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CALL FOR URGENT ACTION
Journalist in Honduras receives repeated death threats and harassment
The Committee of Relatives of the Detained and the Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH), expresses its concern for the safety and integrity of Gilda Silvestrucchi, an independent journalist and director of the radio program "The Plaza", who has recently been the target of death threats . Gilda regularly addresses controversial issues, such us mining activities in the Valley of Syria and the approval of a new Mining Act.
On 3rd January 2012, as she was going to the radio station, she was victim of a car persecution until the driver of her vehicle managed to lose their follower. On 20th January Gilda’s mother received a call where a male person asked her to provide information about Gilda's schedule including when did she arrive home, where does she spend the day, and where could he find her.
Again, on 23rd January Gilda received five phone calls on her mobile. She was told "we know that you have three children, that right now you are walking in the street with your seven years old son, and that your oldest daughter is at home looking after your youngest daughter; we'll kill you”.
Freedom of expression and the right to be informed, as enshrined in the Honduran Constitution and international law, are currently undermined by constant intimidation and attacks on journalists, which has reached intolerable levels. From 2009 to date 18 journalists have been killed, 25 have faced death threats, 14 have been illegally detained, 4 have been tortured after being kidnapped and 37 have suffered assaults and other attacks. On 14th December 2011, a demonstration of journalists was repressed by the military.
In Honduras political censorship and organized crime lead to self-censorship as the only way for journalists to stay safe in the absence of state action to sanction individuals for crimes against journalists.
COFADEH calls on the international community to publicly condemn the intimidation of journalists and to demand that the State of Honduras commits to protect them. We must call for immediate action to provide the necessary protection to Gilda Silvestrucci and her family, for an impartial investigation into the events described above, and for an investigation into the the killings of 18 journalists and other threats against journalists. Please send emails expressing your concern and demands to:
Jorge Alberto Rivera Aviles
President of the Supreme Court
cedij@poderjudicial.gob.hn
Luis Alberto Rubi
Attorney General's Office.
lrubi@mp.hn /
gsuazog@mp.hn
And cc:
Committee of Relatives of Detained and Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH)
berthacofadeh@yahoo.com
CAWN LAUNCHES NEW PROJECT
'Women's rights, social inclusion and the media'
The Central American Women’s Network (CAWN), based in London, and Frauensolidarität – Solidarity among Women, based in Vienna, are working together on a new project launched in October 2011 which will run for three years.
We aim to increase public awareness about women’s rights and to respond to demands from woman’s organisation to strengthen communication and solidarity between women in the EU and countries in the South (in this case in Southern Africa and Central America).
We want to encourage women to make greater use of information technology for communication and the media, to support networking among women’s organisations and activists, to promote the human rights of women and women’s equality. We also aim to increase the understanding of women’s rights, globalisation and media among policy makers and the general public. To achieve this we will organise activities such as conferences, workshops, interviews and media-interventions (print, radio and web). We will also carry out research and produce media-interventions in order to increase the visibility of women’s rights, which will focus on: the trafficking of women, gender discrimination and violence against women in the labour market and the objectification and exclusion of women by mainstream media.
Through this project we aim to increase the visibility of these issues through the use of alternative media that have been shown to be an effective tool for dissemination of information and the empowerment of women.
CAWN and Frauensolidarität want to be part of the process of empowerment and so we will build the capacity of students and young activists to trigger change. We will produce in-depth policy briefings and factsheets, trainings on the use of alternative media and advocacy skills, organise public meetings with activists from Central America and Southern Africa and produce exciting radio programmes. If you want to join us please get in touch to learn more about how you can be part of it. You can email CAWN to campaigns@cawn.org and FS to redaktion@frauensolidaritaet.org.
The project is funded by the European Commission which in its Gender Action Plan 2010-2015 states that it is committed to support capacity building of women’s organisations.
STATEMENT IN THE FACE OF THE RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN HONDURAS
Tegucigalpa, 8th November, 2011
The Center for the Study of Women in Honduras expresses its deepest rejection and condemnation of the assassinations of engineer Alfredo Landaverde, journalist Paz Luz Marina Villalobos and camera man Delmer Canales.
We extend our sincere sympathy to the families of the victims and we join the firm demand for justice so that these crimes do not go unpunished, like the thousands of crimes against young people, women, students, journalists, social activists and grassroots political organizations, farmers, and other victims, that sadden and outrage Honduran society.
We are concerned that a dirty war waged by sinister forces within the territory of the country, and strengthened by the breakdown of rule of law as a result of the coup, can not be stopped by legal measures or by turning to institutions, as they are corrupted and criminal.
We warn the Honduran society and the international community of the melt-down of rule of law, of institutions and of the security and justice systems, where corruption and organized crime nest. We join our voice to those calling for an urgent, profound and comprehensive re-foundation of state institutions, with a broad participation of Honduran society and under the scrutiny of international justice and human rights organisms.
DISARM THE MILITARY BUDGET
STOP FEMICIDES AND CRIMES IN HONDURAN SOCIETY
JUSTICE, JUSTICE
PUNISH THOSE RESPONSIBLE
Training on campaigning skills to advocate for women's rights with Latin Americanand African activists
Room S264, Senate House, London University, Malet Street. London, WC1E.
CAWN will deliver a free training on campaigning skills to advocate against violence against women in the workplace and trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation at London University on Tuesday 22nd November, between 12 and 2 p.m.
Join Mirta Kennedy, Director of the Honduran Women’s Studies Centre, Hope Kasese, Acting National Coordinator for Women and Law in Southern Africa and Marilyn Thomson, Chair of the Central American Women’s Network for an afternoon of discussion at Room S264, Senate House, London University, Malet Street, London WC1E.No need to book. For more information please contact campaigns@cawn.org.
FEMINICIDE CONFERENCE DECLARATION:
No More Killings of Women! Time to put words into action
European Parliament , 3rd March 2011
The fourth conference on feminicide took the opportunity to assess the current situation of feminicide in Latin America and the implications of EU policies in this regard, as well as to formulate demands for concrete measures to be taken by EU institutions which will tackle feminicide in an effective and cohesive manner.
Despite some significant achievements on the legal front, such as the Cotton Field case ruling against the Mexican State, feminicide and other forms of gender-based violence continue to be widespread in the Latin American region, where numbers of feminicides are on the increase in many countries. As such, the central outcome of the conference was the identification of a growing gap between commitments and implementation at the level of EU institutions.
The delegates of the conference affirmed their strong committment to assessing the implementation of the clearly stated political will of the EU to fight feminicide and gender-based violence in Latin America. In order to achieve this, another further hearing in the European Parliament will be organised by the Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality and is scheduled to be held in October 2011.
Read the full declaration in English and Spanish.
PRESS RELEASE: Information leak confirms illegality of Honduras coup
3rd December 2010
Following information exposed this week by Wikileaks – which sheds light on the role of the United States (US) following the military coup that took place in Honduras in June 2009 – the Central America Women’s Network (CAWN) would like to express its concern about the controversy that still surrounds Honduras and the US regarding this issue. In particular, CAWN is concerned about the possible increase in repression and violence that may take place against those groups who still demand that the events of June 2009 be recognised as a coup.
Read the full information in English and Spanish.
OAS High-Level Commission submits report on the situation in Honduras
Source: Organisation of American States, 29th July 2010
Opinion on the reentry of Honduras into OAS is deeply divided within member states, though human rights organisations within Honduras itself, including the Feminists In Resistance group, have uniformly called for OAS not to allow Honduras to reenter whilst the government continues to allow widespread and grave human rights violations to take place with impunity.
CAWN is pleased that the Commission has identified a) the human rights situation and b) a political dialogue to resolve the crisis of democracy, as two of four fundamental matters that need to be addressed by the Honduran government. The Commission also recognises that there is a need for concrete actions to be taken in accordance with the recommendations of the IACHR following its visit in June of this year, and emphasises the need for progress into areas including the investigations of several murders and ; cessation of impunity for human rights violations. In CAWN's opinion, the recommendations made by the Commission are extensive and emphasise the significant steps that remain necessary to ensure the effective protection of human rights and the rule of law in Honduras.
For the full report in English click here
Honduran 'Human Rights Platform' calls on OAS not to lift Honduras' suspension
Source: Plataforma de Derechos Humanos, 22nd July 2010
The Honduran collective 'Human Rights Platform', which consists of a number of respected human rights organisations, including the Centre for Women's Rights (CDM), have written to OAS (the Organisation of American States) to urgently request that Honduras' suspension, imposed as a result of the coup in June 2009, not be lifted.
The groups express their concern at the gravity of the human rights violations which still occur on a regular basis in Honduras, the illegitimacy of the elections that took place in November 2009, the repressive and ever increasing presence of the military and the lack of independence of the judiciary and other state institutions. The platform argues that to lift the suspension would give the current Honduran government legitimacy and put the Honduran people at risk, claiming that suspension is one of the main measures that has prevented human rights violations on an even greater scale than is currently occuring.
Read the letter in full in Spanish.
EU releases declaration condemning feminicide
Source: European Union, 30th June 2010
CAWN is pleased to announce that the EU has released a declaration strongly condemning feminicide and the culture of impunity it entails. The declaration also praised the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for establishing that gender based violence can constitute gender discrimination and endorsing the concept of Feminicide as 'Gender-based-homicides', and promised to actively support and cooperate with Latin America in the search for remedies to eliminate this.
CAWN welcomes this declaration and the EU's promise to assist in the struggle to eliminate not only gender-based killings, but also the impunity that forms such a large part of the problem and which we have been campaigning against for several years. We hope that this is the first of many such steps in the long process towards the elimination of feminicide and all forms of gender-based violence.
To read the declaration in full, please click here.
Human Rights Council releases communication on the elimination of violence against women
Source: Human Rights Council, 15th June 2010
By recognising that effective prevention of violence against women (VAW) requires a number of measures, this communication goes further than the resolution passed in 2009 (11/2). CAWN is particularly pleased that the HRC is advocating the involvement of boys and men as one of these measures, since working with men on the construction of a new masculinity is an approach that we have actively supported in our work towards challenging VAW in Honduras. In what CAWN sees to be another positive step, the HRC states that it is "alarmed that in situations of armed conflict women are particularly exposed to sexual and other forms of violence" and recognises the need to intensify efforts to prevent this. CAWN is also pleased to note that the HRC has advanced from 'encouraging' states to give 'due attention' to the elimination of VAW (Res 11/2 2009), to the more compelling language of 'urging' States to adopt and implement such policies and to establish or strengthen plans of action to do so. In addition to this, we note that the HRC has identified poverty as a factor in increasing women's vulnerability and calls upon states to develop and implement poverty eradication strategies. Finally, the HRC calls upon states to publicly condemn VAW, and declares that its elimination is a matter of high priority.
We consider this communication to be a significant development in the struggle to eliminate all forms of VAW worldwide, but would suggest that, in addition to the measures identified here, an effective way to empower women is by increasing their involvement and presence in political movements, both at a local and national level.
To read the communication in full, please click here.
IACHR publishes Preliminary Observations from its visit to Honduras
Source: Inter American Court of Human Rights, 7th June 2010
On the 7th June 2010, the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR) published its Preliminary Observations from its visit to Honduras in May this year, which followed up its visit of August 2009.
The Commission verified that there are continuing human rights violations in Honduras and that particularly at risk are human rights defenders, journalists, teachers, members of the resistance and trade union members, many of whom are regularly threatened, harassed and attacked. For instance, thus far in 2010 alone, at least 7 journalists and 10 human rights defenders have been murdered in circumstances that may be related to the coup.
For a full summary of this and CAWN's reaction click here, or read the Preliminary Observations in English or Spanish.
As part of our campaigns for gender equality we organise and participate in seminars to raise awareness on issues related to women’s rights in Central America.
speaker tour 2011, 29th March to 12th April 2011, U.K.
For the 2011 speaker tour, CAWN was delighted to welcome Evelyn Cuellar and Mercedes Lainez, women's rights activists from our partner organisation in Honduras, CEM-H. During their tour of the U.K. they met with CAWN supporters, NGOs, the media, students, academics and other women's organisations to raise awareness and discuss the situation of women's rights in Honduras and the Central America region, the struggle to promote and defend women's rights, and the successes and challenges of CEM-H's work.
20th anniversary celebration, 31st March 2011, London
This year marks CAWN's 20th anniversary! To celebrate this special occasion we hosted an enjoyable evening of talks and discussion with our guest speakers from Honduras, which was followed by a drinks reception at the Human Rights Action Centre.
The evening also saw the launch of our latest piece of research in our project tackling violence against women; a toolkit for intersecting violences which provides practical examples of NGOs that are implementing intersectionality in the field.
Another highlight of the event was the commemorative film celebrating the work and evolution of the organisation over the last two decades, from its roots in the Central American solidarity movements of the early 1990s to the successful projects and programmes that CAWN carries out today.
Launch of our research report: Intersecting Violences: A Review of Feminist Theories and Debates on Violence against Women and Poverty in Latin America 21st October 2010, London
Launching CAWN's latest report, which aims to provide a greater understanding of why women are abused and discriminated against in Latin America and examines the connections between patriarchal constructions of the state and religious institutions and the particular forms of violence and poverty affecting women in Latin America.
The event was chaired by Baroness Miller with an impressive panel of expert speakers: Pablo Espiniella of UN OCHCR, Patricia Muñoz Cabrera, author of the research and chair of WIDE, Sandra Ramos of MEC, Nicaragua, and Maxine Molyneux, Director of the Institute for the Study of the Americas. The event was a huge success, with a great turnout from practitioners, academics, diplomats, press and supporters.
Download 'Intersecting Violences' in English and Spanish.
Download the conference report.
WIDE Annual Conference: 'Migration in the context of Globalisation: Women's Human Rights at Risk? 3rd-5th June 2010, Bucharest, Romania.
This conference, organised by WIDE (Women In Development Europe), considered how issues of migration, trade, economic development, and globalisation impact women's lives in times of crisis. During the conference, CAWN and the Latin American Women's Rights Services (LAWRS) held a workshop on 'How does migration lead to different forms of violence against women and reinforce existing oppressive practices against migrant women in different spheres?'.
Femicide Conference: Femicide in Latin America. No more killings of women! 12th May 2010, Office of the European Parliament in Madrid, Spain .
Just a few days before the EU-LAC Summit, CAWN, in association with Heinrich Boll Stiftung, ACSUR las Segovias and in particular, the MEP Raul Romeva i Rueda, hosted this conference to address the phenomenon of femicide at the European Parliament and to provide the EU with the appropriate tools to support LAC governments in the prevention of femicide and end of impunity.
We were honoured to welcome many esteemed speakers, including Ms Rashida Manjoo, UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, Gilda Rivera, Director of the Women’s Rights Centre Honduras (CDM) and Rosa Celorio, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, among others.
CAWN Seminar Series: 'Extreme forms of Violence against Women: Femicide in Mexico and Central America', November 2009
Marking the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, the events began with a panel debate on the 25th of November at the House of Commons to discuss femicide in Mexico and Central America, sponsored by Tony Lloyd MP and Chaired by Baroness Uddin.
The following day CAWN hosted a film screening of "Killer's Paradise: Women Victims of Violence in Guatemala", a BBC documentary directed by Giselle Portenier, and followed by a panel discussion.
Closing the week of UK events, CAWN hosted a successful public seminar chaired by Sarah Bradshaw. The seminar was well attended by academics, students, and feminists to develop networks for advocacy and research around the issue of femicide.
CAWN actions against the coup in Honduras
Article: 'On the Frontline of the Honduran Resistance Movement' in the Guardian (14 December 2009).
Public Meeting: Restore Democracy in Honduras -Committee Against the Coups (14 October 2009)
Forum for Honduras: Conference and Artistic Vigil in Solidarity –Encuentros Latinoamericanos(18 October 2009)
Interview: 'Honduras: pressure grows on Britain and EU to act' in the Honduras Morning Star (18th October 2009)
Interview: 'Eyewitness in Honduras' with the Honduras Morning Star (2 October 2009).
Press Release: Women in the Honduran Crisis (10 July 2009)
Interview BBC Radio 4: Women’s Hour (20 July)
Panel Discussion: 'Crisis in Honduras' at Canning House (24 July)
BOND Latin American and Caribbean Group sent two letters to the UK government requesting to express publicly its condemnation against the coup (24 July)
Joint letter: to the UK government expressing our condemnation of the military coup and the events that followed (3 July)
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