VIOLENT REPRESSION CONTINUES TO ESCALATE

 INTERNATIONAL DELEGATION TRAVELS TO HONDURAS FOR FEMINIST OBSERVATORY
OF WOMEN'S RESISTANCE & VIOLATIONS OF WOMEN'S HUMAN RIGHTS

August 17-21, 2009

An international delegation of 22 women from Latin & North America will travel to Honduras for Women’s Human Rights Week, Aug. 17-21, to create an Observatory of Feminist Transgressions to examine the alarming increase in violations of women’s human rights since the military coup.  The group will also observe feminists' strategies of resistance to the military coup and ongoing repression. 

Feminists in Honduras say that resolution of the crisis in Honduras needs to include feminist and women’s perspectives, including a commitment to break the impunity surrounding violations of women’s human rights, both in the recent military coup d’etat, and going back to the 1980s with the dictatorships in Honduras. 

The delegation and week of events were organized in response to reports of growing violent repression by the military coup government against opponents of the coup, involving arbitrary detentions, multiple threats and extrajudicial executions, including of many women.  Global media reports have covered the military coup, but rarely include the perspectives of women and feminist strategies of resistance to the repression.

Delegates include women's human rights activists, legal experts, investigators and journalists from Central America, Mexico, Canada and the United States.

Others around the world can join a virtual feminist observatory online, to participate in these events from afar, tuning in to a live internet broadcast by FIRE on Aug. 19, and calling or writing email messages of solidarity to the women of Honduras.

To call the virtual observatory, call 504-9507-9208 (Costa Rica/RMT); or write anytime to: observatoriovirtual@radiofeminista.net.

One of the main tasks of the delegation is to document violations of women’s human rights which likewise have risen since the military coup, and the effects of the resulting siege on the lives of women.  They will conduct interviews, and collect testimonies and cases of women whose rights were violated, and write a report documenting the evidence.  The delegates will hold a press conference on Aug. 19 to announce their preliminary findings and later complete a final report.

Journalists from FIRE radio will be joined by other journalists from Mexico and Guatemala to cover the observatory and Women’s Human Rights Week, sending their reports to alternative and mainstream media throughout the Americas, to help raise awareness about the violations of women’s rights taking place in Honduras today, and the strategies of resistance of feminists against the coup and repressive regime.

To send messages of solidarity to the Honduran women, please write to observatoriovirtual@radiofeminista.net.     

For more information go to: FIRE's webpage in Spanish and English..
 

     Organizers include:

·         Feminists in Resistance (Feministas en Resistencia) of Honduras

·         FIRE – Feminist International Radio Endeavour (Radio Internacional Feminista)

·          Petateras    

·         Just Associates (JASS) 

·         Consortium for Parliamentary Dialogue & Equity  (Mexico - Consorcio para el Diálogo Parlamentario y la Equidad) --