Will the world now wake up to the atrocity of rape?

Story published on Women's Views on News 15 January, 2013

The India rape case is exposing the extent of violence against women worldwide

On 7 January, around 1,000 people demonstrated outside India House in London against the horrific rape and murder of a young woman in Delhi.

This was part of a growing wave of demonstrations against violence towards women sweeping not just the Indian sub-continent, but the whole world.

“We felt a great sense of outrage.  We wanted to express our solidarity with Indian women,” said Rahila Gupta, of Southall Black Sisters, who organised the demonstration.

“Sexual abuse is happening all over the world.  The difference in India is the frequency, the intensity, the rate, the range, the culture that there is in India. 

“And also people get away with stuff in India.  There isn’t really any prosecution for Police and others who are treated with impunity.

“At least in the West the Police are accountable to some extent, but even here the clear up rate for rape is only 6%,” she said.

Many of the women on the demonstration believed that the sheer ferocity of the Delhi attack had proved a tipping point.

“It came to a point when women in India thought enough was enough.  There was so much tolerance but that incident is where it came to a boiling point,” said Jos Juvah, who is originally from India but has lived in the UK for many years.

But Gupta provides an economic explanation for the apparently sudden upsurge of protest.

“There is very rapid economic growth going on in India and it is providing opportunities for young women to get educated and have jobs. 

“Young women need to be out and have the freedom of the city. They need to have the safety of the city.

“Here is an example of a woman who did all the ‘right’ things, [I use that term ironically].

“She was accompanied by a man, there was no suggestion that her clothes were to blame, her behaviour was to blame nothing, and yet she suffered the most horrific rape.

“A newly awoken Delhi, particularly Delhi, as there is a lot of multinational activity on the outskirts of Delhi, and there’s a sense of, ‘how do we ensure that our daughters are going to be safe when they go out to work’.”

“We know that a lot of rape goes on against domestic workers for example. I hope this case will open the door to debate about other women who suffer domestic violence,” she said.

And it certainly seems to be doing that, for now at least.

A report by the Small Arms Survey finds that Kenya’s capital Nairobi is in ‘profound’ crisis, with grotesque levels of violence against women spiralling out of control, as poverty increases in its fetid slums, which house more than a million people.

And according to figures recently issued by Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, ninety percent of South African women have experienced emotional and physical abuse; seventy-one percent have experienced sexual abuse; as many as five out of seven children are abused.

In Peru, where an estimated 35,000 pregnancies a year come about as a result of rape, women are forced either to have an illegal abortion and face a possible three-month jail term, or give birth to a rapists child.

A coalition called Dejala Decidir, Let Her Decide, aim to collect the 60,000 signatures they need to petition Congress to consider a Bill decriminalising abortion in the case of rape.

This may not be easy, as signatories have to provide their government ID. 

Some may feel intimidated by this and many women, particularly in rural areas, most affected by these issues, do not have ID’s.  Even if they get the signatures, a debate is not guaranteed the Catholic Church still exerts great influence in Peru.

But despite this, George Liendo, Director of PROMSEX, says the time is ripe for a national dialogue.

“It’s not always easy to build a coalition in Peru, but there is real energy for this campaign. People across the country want to put this on the political agenda.”

In October 2012, the Uruguayan Congress voted to decriminalise abortion in the first twelve weeks of pregnancy.

And as Clare Abbot, who travelled down from Northampton to attend Monday’s demonstration said: “Hopefully this demonstration will raise awareness of women’s issues and hopefully have some impact.

“Hopefully this will maintain momentum. That’s got to be a positive thing.”

Bangladesh open cast mine threatens fundamental human rights, warns UN

Story published in Womens Views on News March 5, 2012

The United Nations has warned the Government of Bangladesh that a planned open cast mine will threaten the fundamental human rights of people living in the area.

The mine is planned for the Phulbari region of North-Western Bangladesh.

Last month, WVoN reported on a campaign to halt the development of the massive mine and a coal fired power station, which could displace up to a quarter of a million rural people.

The mine would reportedly extract 572 million tonnes of coal over the next 36 years from a site covering nearly 6,000 hectares.  The project would destroy 12,000 hectres overall, 80 per cent of which is fertile agricultural land.

Opponents also claim the project could cause irrevocable damage to the Sunderbans, one of the world’s largest mangrove forests, as the mined coal would be transported through the area before being exported.

The UN statement, issued on behalf of seven independent human rights experts, comes after US-based human rights group International Accountability Project submitted an urgent appeal for action to ten UN human rights experts in September 2011.

The statement said: “The Government of Bangladesh must ensure that any policy concerning open-pit coal mining includes robust safeguards to protect human rights.

“In the interim, the Phulbari coal mine should not be allowed to proceed, because of the massive disruptions it is expected to cause.”

The statement confirmed opponents’ fears that the Phulbari development would displace vulnerable farming communities and threaten the livelihoods of thousands more by causing irreversible damage to water sources and ecosystems in the region.

The experts were concerned that a national coal policy, currently being discussed by a parliamentary committee in Bangladesh, might allow open-pit coal mining and therefore allow the Phulbari project to go ahead.

“We welcome Prime Minister Hasina’s acknowledgement that coal extraction in Bangladesh would threaten densely populated areas.

“Mixed messages, however, are emerging and investors continue to push forward,” the experts warned.

Speaking to WVoN, Rumana Hashem, one of the leaders of the campaign against the mine in the UK, welcomed the statement and hoped the Bangladesh Government would take the findings seriously.

Kate Hoshour, senior research fellow, at International Accountability Project, added: “We are extremely pleased to learn that seven UN experts took coordinated action this week by calling for an immediate halt to the project, and are hopeful that their action will avert a humanitarian and environmental catastrophe in Bangladesh.”