What is the AGM
Overview
About Providence
Accessibility
AGM Site & Hotel Information
Alternative Housing
Smart Travel Options
AIUSA Resolutions & Eligibility for Voting
Pre-registration Form
Schedule of Events
The AGM 2000 A-Z GUIDE
SPECIAL PROGRAMS:
AGM Service Project
Student Activist Participation
Visions for Growth
AGM Panels
Ideas Fair
AGM WaterFire Action
Cultural Manifestations of Gender-Based Violence Against Women
Panel Summary:The speakers in this panel discussed their research or their own experience of forms of violence against women and how to work to stop them. From state-sponsored torture (e.g. rape and killing of women in custody) to private actor violence to which the state turns a blind eye (e.g. honor killings of women) all of these abuses are violations of international treaties and declarations.
Speakers (biography and summary of what they said)
Marguerite Feitlowitz - Human rights activists and author of A Legacy of Torture, Ms. Feitlowitz discussed violence against women who had been abducted and 'disappeared' during the "dirty war" in Argentina. She described the killing of women who had just given birth in the secret detention camps and the kidnapping of their babies. Today, groups like the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo have used genetic techniques to identify and reunite with their lost grandchildren.
Hina Jilani - Co-founder of Pakistan's first all women law firm and well known human rights activist, Ms. Jilani described the phenomenon of killings of women in the name of honor in Pakistan. She stated that this practice continues in large part due to the lack of the investigations and prosecutions of the killers and emphasized that government is accountable for ensuring such prosecutions, both under international treaties and according to Pakistan's Constitution.
Carla Bernardes - Co-chair of AIUSA's Women's Human Rights Steering Committee, Ms Bernardes moderated the panel as well as discussing the issue of domestic violence as a societally sanctioned form of violence against women. She described similarities in the circumstances of domestic violence and those surrounding torture cases. She too emphasized the vital role of government in training and monitoring law enforcement and judicial personnel.
Karen Musalo - Director of the UC Hastings College of Law, Center for Gender and Refugee Studies in San Francisco, discussed the cases of women applying for political asylum because they fear gender-based forms of violence if returned to their countries. She detailed the resistance coming from the INS and the Center's close collaboration with AIUSA in a letter-writing and PR campaign to persuade the INS that they should follow their own gender guidelines and grant such asylum.
