Peace and Freedom articles from March 2006

Peace and Freedom archives from March 2006

A sense of liberation.(human rights)
March 22, 2006... A favorite but troubling legacy I have from my grandmother is a small browned paper book of photographs, entitled "Serbs in December" 1915. The pages feature photos of men, women and children fleeing over mountains in the snow, pulling their...

Eleanor Roosevelt's human rights legacy.(United Nations. General Assembly)
March 22, 2006... "Once more we are in a period of uncertainty, of danger, in which not only our own safety but that of all mankind is threatened. Once more we need the qualities that inspired the development of the democratic way of life. We need...

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
March 22, 2006... On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Following this historic act the Assembly called upon all Member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration...

WILPF's role in advancing human rights at home.(Women's International League for Peace and Freedom )
March 22, 2006... As a women's peace organization, WILPF pre-dates the codification of human rights in international law. Human rights law, with its emphasis on protecting the freedoms of belief and expression, is often understood as protecting "the natural...

Truth and reconciliation.(Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission )
March 22, 2006... On November 3, 1979 in Greensboro, North Carolina some 40 Ku Klux Klansmen attacked an anti-Klan demonstration organized by the Communist Workers Party. They shot and killed five young union and community organizers and wounded 10 others....

Women and torture.(Human rights)
March 22, 2006... "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." --Voltaire (1694-1778) Of all the things that make us squirm about being American--the preemptive war in Iraq, our awkward role in the U.N., the poverty...

An interview with Dorothy Rupert.(Interview)
March 22, 2006... WILPF member Dorothy Rupert cares passionately about human rights, health care, families and public schools. Rupert was elected to the Colorado House of Representatives in 1987, followed by eight years in the state Senate before term-limits...

The making of a human rights commission.(Cape Cod in Massachusetts )
March 22, 2006... Cape Cod in Massachusetts is a narrow sandy peninsula 75 miles in length extending miles out into the Atlantic Ocean. The region consists of 15 towns stretching from Bourne to Provincetown. Each town is autonomous and independent, with town...

The U.N., the U.S. and the Commission on Human Rights.(United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights)
March 22, 2006... For 58 years the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) has overseen the negotiation of a complex web of human rights treaties, codifying the vision of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights into international law. By now every nation in the world...

Crossing the line.(illegal immigrants)
March 22, 2006... I may be in a prison soon, where all the walls are grey and all the guards mean-looking. Where any effort to express identity is squelched, and even the color of your underpants is prescribed. Actually it seems like an interesting place to be...

Local human rights initiatives.(poverty taken as a human right)
March 22, 2006... For decades, advocates of The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) focused on petitioning city councils and state legislatures to urge U.S. ratification of the Convention. Frustration with that...

Coming together in Caracas.(World Social Forum)
March 22, 2006... I was dropped off by a bus in the middle of Caracas, a city of four million bustling people, with my back-pack full of WILPF paraphernalia and clothes to last me a week. I had no idea where to go and after spending six hours on a flight from...

The wall: occupation and apartheid.(Israel covers its border with a wall)
March 22, 2006... Cutting deep into the West Bank (not on the 1967 Green Line once separating Israel from that territory) the so-called "Separation Wall" being erected by Israel has resulted in the de facto annexation of some 47 percent of the West Bank,...

The Patriot Act and Dr. al-Arian.
March 22, 2006... Peace and justice activists have been worried since before the ink was dry on the U.S.A. Patriot Act: How will it affect my First Amendment rights? Are they looking over my shoulder, tapping my phone, monitoring my e-mail, what I check out at...

Hamas elected: what next if aid is not forthcoming?
March 22, 2006... Hamas is now the majority power within Palestine. The U.S. says it was a fair and democratic election. This has put the Bush Administration in a quandary. The U.S. intends to take the lead from Israel on how to respond to this turn of events...

Haiti Issues Committee update.(Women's International League for Peace and Freedom )
March 22, 2006... The crisis in Haiti deepens. More deaths and police/MINUSTAH (U.N. peacekeeping mission) brutality have been reported over the past weeks as political instability worsens and the promised national elections have been postponed four times. The...

Building the Beloved Community.(Women's International League for Peace and Freedom )
March 22, 2006... The U.N. Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 asserted that "disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy...

DISARM! Dismantle the war economy.(Around and about WILPF)(Women's International League for Peace and Freedom)
March 22, 2006... WILPF was founded over 90 years ago to put an end to war. Our foremothers saw war as the greatest destroyer of human life and human rights, and worked tirelessly to replace might makes right with international law and peace building/keeping...

Swim, bike, run for peace.(Around and about WILPF)(Women's International League for Peace and Freedom)(Brief article)
March 22, 2006... In July, 2006 Chris Morin, co-president of U.S. WILPF, will be participating in the Gay Games in Chicago. She will be entering the triathlon (over 50 version). This is a stretch for Chris, but she's motivated by the exercise and the fundraising...

International Women's Peace Conference in Cuba.(Around and about WILPF)(Brief article)(Calendar)
March 22, 2006... International WILPF is sponsoring a worldwide gathering in Havana, Cuba. Join us during November 22-26, 2006 for "Voices for Peace, Ecology, Dignity, and Life." Defy the call to war and other forms of violence and injustice. Share and...

Water: human right or tool of power?
March 22, 2006... Water is a human right. Think about this: water is a human right. In the United States we take this for granted. In many parts of the world, this is a luxury. If we are not vigilant, it will not be a right in the United States. ...

Please consider these roles: search for members to serve on the JAPA board.
March 22, 2006... JAPA board members comprise the decision-making, policy-setting, planning and oversight body of the Jane Addams Peace Association. Eligibility requires that candidates be committed members of WILPF for a minimum of two years prior to nomination...

Branches eligible for Children's Peace Education Funding; Jones Fund Committee members needed.(News from the Jane Addams Peace Association)
March 22, 2006... The Jones Children's Peace Education Fund, designated by the JAPA Board of Directors from a bequest given by Doris Jones, provides monies for WILPF International, U. S. WILPF and WILPF branches whose members are planning activities to promote...

New development director joins WILPF.(Judy Claude )
March 22, 2006... Judy Claude joined the WILPF staff in February. As development director, she brings broad experience in donor cultivation and solicitation, planned giving and grant writing. From 1990 until 1997, Judy served as executive director of the...

Remembering Ione Biggs.
March 22, 2006... Cleveland marked the end of an era at a memorial service for Ione Biggs on December 21, 2005. She personified the peace and justice movement in Cleveland and beyond for many years. Her quiet dignity and firm resolve propelled many causes. One...

Honoring WILPF "Twins".(Brief article)
March 22, 2006... Members with Birthdays before 1920: Amy Bush -- Santa Rosa, CA Kay Camp -- Mainline (PA) -- Life Member Leah Campanella -- NY Caroline Canafax -- Seattle, WA -- Life Member Marghi Dutton -- San Francisco, CA Miriam...

Special mentions.(BranchAction News)(Public notice)
March 22, 2006... Sacramento County used the Make Peace a Reality postcard campaign in November to counter hate mail being received by the Sacramento City Council for passing a resolution to bring the troops home and close the bases. Ten giant puppets made by...

Members honored.(BranchAction News)(Brief article)
March 22, 2006... Madeline Duckies, by the Berkeley Branch and the City of Berkeley (official Madeline Duckles Day) for tireless advocacy for peace and justice. MN Metro's Arts Committee was given the "Creative Women Inspiring Justice" award by MN Women's...

Human rights/corporate power.(BranchAction News)(Reprint)(Brief article)
March 22, 2006... Los Angeles published the Universal Declaration in its December newsletter. Cape Cod published extracts from a speech given back in 1958, listing the ways U.S. society goes about taking away the human rights of native people. Portland is...

Save the Water.(Clean Water Action)(Brief article)
March 22, 2006... Cape Cod, Portland, and Los Angeles began water study groups. On November 28, 2005, Catonsville held a program on "Save the Water" led by Angel Shannon, with guest speaker Andy Fellows of Clean Water Action. Delaware County launched its water...

Middle East.(BranchAction News)(Brief article)
March 22, 2006... Monterey County heard from Dalit Baum, anti-occupation activist from Israel on the topic of the wall. San Jose presented a study program on water usage in the Palestinian territories. Des Moines co-sponsored a conference "Hope for the Holy...

Militarism/Iraq.(website services)(Brief article)
March 22, 2006... Berkeley listed the website for the 2005 International Commission of Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration, www.bushcommission.org. Delaware County presented a program on "Our Schools, Our Youth, and the...

Nuclear madness.(Jean Merrigan)(Brief article)
March 22, 2006... Santa Cruz printed a long article by member Jean Merrigan, describing a public tour she had taken of the Lawrence Livermore National Lab in the Bay Area. She found the experience surreal, in the seeming disregard for environmental contamination...

Elections.(BranchAction News)(electronic voting machines )(Brief article)
March 22, 2006... [Another election is looming, and the machine fraud problem is being addressed only by requesting "paper trails."] St. Louis reviewed the November 2004 election debacle and plans by state election officials to buy electronic voting machines...

Programs.(BranchAction News)(Brief article)
March 22, 2006... Branches held various events, including: "Stopping the Pentagon War Machine" with Carol Urner and MacGregor Eddy from the national DISARM committee (Los Angeles); On the topic of Katrina and its aftermath, St. Louis hosted "Homeland Insecurity:...

Raging Grannies.(BranchAction News)(Brief article)
March 22, 2006... New York Grannies were arrested trying to enlist while chanting "We insist that we enlist!" while the group Billionaires for Bush demonstrated outside. San Francisco has formed a new group, aided by Peninsula Grannies. The latter sang at De...

Maine mourns loss.(BranchAction News)(Marianne Maloney)(Obituary)(Brief article)
March 22, 2006... WILPF members in Maine report their sad loss of 87 year old life member Marianne Maloney of York, Maine. Maloney was described in a newspaper feature as a "cheerfully fearless grandmother" noted for her outspoken bumper-stickered car. In a...

Action alerts.
March 22, 2006... Against new antipersonnel mines (Delaware County, Santa Cruz); against the Patriot Act (Portland, Des Moines, Berkeley); eminent domain (as state issue, St. Louis); "Restore Scientific Integrity to Federal Research and Policy Making Act" (St....

Recommended books.(BranchAction News)(Citizen: Jane Addams and the Struggle for Democracy)(Women and the US Budget: Where the Money Goes and What You Can Do About It)(Brief article)
March 22, 2006... A new biography of Jane Addams, Citizen, Jane Addams, and the Struggle for Democracy, by Louise Knight (Madison); Women and the U.S. Budget: Where the Money Goes and What You Can Do About It, by Jane Midgley (San Jose, Portland).

Think outside the bottle.(BranchAction News)(Corporate Accountability International )(Brief article)
March 22, 2006... Marketing of bottled water is "the most visible symbol of corporate control of water," says Corporate Accountability International (CAI), which staged protests in which WILPF participated, to send the message: "Our water is not for sale." One...

Save for peace.
March 22, 2006... Yes! It is possible to support the cause of peace and get a secure income at guaranteed rates higher than most savings accounts or certificates of deposit! As we notice our world's unhappy condition and act to make it more peaceful and...