in the backs of lorries which travel through ports in Kent and Suffolk and others are smuggled through Heathrow and Gatwick on false papers, according to care officials and the victims' testimonies. It is thought many are trafficked for exploitation in prostitution and domestic servitude.

Anti-trafficking campaigners are particularly concerned that one in eight of those taken into care go missing. Case workers who help victims said the children are commonly told by their traffickers, often under threat, to flee care.

Figures released by Kent county council, which handled the biggest single influx of suspected victims of trafficking, show that 86 of the 474 children it took into care over the eight month period last year, went missing. Officials in Hillingdon, west London, which handles children trafficked through Heathrow, said 27 of the 285 children it took responsibility for left care without leaving a forwarding address and have been reported missing.

"These figures bear out what we see happening across the UK where reports of child trafficking are increasing significantly," said Chris Beddoe, chief executive of Ecpat UK, which campaigns against child prostitution, child pornography and child trafficking. "Given so many of these child victims go missing so quickly after they are taken into local authority care, it seems clear that we are witnessing a pattern of criminal activity among traffickers. Yet no one goes out looking for these children when they disappear. If the government is really committed to keeping them safe they would implement a system of guardianship so someone would be responsible for each and every child."

In Kent, where the largest proportion of trafficked children arrive, facilities to look after suspected victims of child trafficking are thin on the ground. There is only one residential reception centre which can accommodate two dozen children. Yet in the last recorded eight months, authorities there had to try and help 255 Afghan children, 55 from Iran, 50 from Iraq and 49 from Eritrea as well as others from Vietnam, China, Kosovo, Algeria, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka and Turkey.

"We are of course most concerned about this situation," said Leyland Ridings, Kent's cabinet member for children, families and education standards. "We do all we can to prevent it."

Not all local authorities are losing the battle against traffickers. West Sussex, which handles cases from Gatwick, has managed a reduction in the number of children who go missing from care. It took 55 suspected victims of trafficking into care between April and January last year and only five children went missing. In the previous three years it lost track of 42 children.

The Home Office has admitted there are barriers to victims of human trafficking seeking help and last week launched a national mechanism so that any suspected victim will be referred to the UK Human Trafficking Centre in Sheffield.

It is part of a series of measures which followed the introduction of the Council of Europe convention on human trafficking which came into force in Britain on 1 April. "Human trafficking is one of the most horrendous crimes threatening our society," said a Home Office spokesman. "Those who are responsible for this modern form of slavery are profiting from human misery and suffering."

Violence against Forcibly Displaced and Stateless Women

2010-04-13T12:36:00.005+01:00

This is an older news story, but still really important, as it highlights discrimination against refugee women and girls - a group that are all too often forgotten.

UNHCR attends landmark meeting on discrimination against women

News Stories, 24 July 2009

A group of female refugees from Central African Republic in south-east Cameroon. Forcibly displaced and displaced women and girls are at risk of discrimination.

NEW YORK, United States, July 24 (UNHCR) – A landmark meeting in New York, co-organized by the UN refugee agency, has given important impetus to efforts to eradicate discrimination against forcibly displaced and stateless females, including rape, domestic violence and other abuses.

The July 16-17 seminar, the first of its kind, brought together officials from UNHCR and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) with 15 independent experts from around the world who serve on the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

The meeting was called specifically to look at how the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women – a de facto international bill of rights for women – can be used to protect forcibly displaced and stateless women. CEDAW is meeting until August 7 to review countries' implementation of the Convention.

A number of important so-called "general recommendations" and "commitments" were agreed upon with the CEDAW members to increase awareness about discrimination against women of concern and to bolster the Convention's power to protect and help them through better use of existing reporting and complaint mechanisms.

"This is a breakthrough," said UNHCR Chief Protection Policy and Legal Adviser Oldrich Andrysek, who attended the meeting. This was echoed by Pierre Bertrand, director of UNHCR's New York office, who told the opening session, "This seminar is a milestone in our collective efforts to ensure that the rights of displaced and stateless women and girls are fully respected."

Others stressed the importance of governments and international organizations in ensuring progress. "The violations that women experience . . . will never be dealt with appropriately until justice issues receive sufficient attention both nationally and internationally," said Craig Mokhiber, deputy director of OHCHR's New York office.

The seminar participants also heard powerful and sometimes harrowing testimonies from former refugees from Bhutan, Liberia, Mongolia and Zimbabwe as well as two internally displaced women from Chechnya and Kenya. "Discrimination against women is everywhere," said one of the women, a widow who suffered abuse.

"The fact that refugee women gave testimonies and that the often forgotten situation of refugee and stateless women was discussed in detail allowed us to spotlight and deal with the problems women face," UNHCR's Andrysek noted.

Forcibly displaced women and girls, and women seeking to integrate into new societies or reintegrate in post-conflict countries, are frequent victims of multiple forms of discrimination and sexual violence. Yet there remains a persistent culture of denial, neglect and impunity around this growing problem.

New Website

2010-04-12T11:29:00.001+01:00

Our new website is up and running - check it out here.

And please make the pledge never to commit, condone, or remain silent about violence against women!

International Tuesday: Women in Space!

2010-04-06T16:06:00.001+01:00

While this is not related to violence against women, it is a step towards gender equality and should be celebrated as such for International Tuesday. Yesterday, the Discovery shuttle launched three women into space, bringing the total number of women in space to four - a record! The Guardian article below points out that men still outnumber women by more than 2 to 1, but this is still an achievement - a step in the right direction.

Discovery shuttle launch sets record for most women in space

Three women on board will join female scientist already on space station during one of orbiter's final missions

Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, Stephanie Wilson and Naoko Yamazaki will join Tracy Caldwell Dyson at the International Space Station, between them becoming the most women ever in orbit at the same time. Photograph: Gary I Rothstein/EPA

The space shuttle Discovery rocketed into orbit today on one of Nasa's final stockpiling missions to the International Space Station.

The launch – the last scheduled one in darkness for Nasa's fading shuttle programme – helped set a record for the most women in space at the same time. Three women were on board Discovery as part of the seven-member crew, and another is already at the space station. The shuttle should arrive at the orbiting outpost on Wednesday.

But problems with Discovery's main antenna, which emerged as soon as the shuttle reached orbit, could affect the radar needed for the rendezvous, Mission Control said today.

A spokesman stressed there were other tools to work around the situation. "We probably won't have answers for you today about what this means," Mission Control told the astronauts.

The six space station residents gathered around the dinner table to watch the launch on a laptop. "We are absolutely delighted to have our friendly comrades joining us here in a couple of days," said Timothy Creamer.

"Stand by for a knock on the door," Mission Control radioed.

Men will still outnumber women by more than two to one on board the shuttle and station, but that won't take away from the remarkable achievement of having four women in space at one time, coming 47 years after the world's first female astronaut, Valentina Tereshkova, rocketed into space.

A former schoolteacher, Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, is among the female astronauts about to make history, as well as a chemist, Tracy Caldwell Dyson, who once worked as an electrician, and two aerospace engineers, Stephanie Wilson and Japanese astronaut Naoko Yamazaki.

Japan celebrated its own space feat with Discovery's liftoff. Two of its astronauts were circling Earth at the same time, one on the shuttle and the other on the station.

Only three shuttle missions remain after this one. Nasa intends to retire its fleet by the end of September, but is unsure what will follow for human spaceflight. President Barack Obama will visit the area on 15 April, while Discovery is still in orbit, to fill in some of the blanks.

Commander Alan Poindexter and his crew will spend nine days at the station, replenishing supplies. The astronauts will install a fresh ammonia tank for the cooling system – a cumbersome job requiring three spacewalks. They will drop off science experiments as well as an extra sleeping compartment, a darkroom to improve picture-taking from the lab's high-quality window, and other equipment weighing thousands of kilos.

The space station will continue operating until 2020 under the Obama plan. The idea is for commercial rocket companies to eventually provide ferry service for astronauts. Nasa is currently paying for seats on Russian Soyuz rockets. That's how Caldwell Dyson got to the space station yesterday, two days after being launched from Kazakhstan.

Once combined, the shuttle and station crews will number 13: eight Americans, three Russians and two Japanese.

Cameroon and Violence Against Women

2010-03-30T12:47:00.002+01:00

Today for International Tuesday, we have an article from Cameroon by university student Njeke Joshua.

Cameroon and violence on women.
Women in Cameroon want their rights respected with some of the laws in the MAPUTO PROTOCOL respected as well. This year, on International Women's Day, some women marched around the town of Buea singing against violence (against) women. Cameroon signed the MAPUTO PROTOCOL on the 28th of May, 2009. This is an agreement among several African states determined to ensure that the rights of women are promoted, realized and protected in order to enable them fully enjoy all their human rights. All state signatories were to apply these agreements in their countries. Some of these laws are cited below:
A man and a woman are equal and do have the same rights. In order to be applied the state has to take women’s needs and interest into consideration in their planning and programming.
To eliminate discrimination against women, the State has to inform and educate the society so that all are aware of the discrimination which is present in our way of doing, our thinking, in our cultural practices, and traditions which make men superior to women; so that once educated, everyone will change his/her behavior in order to stop all practices which are discriminatory to women.
No woman has to marry before the age of 18 years, and she has to do it out of her free will. The woman has the right to choose with her husband; the place where they will stay; she can continue using her name after marriage, she can keep her nationality and give it to her children; she can dispose of her property as she pleases.
The woman, in like manner as the man, has responsibility over the family; she has to educate and protect the children.
In the aspects to pronounce separation, divorce, and annulment of marriage a woman can seek separation, divorce, or annulment of marriage. When separation, divorce or annulment of marriage is pronounced, the man and the woman have to share property and each person is supposed to have what normally belongs to him/her, and both have to take care of their children.
Widow’s rights should be respected. A widow should not be maltreated in the name of tradition. After the death of her husband, it is the widow who takes over the children. She can remarry if she likes and with whom she pleases.
The widow has to inherit her own part of the property left by her husband. Whether they signed “joint property” or “separate property” the woman has the right to continue living in the matrimonial home. And even if she remarries, she keeps this right if the house belongs to her.
The state has to protect poor women; women who are head of families, and women who are vulnerable. It has to provide them with level of life easily adapted to their physical, economic and financial needs. The state has to compensate victims whenever any of the rights and liberties cited by this protocol is violated.
Countries that have signed this MAPUTO PROTOCOL are not following these rights and liberties cited. Africans should take a step forward.

UK Feminista

2010-03-28T18:50:00.002+01:00

Yesterday, I attended the launch of UK Feminista at the Women's Library in central London. It was an amazing day! The White Ribbon Campaign had a stall there, along with such organisations as Eaves, Funny Women, OBJECT, and the Fawcett Society. Hannah Pool chaired the speakers - Kat Banyard and Ellie Cumbo began, as they created UK Feminista. The other speakers were Darinka Aleksic of Abortion Rights, Frances Carlisle of the Latin American Women's Rights Service, Anna van Heeswijk of OBJECT, Katie McGrainor of Birmingham Fems, Elizabeth Carola of Anti-Porn London, and Gail Cartmail of Unite the Union. It was an inspiring session!

UK Feminista strives to bring individual feminists together with each other and with already-established campaigns and organisations. It is an exciting venture, one that the White Ribbon Campaign is delighted to be a part of.

Check out www.ukfeminista.org.uk!

Saudi Rights Panel Take Up Child Bride Case

2010-03-23T15:35:00.003Z

Today for International Tuesday we have an article from Saudi Arabia. This is fitting after last week's launch of the HBV/Forced Marriage Knowledge Centre and Directory.

Saudi Arabia’s state human rights body has hired a lawyer to review the case of a girl whose mother sought her divorce from an 80-year-old man, a move activists hope is a first step against child marriage
Saudi Arabia, a patriarchal society that applies an austere version of Sunni Islam, has no minimum legal age for marriage. Fathers are granted guardianship over their daughters, giving them control over who their daughters marry and when.

The girl — believed to be 12 years old — from Buraidah, a conservative town near the capital Riyadh, was married to her father’s elderly cousin late last year for bridal money of 85,000 riyals ($ 23,000), lawyer Sultan bin Zahim said.

Activists see the divorce proceedings as a test case that could pave the way for introducing a minimum age for marriage in the kingdom, where child marriage is common in poorer tribal areas.

The child’s mother had earlier filed for divorce on her daughter’s behalf but withdrew without giving a reason after a second court hearing in early February, Zahim told Reuters.

The state-affiliated rights body then took over the case, to investigate the mother’s reasons for withdrawal as well as the age of the child and her husband, which have been disputed, before they assess further action that they can take.

The lawyer had previously stated that the Human Rights Commission is filing for divorce on behalf of the child.

“(HRC) became involved in this case as a public rights issue that concerns the Saudi community ... This case is still valid even after the mother withdrew,” Zahim said.

This is the first time the commission has intervened in a case of child marriage, an issue that was previously seen as a “family affair” and outside the commission’s remit.

“This intervention is part of the commission’s authority in accordance with its rules, however it cannot propagate these measures until it confirms the facts in this case,” Zahim said.

Saudi Arabia is a signatory of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of a Child, which considers those under 18 as children.

“This case is an investment in order to push for a law,” said Wajiha al-Huweider, a Saudi rights activist. “We need to affect public opinion and I believe that Saudi Arabia will issue a law preventing child marriages soon.”

Zuhair al-Harthi, a member of the advisory Shura Council, said a draft law on banning child marriages was being studied by a government committee. But activists fear it could take long.

“Such a law will take a long time to be passed as there are social, religious, and cultural aspects,” said Mufleh al-Qahtani, chairman of the National Society for Human Rights, a non-governmental organisation. Harthi said a quicker way to address the issue could be for the government to ban notaries from performing marriages for girls under the age of 18 years, which would be an intervention on an administrative rather than legal level

Launch of the HBV/Forced Marriage Knowledge Centre and Directory

2010-03-18T12:32:00.002Z

Yesterday evening, I attended the launch of the new HBV (Honour-Based Violence)/Forced Marriage Knowledge Centre and Directory. The Knowledge Centre and Directory have been produced by the Henna Foundation, based in Wales.

The Chair of Henna, Ahmed Suleiman MBE gave the welcome. He specifically states that we need to engage with men, as any approach must be a holistic approach. The launch was hosted by Christine McCafferty, MP. She said that women are still affected by violence against women all over the wold, usually at the hands of men for dominance reasons. There is an imbalance of power between men ad women. Factors may shape the type of violence but it is not constrained to any one factor; VAW is universal which is why it's endemic. Domestic violence has historically been seen as a "private" issue, which is why the Council of Europe has placed the recognition of domestic violence as a human rights issues at the cornerstone of its approach. She finished by explaining that we need to place the needs and choices of the women affected at the centre of our approach, even if this may not be the same as what we want. McAfferty then introduced Alan Campbell, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office. He thanked all of us in attendance, the people who work on the ground since the government can't do it all alone. Having this knowledge centre, he explained, to connect the dots is extremely important - "We fully support it."

Then, Naz Shah, the daughter of Zoora Shah (who killed an abusive partner and spent 14 years in prison) spoke about the reality of Izzat ("honour") and its impact on families. Zoora Shah was from India and suffered a forced marriage. Naz was sent to Pakistan to marry when she was 15. Since Naz was a girl, her father wouldn't pick her up until she was 10 months old. Her dad ran off with the 16-year old neighbour, forcing Naz and her siblings to leave school because of Izzat. Zoora then entered into a relationship with another man who would abuse her for years. She eventually killed him by putting arsenic in his food. She didn't tell her story in court because of Izzat and the shame that sexual and physical abuse would bring on her family, especially her daughters. Then in the 1990s, the family went to the judges, who rejected the Izzat aspect. Then a man ran over a woman with a car and they finally recognised it - Zoora has now been out for 4 years. Izzat runs deep in the veins; it must be understood to properly deal with the issues that Asian families face. However, we can't see Izzat as something that leads to killing, as it also protects and keeps families together. There are negative and positive aspects to Izzat.

Next was Shahien Taj MBE, the executive director of Henna. She explained why this site (the knowledge centre and directory) has come abut. She was brought up with Izzat - it can be a very bad or good thing; you need to know how to balance that type of life. One focus of the site is service delivery - people don't know how to approach certain families. Asian women's groups have done a lot in this regard. The main part of the site is the directory - it shows what the government is doing, what organisations like Women's Aid are doing, as well as ethnic women's groups and local authorities. The links take you straight to the relevant page of those organisations, not the homepage. The knowledge centre is all practice based and looks at the interconnectedness between forced marriage and HBV. They are trying to get people to go to their local service, and if there is not one, to speak to the community about starting one in the area.

Finally, Elspeth Webb spoke about the ethical approach to resolving value conflicts in child protection and Nikki Hubbard (ACPO) talked about the police's approach to HBV and forced marriage. In October 2008, the police set out a strategy on these issues and it is the only one in the world. Webb explained how culture can be an excuse to justify practices, but child welfare should always be the bottom line. We can't allow relativism to come in and be an excuse. There have unfortunately been some cases where children have died, and professionals were terrified of being called racist by speaking out against the "cultural practices." Amina Lone, the vice chair of Henna, gave the closing remarks.

The White Ribbon Campaign fully supports the HBV/Forced Marriage Knowledge Centre and Directory. It is a valuable resource for practitioners, police, and the government to understand such factors as Izzat when dealing with certain communities in order to better protect the women and children of those communities.

Behind Closed Doors

2010-03-17T12:29:00.004Z

Yesterday, I attended a morning meeting sponsored by Pupil Parent Partnership on domestic violence in multi-cultural Britain. The meeting was chaired by Amelia Hill of The Guardian; panelists included Virendra Sharma (MP and Councillor for Ealing Southall), Samantha Darby (Domestic Violence, Interpersonal Violence: Policy & Deliverance Team at the Home Office), and Gill Jesson (Director of Part Time Services, Pupil Parent Partnership). The purpose of the meeting was to bring well-informed individuals, especially DV practitioners, together to discuss these difficult issues. We discussed the role of the police and the judicial system, how to work with perpetrators, how to break the cycle of violence, and how to reach out to all communities while understanding the specific needs of those communities and of individual women. This is not just about different ethnic communities, but also about reaching LGBT women, disabled women, and domestic workers (as they usually have no recourse to public funds).

Nicaragua's Abortion Ban Is Inhumane and Backward

2010-03-16T12:44:00.005Z

Onto a more controversial topic today for International Tuesday. As promised, it is a story from Latin America, and an outrageous one at that. Whatever your views on abortion, the current laws in Nicaragua (as well as a (fortunately) few other countries) that outlaw abortion for ANY reason (even if the pregnancy threatens the life of the mother) violate a fundamental human right. These laws are a form of violence against women as they are placing women's lives at risk and are in fact killing many women. Not only is it inhumane, it is also illogical - in many cases, if the woman dies while pregnant, the fetus dies as well. What good does that serve? How is denying cancer treatment to a pregnant woman beneficial to the fetus? And what does this say about how Nicaraguan society, and the other societies with these heinous laws, view women?

Nicaragua's Abortion Ban Is Inhumane and Backward

By Delia Lloyd

In a move that ought to raise eyebrows even among pro-life groups, the Nicaraguan government is denying cancer treatment to a woman because she is pregnant. This is only the latest outrage in a country that has one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the world.
The case concerns a 27-year-old woman known as Amalia (not her real name) who has cancer that is suspected to have spread to her brain, lungs and breasts. But Nicaraguan authorities have withheld life-saving treatment from her because it could harm the fetus and violate the country's total ban on abortion.

The decision has ignited furious protests from relatives and campaigners who say that Amalia -- who has a 10-year-old daughter and is 10 weeks pregnant -- will die unless treated. Amnesty International has called on the Nicaraguan government to provide the urgent chemotherapy and radiotherapy that her doctors recommend. A government-run medical commission is expected to announce a decision on Monday.

Nicaragua has one of the most draconian abortion laws in the world. It is one of the few countries to prohibit abortion under any circumstances. Girls and women who seek an abortion -- as well as health professionals who provide health services associated with abortion -- face jail.

Needless to say, these restrictions have taken their toll. According to official figures, 33 girls and women died in pregnancy in 2009; the year before, 20 died. Amnesty International believes these figures are only a minimum, as the government itself has acknowledged that the number of maternal deaths is under-recorded.

Oh, and it gets worse. According to a survey of media reports between 2005 and 2007, 1,247 girls were reported in newspapers to have been raped or to been the victims of incest in Nicaragua. Of these crimes, 198 were reported to have resulted in pregnancy. The overwhelming majority of the girls made pregnant as a result (172 of them) were between 10 and 14 years old.

Fun stuff.

Fortunately -- at least for those of us who are horrified by such statistics -- Nicaragua is an outlier. As I reported back in October, the trend has been toward an easing of restrictions on abortions worldwide. Even in Ireland -- which has an abortion law that is only slightly less severe (abortion is permitted when there is a real and substantial risk to the life of the mother) -- things may be changing. Ireland is currently awaiting a landmark ruling from the European Court of Human Rights on the case of three women who accuse the government of putting their health at risk by forcing them to travel abroad for terminations. This case may establish a new international precedent regarding abortion and human rights by enhancing protections for mothers.

But the Nicaraguan abortion ban isn't only a debacle on humanitarian grounds. It's an enormous setback for women's rights in this small country, once at the vanguard of women's liberation in Latin America. It's widely understood that Daniel Ortega, the two-time president of Nicaragua who is currently in power, signed onto this abortion ban as a paean to the country's powerful Catholic Church, which launched an aggressive campaign against abortion back in 2006 (the law was enacted in 2007).

Some of you will remember Ortega from the heady days of 1979. Then, he spearheaded a socialist revolution in Nicaragua, one which subsequently unleashed a civil war that ripped the country apart socially, economically and politically over the course of the next decade. (Thank you, Oliver North.)

Say what you will about the Sandinista Revolution -- and there's plenty negative to say about it -- but one of its signature achievements was to significantly elevate the power and position of women in what had traditionally been a very socially conservative Latin American country. In Ortega's first term as president (1985-1990), 31 percent of the executive positions and 27 percent of leadership positions were occupied by women. Not incidentally, he also supported a limited form of abortion rights.

I lived in Central America in the late 1980s and traveled to Nicaragua while the Sandinistas were still in power. One of my close friends at the time was a senior official in the Foreign Affairs Ministry. Like many other women I met there, she was incredibly proud that her country's government respected and promoted women's rights in a way not seen in that country -- or arguably on the continent -- before.

Sorry, but -- whatever you think about abortion -- this current law does not respect women's rights at the most fundamental level. Rather, it is a huge step backwards for women and girls in Nicaragua. It is also a huge betrayal of some of the more promising -- and one would hope, lasting -- legacies of early Sandinista rule.

Shame on you, Daniel Ortega.

No Recourse to Public Funds

2010-03-15T18:45:00.006Z

Last Wednesday evening, our director, Chris Green, spoke at a panel event at Amnesty International. The other panelists were Heather Harvey, SVAW Campaign Manager for Amnesty International UK; Jo Clarke of Eaves; and Anthony Wills - Hammersmith & Fulham local government officer and Chief Executive of Standing Together Against Violence.

Here's what Amnesty International UK says about the issue of No Recourse to Public Funds:

As part of the Stop Violence Against Women campaign, AIUK has been lobbying for an exemption to the No Recourse to Public Funds rule for vulnerable women of insecure immigration status, such as those on a student, spousal or temporary visa. The current rule leaves women of insecure status in violent relationships with the choice of remaining with an abusive partner or risking destitution if they decide to leave by denying them access to public funding (housing, benefits, etc) because the rule could force shelters and refuges to turn away such women.
Following intensive lobbying, the Home Office has agreed to a three-month pilot scheme to grant women facing violence, and who have insecure immigration status, the ability to temporarily access a refuge and seek specialised support. While we welcome this, our long-term aim is to get a new ruling to grant women’s refuges the funds they need to offer protection from violence to all women suffering abuse, and to launch an integrated strategy to counter violence against women so as to prevent contradictory policies undermining women’s rights.

The event was attended by the WRC's intern, Selene Trivelli.

Heather Harvey began by saying that the first problem is due to rules, especially immigration rules, as it's very hard for immigrants (who are often illegal) to run away from violent situations. Difficulties are related to such things as economic and linguistic concerns. These women are especially vulnerable when in a violent situation as they have few options to escape.

Jo Clarke spoke about an Eaves project, the Sojourner Project, which supports women who have entered the UK on a spousal visa and are experiencing domestic abuse. It is a national project that provides affordable accommodation for women who need it. From November 25 until March 28, there is a phone line for this project, which has been a great success.

Chris Green spoke about mobilising men to wear a white ribbon, but that this is not enough. We need to do more regarding prevention, which is what the WRC focuses on. We need more materials, resources, and workshops delivered to young men.

Anthony Wills asserted that the government must support ALL women who are suffering domestic violence - "If you talk about domestic violence in terms of how much it will cost to the government, then they'll probably start to think about it."

* Notes provided by Selene Trivelli

The White Ribbon Campaign UK Forms Partnership with UNIFEM

2010-03-10T17:51:00.004Z

Today, the WRC UK officially began its partnership with UNIFEM UK, the United Nations Development Fund for Women. This is an exciting development for the WRC, as we partner with the only UN agency specifically dedicated to empowering women around the world. UNIFEM also believes that men and women should work together to end violence against women and work towards women's empowerment. And as Alice Fookes of UNIFEM said, "Unlike some humanitarian organisations, UNIFEM helps women OUT of poverty, not women IN poverty."

Our partnership officially began today with a joint educational workshop at Southfields Community College, the most multilingual school in Europe. I, along with the WRC's new intern, Seline Trivelli, assisted our Director, Chris Green, present the ethos and work of the WRC UK.

Students listening to Alice Fookes, of UNIFEM.

WRC UK Director, Chris Green, explaining our work.

Alice with our third group of students.

Chris Green and Selene Trivelli

The White Ribbon Campaign UK is very excited about our partnership with UNIFEM!

Celebrating International Women's Day at the House of Lords

2010-03-09T12:30:00.002Z

Yesterday evening, I attended a panel event at the House of Lords, entitled "Achieving Equality in Parliament," sponsored by WAFE (Women worldwide Advancing Freedom and Equality). Chaired by Baroness Harris of Richmond, the panelists were Peter Facey, Director of Unlock Democracy; Monique Auguste of Canadian University College; Kate Growcutt, former Chair of the Young Fabians; and Julie Smith, Deputy Director of the Centre of International Studies, Department of Politics and International Studies, Cambridge University. Fittingly, the event took place on the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day to highlight the inequality of women's representation in Parliament.

Peter Facey spoke on democratic reform and women, stating that some people think the struggle for equality is over, but it continues since Parliament is still unrepresentative of society. Parties, which are declining in membership, have a tendency to replace one middle-aged white man with another middle-aged white man. Parliament needs to support candidates, and female MPs more - for example, there is no creche in Westminster and no maternity leave scheme.

Monique Auguste gave a presentation on gender equality in Canadian politics. As a Canadian, I was particularly interested in this presentation. Women are 52% of the population, so it would seem that women's representation in Parliament should be close to that percentage. But this is obviously not the case; the target is even much lower than this - set at 30% at the Beijing World Conference on Women. Canada is still well below 25%, as is the UK. The exception is Quebec, which is at 28%. Monique set out two main representations to achieve the 30% target - increasing budgets at all levels of the process and the creation of an observatory for equality of representation.

Kate Growcutt spoke about political representation in the UK. She brought up the Fawcett Society's 4 Cs (reasons why women are underrepresented) - culture, childcare, cash, and confidence. She strongly asserted that reform of Parliament is essential, and pointed out, like the other panelists, that it would be problematic if only rich women are able to become candidates.

And finally, Julie Smith asked the question "Why are there so many middle-class white men in Parliament?" She began by stating that gender is not the only underrepresented aspect of Parliament, but also age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, class, and disability. We need diversity of women, so not just rich women and not just women in their 20s who haven't yet had children and those in their 50s and 60s whose children are adults. She brought attention to an interesting phenomenon, the idea that when women are leaders in politics, they're considered to have male qualities (i.e. Margaret Thatcher) or to be playing men at their own game. Kate brought this up again during the Q & A, pointing out that women are accused of being "shrill" if they get passionate, which is why Thatcher trained her voice to be deeper. Julie also described how, around the world, female leaders are often either born into it (i.e. Queen Elizabeth II) or marry into it (i.e. their fathers or husbands are assassinated). So WHY do we favour people who look like those who came before? It is something that is difficult to overcome, but must be overcome.

France May Make Mental Violence a Crime

2010-03-09T11:16:00.003Z

Today for International Tuesday, we're highlighting the issue of mental violence with an article from the New York Times about France's National Assembly approving a proposal to make psychological violence a crime. Last week, we said we would highlight a story from Latin America today, but this story from France is particularly important in that it highlights that violence against women is not only physical violence. So, next week we will bring you a story from Latin America.

France May Make Mental Violence a Crime
By STEVEN ERLANGER
Published: February 25, 2010
PARIS — France’s National Assembly approved Thursday night a proposal to add “psychological violence” to a law intended to help victims of physical violence and abuse, despite doubts that the law is specific enough to have much impact.
The proposed law says that to "act or repeatedly say things that could damage the victim's life conditions, affect his/her rights and his/her dignity or damage his/her physical or mental health'' is punishable by a jail term of up to three years and a fine of up to 75,000 euros, or about $103,000. Carefully covering both genders, the law applies to behavior toward a wife, husband, partner or concubine.
Danielle Bousquet, a Socialist, and Guy Geoffroy, a member of the ruling center-right Union for a Popular Movement, wrote the draft law, supported by 30 other legislators. It received backing last November from the government and Prime Minister François Fillon, who called it “very significant progress.”
The new law, Mr. Fillon said, “will allow people to take into account the most insidious situations, which don’t leave a mark to the naked eye but can mutilate the victim’s inner self.” He called the issue “a great national cause,” and the government has started a series of commercials on television to sensitize viewers to conjugal violence, especially against women.
Ms. Bousquet, 64, said that psychological violence could be gradual. “In the beginning, there are only slight offenses, a husband who is a little too insistent and domineering with his wife, but then the husband’s ascendancy becomes more prominent and each time the victim strikes back, the tone changes and physical violence can set in,” she said in an interview together with Mr. Geoffroy.
“Fear isn’t something you can easily simulate,” she said. “It’s not hard to see whether a woman is terrified or not.”
Mr. Geoffroy, 60, said that psychological violence was identifiable, through text messages, testimony and the use of slander. “We are very much convinced that the situation of a woman who is a victim of domestic violence should be better and more clearly recognized,” he said. “We want her to be recognized as a victim and protected.”
Despite widespread support for the law, some legal officials are skeptical. Christophe Vivet, the vice prosecutor of Grenoble and a member of the main union for magistrates, said, “The draft law turns a very vague behavior into an infraction, while in criminal law, behaviors are defined very precisely so that each citizen knows what is or is not allowed.”
The problem, he said in an interview, is that the law “creates a great uncertainty over the nature of a forbidden behavior and gives a large space to the arbitrary,” giving judges too much leeway. Criminal law, he said, “is not the solution for every human behavior, and creating a crime means also setting up a criminal procedure, arrests, and so on.”
In France, Mr. Vivet said, there is another such law, on “moral harassment,” which is “very difficult to implement and hard to establish, because we need elements of proof.”
The law “is paved with good intentions, but we are extremely doubtful about it,” he said. “It relies on the central idea that a woman who files a complaint tells the truth, so it relies on a presumption of guilt, while French law is based on a presumption of innocence.”
Asked on French radio if psychological violence would be hard to prove, Nadine Morano, the secretary of state for the family, argued that “it wouldn’t be hard to prove, because there are, often, many proofs — I think about text messages on cellphones, letters, insults, testimonies. I think about psychological despair.” On a special telephone hot line for female victims, she said, 84 percent of the calls involved psychological abuse.
Ms. Bousquet and Mr. Geoffroy cite an increase in violence against women, saying that a woman dies every 2.2 days in France because of domestic violence. Domestic violence, they said, affects 10 percent of women ages 18 to 60, and about 1.5 million women are victims of violence from their partners.
The law would allow a woman to get a temporary protection order to evict a violent partner or husband, or find another place to live. Another element, imported from Spain and inserted into the law last week by the Justice Ministry, foresees an electronic bracelet with a GPS unit worn by the violent partners, so their movements can be tracked by the police.
The French Senate is examining a similar law, with the intention of reaching a single text, which is expected to receive final passage this summer.
Maïa de la Baume contributed reporting.

Million Women Rise!!

2010-03-08T10:34:00.010Z

Happy International Women's Day!! This is the only day set aside exclusively for women, ALL women. And for those of you who stayed up all night to watch the Oscars (or watched snippets of it this morning like I did) you'll know that it's a big day for women in Hollywood today, as Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win Best Director. Yay Kathryn!!

But this post will focus on the Million Women Rise March that took place on Saturday, March 6. Hundreds of women from across the UK converged at Marble Arch to begin a march against male violence against women. The White Ribbon Campaign obviously strongly supports the march. Million Women Rise consequently invited us to hand out white ribbons to interested men we passed along the route. Here are some photos of the march:

And we finally reached Trafalgar Square, where a post-march rally took place.

Founder Sabrina Qureshi announced, "We will end violence against women in our lifetime!!"

Other speakers included Vivienne Hayes, the Director of Women's Resource Centre; Women and the Environment; Kat Elliot, a trade unionist and feminist from Unison; Care International; and women from northern Uganda and the DRC. It was a truly international rally, fitting for International Women's Day.

There will be events taking place today in London and across the UK, and the world, so I hope you all find something special to do today. I will be at the House of Lords for an event on equal representation in Parliament put on by WAFE (Women worldwide Advancing Freedom and Equality).

Happy International Women's Day!!

Who Makes the News?

2010-03-08T10:25:00.002Z

Here's an interesting press release about women in the news. Not exactly related to violence against women, but still very relevant to gender equality:

Preliminary report of the 2010 Global Media Monitoring Project
Only 24% of persons seen, heard, or read about in the news are female.

This is one of the key findings of the 2010 Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP). The preliminary report is being released on 2 March 2010 at a panel discussion and debate on the occasion of the 54th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women in New York.

10 November 2009 was an ordinary day at work for newsroom staff around the world. It was, however, a special day for volunteer groups in 130 countries across the world who were poring over their national newspapers, listening intently to radio newscasts and closely watching local television. Pencils and coding grids in hand, their objective was to observe, analyze and record their findings on selected indicators of gender in the news for the Global Media Monitoring Project – the world’s largest research and action initiative on gender in the news media. The project’s overarching purpose is to bring about fair and balanced gender representation in and through the news media.

The results contained in the report are preliminary, based on a sample of 42 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, Pacific Islands and Europe. The findings encompass 6,902 news items and 14,044 news subjects, including people interviewed in the news.

Edouard Adzotsa, General Secretary of the Central Africa Union of Journalists and GMMP Coordinator in Congo Brazzaville, observed during the monitoring day that, “News media seems to serve male interests, attention to women is extremely negligible even though women outnumber men nationally, women are the lifeblood of communities particularly in informal settlements and in the rural areas.”

Among the key findings are:

24% of the people interviewed, heard, seen or read about in mainstream broadcast and print news are female; only 16% of all stories focus specifically on women.

Women have achieved near parity as givers of popular opinion in news stories. But less than one out of every five experts interviewed is female, and men predominate strongly as eyewitnesses and providers of personal experience in news stories.

Almost one half (48%) of all news stories reinforce gender stereotypes, while 8% of news stories challenge gender stereotypes. Women in the news are identified by their familial relationships (wife, mother, daughter) five times more often than men.

Overall, news stories by female reporters are much fewer than news stories by male reporters. News stories by female reporters have considerably more female news subjects than stories by male reporters and challenge gender stereotypes almost twice as often as stories by male reporters.

The study reveals overall that women remain grossly underrepresented in news coverage in contrast to men, resulting in news that depicts a world in which women are largely absent. The research also shows a paucity of women’s views and opinions compared to male perspectives in mainstream news reports.

Abebech Wolde with the Ethiopian Media Women’s Association and GMMP Coordinator for Ethiopia said, “We hope that what we are going to say about the representation of gender in the media will be taken seriously by media managers.’’

Comparison with results of the three previous editions of the GMMP carried out every five years since 1995 shows signs of change towards gender balanced and gender responsive news. Female news subjects have increased from 17% to 24% in the last 15 years. Popular opinion in the news is now nearly at parity, compared to 2005 when at 66%, popular opinion was largely provided by men.
Aidan White, General Secretary of the International Federation of Journalists, has stated in the IFJ publication Getting the Balance Right: Gender Equality in Journalism that “Fair gender portrayal is a professional and ethical aspiration, similar to respect for accuracy, fairness and honesty.”

The Global Media Monitoring Project is coordinated by the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC), an international NGO with offices in Canada and the United Kingdom which promotes communication for social change, in collaboration with data analyst Media Monitoring Africa, South Africa. Gender Links, also based in South Africa, provided advice on refining the monitoring tools and methodology. Volunteers taking part in the monitoring day include gender and media activists, grassroots communication groups, university researchers and students of communication, media professionals, journalists associations, alternative media networks and faith-based groups. The project is supported by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).

The preliminary report is available in English at www.whomakesthenews.org
Executive Summaries are available in English, French and Spanish. Final global, regional and national reports will be published in September 2010.

Repealing of the Human Rights Act? A Political Discussion

2010-03-03T12:17:00.014Z

All three main political parties - the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, and Labour - have proposed changes to the Human Rights Act should they be (re-)elected. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is legitimately concerned about these proposals and consequently sponsored a Human Rights Debate to examine the issues.

On Monday night, I, along with WRC Director Chris Green, attended the Human Rights Discussion at the King's Fund in Cavendish Square. Chaired by the BBC's Martha Kearney (left), the event was a Q&A type discussion between the audience and three MPs - Dominic Grieve, Shadow Secretary of State for Justice (Conservative); David Howarth MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Justice (Liberal Democrat); and Rt Hon Jack Straw MP, Secretary of State for Justice (and therefore Labour).

Dominic Grieve MP (left), David Howarth MP (right), Rt Hon Jack Straw MP (bottom)

The event began with an opening statement by Trevor Phillips, Chair of the EHRC, who set out the EHRC perspective on the proposed changes to the Human Rights Act and the creation of a Bill of Rights and Responsibilities in its place. He said, "We can't...take for granted that our human rights architecture is here and is here permanently and that it will stand here forever." Phillips went on to explain the importance of human rights in the UK, stating that schools that teach the principles of human rights have seen their rates of bullying drop. In addition, the UK cannot legitimately speak to or condemn the practices of such countries as Iran and Zimbabwe "if we are lukewarm about human rights ourselves." This is why the EHRC's response to the Green Paper on constitutional reform is called "Human Rights Act PLUS" - the EHRC is concerned that proposals to repeal the Act could result in a watered-down version of the Act and so are advocating for changes that only seek to add to what is currently in the Act.

Each MP was allowed 5 minutes to outline his party's proposal regarding the Human Rights Act. Dominic Grieve said that the Conservatives "regard adherence to the ECHR (European Convention on Human Rights) as an absolute benchmark of our status as a civilised nation." His party wants to replace the Human Rights Act with a UK Bill of Rights, a document that will incorporate the principles of the ECHR. He said that polls have shown that the British public do not support the Human Rights Act, because they think it is meant to protect the rights of people who don't deserve them. This is why the Conservatives want to replace the Act, and hope to include some "new" rights such as trial by jury as well as clarification on any non-absolute rights. However, as the Q&A went on (with a clear audience leaning against the Conservative party), it became clear that Grieve's position was likely a bit more liberal than the Conservatives' official position regarding the repeal of the Human Rights Act.

David Howarth outlined the Liberal Democrats' position, beginning by stating that he "can't understand what he (Grieve) was taking about." Howarth explained that he can't see how we can fiddle around with UK statutes and that it is much better to accept that the Human Rights Act is here to stay. Howarth stated that it is an "inherently bad thing" to mess with it and that there is pressure to undermine the Human Rights Act, largely from politicians and the media (who have an incentive to undermine certain provisions regarding privacy rights). Howarth strongly asserted: "Human rights are basic; they are the rights that every state owes to every human, and we should leave that alone." He went on to say that extra rights can be written into the constitution (i.e. entrenched), but that this is separate from HUMAN rights. In the Q&A, Howarth stressed that David Cameron's statement that a burglar "leaves his human rights at the door" is particularly worrying because he said HUMAN rights. What does that mean?, he wondered. He went on to explain that there is a difference between balancing and conditionality and that the idea that bad people don't have them or have to earn them (the idea of "responsibility") is dangerous. HUMAN rights are universal and not contingent on our actions.

Jack Straw was last, outlining Labour's position. He began by saying that he was proud to be in attendance as a representative of the Labour Party, since this is the party that established the EHRC. He stressed that Labour is 100% committed to the Human Rights Act and that nothing they do will detract from the Act. He continued to praise the Human Rights Act, saying that after it came into force in 2000, there has been the longest sustained fall in crime since WWII. This is because of the higher standards of public officials, leading to fewer miscarriages of justice. Straw stated that it is "nonsense" that only those who are law abiding have rights; everyone has rights (here he agrees with Howarth; on other issues, he agreed more with Grieve). It was consequently a bit confusing when he went on to say that Labour wants a Bill of Rights and Responsibilities as an act of public education, to highlight the responsibilities we owe to each other. But I thought we weren't supposed to "earn" rights?

In the end, it remained unclear how much was empty rhetoric and how much was the true sentiments of any of the parties. Perhaps this was from a blurring of the line between HUMAN rights and other rights. Unfortunately, a question from Ceri Goddard, Chief Executive of the Fawcett Society, about the proposed changes' effects on women's human rights met with an insufficient response. Straw asserted that "we've done a lot," though not everything and Howarth said that there are various aspects where the UK has fallen short in the past. All of the answers regarding women's rights were vague and evasive, making it appear as though none of the MPs had a solid understanding of the issues facing women or other distinct groups; this was also evident from the answers to questions on child rights and minority rights.

If you're interested in hearing everything that was said during the debate, you can watch the video.

* All photos from the EHRC website.

Malaysia Canes Women for Adultery

2010-03-02T14:53:00.005Z

After realising that we've been focusing on Africa a bit too much on International Tuesdays, today we have an article on Malaysia, reporting on the caning of women for such acts as adultery and drinking beer.

Malaysia canes women for adultery

The caning case is expected to reskindle a debate over rising 'Islamisation' in the multi-racial country [EPA]

Three women have been caned under Islamic law for committing adultery, a Malaysian minister has said.

This was the country's first ever case involving flogging of women.

Hishamuddin Tun Hussein, the Malaysian home affairs minister, said on Wednesday the sentences were carried out on February 9 after a sharia court found them guilty of extra-marital sex.

"It was carried out perfectly," Hishamuddin said in a statement. "Even though the caning did not injure them [the women], they said it caused pain within them."

Two of the women were whipped six times while the third received four strokes of the rotan (cane).

He said one woman was released from prison on Sunday, another will be freed in the next few days while the third will go free in June.

Controversy

The women, and four men, were caned following a decision in the religious courts in December, Hishamuddin said.

His comments are being seen as a signal that the authorities could be preparing to cane another Muslim woman, Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, who was arrested last year for drinking beer and sentenced to six strokes of the cane.

Kartika's sentence came under review following widespread criticism [AFP]

Kartika's case, which was to have been the first time a woman was caned under Islamic law in Malaysia, is under review following widespread publicity and international criticism.

The case, when first reported, raised concerns that the nation's secular status is under threat, eroding the rights of some 40-45 per cent of the country's ethnic minorities.

Hishammuddin said Kartika's case had flagged concerns about how women should be flogged and that the recent canings demonstrated that the prisons department can carry out punishments in accordance with Islamic law.

Under the sharia, the women have to be whipped in a seated position by a female prison guard and be fully clothed.

"I hope this will not be misunderstood so much that it defiles the purity of Islam," Hishammuddin said, according to state media.

"The punishment is to teach and give a chance to those who have fallen off the path to return and build a better life in future."

New questions

The caning, however, has raised new questions about whether a state religious court can sentence women to be caned when federal law precludes women from such a punishment, while men below 50 can be punished by caning.

Malaysia has a dual-track legal system with Islamic criminal and family laws, which are applicable only to Muslims, running alongside civil laws.

"It's not as if this is the Middle East... it's not a good signal that they [the government] are sending out. The fact is that any form of whipping is barbaric"

Ragunath Kesavan, Malaysian Bar president

News of the women's caning sparked public outrage, with lawyers and rights groups on Thursday blaming the government for allowing it.

Ragunath Kesavan, president of the Malaysian Bar, said it was worrying that the punishment had gone ahead even as the caning issue was being hotly debated by Muslim scholars, religious groups and human rights activists.

"The impression was that Kartika's case would be the first so I've got no idea what has happened," he said.

"It's not as if this is the Middle East... it's not a good signal that they're [the government] sending out."

"We are against any form of corporal punishment, for men or women," Kesavan said. "The fact is that any form of whipping is barbaric."

The case is expected to fuel a debate over rising "Islamisation" in Malaysia, where religious courts have been clamping down on moral offences, as well as a ban on Muslims consuming alcohol that had been rarely enforced.

Caning 'epidemic'

London-based human rights watchdog Amnesty International on Wednesday urged Malaysia to end a caning "epidemic", saying the women's case was "just the tip of the iceberg".

Donna Guest, the group's deputy Asia-Pacific director, said in a statement that Malaysian authorities caned more than 35,000 mostly foreigners since 2002.

"The government needs to abolish this cruel and degrading punishment, no matter what the offense," she said.

Sisters in Islam, a local group of Muslim women activists, said the caning "constitutes further discrimination against Muslim women in Malaysia".

Next week we'll be highlighting an issue from Latin America.

ActionAid Launches Two VAW Documents

2010-02-27T13:21:00.008Z

On Wednesday evening, the London office attended the launch of two new ActionAid reports on violence against women. The reports are "Destined to fail? How violence against women is undoing development," written by Zohra Moosa, and "Her stories: working with women survivors of violence in emergency situations."

The launch included presentations by Christine Butegwa, Regional Coordinator for Africa Programmes at Akina Mama Wa Afrika; Zohra Moosa, Women's Rights Advisor at ActionAid UK; and Charlotte Watts, Director of the Gender, Violence & Health Centre at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Watts gave a presentation on the links between HIV prevalence and violence against women. For example, in sub-Saharan Africa, vastly more women than men aged 15-24 are HIV positive. There are huge numbers of women who have reported that their first sexual encounter was forced.

Butegwa then outlined her experience of campaigning on violence against women in Uganda as well as with the African Feminist Movement, which is trying to develop strategies to address violence against women. Some of the statistics she gave were shocking: for example, in South Africa, a woman is killed by her partner ever 6 hours. A woman is raped every 17 seconds. 2010-2020 has been declared by the African Union African Women's Decade, so hopefully these statistics will no longer be the case in 2020.

Moosa gave a presentation on violence against women and international priorities while introducing the two new ActionAid reports. A short video of women resisting violence in the DRC was then showed, followed by a panel discussion by the presenters, which was chaired by Habdeel Ibrahim, Executive Director of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation. The issue of involving men came up in the discussion, with Butegwa commenting that the patriarchal system makes the involvement of men complicated, but that men should be seen as partners. Patriarchy is a system, but individual men are very different from each other. Watts warned that we don't want to get into a men vs women debate; she said it is great if men are questioning patriarchy, but that this is a sensitive issue because there are scarce resources and therefore worries that men's organisations will attract funding away from women's. This is an issue that the WRC is aware of; the WRC doesn't receive mainstream funding and while we sometimes receive an abnormal amount of attention from journalists because we are uniquely aimed specifically at men, we make sure that we direct journalists towards relevant women's organisations as well. On a positive note, a woman working for Women for Women International spoke up, stating that they have a programme working with men and that 75% change their views by the end of the programme.

Each person in attendance received the two reports being launched. "Her stories" is a fascinating collection of first-person accounts from women living in war-torn areas of Africa. "Destined to fail?" examines an issue that effects one in three women globally - violence. The report examines violence in relation to education, maternal and child health, HIV and AIDS, conflict, and governance. The report gives recommendations for the UK government, the most interesting of which perhaps is to "appoint a Minister on violence against women and girls whose brief covers the Department for International Development (DFID), the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Ministry of Defence (MoD)." This would be analogous to the post held by Melanne Verveer, the first American Ambassador at Large for Global Women's Issues.

The White Ribbon Campaign UK Contributes to the New UK Feminista

2010-02-26T12:34:00.003Z

This past Wednesday afternoon, the London office of the White Ribbon Campaign UK attended a consultation meeting at the Amnesty International Human Rights Action Centre for the newly formed UK Feminista. UK Feminista was formed by co-directors Kat Banyard and Anna van Heesvijk. In their own words:

UK Feminista is a unique and innovative organisation being launched in March 2010. UK Feminista aims to build a national movement of feminist activists and mobilise them to effect real and lasting change in gender relations. Activists will be mobilised primarily through campaigns coordinated by other women's rights organisations in the UK. The ultimate vision of the organisation is that women in the UK live free from sexism and enjoy all the rights enshrined in the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

Gender inequality remains endemic in the UK: 100,000 women are raped every year, less than 20% of MPs are women, and women are paid on average 22.6% less than men. While recent years have witnessed a resurgence in grassroots activism aimed at ending gender inequality in the UK, it remains under-resourced and largely invisible in mainstream public life and, as a result, is limited in its effectiveness.

Yet grassroots feminist activism (campaign action taken by ordinary citizens) is critical to building public support for legislative change, addressing local community-based issues, and engaging all sections of society in the process of change necessary to achieve gender equality. UK Feminista seeks to fill this important gap and in doing so bring vital "people power" to women's rights campaigning.

This will be like a Facebook for women's rights organisations in the UK, connecting individual activists across the UK who want to get involved in a campaign or host their own event. The White Ribbon Campaign fully supports UK Feminista and will have a profile page on the website (coming soon!).

Being Lesbian in Uganda: and the Threat of Anti-Homosexuality Legislation

2010-02-23T15:11:00.008Z

Today for International Tuesday we're highlighting the violence that lesbian women face simply because they are lesbian women. Currently, homosexuality is illegal in Uganda, but there is a bill before the Ugandan parliament that increases the severity of punishment to include the death penalty. This legislation obviously also affects gay men, but as we are an anti-violence against women organisation, we will be focusing on the affected women. The article below, an interview with Ugandan lesbian activist Kasha Jacqueline, expands on the content and potential repercussions of the bill as well as the situation facing lesbians in Uganda today, such as the use of rape to "cure" lesbian women.

Ugandan lesbian activist Kasha Jacqueline speaks about being lesbian in Uganda, and discusses the infamous Anti-Homosexuality Bill currently before the country’s parliament. Kasha is the Coordinator of Freedom and Roam Uganda.
By Kathambi Kinoti
AWID: Please tell us about Freedom and Roam Uganda and how it was started.
KASHA JACQUELINE: Freedom and Roam Uganda (FARUG) is the only exclusively lesbian, bisexual and transgender organization in Uganda. It was started by three lesbian-identified women on July 4, 2003 in a bar which at the time the media frequently called a lesbian bar. Many lesbian women who heard the news started coming to the bar to hang out and make new friends. Earlier, in April 2003 we had been approached by a group of men who claimed to have a lesbian organization by the name Makerere University Students Lesbians Association. When we asked them where the lesbians were and why it was led by men, they said that the women were “shy.” Later we did some research and learnt that these men were not university students nor did any such organization exist.
AWID: Why do you think they would do this?
KJ: Simply because they wanted to use women for their own agendas. Otherwise why would a group of men claim to be a lesbian organization?
After this incident we decided to take up the idea of forming our own lesbian organization. We then brainstormed about what to call ourselves and what the organization would look like. It wasn’t easy because when we introduced it to other lesbians they had mixed feelings. Some wanted it to just be a social club but some of us wanted it to have a political component. At this time, many people had come to know about us and the bar in which we met and would wait for us outside in order to harass us as we left. We argued that it didn’t make sense for us to meet everyday, drink, smoke, and talk about women and sex, and then leave the bar only to get harassed on our way home. This issue introduced some friction into the newly formed organization and some people left including one founder member who had wanted it to be strictly a social club.
The rest of us who still wanted to be part of the group decided that those who wanted to participate in it only to the extent of socializing would have space to do so, and those who wanted to use it as a forum for their political activism could go ahead so long as they wouldn’t expose the names or identities of those who didn’t want didn’t want these revealed to the outside world. And since then FARUG has never looked back.

AWID: What is the situation like for lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in Uganda today, even without the obnoxious Bill that is currently before parliament?
KJ: Homosexuality is illegal in Uganda. For many people and institutions, it is a no- go area. Many of us have been expelled from schools just for writing love letters to our same-sex lovers, something our heterosexual colleagues are not expelled for. My principal at university even made me sign a memorandum of understanding that I would not go anywhere within a radius of 100 metres of the girls' hostels because I am a lesbian! So many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) persons have been expelled, sacked from jobs and sent away from families. Many do not receive appropriate and necessary healthcare services for fear of revealing their sexual orientation, identity or preferences. Transgender individuals and lesbians have been subjected to ‘curative’ rape and the perpetrators in most of the cases recorded come from the victims’ immediate families.
LGBTI persons if identified are harassed on the streets, in public recreation centres and churches. Many have been evicted from their houses by landlords. I was once thrown out of a public taxi^[^i]because a woman who identified me as a lesbian said she would rather pay for the empty space beside her than have me sit in the same vehicle as her. When I got out of the taxi she continued to shout and draw attention to me. Somebodaboda^[ii] riders stationed nearby heard her and one of them whom I didn’t identify hit me on the head with a hard, sharp object. So it is really not a safe environment for LGBTI persons, especially those of us who are out and are actively doing advocacy work to end the criminalization.

AWID: Of grave concern is the Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009 currently pending before Parliament. What the Bill is about, and what are its implications for LGBTI individuals?
KJ: Currently, section 140 of the Ugandan Penal Code criminalizes ‘carnal knowledge against the order of nature’ with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Section 141 punishes ‘attempts’ at carnal knowledge with a maximum of seven years’ imprisonment. Section 143 punishes acts of ‘gross indecency’ with up to five years in prison. While the Penal Code does not specifically refer to same-sex practices between women, lesbians face the same hostility from both state and non-state actors.
The 2009 Anti-Homosexuality Bill expands the range of same-sex relations that would be criminalized regardless of whether or not the parties are consenting adults. It introduces an offence known as “aggravated homosexuality” for which the penalty is death. People living with HIV and AIDS who engage in same-sex relations are one of the categories of people who would be affected by this offence. Anyone who 'aids' or 'abets' homosexuality will also face criminal penalties.
Generally this Bill is just an additional proposed piece legislation to further criminalize and abuse the rights of LGBTI persons. There is currently a lot of public incitement from high profile persons like religious leaders, Ministers, Members of Parliament and so on. This has further victimized LGBTI persons: The people in power and the State that is supposed to protect us are instead calling for harsher laws against us. It is very scary not to know what the future holds for you especially when it includes facing death. Many of us are now underground for fear of abuse by State and non-state actors since lots of allegations and lies are being fuelled in the public. Many people who didn’t even have a problem with us before are now being influenced and by the anti-gay crusaders who are saying all sorts of things about us. There are allegations that members of the LGBTI community recruit children, break up families and spread HIV/AIDS through sodomy. Some cannot even go to church because every sermon is about how sick we are and what sinners we are. There is a lot of talk about how we have dirty sex from eating our faeces to urinating in our mouths. This has made the public so angry that they are ready to strike at homosexuals. Many of us are now back in the closet. I am forced to work from home now for fear of being beaten on the streets since I make frequent television appearances.
The tension and mistrust within the LGBTI community is high and there are some reports of LGBTI individuals blackmailing others. During social events one is never sure that there aren’t spies present and many LGBTI persons are now confined to their own homes. Some of our own activists are making claims that we are indeed recruiters.
AWID: Media reports imply that the Bill's proposer, [Member of Parliament] David Bahati has the financial backing of powerful right-wing evangelicals in the United States, but President Yoweri Museveni seems to have given an indication that the Bill might not succeed in its present form. How likely is it that the Bill will succeed?
KJ: We have to remember that the Bill is a Private Member’s Bill and so the President can only wait for what comes out of Parliament before deciding whether he signs it into law or not. For now, Parliament is an independent organ which cannot be directly influenced by the President, although, just like any other Ugandan, he can comment on it. My concern is that when the Bill first came into Parliament, Museveni was very clear that homosexuality is “immoral and abnormal.” Now that perhaps he has been “enlightened” that he would be violating his citizens’ human rights, he has softened his position because he knows that the donor countries that fund the Government respect human rights and that they wouldn’t spend their citizens’ taxes giving aid to a country that doesn’t respect its citizens’ human rights.
The Bill should either be withdrawn or debated as it is without any amendments to “soften” it. The public has not been sufficiently educated on its provisions and I believe if they were, they would see that it doesn’t just affect LGBTI individuals but has serious implications for everyone in Uganda.
AWID: You say that the Bill has implications for everyone in the country. What would criminalizing homosexual relations mean for anti HIV/AIDS campaigns in particular?
KJ: The Bill is going to throw away all the years of work that Uganda has put into fighting HIV/AIDS. I wonder whether the MP who introduced this Bill or some of the other leaders who support it really want Uganda to win the fight against HIV/AIDS. So many HIV positive LGBTI individuals were in the closet even before the Bill. How many more will remain in the closet, and how many who were already out will be forced to go back? Government campaigns against the disease have not been comprehensive enough to reach LGBTI individuals. Many men who have sex with men (MSM) and women who have sex with women (WSW), live double lives and this fuels the spread of HIV. Many interventions against HIV/AIDS ignore WSW assuming that they are at a low risk of contracting the virus. Yet many of them also have sex with men and do not always have the power to negotiate for safe sex. They do not have adequate information about how some practices such as sharing sex toys or needles can expose them to the risk of contracting HIV.
LGBTI organizations in Uganda have been doing great work to inform and educate the LGBTI community about the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS. If the Bill passes, we will have to stop this work. Driving this community further underground is going to negate all the gains that we have achieved.
AWID: What have you, and other LGBTI activists been doing to oppose the passage of the Bill?
KJ: We have partnered with human rights, women’s rights, feminist, donor and health organizations to spread awareness about the adverse effects and implications of the Bill. We have also lobbied our allies and partners nationally, regionally and internationally to strongly throw their weight behind the Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Constitutional Law which was formed to oppose the Bill. This partnership has opened up valuable spaces for public hearings and debates including in the media. Without these partnerships it would have been difficult to access any spaces at all. We are documenting every abuse and violation to help us in future work should the Bill pass into Law.
AWID: How can human rights advocates around the world assist you in opposing the proposed law and promoting the upholding of LGBTI rights in Uganda?
KJ: Our allies need to keep up the pressure on the Ugandan Government by signing petitions, speaking out openly and urging their governments not to waste their taxes on funding our Government since it regards LGBTI persons as secondary citizens.
The anti-gay crusaders are trying to force LGBTI persons out of our country and they know that many are scared. Uganda is where I was born and neither any person - including the President - nor any piece of paper has the power to force me out.
________________
[i] Communal taxis are commonly used as public transport in Uganda and other parts of Africa.
[ii] A bodaboda is a motorcycle taxi.

The Vagina Monologues with Save the Congo

2010-02-21T18:13:00.002Z

This past Friday, February 19, we attended the Vagina Monologues at Amnesty International's Human Rights Action Centre, organised by Save the Congo in partnership with V-Day. An excerpt from the press release/invitation we received states:

"Eve Ensler’s powerful work was created through interviews with women from around the world and the monologues themselves reflect the range of issues faced by women the world over. We’re very proud that this performance marks the first time an all-black cast has been used for the play in the UK."

The performance was amazing - all five performers were funny and moving throughout. At the end, founder of Save the Congo, Vava Tempa, gave an emotional speech about the situation of women and girls in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Currently, in the DRC, it is more dangerous to be female than to be in the militia. The occurrences of sexual violence perpetrated against women and girls are brutal; the number of assaults, staggering and unmeasurable. The death toll from the conflict in the DRC is currently 5-6 million, the most deadly conflict since WWII. Shouldn't we be doing something about it?

Rwanda: Empowering Genocide Widows

2010-02-16T16:45:00.003Z

It's International Tuesday and today we have an article from Rwanda about the NGO Avega Agahozo, which helps women who were sexually assaulted during the genocide. I was in Rwanda in July 2009, conducting research on the human rights situation of children conceived through rape during the genocide. This research included a meeting with Jeanne Mukamusoni of Avega Agahozo, who is also writing about these children and the difficulties that they and their mothers face. Although it is not mentioned in this article, Jeanne told me that there is group counselling for women who have children as a result of rape.

RWANDA: Empowering genocide widows

KIGALI, 11 February 2010 (IRIN) - Sixteen years after the Rwandan genocide, many women are struggling to come to terms with the violence they endured.

According to the association of genocide widows NGO, Avega Agahozo, sexual violence was used to humiliate, degrade and abuse women during the 6 April to 16 July 1994 killings. In many cases, the violence was meted out before, during or after the women had witnessed the killing of a relative.

“Some of the women are only coming out now because they are sick,” said Sabine Uwase, the head of advocacy, justice and information for Avega. "We also receive special cases suffering from cancer or with damaged sexual organs.”

Avega has turned into a refuge for some of these women. Founded in 1995 by 58 widows, it now has three branches and 25,000 members. More than 47,400 women are receiving medical treatment through its programmes.

Each day, 20 to 30 women come knocking on its doors. Asked why it took some of the women so long to seek help, Uwase said: “Many of the women were ashamed to come out. We had to counsel them first. Many of them were victims of rape and are traumatized.”

One study carried out by the organization in Rwanda’s 12 provinces found that in a sample of 1,125 widows, about 80 percent showed signs of trauma and 67 percent had HIV. The study was limited by inadequate resources.

Legal aid

Apart from healthcare, Avega provided legal services for widows who wished to testify against those accused of genocide in the traditional gacaca courts.

The 12,103 courts, which were started in 2001 and modelled on Rwanda’s traditional justice mechanisms, are being wound up after handling more than a million cases. At least 800,000 perpetrators have been convicted nationwide.

However, human rights organizations have criticized the gacaca courts, saying they did not provide adequate legal services to suspects, were plagued by unfairness and have been used to settle scores.

Government officials strongly deny the criticism, saying 94 percent of Rwandans believe in the courts. The process, they argue, has promoted reconciliation and reunited communities.

“Previously, the widows were unwilling to testify,” Uwase told IRIN on 8 February. “We have trained 419 trainers of trainers who go back to the villages to teach others how to testify. In Kigali, we have helped testimony in 150 cases. Now, we are also teaching the widows and orphans about land law.”

Avega also built 919 houses for widows and orphans between 2007 and 2008, and tackles gender-based violence. Over the years, it has encouraged the women to engage in income-generating activities, such as basket-weaving. The baskets are sold internationally and help to supplement the US$60 monthly government grant provided by the Assistance Fund for Genocide Survivors.

Genocide widows form a significant percentage of survivors because the genocidaires targeted mainly men and boys. Data compiled by the genocide survivors fund shows that between 250,000 and 500,000 women were raped during the 100 days of violence in which 800,000 to one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus died.

Trauma

While some women were gang-raped, others were violated with sharpened objects, resulting in extensive damage to their reproductive systems.

Up to 20,000 children were born from rape. Across the country, there are 10 times more widows than widowers among the 300,000-400,000 survivors.

Some 100,000 survivors are categorized as vulnerable, including 40,000 who lack shelter. There are also 75,000 orphans.

According to Avega, the widows and orphans who survived the genocide bear the burden of the atrocities committed. Having witnessed or suffered extreme violence, many of them have a very negative attitude towards life.

“Many of the women still find it difficult to talk about their experiences,” a Kigali-based journalist said. “They are haunted by [the genocide].”

International Women's Day is Fast Approaching!

2010-02-10T17:17:00.003Z

International Women's Day is less than a month away. We thought we'd begin our celebrations of this day early by highlighting Action Aid's campaign "Put Your Foot Down!" where you can sign a petition to get the UK government to take action regarding violence against women and AIDS.

Make sure to also check out the shoe gallery, which contains information about violence against women and AIDS. And even though it's not International Tuesday, read this amazing tale of one Ethiopian woman standing up for her rights.

Kenya: Documenting Sexual Violence

2010-02-09T14:50:00.008Z

Today for International Tuesday we have an article from Kenya on the sexual violence that occurred during the post-2007 election conflict.

KENYA:
Documenting Sexual Violence
Susan Anyangu-Amu

NAIROBI, Jan 28 (IPS) - The testimonies of women who survived sexual violence during post-election conflict in 2008 should be heard, say advocates. The magnitude of the crimes committed against women because of their gender must be recorded and prosecuted to prevent such violence from occurring again.

"We have realised there is no political intention to ensure the perpetrators of gender-based and sexual violence are brought to book, says Patricia Nyaundi, executive director of the Federation of Women Lawyers Kenya (FIDA).

In presenting its findings, the Waki Commission of Inquiry into the Post-Election Violence described rapes committed against women, children and some men; carried out by gangs of thugs, by neighbours and by the security forces. The Commission states that the evidence it collected represented a tiny fraction of the full extent of gender-based violence - just 31 women came forward with testimony of this nature.

Tip of the iceberg

Suffering in silence
Her large dark eyes hold your gaze stare every time you look into her face.

Jasmine Muyobe* (not her real name) recounts the tale of one night after the announcement of the disputed presidential poll results in Kenya in 2007. The single mother of four children spend the day terrified, behind closed doors in her house flinching at the gunshots that filled the air.

"It was two days after the announcement of the presidential results and the violence was raging. I live near a slum and soon the chaos moved from the informal settlement into the suburbs. That evening someone knocked hard at my gate calling out my neighbour's name. I went to talk to the person and when he said he wanted to see my neighbour who was not around, I decided to open the gate," Muyobe says.

But the stranger pushed the young mother back into her house and proceeded to rape her repeatedly all night long.

"My children were asleep. They had no idea what was going on. Early the next morning, he left without a word as if nothing had happened.

"From that day my life changed… I chose not to talk to anyone about the rape. A month later, in February 2007, I discovered I was pregnant and infected with HIV," Muyobe says.

Almost two years after that fateful evening, Muyobe told her story to a group of journalists and representatives of human rights organisations documenting testimonies of women who survived sexual violence during the post-election violence. It is hoped this documentation will be part of healing for survivors, as well as creating a vivid and accurate record of gender-based crimes committed both for prosecution and for the historical memory of the country.
A single facility, the Gender Violence Recovery Center at the Nairobi Women's Hospital, reported attending to over 650 cases of sexual violence during the chaos. Anecdotal evidence suggests thousands of other women across the country survived similar violence.

FIDA is one of a group of organisations working to document gender-based and sexual violence in the aftermath of 2007 general elections as well as during other conflicts that have rocked Kenya, such as the Mount Elgon conflict where armed militia for months terrorised residents over land disputes.

"By documenting these testimonies, we are taking this opportunity to give women who underwent horrific ordeals a chance to tell their stories, to create historical evidence that this actually happened.

"This kind of evidence will force this country to move from denial and accept what happened during that period," says Nyaundi.

Amplifies distrubing trend

"Violence against women has been systematic and entrenched in our society, but the post-election period saw an unprecedented number of women subjected to widespread sexual violence," says Rosemary Okello.

"Many women were sexually assaulted, gang raped or sodomised. Many of these acts of sexual violence occurred in the presence of the women's spouses, children or parents causing trauma, humiliation and stress suffered by the survivors and their families."

Okello is executive director of another partner in the documentary project, the African Woman and Child Feature Service (AWCFS), which promotes diversity, gender equity, social justice and development in Africa through media, training and research. Also participating are the NGOs Centre for Rights Education and Awareness and Women Fighting Against AIDS in Kenya.

The documentation project is supported by the Urgent Action Fund (UAF-Africa), which has wide experience working in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Northern and North Eastern Uganda, Liberia and Zimbabwe, providing rapid response grants to women and human rights organisations.

"Women survivors become guiltier than the perpetrators of the violence," says UAF executive director Jessica Nkuuhe.

"The women fear to share what they have been through because they are afraid of stigma and being deserted by their families, especially their spouses. They thus shut down and unfortunately this ordeal eats at their very existence, giving rise to depression and eventually some lose the will to live and die miserable."

Testimony part of healing

Nkuuhe says the documentary project is an off-shoot of similar endeavours in northern and northeastern Uganda, Liberia and Zimbabwe through which survivors of sexual and gender-based violence have been able to share their experiences with each other.

"We brought together survivors of sexual violence to a conference. Before that most of these women had kept their experiences silent. When they met other women who had been through similar horrific ordeals, they were able to open up and share. Sharing their stories provides an avenue for the survivors to seek help to heal after such a traumatising ordeal," Nkuuhe says.

Kenyan member of parliament Millie Odhiambo says unless women speak out, sexual offences committed in times of conflict will go unpunished.

As Kenya takes account of what happened in 2008 and prosecutes perpetrators, the gender-based violence dimension must be brought into focus.

"As a country, we were not prepared for the level of gender-based and sexual violence that was witnessed. By documenting this, it shall provide a basis for our government to develop policies on preparedness to handle such scenarios. The evidence will also act as shock therapy for Kenya and we shall never forget what happened to these survivors," Odhiambo says.

Prosecution

Judy Waguma of AWCFS says despite the existence of legislation such as the Sexual Offences Act, there has been minimal prosecution of sexual offences during the post-election chaos.

"During situations of crisis - as evidenced by the post-election violence - the government response to sexual violence is very limited, and it is usually the civil society organisations that have to step in to design and implement responses. Therefore there is a marked lack of access to justice for survivors of sexual violence."

 Odhiambo says the project to document testimonies comes at an opportune time, ahead of the entry of International Criminal Court investigators who will carry out a fact-finding mission Kenya's post-election violence, after the government failed to act on findings and recommendations of the Waki Commission.

ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo will be gathering evidence for prosecutions of those "most responsible" for the violence. The documentation project should be an important part of making sure responsibility for gender-based crimes is not neglected.

An Update on the London Office's Work

2010-02-09T13:46:00.002Z

We've been less busy here at the London Office than we were in November for White Ribbon Day, but things are still going well. Our intern has begun work on a new White Ribbon Towns strategy and we're also producing White Ribbon documents that provide information and state our policies on various forms of violence against women. Look for more information on this "What the WRC says about..." series soon!

International Tuesday: FGM in Mauritania

2010-02-02T21:31:00.000Z

Today we bring you another article regarding FGM, this one from Mauritania. It was written on January 21, 2010.

Mauritanian Muslim imams initiate rare ban on female circumcision

Written by: George Fominyen

DAKAR (AlertNet) - Human rights campaigners who have been struggling for years to eliminate female genital mutilation (FGM) in West Africa got a boost this week as news emerged that a group of Muslim clerics and scholars in Mauritania had declared a fatwa, or religious decree, against the practice.
The centuries-old practice involves removing part or all of a girl's clitoris and labia, and sometimes narrowing the vaginal opening. About 72 percent of the women in Mauritania have undergone FGM which health workers say often causes severe bleeding, problems urinating and potential complications during childbirth.
"Are there texts in the Koran that clearly require that thing? They do not exist," the secretary general of the Forum of Islamic Thought in Mauritania, Cheikh Ould Zein, told Reuters.
"On the contrary, Islam is clearly against any action that has negative effects on health. Now that doctors in Mauritania unanimously say that this practice threatens health, it is therefore clear that Islam is against it," he added.
In many parts of West Africa, FGM has been presented as a religious obligation for practising Muslim women, leading most to believe that if they are not circumcised they are unclean and their prayers will not be heard.
Which makes the decision by 34 imams and scholars -- supported by the government of Mauritania and UNICEF, the United Nations' children's agency -- all the more unusual.
"The fact that the religious leaders in Mauritania are standing up and doing this is quite amazing. It shows how concerned Islam and the religion of Islam is about the health of women," said Molly Melching, executive director of Tostan, a Senegal-based organisation that has been working with 30 communities in Mauritania on FGM and rights issues.
MORE DECREES TO COME?
UNICEF estimates that 3 million girls and women are cut each year across communities in 28 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle-East.
So, what is the likelihood of seeing similar bans on female circumcision in other countries?
Well, it's hard to say.
A fatwa in itself is generally binding only to those who follow a particular imam, so communities could be subject to contradictory decrees.
Moreover, not all the communities in the other countries of sub-Saharan Africa where the practice continues are Muslim -- reflecting the fact that, as a longstanding cultural practice, FGM may be hard to end especially when campaigners use judgmental approaches.
"In the past, people have gone into communities and simply told them to stop this practice because it is bad and they display pictures of naked women and their reproductive organs in communities where this is shocking," Melching said.
Many organisations including Tostan and Save the Children believe this approach failed to stop the practice because it ignored the cultural context in which the targeted communities were living.
"I once asked a community: 'do you have the right to cut somebody's hand?' They said no. 'Do you have the right to cut somebody's head or foot?' They said no. So why do you cut somebody's sexual organ?" said Ame Atsu David, a former regional programme coordinator for HIV and harmful traditional practices of Save the Children (Sweden) in West Africa.
"This got them thinking," she told AlertNet.
Many campaigners back an approach which involves human rights, education, community development, health care and leaves the decision to the communities themselves.
A Save the Children-backed campaign run by the Mali Centre Djoliba based on this approach has seen 40 villages abandon female circumcision and set up community groups to oversee the implementation of the decision in a country where over 80 percent of the women have experienced FGM.
In Senegal, 4,121 villages have abandoned FGM since 1997 with the support of Tostan whose work has been praised by U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, and has also contributed to a law against FGM which was passed in the country in 1999.
"But a law is not what will change a social norm. For it to be sustainable it has to come from the people, a decision made by the people, because they really believe in it," Melching said.
"The key is empowering people to make their own decisions but with good information," she told AlertNet.

International Tuesday: Trucker Turned DV Lawyer in Vermont

2010-01-26T15:29:00.000Z

Here's an article from Ms. magazine about Wynona Ward, a lawyer fighting for victims of domestic abuse in Vermont:

WYNONA WARD

BY ALEXIS JETTER

Wynona Ward keeps her eyes on the rutted dirt road as she drives through the undulating mountain valleys of central Vermont and into her past. She rounds a bend and there it is: Beanville. Just a cluster of trailers and weathered clapboard houses clinging to a hillside by a small stream, a few miles up the road from tiny West Fairlee. "See that?" Ward asks, chuckling, pointing to a hair-raisingly steep slope. "My brother and I used to sled down that on car hoods. The most dangerous thing you could imagine!"

Ward, a trucker turned lawyer, is heading north to counsel a battered woman who, after years of abuse, is seeking legal help. But on the way, she pauses to view the remains of the homestead where she, too, once quaked with fear.

"My father would come in from the outhouse, drunk, demanding to know why there wasn't any beer in the house, or anything other than venison stew to eat," recalls Ward, a stocky, energetic woman with an easy laugh and a stubborn refusal to feel sorry for herself. Her mother, Ward remembers, would stare into the pot she was stirring and mutter, "Because you haven't worked in three weeks." Enraged, Ward's father would throw his wife into the corner, stick his knee in her stomach and start choking her.

"They don't call it choking anymore; they call it strangulation," Ward says matter-of-factly. "She'd get in a few screams and all of us kids would come running." The children would try to pry their father's hands from their mother's throat, only to have his wrath vented on them: her brother was beaten, and the girls were sexually abused.

There was no phone and no one to call. The neighbors were within earshot, "but when they heard screaming coming from our house, they just turned their heads," Ward says. "And when we heard screaming coming from the neighbors, we turned our heads, too." Just three doors down, a man shot his wife to death in front of their children when Wynona was eight, and nobody thought much of it.

Even today, Vermont, known for its progressive politics and pristine environment, has a chillingly high rate of all-in-the-family brutality. More than 70 percent of female murder victims are killed by their husbands, ex-husbands, or boyfriends--over twice the national average. For women who live on the back roads, with unreliable cars, no telephones, and no money to hire attorneys, there's often nowhere to turn. Wynona Ward is determined to change that.

In 1998, after graduating from Vermont Law School, Ward won a grant to start "Have Justice--Will Travel," a law office on wheels. Today, in her four-wheel-drive Dodge Ram Charger, Ward visits battered women who are too isolated to get legal help and finds assistance for their abused children. The vehicle is outfitted with a CB radio, scanner, and cellular phone, as well as a computer and printer--all equipped with batteries, in the event a woman she is visiting has no electricity.

"Instead of making them come to an office with leather chairs, where they have to wait for an appointment to say, 'Here I am, shame on me, I just got beat up,' I come to them," says Ward, wearing casual black slacks and a houndstooth jacket. "I sit in their chairs, at their kitchen table, and listen to their stories.

"And even if it's not perfectly clean or the Trump mansion, I'm comfortable there," she says with a smile that lights up her open, friendly face. "I grew up in a poor household. They understand that. And if they don't, I tell them."

Today she's visiting Sandy (all names of Ward's clients have been changed), a 32-year-old administrative assistant and mother who recently divorced her husband after 12 years of abuse. Sandy is outwardly upbeat, funny, and sure of herself. The bruises on her face have faded, her fractured wrist has healed, and once-missing clumps of hair have grown back. But there's still a hairline fracture on Sandy's nose where her former husband broke it.

Sandy credits Ward for giving her the confidence to leave. "One of the first things you did, well, it wasn't something you wrote on a legal pad," she says, looking fondly at Ward. "You hugged me. I was just so embarrassed. And you made me feel welcome." But without Ward's free legal help, Sandy says, "I wouldn't have been able to do it."

With a population of just under 600,000, the state has only five part-time attorneys--partially funded by the federal Violence Against Women Act--who work exclusively with victims of domestic violence. Consequently, many battered women go into court--seeking a relief-from-abuse order, a divorce, or custody of their children--without legal representation. Their husbands or boyfriends are more often able to afford an attorney. Clients are usually referred to Ward through Safeline, a local hotline and advocacy organization.

Ward maintains a small, filled-to-the-rafters office at the Vermont Law School's community legal clinic. But going to her clients instead of having them come to her is more practical: women keep their files, such as they are, tucked into drawers at home. And by being "on site," Ward can easily check to see if there's a neglected medical condition or no food or heat in the house. "If the kids don't have hats and mittens, I know people who do."

Isolation compounds her clients' problems. One third of them lack phones, because, in a state as sparsely populated as Vermont, the cost of maintaining telephone lines across long distances results in staggeringly high monthly rates. And though most families have a car, "it may go to work with the batterer," says Judy Szeg of Safeline.

But isolation is also about lack of skills and hope. Sometimes Ward helps clients get a high-school equivalency diploma or a job. Other times it's as simple as working up a budget to pay off debt that an abuser has accumulated over the years. Perhaps the best measure of Ward's success is that so few of her clients have returned to their batterers or entered other abusive relationships. "Don't let him frighten you," she tells a client whose ex-husband has threatened to take the kids. Rhonda, a tiny, birdlike woman who's determined to appear cheerful, is clearly rattled. "There's nothing he can do," Ward tells her, giving her a bear hug. Rhonda's eyes are troubled, but she breathes deeply and promises to keep in touch.

Ward never intended to become a "domestic violence road warrior," as the American Bar Association has dubbed her. For 17 years, she and her husband, Harold, were big-rig truckers. Ward got her college degree by mail, writing papers on a laptop in the sleeper of their 18-wheel Diamond Reo, while Harold drove through the night.

But her childhood abuse haunted her. At truck stops, weigh stations, on the CB radio, "there wasn't anybody I talked to who wasn't dealing with it, directly or indirectly," she says. In the sleeper, between shifts, she started reading about incest, child abuse, and domestic violence--and finally faced the fear and shame that had twisted her youth.

Unfortunately, that legacy wasn't just a specter from the past. In 1991, her sisters paged her on the road. Her brother, Richard, had raped a child in the family, and after two years of holding back, the girl told a counselor about it. "My God it's happening again," Ward breathed. The youngster had already been molested by Ward's father when she was three--the same age Ward was when he began raping her. Prosecutors felt then that the girl was too young to testify. But now Ward and her three sisters stood firm. "We did for her what wasn't done for the rest of us," she says. "We told her we believed her. And we told her it was important that she come forward."

It turned out that Richard had already sexually molested two other little girls. "In Richie's case, he was just living up to his father's expectations," says Harold angrily, sitting at the couple's kitchen table in Vershire, Vermont. "He was expected to grow up to be a child abuser. It was like putting a goddamned deer head on the wall. It was a trophy."

Alarmed, Ward put the brakes on her cross-country trucking until she made sure that her brother was safely behind bars. "Please get treatment," she wrote him in prison. Despite his refusal, the state parole board announced it wanted to release him after two years.

And so Ward led the charge to stop that from happening.

She wrote a 15-page report to the parole board arguing that it was misinterpreting state law. Faxed press releases to newspapers and television stations urging them to attend the hearing. And brought photographs of the little girl to make her point in human terms.

"This is the child that he has abused," Ward told the board. "When she was three years old, she was abused by her grandfather. When she was six, she was sexually assaulted by her uncle. When she was nine, she had to testify in court. Now she's 12. What am I supposed to tell her is going to happen to her when she's 15?" Anger flickers in her eyes: "I'll tell you what happened," Ward says, her foot on the accelerator as she recalls how, despite a successful campaign with the parole board, the girl, at age 16, had to face her abuser again, when he was given a furlough to attend a family funeral. Ward is lost in thought for a minute, then resumes. "But that is a lot of why I'm doing what I'm doing. The legal system is really hard on victims. They get victimized again and again." That experience convinced Ward to enroll in law school, where she focused on family law and won a bevy of awards, including the 1998 Outstanding Law Student of the Year from Who's Who in American Law Students.

Alexander Banks, Ward's supervising attorney at the clinic, points out, "Wynona brings something to the equation that's unique, something that, even if I tried my hardest, I couldn't do. She says to the women: 'I have been where you are, and I have gotten out. Walk beside me and I will help you get out.'" Today, she's as concerned about how to keep the aging Ram Charger on the road as she is about keeping her work on course. Her original grant runs out next September. Ward is hoping to raise enough money to hire another attorney and a secretary.

But she never wants to lose the personal touch. "I don't feel that I'll burn out the way other people do," she says. "Because, let's face it, this is my life."

A Victory for Women Caught in War

2010-01-12T18:24:00.006Z

It's International Tuesday, and today we have an article from Human Rights Watch, written December 17, 2009. Rape has arguably been used in almost every conflict throughout history. For centuries, it was not considered part of the war, but rather a "reward" for the winning soldiers. Women were property, so soldiers were invited to "rape and pillage" - steal property as well as rape property. Thankfully, that opinion is changing, with the international community recognising that the use of rape as a weapon of war is a serious issue facing any woman in a conflict situation. Visit the link above to learn more about rape in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and to hear testimonies.

After years of our advocacy on ending rape as a weapon of war, we were proud to see the Security Council vote to create a senior position dedicated to ending sexual violence in armed conflict.
The groundwork was laid in June 2008, when the Security Council passed a resolution identifying rape during war as a problem in need of special attention and resources. For the last two years, we worked to create a climate in which the United Nations would be compelled to act. We met repeatedly with Bush administration officials to persuade them to take leadership on this issue. We distributed press releases, disseminated The Greatest Silence, a powerful film on the subject, and supported women’s groups worldwide to exert pressure on the Security Council.
Following the June 2008 vote, we intensified pressure on Security Council members to stand behind their vow and commit resources to stopping sexual violence in war. In the end, no country wanted to be seen as not taking sexual violence seriously, and the Security Council passed Resolution 1888, which provides for the senior position dedicated to ending rape in war. The resolution marks a huge step forward in protecting women during wartime. We are now pressing the secretary-general to fill the post soon, by early 2010.

International Tuesdays

2010-01-05T12:10:00.003Z

As you all know, the issue of violence against women is not only a UK problem, but a global one. So, every Tuesday on the WRC London blog will be International Tuesday - a day where we post an article related to violence against women in another country (with the aim of having the author be from that particular country), to show our solidarity with the women and girls of the world.

We're starting today, with an article from the Gambia on female genital mutilation. If the previous link doesn't work, try this one.

Gambian women rights group to honour ex-circumcisers

Gambia women rights group, The Gambia Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children (GAMCOTRAP) will Saturday honour ex-circumcisers and their communities at the Basse Stadium in the Upper River Region. According to a press release obtained by PANA here, GAMCOTRAP will be marking the 2nd Dropping of the Knife events through a public declaration by 60 circumcisers and 351 communities in Upper and Central River Regions of the Gambia. The ceremony is part of GAMCOTRAP's land-mark achievements over the years. According to the release, GAMCOTRAP has been engaged in consistent grassroots activism and social mobilisation through training and sensitisation activities to raise consciousness of men and women on the effects of female genital mutilation (FGM) on the reproductive health rights of women and girl-children.

The release pointed out that the organisation has worked closely with the communities through an empowerment process, to be able to bring about change, adding that as a result of the series of activities, the organisation has been able to register immense success, leading to the first pubic declaration made by 18 circumcisers and 63 communities to protect their children from FGM in 2007.
'Sustained advocacy engaging the duty bearers at the community level has resulted to yet another success story and the pubic declaration has very strong support and commitment from their traditional rulers and Council of Elders as well as the local government structures across the regions.

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-23T09:50:00.003Z

Merry Christmas from the White Ribbon Campaign! The WRC London blog will be taking a break over the holidays, but wants to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Stopping Prostitution Carders on December 8

2009-12-10T14:50:00.007Z

Two days ago, on December 8, the White Ribbon Campaign joined the Greater London Authority, the Metropolitan Police, and Eaves to tackle prostitution by tearing down the cards in telephone boxes advertising prostitution. This is an important step in tackling prostitution and trafficking. Prostitution is a form of violence against women. It is also an issue of child abuse as 75% of women in prostitution became involved when they were children (Women's Resource Centre, 2008). The White Ribbon Campaign is proud to be part of this campaign to end prostitution and trafficking.

From L to R: Kit Malthouse (Deputy Mayor for Policing), Detective Chief Superintendent Richard Martin (MPS Clubs and Vice Unit), and Detective Inspector Kevin Hyland (MPS Clubs and Vice Unit).

Part of the crowd of volunteers and police gathered before dividing up to de-card different areas of Westminster.

Hollywood Speaks Out About Domestic Violence

2009-12-10T14:37:00.003Z

On Friday November 27, actor Patrick Stewart wrote an article in The Guardian about his experience with domestic violence. His father regularly beat his mother, while a young Patrick Stewart would often force himself between his parents to protect his mother:

Our house was small, and when you grow up with domestic violence in a confined space you learn to gauge, very precisely, the temperature of situations. I knew exactly when the shouting was done and a hand was about to be raised – I also knew exactly when to insert a small body between the fist and her face, a skill no child should ever have to learn. Curiously, I never felt fear for myself and he never struck me, an odd moral imposition that would not allow him to strike a child. The situation was barely tolerable: I witnessed terrible things, which I knew were wrong, but there was nowhere to go for help. Worse, there were those who condoned the abuse. I heard police or ambulancemen, standing in our house, say, "She must have provoked him," or, "Mrs Stewart, it takes two to make a fight." They had no idea. The truth is my mother did nothing to deserve the violence she endured. She did not provoke my father, and even if she had, violence is an unacceptable way of dealing with conflict. Violence is a choice a man makes and he alone is responsible for it.

Fortunately, his father never beat him, but his experience with domestic violence as a child has stayed with him his whole life:

Such experiences are destructive. In my adult life I have struggled to overcome the bad lessons of my father's behaviour, this corrosive example of male irresponsibility. But the most oppressive aspect of these experiences was the loneliness. Very recently, during a falling-out with my girlfriend, I felt again as though I were shut out and alone, not heard or understood. I was neither, but it was such a familiar isolation that it was almost a comfort and consolation.

Then on December 1, Reese Witherspoon gave a speech at the House of Commons about domestic violence (unfortunately, this aspect has been largely overshadowed by the media's attention on Prime Minister Gordon Brown's mix-up of Witherspoon with Renée Zellweger). Witherspoon is a spokesperson for Avon and Refuge's campaign against domestic violence.

Here is a video of Reese Witherspoon on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross (on December 4), talking about the campaign (it starts at 4:48).

Canadian National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women

2009-12-06T11:39:00.003Z

Today is Canada's National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. Twenty years ago today, on December 6, 1989, 25-year-old Marc Lépine entered the École Polytechnique in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and shot twenty-eight people before killing himself. Armed with a (legally obtained) semi-automatic rifle and a hunting knife, Lépine killed 14 women. His suicide note blamed feminists for ruining his life and included a hit list of 19 Quebec women who Lépine viewed to be feminists and wanted to kill.

This was obviously a gender-based crime - an attack on women simply because they were women. When Lépine entered one classroom, he separated the men from the women and then told the men to leave. He asked the remaining women if they knew why they were there; one answered "no" so Lépine said, "I am fighting feminism." He later said, "You're women, you're going to be engineers. You're all a bunch of feminists. I hate feminists."

In the aftermath of this tragedy, Canadian gun control laws became much more strict. Since 1991, the anniversary of the massacre has been designated the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. That same year, the White Ribbon Campaign was launched by a group of men in London, Ontario, Canada.

The wikipedia entry regarding the Montreal massacre is a good place to start if you want to learn more about this tragic event; there are many useful links to further information.

And so today, we remember the 14 women killed:

Geneviève Bergeron (born 1968), civil engineering student
Hélène Colgan (born 1966), mechanical engineering student
Nathalie Croteau (born 1966), mechanical engineering student
Barbara Daigneault (born 1967), mechanical engineering student
Anne-Marie Edward (born 1968), chemical engineering student
Maud Haviernick (born 1960), materials engineering student
Maryse Laganière (born 1964), budget clerk in the École Polytechnique's finance department
Maryse Leclair (born 1966), materials engineering student
Anne-Marie Lemay (born 1967), mechanical engineering student
Sonia Pelletier (born 1961), mechanical engineering student
Michèle Richard (born 1968), materials engineering student
Annie St-Arneault (born 1966), mechanical engineering student
Annie Turcotte (born 1969), materials engineering student
Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz (born 1958), nursing student

Re-Launch of the Corporate Alliance Against Domestic Violence (CAADV)

2009-12-03T14:17:00.002Z

On November 30, the White Ribbon Campaign attended the re-launch of the Corporate Alliance Against Domestic Violence, which was sponsored by the Attorney General's Office and Comic Relief. Attorney General Baroness Scotland QC, spoke at the event, as Chair of CAADV. She said:

Enlightened employers are key partners in this endeavour. With many victims targeted in or around their workplace, it makes sense for employers to be aware of the issues and what they can do.

The White Ribbon Campaign strongly supports the Corporate Alliance Against Domestic Violence and encourages employers to develop policies related to domestic violence and other forms of violence against women in support of their employees.

MPs Unite in Support of White Ribbon Day

2009-12-01T16:27:00.008Z

On November 25, White Ribbon Day and the UN International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the White Ribbon Campaign arrived in Parliament to photograph MPs wearing white ribbons. Wearing a white ribbon is a pledge never to commit, condone, or remain silent about violence against women.

We began the day with the Conservative party, taking a group photo as well as individual photos of each MP.

Theresa May, a strong supporter of the White Ribbon Campaign, issued this statement:

I strongly support White Ribbon Day and the White Ribbon campaign. Domestic violence is a horrific crime that far too many women suffer from. We need to do more to prevent domestic violence by ensuring that all of us – government, police, schools, the NHS, and voluntary sector organisations – work together to tackle the root causes of violence and to give support to the vital services that help victims. This will be an important occasion in which we can all join together to speak out against domestic violence.

We also photographed Liberal Democrat MPs throughout the day, all wearing a white ribbon.

Liberal Democrat MPs on College Green.

White Ribbon Director Chris Green and Advocacy & Policy Officer Kaitlin Bardswich with Liberal Democrat MP Jenny Willott.

Home Secretary Alan Johnson stopped by as well (see previous post), as did Ikram Butt, White Ribbon ambassador and the first Asian to play rugby for England.

Ikram Butt with Labour MPs Neil Turner (R) and Ian McCartney.

The Labour Party was very supportive of the White Ribbon Campaign, gathering for a large group photo as well as individual photos.

All in all, we photographed 77 MPs from the Conservative, Labour, and Liberal Democrat parties. This was almost twice the number of MPs photographed last year - let's aim to double this number again next year!

Launch of New VAW Government Strategy

2009-12-01T15:39:00.008Z

On November 24, the White Ribbon Campaign attended the launch of the "Together We Can End Violence Against Women and Girls" strategy, prepared by the Home Office. Two paragraphs of particular interest to the White Ribbon Campaign are:

10. One under-exploited area of public education is in encouraging men to challenge other men. There is considerable room here for forming coalitions between the many men who eschew violence, but who currently fail to challenge their peers who do not.

11. Much of this work in the UK is currently undertaken by the White Ribbon Campaign, a branch of a global campaign to ensure that men take more responsibility for reducing the level of VAWG. It is an organisation that encourages men to carry out educational work in schools, workplaces and communities. We will work with the White Ribbon Campaign to promote the positive role that all men can play in ending VAWG and build this into our national communication strategy.

Home Secretary Alan Johnson MP attended the launch and also stopped by the Labour Office yesterday to have his photo taken wearing a white ribbon. Below is a photo of Alan Johnson MP and White Ribbon Director Chris Green.

We look forward to working with the Home Office to help implement this new strategy.

Reclaim the Night 2009 - the Good Stuff

2009-12-01T13:06:00.011Z

As I said in the last post, on November 21, over 2000 women marched through the streets of London to Reclaim the Night. Led by SheBoom, an all-women drumming group, we march from Whitehall Place, along Trafalgar Square, up Charing Cross Road and Tottenham Court Road until we reached the Camden Centre across from Kings Cross Station. It was a demonstration of female strength, as well as male fortitude in supporting the women's march. Chris Green, director of the White Ribbon Campaign UK, led several men on a separate march through London in solidarity with these 2000 women. It was a rainy night, but that did not quench the enthusiasm of any of the Reclaim the Night supporters, male and female.

After the march, we dried ourselves off inside at the Reclaim the Night Rally, which was organised by the London Feminist Network. Although the march was women-only, the rally, at the Camden Centre, was for anyone and everyone.

Our friends at Object won the Emma Humphrey's Memorial Prize for a group!

Here you can see the four speakers, moderator, and sign-language translator on the stage.

The speakers at the rally were amazing and truly inspiring. All produced applause throughout their speeches and several invoked standing ovations. Three out of five of the speakers at the rally mentioned the work of the White Ribbon Campaign! Shamsun Nahar said:

Male violence against women and children is not inevitable. Men can take a stand against this and indeed there are examples of men who are doing just that with the White Ribbon Campaign.

Maggie Bremner, of the NASUWT (National Association of Schoomasters Union of Women Teachers) said:

We have also worked to promote and support the work of the White Ribbon Campaign, which is a male led campaign against domestic violence towards women and produces resources for teachers. And a big thank you to the men here tonight supporting us.

Reclaim the Night 2009 - the Bad Stuff

2009-12-01T12:38:00.001Z

On November 21, over 2000 women marched through the streets of central London to Reclaim the Night. When I arrived at Whithall Place, I was initially surprised to see so many police officers there. I thought, "Do they think we're going to get violent at an anti-violence against women march?"

It didn't take me very long to realize that they were there to protect US. That was scary.

We saw many men (usually in groups) laughing at us as we marched through downtown London, bringing traffic to a standstill. One man stood at the edge of the sidewalk, frowning and staunchly thumbs-downing our march. One lad ran up to us and stuck his behind out, saying something like "don't you want to get some of this?" Another man, more aggressive, started running toward us and yelling "I've been on the other side of that!!" until a police officer stopped him. Of course, there are male victims of violence, but how does that fact make protesting violence against women any less valid or important?

Still, what we saw was nothing compared to what happened to the blogger Noble Savage, who was sexually assaulted during the march:

Last night, I marched through the streets of central London with 2,000 other women and dozens of police escorts, holding a sign that said “End violence against women.”

Last night, I used my voice to chant and shout about sexual violence, unsafe streets and women’s rights.

Last night, when I should have felt at my most powerful, most inspired and safest, I was sexually assaulted.

I had to stop typing there for a minute and make sure I’d written that right and that it wasn’t just a strange dream. But yes, I was sexually assaulted at a march protesting sexual assault. How’s that for irony?

As we came through Leicester Square, a man pushed his way abruptly past the barrier and with one swift movement of his outstretched arm, managed to push me backwards and roughly grab my breasts at the same time. I swung at him with my right hand but he’s already stormed past so I only made contact with the back of his shoulder before he disappeared out the other side and down a side street. My friend Jen and I looked at each other in disbelief and shock. I hadn’t seen him coming until he was centimetres away and before I noticed the arm coming at me, what I undeniably saw was a face riddled with disgust and anger.

He, along with the man who had spit towards us earlier, and the one who had stood on the side shouting “Boo! Boo!” with his thumbs and his mouth turned downwards, and the significant number of men I saw mocking us — laughing, rolling their eyes and grabbing their crotches — were obviously disturbed by our presence. Perhaps we were reminders of violence they had perpetrated themselves, or a catalyst for the potential violence bubbling within them, just beneath the surface, like a nearly-boiled kettle. Maybe they felt threatened by our numbers and our voices and our demands. Maybe they were scared.

But whatever the reasons for their animosity, they will never know what it’s like to be scared of being humiliated and violated, in public, by people who feel they have a right to our bodies, our smiles, our time and our compliance. They will never know what it’s like to trade stories, with friends of the harrassment, abuse, assault and violence nearly each and every one of us has experienced, some of us in many different ways. They will never understand that we call these ‘war stories’ because every day is a battle and we are tired of feeling like soldiers, fighting off an enemy that has the better, more powerful weapons. They will never experience life and humanity the way we experience life and humanity because their view is unobstructed. They stand on the shoulders and backs of so many people, so many women, to survey their kingdom and claim rights to us, its spoils, with indifference and greed.

The London Office has arrived!

2009-12-01T12:36:00.000Z

White Ribbon supporters,

We have officially started our London office! We are located at the Hub, Islington, a supportive environment of like-minded activists. This is an exciting time for the White Ribbon Campaign as we expand our organisation and therefore our impact across England and Wales. This blog is written by the London office to highlight its achievements; please visit www.whiteribboncampaign.co.uk for information and news of our work across the country.

This is the first day in the office and we have already achieved a lot. We've attended the Reclaim the Night Rally, taken photos of 80 MPs in Parliament on White Ribbon Day (November 25), and attended the launch of the Young Muslim Offenders Mentoring Programme. We also attended the re-launch of the Corporate Alliance Against Domestic Violence with Comic Relief and the Attorney General, Baroness Scotland. On November 24, we were present for the Government's launch of the new Together We Can End Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy at the Home Office. In this strategy, the Home Office pledges to work with the White Ribbon Campaign "to promote the positive role that all men can play in ending VAWG (violence against women and girls) and build this into our national communication strategy."

With all of this already happening, it's going to be an exciting new year for the White Ribbon Campaign!