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NEWS & LETTERS, August-September 2007Women WorldwideBy Mary Jo Grey The International Criminal Court in the Hague recently agreed to investigate human rights violations committed in the Central African Republic (CAR) in retaliation for a coup attempt in 2002 and 2003. The investigation is focusing on organized sexual violence which has been rampant in many African countries in the past 15 years, but rarely prosecuted. "Rape is the most notorious issue here," said Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the Hague prosecutor. "There were four times more rapes than killings-mass rapes, gang rapes, hundreds of cases that took place within a few days." Edith Douzima, a lawyer and human rights advocate in the CAR capital of Bangui, responded "We have been waiting a long time for this day-too long. Rape has been used for too long as a weapon of war wielded with impunity." -- After reproductive rights advocates in Georgia launched a statewide campaign to raise awareness about the denial of access to emergency contraception by individual pharmacists, the Kroger grocery chain pledged to disperse such medication on request in all of its stores. CVS, Rite-Aid and Walgreen's have supposedly committed themselves to the same policy. -- Recently near Guatemala City, the body of an 18-year-old indigenous woman was found raped, tortured, murdered and decapitated-the latest of more than 3,200 Guatemalan women abducted and murdered in the last seven years. At least 600 were killed in 2006 alone. The victims are often from poor, rural families and looking for work in the cities. The government, from local police up to the country's president, has done little to stop the atrocities. Instead, they tell women, for their own safety, to stay at home. |
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