Opinion on International Women's Day​, by Alison Brown, IAW member since 1992

Back when Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland were celebrating the first International Women’s Day, demanding better working hours, pay and the right to vote, IAW had already been founded as the IWSA to deal especially with the last of those things under the assumption that once women could vote, they themselves would be able to take care of the others.

Unfortunately the patriarchy has proved more resistant to changes in work/life balance and equal pay for work of equal value, not to mention a full representation of women in all decision making positions. The women’s movement has slowly inched along, achieving certain atmospheric changes in that a woman in a decision-making position is not such an anomaly.  Women’s buried history has been painstakingly uncovered, demonstrating that in every era women had shown their mettle if given the chance, even in the face of “scientific” claims of female weakness and incompetence.

On paper many goals the activists demonstrated for, one March 8^th after another, have been achieved in various countries around the world. In practice we still have a great deal to march for. Especially as some standards, like women’s control over their own reproductive health, are being reduced or even negated.

In the past two years, under the ban of the SARS-CoV-2, ground has, in fact, been lost. More women have left the workforce and social norms that assign to them the well-being of children and the entire family are keeping them out of gainful employment, even as they work as hard as ever. One remedy would be adequate, well-paid child care services which seem necessary to release the strength of woman-power on the lagging economies around the globe. It would be a win-win situation, but the powers-that-be hang back, whining about the cost, while ignoring the cost of doing nothing.

The “equal value” component of the old equal pay demand needs more attention as “caring” work is consistently undervalued in every society that depends upon it, which is every society in the world, in both hemispheres and under all economic forms, “capitalist” or “communist”.

IAW representatives will be demonstrating at the Commission on the Status of Women on March 8, 2022.
Wherever you are, I urge you join an International Women’s Day demonstration, too.

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The article was written by Avi Mor, director of the Hotline, and by Malka Genachowski, director of WIZO’s Janet Burros Center for the Treatment and Prevention of Domestic Violence, in which the Hot Line operates. It showcases how WIZO is on the cutting edge of innovation in the battle against domestic violence, continually initiating new programs and services that bring a holistic and systematic approach to this complex problem, in treatment, prevention, education, advocacy and legislation.

We urge you to read this excellent article and share it widely.

Warm regards,

Anita Friedman                    Ora Korazim
Chairperson                          Chairperson
World WIZO                          WIZO Israel

Read the article from Newsweek

The post WIZO’s pioneering work in preventing domestic violence  appeared first on International Alliance of Women.

 Statement by Center for Reproductive rights, Geneva, endorsed  by a large number of civil society organisations.

We are deeply concerned by relentless attempts to roll back sexual and reproductive rights in Poland. On 15 and 16 April Poland’s Parliament will again debate two draft bills that would severely limit access to safe abortion care and would criminalize the provision of sexuality education. If enacted into law these bills would place women’s and adolescents’ health and well-being at risk and violate Poland’s international human rights obligations.

We call on Members of Poland’s Parliament to reject these regressive legislative proposals. Under international human rights law measures that undermine or restrict existing rights are not permitted and violate the obligations of states to ensure ever greater protection of human rights.

The first draft bill known as “Stop Abortion” seeks to further limit the already highly restricted access to abortion in Poland. Poland has one of Europe’s most restrictive abortion laws. Abortion is only permitted to safeguard the life or health of women, in situations of severe or fatal foetal impairment or where the pregnancy results from rape or another criminal act. Even in those situations in which abortion is legal, multiple barriers combine to severely limit access to care in practice. As a result, most women in Poland who need abortion care travel to other jurisdictions to access safe and legal care or obtain abortion medication from medical professionals in other countries. Limitations on travel and transport imposed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic now compound the negative impacts of Poland’s highly restrictive law and will increase the threats to women’s health and well-being.

The second draft bill known as “Stop Pedophilia” seeks to introduce criminal penalties for providing any form of sexuality education and evidenced-based information on sexual and reproductive health and rights to adolescents. Poland already does not provide comprehensive sexuality education as required by international human rights and the bill will expose adolescents to risks to their health and make them vulnerable to exploitation.

In recent years there have been repeated attacks on reproductive rights in Poland and multiple attempts have been made to introduce total or near total bans on abortion. The government has in the past backed down from rolling back reproductive rights in the face of massive public protests, such as the Black Protests in 2016. However, in the context of restrictions on movement imposed to combat the COVID-19 pandemic such public protests against these bills cannot take place. We express our solidarity with Polish civil society during this difficult time.

Prohibiting access to safe, legal abortion care and criminalizing the provision of sexuality education violate a number of human rights enshrined in international law, including the rights to life, health, non-discrimination and equality, privacy, information, education, and freedom from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

Numerous international human rights mechanisms have repeatedly called on Poland to reform its abortion law to ensure access to safe and legal abortion and to remove all barriers to abortion care. They have also called on Poland to provide mandatory, age-appropriate, evidence-based and scientifically accurate comprehensive sexuality education across the education system.

Abortion Rights Campaign, Ireland

Abortion Support Network

AIDOS, Associazione italiana donne per lo sviluppo, Italy

AIED – Associazione Italiana per l’Educazione Demografica, Italy

Alliance for Choice, Northern Ireland

Amnesty International

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Asia Safe Abortion Partnership

ASPEKT, Slovakia

Associação para o Planeamento da Família, Portugal

Association Défense de la Démocratie en Pologne

Association for Human Rights and Civic Participation PaRiter, Croatia

Association HERA XXI, Georgia

Association of Accredited Clinics for the IVE in Spain (ACAI)

Association of Women of Southern Europe (AFEM)

ASTRA Network

Balance Promoción para el Desarrollo y Juventud AC, Mexico

Catholics for Choice

Center for Civic Initiatives “Intelligence of Sumy Region”, Ukraine

Center for Reproductive Rights

Center for Research on Environment, Health and Population Activities (CREHPA), Nepal

CESI – Center for Education, Counselling and Research, Croatia

Charitable Fund All-Ukrainian League Legalife

Coalition to Repeal the 8th Amendment, Ireland

Community Center New Generation, Ukraine

Concord Research Center for Integration of International Law in Israel

Corps écrits, Belgium

Creación Positiva, Spain

Democracy Development Center, Ukraine

Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN)

Doctors for Choice Malta

Doctors for Choice UK

Dziewuchy Berlin, Germany

ECPI-Euroregional Center for Public Initiatives, Romania

European Alternatives

European Women Lawyers Association

Fédération des Centres de Planning Familial des Femmes Prévoyantes Socialistes, Belgium

Feminism UA, Ukraine

Feminist Association Unioni, Finland

Feminist Fightback

Femmes et Santé asbl., Belgium

Femmes Prévoyantes Socialistes, Belgium

Finnish League for Human Rights

FOKUS – Forum for Women and Development, Norway

Fondo de Aborto para la Justicia Social MARIA, Mexico

Freedom of Choice/ Možnosť voľby, Slovakia

Fundació Aroa, Spain

Furia vzw, Belgium

GenPol – Gender & Policy Insights

GPES, Ukraine

HERA – Health Education and Research Association from North Macedonia

Hivpoint, Finland

Human Rights Center ZMINA, Ukraine

ILGA-Europe

International Alliance of Women

International Campaign for Women’s Right to Safe Abortion

International Commission of Jurists

International Planned Parenthood Federation European Network

International Women’s Health Coalition

Ipas Development Foundation, India

Kazakstan Association on Sexual and Reproductive Health (KMPA)

Kharkiv, Centre of the Gender Culture, Ukraine

Kherson oblast center «Successful Woman», Ukraine

Kherson regional center “Successful women,” Ukraine

KULU – Women and Development, Denmark

La Voix des Femmes, Belgium

Le Planning Familial, France

Lleisiau Merched Cymru / Women’s Voice Wales

Marie Stopes International

National Council of Women of Ukraine

National platform for reproductive justice, Croatia

National Women’s Council of Ireland

NGO “FeminismUA”, Ukraine

PATENT Association, Hungary

Pro-choice, rete italiana contraccezione e aborto, Italy

Profamilia, Colombia

Resistanta, Ukraine

Rutgers, Netherlands

safe2choose

Santé Sexuelle Suisse, Switzerland

Sensoa, Belgium

Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Platform (SRHRP), Turkey

Sexual and Reproductive Justice Coalition

SMARTA, Ukraine

Societatea de Planificare a Familiei din Moldova (SPFM)/Family Planning Association of Moldova

Society for Education on Contraception and Sexuality, Romania

Society Without Violence NGO, Armenia

The European Society of Contraception and Reproductive Health (ESC)

The International Federation for Professionals in Abortion and Contraception (FIAPAC)

The National Council of Women of Finland

The Swedish Association for Sexuality Education (RFSU)

Ukrainian Association for Research in Women’s History

UN Women Finland

Union Women Center, Georgia

University Women of Europe

Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights

Voice for Choice – L-għażla tagħha (Malta)

Vrouwenraad, Belgium

WIDE+ (Women In Development Europe+)

Women for Women’s Human Rights – New Ways, Turkey

Women on Waves, Netherlands

Women on Web, Netherlands

Women´s Link Worldwide, Spain

Women’s Information Consultative Center, Ukraine

Women’s Resource Center, Armenia

Women’s Rights Foundation, Malta

Women’s rights protection league “Harmony of equals”, Ukraine

Zaporizhzhia charitable foundation “Unity” for the Future,” Ukraine

Zhiva-Ya, Ukraine

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Girls’ chances to thrive and transform their lives are often reduced at an early age due to the lack of health education, particularly menstrual health management. According to UNICEF¹, UNESCO² and WHO³ about one in 10 girls in Africa, Asia and South America skips school during menstruation and often finally drops out due to an unhealthy environment where no sanitary pads or proper toilets are available. Menstruation is often one of the strongest taboos.
Therefore IAW in 2017 launched the project  “Water and Pads for School-Girls – Empowerment for Life” ⁴ . The project is carried out by seven IAW member organizations in low-income countries.
It addresses several goals of the UN Sustainable Development agenda 2030. Contacts with selected schools were established in poor rural areas in Cameroon, DR Congo, Pakistan, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The teachers most of all pleaded for age-adapted teaching-tools on sexual health.
An IAW team then organized or edited booklets in English and French appropriate for primary and secondary schools. The pilot-project conducted at a rural school in Cameroon in February 2019 was very successful. It had a wide media coverage. Many parents of the school-girls were thankful for the breaking up of this taboo. The girls and boys got an increased awareness of mutual responsibilities when growing up.

IAW strongly supports all WHO efforts to disseminate educational tools about sexual and reproductive health, such as booklets written in regional languages.

We appeal to all governments to endorse efforts to provide a good menstrual health management for girls worldwide, thus enabling them to attend school without discrimination.

1 UNICEF http://www.unicef.org/wash/schools/files/MHM_vConf_2014.pdf    

2 UNESCO http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002267/226792e.pdf

3 WHO https://reproductive-health-journal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12978-017-0293-6

4 IAW Water and Pads Project:  https://iawwaterandpads.jimdofree.com/

The post Statement by IAW at the 72nd World Health Assembly 2019 appeared first on International Alliance of Women.

Promoting Gender Equality through Quality Public Education Systems and Services

Yet, only 44% of member states have fully committed to gender equality in education according to the UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report 2018. Member states have both the obligation to close gender inequalities in education and use education as a tool to foster a gender-equal world.

Increased efforts are needed to tackle the systemic barriers in accessing education for women and girls based on the intersection of gender, race, income and location as well as to ensure safe and non-discriminatory learning environments.

Addressing Systemic Barriers for Marginalized Women and Girls
Women and girls in developing countries are more likely to never go to school. In fact, 16 million girls worldwide will not attend school. Globally, harmful traditional practices, child marriage and gender stereotypes prevent women and girls from accessing education. Living in poverty and the lack of school services in close proximity to their homes can also deter women and girls from securing education at all levels. In the Global North, Indigenous women and girls also face systemic barriers to accessing education and a lack of school services in close proximity to their communities.

Early Childhood Education and Care
Only one in two children globally are enrolled in early childhood education and care. Unlike primary and secondary school, early childhood education and care is still predominantly seen as a private responsibility rather than a state responsibility.  This is despite being highlighted as a human rights issue in human rights conventions and agreements such as the Convention on the right of the child. In Canada, early learning and child care services remain unavailable and inaccessible for many families due to high fees, limited licensed spaces and a market-based approach to service provision.

Publicly funded high quality, accessible and affordable early learning and child care can have a transformative impact on children, women and the economy. Early learning and child care is proven to guarantee better developmental outcomes namely by improving school readiness and social integration. Moreover, it can shift the weight of unpaid care work that is traditionally put on women and support gender equality by enabling women to pursue education and skills training as well as securing formal jobs, full time work, and building businesses. Financial institutions such as the IMF and the OECD have also highlighted its cost effectiveness and its high positive impact on economic growth.

Women and Girls Living in Poverty
Women and girls living in low-income families are more likely not to enter school or to drop out of school. This can be explained by the inability to afford fees related to schooling such as textbooks and transportation, and a gender bias favouring boys’ education in some countries. Social expectations for girls to perform care and domestic tasks disproportionately affect girls and women in low-income families.

Securing access to education for girls cannot be isolated from ensuring access to other services and essential infrastructure such as drinking water and sanitation, health and reproductive health services, and safe and adequate housing.

Privatization
The High Commissioner for Human Rights highlights that an increased privatization of school has negative impacts on accessible and free quality education as it can generate disinvestment in public education. This has a direct impact for girls and women’s education. Discriminatory admission requirements as well as the potential lack of compliance with the national curriculum in the private sector are also deterrents to girls’ participation in school.

Women and Girls in Rural and Remote Settings
A majority of women and girls who cannot read come from rural and remote settings. Women represent two thirds of adults who are unable to read or write, a statistic that has not changed in 15 years. Technology can play a key role in providing education and skills training for individuals in rural and remote settings. A focus should also be given to improvement of infrastructure in rural areas with gender-sensitive facilities such as clean and safe sanitary facilities along with safe transportation and culturally sensitive education.

Literacy, Vocational and Skills Training
Vocational and skills training needs to be relevant and to adapt to the changing labour market context. Most adults in middle and low income countries still struggle with basic information and telecommunication technologies (ICT) according to the International Telecommunications Union. Women need to access ICT as well as digital literacy training in order to facilitate their integration into the labour market, to empower them and strengthen their social and financial independence and leadership potential through access to information.

Ensuring Safe and High Quality Learning Environments

Ending Violence in Schools and on Campuses
Gender-based violence is prevalent in many schools and campuses around the world with an estimated 246 million children experiencing school-related violence every year. It has severe impact on women and girls’ well-being, rights and ability to complete an education. Prevention of and response to sexual violence at all levels of education is crucial.

National standards and legislation accompanied by strong transparent monitoring mechanisms are needed to address sexual violence in schools and on campuses.

An inclusive and comprehensive health and sexuality education in primary and secondary school, where concepts such as consent and bystander intervention are taught, can contribute to preventing gender-based violence. Also key to tackling the issue is the training for teachers, staff and students on reporting mechanisms and on the root causes of gender-based violence.

High Quality Unbiased Education
Educational content should be free from gender bias and stereotypes, promote equal relationships and provide gender-responsive instruction. However, many textbooks still reinforce stereotypes, namely by representing women only in specific roles. A teacher’s own gender bias can also contribute to gender inequality in the classroom. In its report on the Realization of the equal enjoyment of the right to education by every girl, the High Commissioner for Human Rights points to the State’s responsibility to ensure that textbooks, curricula and programmes promote gender equality and dismantle harmful stereotypes. Training for teachers and staff in the use of evidence-based teaching and learning strategies to provide education that promotes gender equality and human rights is of significant importance.

We urge member states to:
– Commit to gender equality in education by adopting laws, policies and action plans, strong and transparent monitoring and accountability mechanisms as well as investment in capacity building to identify best practices.

– Ensure access at all levels to quality public education systems, and infrastructure that are gender-sensitive, including primary, secondary, and tertiary education, as well as publicly funded accessible, affordable, inclusive and quality early learning and child care.

– Provide funding to cover indirect costs of education for marginalized populations such as women and girls in poverty as well as strategies and services for such community development as safe drinking water, safe housing and health and reproductive health services.

– Improve access to ICT especially for girls living in rural and remote communities and invest in lifelong learning training that includes ICT skills and digital literacy.

– Ensure that textbooks, curricula, programmes and teaching methods promote gender equality and dismantle harmful stereotypes based on gender, race and religion.

– Provide training for teachers and staff on gender biases and evidence-based gender sensitive curricula that is culturally sensitive and promote human rights and gender equality as well as training on the root causes of gender-based violence and reporting processes.

– Increase and target development assistance investments to support gender equality in education.

In conclusion, education and gender equality are at the heart of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Efforts to ensure SDG4 inclusive and equitable quality education need to fully integrate the commitments to SDG5 to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls.

The Canadian Federation of University Women (CFUW) is a non-partisan, voluntary, self-funded organization with over 100 clubs, and close to 8400 members located in every province across Canada. Since its founding in 1919, CFUW has been working to improve the status of women, and to promote human rights, public education, social justice, and peace.

Statement endorsed by:

• Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women
• Graduate Women International
• International Alliance of Women
• National Council of Women of Canada
• YWCA Canada

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Rights, a milestone document that proclaimed the inalienable rights which everyone is inherently entitled to as a human being — regardless of race, colour, religion, sex, language, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights empowers us all. The principles enshrined in the Declaration are as relevant now as they were in 1948. We can take action in our own daily lives, to uphold the rights that protect us all.

Human rights are at the heart of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as in the absence of human dignity we cannot drive sustainable development. Human Rights are driven by progress on all SDGs, and the SDGs are driven by advancements on human rights.

Commemorating such an important document as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for one day is not enough. Lately a number of UN agencies, like UN Women, and now the Center for Women’s Global Leadership, the initiator and global coordinator of 16 days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence Campaign, has adopted a new approach in order to move from awareness to accountability.

The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence is an international campaign coordinated by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership and used by activists around the world as an organizing strategy to call for the elimination of all forms of gender-based violence. It takes place every year between November 25 and December 10 and is run by over 6000 organizations in 187 countries.

This year the Center is asking everybody to join forces with workers’ unions and turn these 16 days into a 365 effort to end all harassment and violence in the world of work.  Every month leading up to June 2019 there will be a focus on different sectors of work, highlighting gender based violence for domestic workers, politicians, journalists and in garment factories, in the agricultural sector and more. This is a transforming experience which can bring powerful results.

The IAW has since a number of years been working on the issue of accountability adopting Declarations after every Board meeting asking our members to hold their governments and other relevant stakeholders accountable for the realisation of women’s human rights and gender equality.

The post The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Accountability on Women’s Human Rights appeared first on International Alliance of Women.

Senators on either side of the nomination asserted themselves in a battle that polarized the right of a woman to reveal the trauma she suffered through sexual exploitation years after the event.  This was a demonstration of why so many women carry their personal stories in shame.  Both the political and the legal frameworks of society are void of non-judgemental or supportive reactions to trauma.  It continues to be a risk for a woman to speak her truth.  Anita Hill in 1991 and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford in 2018 have publicly testified to that fact.

In examining the root cause for such an oppressive reaction from society one cannot even declare it stems from a patriarchal perspective because many women supported Brett Kavanaugh.  They saw their sons, brothers, cousins and husbands in him  and could not separate from protecting his interests.  The same kind of support is afforded to other prominent men who are known to violate the rights of women.

When we examine our laws, there are none to govern the male body.  Men don’t have to fight for the right to bear children or not to bear children.  There are no legal control mechanisms for the male’s biological role in reproduction.  Men have an assumed right to make their personal decision with no challenge from society regarding the function of their body.

Justice Clarence Thomas in the 1990s and most recently Justice Brett Kavanaugh were both appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States of America with a cloud of accusations of exploitation of women hovering over their reputations.  Of all the legal minds in the land could there not be found two justices to occupy those seats that are so important to the interpretation of laws that affect women?

It seems unjust, if not callous, that these two notorious men are in positions of power to uphold or crush the ruling on Roe v Wade.  Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, is a landmark decision issued in 1973 by the United States Supreme Court on the issue of the constitutionality of laws that criminalized or restricted access to abortions. The question remains, “Are the two aforementioned justices able to separate and control their documented animalistic outbursts when interpreting laws that govern women’s bodies and their lives?”

October 24, 1991 Justice Clarence Thomas assumed office. Twenty-seven years apart the same conversation repeated itself.   October 6, 2018 Justice Brett Kavanaugh assumed office.  Not many people remember the 1991 conversation and the “pass” that was given then.  A month after Kavanaugh was given a “pass” not many people remember the drama either.  Is a society with a very short attention span and memory lapses destined to continually repeat its injustices?  It certainly puts women’s rights at risk when we forget so easily. Let us be vigilant moving forward for there are future hopes at stake.

The post The Legal System: Chained to the Male Ego appeared first on International Alliance of Women.

Like each year hundreds of official state-representatives from around the world and some delegates from Non-State-Actors , including IAW, flocked together for this important assembly. This time Mr. Alain Berset, president of Switzerland, congratulated WHO for its 70th birthday in his opening address and pleaded for an intense global engagement for health for all. “Universal Health Coverage” UHC is a highly ambitious goal of the WHO 13^th programme of work from 2019-2023:

“Ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages” means

1 billion more people benefit from UHC,

1 billion more people are better protected from health-emergencies

1 billion more people are enjoying better health and well-being.

“Leaving no one behind” by targeting the UCH was often mentioned by the state delegates, but representatives of low income-countries explained their difficulties about implementation due to their lack of finances.

Healthcare being global cannot stop at national boundaries. Therefore many official speakers criticized a recent WHO decision which denied to Taiwan its former status as an observer at WHO.

The opening session of WHA was also overshadowed by the recent outbreak of the ebola disease in DR Congo. Many states voiced their concern but also expressed their gratitude that this time WHO was very prompt providing its professional help and necessary resources.

Unlike last year when I could join Seema Uplekar and Soon-Young Yoon this time I was the only representative of IAW. Thanks to an intensive mail-exchange with Gudrun Haupter and Seema we were in contact with each other at all times. At short notice I could get to know Mary Balikungeri, an IAW member from Rwanda, being in Geneva for the moment. Together we attended a conference about diabetes and obesity. We both want to stay in touch with each other. One morning I happened to see Esther Suter, an IAW Board Member. She was heading for a meeting at the UN.

After some unsuccessful and frustrating attempts to either attend meetings in fully crowded rooms or to follow rather meaningless panel-discussions I realized that I just had to try to make the most of the situation. So unexpectedly I attended a highly interesting meeting about WHO aligning its own health-goals with the UN agenda 2030.

This means more than ever an intersectional approach to global problems combining several of the 17 SDGs. The directors of three UN agencies (World Organization of Meteorology,

UN Environment and WHO) were talking about “Health, environment and climate change”.

As a specific topic they chose air-pollution. “Breathing a healthy air” became an overall slogan at WHA71. Both optimistic and pessimistic views on the future climate situation were voiced.

Dr. Tedros then brought in a typical medical way of looking at problems. His point was saying that we must give up the idea of repairing damages done by climate-impacts. Rather we should in advance invest in prevention. With good climate conditions we are also preventing diseases, mainly the ones caused by air-pollution. We must protect the vulnerable people. Especially women in development countries cooking in smoky kitchens are very much endangered by the effects of air-pollution. In the following general discussion I pointed out that improving this bad situation should be a priority issue.

WHO is organising  a global conference on air pollution and health at UN headquarters in Geneva 30 October- 1 November 2018.

How can we best promote the goals of IAW the advocacy for women’s health rights at WHA? As mentioned before the new IAW project “Water and pads for school-girls” fits in perfectly into our collaboration plan with WHO. In fact, it soon turned out to be also a door-opener at WHA!

Often I was sitting in the cafeteria or staying in line for entering a conference-room and got in touch with people. Soon a conversation about health – human rights – women’s rights would start. Then I could elegantly hand out the paper with our IAW statement related to the water and pads project.

The answers were all excited and positive. These people said great thanks to IAW taking up such an important but often neglected issue. Spontaneously some of them would offer their help. We exchanged mail-addresses. The ones who had their laptops with them searched right away for the IAW website in the internet. I was really surprised about this unexpected interest.

Because also speakers of other NSA’s like me from IAW had to wait for a long time until it was their turn for their official appearance we had chances to exchange our ideas. Like me most of them wanted to deliver a statement on “WHO Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents Health (2016-2030)”.

In the meantime the representatives from many nations officially expressed their agreement with WHO until the delegate of USA had the floor. This woman strictly vetoed everything connected with family planning most explicitly abortion. We NSAs were shocked.
The conference was continued the following day. This time the Holy Seat (Vatican) strongly opposed the WHO strategy on family planning and ended by exclaiming one should never have a data-base on abortions, a crime!

Finally together with some other NSAs, I could deliver our IAW-statement.

Of course I pleaded for a better menstrual health management for school-girls and generally the full sexual and reproductive women’s rights.

Looking back at WHA 71 I think that besides presenting our IAW statement in public and on the WHO-website, the great point was the chance of networking with so many people who like IAW are engaged in defending women’s health rights.

Read the statement:     WHA71_2018_IAW_NSA_Statement_A_12.3_A. .

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OCASI offers the graphic novel for free to individuals, social agencies, educational institutions or groups of people interested in discussion.  The use of the graphic novel as a communication tool is a brilliant idea.  The combination of visuals and short text ensures the graphic novel is easy to read.  This medium, alleviates language barriers that a text rich document might present for non native English speakers.

Four women; Kose, Magali, Amal and Manuela share their personal stories as survivors of gender based violence.  In a very brave way the heroines invite the reader into their lives and unveil the challenges they faced in their adopted country.  Though the stories are laced with violence, they are so gripping that one is compelled to read all four at once. The common message of each story is that it takes much courage to face the destructive nature of violence but, with support, women can rebuild their lives by connecting with a network of advocates.  The network of women who supported Kose, Magali, Amal and Manuela proved to be ingenious problem solvers, counsellors, and protectors.

At the time the graphic novel was written I suspect these 4 survivors had no knowledge of the #MeToo campaign or the “Times Up” movement.  That language had not yet entered the social consciousness. What they did know was that the emotional and physical attacks directed at them were the opposite of kindness or justice.

A common motivator for people to immigrate to a new country is to seek opportunities for their wellbeing.  Instead these women were preyed upon by violent men in power positions.  Supernaturally, with a gesture of hope Kose, Magali, Amal and Manuela harnessed enough strength to raise their hand to say, “I am deeply hurt but I will not be defeated by violence against my person”!

It would be interesting to know if the women who contributed their stories would be available for speaking engagements.  Did the four women get to meet each other and create an additional circle of friendship for themselves?  What are they doing now?  What was the healing process for each woman?  Also of interest is whether or not OCASI plans to expand the program with a series of graphic novels on issues that face immigrant women.

These 4 women, Kose, Magali, Amal and Manuela, might be surprised to know that they are part of the “Times Up” movement, the #MeToo campaign and that their story made it to Denmark where Lene lives.  I hope they feel the admiration of all the women who stand by them.  Thank you “Soul Reclaimers” for sharing your stories to help others reclaim their dignity and find Peace.

Direct Link to Full 44-Page 2017 Graphic Novel:

http://www.ocasi.org/sites/default/files/ocasi-vaw-graphic-novel-english_0.pdf?utm_source=CCMW+Mailing+List&utm_campaign=54fca196b0-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_09_10&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_2b5d741f20-54fca196b0-74883373&mc_cid=54fca196b0&mc_eid=44763f7cee

Cheryl Hayles

Vice President North America, International Alliance of Women

The post “Telling Our Stories: Immigrant Women’s Resilience”.  appeared first on International Alliance of Women.