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15 August 2007
WILPF Monthly Update
Dear Section Presidents, International Board Members, International Affairs Representatives and Committee Convenors,
We send warm greetings from the Geneva office. We hope that those of you who traveled to Santa Cruz and joined us at the WILPF Congress have returned home safely. We in the office welcome our new Executive Committee- Co-Presidents Annelise Ebbe (Denmark) and Kerstin Grebäck (Sweden), Vice Presidents Kozue Akibayashi (Japan), Felicity Hill (Australia), Amparo Guerrero (Colombia), and Samira Khoury (Lebanon) and our new Treasurer Tamara James (USA). We look forward to working together over the next few years.
Included in this mailing are some items following up the Congress as well as some information about upcoming events that may be of interest to you, or other members in your area. Please feel free to distribute this update widely.
In this mailing you will find:
- New Committee Convenors
- Resolutions adopted at the Congress
- Congress Photos
- Revised International Directory
- Upcoming Events
- Durban Prepcom
- Keep Space for Peace Week
As always, we welcome feedback and input to these monthly mailings. If you have something to contribute, please send it to susi.snyder@wilpf.ch no later than the 12th of each month. Please remember that you can find this, and past monthly mailings archived on the WILPF international website at: http://www.wilpf.int.ch/updates/up_index.htm
With best wishes,
Susi Snyder
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New Committee Convenors
The following individuals have been confirmed by the post-Congress International Board meeting as convenors of WILPF standing committees and working groups. Their email is listed below, and full contact details are available in the updated WILPF directory.
Communications:
CJ Minster (USA- cjminster@gmail.com) and Anja Witte (Germany- anja@notmail.org)
Organisational Development:
Darien Delu, (USA- conjoin@macnexus.org)
Constitution Committee: Martha Jean Baker (UK- martha@uslawyersuk.co.uk)
Standing Finance Committee: Tamara James, the International Treasurer will serve in this role while the search continues, and while those who have volunteered are asked to serve. The Committee is encouraged to have a more diverse representation from WILPF- is there anyone in your section who is interested? If so, please contact Tamara at: Tamara.James@wilpf.ch
Personnel Committee:
The International Board appointed the following to this committee: Diane Brace, (UK -dianebrace1@googlemail.com) – convenor, Martha Jean Baker, (UK -martha@uslawyersuk.co.uk), Han Deggeller, (Netherlands- hdeggeller@cwhoutwijk.nl). In addition, Linda Belle (JAPA- japa@igc.org) and Marie Boroli (Geneva Staff- marie.boroli@wilpf.ch) serve on the committee. The Executive Committee will appoint one from their group to serve as well.
Rainbow Committee: It was decided at the meeting that the Rainbow Report (1998) should be reviewed and updated. The Congress was reminded that this was meant to be a living document, and new life should be breathed into it. The International Board appointed Audley Green, (USA- audleyjean4391@aol.com) and Katherine Ronderos, (UK- k2000katherine@hotmail.com) to begin this process, including consulting with those who served on the original Rainbow Committee.
100th Anniversary Committee: Mans van Zandbergen (Netherlands- vanzandbergen@wxs.nl), Ellen Woodsworth, (Canada- ewoods@vcn.bc.ca) and Felicity Hill (Felicity.Hill@wilpf.ch), International Vice President.
Peace and Security Working Group: Carol Urner (US- carol.disarm@gmail.com): and Edwina Hughes, Aotearoa/New Zealand (to be confirmed.)
Environment Working Group; Edel Havin Bukes, (Norway- edel@beukes.net) and Sushma Pankule (India- sushmapankule@hotmail.com) will be asked to communicate with Helena Nyberg (Switzerland textart@freesurf.ch) to discuss sharing of responsibilities and roles.
Global Economic Justice Working Group: Adelia Caravaca, (Costa Rica- acaravaca@abogados.or.cr)
Middle East Committee: Heidi Depner (Germany- Meinzolt-Depner@t-online.de)
Racism Working Group: Audley Green, (USA- audleyjean4391@aol.com) and Mary Ziesak (Australia- mdziesak@bigpond.com)
1325 Working Group: Martha Jean Baker, (UK -martha@uslawyersuk.co.uk). This working group has not been very active since it was established in 2005, and we would appreciate you contacting either Martha or Susi (susi.snyder@wilpf.ch) if you would like to join.
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Resolutions Adopted at the Congress
The following resolutions were adopted at the 29th Triennial WILPF Congress. These, and all WILPF Congress resolutions (as well as many IEC resolutions) can be found on the website at: http://www.wilpf.int.ch/resolutions/resindex.html. There are two additional resolutions agreed in principle, but pending editing (numbers 3 and 8)- on Gender Budgeting and on the Middle East. These will be circulated as soon as they are finalized.
1. Comfort Women
2. Extraordinary Rendition and Guantanamo Bay
4. No Bases Network
5. US Missile Defense System in Central Europe
6. West Papua
7. Colombia
9. Cuba
10. Nepal
1. Comfort Women
The 29th Triennial Congress of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, meeting July 21-27, 2007 in Santa Cruz, Bolivia
Acknowledges an international movement building over many years to urge the Japanese government to acknowledge, apologize and redress the thousands of women from all over the Pacific who were used as military sexual slaves, euphemistically called “comfort women”, by the Japanese Imperial Army during WWII,
Calls on all governments to urge the Prime Minister and the Diet of Japan to
(a) pass a resolution in the Diet to formally apologize to the women who were coerced into military sexual slavery during WWII as “comfort women” by the Japanese Imperial Army and
(b) to provide just and honourable compensation to these victims.
2. Extraordinary Rendition and Guantanamo Bay
NOTING THAT the United States of America (USA) is a signatory to the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; and
NOTING THAT extraordinary rendition is the practice by which the USA has abducted persons for the purpose of interrogation and torture, and transported them to countries not signatories to the above UN Convention,
AND THAT in these countries, the abducted persons have been interrogated and frequently if not always tortured;
RECOGNISING THAT because of its obligations as a signatory to the Convention against Torture, the USA is unable to use torture within mainland US,
AND THAT claiming pressing concerns under the cover of its so-called "war on terror", the USA has thus resorted to "outsourcing" its torture; and
FURTHER NOTING THAT the Central Intelligence Agency runs a system of secret prisons with thousands of kidnapped persons taken from countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Germany, Italy, Sudan, Somalia, Pakistan, Indonesia and Malaysia to intermediary countries such as Afghanistan, Jordan, Uzbekistan, Thailand, Syria, Egypt and Morocco in order to be "tortured by proxy", which in effect creates one interconnected gulag in which prisoners are swapped both between countries but also between the CIA and the US military;
BELIEVING THAT its use of extraordinary rendition not only puts the USA in breach of its obligations under the Convention against Torture, but also places the US outside the rule of law, and has worsened the threat from Al-Qaeda; and finally
UNDERSTANDING THAT this practice has been undertaken with the complicity of some governments also signatory to the Convention;
The 29th Triennial Congress of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, meeting July 21-27, 2007 in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, strongly condemns the practice of extraordinary rendition by the United States of America and other complicit governments, and calls for an end to this practice and the closure of all the secret prisons as well as the closure of the US prison in Guantanamo Bay.
4. No Bases Network
Whereas Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom from its inception has sought to put an end to war and militarism
Whereas foreign military bases have a particularly negative impact on the lives of women
Whereas maintenance of such bases diverts vast sums from the meeting of human needs,
Whereas such bases can be used for wars of intervention and other policies that are against the interests of people and governments
Whereas these bases function as enclaves of impunity where international law and human rights are violated
Whereas foreign military bases also violate the rule of law in both the sponsoring countries and the nations where they are located
Whereas such bases often cause disastrous environmental damage in the host countries, and these detrimental effects usually continue even after the bases are evacuated
Whereas such bases have a disastrous social impact with increases in the level of violence against women including rape, prostitution, social dislocation, the destruction of local economies and poverty;
And whereas WILPF members from Germany, Japan and the United States were present at and participated in the formation of the new Network for the Abolition of Military Bases in Ecuador, March 5 to 9, 2007
Therefore the 29th Triennial Congress of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, meeting July 21-27, 2007 in Santa Cruz, Bolivia
Supports the Abolition of Military Bases Network and working by non-violent and truthful means for closure of such bases around the world
Supports holding the base occupier fully responsible for follow up cleaning and for refunding the population for health problems due to the destructive effects of their military presence.
Calls for in depth independent studies on the effects of foreign military bases on the host nations and their populations.
5. US-Missile Defense System in Central Europe
Noting that the US is planning to install radar and interceptor sites for a new missile defense system in the Czech Republic and Poland;
Aware that the pretext of placing this new system is the repelling of missiles from Iran and North Korea;
Aware that the US plans provoke a new arms race between the US and Russia;
Aware that the US plans will disrupt good relations between Europe and Russia;
Therefore the 29th Triennial Congress of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, meeting July 21-27, 2007 in Santa Cruz, Bolivia
Strongly opposes all plans to construct missile defence systems whether this be in Europe or elsewhere;
Calls upon governments to combat these US plans and any attempts to hide them under the mantle of NATO;
Calls upon WILPF US and all European sections, including the Russian and Belarus sections, to work together and in cooperation with the Polish and Czech peace movements against this new and dangerous development.
6. West Papua
REAFFIRMING the decision of the IEC meeting in Aotearoa/New Zealand in 2002;
REMAINING DEEPLY CONCERNED about ongoing reports of human rights violations in West Papua which, despite the campaign for independence by the Organisasi Papua Merdeka (OPM) among others, remains a province of the Republic of Indonesia; and in particular
CONCERNED about ongoing reports of punitive military aggression by the Tentara Nasional Indonesia (TNI) against the people of West Papua;
The 29th Triennial Congress of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, meeting July 21-27, 2007 in Santa Cruz, Bolivia supports West Papuan independence and calls on the United Nations Secretary General to thoroughly investigate these reports.
WILPF calls on the members of the Human Rights Council to take the opportunity of Indonesia’s Council membership to ensure its administration of West Papua, particularly in relation to the monitoring of human rights, is carefully scrutinized,
In addition, since the UN's own conduct in relation to the so-called Act of Free Choice in West Papua is highly questionable, we call on the Secretary General to initiate a review of the UN's conduct in relation to the Act of Free Choice in West Papua in1969.
Finally, WILPF calls on the Republic of Indonesia to ensure access to West Papua by foreign journalists.
7. Colombia
WHEREAS the people of Colombia have experienced very serious human rights violations, including murder, forced disappearance, torture, and extrajudicial execution at the hands of illegal paramilitary groups which have also forced millions of peasants, Afro-Colombians and indigenous peoples off their lands, with the result being that Colombia has 3.8 million internally-displaced people, more than any other country;
AND WHEREAS the Colombian military and police have on many occasions supported and assisted the paramilitary operations, and recently-revealed evidence has shown that numerous political office-holders, including some very close to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velez, have collaborated with and supported the paramilitaries, constituting what has been termed “parapolitica”;
AND WHEREAS a law called the Justice and Peace Law, developed and promoted by the Uribe Administration, provides that paramilitary group members, including leaders, may receive short sentences in return for confessing their participation in murders, disappearances, torture, and extrajudicial killings, in practice leaving their paramilitary structures largely intact, so that human rights abuses continue to be ordered and carried out by supposedly demobilized paramilitaries;
AND WHEREAS the result has been an effective impunity for those crimes committed by the paramilitaries and those political figures and members of state security forces who have supported them and enabled them to carry out their murderous conduct and land grabs;
AND WHEREAS the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (LIMPAL), Colombia Section, has brought this situation to our attention, and we wish to go on record to support efforts to prevent impunity and pursue peace effectively;
RECALLING WILPF Congress resolutions of 1998 and 2004 on Colombia The 29th Triennial Congress of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, meeting July 21-27, 2007 in Santa Cruz, Bolivia calls upon the Colombian government to investigate all human rights abuses by the paramilitaries and the Colombian armed forces, including the police, and to sanction those responsible; to apply the laws of the land to protect those whose lives and properties are threatened, and to end impunity for crimes committed; to return lands taken forcibly from peasants, Afro-Colombians and indigenous peoples to them; and in all respects to honor the goal of truth, justice and reparations in the application of the paramilitary demobilization law.
9. Cuba
Whereas the United States of America is maintaining a military presence within the sovereign territory of the Republic of Cuba; and
Whereas the United States of America has conducted military operations on the territory it occupies, and
Whereas the United States of America has incarcerated citizens of several nations and perpetuated human rights violations in its actions towards them during their confinement, and
Whereas the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights has notified the USA that it has broken certain international laws and conventions in its operations in regard to these prisoners held on Cuban soil,
Therefore the 29th Triennial Congress of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, meeting July 21-27, 2007 in Santa Cruz, Bolivia calls upon the US to relinquish its hold on Cuban territory; to withdraw from that territory; and to cease and desist from the human rights violations it is now practicing within the Cuban sovereign territory.
10. Nepal
The 29th Triennial Congress of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, meeting July 21-27, 2007 in Santa Cruz, Bolivia
Recognises that the peace process in Nepal is passing through a historic transition after ten years of violent conflict;
Calls for a new constitution to be made democratically by an elected Constituent Assembly
Calls for elections for a Constituent Assembly announced by the all-party interim government of Nepal on 24 June 2007 and to be held on 22 November 2007 to be peaceful and supported by the international community and international independent observers.
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Congress Photos
We would like to thank all of the fantastic photographers that were around at the Congress- you did a wonderful job and we look forward to sharing your pictures with everyone. We would like to offer a special thanks to Jennifer Arroyo who made her pictures available online so quickly. Thanks Jennifer!
Photos by Jennifer Arroyo: http://picasaweb.google.com/Y.WILPF/CongresoWILPFBolivia
Photos on the WILPF Website:
http://www.wilpf.int.ch/events/2007Congress/pics/pictures.html
Thanks also to Felicity Hill who provided a number of photos on the site. If you would like to share your photos, please send Susi an email: susi.snyder@wilpf.ch
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Revised International Directory
By now, you should have received your paper copy of the WILPF International directory. After the Congress, there have been some updates and we’d like to make you aware of them so that you can keep in touch with WILPF around the world. The contacts listed on the website are all updated: http://www.wilpf.int.ch/world/windex.htm and you can find a PDF of the directory at this secret link: http://www.wilpf.int.ch/directory/August.Update.pdf (Click on the link or cut and paste it into your web browser and then print a copy or save the file for your reference).
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Upcoming Events
Durban Prepcom
On August 27-31, the Preparatory Committee of the Durban Review Conference (Prep-Com) (http://www.ohchr.org/english/issues/racism/groups/prep_committee_durban/index.htm) will take place in Geneva, Switzerland. This committee meeting is being called to negotiate the details of the Durban Review Conference, scheduled for 2009, which is the follow-up to the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance (WCAR), which met in 2001 in South Africa. WCAR, a conference WILPF was very active with, brought an international audience together to focus on the sources and causes of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and other forms of intolerance, and the experiences of its victims. The Durban Review Conference is necessary to ensure State accountability for these human rights problems surrounding racism, and continued discussions on these ever-relevant issues are renewed in follow-up to Durban.
Active participation in the Prep-Com will allow us to have input into the negotiation of the terms of the Durban Review Conference, to ensure that governments will not be able to brush the vision of WCAR under the rug. Many States from the West (the E.U.) and other regions that may benefit from obstructing actions towards accountability, such as the U.S., Canada, Australia, many of which have historical records as colonizers, do not want to fund this conference, and are trying to curtail funding and efforts towards making it happen. Although substantive issues will not be discussed at the Prep-Com, WILPF needs to be active in this process. It is likely we will draft a statement for submission to this Prep-Com meeting, to ensure that NGOs can participate, and to advocate for follow-up to be taken seriously, and be allocated more than 3 hours in the NY General Assembly. We could also suggest that there be space allotted to initiate dialogue around new topics pertaining to racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and “other related intolerances..” So many forms of contemporary racism (http://www.wilpf.int.ch/humanrights/2007/session5/reports/racismHRC5.html) could fall into this category: Islam-o-phobia, the attack on migrant workers and refugees… Racism has not adequately been addressed, and it’s up to us to make sure the topic does not just get dropped.
Keep Space for Peace Week
For the last several years, WILPF and the Global Network on Nuclear Weapons and Power in Space have co- sponsored the annual Keep Space for Peace week. In 2007 the week of local events will be held during the period of October 4-13. This is a great time to hold protests, educational events, teach-ins, video showings, and the like in order to expand the level of debate and consciousness world wide about U.S. plans for "control and domination" of space.
WILPF, through the Reaching Critical Will project has developed resources to further your education and advocacy efforts during this time. Specifically focusing on the aerospace corporations that are fueling a potential space arms race, fact sheets and more information are available: http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org/legal/paros/parosindex.html
And
http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org/corporate/corporateindex.html
The current effort by the U.S. to deploy "missile defense" systems in Poland and the Czech Republic and recent announcements about upgrade of U.S. space technology bases in the UK have only added more importance to the actions this year.
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