WILPF India Report
2008-2009

1. On June 25, 2008 to protest the sedition charges against journalists of The Times of India (Ahmedabad edition).  The newspaper had carried a writ up raising questions on a police officer's appointment as the Commissioner of the City. We argued that commenting on a police officer could not amount to sedition. If saying so was considered a crime, then it was a violation of human rights. An officer was not the State. Freedom of expression is a highly valued right in a democracy so it was demanded that the charges against the journalists be dropped.

2. In November 2008, two representatives of WILPF India-Section, Dr. Ila Pathak, President and Dr. Ranjana Harish, Chairperson, attended the International Board Meeting at Geneva. It was a valuable exposure to WILPF for them.

3. In January 2009, a team of WILPF-India Section, headed by the WILPF-International Co-President Annelise Ebbe, joined by President WILPF-India Section and two others went to Kandhamal, Orissa for a rapid assessment survey to research the background and consequences of violence and the way women were affected by them.  The team also wanted to check if recommendations made earlier were taken into consideration by the State Government and were followed up. The team of WILPF was more concerned with the wellbeing of women and children, both in camps and in rehabilitation, because, we, WILPFERs are convinced that in any such mayhem women are worst sufferers.

The team of WILPF India Section then prepared a report entitled, 'Whither Women's Rights?' (now published with the help of WISCOMP- Women in Security, Conflict Management and Peace, Foundation for Universal Responsibility of His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, New Delhi).

WILPF-India Section has then, filed a petition (September 14, 2009) raising the demand that India as a nation signs a number of conventions in UN and is bound by SC Resolutions and so the nation station state must care for the women victims in the camps in Kandhamal (as earlier in Gujarat) as per the commitments made in CEDAW, other Human Rights Declarations and the SC Resolutions 1325 and 1820. A mechanism to look after women's specific needs to be activated at such times is prayed for.