United States of America

Urge the U.S. Government to Support the ICC and Oppose ASPA
In 1998, 120 countries, excluding the United States, voted to adopt the Rome Statute, which classifies gender crimes including apartheid and any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity as crimes against humanity. Former President Clinton signed the Rome Statute, but Senate ratification is still required. Urge the Senate to support the Rome Statute and oppose Sen. Helm’s efforts to stop it.

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Jagriti Foundation - The programs of the Jagriti Foundation center on collaboration with women's organizations in developing countries of Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe. These organizations are dedicated to strengthening the position of women in their societies through income generation, women's rights and legal change, access to health, education, agricultural improvement and other activities. The Jagriti Foundation works directly with these organizations in ways that support their own goals and objectives. We believe that women's organizations, within their own cultures, know best how to proceed and the Foundation's programs aim to support their efforts by creating "bridges" between women in different parts of the world. Check their website for more information.

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National Radio Project Women's Desk
The Bush administration has put up stiff opposition to the International Criminal Court, which went into effect on July 1, 2002. U.S. officials say the judicial body, which will try defendants on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, is a threat to the nation's sovereignty. Human rights advocates -- and many nations around the world -- say the court could end an era of impunity for those who have engaged in genocide and mass rape.

On this program, we take a look at U.S. government opposition to the ICC. And the National Radio Project's Women's Desk examines what the establishment of the court could mean for victims of sexual violence in wartime.

Featuring: Jiri Toman, former director of the Henri Dunant Institute in Geneva and longtime consultant to the United Nations on international law; Richard Dicker, Human Rights Watch; Tod Ensign; Citizen Soldier; Heather Hamilton, World Federalist Association/Washington Working Group on the ICC; William Pace, NGO Coalition for an International Criminal Court, Raj Purohit, Lawyers Committee for Human Rights; Michael Ratner, Center for Constitutional Rights; Betty Kaari Murungi, Urgent Action Fund - Africa; and voices from the video "If Hope Were Enough," produced by the Women's Caucus for Gender Justice

National Radio Project: (510) 251-1332
Women's Desk (510) 658-4244
International Media Project: (650) 851-7256
http://www.radioproject.org

CONTACT INFORMATION for guests on this program:
Richard Dicker
Human Rights Watch
350 Fifth Avenue, 34th Floor
New York, NY 10118-3299
(212) 290-4700
hrwnyc@hrw.org

Tod Ensign
Citizen Soldier
267 Fifth Avenue, Suite 901
New York, NY 10016
(212) 679-2250
www.citizen-soldier.org

Heather Hamilton
World Federalist Association/Washington Working Group on the ICC
418 Seventh St., SE
Washington, DC 20003
(202) 546-3950
hbhamilton@wfa.org

William Pace
NGO Coalition for an International Criminal Court
777 UN Plaza
New York, NY 10017
(212) 687-2176
cicc@iccnow.org

Raj Purohit
Lawyers Committee for Human Rights
100 Maryland Avenue, NE, suite 500
Washington, DC 20002-5625
(202) 547-5692
purohitr@lchr.org

Michael Ratner
Center for Constitutional Rights
666 Broadway, 7th Floor
New York, NY 10012-2399
(212) 614-6464

Betty Kaari Murungi
Urgent Action Fund - Africa
P.O. Box 60389
Nairobi, Kenya
Tel/fax: 254-2-572720
urgentact@iconnect.co.ke

Women‚s Caucus for Gender Justice
(and video „If Hope Were Enough‰)
Pam Spees and Reena Geevarghese
P.O. Box 3541 Grand Central P.O.
New York, NY 10163
Tel: (718) 626-2681
Fax: (718) 626-3528
caucus@iccwomen.org
www.iccwomen.org

The Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan
tel: 82-2-365-4016, 392-5252
fax: 82-2-365-4017
mss@peacenet.or.kr

Samantha Power
John F. Kennedy School of Government
Harvard University
79 John F. Kennedy Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
makingcontact@radioproject.org
http://www.radioproject.org

CD's or cassettes of our shows are $10 to individuals. Bulk rates available also.
To place an order: Include date or title of program, and make a check payable to: International Media Project
mail to: National Radio Project
1714 Franklin, #100-251
Oakland, CA 94612
Credit Card purchases: Visa and Mastercard , call 800-529-5736

National Radio Project
acting executive director - Laura Livoti
managing producer - Phillip Babich
founding director - Peggy Law
women's desk director - Lisa Rudman
associate producer - Aimee Pomerlau
administrative coordinator - Rosalyn Fay
executive assistant - Doreen Hinton
senior advisor - Norman Solomon
national producer - David Barsamian

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Peaceful Tomorrows
Peaceful Tomorrows is an advocacy organization founded by family members of September Eleventh victims. Its mission is to seek effective nonviolent responses to terrorism, and identify a commonality with all people similarly affected by violence throughout the world. By conscientiously exploring peaceful options in our search for justice, we choose to spare additional innocent families the suffering that we have already experienced—as well as to break the endless cycle of violence and retaliation engendered by war.

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U.S. WOMEN AND CUBA COLLABORATION CALL FOR ACTION ON REAL SECURITY, JUSTICE AND PEACEFUL RELATIONS
The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), Hermanas: Sisterhood in Central America and the Caribbean and EveryWoman's Movement for Cuba/LELO* offer this CALL FOR ACTION to add to the voices of women all over the world working for a peaceful solution to the war in Afghanistan. We believe that, even in light of the horrific acts of terrorism which happened on September 11th, 2001, we can use the institutions and tools of diplomacy and negotiations as well as international pressure to bring a just and peaceful resolution to the conflicts in the Middle East. We believe that the world-wide crisis confronting us today demands even more so that all of us who are committed to peace and justice assert our leadership, drawing upon our individual and collective experience, values, and perspectives to fundamentally change the policies that have led to the war.

As women's organizations working collaboratively to end the U.S. government policy of a blockade against Cuba and to normalize relations between our two countries, we believe the current U.S. foreign policy on Cuba violates the human rights of Cuba's citizens, especially women and children. Countries are discouraged from trading with Cuba, even in the areas of food and medicine. Today, we are witnessing the worst violation of human rights in Afghanistan where its citizens must endure the unleashing of thousands of bombs on their homeland.  We join with other progressive women who stand against the war and we say, "Not in our name!"

MEASURES THAT ENSURE REAL SECURITY
Inspired and educated by the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, ratified in September, 1995, we work in concert with women globally to strategize and achieve enduring security and peace for our families, for our nations, and for our world. "Look at the world through women's eyes," was the rallying call at the NGO forum at Huairou, and because of the UN's Fourth World Conference for Women at Beijing and Huairou, we are networked to continue peace work in inclusive ways across national borders, races, cultures, and classes. This is a powerful foundation for our collaborative work as women's rights, racial justice and peace activists in the wake of the events of September 11, 2001. The Beijing Platform addresses issues of violence and armed conflict as two of its twelve strategic concerns, calling for the promotion of conflict resolution that is non-violent, for elimination of human rights violations, in addition to equitable access to health, education, food, economic opportunities and clean environment as the foundation for real security and sustainable human development.

IMPACTS OF VIOLENCE AND MILITARISM
Women and girls of every color, culture, religion, sexual orientation and age are profoundly affected by daily acts of violence, terrorism and torture. We know too well the blatant forms of violence we must endure - rape, domestic violence, physical and sexual child abuse, hate crimes, sexual harassment, pornography, to name but a few.   It is women and children who experience the brunt of local and global violence. We are also deeply injured by the more subtle, sinister forms that degrade us, lower our expectations and diminish our self-esteem, be it in our homes, our communities or our workplaces.

Through all of this we have arrived at a clear understanding that men are not our enemy, even though they most often are the perpetrators of violence against girls and women. We know that the greed of transnational corporations in their quest for profits around the globe (globalization) increases the legions of poverty-stricken people on our planet. The starvation, disease and illiteracy of extreme poverty amidst the rape of the Earth by environmental outrages, including war, lead to a desperate hopelessness that can only be alleviated by policies aimed at peace with justice--that is, peace with equality. That means that society around the globe must be primarily concerned with ending poverty.

In this context we oppose the war in Afghanistan. We know this war is creating many, many victims, the majority of whom are women and children. The war in Afghanistan is an attack on the world's peoples, just as the horrible acts of September 11, 2001, were an attack on the peoples of the world. It is our burden, as caring and aware members of the human race, to challenge the chauvinism of the capitalist economic system that drives this war. While many remain silent, so as to not be labeled unpatriotic and immoral, we must come forward to demand that genocide end in Afghanistan. Just as men are not women's enemy, the Afghan people are not our enemy.
Militarism ultimately destroys true democratic principles and processes, especially the freedom to dissent; hence, the new anti-terrorist bill. Militarism diverts much needed human and financial resources to conduct war, to pay for standing armies, weapons systems; hence, the U.S has the largest so-called "defense" budget in the world.  Hand-in-hand with patriarchy and racism, militarism causes all who are susceptible to its appeal to forsake compassion for our fellow human beings around the world.
Because women have experienced many destructive and powerful forms of violence, especially war and other forms of militarism and because we know the transforming and healing powers of conflict resolution, peaceful alternatives to violence and what constitutes real security for all peoples and the earth,

WE THEREFORE CALL FOR:
1. A diplomatic and just response to the events of September 11, 2001 through the United Nations, NGO's and other international leadership; support calls for food, medicine and other human development resources for Afghanistan and Middle East nations;
2. Support for women in Afghanistan and in the Region -- through support of organizations in defense of women's and human rights such as Revolutionary Association of Afghanistan Women (go to their web site www.rawa.org) and Women Living Under Muslim Laws (go to their web site  www.wluml.org) -- toward their equal participation and leadership in the process to disarm the war, in peacekeeping measures and in the development of democracy and re-building following the end of the war and transition to peace. Furthermore, we support the full implementation of UN Security Resolution 1325 (adopted 31 October 2000), lead by WILPF's UN Office, which calls for gender sensitivity in all UN Missions including peacekeeping, for women to participate equally at all negotiating tables and for the protection of women and girls during armed conflict (go to their web site  www.peacewomen.org);
3. Recision of the "Patriot Act," the anti-terrorist legislation, which has not only taken away civil liberties in the U.S., but also poses a profound threat to the Bill of Rights and our Constitution; and the removal of Cuba from the list of nations the U.S. government defines as "Terrorist";
4. Adoption and full implementation of real security measures that can set the basis for a peaceful and just world including the 1995 Beijing Platform of Action, 1949 U.N. Convention on Human Rights, 1980 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the 2001 U.N. Conference on Racism document.
5. A dramatic increase in the leadership and public policy roles of progressive anti-racist women of all races and classes, and public forums for their voices for peace and justice;
6. An end to the unjust U.S. foreign policies such as the embargo against Cuba and Iraq that disproportionately penalize women and children by withholding food and medicine as well as support for Cuba's Hurricane relief efforts to buy food and medicine from the US that constitute a legislative victory to end the embargo;
7. Creation of actions and events for International Women's Day, March 8, 2002, and Mother's Day, May 12, 2002, to galvanize women's voices for peace and justice and to develop a proactive agenda for real security, equity and democracy.
Approved December 7, 2001

* Hermanas, EveryWomen's Movement to Cuba/LELO and WILPF comprise a national collaboration project, directed by an advisory committee of demographically and geographically diverse women. We are committed to increasing women's voices and leadership to normalize U.S. government policy toward Cuba, in particular, and for peaceful and just relations internationally. Hermanas: Sisterhood in Central America and the Caribbean, based in central New Jersey, begin organizing women locally to travel and build sisterhood with Cuban women in 1990. Northwest Labor and Employment Law Office (LELO), based in Seattle, is lead by low-income workers of color and women workers to address issues of economic and racial justice. LELO's EveryWoman's delegations to China and Cuba have significantly increased the leadership of women of color and working class women to change policy toward Cuba. Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), founded in 1915, is the oldest and largest international women's peace organization working to prevent war by addressing the root causes of violence and social injustice and advocating the transfer of resources from the military to human needs. The Women and Cuba collaboration is a national campaign of the US Section of WILPF. We organize in solidarity with women throughout Cuba, primarily through the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC), a grassroots NGO representing about 85% of Cuban women aged 14 years and older.
Tax deductible contributions are always welcome. For more information, contact project organizer Jan Strout at <mailto:janstrout@qwest.net>janstrout@qwest.net or by telephone in Seattle at 206/547-0940.

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