The Fight For Gender Equality (International Women's Day)

[rodeodance]

send your favorate women (and dem. polititions--ie. Boxer) a card.

March 8, 2005
http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/pp.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=83210

WOMEN
The Fight For Gender Equality

Today is International Women's Day. This year marks the 10-year anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action, "the most extensive set of commitments ever made by governments to advance women's equality and human rights." Although progress has been made, there is a long way to go. In 2005 there are "high levels of gender-based violence in conflict zones...growth in trafficking of women and children, high levels of maternal mortality rising rates of HIV infection among women and girls." Women still account for "the majority of the world's 1.3 billion absolute poor" and substandard economic conditions for women lead to "gaps in income, health, and education." A recent report by the U.N. Millennium Project "calls for women's increased access to education, jobs and assets such as land and housing, improved health care, especially reproductive health services, and freedom from violence."

BUSH ADMINISTRATION IMPEDING PROGRESS FOR WOMEN: The Bush administration has been obstructing international efforts to improve the conditions of women. The U.N. Commission on the Status of Women asked countries that participated in the 1995 Beijing conference to reaffirm their commitment to the platform. The Bush administration initially refused, falsely claiming the platform guaranteed the right to abortion. The administration also objected to language supporting a woman's right to "decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality ... free of coercion, discrimination and violence," claiming that statement constitutes "sexual rights" which "not all member states accept." This is about more than just reproductive health. "Traditions and laws inextricably link sexual rights to education, employment, property rights and political participation." Thus, "the rights the U.S. delegation was lobbying against last week are the very rights that would improve the status of women and their children."

GAGGING WOMEN'S RIGHTS: Around the world, women are receiving sub-optimal health care because of the Bush administration's global gag rule. The rule mandates that "family planning agencies that receive U.S. money may not offer abortion counsel or refer women to abortion providers, or lobby to make or keep abortion legal in their own country, even if they use separate funds not provided by the United States." Family planning agencies are forced to "give up vital assistance and try to afford to continue to counsel women on all pregnancy options, or withhold critically important information." Many choose to forgo U.S. funds, restricting funding for contraception and making abortion more common......


THE PLIGHT OF WOMEN IN IRAQ: The need to improve the conditions of women is especially acute in Iraq. Since the U.S.-lead invasion in 2003, "armed groups have targeted and killed several female political leaders and women's rights activists." As in Pakistan, "many women remain at risk of death or injury from male relatives if they are accused of behavior held to have brought dishonor on the family." For more, read this report by Amnesty International. (Also, check out 10 ways to stop violence against women, from Lifetime Television.)......

[FloridaPat]

1. This has been US policy for a long time. We are officially against

international women's rights. Right up there with I think the list is: Iran, Saudi Arabia, and several other Middle Eastern countries.