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- From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
- Subject: WRI: Women cross the barriers
- Message-ID: <1992Dec19.091127.14281@mont.cs.missouri.edu>
- Followup-To: alt.activism.d
- Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- Sender: news@mont.cs.missouri.edu
- Nntp-Posting-Host: pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- Organization: PACH
- Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1992 09:11:27 GMT
- Approved: map@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- Lines: 63
-
- /** wri.news: 585.0 **/
- ** Topic: Women cross the barriers **
- ** Written 4:28 pm Dec 18, 1992 by gn:peacenews in cdp:wri.news **
- One hundred and seventy women from 63 countries met in Bangkok for the 4th WRI
- women's conference -- the organisation's most international gathering ever.
-
- "Perhaps the most powerful moments" said Maggie Helwig, one of the conference
- organising group, "were seeing an Indonesian woman and a West Papuan woman
- setting up a joint information table, a Croatian woman and a Serbian woman
- setting out to tour Bangkok together -- experiencing the way we can use our
- common experiences as women to cross the barriers set up by armies and
- governments."
-
- Sumpeecha Baotip of EMPOWER, a Bangkok self-help group for women working in
- the sex trade, noted that she was particularly impressed with the consensus
- process used by the organisers. "There were no leaders, we went around in a
- circle and women really listened to each other. There was no blaming. I'm
- going to go back to my group and tell them about this way of working."
-
- The resolutions and statements which came out of the conference included:
-
- * building on the work done by the women's and anti-war movements in
- Croatia and Serbia, that rape in time of war be treated as a war crime,
- under the 3rd section of the 1949 Geneva Convention
-
- * a proposal to carry out actions on 8 March -- International Women's Day
- -- which would link women on opposite sides of regional conflicts, such
- as Cyprus, former-Yugoslavia, and Israel/Palestine; women from different
- ethnic groups in the USA and other countries could carry out similar
- actions
-
- * support for Thai groups seeking changes in their country's prostitution
- laws, shifting penalties from sex-workers to pimps, brothel owners, and
- clients and ending the forced imprisonment of prostitutes.
-
- While the conference was meeting, participants learned that Yasushi Akashi,
- the head of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) had
- referred to the rise in prostitution which accompanied the deployment of
- Japanese peacekeeping troops as "normal", as "18-year-old hot-blooded
- soldiers" deserved to enjoy "young, beautiful beings of the opposite sex".
- Subsequently, as women's groups -- including the women attending the
- conference -- complained, he issued formal instructions to all UNTAC personnel
- regarding "appropriate behaviour". He also undertook to start an information
- campaign on sexually transmitted diseases and to appoint a community relations
- officer.
-
- Implicit in Akashi's response was his recognition that there was a problem
- with sexual harassment and that the UN presence in Cambodia meant an increase
- in prostitution. Similar tensions have emerged over the UN intervention in
- Somalia, with news in mid- December of local vigilantes beating a Mogadishu
- woman for allegedly "fraternising" with French troops.
-
- The February _Peace News_ will feature a special four-page supplement on the
- conference.
-
- ****************************************************************
- * Reprinted from _Peace News_ 2362 (January 1993). Please *
- * credit if reprinting. Peace News and War Resisters' Intl, *
- * 55 Dawes St, London SE17 1EL, England (tel +44 71 703 7189; *
- * fax 708 2545, email peacenews@gn.apc.org or peacenews@gn.uucp) *
- ****************************************************************
- ** End of text from cdp:wri.news **
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