Letting their voices be heard
Email | Digg! Digg | Del.icio.us

I'd like to reiterate that making sure the women and girls of the world are empowered and that their voices are heard is one of the most important things the new administration needs to make a priority. We need to ensure that within our initiatives to assist various nations, we're working with and funding local women's organizations, talking to women and girls on the ground, and allowing them to maintain agency so that they're not just being helped, but being heard. In her report (pdf), Germain writes:

"By emphasizing a bottom-up, locally informed approach for in-country program planning that includes consultation with women leaders and organizations and with demonstrated success in work with women, PEPFAR can be made vastly more effective. Programmers can determine the mix of prevention that best addresses local realities, rather than following what has often been irrelevant or inappropriate guidance from Washington." (Emphasis mine)

I can't support this enough. I think many efforts in the past haven't worked because of our failure to really understand the realities of the cultures and lives that exist in other countries; this is our opportunity to remedy that.

Comments

Hi there,

I read your blog and think you’re a good writer. I would like to invite you to join our new online community at polzoo.com. It is a user generated political editorial and social network. We also choose from amongst our own bloggers to be featured columnists on the front page. I think your voice would be a great addition to our site.

We accept all viewpoints.

Posted by: polzoo at March 14, 2008 4:09 AM

Post a comment




Remember Me?

(you may use HTML tags for style)

July 24, 2008


A Good Week for International Law
Email | Digg! Digg | Del.icio.us

July has been a bad month for war criminals. On Monday, July 14, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court set in motion proceedings against Sudanese president Omar el Bashir for genocide. Exactly one week later Radovan Karadzic--wanted for genocide in the Balkans--was arrested in Belgrade.

What does one have to do with the other? To be precise: not much. The International Criminal Court (ICC) is a separate institution from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. (ICTY). The latter is a temporary, ad hoc tribunal focused only on the Balkans. The former is a permanent institution with a global remit. Despite these differences, though, Karadzic's arrest may offer a glimpse into how Bashir may one day face justice. It also shows why international war crimes tribunals can be such useful institutions to have around.

More.

Related Posts
Archives
July 2008
S M T W T F S
    1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30 31    
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006
June 2006
May 2006
April 2006
March 2006
February 2006
January 2006
December 2005
November 2005
October 2005
September 2005
August 2005
July 2005
June 2005
May 2005
April 2005
March 2005
February 2005