Dear John
November 25th, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, is just around the corner, and we’ll be using the opportunity to highlight our work on ending sexual violence.
But as you’ll see from many of these updates on what our teams around the world have been up to in recent weeks, our dedication to this and all the issues we work on is a year-round commitment.
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Afghan Women’s Rights Organizations Speak Out
Equality Now is continuing to work closely with our regional partners to monitor the situation in Afghanistan and assist the millions of women and girls who are now living under Taliban rule. Last month we shared a proclamation from five Afghan women’s rights organizations addressed to the international community.
The organizations requested anonymity as they feared for their safety and the safety of the women and girls they served, explaining “We have lost our right to walk on the streets without a male companion, and our rights to work, study, speak publicly and live life as human beings. In today's Afghanistan, professional women are shot to death by the Taliban in front of their children, girls are forced to marry Taliban fighters, and women are forced to leave their schools and workplaces. The women who demonstrate against the Taliban are physically attacked by this regime.”
The global community must continue to acknowledge our culpability in this situation and take all steps possible to support and protect Afghan women's human rights defenders and the progress they have fought so hard for. We ask that you share this statement so that the voices of Afghan women are amplified far and wide.
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Discriminatory Sexual Violence Laws and Practices in the Americas
On September 15th, Equality Now launched our latest report: "Failure to Protect: How Discriminatory Sexual Violence Laws and Practices are Hurting Women, Girls, and Adolescents in the Americas". The report scrutinizes country-specific laws and policies in 43 jurisdictions in North America, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean and found that the majority of rape laws across the Americas fall short of international human rights obligations and do not adequately enable survivors of sexual violence to receive justice. We found that adolescent girls were particularly vulnerable to mistreatment under the law and by the criminal justice system.
The report was produced in consultation with country-level experts and features testimonies of survivors who experienced firsthand the consequence of discriminatory laws. Read more about our recommendations to governments, including the need for consent-based definitions of rape and removing the statute of limitation to bring rape cases to trial.
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Highlighting the Urgency of Family Law Reform at the UN and in Africa
On September 23rd, the Global Campaign for Equality in Family Law, of which Equality Now is a Coordination Committee member, partnered with the World Bank’s Group’s Women, Business and the Law project and the Government of Sri Lanka for an interactive UN General Assembly high-level side event, Pandemic, Patriarchy and Family Law: Accelerating Equality and Justice. If you missed it, you can still watch this dynamic event right here.
Equality Now and our partners also convened, from October 4th - 6th, an amazing group of over 60 activists from nearly half the countries in Africa, to discuss the pressing issue of family law reform. This was an important moment in building a movement to end discrimination in family law, an issue that touches everyone’s lives, and the building block for future advocacy.
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Improving the Investigation and Prosecution of Sexual Violence Cases in Georgia
The law can be a powerful tool in combating sexual violence and exploitation. It can be used to hold perpetrators to account, as well as defining the obligation that governments have to protect women and girls from violence and discrimination. The implementation of these laws is also vitally important; the law must offer women and girls access to justice.
Equality Now joined forces with the Council of Europe and UN Women to work with the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia, the General Prosecutor’s office and local experts to improve the response to sexual violence crimes in Georgia, including through the development of Effectively Investigating, Prosecuting and Adjudicating Sexual Violence Cases: A Manual for Practitioners in Georgia.
The manual is aimed at supporting the timely and effective handling of criminal cases to achieve the best possible outcomes and improving access to justice for victims of sexual violence in a safe and supportive environment.
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Continuing to Rally for Constitutional Equality in the United States
When it comes to constitutional equality, the US is a global outlier and Equality Now will continue to rally and advocate until all women, no matter their race, class, or any other status, are guaranteed equality in the United States Constitution.
On Women’s Equality Day, Equality Now stood shoulder-to-shoulder with our sister organizations in front of the United States Supreme Court to demand that the Equal Rights Amendment be incorporated into the US Constitution once and for all. Organized by the ERA Coalition, the demonstration featured a diverse range of speakers all of who spoke passionately about the need for women, girls, and marginalized genders to be treated equally under the constitution.
We also submitted testimony for the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform hearing on The Equal Rights Amendment: Achieving Constitutional Equality for All which was held on October 21st.
The ERA Coalition has a new petition urging Attorney General Merrick Garland to correct the error of his predecessor which is preventing the ERA from being officially added to the Constitution.
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Exploring the impact of landmark cases of caste-based sexual violence in India
The Hathras case brought the issue of caste-based sexual violence to the national spotlight, but still, the first question on the lips of the majority is why are we talking about the caste of the victim? Caste is broadly ignored across these cases by the public, government, and courts. This is, despite the clear caste-based nature of these atrocities, with rape being used as a weapon by dominant caste groups to silence Dalit women and girls, to retaliate against them for asserting themselves and their rights, and to maintain the prevailing caste, class, and social hierarchy.
On the first anniversary of the Hathras gang-rape case, which led to the death of a young Dalit woman in September 2020, we joined with the National Council of Women Leaders, Dalit Human Rights Defenders Network, and Equality Labs to reflect on twelve landmark cases of sexual violence against Dalit women and girls from ten states across India spanning 35 years, from 1985 to 2020.
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WATCH THIS: In case you missed our Make Equality Reality Gala last month, fear not! You can still watch the whole thing right here, and share it with your friends too!
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All of Equality Now’s work, including its advocacy to end sexual violence, revolves around our commitment to lending our expertise of international and regional law, standards, and mechanisms to women and girls’ rights organizations and supporting the development of strong, diverse women’s coalitions across the world. And of course, all of this work is impossible without you.
Thank you for being a huge part of our work and for your constant support and activism.
In solidarity,
Bryna Subherwal
Head of Advocacy Communications
PS: As we prepare to release an important report on online sexual exploitation and abuse, and as more women and girls around the world are spending more time online than ever, we wanted to share some previous conversations that show just why this kind of work is so needed right now.
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