Six Months On. Gaza's Great March of Return

In: Amnesty international, 2018

After summarizing the dire economic and social conditions among the 1.9 million Palestinians in Gaza (70 per cent of whom are registered as refugees from other parts of Israeli territory) after years of blockade and damage from military attacks, Amnesty focuses on the destructive Israeli military reaction to the Great March.

See also: Wispelwey, Bram and Yasser Abu Jamel. 'The Great March of Return: Lessons from Gaza on Mass Resistance and Mental Health', HHR: Health and Human Rights Journal, vol. 22 no. 1 (June 2020), pp. 179-86.

The article describes how the blockade and Israeli attacks have undermined mental health in the community.  The authors assess the positive impact on communal mental health created initially by the March of Return resistance movement.  But they argue that this has been offset by the impact of death, disability and trauma many have suffered as a result, and by the longer-term failure to achieve better conditions. The authors then examine what health workers can learn about the 'psychosocial consequences of community organizing’.

Available online at:

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2018/10/gaza-great-march-of-return/#:~:text=According%20to%20local%20Palestinian%20human,shot%20by%20the%20Israeli%20army.

Hambach Forest Saved

Feb-Mar 2019

In: Peace News, No 2626-2627, 2019, pp. 11ff

Reports that after years of resistance by German green activists against open cast coal mining, which had already destroyed much of the Hambach forest, the rest of the forest seemed to be safe. A government-appointed 'coal exit commission' recommended in January 2019 that Germany should stop using coal-fired energy by 2038 and that it was 'desirable' to preserve the Hambach forest. A court order requested by the German Friends of the Earth (BUND) had already temporarily halted expansion of the mine, after major protests by the campaign Ende Gelaende, which included occupying coal train tracks

See also: Polden, David, '4,000 Activists Block German Coal Trains for 24 Hours', Peace News, 2624-2625, Dec.2018-Jan.2019, p.5.

Very brief report on Ende Gelaende direct action.

Civil Society Engagement in Disarmament Processes The Case for a Nuclear Weapons Ban

United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA), New York, 2016, pp. 76

This publication focuses on the role of the Japanese hibakusha’s (atomic bomb survivors) experience in advocating for a Treaty that could ban nuclear weapons. It also discusses the impact of nuclear weapons on the environment as well as the human body, and offers arguments that delegitimise nuclear violence.

Educating Girls: The Path to Gender Equality

Global Partnership for Education, Washington, D.C., 2019, pp. 11

Outlines the challenges faced by girls seeking an education, and provides data related to most of the African countries, alongside Afghanistan, Yemen, the Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste.

Mexicans petition Dia de Muertas, memorial to femicide victims

In: TeleSur, 2018

Describes Mexican activists that are collecting signatures to declare October 24 Dia de Muertas in order to create awareness of the three thousand femicides that occur every year. Human rights organizations hope the new commemorative day would draw international attention to the impunity surrounding the rising number of gender-based crimes.

Available online at:

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Mexicans-Petition-Dia-de-Muertas-Memorial-to-Femicide-Victims-20181024-0030.html

Indigenous Activists Keep Carbon Below Ground

May-June 2020

In: New Internationalist, 2020, pp. 51ff

Brief account celebrating victory after years of campaigning by Indigenous Climate Action against Teck Resources, the company pressing for permission to build the tar sands Frontier Mine in Canada, which would have produced 3.2 billion barrels of oil over 40 years. Teck withdrew early in 2020, after 12 years of lobbying (indigenousclimateaction.com). The journal also reports very briefly that the Great Australian Bight Alliance, led by Aboriginal elders and local activists has in succession prevented Chevron, BP and (most recently) Equinor to abandon plans to drill for oil in the Bight (fightforthebight.org.au.)

EU-UN Spotlight Initiative to eliminate violence against women and girls

European Commission2019

Fact sheet providing information about Spotlight - a global campaign in joint partnership between the EU and UN - to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls in South East Asia, Latin America, Africa, the Pacific and Caribbean region. The initiative aims to contribute to the achievement of SGD Goal 5 on Gender Equality and SDG Goal 16 on inclusive and peaceful societies. It provides information on the EU’s Gender Action Plan 2016-202 0 and UNFPA (https://www.unfpa.org/) and the surveys conducted to shed light on this form of violence.

Spotlight’s official website can be accessed at http://www.un.org/en/spotlight-initiative/index.shtml

Available online at:

http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-18-5904_en.htm

Nigerian women protest against Abuja police raid and rape

In: African Feminism, 2019

Narrates the background of the #AbujaPoliceraidOnWomen campaign, in response to the violent arrest of 70 women in two clubs on the accusation of prostitution. The police allegedly raped those women who couldn’t afford the bail.

See also the interview on this campaign with Oluwaseun Ayodeji Osowobi, founder of the Stand To End Rape (STER) initiative  http://africanfeminism.com/police-brutality-against-nigerian-women-an-interview-with-oluwaseun-ayodeji-osowobi/ and http://africanfeminism.com/protests-arent-tea-parties-dont-expect-women-to-be-civil/

Available online at:

http://africanfeminism.com/nigerian-women-protest-against-abuja-police-raid-and-rape/

Meet 15 Women Leading the Fight Against Climate Change

In: Time, 2019

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.

Available online at:

https://time.com/5669038/women-climate-change-leaders/

Murdered women can’t celebrate International Women’s Day

In: Foreign Policy, 2019

Looks at the expansion of political and legal rights on gender-related issues in Latin America. The article also discusses the overall progress of women in education; their role in the labour market; and women’s access to health-care and social security. Emphasises the predominance of gender-based violence and lack of reproductive rights in the region.

Available online at:

https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/03/07/murdered-women-cant-celebrate-international-womens-day/

Rape during conflict: The Wolves of War; the Nobel Peace Prize honours two campaigners against rape in war

In: The Economist, 2018, pp. 59ff

Reports on the Nobel Peace Prize jointly awarded to Nadia Murad, a Yazidi in Iraq who was made a sex slave by Isis and wrote a book, The Last Girl, on her experience, and Dr. Mukwege in the Democratic Republic of Congo who runs a hospital that has treated over 40,000 women and children, survivors of rape and mutilation by militias.  He has survived an assassination attempt in 2012.

See also: 'Nobel winner vows to use honour in fight to protect Congolese women', Observer, 7 October 2018, pp. 28-9.

The Big Story: Myanmar

In: New Internationalist, 2021, pp. 15-36

This very informative supplement on the aftermath of the coup on 1 February 2021 carries several articles on the resistance, the repression by the generals, and assessment of future possibilities inside Myanmar.  It also includes discussion of the scope for international action, a summary of key statistics, a list of relevant organizations and initiatives, and a bibliography.

ECLAC: At least 2,795 were victims of femicide in 23 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean in 2017

Gender Equality Observatory for Latin America and the Caribbean

2017

Stressing the need to create inter-agency agreements, the 2017 Economic Commission for the Latin America and the Caribbean’s report on femicide shows that Brazil topped the list of femicides (with 1,133 victims confirmed in 2017). In 2016, Honduras recorded 5.8 femicides for every 100,000 women. In Guatemala, the Dominican Republic and Bolivia, high rates were also seen in 2017, equal to or above 2 cases for every 100,000 women. In the region, only Panama, Peru and Venezuela have rates below 1.0. In the Caribbean, four countries accounted for a total of 35 femicide victims in 2017: Belize (9 victims), the British Virgin Islands (1), Saint Lucia (4) and Trinidad and Tobago (21). In the same year, Guyana and Jamaica — which only have data on intimate femicides — reported the deaths of 34 and 15 women, respectively, at the hands of their current or former partners. In 2017, the rates of intimate femicides in Latin America ranged between a maximum of 1.98 for every 100,000 women in the Dominican Republic, to a minimum of 0.47 in Chile.

Thomson Reuters Foundation’s survey on the 10 most dangerous countries for women in 2018

Thomson Reuters Foundation2018

The survey reports on the worst countries in the world for women in terms of health (e.g. maternal mortality, lack of access to health care facilities, lack of control over reproductive rights); discrimination (e.g. over land rights, job rights, property or inheritance); culture and religion (e.g. acid attacks, FGM, forced marriages); sexual violence (e.g. Rape, rape as a weapon of war, domestic rape or by a stranger); non-sexual violence (e.g. domestic violence); and human trafficking (including domestic servitude, forced labour, sexual slavery and forced marriage). The methodology is outlined and each listed country is fully described in each of the categories explored by the survey.

Available online at:

http://poll2018.trust.org/

Take Five: Fighting femicide in Latin America

In: UN Women, 2017

Discusses the deadly forms of violence against women in Latin America, the current development of the launching of the Latin America Model Protocol in 2014 by UN Women and the High Commissioner of Human Rights, and the most recent updates on the legislation by Latin American countries.

To access the last Survey on gender-based violence in Latin America, please see http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/about-us/highlights/2016/highlight-rn63.html

Available online at:

http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2017/2/take-five-adriana-quinones-femicide-in-latin-america

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