Action for Monday

I've decided to postpone our post on Zainab Salbi and Women for Women International to post this call to action found by OMB's advocacy and research assistant, Sarah Martinez.

Libya is on all of our minds right now.  For some of us it raises difficult questions, some of us are sure of where we stand on the issue. Despite differing political views, we must recognize that civilians are suffering.

Many of us listened with horror to the news reports telling the story of Eman al-Obaidi, who rushed into a crowd of journalists in a hotel in Libya, telling them she was raped by Gaddafi military forces.  She was dragged away by security forces and has, for all intents and purposes, disappeared.

Click HERE for a link to the original story.

For me, this is the crux of the horror and cruelty that we are seeing around the world; that the people in power and the people fighting for them refuse to make the distinction between military and civilians. As people of conscience we have to send a message that civilians must be protected. Please take a moment to sign this PETITION calling for Eman's immediate release. It's one small individual action, but as all of us at One Million Bones believe, enough of these individual actions will, eventually, make a difference.

Resource List

This is a link to a remarkable list of organizations, by and/or for women around the world.  These organizations deal with the huge range of issues that women around the world face before, during and after conflicts. Click here for the link. The list was compiled for Half the Sky Movement.  

It is a long list because the need is so great.

Stop back on Monday for the inspiring story of a woman working to support other women in their journey to a better life for themselves, their families and their communities.

City of Joy

In this clip, Eve Ensler talks about the V-Day organization and the City of Joy.  Please be aware in a few places her descriptions of the violence in Congo are difficult to hear.

And then, checkout this video showing the remarkable work that the women she was talking about did. 

Check in Friday for a new blog post.

Portrait of the Artist as Activist and April's focus

Yesterday, OMB hosted it's fourth Sunday bone making workshop with the addition of a special panel in honor of the Women and Creativity project organized by the National Hispanic Cultural Center and Creative Albuquerque. 

Our thanks to Carol Boss for hosting the event, to Valerie Martinez, Chrissie Orr, Kirbie Platero, and our own Naomi Natale, for sharing their passion, artwork and time. Thanks also to our wonderful audience, all of whom returned to the office afterwards to make bones and enjoy the ice cream cake Travis brought.  It was an inspiring and fun afternoon.

We also introduced our April focus, Women Living and Working During War.  You can check back over the next month for all kinds of information, or email susan "AT" onemillionbones "DOT" org for our April Advocacy packet.

Today, we're thinking about Judge Navi Pillay, and this is why we're writing about her:

Within her first term [on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda], Jean-Paul Akayesu, the mayor of the Rwandan town of Taba, was tried for inciting fellow Hutus to murder, rape and torture thousands of Tutsis. He was found guilty and became the first person to be convicted of genocide in an international court. The tribunal also held that rape was a crime against humanity and constituted genocide when it was meant to destroy a targeted group.

"Rape had always been regarded as one of the spoils of war," Pillay said in a statement after the verdict. "Now it is a war crime, no longer a trophy."

The case also introduced a broader definition of rape into international law. The precedent has since been followed by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia--established by the U.N. in 1993--and is reflected in the law of the International Criminal Court, which recognizes a range of acts of sexual violence as among the most serious crimes under international law, and which was set up to defend the rights of women and children, so often targeted during warfare.

The Akayesu judgment was "a real turning point for criminal law, especially when it comes to crimes committed against women in armed conflicts," said Elizabeth Odio Benito, who served as a judge on the tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and is now Pillay's colleague on the International Criminal Court. "Before, they were totally hidden, never mentioned in any international jurisdiction."

Although Pillay was one of three judges who signed their names to the Akayesu judgment, she is credited with shaping and articulating its arguments.              –excerpted from the Harvard Law Bulletin. 

Full text is here. 

Judge Pillay observed recently: "Who interprets the law is at least as important as who makes the law, if not more so.... I cannot stress how critical I consider it to be that women are represented and a gender perspective integrated at all levels of the investigation, prosecution, defense, witness protection and judiciary."  

You can find information on Judge Pilly's life and career here, and here.

And, this is an article she wrote recently for the Huffington Post, inspiring words from an inspiring woman.

Check back on Wednesday for a new post.

March Advocacy Wrap-up

Posted by Susan

We’re wrapping up our March focus on Sudan today, although the situation is still so precarious that I expect, regretfully, we’ll have to return to it before April is finished. This article explains the current build-up of troops in the contested Abyei region, and shows, that despite the progress that has been made, the long-standing conflict between north and south Sudan still plagues the region.

This photo, by Tim Freccia, from the Enough project’s flickr photostream shows the devastation in Tajalei village allegedly burned to the ground by northern forces. The Satellite Sentinel project images show the build-up of troops in the vicinity of three villages, Bongo, Goli and Diffra.  How many more homes are going to be lost?  How many more lives are going to be lost?  How many more children, women and men have to suffer before we decide that never again means never again? 

We all have busy, complicated lives and this is happening so far away that it’s easy to let ourselves think of it in abstract terms.  But the atrocities happening aren’t abstractions, and the people they’re happening to aren’t abstractions either. One Million Bones is harnessing the power of numbers in a very visible way.  We’re going to show our politicians and our fellow citizens what a million voices looks like.  In the meantime, we urge you to sign Enough’s petition calling for action in Sudan. Click here and make your voice heard.

Next month OMB’s advocacy focus is on women living and working in times of conflict. We invite you to our 4^th Sunday event on March 27^th.  It’s a panel discussion titled, Portrait of the Artist as Activist, featuring Valerie Martinez, our own, Naomi Natale, Chrissie Orr, Kirbie Platero and Molly Sturges.  Carol Boss will host the panel. We’ll talk about these women’s work at the intersection of art and activism and introduce next month’s advocacy. The panel starts at 1pm at the OMB office at 102 Gold SW in Albuquerque.  We’ll follow it with a bone-making workshop.