Saving Girls in New York from ‘the life’

via UNICEF – At a glance: United States of America – Saving girls in New York from ‘the life’

Many of us like to think that trafficking, sex tourism, and sexual exploitation of very young girls is something that happens “over there” in developing countries, but we know that it is happening here, all around us, on the streets, and in our neighborhoods.

An estimated 300,000 children and adolescents are the victims of domestic trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation in the United States every year. – UNICEF

Last week at the DPI briefing for NGOs on “Violence against Women: 16 Days to Make a Difference,” we learned about the Girls Education and Mentoring Service (GEMS). GEMS is the only non-profit organization in New York State serving domestically trafficked and commercially exploited girls. Since it’s founding in 1998, around 250 girls have passed through it’s doors. Most have been helped to break free and build new lives.

The television premiere of the documentary “Very Young Girls,” which features young women who find GEMS at a crucial point on their journey from prostitution to empowerment will air on Showtime on December 11, 2008 at 8:30 p.m.

For more information about GEMS and to find out what you can do, visit http://www.gems-girls.org/

The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo

Rape is used as a weapon of war in the DR Congo and in other conflicts throughout the world. Why?

The answer has less to do with ancient notions of of “spoils of war” or sexual gratification, although this does play a part, and more to do with an escalation of the discrimination and violence faced by women in peacetime. The nature of most of the conflicts taking place in the world today namely ethnic and/or clan warfare have also contributed to an increase in this sort of violence.

In ethnic conflicts rape is often used as a way for attackers to destroy communities and redraw ethnic boundaries. Women are the reproducers and caretakers of the community. Rape is part of a strategy of ethnic cleansing. Women and girls are raped so that they will give birth to a baby of the opposing ethnic group. In this way one group tries to destroy the other by changing the ethnic composition of that group.

Rape destroys communities and and also increases the risk of infection with HIV/AIDS. Women and girls who are raped often do not to return to their homes because of fears of further attacks or because they have been rejected by their families. As families and communities break up, their land can be appropriated by their aggressors.

Perhaps worst of all is that women and girls raped in conflicts seldom receive justice or help to heal their physical and emotional wounds, even after the conflict is resolved. There is a reluctance to acknowledge that systematic rape has occurred as a strategy of war and therefore a tendency to view it individually, case by case as an issue between the woman and her attacker.  In many countries the collapse of government and the rule of law allow perpetrators to rape with impunity. Finally, fear of stigma keeps many women and girls from coming forward to accuse their attackers or seek help.

Women’s lives and their bodies have been the unacknowledged casualties of war for too long.
Amnesty’s Lives Blown Apart report

Visit http://www.thegreatestsilence.org/outreach to find out what actions you can take to break “The Greatest Silence.”

Men & Boys Are the Key to Stopping Violence Against Women

Yesterday, at the Department of Public Information briefing at the United Nations the topic was “Violence against Women: 16 Days to Make a Difference.” The 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence is an international campaign which originated with the New Jersey based Center for Women’s Global Leadership, during the celebration of the 10-year anniversary of its Institute in 1991. The time frame, from 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women until 10 December, Human Rights Day, links the issues of violence against women and human rights.

One of the speakers was Mallika Dutt, Founder and Executive Director of Breakthrough.

Breakthrough is an innovative, high-impact international human rights organization using the power of popular culture, media, and education to transform public attitudes and promote values of equality, justice, and dignity around the world. It serves as a new breed of global non-profit groups using entertainment, media, pop culture to create global social change.

Here is one of the really excellent ads Breakthrough has created to send the message that boys and men are the key to stopping domestic violence. This TV spot, that is currently being aired throughout India, shows how even very young people can take action. Boys need to know that that strong men respect women and that violence is unacceptable.

more about “Men & Boys Are the Key to Stopping Vi…“, posted with vodpod

Say No to Violence Against Women

Last year UNIFEM launched a year long campaign, “Say No to Violence Against Women” to raise awareness throughout the world of women’s human rights The goal is to collect 1,000,000 signatures by Tuesday, November 25, when at a special ceremony at the United Nations, Nicole Kidman will present all of the signatures to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Please use the widget to add your name and be counted.

According to the UN:

Violence against women and girls is a problem of pandemic proportions. At least one out of every three women around the world has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime — with the abuser usually someone known to her. Perhaps the most pervasive human rights violation that we know today, it devastates lives, fractures communities, and stalls development.

Statistics paint a horrifying picture of the social and health consequences of violence against women. For women aged 15 to 44 years, violence is a major cause of death and disability. In a 1994 study based on World Bank data about ten selected risk factors facing women in this age group, rape and domestic violence rated higher than cancer, motor vehicle accidents, war and malaria. Moreover, several studies have revealed increasing links between violence against women and HIV/AIDS. Women who have experienced violence are at a higher risk of HIV infection: a survey among 1,366 South African women showed that women who were beaten by their partners were 48 percent more likely to be infected with HIV than those who were not.

The economic cost of violence against women is considerable — a 2003 report by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that the costs of intimate partner violence in the United States alone exceed US$5.8 billion per year: US$4.1 billion are for direct medical and health care services, while productivity losses account for nearly US$1.8 billion. Violence against women impoverishes individuals, families and communities, reducing the economic development of each nation.

Who (or what) will be Saved?

via BBC NEWS | Africa | Hijacked oil tanker nears Somalia

A giant Saudi oil tanker seized by pirates in the Indian Ocean is nearing the coast of Somalia, the US Navy says.

The Sirius Star is the biggest tanker ever to be hijacked, with a cargo of 2m barrels – a quarter of Saudi Arabia’s daily output – worth more than $200m.

The vessel was captured in what the navy called an “unprecedented” attack 450 nautical miles (830km) off the Kenyan coast on Sunday.

GARISSA, Kenya, Nov 10 (Reuters) – Heavily-armed Somali gunmen kidnapped two Italian nuns on Monday in a pre-dawn raid on a remote Kenyan border town, witnesses said.

Somalia is one of the world’s most dangerous countries for aid workers, who are often abducted or killed in attacks usually blamed on Islamist insurgents or clan militia.

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — A 13-year-old girl who said she had been raped was stoned to death in Somalia after being accused of adultery by Islamic militants, a human rights group said.

Dozens of men stoned Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow to death Oct. 27 in a stadium packed with 1,000 spectators in the southern port city of Kismayo, Amnesty International and Somali media reported, citing witnesses. The Islamic militia in charge of Kismayo had accused her of adultery after she reported that three men had raped her, the rights group said.

It will be interesting to see whether the international community does more to rescue the oil than it has to save all of the people who have been caught up in the violence and chaos that is Somalia.

I am feeling rather cynical tonight.

President-elect Obama Wants Your Advice!

via Change.gov: The Obama-Biden Transition Team | momentvision

Houston Obama mural

I don’t remember a President-elect ever inviting people to share their vision for America and the world with him. Believe it or not, President-elect Obama is asking. Visit the Obama-Biden Transition team website where he is asking you to submit suggestions for his new administration.

You might want to take the opportunity to urge him to attend the UN climate change treaty negotiations to be held in Poznań, Poland in December.

Eight years of inaction on the part of the Bush administration has left us with very little time to stop the worst effects of global warming. By personally attending the UN climate change talks, President-elect Obama would signal that the United States is ready to join the fight against global warming and contribute to the success of the talks. His presence would also raise awareness about climate change here in the US.

“Am I my sister’s keeper?” How do we respond to the stoning of Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow?

Pope Benedict Addresses the General Assembly, originally uploaded by marystrain.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=28859&Cr=Somali&Cr1=

When he came home and the Lord asked him, “Where is your brother?” Cain answered that he didn’t know. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Gn. 4.9

I can’t stop thinking about the horror of the last few moments of 13 year old stoning victim Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow’s life. People I work with in the NGO community at the UN are struggling to come up with a response to this atrocity.

Somalia is in a state of anarchy. The Transitional Federal Government of Somalia is not in control of the country and could not have stopped the stoning. The situation of the international community is akin to living next to a family where the parents are completely messed up on drugs or whatever and are abusing their children. Obviously, reasoning with the parents won’t make any difference, nor will picketing outside their house, because the parents are too far gone to change their behavior on their own. Sending in a few bags of groceries once in a while won’t solve the problem either.

So far, the response of the international community to the ongoing violence in Somalia has been equivalent to these ineffectual actions. The UN and other humanitarian organizations make statements deploring what’s happening in Somalia, but the violence continues.

Last April when the Pope was at the UN, he said, “In the internal debates of the United Nations, increasing emphasis is being placed on the responsibility to protect. Indeed this is coming to be recognized as the moral basis for a governments claim to authority. It is also a feature that naturally appertains to a family, in which stronger members take care of weaker ones. This Organization performs an important service, in the name of the international community, by monitoring the extent to which governments fulfill their responsibility to protect their citizens.”

Then he challenged the UN to do more than just monitor, he declared that, “Every State has the primary duty to protect its own population from grave and sustained violations of human rights, as well as from the consequences of humanitarian crises, whether natural or man-made. If States are unable to guarantee such protection, the international community must intervene with the juridical means provided in the United Nations Charter and in other international instruments. The action of the international community and its institutions, provided that it respects the principles undergirding the international order, should never be interpreted as an unwarranted imposition or a limitation of sovereignty.”

The international community has a moral responsibility to intervene, just as we would to violence and abuse in our own neighborhoods.

Heartwarming Photos from Election Night

via Daily Kos: State of the Nation

If you do nothing else today, take a look at this post. It is a photo montage from the Obama rally in Manassas, VA on election night. The photos tell a story that will warm your heart and fill you with hope. We can build a better future for our children!!

Stoning Victim Begged for Her Life

Last week’s stoning of a 13 year old girl in Somalia occurred partly because the nation has no stable government, is terrorized by rival militias and is awash in arms. Individuals claiming to be eyewitnesses report that the girl begged for her life and that many people in the crowd at the stadium opposed the stoning but could not intervene because the militia in control had guns. People who attempted to intervene were fired upon. A 15 year old boy was killed.

Anarchy has prevailed in Somalia since 1991 when the central government collapsed. Constant warfare between rival warlords terrorize the people. The port of Kismayo where the stoning of 13 year old Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow took place was captured in August by a coalition of forces loyal to rebel leader Hassan Turki, and al-Shabab, the country’s main radical Islamist insurgent organisation.

In spite of an arms embargo, Somalia is awash in arms. According to the UN, arms arrive continuously in small shipments aboard fishing boats and small aircraft. These shipments originate or are routed through Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. The main Somali entry points are Boosaaso, Marha, El Ma’an and Kismayo, along with the airstrips around Mogadishu.

Map of Somalia

Atrocities like the stoning of a 13 year old child will continue to take place in Somalia unless the international community intervenes to restore stable government and the rule of law and enforces the arms embargo already in place.

Read more at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7708169.stm

Dozens of Men Stone a 13 Year Old Girl to Death in Somalia

via Amnesty: Rape girl, 13, killed for adultery – CNN.com

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — A 13-year-old girl who said she had been raped was stoned to death in Somalia after being accused of adultery by Islamic militants, a human rights group said.

Dozens of men stoned Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow to death Oct. 27 in a stadium packed with 1,000 spectators in the southern port city of Kismayo, Amnesty International and Somali media reported, citing witnesses. The Islamic militia in charge of Kismayo had accused her of adultery after she reported that three men had raped her, the rights group said.

At one point during the stoning, Amnesty International has been told by numerous eyewitnesses that nurses were instructed to check whether Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow was still alive when buried in the ground. They removed her from the ground, declared that she was, and she was replaced in the hole where she had been buried for the stoning to continue.

Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow was victimized over and over again during her short life. Since she was accused of adultery she must have been married – a child bride. She was raped. None of the men she accused of rape were arrested. She became an afternoon’s entertainment, stoned to death before a stadium full of people.

Sadly, her story is not unusual. Girl children around the world are routinely forced to marry. They suffer injustice, violence with impunity and are often murdered in the name of religion or honor.

You can read more about this story and also learn what you can do to make a difference at: http://www.amnestyusa.org