Message-Id: <199811242028.MAA29072@edc-cit.org>
To: end-violence@edc-cit.org
Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 15:45:47 -0500 
From: End-Violence Moderator <end-violence-mod@edc-cit.org>
Subject: [end-violence] RESOURCES 11/12/98 - 11/18/98

Dear Working Group Members,

You have sent many suggestions for resources to the Working Group. We have
compiled them here for the period 11/12/98 - 11/18/98. We hope these
resources will be useful in your efforts to end violence against women.

Thanks again for all your messages!

Best regards,

The Moderators

******************


	RESOURCES POSTED TO THE END-VIOLENCE WORKING GROUP
			12 - 18 NOVEMBER 1998



**** UPCOMING CONFERENCES AND EVENTS ****


The University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg South Africa is hosting
a conference entilted "The Aftermath: Women in Post-War Reconstruction"
20/21/22 July 1999.

If you are interested in attending or sending a representative please
supply postal details to me and I will forward the announcement to you
shortly..

Regards,

Robbie

RCA 
P O Box 72147 Parkview 2122 South Africa
Tel 27 11 788 2736  Tel/Fax 011 788 3299
E-mail: robbie.cameron@pixie.co.za


***

UPDATES ON 16 DAYS GLOBAL CAMPAIGN

KENYA: COVAW
Nairobi: November, 28th procession through the streets of the City
Kisumu:   November, 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th community outreach activities.
Marsabit: North Eastern Part of Kenya December, 5th  procession 
Mombasa:  December, 5th procession through the streets of Mombasa town
Nairobi:  December, 10th Joint activities with HURINET 50 (NGOs working 
with human rights within Kenya). COVAW will also be holding a tribunal
the same date.


CAMEROON: 16 jours d'activisme

Bonjour tout le monde,

Je suis Sime Beatrice de l'Association de Lutte contre les Violences faites
aux Femmes (ALVF). Responsable du counselling, du suivi, de l'encadrement
et de l'accompagnement des femmes victimes de violences au Centre Vie de
Femmes (CVF) de Yaounde qui est la structure operationnelle de l'association.

Dans le cadre des 16 jours d'activisme contre les violences faites aux
femmes, l'ALVF a entrepris une serie d'actions en direction des femmes et
des jeunes (associations civiles et religieuses), des acteurs sociaux
(assistantes sociales et policiers enqueteurs des commissariats). Nous
faisons une serie de causeries educatives sur les Violences faite aux
femmes, ses causes et ses consequences aussi bien sur la femme que sur la
societe entiere.

En collaboration avec l'UNIFEM, le PNUD et le Ministere de la Condition
Feminine et d'autres organisations de femmes, nous avons entrepris une
campagne nationale de sensibilisation pour : 
- mettre l'accent pendant 16 jours sur la violence faite aux femmes,
- appeler au changement des mentalites patriarcales,
- etablir les 16 jours d'actvisme comme une celebration annuelle de lutte
pour l'etablissement des droits fondamentaux de la femme a l'exemple du 08
mars.


Nos objectifs:
1 - developper un reseau d'entraide, de support et d'echanges d'informations
entre femmes
2 - inciter les hommes et les femmes a reflechir sur leurs attitudes vis à
visde la violence faite aux femmes et developper un partenariat actif
3 -encourager les femmes a affirmer leur dignite et a contribuer au
changement de mentalite et rendre visible la violence
4 -denoncer la banalisation de la violence, la demission des gouvernants, le
complicite de la societe entiere ainsi que la passivite des femmes devant ce
fleau.

Nos activites:
- Conference
- Tribunal imaginaire joue par un groupe de femmes campagne nationale radio
et tele cliniques juridiques mobiles a 4 endroits pendant 16 jours
distribution de tracts
- Marche de protestation le 10/12/98

Sime Beatrice
ALVF
E-mail: alvf@camnet.cm

***

Celebrities spearhead campaign to end sex slave trade

On November 25, International Day Against Violence to Women, ActionAid is
launching a campaign to end the trafficking of women and children in Asia.
ActionAid describes trafficking as a contemporary form of the slave trade
and blames increasing poverty for allowing this cruel trade to flourish.
The charity says that organised crime networks are targeting poor people in
Asia. In Nepal, where most people live on less than 70 pence a day and
cannot grow enough food to survive, trafficking agents lure or force
thousands of women and children to leave their homes - many are taken to
brothels in India. In Asia:
·	one million women are sold into prostitution each year; 
·	more than 650,000 children work as prostitutes; 
·	victims of sex trafficking are as young as ten.

HRH The Prince of Wales, patron of ActionAid, has already spoken out
against trafficking.  The charity is now appealing to British people to
support an international letter writing campaign calling on heads of south
Asian governments to end trafficking. Sue Lawley, Miriam Margolyes (both
long-term ActionAid supporters), Felicity Kendal and Helen Mirren are
supporting ActionAid's campaign. Sue Lawley says: "Children as young as ten
are left with little hope for their future. Everyone should sign up to
ActionAid's campaign against trafficking and help to end this sex slave
trade."

The charity is calling for international agencies and governments to
enforce international law to protect women and children and provide
rehabilitation for those who have been able to escape prostitution. Archana
Tamang, an ActionAid worker in Nepal, says: "It is not acceptable to sit
back and allow trafficking to continue - it is brutal and demeaning and is
ruining the lives of thousands of women and children. ActionAid is working
to end trafficking but we need help. We need help from individuals and
governments to stop trafficking and reduce poverty which is making so many
women victims of sexual exploitation."


For further information:
Jenny Driscoll, ActionAid press office on 0171 561 7614/561 7561(w), 0181
690 0479(h) or 0831 391131 (m) E-mail: Jennyd@actionaid.org.uk


**** OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS ****


New Center for Women and Information Technology

I am very pleased to announce the establishment in July '98 of a new
Center for Women and Information Technology at the University of Maryland,
Baltimore County (UMBC), in the U.S.  The Center's mission is to encourage
women's and girls' involvement with information technology (IT), both as
users and as IT professionals, and to encourage and support research
concerning the relationship between gender and IT. 

The Center's web site (http://www.umbc.edu/cwit/) provides information
about the Center and offers a variety of resources related to women and
IT: web sites focusing on women and technology, e-mail lists with a
similar focus, news coverage of women and IT, announcements of conferences
and calls for papers, a collection of more than 500 web-based syllabi for
women- and gender-related courses (syllabi making substantial use of the
Internet are marked), and more. The site is in a constant state of
development.  I welcome suggestions, corrections, additional information
that should appear, etc. 

Joan Korenman, Director
Center for Women and Information Technology 
University of Maryland, Baltimore County 
Baltimore, MD 21250  USA
E-mail: korenman@umbc.edu
Web: http://www.umbc.edu/cwit/


****

* News Release Issued by the International Secretariat of Amnesty
International *
INDIA: Amnesty International campaigns against rape and sexual abuse by
members of the security forces in Assam and Manipur

13 November 1998

Amnesty International's membership is initiating today a campaign to
register concern at reports of the rape and sexual abuse of {women} and
{children} by security forces in the Indian states of Assam and Manipur. 

Members of Amnesty International's specialist women and children's groups
in 30 countries world-wide will be writing to the Central Government and
state authorities in India calling on them to take immediate steps to
prevent the sexual {torture} of women and children, to ensure that
investigations are carried out, that those found responsible are
prosecuted, and that the victims are provided with medical treatment,
rehabilitation and compensation.   
  		
The cases highlighted in this campaign include children who have been
sexually abused and raped by members of the armed forces in Manipur, and
women who have been raped by members of the armed forces in both Assam and
Manipur, for whom there has been inadequate redress. 
   	
While acknowledging that in some cases stern action has been taken to bring
perpetrators of rape to justice in recent years, Amnesty International
remains concerned at the high incidence of rape with {impunity} in the two
states, and at the manner in which this grave human rights violation is
being addressed by authorities. 	
  
Amnesty International believes that the impunity of offenders and the
difficulties faced by victims in seeking redress are major contributory
factors to the continuation of rape and sexual abuse throughout India.
  
In Assam and Manipur these difficulties are compounded by the existence of
the Armed Forces Special Powers Act which not only gives the armed forces
widespread powers to to search the homes of civilians, but also grants
members of the armed forces protection from prosecution.
  
{Specialist women and children's group members} will be reminding the
authorities of commitments India has made in international human rights
fora to review legislation facilitating impunity. 
  
Five years ago, the Government of India committed under the Vienna
Declaration and Programme of Action (adopted by the 1993 World Conference
on Human Rights) to "abrogate legislation leading to impunity for those
responsible for grave violations of human rights ... and prosecute such
violations thereby providing a firm basis for the rule of law." 
  
It is now three years since the Government of India committed at the Fourth
{United Nations} World Conference on Women to review national legislation
in order to ensure its effectiveness in eliminating violence against women,
emphasise the prosecution of offenders, to adopt or strengthen laws to
punish state agents who use violence against women, and to take effective
action against such perpetrators.
  
In addition to judicial remedies for this violation, Amnesty
International's women and children's specialist groups will be calling for
the granting of full redress to victims, including adequate compensation,
proper medical care and rehabilitation. Furthermore, Amnesty International
groups are urging that full training be given to members of the security
forces on their obligations under the international human rights standards
to which the Government of India is party.
  
Background

Human rights abuses are a feature of daily life in  Assam and Manipur,
where armed opposition groups have long been active. Amnesty International
has repeatedly raised concerns at reports of "disappearances",
extra-judicial execution, and torture by government authorities in the
context of security operations. The organisation has also called on armed
groups to adhere to the minimum standards of international humanitarian
law, by calling a halt to the deliberate and arbitrary killing of
civilians, torture, ill-treatment and hostage-taking. 
  
Amnesty International regularly receives reports of rape and other forms
of torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment by the police and
members of the security forces in all regions of India. The organisation
has repeatedly raised these concerns with government officials. 

It is now one year since the Government of India took the welcome step of
signing the Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment adopted by the United Nations in 1984. In
the year of the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights the Government could consolidate this first step toward providing
full legal protection from torture, including rape, for all citizens of
India, by ratifying the Convention at the earliest.


****VIDEOS****

"We're So Syndicated, Ma'am"

(30 minutes video version of the theater play by Soki Paulin Ballesteros
"We're So Syndicated, Ma'am" in Filipino language with English subtitle. 
The video version has also utilized the testimonies of sex trafficking
Filipino survivors.) Performed by Teatrong Walang Bakod (Theater Without
Borders) 

The play has earned its 50th live performance since its world premiere
launching on March 25, 1997 under the Philippine-Belgian Project Against
Trafficking in Women by the Philippine Network Against Trafficking in Women
(PNATW). It was toured extensively to various regions of the country as
preventive education tool by the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women -
Asia Pacific (CATW-AP) and to various sectoral organizations (urban poor,
trade unions, secondary school students and teachers) as part of the
preventive grassroots education by KALAYAAN (a feminist organization since
early 80s) dubbed as "KP vs. ST" (Community Action against Sex Trafficking).
The play was performed in June 1998 during the regional strategizing meeting
against global exploitation of women organized by the CATW-AP.

"We're So Syndicated, Ma'am" provides a crisp, brief, humorous, soap
operatic style taking into consideration the distinct and unique flavor of
the Filipino culture and equally sexually graphic gender dynamics of the
sex trafficking phenomenon against the backdrop of the global migration
trends and patterns.

As part of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) information
support project to NGOs and GOs (government organizations), the play will
soon be translated and dubbed into 4 local languages and in English in
50,000 VHS copies for free distribution to information agents (schools,
local government units, church, people's and civic organizations, etc.) as
preventive grassroots education/information tool against irregular
migration and sex trafficking in women migrants.

The video production is a grassroots complementary undertaking to IOM's
radio programme for potential migrant workers in the Philippines. It
produces 30-minutes drama on true-to-life testimonies of women migrant
survivors of sex trafficking abroad and followed by another 30-minutes
deepening-discussion on focus topics of sex trafficking and irregular
migration in women migrants in host/destination countries. The information
programme is a collaborative undertaking by the NGO, Philippine Network
Against Trafficking in Women (PNATW), the government migration office --
Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and the IOM.

The play was performed by Teatrong Walang Bakod (Theater Without Borders),
a two-person puppet-performance theater group which utilizes found and
recycled objects to educate the civil society on violence in women issues,
children's rights, human rights, etc. 


For more information:

Soki Paulin Ballesteros
Information, Education and Communication (IEC) Specialist
International Organization for Migration (IOM)
Sub-regional Office for East Asia and Oceania
SRO Manila Office
2nd Floor Victoria Bldg.
429 United Nations Ave.
Ermita, Manila
Philippines
Tel. (632) 536-6010 up to 15
Fax (632) 521-3841
E-mail: SBALLESTEROS@iom.int