Biblio

Combines UN reactions with pro-choice local initiatives by social movements and politicians demonstrating against recent bans on abortion in the U.S.

Outlines how the MeToo movement in 2017 prompted Jeanne Ponte, a French parliamentary assistant who had been keeping a record of workplace sexual harassment inside the EU parliament since 2014, to create the MeTooEP blog. Soon after the story of her recording of social harassment broke, MEPs at Strasbourg passed a resolution against sexual harassment. Over 1,000 people then signed a petition demanding enforcement of it.

Theatre administrators, artistic directors, and heads of programmes from across Canada discuss about how institutional policies and cultures have shifted in the wake of #MeToo. The participants reflect on the challenges of assessing the impacts and effects of a cultural movement that is still unfolding and how #MeToo has changed the relationship between training institutions and the performing arts industry.

Amnesty issued this early condemnation of regime violence against 'verified video footage', eyewitness reports and other information on the 'excessive and often lethal force' used to crush largely peaceful protests in over 100 cities. Amnesty also notes the role of security forces in seizing the bodies of the dead, or compelling relatives to bury protesters without an autopsy, as well as the internet shutdown imposed by the regime. See also: Human Rights Watch, 'Iran: No Justice for Bloody Clampdown', 25 February, 2020, pp. 18. https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/02/25/iran-no-justice-bloody-crackdown This lengthy report, written after the mass demonstrations had been crushed, provides information about protests, and the authorities' response, in different provinces. It also indicates the difficulty of getting precise figures for deaths (estimated at a minimum of 304) and imprisonments (about 7,000 according to one member of parliament), given the closing down of the internet and regime threats to families.

This brief but interesting commentary was written after the first week of protests in October 2019, in which 100 people were killed and over 6,000 injured. Dawood discusses the immediate causes of the protests and the longer term failings of the government under Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, elected as a compromise candidate between two Shiite coalitions a year earlier. The author notes that opposition groups like the Communist Party and the Sadrist movement (followers of the radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr) were not involved, but that the lack of leadership among the protesters (even within cities) was a weakness in making credible demands for change.  Nevertheless, the government (despite its immediate authoritarian reaction) was making concessions by offering economic reforms and pressing for passage of anti-corruption bills before parliament.

This analysis, written at an early stage of the 2019 protests, comments on the combination of longstanding grievances and the recent sources of anger, such as repression of protests calling for jobs for university graduates in September, which led to the mass eruption onto the streets of 'unemployed and underemployed youth' in Shia majority areas. It notes that there was little immediate response in Sunni-majority areas, because of the recent violence of the war against ISIS and fear of being targeted as pro-ISIS, or as supportive of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party. The author also examines why Shia protesters reject the existing political parties and often criticize Iran's role in Iraqi politics.

A detailed account and analysis of the 'spontaneous and leaderless protest movement' that was strongest in Shia-dominated provinces, but spread across Iraq.  Ali notes how protests in Baghdad in early October 2019 against the removal of a popular general, who had led the fight-back against ISIS, were also fuelled by anger at failures of basic services, such as water and electricity, and the pervasive political corruption. These demonstrations developed into a demand for a new political system to replace the US- imposed regime based on ethnicity and religious divides. The article then sets the 2019 movement in the context of earlier waves of protest, starting with the 2009 protests in Iraqi Kurdistan and the Sunni-majority protests in 2012-13 against their exclusion from political power.  It also emphasizes the role of a new generation of protesters since 2015. 

Amnesty International pays tribute to the Irish campaigners that led to the revolutionary referendum that repealed the Eight Amendment (25-26 May 2018), thus legalising abortion. It also highlights the human rights violation that women in Northern Ireland faced because of the harsh and restrictive anti-abortion law then applicable.

Hoffman documents the struggles of local communities in the UK to save irreplaceable woods, marshes and other rare and beautiful habitats from roads, airports and industrial development. He stresses the historical, cultural and communal importance of these sites as well as their ecological value, and the grounds for hope provided by successful local campaigns.

Touches upon the history of the celebration of the International Women’s Day on March 8 and on the particular significance of striking on this day. It also includes mention of the initiatives that have taken place on 8 March 2019 in many cities around the world.

Describes the feminist revolt in Caracas, Venezuela, seeking to bring attention to gender-based violence, and highlight the lack of statistics on femicides (which have not been updated since 2013) and the current obstacles to Venezuelan feminism.

Grimm compares the rising in Sudan, Algeria, Iraq and Lebanon with 2011, whilst also indicating why these countries were not part of the 2011 wave of movements. He also suggests lessons learned from 2011 and considers what the European response should be.

Report on Japanese law that compensates thousands of people who were sterilized, often without their consent, under a government program to prevent the birth of “inferior descendants” that remained in effect under “Eugenics Protection Law”, from 1948 to 1996. See also: Kyodo, ‘Woman sues Japan over forced sterilization under eugenics law’, Japan Times, 3 July 2020. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/07/03/national/crime-legal/forced-sterilization-eugenics-law-court/#.Xx8tYvhKhxg

Brief account of the emergence of #CampusMeToo movement in 2019, which aims to tackle the sexual harassment of students on Kenyan university campuses. The movement arose after ActionAid and UN Women teamed up and conducted a survey which reportedly found that 1 in 2 female students and 1 in 4 male students have been sexually harassed to some degree by staff at Kenyan universities.  See also https://www.nation.co.ke/Students-campaign-to-end-sexual-harassment-in-varsities/1148-5370260-14wikij/index.html

Highlights the evidence that in 32 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean at least 3,529 women were victims of femicide in 2018. According to the report by ECLAC, the five countries with the highest rates of femicide in Latin America are: El Salvador (6.8 femicides per 100,000 women), Honduras (5.1), Bolivia (2.3), Guatemala (2.0) and the Dominican Republic (1.9). In the Caribbean, Guyana leads with 8.8 femicides per 100,000 women, followed by Saint Lucia (4.4), Trinidad and Tobago (3.4), Barbados (3.4), and Belize (2.6).

The paper's Middle East correspondent provides a snapshot of the immediate and longer tern causes of the major protests that erupted in October 2019, on a scale not seen since the 2005 'Cedar Revolution'.

The author, a PhD student at a US university, examines the Lebanese movement in its fourth week. She summarizes its origins, immediately after fire destroyed over 3,000 acres of woodland in the country, as a reaction to new taxes on online calling apps, fuel, cigarettes and consumer goods, and notes how it developed to challenge corruption and the nature of the regime. She argues the movement's scale (about 2 million protesters on Sunday October 20) its national spread, including to sectarian strongholds, and its inclusion of different religious and class groups, made the protests unprecedented in recent history.  As a result of demonstrations, strikes in schools and universities, and blockades the government abandoned its tax plans and the Prime Minister, Saad Hariri, announced his resignation on 29 October.   

Explores how women's reproductive rights and needs are reflected in pro-life and pro-choice public debate in Poland.

Achcar comments on the Algerian and Sudan uprisings, lessons learned from 2011-13, the role of regional and  imperial powers, and the role of  the international left in relation to Sudan.

The author explores how women’s organisations in South Africa are often constrained in demanding their rights, or protesting in the streets, by their links to governments, political parties or international charities. Not only do these organisations need financial backing, but they are also expected to maintain a professional profile. She illuminates this dilemma by studying organisations in the Cape Flat of Cape Town, mostly run by black and coloured women struggling against increasing crime and violence against women and children.

Rich, an essayist and contributor to the New York Times Magazine, focuses on the period 1979 - 1990 and the role of the US, which in 1979 emitted more carbon dioxide per head than any other industrialized country and had the political leverage to bring about international change. He charts efforts by environmentalists and scientists to make climate change a global political issue, and the roles of Presidents Jimmy Carter and George H. Bush (who argued for action on climate change in 1988, but, influenced by his sceptical chief scientist and internal pressure, failed to deliver on his promise).

Reports on three major Latin American countries, Argentina, Colombia and Mexico that witnessed mobilizations against femicide and gender-based crimes in February 2019 comments also on the social and human rights organisations that are demonstrating against gender-based violence.

Drawing on in-depth interviews with 35 Bulgarian journalists, the author argues that the media in Bulgaria - far from exposing corruption as a free media should - has itself become increasingly 'an instrument to promote and defend private vested interests' and is itself corrupted.

This article notes the disproportionate impact on women of climate change in many parts of the world and the recognition of this fact in the UN Paris Agreement, which called for empowerment of women in climate talks. It also points to the prominence of women in the struggle to limit climate change, and selects 15 women from round the world playing varied roles, including Greta Thunberg.

#MeToo has sparked a global re-emergence of debate about and opposition to sexual violence. This edited collection uses the #MeToo movement as a starting point for examining contemporary debates among those engaged in combatting sexual violence. Academics and anti-sexual violence activists across the globe provide perspectives on the broader implications of the movement. It taps into wider conversations about the nature, history, and complexities of anti-rape and anti-sexual harassment politics, noting the limitations of the movement, including in the Global South. Contributors span the disciplines of criminology, media and communications, film studies, gender and queer studies, and law.