Vol. 12 Nos. 1 &
2
December 1998
WOMEN, CHILDREN, AND HUMAN RIGHTS
The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
Against Women (CEDAW Convention) and the Convention on the
Rights of the Child (CRC) identify a group of human rights
that, if fully realized, would universally redefine how human
beings relate to each other. If discrimination against women
were truly and entirely eliminated, relationships between
women and men would no longer be defined by stereotypical
thinking and unequal power relationships. If discrimination
against children were eliminated, all children would be recognized
as human beings with basic rights as individuals rather than
as property of their families and communities. These two conventions
have the highest number of ratifications of any of the human
rights treaties-and the highest number of reservations. Apparently
governments find the basic principles politically irresistible,
but they fear the fundamental change that would result from
full, unreserved compliance.
The CEDAW Convention and the CRC have essential elements
in common. Both refer specifically to rights to nondiscrimination,
participation in decisionmaking, access to education and health
care, nationality, and attention to the best interests of
the child. The approach of each convention to these rights
is shaped by the nature of the centrally affected group. The
CEDAW Convention carefully defines discrimination against
women, which is alluded to in other treaties but has not received
adequate attention in intergovernmental and NGO fora, and
notes the obstacles to women's enjoyment of their fundamental
human rights. The CRC specifically outlines the concept that
children have human rights as individual human beings, which
had not been acknowledged clearly in prior instruments.
Advocates for women's human rights and for children's rights
have on occasion insisted that certain rights of children
as stated in the CRC and certain rights of women under the
CEDAW Convention must inevitably conflict. The NGO communities
concerned respectively with each treaty have rarely collaborated
on a community-wide basis and sometimes do not even know each
other within a particular country. The Committee on the Rights
of the Child has concerned itself to some extent with certain
issues pertaining specifically to girls, and the CEDAW Committee
has paid some attention to issues concerning rights of female
children, but the two Committees historically have not collaborated
or overtly acknowledged the potential commonality of their
concerns.
In the last two years this picture has changed. In 1996 UNICEF
adopted a mission statement that explicitly refers to the
significance of the CEDAW Convention and mandates attention
to its implementation. Members of the CEDAW and the CRC Committees
met in November 1996 in Cairo and determined that indeed the
two conventions share certain commonalities and there is potential
for positively exploring the overlap in interests. And in
1998, a series of international meetings were held to lay
the groundwork for cooperation between the international and
local communities concerned with the rights of children and
those concerned with the human rights of women. The meetings
were cosponsored by IWRAW, Save the Children Alliance, UNICEF,
UNIFEM and the UN Division for the Advancement of Women; the
Commonwealth Medical Association also collaborated.
Advocates for the human rights of children and of women have
a considerable commonality of interest in what the two conventions
define as fundamental social and legal change. The key to
successful collaborative efforts lies in identifying the commonalities
and understanding that the perceived conflicts are matters
of economic or political priorities and not a conflict of
rights. As sister instruments derived from the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights, the two conventions cannot embody conflicting
rights. But they do refer to conflicting interests, which
must be resolved by addressing the conflicts at community
and state levels. For example, women's employment rights can
be seen as conflicting with children's right to health, particularly
if breast-feeding is endorsed as the healthiest way to feed
an infant. But if provision is made for paid leave and adequate
breast-feeding breaks at work, and if resources are made available
to underwrite healthy alternative ways to feed an infant,
the perceived conflict can be resolved in the best interests
of both child and parent.
The series of meetings in 1998 explored issues such as this
and resulted in commitments by NGOs and international agencies
to develop further collaboration that will serve both communities
well. At an expert meeting held in Geneva in October 1998,
focusing on prevention of violence in the family, members
of the CEDAW Committee and the CRC developed a set of recommendations
for working in parallel, such as development of parallel questions
for States parties concerning violence in the family, which
each committee will consider for adoption in full session.
IWRAW has committed to providing information and technical
assistance to NGOs concerned with using the reporting process
for either commitee to advance the human rights of women and
girls. IWRAW invites inquiries and information on developments
concerning the rights of girl children, for publication and
use in monitoring and reporting. The reports of the 1998 series
of meetings on this subject are available from IWRAW as well
as from the other sponsoring agencies; see Resources in this
issue.
HUMAN RIGHTS
Articles 2, 3, 5
The United Nations has issued an extensive analysis of the
treatment of gender issues by the human rights treaty bodies.
The paper, prepared by the Divison for the Advancement of
Women, was requested by the Chairpersons of the Human Rights
Treaty Bodies. Recommendations included review by each treaty
body of its attention to gender perspectives; adoption of
explicit decisions concerning gender mainstreaming; requesting
and using sex-disaggregated data with respect to all subjects
of the treaty rather than limiting their use to traditionally
"women- specific" issues; specific actions to foster
cooperation between the five treaty bodies serviced by the
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the CEDAW
Committee, and between their respective servicing units; and
efforts to increase normative consistency between the treaty
bodies as to gender perspectives, in their concluding comments
and their general comments/ recommendations At their annual
meeting in September 1998, the Chairpersons strongly endorsed
the report and called upon each of the committees to take
full account of the recommendations in their work. The paper
is available on the Division for the Advancement of Women
Web site, <http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/
>
On September 2, 1998, the International Criminal Tribunal
for Rwanda, convicted Jean-Paul Akayesu, a former mayor, of
rape and genocide. The rape counts were added to the case
after the trial began, based on testimony that was entered
at trial. The rape accusation was included after women's groups
lobbied the chief prosecutor and submitted an amicus brief
to the judges, resulting in amendment of the indictment in
June 1997.
The European Court of Human Rights ruled in September 1998
that British law does not adequately protect children from
corporal punishment. In 1993 a man was charged with assault
after beating his stepson hard enough to raise welts. The
British court acquitted, holding that the beating was justified
as "reasonable chastisement" because it took place
after the boy had threatened his brother with a kitchen knife.
The European Court stated that the British government has
a duty to protect vulnerable citizens from assault and ill
treatment. While the Court did not hold that all corporal
punishment is illegal-that is, British parents will retain
the right to "smack" their children-the law will
have to be rewritten to clearly prohibit beating.
The Government of Indonesia has established an official committee
to investigate reports of widespread rape, targeting women
of Chinese descent, during the May 1998 riots in Jakarta and
other cities. Accounts of the rapes came to light after Jakarta's
Volunteer Team for Humanity, an NGO coalition, opened a confidential
hotline a week after the riots. The Volunteer Team says it
has documented the rape of 168 women. Observers suspect that
the rapes were orchestrated by members of the military, so
fear of reprisal intimidates victims and witnesses. While
some NGOs claim that the rapes were specifically aimed at
terrorizing the Chinese minority, which was the target of
the riots, the Rev. Sandyawan Sumardi, head of the Volunteer
Team, suggests that they were planned to terrorize the nation
generally. Both NGOs involved in investigation and government
officials who have minimized the accounts have been threatened.
Despite invitations to representatives of the Chinese and
Singapore governments, the official investigating committee
may be stymied by witness' fears.
In November 1998 the Iranian parliament approved a draft
law allowing for the recruitment of women for the police force.
Women have not been allowed to serve as police officers since
the 1979 revolution. They will be assigned duties such as
delivering documents, performing body searches on women, and
enforce Islamic dress codes. They will be required to maintain
Islamic dress themselves and remain segregated in their employment
setting. This minor breakthrough follows the appointment of
the first four women to the judiciary in 1997.
Still, for every policy decision indicating progress, several
more emphasize the limitations on Iranian women's freedoms.
Women now have the "benefit" of special compartments
on trains if they are travelling without a male companion.
In September,1998, a special park reserved for women was established
in Ahvaz, a major provincial city. The Head of Women's Contributions
Affairs Center has endorsed a speech by President Khatami
that supported women's confinement of their "social activities"
to the home. And in December 1998, the conservatives who dominate
parliament proposed a law prohibiting male physicians from
treating female patients. Physicians responded that such a
provision would push medical treatment of women "back
to the Stone Age."
A number of women in the Gulf states have made a name for
themselves as writers, but for many of them the name is a
pseudonym. Gulf women have been writing for newspapers and
publishing poetry and other work for years, but only recently
have some of them come out from behind pen names. Family criticism
and social condemnation have prevented them from claiming
their work under their own names. In Kuwait, Qatar, Dubai,
and the United Arab Emirates, a few women have been encouraged
by family or simply have gained the confidence to use their
real names. The issue is no different for women who write
poetry or who write for conservative, government-supporting
newspapers; it is a matter of women's right to expression
regardless of their political leanings.
A US Department of the Interior investigation has found significant
human rights violations in the Commonwealth of the Northern
Marianas Islands. A seven-member investigative team concluded
that CNMI citizens are victims of rampant employment recruitment
scams; that poverty and health problems are increasing; and
that trafficking of minors from the Philippines and China,
and of Russian women from Sakhalin Island, for purposes of
prostitution. The report also stated that, although abortion
is prohibited by the Constitution, it "appears to be
a common practice" among Saipan garment workers. One
garment worker filed a discrimination complaint stating that
her employer had fired her when she refused to have an abortion.
The Community for Human Rights in North Africa (CHRNA) has
accused the Tunisian government of torture, exploitation,
and systematic rape of women prisoners. Despite repeated requests
by the Tunisian League of Human Rights, Human Rights Watch
and others, Tunisia has allowed no independent access or inspection
of its prison system. CHRNA has gathered testimony in support
of the accusations and requests an independent and transparent
investigation into cases of alleged death in custody and the
allegations of sexual assault and rape in Tunisian prisons
and detention centers since 1991. Information: <http://www.chrna.org>
VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
CEDAW General Recommendation #19
The Chilean Ministry for Women has launched a "Zero
Tolerance of Sexual Violence" campaign to change legislation
and public opinion about sex crimes. The campaign is to be
carried out through parliamentary lobbying, use of communication
media, and work with women's organizations. Current legislation,
some of which dates from mid-century, still refers to concepts
such as "doncella" (virgin) and "women of good
or bad reputation," which result in women having to prove
their innocence. In Chile just 10.2% of the cases result in
convictions. The Ministry proposes changes in the law: to
abolish the provision allowing a perpetrator to be freed if
he marries the victim; to criminalize marital rape; to allow
for investigations based only on a report of rape; to decrminalize
voluntary homosexual relations; to prohibit sexual harassment
in any public or private places; and to prohibit sexual exploitation
in children. The program also encourages ratification of the
Convention of Belem do Pará on the eradication of violence
against women and that the Convention be adopted as law, and
would require national tribunals to take into account the
international treaties ratified by Chile.
In Cairo, Egypt, two doctors were charged in July 1998 with
illegally performing female genital mutilation on three young
girls, one of whom died of an antibiotic allergic reaction
during the operation. The doctors were released on bail; if
found guilty, they could be sentenced to three years in prison.
FGM is prohibited under a ban issued by the Minister of Health
in 1996 and upheld by the Supreme Court in December 1997.
TRAFFICKING IN WOMEN
Article 6
International news services report that Thai women are being
brought to South Africa to be trapped into sexual slavery.
Members of a well-organized gang promise the women jobs as
hostesses; the women pay a fee for their tickets and work
permits, and find themselves in South Africa at the mercy
of the recruiters, forced to work day and night. A few have
been repatriated, and Thai authorities are hunting the gang
members.
As of January 1, 1999, men who buy sexual services in Sweden
may be arrested and fined or sent to jail for up to six months.
Adopted in July 1998 by a 181 to 92 vote in the Riksdag, applies
everywhere-on the streets and in brothels, private clubs and
massage parlors. Stockholm police will use video cameras to
monitor red-light districts and they register auto license
plates of suspected men. The new law does not make prostitution
illegal, and sex workers can continue offering their services.
Recent police figures indicate that between 5,000 and 6,000
prostitutes work in Sweden; many come from the former Soviet
Union and Eastern Europe. In neighboring Finland, the government
has banned the purchase of sexual services from persons under
the age of 18. The new law in effect as of January 1, applies
both at home and abroad. Under the measure, Finnish citizens
and Finland's foreign residents may be prosecuted even if
the purchase of sexual services from minors occurs in a country
where child prostitution is not illegal.
A study by the International Labor Organization, released
in August 1998, documents the economic impact of the commercial
sex trade and suggests that governments officially recognize
it in economic reporting and planning. The study did not call
for legalization of prostitution, but indicated that the revenues
and remittances from urban to rural areas in the four countries
studied (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand)
are too large to be ignored.
PARTICIPATION IN PUBLIC LIFE
Articles 7 & 8
The September 1998 elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina resulted
in a dramatic increase in women's representation in Parliament.
The rules established by the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which supervised the election,
required that each party include at least three women in the
top ten on its party list. Voters choose parties, rather than
individuals, and each party can seat a number of delegates
proportional to it share of the vote. With three women in
the top ten on any list, the number of women was bound to
increase. Women now hold 11 of the 42 seats in the House of
Representatives (compared with one before), 21 of the 140
seats in the Federation House of Representatives, and 19 of
the 83 seats in e Republika Srpska National Assembly. However,
an OSCE democratization officer notes that women were excluded
from places further down on the lists rather than integrated
througout.
Following the elections, the female parliamentarians, from
all parties and ethnic groups, agreed to form an alliance
to keep each other informed and to work together on common
issues such as budget, the military, health and education.
What brought them together (under OSCE auspices) was the common
experience of being ignored by their own parties and passed
over for high parliamentary posts.
The first woman to serve as President of Switzerland was
elected in December by Parliament. Interior Minister Ruth
Dreifuss, a Social Democrat who has been serving as Vice President,
will preside over the Cabinet during 1999. The Presidency
is a largely ceremonial post that rotates every year, but
Dreifuss nonetheless sees it as an opening for women, who
have been underrepresented in high government posts. She is
only the second woman to serve in the Cabinet.
EDUCATION
Article 10
The latest UNICEF annual report, State of the World's Children,
reconfirms the importance of girls' education as critical
to addressing basic population and economic issues. Currently
sixteen percent of the world's population is illiterate, and
the percentage is expected to grow because only one in four
children in very poor countries is currently in school. Less
than half of the school population is female. Yet better education
for women and girls has proven to result in better health,
including reduction in infant mortality as well as lower fertility
rates. School attendance rates are dropping because hard-pressed
governments place a low priority on supporting education.
Ethnic conflict also makes for millions of school-age refugees.
The report is available from UNICEF, UNICEF House, East 44th
Street, New York 10017 USA.
Twenty-five women in sub-Saharan Africa will receive Ph.D.
training fellowships to study science and technology in other
developing countries, under a pilot program established by
the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).
The program is specifically aimed at developing a group of
African women trained to participate in significant technological
research and decision-making. The fellowship program, operated
through the Third World Academy of Sciences, is part of an
effort to meet a newly adopted development goal of gender
equality in programs of SIDA's Department for Research Cooperation
(SAREC).
The South Korean Ministry of Education has adopted a new
national curriculum with a goal of eliminating gender discrimination
from all textbooks. The new curriculum requires that technology
and home economics be taught as basic subjects by the year
2001. The Ministry will survey the ratio of women promoted
to positions as vice principals and principals and will revise
personnel management rules to guarantee equal opportunity.
The new approach includes encouragement of girls to take technology
courses and establishment of additional engineering high schools
and classes for women.
EMPLOYMENT
Article 11
The Chilean parliament has approved a law prohibiting employers
from requiring pregnancy tests as a condition of hiring or
consideration for promotion. The change was proposed by the
Ministry of Women. The CEDAW Committee in its review of Mexico
in January 1998 called on the Government of Mexico to similarly
prohibit pregnancy tests in the hiring process.
Even though wage discrimination has been illegal in the US
for 35 years, the US Census Bureau reports that many women
still earn, on average, just 74 cents for every dollar men
earn. To illustrate the extent of the salary gap, the Working
Women's Department of the AFL-CIO (labor union consortium)
has established a Web site where the visitor could estimate
how much the wage differential is costing her. Web locator:
http://www.aflcio.org/women/equalpay.htm.
During her recent visit to China, United Nations High Commissioner
for Human Rights Mary Robinson noted the high number of women
workers laid off in Shanghai as a result of restructuring
and requested that city authorities broaden retraining programs
to provide more opportunities for women. She also objected
to the practice of allowing employers to designate whether
they wanted a man or a woman for particular jobs. In the past
seven years 1.2 million workers have been laid off. The textile
industry, which employs largely women, has lost 300,000 out
of its original 570,000 workers.
The European Court of Justice has ruled that women who suffer
"routine pregnancy-related inconveniences," such
as fatigue or morning sickness, may have their wages cut by
their employers. If the discomfort does not rise to the level
of incapacity for work or a threat to the unborn child, the
Court said, the women do not have a right to be paid when
they do not show up for work. In the same ruling, involving
pay legislation in Denmark, the Court did hold that employers
could not reduce salaries of women who are totally unfit to
work for a reason connected to pregnancy, as salaries were
not reduced for men who were unfit to work for medical reasons.
Also, employers cannot reduce pregnant women's pay on grounds
that they cannot find suitable work for them. These provisions
violate equal pay provisions of European Union treaties.
After a fourteen-year legal battle, Canada's Human Rights
Tribunal issued a landmark decision in July 1998 finding that
public servants in female-dominated job categories must be
paid on an equal basis with men whose jobs are comparable.
The pay equity case dates from 1984, and the award orders
pay adjustments, including interest, retroactive to March
1985. According to the public service board, the award is
worth Can$1.33 billion. The government has appealed.
Women Board Directors International, a US-based nonprofit
group that promotes women's access to the highest levels of
corporate management, has declared that the percentage of
women on corporate boards in Japan is "pathetic."
Women constitute 0.2 percent of Japanese corporate directors,
compared with 11.2% in the US and five percent in the UK.
The largest, most international Japanese corporations have
no women on their boards; the few women serve on boards of
mid-sized, more local companies. The study, produced by a
private Japanese think tank, included all of Japan's publicly
traded companies. The results reflect the consequences of
women's position in Japanese society in general, where most
are employed as "office ladies" or in other low-level,
dead-end positions, and only eight percent of the members
of the Diet are women.
HEALTH AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
Articles 10, 12, 14
Ligia Martín, Costa Rican Women's Ombud, has reported
significant lapses in gynecological and obstetrical care.
Gaps include lack of breast proteases and mammogram machines,
unavailability of reconstructive breast surgery, lack of information,
and lack of attention to privacy. In addition, authorities
have discovered a failure to analyze six thousand cytology
(cervical) samples taken between November 13, 1996 and April
3, 1997. The affected women were not notified, putting them
at significant health risk. Hospital authorities blame the
gynecologists and the patients, claiming that the physicans
should have taken new samples when they did not receive results
and that patients should attend to having the tests every
two years. Meanwhile, the Costa Rican Medical Association
Commission on Human Reproduction has called for a change in
the law concerning sterilization. The 1988 law authorized
sterilization upon a conditions including "signed request
by the interested parties" and "written medical
justification for the request." The law's vagueness as
to the conditions has resulted in subjective and oppressive
application, such as requiring a husband's permission, or
that the woman be 35 years old or older and have at least
three children. According to the Constitutional Board, these
conditions violate constitutional freedoms.
In October 1998 Sheik Nasr Farid Wasel, Egypt's Grand Mufti,
made a revolutionary appeal to the government to permit abortions
for unmarried rape victims. Abortion is illegal in Egypt unless
the pregancy threatens the life of the mother. A provision
for abortion in the case of rape would constitute a major
broadening of the law. However, the Grand Mufti made no suggestion
as to abortion in the case of a raped married woman. The issue
seems to center on questions of marriagibility and virginity
rather than on considerations of the woman's state of mind;
in the same speech the Grand Mufti also suggested that government
clinics should be allowed to "restore" the woman's
physical "virginity." Aminna al-Naqqash, a member
of the opposition Progressive Unionist Party, welcomed the
ruling as to abortion but dismissed the suggestion as to "restoring
virginity," noting that it would be merely a physical
procedure that would have no effect on the damage to a woman's
selfhood caused by the rape. The government, meanwhile, indicated
that it had no plans to consider either provision.
On July 10, the High Court of Pretoria, South Africa, dismissed
a constitutional challenge to the Choice on Termination of
Pregnancy Act. The challenge was brought by three right-wing
Christian groups, who claimed that the Act is unconstitutional
and should be struck down in its entirety. The plaintiffs
argued that the life of a human being starts at conception,
abortion terminates the life of a human being and that everyone
has a right to life and that everyone includes a fetus. But
the court decision confirmed the protection of women's rights:
the constitution guarantees women the rights to equality,
to make decisions concerning reproduction, and to security
and control over their bodies. The case also was noteworthy
in that, although the claim was against the Ministry of Health
and the Premier of Gauteng Province, the court also admitted
as defending parties the Reproductive Rights Alliance (an
NGO) and the Commission on Gender Equality. The full opinion
is available at: < http://www.law.wits.ac.za>
The five-year review of the International Conference on Population
and Development, (ICPD + 5), will be held in New York in June
1999. Events center on a special session of the General Assembly,
June 30-July 2. Several UN roundtables have been held on ICPD
subjects. An NGO Forum, limited to 800 particpants, will be
held in conjunction with the GA session. Cairo Plus Five,
a newsletter produced for journalists concerned with ICPD,
cites programs in Nigeria, Brazil, and Bangladesh as examples
of progress towards the ICPD goals-but notes as well that
oppression and violence continue to hamper women's access
to their reproductive rights. The US is cited as particularly
culpable in cutting off financing for the UN Fund for Population
Activities as a result of conservative politics. NGO Forum
and ICPD+5 Web site: www.unfpa.org;
Cairo Plus Five: c/o Population Action International, 1120
19th Street, N.W., Washington DC 20036 USA; (202) 659-1833.
FAMILY LAW
Article 16
Under a new South African law, customary marriages are now
recognized formally, giving women new legal protections against
exploitation by husbands and extended families. Historically,
under the Apartheid regime, customary marriages were not regulated
in any way by the state, and the government essentially relegated
all African marriages to invisibility before the law. Women
had no rights to property either within the marriage or upon
its breakup; they had no legal capacity to engage in commercial
transactions or make decisions affecting the family; and they
had no say in whether the husband took additional wives. The
Recognition of Customary Marriages Act, adopted in late 1998,
provides for registration of customary marriages, legal equality
between husband and wife, and division of property upon divorce.
The Act allows for polygynous marriages, a position adopted
after a major public debate. Many women's human rights advocates
insisted that abolition of polygyny is required by the CEDAW
Convention and as a matter of women's fundamental right to
equality in marriage. But great concern also was expressed
over the position of women, mostly rural, who are currently
in polygynous marriages or who might become second and subsequent
"wives" in unregistered partnerships and who would
not have any rights with respect to their partners if polygynous
marriages remained outside the law. Information: Gender Research
Project, Center for Applied Legal Studies, University of WitwatersrandP.B.
3, Wits 2050 South Africa. Tel: 27 011 403-6198; fax 403-2341;
e-mail <125je2wa@solon.law.wits.ac.za>
In Lahore, Pakistan, a judge of the High Court has ordered
confiscation of a woman's property as punishment for her refusal
to submit to her husband's conjugal "rights." The
ruling, issued by a female judge, has resulted in a national
debate. A former High Court judge has termed the decision
unique in judicial history and contrary to fundamental rights;
a religious scholar also has weighed in against the result.
Activists have noted that it is a woman's fundamental right
to deny or agree to perform conjugal rights.
A Nigerian organization, "Mums and Widows," recently
organized a rally at which hundreds of women showed up to
protest the treatment of widows in Nigerian society, but very
few of the invited men of substance appeared. According to
Nigerian ethnic traditions, widows are treated as a lower
caste, forced to engage in humiliating mourning rituals, prohibited
from going to the market for a year after the husband's death,
and prohibited from participating in the husband's funeral.
In many cases, in-laws enforce these ritual requirements to
an extreme. Women also are in many groups denied inheritance
rights, and the husband's family grabs the property immediately
after the death. While a few local male-run NGOs have taken
up the widows' cause, most of the activism on the issue is
by women's organizations, which have made little headway.
RESOURCES
NEW FROM IWRAW
IWRAW's new Web site will be on line as of February 1, 1999.
The redesigned and expanded site includes information on country
reporting to CEDAW and the Committee on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights as well as IWRAW publications. See: <http://www.igc.apc.org/iwraw/>
Publications concerning collaborative work on the CEDAW Convention
and the CRC, as discussed in the opening of this newsletter,
are available from IWRAW and the other sponsoring agencies.
Free to developing countries; costs of mailing will be charged
for requests from the US, Canada, and other industrialized
countries.
The Human Rights of Women and Children: Challenges and Opportunities.
Full report of two-day expert group meeting held in New York,
January 1998.
OR Short version, written in accessible format, for wider
distribution.
Women, Children, and Human Rights: An IWRAW Consultation.
Report of a one- day public consultation including discussion
with members of the CEDAW Committee and a broad NGO representation,
January 1998.
Preventing Violence in the Family . Report of a two-day expert
group meeting on using the CRC and CEDAW Conventions in family
violence prevention efforts meeting held in Geneva, October
1998. Forthcoming 1999.
Culture and Choice: Lesson from Survivors of Gender Violence
in Zimbabwe, by Alice Armstrong, reports the findings of a
three-year research project and workshops on gender violence
in Zimbabwe, funded by the Ford Foundation. The research focuses
on the experiences and attitudes of women who have survived
gender violence, both with regard to the violence itself and
the help they received in the aftermath. The women's stories
are used to explore new ways of thinking about gender violence
in the cultural context of southern Africa. To order: US$10
+ $2 postage (in US) or $5 postage outside US, to: Alice Armstrong,
AKA, 203 Zapata Lane, Chapel Hill NC 27514 USA. E-mail: alice@intrex.net.
Derechos Humanos de la Mujer: Perspectivas Nacionales e Internacionales,
is available from Profamilia in Bogota. The book is an essential
resource on women's human rights, the product of an international
consultation held at the University of Toronto in 1994. It
includes general discussions of the basic women's human rights
issues and uses of the international human rights mechanisms
as well as national and topical case studies. From: Profamilia,
Carrerra 15 No. 34-37 Santa Fe de Bogotá, Colombia.
Fax: (57-01)287 5530.
The VIII Latin American and Caribbean Encuentro (Feminist
Meeting) will be held in the Dominican Republic, in September
or November 1999. The meeting's goal is to evaluate feminist
accomplishments in the last 30 years, stressing both the achievement
and weakness of the movement in the region. In addition, the
meeting will discuss the situation of women in the continent
and the alternatives for increasing their influence on policy
agendas. The organizers are hoping to hold the meeting to
coincide with the celebration of the Day Against Violence
Against Women (November 25), which was created in the first
Encuentro in honor of the Mirabal sisters, women who were
killed by the government of Dominican dictator Trujillo. Information:
Rosa Curiel, Cimisión Organizadora VIII Encuentro Feminista
Latinoamericano y del Caribe. Calle Santiago # 503, Santo
Domingo, Republica Dominicana. E-mail: rosa.curiel@codetel.net.do
A recent study by Population Action International highlights
the increased demand for family planning services in Africa
as a hopeful note in a difficult place. Africa's Population
Challenge: Accelerating Progress in Reproductive Health documents
the issues and some new approaches to providing necessary
services to women and families. From: Population Action International,
1120 19th Street, N.W. Suite 550, Washington DC 20036 USA.