Subject: VOICES RISING Nº79
Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2003 11:32:34 -0300
From: voicesrising <voicesrising@icae.org.uy>
To: hbeder@rci.rutgers.edu
VOICES RISING
YEAR II - VOL 2. Nº79
December 12th, 2003
CONTENT
1.- Making a Nation More Equal
2.- Help end violence against women!
3.- From Mozambique: We have a new Family Law, at last!
4.- NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND: A PROGRESS REPORT
5.- Pending: Schooling for Girls
6.- Fellowships for Knowledge Networking on Gender, Macroeconomics and International Economics
7.- INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON GENDER AND VISUALITY
8.- International Conference: “Gender and Human Security”
9. - Call for Student Participation at: Welfare, Multiculturalism and European Development
 
…………………………………………… ..
1.- Making a Nation More Equal
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/03/opinion/03HEYZ.html
Making a Nation More Equal
By NOELEEN HEYZER
Published: December 3, 2003,   New York Times
Women in Afghanistan have only a short time to influence the new draft constitution to be considered by the Constitutional Loya Jirga scheduled for next week. Although the new draft upholds the principle of human rights, there is no explicit guarantee of women's equality. This is not a matter of semantics. Rather, it raises serious questions about the document's
commitment to protect women's rights.
Despite visible advances in society, many Afghan women have seen little change over the past two years. Particularly outside of Kabul, women live under the tight restrictions of authoritarian and traditional practices, which keep women and girls at home and deny them access to education, job
training and health care.
Violence against women continues. Child marriages and forced marriages remain common, fueled by impoverishment and instability. Young girls are "married" to bring money into households or to settle disputes, a practice that condemns young girls to sexual abuse and sustained poverty. Outside of Kabul, women's security is threatened by local warlords who abuse women with
impunity.
The international community must rally behind the women seeking to enshrine their rights in the country's constitution. When every member of the Supreme Court, under the new constitution, must take an oath "tosupport judicial justice and righteousness in accord with the provisions of the sacred religion of Islam," there must be clear language securing women's equality as a requisite counterbalance against extreme interpretation of Islamic law.
The new constitution should state clearly that women have full and equal rights with men before the law. Although the constitution provides for an Afghan society based on "social justice, protection of human dignity, protection of human rights, and realization of democracy," there is no
explicit prohibition against discrimination based on gender. The constitution should also include clear language prohibiting any customs and traditional practices that discriminate against women. It should stipulate, for example, that marriage must take place freely and with the agreement of
both parties.
The Afghan Constitution must also include a clear definition of the word"citizen." (It should also substitute the term "female-headed households" for "women without caretakers" throughout the text.) In the past, there have been questions about women's rights to full citizenship, as only men have been issued ID cards.
Although the constitution states that women are entitled to a specific number of seats in the National Assembly, it makes no provisions for their representation at the local level, where resistance to women's participation is most formidable.
Women's right to work under fair and just conditions must also be stipulated in the constitution, along with prohibitions against forced labor. Women also deserve equal access to education and health care, and the constitution should ensure that school curriculums reflect the equality of men and women.
Access to gender-specific health services should also be guaranteed.
All of these changes have been suggested by legal experts in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Earlier this year Afghanistan ratified an international treaty that provides the Constitutional Loya Jirga a framework for incorporating them into the new draft.
Two years ago, when Afghanistan was liberated from Taliban rule, the world realized that global security is inextricably linked to the protection and rights of women in society, and there was an international commitment to supporting Afghan women on the path to securing these rights. Today, we have a narrow window in which to make good on this commitment. The international
community must direct its efforts to ensure that the constitution reflects the needs of the women we promised to help.
**************************************
2.- Help end violence against women!
Marita Pareja De La Cruz
marita04@hotmail.com
Your help is needed! Women in Mexico are being targetted for violent crimes and despite the pattern of violence, the Mexican authorities have been slow to develop solutions. As a recipient of WomensWire from the ThePetitionSite.com -- The Newsletter for Healthy, Active Women-- we thought that you should know about this grave problem and give you an opportunity to help! Urgent alert: Women in Mexico Targetted for Violent Crimes!
http://www.care2.com/go/z/9350/1044
Since 1993, over 370 women have been killed or have "disappeared" in Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua, Mexico. To date, the Mexican authorities have been slow to act in response to the horrifying pattern of violence that has become commonplace in Juarez and Chihuahua.
The International Community is gravely concerned about the safety of the women of Chihuahua. Please join Amnesty International in its efforts to persuade the Mexican authorities to take action now before any more lives are lost.
Sign this petition to the Mexican Ambassador to the United States. The message must be clear: violence against women must be tackled at its roots. All instances of it must be thoroughly investigated, those responsible brought to justice, and steps must be taken to address the causes of women's vulnerability to violence.
SIGN NOW! http://www.care2.com/go/z/9350/1044
Thank you for your help!
***********************************************
3.- From Mozambique: We have a new Family Law, at last!
Ximena Andrade
wlsa.moz@tvcabo.co.mz
Dear Friends,
I wish to share with you the small great victory achieved today, December 9th 2003, by the feminist and women’s movements of Mozambique: the approval of a new Family Law that modifies the Civil Code. This won battle is another conquest of the world feminism, where each of you, and all of us bonded together, struggle to be recognized in our condition of individuals, persons and human beings. Thank you all for the knowledge shared and the strength you have given us along the way.
What do we gain in this historical benchmark for Mozambique women, resulting from the created and recreated knowledge in everyone’s activism?
The first gains would be the following:
* The legal figure of the man as head of family was eliminated. Now, any of the partners of the married couple can represent the “sacred” family;
* The legal age for marriage is now 18 years old for both sexes. Previously, the age was 16 for women and 18 for men;
* The item stating that the husband was to determine the place of residence was eliminated
* Traditional and religious marriages (derived from the normative of kinship relations) were recognized, given that these marriages are registered and that they preserve the principles established for civil marriage.
* The polygamist unions that are practiced in the country, but with an increasing number of multiple and diverse interpretations- were not included (fortunately). This was one of the hard items of the parliamentary debate;
* In relation to “de facto” marriages, it is established that one year of cohabitation enables the possession sharing on the part of the members of the couple, according to the norms established in the civil code;
* It was incorporated an item about the right of the wife to develop any commercial undertaking in an autonomous way (without her husband’s authorization, as stated in the previous norm)
Ximena Andrade
WLSA Mozambique
****************************************************
4.- NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND: A PROGRESS REPORT
SPECIAL NOTICE
Education Week on the Web
EducationWeek@clickaction.net
In ESEA's Wake, School Data Flowing Forth
Nearly two years after its passage, the No Child Left Behind Act has produced one unambiguous result: an avalanche of data on the performance of public schools in the United States. But a survey of the 50 states and the District of Columbia by EDUCATION WEEK found less movement on other fronts, such as the number of states now testing in the required grades.
Moreover, many states are still struggling to mesh their existing systems for rating schools with federal law, which has resulted in confusing messages about what all the numbers mean.
Read EDUCATION WEEK's year-end progress report on the states' efforts to comply with the No Child Left Behind Act. An advance Web version of the report--complete with exclusive data tables and charts--will be available online on Tuesday, December 9, at 10:00 a.m. EST. Click here:
http://www.you-click.net/GoNow/a15864a91777a147915061a0
**************************************************
5.- Pending: Schooling for Girls
IPS News - WSIS
wsis@ipsnews.net
http://www.ipsnews.net/focus/tv_society/viewstory.asp?idn=151
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) launched its annual report on the state of the world’s children, Thursday. The document makes a strong case for universal education, gender equality and women’s empowerment
In his foreword to the report, UN Secretary-General Koffi Annan states that no other policy is likely to raise economic productivity, lower infant and maternal mortality and promote health more effectively than the education of girls. At present, some 121 million children around the world still have no access to education.
UNICEF states that despite thousands of projects aimed at promoting gender parity around the world, this remains as elusive as ever  "and girls continue to systematically lose out on the benefits that an education affords". (WJ)
**************************************
6.- Fellowships for Knowledge Networking on Gender, Macroeconomics and International Economics
Nilufer Cagatay
cagatay@mill.econ.utah.edu
Dear Friends,
We are writing to announce the second cycle of a new program, Capacity Building and Knowledge Networking on Gender, Macroeconomics and International Economics.  A central component of the program is the two-week intensive course on Engendering Macroeconomics and International
Economics. The course will take place in Salt Lake City, University of Utah in the United States from June 3-18, 2004. We are writing to solicit your support in disseminating information to potential applicants.
The program is being organized by the International Working Group on Gender, Macroeconomics and International Economics (GEM- IWG), an international network of economists which was formed in 1994. The program has two objectives: first, to engage with fellow economists in order to enhance capacity building for research, teaching, policy making and advocacy on gender equitable approaches to macroeconomics, international economics and globalization; and second, to increase knowledge networking on these themes by strengthening the intellectual links among
practitioners in networks working on similar issues.
The program is intended for economists, including advanced graduate students in economics, as well as more senior academics, researchers and those in government.  Up to 30 fellows will be admitted to the program. The fellows of the program will be required, at a minimum, to have
completed two years of study in an economics Ph.D. program and have passed their qualifying exams, or have its equivalent such as a master's degree in economics. These requirements may be waived only under exceptional circumstances. Funding is available for up to 25 fellows. Priority will be given to applicants from the global South and transition economies.
We are certain that among the people in your network, some will be good candidates for this
program. As the application deadline for the course is January 15, 2004, we ask that you kindly let them know about it and that you forward this announcement to organizations, research institutes and economics departments of universities. If applicable, we also ask that you kindly post this announcement in your organization's website or newsletter. You can find further information on our program at our website www.genderandmacro.org  including information on the first cycle which was implemented during May - June 2003.  If you have any questions, please contact us at
  genderandmacro@economics.utah.edu  or cagatay@economics.utah.edu
Thank you very much for your help with this initiative.
sincerely,
Nilufer Cagatay
Associate Professor of Economics,
University of Utah
(on behalf of the coordinating instructors Diane Elson, Rania Antonopoulos and Maria Floro )
**************************************
7.- INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON GENDER AND VISUALITY
Ingrid Goedhart
igo@iisg.nl
CALL FOR PAPERS
INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON GENDER AND VISUALITY
(WITH SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON THE SOUTH)
Papers are invited for an international and interdisciplinary workshop on gender and visuality, to be held at the University of the Western Cape between 27-29 August 2004. To date, both gender studies and visual studies have been examined largely in isolation from each other, without regard to the methodological possibilities offered in relation to each other, and largely with reference to 'the West'. This workshop will explore how gender might be deployed to generate new understandings of the workings of visuality. Particular emphasis will be placed on how 'Eurocentrisms' in visual theory and practice might be unsettled from critical sites in 'the South'.
What does it mean for histories of any colonial encounter, for instance, that post-enlightenment Europeans tended to privilege vision above all other human senses? Equally, how have visual cultures and economies been produced in 'the south' by autochtonous subjects, up to the present postcolonial moment? The workshop intends to raise questions about different agendas of visibility, while opening up new pathways to gendered pasts. The emphasis is on visualizing gender, and subjecting the visual to a gendered critique. Because pictures work differently from words, discussion of method and analysis will be important. Workshop panels will include themes on:
Visual and gender methodologies: the visual turn in gender studies
Visual sexualities
Provincializing Europe: multiple visual cultures
Gendered visual histories
Contemporary visualities and economies
Abstracts should be submitted by latest 1 February 2004 to Patricia Hayes, History Department, University of the Western Cape, email visual@uwc.ac.za. Limited funding is available from SEPHIS (South-South exchange programme) for scholars and visual artists from Africa, Asia and Latin America to attend the workshop. The workshop is co-organised with the international journal Gender & History. A special issue of the journal will consider selected papers from the workshop for publication.
******************************************
8.- International Conference: “Gender and Human Security”
The Centre for Developing Area Studies (CDAS) of McGill University, Montréal, Quebec,
Canada / 5, 6 and 7 February 2004 / For more information, please contact:
AWID Resource Net
Announcements / Issue 190
Wednesday, December 3, 2003
Rosalind Boyd, PhD
Director, Centre for Developing-Area Studies
McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, CANADA
Telephone: (514) 398-1608
www.mcgill.ca/cdas
http://upload.mcgill.ca/cdas/CURA.conf.eng.pdf , E-mail: pub.cdas@mcgill.ca
The Centre for Developing-Area Studies (CDAS), McGill University is organizing an international Conference on Gender and Human Security from 5-7 February 2004, which will address human security from the perspective of the rights and needs of people in societies confronted by political violence. For the past three years, in partnership with the Women’s Centre of Montréal and other universities, CDAS has carried out a research program on gender and human security in the context of war and reconstruction. Our team of researchers and community activists are working locally with women refugees and immigrants in Montreal from various countries of armed conflict and
internationally with women’s organizations primarily in the Great Lakes region of Africa.
Globally, war-torn societies and armed conflicts are producing more internally displaced persons, refugees and immigrants than ever before, many of whom are women coming to Canada in pursuit of a new life with personal security. During armed conflicts, community-level violence and its consequences (violent crimes against women, refugee movements) indicate that gender is central to the struggle against insecurity. Combining human security and gender allows us to examine among other issues the impact of gender inequality on the continued insecurity in societies affected by conflict and its aftermath.
Accordingly, the goal of our Conference is to examine security issues not only in Africa but also in Canada and other parts of the world where the search for peace often seems elusive. CDAS proposes to bring together participants from both the academic and community milieu whose
research or action-research will contribute to the elaboration of intervention strategies addressing security issues in conflict and post-conflict situations.
Participants at the Conference will address the following themes from the perspective of gender
and human security:
- local and international alliances and/or strategies for reconciliation and
conflict prevention;
- involvement of civil society organizations in peace initiatives;
- role of women’s organizations;
- Canadian aid policy and activities of Canadian NGOs;
- impunity and legal aspects of gender-based violence;
- UN initiatives (Resolution 1325, Special Rapporteur, etc);
- citizenship;
- ideology of militarism;
- militarization (small arms, arms sales, child soldiers);
- peacekeeping and peacekeepers;
- demobilized soldiers and their reintegration;
- internally displaced persons, refugees and asylum seekers;
- psycho-social trauma;
- health (HIV/AIDS).
We invite those interested in making a presentation at the Conference to submit their provisional
title and brief abstract (80 words) to the CDAS in English or in French (pub.cdas@mcgill.ca) by
3 November 2003. Full papers (30 pages or 8,000 words) should be sent by 15 January 2004.
The CDAS plans to publish a book developed from the presentations given at the Conference.
*************************************
9.- Call for Student Participation at: Welfare, Multiculturalism and European Development
Aida Vezic
aida.vezic@access.baCall for Student Participation at: Welfare, Multiculturalism and European Development
Course at the Inter-University Centre, Dubrovnik 20-27 April 2003
Project "The Politics of Democratic and Welfare Development in South Eastern Europe: a Network for Research and Education", conducted by University of Bergen, Norway (Rokkan Centre and
Department of Comparative Politics), and sponsored by the Program for South Eastern Europe, (Centre for International University Cooperation and Norwegian Research Council), organizes the
course "Welfare, Multiculturalism and European Development".
The course is open for participants from all countries.
Participants from South East European countries are encouraged to take part and apply for financial support. A number of grants for travel and accommodation for advanced and highly motivated
students as well as post-graduate and doctoral students from these countries are available and provided by the Project.
Students are requested to apply and submit a short CV not later than December 20, 2003.
For more informations please contact directors of the Course:
Stein Kuhnle (stein.kuhnle@isp.uib.no) or Dzemal Sokolovic (dzemal.sokolovic@isp.uib.no)
Location: Croatia
Deadline: Dec 20, 2003
…………………………………………………………
The International Gender and Education Office (GEO) of ICAE creates
VOICES RISING
Email: voicesrising@icae.org.uy
Web: www.icae.org.uy
Tel/fax: 00 5982 403 05 99 - 408 00 89
Address: Colonia 2069. 11200 Montevideo, UruguayVOICES RISING
GEO - ICAE
Colonia 2069
11200 Montevideo - Uruguay
Tel/fax: 005982 4080089 - 4030599
E-mail: voicesrising@icae.org.uy
web: www.icae.org.uy