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WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: Violence Against Women in the Dock
By Patricia Grogg
HAVANA, Jan 23 (IPS) - Women who are victims of various kinds of
gender-related violence and discrimination will testify at a "world
tribunal", as part of the Latin American phase of the VI World Social
Forum, which opens Tuesday in Caracas.
"The idea is to bring to light what the dominant capitalist system is
hiding," Humberto Miranda told IPS. The activist is a member of the
coordinating group that is organising the "international women's tribunal
against free-market patriarchal violence", supported by a number of
organisations.
"Statistics show that women are the most exploited and the poorest of the
poor, but western cultural patterns keep the gender perspective hidden," the
Cuban researcher added.
Hence, the purpose of the tribunal includes drawing attention to this
situation and "making visible what is invisible," as well as challenging the
official viewpoint on human rights, which ignores the daily drama of
millions of people who lack the basic elements for life and development.
The tribunal will convene next Friday, and although it has no legal powers,
the personal accounts of its "witnesses" will highlight the impact of
problems ranging from social exclusion to State terrorism and other abuses.
Possible witnesses include U.S. peace activist Cindy Sheehan, whose son
Casey was killed in combat in Iraq, and Maribel Permuy of Spain, mother of
television cameraman José Couso, who was killed by U.S. forces in Baghdad
while he was working.
Women living with HIV, the AIDS virus, will also take the stand, as will
immigrants to the United States, trade unionists, human rights activists and
small farmers from Central America, and survivors of the armed conflict in
Colombia and of the former dictatorships of South America's Southern Cone
region.
Other issues to be addressed by the tribunal are "femicide", an extreme form
of gender-specific violence which is especially serious in countries like
Mexico and Guatemala.
According to parliamentary sources, 1,942 women were murdered in Guatemala
between 2001 and 2005, and 625 women were killed in Mexico in 2004 alone.
In Guatemala and Mexico, the roots of femicide include social causes,
organised crime and deep-rooted impunity, according to studies cited at a
late 2005 meeting of legislators from Guatemala, Mexico and Spain held in
Madrid.
The international women's tribunal against free-market patriarchal violence
forms part of the first thematic area of the World Social Forum (WSF), on
"Power, politics and struggles for social emancipation."
"You can't have an emancipation project that doesn't take all these problems
into account," said Miranda, a member of the Latin America Group: Social
Philosophy and Axiology, at the Institute of Philosophy, affiliated to the
Cuban Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment.
The organisations responsible for the tribunal also include the El Taller
International non-governmental organisation (NGO), headed by Corinne Kumar,
who is also a founding member of the Asian Women's Human Rights Council.
The Intellectuals' Network in Defence of Humanity, Hemispheric Encounters
against the Free Trade Area of the Americas, the World March of Women and
the Latin American Network of Women Transforming the Economy are also
involved.
The WSF is an annual meeting of representatives of civil society from all
over the world. The first WSF was held in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 2001, as
an alternative to the World Economic Forum in Davos, an exclusive ski resort
in Switzerland, which has brought together global business and political
leaders every year since 1971.
This year the sixth WSF is being held in three cities on three different
continents: Bamako, the capital of Mali; Caracas, the capital of Venezuela;
and Karachi, a major financial centre in the south of Pakistan on the
Arabian Sea.
Some 100,000 activists from around the world are expected in Caracas, where
they will participate in nearly 2,000 different activities, centred on six
thematic areas. The first covers debates on the State, political parties and
social movements, as well as practical forms of resistance against
domination and political violence.
The second area, "Imperial strategies and popular resistance", will involve
issues ranging from imperialist military expansion to terrorism and free
trade, while the third, "Resources for and rights to life: alternatives to
the predatory model of civilisation", will give rise to discussions about
privatisation of resources and global warming, among other issues.
In the fourth area, "Shifting diversities, identities and worldviews", the
workshops and seminars will focus on indigenous people and afro-descendants,
inter-religious dialogue, gender identity and sexual diversity.
Problems such as instability of employment, exclusion, inequality and
poverty will be discussed within the fifth thematic area, "Work,
exploitation and reproduction of life".
The sixth area, "Communication, culture and education: alternative and
democratising dynamics", will include discussions on the right to
communication to strengthen citizenship and participative democracy, and
resistance against the commercialisation of communications and the
concentration of media ownership. (END/2006)
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