Friday, March 12, 2004

Women's Rights are Human Rights FEATURED ARTICLES - Amnesty International's Campaign to Stop Violence Against Women - On International Women's Day, Iraqi Women Have Little to Celebrate, by Medea Benjamin - Beware the Bushwomen, The Nation QUOTE OF THE DAY "Women are in double jeopardy. Discriminated against as women, they are also as likely as men, if not more so, to become victims of human rights violations… Today, what unites women internationally-transcending class, race, culture, religion, nationality and ethnic origin-is their vulnerability to the denial and violation of their fundamental human rights, and their dedicated efforts to claim those rights."   - - Amnesty International's Human Rights are Women's Rights Proclamation KNOW YOUR HISTORY - MARCH 12th 1993 -- Janet Reno was sworn in as the nation's first female attorney general. 2000 -- In Morocco some 500,000 Muslim fundamentalists marched in Casablanca in opposition to the government's plan to extend women's rights. In Rabat another 200-300,000 people marched in support of the plan. RHINO HERE: Earlier this week, Amnesty International marked International Women's Day by kicking out an international campaign for the human rights of women. Today I offer a few excerpts from their web pages including links to several Fact Sheets, their goals for the campaign, and 10 things you can do to assist them in their effort. Next is an essay by activist Medea Benjamin on the state of the lives of women in Iraq, comparing their plight under Saddam's Iraq with the every day struggles they face in the U.S, occupied Iraq. Not a pretty picture, since Medea tells it like it is, having been there several times since the beginning of the war. Lastly, RHINOS BOTTOM LINE, entitled, "Beware the Bushwomen," was written by Laura Flanders, who recently penned the book,  'Bushwomen: Tales of a Cynical Species,' an investigation into the women in the shrub's cabinet. (Verso Books, March, 2004). Rhino sez, go out today and make some left leaning woman smile. Amnesty International's Campaign to Stop Violence Against Women Violence against women is a human rights violation. It is not a "women's issue" or a "private matter." The underlying cause of the violence that women suffer is discrimination, which denies them equality with men in all areas of life. From birth to death, in times of peace as well as war, women face discrimination and violence at the hands of the state, the community and the family. Campaign Fact Sheets Women's Human Rights  /  Violence Against Women /  Rape as a Tool of War  /  Sexual Violence  / Violence Against Women in Armed Conflict  /  HIV/AIDS, Women and Human Rights ALL AVAILABLE AT: http://www.amnestyusa.org/stopviolence/ Amnesty International's Goals Ensure that resources are provided -- by governments, communities, institutions and individuals -- to prevent violence against women and to protect women and girls in peacetime as well as armed conflict. Specifically: - Challenge the failure of international law and governments to adequately prevent violence and protect women and girls. - Hold legally mandated peacekeeping missions accountable for violence against women and for respecting the rights of women and girls. - Press for the inclusion of women in post-conflict reconstruction. - Urge governments to ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. http://www.amnestyusa.org/stopviolence/aboutthecampaign.html 10 THINGS YOU YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW to Stop Violence Against Women http://www.amnestyusa.org/stopviolence/takeaction.html On International Women's Day, Iraqi Women Have Little to Celebrate by Medea Benjamin, CommonDreams.org, March 8, 2004 On March 8, 2003, international women's day, Iraqi women had little to celebrate. They were living under the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, the weight of onerous UN sanctions and living in fear of impending war. This year, Saddam Hussein is gone and sanctions have been lifted. But Iraqi women face a brand new set of burdens. Iraqi women, like Iraqi men, wage a day-to-day struggle just to survive: they face a devastating 60 percent unemployment rate, constant shortages of electricity and clean drinking water, a crumbling transportation network, and a crumbling health care system. But Iraqi women also have to cope with an unanticipated consequence of Hussein's ouster: the breakdown of the rule of law that has led to an unprecedented spate of rapes and kidnappings. Add to that the daily bombings and the travails of living under an occupying force, and it is no surprise that many Iraqi women are afraid to even venture out of their homes. "The situation for women is worse now than before the war," said Eman Ahmed Khammas who directs the Occupation Watch Center in Baghdad. "Because of the security situation, it's really very difficult to move around and very dangerous. Families are afraid for their daughters and don't allow them to be outside on their own."... MORE: http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0308-01.htm 7:07:27 AM    comment

RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE - Beware the Bushwomen Beware the Bushwomen By Laura Flanders, The Nation, March 11, 2004 You can tell when the Bush Administration is rattled. George W. chats up Tim Russert on NBC and Bush's women sit down for a talk with Elizabeth Bumiller of the New York Times.  In January, Condoleezza Rice granted an interview to the Times. In the middle of a national security meltdown, when the Bush Administration - and Rice herself - stood accused of manipulating intelligence to take the country to war on a false pretext, Bumiller's softball profile, which ran on the newspaper's front page, emphasized not the National Security Adviser's complicity in the scandal but her cozy personal relationship with the President. Among other nonrevelations, readers learned from Secretary of State Colin Powell that Rice's closeness to George W. is "not unusual but at the same time, a little unusual." A month later, it was Laura Bush's turn. While much of her husband's State of the Union address was written to please the radical right, the First Lady used the opportunity to speak to social moderates. Karl Rove, her husband's Machiavellian political adviser, is not so powerful, the First Lady chuckled. Regarding a constitutional amendment on heterosexist marriage, Laura Bush told Bumiller that the President "just thinks it's something that states and people want to be able to debate." That sounds a whole lot softer than the President's public "defend traditional marriage" pledge. (The quote did not appear in the published article, but did show up on the Times website.) In another bone-toss to moderates, Laura Bush announced an $18 million increase in the 2005 budget for the National Endowment for the Arts.  The Bushwomen are the Administration's way of sending two contradictory messages at once. Even as her husband courts social conservatives, Laura Bush lulls moderate voters into believing that the White House is not really in the clutches of the extreme right... MORE AT:   http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=18087 "RHINO'S BLOG" is the responsibility of Gary Rhine. (rhino@kifaru.com) Feedback, and requests to be added or deleted from the list are encouraged. SEARCH BLOG ARCHIVES / SURF RHINO'S LINKS, AT: http://www.rhinosblog.info RHINO'S OTHER WEB SITES: http://www.dreamcatchers.org (INDIGENOUS ASSISTANCE & INTERCULTURAL DIALOG) http://www.kifaru.com (NATIVE AMERICAN RELATIONS VIDEO DOCUMENTARIES) Articles are reprinted under Fair Use Doctrine of international copyright law. http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html All copyrights belong to original publisher. Tell a friend about Rhino's Blog 6:15:35 AM    comment

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