Rousbeh Legatis interviews Liberian journalist MAE AZANGO

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 24 2013 (IPS) - Journalists can play a crucial role in helping to shift traditional attitudes within societies where the cruel practice of female genital mutilation is an everyday reality.

Mae Azango. Credit: Glenna Gordon for New Narratives

Mae Azango, a reporter for the news site FrontPage Africa, took on this taboo subject in her home country of Liberia, where as many as two out of three girls are affected and the topic itself has been neglected by politicians at the highest level for years.

Her coverage forced her and her young daughter into hiding for weeks, but it also gained international attention and put pressure on the government.

Azango, who just won the International Press Freedom Award 2012, spoke with U.N. correspondent Rousbeh Legatis about how media can make a difference and the situation of the few female journalists in the country.

Excerpts from the interview follow.

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The Supreme Court of Canada granted a stay of proceedings to battered woman Nicole Ryan. She will not be prosecuted for her attempts to defend herself from her abusive husband.

From the Judgment:

“… the abuse which she suffered at the hands of Mr. Ryan took an enormous toll on her, as, no doubt, have these protracted proceedings, extending over nearly five years, in which she was acquitted at trial and successfully resisted a Crown appeal in the Court of Appeal. There is also the disquieting fact that, on the record before us, it seems that the authorities were much quicker to intervene to protect Mr. Ryan than they had been to respond to her request for help in dealing with his reign of terror over her… it is an exceptional situation that warrants an exceptional remedy. In all of the circumstances, it would not be fair to subject Ms. Ryan to another trial. In the interests of justice, a stay of proceedings is required to protect against this oppressive result.”

Read Judgment of the Supreme Court of Canada - R. v. Ryan – January 18, 2013

Las recomendaciones formuladas para poner freno a la violencia contra las mujeres en India tras la violación y asesinato de una joven de 23 años no podrán hacerse realidad si no se adoptan enérgicas medidas políticas y judiciales, ha manifestado Amnistía Internacional.

Dirigido por el ex presidente del Tribunal Supremo de India J. S. Verma, el grupo de trabajo designado por las autoridades indias en diciembre de 2012, tras las manifestaciones generalizadas de protesta por la violación y homicidio de una joven en Delhi,  hizo públicas ayer sus recomendaciones.

Entre las principales propuestas figura la necesidad de cambiar la legislación relativa a los delitos de violencia sexual, realizar reformas esenciales en el sistema de justicia y la policía para garantizar la transparencia y la rendición de cuentas en ambas instituciones y reiterar los derechos que la Constitución india garantiza a las mujeres.

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WASHINGTON — A weak command structure and a climate of fear among female personnel created the conditions that led to widespread instances of sexual assault of Air Force recruits by their instructors at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, senior Air Force commanders said Wednesday.

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Maria in Nobody's Land

(The Justice JS Verma committee was called on by the Indian government in the wake of Indian people's protests against the gang rape and murder of an Indian female student to submit recommendations for ending sexual and other violence against women. The committee's recommendations have been submitted today to the Indian parliament. Of particular note is the degree to which the committee targets changing, controlling, and holding police behavior to account as a key to solving the problem; something we urgently need to do here in the U.S., too...admin) 

1. The equality of women, being integral to the Constitution, its denial is a sacrilege and a constitutional violation. Sustained constitutional violations mean that governance is not in accordance with the Constitution. A fortiori, all limbs of the State - the executive, the legislature as well as the judiciary -must respect women’s rights and must treat them in a non-discriminatory manner.

2. As a primary recommendation, all marriages in India(irrespective of the personal laws under which such marriages are solemnised) should mandatorily be registered in the presence of a magistrate, which magistrate will ensure that the marriage has been solemnised without any demand for dowry having been made and that the marriage has taken place with the full and free consent of both partners.

3. The manner in which the rights of women can be recognised can only be manifested when they have full access to justice and when the rule of law can be upheld in their favour. The proposed Criminal Law Amendment Act, 2012, should be modified as suggested, and to secure public confidence, be promulgated forthwith. Since the possibility of sexual assault on men, as well as homosexual, transgender and transsexual rape, is a reality the provisions have to be cognizant of the same.

4. In respect of certain categories of cases, such as those where the victim is in custody of persons in authority including police and armed personnel, certain statutory presumptions must apply under Section 114A of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872. Every complaint of rape must be registered by the police and civil society should perform its duty to report any case of rape coming to its knowledge.

5. Any officer, who fails to register a case of rape reported to him, or attempts to abort its investigation, commits an offence which shall be punishable as prescribed. We have also taken into account offences of eve teasing, voyeurism, stalking as well as sexual assault and unsolicited sexual contact.

6. A special procedure for protecting persons with disabilities from rape, and requisite procedures for access to justice for such personsis also an urgent need. Amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure, which are necessary, have been suggested.

7. The protocols for medical examination of victims of sexual assaulthave also been suggested, which we have prepared on the basis of the best practices as advised by global experts in the fields of gynaecology and psychology. Such protocol based, professional medical examination is imperative for uniform practice and implementation.

8. The insensitivity of the police to deal with rape victims is well known. The police respect a patriarchal form of society, and have been unable to deal with extraordinary cases of humiliation and hardship caused by the khap panchayats, as is evident from various judgments of the Supreme Court. The police are involved in trafficking of children (including female children) and in drug trade.

To inspire public confidence, it is necessary that there must not only be prompt implementation of the judgment of the Supreme Court in Prakash Singh case, but also police officers with reputations of outstanding ability and character must be placed at the higher levels of the police force. 

In the present context, and in view of the facts revealed to us, it is necessary that every police commissioner and director general of police of this country must be selected in accordance with the directions of the Supreme Court in Prakash Singh’s case, who can lead by example. The leader makes all the difference. As such, all existing appointments need to be reviewed to ensure that the police force has the requisite moral vision.

9. It is settled law that every policeman is bound to obey the law and any order of a superior officer, which is contrary to law, is no defence for his illegal action, which may be a punishable offence.

Accordingly, any political interference or extraneous influence in the performance of the statutory duty by a policeman cannot be condoned.This principle has to be clearly understood by every member of the police force - their accountability is only to the law and to none else in the discharge of their duty. Dereliction of this duty has to be punished according to the service rules and applicable law.

10. Authentic figures of missing children in India are not available for obvious reasons of the complicity of law enforcement agencies. Children have been driven into forced labour, sex abuse, sexual exploitation as well as made victims of illegal organ trade. Our report includes the testimonies of children (whose identities have been concealed for their safety) to verify facts from their personal experience. As a small gesture, this Committee has (at its own cost) taken necessary steps for proper rehabilitation and education of one of these children, payment of the minimum wages due to the said child, her safe passage and reintegration with her family, psychotherapeutic intervention, and to fulfil her educational aspirations.The Committee expects similar treatment by the State of all such deprived children

TO SEE FULL LIST OF 22 RECOMMENDATIONS GO TO BOTTOM OF LINKED PAGE AND CLICK ON NEXT PAGE LINKS

Dads who have egalitarian ideas about gender — and who walk the talk by doing household chores themselves — have daughters with higher workplace ambitions than less egalitarian fathers do, new research finds.

The research is correlational, so it doesn't prove that fathers' attitudes are the cause their young daughters' work aspirations. But the research may suggest that girls look to their fathers for examples of what is expected of women. Dads' attitudes also predict what kind of play their daughters enjoy.

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RAMALLAH, Jan 22 2013 (IPS) - “Before she was murdered, she wasn’t alive. We’ll tell her story backwards from her murder to her birth”…so begins a powerful new song by critically acclaimed Palestinian hip-hop band DAM to draw attention to the continuing murder of Palestinian women by male relatives declaring that “family honour” has been damaged by alleged sexual indiscretions.

The accompanying video to the song shows a young woman’s expressionless face on a bed; her body floats back to standing position, a bullet enters her forehead. Her brother has pulled the trigger.

Across the world, the United Nations estimates that 5,000 women and girls are murdered and abused every year by male relatives as punishment for behaviour judged to have damaged family reputation.

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Some background voices in the otherwise notoriously cruel Steubenville, Ohio, rape video sound disturbed but also powerless. A new simulation computer game lets students practice active response to sex abuse and avoid being a passive bystander.

WOMENSENEWS)-- One of the most chilling parts of the video are the background voices.

On camera you see Michael Nodianos going on and on about how funny it is that a young woman somewhere nearby may be dead after some kind of assault. He unleashes a torrent of seemingly endless, cruel, drunken banter.

But off-camera you hear something else.

You hear the tones of voice of people who know something is clearly wrong. At one point you hear a chiding voice saying "This is not, like, funny. What if that was your daughter?" At another point someone says: "That's not cool . . . They raped her."

The video, leaked to YouTube in January, was made in August 2012 and has been connected to the case of a 16-year-old who was raped on a night when she was carried to multiple parties by members of the high school football team of Steubenville, Ohio, because she was too drunk to walk, or even talk.

The off-camera voices on the video seem to know right from wrong but not what to do about it.

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La Ley Orgánica del 1/2004, de 28 de diciembre, de Medidas de Protección Integral contra la Violencia de Género establece, en su exposición de motivos, que las situaciones de violencia sobre la mujer afectan también a los menores que se encuentran en su entorno familiar, víctimas directas o indirectas de esta violencia. La ley consigna también su protección no sólo para la tutela de los derechos de los menores, sino para garantizar  de forma efectiva las medidas de protección adoptadas respecto de la mujer.

Cuando hablamos de violencia machista, no hay una única víctima, la mujer, también las niñas y los niños son  víctimas de la violencia de género. La exposición a esta violencia tiene un impacto negativo evidente en su vida, bienestar y desarrollo.

Vivir en una familia donde la madre es maltratada significa la exposición a situaciones de opresión y control y a un modelo de relación basado en el abuso de poder y la desigualdad.

Descárgate aquí la Guía

Police are the gatekeepers to justice. If they are misgynist, discriminatory, and anti-women, women cannot attain justice.

La violencia que se ejerce contra las mujeres es tan cotidiana que ha llegado a normalizarse, por lo que se debe pugnar por erradicar ese flagelo no sólo a través de políticas públicas, sino también en los espacios de la vida privada, llamaron  organizaciones civiles.   
 
Organizaciones por los derechos femeninos presentaron ayer el libro “Picar piedra. Iniciativas ciudadanas frente a la violencia”, editado por la fundación  Heinrich Böll, y el cual recopila experiencias de grupos civiles en su lucha contra la violencia en el ámbito público y privado en América Latina.
 
En la publicación, la Red Mesa de Mujeres, agrupación de Ciudad Juárez, y el Colectivo de Mujeres en Resistencia, plantean que la población femenina ya no sólo vive desigualdad y discriminación por parte de las autoridades, sino que se desenvuelven en medio de una violencia cultural “normalizada” que abarca todos los aspectos de la vida cotidiana.
 
Advierten que al ser común la violencia en la vida diaria, ya no se percibe como alarmante que se mate, viole o agreda a una mujer.
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The story of Kainat Soomro is a moving one. Kainat is a Pakistani teenager of 17. When she was 13, she was abducted and gang-raped by four men. Since that time, she has worked tirelessly to bring the rapists to justice; hiring an attorney, making television appearances, appealing court decisions. Her family was ordered to carry out an honor killing as Kainat was declared kari (black virgin) and being a rape victim brings shame to the family, according to parts of Pakistani culture and judiciary. Kainat's parents refused to kill their daughter. Since then, Kainat and her family were forced to leave the village where they lived. The alleged rapists have beaten her father and one of her brothers. Kainat's older brother, Sabir was missing for three months, only to be found murdered. It is believed he was killed due to his support for his sister.

Outlawed in Pakistan - Trailer from H2HFilms on Vimeo.

A new study shows hundreds of women in the United States have been arrested, forced to undergo unwanted medical procedures, and locked up in jails or psychiatric institutions, because they were pregnant. National Advocates for Pregnant Women found 413 cases when pregnant women were deprived of their physical liberty between 1973, when Roe v. Wade was decided, and 2005. At least 250 more interventions have taken place since then. In one case, a court ordered a critically ill woman in Washington, D.C., to undergo a C-section against her will. Neither she nor the baby survived. In another case, a judge in Ohio kept a woman imprisoned to prevent her from having an abortion. We’re joined by Lynn Paltrow, founder and executive director of the National Advocates for Pregnant Women. "We’ve had cases where lawyers have been appointed for a fetus before the woman herself, who’s been locked up, ever gets a lawyer," Paltrow says. "[We’ve had] cases where they’ve ordered a procedure over women’s religious objections. And one court said pregnant women of course have a right to religious freedom — unless it interferes with what we believe is best for the fetus or embryo." The new study comes on the eve of the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision on the right to abortion — a right that has been under siege ever since. [includes rush transcript]

Kirkland Police Academy Graduation Fall 2012

Mercyhurst Police Academy Graduation 2012

Cape May Police Academy Graduation 2012

North Idaho Police Academy Graduates 2012

Great Oaks Police Academy Graduates 2012

Etc., Etc., Ad Nauseum

Todos los años 10 mil niños son traficados desde Bolivia para Argentina. Bajo el amparo del juez de menores de Villazón que emite un certificado a un adulto si se presenta con dos testigos que digan conocer a la familia del chico. El Defensor del Pueblo denunció que en Potosí se venden niños entre 20 y 50 pesos bolivianos. La cónsul argentina rescató en persona dos adolescentes de un tugurio en Bolivia. Mientras que en Jujuy sigue vacante el juzgado federal.

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Oxfam works to end violence against women because it is a human rights violation and a major obstacle to human development. This guide was written to inform and inspire the work of violence prevention. It can be read and consulted individually – or used for discussion with peers. The “candid question” and “exercise” boxes offer avenues for such reflexion and discussion. While the guide is directed towards internal Oxfam staff, it is available for external distribution as well.

AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH AND SPANISH

SCROLL DOWN LINKED PAGE FOR DOWNLOADS

University of Notre Dame administrators showed greater concern to the news that Manti Te’o’s girlfriend and her death were a hoax than when they learned a real student committed suicide 10 days after accusing a university football player of sexually assaulting her.

Lizzy Seeberg, 19, was a freshman at Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Ind., when she said she was sexually assaulted Aug. 31, 2010, by a Notre Dame player in his room, according to the National Catholic Reporter. The day after the attack, Seeberg reported the assault in a handwritten statement to campus police. In the days that followed, a friend of the player sent her text messages, including one that warned, "Messing with Notre Dame football is a bad idea," according to National Catholic Reporter. Seeberg killed herself Sept. 10 of that year.

Investigators first interviewed the football player five days after Seeberg's suicide, according to the National Catholic Reporter.

A detective "waited to speak to the accused because that i

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El Salvador is a country long blighted by violence, and the abuse of women is a particular problem, with the highest murder rate of women in the world.

But now women are starting to speak out about their treatment in the hope that tackling the issue of violence against women will become a priority for the country's authorities.

BBC Mundo's Ignacio de los Reyes reports.

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HAVANA, Jan 16 2013 (IPS) - While more and more young men in Cuba today are rising above cultural prejudices that condition their role as fathers, many continue to conform to traditional styles of fatherhood, often reproducing negative patterns of neglect and abandonment, with serious repercussions for the whole family in light of the country’s economic and legal situation.

“Many take fatherhood seriously and come to it with a different attitude, but others don’t. The way I see it, it depends on the social environment they move in, their age, and whether the pregnancy was planned or not,” says Raynol Pérez, a young 24-year-old father who is home to put his small daughter Vanesa to bed every night.

In his opinion, the pregnancy is a critical period.

“The future father’s involvement or lack of involvement during the pregnancy is an indication of how he will behave when the baby is born,” he tells IPS.

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