Re-launch of Scotland WILPF

Tuesday 26th May

Reported by Talyn Rahman

As the YWILPF representative, I was invited to join Diane and Sasha to travel to Scotland. This was my first visit whereby I had a short presentation to make about YWILPF. It was exciting to journey to Edinburgh for a possible re-establishment of the Scottish WILPF branch. Diane, Sasha and I had an inspiring time meeting activists in Edinburgh, who were excited to restart the WILPF branch up there. WILPF women present in the meeting were Sasha Jesperson, Diane Brace, Helen Kay, Janet Fenton and myself. 5 non-members, who later joined WILPF, were also present.

The meeting itself began with a small photo exhibition of WILPF’s past and present, followed by Helen Kay’s short history of Edinburgh and WILPF. For an insight to WILPF, Janet discussed why she had joined WILPF and her current project in Edinburgh. Diane did an excellent job explaining WILPF’s current standing and international status, which intrigued many of the women in the room.

In order to encourage the younger members in the meeting, I thought it fitting to explain why I joined WILPF and how, after one year, I got on the WILPF executive board. YWILPF is about members being active, and I went on to explaining future initiatives planned, with the possibility of expanding YWILPF into Scotland through the Scottish parliament. We had two young people in the crowd who worked for the Scottish parliamentary and two other women who worked at universities in Scotland, which was a very encouraging start.

Sasha emphasised the importance of national WILPF branches and what strategic changes are coming about the organisation. It is fundamentally important that Scotland have a branch as it is not possible for Scottish WILPF members to travel in and out of the country for meetings or events. Furthermore, with such close ties to the Scottish parliament and prestigious universities, Edinburgh (as Scotland’s capital) have a flourish of events, which WILPF can participate in, throughout the year.

Janet and others discussed the unique opportunities that they have with the Scottish Parliament, and Helen has sent through this you tube video as an example.

MSPs have joined together in song to say that it is Crunch Time for Trident. They were filmed in the Scottish Parliament to promote the Sing Out for Peace march and rally in Glasgow on Saturday 20 June.
Rob Gibson (SNP), Cathy Peattie (Labour) and Robin Harper (Green) sang the new song, Crunch Time for Trident, written by Ian Davison for the event. They are introduced by Mike Pringle (Lib Dem).
The video is on Youtube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SC2WAerrp1Q

Well done Scotland, and WILPF women to have the enthusiasm to re-establish the Scottish branch. It was a great success.

WILPF turns 94

25 April 2009

Reported by Talyn Rahman

Despite the actual birthday falling on 28^th April, YWILPF UK and London WILPF organised a party in celebration for WILPF’s 94^th birthday. A local pub close to the main UK office was decorated by violet WILPF balloons, banners and campaign materials to kick start the celebration with a certain theme in mind. LONDONWILPF had organised a magnificent cake and guests (as hoped) wore the suffragette colours of violent, green and white. YWILPF collaborated the party organising with LONDONWILPF, whereby we had invited former WILPF President Diane Brace to say a few words before the cake-cutting.

WILPF women made contributions on Jane Addams, Emily Balch, Rosika Schwimmer, Crystal Macmillan, Edith Ballentine, and our very own Richenda Barbour, who has been with WILPF UK for over 20 years. The party was a great success with a mixed crowd. We were joined by a total of 25 people, including male friends and guests from the Democratic Republic of Congo (as seen in the photo). We had a total of four new WILPFers, with new members attending the event.

WILPF 2009 AGM

WILPF AGM: Gender Budgeting
Saturday 14th March

Report by Talyn Rahman

The WILPF UK AGM was presented by Vice Presidents Amy Barrow and Katherine Ronderos. Marion Boker, a consultant for Human Rights and Gender Issues from Germany, was invited to share a special presentation entitled “What Price for Peace: Gender Budgeting for Gender Equality.”

Summary of AGM

Members of WILPF celebrated the success of the Voices of African Women seminars, having networked with women from different countries. WILPF enabled women from Diaspora to engage with politicians in the UK and strengthen grassroot campaigns for the movement of African women in conflict. Having our campaigns assistant Sasha Jesperson on board has enabled WILPF to expand campaigning opportunities on a broader level. It was great to see interns and younger members on the executive committee, which should hopefully attract young women to join the organisation as active members. The ‘serious’ part of the AGM ended nicely with a musical rendition from Raised Voices, who are a political street choir.
Women of WILPF joined in with the singing about Palestine: “Free Palestine. What have they done? Take down the wall. Give back the land.”

Keynote Presentation

Marion Boker’s presentation about gender budgeting was quite a new angle, which neither I nor WILPF have much experience about. Boker stated that society needs social spending for health, better workplace, child care and education, as opposed to expenditure for war. Today, we have tools and enshrined rights to see that the government implement this. Finances for women’s needs are marginalised. In 2003, 0.04% of total European Commission Aid supported women-specific projects and programs, which clearly suggests that there is less for women and more for war. Failed budgetary on women is NOT an old metaphor. Figures for social spending have been constant from 1988 to present day, with only a small increase in 2002. Women have been fixed in traditional gender roles, such as looking after children and elderly – which of course earns women no money.

According to Boker, CEDAW are strongest on gender budgeting and are campaigning for this. The financial crisis is naturally offering new challenges which need to integrate around gender budgeting. Boker affirmed that the G7/G20 should be open for women and gender experts to implement an early warning system to crises and gender budget analysis for a more rounded conclusion. Violence against women, gender pay gap, unemployment and other situations are all increasing in stages of crisis and will continue to grow unless voices in parliament about these problems are heard.

A report in February 06 2009 from CEDAW in Geneva reported that:
“The UN Committee is concerned by the impact of the financial crisis on the rights of women and girls.”

This presentation has made WILPF consider gender budgeting and analysis into our general campaign and logistics.

Workshops

After the presentation, 3 workshops, which members of WILPF are working on, were present. The working groups below can be joined by anyone who is interested. Please contact the WLPF office or myself (about the VAW group) for more information: office@ukwilpf.org.uk

* Women, Peace and Security
* Global Economic Justice
* Violence Against Women

As WILPFs co-coordinator of the Violence Against Women working group, I co-facilitated the workshop with Katherine Ronderos. We were fortunate to have two very special Sara Elizabeth Avilez Tome and Maria Amalia Reyes Cartagena from Honduras, to share their experience of violence. These women were in the UK for 2 weeks to raise awareness of gender violence in Honduras. Katherine led the discussion in Spanish, followed by English translations.

Before the interview with the women, a DVD was shown to highlight Sara Elizabeth’s experience, presented by 21st Century. Every 20 days, women are victims of physical abuse or killed by loved ones. Domestic violence is at an unprecedented level in Honduras and due to the level of cases, the police are being trained to think with a 'gender perspective' in order to handle the number of complaints. Furthermore, women are recruited into the police for thorough research and attention to these cases, as sexual violence was seen as a taboo.
Honduras has a population of 7 million people. Since 2007, 10000 cases of domestic violence were reported, which increased by 3.8% in 2008 but these numbers only reflect those who have reported it. Although the Honduran government have outlawed violence against women in 2007, the law is only now being implemented.

Response from the government has been limited and domestic violence is the last stage of action before women are assassinated by their spouse. Sara Elizabeth is working with women and NGOs to identify forms of violence and encourage other women to speak up about their experience before things can get worse.
The topic of patriarchy sparked fresh conversation. Participants suggested that new education need to be in place to teach children at a young age on how to treat people, eradicating old patriarchal attitudes. Sara Elizabeth and Maria agreed that the attitude of men wanting to be ‘more superior’ were spurred by old patriarchal influences and is still one of the biggest factors in Honduras. Women need to understand that these treatments and behaviour is not ‘normal’, and need support, education and awareness.

Sara Elizabeth and Maria are in partnership with CORN to strengthen community support at grassroot level in providing emotional support. Legal promoters provide training about legal instrument to report cases and support for long term processes. They hope to help women break the circle of violence based on economic dependency on their partner by starting micro-business projects like beauty courses, t-shirt making, tailouring etc. Current financial crisis makes it difficult to compete with imported products, which brings them back to their violent partners, however this is the beginning of a growing project, that can hopefully be encouraged by NGOs, and the government.

Nick Clegg’s ‘Protect the Human’

Wednesday 10^th December 2008

Reported by Talyn Rahman

“Protect the Human” was organised by Amnesty International, to mark the 60^th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Nick Clegg MP, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, was the events key-note speaker, followed by a conversation with Adam Boulton from Sky News.

As the British Obama, Nick Clegg had touched upon all the issues which I believed were important. He emphasised how important it is for politicians to work closer with grassroot campaigners in bringing about real change in society, and how he would like to lead the country from a bottom-up approach.

Clegg’s keynote began his speech talking about how the international landscape is testing the values of the UNDR: freedom, tolerance and, justice. Developed democracies are failing to meet those challenges across the world and in the UK. He believes the government cannot be proud on Human Rights Day as Britain is no longer part of the solution, but part of the problem. Millions of people still suffer abuse and cruelty and the growth of poverty, violence and repression is rapid.

“The world today is full of unprecedented threats and dangers,” Clegg confessed. He mentioned the spread of disease and the environmental crisis, and how the line is being blurred between military and civilian war. He stressed with great disappointment that western democracies are failing to restrain unwarranted aggression and this failure is the lack of political will.

Clegg had praised Obama for breaking barriers with America’s old enemies, ending the abuse of Bush’s administration and not hiding from America’s past. By combining this viewpoint, he believes that America will be able to move forward, leading the world to a better future, therefore making Obama a great role model for other politicians.

To the relief of British nationals, Clegg disagrees with the idea of carrying forced ID cards, which will make worse problems for asylum seekers and waste taxpayer money.
“So no ID cards,” he said, “Not for anyone. Not - as the Conservatives would have it - for foreign nationals but not British citizens.”

He touched upon the problem of refugees, forced marriages and women’s rights, as well as answering questions to the lack of human rights so clearly demonstrated by China and the Olympics. I shook his hands for wanting to form relationships with NGOs and strengthening their campaigns. I hope that working closer with a leader like Nick Clegg, NGOs will have greater power to engage with key decision-makers to allow change to happen. I hope that Nick Clegg is able to reach out to a wider audience and is able to persuade less-liberal minded people to engage with his politics and see him through to the next election.

Women as Property

"Women As Property: Forced labour and forced marriage in the world today..." - Amnesty International

December 2nd, 2008

Reported by Talyn Rahman

In collaboration with Anti-Slavery International, Amnesty International hosted this special event highlighting forced marriage and labour around the world. This event was hosted to mark the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery. I was very intrigued to attend this event because it had some ties with my work with WILPF and was in fact incredibly insightful. Members of the VAW Group and YWILPF, Ella Page, Deborah Michelleti also attended.

The seminar highlighted the controversial fineline between exploitation of human rights and dignity to old customs and tradition. When is it ok for people to practice their custom and when should an outsider intervene in what looks like gross misconduct of human rights? Here is a summary of what the panelists highlighted in their speech, along with my action points as part of active learning.

Maggie Black (Independent Writer and Consultant):
- Highlighted the India ritual of poor women being forcefully married to a deity, which is enriched within their culture and custom
- With the absence of a real husband, these women are treated as sexual property for anyone who chooses to demand their services. They are not prostitutes (no pay) but it is within their role to offer such services to men... which is thus passed onto their children
- None of this is legal but law and tradition is treated differently in India, and such customs practiced in poorer areas
- It is male domination that prolongs such customs and parents lack the education to see that these initiation processes for their daughter does them nothing but harm
- However, the sense of 'goddess' in their life is very strong despite how these initiated daughters are treated
- There is no help from the police, however women have now been empowered with Maggie's help campaign against the goddess initiation and custom, and demand women's rights

Naana Otoo-Oyortey (Executive Director of FORWARD)
- Naana stressed the need to put child marriage onto UK's campaign agenda with plenty of rich examples and consequences felt by these children
- In parts of Africa, marriage is seen as an "opportunity". Children are forced to marry when still pre-pubescent and their bodies put through the ordeal of pregnancy and childbirth
- The norm is deeply embedded within some ethnic communities and do not understand that this custom is simply harming the child and their well-being, not forgetting taking away their childhood and innocence
- Child widows suffer the most, having to bring up a large number of her children alone, having her husbands physical possessions snatched from her and passed onto another man like cattle
- Child marriage is a neglected global development concern, whereas FGM is widely and globally discussed
- Clearly, poverty is linked and there is heavy gender discrimination issues (as men in that part of the world say that if a young girl looks good and has breasts, she should be taken!!!)
- Note that just because a country as a legal minimum age at which someone can marry doesn't mean that this age is monitored or enforced. These children may be forced to marry as soon as they are born

Kaviri Sharma (Focus on forced marriages in British South East Asian communities)
- The things Kaviri was saying in regards to South East Asian customs I understood and was aware of clearly because I've seen it happen to members of my extended family
- Forced marriages, she said, leads to domestic violence especially if the man was forced into the marriage without his verbal agreement
- Victims of forced marriage are largely women from 17-21 years of age
- Parents don't understand the difference between consent and what is forced, simply thinking that they are doing the best for their child

After the keynotes, we were presented a short video "Two Little Girls" which is an ad to highlighting Eastern Europeans young women who are potential victims of human sex trafficking. It is all in cartoon animation which made the advert that much more appealing to watch and easy to understand, and was a fantastic campaign endorsement.

Action points
- Watching "Two Little Girls" gave me an insight to how we can use documentaries made by WorldWrite. Greater outreach is necessary.
- There are lots of root causes to why these customs appeared and became the norm however with education, we can help these women feel empowered and stand against the inhumane treatment they receive - this can be done with the help of working groups.
- Poverty, I feel, is the major causes to most these decisions that parents take upon their children. What can business' do to help create sustainable jobs for women? Also, bring education to children so that they learn to grow strong and understand that this is not what life is.