This post and its contents were Sent on behalf of WGSS Affiliate Zehra Arat. The downloadable documents according to each section are located at the bottom of this post.

THE 2020 DECLARATION ON WOMEN’S RIGHTS

We, the undersigned women’s groups and feminist organizations, collectively representing nearly a thousand women’s organizations, held a meeting on October 15, 2020, to discuss the attacks on the Istanbul Convention and our other common problems. We issue this joint declaration to draw attention to the ongoing discrimination and violence, as well as increasing hardship and human rights violations, faced by women worldwide, and to reaffirm that our rights are non-negotiable.

We observe with deep concern that

• patriarchal structures, neoliberal policies, authoritarian governance, militarism, and warfare have long been violating women’s and girls’ rights and endangering their lives; 
• the deepening of poverty, economic inequality, climate change, and the current COVID-19 pandemic have further aggravated the situation, overwhelming women of all classes, races, ethnicities, and nationalities in various ways and degrees; 
• gender-based discrimination and violence, through word and deed, are committed by numerous governments and groups of different political orientations, religions, and cultures; 
• despite their differences, these state and non-state actors subscribe to the same misogynist, homophobic, and transphobic patriarchal ideology.

  We demand that

• all state agencies, private institutions and civil society organizations uphold the principle of equality in human dignity, which is the foundation of international human rights;
• all governments seek gender equality by collaborating with women’s organizations and through adequately funded and effectively implemented policies that ensure the realization of women’s and girls’ economic, political, social, cultural, sexual, and reproductive rights; 
• all governments pursue international cooperation and multilateral policies to address global crises, realize and protect human rights in all territories, and ensure gender equality;
• all parliaments fulfill their legislative function and replace discriminatory laws with those based on the principle of gender equality, as well as their regulatory function and hold governments accountable;
• all local, national and global media stop negative stereotypes, expose public and private perpetrators of gender-based violence and women’s rights violations, and hold negligent agencies accountable;
• all international organizations and agencies help realize women’s and girls’ rights, end all sexual orientation and gender-related discrimination, and ensure gender equality without compromise, through effective steering, monitoring, and follow up mechanisms; 
• all international human rights instruments – especially the Istanbul Convention, the Beijing Platform for Action, CEDAW, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child – be defended against misrepresentations, ratified by all states, and fully implemented by states parties.

We declare that

• • we are more determined than ever;
  • despite the shrinking democratic space, we will continue to confront patriarchal violence, misinformation, masculinist discourses, and attacks on our hard-won rights;

• we will work toward building a world of equality, justice, and peace – together, in sisterhood and transnational solidarity!

LONG LIVE WOMEN’S SOLIDARITY!

 

Signatories to the 2020 Declaration on Women’s Rights 

Advocates for Human Rights, United States   

Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation, Bulgaria

Great Coalition for Equality and Choice, Poland 

Hungarian Women’s Lobby, Hungary

Organization for Promotion of Women’s Rights (DOMINE), Croatia 

Ukrainian Women Lawyers Association (JURFEM), Ukraine  

Women Against Violence Europe (WAVE)  

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) 

Women’s Network Croatia, Croatia

Women’s Platform for Equality (EŞİK), Turkey  

Women’s Rights Center, Poland 

Women’s Support and Information Center (NPO), Estonia

European Women’s Lobby (Supporting organization)

Press release

December 7, 2020

An international group of twelve women’s networks and platforms, collectively representing nearly a thousand women’s organizations, has issued a declaration to draw attention to the discrimination, violence, hardship, and human rights violations faced by women worldwide. 

The 2020 Declaration on Women’s Rights was conceived at a transnational meeting hosted by the Women’s Platform for Equality, Turkey, on October 15, 2020. At that meeting, participants discussed right-wing groups’ and governments’ attacks on the Istanbul Convention (the Council of Europe convention to prevent and combat violence against women and domestic violence). Bringing together 170 women from 15 countries from Europe and North America, the October meeting confirmed that the arguments used against the Istanbul Convention in each country stem from similar misogynist, homophobic, and transphobic patriarchal ideologies.

The 2020 Declaration on Women’s Rights draws attention to the interrelated causes of violations of women’s human rights. It also highlights the aggravation of these violations by neoliberal policies, rising authoritarianism, climate change, militarism, and the current COVID-19 pandemic. 

In addition to demanding that national political institutions and international organizations take action to realize women’s human rights and ensure gender equality, the Declaration reaffirms women’s commitment and determination to work in transnational solidarity, despite the shrinking democratic space, to confront patriarchal violence, misinformation, masculinist discourses, and attacks on their hard-won rights, and to build a world of equality, justice, and peace. 

The text of the Declaration is available in English Turkish and Kurdish. For more information please contact info@esikplatform.net

 

Signatories to the 2020 Declaration on Women’s Rights 

Advocates for Human Rights, United States   

Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation, Bulgaria

Great Coalition for Equality and Choice, Poland 

Hungarian Women’s Lobby, Hungary

Organization for Promotion of Women’s Rights (DOMINE), Croatia 

Ukrainian Women Lawyers Association (JURFEM), Ukraine  

Women Against Violence Europe (WAVE)  

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) 

Women’s Network Croatia, Croatia

Women’s Platform for Equality (EŞİK), Turkey  

Women’s Rights Center, Poland 

Women’s Support and Information Center (NPO), Estonia

European Women’s Lobby (Supporting organization)

 

#WomensSolidarityAcrossBorders

#2020WomensRightsDeclaration

 

2020 Womens rights Declaration Press Release

 

2020 DECLARATION ON WOMENS RIGHTS_07122020[1]

Hello Huskies!

Timothy Bussey, a former WGSS Graduate Student, got an article of theirs picked up by the Associated Press!

 

Titled “‘Rainbow wave’ of LGBTQ candidates run and win in 2020 election”, Bussey explores the 2020 election, and a few of the roughly 1,000 LGBTQ+ candidates that ran for state senate and house seats. The link to the article is below, and we hope that you all take a look!

 

https://theconversation.com/rainbow-wave-of-lgbtq-candidates-run-and-win-in-2020-election-149066

Please join us for American Studies’ first event to kick off the new year – Monuments to the Past / Structures of the Present — on Thursday, September 24 @ 12:00-1:30pm. Panel features Kelly Dennis, Kenneth Foote, Lewis Gordon, Micki McElya, and Cathy Schlund-Vials.

By their nature, monuments collapse the conceptual divide between past and present. They are visual artworks, often of distant vintage, that construct particular sites of memory. In so doing, the figures they marbleize manage to display, in the most quotidian realms, how the social structures of earlier eras continue to permeate everyday life in the here and now.

As a field, American Studies has long focused on the politics of historical memory. To this end, UConn American Studies brings together scholars from a range of disciplinary perspectives whose work engages this issue, the relevance of which is clearer now than ever. They will weigh in on the stakes of the ongoing battles over Confederate and colonial monuments, and address what new sites of memory – monumental or not – we should endeavor to create.

 

Please contact Chris Vials for more information.

Hello Huskies!

 

We would like to congratulate our WGSS Affiliate, Dr. Sharde Davis, on winning the OSCLG Feminist Teacher/Mentor Award for this year! Also, WGSS Distinguished Professor Dr. Nancy Naples’ three-volume “Companion to Women’s and Gender Studies” is NOW AVAILABLE! These two members of the WGSS Family have done many great things, and we are so proud of them both!

 

Good Morning Huskies!

One of our staff members, Mick Powell, has posted our 2020 Newsletter to Wild Tongue Journal! The journal, as quoted from their “About Us” page, “is a biannual publication curated by faculty and students in the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program at the University of Connecticut. In the spring, WT will publish the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program’s annual newsletter. In the fall, we will publish an arts journal of contemporary feminist poetry, prose, translations, visual art, and multimedia pieces that focus on, respond to, and/or engage with intersectional feminist themes. Accepting work created by artists across the world, Wild Tongue will be completely digitally published, making the journal widely accessible and affordable.”

Please find the journal here, at https://wildtongue.wgss.uconn.edu/volume-no-1/

Can’t view the document? Open it in a new tab here.

 

For those who want to become active anti-racist allies, this list is full of dynamic readings (longer and shorter), podcasts, and various conversations particularly geared toward this goal at this moment. 

This resource was compiled by Autumn Gupta with Bryanna Wallace’s oversight for the purpose of providing a starting place for individuals trying to become better allies.

Choose how much time you have each day to become more informed as step one to becoming an active ally to the black community. On this document are links to the learning resources and a schedule of what to do each day. Click on the following to jump directly to that info:

1. 10 minutes/day
2. 25 minutes/day
3. 45 minutes/day

Additional Resources:

• Most of the links in this doc were pulled from: Anti-Racism Resources and 75 Things White People Can Do For Racial Justice
• Comprehensive Ally Resources

Important Note: This should just be the beginning. Please do not stop learning after you complete this month. Each section (10/25/45 minutes) has somewhat different material and the links under “Additional Resources” also include new content, so go above and beyond to educate yourself.

Want to increase your impact? Find a friend, create a group, and share this content with others.

Share on Twitter

Share on Facebook

Share using shortened link: bit.ly/junejustice

**If you have additional resource recommendations or see any errors in the links listed, please send them to autumngupta@gmail.com.

Find this useful? Check out our Go Fund Me page to learn more on how we want to make this more accessible, more permanent and more of a lifestyle.

10 Minutes/Day

Over the course of the month, you will have spent 5 hours intentionally learning how to be an active ally of the black community. (That’s less than the amount of time it takes to watch all of Tiger King ~ 5.5 hours.) Remember, the black community lives the reality of the information you will learn- they have a lifetime of fearing for their well being versus 5 hours of you being uncomfortable. All the action items listed in the calendar have linked information below the weekly schedule (see sections Watch, Read, Listen, and Act).

Hello UConn Community,

We are now in a moment to recognize the limitations of the diversity and inclusion paradigm, which has permitted the continuation of anti-black racism. We need to collectively strive to enhance the safety and wellness of Black students, staff, faculty, and community members. We ask that this college-wide call for colleagues to attend this training may serve as a reminder that Black lives matter here.

This is an opportunity to do more than express concern. This is a chance to act in solidarity for structural change through education.

Attached is an invitation by Academics for Black Survival and Wellness to join a week-long training geared towards college campuses beginning on June 19th, 2020.

Full Week Training Registration: 6/19-6/25

OR

Individual Days

Day 1 Registration: 6/19

Day 2 Registration: 6/20

Day 3 Registration: 6/21

Day 4 Registration: 6/22

Day 5 Registration: 6/23

Day 6 Registration: 6/24

Day 7 Registration: 6/25

https://www.academics4blacklives.com/

We, the faculty and staff of the interdisciplinary Centers, Institutes, and Programs, stand together to express our shock, our heartbreak, and our outrage at the horrific and senseless killing of George Floyd and the ongoing violence against Black people.

George Floyd, David McAtee, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery, Eric Garner, Breonna Taylor, Kathryn Johnston, Ayiana Stanley-Jones, Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Alton Sterling, Freddie Gray, Philando Castile, Sandra Bland. Too many to list and too many to forget.

Each of these names represents a human being, dehumanized, rendered invisible, a Black life cut short by brutality and wanton violence.

We cannot look away. We cannot remain indifferent. We cannot be silent.

We must expose and confront the deep, pervasive, systemic issues that continue to fuel one tragedy after another. We must work together to bring real change. As academic units and programs of the university founded on principles of social justice and human rights we reaffirm our commitment to educating the next generation of healers and freedom fighters. The vision of change, which this crisis on top of a catastrophic pandemic calls for, is a broad, systemic, and intergenerational strategy. We recognize that broad societal change cannot be legislated alone, but must be cultivated community by community, day by day. To that end, we reaffirm our commitment to creating communities of accountability; implementing actions that dismantle the status quo of white supremacy; and amplifying the voices and experiences of people of color.

As a first step, we encourage you to join us in programs that will bring communities into conversation including tonight’s AACC Town Hall Meeting, presented by The H. Fred Simons African American Cultural Center:

The COVID-19 Pandemic and Racism in the African-American Community, Thursday, June 4, at 6 PM, https://preview.mailerlite.com/k8h6u0/1435486084640281891/n9g0/ (This event has already passed)

We also encourage you to read the public statement on anti-black violence from the Africana Studies Institute: https://africana.uconn.edu/public-statement-on-anti-black-violence/

We stand together with communities of color across the country as they yet again are subject to pain and suffering at the hands of a racist and unjust system. We support our students, from the African American, Asian American, Puerto Rican and Latin American, Women’s and Rainbow Centers, and Native American Cultural Programs, and all who are struggling to demand recognition of their rights and transformation of the conditions in which they live. We are not silent. We are not indifferent. We are implicated and, therefore, responsible. We will not stand idly by while the blood of our community members cries from the ground.

“Justice is not a natural part of the lifecycle of the United States, nor is it a product of evolution; it is always the outcome of struggle.”

― Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, From #BlackLivesMatter To Black Liberation

You are not alone. We are with you.

In solidarity,

African American Cultural Center

Africana Studies Institute

American Studies Program

Asian American Cultural Center

Asian and Asian American Studies Institute

Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life

El Instituto (Institute of Latina/o, Caribbean, and Latin American Studies)

Human Rights Institute

Puerto Rican/Latin American Cultural Center

Rainbow Center

Thomas J. Dodd Research Center

Women’s Center

Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies Program