History / Histoire

ACTION ALERT / Alerte !

News

1 - France
* Lutte contre les discriminations SAUF CELLE TOUCHANT LES FEMMES : LE SEXISME !
* Lier le combat laïque et l'émancipation des femmes
* Avortement et Contraception : un droit fondamental pour les femmes
* Les clients de la prostitution
2 - Portugal : Women and abortion
3 - Bulgarie : Net recul du travail féminin
4 - Caucasus : Conflict Resolution and Peace Building in the Southern Caucasus
5 - Iran : Gender equality is tyranny against men in Iran !
6- Irak : Crimes islamistes contre les femmes de Mossoul
7- Pakistan : Demonstration against honor killings and violence against women
8- Afghanistan : Advocates Say More Improvements Needed
9- India : Woman, no cry ?
10 China not planning to send women to space
11- Kenya : Arrêtez les mutilations génitales féminines ! Stop female genital mutilation !
12- South Africa : Why Should We Care About Unpaid Care Work ?
13- U.S.A. : Differences Between Mistimed and Unwanted Pregnancies Among Women Who Have Live Births
14- Venezuela : Violence against women
15- Guatemala : Teams of prostitutes

16 - Australia : Abortion rate a tragedy, says Abbott...

17 - International :
* Las raíces del ateismo
* Women in State Custody
* VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN WILL CONTINUE UNLESS ITS ROOTS IN GENDER DISCRIMINATION AND INEQUALITY SERIOUSLY ADDRESSED
* A women's empowerment strategy
* Global Grandmothers' Council
* Social pensions a cost effective way to tackle old age and child poverty

Conference

* Turquie : Conférence Islamique des Ministres des Affaires Etrangères - Istanbul - République de Turquie -14-16 juin 2004
* Asia : FIRST SOUTH/SOUTHEAST ASIAN CONFERENCE ON SEXUALITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS IN MUSLIM SOCIETIES
* United States and Guinea-Bissau : RACISM AND CHILD ABUSE
* Thailand : Gender Makes a Difference
* France : Violences sexuelles et sexistes sur le lieu du travail
* Canada : FÉMINISME ET INSTITUTIONS DÉMOCRATIQUES
* 2005 Annual Award for the Human Rights of Women and Children

Livre / Book

Website / Site Internet    

 

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History / Histoire

 * Afghanistan : Female election worker commits suicide after rape attempt on her

On October 9th, 2004 (the day of the Presidential election in Afghanistan), Muska, a female election worker traveling with her team to different villages registering voters, was assigned to a polling station in a clinic located in Shagi, a village in the Khewa district (Nangrahar Province, southern Afghanistan). After the elections, the driver was asked to drop all the female election workers off at their homes. Muska was the last woman in the car, and although the driver told her that she reminded him of his sisters, Muska was afraid to be alone in the car with him. The driver agreed to take her to the home of her uncle, who lived in the village of Qare-e-Kohna. On the way to the village, the driver stopped the car in an area called Qala-e-Taq; he produced a knife, with which he threatened Muska and attempted to rape her. Muska resisted, and although injured, was able to run away from the car and arrive at the house of her uncle. She explained the incident to her uncle, who! complained to Commander Noor Agha. With the help of the head of the district, the driver was held in custody. The following day, Muska (who was deeply disturbed by the incident) went into her kitchen and covered herself in gasoline, then lit her body on fire. Rescuers found her in flames and after being taken to Sahat-e-Ama Hospital in Jalalabad, doctors determined that over eighty per cent of her body was burned.
Afterwards, supporters of the Solidarity Party protested at the UN office, the Election office and other officials to investigate the issue and provide better facilities for Muska. The UN office then transferred her to a hospital in an American military base in Bagram. Unfortunately, doctors could do nothing for her and she died of the severe injuries on October18th. (...)

rawa-ml@rawa.org

 

* Bangladesh : SIGMA HUDA APPOINTED UN SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON TRAFFICKING IN WOMEN - Sigma Huda has been a long-time advocate against violence against women. Working with the Bangladeshi Women Lawyers Association, the Institute on Law and Development and the Bangladesh Society for the Enforcement of Human Rights, Sigma Huda has fought against trafficking and sexual exploitation, particularly of women and girls, from Bangladesh to India. Sigma is currently a Board Member of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, Asia Pacific.

Y:\EWL info\Newsflash\Nf2004\NF11 _EN.doc

 

* United Arab Emirates - First Woman Minister

Shaika Lubna Al Quasimi was appointed as minister last week, with a portfolio of planning and economy.
She is the one and only woman within the 21-member cabinet and the first female minister since the establishment of UAE Federation in 1971.

Source: Gulfnews

* France : Matronyme...

Je suis très heureuse de constater que mon combat, mené depuis 2000 avec notre avocate guadeloupéenne pour la transmission du matronyme des femmes mariées à leurs enfants, a débouché :

- Sur la publication d'une Loi par la "gauche " en 2002.

- Sur la publication d'un autre texte, plus réactionnaire, par la "droite" en 2003.

- Et que, DEVANT LA PERSPECTIVE IMMINENTE de comparution du gouvernement français DEVANT LA CEDH, la "droite" a pris en considération, EN PARTIE, nos réclamations dans sa "version consolidée (! ! ! )" du 31 octobre 2004, rendue officielle 3 mois plus tôt que prévu, étant donné la proximité de la procédure européenne. Les enfants de plus de 13 ans ont été inclus dans le changement de nom, c'est déjà positif, MAIS IL MANQUE UN TAS DE NOTIONS QUE NOUS DEFENDRONS à Strasbourg.

 

Docteure Michèle Dayras : sexisme@sos-sexisme.org

 

ACTION ALERT / Alerte ! 

* Update on the case of Jila Izadi's stoning in Iran 

 The fundamentalist regime of Iran is planning to stone a 13-year-old girl, Jila, in the city of Marivan in coming days. Jila was raped and impregnated by her brother and Iran’s clerical judge has sentenced her to death by stoning. According to the Iranian regime's penal code, stoning is the punishment for those who commit adultery. Jila did not commit adultery; rather she is a victim of rape.

 

The stoning in Iran is carried out as "the condemned are wrapped head to foot in white shrouds and buried up to their waists. “ The misogynous regime of Tehran even details the difference between the stoning of men vs. women. “The female condemned are buried up to their neck to prevent their escape.” Furthermore, "the stones are specifically chosen so they are large enough to cause pain, but not so large as to kill the condemned immediately. They are guaranteed a slow, torturous death. Sometimes their children are forced to watch.” No other government in the world practices stoning like the Iranian regime.

 

Women’s Forum Against Fundamentalism in Iran (WFAFI) calls upon the international community and human rights organization to fight for Jila’s life and stop Tehran’s regime from stoning her. Iran’s constitution does not offer women and young girls any protection or due process in the court. There are no legal avenues open to Jila to appeal the judge’s decision. For this reason, WFAFI urgently calls upon Mrs. Shirin Ebadi, the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner, to intervene on Jila’s behalf and save her.

 

WFAFI also calls upon UNICEF to dispatch a fact-finding mission on this case and save Jila. Gender violence in Iran is sharply rising and increasingly claiming younger lives everyday.

 

ACTION ALERT

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

WFAFI calls upon all the women’s activists and advocates, NGO’s and human rights organizations to urge the UN General Assembly, in its current session, to issue a resolution condemning Iran’s human rights violations and particularly its criminal behavior towards women. The Iranian regime must be condemned for its blatant abuse of human rights and violence against women.

 

1. Please write to Secretary Powell and US Ambassador to the UN, Ambassador John C. Danforth and urge them to sponsor a human rights resolution against Iran by referencing the above cases. usa@un.int 
2. Please write to Secretary General Kofi Annan who made a statement on October 18^th saying “We need to get across that Islam is not represented by the killers”.  Please ask him to hold the Iranian regime responsible in this case and intervene urgently. The UN needs to dispatch a fact finding mission to Iran and gather information on Jila Izadi’s case. ecu@un.org
3. Please write to European Parliaments and ask them to intervene urgently, while sponsoring a resolution on Iran’s human rights record in 2004. civis@europarL.eu.int
4. Please write to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch and urge them to issue a statement on Jila Izadi’s case and mobilize their network.
   
   From : Womens Forum Against Fundamentalism in Iran <press@wfafi.org>

* Canada : End discrimination and violence against Indigenous women

Amnesty International has heard from Indigenous families across Canada who have experienced the tragic loss of a mother, a sister or a daughter, murdered or gone missing.

Discrimination is a critical factor putting the lives of Indigenous women at risk in Canadian cities.
Too many Indigenous families who have gone to the police to report a missing loved one have not received an adequate or compassionate response.
Recommendations from high level government commissions have gone unimplemented, allowing the marginalization of Indigenous women and girls to continue in Canadian society.

It's time for action.
Please join in demanding that Canadian officials take urgent action to stop violence against Indigenous women in Canada. 

Please sign our online petition: http://www.amnesty.ca/stolensisters/stolensisters.php

* Canada : Pétition à signer / Petition to be signed - "Des jeunes femmes disent NON à la publicité sexiste ! "

Au cours de la dernière année, vous souvenez-vous d’avoir arrêté les yeux sur une publicité, un panneau publicitaire, à la télévision ou dans une revue, qui montrait une femme en petite tenue? Peut-être était-ce celle d’un vêtement quelconque, d’une boisson alcoolisée ou d’une voiture? À première vue, peut-être l’idée vous a-t-elle fait sourire ou vous a donné envie de féliciter la compagnie pour son audace…? Peut-être avez-vous d’abord été choqué(e), pour ensuite vous convaincre de garder votre sens de l’humour…? Pourtant, ce genre de publicité définit les aptitudes des femmes d’abord par leurs corps, souvent une partie sexuelle, ce qui relègue au second rang leurs qualités qui font que chacune d’entre elles sont des personnes uniques. À la longue, ces publicités dévalorisent les femmes en utilisant leur beauté physique (selon des standards quasi impossibles à atteindre), pour vendre un produit. Cette pratique est banalisée tellement elle est monnaie courante. 
Pour nous, une des conséquences désastreuses de ce bombardement visuel est la « sexualisation précoce des petites filles », lesquelles deviennent adultes bien avant 18 ans. Regardez vos petites sœurs, cousines ou voisines imiter Britney Spears ou Shakira…Comment sont-elles habillées, maquillées et à quel point elles paraissent (et veulent paraître) plus vieilles qu’elles ne le sont en réalité…!? Quelles sont les conséquences sur la sexualité de ces fillettes? Pourquoi devrions-nous cautionner les modèles préfabriqués, retouchés et artificiels proposés par les médias? Sommes-nous plus heureuses ainsi?
En tant que jeunes femmes bien dans leur peau et épanouies, nous refusons ces modèles et dénonçons leur utilisation dans les médias. Nous vous proposons de vous sentir belles et heureuses comme vous êtes! C’est pourquoi :
"Je dis non à la publicité sexiste!
Je me sens belle comme je suis!
Je me respecte et je respecte mon corps ! "

Contact : jobrissette@hotmail.com

 

 

News

1 - France

* Lutte contre les discriminations SAUF CELLE TOUCHANT LES FEMMES : LE SEXISME !

DIRECTIVE N° 2000/43/CE DU 29 JUIN 2000 - Article 17

En matière de protection sociale, de santé, d'avantages sociaux, d'éducation, d'accès aux biens et services, de fournitures de biens et services, d'affiliation et d'engagement dans une organisation syndicale ou professionnelle, y compris d'avantages procurés par elle, ainsi que d'accès à l'emploi, d'emploi et de travail indépendants ou non salariés, chacun a droit à un traitement égal, quelles que soient son origine nationale, son appartenance ou sa non-appartenance vraie ou supposée à une ethnie ou une race.

Toute personne qui s'estime victime d'une discrimination directe ou indirecte en ces domaines établit devant la juridiction compétente les faits qui permettent d'en présumer l'existence. Au vu de ces éléments, il incombe à la partie défenderesse de prouver que la mesure en cause est justifiée par des éléments objectifs étrangers à toute discrimination.

Le précédent alinéa ne s'applique pas devant les juridictions pénales.

http://www.senat.fr/leg/pjl04-009.html

* Lier le combat laïque et l'émancipation des femmes

Le principe de laïcité inscrit dans la Constitution française fonde tout projet républicain. Or, c'est cette valeur est aujourd'hui battue en brèche en France et en Europe, par les offensives répétées des fondamentalismes religieux. Les Républicains de gauche s'opposent notamment au statut cultuel des départements d'Alsace-Moselle. Ils demandent par voie de conséquence, que soit retiré du projet de traité constitutionnel, l'article 52 (ex-51) portant sur le statut des églises et des organisations non confessionnelles. L'article 47 concernant le principe de la démocratie participative, l'article 70.1 de la partie II traitant de la liberté de pensée, de conscience et de religion, constituent des atteintes potentielles au principe de laïcité comme autant d' ouvertures aux débordements religieux et sexistes dans l'espace public. En définitive, ce projet de traité constitutionnel sonne le glas de cette valeur républicaine qu'est la laïcité, garante de la liberté de conscience dans la stricte séparation de la sphère publique et de la sphère privée.

Et pourtant, le mouvement laïque n'est pas une exception française, puisqu'on le voit se déployer en Europe à différents niveaux : en Belgique, en Suède, en Irlande avec l'accès au droit au divorce, et même au Portugal depuis janvier 2000. Le combat pour la laïcité s'exerce ainsi dans différents états de l'U.E. avec ses avancées et ses reculs, suivant les rythmes propres à l'histoire de chacun. Cette valeur à visée universelle est donc bien vivante. Les démocrates français attachés à la laïcité viennent de remporter une victoire contre les adversaires de la loi sur les signes religieux à l'école de la République. Il ne s'agit pourtant que d'un aspect de l'offensive obscurantiste et la vigilance s'impose face par exemples, aux tentatives, de vouloir intégrer l'histoire des religions aux programmes scolaires, de vouloir ajouter de nouvelles fêtes religieuses au calendrier. En milieu hospitalier, il faut  maintenant s'efforcer de gagner la bataille contre l'intrusion du privé dans la sphère publique. Les nombreux combats laïques vont de pair avec le souci d'une société européenne débarrassée d'un communautarisme galopant, d'une société appliquant les principes de mixité et d'égalité entre les sexes, les femmes étant des cibles de choix pour les fondamentalistes religieux et leurs alliés.

En effet, l'égalité hommes/femmes n'étant pas retenue comme une valeur fondatrice de l'Union Européenne, il convient de l'introduire dans ce qui sera la future Constitution. Il s'agit de renforcer le mouvement émancipateur des femmes, à tous les niveaux de la société, en créant les conditions d'un véritable équilibre dans les domaines de la formation, du travail, de la vie associative et politique. Dans cette Europe élargie, composée à la fois d'états dont l'économie productive est faible et de démocraties économiquement prospères, un des enjeux du volet social du dossier européen est la lutte contre la précarité dont les premières victimes sont les femmes ; c'est aussi la prévention et la lutte contre les nouvelles formes d'esclavages qui se développent avec l'ouverture des frontières et la mondialisation : exploitation sexuelle, travail forcé, esclavage domestique. L'O.I.M. (Organisation Internationale des Migrations) estime aujourd'hui à 150 000, le nombre de femmes et d'enfants qui font chaque année, l'objet de trafics à destination de l'Union Européenne.
Tout ceci constitue autant d'indicateurs de la régression de l'émancipation des femmes, et s'inscrit à contre-courant du progrès.L'Europe qu'on nous propose aujourd'hui menace de tout niveler par le bas, au seul profit de l'économie du tout libéral.Si nous voulons construire une Europe républicaine, une Europe sociale, nous devons amplifier le mouvement laïque, renforcer la mixité et élargir les droits des femmes pour l'accès à une véritable égalité.

Jocelyne Clarke
Présidente de l'UFAL Paris

* Avortement et Contraception : un droit fondamental pour les femmes

Le 15 janvier 2005, nous allons fêter la loi Veil.  

30 ans après sa promulgation, nous devons encore nous mobiliser pour lever les difficultés d’application de la loi du 4 juillet 2001 sur l’avortement et la contraception. Les réticences à admettre que les femmes sont libres de disposer de leurs corps sont lourdes de menaces. Cet anniversaire doit être l'occasion pour les femmes de réaffirmer ce droit fondamental.

 

En Europe, l’interdiction de l’avortement qui prévaut toujours en Irlande et au Portugal, s’est étendue à la Pologne,  persiste à Malte, pourrait gagner la Slovaquie… Les droits des femmes reculent, alors que nous voulons construire une Europe démocratique.

 

Au niveau mondial et européen, le Vatican est à l'offensive. En France, les opposants au droit à l'avortement se préparent à leur façon à honorer les 30 ans de la loi sur le mot d'ordre "30 ans ça suffit !"

 

Ramirez Diana  

* Les clients de la prostitution

(...) Une majorité d'entre eux ont entre 30 et 50 ans et vivent en couple. Les clients des prostituées ne sont pas des êtres à part (...). L'auteur, qui a réalisé 95 entretiens semi-directifs avec des volontaires contactés par petites annonces dans des journaux gratuits, considère que "le clientélisme est un résultat social et non une tare individuelle qu'il suffirait de "soigner" ou de "réprimer"".  (...) 

RAPPORTS DE DOMINATION

Le sociologue dresse une "typologie des déterminants" qui amènent certains hommes à se tourner vers une prostituée. Tout en précisant que "dans chacune des trajectoires rencontrées plusieurs déterminants s'articulent". Il n'y a pas un facteur déclenchant, pas plus qu'un passé explicatif de ces pratiques, mais un ensemble d'éléments de malaise, illustrant des rapports de domination hommes-femmes persistants.

* La première catégorie repérée est celle des "isolés affectifs et sexuels". Pour ces clients, qui constituent la majorité des "réguliers" ou des "occasionnels réguliers", la première cause avancée de leur pratique est la solitude ou l'absence d'autres possibilités de rencontre avec le sexe féminin. La peur des femmes ou la timidité les conduit à rechercher un "contact plus facile" sans se dévoiler. Les entretiens ont traduit une difficulté à "être à la hauteur" devant une femme, une absence de confiance en soi, souvent liée à des événements vécus dans l'enfance ou à une rupture amoureuse douloureuse. De nombreux interviewés expliquent alors leur clientélisme et sa régularité comme conséquence de cette déception et d'un manque d'affection qu'ils essaient de compenser. "C'est la première cause du devenir client pour 75 % des personnes rencontrées", note l'étude. Mais, prévient l'auteur, elle est un des éléments d'une "stratégie de justification" : "Ces clients se présentent comme victimes afin de donner un sens acceptable à leur pratique."

* Le chercheur relève en effet, en écho, que la deuxième cause mise en avant par les clients est la méfiance et la peur que leur inspirent les femmes. Dans cette catégorie se trouve une majorité d'hommes ayant vécu une vie de couple ou une relation amoureuse où la femme était, selon eux, favorisée. Ils décrivent les femmes comme "méchantes", "égoïstes" ou "compliquées". Ces clients ont tendance à considérer la relation comme inégalitaire à leurs dépens. Ils peuvent même exprimer une colère ou une haine à l'encontre des femmes, vues comme provocatrices. Ils reprochent à la société de les avoir fait sortir de leurs rôles traditionnels. Ils recherchent dans la prostitution une "relation de pure domination où l'homme serait de nouveau le maître" et la femme une "chose".

* Dans la troisième catégorie, on trouve "les acheteurs de marchandise". Ces hommes sont conduits à la prostitution, expliquent-ils, par une sexualité de couple insatisfaisante. Ils font un partage net entre l'épouse ou la compagne, personne de l'affectif et du respect, et la prostituée, personne du sexe. La sexualité est, pour eux, hors du couple, parce que leur femme "n'aime pas ça" et eux en "ont besoin" par nature. Ils ont "besoin" de se "soulager", de répondre à leur libido, à un "manque" ou à des "pulsions". Selon M. Bouamama, ces hommes ont une vision "essentialiste" de la sexualité masculine et féminine, largement répandue dans les représentations sociales. Cette lecture permet à ces clients de considérer que la prostitution n'est pas synonyme d'infidélité, "du fait de son caractère ponctuel et non engageant".

* C'est d'ailleurs l'un des moteurs d'une quatrième catégorie, les "allergiques à l'engagement et à la responsabilité". Ceux-là soulignent l'absence de risque dans la prostitution : une commodité de rencontre qui exclut l'affectif et l'engagement dans une relation amoureuse. Ne voulant pas "se caser", souhaitant voyager, ne pas "s'encombrer de problèmes", ils choisissent la relation payante, sans lendemain. On retrouve là des hommes mariés qui peuvent trouver dans cette attitude consommatrice un moyen de combler leur insatisfaction sexuelle sans courir le risque d'une rupture de leur couple, note le sociologue : 43 % des hommes interrogés soulignent cet avantage.

* Enfin, M. Bouamama identifie une dernière catégorie de clients : les "impulsifs de la sexualité". Un quart des clients interrogés sont des habitués qui ne peuvent plus se passer de ce mode de relation. Les relations sexuelles, faciles à obtenir, sont devenues une "drogue".

Dans leur ensemble, les clients considèrent la prostitution comme "utile". Sa répression leur paraît dangereuse. Et la quasi-totalité d'entre eux réclament la réouverture des maisons closes.
Sylvia Zappi

(Acheteurs de marchandise, isolés affectifs, impulsifs  : une étude dresse le portrait des clients de prostituées / LE MONDE | 18.10.04 / http://www.lemonde.fr/web/recherche_articleweb/1,13-0,36-383434,0.html)

2 - Portugal : Women and abortion

On Friday October 28 at 10.00 at the criminal court in Lisbon, Portugal (Rua Pinheiro Chagas) a young woman will stand trial for having an illegal abortion. The girl was 17 when she used Misoprostol to induce an abortion. After she started bleeding she went to the emergency room of the hospital Amadora-Sintra. The nurse on duty found remains of the Misoprostol tablets and instead of helping the girl he denounced her to the police. The Police came immediately and the frightened girl confessed that she had tried to induce an abortion. The girl can get a 3 year jail sentence. This trial might endanger women's lives in Portugal even more as it will deter women from seeking emergency care in the future if they need medical attention after an illegal abortion.

Portugal has an very restrictive abortion law. Abortion is only possible when the pregnancy poses a risk to the woman's life, her health; in case of fetal malformation or when the pregnancy resulted from rape. But even in those rare cases abortion is not always provided because hospitals and doctors sometimes refuse to help women in these conditions. Portugal is the only country within the EU that actively prosecutes women and doctors for illegal abortion. This, despite the adaptation of the Lancker report (A5-00223/2002) by the European Parliament in June 2002, which advises to make abortion legal, safe and accessible and calls upon all member states not to prosecute women who had an illegal abortion.

At least 20,000 illegal abortions are performed in Portugal each year. As a result of complications of these illegal abortions at least 5000 women are attended in hospitals every year and 3 to 5 women die unnecessary. (Health ministry figures, information AFP). A woman in Portugal has a 150 times higher risk to die from an abortion as a woman living in the Netherlands. Especially women without the means for a medically safe abortion (poor women, minors, less-informed women and those living in rural areas) will turn to unsafe abortion practices with little emotional support.

http://www.womenonwaves.nl/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi?f=u&l=press&e=media@womenonwaves.org&p=14225376


3 - Bulgarie : Net recul du travail féminin

Ce n’est pas parce que la Bulgarie est candidate à l’U.E. que tout y est rose pour les femmes.

 Le taux de chômage des jeunes de 15 à 24 ans atteint 39% et les filles ont 2 fois plus de difficultés que les garçons (55% contre 24%) à trouver du travail à la fin de leurs études. Les stéréotypes dans l’orientation professionnelle se sont renforcés et les services sociaux se sont détériorés.

 Des prestations payantes et chères ont remplacé les jardins d’enfants, les crèches et les maisons d’accueil pour adultes dépendants.

 De plus, sous prétexte d’abolir des « privilèges », une partie des lois favorables aux femmes ont été supprimées après la fin du régime communiste. Ce fut le cas du principe d’égalité dans les salaires qui vient d’être rétabli récemment. Pour autant, une loi sur l’égalité des chances entre hommes et femmes vient d’être rejetée en 2002 et il n’existe aucune loi contre la discrimination ou contre le harcèlement sexuel.

 Dans les années 80 la Bulgarie était l’un des pays où les femmes travaillaient le plus, parmi le pays de l’Est (presque 50% contre 44% en moyenne, et moins de 40% dans les pays occidentaux). Ce n’était pas toujours un choix et souvent à cette journée de travail s’ajoutait le travail domestique. Mais ce pays est devenu en quelques années celui des candidats à l’U.E. dans lequel les femmes sont le moins employées à l’extérieur du foyer.

 Pour Jivka Marinova, de l’ONG Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation, l’entrée dans l’U.E. pourrait favoriser l’égalité à condition de la revendiquer. Il est nécessaire, selon elle, de contraindre les employeurs et notamment les investisseurs étrangers pour éviter un dumping social, de favoriser les services publics et de donner plus de moyens aux ONG qui défendent les droits des femmes, y compris par des financement européens. 

 

A condition de dépasser l’idée que l’égalité entre hommes et femmes est un « privilège ».

 
(Convergence – juin 2004)

4 - Caucasus : Conflict Resolution and Peace Building in the Southern Caucasus

* Armenian NGOs - key partners of the UNIFEM project "Conflict Resolution & Peace-building in the Southern Caucasus" and active members of Peace Coalition - met in early October 2004 to commemorate and discuss implementation of resolution 1325. Discussions focused on key achievements, and future action needed to promote women's active role in peace negotiations and increase women's participation in decision-making processes.

For more information, contact Ilona Ter-Minasyan,ilona.ter-minasyan@undp.org
 

* Labyrinth, a national NGO, Wings of Time, an art association, and UNIFEM will launch a photo exhibition on women, war and peace at the Baku Museum Centre, Azerbaijan on 30 October 2004. The exhibition is being held to observe the fourth anniversary of resolution 1325 and will consist of works by well-known photographers, artists and amateurs. UNIFEM will also organize in Azerbaijan at the end of October, a national conference on implementation of 1325.

 

For more information, contact Gulshan Pashayeva, gulshan.pashayeva@undp.org

From : ngo_csw_ny@hotmail.com

5 - Iran : Gender equality is tyranny against men in Iran !

An Iranian woman lawmaker is backing the removal of the concept of gender equality from a state development plan in order to prevent the "bullying" of men, the state news agency IRNA reported on Saturday. "Bringing up the issue of gender justice is a case of bullying men," the female deputy, Eshrat Shayeghi told the agency. She said she was supporting a decision by the conservative-dominated parliament to delete a phrase in the 'Fourth Five-Year Development Plan' (2005-2010), which aimed at considering equal training and employment opportunities for women as men. The preceding reformist parliament had given the go-ahead to the "gender justice" concept in the bill but it was subsequently rejected by the conservative legislation watchdog body the Guardians Council. 

The new parliament removed the phrase in mid-August to follow the Guardians Council's call, AFP reported "If men are in the habit of beating, women are guilty of talking back," Shayeghi said. "If the gender justice is brought up, men can object to payment of the household expenses (nafagheh) -- given under Islamic law to housewives -- as a sort of abuse and violence against men." Out of 11 female MPs in the current parliament, only one had spoken out against the removal of the phrase, IRNA reported.  Iranian women face a number of legal restrictions in Iran's male-dominated society. They receive half of the inheritance and blood money given to men, and they are also not allowed to be court judges. If they are married, a woman needs her husband's permission to travel abroad.

State News Agency, IRNA and Agance France Presse (October 31, 2004)
From : Womens Forum Against Fundamentalism in Iran <newsletter@wfafi.org>

6- Irak : Crimes islamistes contre les femmes de Mossoul

Dans le secteur de la santé publique à Mossoul, les islamistes ont commis plusieurs crimes misogynes, montrant une fois de plus leur inextinguible soif de sang et leur haine des femmes. Ces sauvages ne peuvent tolérer que des femmes travaillent à l’extérieur. Ils les veulent couvertes du hidjab et de vêtements épais, jetées à la cuisine, servant comme des esclaves. Ils les veulent humiliées, sans opinion, sans caractère, sans vie humaine.

Les groupes islamistes exploitent le chaos, le manque de sécurité et l’absence de loi depuis que l’occupation américaine a répandu l’horreur terroriste à travers l’Irak. Aujourd’hui, ils vont de plus en plus loin dans leurs actes criminels contre les femmes et contre leurs droits les plus élémentaires. Récemment, ces femmes ont été assassinés par les islamistes :

- Lina al-Aswad, médecin, qui pratiquait depuis dix ans. Tuée par balle à al-Qayara, Mossoul.
- Hefo Abdul Safar, pharmacienne à l‘hôpital d’al-Khansaa. Tuée par balle devant sa maison, dans le quartier d’al-Noor. Sa famille est également menacée de mort par les terroristes.
- Sanabul Nwel Tabakh, vétérinaire, tuée dans le quartier de Wahda, alors qu’elle allait travailler.
- Layla Abdulla al-Hadj Said, professeure de droit, doyenne de la faculté de Droit de l’université de Mossoul. Tuée par balle, ainsi que son mari. Elle a été ensuite décapitée, afin de terroriser la population du quartier.
- Iman Adbul Monem Younis, maître de conférence à la faculté des langues et directrice du département de traduction de l’université de Mossoul, tuée par balle.
- Tagrid Abdul Masih, et sa sœur Hala Abdul Masih, fonctionnaires à Bartil.
- Tara Majeed Butros, fonctionnaire à Bartila.

Les assassinats de femmes travailant comme interprètes, ou employées par des compagnies étrangères, sont monnaie courante. Nombre d’entre elles sont été tuées ces derniers mois à Bagdad et dans d’autres villes d’Irak. Le simple faitr d’être une femme est devenu un risque mortel...

Organisation pour la liberté des femmes en Irak (14 septembre 2004)

7- Pakistan : Demonstration against honor killings and violence against women

Hundreds of Pakistani women's rights and human rights activists and lawmakers demonstrated outside of the Pakistani parliament in Islamabad last Friday to protest the government’s lack of action against honor killings and violence against women. According to the Associated Press, the protesters urged the government to change laws to contain tougher punishments for family members that kill their female relatives in the name of honor.

The protesters stated that a reported 4,101 people, mostly women, have been killed in the name of honor in the past six years, noting that the true number of cases that go unreported is much higher. Over 60 cases of honor killings have been reported this year in the Punjab province alone, according Deutsche Presse-Agentur.

Meanwhile, a bill has been proposed in Parliament that will provide tougher punishments for those who commit crimes against women such as honor killings. However, hard-line clerics are making efforts to block the bill.

www.feminist.org

8- Afghanistan : Advocates Say More Improvements Needed

Leading women's activists from Afghanistan and Iraq say U.S. intervention has had only limited success in liberating women in their nations. Too often, they say, women continue to be targets of abuse, kidnapping and oppression, even after military operations have ousted tyrannical leaders. Several women's advocates visited New York this week, to share their concerns and ask for help during a conference on women and power.

President Bush often mentions freedom for women as a symbol of success in the war on terror, particularly in Afghanistan. "That country has a new constitution, guaranteeing free elections and full participation by women. Businesses are opening, health care centers are being established, and the boys and girls of Afghanistan are back in school," he says.

Women's activists from Afghanistan acknowledge that some progress has been made since the removal of the Taleban regime. Young girls are going to classes in the capital, Kabul, and in some areas, women are allowed to work outside the home. But Zoya, a member of a group called the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) who does not use her last name for security reasons, says the recent improvements are limited, and that the situation for women is worsening in the rest of the country. "They cannot go without a male relative outside their houses, and they have no access to education and there are health problems for them. So we think that the bombs in Afghanistan - the bombing by the U.S. administration - has not changed the situation because they replaced one fundamentalist [group] with another one," she says.

Zoya says the U.S.-supported Northern Alliance is responsible for 50 thousand civilian deaths between 1992 and 1996, and has committed many crimes against women. Now, she says, most Afghan women are still forced to cover themselves by wearing the burka, and an alarming number of women continue to be kidnapped and abused by warlords in power.

Zoya shared her story with U.S. women at a leadership conference in New York. She and other women activists from Afghanistan and Iraq are urging American women to fight for sustainable freedom for women abroad. "We are not liberated and we still wanted the solidarity of all the people around the world with us, and especially the women around the world. That is why this conference was very important for us. To bring again the situation of women in Afghanistan to the media and the attention of the world," she says.

Zoya is not the only one who says the spread of Islamic fundamentalism is preventing equal rights for women in the region. (...)

From : rawa@rawa.org / http://www.rawa.org

9- India : Woman, no cry ?

Three steps forward or three steps backward? Delhi Times on a new show that looks at the status of women in India circa 2004... Analyse this: ▪ The female is the mother goddess in ancient texts. Today, she's the weaker sex. ▪ The country in which goddesses are reigning deities is home to rape and the practice of Sati. ▪ Whereas brides are 'blessed with a thousand sons', female infanticide is rampant in India. That's the duality of contemporary India. If, as a society, we've taken three steps forward with the likes of Indira Gandhi, Kiran Bedi and Naina Lal Kidwai, we've also taken three steps backward in that women are seen as sex symbols and raped in broad daylight. With About Turn , a pop graphic show set to evaluate the status of Indian women, Delhi Times zeroes in on the what and why... * Two sides to the coin : "Women in India are either deified or commercialised," says art curator Alka Pande, "Released from the role of domesticity, they have entered the market as a label for consumer titillation." Adds design consultant Arjun Sawhney, "The progress made by Indian women is primarily confined to urban areas. Also, it's mostly women down south who are seeking the benefits of education. This two-toned status is exemplified by the juxtaposition of the prominence of woman politicians like Uma Bharti, Sheila Dikshit, Jayalalitha and Vasundhara Raje with the numerous rape cases we face." * The make-it-happen generation : Says novelist Shobhaa De: "The seeds have been sown and this makes me proud to be today's woman -- secure in the comforts of her gender. We're the 'we can make it happen' generation." Adds entrepreneur Roshni Jaiswal, "We've progressed, but real progress won't be seen unless there is proactive legislation to give women the final push for that extra jump. * Where from here? "Fear of men defined my mother's generation but, in many ways, she was more 'today' than a lot of the so-called empowered women," says De, "We were compelled to participate in a feminist movement that originated in the West and, hence, did not have much relevance to the society we were living in." Says design expert Angila Puri. "The rural woman has more of a dynamic spirit than the party-hopping woman who takes her circumstances for granted." According to Pande, "Today's woman is in a transitory passage of empowerment, from which will emerge the New Age Indian woman. What will help is that our women -- like Aishwarya Rai, Mira Nair -- have acquired an international status."

 http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/849651.cms

 

10 China not planning to send women to space

China's space agency says it is not planning to send women into space in the near future, Xinhua reported Wednesday.
However, Sun Laiyan, director of the China National Space Administration, reaffirmed his nation's intent to consider a plan to select woman candidates and train them for space missions.
China has followed a policy of gender equality since New China was founded in 1949, said Sun.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-08/12/content_364724.htm

11- Kenya : Arrêtez les mutilations génitales féminines ! Stop female genital mutilation !

En collaboration avec l’Association of Media Women in Kenya (AMWIK) et l’Associazione Italiana Donne per lo Sviluppo (AIDOS), l’association radicale No Peace Without Justice et le gouvernement du Kenya ont organisé une conférence internationale sur les Mutilations Génitales Féminines, financée par la Commission européenne, l’UNICEF, le Ministère des Affaires Etrangères italien et le gouvernement norvégien. L’objectif était de promouvoir la mise en oeuvre du Protocole de Maputo sur les droits des femmes africaines, qui prévoit l'interdiction des Mutilations Génitales Féminines. A ce propos, Emma Bonino a déclaré : “C’est incroyable qu’alors que chez nous on ne parle même pas de pratiques monstrueuses comme l’infibulation, il suffit de traverser la Méditerranée pour se retrouver dans un monde où ces tragédies sont encore une réalité de masse. Il ne s’agit pas seulement de la barbarie de l’infibulation, mais de tout le contexte de la condition féminine qui est encore absolument dramatique dans les pays arabes et africains, même si les batailles civiles commencent à porter leurs premiers fruits".

 

La Déclaration finale de la conférence confirme que les Mutilations Génitales Féminines constituent une violation des droits des femmes et des enfants et une atteinte à la dignité humaine, et affirme que la ratification et la mise en œuvre du Protocole de Maputo représentent aussi un pas en avant en matière de vie civile et politique des femmes africaines.

www.npwj.org

12- South Africa : Why Should We Care About Unpaid Care Work ?

High death rates in Southern Africa due to AIDS are making it more difficult for governments to adequately provide care to persons living with the disease. This has led to a shifting of the major responsibility for care-giving and the costs related to home-based care to women and girls at increasingly untenable levels. Young girls have to drop out of school and many women have to give up income-generating activity to take care of their sick families. Mothers and grandmothers also take in and care for AIDS orphans in addition to their own children.

Home-based care workers are often unremunerated volunteers. They also tend to be female. This is reflective of the fact that when a man becomes ill, the women in the household tend to provide the care, whereas when a woman becomes ill, the men in the household do not usually take on the care work themselves, preferring to find other caregivers, usually women.

These findings came out of a regional workshop on home-based care for people living with HIV/AIDS, organized by the Women Action Group and UNIFEM.

The workshop was building on UNIFEM-commissioned research on the issue to determine the burden of care, as well as the contribution of unpaid care work to economic development and growth. The findings will feed into national advocacy efforts to encourage governments to recognize the contributions of home-based care work, and provide support to ease the burden of women volunteers.
   

For more information, contact Cecile Ncube, cecile.ncube@undp.org

(NDLR : Cette proposition constitue un immense danger pour TOUTES les femmes qui se verraient alors, quasiment "obligées" de faire le travail ménager et de donner les soins aux enfants et aux personnes âgées, EN SUS DE LEUR EMPLOI EXTERIEUR, au lieu de lutter pour le partage de ces multiples taches avec les hommes !)

13- U.S.A. : Differences Between Mistimed and Unwanted Pregnancies Among Women Who Have Live Births

CONTEXT: Mistimed and unwanted pregnancies that result in live births are commonly considered together as unintended pregnancies, but they may have different precursors and outcomes.

METHODS: Data from 15 states participating in the 1998 Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System were used to calculate the prevalence of intended, mistimed and unwanted conceptions, by selected variables. Associations between unintendedness and women's behaviors and experiences before, during and after the pregnancy were assessed through unadjusted relative risks.

RESULTS: The distribution of intended, mistimed and unwanted pregnancies differed on nearly every variable examined; risky behaviors and adverse experiences were more common among women with mistimed than intended pregnancies and were most common among those whose pregnancies were unwanted. The likelihood of having an unwanted rather than mistimed pregnancy was elevated for women 35 or older (relative risk, 2.3) and was reduced for those younger than 25 (0.8); the pattern was reversed for the likelihood of mistimed rather than intended pregnancy (0.5 vs. 1.7-2.7). Parous women had an increased risk of an unwanted pregnancy (2.1-4.0) but a decreased risk of a mistimed one (0.9). Women who smoked in the third trimester, received delayed or no prenatal care, did not breast-feed, were physically abused during pregnancy, said their partner had not wanted a pregnancy or had a low-birth-weight infant had an increased risk of unintended pregnancy; the size of the increase depended on whether the pregnancy was unwanted or mistimed.

CONCLUSION: Clarifying the difference in risk between mistimed and unwanted pregnancies may help guide decisions regarding services to women and infants.

(...)  The use of a single category to represent unintended pregnancy masks apparent differences between women with mistimed pregnancies and those with unwanted pregnancies: According to our analysis, women with behavioral risk factors that could negatively affect their pregnancy outcomes are more likely to report unwanted than mistimed pregnancy. Beyond measurement issues, our findings have practical implications. For example, prenatal care providers, family planning providers and other public health professionals may find this information useful for targeting pregnant women who could benefit from counseling regarding the effects of unhealthy behaviors on their unborn child.

Because unintended pregnancy is associated with unfavorable maternal behaviors and unfavorable outcomes for both mother and child, clarifying the difference in risk between mistimed and unwanted pregnancies may help guide decisions regarding direct services to women and to infants. Moreover, further research on alternate ways to measure pregnancy intendedness and on the best ways to prevent or ameliorate the risk of unintended pregnancies may lead to the development of programs targeting each group. Finally, this research suggests that studies examining the relationships between pregnancy intention, health behaviors and health outcomes among women with live births should examine mistimed and unwanted pregnancies separately.

Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 2004, 36(5):192-197 / http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/journals/3619204.html

14- Venezuela : Violence against women

Almost every day this month, 22-year-old Linda López has appeared before the TV cameras and newspaper photographers, showing all of Venezuela her disfigured face, her missing lower lip, the gap where several of her teeth were knocked out.

López was found in a near coma in a Caracas apartment three years ago. She had come to the capital from the countryside, looking for a better life. Instead, she became a tragically eloquent symbol for a troubling statistic: 74.5 percent of Venezuelan women between the ages of 20 and 40 suffer some form of gender-based violence, according to reports from non-governmental organisations. Today, three years later, Linda is back in the news. She is staging a hunger strike outside the Venezuelan Supreme Court of Justice to demand a speedier trial against the man accused of victimising her, Luis Carrera Almoina, who is facing charges of rape, torture, kidnapping and attempted murder. "Linda's case is emblematic, but there have been many other occasions when battered women have been presented to the public to raise awareness in the fight against violence against women," IPS was told by Magdalena Valdivieso, director of the Centre for Women's Studies (CEM) at Central University. López was found bound and gagged on Aug. 19, 2001 in an apartment owned by Almoina, after being held there against her will for four months. In addition to the bruises, cuts and burns covering her body, she suffered multiple internal injuries after being repeatedly raped and beaten by her aggressor. She has undergone surgery nine times already, and still needs several more operations. As well as being a particularly extreme example, López's case is one of the very few that have actually gone to court, according to state agencies and NGOs, because most women do not dare to report the abuse they suffer.

Reports from the Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO) estimate that one in every three women in the world is a victim of gender-based violence, while one in four is subject to some form of sexual aggression by her partner, according to Mary Peñuela of the Venezuelan state-run National Women's Institute (Inamujer).
The World Health Organisation (WHO) reports that around the world, gender-based violence results in more death and disability among women aged 15-44 years than cancer, malaria, traffic injuries and war combined. Seventy percent of female murder victims are killed by their husbands or partners.

In 2003, there were 8,520 cases of violence against women reported in Venezuela. Of that total, 42.75 percent were cases of psychological violence, while 37.61 percent corresponded to physical abuse, according to a CEM report. "However, these different forms of violence are often combined," noted Gioconda Espina, a researcher at the centre.
"Sometimes psychological abuse is discovered when women are in therapy for other reasons," Espina commented to IPS.
Rosmary, a 40-year-old cleaning woman, is a prime example of the way that violence has almost come to be viewed as "normal" in Venezuela. (...°

While violence against women is not limited to domestic violence, in 79 percent of the cases reported in Venezuela, the abuse has been committed by the victim's husband or partner. (...)<
As for the men who perpetrate the violence, studies conducted by the CEM reveal that in 74.7 percent of cases they are between the ages of 25 and 55 and have at least a primary school education, although 61 percent have not completed secondary school.
Women's rights organisations have seen an increase in the number of charges filed against men for domestic violence.
"We don't know if there has been an increase in domestic violence, but there has definitely been an increase in the number of women who report the abuse. Women are clearly becoming more aware of their rights," Valdivieso noted.
Unfortunately, even when abused women do press charges, they still face tremendous legal obstacles, something that has been amply illustrated in the case of Linda López. (...)

( CARACAS, Sep 30 (IPS) http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/interna.asp?idnews=25682



15- Guatemala : Teams of prostitutes

(...) It might not seem unusual or newsworthy that I'm watching a game of football in Latin America. Here in the small town of Flores in the tropical north of Guatemala, close to the border with Mexico, they are as crazy about the sport as anywhere else on the continent, especially now that their national team is doing well in the World Cup qualifying competition. What makes this game particularly unusual is that it's between two women teams. And more unusually than that, it's between two teams of prostitutes.

'Horrified'

In red and white stripes are the La Linea All-Stars from the capital, Guatemala City, their rivals in midnight blue are the Tigers of Desire, representing the pride of the local Flores brothel. The game is part of a countrywide tour that the La Linea All-Stars have embarked upon. They are named after the railway line that runs through the centre of the city, which is where they normally ply their trade, in miserable wooden shacks lit by kerosene lamps.

The 150 prostitutes who work in these shacks, and the streets around the railway line, formed their football team earlier this year. The first thing they did was enrol in one of the newly-formed women's soccer leagues in the capital.

So far this year, as many as 50 women a month have been killed, and many of them have been prostitutes

The All-Stars' first game was against a team from a high class private girl's school. The game had only been going for a few minutes when the horrified parents of these girls discovered exactly who their opponents were. They immediately insisted on stopping the game and getting the All-Stars thrown out of the league. (...)

This attitude is part of the reason why the All-Stars are now touring Guatemala, playing against teams of other prostitutes. They insist their aim is to gain more respect and acknowledgement that all of them are women, like anyone else. Most of them, they argue, have been forced into prostitution because they have no alternative, or need to work to support their families. (...)

The OAS special representative, Susana Villaran, spoke of a "spiral of assassinations". She complained that in a traditional, conservative society such as Guatemala, where women are still expected to marry and to look after their household, "many of them are almost invisible" and "violence against them causes little outcry". (...)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/3985857.stm



16 - Australia : Abortion rate a tragedy, says Abbott...

The rate of abortion in Australia was a national tragedy and society had too lax an attitude towards sexual promiscuity among teenagers, federal Health Minister Tony Abbott said yesterday.

Speaking at Adelaide University on the ethical role of a Christian politician, Mr Abbott, a Catholic, said there were 100,000 abortions in Australia each year, which he labelled a measure of the nation's moral health. "An objectively grave matter has been reduced to a question of the mother's convenience," Mr Abbott told students amid boos and jeers from protesters. "Aborting a foetus is not morally identical to deliberately killing a living human being, but it's not just removing a wart or a cyst either. "Even those who think that abortion is a woman's right should surely be troubled by the fact that 100,000 Australian women choose to destroy their unborn babies every year."

Two hecklers were escorted out of the building by security guards during the speech. His comments also prompted a protest chant of, "Get your morals off our bodies."

But Mr Abbott responded by saying he was not merely giving his own moral viewpoint. "If you listened, you'll know that what I'm not talking about is my morals, what I'm talking about is our morals, morals that have always been part of the tradition of Western culture," he said. "Why isn't the fact that 100,000 women choose to end their pregnancies regarded as a national tragedy? "Why isn't it regarded as a national tragedy approaching the scale of Aboriginal life expectancy being 20 years less than the average of the general community? "No one wants to bring back the backyard abortion clinic or to stigmatise the millions of Australians who have had abortions or encouraged others to do so. "But is it really so hard to create a culture where people understand that actions have consequences and take responsibility seriously." Mr Abbott said abortion was the "easy way out" and too little consideration was given to "avoiding the situation where difficult choices might arise". "If just half the effort was put into discouraging teenage promiscuity as into preventing teenage speeding, there might be fewer abortions," he said.

Mr Abbott was greeted on arrival at the university by a small group of protesters chanting: "Racist, sexist, anti-queer, Abbott, you're not welcome here." (...)

 http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/03/16/1079199224910.html?from=storyrh&oneclick=true

 

17 - International :

* Las raíces del ateismo

Una basta mayoría de la gente cree en dios. Si no es en dios es en algo superior no visible y comprobable pero existente, un supramundo paralelo y, al a vez, relacionado con éste. Mucha gente se declara no católica pero si creyente y muchas personas cercanas al Movimiento de Resistencia Global (mal llamado Antiglobalización) se declaran cristianas-creyentes. Incluso mucha gente se autodenomina Agnóstica, ese “nolose” constante que duda. Agnosticismo y Ateismo no es lo mismo. El agnosticismo le otorga a dios el beneficio de la duda. Pero, por lo que sabemos. Se le puede otorgar tal beneficio? Vamos a recapitular.

La imagen naturalista del ser humano, que rechaza la exisistencia de dios, es tan antigua como el modelo aristetotélico que desembocó en la tradición cristiana. Esta concepción tiende a rechazar, desde la base, la existencia en el ser humano de toda entidad de corte espiritual. Nos podemos remontar a autores destacados de la filosofía griega como Demócrito y Epicuro defensores de la imagen de un ser humano totalmente explicable en función de parámetros materiales y fuertes críticos de la creencia en el “más allá”.

Así mismo los autores materialistas fueron consolidando estas explicaciones antiguas atribuyendo todos los actos mentales a propiedades de la materia cerebral y la actividad mecánica del cuerpo, no a dioses superiores. La ciencia fue la encargada de confirmar estas creencias históricas consideradas como herejías que muchas veces eran pagadas con la muerte. La ciencia superó los límites explicativos que ponían en peligro estas teorías. El darwinismo, sostenía (y demostraba empíricamente) que toda variedad de formas de vida y el origen de sus finalidades eran resultado de la causalidad y de sucesos meramente mecánicos. Excluía definitivamente la intervención de una causa final que señalara previamente la dirección que debía tomar el proceso de vida e incluía plenamente al ser humano, cuerpo y mente, como parte de un lógico proceso evolutivo. Este avance científico confeccionó de manera global las iniciales teorías naturalistas y materialistas extendiéndose a otros campos tales como los problemas sociales y económicos de la época.

Los autores biologicistas continuaron investigando y profundizando en el darwinismo dando una explicación física al origen de la vida. Así, E. Haeckel, un destacado materialista evolucionista, concebía el origen de la vida en la materia carbónica que había surgido previamente de la materia infinita. El ser humano no se diferencia sustancialmente del resto de los animales. Su mayor capacidad es fruto de una evolución eslabonada que le ha llevado a ser un “accidente de lenguaje y símbolos”. Una lógica evolución físico-química que se ha ido sucediendo a lo largo de millones de años.

Hace ya más de un siglo que es posible desmentir la existencia de dios mediante la investigación científica. Como es posible que algo no físico genere efectos físicos sin violar las leyes de la masa, la energía y el movimiento?

Todo, absolutamente todo, se puede demostrar científicamente. La realidad que nos rodea es producto de un continuo proceso que tiene su origen y evolución lógica. La explicación de la vida es fruto de aspectos causales que son palpables y demostrables.

Es cierto que quedan muchas preguntas sin resolver y que a la ciencia le queda mucho camino por andar. Pero todo suceso real tiene su etiología en una lógica científica demostrable aunque en la actualidad no lo esté. A día de hoy la investigación científica está al servicio de la maquinaria del capital y la guerra. Por poner dos ejemplos, Internet fue un invento de la investigación militar, y las medicinas de los militares son más buenas y potentes que los fármacos habituales. La financiación en materia de investigación científica esta al servicio de la fabricación de armas cada vez más sosfisiticadas, entendida aquí la sofisticación como la capacidad de matar más en menos tiempo. En un mundo menos enfermo, la ciencia habría resuelto muchos enigmas filosóficos.

Creer en dios, a ojos de la ciencia, es una mera superstición. Viene a ser como creer en el horóscopo o que el día martes-13 da mala suerte. La inexistencia de dios está desde hace mucho tiempo sobradamente demostrada aunque mucha gente se resista a creerlo. Afirmar lo contrario es como negar realidades tan contundentes como la ley de la gravedad.

Si esto fuera una democracia real, y occidente fuera esa panacea de derechos que nos quieren vender, un negocio como el de la iglesia basado enteramente en la mentira estaría derruido, pero no tiene pinta de ir por ahí la cosa…

Por cierto, dios lo he puesto siempre con minúscula. Miles de palabras que existen se escriben con minúscula, así pues, una que hace referencia a algo que no existe no tiene mucho sentido que se ponga con mayúscula. Esa D, identificación de una autoridad suprema, extremadamente buena que nos juzga y controla, esa otra vida. Una quimera.

From : crespez@hotmail.com / http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=1299


* Women in State Custody

Prison guards and other corrections officials subject women prison inmates to degrading treatment, harassment, and torture. Male jailers sexually and physically abuse women in custody, especially those held without access to courts, counsel, or their families. The abuse, including rape, inappropriate sexual touching, beatings, excessive pat-downs and strip searches, and the use of sexualized language, is a crude example of the power imbalance between guards and prisoners, as well as between men and women.

 

For example, in Pakistan, women inmates report beating and slapping, suspension in mid-air by hands tied behind the victim’s back, insertion of foreign objects (including police batons and chili peppers) into the vagina and rectum, and gang rape. Despite these alarming reports, police almost never face criminal penalties for such abuse. When raped by guards, women inmates are routinely denied access to medical care and forensic evidence exams that could corroborate their allegations.

 

In the United States, prison guards threaten women prisoners with violence or denial of privileges should the women report the misconduct or seek redress. As a result, incarcerated women are intimidated into silence, and their attackers remain free to continue the abuse. This persists due to official tolerance of such behavior and impunity for the perpetrators.

* VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN WILL CONTINUE UNLESS ITS ROOTS IN GENDER DISCRIMINATION AND INEQUALITY SERIOUSLY ADDRESSED

Real solution lies in dealing head on with root causes, which include women's poor economic, social and political status, and unequal access to justice, says UNIFEM Executive Director Noeleen Heyzer.

Addressing a United Nations Security Council Open Debate on "Women, Peace and Security," Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director of the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), emphasized that any real solutions to eliminating violence against women must derive from a concerted attack on its origins -- deeply rooted, historical patterns of discrimination against women and systemic gender inequalities that are pervasive both in peacetime as well as during conflict.

"The international community is now fully aware that rape and other forms of violence against women are systematically deployed, with the cruelest effect, as a weapon of war," she said. "However, gender-based violence during conflict is but part of the continuum of violence that runs through women's lives, from times of peace to times of war. It only deepens with war. Discrimination and gender inequality are seeds that, during wartime, become a bitter fruit that destroys the fabric of communities and the lives of women and their families."

Ms Heyzer referred to the critical opportunity that post-conflict reconstruction presents for establishing justice and the rule of law for women -- including constitutions with strong and clear guarantees of gender equality, legal reforms that ensure equality in marriage and family relations, in property ownership and in access to secure jobs and livelihoods. Ending violence against women requires all of these things, she stressed, as well as on support for women's participation in elections as voters and candidates, and on their equal representation in all facets of government. Gender justice and the rule of law rely upon "judicial processes that fully ensure and protect women's entitlements on a basis of equality with men."

Gender justice, she explained, can serve to remove discrimination against women by upholding and enforcing women's rights, thereby directly addressing the origins of violence. To make gender justice an integral element of the rule of law, it is imperative that gender perspectives be integrated into every dimension of justice, and that women participate in shaping justice frameworks and rule of law institutions. (...)  "As we work towards ending the impunity for gender crimes that prevails in post-conflict societies, it is imperative to ensure that those responsible for crimes against women are not rewarded with state power and high profile jobs as a result of negotiated peace agreements. Justice and accountability are crucial to any peace, and healing, process."

She described three issues that were highlighted in particular at a recent conference on Gender Justice in Post-Conflict Situations, convened by UNIFEM and the International Legal Assistance Consortium (ILAC):

• The participation of women, and the incorporation of gender dimensions must be increased in all stages of the conceptualization, planning and implementation of UN peace operations;
• UN peacekeeping and humanitarian personnel have a special obligation not to violate the trust placed in them by women and girls. Because serious criminal sexual misconduct has been identified with UN personnel as well as other international personnel, gender justice must extend to these international guardians as well;
• Gender justice must be prioritized within the UN system, including peace operations, and institutional arrangements must be strengthened to accelerate progress.

(...) http://www.unifem.org/speeches.php?f_page_pid=77&f_pritem_pid=179

* A women's empowerment strategy

A women's empowerment strategy emphasizes the importance of addressing years of discrimination against women by devising programmes and strategies that increase women's skills, capacities, rights, and opportunities. It addresses ways in which development cooperation initiatives help create the conditions whereby women can become the agents of their own development and empowerment. It thus emphasizes the transformatory potential of development initiatives - in terms of sustainability as well as ensuring that women feel that they have been the agents of the transformation, that they have won this new space for action themselves. The increased popularity of the empowerment concept "mirrors the shift away for top-down planning towards more participatory forms of development and moves by donor agencies to embrace NGOs as partners in development" (Oxaal and Baden, 1997).

If empowerment is the ability to exercise power, then everyday forms of women's empowerment are the ability of women to exercise power in the social institutions that govern their daily lives: the household and extended family; local community councils and associations; local elite; local markets and local government (Carr et al, 1996). Women's advocates have emphasized that empowerment cannot be done from the outside, "it is something women need to do for themselves" (Sen and Batliwala, 1997). Thus, it is misleading to assume that governments or other external agents can empower women.

One aspect of empowerment is women's participation in formal political structures. This was recognized in one of the critical areas of concern in the Beijing Platform for Action, 'women in power and decision-making.' However, it seeks "to identify power less in terms of domination over others (with its implicit assumption that a gain for women implies a loss for men), and more in terms of the capacity of women to increase their own self-reliance and internal strength."

As both a process and a goal, women's empowerment is fundamentally connected to democratization, human rights and the self determination of women and men.

Excerpted and adapted from: DAC Sourcebook on Concepts and Approaches Linked To Gender Equality (Schalkwyk and Woroniuk, 1997) www.oecd.org/dac/htm/sourcebk.htm
Women's Empowerment Revisited (Elson and Bisnath)

* Global Grandmothers' Council

On October 11, 13 grandmothers from around all the world – the Arctic Circle, North, South, and Central America, Africa, and Asia, arrived at Tibet House's Menla Mountain retreat in Phoenicia, New York for the first Global Grandmothers' Council. They came to discuss the fate of the earth, and how to revive the traditions, rituals and medicines that can save it. Their teachings represent the universal morality against which we measure our actions, and it provided an example of bringing together the most ancient and modern ways in which women can organize, both personally and politically, to preserve their cultures and take care of the future.

For three days these grandmothers, who are trained shamans and medicine women, came together in a private meeting, to talk about ways to share their most secret and sacred ways with people who have been their oppressors. They included Tsering Dolma Gyalthong, a Tibetan refuge and founding member of The Tibetan Women's Association, which has more than 30 branches worldwide; Flordemayo, a Mayan elder and traditional healer; and Juliette Casimiro, a Mazatec elder who carries the tradition of healing with sacred plants.

They spoke of their relations and their ways of healing. They participated in each other's prayers, rituals and ceremonies. Through meeting with lawyers who specialize in the areas of American law that pertain to indigenous people and non-profit organizations, they worked on coming together to find a unified voice, and to find a way to make a more permanent alliance among themselves. To bring power and volume to their individual voice, they concluded that they would become a permanent alliance called the Council of the Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers. (...)

After the three-day summit, the Global Women's Gathering continued over the next four days. An audience of three hundred people joined the original 13. In that unified voice, the grandmothers opened up for the first time to an assembly of western women elders – political activists such as Ambassador Carole Mosley Braun, Gloria Steinem and Alice Walker – to begin a discussion about how to work to save their families, their communities, and their lives on this planet. (...)

http://www.alternet.org/story/20423/

* Social pensions a cost effective way to tackle old age and child poverty

(...) Older people in developing countries are among the poorest people in the world. 100 million older people live on less than a dollar a day. 80 per cent of older people have no regular income. The proportion of older people in these countries is increasing. By 2050 nearly one in four people in Asia and Latin America and one in ten people in Africa will be aged over 60.

Increasing numbers of older people are struggling alone to bring up children ­ in sub-Saharan Africa, grandparents care for 60 per cent of children orphaned by AIDS. People who have been poor all their lives are rarely able to save much money. Even a small cash transfer can improve older people's health and social status, and their access to housing and credit.

Based on HelpAge International's own research and that of academic specialists, Age and Security demonstrates that even for cash-strapped governments, providing cash pension payments is affordable ­ costing in the region of 2 per cent of GDP.

A handful of developing countries have already developed social pensions ­ for example, South Africa, Brazil, Bolivia, Nepal, and India have various versions of the scheme.

Research shows that the money paid out in non-contributory pensions is often used for household expenses.

In Brazil, social pensions reach 5.3 million poor older people, and having a pensioner in the family reduces a household's probability of becoming poor by 21 per cent.

It also improves school enrolment, as older family members often use a significant part of their pension to pay for their grandchildren's schooling: school fees, uniforms, books and transport.

In regions with high HIV/AIDS prevalence and unemployment, this monthly payment can keep whole families afloat. Grandparents, especially grandmothers, are often bringing up young children without any other regular income.

In South Africa, which has one of the largest non-contributory pension schemes, pension payments have significantly increased older people's capacity to give care to family members living with HIV/AIDS, and to look after orphaned grandchildren.

http://www.hrea.org/lists/hr-headlines/markup/msg01935.html

Conference

* Turquie : Conférence Islamique des Ministres des Affaires Etrangères - Istanbul - République de Turquie -14-16 juin 2004

« La conférence a appelé à s’abstenir de toute utilisation de l’universalité des droits de la Personne Humaine comme prétexte pour s’ingérer dans les affaires intérieures des Etats et porter atteinte à leur souveraineté nationale. Elle a, en outre, dénoncé la décision de l’Union Européenne concernant la condamnation de la peine de lapidation et des autres peines qualifiées d’inhumaines et qui sont appliquées dans certains Etats membres en vertu des dispositions de la Charia. »

 

* Asia : FIRST SOUTH/SOUTHEAST ASIAN CONFERENCE ON SEXUALITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS IN MUSLIM SOCIETIES
 
Twenty-five NGO representatives and researchers from Muslim societies in South and Southeast Asia have met in Jakarta to discuss pivotal human rights issues related to sexual and bodily rights, sexual politics, power and gender in Muslim societies.  

The three-day meeting, organized by Women for Women’s Human Rights (WWHR)-New Ways and Women’s Health Foundation, brought together prominent activists, scholars and NGO representatives from Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Lebanon, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines and Turkey, who are working towards the realization of sexual and bodily rights in Muslim societies in the region and in the Middle East.

 

The participants called upon their states and the entire Muslim world, to take all possible legal, social and political measures to eradicate human rights violations related to sexual rights and bodily integrity.

 

The call was made at a press confernce on the last day of the meeting “Sexuality and Human Rights in Muslim Societies in South – Southeast Asia,” held between September 24-26, 2004 in Jakarta, capital city of Indonesia.

 

“This meeting, a first of its kind in the region, constitutes another step in our determined efforts on the national and international levels to combat all human rights violations related to sexual, bodily and reproductive rights in Muslim societies” said a statement issued during the press conference on the last day of the meeting. Emphasizing the fact that social justice and the dignity of women and men are enshrined in the Koran, the statement concluded that sexual oppression was a result of a combination of political, social and economic inequalities and cannot be justified by Islam.

 

The discussions focused on the fact that conservative and religious right forces were on the rise not only in the Muslim world but all around the globe and were trying to reinforce traditional mechanisms of control over women’s sexuality and create new ones through practices like sexual violence, forced marriages, honor crimes, female genital mutilation, marital rape, unsafe abortion and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, which are falsely related to Islam. The themes discussed during the meeting were,

 

Ø      Sexuality, Islam and Politics

Ø      Discourses on sexuality in Muslim Societies

Ø      Human rights violations related to sexuality, including sexual harassment, FGM, honor crimes, sexual coercion and violence, marital rape, sexual abuse, forced marriages, virginity testing, barriers to safe abortion and sexual health, as well as human rights violations against gays, lesbians and transgender people.  

Ø      Women, gender, sexual orientation and sexual politics

Ø      Current activism efforts to promote sexual, bodily and reproductive rights as human rights in Muslim Societies, challenges and strategies

Ø      Sexual, bodily and reproductive rights at the United Nations Level

 

The press statement can be reached at www.wwhr.org

 

* United States and Guinea-Bissau : RACISM AND CHILD ABUSE

It is with great enthusiasm, we the members of United Welfare Organization, California, United States invites groups, youths and Youth-focused Organizations to take an active role in the forth coming International Youth Conferences taking place in the United States and in Guinea-Bissau. The first conference will commence here in California on the 6th of December, and end on the 9th of December, 2004 with its theme as "RACISM" While the second conference will take place in Guinea Bissau, which have its theme as "CHILD ABUSE", taking place as from 13th - 16th December, 2004.

We believe this is an incredible opportunity to network with like-minded Individuals and Humanitarian Organizations in the promotion and development of pro-active youth associations and NGOs in our communities. I am the Chairman Organizing Committee of the aforementioned Non-Governmental Organization. We picked your e-mail address from the web site forwarded to us by the Network Agency of NGOs in U.S.A; when we made a request last year at International Year Of Volunteers Conference, to invite youths from your country. Our independent donors will finance all round flight tickets, feeding and accommodation throughout the conference in the United States for all participants. The Organizing Committees will process US visas for all participants requiring visas/entry clearance to the United States.

The visa will be Process and Authorize in the United States by the US Bureau of Immigrant Affairs. The confirmation will be fax to the US Embassy in the participants' country and a copy will also be fax to the participants too. (...)

Contact: uwo_icorca@yahoo.com / www.orgsites.com/ca/icorca for more enlightenment.

Regards,
Mrs Gail Laura <laura_uwo@usa.com>

* Thailand : Gender Makes a Difference

One of every five people on the planet lives in poverty, of whom 2/3 are women. Gender inequality tends to slow economic growth, contributes to greater poverty levels, and also hinders a country's environmental sustainability. Almost 80% of the world's population depends on traditional medicine to meet basic health needs, and women are often the traditional healers, with extensive knowledge of local medicinal plants.

Understanding these and other gender differences in how people relate to the environment and natural resources are crucial to developing solutions to serious environmental problems, and will be the main focus of the work by FIRE (Feminist International Radio Endeavour), along with IUCN´s Gender Senior Advisor and the Gender Caucus at the 3rd World Conservation Congress (WCC).

Their work will be part of a major communication campaign launched at this event under the slogan, "Gender Makes a Difference."

The 3rd WCC, organized by the World Conservation Union (IUCN), will be held in Bangkok, Thailand, November 17-25, 2004. Over 3,000 delegates will attend, including scientists, government representatives, global business leaders, politicians, civil society and NGOs (non-governmental organizations), and youth. FIRE will produce daily bulletins throughout the event with a gender analysis of the overall conference theme, "People and Nature - only one world", as well as specific issues under discussion by delegates related to urgent environmental problems such as: loss of species and ecosystems, globalization and related health concerns, poverty alleviation, and economic and legal steps to ensure the sustainable use of natural resources.

 

FIRE will be working with local media in Thailand to provide coverage of the 3rd WCC, and also producing its own media reports for distribution to community radios and women's media worldwide. Working with the Gender Caucus, FIRE will explore the way that the different roles and responsibilities of women and men in households and communities shape their knowledge, access to, and control over natural resources, and also provide different opportunities to participate in decisions regarding natural resource use. According to the Gender Strategy for the 3rd WCC, "Understanding women's and men's relationships to the environment plays an important role in developing solutions for more sustainable use of natural resources. Ignoring gender distorts understanding of human impacts on the environment." The work by FIRE will provide a gender perspective on the four main themes of the conference, including:

1) Ecosystem management, examining patterns of use, knowledge and skills regarding conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity;
2) Health, poverty and conservation, exploring the gendered relationship between economic policies, poverty and the environment; 3) Biodiversity loss and species extinction, looking at how women and men have different knowledge and preferences for local biodiversity, and women's critical role in conservation of biodiversity; and
4) Markets, business and the environment, exploring the key relationship between gender equity, social justice, equitable development in discussions of markets, biodiversity and business.

oficina@radiofeminista.net / www.fire.or.cr
http://www.neww.org.pl/en.php/news/news/1.html?&nw=420&re=1

* France : Violences sexuelles et sexistes sur le lieu du travail

Bonjour,
Les agendas se remplissant vite, nous vous informons d'ores et déjà que l'AVFT organise un colloque, le 14 janvier 2005, au Palais du Luxembourg - 75006 - Paris, sur le thème suivant :

Violences sexuelles et sexistes sur le lieu du travail. Bilan et perspectives au regard de la directive européenne de 2002 sur le harcèlement sexuel.

Entrée sur invitation : veuillez nous faire savoir si vous désirez en recevoir une.

 

Cordialement,

Marilyn Baldeck. - Association européenne contre les Violences faites aux Femmes au Travail : AVFT
 

* Canada : FÉMINISME ET INSTITUTIONS DÉMOCRATIQUES

l'UNIVERSITÉ FÉMINISTE D'ÉTÉ aura lieu à l'Université Laval du 12 au 18 juin 2005

universite-feministe-ete@fss.ulaval.ca / http://www.fss.ulaval.ca/universitefeministedete


* 2005 Annual Award for the Human Rights of Women and Children

The Ginetta Sagan Fund of AIUSA is now accepting nominations for its 2005 Annual Award for the Human Rights of Women and Children. Here is your opportunity to honor women who have made a difference in the lives of women and/or children.

Previous winners include women originally from Afghanistan, Bhutan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Pakistan, Peru, Rwanda, Turkey, and Uganda.

(...) Your nomination must include: 1) The nominee's name, organization, title, and contact information 2) Your name, relationship to the nominee, and contact information 3) Information highlighting the individual's qualifications, including any significant obstacles which she has overcome, and the circumstances under which she does the work for which she is being nominated. Nominations must be received by December 10, 2004. Please send them to jtraylor@igc.org   www.amnestyusa.org/sagan/index.html

 

 Livre / Book

* Germany : GERMAN STUDIES ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE - The German Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth has published two studies on violence against women. The studies focus on “Health, well being and personal safety of women in Germany” and “Working together to combat domestic violence”.  http://www.bmfsfj.de/RedaktionBMFSFJ/Abteilung4/Pdf-Anlagen/kurzfassung-gewalt-frauen-englisch,property=pdf.pdf
http://www.bmfsfj.de/RedaktionBMFSFJ/Abteilung4/Pdf-Anlagen/kurzfassung-wibig-englisch,property=pdf.pdf

 

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* Burma : This report System of Impunity documents detailed accounts of sexual violence against women in all the ethnic states, as well as in central areas of Burma. These stories demonstrate patterns of continuing widespread, and systematic human rights violations being perpetrated by the regime’s armed forces and authorities.

Women and girls from different ethnic groups report similar stories of rape, including gang rape; rape and murder; sexual slavery; and forced “marriage”. Significantly, almost all the incidents took place during the last two years, precisely while the regime has been repeatedly denying the prevalence of military rape in Burma.

These stories bear witness to the fact that, despite the regime’s claims to the contrary, nothing has changed in Burma. Regardless of their location, be it in the civil war zones, the ceasefire areas or “non-conflict” areas, it is clear that no woman or girl is safe from rape and sexual torture under the current regime. Soldiers, captains, commanders and other SPDC officials continue to commit rape, gang rape and murder of women and children, with impunity.

The documented stories demonstrate the systematic and structuralized nature of the violence, and the climate of impunity which not only enables the military to evade prosecution for rape and other crimes against civilian women, but also fosters a culture of continued and escalating violence. Even when crimes are reported no action is taken and moreover complainants are victimised, threatened or imprisoned. Women and children continue to be raped, used as sex slaves, tortured and murdered across the country by the regime’s armed forces and authorities. (...)
 
For the full report, visit: http://www.peacewomen.org/resources/Burma/WLBSystemImpunity.pdf
Contact information : wlb@womenofburma.org

 

* Research : Evaluating Iraq and Afghanistan through the gender microscope 

I have just sent the e-mail below to Dr Renee Garfinkel, Research Scientists at the Institute for Crisis, Disaster, and Risk Management at George Washington University (www.gwu.edu/~icdrm/contact.html /icdrm@gwu.edu). All ideas on which organisation(s) might get the resources to undertake the evaluation I suggest below would be very welcome.
With best wishes from our Chief Executive Lesley Abdela and me.
Tim Symonds

"Dear Dr Garfinkel,

I have just read the USIP special report you published July 2004 (www.usip.org/pubs/specialreports/sr123.html) which, while specific to religion as ‘a powerful contributing factor in violent conflict’, offers insight into the wider and general field of evaluation.  My request is this: given the extraordinary emphasis placed by both the US and UK governments in Afghanistan and Iraq on advancing women’s human rights – virtually reaching a post hoc high degree of justification for the interventions – what programme could be undertaken to evaluate the outcomes for women in both those countries, and perhaps Sierra Leone too, especially in the good governance and democracy-building sectors on which so much else would depend: women’s human rights, women’s social and political and economic equality, women’s justice and so on?

Who might undertake that sort of evaluation, given that more interventions may well be started with great promises to the women on the region – the Sudan situation re. Darfur has echoes of confronting a government utterly insolent to the rights and even lives of women, for instance.

I am personally strongly in favour of interventions as one way that could help a country’s women achieve their rightful place in this world, if the intervention works and women’s rights, previously trampled on, are raised to international norms of a civilised society.  Any lessons from Afghanistan and Iraq in particular – good and bad – would be invaluable pathways for such interventions in the future.

With kindest regards."

From : Tim Symonds, Executive Director, Project Parity Partnerships for Peace /  tim.symonds@shevolution.com

 

* Europe : Rapport " Les conséquences de l'industrie du sexe dans l'Union européenne (2003/2107(INI))" - (A5-0274/2004)

 

- La prostitution : c'est aux Etats membres qu'il appartient de légiférer dans ce domaine et la commissions des droits de la femme a soulevé le besoin de protéger les droits des travailleurs du sexe "légaux". Toute nouvelle législation sur la prostitution doit nécessairement prendre en compte ces droits et éviter de renforcer la stigmatisation ou la marginalisation des groupes concernés. Les députés protestent tout de même contre l'essor de l'industrie du sexe qui "est protégée au nom de la liberté d'expression, mais qui favorise et contribue à créer et à maintenir l'agressivité de l'homme et la commercialisation de la femme".

- La Traite des êtres humains : Les députés déplorent que les Etats membres et adhérents n'aient pas ratifié ou mis en œuvre pleinement les conventions internationales contre toutes les formes d'exploitation sexuelle des êtres humains. Ces lacunes doivent être comblées au plus tôt vu l'ampleur croissante du phénomène. Les députés exigent que différentes actions soient menées pour assurer la protection des victimes, engager des poursuites contre les auteurs de ces crimes, favoriser la coopération et l'échange de bonnes pratiques de lutte contre les trafics transfrontaliers. La commission des Droits des Femmes demande que les victimes de la traite des êtres humains et de la prostitution forcée obtiennent des permis de séjour pour raisons humanitaires si elles ne peuvent pas revenir dans leur pays et même si elles ne peuvent ou ne veulent pas témoigner auprès des autorités. Le rapport attire également l'attention sur le problème des effets pervers et désastreux du tourisme sexuel sur les enfants et les jeunes femmes qui en sont victimes et incite la Commission européenne à apporter un soutien financier sérieux aux ONG locales qui luttent contre ce phénomène.

- Les spams pornographiques : Les députés protestent avec fermeté contre la prolifération de messages et courriers électroniques (SPAM) qui très souvent sont un moyen de diffusion de la pornographie et de promotion de la prostitution. Ils invitent la Commission européenne à réviser la législation existante et encouragent les Etats membres à adopter des codes de bonne conduite pour la commercialisation et la vente de produits sur l'Internet.

Enfin, pour lutter plus efficacement contre la diffusion de programmes illicites et/ou non sollicités à caractère pornographique, la commission des Droits des Femmes demande à la Commission européenne de proposer une nouvelle directive dans le domaine des médias, de la publicité et de l'éducation qui régira des problèmes tel que la publicité sexiste.

From : Le Fil d'Ariane (Mai 2004)

 

* Europe : L'e-ssentiel n° 30 : " Les politiques familiales et le genre : vers une convergence européenne ? "

 

http://www.caf.fr/web/WebCnaf.nsf/VueLien/E-SSENTIEL30?opendocument

 

* International : “Beijing + 10 Review: A Feminist Strategy for 2004-05, A Working Paper for NGOS on How to Move Forward” has been published. The paper outlines ideas emerged out of several activities held as part of a consultation process on the future of women's human rights sponsored by the Center for Women's Global Leadership in 2003. The ideas have been discussed and elaborated on since then in several places by different people, and are meant to contribute toward discussions of what to do to advance women's rights in the context of the United Nations review of Beijing +10 in 2004-2005, see: http://www.cwgl.rutgers.edu/globalcenter/policy/b10/index.html

 

 

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*  International : WOMEN AS PARTNERS IN PEACE AND SECURITY – a publication from the Office of the UN Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women. The stories contained in the publication aim to show the human face of Security Council resolution 1325, featuring profiles of women from all parts of the world who are working for international peace and security - as police officers, HIV/AIDS educators, peace-builders, election workers, humanitarian workers and more. It is available online in English and French from: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/osagi/resources/faces/index-en.htm

 

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* International : New Report Documents Vast Benefits of Investing In Sexual and Reproductive Health Care

Gaps in sexual and reproductive health care account for nearly one-fifth of the worldwide burden of illness and premature death, and one-third of the illness and death among women of reproductive age. These gaps could be closed and millions of lives saved with highly cost-effective investments, according to Adding It Up: The Benefits of Investing in Sexual and Reproductive Health Care, a new report released today by The Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI) and UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund.

Policy makers, governments and donor agencies have vastly undervalued the diverse returns—economic and social as well as in health—such investments would bring, the report stresses. It calls improvements in reproductive and sexual health essential to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals set by world leaders in 2000.

Adding it Up was launched at a press conference here today by AGI President Sharon Camp and UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Obaid.

The report makes the case for increased funding for sexual and reproductive health services—particularly in poor countries—by illustrating the broad societal and individual impact of investments in three key areas: (1) prevention, diagnosis and treatment of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV; (2) maternal health; and (3) contraceptive services and supplies to prevent unintended pregnancies.

In one striking indication of the potential health benefits, the report points out that current programs providing contraceptives to the 500 million women in developing countries who do not wish to become pregnant already prevent, each year:

• 187 million unintended pregnancies;
  60 million unplanned births;
• 105 million abortions;
• 22 million miscarriages;
• 2.7 million infant deaths;
• 215,000 pregnancy-related deaths;
• 685,000 children losing their mothers.

The report calls attention to a severe global shortage of contraceptive services and supplies. Closing the gap so that every woman at risk of unintended pregnancy has access to modern contraceptives would cost $3.9 billion more per year, and would save the lives of an additional 1.5 million women and children annually, reduce induced abortions by 64%, reduce illness related to pregnancy and preserve 27 million years of healthy life—at a cost of just $144 per year of healthy life. (...)

http://www.guttmacher.org/media/nr/2004/01/29/index.html

 

Website / Site Internet    

 

 

* ASSOCIATION " NON AUX MARIAGES ET PATERNITÉS DE PAPIERS " stopmariagesetpaternitespapiers@yahoo.fr
 

* HOW TO MAKE A COMPLAINT TO THE UN HUMAN RIGHTS TREATY BODIES ONLINE
A FREE CONFIDENTIAL ONLINE SERVICE FOR VICTIMS OF HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS : The website www.bayefsky.com now provides an easy-to-use guide for making a complaint to the UN human rights treaty bodies on civil and political rights, discrimination against women, torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and racial discrimination.

 

* WEB SITE ON GENDER EQUALITY & THE MILLENIUM DEVELOMMENT GOALS  (MDGS) : This site is a collaborative effort of the UN Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality, the OECD/DAC Network on Gender Equality, and the Multilateral Development Bank Working Group on Gender. See: http://www.mdgender.net/

 

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 ***

Michèle Dayras
SOS SEXISME