Date sent: Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:30:25 -0500 (EST)
From: Sarah Taylor <staylor@...>

MONTHLY ACTION POINTS ON WOMEN, PEACE AND SECURITY
SECURITY COUNCIL: DECEMBER 2009
_______________________________________________________

Dear Friends,
The NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security has released the
December version of our Monthly Action Points (MAP) on Women, Peace
and Security for the UN Security Council. For December, in which
Burkina Faso holds the Security Council Presidency, the MAP provides
recommendations on country situations, such as reporting on
Afghanistan, the mandate renewal of MONUC in the Democratic Republic
of Congo, the ongoing situation in Guinea, and considerations for the
Golan Heights and Cyprus. The MAP also calls for Security Council
Members and Member States to follow up on the recommendations in SCRs
1888 and 1889, particularly the forthcoming appointment of an SRSG.

About the MAP project: In October, 2010, the international community
will mark the 10th Anniversary of the adoption of resolution 1325,
the first Security Council resolution on women, peace and security.
Throughout the year leading up to this anniversary, the NGO Working
Group on Women, Peace and Security is producing Monthly Action
Points, a series of recommendations that show how each United Nations
Security Council President can provide leadership on, and how the
Security Council as a whole can systematically meet its obligations
to women in conflict. These briefs are designed for Security
Council Members, civil society actors, Member States, and UN
entities. We look forward to your feedback and input. Please
distribute widely.

To view the MAP for December 2009, go to:
http://womenpeacesecurity.org/media/pdf-MAP_December09.pdf
The MAP is available in both English and French on the NGOWG website.

All the best, Sarah

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

Sarah Taylor
Executive Coordinator, NGOWG on Women, Peace and Security
P +1.212.557.7298
777 UN Plaza, 7th Floor
New York, NY  10017
staylor@...
http://www.womenpeacesecurity.org

The Harper government is using smear-your-opponent tactics borrowed
from the U.S. Republican Party that are "poisoning the well" of
Canada's political culture, NDP and Liberal MPs say.

Canadians should hang their heads in shame. [Canadian diplomat and
intelligence officer] Richard Colvin�s testimony about torture in
Afghanistan is a searing indictment of government officials who
either knew-or should have known-that Canada was transferring
detainees to torture....

As Colvin himself explained: "If we disregard our core principles and
values, we also lose our moral authority abroad. If we are complicit
in the torture of Afghans in Kandahar, how can we credibly promote
human rights in Tehran or Beijing?"..

It�s time for Canadians to rally behind this brave and principled
diplomat. It�s time to insist that any war criminals be investigated
and prosecuted, regardless of who they are.

MacLean's Poll: 49% of Canadians believe the federal
government-Ottawa didn�t do enough to prevent the  alleged torture of
suspects transferred to Afghan authorities by Canadian troops and
should shoulder the blame.

============================

INDEX
[1] http://www.hilltimes.com/page/view/smear_tactics-11-23-2009
The Hill Times - Canada's Politics and Government Newsweekly
  Tories using smear-your-opponent U.S. Republican-style tactics, say
Grits and NDP
PM Stephen Harper's government is using 'boiler-plate wedge politics'
and 'poisoning the well' of Canada's political culture.
By TIM NAUMETZ Published November 23, 2009

[2]
http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/11/20/elements-of-a-war-crime-seem-to-be-present/
`Elements of a war crime seem to be present�
by Michael Byers on Friday, November 20, 2009 1:41pm - 8 Comments

[3] MacLean's Poll
Who should shoulder the blame for the alleged torture of suspects
transferred to Afghan authorities by Canadian troops?
http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/11/20/elements-of-a-war-crime-seem-to-be-present/

========================================

[1] http://www.hilltimes.com/page/view/smear_tactics-11-23-2009
The Hill Times - Canada's Politics and Government Newsweekly
Tories using smear-your-opponent U.S. Republican-style tactics, say
Grits and NDP

PM Stephen Harper's government is using 'boiler-plate wedge politics'
and 'poisoning the well' of Canada's political culture.
By TIM NAUMETZ
Published November 23, 2009

(Note: Photos of Peter MacKay and Richard Colvin are from the Globe
and Mail.)

The Harper government is using smear-your-opponent tactics borrowed
from the U.S. Republican Party that are "poisoning the well" of
Canada's political culture, NDP and Liberal MPs say.

They cite as one instance Defence Minister Peter MacKay's (Central
Nova, N.S.) heated responses in the Commons to allegations last week
the government tried to cover up knowledge that Canadian troops
handed detainees over to Afghan forces during the early stages of the
Kandahar mission knowing there was evidence the prisoners would be
tortured.

The allegations from Canadian intelligence officer Richard Colvin,
made in testimony at the Commons Committee on Justice and Human
Rights, included charges that senior government officials up to Prime
Minister Stephen Harper's (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) office were
aware of the information but suppressed it and instructed him to keep
it out of official internal memos.

Although aspects of the Afghan prisoner controversy first became
public in 2006, and the government later instituted a new prisoner
transfer agreement with the Afghan government, Mr. Colvin's claim of
a cover-up added a new and potentially damaging charge, one which Mr.

MacKay was determined to defuse the minute it hit the Commons floor
following Mr. Colvin's testimony.

Mr. Colvin said he spoke to four of the detainees claiming abuse and
admitted he was certain only one had been handed over to the Afghans
by Canadians, but he referred also to information from other sources,
including the Red Cross. Mr. Colvin told the committee many of the
prisoners were farmers, truck drivers and peasants "in the wrong
place at the wrong time" but others likely did carry arms for the
Taliban, possibly for pay or under coercion.

In fact, at the time, the Foreign Affairs Department referred to some
detainees in the Kandahar prison where they were taken as "political
prisoners" and Canadian Forces also referred to its detainees as
suspected Taliban supporters.

"According to our information, the likelihood is that all the Afghans
we handed over were tortured," Mr. Colvin told the committee.
When the opposition seized on his allegations of a cover-up and wider
Afghan abuse of prisoners Mr. MacKay responded with an accusation
that Liberal MP Bob Rae (Toronto Centre, Ont.) was relying on
testimony from "people who throw acid in the faces of schoolchildren
and who blow up buses of civilians in their own country." Mr. MacKay
said the opposition was relying on "second and third hand information
and Taliban information."

The claims prompted NDP Leader Jack Layton (Toronto Danforth, Ont.)
to recall the government's attacks against the opposition during a
2007 controversy over detainees, when Harper accused then Liberal
leader St�phane Dion (Saint-Laurent-Cartierville, Que.) of
sympathizing with the Taliban. Conservative MPs at the time also
derided former NDP MP Dawn Black in similar fashion, heckling her as
"Burqa Black" and "Taliban lover" during Question Period.

"I can understand the leader of the opposition and members of his
party feel for Taliban prisoners; I just wish they would show the
same passion for Canadian soldiers," said Mr. Harper to Mr. Dion. The
claim shocked the opposition and Mr. Dion demanded an apology, saying
Mr. Harper had "insulted the entire Parliament."

The opposition response was similar after Mr. MacKay's latest charge
that the opposition was relying on evidence from Taliban terrorists
as they pressed the government about Mr. Colvin's cover-up
allegations.

"This is McCarthyism, this is absolute McCarthyism," Liberal MP Ujjal
Dosanjh (Vancouver South, B.C.) said in reference to the 1950s-era
Republican Senator who was eventually censured for widespread and
unbelievable allegations of Communist sympathy in the United States.
"This is absolutely unthinkable, that a Canadian minister would
accuse those who want to restore and protect the reputation of this
great country of being Taliban sympathizers. I can't comprehend
that."

NDP Leader Jack Layton (Toronto Danforth, Ont.) cited the response as
being among the reasons the opposition is demanding a public inquiry
into Colvin's claims. "These are very, very serious allegations and
the government is attempting to sweep them under the rug and divert
attention by calling those who raise questions names," he said.

The opposition says the governing Conservatives have mastered more-
recent Republican-style wedge politics in attacks against their
Commons opponents, including the use of flyers suggesting the Liberal
party supports anti-Semitic groups and other flyers that targeted
opposition MPs for allegedly supporting the federal gun registry.

Liberal MP and former justice minister Irwin Cotler (Mount Royal,
Que.), who is Jewish, claimed Conservative flyers distorting the
Liberal position on anti-Semitism, terrorism, and Israel were
circulated in his Montreal riding, which like others where similar
flyers were circulated, includes a large Jewish population. Among
other things, the flyer claimed Mr. Cotler and other Liberals
participated in a conference in Durban, South Africa, that took on
anti-Israel tones. Mr. Cotler, as he argued the flyers breached his
Parliamentary privilege, pointed out Liberals and other Canadian MPs
went to Durban to attend a world conference against racism, but it
became a controversial conference dominated by anti-Semitic and anti-
Israel sentiments.

In the case of Conservative flyers targeting opposition MPs over the
gun registry, Commons Speaker Peter Milliken (Kingston and the
Islands, Ont.) ruled there was evidence, on the surface of a
complaint from Nova Scotia NDP MP Peter Stoffer (Sackville-Eastern
Shore, N.S.), that a Conservative flyer on the topic circulating in
his riding may have breached his Parliamentary privilege. The
circular under the name of Saskatchewan Conservative MP Maurice
Vellacott (Saskatoon-Wanuskewin, Sask.) claimed Mr. Stoffer had voted
in favour of the registry-even though he has consistently opposed it-
and also included false allegations about Mr. Stoffer's position on
the registry. On a motion from Mr. Stoffer, the House agreed to send
Mr. Vellacott's possible breach of Mr. Stoffer's Parliamentary
privilege to the Procedure and House Affairs Committee for an inquiry.

"This is boiler-plate wedge politics," says NDP MP Paul Dewar (Ottawa
Centre, Ont.). "We've seen this used with the Republicans in the
States; I'm sure they've been sharing how to take that kind of
approach, during the (U.S.) health debates they've been using it. But
this goes back further, that's how the Republicans gained a lot of
ground. It poisons the well of our political culture."

news@... The Hill Times

------------------------------------------

According to UBC�s laws of war expert, Canadian officials may be in
breach of the Geneva Convention
[2]
http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/11/20/elements-of-a-war-crime-seem-to-be-present/
`Elements of a war crime seem to be present�
by Michael Byers*  on Friday, November 20, 2009 1:41pm - 8 Comments

Canadians should hang their heads in shame. Richard Colvin�s
testimony about torture in Afghanistan is a searing indictment of
government officials who either knew-or should have known-that Canada
was transferring detainees to torture.

Between 2006 and 2007, Colvin, the second-highest-ranking Canadian
diplomat in Kabul, sent 17 reports about torture to Ottawa. The
reports, which were circulated widely within the departments of
Foreign Affairs and National Defence, confirmed public warnings from
international officials and journalists.

In March 2006, Louise Arbour, the then UN High Commissioner for Human
Rights, reported that complaints of torture at the hands of Afghan
officials were "common."

In June 2006, the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission
estimated that "about one in three prisoners handed over by Canadians
are beaten or even tortured in local jails."

In March 2007, the U.S. State Department reported that unconfirmed
reports of torture were "numerous" in Afghanistan.

In April 2007, the Globe and Mail reported on "a litany of gruesome
stories and a clear pattern of abuse by the Afghan authorities who
work closely with Canadian troops."

Yet the Canadian Government did next to nothing. In April 2007, Prime
Minister Stephen Harper said that "Canadian military officials don�t
send individuals off to be tortured."

Colvin�s testimony directly contradicts the Prime Minister�s
statement. He reports that all the transferred detainees were
tortured and that this was widely know in Kandahar, including among
Canadian soldiers and diplomats.

Also in April 2007, then Defence Minister Gordon O�Connor told the
House of Commons that the Red Cross would inform the Canadian
government if it had any concern about the treatment of detainees.
O�Connor later apologized, admitting the ICRC had always maintained
its policy of reporting only to the Afghanistan government.

Colvin reports that the Red Cross tried unsuccessfully for three
months to convey its concerns to the Canadian military about problems
in the way Canada was reporting to the Red Cross when it transferred
detainees to the Afghan authorities.

Colvin�s allegations have emerged because he was called to testify
before the Military Police Complaints Commission, a body-established
after the Somalia Inquiry-which has been investigating detainee
transfers at the request of Amnesty International and the BC Civil
Liberties Association. The government sought to block Colvin�s
testimony before the MPCC, citing national security. The obstruction
prompted the three opposition parties to call Colvin to testify
before a Parliamentary committee, where his voice could finally be
heard. Now, the Canadian Government is seeking to shoot the messenger
by publicly besmirching one of Canada�s finest diplomats.

Colvin currently serves as an intelligence officer at the Canadian
Embassy in Washington, D.C., a post reserved for the very best in the
foreign service. And he�s been put in an unenviable position, his
career and reputation on the line, and has chosen to tell the truth
rather than fall in contempt of Parliament. In addition to slurring
Colvin, the Canadian Government is seeking to obfuscate the facts by
claiming that it acted decisively to improve the detainee transfer
arrangement put in place by the previous, Liberal government. Nothing

could be farther from the truth: it took more than a year of
complaints, news reports, litigation and political pressure before a
new transfer arrangement was finally adopted in May 2007.

The actual facts are still emerging, but all the elements of a war
crime seem to be present. The prohibition of torture ranks with the
prohibitions of genocide and slavery as one of the most fundamental
rules of international law. Torture-and complicity in torture-is a
"grave breach" of the 1949 Geneva Conventions. If Canadian officials
allowed detainees to be transferred to Afghan custody despite an
apparent risk of torture, and chose not to take reasonable steps to
protect them, they are as guilty of a war crime as the torturers
themselves. They could be prosecuted in Canada under the Crimes
Against Humanity and War Crimes Act. Or they could be hauled before
the International Criminal Court. Canada has ratified the ICC�s
statute, giving it jurisdiction over Canadians who commit war crimes
anywhere. However, the International Criminal Court will not
intervene if Canadian officials are willing and able to investigate
and prosecute. We must hope that the will to investigate and
prosecute is present. For imagine the damage to Canada�s reputation
and influence if a general, ambassador or cabinet minister was
prosecuted for war crimes in The Hague.

As Colvin himself explained: "If we disregard our core principles and

values, we also lose our moral authority abroad. If we are complicit
in the torture of Afghans in Kandahar, how can we credibly promote
human rights in Tehran or Beijing?"

Even more seriously, the government�s indifference to torture may
have created greater risks for Canadian soldiers. Insurgents who
believe they will be tortured will fight to the death rather than
surrender, placing Canadian soldiers at increased danger of harm. As
a result, it is possible that one or more soldiers might have been
killed as a result of the Canadian Government�s actions. Again, as
Colvin cogently explained: "In my judgment, some of our actions in
Kandahar, including complicity in torture, turned local people
against us. Instead of winning hearts and minds, we caused Kandaharis
to fear the foreigners. Canada�s detainee practices alienated us from
the population and strengthened the insurgency."

It�s time for Canadians to rally behind this brave and principled
diplomat. It�s time to insist that any war criminals be investigated
and prosecuted, regardless of who they are.

* Michael Byers holds the Canada Research Chair in Global Politics
and International Law at the University of British Columbia. He has
taught the laws of war at UBC, Duke University, Oxford University,
the University of Cape Town and the University of Tel Aviv. Byers ran
as an NDP candidate in the last federal election.

-----------------------------

[3] MacLean's Poll

Who should shoulder the blame for the alleged torture of suspects
transferred to Afghan authorities by Canadian troops?

The federal government-Ottawa didn�t do enough to prevent it 49%

Afghanistan-they're the ones doing the torturing 28%

No one-these things happen during war 8%

There's no convincing proof the abuse even occurred 14%

http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/11/20/elements-of-a-war-crime-seem-to-be-present/

Asunto: Death of a Patriarch
Fecha: Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:39:43 -0600
De: Jasmina Tesanovic <politicalidiot@...>

Out of Time

In Serbia, radical changes are normal. Not one generation survives
without a war.  Every radical change disrupts  continuity and
proclaims a new order.

Some days ago, the Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church, aged 95,
died after two years of feeble retirement in a military hospital. He
was a small monk whose role in recent Serbian history is alternately
portrayed as saintlike or criminal. He rarely took part in worldly
politics. His public pronouncements verged on comedy, like the vague
aphorisms on the film "Being There," where Peter Sellers,  as Mr.
Chance the humble gardener,  plays a guru by pure misunderstanding.

His long-expected death however paralyzed Serbia for five days,
provoking a public coming out of the new Serbian political order.

The democratic pro-European President of Serbia, Boris Tadic,
proclaimed a long national mourning,  which from three official days
turned into five. Schools, industries and businesses were closed by
state fiat, and the streets and churches were blocked by masses of
people queuing to kiss the hand of the dead patriarch in an open
coffin. There were extraordinary scenes of public weeping, praying
and religious trances, as masses thronged to kiss a dead man's hand
during a flu epidemic. This variety of burial has never happened
before in Serbia, where open coffins smack of Russian excess or pagan rituals.

Many years ago, when the communist president Tito died, in 1980,
similar mass scenes were seen, organized deftly by the state. The
glory of the hero of the Yugoslav Non-Aligned Movement did not long
survive his interment. During Tito's regime, the Serbian Orthodox
Church was, if not forbidden, then at least publicly disapproved.  But
decades of official leftist atheism vanished in a mass religious
fervor. Many of these new followers of modern Orthodoxy have never
seen a church and state work in tandem to control a civil society.

In Italy, ever since 1929 when Mussolini signed his concord with the
Catholic Church, the secular Italian state has had problems
disentangling laws and civil rights  from the framework of a socially
conservative religion. In Serbia, this concordat has not yet
officially been signed, but there is a similar ruling party attachment
to the church and its values. One can predict the end of the
multiethnic and secular state and its replacement by a state-church
regime based in blood and creed.

Serbia is also trying hard to become part of the European Union,
and with considerable success. Soon it will be admitted to the
non-visa regime and its demand to formally join the Union may be
accepted, notwithstanding the fact that Ratko Mladic, the greatest
remaining war criminal of the Balkan breakup, has escaped interment in
The Hague. Once inside the European fortress, along with its sister
states from the shattered Yugoslavia, Serbia has a good chance to
break its cycle of generational land wars.

But even without the guns, raids, and pogroms, Serbia will still be
fitfully struggling  for a radical new identity. In a world denied
tanks, blitzkriegs and artillery there is still the exciting and
destabilizing prospect of fundamentalist culture-war. In the
Balkanization of Globalization, weak states an even former superpowers
are beset with dreamy, fanatical, ecstatic lunges toward the coffin of
mainstream orthodoxy, a weird Arctic twilight where Sarah Palin and
Rasputin might share a bliny over a map of conquest that neither
remotely understands.
_______________________________________________
womeninblack mailing list
womeninblack@...
http://listas.nodo50.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/womeninblack
this is the international WiB mailing-out list, for the INTERACTIVE WiB e-list,
go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/interactiveWiB

Further on Irene Kahn's comments regarding the abject poverty and
discrimination suffered by our Aboriginal sisters and brothers,
Monday's Melbourne Age published an edited extract of her address to
the National Press Club in Canberra on November 18 in which she
emphatically stated that "Empowerment", not a bunch of cash, is the
key to ending the shocking conditions endured by the First Australians
[see below]. There are some shameful statistics within, together with
an emphasis on cruel fate of our Aboriginal sisters who, compared with
non-Aboriginal women. are "35 times more likely to be hospitalised due
to domestic violence, and 10 times more likely to die as a result of assault".

Truly is that a national disgrace, or is that a national disgrace? - Lynette
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A formatted illustrated version of Irene's below can also be read by
scrolling down to the final item at:
http://www.global-sisterhood-network.org/content/view/2379/59/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.theage.com.au/world/archbishop-pope-assert-shared-will-2009
1122-isrf.html
The Age ~ Melbourne ~ November 23, 2009
Money won't fix poverty
IRENE KHAN

Illustration: Robin Cowcher

Empowerment is the key to ending the shocking conditions endured by
some Australians.

WHEN I met Elsie she was squatting in the raw dirt of an open field,
surrounded by all her belongings, which bore the dents and scratches I
have seen inflicted on scant possessions when people have to flee, for
example from flood, war or forced evictions. I walked down the desert
track, past the filthy and worn mattresses set out in the open air
that were used as beds by Elsie's mates, past the wooden crate perched
on a rough-hewn bench that is their kitchen, and stepped over the
tangled extension cord that brought electricity to their single lamp.

I squatted beside her in the slight shade cast by the blue plastic
slung over the sticks that marked her living space. Through an
interpreter, she said: ''Lady, I pay rent to the government for
sleeping on a mattress in the desert. I have no home, I don't have a
voice, no one is listening to me or my family.''

Did I meet Elsie in Sudan, Sri Lanka or Afghanistan? No. The political
leaders responsible for Elsie's situation are not to be found in
Khartoum, Colombo or Kabul. They are in Canberra and Darwin. I met
Elsie in Utopia in the Northern Territory.

In the heart of the First World I saw scenes more reminiscent of the
Third World, of countries torn by war, dominated by repressive
regimes, racked by corruption. How is it possible that in 21st-century
Australia - in the land of the fair go - its first people should be
among those living in abject destitution, in such appalling poverty?

Australia is one of the world's rich countries, with most scales
ranking it among the top 30 countries by GDP per capita. By other
measures, such as health, longevity, community life, political
stability and political freedom, Australia leaps well up the world's
league table and into the top 10.

I did not expect to see abject poverty to this degree in the lucky country.

Utopia is a microcosm of what is happening on a larger scale around
the world. In a period of unprecedented economic growth globally, the
real numbers of people living in poverty have increased, as has the
gap between the richest and poorest groups of people in every country
in the world.

Why is it so hard to end poverty? Because despite extensive research
findings, government officials, policymakers and international
financial institutions too often tend to define poverty in terms of
income. But economic analysis does not capture the full picture of
poverty and economic solutions cannot fully address the problem.
Unless and until we address the human rights abuses that impoverish
people and keep them poor, we will fail to eradicate poverty. That is
as true in Australia as it is in Somalia.

People are poor not just because of how little they earn but because
they are discriminated against and deprived, because they live in
insecurity and are marginalised and excluded, and because their voices
are not heard. It is important to consider each of those elements, but
it is also important to recognise that these elements reinforce each
other in a downward spiral that traps people in poverty. The answer to
tackling it lies not in enrichment but the empowerment of the poor.

At birth, indigenous Australians are twice as likely to be low weight,
and as they age they get sicker and die younger. The life expectancy
of indigenous people in Australia is 17 years lower than that of the
rest of the population. The rate of infant mortality is twice as high.
Similar statistics are repeated across the world between those living
in poverty and others.

The poor live with discrimination. Women, ethnic minorities and
indigenous populations are disproportionately represented among the
poor. It is no mere coincidence that 70 per cent of the world's poor
are women and that that proportion is growing.

Discrimination can be lessened when laws and policies are in place,
but social discrimination is fed by deep-seated prejudices. And
sometimes, despite government policies and efforts, social
discrimination, continuing prejudices and paternalistic policies are
compounded by historical injustices to leave the minority disempowered
and entrenched in poverty. The tendency then for the mainstream
community is to blame the minority for their own condition of poverty
or exclusion.

This reflects in many ways the situation of the indigenous communities
in Australia. Many of those I met in Utopia and Alice Springs spoke of
the prejudice and stigmatisation they feel they continue to be
subjected to, for instance by the compulsory income management scheme,
which they say has left them disempowered and disillusioned.

In Australia, indigenous women are 35 times more likely to be
hospitalised due to domestic violence, and 10 times more likely to die
as a result of assault. Elsie's words in Utopia are echoed by poor
people everywhere. No one hears us, we have no voice. We are told what
will be done. If we don't comply with their plans we do not get help.
This is what poverty is about: the stuff of real human insecurity; the
stuff of marginalisation, of voicelessness, of degradation, of
inequality and injustice. These are human rights abuses. And so,
respect for human rights is deeply relevant to the solution of poverty.

Human rights promote political participation and accountable
government, which go to the heart of the issue of exclusion. In other
words, the solution to poverty lies not in enrichment but in
empowerment of people.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Irene Khan is secretary-general of Amnesty International. This is an
edited extract from her address to the National Press Club in Canberra
last week.

From: wfs delhi <wfsdelhi@...>
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:44:31 +0530 (IST)

Dear Editor,
This week, we are releasing three special features to mark the
International Day for Violence Against Women, which kicks off '16 Days
of Activism Against Gender Violence', a global campaign. The features
are - 'Domestic Violence: Making The Law Work', 'Marrying For Love.
Murdered For Love' and 'One In Three Women Worldwide Face Violence'.
In New Delhi, 'Women Answer the Climate Call', as hundreds from the
Dalit, Muslim and Adivasi communities across India congregated to be
part of a unique Climate Change Tribunal. The Living Library has made
it possible to 'borrow' humans on loan and 'read' them, reveals 'These
'Books' Will Talk to You'. 'Love's Labour: Husbands Deliver Babies',
as Sri Lanka's Ministry of Healthcare and Nutrition recently
encouraged husbands to be present in the labour room during the birth
of their child in order to encourage family bonding. 'As the Banaras
Saris Go Global, Weavers Think Local' with many women forming
Self-Help Groups, raising awareness about the plight of artisans and
understanding the significance of the Geographical Indication
certificate awarded to the Banarasi sari recently.

Please forward your requests for stories. We would be happy to send
them to you.

With warm regards,
Ain Haider
Associate Editor
Women's Feature Service
================================================
THE WFS LOG November 23, 2009
================================================
India: Domestic Violence: Making The Law Work
By Pamela Philipose

Arguably India's most invisible crime - domestic violence - largely
continues to languish behind the curtains of the Great Indian
Household. For over half a century, the Indian state deferred to the
view that situations like this are a private matter. This is why the
Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act (PWDVA), 2005, is so
historic. Three years after this law was enacted, how effective has it
been? That was the focus of an evaluation exercise spearheaded by the
Lawyers Collective Women's Rights Initiative, in partnership with the
National Commission for Women and the UN Trust Fund to End Violence
Against Women. Their conclusion: The long and arduous journey to
justice has only just begun and that a law on domestic violence does
not automatically mean that such violence will end.

* Protection officers, who play a central role under the PWDVA to
facilitate the affected woman's access to justice, often value
"welfare of family" more than the "rights of women" and even argue
that the "primary role of a woman is to take care of the family".

WFS REF NO: INDib16
1,070 words
Law\Domestic Violence
------------------------------------------------
India: Women Answer the Climate Call
By Taru Bahl

Gaindi Bullamma from Andhra Pradesh's tribal area strode confidently
onto the stage to share her experience at a public meeting in New
Delhi. Hers is a story of courage, for she and others in her community
are successfully fighting not human adversaries but nature at its most
fearful. Climate change is a reality today but it is not uniform in
its impact and the experience of men and women is dissimilar, simply
because women's lives in the rural hinterland are still intertwined
with water, earth and jungle produce. Until now women have been
battling this with their own adaptation responses. But the time has
come to build on this more strategically. So, hundreds of women from
the Dalit, Muslim and Adivasi communities descended on the Capital,
recently, to participate in a unique Climate Change Tribunal.

* 'The bonding amongst women who have never stepped out of their
villages was palpable. Ideas, skin tones and dialects merged to
resonate with one voice that seemed to ask for alternatives that could
enable them to survive with dignity.'

WFS REF NO: INDib17o
1,200 words
Climate Change\Activism
Photographs Available
------------------------------------------------
Global: These 'Books' Will Talk to You
By Kinjal Dagli-Shah

Ever looked at a person and wished you could read his mind? Now you
can. The Living Library, an NGO based in Copenhagen, Denmark, has made
it possible to 'borrow' humans on loan and 'read' them. It works like
a regular library, except that you can ask questions, and the 'books'
talk back. With plenty of 'titles' to choose from - 'A Yankee Among
Us', 'Two Wars and a Revolution', 'Feminist Guy', and 'Healing from
Childhood Sexual Abuse' - the Living Library is increasingly becoming
the most sought-after international knowledge resource.

* 'Readers can request a particular 'title', and spend half an hour or
more with their book talking about their issues and experiences. And
they must return the book in the same condition it was in when borrowed.'

WFS REF NO: QQQib17
1,160 words
Knowledge\Trend
Photographs Available
------------------------------------------------
India: As the Banaras Saris Go Global, Weavers Think Local
By Puja Awasthi

When the Banarasi sari looms fell silent with the invasion of the
cheaper Chinese saris in the market, among other reasons, Sharda Devi
saw her family income dwindle. Determined to not let her family
succumb to the poverty and hunger that plague the weaving community,
she along with many other women like herself formed Self-Help Groups
with the assistance of a charity. They managed to raise awareness
about the plight of artisans and find alternate livelihoods. They also
understand the significance of the Geographical Indication (GI)
certificate awarded to the Banarasi sari recently.

* 'The circumstances were really bad. The Thakurs (upper castes) in
our village were our only source of loans but they would carry off our
livestock if we were unable to pay on time. Our years of struggle will
now pay off.'

WFS REF NO: INDib19
1,200 words
Artisans\Livelihood
Photographs Available
------------------------------------------------
India: Marrying For Love. Murdered For Love.
By Rajashri Dasgupta

On her wedding day, Mansi, 22, was clad in a pair of old jeans and a
top. Miles away from her parental home, the young woman sat recounting
how she had managed to run away from home because her father was
forcibly marrying her off. Two years later, Mansi, the first graduate
of Seekh village in Haryana, is a schoolteacher. Unfortunately, she is
an exception. Many youngsters who choose to marry against the wishes
of their family pay the price for their 'mistake', often with their
life. So pervasive is the malaise of honour killings that the
government is now considering a law to prevent these gruesome deaths.

* To many, like Mahendra Singh Tikait, 79, "love marriage" is such a
"dirty" expression... this leader of rich farmers in Uttar Pradesh was
heard to observe that only "prostitutes can choose their partners".
  WFS REF NO: INDib18
1,220 words
Society\Relationships
Photograph Available
------------------------------------------------
USA: One In Three Women Worldwide Face Violence
By Elayne Clift

Here is a chilling reminder as to why violence against women needs
global attention: An estimated one-in-three women worldwide are
victims of violence and abuse, including beatings and rape. A fact of
life for millions, it causes horrific suffering and leads to dire
economic consequences in societies around the world as women struggle
to provide for their families under painful circumstances. Now, as
support for the International Violence Against Women Act gathers
momentum, it is being seen as a comprehensive first-time effort by the
US to apply substantial financial resources to addressing the problem globally.

* This violence is not 'cultural.' It is criminal. It is every
nation's problem and it is the cause of mass destruction around the
globe. We need a response that is commensurate with the seriousness of
these crimes.

WFS REF NO: USAib16
850 words
Violence Against Women\Action
-------------------------------------------------
Sri Lanka: Love's Labour: Husbands Deliver Babies
By Sirohmi Gunesekera

With the Ministry of Healthcare and Nutrition recently encouraging
husbands to be present in the labour room during the birth of their
child in order to encourage family bonding, Sri Lankan fathers now
have their own birthing tales to recount. From holding their wife's
hand through the labour pains to cutting the umbilical chord, these
sensitised husbands are now as good as new.

* 'I saw my son's struggle to be born. It's not like a fairy tale
where the baby is put into one's arms after the wife has given birth!'

WFS REF NO: SRIib18
1,120 words
Child Birth\Family
================================================
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WOMEN'S FEATURE SERVICE AT: wfsdelhi@... or wfsdelhi@...
================================================
Views reflected in these features do not necessarily reflect those of
Women's Feature Service.
================================================
The Women's Feature Service office is located at:
G-69, Second floor; Nizamuddin West, New Delhi: 110013; India.
Phone: +91-11-2435 9886, +91-11-2435 2546; Fax: +91-11-2435 4606
Email: wfsdelhi@...; Website: http://www.wfsnews.org

Dear friends and allies,
BHP annual general meeting is on this Thursday 26th Nov

If you own shares and wish to give your proxy to someone such as a
traditional owner or other speaker regarding issues such as uranium,
environmental or social concerns, water issues, etc there are various
groups who are organizing proxies from shareholders, who wont be at
the meeting, to enable various speakers to attend

Very sorry for the late notice, but if you wish to appoint a proxy it
has to be done by tomorrow (Tuesday) morning.

BSSR - BHP Shareholders for Social Responsibility -
www.bhpethical.shares.green.net.au - has more information

If you're in Brisbane and inclined there is also a protest outside the BHP AGM

If you have Woolworths shares - their AGM is on the same day - other
groups are keen to raise issues at this meeting including Woolworths
investing in pokies and their attempt to build a Woolies in Mullumbimby

cheers, Lis

From: Tione Chinula <TioneC@...>
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:24:00 +1100

SPC Press Release
Together we can end violence against women

Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), Noumea, New Caledonia,
Monday, 23 November 2009 � Violence against women is a major problem
in the Pacific and we all have an essential role to play to put a stop
to it, says the Secretariat of the Pacific Community�s (SPC�s)
Director-General, Dr Jimmie Rodgers.

Dr Rodgers made this comment in the run up to the International Day
for the Elimination of Violence against Women, also known as White
Ribbon Day, on 25 November. This year�s theme is �Commit, Act, Demand:
We CAN End Violence against Women!�

The vision of the Pacific region as a peaceful and prosperous place
where its people can lead free and worthwhile lives, as outlined in
the Pacific Plan, is only possible if gender equality is achieved and
violence against women and children is eliminated, says Dr Rodgers.

Efforts to address the issue need personal, public and political commitment.

�Leaders in our region need to lead from the front. They must
demonstrate genuine political will, founded on the principle of mutual
respect for one another and equality of all people in Pacific Island
countries and territories regardless of race, colour, gender and /or
social standing. They must value all their people equally and protect
all of them equally,� he says.

He refers to a newly published Family Health and Safety Study with a
focus on women and children in Solomon Islands which shows that 64 per
cent of women aged 15 to 49 who have been in a relationship have
reported experiencing physical or sexual violence, and sometimes both,
by an intimate partner.

�The findings of the Solomon Islands Family Health and Safety Study
(SIFHSS) give an indication of the pervasiveness of the problem in the
region,� he says.

The SIFHSS is part of a multi-country study that has been undertaken
in three Pacific countries so far. The other two are Kiribati, where
research was undertaken simultaneously with Solomon Islands, and
Samoa, where the study took place eight years ago.

The Kiribati and Solomon Islands studies were coordinated by SPC with
funding from the Australian Agency for International Development
(AusAID) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). The report
for the Kiribati study will be published early next year.

The research has led to the development of national action plans in
both countries to eliminate violence against women. These action plans
will outline the steps that will be taken over the coming years to end
violence against women. The development of the action plans is a
consultative process involving the government, police, the health
sector, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and various development
agencies.

Some of the steps planned include the development of policies and
legislation to protect women and children who are affected by
violence. They also include training of various stakeholders such as
police and health care personnel to improve the response to violence
against women and the assistance given to victims.

SPC will be taking part in different events in a number of Pacific
Island countries and territories to mark White Ribbon Day.

New Caledonia
In New Caledonia, site of SPC�s headquarters, the organisation is
collaborating with the government to prepare the local events. The
focus there is on male advocacy to end violence against women. Two
regional male activists have been invited to speak about their
experiences to SPC staff and to participants at events around New Caledonia.

Usaia Hemaloto from Tonga and Tevita Seruilumi from Fiji Islands will
talk about their advocacy work with other men to end violence against
women. Among others they will address New Caledonia�s customary
senate, an all-male body that advises the New Caledonian government on
customary issues from an indigenous Kanak perspective.

Federated States of Micronesia
At SPC�s northern Pacific office in Pohnpei, Federated States of
Micronesia (FSM), the organisation is joining forces with the police
and the national government, as well as NGOs and faith-based
organisations. The focus in FSM is on domestic violence. Planned
events include interactive activities on ending domestic violence
designed for students, as well as meetings and workshops involving
churches, traditional and political leaders, police, and women�s,
men�s, and youth groups.

Solomon Islands
In Solomon Islands, SPC is part of the national White Ribbon Campaign
Committee which is coordinating activities for the 16 Days of Activism
against Gender Violence that begin on 25 November*. Activities are
planned daily for the duration of the campaign. They will begin with a
march through the centre of town on 25 November followed by a
candlelight vigil at the National Art Gallery. Other activities
include drama, presentations, seminars including a workshop on
engaging men and boys in ending violence against women, church
programmes and radio call-in programmes. Participants will include
government, health and social services, police, church, media, NGO and
international development agency representatives. Activities will take
place both in Honiara and in the outer provinces.

*for information on the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence
please see �background information� below.

Kiribati
In Kiribati, SPC�s Regional Rights Resource Team (RRRT) is part of the
Kiribati White Ribbon Day Committee. RRRT will run a four-day workshop
on �Advancing legislative reform on violence against women� as part of
the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence. Participants will
include government, NGO and international development agency
representatives. The White Ribbon Day Committee will also organise two
candlelight marches during the 16 Days campaign.

Background information
White Ribbon Day and 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence

White Ribbon Day was initiated by a group of Canadian men in 1991 on
the second anniversary of the massacre of 14 women by one man in
Montreal. They began the White Ribbon campaign to urge men to speak
out against violence against women.

In 1999, the United Nations General Assembly designated 25 November as
International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and
invited governments, international organisations and community
organisations to organise activities on that day to raise awareness of
the issue. The white ribbon was adopted as the day�s symbol.

The 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence
http://www.cwgl.rutgers.edu/16days/home.html
campaign originated in 1991 at the Center for Women�s Global
Leadership based at Rutgers University in the USA. The campaign runs
from 25 November to 10 December. During this period, activities
highlighting the problem of violence against women are organised daily.

Other international days observed during the 16 Days campaign include
World AIDS Day (1 December), International Day for the Abolition of
Slavery (2 December), International Day of Disabled Persons (3
December) and Human Rights Day (10 December).

For more information please contact Tione Chinula, SPC Human
Development Programme Advocacy and Communications Officer, tel: +687
26 01 57 or email: <tionec@...>
or Bindi Borg, Human Development Officer, tel +687 26 54 70, email:
<bindib@...>

Read on, with immense thanks to Toronto's National Post, for an
inspiring interview with Afghanistan's Malalai Joya - Lynette
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Formatted, illustrated version of the below at:
http://www.global-sisterhood-network.org/content/view/2378/59/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/world/story.html?id=2248841
National Post ~ Toronto ~ Saturday November 21 2009
Also at:
http://article.wn.com/view/2009/11/21/Saturday_interview_Afghan_activist_Malalai\
_Joya/
World News ~ Sunday November 22 2009

Saturday interview: Afghan activist Malalai Joya
'Bravest woman in Afghanistan' spearheads anti-war movement
By Peter Goodspeed, National Post

Malalai Joya, a former MP from Afghanistan, poses for a portrait in
Toronto (Tyler Anderson/National Post)

In Afghanistan ruling politicians have publicly called Malalai Joya a
"prostitute," "infidel," "traitor" and "communist."

Some, whom she calls "criminals," "killers," "warlords" and "mafia
drug lords," have threatened to rape her and, on four occasions, tried
to kill her.

But overseas, the tiny 31-year-old political activist and former
school teacher has been hailed as "the bravest woman in Afghanistan"
and compared to Burma's jailed democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.

The youngest person elected to the Afghan parliament in 2005, she was
expelled from the legislature two years later for repeatedly
denouncing her enemies and calling parliament a "zoo" filled with
corrupt criminals.

Now, she is rapidly becoming a celebrity spokeswoman for a growing
international anti-Afghan war movement.

For the last few weeks Ms. Joya has toured North America, promoting
her book, A Woman Among Warlords, speaking on university campuses and
attending church meetings.

When she was in Toronto this week, accompanied by a documentary
filmmaker, a publicist and her co-author, Derrick O'Keefe, a Vancouver
writer and anti-war activist, she sported two protest buttons on the
lapel of her jacket.

A blood-red button with black letters read, "Canadians Out of
Afghanistan." A larger black-and-white one said, "U. S. Out of
Afghanistan. Now".

The white button was presented to Ms. Joya by Daniel Ellsberg, a
former military analyst turned anti-Vietnam war protestor who leaked
the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times in 1971.

"She wore it when she was interviewed on CNN," Mr. O'Keefe explained with glee.

But Ms. Joya doesn't need props to get her point across. She speaks
with the blunt indignation of a victim.

"The U.S. government and the Canada government are just war
criminals," she said.

"They are worse than war criminals because they support those who are
war criminals.

"Your government lies that they brought democracy and women's rights
to Afghanistan. The U.S. government and its allies have pushed us from
the frying pan into the fire.

My message to democratic people around the world is to please raise
your voice against the wrong policies of your government.

"Democracy never comes by occupation. You cannot give it with cluster bombs."

"My people are crushed between two powerful enemies," Ms. Joya adds in
a voice that tends to become urgently shrill and passionate.

"From the sky, occupation forces bomb and kill civilians and on the
ground the Taliban and warlords continue their crimes.

"It is better that the foreign masters leave my country.

"If they let us have a little bit of peace, we know what to do with
our destiny. It's your government that supports the mafia-corrupt
system of [Afghanistan President] Hamid Karzai. Canada is just a tool
in the hands of the U.S. government.

"For eight years they followed the wrong policy and it makes a mockery
of democracy. It's a mockery, the war on terror; it is a war crime.
They have destroyed my country under the banner of human rights."

Born in 1978, just four days before a Soviet-backed coup plunged
Afghanistan into three decades of bloodshed, all Ms. Joya has known is war.

Her father was a medical student, who abandoned his studies to join
the mujahedeen to fight the Soviets. He lost a leg to a land mine and
his family fled for refugee camps in Iran and Pakistan.

At 20, Ms. Joya returned to Afghanistan as a human rights activist and
defied the Taliban by running an underground school for girls.

When the Taliban were toppled, she cast off her burka, took on the
religious fundamentalists and ran for parliament.

She first came to international attention in 2003, when she was
selected as a delegate to the Loya Jirga, or constitutional
convention, that ratified Afghanistan's constitution.

"I was shocked and appalled to see warlords and other well-known war
criminals seated in the first row at this important assembly," she
writes in her book.

"All my life I had heard of the horrible things they had done ... in
my home province of Farah, the orphanage I ran was full of children
who had lost their parents to these men and their families.

"It was terrible enough to hear about these men and their crimes, but
seeing them in person running this Loya Jirga, and listening to their
speeches, was like torture for me. I had to speak out."

When she did get to a microphone, she angrily asked Afghans, "Why
would you allow criminals to be present here? They are responsible for
our situation now. It is they who turned our country into the centre
of national and international wars!"

"I raised my voice to be heard," she explained later.

And she hasn't stopped.

Elected to parliament, she repeatedly attacked the legitimacy of
Afghanistan's government, saying the country is ruled by warlords who
are unfit for public service.

"There were two kinds of mujahedeen," she once told reporters. "One
kind fought for independence, which I respect, but the other kind
destroyed the country and killed 60,000 people in Kabul alone."

Her denunciations were greeted with threats, jeers and insults. More
than once she had to be protected from angry MPs who tried to punch
her and who hurled plastic water bottles at her while she spoke in parliament.

Showered with human rights and peace prizes overseas, Ms. Joya lives
the life of a fugitive in Afghanistan, occasionally hiding under a
hated burka, staying in safe houses and having a permanent security
detail led by one of her uncles.

She rejects Mr. Karzai's government as corrupt and illegitimate and
predicts things will only get worse in Afghanistan.

Those in power today are simply the Taliban in another form, she says,
pleading with Barack Obama, the U.S. President, to reconsider ordering
a troop surge to Afghanistan.

"There will only be more disaster and more blood," she said. "They
send more troops and my people are going to be innocent victims."

A hardcore Afghan nationalist, Ms. Joya talks frequently about "my people."

She broke into tears and started sobbing while talking about civilians
recently killed in NATO aircraft bombing raids against suspected
Taliban hideouts.

Then, just as quickly, she pulled herself together saying, "I'm sorry.
I must not cry. I am telling others, 'Change your tears to strength.'

"In the world of hopelessness, we have lots of hope. First of all, the
history of my country is enough to give us hope, because we have a
powerful history of never accepting occupation.

"We gave a good lesson to the Russians in the past -- a superpower
country who faced the resistance of my people. We gave good lessons to
the British and we will give good lessons to the U.S. and Canada and
NATO, if they do not stop this so-called war on terror, which is war
on innocent civilians.

"It will take time. We must be tireless. We must be more fearless. As
I am always saying, I don't fear this. I fear political silence
against injustice."

Amnesty International's Secretary-General Irene Kahn has recently
spent a week in Australia, and after visiting a number of Aboriginal
communities was appalled at both the poverty and Northern Territory
intervention-related discrimination suffered by our Indigenous sisters
and brothers.

We can never underestimate the role Irene has played in focussing
Amnesty's attention on Indigenous and Feminist issues. She has proved
a real diamond, and hope springs eternal that her words will
register with telling effect on the Federal Government - Lynette
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Formatted, illustrated version of "Indigenous poverty as 'morally
outrageous' as torture: Amnesty head", together with other related
media reports, at:
http://www.global-sisterhood-network.org/content/view/2379/59/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.nit.com.au/story.aspx?id=19020
The National Indigenous Times ~ November 19, 2009
Indigenous poverty as 'morally outrageous' as torture: Amnesty head
PHOTO: Topsy Ngale, aged in her 90s, with Claire Mallinson (Amnesty
Australia) and Irene Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty International
at Camel Camp, a remote outstation 220 kilometres north east of Alice
Springs. Ms Khan yesterday gave a speech at the Nation Thursday, 12
November 2009

NATIONAL: The poverty experienced by many Aboriginal people is as
morally reprehensible as torture and must be eradicated, Amnesty
International secretary-general Irene Khan says.

In Australia for a week-long visit, Ms Khan has also called on the
Rudd government to end the discriminatory measures of the Northern
Territory intervention into remote Indigenous communities.

They were "stigmatising and disempowering an already marginalised
people", she said.

Ms Khan visited Aboriginal homeland communities in central Australia
before addressing the National Press Club in Canberra yesterday.

The poverty she saw northeast of Alice Springs reminded her of a third
world country, she said in a statement.

"That Indigenous peoples experience human rights violations on a
continent of such privilege is not merely disheartening, it is morally
outrageous," she said.

"The moral imperative to eradicate such poverty is no less an
imperative on government than to eliminate torture."

Ms Khan, the first woman, first Asian and first Muslim to head the
world's largest human rights organisation, also blasted federal Labor
for continuing the former Howard government's interventionist policies.

She was particularly scathing of the compulsory quarantining of
welfare payments and suggested there was a "real risk" Labor could
squander an opportunity to change direction.

"The blunt force of the intervention's heavy-handed one-size-fits-all
approach cannot deliver the desired results," Ms Khan said.

"The government will not secure the long-term protection of women and
children unless there is an integrated human rights solution that
empowers peoples and engages them to take responsibility for the solutions."

The Racial Discrimination Act was suspended in the Northern Territory
to allow the intervention's more controversial measures to be introduced.

Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin has vowed to reinstate the
act and will introduce the relevant legislation into federal
parliament within days.

But Ms Khan warned Labor needed to do so "in line with Australia's
international obligations not to discriminate against Indigenous peoples". -AAP
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* A NOTE TO NIT ONLINE READERS
The multi-award winning National Indigenous Times is an independent
newspaper and receives no government funding whatsoever. Our print
edition is published every fortnight, but because of the public
interest nature of our reporting, we ensure all of our stories are
available online at no cost. Thus, we rely entirely on advertising and
subscriptions to survive, and hope you'll consider subscribing to
NIT's print edition to help us continue our work, or even just browse
our Online Shop.
http://www.nit.com.au/default.aspx

Dear all,
Zelda asked me to put this up to correct the speculation. It is, of course on
http://www.womensweb.com.au
Women's Web - Women's Stories, Women's Actions, on the Dialogue page.

November 24, 2009 - Zelda D'Aprano

CORRECTION
14th October - I  recently came across two different claims made concerning the
production of the Mr Bolte, 'Pregnant Victorian Premier' poster, which was
displayed all over Melbourne on  the 21st May 1971. Both claims were incorrect
and I feel it necessary to prevent any further speculation by detailing the
events leading to its production and distribution.

The first claim made was that Braith Hull, the then husband of Bon Hull, printed
the poster. When the Women's Action Committee got under way in 1970,  Braith
Hull operated a printery and kindly offered to print any leaflets required. He
also printed the poster advertising our National Women's Liberation Conference
held in Melbourne. However, when asked by Bon to print the Pregnant Bolte
Poster, he declined.

The second claim made was that the Melbourne University Women's Liberation group
printed the poster.

Because of my involvement with the left over many years, it was agreed that I
seek the assistance of Ted Thompson who also ran a printery. After describing
our idea of the poster required, he undertook this assignment and duly notified
me to examine the final graphics before printing. We went ahead with the
production of the poster.

I studied a map of the city area of Melbourne and divided it up into sections in
preparation for the paste up. On the evening of the 20th May, I drove the women
without transport to their designated area with their pails of paste and brushes
and they did an excellent job. I am sure that almost all of these women had
never before participated in this type of activity.

The following news item appeared in the Herald next day -
see http://home.vicnet.net.au/~women Women Working Together, suffrage and
onwards:
Chapter 13: Finding Our Voice - Women's Liberation, Section 4: Things Were
Starting to Happen.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
'Social justice and economic justice cannot be separated - they are
intertwined.' Edith Morgan

Geraldine Robertson
Tel: 03 9486 1808
Women's Web www.womensweb.com.au
Women Working Together http://home.vicnet.net.au/~women

http://www.awid.org/eng/Issues-and-Analysis/Issues-and-Analysis/Putting-an-end-t\
o-violence-against-women-in-Guatemala
The Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID)
Toronto ~ November 20 2009
Putting an end to violence against women in Guatemala
by Gabriela De Cicco

On November 25 in Guatemala, the Multi-Annual Campaign (extended from
2008 to 2015) of the Regional Chapter, "ÚNETE para poner fin a la
violencia contra las mujeres" ("JOIN together to put an End to
Violence against Women") will be launched.

This country was selected due to the growing violence against women,
with the aim to give this issue more attention and thus facilitate the
processes leading to its eradication.

On February 2008, Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the United
Nations, launched a global campaign. The aim of this campaign is, once
again, to request States to comply with the laws already in force in
their countries. Above all, it asks governments to allocate real
resources from their budgets to implement these laws and provide
integrated services to eradicate violence against women overall.

Impunity has resulted in the perpetuation and worsening of femicides
in many countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. This campaign
urges the States to make administrative and judiciary reforms to
eradicate impunity from the legal system altogether.

Also, the campaign urges the States – and also civil society – to
provide assistance and to respond to women victims and survivors of
violence in all its forms.
The Campaign considers multiple forms of violence – physical,
psychological, sexual and economic – as violations of women's human rights.

As stated by writer and activist María Suárez, “the campaign considers
different forms of violence and their intrinsic relationship with
socio-cultural, economic and political factors, and forms of behavior
that correspond to inequalities of power and structural inequality
between men and women. Race, ethnic origin and other factors of
multiple discrimination (e.g. rural residence, disabilities, HIV/AIDS
status) that affect women and girls in the region will be taken into account.”

"The focus, based respecting the human rights of women and girls,
complements the view that violence must be confronted outside
traditional spheres – beyond being an exclusively women's issue – with
the aim of obtaining a wider and more effective response. The campaign
will ensure a holistic and integrated focus on violence against women,
encouraging collaboration with a wide range of sectors and actors
(health, education, justice, security, employment, migration, etc.)."

UNIFEM hopes to generate "public awareness to build an equal and
non-violent society through the Campaign by:
– making all manifestations of violence against women visible,
including its new expressions;
– encouraging citizens to realize that “all of us, men and women, are
leaders in change;
– building societies without violence against women;
– promoting greater action by public and private sectors;
– involving boys/girls, adolescents and youth.

Groups and organizations of women from civil society were invited to
actively participate in the launch of the Regional Campaign. María
Suárez stated “with the commitment of the agencies, we are ones who
have put the issue on the international and national agendas, and the
International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the
25th of November, was established from this movement, particularly,
the feminist movement of the region at one of its Meetings.”

Why Guatemala?
Radio Internacional Feminista (RIF) carried out consultations with
UNIFEM to jointly coordinate this launch. RIF published a report with
shocking numbers - figures that reveal a reality that can no longer be
kept hidden just because it is not exposed in the mass media, or just
because hundreds of cases go unpunished.

The RIF reports that “in 2007, Guatemala ranked third in Latin America
in killings of women. However, in 2009, it rose to first place. From
January to May 2009 alone, 265 cases of femicide were recorded.”
  From 2005 to 2007, of the 1,960 killings of women, "in only 43 of them
were those responsible convicted: this explains the increase in
killings in 2008, because in the three previous years, 1,912 killers
were absolved.

  From the entry into force of the Law against femicide in May 2008,
only two offenders were condemned, despite the fact that that year,
722 women died due to violent causes. (Sobrevivientes)
Of the total number of women murdered, 32% were killed at home, 43%
outside their homes, and 25% were homeless. In 2008, there were 39,400
complaints of intrafamily violence before judges, of which 95% were
presented by women. From 2008, 2,000 complaints were made to the
Special Prosecutor's Office for Crimes against Women (Fiscalía de
Delitos contra la mujer). (Observatorio de la Trasgresión Feminista, or
OTF)”.

In May 2009 in Guatemala, the 7th Observatorio de la Transgresión
Feminista (Feminist Transformation Watch) was held. It is a
methodology and political action seeking to support, give visibility
to and protect women’s transformative actions to challenge and change
patriarchal power systems and practices.

Participants in the observatory were 18 feminists on site (including
communicators and academics) from six countries (Spain, Mexico, Costa
Rica, the U.S., Nicaragua and Guatemala) and 31 virtual observers. The
aim of OTF was to raise awareness of the situation of violence against
women and the strategies being developed by organizations to eradicate
it in this country, as well as to define a follow-up plan to
strengthen international solidarity on the issue.

This international solidarity was represented in press release by the
Nobel Women’s Initiative against Violence in Guatemala.
http://www.nobelwomensinitiative.org/blogs/democracy/post/comunicado-de-las-muje\
res-premios-nobel-spanish

In part of this document, the Nobel Prize laureates declare:
"We have been direct witnesses to the value, resistance and courage of
Guatemalan women in their struggle to exercise their rights and that
of all society, through enormous challenges that threaten their
survival and that of their families and communities.
Their struggles are fought in insecurity and violence, which thousands
of women historically suffer daily in the country. Let’s not forget
the numerous cases of women, mainly indigenous, who were sexually
abused during the war. We are also alarmed by the more than 1,500
killings of women from 2001, of which only 14 have been punished by
courts of justice. The growing re-militarization in the country and
the widespread arms build-up are facts that widen the circle of
impunity around Guatemalan society, especially regarding women who
experience forms of violence that not only refer to military war, but
also the constant war against women characterized by gender violence
on the streets, in the home and at work. Human rights defenders are
also subject to sexual harassment and violence in the fight for
justice and lack the minimum security that the State should guarantee
them in their work."

This much awaited launch, with all the activity that took place among
the organizations of women, both local and regional, opens a door for
hope. This door does not open by itself, but calls for a general
sustained commitment in order for us to truly be a part of change.

The Campaign is an inter-agency initiative that includes the United
Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), with the support the
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), in coordination with the
Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the
United Nations High Commission on Human Rights (UNHCHR), the United
Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), American Commission of Women (CIM),
the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA),
the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP), the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS
(UNAIDS), the International Labour Organization (ILO), and others.

In order to follow-up on activities, the website End to Violence was created:
http://www.finalaviolencia.radiofeminista.org/

For more information or for the Press, please write to:
oficina@... [in Spanish and English]

Material and sites to consult (many of which were
used to produce this article):
– Launching and programme of activities of UNIFEM:
http://www.unifem.org.mx/un/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=255:une\
te-guatemala&catid=36:activities&Itemid=29
[in Spanish only]
– Llamado a la Acción:
http://www.finalaviolencia.radiofeminista.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=\
article&id=57&Itemid=18
[in Spanish only]
– Las Petateras: http://petateras.org/observatorio.htm [in Spanish only]
– Press Releases from Women Nobel Prize Laureates:
http://www.nobelwomensinitiative.org/blogs/democracy/post/comunicado-de-las-muje\
res-premios-nobel-spanish [in Spanish only]
– Comisión para el Abordaje del Femicidio en
Guatemala Declaración (Committee on Femicide in the Guatemala Declaration):
http://www.programamujerescdh.cl/media/documentacion/archivos/Guatemala_viol1.pd\
f [in Spanish only]
– Guatemala: una ley modelo para la región
(Guatemala: a model law for the region):
http://www.artemisanoticias.com.ar/site/notas.asp?id=29&idnota=6415
[in Spanish only]
– Guatemala: Primera condena basada en Ley contra
el feminicidio )First Condemnation Based on the Law against Femicide)
http://www.artemisanoticias.com.ar/site/notas.asp?id=29&idnota=6410
[in Spanish only]
– GUATEMALA: Una detención contra la epidemia de
femicidios (One arrest only against the epidemic of femicide):
http://ipsnoticias.net/nota.asp?idnews=93012 [in Spanish only]
– FEMICIDIO…LA PENA CAPITAL POR SER MUJERES
(FEMICIDE: CAPITAL PUNISHMENT FOR BEING A WOMAN)
http://cdd.emakumeak.org/ficheros/0000/0288/femicidio.pdf [in Spanish only]

Article License: Creative Commons - Article License Holder: AWID

http://www.awid.org/eng/Issues-and-Analysis/Issues-and-Analysis/Women-Need-Water\
-Rights-Not-Just-Technologies
The Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID)
Toronto ~ November 20 2009
Women Need Water Rights, Not Just Technologies
by Masum Momaya

Photograph: Credit: McKay Savage

In poor communities, technologies are often touted as panaceas for
poverty. For women in productive and reproductive roles, technologies,
such as those for fetching and storing water, can make daily tasks
easier. But do such technologies actually ensure women�s rights?

Technologies Alleviate Some Daily Burdens
Every day, new technologies, ranging from high-tech gadgets like
iPhones to low-tech ones like pumps and plastics, are developed and
made available for public use. Various stakeholders, including
governments, the private sector and the philanthropists, support these
developments with funds and visibility, sometimes claiming that
technologies can transform people�s lives and be a panacea for
poverty. Some technologies, if easily available, affordable and simple
to use, do help people accomplish daily tasks, especially in
environments where basic chores are labor-intensive.

Take, for example, the case of water. Many of the world�s women are
responsible for obtaining water for families� daily drinking, cooking,
washing and farming needs. Some have to walk numerous kilometers to
get it, often through difficult or dangerous terrain, carrying it in
large containers on their heads. Even those who have some access via a
well or a pipe may not have a consistent, dependable supply or have
potable water free of pollutants and pathogens.

In the last decade or so, a number of technological innovations have
alleviated some of the burdens associated with fetching and storing
water. For example, the Hippo Roller, a plastic drum rolled in a
manner similar to a wheeled suitcase, can transport enough water for a
family of five to seven for a week or so. This means that a woman
spends several hours a week, rather than several hours a day, walking
for water and does not have to carry the heavy, large load on her head.

For those who have water in the ground beneath them but no pipes or
wells to access it, the foot-peddled water pump draws up water from
underground sources and enables farmers to irrigate small plots of
land. This is particularly useful for the world�s small farmers - the
majority of whom are women - as most of them do not have access to
pipes, aquifiers or reservoirs for irrigation.

In places where wells are the major water source, a rope pump allows
people to bring groundwater to the surface and eliminates the need for
storage. The pump is easy to operate and does not require travel to
access, allowing women to pull up water as needed without spending a
lot of time or risking their lives in transport.

Water Affordability and Access are Obstacles
While some may assume that such technologies often make women�s lives
easier, it is rare they there are panacea for poverty, especially
since water is increasingly scarce and expensive.

6.7 billion people along with wildlife, ecosystems, agriculture and
industries share the less than 1% of the world�s freshwater that is
potable and accessible for use. And this small amount is rapidly
depleting due to climate change; increased contamination; and
escalating need by people, farms and industries for daily use. [1]

Meanwhile, governments, strapped for resources to provide public
goods, are turning to the private sector for water provision. Acutely
aware that water is even more precious than oil, the private sector
has been capitalizing on the necessity of water. Banks and investors
see water as a safe investment with stable returns and financially
liquid assets, and now they are trying to recoup their losses in the
financial and real estate sectors at the expense of water users. [2]

The increasing scarcity and privatization of water means a number of
things for women. First, as private companies gain ownership rights to
freshwater sources, women who could previously walk to them to obtain
water are now being restricted from or even charged money for doing
so. [3] Second, companies who purchase sources bottle the water to be
sold rather than allowing local access to it, as it�s more profitable
to do so. Even when companies build and make available taps to local
municipalities, they sell it at costs that are prohibitively
expensive, especially for poor women. [4] And since there is no
substitute for water and water is absolutely necessary, without
regulations, corporations can charge what they want for it, and people
have no choice but to pay, if they can.

Many corporations also continue to extract available water for
commercial production and pollute water supplies with industrial
waste, depleting groundwater and freshwater sources and rendering them
unusable. Finally, corporations have another tool to ensure market
demand for �their� water: polluting wells. [5] Thus, technologies for
fetching and storing water are irrelevant if women cannot access or
afford water in the first place.

But there is another formidable obstacle.

Water: Commodity or Commons?
Problems with access and affordability are a symptom of a larger
problem: that water is now seen as a commodity rather than a basic
right. And sometimes, policymakers operate with the assumption that
the promise of technologies can substitute for rights themselves. In
other words, as long as women have gadgets, why do they need rights?

The United Nations and World Health Organization working alongside
countless NGOs, have been fighting to ensure that all people have
adequate affordable access to water that is potable and, wherever
feasible, managed by communities rather than state bureaucracies or
private enterprise. Community management often reduces dependence on
the central governments and the private sector for this most basic
need and makes local people � not government bureaucracies or
commercial interests � the primary beneficiaries.

One age-old technology models this. With rainwater harvesting (RH),
people � most often women � �catch� and store water during the rainy
season for use throughout the year. In addition to engaging local
communities in assessing water needs and building appropriate
catchment systems, RH reduces women�s daily work in fetching water,
conserves income which would otherwise go towards buying water,
improves health and sanitation conditions, and increases income
derived through farming.

This is one example of a technology that is participatory and lends
itself to a rights-based approach. Through their own experience of the
technology and with training and support from local NGOs, people
participate in public policy processes that influence not just
resource management but other related issues such as health care,
sanitation and agricultural and trade policies. For women, in
particular, such participatory technologies hold promise for
protecting rights and bringing about well-being. In this way,
technology is an enabler, and a daily burden can turn into an
opportunity for participation and transformation.

References:
[1]
www.alternet.org/story/105083/why_big_banks_may_be_trying_to_buy_up_your_public_\
water_system/
[2] ibid.
[3] Shiva, Vandana. Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution and Profit.
Boston: South End Press, 2002.
[4] ibid.
[5] ibid.]

Article License: Creative Commons - Article License Holder: AWID

Unbelievably, as of next month, the Feminist Peace Network marks its
8th year.  Looking back, I am truly awed by the growth in the scope of
vision that has been represented in this  effort and I want to take
this moment to express my deep gratitude to all the readers of this
blog and those of you who have participated in and supported this work
in so many ways, I am truly, truly grateful.

And, as I have realized over the course of the last few months, I am
exhausted.  This work is on many levels deeply empowering, but it also
takes an enormous amount of time and takes a toll emotionally.  While
I have every intention of continuing in this effort, from now until
the first of the year, I am going to take a break from regular
blogging.  While there will be far less posts on the blog, I  fully
intend to continue to write longer more substantive posts, just on
fewer topics, and I won't be sending out updates on a weekly basis, so
please do check the blog for new posts.

And yes, I'm going to take some time to smell the roses, re-introduce
myself to my family and friends and clean the dust bunnies.

With gratitude to you for your support and for all that you do,

Lucinda Marshall, Director
Feminist Peace Network
-------

Pre-Holiday Friday Frenzy
http://www.feministpeacenetwork.org/2009/11/20/pre-holiday-friday-frenzy/

Condoms-Prevent Pregnancies And Save The Planet? Not So Much.
http://www.feministpeacenetwork.org/2009/11/19/condoms-prevent-pregnancies-and-s\
ave-the-planet-not-so-much/

Hey You "Pussies"-Pretend To Hit "B*tches" And Become A "Gangsta" While You
Learn About Violence Against Women
http://www.feministpeacenetwork.org/2009/11/18/hey-you-pussiespretend-to-hit-btc\
hes-and-become-a-gangsta-while-you-learn-about-violence-against-women/

Injustice
http://www.feministpeacenetwork.org/2009/11/17/injustice/

Government Issues Huge Change In Mammogram Recommendations
http://www.feministpeacenetwork.org/2009/11/16/government-issues-huge-change-in-\
mammogram-recommendations/

Media Distorts Impact of Stupak Amendment
http://www.feministpeacenetwork.org/2009/11/16/media-distorts-impact-of-stupak-a\
mendment/

The World Food Security Summit in Rome , which  has been branded a
flop by anti- poverty non-governmental organisations, opened up a
dispute between what may be investment in farmland to some, but is
seen as land grab by others.

"Our leaders (in Africa) are selling all our land," Huguette Akplogan
Dossa, coordinator of the African Network on the Right to Food, told
IPS. "Selling national land is not a good thing. They have to think
about what is good for the people. If they come to buy our lands for
production, take it to their countries, transform it and sell it back
to us very expensively, it is another form of colonialism. We have to
ban it."

The U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and International
Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)  admit that the
acquisitions, which continued to be called 'land grabs' in summit
papers... have had negative impacts in some cases. But they insist
foreign investment can also help smallholders gain access to the
resources they need to haul themselves out of poverty. So they are
holding consultations on an international code of conduct to
encourage positive forms of foreign agricultural investment and
discourage bad practices.

fyi-janet

================================
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49317
To Grab, Or To Invest
Analysis by Paul Virgo

ROME, Nov 18 (IPS) - The World Food Security Summit in Rome this week
opened up a dispute between what may be investment in farmland to
some, but is seen as land grab by others.

There has been widespread alarm at a recent acceleration in purchases
of farmland in developing countries, above all Africa, primarily by
investors from the Middle and Far East.

The U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the summit's
host, said it is estimated that up to 20 million hectares of African
land have been acquired by foreign interests in the last three years.

States such as Saudi Arabia and China started to look for farmland
abroad after a spike in the price of staples such as wheat and rice
in 2007-08, prompting fears that smallholder farmers may be displaced
from their territories, worsening the situation in countries already
suffering grave food insecurity.

The rise in food prices and the financial crisis have driven more
than 100 million people into the ranks of the hungry this year, to
take their number beyond the one-billion mark for the first time, the
FAO says. So it is perhaps understandable that hostility to foreign
land purchases in Africa remains high.

"Our leaders (in Africa) are selling all our land," Huguette Akplogan
Dossa, coordinator of the African Network on the Right to Food, told
IPS. "Selling national land is not a good thing. They have to think
about what is good for the people. If they come to buy our lands for
production, take it to their countries, transform it and sell it back
to us very expensively, it is another form of colonialism. We have to
ban it."

However, the FAO and the International Fund for Agricultural
Development (IFAD) are reluctant to stigmatise a possible source of
capital, given that a long-running decline in agricultural investment
is perhaps the main reason why so many people in rural areas of
developing countries struggle to feed themselves.

"It is the wrong language to call them land grabs. They are
investments in farmland like investments in oil exploration," Kanayo
Nwanze, head of IFAD, told a news conference. "The fact there are
distortions does not suggest this should be banned."

FAO and IFAD admit that the acquisitions, which continued to be
called 'land grabs' in summit papers despite Nwanze's objections,
have had negative impacts in some cases. But they insist foreign
investment can also help smallholders gain access to the resources
they need to haul themselves out of poverty. So they are holding
consultations on an international code of conduct to encourage
positive forms of foreign agricultural investment and discourage bad
practices.

"What strikes me is the heterogeneity of these situations. It appears
superficially that all of these so-called land grabs are similar;
it's big foreign companies pushing smallholders off the land, and
indeed some of them do look like that," IFAD Assistant President
Kevin Cleaver told IPS.

"But others are much more similar to old private investments in
sugar, rubber and tea that actually put money into a country,
developed an area that was underdeveloped, and helped smallholders,"
Cleaver said. "My point is not to give a message about whether it is
good or bad. I know for certain that the situation is highly
heterogeneous. My suspicion is that there are horrible cases of
grotesque exploitation and there are other cases of useful private
investment."

The agencies say the arrival of foreign investors could help
smallholders by, for example, bringing with them greater access to
modern seeds and other inputs needed to improve yields, as well as
storage and processing facilities, loans and perhaps even markets.

They want the code of conduct to ensure that land purchases are
carried out with the consent of local communities and do not damage
the environment, and that smallholders are not rendered landless.

FAO and IFAD also want measures that would prevent weaknesses in the
national laws of developing countries meaning that the interests of
the rural poor are overlooked when it is time to sign contracts.

"One area of concern is the imbalance between domestic laws with
respect to the terms of the contracts," David Hallam, FAO deputy
director of the trade and markets division told a news conference.
"There tends to be very little reflection of domestic needs in terms
of food security and the rights of all the stakeholders in those
contracts."

The two U.N. agencies said they were also looking to promote
alternative, less controversial forms of inward investment, such as
joint ventures in which foreign backers provide resources, know-how
and a market for smallholders in exchange for guaranteed supplies.

The consultations will not be concluded until next year, Hallam said,
and it will then take some time for the various contributions to be
distilled into a set of guidelines. But he expressed confidence that
the political support existed for the code of conduct's approval once
it is drawn up.

Nevertheless, the 450 civil society organisations taking part in a
parallel forum were not won over. "Land grabbing by external capital
must stop," read a declaration by participants at the forum.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is also among those vehemently opposed.
"Rich countries are now buying land in Africa. They are cheating
African people out of their rights. This is going to happen in Latin
America too," Gaddafi said in his address to the summit.

"Small farmers are being bereft of their own land by new feudal
powers coming from outside Africa and buying up land very cheaply. We
should fight against this new feudalism. We should put an end to the
land grab in African countries."

The Food Security Summit, which ended on Wednesday after being
snubbed by the world's most powerful leaders, has been branded a flop
by anti- poverty non-governmental organisations. They are
disappointed at the failure to get the international community to
commit to wiping out hunger by 2025 and to convince developed nations
to agree to allocate 44 billion dollars in aid to agriculture each
year.

About the UN Report: Women's Profound Role in Averting Climate
Crisis. among other things  It addresses the population and
development issue as stated in the 1994 International Conference on
Population and Development and notes that we need the 3.4 billion
women and girls in the world as agents for change. fyi-janet

====================================

http://www.ecofactory.com/news/un-report-womens-profound-role-averting-climate-c\
risis-111809
UN Report: Women's Profound Role in Averting Climate Crisis
LONDON, UK, November 18, 2009 (ENS) - Women are central to global and
national efforts to cope with climate change, concludes a new report,
"The State of World Population 2009," released today by the United
Nations Population Fund, UNFPA.

Climate change is more than an issue of energy efficiency or
industrial carbon emissions; it is also an issue of population
dynamics, poverty and gender equity, the report points out. The
authors predict that the fight against climate change is more likely
to be successful if policies, programs and treaties take into account
the needs, rights and potentials of women.

UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid (Photo courtesy UNFPA)
"Poor women in poor countries are among the hardest hit by climate
change, even though they contributed the least to it," says UNFPA
Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid.

"This report shows that women have the power to mobilize against
climate change, but this potential can be realized only through
policies that empower them. It also shows the required support that
would allow women to fully contribute to adaptation, mitigation and
building resilience to climate change," Obaid says.

A key aspect of that support is to "integrate gender considerations
into global efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change," the
report states.

With a current world population of about 6.79 billion, and a
prediction of about 9.3 billion by 2050, planning for the mitigation
of global warming must take into account the fact that each of those
people is responsible for the emission of greenhouse gases.

"With the possibility of a climate catastrophe on the horizon, we
cannot afford to relegate the world's 3.4 billion women and girls to
the role of victim," Obaid says. "Wouldn't it make more sense to have
3.4 billion agents for change?"

In her forward to the report, Obaid writes, "Voices that invoke
"population control" as a response to climate change fail to grasp
the complexity of the issue and ignore international consensus."

More than 60,000 Somalis crossed into Kenya during the first two
months of 2008. (Photo by E. Hockstein courtesy UNHCR)
"Governments agreed at the 1994 International Conference on
Population and Development that human rights and gender equality
should guide all population and development-related programmes,
including those aimed at protecting the environment," writes Obaid.
"This begins with upholding the right of women and couples to
determine the number and spacing of their children, and creating or
expanding opportunities and choices for women and girls, allowing
them to fully participate in their societies and contribute to
economic growth and development."

Women bear the disproportionate burden of climate change, but have so
far been overlooked in the debate over how to address problems of
rising seas, droughts, melting glaciers and extreme weather brought
by a warming climate.

This study attempts to shift the debate on climate change from
abstractions and technical science to the realities of the ways that
individuals and the world's population influence and are affected by
climate change.

The poor are especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change,
and the majority of the 1.5 billion people living on $1 a day or less
are women. The report points out that the poor are more likely to
depend on agriculture for a living and therefore risk going hungry or
losing their livelihoods when droughts strike, rains become
unpredictable and hurricanes move with unprecedented force.

Poor people tend to live in marginal areas, vulnerable to floods,
rising seas and storms. With this in mind, the report calls on
governments to plan ahead to strengthen risk reduction, preparedness
and management of disasters and address the potential displacement of
people.

Mother and child in Andhra Pradesh take refuge from flooding, October
2009. (Photo courtesy IFCR)
Research cited in the report shows that women are more likely than
men to die in natural disasters, including those related to extreme
weather, with this gap most pronounced where incomes are low and
status differences between men and women are high.

Another key aspect of support for women coping with climate change is
investments in their education and health. The study concludes that
such investments empower women and girls, bolster economic
development and reduce poverty, and have a beneficial impact on
climate.

Girls with more education tend to have smaller and healthier families
as adults. Women with access to reproductive health services,
including family planning, have lower fertility rates that contribute
to slower growth in greenhouse gas emissions in the long run, the
report argues.

Displaced girl in Pakistan's North-West Frontier province (Photo by
P. Fitchard courtesy ICRC)
Looking towards the UN climate conference in Copenhagen in December,
Obaid urges that the role of women be included in the agreement to
limit greenhouse gas emissions after 2012 that is expected to emerge
from the conference.

Obaid writes, "A Copenhagen agreement that helps people to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change by harnessing
the insight and creativity of women and men would launch a genuinely
effective long-term global strategy to deal with climate change."

Lead author and researcher on the report is Robert Engelman, vice
president for programs of the Worldwatch Institute.

Many young people are already living in cultures that are changing in
response to a degraded environment. They are also the ones who will
have to deal with the increasing challenges climate change will
present in the future. This year's Youth Supplement to the State of
the World Population 2009 examines the courage and resilience of
seven young people in the face of such challenges.

On September 22, a delegation of young people appealed to world
leaders for meaningful action today at the UN Secretary-General's
Summit on Climate Change. The young participants, ranging from 14 to
18 years of age, asked leaders to come together and make a difference
on environmental sustainability.

View the full report, "The State of World Population 2009: Facing a
changing world: women, population and climate" at:
http://www.unfpa.org/swp/2009/en/pdf/EN_SOWP09.pdf

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2009. All rights reserved.

NEWS Bulletin from Indian Society For Sustainable Agriculture And
Rural Development
-------------------------------------
1. New geo-politics emerging in Asia-Pacific region - India Australia
sign strategic partnership - FTA, defence, climate politics and
comprehensive cooperation on the anvil
2. Remembering Pt Jawaharlal Nehru - Mixed economy and democratic
socialism can solve global financial crisis - He showed firmness in
liberating Goa from Portugal
3. India to play a proactive role in SAARC and SAFTA
4. Two-day meeting of the South Asian Cabinet Secretaries concludes -
SAARC gradually transforming from a declaratory body to an
implementation body - Rural development and e-governance will be
jointly addressed
5. Taiwan Textile Fair - Taiwan and India to sign ATA Carnet Agreement
next year  - Double Taxation Avoidance Treaty also on the anvil
----------------------------------------

New geo-politics emerging in Asia-Pacific region
India Australia sign strategic partnership
FTA, defence, climate politics and comprehensive cooperation on the anvil
http://www.news.anypursuit.com/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=945
http://www.mynews.in/News/Change_in_geo-politics_likely_with_Australia-India_str\
ategic_partnership__N30063.html
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/australia-seeks-indias-strategic-partnershi\
p/541427/0
By ASHOK B SHARMA

New Delhi, Nov 12:
Australia has sought to emerge as a leader in the Asia-Pacific region
with India�s help which may result in a change in the world�s geo-politics.

The relations between the two countries have been upgraded to that of
�Strategic Partnership� in the joint statement and joint declaration
signed by the visiting Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Michael Rudd
and the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Delhi.

Australia is also ambitious of striking a free trade agreement (FTA)
with India on basis of a joint feasibility study to be released
shortly and would purse similar FTAs with other major economies of the
region including Japan, China and South Korea. Both the countries also
agreed to cooperate in climate politics.

Rudd appreciated India�s role in G-20 finance ministers� forum for
bailing out the world economy. Addressing the Indian industry, he said
that the US dollar should continue as a global reserve currency at
least on a medium-term basis.

After signing of the pact with the US on civil nuclear cooperation,
India is looking for supply of uranium from Australia. But Australia
has a long-standing policy of not supplying uranium to countries that
have not signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NTP) which
includes India.

However, Rudd is willing to make an exception. Addressing the annual
Australia-India Roundtable co-hosted by Lowy Institute and Indian
Council of World Affairs, Rudd said : �I appreciate that there is one
aspect of the energy relationship which remains unresolved.
Australia�s long-standing position on the export of uranium to
countries that are not party to the NTP. This is not a policy directed
at India. It applies globally and it has since 1978 under different
Australian governments. We have not sought to isolate India on
critical nuclear policy concerns. In fact the reverse is true.
Australia was an active supporter in the Nuclear Supplier Group of
lifting the nuclear moratorium against India following the US-India
nuclear deal. This reflected Australia�s appreciation of India�s
non-proliferation record. The (Australian) government understands that
India looks to the day when its ambitious civil nuclear energy program
can include Australian uranium.�

As an ardent student of Asian Studies, Rudd quoted profusely the first
Prime Minister of India, Pt Jawaharlal Nehru about India�s role in
Asia-Pacific region. He said that India was central to Asia-Pacific
Community by 2020. Australia and India should be natural partners in
the Asia-Pacific. �The challenge of the Asia-Pacific is to manage the
inevitable stresses and strains of shifting economic and strategic
contours,� he said and added that it was for this reason Australia
strongly supports India�s participation in all key regional for a like
East Asia Summit, ASEAN Regional Forum and membership of APEC.

He described Asia-Pacific region where the big power relationships
most closely intersect � the crucible where the relationships among
the US, India, China, Japan and Russia are forged and the template for
the emergence of US-China relationship and where the complementary and
competitive interests of the major powers would need to be managed,
harmonized and reconciled.

Describing Australia as �a middle power committed to the principles of
creative middle-power diplomacy,� Rudd said that his country was
spearheading efforts in the Pacific region to secure stability for
small island states, including supporting the establishment of newly
independent East Timor, stabilizing Solomon Islands and pressing for
an early return to democracy in Fiji.

He said that Australia has the 13th largest military budget worldwide,
the fifth largest in Asia. It is among the top 10 military
contributors in Afghanistan and the largest non-NATO contributor.
Australian forces are servicing 13 countries around the world and is
now fundamentally enmeshed in Asia. Australian defence forces are
intensifying cooperation with over 50 activities last year including
joint exercises and in particular maritime exercises.

�Whether related to strategic change in East Asia; combating terrorism
(including in Afghainstan); ensuring maritime security; acting on
transnational crimes including people smuggling; or working together
on new security challenges such as natural disasters and stopping the
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction � there is great scope
for security cooperation between two countries to broaden further,� he said

India is forging closer links with the US and leaving a larger
footprint across the Indian Ocean. The Indian Navy is the fifth
largest in the world. Globally, India is increasingly engaging in and
exerting influence through multilateral system � whether in the UN,
G20, the East Asia Summit or beyond. By 2030, India is projected to
overtake China as having the world�s largest population. Some forecast
India will be the world�s largest economy by 2025.

On the economic front, India is now Australia�s fifth largest export
market for goods and services and is rapidly moving to become the
third largest export market. India is also the sixth largest market
for Australia�s services such as information and communications
technology, education, tourism, finance, mining, construction and
software development. India is the fifth largest energy consumer and
Australia intends to be a reliable, cost-competitive and long-term
supplier of energy.

About 250,000 Indians live in Australia, 115,000 Indians visit
Australia annually and 115,000 Indian students are studying in Australia.

Keeping in the view India�s potential, Rudd suggested a strategic
partnership with India including economic, political, security and
cultural spectrum. Australia and India launched a $ 100 million
collaboration project on science and technology. Australia would help
to revive the 13th century Buddhist learning centre � Nalanda
University. India and Australia are working together under five Action
Plans in the areas of mines, coal, new and renewable energy, petroleum
and natural gas and power

In August, this year India�s Petronet LNG signed a US $ 20 billion
deal with Exxon-Mobil for new Gorgon project in Western Australia.
Tata Group of India has decided to partner with Australian companies
in fields as diverse as coated steel production, long-haul logistics
and retail electronics. Australia is looking for India�s help in
Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute and the Asia-Pacific
Partnership on Clean Development and Climate Change.

-------------------------------------
  Remembering Pt Jawaharlal Nehru
Mixed economy and democratic socialism can solve global financial crisis
He showed firmness in liberating Goa from Portugal
http://www.news.anypursuit.com/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=950
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/nehruvian-model-can-solve-financial-crisis/\
541436/0
http://www.zopag.com/news/nation-remembers-pt-nehru-and-his-nehruvian-model-of-m\
ixed-economy/9826.html
http://www.mynews.in/News/Remembering_Nehru___Mixed_Economy_can_bailed_global_fi\
nancial_crisis_N30131.html
By: ASHOK B SHARMA on: Sat 14 of Nov, 2009 10:59 UTC

New Delhi, Nov 14:  Today, the world leaders who are desperate to bail
out the economy from the current financial crisis by pumping in
billions of dollars. They should know that the ailing system is
surviving on an artificial support.

The emergence of some green shoots is bringing sigh of relief to some
who speculate a recovery in the ailing system. These hopeful persons
should better know that a real recovery is nowhere in sight. Even some
leading experts and institutions are not sure about the nature of
recovery � whether it would be a V-turn, a U-turn, a L-turn or a Z-turn.

As the world pays tribute to the former Prime Minister Pt Jawaharlal
Nehru on November 14 on occasion of his 120th birth anniversary, we
are reminded of an alternative economic order which once existed in
this country � the mixed economy of Nehruvian Model within the
framework of democratic socialism.

As a builder of modern India, he championed the cause of mixed economy
in which the government would manage strategic industries such as
mining, electricity and also heavy industries, serving public interest
and as a check to aggressive profit-making drive of private
enterprises. As a man of vision he envisaged the role of cooperative
movement free of political and bureaucratic influences. He believed
that the problems of unemployment could be progressively resolved by
the development of cottage and small industries.

The continuing spate of farmers� suicides and apprehensions about food
insecurity compels us to remember and act on the noble words of Pt
Nehru � �everything else can wait, but not agriculture.� He pursued
land redistribution and launched programmes to build irrigation
canals, dams and spread the use of fertilizers to increase
agricultural production. He also pioneered a series of community
development programs aimed at spreading diverse cottage industries and
increasing efficiency into rural India. While encouraging the
construction of large dams (which he called the 'new temples of
India'), irrigation works and the generation of hydroelectricity,
Nehru also launched India's programme to harness nuclear energy.

Today the evils of so-called liberalization of economy and
globalization of trade has spread its tentacles far and wide across
the country causing increased unemployment, job insecurity, rising
prices, increasing poverty and hunger and acute distress to farmers.
The corporate houses and multinationals, with the support of
government policies, are on an aggressive profit-making drive,
capturing almost all spheres of life that affect a common man from
farm to fork. They are absolutely unmindful about the distress caused
to the common man.

Pt Nehru as a person was more liberal than what the so-called
liberalized economy can offer. His vision of global order was
different. He co-founded the Non-Aligned Movement keeping equidistant
from two major power blocs � the US and the Soviet Union. It is a sad
tragedy that the present leaders of the country are leaning heavily
towards US and following the dictates of the World Bank and IMF

He believed in democratic socialism with a thought for the poor. At
the same time he was careful that real development of the country do
not suffer. In fact in the initial phases major development programmes
were initiated by Pt Nehru. His industrial policies, summarised in the
Industrial Policy Resolution of 1956, encouraged the growth of diverse
manufacturing and heavy industries.

He set up many institutions of higher learning, including the All
India Institute of Medical Sciences, the Indian Institutes of
Technology and the Indian Institutes of Management. Pt Nehru also
outlined a commitment in his five-year plans to guarantee free and
compulsory primary education to all of India's children. He also
launched initiatives such as the provision of free milk and meals to
children in order to fight malnutrition. Adult education centres,
vocational and technical schools were also organised for adults,
especially in the rural areas.

Pt Nehru had the sprit of political accommodation. When the first
elected government that assumed power in 1952 under his leadership, he
invited Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee of Hindu Maha Sabha to join his
Cabinet as the country�s first industry minister.

On the diplomatic front, Pt Nehru failed in resolving the Kashmir
issue. He also failed in his dealing with China who forcefully grabbed
Tibet in 1950. But Pt Nehru should his firmness in liberating Goa from
the Portugal in 1961 after years of failed negotiations.
------------------------------

India to play a proactive role in SAARC and SAFTA
http://www.mynews.in/News/India_to_play_a_proactive_role_in_SAARC_and_SAFTA_N303\
79.html
By: ASHOK B SHARMA Posted On: 17-Nov-2009 08:36:40

New Delhi, Nov 17: Economic integration of all the eight South Asian
countries posses a challenge to the political leaders of the region.
Though South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) was operationalised
from July 2006 the intra regional trade increased at a snail space
from 3.2% in 1980s to only 5.5% in 2008, which is far below when
compared with 58% in NAFTA, 54% in European Union, 25% in ASEAN and
22% in COMESA.

Several bottlenecks like poor infrastructure and trade facilitation
measures, inadequate connectivity, non-tariff barriers and lack of
political will have come in the way of fasterintegration . SAFTA was
launched under South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
(SAARC) which is an eight-nation body consisting of Afghanistan,
Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal , Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

The Indian minister for external affairs, SM Krishna addressing a
conclave jointly organised by the SAARC Chamber of Commerce and
Industry, Asian Development Bank and FICCI in Delhi on Tuesday said
that the region has �become captive to the security situation. Issues
such as cross-border terrorism and incidents of anti-India activities
from terrorists of our neighbouringcountries have impacted on the
process of regional economic engagement, connectivity and
people-to-people contacts.�

He, however, committed that India would fulfil its responsibilities in
SAARC in an asymmetric and non-reciprocal manner for the benefit of
the countries in the region. �The need of the hour for South Asia is
to move beyond security issues that shackle it, into an era of mutual
trust and mutually reinforcing growth and development. United, the
South Asian countries can swim and smoothly tide over obstacles like
global financial crisis,� he said.

Krishna disclosed that a draft Agreement for Trade in Sercives would
be finalised for signature in the next SAARC Summit scheduled in
Bhutan in 2010. Discussions are also ongoing in SAARC to strengthen
financialintegration with a view to move towards a regional Customs
Union. The SAARC Food Bank is now operationalised with a total stock
of 243,000 tonne contributed by all member states. The South Asian
University is likely to set up on a 100 acre land in Delhi in July,
2010. Also the SAARC Textiles Museum would be set up in Delhi.

Krishna was, however, satisfied that SAARC �brand� was emerging as an
indicator of progress, particularly through regional projects funded
by SAARC Development Fund. He said that a SAARC Regional Task Force
has recently finalised the Standards Operating Protocol on Trafficking
of Women and Children. He said physical connectivity of the region
would be strengthened based on the recommendations of the SAARC
Transport Ministers Meeting which includesidentifying three road
corridors from SAARC member states through Pakistan to Afghanistan via
the Attari-Wagah border with India, early commencement of
Colombo-Kochi sea link, running of a demonstration container train
from Pakistan to Bangladesh through India and Nepal, early
commencement of direct air linkage between Delhi and Male and
constitution of an expert group to finalise Motor Vehicles and Railway
Agreements.

As a mark of India�s commitment to regional integration, regional
projects in telemedicine, tele-education, solar rural electrification,
seed testing laboratories, rainwater harvesting projects have already
been initiated. The SAARC Secretary General, Dr Sheel Kant Sharma said
that SAFTA technically may not be a perfect agreement but it stands
for commitment of our leaders to creation of an operational free trade
area inSouth Asia. Regionalism in South Asia has developed as an
addendum to a strongly entrenched and historical network of bilateral
linkages. Bulk of trade in South Asia is accounted by volumes of trade
between India-Bangladesh, India-Sri Lanka, Bangladesh-Pakistan,
India-Nepal, India-Pakistan, India-Bhutan, Afghanistan-Pakistan and
increasingly between Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

The trade between India and Sri Lanka increased after signing of an
FTA. Sharma said that there was a large volume of informal trade in
the region which reflects the potential for increasing formal trade
under SAFTA. A study done by the ADB pegs the potential for trade
under SAFTA at $ 85.1 billion. He said that the intra-SAARC trade
suffered heavily from high costs � among highest in the world. This
has encouraged informal trade in the region. With every 1% reduction
in cost, the stimulus to official trade would be about 5%, he said

Sharma suggested pruning of Sensitive List for SAFTA trade, removal of
non-tariff and para-tariff barriers, improved trade facilitation,
development of adequate infrastructure, regional motor vehicles and
railway agreements to facilitate trade. Creation of regional supply
chains and fixing of export targets. He also suggested harmonisation
of trade and investment policies in the region. �As part of political
commitment to build connectivity, thecountries of South Asia may
offer, on reciprocal basis, transit facilities to third countries
connecting each other, also establishing links with larger Asian
neighbourhood, including West, Central and South-East Asia,� he said.

The President of SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Tariq Sayeed
alleged that the SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme had not worked well. It
is limited to 100 leading businessmen from each country with
restriction on visit to three cities in India and Pakistan, while
bilateral visa allows the holder to visit eight cities. Besides the
port authorities are not familiar with the SAARC Visa Exemption
Scheme. He suggested that the SAARC Visa Exemption stickers should be
increased from 100 to 300 and issuance of 500 multiple Business Visa
for 5-years .

Regarding investment, he said that no investment treaty exist between
India and Pakistan. Pakistan as a gesture of goodwill has allowed
investment from India on case-to-case basis. He suggested the need for
an Investment Treaty for the region. Sayeed said that due to poor
trade facilitation in the region World Bank has estimated that it took
34 days and eight documents for export and 42 days and 13 documents
for imports, makingSouth Asia the second least trade-friendly region
in the world.

Apart from regional agreements on Motor Vehicles and Railways,
construction of inter-city expressways and highways, connecting
borders would be needed to flourish long distance trucking operations,
he said and added that South Asian Regional Standards Organisation
should speedly address the issues of standards, particularly sanitary
and phytosanitary standards. The Managing Director General of Asian
Development Bank, Rajat M Nag said that while the industrialized world
has had to confront the worst recession in 70 years, the developing
Asia, particularlycountries with large domestic and consumer demand,
were leading the world back to economic expansion.

Monetary and fiscal stimulus appeared to have worked and the region
was showing a V-shaped recovery. �There are 18 concluded FTAs which
aim to link the region�s economies together and with global markets.
The enhanced SAFTA is now also more inclusive with provisions such as
sequenced tariff liberalization, flexible rules of origin and greater
technical assistance,� he said. He said that ADB that fostering
regionalintegration in South Asia was one of the three strategic
agenda of ADB under long-term strategic plan � Strategy 2020 � the
others being inclusive growth and environmentally sustainable growth.

According to Nag ADB is focusing more on private sector and in the
next decade ADB would boost its role as a catalyst for investment that
the private sector might not otherwise be willing to make. It would
invest in infrastructure and advise governments on the basics of a
business-friendly environment, including reliable rules, regulations
and policies that attract greater private sector enterprise. ADB�s
tools include direct financing, credit enhancement, risk mitigation
guarantees and new innovative financial instruments. It would increase
its share of annual operations by a target of 50% by 2020. ADB would
also share its experience in Mekong region, ASEAN and Central Asia.

  -----------------------------------
  Two-day meeting of the South Asian Cabinet Secretaries concludes
SAARC gradually transforming from a declaratory body to an implementation body
Rural development and e-governance will be jointly addressed
http://www.news.anypursuit.com/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=952
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/saarc-becoming-an-implementation-body/54148\
3/
By: ASHOK B SHARMA on: Sun 15 of Nov, 2009 08:19 UTC

New Delhi, Nov 14: Economic integration of all the eight South Asian
countries posses a challenge to the political leaders of the region.
Though South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) was operationalised
from July 2006 the intra regional trade increased at a snail space
from 3.2% in 1980s to only 5.5% in 2008, which is far below when
compared with 58% in NAFTA, 54% in European Union, 25% in ASEAN and
22% in COMESA.

Several bottlenecks like poor infrastructure and trade facilitation
measures, inadequate connectivity, non-tariff barriers and lack of
political will have come in the way of fasterintegration . SAFTA was
launched under South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
(SAARC) which is an eight-nation body consisting of Afghanistan,
Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal , Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

The Indian minister for external affairs, SM Krishna addressing a
conclave jointly organised by the SAARC Chamber of Commerce and
Industry, Asian Development Bank and FICCI in Delhi on Tuesday said
that the region has �become captive to the security situation. Issues
such as cross-border terrorism and incidents of anti-India activities
from terrorists of our neighbouringcountries have impacted on the
process of regional economic engagement, connectivity and
people-to-people contacts.�

He, however, committed that India would fulfil its responsibilities in
SAARC in an asymmetric and non-reciprocal manner for the benefit of
the countries in the region. �The need of the hour for South Asia is
to move beyond security issues that shackle it, into an era of mutual
trust and mutually reinforcing growth and development. United, the
South Asian countries can swim and smoothly tide over obstacles like
global financial crisis,� he said.

Krishna disclosed that a draft Agreement for Trade in Sercives would
be finalised for signature in the next SAARC Summit scheduled in
Bhutan in 2010. Discussions are also ongoing in SAARC to strengthen
financialintegration with a view to move towards a regional Customs
Union. The SAARC Food Bank is now operationalised with a total stock
of 243,000 tonne contributed by all member states. The South Asian
University is likely to set up on a 100 acre land in Delhi in July,
2010. Also the SAARC Textiles Museum would be set up in Delhi.

Krishna was, however, satisfied that SAARC �brand� was emerging as an
indicator of progress, particularly through regional projects funded
by SAARC Development Fund. He said that a SAARC Regional Task Force
has recently finalised the Standards Operating Protocol on Trafficking
of Women and Children. He said physical connectivity of the region
would be strengthened based on the recommendations of the SAARC
Transport Ministers Meeting which includesidentifying three road
corridors from SAARC member states through Pakistan to Afghanistan via
the Attari-Wagah border with India, early commencement of
Colombo-Kochi sea link, running of a demonstration container train
from Pakistan to Bangladesh through India and Nepal, early
commencement of direct air linkage between Delhi and Male and
constitution of an expert group to finalise Motor Vehicles and Railway
Agreements.

As a mark of India�s commitment to regional integration, regional
projects in telemedicine, tele-education, solar rural electrification,
seed testing laboratories, rainwater harvesting projects have already
been initiated. The SAARC Secretary General, Dr Sheel Kant Sharma said
that SAFTA technically may not be a perfect agreement but it stands
for commitment of our leaders to creation of an operational free trade
area inSouth Asia. Regionalism in South Asia has developed as an
addendum to a strongly entrenched and historical network of bilateral
linkages. Bulk of trade in South Asia is accounted by volumes of trade
between India-Bangladesh, India-Sri Lanka, Bangladesh-Pakistan,
India-Nepal, India-Pakistan, India-Bhutan, Afghanistan-Pakistan and
increasingly between Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

The trade between India and Sri Lanka increased after signing of an
FTA. Sharma said that there was a large volume of informal trade in
the region which reflects the potential for increasing formal trade
under SAFTA. A study done by the ADB pegs the potential for trade
under SAFTA at $ 85.1 billion. He said that the intra-SAARC trade
suffered heavily from high costs � among highest in the world. This
has encouraged informal trade in the region. With every 1% reduction
in cost, the stimulus to official trade would be about 5%, he said

Sharma suggested pruning of Sensitive List for SAFTA trade, removal of
non-tariff and para-tariff barriers, improved trade facilitation,
development of adequate infrastructure, regional motor vehicles and
railway agreements to facilitate trade. Creation of regional supply
chains and fixing of export targets. He also suggested harmonisation
of trade and investment policies in the region. �As part of political
commitment to build connectivity, thecountries of South Asia may
offer, on reciprocal basis, transit facilities to third countries
connecting each other, also establishing links with larger Asian
neighbourhood, including West, Central and South-East Asia,� he said.

The President of SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Tariq Sayeed
alleged that the SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme had not worked well. It
is limited to 100 leading businessmen from each country with
restriction on visit to three cities in India and Pakistan, while
bilateral visa allows the holder to visit eight cities. Besides the
port authorities are not familiar with the SAARC Visa Exemption
Scheme. He suggested that the SAARC Visa Exemption stickers should be
increased from 100 to 300 and issuance of 500 multiple Business Visa
for 5-years .

Regarding investment, he said that no investment treaty exist between
India and Pakistan. Pakistan as a gesture of goodwill has allowed
investment from India on case-to-case basis. He suggested the need for
an Investment Treaty for the region. Sayeed said that due to poor
trade facilitation in the region World Bank has estimated that it took
34 days and eight documents for export and 42 days and 13 documents
for imports, makingSouth Asia the second least trade-friendly region
in the world.

Apart from regional agreements on Motor Vehicles and Railways,
construction of inter-city expressways and highways, connecting
borders would be needed to flourish long distance trucking operations,
he said and added that South Asian Regional Standards Organisation
should speedly address the issues of standards, particularly sanitary
and phytosanitary standards. The Managing Director General of Asian
Development Bank, Rajat M Nag said that while the industrialized world
has had to confront the worst recession in 70 years, the developing
Asia, particularlycountries with large domestic and consumer demand,
were leading the world back to economic expansion.

Monetary and fiscal stimulus appeared to have worked and the region
was showing a V-shaped recovery. �There are 18 concluded FTAs which
aim to link the region�s economies together and with global markets.
The enhanced SAFTA is now also more inclusive with provisions such as
sequenced tariff liberalization, flexible rules of origin and greater
technical assistance,� he said. He said that ADB that fostering
regionalintegration in South Asia was one of the three strategic
agenda of ADB under long-term strategic plan � Strategy 2020 � the
others being inclusive growth and environmentally sustainable growth.

According to Nag ADB is focusing more on private sector and in the
next decade ADB would boost its role as a catalyst for investment that
the private sector might not otherwise be willing to make. It would
invest in infrastructure and advise governments on the basics of a
business-friendly environment, including reliable rules, regulations
and policies that attract greater private sector enterprise. ADB�s
tools include direct financing, credit enhancement, risk mitigation
guarantees and new innovative financial instruments. It would increase
its share of annual operations by a target of 50% by 2020. ADB would
also share its experience in Mekong region, ASEAN and Central Asia.
--------------------------------------------

Taiwan Textile Fair
Taiwan and India to sign ATA Carnet Agreement next year
Double Taxation Avoidance Treaty also on the anvil
http://www.news.anypursuit.com/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=956
http://www.mynews.in/News/Taiwan_and_India_to_sign_ATA_Carnet_Agreement.___N3028\
7.html
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/taiwan-and-india-to-sign-ata-deal/542663/0
By: ASHOK B SHARMA on: Mon 16 of Nov, 2009 13:44 UTC

New Delhi, Nov 16: Taiwan and India will sign the ATA carnet agreement
sometime in the first quarter of next year and the negotiations
between the two countries are at an advanced stage.

This was disclosed by the representative of Taipei Economic and
Cultural Centre in India, Wenchyi Ong here on Monday, while briefing
the mediapersons at the sidelines of the Taiwan Textile Fair organized
by Taiwan Textile Federation with the support of Worldex India. The
two-day fair put on display a host of textile items manufactured in Taiwan.

Ong said that the growing trade and economic relations with India and
Taiwan necessitated conclusion of ATA carnet - a simplified
arrangement for import and export of goods meant for exhibitions and
fairs. Incidentally, Taiwan has sponsored 43 trade delegations to
India and is intending to increase this number as also number of fairs
to be held in India.

He said that Taiwan and India would conclude a double taxation
avoidance treaty sometime next year and together with ATA carnet,
which would provide a valuable instrument for promoting trade and
investment between the two countries. He informed that presently,
Taiwanese investment in India was only $ 1 billion as compared to $
300 billion in China. �We are drawing up a roadmap for enhancing this
investment in a variety of sectors like ICT, food processing and
textiles. We have a considerable presence in ICT sector in India and
our efforts are now focused on high-end textiles and food processing,�
he said and added that Taiwan was capable of supplying both textiles
and equipment.

Ong said that Taiwanese businessmen were interested in selling to
Indian customers high-ended textiles - the brands exclusively produced
by the Taiwanese companies. He said that Taiwanese textile companies
were targeting at only five per cent of India�s over a billion
population since the price tag was higher on account of the high
technology (like nano technology) application involved in the
production such as nylon chips. He clarified that Taiwan was more
focused on mass production of textiles and is now focusing customized
production. � For massive sourcing of textile products, India can look
upon China and Malaysia and for specialized and customized products
Taiwan is the most lucrative market, he added.

He said that Taiwan was looking at India as a strong business ally and
therefore relaxed the visa regulations. It has unilaterally announced
that Indians with visas stamped on their passports from 10 countries
including US, UK, Australia, and Shenigen countries can visit Taiwan
without the visa.

This new arrangement has come into effect only from March this year
and is intended to increase the flow of trade and visitors from both
the countries.

He felt that there was a mismatch between issuance of visas from both
the countries. Indian Embassy in Taiwan issues on an average 30,000
visas yearly, whereas Taiwan Embassy in India issues only 13,000 visas.

From: Sharon Bhagwan Rolls <sharon@...>
Organization: femLINKPACIFIC
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:10:54 +1200

Source: Women's Media Centre / GEAR Working Group
Finally, a UN Women�s Agency with Muscle
By Colette N. Tamko

Recently the UN announced approval of a new agency for women�an event that
followed years of complex organizing by individuals and advocacy groups around
the world. Here, one of the principle coordinators of that ongoing effort
explains what it means for women, and the work that still remains to ensure its
success.

November 11, 2009

This fall, after years of advocacy, the UN General Assembly adopted a historic
resolution to create a strong women�s agency. To be headed by an undersecretary
general�the third highest-ranking UN officer, after the secretary general and
his deputy�the new unit will consolidate the work of four existing bodies. If
robustly implemented, the resolution promises a politically powerful,
independent agency with strong leadership and increased funds to move forward on
adopted goals for gender equality and women�s empowerment.

The action is a landmark for women around the world who have worked tirelessly
to persuade member states to keep their many promises since the first world
conference on women in Mexico City in 1975. However, the victory did not come
easily, and much work remains to be done to ensure that a new full-fledged
agency becomes a reality.

Organizing Across Borders The Gender Equality Architecture Reform (GEAR)
Campaign  is an ever-growing network of more than 400 women�s, human rights and 
social justice groups from around the world advocating for the creation of  a
stronger women�s agency at the United Nations. Its efforts informally  began in
2006, shortly after the secretary general appointed a high-level  panel to
assess the effectiveness and coherence of the UN system. The Women�s Environment
& Development Organization (WEDO) and  the Center for Women�s Global Leadership
(CWGL) quickly met  with 50 women�s activists from around the world to
strategize about adding  gender to the reform agenda at the United Nations. In
February 2008,  during the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), the GEAR
Campaign was  officially launched in New York.

While WEDO and CWGL have been the  leaders of this global effort, the campaign�s
success belongs to hundreds  of women and men�organized around global and
regional focal points, with a  15-member working group in New York�who lobbied
and advocated from all  corners of the world for the creation of this entity at
the UN. Charlotte  Bunch (founding director of CWGL), Stephen Lewis (co-director
of AIDS-Free World), along with others and the GEAR Campaign as a  whole,
deserve special recognition for their invaluable contribution to  the gender
architecture reform process.�Colette Tamko

World leaders have repeatedly committed to goals of empowering women in major
international policy documents�for example, the Millennium Development Goal 3 on
gender equality and Security Council resolutions that recognize women as key to
conflict resolution and identify rape as an act of war. Yet there exists a large
gap between setting a goal and its implementation, and gender inequality
continues to exist in all societies. The UN�s machinery on women�s rights has
been fragmented, under-resourced and uncoordinated�a situation the new
resolution is designed to address. But how did this come about, and what will a
new women�s agency at the UN mean?

In February 2006, former Secretary General Kofi Annan convened a working
group�the High-Level Panel on System-Wide Coherence�to explore how the UN could
be strengthened in the areas of development, humanitarian affairs, and the
environment. Of the 15-member panel, only three were women. Women worldwide
began to pressure the UN to add gender equality to the SWC Panel�s agenda.
Women�s groups met regularly with UN staff, and organized to ensure that
advocates were present at every panel session to raise the issue of women�s
rights. Due to these efforts, as well as input from governments and the UN, the
panel concluded that the UN as currently structured is too fragmented to meet
many of its development objectives. It recommended consolidating and
strengthening the women�s machinery at the UN in its November 9, 2006 report,
which Annan formally transmitted to the General Assembly, with his
recommendations, the next month. In March 2007, during the Commission on the
Status of Women, current Secretary General Ban Ki-moon endorsed the panel�s
recommendations.

The panel recommended: 1) Creating a stronger UN organization for women by
consolidating the current four units (Division for the Advancement of Women,
Office of the Secretary-General�s Special Adviser on Gender Issues, United
Nations Development Fund for Women and International Research and Training
Institute for the Advancement of Women); 2) Creating a new undersecretary
general, ensuring a higher leadership status than provided by the current UN
women�s entities; 3) Giving the agency a dual mandate, including both policy
setting functions at headquarters and operational/programming responsibilities
at the country level; 4) �Ambitious funding�, starting at $1 billion.

Gender has received low priority, often coming behind other development issues.
According to a 2002 survey, of the 1,300 UN staff who have responsibility for
gender equality as part of their job description, nearly 1,000 are relatively
junior with little substantive expertise, no budgets, and who deal with gender
as one element of a large portfolio. In 2008, the allowance for all four women�s
entities accounted for less than 1 percent of the UN budget�with UNIFEM
receiving by far the largest amount ($215 million) and the others sharing less
than $6 million.

Since 2007, governments have discussed the implementation of the panel�s
recommendations. The inter-governmental negotiations have been slow, and the
adopted resolution lacks some necessary elements for the immediate launch of the
entity. The resolution only �strongly supports� the agency�s creation and
�supports� that it be led by an under secretary general. It would also
coordinate a UN strategy of mainstreaming gender work in other UN bodies.

The secretary general must move swiftly to produce a proposal that outlines
critical outstanding issues to be negotiated�details of its governance, civil
society participation, and how the entity should operate at the country level.
Equally important is the amount and source of funding for the entity. Funds will
come from both assessed and voluntary contributions, but the total amount, and
the balance between the two, remains undecided.

The General Assembly and the UN Secretariat have an enormous responsibility in
2009-2010 to fully implement the resolution, resolve all outstanding issues and
appoint a skilled undersecretary general to lead the agency. Whether we achieve
success and build a UN that truly works for women on the ground depends on how
they choose to move forward now. Women around the world are watching, and we
cannot afford to wait any longer.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Colette Tamko is an attorney and advocate working for more than 12 years on
legal reform of gender discriminatory laws in Africa, and on human rights issues
including food security and HIV/AIDS, and the right to land. She has worked in
the Food and Agriculture Organization liaison office in New York and, most
recently, as the Information Services Coordinator with the World Federalist
Movement-Coalition for the International Criminal Court, New York. Tamko now
manages the Gender and Governance Program at the Women�s Environment and
Development Organization (WEDO), which includes work on the Untied Nations
reform among other initiatives. She co-facilitates the global Gender Equality
Architecture Reform (GEAR) Campaign, an advocacy group comprised of more than
400 organizations worldwide working towards the creation of a stronger women�s
agency at the United Nations. Tamko holds Masters degrees in international
relations and in law from the University of Pennsylvania.

Yet another claim by Big Pharma of a supposed 'break through' in the
search for a little pink pill to revitalise women's supposedly
medicalised lack of heterosexual desire.

I've read innumerable times that female sexuality is supposedly a
'mystery' because unlike male sexuality it is difficult to ascertain
whether or not a woman is sexually aroused, unless and if the woman has
been wired up to machines which focus on her blood pressure, increase in
genital engorgement; lubrication etc. Reducing women's sexuality to
biological measurements etc harkens back once again to biological
essentalism and is on a continuum with common claims in rape cases
wherein the male accused claims 'but she was lubricating, or her bodily
functions clearly showed to me she was "sexually aroused." So,
obviously the woman 'consented' since her body reacted positively to my
sexual advances, even though she appeared to be disinterested (sic)!

Sheila Jeffreys in her book Anticlimax details very succinctly how and
why with the rise of sexology in the late 19th century this enabled male
medical practitioners and patriarchy as a system, to reinforce
phallocentric claims female sexuality was a 'mystery' and most women
just needed to be taught by male sexual experts on what is and is not
heterosex.

Now Big Pharma is claiming women's lack of sexual desire can be cured
once they have succeeded in inventing the 'magic pink pill.' Reducing
female sexuality to a series of biological measurements and enforcement
of phallocentric sexuality which is supposedly the only 'real sex
between human beings' serves to maintain male-defined notions of how
women should experience and enact their heterosex desires.

Female sexual dysfunction is a myth created and maintained by Big Pharma
for the purpose of selling innumerable potions and pills which will
supposedly cure women of 'lack of sexual desire.' Biology is women's
destiny so we are being told by Big Pharma and likewise male sexuality
too has once again been reduced to erection = sexual desire whereas lack
of erection = impotence! Feminists have for decades challenged dominant
social constructions of female and male sexuality which consistently
privileges male sexual desire and claims women's sexuality is
dysfunctional if it does not accord with the coitus imperative.

Researcher Shere Hite was castigated by phallocentric proponents when
she published her findings on female and male sexuality, particularly
her findings that women commonly do not desire or even wish to engage in
coitus but prefer other forms of sexual expression. Hite also discussed
the fact many women do not feel able to express their sexual desires or
wishes because their male partners' egos would suffer since 'real sex is
never sex unless coital penetration has occurred.' Challenging dominant
constructions of male and female sexuality is difficult because men
continue to be given greater power within heterosexual relationships
than women. Many women find it impossible to challenge male-defined
notions of what passes for 'real sex' because they know they might be
subjected to male violence or the man will contemptuously dismiss then
as frigid or prudish for daring to refuse him his pseudo right of sexual
pleasure by using her body as a masturbatory object.

FSDA is a website which has consistently challenged the medicalisation
of female sexuality and also Big Pharma's creation of mythical female
sexual dysfunction. See link below for details:

Jennifer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.newviewcampaign.org/
Challenging the Medicalization of Sex

WELCOME
The New View Campaign was formed in 2000 as a grassroots network to
challenge the distorted and oversimplified messages about sexuality
that the pharmaceutical industry relies on to sell its new drugs.

The pharmaceutical industry wants people to think that sexual problems
are simple medical matters, and it offers drugs as expensive magic
fixes. But sexual problems are complicated, sexuality is diverse, and
no drug is without side effects.

The goal of the New View Campaign is to expose biased research and
promotional methods that serve corporate profit rather than people's
pleasure and satisfaction. The Campaign challenges all views that
reduce sexual experience to genital biology and thereby ignore the
many dimensions of real life.

The New View Campaign is devoted to education, activism, and
empowerment. We invite you to benefit from the information on this
website, and we invite your support and participation.

UK children's charity Barnardo's conducted a snapshot survey last month
concerning internal trafficking of pre-pubescent and adolescent girls
into prostitution. Barnardo's estimates that sophisticated networks of
adult men might be targetting pre-pubescent and adolescent girls for the
purpose of rape and other forms of male sexual exploitation and
violence.

Whilst the article describes the victims as children, clearly the
majority of children being targetted by adult men are girls.

The issue of networks of men involved in committing rape and other forms
of sexual violence against pre-pubescent and adolescent girls is not new
to me unfortunately. Coalition For The Removal of Pimping has worked
for a number of years with girl survivors; the parents of girls enticed
into prostitution; as well as trying to publicise this continuing hidden
issue of adult men sexually abusing and sexually exploiting girls. It
is common practice for the adult Johns and pimps to use older teenage
boys as 'pseudo boyfriends' although these boys are in fact pimps, who
cleverly target girls they perceive as more susceptible to being
manipulated into believing the teenage pimp is a boy who is interested
in them as a person and not as potential dehumanised sexualised objects
for men to rape and sexually torture.

Sadly many teenage girls who if fortunate to escape the clutches of the
male pimps and Johns believe they are responsible for the male sexual
violence committed against them. The misogynistic message constantly
repeated that women and girls are responsible for male sexual violence
committed against them has been very successful, despite decades of
feminist activism challenging such lies.

Unfortunately the link to CROP's website is not available but I have
accessed the historical link via google and it is shown below.

Once again the UK government is failing in its duty of care towards
children and especially girls since the issue is one of child protection
and Barnardo's found only 20% of local authorities which have any
specialist services available to help girls who have been subjected to
multiple acts of male sexual violence and sexualised torture. Could
the growing numbers of adult men engaged in raping and sexually
torturing girls be due in part to popular culture's continuing obsession
with depicting younger and younger girls as 'men's sexualised
commodities?' Or perhaps part of the answer is due to mainstream
pornography being widely available wherein women and girls are
'disposable sexualised commodities to be used and discarded by men and
boys.' Given the numbers of men targetting pre-pubescent and adolescent
girls is increasing all the time, claims they are paedophiles only
serves to represent such men as 'deviant monsters' whereas in fact most
men who target girls for rape and sexual violence are or have been in
adult heterosexual relationships. Paedophile is word used to hide how
male sexuality is being constructed and promoted wherein any woman or
girl is viewed not as a human being but as a dehumanised disposable
sexualised object which men can consume and then discard.

Jennifer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/nov/17/sexual-exploitation-child-traffick\
ing
The Guardian ~ London ~ Tuesday 17 November 2009
Hundreds of British children could be being trafficked, Barnardo's says
Networks of men may be grooming hundreds of British children for
sexual exploitation, the charity's latest survey suggests
By Rachel Williams
Photograph: Martin Narey, chief executive of Barnardo's children's
charity (Graham Turner)

Sophisticated networks of older men may be grooming hundreds of
British children to be trafficked within the UK for sexual
exploitation, the charity Barnardo's believes.

Organised criminals are gaining the trust of vulnerable young girls by
showering them with gifts and affection, before plying them with
alcohol and drugs, according to a report out today. They are then
moved from city to city, where they are forced to have sex with
numerous other men.

Barnardo's estimates that thousands of British children could be being
sold for sex around the country, yet only 20% of local authorities
have any specialist services to help them. Many children believe what
has happened is their own fault, and are so ashamed that they never
speak out about the abuse they suffer, campaigners say.

At the time of a snapshot survey last month by the charity, 21
projects were working with 609 sexually exploited children, around
half of whom go missing on a regular basis. Ninety of them � spread
over 15 projects � appeared to have been "internally trafficked".

Wendy Shepherd, a service manager for the charity in the north-east,
said she believed the total number being trafficked within the UK was
likely to be in the hundreds, given that Barnardo's only works on
sexual exploitation in 20 of the 209 local authorities in the country.

The report, Whose Child Now?, describes how girls are befriended by
men who present themselves as boyfriends, offering them drink,
presents and sometimes even flats to live in. But eventually they face
"payback" time, when they are taken miles from home and told they must
have sex with the man's "friends", and threatened with violence if they refuse.

Imogen � not her real name � was 13 when the man she thought was her
boyfriend started driving her around the country, taking her to hotels
in Leeds, Bradford, Manchester and London for nights at a time.

"Some men asked 'How old is she?'" she told the report's authors.
"Some asked 'Have you got any younger?' They were really sick.

"It's really hard to talk about girls being trafficked in this
country; no one wants to believe it ... I wanted to escape, but he
just controlled me. It was a mental thing � I was terrified."

The chief executive of Barnardo's, former prison service
director-general Martin Narey, said spending a night with one of the
charity's services recently had left him shaken.

"I don't think I'm easily shocked; I used to run the prison service,"
he said. "But I was very, very struck by the poverty, desperation and
hopelessness of these young girls.

Shepherd said the exploitation was becoming more organised and the
abusers more sophisticated. "There are networks of older men grooming
and trafficking children within the UK," she said. "It's a growing
phenomenon and it's extremely difficult to police."

She added: "The children we work with feel a terrible sense of shame.
They've been forced to do awful things by the adults who groom and
control them � yet somehow society blames them. A child cannot consent
to their own abuse."

In the last year Barnardo's, which next month will launch a TV
advertising campaign on sexual exploitation, has worked with 1,060
children and young people who had suffered at the hands of abusers, in
20 local authorities. "We don't know the true extent of this problem,"
Narey said. "But we know, however hidden from the public eye it might
be, that it affects many thousands of children."
_____________________________

http://www.cropuk.org.uk/index.htm

I've read some rubbish medical research over the years, but the below
claims of BigPharma's Holy Grail, "A Viagra for women" takes the cake
the bun, and the biscuit, Total bullshit! What on earth are they
playing at to claim that 4.5 satsifying sexual events per month in
women taking daily flibanserin has any meaningful significance
compared with 3.7 such events in women taking the placebo. Talking
about filling BigPharma's coffers out of women's pockets! - Lynette
**********
Formatted version of the below, minus the deceptive photograph, but
including my own of a decade ago "Viagra: A can of worms for women", at
http://www.global-sisterhood-network.org/content/view/2377/59/
**********
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/nov/16/female-viagra-sexual-desire-libido
The Guardian ~ London ~ Tuesday November 17 2009, page 11
'Female Viagra' boosts sexual desire in women with flagging libido

Women who took the drug during a trial reported more satisfying sexual
encounters and a higher libido
Ian Sample, science correspondent
Photo: Low libido or reduced sexual desire affects between 9% and 26%
of women, depending on age and whether they have been through the
menopause. X: (Novastock/Rex Features)

Ever since Viagra arrived a decade ago and became a global blockbuster
worth billions, an equivalent that works wonders for women has been
the Holy Grail for drug companies.

Yesterday, doctors announced that the search might finally be over. A
major clinical trial of a drug some already describe as the "female
Viagra" showed it can boost sexual desire in women whose libidos are flagging.

The drug, which was originally developed as an antidepressant but was
later found to have libido-boosting side effects, could be approved
for use in Britain within 18 months.

Women who took the drug during the six-month trial reported more
satisfying sexual encounters and higher libidos than those who were
given a placebo.

Doctors involved in the study said the drug may prove to be an
effective treatment for low libido, a problem they estimate affects
between 9% and 26% of women, depending on their age and whether they
have been through the menopause.

The drug has proved controversial among sex researchers. Some argue
pharmaceutical companies are exaggerating the number of women affected
by low libido to expand their market, and are pushing a pill that will
not deal with psychological issues that might put someone off sex,
such as poor body image or stress.

Nearly 2,000 pre-menopausal women aged 18 and above took part in the
study after being diagnosed with a condition called "hypoactive sexual
desire disorder", characterised by a very low libido for long periods of time.

Women who took a daily 100mg dose of the drug, called flibanserin,
reported having satisfying sex more often than those who took a
placebo. Before the trial, subjects reported an average of 2.8
satsifying sexual events per month. Those who took daily flibanserin
saw this rise to 4.5 times a month, compared with a rise to 3.7 times
a month for those taking placebo. None of the women knew whether they
were taking the drug or the sham pills.

"It's essentially a Viagra-like drug for women in that diminished
desire or libido is the most common feminine sexual problem, like
erectile dysfunction in men," said John Thorp, professor of obstetrics
and gynaecology at the University of North Carolina Medical School.
The results were announced today at a meeting of the European Society
for Sexual Medicine in Lyon.

Flibanserin was originally developed as an antidepressant by the
German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim. The drug performed
badly in clinical trials and was never approved, but questionnaires
given to the patients revealed that an unexpected side effect for
women was a boost to their libido. According to some reports, some
women were unwilling to give the pills back once the trial was over.

"Flibanserin was a poor antidepressant," said Thorp, who was involved
in running the latest trial. "However, astute observers noted that it
increased libido in laboratory animals and human subjects. So we
conducted multiple clinical trials and the women in our studies who
took it for hypoactive sexual desire disorder reported significant
improvements in sexual desire and satisfactory sexual experiences."

Viagra was originally developed as a treatment for high blood pressure
and the heart condition angina, but men who took part in early trials
realised the drug had an interesting side effect. The drug arrived in
1998 and has since been prescribed to 25 million men creating a
multibillion pound global market.

In the latest trial, doctors asked women to keep a record of how often
they had satisfying sex and to rank their day-to-day sexual desire in
an electronic diary. A variety of other tests were used to assess
their libidos and levels of stress experienced during sex. These were
compared with information taken before and after the trial.

Thorp said the results point to a possible treatment for "the sexual
problem that plagues reproductive age women the most".

Petra Boynton, a healthcare researcher at University College London,
said the pill was not a "magic bullet" and feared it could stop
couples talking through underlying issues. "There are all kinds of
physical, psychological and emotional reasons that could put someone
off sex and a pill is not going to help resolve those. It's not going
to make you feel better about your body image and it won't make your
partner better in bed," she said.

A spokeswoman for Boehringer Ingelheim said the drug could be approved
for treating women with a low libido within 18 months. The data from
the latest trials will be sent to American and European drug
regulators to review.

From: Laura X -PB- <laurax@...>
Date: Mon, Nov 16, 2009 at 9:10 PM

16-Year Old Got Life Without Parole for Killing Her Abusive Pimp --
Should Teens Be Condemned to Die in Jail?
By Liliana Segura, AlterNet
Posted on October 31, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/143635/
This article is the first in a two-part series about juveniles and
harsh sentencing.

Sara Kruzan was 11 years old, a middle school student from Riverside,
Calif., when she met a man -- he called himself GG -- who was almost
three times her age. GG took her under his wing; he would buy her
gifts, take her and her friends rollerskating. "He was like a father
figure," she recalls.

Despite suffering severe bouts of depression as a child, until then,
Kruzan was a good student, an "overachiever" in her words. But her
mother was abusive and addicted to drugs; as for her father, she had
only met him a couple of times. So, more and more, GG filled in.

"GG was there -- sometimes," she said. "He would talk to me and take
me out and give me all these lavish gifts and do all these things for
me �" Before long, he started talking to her about sex, giving her his
expert advice on what men were really like and telling her that she
didn't "need to give it up for free."

Unbeknownst to her, GG was grooming Kruzan to be a prostitute. When
she was 13, he raped her. "He uses his manhood to hurt," Kruzan
recalls, "Like, break you in. I guess."

Kruzan worked for GG as a prostitute for three years. The hours were 6
p.m. until 5:30 or 6 in the morning. She and "the other girls" would
come back and hand over their earnings to him. "He was, like, married
to all of us I guess," she says. " � Everything was his."

After years of prostitution and sexual abuse, when she was 16, Kruzan
snapped: She killed GG, was arrested and convicted of first-degree
murder. Despite attempts by her lawyer to have her sentenced as a
juvenile, the judge described her crime as "well thought-out" and
sentenced her to life without parole.

"My judge told me that I lacked moral scruples," she recalls, a term
she did not know the meaning of.

But the meaning of her sentence was all too clear. Life without
parole, she says, "means I'm gonna die here."

'These Children Were Literally Lost In Adult Prison'
A few years ago, Sara Kruzan's story grabbed the attention of
California State Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, who introduced
legislation to abolish the sentence of life without the possibility of
parole for youth offenders. The bill was no get-out-of-jail pass;
under his legislation, a juvenile who committed a felony before the
age of 18 would serve a minimum of 25 years before being eligible to
go before a parole board (also not a get-out-of-jail pass).

Yee is also a child psychologist. When it comes to judging the actions
of teenagers versus those of adults, he argues, "the neuroscience is
clear; brain maturation continues well through adolescence, and thus
impulse control, planning and critical-thinking skills are still not
yet fully developed."

Condemning teenagers to die in jail, then, means curtailing the lives
of potentially productive members of society. "Children have a greater
capacity for rehabilitation than adults," Yee said. Anyway, didn't
California's prison system rename itself the California Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitation?

In politics, however, punitive almost always wins out -- particularly
in California, where "three strikes" laws have led to a prison crisis
unparalleled anywhere else in the country. Yee's bill met intense
political resistance and eventually died.
This past February, he introduced a new, watered-down bill that,
instead of eliminating life without parole for juveniles would provide
a review of a youth offender's sentence after 10 years.

In 2005, Human Rights Watch published an unprecedented study, "The
Rest of Their Lives: Life without Parole for Child Offenders in the
United States," which found "at least 2,225 people incarcerated in the
United States who have been sentenced to spend the rest of their lives
in prison for crimes they committed as children." Today, the number is
even higher: 2,574.

It's only recently that the plight of juveniles serving life in adult
prisons came across the national radar. Alison Parker, deputy director
of the U.S. Program of Human Rights Watch told AlterNet, "these
children were literally lost in adult prison. Nobody paid attention to
the fact that they were under 18 at the time of their offense."

But this could soon change. Next month, the U.S. Supreme Court will
hear arguments in a pair of cases -- Sullivan v. Florida and Graham v.
Florida -- that will decide whether life sentences for juveniles
violate the Constitution's ban on cruel-and-unusual punishment.

These cases follow the Court's landmark ruling in Roper v. Simmons
four years ago, which struck down the death penalty for juvenile
defendants on Eighth Amendment grounds. Echoing the opinion of Yee,
Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority that juveniles have an
"underdeveloped sense of responsibility" that leads to "impetuous and
ill-considered actions and decisions," as well as being "more
susceptible to negative influences and peer pressure."

Civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson, the lead attorney in Sulliivan,
argues that sentencing children to life without parole makes no more
sense than sentencing them to death. In court filings for Sullivan, he
writes, "The essential feature of a death sentence or a
life-without-parole sentence is that it imposes a terminal,
unchangeable, once-and-for-all judgment upon the whole life of a human
being and declares that human being forever unfit to be a part of
civil society."

Stevenson is the executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative of
Alabama, a nonprofit that provides legal representation to indigent
defendants and prisoners, including juveniles. According to EJI, out
of the prisoners serving juvenile life without parole, more than half
are first-time offenders. At least 74 involve defendants who were 14
years old or younger when they committed their crime.

"Almost all of these kids currently lack legal representation, and in
most of these cases the propriety and constitutionality of their
extreme sentences has never been reviewed."

'Beyond Help'
Among these 74 is Joe Sullivan, the defendant in Sullivan v. Florida.
Sullivan, who is reportedly mentally disabled, was 13 years old in
1989 when he was accused of raping an elderly woman after a burglary
carried out by an older group of teenagers. The older teenagers
confessed to the burglary but pinned the rape on Sullivan, a charge he denied.

The older boys did time in juvenile prison and were then freed.
Sullivan became the youngest prisoner to be sentenced to die in prison
for a crime other than murder. "I am going to try to send him away for
as long as I can," his trial judge said. "He is beyond help."

At 14, Sullivan was sent to an adult prison, where he was repeatedly
sexually assaulted. Sullivan now is 33 years old. Stricken with
multiple sclerosis, he is confined to a wheelchair.

Sullivan's case is emblematic of a number of problems when it comes to
juveniles sentenced as adults, not the least of which is the
phenomenon of youths either being coerced or getting caught up in
criminal situations orchestrated by older teenagers or adults.

Among juvenile offenders, many have participated in violent crimes as
a result of their relationship with a grown-up. Incredibly, this can
mean getting a harsher sentence than the adult in question.
"There is this tendency to point the finger towards the younger
co-defendant, sometimes because of the perception that the younger
person will get a lesser sentence," says Alison Parker. "There's still
this perception out there that kids will be treated differently, but
the reality is that kids are treated like adults."

Another major factor is race. During Sullivan's trial, "the prosecutor
and witnesses made repeated, unnecessary reference to the fact that
Joe is African American and the victim (was) white," according to EJI.
"One witness repeatedly said the perpetrator of the assault was a
'colored boy' or 'a dark colored boy.' "

It is not news that the American criminal justice system
disproportionately targets people of color. But when it comes to
juvenile offenders, Alison Parker calls the disparities "absolutely
shocking." On a national level, "African American youth are serving
the sentence at a rate of about 10 times that of white youth," Parker
told AlterNet. "In some states, the rate is even higher."

In both cases before the Supreme Court, the defendants were sentenced
to life for crimes that fell short of murder, a phenomenon that is
especially prevalent In Florida, where the number of prisoners who
will die in jail for non-homicide crimes hovers at 77.

Terrance Jamar Graham, the defendant in Graham v. Florida, was 17
years old and on probation for a crime he committed when he was 16,
when he took part in an armed burglary. His co-defendants got minor
sentences. He was slapped with life without parole.

"Mr. Graham, as I look back on your case, yours is really candidly a
sad situation," the judge told him. "The only thing that I can
rationalize is that you decided that this is how you were going to
lead your life and there is nothing that we can do for you."

This is classic "three strikes" logic, which, along with the
conspiracy and felony murder statutes have led teens to be sentenced
to life for crimes in which they played only a minor role.

Take Christine Lockhart, the first female juvenile to be sentenced to
life without parole in Iowa. She was 17 years old and sitting in a car
when her boyfriend killed someone during an armed robbery. Today, she
has been in prison for more than half her life.

Lockhart, along with Sara Kruzan are a relative minority, two out of
some 175 women serving life without parole for crimes they committed
as teenagers. But their stories reveal how young people can get caught
up in dangerous, harmful, and ultimately deadly, situations often
simply by being with the wrong people at the wrong time.

"Sara's story is compelling," says Parker. "But it is really one that
is shared across the country. There are many, many people with similar
circumstances who are serving life sentences without any possibility
of parole."
Kruzan, in fact, is one of the lucky ones. She now has attorneys who
are working on appealing her sentence, pro bono. Most other prisoners
serving life without parole for crimes committed as juveniles have no
post-conviction representation at all.

Today, Kruzan is 32 years old and described as a "model inmate,"
despite any real lack of incentive. ("Who wants to excel in prison?"
she says.) Asked what she would say if she had a chance to appear
before a a parole board, she says that she believes she can now be of
some value to society, perhaps even a "positive example."

Also, she says, "I've learned what moral scruples are."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Liliana Segura is an AlterNet staff writer and editor of Rights &
Liberties and World Special Coverage. http://twitter.com/LilianaSegura
© 2009 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/143635/
--
Dorinda Moreno, Fuerza Mundial
Elders of 4 Colors 4 Directions
Hitec Aztec Collaborations/FM Global
We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For!
<fuerzamundial@...>

Corazon Del Pueblo Cultural Center
4814 International Blvd.
Oakland, CA 94601
510 532-6733

Sakura Kone', National Campaign Coordinator to save/restore Wesley
United. western region speaking/media tour to address current
conditions in post hurricane Katrina <natambu3@...>
Founder, CoProducer & CoPromoter of the annual Lower 9th Ward Peoples
Festival. Special Events, Speakers Bureau & Media Relations at Rebuild
Green/New Orleans.
http://www.savewesleyunited.org; http://www.rebuildgreen.org;

--
Laura X, founder/director of the former
National Clearinghouse on Marital and Date Rape
Women's History Library
(510) 524-1582�  Berkeley, Ca.
WEB SITE: http://http://ncmdr.org
--
Frieda Werden, Producer
WINGS: Women's International News Gathering Service
http://www.wings.org

http://www.alternet.org/sex/143945/catholic_bishops_put_sex_obsession_ahead_of_m\
ission_to_the_sick_and_the_poor
AlterNet ~ November 16, 2009

Catholic Bishops Put Sex Obsession Ahead of Mission to the Sick and the Poor
By Adele M. Stan, AlterNet

First they threatened to take down health-care reform over abortion
coverage. Now they're threatening services to the sick and poor of
Washington, D.C., over same-sex marriage.

They lead a church that claims to stand on the side of the sick and
the poor, the meek who shall inherit the earth. But in the course of a
single week, the bishops of the Roman Catholic Church proclaimed
themselves willing to see health-care denied to millions of uninsured
Americans, and to yank the social-service rug out from under the feet
of tens of thousands of urban poor in the nation's capital -- all to
serve the bishops' obsession with the sex lives and reproductive
organs of others.

The church's week of shame began with the bishops' role in creating
the monster that is the Stupak amendment to the health-care reform
bill passed last weekend by the House of Representatives, when the
bishops refused to bless a compromise made between pro-choice and
anti-abortion Democrats in the language of the bill. (Without the
bishops' blessing, anti-choice Democrats vowed to vote against the
bill, so Speaker Nancy Pelosi was strong-armed into allowing Rep. Bart
Stupak, D-Mich., to bring an anti-choice amendment to the floor.)
Finishing off the week with a brutal bang, the church threatened to
sever its social service contracts with the District of Columbia if
the city council of Washington, D.C., passes a measure legalizing
same-sex marriage -- a move that would throw services to 68,000 of the
poorest and most vulnerable citizens of the nation's capital into chaos.

This week in the life of the church, says Frances Kissling, the
long-time Catholic feminist activist and current visiting scholar at
the University of Pennsylvania Center for Bioethics, demonstrated the
church's "willingness to just be a bully." (Full disclosure: I worked
for Kissling in 1998, during her 30-year tenure at the helm of
Catholics for Choice.)

The Poor Must Suffer for the Sin of Same-Sex Marriage
Edward Orzechowski is the president and chief executive officer of
Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington. At issue for the
church, he said in a press statement, is that the committee drafting
the measure in the city council had adjusted the language so that the
church would be forbidden from discriminating against same-sex couples
in either the adoptions it arranges for the city's foster-care system,
or in the employment benefits it offers to its own personnel.

Many of the people who work for Catholic Charities, Orzechowski told
the Washington Post, hail from the LGBT community, so the church would
be forced to violate its tenets if the anti-discrimination provision
remained in the marriage-equality measure. Just so you have that
straight: gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people are good
enough to work for Catholic Charities, as long as it's okay for the
church offer them a lower level of benefits than those conferred on
heterosexual couples. And what of the thousands of good people who
work hard jobs for low pay in the employ of Catholic Charities in
Washington? What will become of their jobs if the church severs its
contracts with the city?

"It's a dangerous thing when the Catholic Church starts writing and
determining the legislation and the laws of the District of Columbia,"
said city council member Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), chairman of the Human
Services Committee, told the Post, only to receive this rejoinder:

Susan Gibbs, a spokeswoman for the archdiocese, countered that the
city is "the one giving the ultimatum."

"We are not threatening to walk out of the city," Gibbs said. "The
city is the one saying, 'If you want to continue partnering with the
city, then you cannot follow your faith teachings.' "

"This is the way the church has dealt with every human being from time
immemorial -- and that is to somehow make everybody else feel guilty,
and they're never guilty," said Kissling, the former president of
Catholics for Choice, in an interview with AlterNet. "It's true in
your personal life, it's true about if you have an abortion, or if
you're gay, or if you want to get divorced. It's always, somehow, you
who is being selfish."

Bishops on Steroids
To many observers, the church's strong-arming of both House Democrats
and the Democrats of the District of Columbia city council arrived as
a sudden and unexpected show of force. Except for the election-year
antics of individual bishops bent on denying the church's sacraments
to pro-choice Catholic politicians, the institutional church has
assumed a more reserved political posture in recent years. That may
be, in part, that eight years of the Bush administration gave them
less to oppose at the federal level in the way of abortion rights. But
the big obstacle to the flexing of the the magisterial muscle in the
political arena was the church's willingness to hide the sexual crimes
of its priests -- crimes perpetrated against children, first exposed
by the Boston Globe in 2002.

"And the sex abuse thing was on everybody's mind, and every time they
tried to flex their muscles, somebody would bring up the sex abuse,"
Kissling explained. "So they didn't get as much of an opportunity to
flex their muscles because their moral authority had been totally
eroded. Nobody remembers anything for very long, you know? And now
it's like, eight years, or whatever it's been since the sex-abuse
thing, and so nobody's talking about that any more. And so now they
can flex their muscles again."


By its own account, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
reports that it has paid a total of $2.6 billion to settle
sexual-abuse claims made against its priests. Since the Globe broke
the story of of the bishops' practice of concealing the crimes of
abusive priests while moving them from parish to parish, where they
claimed additional victims, seven dioceses have filed for bankruptcy
because of the abuse claims.

Just last month, the Diocese of Wilmington, Delaware, filed for
federal bankruptcy protection on the eve of a civil trial about the
church's role in the abuse scandal, after settlement negotiations with
victims of priestly sex-abuse broke down. Bankruptcy protection could
permit the diocese to keep secret for years to come what its leaders
knew about the abuse, David Clohessy of Survivors Network of those
Abused by Priests told Bloomberg News, if long delays in the
resolution of plaintiffs' lawsuits result from bankruptcy protection.
"The crisis has always been about secrecy for church officials, from
day one," he said. The bankruptcy filing put a hold on all 131
sex-abuse cases against the diocese.

Sex and Secrets in the Church
There is no small irony in the church's self-appointed role as the
moral arbiter of human sexuality, whether in the areas of human
reproduction or non-heterosexual sex. As an institution, it ranks
among the world's most sexually dysfunctional. Its demands for
life-long celibacy from its priests and nuns attract no small number
people who are uncomfortable with their own sexuality -- be it
something as benign and normal as homosexuality, or something criminal
and predatory, as in the case of the priests who preyed on minors.
Despite the high number of gay men in the priesthood -- most of them
likely celibate -- speaking of their orientation publicly, while not
expressly proscribed, is not exactly encouraged. The church addresses
the sexuality of its own leaders by drawing a curtain around it,
creating a culture of sexual secrecy that can only lead to
dysfunction. By its actions, the church seems to say it's not the sex
that's the sin, but evidence thereof. And that makes heterosexual sex
primarily a woman's sin, evidenced by pregnancy, a dynamic that feeds
the misogyny of the church's all-male leadership.

Many will argue that the church's anti-abortion position is not about
sex; it's about the fetus, they will say. Yet if you take the church's
fierce opposition to abortion -- without mercy even in cases of rape
or incest -- in the context of its opposition to contraception, it
becomes difficult to accept the notion that the church's dysfunction
on matters of sexuality doesn't enter into the equation.

The church has long excluded women from the priesthood for no reason
other than their sex. Only a very naive or stupid woman would take
church leaders at their word when they stake their abortion position
on their purported love for the fetus.  How many pregnant women will
the Archdiocese of Washington abandon in favor maintaining a
discriminatory practice against those LGBT people willing to speak the
name of a love once denied them. How many babies born to mothers
unable to care for them would the church prefer to see languish in
foster care rather than place them in the home of a same-sex couple
capable of raising them? Does love for the fetus end at the outer bank
of the birth canal?

Getting Their Way?
At press time, leading members the city council of the District of
Columbia seemed unwilling to yield to the church's demands. If the
church walks away from its contractual obligations to society's less
fortunate, it won't be the first time it has done so. In Boston, where
the sex-abuse scandal first came to light, Catholic Charities ended
its adoption programs in 2006 when Massachusetts banned discrimination
against same-sex couples. In 1991, the City of New York reached a
compromise with the Archdiocese of New York after a threat to give
back to the city thousands of teen-age children in foster care after
the state passed a law mandating access to contraceptives for children
over the age of 12.

But in the Congress, things are different. There a stand against the
newly invigorated church can mean major policy losses, thanks to the
efforts of conservative Democrats like Stupak, recruited by the
Democratic National Committee to run in less-than-liberal districts,
who are allied with the bishops on matters concerning women's rights.

"So the bishops were able to get their way," Kissling says of the
anti-abortion measure added to the health-care bill. "And the thing
with the bishops is, if they can get their way, no nuance or doubt
enters their minds about whether getting their way is the right thing to do."

NOTE: The Catholic Alliance for the Common Good, a group that supports
the anti-abortion Stupak amendment, was invited to comment for this
article. AlterNet's call was not returned.

http://www.alternet.org/story/143904/why_the_catholic_bishops_who_pushed_through\
_the_stupak_amendment_are_hypocrites
AlterNet ~ November 13, 2009
Why the Catholic Bishops Who Pushed Through the Stupak Amendment Are Hypocrites
By Jon O'Brien and Nancy Keenan, AlterNet

The same language the bishops thought too weak to truly ban public
funding for abortion maintains their charities' own access to public money.

As advocates for reproductive health, we are outraged at what
transpired in the House over the weekend.

The passage of the Stupak-Pitts amendment goes far beyond the status
quo on abortion restrictions and would make it nearly impossible for
insurance plans in the new system to offer abortion coverage.

This campaign succeeded in large part because its supporters
perpetuated falsehoods about abortion coverage in the new system.

Most notably, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and its allies
in the House distorted the facts about the health reform proposal by
claiming that the proposed system would have used federal dollars to
cover abortion care. They�re wrong.

The original House bill included a compromise that required all plans
to separate public and private dollars in the new system � ensuring
that no tax dollars would ever cover abortion services.

In fact, the bishops should be familiar with this arrangement because
it reflects the same principle of separation that guides their
financial interaction with the federal government. The bishops have a
long history of almost unlimited access to enormous quantities of
federal funding. When it comes to funding for Catholic schools and
hospitals or programs run by Catholic Charities, they accept federal
funding with open arms. The bishops never question their own ability
to lawfully manage funds from separate sources to ensure that tax
dollars don�t finance religious practices.

Yet they reject the idea that others could do the same. This is the
very definition of hypocrisy.

For example, Catholic hospitals depend on federal funding. Indiana has
35 Catholic hospitals and 26 other Catholic health-care facilities. In
2007, 58 percent of patients who visited these facilities were covered
by Medicaid or Medicare, a proportion reflected across the country.
With well over half of their revenue coming from the government, it is
safe to say that Catholic hospitals survive on government funding as
well as contributions from private sources.

Catholic Charities, the domestic direct service arm of the bishops,
also depends on state and federal dollars. Sixty-seven percent of
Catholic Charities� income comes from government funding. That
represents over $2.6 billion in 2008 � an amount that is more than
three times as large as the next largest charitable recipient of
federal funds, the YMCA. Just as Catholic hospitals do, Catholic
Charities receives enormous quantities of government dollars while
abiding by existing constitutional and statutory requirements that
prevent government sponsorship of religion.

The bishops know that a vast majority of Americans, including
Catholics, disagree with their hard-line dictates regarding
reproductive-health care, including the bishops� opposition to contraception.

However, when it comes to health care reform � from which many
millions of people will benefit � the bishops injected divisive
politics into the process and overran a compromise that would have
guaranteed that no federal dollars would cover abortion care.

As this debate moves forward, U.S. senators and the public should
challenge the bishops� hypocrisy. If separation of federal funds and
private dollars works for the church hierarchy, then it should also
work for women�s reproductive-health care.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nancy Keenan is president of NARAL Pro-Choice America and Jon O�Brien
is president of Catholics for Choice.

Dear All,

New on the Dialaogue page of Women's Web - Women'sStories, Women's Actions:

THE LAW REPORT ON NATIONAL RADIO 621 - Weasel Words Reign?

Professor Margaret Thornton  - see interview and letter on Women's
Web, the Stories and Dialogue pages - and a man from the Catholic
Church were interviewed today regarding anti discrimination and human
rights legislation.

I already supported Prof Thornton's position, so I expected to
disagree with the man from the Catholic Church. I didn't expect him to
use words and expressions to mean the opposite of what they convey,
though, and he did. In my opinion he used weasel words and expressions.

The expression 'let a thousand flowers bloom' is an appeal to
tolerance, yet he used it to argue that the church should be able to
discriminate against single mothers, lesbians etc when employing teachers.

The word freedom means just that. He did not say whose freedom he
meant, however, when he stated 'I think the principle word here should
be freedom' when arguing against human rights legislation.

Listening to this man I felt drawn in to some Alice in Wonderland
dream or nightmare world where nothing made sense. Remember the
expression 'when I use a word it means exactly what I want it to mean'
- or similar - from that book. It frightened me, even as a child. It
frightens me still.

It is comforting to know that Sheila Jeffry's forthcoming new book
addresses this subject. Yes, this is a plug. We have to support each
other more than ever under this onslaught from religion and the
Religious Right, I think.

Also, her current book, The Industrial Vagina is available now at a
reduced price at the University of Melbourne bookshop. Gifts or
holiday reading with some teeth?

I took this from the publisher�s website http://www.routledgeeconomics.com

The industrialization of prostitution and the sex trade has created a
multibillion-dollar global market, involving millions of women, that
makes a substantial contribution to national and global economies.

The Industrial Vagina examines how prostitution and other aspects of
the sex industry have moved from being small-scale, clandestine, and
socially despised practices to become very profitable legitimate
market sectors that are being legalised and decriminalised by
governments. Sheila Jeffreys demonstrates how prostitution has been
globalized through an examination of:
* the growth of pornography and its new global reach
* the boom in adult shops, strip clubs and escort agencies
* military prostitution and sexual violence in war
* marriage and the mail order bride industry
* the rise in sex tourism and trafficking in women.

She argues that through these practices women�s subordination has been
outsourced and that states that legalise this industry are acting as
pimps, enabling male buyers in countries in which women�s equality
threatens male dominance, to buy access to the bodies of women from
poor countries who are paid for their sexual subservience.

This major and provocative contribution is essential reading for all
with an interest in feminist, gender and critical globalisation issues
as well as students and scholars of international political economy.

Best wishes,

Geraldine

'Social justice and economic justice cannot be separated - they are
intertwined.' Edith Morgan

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Geraldine Robertson
Tel: 03 9486 1808
Women's Web www.womensweb.com.au
Women Working Together http://home.vicnet.net.au/~women

Blessings All

I woke at 4 am. I am preparing to go to Big Mountain during the
Thanksgiving work week that has been organized for many years now by
Black Mesa Indigenous Support volunteers. I have not been on a
caravan to Big Mountain since we organized an amazing first in 1985
that arrived at the survival camp in time for the Spring Gathering. It
included a Uhaul filled with food and clothing donations. This was an
unprecedented collaboration with AIM and Hippies from the mountains of
northeastern Washington, Olympia organizers, nonIndian allies and many
who joined along the way. The memories from that journey are
priceless. Many who participated have passed on. May the story be told....

The optimism charging that long ago effort has been worn down by the
ongoing reality of serious struggle silenced even by fellow activists.
The resistance of traditional Native Americans is the longest and most
ignored stand for sacred land and against long term resource
extraction on the north and south of this continent. Such is the
deeply rooted stubborn legacy of racist colonialism. It is a mental
and physical illness i strive to address not only among my own people,
but in myself as well. Changing such generation behaviors is
difficult yet essential.

To advocate for the silenced is to take on a lifetime of self
educating that includes systematic dismantling of my own inbred
racism. Few seem to be willing to dismantle the privilege and
sacrifice involved in facing what most white people continue
maintaining. I have witnessed over the years how most drop the quest
for justice like the hot potato it is. Oh, bloody, painful heart of
genocide that burns one to the very soul...

It is no easy task to follow thru to completion the sacred duty
involved in addressing the comforts enjoyed overwhelmingly by the
invader nations who control, still, this country and it's wealth. I am
ashamed of my people, even my precious Hippie people who populate the
hills and valleys where organic food has a foothold. I see denial
infecting all of us as the situation grows ever bleaker for our
fragile planet and the coming generations. We, who had the chance to
act with full, strong conscience, have failed. We can't even stand
strongly against the warped hybrid war-into-global-genocide that
stains all our hands with the blood of innocents.

Isolation is lethal and it is one of the most effective tools of
divide and conquer available. Thanks to the judgments of privilege
perpetrated by those whose fear prevents strong, committed and
powerful action, we are a nation known globally as in disagreement
with genocide, yet failing miserably to do a thing about it.

So it is with this heart heavy for many years now, that i embark on a
journey. I have not seen Pauline since December of 2004. Her
sheepherder Owen called in September leaving a message from her and
asking me to joining this effort. I planned accordingly.

I have been laboring intensely to care for my youngest who has also
been a recipient of hateful racism. It has taken us 3 years to find a
home after leaving the mountains where we lived for most of her life
when the bigotry, economics and family tragedy forced us out. To live
in the dominant society with children forces one to conform to it's
destructiveness in order to eat. At least working as i do gardening,
cleaning houses and cooking allows more of my beliefs to remain
intact, but it's capitulation to capitalism nonetheless. I feel the
pull within my entire being to the lands of Big Mountain/Black Mesa,
to the borderlands, to Mexico, to Juarez, to Chiapas, to the places
where the most silenced caretakers of earth never stop defending
ancient ways of life. To lose these ways is to the peril of all life,
all of us, everything.

The vital energy i once had as i realized the importance of the
struggle of traditional Dine and Hopi has decreased due to exhaustion,
age and the lack of mass response. Too many just shrug and say they
thought it was over, that relocation never really happened. The issue
perhaps never grabbed hearts like mine was and is. So i see hearts
must awaken when they do and i simply must continue as i am able.
Finally, i can make this journey for a very short time to support
Pauline Whitesinger, my life's greatest teacher in her lifetime
opposition to Peabody coal and her defense of sacred land and life.

My daughter is almost on her own. When i am fully able to devote
myself to the justice that must be done, i will be 60 years old with
hands, back, legs, gnarled with hard labor. My heart feels ageless and
it drives me to carry out whatever instructions come thru in the quest
for peace and justice due emerging generations.

In peaceful struggle,
swaneagle harijan
frontlinemom@...

From: wfs delhi <wfsdelhi@...>
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:48:47 +0530 (IST)
Subject: WFS LOG

Dear Editor,
'Meet The Grewals, Britain's TV Parivar' in Channel 4's 'The Family'
that has captured the daily life of a quintessential British Asian
family, complete with the pre-mature birth of a grandchild and a big
fat Punjabi wedding. 'Shigeko Gifts Sri Lanka A Picturebook
Childhood', as her efforts to provide well-written picture books to
pre-school kids have reached 350 pre-schools across the island-nation.
'China Takes On The Child Traffickers Of Mekong' by devising a joint
action plan with Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia and Thailand to
tackle the growing crime. For the people of Mattapally, a small
village by the banks of the Vembanad Lake in Kottayam, Kerala, global
warming is destroying the black clams they harvest for a living,
reveals 'Life By This Lakeside Is Far From Idyllic'. Four Indian women
skydivers are 'Falling From the Skies For A Cause' in a bid to help
eradicate blindness from the country. 'In Desert Country, Climate
Change Clouds The Future', as shrinking grazing lands, plummeting
ground water levels and shriveled harvest compel farmers in
northwestern India to seek manual labour and even buy food that they
once harvested with ease. While sexual violence against women is not
new to Delhi, a recent study reveals that a large percentage of
reported crime against women is against those from the Northeast,
informs 'Northeastern Women: Through The Lens, Darkly'.

Please forward your requests for stories. We would be happy to send
them to you.

With warm regards,
Ain Haider
Associate Editor
Women's Feature Service
================================================
THE WFS LOG November 16, 2009
================================================
India: Falling From the Skies For A Cause
By Surekha Kadapa-Bose

Have you ever experienced the gut-wrenching excitement of jumping into
open blue skies from 14,000 feet, as a cold blast of air hits your
face and all you can hear is the deafening whir of the helicopter and
the beat of your own heart. Four women skydivers, Archana Sardana,
Mili Sharma, Bharati Thanwani and Rupinder Parhar, and their mentor
Padmashri Rachel Thomas, have. Now not only have they formed the
Indian Women Skydiving Association in a bid to popularise the
adrenaline-pumping sport in India, but they also are ready to fall
from the skies for a cause.

* 'Since skydiving attracts large crowds we decided that while we do
demos we will get people to sign up as a donors to the nearest eye
bank so that we can try to help in eradicating blindness from our country.'
  WFS REF NO: INDib11
1,150 words
Sports\Awareness
Photographs Available
------------------------------------------------
UK: Meet The Grewals, Britain's TV Parivar
By Barbara Lewis

As much provocative as reactionary, the trailer for Britain's latest
fly-on-the-wall TV documentary begins with a woman ironing and her
husband declaring: 'Meet my wife. She's the one who's going to cook
for me'. Then the words, at once serious and gently mocking, '35 years
of blissful marriage', flash across the screen. Meet the Grewals of
Windsor, a quintessential British Asian family of nine - the stars of
Channel 4's 'The Family' that has captured the drama of their daily
lives, complete with the pre-mature birth of a grandchild and a big
fat Punjabi wedding.

* "It's not a piece of reality TV. It's real TV. It's lovingly crafted."

WFS REF NO: BRIib09
850 words
Television\Society
Photographs Available
-------------------------------------------------
India: Life By This Lakeside Is Far From Idyllic
By Shwetha E. George

Kerala's water-bodies are the greatest contributors to the food
security of the state. The nutrient value of sardines, mackerel, tuna
and other pelagic fish is a blessing to the 10 per cent coastal
population here. But for the hard working people of Mattapally, a
small village by the banks of the massive Vembanad Lake in Kottayam
district separated from the Arabian Sea by a narrow barrier island,
global warming, along with land reclamation, is destroying the black
clams they harvest for a living.

* 'Even when my husband takes six hours to fish, all he can bring home
is hardly one basket which will yield less than a kilo of meat.'

WFS REF NO: INDib12c
1,200 words
Environment\Livelihood
Photographs Available
------------------------------------------------
India: Northeastern Women: Through The Lens, Darkly
By Amrita Nandy-Joshi

While sexual violence against women is not new to Delhi - the Capital
had gained notoriety as the 'rape capital' of the country - a recent
study reveals that a large percentage of reported crime against women
is against those from the Northeast. Sadly, it appears that race and
gender intersect to create a double discrimination for these women. Of
the estimated 100,000 Northeastern people in the Capital, 86 per cent
have reported racist discrimination, and 41 per cent of cases were of
sexual abuse.

* "I have never had a friend from the Northeast but I think these
girls are carefree and footloose. They stand out with their different
facial features. They are attractive so men sexually harass them."

WFS REF NO: INDib09
1,190 words
Violence\Communities
Photographs Available
------------------------------------------------
Sri Lanka: Shigeko Gifts Sri Lanka A Picturebook Childhood
By Vijita Fernando

Most of us can fondly recall our first picture book with its big
drawings and vivid colours. But had it not been for a young Japanese
student, thousands of poor pre-school children in Sri Lanka wouldn't
have had the opportunity to see, let alone read, a well-written
picture book. Shigeko Baba, who had come to Sri Lanka to study the
pre-school system nearly two decades back, has touched the lives of
children in 350 pre-schools across the island-nation. Be it the Ali
Pancha Picture Book Programme that distributes books to schools
through a mobile library, or 'Smiles from Sri Lanka', a unique book on
the country's culture, Shigeko has come up with new ways to engage the
little learners.

* "It was not only the lack of books that really struck me. It was the
fact that even the few books they had were not suitable for their
ages. These books did nothing to stimulate their interest or capture
their imagination."

WFS REF NO: SRIib10
1,200 words
Literature\Children
Photographs Available
-------------------------------------------------
India: In Desert Country, Climate Change Clouds The Future
By Renu Rakesh

For thousands of men and women in the rain-fed regions of the country
adjoining the Thar desert, climate change is a deathly reality.
Shrinking grazing lands, plummeting ground water levels, the increased
use of harmful fertilisers, and shriveled crops are compelling humble
farmers in northwestern India, ever so dependent on the vagaries of
the monsoon, to migrate, seek manual labour, and even buy the food
that they once harvested with ease.

* 'There is a festival called Jood-Shital, or Satuaani, which earlier
marked the onset of summers. Mango trees started fruiting by this
time. Now there is no guarantee that summer will begin around Satuaani.'

WFS REF NO: INDib10o
1,130 words
Agriculture\Climate Change
Photographs Available
------------------------------------------------
China: China Takes On The Child Traffickers Of Mekong
By Ma Guihua

Zhao Xianming, a narcotics control liaison officer for Mengla county
in China's Yunnan province, clearly remembers the events that unfolded
one afternoon a few months back. Zhao received a call from a police
officer in Phongsaly province of northern Laos urging him to stop the
bus coming in to the city from Laos. Two teenaged girls were being
trafficked into China on the pretext of securing jobs at a restaurant.
Thanks to the timely communication the two were rescued and saved from
ending up as sex workers, forced labour or bought brides. China and
its neighbours along the Mekong River - Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar,
Cambodia and Thailand - have now devised a joint action plan to tackle
the growing crime.

* The liaison office in Mengla is one of a series of offices set up
along China's southwest border to fight cross-border trafficking
through information sharing, investigation and victim transfer.

WFS REF NO: PRCib11
1,120 words
Trafficking\Activism
================================================
FOR THE COMPLETE TEXT OF THE STORIES PLEASE CONTACT
WOMEN'S FEATURE SERVICE AT: wfsdelhi@... or wfsdelhi@...
================================================
Views reflected in these features do not necessarily reflect those of
Women's Feature Service.
================================================
The Women's Feature Service office is located at:
G-69, Second floor; Nizamuddin West, New Delhi: 110013; India.
Phone: +91-11-2435 9886, +91-11-2435 2546; Fax: +91-11-2435 4606
Email: wfsdelhi@...; Website: http://www.wfsnews.org

Are they still active, does anyone know?

--
Frieda Werden, Producer
WINGS: Women's International News Gathering Service
http://www.wings.org

From: Sharon Bhagwan Rolls <sharon@...>
Organization: femLINKPACIFIC
Reply-To: Pacific Women's Information Network <pacwin@...>
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:24:04 +1200
Subject: [pacwin] More news from the GEAR Campaign Network
Report from the NGO Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) GEAR Caucus
October 31, 2009

The New Gender Entity in the United Nations: the Sum is Larger than the Parts
At the NGO CSW Roundtable meeting on the Economic Commission for
Europe (ECE) review of the 15th anniversary of the Beijing Platform
for Action women gathered to develop recommendations that reflected
the needs and experiences of women in the region.  The two day NGO
meeting took place in Geneva from October 30-31, 2009 and focused on
�the challenges of gender equality in the context of the economic and
financial crisis.�

One of the panels focused on the new United Nations gender equality
entity.  Participants included June Zeitlin, GEAR Campaign consultant;
Margot Baruch, Center for Women�s Global Leadership (CWGL); Cecile
Greboval, European Women�s Lobby (EWL); Susi Snyder, Women�s
International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF); and Nyaradzai
Gumbonzvanda, World YWCA.
Susi Snyder began the panel with an overview of the GEAR Campaign and
shared anecdotes of women�s history in the United Nations.  The GEAR
Campaign is a network of over 300 organizations worldwide spanning 80
countries. The Campaign has been advocating for the new gender entity
since 2006 following a report by the High Level Panel on Systemwide
Coherence submitted to then Secreary-General Kofi Annan. Ms. Snyder
further explained that we are calling for not just the same siloed
programs in one agency, but rather for the sum of the new entity to be
larger than its parts.

Nyaradzai Gumbonzvanda, formerly worked for UNIFEM as a regional
coordinator in the Horn of Africa.  She asked the audience
rhetorically why we need a new gender entity.  She reiterated how
coherence around gender equality and women�s empowerment programming
at the UN and stronger policy engagement are two areas that needed to
be strengthened.  The UN must have a stronger voice on women�s issues
that supports countries to enhance and advance the lives of women and
girls everywhere.  Ms. Gumbonzvanda stated that the new women�s entity
will influence intergovernmental processes which will allow for more
systematic engagement from �institution to institution at the
multilateral level and thus impact the national level.�

June Zeitlin gave an in-depth update about where the process is now
and how the GEAR Campaign plans to move forward.  She noted that on
September 14, 2009, the General Assembly adopted a resolution
endorsing the creation of the new gender equality entity to be headed
by a new Under Secretary General (USG).[1]
<mhtml:mid://00000123/#_ftn1>   The resolution has three paragraphs
focusing on the consolidation of the four women specific entities, the
appointment of an Under Secretary General, and asks that the Secretary
General provide more information regarding organizational structure
and other details in a report that is scheduled to be completed by the
end of 2009.[2] <mhtml:mid://00000123/#_ftn2>  In the past, it has
been difficult to raise gender equality issues because women do not
have a seat at the decision-making table either at headquarters or at
the country level.  The new Under Secretary General position will for
the first time be a high level authoritative position.  The GEAR
Campaign has developed criteria for the appointment and is urging
consultation with civil society.  The Campaign urges the appointment
of the new USG by the March 2010 meeting of the Commission on the
Status of Women.  The GEAR Campaign has not yet endorsed any
candidates for the USG position.  Zeitlin declared that the success of
the new entity depends on whether or not it will deliver effectively
for women at the country level.  The new entity must have visionary
leadership and transformative programming that will move beyond the
status quo.  The consolidation of the new gender entity is, �not about
just moving boxes around in an organizational chart, but rather having
a vision to and capacity to deliver real progress for women on the ground.�

Margot Baruch, who manages GEAR Campaign communications, highlighted
how the Campaign continues to frame vital discussions and conceptual
thinking of how activists can participate in UN reform process to
ensure that governments are accountable to women everywhere.  She
explained that the GEAR Campaign working group includes global and
regional focal points, and a New York Lobbying Group as well as a
network of over 300 organizations. [3] <mhtml:mid://00000123/#_ftn3>
The working group determines overall strategic directions of the GEAR
Campaign including broad policy decisions and maps out a comprehensive
advocacy strategy and develops responses to major new developments.

The European focal point for the GEAR Campaign, Cecile Greboval,
presented advocacy that NGO�s in the region have accomplished.  The
GEAR Campaign in Europe is constantly working to influence the
European member states.  Greboval asked that NGO participants in the
ECE meeting actively seek out their government representatives and
visibly illustrate the need for civil society systematic input as well
as an ambitiously funded entity.  She referenced the website they had
developed that can facilitate communications with government
officials.[4] <mhtml:mid://00000123/#_ftn4>

The GEAR Campaign advocates for a stronger agency that provides
critical leadership for gender mainstreaming in the UN.  Just as
UNICEF is the driver for children�s rights and UNDP is in the lead for
development, the new women�s entity will have the strategic mandate to
empower and advance women�s rights and listen to women�s voices on the
ground.  All UN agencies must be held accountable to promoting gender
equality and women�s empowerment.

The UN charter begins with �we the people�.  No matter how long the
process takes or what bargaining chips governments will claim, women
and civil society will continue to play a crucial role in the
development of the new gender entity.

Vinaka-Shukriya, Peace
Sincerely
Sharon Bhagwan Rolls (Pacific focal point - GEAR Working Group)
Coordinator
femLINKPACIFIC (Media Initiatives for Women)
P O Box 2439, Government Buildings
Suva, Fiji Islands
Phone +679 3310303
Fax +679 3307207
Mobile +679 9244871
http://www.femlinkpacific.org.fj

Visit our Community Media Centre:
2nd Floor Bayly House
193 Rodwell Road, Suva
--------------

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=16001
Global Research November 13, 2009

Open Letter From the Peace Movement to President Obama on His
Upcoming Decision Regarding the Afghan War
by Cynthia McKinney

Dear Mr. President:
According to press reports, you intend to decide between November 7
and November 11 whether or not to send tens of thousands of American
soldiers to Afghanistan. We are writing in advance of that decision
to add our voice to those of Sen. Feingold, many House Democrats, and
of a clear majority of Americans in urging you not to escalate this
war, but rather to announce an immediate cease-fire followed by a
withdrawal of all US troops in the fastest way consistent with the
safety of our forces. We urge you to end the policy of using Predator
drones to assassinate Pakistani civilians on the territory of their
own country, in defiance of all concepts of international law. We
also call upon you to cease all covert CIA and Pentagon operations in
Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran.

No vital American interest is at stake in Afghanistan. Former Marine
and State Department official Matthew Hoh is right: the US and NATO
forces in Afghanistan have come to be viewed as invaders and
occupiers, and the resistance they encounter has nothing to do with
international terrorism. This war is futile, and now doomed to
failure. There is no military solution to the problems that beset
Afghanistan. Afghanistan and the rest of this tragically war-torn
region need a Marshall Plan of peaceful economic development, through
which some of the 15 million unemployed workers in our own country
could find productive jobs. We have no confidence in the advice being
given to you by military leaders like Gen. McChrystal, who has been
implicated in torture in Iraq.

We supported your candidacy because we viewed you as the best chance
for ending the wars of the Bush era. We applauded your rejection of
the rhetoric of fear and division that was the stock in trade of Bush
and Cheney. We are alarmed by the way that rhetoric has crept into
your public pronouncements since your August address in Phoenix. Your
decision on Afghanistan will represent the decisive turning point of
your presidency. If you turn away from war, you will provide a
profile in courage that will solidify your support and open up a new
perspective for progressive reforms in our country. You will honor
the spirit of John F. Kennedy, who was searching for an exit strategy
from the Vietnam war. If you opt for a wider war, the resulting heavy
casualties will destroy confidence in your leadership among your own
most devoted advocates. Hundreds of billions of dollars will be
poured down a rat hole, and will no longer be available for any
reform and renovation of American society, which will increasingly
fall behind the economic strength of other countries. Your domestic
agenda will be halted, in the same way your predecessor Lyndon B.
Johnson was crippled by the Vietnam war. Escalation of the Afghan
war, in short, would be an act of political suicide for you, and of
national suicide for our country.

We are keenly aware of the difficulties and animosities you face, and
we have long done everything possible to give your administration the
benefit of the doubt, even in the face of repeated disappointments.
But we now approach the moment of truth: will you be a great
progressive president, or will you prove too weak to turn away from
the bankrupt policies institutionalized and entrenched under Bush and
Cheney. Therefore, we want you to know our attitude before you decide
on the proposed Afghan escalation. If you choose to escalate, we will
oppose this policy with all the energy we possess. We will act to
mobilize the largest possible anti-war demonstration in Washington DC
and other cities before the end of 2009, and continuously thereafter.
We will support anti-war candidates of any party in the 2010
elections. If you are still waging the Afghan war in 2011, we will be
forced to seriously consider backing an explicitly anti-war primary
candidate to challenge you during the Democratic primaries.

We therefore respectfully urge you to act in the spirit of your 2008
campaign - the spirit of hope and change, neither of which can
survive the continuation or expansion of the hopeless Afghan war.

Cynthia McKinney, DIGNITY

Today's London Guardian carries several articles and a video reporting
the astronomic rise of birth deformities and infant cancers, many
extreme, in Falluja, an infamous target of US air strikes in 2003 and 2004.

These are not isolated reports. Others have been forthcoming over the
past two to three years, and include a large degree of similarity
with those from Afghanistan, and are the most concrete evidence of
genocidal war crimes committed by Bush Jnr and his accomplices Tony
Blair and John Howard.

In addition to the untold suffering of infants who live on despite
their birth deformities, the high incidence of neo-natal deaths,
together with the intense care required for the infants so-affected,
brings unimaginable grief to Iraqi mothers.

Nuremberg II for Bush Jnr, Blair and Howard! - Lynette
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Formatted, illustrated versions of the below and related items,
including Dave Lindorff's "Depleted Uranium Weapons: The Dead Babies
in Iraq and Afghanistan Are No Joke" from the Baltimore Chronicle on
Oct 19 2009, at:
http://www.global-sisterhood-network.org/content/view/2376/59/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/13/falluja-cancer-children-birth-defect\
s
The Guardian ~ London ~ Saturday November 14 2009, page 1
Huge rise in birth defects in Falluja
Iraqi former battle zone sees abnormal clusters of infant tumours and
deformities
Martin Chulov in Falluja
****************
Video:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2009/nov/14/falluja-children-iraq-conflict
The children of Falluja

Doctors are dealing with an increase in chronic deformities in infants
in Falluja, where heavy munitions were used in 2004
Martin Chulov and Shehani Fernando
****************

Doctors in Iraq's war-ravaged enclave of Falluja are dealing with up
to 15 times as many chronic deformities in infants and a spike in
early life cancers that may be linked to toxic materials left over
from the fighting.

The extraordinary rise in birth defects has crystallised over recent
months as specialists working in Falluja's over-stretched health
system have started compiling detailed clinical records of all babies born.

Neurologists and obstetricians in the city interviewed by the Guardian
say the rise in birth defects � which include a baby born with two
heads, babies with multiple tumours, and others with nervous system
problems - are unprecedented and at present unexplainable.

A group of Iraqi and British officials, including the former Iraqi
minister for women's affairs, Dr Nawal Majeed a-Sammarai, and the
British doctors David Halpin and Chris Burns-Cox, have petitioned the
UN general assembly to ask that an independent committee fully
investigate the defects and help clean up toxic materials left over
decades of war � including the six years since Saddam Hussein was ousted.

"We are seeing a very significant increase in central nervous system
anomalies," said Falluja general hospital's director and senior
specialist, Dr Ayman Qais. "Before 2003 [the start of the war] I was
seeing sporadic numbers of deformities in babies. Now the frequency of
deformities has increased dramatically."

The rise in frequency is stark � from two admissions a fortnight a
year ago to two a day now. "Most are in the head and spinal cord, but
there are also many deficiencies in lower limbs," he said. "There is
also a very marked increase in the number of cases of less than two
years [old] with brain tumours. This is now a focus area of multiple tumours."

After several years of speculation and anecdotal evidence, a picture
of a highly disturbing phenomenon in one of Iraq's most battered areas
has now taken shape. Previously all miscarried babies, including those
with birth defects or infants who were not given ongoing care, were
not listed as abnormal cases.

The Guardian asked a paediatrician, Samira Abdul Ghani, to keep
precise records over a three-week period. Her records reveal that 37
babies with anomalies, many of them neural tube defects, were born
during that period at Falluja general hospital alone.

Dr Bassam Allah, the head of the hospital's children's ward, this week
urged international experts to take soil samples across Falluja and
for scientists to mount an investigation into the causes of so many
ailments, most of which he said had been "acquired" by mothers before
or during pregnancy.

Other health officials are also starting to focus on possible reasons,
chief among them potential chemical or radiation poisonings. Abnormal
clusters of infant tumours have also been repeatedly cited in Basra
and Najaf � areas that have in the past also been intense battle zones
where modern munitions have been heavily used.

Falluja's frontline doctors are reluctant to draw a direct link with
the fighting. They instead cite multiple factors that could be contributors.

"These include air pollution, radiation, chemicals, drug use during
pregnancy, malnutrition, or the psychological status of the mother,"
said Dr Qais. "We simply don't have the answers yet."

The anomalies are evident all through Falluja's newly opened general
hospital and in centres for disabled people across the city. On 2
November alone, there were four cases of neuro-tube defects in the
neo-natal ward and several more were in the intensive care ward and an
outpatient clinic.

Falluja was the scene of the only two setpiece battles that followed
the US-led invasion. Twice in 2004, US marines and infantry units were
engaged in heavy fighting with Sunni militia groups who had aligned
with former Ba'athists and Iraqi army elements.

The first battle was fought to find those responsible for the deaths
of four Blackwater private security contractors working for the US.
The city was bombarded heavily by American artillery and fighter jets.
Controversial weaponry was used, including white phosphorus, which the
US government admitted deploying.

Statistics on infant tumours are not considered as reliable as new
data about nervous system anomalies, which are usually evident
immediately after birth. Dr Abdul Wahid Salah, a neurosurgeon, said:
"With neuro-tube defects, their heads are often larger than normal,
they can have deficiencies in hearts and eyes and their lower limbs
are often listless. There has been no orderly registration here in the
period after the war and we have suffered from that. But [in relation
to the rise in tumours] I can say with certainty that we have noticed
a sharp rise in malignancy of the blood and this is not a congenital
anomaly � it is an acquired disease."

Despite fully funding the construction of the new hospital, a
well-equipped facility that opened in August, Iraq's health ministry
remains largely disfunctional and unable to co-ordinate a response to
the city's pressing needs.

The government's lack of capacity has led Falluja officials, who have
historically been wary of foreign intervention, to ask for help from
the international community. "Even in the scientific field, there has
been a reluctance to reach out to the exterior countries," said Dr
Salah. "But we have passed that point now. I am doing multiple
surgeries every day. I have one assistant and I am obliged to do
everything myself."

Additional reporting: Enas Ibrahim.