Grassroots will drive North Africa women’s rights push

In: Oxford Analytica, 2020

The year 2019 has seen women’s rights movements come to the fore across the Maghreb, a region where previous initiatives have been driven by Western political pressure and from the top down by predominantly authoritarian leaders. This paper explores the unprecedented bottom-up activist movements that have begun advancing the agenda of women’s rights across the region.

Honduran President called ‘murderer’ at inauguration of UN anti-femicide initiative

In: TeleSur, 2019

Announces the launch of the ‘Spotlight Initiative’ in Honduras through a joint collaboration between the United Nations (UN) and the European Union (EU) and the Honduras government to end femicide and impunity. By 2014, Honduras had the highest number of femicides in the world, according to the U.N. It is reported that 380 women were murdered in the country in 2018 and that 30 women were killed during the first 30 days of 2019. The impunity rate for this crime hovers at 95 per cent.

Available online at:

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Honduran-President-Called-Murderer-at-Inauguration-of-UN-Anti-Femicide-Initiative-20190214-0009.html

Women’s participation in Peace Processes

In: Council on Foreign Relations, 2019

A report tracking women’s participation in peace negotiations from 1990 to the present. It reveals that women comprise only two percent of mediators, five percent of witnesses and signatories, and eight percent of negotiators around the world.

See also https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/03AWomenPeaceNeg.pdf

Available online at:

https://www.cfr.org/interactive/womens-participation-in-peace-processes?utm_medium=earned&utm_source=redirect&utm_campaign=women-peace

The Race Issue. Black and White

In: National Geographic, 2018, pp. 79-149

Originally published: April 2018

In this special issue on race in the US, Michele Morris recounts how demographic changes across the US are challenging white Americans’ perception of their majority status. She also discusses attempts to re-create a narrative that could reflect more than white Christian ethnicity as the only identity framework of US history. Michael A. Fletcher reports the personal stories of people of colour who had suffered traumatic experiences of stop-and-search by police officers on the basis of their racial profile. Clint Smith examines two major and prestigious colleges that have experienced a recent surge in enrolment of black youth and the rise of new forms of Black activism. Finally, Maurice Bergers reports on the work by photographer Omar Victor Dopi on slave revolts, independence movements, social justice quests. The events represented range from 18th century’s Queen Nanny of the Maroons, known for her ability to lead Jamaican slaves to liberation from British colonialism, to 21st century’s 12 year-old Trayvon Martin, whose shooting by a white neighborhood watch volunteer inspired the birth of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Mexico: Submission to the Committee On the Elimination of Violence Against Women

Amnesty International2018, pp. 13

This report sets out Amnesty International’s concerns about the Mexican state’s failure to comply with observations of the Committee (in the combined seventh and eighth periodic reports) on violence against women. Amnesty notes in particular the murder of women for gender-based motives, also known as “femicides”, the gender alert mechanism, disappearances of women, and the torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of women during detention, which is exacerbated in the context of a militarization of public security.

Extractivism In Latin America

Action Fund of Latin America2016, pp. 59

This report by the feminist civil society body, Urgent Action Fund of Latin America and the Caribbean, focuses on the role of women in protecting and defending nature, and warns of increasing risks to their lives and environment. The report discusses ‘the extractive model’ and the social-environmental conflicts it creates, and also the disturbing militarization and violations of women’s rights, including those defending their environment. The report outlines proposals made by women for defence of territory, and also stresses the diversity of the approaches, organizations and activities developed by Latin American women.

Protesters criticize AMLO’s plan for domestic violence’s shelters’

In: TeleSur, 2019

Human rights activists have opposed President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s plan to cut funding for women’s shelters in Mexico. The scheme is still not properly defined, but the money will instead be given directly to the victims of domestic violence. While the government’s decision does not intend to withdraw support for victims, human rights activists point out the risk of nullifying years of activism and initiatives led by civil society. In fact, they stress that giving money directly to victims can further expose them to violence.

Available online at:

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Protesters-Criticize-AMLOs-Plan-for-Domestic-Violence-Shelters-20190305-0007.html?fbclid=IwAR3-6VQ-3LlNLCE93hcx25nKmhk3mgXZANWfE027Z3bxHJBXJYu_WY8fRns

Hibakusha. Survivors Of Hiroshima And Nagasaki

Kōsei Publishing, Tokyo, 1986, pp. 206

First hand account of 25 hibakushas, survivors of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. They include soldiers, doctors, nurses, students, housewives, small children, Koreans brought to Japan for forced labour, and victims who were yet unborn.

The Kremlin Emboldened

In: Journal of Democracy, Vol 28, No 4, 2017, pp. 60-116

This supplement contains a number of articles exploring the nature of 'Putinism', the degree of regime stability, the extent of genuine popular support, and the implications of Putin’s post 2014 international policy for Russia internally. Authors provide varied perspectives, including an assessment of increasing popular frustration, especially among young people.

Back From the Brink: A call to prevent nuclear war

Grassroots movement aiming at preventing nuclear war.

2019

Official website of ‘Back From the Brink’, a grassroots movement that aims to involve local councils and Members of Congress in the U.S. and pressure them to change U.S. nuclear policies. Their demands are:

-       Renounce ‘first use’ option;

-       End the sole presidential authority to launch a nuclear attack;

-       Take U.S. nuclear weapons off ‘hair-trigger’ alert;

-       Cancel U.S. plan to replace its entire nuclear arsenal with enhanced weapons;

-       Pursue total abolition.

See also http://www.nuclearban.us/back-from-the-brink-a-call-to-prevent-nuclear-war/ and https://www.wagingpeace.org/.

Available online at:

https://www.preventnuclearwar.org/about

Blessed are the Peacemakers: Military service in South Korea

In: The Economist, 2019, pp. 48-48

This article was prompted by the Supreme Court's ruling in November 2018 that refusing to accept 21-14 months of military service for religious or conscientious reasons would no longer be a crime (overturning its own earlier 2003 ruling). The author notes that the small number of past objectors have usually been Jehovah's Witnesses, and that courts would in future judge the sincerity of pacifist convictions which they might reject, and that, if CO status were accepted, three years alternative service as a prison guard was required.  But recognition of the right to be a CO makes it a more socially acceptable position, and might also help to mitigate the harsh conditions of military service.

The case for unilateral disarmament

In: Peace News, 2020

On 23 January, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved its Doomsday Clock (created in 1947) from two minutes to midnight to 100 seconds to midnight, which is the closest that it has ever been to the prospect of human destruction. This article makes the case for Britain unilaterally dismantling its nuclear weapons programme; firstly, from a legal perspective, and secondly, from a practical perspective.

Available online at:

https://www.peacenews.info/blog/9616/case-unilateral-nuclear-disarmament

'International Slut’ activist Li Maizi is one of China’s loudest feminist voices

In: Broadly, 2017

Explores the struggles and campaigns on anti-sexual harassment and gender equality led by Li Maizi in China - where she was arrested for more than a month as part of the Feminist Five – and the UK, where she came visiting on the occasion of the Million Women Rise demonstration in London.

See also https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/blood-brides-feminist-activists-cracking-chinas-patriarchal-order/

Available online at:

https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/ywmpkv/international-slut-activist-li-maizi-is-one-of-chinas-loudest-feminist-voices

New Approaches: #MeToo in Japan and the UK

In: Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, 2018

In this seminar, the impact of #MeToo was discussed in relation to the UK and Japan. The speakers outlined the implications and effects that the movement has had across each society and the extent to which it may impact government policies and legislation. The discussion also noted the challenges that the movement faces in both Japan and the UK.

A link to the video of the Conference can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XqL--SOaJI

A summary of two presentation can be read here http://dajf.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Metoo-event-write-up.pdf

Available online at:

http://dajf.org.uk/event/new-approaches-metoo-in-japan-and-the-uk

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.

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