War and peace
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Women's Call for Peace: An Urgent Appeal We, the women of the United States, Iraq and women worldwide, have had enough of the senseless war in Iraq and the cruel attacks on civilians around the world. We've buried too many of our loved ones. We've seen too many lives crippled forever by physical and mental wounds. We've watched in horror as our precious resources are poured into war while our families' basic needs of food, shelter, education and healthcare go unmet. We've had enough of living in constant fear of violence and seeing the growing cancer of hatred and intolerance seep into our homes and communities. This is not the world we want for ourselves or our children. With fire in our bellies and love in our hearts, we women are rising up - across borders - to unite and demand an end to the bloodshed and the destruction. We have seen how the foreign occupation of Iraq has fueled an armed movement against it, perpetuating an endless cycle of violence. We are convinced that it is time to shift from a military model to a conflict-resolution model that includes the following elements:
To move this peace process forward, we are creating a massive movement of women - crossing generations, races, ethnicities, religions, borders and political persuasions. Together, we will pressure our governments, the United Nations, the Arab League, Nobel Peace Prize winners, religious leaders and others in the international community to step forward to help negotiate a political settlement. And in this era of divisive fundamentalisms, we call upon world leaders to join us in spreading the fundamental values of love for the human family and for our precious planet. BACKGROUND OF Women's Call for Peace:
Initiated by the group CODEPINK:
Women for Peace [http://www.codepink4peace.org/],
this is the first campaign that brings women together across borders
to demand an end to the bloodshed in Iraq. “The response to our
initial call has been overwhelmingwe have over 200 prominent
endorsers, and more than 3,000 women have signed on before we even
launched the campaign. We’re unleashing a global chorus of women’s
voices shouting ‘Enough!,’” said Medea Benjamin, co-founder of
the groups CODEPINK: Women for Peace and Global
Exchange [http://www.globalexchange.org/]. CONTACT:
CODEPINK
[
http://www.codepink4peace.org/] The
Fatal Realities of Fortress Europe UNITED E-NEWS - 27
October 2005 The fire
broke out under unclarified circumstances. Authorities have not
established whether it has been an arson or a fatal incident.
Whatever the case, the centre was supposed to be safe and in good
conditions, as stated by Bart Kroon, Director of the Ministery of
Justice, when asked about the conditions of the centre. WOMEN’S
ANTI-DISCRIMINATION COMMITTEE EXPRESSES CONCERN REGARDING
WOMEN’S HUMAN RIGHTS IN IRAQ NEW YORK, 5 February “The
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, during
its thirtieth session held at United Nations Headquarters in New
York from 12 to 30 January 2004, noted with concern recent
developments with regard to the situation of women’s human rights
in Iraq. In particular,
the Committee noted a decision by the Governing Council of Iraq of
29 December 2003 to repeal existing civil statutes governing issues
related to marriage, divorce, child custody and inheritance. “The
Committee notes the fact that Iraq is a State party to the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women. In this regard,
the Committee, at its twenty-ninth session held from 30 June to 18
July 2003, had already sent a letter to the then Special
Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq and High
Commissioner for Human Rights, the late Mr. Sergio Vieira de Mello,
on the need to take into consideration the Convention with regard to
the situation of women in post-war Iraq. “The
Committee welcomes the
resolve of the international community to assist Iraq in the
reconstruction process.
The Committee calls upon all parties concerned to place
special emphasis in all their actions and activities on the respect
for and protection of international human rights standards and
norms, in particular those that specifically guarantee the rights of
women and girls, and which are an inalienable, integral and
indivisible part of universal human rights.
The Committee considers such emphasis essential to the
development of Iraqi society. “The Committee wishes to emphasize that women must be
full and equal participants in all post-war reconstruction
activities and in all spheres of life of Iraqi society and its
development, and in particular in the drafting of Iraq’s new
Constitution and any revision of its legislative framework.
All legislative reforms and decisions of all responsible
authorities in Iraq must conform fully with the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women so as to
ensure de jure and de facto equality between women and men, and
their full enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms. Press Release IK/420 For
further information on the Committee and women’s rights, contact
the Women’s Rights Section of the Division for the Advancement of
Women, Room DC2-1228, United Nations, New York, NY 10017; fax: (212)
963-3463, e-mail: limchoc@un.org. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There are obstacles in front of peace requestsWe called for ‘The sides to gather around a round table for dialogue’ as women. We did so in order the patriarchal militarist violence politics against the Kurds, against everyone who got her/his share from the environment of war, against the naure and our concsiences to get replaced by the peace culture, the past tried to be covered up to be faced, the responsibles to get punished. We started setting up Dialogue Tables for Peace in several cities of Turkey in the pioneership of feminist organisations. It was a beginning to it set up in the cities we live. Despite the suffocating greyness of the violence culture, we carried the peace table to Bingol representing 39 NGO’s from Adana, Mersin, Diyarbakir, Ankara, Batman, Van, Urfa, Bolu, Elazig, and Istanbul to paint Bingol in the color of peace. So that the militarist noise overwhelming all voices is torn apart, and leave its place to the possibility of civil conversations and conditions of producing solutions! So that whatever which cannot be talked about in Bingol is talked about and gets visible... Because the clashed still go on on this soil. Because there is still war in this country. Because we had tens of thousands of deads and hundreds of thousands of woundeds in this war. Millions of people left their villages. Villages, houses, forests, animals were burnt. Thousands of women, men, elderly, young are still in prisons. Torture, abuses, rapes, unidentified murders still go on. Not only an area but all of us were damaged, blunted, bled. Because after the start of unilateral ceasefire, the reality of the war was out of the society’s agenda. As if there had been never a war, and even during the unilateral ceasefire there were no attacks... We learn from the Secret Legislation of National Security Board’s Secretariat recently discovered, what’s lived gets dropped from the agenda, Turkey to remain unaware of itself, the embargo of the media, the presentation of the ones asking for the freedom and peace as the main enemies of the society, was all realized under the context of the ‘psychological war’. Because we couldn’t confront while we forgot, we forgot while we couldn’t confront. We became more distant from the social questionning of past events. Because there are about 10.000 of Kurds from Turkey as political refugees obliged to remain in the Iraqi Kurdistan, Maxmur camp in the war conditions. They cannot return to their villages as there are no adequate living conditions in their own country, as they don’t feel safe. Same Turkey plans to send troops to Iraq in order to contribute to the setting of stability. Because on one hand, the ones asking for education their mother language, who want to give their children Kurdish names, who make press declarations, who produce thoughts, and share it with the society, who want to solve the problems we live without violence have been announced to be terrorists and punished, on the other hand the state’s security forces which applied the most dispecable methods such as rapes, unidentified murders, emptying of villages were not considered as terror but they were promoted. In order to overcome these and the violence to cease to be a political tool, we need to talk, discuss and produce civil words. Because we still don’t know what’s been lived, why and who the responsibles were during the civil war lasting for 16 years. We wanted to bring the facts covered up to the agenda, and discuss the concepts of terror and terrorist, we still want to. In the recent days, upon the decision to end the unilateral ceasefire by KADEK, the state insisting on the lack of solution, the civil society not owning the Kurdish problem brought us all face to face with new clashes. The society keeps on forgetting, ignoring, remaining silent, and leaving the politics in the initiative of armed forces. We don’t want to separate our consciences from our bodies and contribute to the destroyal of life in the future by staying passive in this threatening situation. During our press declarations, there was only the campaign of ‘Unexceptional Political General Amnesty’ which we agreed on in essence but we find too early due to the lack of the environment for discussions mentioned above, and there was no questionning of the history in the society. Because the content of this request couldn’t be filled in the public view. Our initiative was taken in the context of the campaign for ‘General Amnesty’. Both the official institutions and the media as well as the political movements misinterpreted our campaign. This
was due to the fact that women were seen as unable to develop
politics except for the ‘Women’s Issues’. When we want to
participate in the politics, we are expected to deal only with
problems of women. However, we
don’t see sexism as a subject apart from the hierarchal
culture, militarism, racism and nationalism, on the contrary, we
want to make a wholistic
politics against them all as all the hegemonic ideologies are
connected. Now, 125 women will be taken to the trial on the 7th of November 2003 in Bingol for their attempt to set up a symbolic table and call for dialogue with the charge of breaking ‘the law of demonstration and marching’. We see this as a small but worth following case important for our aim to overcome the militarist practices and unlawfulness in Turkey. In Bingol, where we went representing 39 NGO’s, we couldn’t express ourselves. We went there to say ‘For a world without violence, where everyone feels safe, let’s discuss how to make peace and get the violence out of our lives’, we couldn’t let the inhabitants of Bingol hear us. Although we tried to repeat our declaration we made before in Istanbul, Adana, Diyarbakir, and Ankara, we were taken under custody by force and beating and saying that ‘This is Bingol, the laws you know are not valid here’. We invite you to Bingol to follow this case in order not to remain silent in front of the unlawful practices. KATAGI ( Initiative For the Development of Women’s Position) Women’s
Call for Dialogue Has Been Carried To The Court 125
women will be taken to the trial on the 7th of November 2003 in Bingöl
for their attempt to set up a symbolic table and call for dialogue
with the charge of breaking “the law of demonstration and
marching”. We see this as a small but worth following case
important for our aim to overcome the militarist practices and
unlawfulness in Turkey. In
Bingöl, where we went representing 39 NGO`s, we couldn’t express
ourselves. We went there to say “For a world without
violence, where everyone fells safe, let’s discuss how to make
peace and get the violence out of our lives”, we
couldn’t let the inhabitants of Bingöl hear us. Although we tried to repeat our declaration we made before in Istanbul, Adana, Diyarbakir, and Ankara, we were taken under custody by force and beating and saying that “This is Bingöl, the laws you know are not valid here”. |