FEMINIST INTERNATIONAL RADIO ENDEAVOUR
-FIRE-

AUGUST 2009

JOIN A VIRTUAL FEMINIST OBSERVATORY ONLINE FOR
INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY WITH WOMEN IN HONDURAS, 
AUGUST 17-21, 2009

August 5, 2009

By FIRE – Feminist International Radio Endeavour / Radio Internacional Feminista

 SEND MESSAGES OF SOLIDARITY TO THE HONDURAN WOMEN AT:  observatoriovirtual@radiofeminista.net

Building regional and international solidarity with feminist and women’s organizations in Honduras is a crucial dimension of for their active resistance to the military coup d’etat and ongoing crisis.  Human rights violations including femicide (murder of women) have risen dramatically in the past six weeks since the coup on June 28^th.   

 
Feminists in Resistance (Feministas en Resistencia) of Honduras and other groups are working to build solidarity networks to support their efforts to break the impunity of violations of women’s human rights that took place during the coup and continue today.   Impunity for similar abuses that occurred back in the 1980s with the dictatorships in Honduras has contributed to the widespread violations and repression of the current crisis in that country. 

Concerned persons and organizations around the world can send messages of solidarity to the women of Honduras via email or phone calls to FIRE and by participating in FIRE’S virtual “Feminist Transgressional Watch” planned for August 17-21, 2009 in collaboration with Feminists in Resistance, and other groups from Central America, Mexico and the United States.  Other organizers of this initiative include: Just Associates (JASS), and the Consortium for Parliamentary Dialogue and Equality (Mexico). 

The FIRE team will form part of an international delegation traveling to Honduras to conduct interviews  and collect testimonies and cases of women whose rights were violated, and compile other information and statistics for a preliminary report.  In addition to journalists from FIRE and other media organizations, human rights activists, investigators and legal experts will participate in the delegation.

HOW TO BECOME A VIRTUAL INTERNATIONAL OBSERVER
 

• Register NOW to become a VIRTUAL INTERNATIONAL OBSERVER by sending an email to observatoriovirtual@radiofeminista.net and letting us know who you are and why you are interested in being part of it. Let the women of Honduras know that you are going to follow their cases and support their denouncements against violence against women and femicide in the Virtual Observatory in the webpage of Feminist International Radio Endeavour (FIRE).  International solidarity is critical at this time, according to the Feminists in Resistance of Honduras.

• Commit to follow FIRE's coverage from Aug. 17-21, and listen to the special webcast transmission on August 19th. 
  

• Help us distribute the information among your networks, friends and solidarity organizations so that they can participate also.

• Write a brief OBSERVER REPORT for the day(s) you follow or listen to FIRE, which relates your opinion about what you learned or heard through FIRE from Honduras that day and how it is related to your country of origin, and referring to the role and political positioning of women and their agenda. Send your report to observatoriovirtual@radiofeminista.net.

WHAT IS A FEMINIST OBSERVATORY?

Mesoamerican feminists launched the creation of Petateras with a four-program agenda, one being the creation of a Feminist Transformational Watch.  FIRE’s Virtual Observatory was created to accompany that initiative. Such Observatories have taken place in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Oaxaca, Costa Rica, the United States Social Forum in Atlanta and The Forum of the Americas in Guatemala.

ON AUGUST 19TH, CALL 504-9507-9208 (FIRE’s cell number in Honduras) with your comments in Spanish or English or if you wish to be interviewed about your perspective or experiences.

PLEASE SEND YOUR MESSAGES OF SOLIDARITY TO:

observatoriovirtual@radiofeminista.net

For more information go to:  www.radiofeminista.net in Spanish or English or write to Margie Thompson at: margieratt@yahoo.com (English) or Yarman Jiménez (español) at: yarman@radiofeminista.net   

Feminists in Resistance (Feministas en Resistencia) of Honduras
FIRE – Feminist International Radio Endeavour (Radio Internacional Feminista) www.radiofeminista.net
Petateras --   www.petateras.org  
Just Associates (JASS) – www.justassociates.org
Consortium for Parliamentary Dialogue & Equity  (Mexico - Consorcio para el Diálogo Parlamentario y la Equidad) -- www.consorcio.org.mx/site/ 

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For more information regarding possible virtual or actual participation, access to the information and ways to multiply it in the media, go to: http://radiofeminista.net/ (Spanish) or http://www.radiofeminista.net/indexeng.htm (English) or write to observatoriovirtual@radiofeminista.net .