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| 08 Jun 2008 - 09:06 | admin
URL: www.barryyeoman.com/articles/animalabuse . . .
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The Case of the Battered Pet
Who would suspect that a family’s animals could be pawns in domestic violence? Or that their sad condition might tip off investigators to women in trouble? The terrifying truth about cats and dogs.
By Barry Yeoman
Originally published in O, The Oprah Magazine, June 2008
MARCELLA HARB-HAUSER, DVM, WAS DOING HER morning rounds at a San Rafael, California, veterinary hospital when she first met Malibu. The gray tabby was hunched in his cage, his face swollen and right eye bulging. His lungs were bruised. His ribs were broken. He had a fractured tailbone. When Harb-Hauser examined the cat's mouth, she says, "it looked like an eggplant inside."
An experienced emergency vet, Harb-Hauser tried to make sense of the medical evidence. The cat had obviously suffered a trauma, but there was no sign of a car accident or fall from a window. "This didn't just happen," she told her colleagues. "Something is fishy." The cat's owner, she learned, had brought him in at 5 a.m. and for the past three hours had been sitting quietly in an exam room. Maybe, she thought, the young woman could provide some answers.
Malibu's owner had milky skin and dark eyeliner, with tattoos on both arms. She was barely 30, her face youthful, but her gaunt frame and blank expression suggested a hard life. Speaking in a high, thin monotone, she told Harb-Hauser that she had separated from her boyfriend a year earlier, moving three times to escape him, only to have him track her down and break into each successive apartment. This morning she'd come home from a trip and found him waiting. Fresh scratches and bite marks covered his arms. The apartment was wrecked, and Malibu was hiding under a glass table, barely breathing.
"I really don't know how to tell you this, because it breaks my heart," Harb-Hauser said. "But someone tried to strangle your cat." For the first time, emotion registered on the woman's face. She looked up and locked eyes with the vet. "Yeah," she said. "My boyfriend likes to do that to me, too."
The 2006 conversation reinforced for Harb-Hauser what researchers are only now starting to understand: With devastating frequency, animals are the collateral victims of domestic violence. Dogs and cats, lizards and rabbits, horses and other farm animals—abusers torture and kill them, or threaten to do so, in order to maintain control of their spouses. And it works. Because most battered-women's shelters don't accept animals, victims are often forced to weigh their pets' safety against their own. According to various studies, between 18 and 88 percent of shelter residents delayed leaving their tormentors for fear that their animals would be injured, or worse. That doesn't count the many women who never escape.
"Pets have become pawns in the battle of power and control that marks domestic violence," says Phil Arkow, head of human-animal bond programs at the American Humane Association. While any victim of battering may be trapped in a landscape of terror, for women with cats or dogs at risk of abuse, "they not only lose the sense of safety and comfort their animals provide but all too frequently feel unable to leave."
continues...
www.barryyeoman.com/articl es/animalabuse.html
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| 07 Jun 2008 - 14:51 | fatima
tima_red@hotmail.com
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buenas dias mi nombe es fatima, vivo en usa CA estoy casada con un americano hace dos meses y es salido embarazada, y el no quiere tener el hijo y yo definistivamente si lo voy a tener.
* queria saber cuales con mi derechos como madre y que debo hacer para saber esto ya que no soy ciudadana ni tengo ningun documento de este pais solo tengo mi certificado de matrimonio y mi pasaporte, quiero saber con quien me puedo contactar para que me puedan ayudar con este caso ya que quisiera que mi aun esposo me ayude con mi embarazo y con el bebe que esperamos, espero que me respondan y me puedan ayudar.
* muchas gracias.
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| 07 Jun 2008 - 08:46 | Arizona Daily Star
URL: www.azstarnet.com/sn/mailstory-clickthru . . .
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Two illegal immigrants report rape by armed smugglers.
It's the second case reported in a week
By Brady McCombs
Arizona Daily Star
Two illegal immigrant women from Guatemala said on Thursday they had been raped earlier this week by a group of armed drug smugglers.
The women, ages 18 and 28, were apprehended along with a group 38
earlier this week but didn’t tell anyone about the sexual assaults
until Thursday morning while meeting with an assistant U.S. attorney in preparation for a deportation hearing, said Mario Escalante, Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman.
They gave the following account: A group of men dressed in black and
carrying backpacks intercepted the group while they were walking
through the desert on Monday night. The men pulled the two women aside and sexually assaulted them. One women said a man put a pistol to her head.
Officials notified the Guatemalan Consulate in Phoenix about the
incident. The women were still set up for formal removal proceedings,
Escalante said.
It’s the second report of women being raped by drug smugglers and
third report of violence against women on the desert trails in the past week.
On May 4, three Mexican women, ages 16, 17 and 20, told agents that
they had been raped by masked, armed bandits the day before, Daniels said.
On May 6, a Border Patrol encountered two Nicaraguan women, ages 41 and 36, near milepost 20 on Arivaca Road who were visibly injured and
dehydrated. They said they had been badly beaten by a the guide, or
coyote, when they asked to slow down, Escalante said. They were then left behind in the desert.
Paramedics arrived and treated the two women before transporting them to University Physicians Healthcare Hospital at Kino in Tucson. One said she had back pain from the assault and the other had bruises on her cheekbone and said she had lost consciousness after being struck
repeatedly.
Both women were released from the hospital and set up for formal
deportation proceedings, Escalante said. Agents notified the
Nicaraguan Consulate in California about the incident.
It’s unclear if the violence acts against female illegal border
crossers is happening more frequently or if they simply reported the incidents this week, Escalante said. Agents know that sexual assaults and beatings occur but many illegal immigrants choose not to report them, he said.
“We hear about it happening but some of the people fear for what could happen if they say anything,” Escalante said. “They would much rather not say anything to us.”
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/mail story-clickthru/238234.php
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| 07 Jun 2008 - 08:42 | Silvia
slopez2411@hotmail.com
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Estimadas compañeras:
Desde los Centros de la Mujer de EL Toboso, Pedro Muñoz y Mota del Cuervo (Castilla la Mancha) se está organizando una Jornada sobre violencia de género, profundizando en la proteccion que reciben las mujeres victimas de violencia de género. En la primera parte de las mismas, queremos aproximarnos a la perspectiva que tienen las mujeres victimas de violencia en relacion a su seguridad y protección. para ello necesitamos contactar con asociaciones u organismos que nos puedan ofrecer esta perspectiva. Es por ello que nos dirigimos a vosotras solicitando informacion para poder localizar y contactar con dichas entidades.
Para que os pongais en situación, la Jornada va dirigida a profesionales implicados en la lucha hacia la erradicación de la violencia contra las mujeres (cuerpos y fuerzas de seguridad de estado, Servicios Sociales, servicios de atencion a mujer, sistema sanitario, organizaciones politicas.....)
La distribución de la Jornada es la siguiente:
- Mujeres vicitmas de violencia: seguridad, proteccion. (para la cual solicitamos informacion para conseguir un/a ponente
- Mecanismos en materias de proteccion y seguridad de mujeres victimas de violencia de genero (a cargo de un representante del Ministerio del Interir)
- Panel de Experiencias: tratamiento de la violencia de genero desde diferentes ambitos: Emume, medios de comunicacion, Instituto de la Mujer de Castilla la Mancha, Oficinas de atencion a victimas ...
Esperamos vuestra respuesta, gracias de antemano por vuestra colaboración
Un saludo
Centro de la Mujer El Toboso
Tlf: 925 568 209
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| 06 Jun 2008 - 18:50 | Randy McCall, Victim Assistance Online
URL: vaonlinefusion.blogspot.com
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Apologies, everyone.
The service which is providing the blog software has just informed me a better address is available... one which might be easier for people to
remember.
The blog's new address is:
http://vaonlinefusion.blogspot.com/
I've added links to the blog on the "Projects / Programs" section found on the left-hand column on every VAOnline.org page, so people just have to visit our website to find the link.
Sorry if there is any confusion.
Randy McCall
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| 06 Jun 2008 - 18:48 | National Women's Law Center
URL: nwlc.blogs.com/womenstake/
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Check it out...
National Women's Law Center Blog
nwlc.blogs.com/womenstake/
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| 06 Jun 2008 - 18:35 | admin
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Price of Admission
Along the border, sexual assault has become routine
By TIM VANDERPOOL
Border rapists are known to hang women's bras and panties from tree limbs as trophies.
The darkness lifts, and daybreak nudges into the desert. For northbound migrants, this sunrise may signal a time to find shade and dodge the Border Patrol. Or it could mark the start of a white-knuckle dash to catch rides bound for the interior. From there, god willing, the migrants may disappear into a world offering more hope than the one they left behind.
But for other border-crossers, daybreak brings only the flat hardness of reality--a time for noting what's already been lost in the desperate trek north. For women in particular, that loss can be brutal, because even if they reach some safe house in Tucson or Phoenix or points afar, some of them certainly don't arrive whole.
According to experts, rape is now considered "the price of admission" for women crossing the border illegally.
But this scourge goes largely ignored, and is suspected to be vastly underreported. Not surprisingly, few women care to describe their ordeals to authorities in stark government detention facilities. And if they do, it's often as they're already being deported back across the border--sometimes back into the very situations where the assaults occurred.
This grim scenario played out in early May, when three women--ages 16, 17 and 20--reported having been raped by masked men. A few days later, two more women were found alive but badly beaten near Arivaca, south of Tucson. That same week, yet two more women reported having been raped. The reports didn't slow deportation proceedings against them.
Further complicating matters, it's often difficult to determine whether the assaults occurred on U.S. soil or in Mexico. But such details probably matter little to the victims. Civilian border-watchers tell of hearing these women's cries.
"I thought the wailings we heard at night were the coyotes barking at the moon," one volunteer told The Washington Times. "I didn't know until later that those sounds were the cries of women being raped in the Mexican desert, some less than 100 yards away from the border.
There was absolutely nothing anyone could do about it."
The rapists are known to hang women's bras and panties from tree limbs as trophies.
Beyond such haunting anecdotes, hard numbers are tough to come by. According to the United Nations, up to 70 percent of women crossing the border without husbands or families are abused in some way. But the flood of stories leads humanitarian aid workers such as Michelle Brané to consider these crimes even more pervasive. Brané directs detention and asylum programs with the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children, based in Washington, D.C.
"Nonprofit groups and even the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement--which has custody of unaccompanied children--estimate that the vast majority of women and female children encounter some sort of sexual assault en route to the United States," she says. "It's become the norm, and in many cases with female children, they just assume that there's been some sort of incident."
In this situation, survival often requires extreme steps, she says. "A lot of times, women, because they know what's coming, will align themselves with one man in the group" of smugglers or coyotes. "Whether you consider that assault or not, I guess it's a blurry line."
This speaks to the fact that women are routinely assaulted by the very smugglers they've paid to bring them across. Immigrants have told of preparing for the inevitable by taking birth-control pills before attempting to cross the border, says Dr. Sylvanna Falcón, an assistant professor of sociology at Connecticut College, in New London, Conn. Falcón has conducted extensive research into rapes and other human-rights abuses along the U.S.-Mexico border.
She notes that this saga of exploitation isn't limited to the desert, and points to well-documented incidents of U.S. Border Patrol agents or other officials pressuring migrants into having sex in exchange for their freedom. Other times, the women are raped by those with the power to deport them.
"We know this kind of thing is happening, and it gets reported every once in awhile," she says. "The degree to which it happens is not well-known, but women are particularly vulnerable when they come into contact with agents." That vulnerability is compounded by the remoteness of border areas where agents and immigrants often come in contact.
Attempts to obtain comment from Border Patrol officials were not successful as of the Weekly's press time. But some cases have been sensational, such as the Border Patrol agent in Texas who was convicted of detaining a 23-year-old woman and driving her to a motel, where he sexually assaulted her. Or the ongoing investigation of a sprawling detention center in South Texas, operated by U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, where a culture of rape, sexual coercion and cover-ups has reportedly existed for years.
"Congress did an investigation, and found thousands of cases of misconduct, and that getting green cards for sex was a very common form of bribery," Falcón says. "You have women who are very vulnerable in every sense of the word. They may have young children with them; maybe they're trying to reunite with family members on this side of the border. (Officials) doing this bribery know that they're in a complete position of power."
Women face risks on all sides, she says. "Anyone from coyotes to U.S. officials, they all have the upper hand here."
Meanwhile, the rest of America simply ignores this horrific violence on its doorstep, she says.
"Our society takes rape seriously, but it doesn't take this type of rape seriously. In all of our national discourse around securing our borders, rarely, if ever, do you hear about any kind of protection for people who might be crossing. Largely, that's because the discussion has been framed around protecting us--protecting the U.S.--and once you get into that framework, what happens to the other person is not even on the radar."
But the cost of our denial may include flaunting international legal standards. "When we look at human-rights laws," Falcón says, "and at the different international human-rights treaties and conventions, clearly, any systemic violation of women in this way is a human-rights violation."
Next week: Rape victims get little sympathy from a system with other priorities.
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| 04 Jun 2008 - 08:54 | Congreso Trata
URL: congresotrata2008.wordpress.com/mesas-y- . . .
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INICIA MAÑANA 1er CONGRESO LATINOAMERICANO SOBRE TRATA Y TRÁFICO DE PERSONAS, EN ARGENTINA
Buenos Aires.- A partir de mañana y hasta el 6 de junio, se realizará el Primer Congreso Latinoamericano sobre Trata y Tráfico de personas, en la Facultad de Ciencias Sociales de la Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina, con especial énfasis en la perspectiva de género y los problemas de violencia física y simbólica, que hacen que principalmente mujeres, niñas y niños en situación de pobreza y vulnerabilidad sean transformados en objetos susceptibles de mercantilización en Latinoamérica.
Este Congreso fundacional contará con la presencia de importantes especialistas internacionales del ámbito académico, institucional, social, político, así como con la participación de estudiantes y público en general. El programa del Congreso puede consultarse en http://congresotrata2008.wordpress.com/mesas-y-paneles/
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| 04 Jun 2008 - 08:51 | cimacnoticias
URL: www.cimacnoticias.com/site/08060308-Pres . . .
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Realizado por Save The Children
Presentan Manual Prevención de abuso sexual en niñas y niños
Por Lourdes Godínez Leal
México DF, 3 junio 08 (CIMAC).- En el Distrito Federal, cada día el Sistema para el Desarrollo Integral de la Familia (DIF) recibe en promedio, alrededor de 40 quejas por maltrato infantil, representando el abuso sexual una de las formas más violentas y predominantes contra las y los niños menores de cinco años, señaló hoy la organización Save The Children.
Al presentar este día en la Casa Lamm el Manual Prevención de abuso sexual en niños y niñas con un enfoque de derechos, Sylvia van Dijk, responsable del área de investigación y capacitación de Save The Children, enfatizó la necesidad de reconocer a las y los niños como sujetos de derechos desde que nacen, así como la importancia de respetar sus decisiones.
Informó que al año, en Latinoamérica 6 millones de niñas y niños son abusados sexualmente, de los cuales el 36 por ciento son niñas y 29 por ciento niños.
Criticó que los sistemas escolares “mutilen sistemáticamente” el desarrollo de las y los niños porque no abren espacios de participación y destacó el papel de las y los educadores en estos procesos de prevención de abuso sexual infantil.
Al comentar el Manual de prevención, José Aguilar, de la Red Democracia y Sexualidad (Demisex), conformada por más de 280 organizaciones civiles con trabajo en derechos sexuales y reproductivos, destacó la importancia de impartir educación sexual desde el nivel preescolar.
El activista se pronunció por exigir al gobierno respetar el Estado laico y porque las entidades federativas se sumen a los esfuerzos para incluir el tema de la sexualidad como parte de la formación de las y los niños que deberá ser realizado conjuntamente con expertos en el tema y una revisión de los programas de educación sexual en el país.
EL MANUAL
El Manual Prevención de abuso sexual en niñas y niños con un enfoque de derechos es un trabajo realizado desde 2007 a través de un proyecto piloto de prevención de violencia y abuso sexual de niñas y niños, que se realizó en diez Centros Comunitarios de Desarrollo Infantil del Distrito Federal.
Básicamente se dirige a educadores y promotores que trabajan con niñas y niños de 4 a 8 años de edad y que quieren prevenir el abuso sexual.
El contenido del Manual es temático, Autoconocimiento y trabajo equitativo, necesidad de información sobre reproducción, el cuerpo y las sensaciones, el abuso sexual y su prevención y los derechos de las niñas y los niños.
Uno de los propósitos es que las autoridades de educación pública del país y otras organizaciones retomen el Manual para aplicarlo y prevenir el abuso sexual en menores de edad.
Aurora del Río Zolezzi, directora adjunta del Centro Nacional de Equidad de Género y Salud Reproductiva, de la Secretaría de Salud, quien comentó el Manual, destacó la importancia de que éste se centre en los derechos de las y los niños y en su derecho a decidir.
Asimismo, dijo que el material permitirá romper con estereotipos que limitan el desarrollo personal de niñas y niños, pero sobre todo prevenir el abuso sexual que se presenta con más frecuencia en menores de 5 años de edad y en la pubertad.
El Manual fue financiado por los laboratorios Pfizer y se pretende distribuirlo en los 140 Centros de Desarrollo Infantil Comunitario, aunque se informó durante la presentación que actualmente la Subsecretaría de Planeación e Innovación de la Secretaría de Educación Pública lo tiene en sus manos para incorporarlo a las escuelas de educación pública.
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| 04 Jun 2008 - 08:46 | Randy McCall, Victim Assistance Online
info@vaonline.org
URL: www.vaonline.org/new.html
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The following new links to organizations, services and online documents have been added to the VAOnline.org link directories. You can view these links on our "Latest Site Updates" page at:
http://www.vaonline.org/new.html
New links to organizations and services:
* Advocates for Victims of Homicide Ireland (Ireland, UK)
* AMEN Ireland (Ireland, UK)
* Children at Risk in Ireland (CARI) Foundation (Ireland, UK)
* DNA Identification in Mass Fatality Incidents (USA)
* Federation for Victim Support Ireland (Ireland, UK)
* Irish Tourist Assistance Service (ITAS) (Ireland, UK)
* Missing in Ireland Support Service (MISS.ie) (Ireland, UK)
* One in Four (Ireland) (Ireland, UK)
* Rape Crisis Network Ireland (Ireland, UK)
* Support after Homicide Ireland (Ireland, UK)
* Wisconsin Advocates for Families of Missing People (USA)
New links to online documents:
* Education and Training in Fraud and Forensic Accounting: A Guide for Educational Institutions, Stakeholder Organizations, Faculty, and Students (USA)
* Experimental Evaluation of Gender Violence/Harassment Prevention
Programs in Middle Schools (USA)
* Explaining the Prevalence, Context, and Consequences of Dual Arrest in Intimate Partner Cases (USA)
* Evaluating the Impact of a Specialized Domestic Violence Police Unit (USA)
* Federal Resources on Missing and Exploited Children: A Directory for Law Enforcement and Other Public and Private Agencies (USA)
* Medical Examiners and Coroners´ Offices, 2004 (USA)
* Testing and Evaluation of the Use of Polygraphs To Combat Violence
Against Women (USA)
Randy McCall
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Victim Assistance Online
info@vaonline.org
http://www.vaonline.org/
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| 04 Jun 2008 - 08:43 | Project Syndicate
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Las guerras contra las mujeres
by Heleen Mees and Femke van Zeijl
Heleen Mees
Femke van ZeijlAMSTERDAM – A menudo se dice que en las guerras la verdad es la primera víctima. Pero si nos atenemos a la verdad, las mujeres son las primeras víctimas. La UNICEF, el órgano de Naciones Unidas para los niños, observó recientemente que en las zonas donde hay conflictos la violencia sexual se propaga como una epidemia. Se trate de guerras civiles, pogroms u otros conflictos armados, con demasiada frecuencia los cuerpos de las mujeres se convierten en parte del campo de batalla. Las víctimas de las atrocidades sexuales a gran escala incluyen desde bebés hasta ancianas.
En Darfur, las milicias janjaweed secuestraron a una niña de doce años y la violaron en grupo durante una semana, separando tanto sus piernas que quedó inválida de por vida. Sin embargo, el mayor temor de las víctimas de violación en Darfur es que nunca encontrarán marido. Bajo el derecho de la sharia se acusa a las mujeres violadas de adulterio y fornicación. El año pasado, en Sudán al menos dos jóvenes fueron sentenciadas a muerte por lapidación. Como señala Refugiados Internacionales: “Es más probable que el gobierno actúe contra quienes denuncian y documentan las violaciones que contra quienes las cometen”.
En las guerras que actualmente están devastando a la República Democrática del Congo, las víctimas de las violaciones también cargan con la culpa. Los maridos y las comunidades abandonan y destierran a las mujeres violadas. Frecuentemente sufren mutilaciones genitales por arma de fuego o son arrojadas desnudas a la hoguera.
En culturas donde se arreglan los matrimonios y la castidad es el concepto central de la femineidad, una mujer que pierde el honor lo pierde todo. El estigma generalmente es una carga más pesada que el ataque mismo. Por ello, no es sorprendente que la mayoría de estas niñas y mujeres ultrajadas guarden silencio.
Durante la guerra de los Balcanes de los años noventa, las mujeres eran violadas con el propósito de que dieran a luz a los hijos de sus enemigos. Según cálculos de la Unión Europea, únicamente en Bosnia 20,000 mujeres fueron víctimas de violación. En gran medida se les ha abandonado y han quedado traumadas por sus experiencias y condenadas a una vida de pobreza.
Se calcula que en 1945, dos millones de mujeres fueron víctimas de la crueldad sexual del Ejército Rojo –y no exclusivamente mujeres alemanas, sino también judías que habían permanecido escondidas, sobrevivientes de los campos de concentración y miembros de la resistencia. Según la periodista alemana Ruth Andreas-Friedrich, la vergüenza por el “honor perdido” creó una “atmósfera de suicidio”. En abril de 1945 hubo más de 5,000 suicidios en Berlín. Los maridos, padres y maestros presionaban a las mujeres y niñas para que se quitaran la vida después de ser violadas por los soldados rusos porque lo que más les preocupaba era su “honor”.
Para muchas mujeres y niñas, el sexo fuera del matrimonio sigue siendo peor que la muerte. Por ello es más sorprendente –y doloroso- que este crimen de guerra específico haya recibido tan poca atención durante tanto tiempo. Durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial, la prohibición de las violaciones estaba bien establecida en el derecho internacional, pero en los juicios de los crímenes de guerra de Nuremberg y Tokio sólo se trataron unos cuantos casos.
Durante el genocidio en Rwanda, las violaciones masivas eran la norma. Pero los ataques sexuales se incluyeron únicamente de manera accidental –y secundaria- en las acusaciones del Tribunal para Rwanda. Después de que una mujer declaró espontáneamente que ella y otras mujeres habían sido violadas antes de la masacre, una juez dio seguimiento al caso y reveló la enorme dimensión de la violencia sexual contra las mujeres. El Tribunal para Rwanda fue el primero de la historia que catalogó a la violación como un posible acto de genocidio.
En 2001, el Tribunal Penal Internacional para la ex Yugoslavia en la Haya condenó la violación sistemática de mujeres como un crimen contra la humanidad. En el trascendental caso de Foca, el TPIY condenó a tres serbios bosnios por violación, tortura y esclavismo de mujeres musulmanas en 1992. Durante semanas, niñas, algunas de ellas de 12 años de edad, sufrieron violaciones en grupo.
Sin embargo, quienes cometen violaciones y otros tipos de violencia sexual durante las guerras generalmente no son enjuiciados. Recientemente, el líder de las milicias del Congo, Thomas Lubanga, fue el primer prisionero juzgado en la Corte Penal Internacional de la Haya por reclutar niños soldados. No obstante, en la acusación no se mencionó la violencia contra las mujeres, lo que causa “gran consternación” a las víctimas, según las organizaciones de derechos humanos del Congo. Presentaron una petición para que la CPI investigue las violaciones masivas que han cometido todas las partes en el conflicto.
La impunidad característica de estos espantosos crímenes debe terminar. Los gobiernos, los parlamentarios, los líderes de milicias y de opinión deben discutir abiertamente la violación y otras formas de violencia sexual contra las mujeres. Los juicios deben ser la norma. La CPI y otros tribunales deben enviar una señal clara a los delincuentes.
Para las mujeres que han sido víctimas de violación no hay compensaciones monetarias, estatuas o rituales de duelo. Eso también debe cambiar. Debería haber un monumento a la mujer violada desconocida en la CPI. Tal vez entonces los jueces pondrían más atención a la violencia sexual contra las mujeres
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| 04 Jun 2008 - 08:40 | Project Syndicate
URL: http://www.project-syndicate.org/comment . . .
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Wars Against Women
by Heleen Mees and Femke van Zeijl
Heleen Mees
Femke van ZeijlAMSTERDAM – Truth is often said to be the first casualty in wartime. But if the real truth is told, it is women who are the first casualties. In conflict zones, the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF recently observed, sexual violence usually spreads like an epidemic. Whether it is civil war, pogroms, or other armed conflicts, all too often women’s bodies become part of the battlefield. The victims of large-scale sexual atrocities range from baby girls to old women.
In Darfur, janjaweed militia kidnapped a 12-year-old girl and gang-raped her for a week, pulling her legs so far apart that she was crippled for life. The biggest fear of rape victims in Darfur, however, is that they will never find a husband. Under sharia law, raped women are prosecuted for adultery or fornication. Last year, at least two young women in Sudan were sentenced to death by stoning. As Refugees International observes: “The government is more likely to take action against those who report and document rape than those who commit it.”
In the wars now savaging the Democratic Republic of Congo, rape victims also take most of the blame. After being raped, Congolese women are banished by their husbands and ostracized by their communities. Often they are genitally mutilated by a gunshot or tossed on a fire naked.
In cultures where girls and women are married off and chastity is central to womanhood, all is lost for a woman who loses her honor. The subsequent stigma often is a heavier burden than the assault itself. So it should be no surprise that most of these wounded girls and women keep silent.
During the Balkan wars of the 1990’s, women were raped for the purpose of bearing the enemy’s children. According to European Union estimates, 20,000 women in Bosnia alone were victims of rape. The women have been largely left to themselves, traumatized by their experiences and condemned to a life of poverty.
In 1945, an estimated two million women were victims of the Red Army’s sexual cruelties – not only German women, but also Jewish women in hiding, concentration camp survivors, and resistance fighters. According to the German journalist Ruth Andreas-Friedrich, the shame felt about “lost honor” created an “atmosphere of suicide.” In April 1945, there were more than 5,000 suicides in Berlin. Husbands, fathers, and teachers pressured women and girls to end their own lives after Russian soldiers raped them because their “honor” was their major concern.
For many girls and women, non-marital sex remains worse than death. So it is all the more striking – and painful – that for so long this specific war crime has received little attention. During World War II, the prohibition on rape by soldiers was well established in international law, but the post-war Nuremberg and Tokyo war crimes tribunals prosecuted only a handful of cases.
During the genocide in Rwanda, mass rape was the rule. But sexual assault was included only accidentally – and secondarily – in the Rwanda Tribunal’s indictments. After a Rwandan woman spontaneously declared before the tribunal that she and other women had been raped before the massacre, a female judge followed up and revealed the enormous scale of sexual violence against women. The Rwanda Tribunal was the first in history to describe rape as a possible act of genocide.
In 2001, the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia in The Hague condemned the systematic rape of women as a crime against humanity. In the landmark Foca case, the ICTY convicted three Bosnian Serbs of rape, torture, and enslavement of Muslim women in 1992. Girls, some of them just 12 years old, were gang-raped for weeks.
Yet the perpetrators of wartime mass rape and other forms of sexual violence usually are not prosecuted. Recently, the Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga became the first prisoner to be tried at the International Criminal Court in The Hague for the recruitment of child soldiers. Yet the indictment’s failure to mention violence against women is a “huge shock” to the victims, according to Congolese human rights organizations. In a petition, they asked the ICC to investigate mass rapes committed by all parties in the conflict.
The impunity that is characteristic of these heinous crimes must stop. Rape and other forms of sexual violence against women should be openly discussed by governments, members of parliament, militia leaders, and opinion leaders. Prosecution must become the rule. The ICC and other tribunals must give a clear signal to the perpetrators.
For women who have been victims of rape, there are no monetary benefits, memorials or mourning rituals. That must change as well. There should be a monument to the Unknown Raped Woman at the ICC. Maybe then its judges would pay closer attention to sexual violence against women.
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| 04 Jun 2008 - 08:25 | earl hutchinson
URL: earlofarihutchinson.blogspot.com/
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R. Kelly’s Conviction Will Jingle Cash Registers Even Louder
Earl Ofari Hutchinson
Here’s a bet. Accused child pornographer and sexual panderer, R. Kelly has three albums in the can ready for release. If Kelly is convicted of the multiple counts slapped against him in his Chicago trial, the albums will fly out the can fast and even faster off the store racks. Kelly’s well documented penchant for underage teens, and his boasts and taunts in his songs, topped by the very real possibility that he had sex on the homemade, smutty videotape with a very underage teen, mean little to his legions of devoted fans.
Kelly and a handful of other influential R&B singers and rappers who are rich and famous beyond their wildest fantasies and who brand themselves with a criminal, thuggish image are still very much in commercial vogue. They exult the bad actor life style, thumb their nose at the establishment, and reinforce the sexually rapacious cardboard image of young blacks.
Kelly, and the others, know that the record industry can and will deftly parlay their sexual outlandishness and defiance into millions in record sales. Kelly brashly seized on the commercially prurient relationship he has with the record companies in his last album, “The Champ,” “Point fingers, throw stones, hate me I’m clever enough to know that the industry needs me.”
It does. He owns a mansion and property in Chicago and Florida, was once spoken of in the same breath as Oprah and Michael Jordan among Chicago’s wealthiest black elite.
But in the process, young black artists such as Kelly rekindle the vilest of racial and sexual stereotypes about young black males. Their artistic degradation has had especially dangerous consequences for black women. In Kelly’s case the victims of his sexual vandalism, as witnessed by settlements of other lawsuits against him for having sex with underage teens, were black women. And his sexually odious singles, Feelin on Yo Booty, Bump and Grind, and Your Body’s Callin' were virtual invitations to sexually trash black women.
Black women, especially young black women, have been the victims of that and much more. Homicide now ranks as one of the leading causes of deaths of young black females. A black woman is far more likely to be raped than a white woman, and slightly more likely to be the victim of domestic violence. Their assailants are not white racist cops or Klan nightriders but black males, and if they are a poor black woman, and their alleged assailant happens to be a fawned over rap star, justice will be slow forthcoming, if at all.
The Kelly case is a glaring example of the oft times laxity in how authorities treat crimes against black women. The lewd alleged Kelly sex video was made years ago, yet it took police and prosecutors years to charge him, and six more years for him to get to trial. No charges have been filed against him in the other cases that he subsequently settled, even though sex with a minor is a felony.
Some blacks make things even worse by dredging up a litany of excuses, such as poverty, broken homes, and abuse, to excuse the sexual abuse and the violence by top black male artists. These explanations for the misdeeds of rappers and singers are phony and self-serving. The ones who have landed hard in a court docket are anything but hard-core, dysfunctional, poverty types.
P. Diddy, who predated Kelly as the poster boy for music malevolence, is college educated and hails from a middle-class home; he typifies the fraud that these artists are up-from-the-ghetto, self-made men.
When men such as Kelly commit, or are charged with sexual assaults, they leave a long trail of victims, cast shame and disgrace on themselves and, worst of all, reinforce the notion that young black males are indeed menaces to society.
Kelly seemed to grasp that disastrous fact. In a concert appearance with gospel singer Kirk Franklin he did a tear jerk, kind of sort of self-confessional and declared that he had given up his promiscuous, self-indulgent ways and had embraced Jesus. His Saul on the Road to Damascus epiphany was welcome, but unfortunately it was made a decade ago. And apparently from the sex tape, lawsuits, and the sex laced braggadocio lyrics on some of his songs since then it was a very short lived epiphany.
Kelly has yet to be convicted of any crime. But his possible fall from grace almost certainly won’t mean that his hitherto adoring fans that slavishly elevate him to a demigod perch and put king’s ransom wealth in his bank account will desert him in droves. Informal polls show that many listeners will continue to buy his records, and some blacks have even trotted out the tired claim that he’s another prominent black man victimized by whites. In fact, one fan was unceremoniously hauled out of the courthouse for haranguing the Kelly jurors. This is yet one more sign that Kelly’s ill-gained notoriety is a sure fire guarantee to jingle cash registers no matter what happens in court, or maybe because of what happens in court.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His new book is The Ethnic Presidency: How Race Decides the Race to the White House (Middle Passage Press, February 2008).
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| 04 Jun 2008 - 08:08 | admin
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SR man who shot niece called 'controlling'
Police, family reveal details in murder-suicide; victim, 15, honor student at Roseland Prep
By Laura Norton
and TRACIE MORALES
Published: Wednesday, June 4, 2008 at 4:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, June 4, 2008 at 3:34 a.m.
Karen Flores wrote in a school essay that she looked forward to her quinceañera this spring because "that day my dream will come true. That day my parents wake to see a little girl, but at the end of the night I will be a young lady."
On Monday, only weeks after her 15th-birthday celebration, Flores' life ended. Her uncle, Jose Manuel Landaverde, 40, shot the popular Roseland University Prep honor student in the neck with a shotgun at their west Santa Rosa home and then turned the gun on himself, police said.
Landaverde reportedly was "controlling" and upset about Flores' interest in boys, police said.
At about 4 p.m. Monday, Flores was with two siblings, ages 13 and 6, in the kitchen of the Dickens Drive home their family shared with Landaverde, police said.
He asked to talk with Flores privately in his room, Sgt. Lisa Banayat said, and she refused.
"Landaverde retrieved a shotgun from his bedroom, walked into the living room, and shot Flores in the neck," according to a police statement. "Landa-verde went into the kitchen and shot himself in the head. Both younger siblings were present during the shootings and ran to a neighbor's home for help."
Flores' grieving family gathered Tuesday at a home on Giffen Road near Stony Point Road.
"She was an intelligent, very intelligent, beautiful girl," Jose Luis Gutierrez, an uncle, said in Spanish.
Speaking of Landaverde he said, "He was in love with her."
Family and school friends recounted vague and sporadic conversations with Flores about Landaverde. Flores recently had told her cousin, Xiomara Hercules, that Landaverde had "pushed and pulled her."
Landaverde is not listed on California's list of sexual predators and never served time in a California prison. He has no criminal history in Sonoma County.
Mayra Nepita, Flores' longtime friend and classmate, said Flores socialized with everyone rather than sticking to one group of people and always had a smile on her face.
But at home, her uncle kept a tight lid on Flores' social life, Nepita said, and the teen wasn't allowed to go to parties or shopping with her friends on the weekends.
Friends said Flores' parents, Benjamin Hercules and Vilma Flores de Hercules, were strict but she never talked about their control like her uncle's.
Her friends and classmates Tuesday morning gathered at Roseland University Prep, where she had just completed ninth grade, with flowers, rosaries and pictures of the bright girl many had known since elementary school.
Flores was first in her class of 96 students, on the honor role and a volleyball player.
"She wanted to be the first in her family to go to college," said Principal Amy Jones-Kerr. "She was pretty active and outgoing, very smiley and definitely a leader."
In an end-of-the year essay, Flores wrote that she intended to go to UCLA, University of San Francisco, Chico State or UC Davis to study pre-med, pre-law or pre-business majors.
"My life goals are just to graduate from college, to go to graduate school and go beyond what I am capable of," Flores wrote. "After graduating from college, I hope to have a career and have the family and home of my dreams."
Nepita, who said she had known Flores since the third grade, was one of her quinceañera attendants and said last month's celebration with 200 friends and family members was as perfect as Flores had hoped.
A photo of Flores from that day shows her in a pale pink halter-top gown, wearing a sparkling crown and wide grin.
Acquaintances Gerold Jones and Manuel Zarala said Flores danced through the entire party, pulling in partners from every corner of the rented hall.
"She would just look at you and smile and say you had to dance with her," Zarala said. "I was like, 'You know my name?' She knew everyone."
Flores' death is Santa Rosa's fifth homicide of the year, and the neighborhood's second killing within a week.
You can reach Staff Writers Laura Norton at 521-5220 or laura.norton@pressdemocrat
.com and Tracie Morales at 521-5274. News researcher Michele VanHoeck contributed to this report.
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| 02 Jun 2008 - 19:59 | Kimberly
kimberlyw939@gmail.com
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Hello, I am a full time student studying at Massey University in Auckland, New Zealand and I work for Auckland Sexual Abuse Help. I moved over here last year to study from California. I am beginning my research my master's degree and was hoping you might be of some assistance. My research is on women's perceptions of the effectiveness of having court support in a sexual violence court case. I am having trouble locating any literature on the matter and didn't know if you would be able to point me in the right direction.
* Cheers-
* Kimberly
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| 02 Jun 2008 - 09:44 | cimacnoticias
URL: www.cimacnoticias.com/site/08053011-BREV . . .
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DERECHO A DECIDIR, CLAMOR EN AL EN EL DÍA INTERNACIONAL POR LA SALUD DE LAS MUJERES
México DF.- Las manifestaciones por el derecho a la interrupción voluntaria y legal del embarazo fueron las protagonistas en América Latina durante la jornada del Día Internacional de Acción por la Salud de las Mujeres, conmemorado cada 28 de mayo, reportó la agencia informativa Púlsar.
La Red ADA de Bolivia informó que cada año mueren 650 mujeres en ese país por causas asociadas a la maternidad y cerca de la mitad de los embarazos no son deseados. En esta región, más del 40 por ciento de las mujeres no accede a métodos anticonceptivos y en el área rural más del 60 por ciento de los partos no son atendidos por personal de salud.
En Costa Rica, la Red de Salud de las Mujeres Latinoamericanas y del Caribe y la Red Nosotras en el Mundo, que agrupa colectivos de comunicación y activistas por los derechos de género de América Latina y Europa, lanzaron un llamado a la acción para exigir el reconocimiento del derecho a decidir.
La radio nicaragüense Stereo Vos informó que existen 115 casos reportados de muerte materna durante el año 2007. Mujeres que han muerto, según la emisión radiofónica, por la injerencia de la jerarquía de la Iglesia Católica en las políticas públicas y la mala calidad de los servicios de salud.
Desde México, Cimacnoticias hizo un reporte de los avances en salud pública a partir de la aprobación de la ley que permite la interrupción legal del embarazo (ILE) en la Ciudad de México. A partir de su aplicación, la mayor demanda de ILE se concentra en los grupos de jóvenes de entre 18 y 29 años, de las cuales el 70 por ciento tiene estudios de secundaria, reparatoria y superiores, y el 50 por ciento del grupo está constituido por solteras.
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| 02 Jun 2008 - 09:12 | Lynette Dumble - Global Sisterhood Network
URL: content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/358/21 . . .
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Driven to a Fiery Death: The Tragedy of Self-Immolation in Afghanist
Below is the heart-rending situation faced by our sisters in
Afghanistan, where despite ALL of Bush Jnr's puppet Hamid Karzai's
signatures to international treaties and agreements on the rights of
women and girls, they remain left with only one option - death by fire
- to escape the violence, and at the same time make their voices
heard!
This item also appears on RAWA's webpage, see:
http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/20 08/05/22/driven-to-a-fiery-death-8212-th e-tragedy-of-self-immolation-in-fghanist an_7383.html
and includes a video featuring Bush Jnr as he brags of the Stars and
Stripes again flying over the US embassy in Kabul as "TODAY [Afghan]
WOMEN ARE FREE".
Words fail!
Lynette
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The New England Journal of Medicine
HUMAN RIGHTS
Volume 358:2201-2203 May 22, 2008 Number 21
Driven to a Fiery Death The Tragedy of Self-Immolation in Afghanistan
Anita Raj, Ph.D., Charlemagne Gomez, M.A., and Jay G. Silverman, Ph.D.
Full Article...
http://content.nejm.org/cg i/content/full/358/21/2201#R1
Exerpt
The predominant causes or precipitating events of self-immolation identified by survivors or contacts were various forms of oppression of or violence against women. Forced marriage or engagement during childhood was identified in almost one third of the cases (29%); bad or badal, practices involving forced marital exchange to settle a conflict between families or tribes, in 18% of cases; and abuse from
in-laws in 16% of cases (these categories were not mutually
exclusive). Although abuse by husbands was described as a common circumstance in the lives of these women and girls, few identified this abuse as the proximate cause of self-immolation. Often, self-immolation was said to have occurred after victims spoke out against or sought help in alleviating the violence to which they were subjected but were ignored. As the sister of one victim explained,
"My 18-year-old sister did not want to marry this man and asked my
father several times not to give her to the farmer. But he ignored her
pleas. One day I heard that my sister had taken petrol and committed self-immolation."
These findings suggest that despite substantial efforts toward
improving health and human rights in Afghanistan, persistent
conditions permit violence against women, and Afghan women and girls continue to turn to the desperate remedy of self-immolation. Women and girls appear to see this horrifying act as a means of both escaping from intolerable conditions and speaking out against abuse, since
their actual voices do not bring about changes that would allow them to lead safe and secure lives. More programmatic work is clearly
needed to prevent and intervene in violence against women and to
support existing policies aimed at improving the lives of Afghan women
and girls.
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| 02 Jun 2008 - 08:24 | Zimbabwe Women's Coalition
coalition@zol.co.zw
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WOMEN’S STATEMENT ON ZIMBABWE
IT’S AN EMERGENCY
STOP THE VIOLENCE AND PROTECT WOMEN AND GIRLS NOW
Presented to:
Human Rights Council, June 2008 Session, Geneva, Switzerland
May 30, 2008
We, the Zimbabwean women and women worldwide, urgently call for
stopping of violence in Zimbabwe and protection of women and girls, in this post election catastrophe. This is an emergency as the country
gears up for a presidential run-off on the 27th of June 2008.The
violence persists and is real. No election observers are yet in the
country, despite our calls, appeals, cries to Southern Africa
Development Community, (SADC), African Union (AU) and the United
Nations. Zimbabwe is a full signatory to CEDAW.
We are watching a silent genocide of the poor and powerless, due to
political induced murders, criminal actions, and collapse of basic
services resulting in deaths due to lack of health care, food, shelter
for the displaced, especially after the March 29th, 2008 elections.
Most of the affected are women and children.
The post election murders, burnings, lootings and intimidation have most affected women and girls since its rural targeted and 80% of women live in rural areas.
Over 800 homes have been burnt down, making it traumatic for mothers who have to feed the children and care for the sick
Over 10 000 people have fled their homes, are displaced and squatters with relatives and with fear of going back home. Children displaced are not in schools
Over 50 people have been murdered in cold blood, and mostly from the opposition.
An estimated 7000 teachers have fled their schools as a number have
been beaten in the eyes of parents and pupils.
Doctors for human Rights report that over 2000 serious cases of
physical torture and beatings have passed through their hands and a
lot of those they treated have suffered serious fractures to an extent that most are permanently handicapped.
The oldest victim of the post election violence is an old woman with 12 grandchildren all of them orphaned and whose son is alleged to have campaigned for the opposition.
The youngest female victim is a 15-year-old girl who was stripped
naked together with her pregnant mother forced to lie down and beaten on the breasts and buttocks, just many women have been so battered. Several girls and women are feared raped. The youngest child seriously assaulted is only 3 years.
More than 3,000 Zimbabweans die every weak due to AIDS, and their life expectancy is 34 years for women.
Unemployment is 80% and inflation is 165 000 % and the highest in the world.
200 000 women made homeless and jobless by the government 2005 Operation Murambatsviina. Women’s church gatherings are disrupted, women beaten up and abused while at prayer.
Over 3 million Zimbabweans are in South Africa where they are facing
xenophobic attacks
This situation is an extra-ordinary emergency for women and girls.
Every person and institution must do everything in their power to stop
the violence, restore rule of law, and allow Zimbabweans to exercise
their right to vote and live in peace.
We, as Zimbabwean women and women worldwide:
Re-iterate the long-standing position of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) that the failure by government and law enforcement, such as
police and army to respect the rights of all citizens is the greatest
threat to peace, democracy and development in Zimbabwe.
Really concerned by a real danger of civil strife catalyzed by the
growing humanitarian crisis. We are witnessing increasing levels of
tension and political polarization among the population, which turned
out to vote on March 29. The media reports on the party political
position adopted by the law enforcement, which should ordinarily maintain neutrality. The recent purchase of military weapons adds to this fear.
Call for immediate cessation of organized and targeted intimidation
against the citizens, particularly the use of women and girls as
weapons of ‘war’, evidenced by the brutal battering of women’s
buttocks, rape and sexual abuse.
Demand the immediate disbanding of the militias, comprised of youths,
security agents and one terror group code named Chipangano, which have caused terror and havoc in the rural and urban areas exacerbating the humanitarian situation by creating internal refugees. We demand the
disbanding of torture bases where gross abuses of women are taking
place including forced labor (cooking and cleaning) and sexual abuse.
Request the Leadership of SADC, the African Union and the United
Nations to effectively engage with the ZANU PF government to stop
using violence against its people and take tangible actions if the
violence continues.
Request especially the Human Rights Council to:
Establish programme of engagement with Zimbabwe for protection of human rights especially for women, girls and children. The UN must deploy human rights monitors during the run-up to the Presidential Elections.
Mandate and support UN Special Rapportuer on Violence Against Women must do a fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe and support the efforts of community, grassroots and other organisations living in a culture of fear, survivors of violence and abuse.
Mandate and support UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders must put in place ways of ensuring safety and protection for women human rights advocates and activists, who find themselves in fear of life and who ability to engage publicly is compromised.
Engage with Zimbabwe government and authorities and stop the violence, and demand the state to protect ordinary people’s lives.
Encourage and support for humanitarian assistance to Zimbabwe, especially in support of food, health and education for rural
communities and mostly the displaced.
Organizations and Individuals are encouraged to sign on this
statement, and submit to coalition@zol.co.zw (Zimbabwe Women’s Coalition) or worldoffice@worldywca.org; or athenainitiative@gmail.com
or dakotareed07@gmail.com
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