Facing Fundamentalisms Oct 2011

Facing Fundamentalisms Oct 2011Newsletter Updates, Analysis and Resources from AWID's Strategic Initiative

Resisting and Challenging Religious Fundamentalisms

Dear Friends, Yesterday Anand Grover, Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, presented a ground-breaking report before the UN General Assembly. The report courageously calls on all countries to immediately abolish or suspend any criminal laws that seek to control women's reproductive freedom, autonomy and decision-making with regards to their sexual and reproductive rights. [continues in Spotlight section below]

IN THIS ISSUE

Resources & Analysis

Resources & Analysis Spotlight: Religious Fundamentalisms, Women's Rights and Legal Innovation Events & Announcements Facing Fundamentalisms

Case Filed at the ICC Charging Vatican Officials with Crimes against Humanity The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) have filed a ground-breaking request for assertion of jurisdiction by the International Criminal Court over Vatican officials for rape, sexual violence, and torture by

Newsletter

FUNDAMENTALISMS IN THE NEWS Tunisia: Islamist Party al-Nahda Claims Election Victory Libya: Sharia Law Declaration Raises Concerns in New Libya Poland: Poles at the Polls (Congratulations to Wanda Nowicka!)

Nigeria: Human Rights Defenders Condemn 2011 Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Bill USA: Soulforce Announces Dates of Next Equality Ride Pakistan: Dress Modestly-Masked Men Enter Girls' School Thrash Students USA: RH Reality Check Chief Editor Receives Award from Association of Reproductive Health Professionals Israel: Mea She'arim to Ban Women from Certain Jerusalem Streets during Sukkot Turkey: Ottoman Empire's Secular History Undermines Sharia Claims Pakistan: Pakistani Child Expelled for Blasphemous Spelling Error USA: The Political Pulpit Iraq: 20 Year Old OWFI Activist Aya Al Lamie Kidnapped from Tahrir Square and Tortured Africa-wide: Abortion Increases Despite Republican Policy to Curb Payment for Procedures Pakistan: Government Slammed over Sectarian Killings

URGENT ACTIONS Below are a number of urgent actions and appeals relating to challenging religious fundamentalisms and their impacts. Please pass them on.

Algeria: Petition the Government to Stop Renewed Attacks on Women Iran: Unfair Trial and Sentencing of Human Rights Defender Narges Muhammadi

clergy. Visit the links from the CCR press release Clergy Sex Victims File ICC Complaint to view the filing and other key documents.

Myths and Facts about Abortion in the USA Myths and facts presented out of context are all too common in the US abortion debate. The Abortion in the USA video by the Guttmacher Institute (now also in Spanish) and places the debate in the context of issues like unintended pregnancy, contraceptive use and sex education.

New Report Sheds Light on Human Rights Violations against LGBTQI People in Iran The report entitled Human Rights Violations on the Basis of Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Homosexuality in the Islamic Republic of Iran is a joint submission by the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) and the Iranian Queer Organization (IRQO) to the United Nations Human Rights Committee ("the Committee") on the occasion of its consideration of the third periodic report of the Government of Iran on the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ("the Covenant").

HRW Memorandum on Human Rights Issues in the Islamic Republic of Iran This memorandum by Human Rights Watch provides an overview of HRW's main concerns with respect to the human rights crisis in Iran.

The memorandum was submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Committee in advance of its pre-sessional review of Iran in 2011 in the hopes of informing the Committee's preparation for its review of the Iranian government's compliance with its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

CREA Research Study on Violence Against Marginalized Women in South Asia The Executive Summary of this first-of-its-kind multi-country study on violence against lesbian women, female sex workers and disabled women in Bangladesh, India and Nepal is now available. This report is part of CREA's Count Me In! initiative, which focuses on the many ways in which gender inequality manifests itself.

Report Finds Ireland's Clerical Sexual Abuse Was ËœTorture" A new report from Amnesty International has concluded that the sexual abuse of children by priests and church run institutions in Ireland, amounted to torture. "The sexual abuse in the diocesan reports, and the sexual, physical and emotional abuse, the living conditions, and the neglect described in the Ryan Report, can be categorised as torture, and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment under human rights law" according to the report. This follows the publications of a number of reports documenting abuse by Church officials and demanding accountability, including the Ferns, Ryan, Murphy and Cloyne Reports.

2011 World Abortion Laws Map Now Available!

The Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) has just launched the latest update of its World Abortion Laws map. The CRR has been producing this visual resource since 1998 to help advocate for

to 11 Years in Prison - Take Action!

Iran: Take Action on Arrest and Incommunicado Detention of Human Rights Defenders Abdolfattah Soltani, Fereshteh Shirazi and Faranak Farid USA: Tell PayPal to Put Hate out of Business USA/Global: "Million for a Billion" Petition for Contraceptives and Reproductive Health Care Global: WLUML Needs Your Support!

COMING SOON The Resisting and Challenging Religious Fundamentalisms team held a strategy meeting with nearly 30 rights activists in September 2011. The meeting helped to identify key shifts in the context relating to religious fundamentalisms and women's organizing. We look forward to sharing with you the highlights of the discussions at this meeting, which will also be feeding into AWID's strategies and activities going forward. Please watch this space for links to information coming out of that meeting in the coming months!

AWID's Young Feminist Activism (YFA) Program is offering a series of e-learnings, with an upcoming session focusing on religious fundamentalisms and women's rights. We look forward to offering that session in November. Please visit the YFA Wire website for more details.

AWID Publications Did you know that the Towards a Future without Fundamentalisms report released in early 2011 is also available in Spanish and French?

Additionally, the Feminists on the Frontline anthology of case studies and the Key Learnings preface to the case studies are all available in Spanish and French.

WHO WE ARE AWID's Resisting and Challenging Religious Fundamentalisms Initiative is an

greater progress in ensuring access to safe and legal abortion services for all women.

Increased Access to Key Information for WHRDs The AWID and Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition (WHRD-IC) report Urgent Responses for Women Human Rights Defenders at Risk: Mapping and Preliminary Assessment is now available in five languages. Please spread the word!

(Arabic, English, French, Russian, Spanish) For more news and analysis, click here.

Spotlight: Religious Fundamentalisms, Women's Rights and Legal Innovation In his report, Grover calls on State and non-state actors to urgently respect women's reproductive decision-making process, calling for the immediate and complete decriminalization of abortion (par.20) based on the reality that the use of laws to force pregnancy onto women is an unjustifiable and disproportionate form of coercion (par.12). The regulation of women's behaviour during pregnancy by the State is clearly defined as inappropriate, ineffective and disproportionate (pars.38-42). These are some examples of the strong arguments and statements put forward by the Special Rapporteur in his report.

Most salient to our struggle in challenging religious fundamentalisms, Grover condemns the use of "public morality" to violate women's rights and create and perpetuate negative stereotypes. Public morality cannot serve as justification for laws intended to control women's bodies and their decision-making process (par.18). Society, governments and institutions have a clear obligation to protect everyone's right to health from harmful social and traditional practices, and from policies based on such practices (pars.56-57).

The Rapporteur does not go as far as making explicit the link between "public morality" and the underlying political interests and arguments based on fundamentalist ideas of culture, religion and tradition. Nor does he mention who are the fundamentalist actors behind the promotion of these ideas, which may be beyond his scope and mandate. Grover does, however, indicate that comprehensive, evidenced-based education and information is a powerful tool for the critical examination of gender inequalities and stereotypes, and a way of "eroding deeply entrenched systems of patriarchy" (par.63).

All governments have the obligation to protect women and abortion providers from fundamentalists' actions against them. These actions may include: harassment and intimidation, violence (or incitement to violence), kidnappings and murder (religiously motivated or otherwise; par.28). More broadly, fundamentalist pressure may seek to exclude sexual education in school curricula or restrict information and discussion of alternative sexual orientations; promote "abstinence only" education, or reduce sexual education to images and stereotypes of heteronormativity, focusing on procreation

advocacy-research project that seeks to strengthen the responses of women's rights activists to the rise of religious fundamentalisms across regions and religions. It hopes to foster a deeper understanding of the way fundamentalist movements work, grow and undermine women's rights, and to contribute to strategic thinking, dialogue and advocacy.

Learn more about the Initiative and view our publications. Many are also in Spanish and French.

To share your thoughts and feedback on the research, write to cf@awid.org.

(pars.59-63).

It would be important for the advancement of women's rights to make the report more accessible, support its findings, push its analysis further and bring country-level violations of the right to health to the Special Rapporteur's attention for further action. The potential of the report to promote and protect reproductive and sexual health and rights is contingent on how women's rights activists and organizations respond to its recommendations, use the report as an advocacy tool to hold States accountable for their obligations, and continue to contribute to the expert analysis and information available in this area.

Further reading: AWID Friday File on the Special Rapporteur's Report (published in English, Spanish and French): Sexual and Reproductive Rights: More than Just Health Joint Statement on the Special Rapporteur's Report: Statement by Human Rights, Women's Rights and Health Groups on the Occasion of the Presentation of the Report by Anand Grover, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, to the UN General Assembly

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Join us at the 2012 AWID International Forum "Transforming Economic Power to Advance Women's Rights and Justice" For more information about the AWID Forum click here. If you have any questions, email forum12@awid.org.

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HR Reality Check blog series on the Special Rapporteur's Report: United Nations Special Rapporteur

Events & Announcements Asia: Call for Applications for IFOR/WPP's Asia Training of Trainers (31 Oct. 2011 Deadline) Belgium: WIDE Network Annual Conference (in partnership with CRTD-A): "Women's Rights and Gender Equality amidst the 'Arab Springs'", 27-28 October 2011 [follow the WIDE Network Blog for conference information and post-conference reporting] Global: Call for Papers for Gender and Development Journal's Special Issue "Gender and Humanitarian Work" Global: Call for Submissions for "New Feminisms in Europe" Special Issue of Social Movement Studies Journal UK: Call for Proposals for Arab Women, Media and Sexuality Conference, University of York USA: Conference Announcement -- From Abortion Rights to Social Justice: Building the Movement for Reproductive Freedom

Facing Fundamentalisms Newsletter We hope you find the Facing Fundamentalisms newsletter useful and interesting. Please keep

forwarding it to your contacts so that we can share the analysis and experiences of women's rights activists resisting fundamentalisms as widely as possible.

Visit the AWID website to sign up or look at back-issues, or write to us (cf@awid.org) to subscribe or unsubscribe. And of course, please contact us any time if you have feedback to share!

Also, in upcoming issues of Facing Fundamentalisms, we hope to bring you more highlights of the work being done on religious fundamentalisms by different organizations. If you have a suggestion for an initiative to highlight in an upcoming newsletter, please write to cf@awid.org.

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