From discussions at the global level to current events on the ground, this past Spring has been a busy time for the Campaign and the fight to end gender violence in conflict. The Campaign members are hard at work and its latest newsletter has much to report.
Events taking place at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva and the Security Council in New York during the month of June concerned Campaign members, who pressed both bodies to take concrete action to provide immediate support to survivors of sexual violence. In Geneva, the annual resolution for violence against women was passed with Canada as the chair of the negotiations. To the dismay of the Campaign and Canadian civil society in general, the most notable outcome of this resolution was that it did not acknowledge the need for sexual and reproductive health services for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence.
A special representative has been appointed by the United States to negotiate an end to ongoing violence in the rape capital of the world, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A petition of 100,000 signatures was organized and sent to US President Barack Obama by Maman Shujaa (or “Hero Women” in Swahili), a grassroots campaign of 200 women in partnership with World Pulse (a Campaign Advisory Committee member), the Enough Project, and Change.org.
The second revolution in Egypt in the past two years has had an enormous impact on the safety of women in Egypt, especially in Cairo. HarassMap, a Campaign member based in Cairo, has been more active than ever in recruiting volunteers who convince people in their own neighborhoods to agree to stand up to perpetrators and to protect individuals who face harassment. HarassMap is working particularly hard in these times to protect a woman’s right to protest.
To read more about the many other worldwide issues concerning the Campaign this season, please visit http://bit.ly/18Ld2Yq.
To join the Campaign, please visit http://www.stoprapeinconflict.org/
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