Since the devastating  7.0 earthquake shook Haiti on January 12, 2010, Haitians have dealt with shortages of basic needs like water and food; flooding; and even churchy American do-gooders coming for their children.  As in any humanitarian crisis, the women of Haiti have been struck harder and in different ways than men because of existing inequality and gender disparities.   As the humanitarian community continues to formalize and learn from its major challenges, it is paying increasing attention to women’s rights and gender issues in the post-disaster setting.  I’m going to focus more specifically on women’s reproductive and sexual rights and the ways in which they are threatened in humanitarian crises.     

 The situation for reproductive health in Haiti was already dire before the earthquake.  The country had the highest maternal death rates in the region by far, with 670 of every 100,000 deliveries resulting in the death of the mother, according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).  This PBS documentary, available on Family Care International’s website, chronicles the tragedy of maternal death in Haiti, pre-quake.  The 63,000 pregnant women in Haiti when the earthquake struck are at even greater risk in the aftermath of the disaster.  According to CARE, a humanitarian relief and anti-poverty NGO active in Haiti, “breastfeeding mothers and young children are at greatest risk” after the quake.    Soon after the earthquake, Sophie Perez, CARE country director in Haiti, said:     

There are a lot of pregnant women in the streets, and mothers breastfeeding new babies.  There are also women giving birth in the street, directly in the street… the situation is very critical.

Pregnant women and other vulnerable populations may be less able to fight for scarce resources, and their unique health needs may not be met.  There are many sexual and reproductive health issues that are intensified in a humanitarian crisis.     

 Although each disaster is unique, the humanitarian community, including NGOs, government agencies and multilaterals, has begun to attempt to learn from previous disaster response efforts to improve upon outcomes.  After the earthquake in Haiti, dozens of NGOs coordinated to write a letter to Secretary of State Clinton and the head of USAID encouraging a gender perspective in the US’ relief efforts, and pointing to the lessons learned and documented in a seminal document- the Gender Handbook in Humanitarian Action.    

In the last decade, several working groups on reproductive rights in post-conflict and post-disaster settings have formed, including the Inter-agency Working Group on Reproductive Health in Crises.  One of its theoretical initiatives is something called the Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP), which sets out to prioritize interventions at the outset of a humanitarian crisis to maximize positive reproductive health outcomes.  The Inter-agency Working Group is advocating for the MISP to be “provided within the context of other critical priorities, such as water, food, cooking fuel, and shelter,” which emphasizes the basic nature and life-or-death importance of reproductive health services.   

Another such group is the Reproductive Health Response in Conflict Consortium (RHRC Consortium), made up of academia and NGOs including the Women’s Refugee Commission.   Much of the work on gender in humanitarian crises is based on work that these and other agencies did on the reproductive health issues for refugees and displaced persons; many of the issues are the same.   Here’s a video from the Women’s Refugee Commission on the reproductive health situation in Haiti since the earthquake:     

RHRC Consortium released a statement following the Haiti earthquake demanding that disaster response address the health needs of women and girls.  The statement brought up a number of sexual and reproductive health issues in the post-disaster period that I hadn’t thought of before.  In addition to the needs of pregnant women and new mothers, a holistic view of sexual and reproductive health includes access to contraceptives, responsive treatment for survivors of sexual violence including emergency contraception and post-exposure prophylaxis for HIV, and continuity in ART therapies for HIV positive individuals. UNFPA and the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (UN-INSTRAW) point out other issues including “limitations on accessing prenatal and post-natal care… greater risk of vaginal infections, pregnancy complications including spontaneous abortion, unplanned pregnancy and post-traumatic stress.”      

INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence explains in a statement on Haiti:    

Women experience the most negative consequences of catastrophic events, particularly with regards to higher rates of injury and death, displacement, unemployment, increased incidents of HIV rates, sexual and domestic violence, increased poverty, and the disproportionate responsibility for caring for others. This is especially true for women marginalized by race, sexual orientation, gender identity, class, health, ability, age, housing, and legal status.     

All of these issues highlight how existing vulnerability is magnified and intensified during a humanitarian crisis.  Women are already in a position of vulnerability due to the “interaction of biological and social risk factors.”  The World Health Organization (WHO) identifies among these risk factors gender roles, social taboos around menstruation and appropriate behavior for women and girls, existing economic and social marginalization and vulnerability to domestic and sexual violence.      

Although women’s lives and health are often threatened in the post-disaster period, they are a tremendous resource for reconstruction.  International women’s rights NGO MADRE, along with Haitian partner Zanmi Lesante, has written on women’s expertise and the marginalization of women’s experience in reconstruction.  ”When relief is distributed by women, it has the best chance of reaching those most in need.”  It’s also more likely that real reproductive health needs will be met.      

The issue of participatory planning is front-and-center these days as NGOs plan Haiti’s future.  Oxfam has been campaigning  to push world leaders to include Haitian organizations and voices in the decision-making process during reconstruction (sign on to the campaign here).      

The Gender and Disaster Network has summed up the need for an even more nuanced view of participation that includes populations often left out of the process in their Six Principles for Engendered Relief and Reconstruction.  First, they point out, Gender analysis is “integral to plan for full and equitable recovery.”  Part of engendering reconstruction is basing program development on the true needs of women, based on gender-disaggregated data, and not on stereotypes. 

They advocate working with grassroots women’s organizations- the women who know what needs to happen to create a more just society and ensure future resilience.  GDN also points out that the act of participation, based on a human rights approach, builds conditions for empowerment and develops capacity among women. 

If disaster is not to disproportionately endanger women and girls and further entrench their social inequality and vulnerability, women’s unique needs and perspectives must be respected, accounted for and implemented in every stage of the after-disaster process of response and recovery.    

Take action: Support International Planned Parenthood Federation’s partner in Haiti, PROFAMIL, in rebuilding and providing reproductive health services; or the Global Fund for Women’s Crisis Fund which will support Haitian women’s organizations as they rebuild.

Since last week’s devastating earthquake in Haiti, aid has begun to pour into the country from all over the world.  Women’s rights NGOs are raising concerns about how immediate disaster relief and the subsequent period of recovery will address the unique needs of women.

As in any disaster, the women of Haiti are affected in different and deeper ways than men because of existing discrimination and poverty.  Gender inequality raises a host of issues for disaster relief.  For example, in addition to the central pillars of immediate aid, food, water, medical care and shelter, there are needs that are specific to women, including hygiene supplies and reproductive health care.  The distribution of supplies requires careful thought if it is to be done justly and fairly.  In everything from the units of aid distribution to the distribution sites themselves, special measures must be taken to ensure women’s full inclusion and even physical safety.

Sexual and physical assault become an increasingly pressing concern for women and girls in high-stress situations, and in a post-disaster context there is not often effective civil protection.  According to Diana Duarte of MADRE, an international women’s rights NGO, women are “at increased risk of gender-based violence, especially domestic violence and rape” after a natural disaster.

As the response transitions from disaster management into rebuilding and recovery, it is increasingly important that women’s voices are heard and a gender perspective is including in planning and programs.  As the Gender and Disaster Network points out, nothing in relief is “gender neutral.”  Women are often left out of the decision-making process, and an active effort must be made to empower women to participate to ensure that the specific needs of women and girls are met.

Most of this story comes from the Feminist Peace Network (feministpeacenetwork.org) and the Gender and Disaster Network, whose website is gdnonline.org.

The extreme anti-gay legislation was introduced in Uganda by the ruling party in the Parliament, and goes beyond the current criminalization of homosexuality in the country to impose extreme penalties for so-called “homosexual behavior.”  The original language of the bill included life imprisonment for anyone who even touches someone of the same sex with “homosexual intent,” punishment ranging from life in prison to death penalty for those who have homosexual sex, and imprisonment even for those who are aware of “homosexual activity” and fail to report it.   A Washington Post editorial  has called it “outrageous,” even without the death penalty. Hillary Clinton has joined human rights groups in condemning the law as incompatible with Uganda’s international human rights responsibilities.  Interestingly, the text of the law includes a provision to ”prohibit ratification of any international treaties, protocols, agreements and declarations which are contrary or inconsistent” with the legislation.  This language shows that the people who drafted the legislation are aware that certain provisions interfere with human rights (one proponent went so far as to say, “Homosexuals can forget about human rights”).  

One Ugandan doctor working with an international HIV/AIDS organization is outraged that he may be mandated to report gay patients, and has highlighted the “potentially devastating effects on HIV prevention and services.” Human Rights Watch has also pointed out the danger the legislation presents to free expression rights by banning the “promotion of homosexuality.”  

According to a New York Times editorial, the existing situation for LGBT individuals in Uganda is not good: “gay Ugandans are tormented with beatings, blackmail, death threats and what has been described as ‘correctional rape.’”  The Ugandan President, vocally anti-gay, has supported the bill while urging lawmakers to soften some of its provisions, but his separation from the actual outcomes is questionable given his party’s control over the Parliament.  Part of what should make this issue particularly compelling for U.S. citizens is the role that U.S. Evangelical Christian political figures played in getting the legislation to where it is. If you’ve read Michelle Goldberg’s The Means of Reproduction, you’re familiar with the idea that the Christian Right in the U.S. has been quietly pushing an anti-sexual and reproductive rights agenda in African countries for some time. This bill is just the latest in a series of sneaky interventions by secretive organizations made up of American fundamentalism’s political elite. The Family is once such group, and it has been wielding power in the U.S. and around the world since the 1950s. Jeff Sharlet, who literally wrote the book called The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power, spoke to The Advocate about connections between U.S. fundamentalists and the Ugandan anti-gay legislation.   There’s also this great interview with Rachel Maddow, where he explains the law’s connections to this shadowy fundamentalist underworld:    

Halting the spread of HIV/AIDS is part of Millennium Development Goal 6, linked with “malaria and other diseases.”  The major international funding body for AIDS, the Global Fund works on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, as the epidemiological issues are similar.  Health outcomes for women and girls lag behind those of men for all of these diseases, but women face added vulnerability and stigma in the case of HIV/AIDS.  According to UNAIDS, “gender inequality both fuels and intensifies the impact of the HIV epidemic,” and “women often experience the impact of HIV more severely than men.”  This is for a variety of reasons, which as in the case of maternal mortality, can only be truly addressed through the empowerment of women.

A global epidemic

An estimated 33 million people worldwide were infected with HIV/AIDS as of 2007, and in many areas infection rates are growing disproportionately among women and girls.  Women represent 60% of new infections in Sub-Saharan Africa, and ”globally, HIV is the leading cause of death in women of reproductive age,” according to the AIDS Accountability International Scorecard on Women 2009.  The UNAIDS Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic 2008 has stats on infection and mortality rates as well as a variety of related social factors.  For instance,  some countries including gender considerations in planning and funding HIV/AIDS program, but the vast majority still fall short.  The Report identifies the oppression of women as a major factor contributing to women’s increased vulnerability, and recommends programs to “forge norms on gender equity.”

Vulnerability related to social power

While working this job, I met a certain man in the hotel where I reside, as there is a bar on its ground floor. This man told me he wanted to take me home with him and so having agreed to his proposition, he then left money for me where I reside. So we went together where he lives, without him telling me he lived there with many other men. I was to find out the hard way as all six men then slept with me without putting on condoms. I cried helplessly as I had nowhere to go and report. I was afraid to go to the police for fear of being returned home as my papers are not in order. In addition, sometimes going to the police when you are a prostitute they do not listen to you and instead say ‘she who goes looking for scars will get them, you got what you were looking for.’

In one state in India, a rights-based advocacy group called SANGRAM works closely with local communities, and advocates for the inclusion of the needs of marginalized communities in sexual and reproductive health policy.  Their empowerment bent is reflected in their mission: ”People should believe that they can change things. It is not about a few activists fighting for other people’s rights. Anybody who has imbibed this understanding should be able to go and fight for their rights.”

Here’s a powerful video highlighting SANGRAM’s work with sex workers.

At Risk: Rights Violations of HIV-Positive Women in Kenyan Health Facilities, a report published by the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) and the Federation of Women Lawyers-Kenya, provides an excellent case study of what gender-based discrimination can mean in the HIV/AIDS context.  In addition to health systems failures affecting women living with HIV/AIDS, the report details abuses including violations of confidentiality, detention for failure to pay healthcare fees, and nonconsensual HIV testing.  The report also does a great job of outlining how HIV/AIDS and reproductive rights dovetail for women.  CRR also points out that such conditions represent violations of a variety of human rights, including the right to health and the right to freedom from discrimination.

The AIDS epidemic affects women and girls in other ways too.  According to the UNAIDS Report, there will be a projected 14 million AIDS orphans by 2015, and AIDS orphans are far less likely to attend school then their counterparts.  We already know that girl children are far less likely to be sent to school than boys, so the marginalization of female AIDS orphans is compounded.  Zimbabwe, with the highest rate of HIV infection in the world, has had a rash of child rapesbecause of the myth, widespread in several African countries, that having sex with a virgin can “cleanse” you of AIDS.  Obviously, the bodily and psychic integrity of the girls and women who are violated has little value for their attackers.

In a recent post here on Gender Across Borders, Jessica Mack tells the story of a woman whose husband intentionally infected her with HIV.  She points out that the core of this incident “is a serious lack of respect for women as humans with rights.”  That’s right, sister.  Women’s sexual and reproductive rights are violated at the intra-personal and the systemic levels every day because of fundamental lack of respect for them (us!) as full human beings deserving of full rights and agency.  Policies and programs to empower women and challenge gender norms are necessary in every community to empower women, and comprehensive sexuality education is required to give women, men, boys and girls the tools to make health sexual choices.  HIV/AIDs, like maternal mortality, education and health are issues that will not be resolved without full respect for women’s rights and the full participation of healthy, empowered women.

Some actions you can take to help fight HIV/AIDS and empower women:

Sign With Women Worldwide: A Compact to End AIDS and keep up with the International Women’s Health Coalition (WHC)’s Action Alerts.  IWHC’s HIV/AIDS work seeks to “empower women and girls to stand up for themselves and make healthy choices about their lives and those of their families.”

Donate to AIDS Accountability International, and NGO doing advocacy for HIV/AIDS programming through research and assessing compliance with international standards and compromises.

inappropriate dress in tehran

This month I’m focusing on sexual rights in Iran.  First, let me give a quick overview of the concept sexual rights.  According to a groundbreaking declaration by the International Planned Parenthood Federation, sexual rights are simply defined as “human rights related to sexuality.”  They are listed in the publication linked above, and include the right to equality, equal protection of the law and freedom from all forms of discrimination based on sex, sexuality or gender.  It’s important that they be defined and delineated so that they may be specifically protected, especially at a time period where fundamentalist policies are restricting the exercise of sexual and reproductive freedom here and around the world.

The ten rights specifically identified by IPPF are based upon treaty law and on the underlying principle of nondiscrimination, in this case based on sex, gender or sexuality; and the principle that “sexuality, and pleasure deriving from it, is a central aspect of being human, whether or not a person chooses to reproduce.”  Violations of sexual rights in Iran range from arrests for “immoral” behavior or dress to sexual assault and rape by government agents, all in service of brutal repression and social control.

While the detainment of women for inappropriate dress (including too-tight overcoats and pants short enough to show ankle skin) is itself a violation, it also goes beyond “moral policing” to the widespread and purposeful intimidation of women and the use of their sexuality as a weapon against them.  Same goes for teenagers who were beaten for such “moral offenses” as an overly revealing veil or looking at girls.  Their sexuality is being used as a club to beat the individuality and resistance out of them.

Sexual offenses are punishable by hanging or stoning, especially for women.  When one brothel was raided, the prostitutes were arrested– including girls as young as 13.

People of Iran face the death penalty for “crimes against morality” and “sexual crimes,” includinghomosexuality.  Iranian President Ahmadinejad famously said that there are no homosexuals in Iran, a statement belied by the ongoing executions of people accused of “homosexual acts.”  This great editorial on Salon points out what is at stake in naming and categorizing sexuality in Iran.   It’s also interesting to note that the government subsidizes gender reassignment surgery.  In Iran, you must chose one or the other role in a gender binary or face stoning or hanging.  The documentary Be Like Others explores the phenomenon of sex reassignment in Iran.

There are even several young men on death row for alleged homosexual acts as children, in itself a grave violation of the prohibition against the death penalty for minors.  Another young person, a girl of 16, was hanged for “acts incompatible with chastity” (having sex outside the confines of marriage).  In her case, the religious judge actually placed the rope around her neck.  He also received congratulatory letters from the town’s governor for his “firm approach.”

Women are frequently detained for dress-code offenses, and such charges are often used to detain protesters.  Once within the power of the state, citizens are even more danger. Human Rights Watch has presented evidence that protesters arrested following the contested elections this year were rapedby guards.  One prisoner who was raped was left bound and bleeding on the street.  The medical examiner’s report in this case backed up the allegations of rape.  While HRW makes a practice of presenting individual cases with excellent proof, there is evidence that the practice of prisoner rape and sexual assault is widespread.  There are reports of prisoners being forced to rape other prisoners.  In August a pro-reform presidential candidate said that he had heard from former officers and detainees who had since been released that detainees were “savagely raped by their jailers to the point of physical and mental damage.”  Because the rapes seem to be focused on political prisoners, the violation of sexual rights in this case is clearly a tool of repression.

Shirin Ebadi

Those that defend human rights, including the famous Shirin Ebadi, are severely punished for their efforts to fight human rights violations.  Ebadi has been jailed and tortured and had her NGO, the Centre for Defense of Human Rights, raided and  shut down.

Let me be clear that my condemnation of the Iranian government and its ongoing direct violation of sexual rights, and human rights in general, is not a condemnation of Islam.  The conflagration is false, and has too often been used to whip up jingoist fervor for right wing fundamentalist regimes here at home.  I defer to Shirin Ebadi, who asserts that human rights are totally compatible with Islam can be guaranteed within a muslim legal framework.  She herself was a judge before the fundamentalist takeover of Iran in 1979.

I hope that the human rights framework continues to be a tool to put the fundamentalists of the world (within whatever religious tradition they fall) on notice that the violation of rights is unacceptable.  And I hope that the we can back such an assertion up by demanding, as a global community, respect for sexual and reproductive rights and for all human rights for all people.

Finally, I’ll leave you with a few sources from within Iran: the Women’s Freedom Forum- I attended a forum they co-hosted in support of a UN sanction on Iran, and they had a lot of interesting, on-the-ground information.  WFF has a great photo gallery on their site, and just released a book reporting on executions and torture, called Working from Within.  There’s also the Human Rights and Democracy International Project that has had great information on the post-election uprising and ongoing coverage of human rights defenders who are detained.

This month instead of focusing on a specific country, I’m going to broaden the scope to address a global epidemic– maternal mortality.  Each year more than a half a million women die during pregnancy, giving birth, or in the critical few weeks following birth.  That’s one woman every minute; most from preventable causes, and most (99%) occur in poor countries.  In fact, the difference between maternal death rates in developing countries as compared to developed countries is absolutely staggering.  Women in the developing world are 300 times more likely to die in childbirth than their counterparts in industrialized countries.  According to a UNICEF report, “A woman in Niger has a one in seven chance of dying during the course of her lifetime from complications during pregnancy or delivery. That’s in stark contrast to the risk for mothers in America, where it’s one in 4,800 or in Ireland, where it’s just one in 48,000.”  In addition to those women those women who perish, for each death 20 women suffer from illness or permanent injury like fistula.

The reduction of maternal mortality is part of the fifth Millennium Development Goal (MDG), but has only recently really begun to garner international attention.  Anna Browne, wife of the British Prime Minister, just had a piece on maternal mortality on the Huffington Post- a ticket to issue stardom.   More voices than ever before are trying to put and keep maternal mortality on the agenda.

Says one UNFPA communications specialist, more women die in childbirth than in wars.  Ban Ki Moon recently called current rates of maternal mortality “inexcusable,” espcially in a world where we can “map the human genome and send vehicles to far reaches of space.”  In addition, simple clinical interventions could drastically reduce the numbers of deaths, according to public health journal The Lancet.

A few countries where high rates of maternal mortality have recently made news:

Ethiopia: Twenty-two thousand women die every year in childbirth or of related causes.  According to this Huffpo series, the major issue is health systems and access.  The country of 77 million has about 200 gynecologists, and most women live far from clinics.  The Ethiopian government’s response is an army of “health extension workers,” but even they can’t provide all the necessary services to the 15% of women who experience complications due to pregnancy or birth.

Nigeria: As the Center for Reproductive Rights has reported, nearly 60,000 Nigerian women die every year from pregnancy-related causes, but only 5% of the country’s annual budget goes to the health sector.    And although “Nigeria accounts for only 1 percent of the global population, it contributes 10 percent to the number of global maternal and child deaths.”  Half of the maternal deaths are the result of postpartum hemorrhaging, which could be stopped with proper equipment and trained personnel.

Bangladesh: The BBC calls Bangladesh “one of the most dangerous places in the world to have a baby.”  As part of the “Survival” documentary series, the BBC has focused on maternal mortality there.  The documentary shows home births attended by traditional midwives, and points out that they lack access to lifesaving medical care if complications arise.  It also mentions that programs like microlending have led to the empowerment of women.

Sierra Leone: Amnesty International has just launched a campaign on maternal mortality in Sierra Leone, pointing out the fact that health is a human right.

Amnesty president Irene Khan has toured Sierra Leone and blogged the whole way, posting stats and pictures.  One in 8 women die during childbirth in the country, many because they could not afford the fees associated with reproductive health care.  In this report, Amnesty calls on the government to fix its corrupt and inadequate healthcare system, and to remove cost as a barrier to care.  The government of Sierra Leone denies the validity of Amnesty’s report.  You can write a letter to the president of Sierra Leone here.

India: This Human Rights Watch report points out that maternal death rates in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh are the highest in the country, but that its not an isolated problem– about one in five maternal deaths last year took place in India.  All over India, women die from infection and shock after childbirth.  One nonprofit has anti-shock garments that have fallen out of favor in more developed areas because they are a time-consuming, yet simple, alternative to ongoing basic care.  The tight, girdle-like fabric must be worn on the trip home after giving birth to reduce the risk of hemorrhage, and then removed very slowly.  A friend and colleague from India once explained to me that her work with maternal mortality centered around the concept of the “five cleans,” basics like soap for washing the midwife’s hands, a clean razor, and a plastic sheet to deliver the baby on to.  Such simple interventions underscore the ease with which the international community could address maternal mortality, if the political will were there.

Swaziland: Rising maternal mortality has been attributed to “home delivery and lack of skilled attendants,” and poor health infrastructure.  The country is focusing on maternal mortality as part of its National Programme on Sexual and Reproductive Health.

It seems that most of these stories point to common causes for staggering rates of maternal morality.  Poor health systems come up over and over in accounts of African countries’ maternal mortality statistics.  This often includes lack of trained staff, lack of phsycial infrastructure making acess difficult, and inadequate healthcare delivery systems.  But given the health systems explanation for high levels of maternal mortality, what is the US’ excuse?

The United States: Black women in the US die from pregnancy or birth-related causes at almost double the rate of white women.   Check out this wonderful series on African American maternal health at Women’s Enews.

And overall, the US has been ranked among the worst industrialized countries for maternal health by Save the Children.  What’s going on here?

I think an overarching theme is the disempowerment of women by an international culture that seems to see women’s bodies as a commodity and females as expendible.  Although maternal mortality has become a bigger blip on the world’s radar, a woman dying a minute of a preventable cause is nothing short of outrageous– as Amnesty says, a human rights emergency.  The “position of women” emerges again and again as the root of maternal mortality.  “Study after study shows that investing in women brings broad economic and social benefits,” says Ban Ki Moon.  UNIFEM has said that although the medical and health systems causes are often emphasized, the solution truly lies in the empowerment of women.

Although health systems reform is critical, we must also keep working to force the heteropatriarchy to recognize women as agents in our own lives, as full citizens, and as equal human beings deserving of the full spectrum of human rights.

Brook Elliott-Buettner is a freelance human rights policy researcher and writer living in New York. More information and work is available at www.brookelliottbuettner.com.

This is a cross-posting of a column I write for Gender Across Borders.

This month the SRHR Sit Report focuses on the total prohibition of abortion in the Dominican Republic.  The DR has one of the most restrictive policy regimes in the world and has led to maternal mortality and dire consequences for Dominican women’s health.  Now, a constitutional amendment seeks to further restrict reproductive rights.

The Situation

For years, the women of the Dominican Republic have faced one of the toughest abortion policies in the world.  According to a summary on the International Women’s Health Coalition blog, the 100-year old law prohibiting abortion even in the case of rape has been challenged by feminist and rights groups, while forces on the right pushed for a constitutional amendment to “protect life” from the moment of conception.  Article 30, passed by a majority vote in April of this year, defines life as beginning before implantation.  This is a crucial distinction because it means that the amendment will affect the legality of emergency contraception and IUDs.  It also means that more Dominican women will die because they are not allowed access to critical reproductive health technologies and services.

I hate to sound like a broken record, but the Catholic church hierarchy has again been one of the key culprits in restricting women’s rights.  Article 30 comes in the wake of a “massive campaign” led by the Cardinal Archbishop of the Dominican Catholic church.  The Human Development Office coordinator for the UNDP in the Dominican Republic has criticized the church’s involvement, saying, “The Catholic Church influences everything… it has become a source for social exclusion in the Dominican Republic.  The dogma is placed ahead of the needs of the population, health, housing and better living conditions.”  Catholic hierarchy, stop your meddling!

Implications for Dominican Women and Girls

The Dominican Gynecology and Obstetrics Society is warning that Article 30 will mean an increase in maternal death, which is already far too high in the country.  Abortion can be an extremely safe procedure when performed in a safe and clinical atmosphere.  In countries where abortion is restricted, however, clandestine abortion is often a leading cause of maternal mortality.  In the Dominican Republic, there are 160 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births.  The Dominican Gynecology and Obstetrics Society’s president has said, “those deaths are the product of unsafe abortions.  I would like the honourable legislators to tell me what we are going to do before the presence of a woman with severe preeclampsia or eclampsia, convulsing in any emergency room around the country, what must we do?  See her die to protect ourselves from the repercussions stipulated by Article 30?”

In addition to the lives that will be lost unnecessarily because of this amendment, thousands of women will be denied their preferred method of contraception– the Intra-Uterine Device.  IUDs and emergency contraception (the morning after pill) would both constitute violations under Article 30’s restrictive framework.  There is a high contraceptive prevalence rate in the Dominican Republic, and a good chunk of that number is women with IUDs.  Both the IUD and emergency contraception are critical pieces of the reproductive healthcare spectrum and their restriction further limits women’s ability to control their reproductive lives and participate as full and equal members of society.  I’m not sure which I find more troubling: the blatant prohibition of abortion even given the scientific research that women will die because of it, or the more insidious restriction of women’s rights through closing down family planning options.

Fighting Back

Our Dominican sisters are fighting back… tomorrow afternoon, Dominican women will march on the Congress against Article 30.  The march is being led by a coalition of feminist and human rights NGOs, including Colectiva Mujer y Salud (CESIM).  CESIM’s director, Sonia Galvan, has said that abortion “is a human rights issue.” A woman after my own heart!  I am especially pleased to see the Dominican women’s movement framing abortion as a human rights issue because it was a successful strategy in the decriminalization of abortion in Mexico City a few years ago.  It’s also great to hear a UN representative speaking out against the heavy-handed involvement of the Catholic church heirarcy.

If you are a Dominican citizen (even living in the U.S.), you can send an email to your representative with a little help from the International Women’s Health Coalition blog.  Pass it on to Dominican friends, too.  At this point, according to IWHC, the role of other international activists and feminists is a bit more ambiguous.  But keep your eyes on the developments in the Dominican Republic and continue raise your voice for the human rights of women everywhere.

• Criminalize use of IUD
• Criminalize assisted reproduction
• No medical services for women with ectopic pregnancy
• No legal abortion for pregnancies that put women at risk or the result of rape

Mexican citizens can take action here by sending an email to the state’s governor and congress-persons.  I think US citizens could probably erase the text of the email and write something in English about how people all over the world care about the lives and health of women in Yucatan.

As I reported earlier, some Mexican NGOs are calling the rash of such ammendments a pact by the Catholic heirarchy.

The war that has raged in eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo since the late nineties has a devastating effect for women– the use of rape and sexual assault as a weapon of war by troops on all sides– and no one is talking about it.  In the decade-long conflict, more than 5 million people have been killed in a country with a population of about 66 million, and tens of thousands of women have been victims of brutal sexual assault and then of stigmatization by their communities.  This Guardian report details the complex roots of the conflict, and its relationship with the Rwandan genocide.

An Epidemic of Sexual violence

The sexual violence and use of rape in Eastern DR Congo is being called the worst in the world, and the brutal attacks on women have become so commmon that they have become normalized in the mind of many Congolese.  Soldiers from militias as well as government troops are guilty, and even government funcitonaries and community figures have been reportely using sexual violence as a means of intimidation.

The violence is often extremely vicious.  It is common for women to be raped with rifles, sticks and shards of broken glass.  Families are forced to watch mothers and daughters violated and men have been forced to rape their female family members.  Many women have developed tears in the lining of their vaginas, called fistula, which cause incontinence of urine or feces.  Women suffering from fistula are often ostracized from their communities or hidden away alone because of the stench.  Doctors have begun classifying the vaginal destruction caused by “exceptionally violent gang rape” as a crime of war.

In addition, the war has created a huge wave of internally displaced persons running from conflict areas or living in refugee camps (56,000 in the last two weeks alone).  Women who have fled conflict and now living in UN camps with poor conditions for sexual and reproductive health.   The UNFPA has been providing some women with sanitary napkins and clean birth kits, but overall the situation is not good.

Many women have become pregnant as a result of rape and none of the options are particularly good.  Unsafe abortion leads to maternal mortality, pregnancy and birth services are unavailable or clinics lack clean supplies.

There are a number of great independent sources of information and groups working to raise awareness.  A new documentary called The Greatest Silence chronicles the effects of the rape and mutilation of Congolese women. South Kivu Women’s Media Association (AFEM) has raised awareness within communities in Eastern DR Congo and around the world.  By letting women tell their stories on the air, they have broken the silence and begun the healing process for many women.  In fact, it was a Women’s eNews panel featuring AFEM founder Chouchou Namegabe that brought the conflict to my attention.  The Boston Globe had a gorgeous photo essay on the DR Congo.

Conflict minerals

Media Response

With one of the biggest humanitarian crises in recent history unfolding in the DR Congo, why don’t we hear about this more often?  Why aren’t we decrying the rampant use of sexual violence as a weapon of war?  This blog focuses on reporting of the war in DR Congo and investigates why it has received so little play in international media.  Recently, international attention turned more toward the DR Congo.  Ban Ki Moon has focused on the crisis recently and after a visit with survivors said that he was “humbled, saddened and shocked” by the level of violence.  The World Council of Churches has released a position calling on the church to become the conscience of the world in speaking up for Congo’s women.  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is planning a trip to the DRC in the coming weeks, and she is expected to condemn the sexual violence, and Ben Afleck and Mick Jagger have created a short film to raise awareness and funds for the UNHCR’s work in DRC.

What can we do?

We don’t want our cell phones to fuel a war that destroys the lives of so many women, but lack of information about the supply chain of minerals coming out of the DR Congo makes it dificult to stop it.  As The Enough Project has pointed out, this is a tremendous opportunity for activism.  By making people aware of the the violence against women and the ongoing conflict in the DR Congo, and our part in it, we can start to build the international necessary to force mineral companies to stop fueling this war.

Learn more about the humanitarian aspects of the conflict from the International Rescue Committee.  Join the Raise Hope for Congo project as it builds a movement against conflict minerals.  Email president Obama and ask him to appoint a special envoy to the Great Lakes Region.  Donate to the Fistula Foundation which directly assists in restoring health and dignity to women suffering from fistulas, including supporting the pioneering Panzi Clinic for traumatic fistula in the DR Congo.