Feminists
in Resistance in Honduras:
BREAKING THE IMPUNITY OF VIOLATIONS OF
WOMEN’S HUMAN RIGHTS IS KEY TO RESOLVING HONDURAN CRISIS
August 5, 2009
FIRE – Feminist
International Radio Endeavour/
Radio Internacional Feminista
Resolution of the crisis
in Honduras needs to include feminist and women’s perspectives,
including a commitment to break the impunity surrounding
violations of women’s human rights. Because this culture
of impunity reaches back to the 1980s with the dictatorships in
Honduras and was never broken, it recycles through today with
the military coup d'etat and crisis, including violence against
women.
This is a central imperative of “Honduran Feminists in
Resistance,” who are organizing Women’s Human Rights Week in Honduras, August 17-21,
2009.
An international delegation including human rights activists,
investigators, legal experts and journalists from Central
America, Mexico and the United States, will travel to Honduras
in mid-August to document violations of women’s human rights.
Femicides and attacks on women were more than three times higher
during the coup and ongoing crisis, according to Gilda Rivera of
the Women’s Rights Center (CDM --
Centro de Derechos de las Mujeres)
of Honduras.
Delegates will conduct
a “Feminist Transgressional Watch,” (http://www.petateras.org/observatorio.htm)
based on a model designed by Petateras, one of the organizers
of the initiative.
“Feminists in Resistance” have been active with strategies of
resistance against the coup in the streets with participation in
marches & protests, working at the grassroots level in
communities to provide information and design actions, and
coordinating with national, regional and international networks
and social movements to promote international solidarity with
their struggles.
The feminist observatory will work with Feminists in Resistance
to gather information, testimonies, and statistics through
meetings with organizations and individual women regarding
violations of women’s human rights and the impact of the coup
and aftermath on the lives of women and their families, which
will be compiled as a preliminary report. This information will
be disseminated through national, regional and international
media by journalists in the delegation.
The live FIRE transmission will take place on Wednesday, August
19, and will include a virtual feminist observatory for
listeners around the world who are encouraged to send emails and
also call us with messages of solidarity to the Honduran women
in their struggles.
FIRE will interview Honduran women and members of the
international delegation for the broadcast, but also feminist
and human rights activists, Nobel Prize Laureates, and others
via telephone who were not able to join the delegation.
The last night of the Women’s Human Rights Week will feature a
concert and cultural activity with musicians and artists from
Honduras and the region.
# # #
To send messages of
solidarity to the Honduran women, please write to
observatoriovirtual@radiofeminista.net.
For more information
write to Margaret Thompson (mthompso@du.edu)
or Yarman Jiménez of FIRE at:
yarman@radiofeminista.net or
petateras@gmail.com.
Organizer
of Women's Human Rights Week:
·
Feminists in
Resistance (Feministas en Resistencia) of Honduras
Organizers of feminist
observatory:
·
FIRE – Feminist
International Radio Endeavour (Radio Internacional Feminista)
www.radiofeminista.net
·
Petateras --
www.petateras.org
·
Just Associates
(JASS) –
www.justassociates.org
·
Consortium for Parliamentary Dialogue &
Equity (Mexico - Consorcio para el Diálogo Parlamentario y la
Equidad) -- www.consorcio.org.mx/site/
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