Women in Conflict

I have come to realization lately that I am a numbers person. In many aspects of my life, I realize that it is numbers that really affect me. This might explain why I am most passionate about human rights issues as they relate to conflict situations. When you hear that 800,000 people were killed during the genocide in Rwanda or 400,000 killed and 2.5 million have been displaced due to the genocide in Darfur, it shocks my conscience.

When I read the October 7th article in the NY Times about a "rape epidemic" in Eastern Congo, again is was the sheer numbers that moved me.

According to the United Nations, 27,000 sexual assaults were reported in 2006 in South Kivu Province alone, and that may be just a fraction of the total number across the country.

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Malteser International, a European aid organization that runs health clinics in eastern Congo, estimates that it will treat 8,000 sexual violence cases this year, compared with 6,338 last year. The organization said that in one town, Shabunda, 70 percent of the women reported being sexually brutalized.

The article goes on to describe hospitals crowded with victims of rape, of doctors performing 6 surgeries per day for victims of rape, and sending women home early because more victims show up every day.

Don't worry, I am not a robot. What affects me about the numbers is knowing that for each person represented in those numbers, there is one story of terror and unimaginable pain. The NY Times article linked to above gives some stories from the victims. The true horror is knowing that there were 27,000 such stories in South Kivu Province, and any one of those should make us rise up and do what it takes to prevent any more.

The truth though is that while these numbers are very shocking, it is not the only place this is happening. Conflict zones in Columbia and Darfur and neighboring Chad are dealing with this. And Sierra Leone, Uganda, and the former Yugoslavia were witness to it (Amnesty International has a good web page on the issue).

Defending Rights to be Cold

I've never thought I would be happy about the weather getting a little cooler. Usually, by this time of the year, I am use to seeing the trees without their leaves. However, I look out my window and my beautiful sycamore holds a colorful array of leaves and we are moving into our second week in November in New York City. "Is it the effects of climate change?" I ask myself.

Far north, in the an Inuit village called Kuujjuag in northern Canada, there is a growing concern that climate change is vastly changing the lives and culture of the Inuit people. In an article I read recently, a woman describes her experience growing up with cold summers and rarely ever wearing short sleeves. Now, the summers have grown warm and people are swimming in the local river to keep cool, an activity not common in the Arctic. Sheila Watt Cloutier is a local advocate on climate change, has witnessed the changes in the Arctic climate such as melting ice sheets; eroding coastlines; and shrinking habitats for polar bears, caribou, and other animals the Inuit have relied on for sustenance. The effects of climate change in Kuujjuag are not only melting ice caps but the culture of the Inuit people is disappearing.

Martin Wagner, an environmental attorney from Earthjustice describes the impact of climate change on the basic human rights of the Inuit people. "The impacts of climate change have very real, negative, harmful impacts on the Inuit's ability to sustain themselves as they have traditionally done, their ability to be healthy, which they have a right to in the Inter America human rights system." Wagner continues - "Their ability to maintain their unique culture, which is absolutely dependent on ice and snow; their ability to hunt and fish and harvest plant foods; their ability to have shelter and build their homes - all of those rights impacted by climate change in the Arctic."

Who is responsible? We all are. Have you ever heard of the term "pollution without borders"? Sheila Watt Cloutier, along with the federation of Native Nations, Canada, Greenland, Russia and the United States have come together through the Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC) to combat climate change and to take action on one of the world's biggest users of Greenhouse Gases (GHG), the United States of America. Ms. Cloutier says that she is "defending our rights to be cold."

What can we do? Is it too late?

The ICC has filed a petition with the Inter America Commission on Human Rights to hopefully gain support for future federal legislation. In the meantime, I believe we owe it to the Inuit people and to ourselves to be more cautious of how we use our energy. We have a responsibility to protect our planet and with that responsibility we are protecting ourselves.

Under the Women's and Youth Forum, I have chosen to focus on climate change and its effects on human rights. Notice the picture of the little Inuit boy above. I would like to create a call to action to empower our youth to be leaders for the environment and to support the human rights of all.

Bush and Darfur

I found this to be a very enlightening article about President Bush's role on Darfur. Basically, it shows a president that has been engaged on the issue, but restricted in his actions by political circumstances as well as the typical advice from foreign policy staff. To see that President Bush has been active and interested in this situation is promising. But to see that the same old things prevent action is enraging.

The main point of the article is that the White House hasn't followed through on promises to fix the situation in Dafur. The US is unwilling to commit any troops nor has it been willing to try enforcing a no-fly zone (the Sudanese military has reportedly supported Janjaweed attacks with the air force). Key aides in the Bush administration have been able to talk Bush out of these actions. In fact, we see Colin Powell advising against using military force to intervene here, just as he did during the genocides of the 1990s. The forces restraining action to stop genocide in Darfur are strikingly similar to what Samantha Power depicted in her groundbreaking work on genocide - A Problem From Hell: America in the Age of Genocide.

At the same time though, at least we had a leader that wanted to act, even if he felt constrained. It might not be popular to say this, but President Bush has done more in the face of a genocide in Sudan than Clinton did for Rwanda - and Clinton only got involved in the Balkans when his inaction was affecting his polls. Bush was willing to spend some political capital on Darfur and use the term genocide (admittedly thanks to Colin Powell, who is not afraid to talk about genocide, but never seems to want to do anything about it).

In the end though, there still has been not enough action. We need to get to a point where advisers are telling presidents how to get involved, instead of why not to. But before that happens, we need a population that is disgusted with no action in the face of these unspeakable events.

GWOT v. Human Rights

What fascinates me so much about the developing situation in Pakistan is that it is both a human rights issue and a security issue. With General Pervez Musharraf basically declaring Marshall Law, and now arresting approximately 500 people from the opposition party, we'll see where the Bush administration's priorities lie.

So far, Bush has shown that security issues trump democracy in Pakistan. Musharraf has been an ally (I think this is debatable actually) in the so-called Global War on Terror and has claimed that military rule there is required to prevent Islamic militants from taking over the government (a nuclear government). Because of this his military rule has been tolerated by the Bush White House. Granted, at times the administration has pushed for changes to put a more democratic face on Musharraf's rule, but in reality is has been a military dictatorship the whole time.

Now that Musharraf has called for emergency powers, Bush can't pretend that democracy is evolving there. Musharraf's claims that democracy would lead to a militant Islamic government have been largely debunked; their popularity is far lower than Musharraf claims. So there should be no reason why Bush can't require that the emergency decree is withdrawn. We have been providing significant funding for the Pakistani military since 9/11, and we can threaten to end the support if Musharraf doesn't relinquish power and go forward with elections.

Something makes me think though that Bush will have no choice but to go along, and that is a serious mistake. Musharraf will say he is doing it because of Islamic militants, and even though the threat is inflated, the White House will likely accept the explanation for fear of losing an ally. We have a long history of sacrificing our ideals to support regimes that support us. We can't let that happen any longer. If we truly support democracy (and Bush has said that when he leaves the White House he may want to start a foundation that promotes the growth of democracy), then we must force even our friends in the GWOT to embrace it as well.

Truth about Gendercide

It exists. What is 'gendercide' you ask? Recently at the 4th Asia Pacific Conference on Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights held in Hyderabad, India, alarming presentations were made on the issue of skewed sex ratio at birth (SRB) rates increasing in China, Vietnam, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan. As preferred in some areas in these countries, boys are given a better chance at life than girls. With the use of medical technology, the early detection of a child's sex can be determined and if the sex is a girl, one could perform an abortion and rid of the child. Currently, China tops the list in having the highest SRB with 100 girls to 120 boys. Responses to the increases in SRB have requested an urgent call to address this 'gendercide.'

Renuka Chowdhry, India's Junior Minister for Women and Child Development powerfully put it, "When there is no economic recognition to womens' work and no social value attached to this particular gender, when resource sharing remains inequitable, when women are paid less then it becomes easier to do away with this gender." Realizing this belief among some societies, Ms. Chowdhry called for an increase in womens' political participation and push for legislation that empower women. She warned, "Don't mess with nature, otherwise it will lead to a mutation of society."

After reading the outcome of the 4th Asian Pacific Conference, I have come to realize how important the Human Rights Committee's Women and Youth Forum truly is. Together, we are going to bring light to issues such as 'gendercide' and reproductive rights among women. Can we even fathom that somewhere in our world that we share together that gender is selected as a choice? We must fight for the rights of women and the girl child.