Category Archives: Latin America

Brazil’s Lula proposes creating Latin American currency to ‘be freed of US dollar’ dependency

. . SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT . .

An article by Benjamin Norton in Multipolarista

Brazil’s left-wing leader Lula da Silva has proposed creating a pan-Latin American currency, in order to “be freed of the dollar.”

A founder of Brazil’s Workers’ Party, Lula served as president for two terms, from 2003 to 2011. He is now the leading candidate as Brazil’s October 2022 presidential elections approach.

If he returns to the presidency, “We are going to create a currency in Latin America, because we can’t keep depending on the dollar,” Lula said in a speech at a rally on May 2.

He revealed that the currency would be called the Sur, which means “South” in Spanish.

Lula explained that countries in Latin America could still keep their sovereign domestic currency, but they could use the Sur to do bilateral trade with each other, instead of having to exchange for US dollars.

The Sur could also help to contain inflation in the region, Lula argued.

Lula said the goal of the currency would be to deepen Latin American integration and strengthen the region’s economic sovereignty, weakening its dependence on the United States.

Under Brazil’s current government, led by far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro, the South American giant has subordinated itself to Washington, while viciously attacking the left-wing governments in the region.

Bolsonaro’s Brazil has refused to recognize the legitimacy of the leftist Chavista government in its neighbor Venezuela, and has even supported violent cross-border terrorist attacks against it.

If he returns to the presidency, Lula pledged that Brazil “will strengthen its relations with Latin America.”

Lula has also vowed to revive the BRICS system, integrating Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa in an independent economic architecture to challenge Western financial hegemony.

In 2020, Lula published a call “For a Multipolar World.” He explained his goal is “the creation of a multipolar world, free from unilateral hegemony and from sterile bipolar confrontation,” that “would permit a true re-founding of the multilateral order, based on principles of real multilateralism, in which international cooperation can truly flourish.”

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(Click here for the Spanish version)

Questions related to this article:
 
Can Latin America free itself from US domination?

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Hugo Chávez’s attempt to create a pan-Latin America currency, the Sucre

Lula’s proposal for the Sur is certainly not the first time progressive politicians in Latin America have tried to create a common currency. This has long been a dream of left-wing leaders in the region.

Venezuela’s revolutionary former president Hugo Chávez developed an international currency as part of the Bolivarian Alliance (ALBA), an economic coalition of left-wing governments in Latin America and the Caribbean.

This currency was called the Sucre, and was adopted in 2009 by Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba, Bolivia, and Ecuador.

Sucre was an acronym for “Unified System for Regional Compensation,” but also a reference to Antonio José de Sucre, who helped lead the South American independence struggle against Spanish colonialism, alongside Simón Bolívar.

Ecuador’s government, under leftist President Rafael Correa, who has a Ph.D. in economics, was the main adopter of the Sucre.

At its peak in 2012, the Sucre was used for more than $1 billion in bilateral annual trade in the region.

But the currency fell out of use by 2016, following Chávez’s death in 2013, a massive drop in commodity prices in 2014, the imposition of US sanctions on Venezuela in 2015, and violent coup attempts against Chávez’s successor Nicolás Maduro.

Ecuador’s subsequent right-wing President Lenín Moreno, with US backing, later removed his country from the ALBA, dealing a huge blow to the Sucre and dreams of regional integration.

Lula leads polls for Brazil’s 2022 elections, following US-backed judicial coup

Brazil’s presidential elections will be held in October 2022.

Polls consistently show Lula leading over far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s sitting president.

Bolsonaro only came to power in the 2018 elections due to a soft coup d’etat backed by the United States.

Lula had been significantly ahead in the polls in the lead-up to the 2018 vote, but Brazil’s judicial system imprisoned him on false charges, handing the victory to Bolsonaro.

The US Justice Department helped support this campaign of what Lula calls legal warfare, or lawfare, to prevent him from returning to the presidency.

The US government also backed the 2016 political coup against Brazil’s democratically President Dilma Rousseff, also a member of Lula’s left-wing Workers’ Party.

The UN Human Rights Committee found this April that the prosecution of Lula was politically motivated and violated his rights.

“The investigation and prosecution of former President Lula da Silva violated his right to be tried by an impartial tribunal, his right to privacy and his political rights,” the UN legal experts determined.

Latin America, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

World Social Forum 2022 Declaration: Building together a common agenda for another urgent and necessary world

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An article from Pressenza

The 14th edition of the World Social Forum, which took place in Mexico City, ended on 6 May, coinciding with the commemoration of World Workers’ Day, 1 May.

We publish below in full the final Declaration of the WSF 2022, which calls to build in unity and with urgency, the “another world” that is possible and necessary.


BUILDING TOGETHER A COMMON AGENDA FOR ANOTHER URGENT AND NECESSARY WORLD

1- This 14th edition of the WSF 2022 kicked off on Sunday 1st May with a march that coincided with the events to commemorate World Labour Day. The WSF 2022, which took place from 1 to 6 May in Mexico City, is the first international face-to-face and distance (hybrid) meeting since the emergence of Covid in 2019.

2- The pandemic, which continues to cause damage worldwide, did not prevent representatives of associations, collectives and social movements from Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and Europe from meeting in Mexico City.

3- This WSF 2022 had to face obstacles that hindered or prevented the presence of representatives from several countries, especially from Africa and Asia. We denounce the denial of visas to members of delegations from several countries and the prevention by the immigration authorities of several of our colleagues from entering the country.

4- More than 3 thousand participants from autonomous women’s and feminist movements, youth, members of diverse sexualities, trade unionists, communities of native peoples, the social church, environmentalists, anti-racists, the urban movement, the countryside, migrant organisations, and many other social spheres; from more than 30 countries from four continents in 789 workshops and assemblies held in 15 venues in the Historic Centre of Mexico City and from social organisations in more than 50 rooms, patios and auditoriums, in addition to their epicentre in tents in the Plaza de Santo Domingo, invited to reflect, exchange and imagine actions to change the world. The themes included climate, agriculture in respect of the earth, sustainable economy, human rights, feminism, minorities, education, workers’ rights, culture, communication, self-determination of peoples… and so many other topics! It is already certain that this forum will give rise to many collective actions that will be launched without delay.

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(Click here for an article in Spanish)

Question for this article:

World Social Forums, Advancing the Global Movement for a Culture of Peace?

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5- Movements are facing various challenges as a result of the irrational exploitation of natural resources such as water, land and space, which are accelerating climate change, migratory flows, population displacements and with them the destructuring of our societies. This economic, social and cultural violence is a form of permanent warfare to which humanity is subjected, which can only be stopped by a radical change in the system.

6- Governments have used the pandemic to attack democratic freedoms, to promote various restrictions on the rights of the people and, above all, to give unjustified power to the big private laboratories, the first beneficiaries of a universal pandemic caused by the irrational action of capitalism.

7- The dominant policies of austerity and structural adjustment are reaffirmed. Neoliberal arrogance prevails. Destabilisation, wars, violent repression and the instrumentalisation of terrorism are imposed in all regions. Reactionary ideological currents and extreme right-wing populisms are increasingly active.

8- The WSF Mexico 2022 is a step in the construction of a new phase of alterglobalisation. Each phase of alterglobalisation is a response to the dominant logic of capitalism in its neoliberal phase and is based on forms of mobilisation.

9- The WSF 2022 was marked by this global situation, it was more oriented towards resistance. Social and citizens’ movements are aware of the urgency of defining strategic orientations. They affirmed that the need for resistance does not cancel out the contradictions and that all possibilities remain open.

10- This year another form of war has broken out, that of Ukraine, a product of the Russian invasion of that country. Faithful to its origins and to the Charter of Principles, the WFTU denounces this invasion, the death of thousands of civilians and the use of deadly violence, the effects of which are already being felt all over the world. This new scenario of war adds to many others where the peoples are suffering its consequences. Peoples must find the way to build peace.

11. The apartheid of the State of Israel, the war in Syria, Iraq, Mali, Afghanistan and other places between the imperialist world powers is the sublime expression of their pettiness and their clumsy dispute for world hegemony where in the end there will be neither winners nor losers, only desolation and death for our peoples.

12- The stakes at the World Social Forum 2022 were high. In a profoundly contradictory world situation, it allowed us: to redefine an alter-globalisation proposal corresponding to the new situation; to understand the new contradictions of the world system; to start from the movements to resist, to define alternatives, to build a new project of emancipation.

Another world is possible and together we must build it!

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION, Latin America,

Children-centered initiative instilling culture of peace in Ecuador community

.. DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION ..

An article by Daniela Brik in La Prensa Latina

A UNESCO initiative is striving to instill a culture of peace and strengthen the social fabric in Tierras Coloradas, a violent crime-racked neighborhood of the southern Ecuadorian city Loja.

And the focus of those efforts is on the community’s children, who are seen as the best hope for a brighter future.


Seated around a kitchen table in front of a tablet computer that rests against a wall, Carla and Jose (fictitious names) listen to a law student on the other side of the screen.

That volunteer has assumed the role of teacher, making sure the children know what homework they need to do and clarifying any doubts they may have.

“One of our volunteers connects (with families) after mothers ask for help via a chat,” Gabriela Moreira, head of the UNESCO Chair of Culture and Education for Peace initiative at the Private Technical University of Loja (UTPL).

Around 3,000 people live in Tierras Coloradas, a Loja suburb, in precarious homes built on land donated decades ago to the Catholic Church.

Although the streets of that hillside community bear the names of saints, it carries the stigma of high levels of domestic violence, social marginalization, crime and drug use. The parish priest has even had to have security cameras installed after being robbed on several occasions.

Studies show households in that community earn an average of between $150 and $400 a month, or less than Ecuador’s legal minimum salary.

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(Click here for an article in Spanish)

Questions for this article:

How important is community development for a culture of peace?

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“It’s a very stigmatized neighborhood. There are people with problems identified by the community. But those who have approached us are people trying to improve their lot in life,” said Santiago Perez, the program’s coordinator.

Around 30 UTPL students and scholarship fellows from Spain’s University of Sevilla have participated in the project since it was launched in 2019, either helping children with their homework or giving talks to mothers and fathers.

Perez stressed the importance of working with parents on “managing conflicts in the home and in the community” to mitigate violence “in spaces where it’s been allowed in.”

University professors and students have gradually won the parents’ trust, visited the local school and health center and spoken with community police to see what steps are needed to extricate the population from pervasive violence and foster a climate of respect and public safety.

Parents were especially concerned about their children’s studies, considering many of these young people are alone in the afternoon or being looked after by siblings, or because they themselves lack the educational background to help their kids with their homework.

“At first, the activities were recreational for children aged three to five. Later they included help with school,” Moreira said. “At times, entire days were spent helping them to do an exercise.”

Mariuxi Jimenez, 29, takes her four children aged three to 14 to Santa Narcisa de Jesus church, where two young psychology and social work graduates teach a workshop to children on emotional regulation and anger management.

“What makes you feel happy?” one instructor asks the kids seated on a church bench while holding up some illustrations.

“My children like these types of talks because they help them with things they don’t understand,” said Jimenez, who agrees with the importance of “promoting peace with them so conflicts are avoided.”

The parish priest, Pablo Bouza, acknowledges that the district has been racked by violence due to “drugs, alcoholism, family problems.”

“Denying that reality would be like burying your head in the sand.”

DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION, Latin America

World Social Forum: Days 3 and 4

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Articles from Prensa Latina for day 3 and Prensa Latina for day 4

(Editor’s note: News from the World Social Forum is not published by any main-stream media except that of Cuba. And even worse, as described below, some of the Cuba media is not accessible on the Internet)

The 14th World Social Forum (WSF) on Tuesday enters third day of debates, mainly focused on economic and labor issues, the continuity of gender violence and current affairs.


Among the issues is the international forum Organization of the Workers, Labor Reforms and Trade Union Freedom, sponsored by the New Central Union of Workers (NCT) and the Mexican Electrical Workers Union.

Papers on transformation economies, popular education, solidarity integration and good living in Latin America, and the experience in Colombia, are also on the program of the event.

The issue of gender violence, especially feminicide, will continue in debates with the paper “Decolonial feminist spiritualities in the face of gender violence.”

The New Central Union of Workers will present its criteria on employment in another possible world, in a panel of discussion in which the urgency of overcoming neoliberalism and labor precariousness will be addressed.

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(Click here for articles in Spanish)

Question for this article:

World Social Forums, Advancing the Global Movement for a Culture of Peace?

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The XIV World Social Forum is addressing, on its fourth day of sessions, the central theme Challenges of the new labor realities, as part of the global objective Work in another possible world.

The sessions, which are being held in plenary sessions and commissions at the Palacio de la Minería, in the historic center of Mexico City, began on May 1 and will conclude on May 6, when the venue for the next meeting is to be determined.

Today´s basic theme is presented by the New Workers Central with the co-sponsorship of the Mexican Union of Electricians, and will address, among other aspects, automation, outsourcing, teleworking and platforms.

At the same time there will be a panel within the same section on post-Tpandemic, health and labor, in charge of the same workers’ union.

The activities will be numerous, according to the program, as it includes, among many other presentations and debates on economic alternatives of the peoples and socio-economic justice, and defense of life, environment and territories.

As a topical issue, an exhibition on the elimination of hydrocarbons in Mexico, the Mexican alliance against fracking, as well as democracy, political participation, construction of critical global citizenship and autonomy.

(Editor’s note: The following sources about the World Social Forum are listed in Duckduckgo search engine but not in Google, and they are not accessible on the Internet, at least not in France where I am living: https://cubasi.cu/en/news/mexicoworld-social-forum-addresses-challenges-new-labor-realities and https://www.radiohc.cu/index.php/fr/noticias/internacionales/293776-le-forum-social-mondial-aborde-a-mexico-les-defis-des-nouvelles-realites-du-travail. And the following source, although listed in google, is not accessible: https://www.radioartemisa.icrt.cu/en/international/2022/05/04/mexico-world-social-forum-addresses-challenges-of-new-labor-realities/. Are they being jammed and banned from Google as part of the American Empire information war? Although Prensa Latina continues to be accessible and listed in Google, the latest news is that the United States is blocking visas for Prensa Latina journalists to work at the United Nations.)

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION, Latin America

World Social Forum 2022 in Mexico: First two days

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Two articles from La Coperacha and Prensa Latina

The World Social Forum 2022 (WSF) began yesterday (May 1) with a march from the Monument to the Revolution to the capital’s Zócalo in CDMX (Mexico City), joining with the May Day March for International Labor Day.


After the march, the activities of the WSF moved to the Plaza de Santo Domingo, a few meters from the Zócalo, where a Nahuatl ceremony was held and a manifesto was read by three women, one from Cherán, Michoacán, and the other from Tunisia. and one from Palestine.

The WSF seeks to generate proposals and exchanges of organizations and social movements opposed to neoliberalism and all forms of capitalist and imperialist domination. This year CDMX has been the venue in a hybrid format, with face-to-face and virtual activities.

Participants from India, Ukraine, Palestine, Tunisia, Kurdistan, Morocco, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, as well as trade unionists from Mexico, solidarity economy groups and members of indigenous peoples began activities (which conclude on May 6) in several venues of the Historic Center, including the Plaza Santo Domingo, the Universidad Obrera, the City Museum, the Rule and the Museum of the City.

In Plaza Santo Domingo, the Social and Solidarity Economy dialogue tables were installed with around 100 producers, five urban gardens, eco-technologies, dry toilets and with the circulation of the Alegría solidarity currency. In addition, the tents of Palestine and Kurdistan were installed.

Solidarity, community or complementary currencies have become a practice that some of the members of the WSF have used to break with the use of official money, which they consider to be based mainly on a model of debt money.

For this edition of the WSF, 21 years after the first forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, a solidary lodging network was established where the majority of foreigners have stayed without generating excessive expenses.

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(Click here for the original articles in Spanish)

Question for this article:

World Social Forums, Advancing the Global Movement for a Culture of Peace?

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Other venues that will host the hundreds of activities of the WSF are the Corpus Christi Temple, the School of Public Administration, the Historical Center Trust, the Mining Palace, the Palace of Autonomy, the auditorium of the Mexican Union of Electricians and that of Section 9 of the National Coordinator of Education Workers.
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The public debt and the abolition of debts acquired illegitimately, in particular due to the abusive payment of interest, are at the center of the second day of activities of the World Social Forum (May 2).

This section is held in the Ernesto Velasco Torres auditorium, of the Mexican Union of Electricians (SME), in conjunction with the New Workers Central and other labor institutions.

It is part of the theme Economic Alternatives for the Peoples and Socioeconomic Justice, and includes the study of the indebtedness processes in Latin America and the Caribbean and the struggles against illegitimate debts in Puerto Rico and Argentina.

It also addresses the vision of Latin America in the face of the fall of the dollar and its effects, the universal basic income as the foundation of another possible world, as illustrated with pilot tests in Catalonia and debates in Argentina. The presentation is carried out by the Humanist Network for Universal Basic Income.

On the same economic theme, the Kgosni group will present “Túmin, beyond a community currency” a reflection on the reconstruction of the social fabric and the importance of one’s own means of communication, as part of the economic alternatives of the peoples and socioeconomic justice.

Another basic point of the day is the one related to community feminism presented by Abya Yala in which she analyzes the struggles against discrimination, racism and for self-determination, as well as what women describe as a battle against patriarchy and heteronormative .

A very specific issue is that of resistance against the struggle for search, truth and justice for disappeared relatives in the “Dirty War” period of the 60s, 70s and 80s of the last century in the Mexican state of Guerrero, but related to today, especially the Movement for Truth and Justice for Relatives of Disappeared Persons.

The exhibition, which takes place in the Palacio de la Minería, one of the venues of the forum, is accompanied by a workshop on the disappearance of girls and women in Mexico under the title Community Feminism, organized by Abya Yala.

In this framework, a posthumous tribute will be paid to the Mexican social activist Rosario Ibarra de Piedra, who died last month.

Finally, another key point in this Monday’s session is the one entitled “Indigenous Migration in Mexico. Peacebuilding, migration and strategies against war. Comprehensive accompaniment from a feminist perspective for women on the move on the southern border of Mexico”, by the Red Mesoamericana Mujer, Salud y Migración.

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION, global, Latin America,

Forum in Brazil: Peace, How Is It Done?

. EDUCATION FOR PEACE .

An activity of Palas Athena

A forum with Marlova Noleto, Laura Roizman and Lia Diskin to be broadcast May 10 19h (time in São Paulo) on facebook and youtube

“When UNESCO directs its efforts towards the search for a culture of peace, it is immediately apparent that the anchor of such a search is education. This is because the achievement of peace presupposes, among others, the right to education, a foundation of societies more just, equitable and inclusive, and one of the pillars of sustainable development.The challenge is to find the means to transform attitudes, values ​​and behavior in order to promote peace and social justice, security and non-violent conflict resolution. ”

Marlova Jovchelovitch Noleto
Director and Representative of UNESCO in Brazil

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(Click here for the original article in Portuguese.)

Question related to this article:
 
What is the relation between peace and education?

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“We all seek peace and no one in their right mind can stand in favor of wars, social inequalities, the destruction of the environment. Even so, our schools, universities and families do not educate for peace. Responding to these challenges Lia Diskin and I wrote the book Paz, como se faz? Seeding a culture of peace in schools, the result of a partnership between UNESCO and the Palas Athena Association. It is in its 4th edition and is freely distributed in public schools and educational establishments. for download from various sites.”

Laura Gorresio Roizman
Biologist, PhD in Environmental Health from the University of São Paulo

“In uncertain times there are transformations being developed in silence and darkness, but from time to time they erupt on the surface causing a flash, a roar: asking for reflection, pause to check information, verify sources and discover the intentions that sustain them. Thus, a girl named Greta Thunberg sat at the doors of the Swedish Parliament to ask for measures to be taken to mitigate the consequences of climate emergencies. Today, in the free press, we follow Russian journalist Marina Ovsyannikova who, despite the risks to her own life has denouncesd the war against Ukraine. Culture of peace demands action, courage, insistence and persistence.”

Lia Diskin
Comitê da Cultura de Paz e Não Violência
www.palasathena.org.br • comitepaz.org.br

EDUCATION FOR PEACE, Latin America

Brazil : Juiz de Fora City Hall launches culture of peace project in schools

.. DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION ..

An article from Prefeitura de Juiz de Fora (translation by CPNN)

Next Saturday, March 26th, the Juiz de Fora City Hall (PJF) officially launches the project “Our School: Security, Citizenship and Culture of Peace”, which proposes activities that promote interaction, awareness and recognition of the school. as a space for education and construction of citizenship and a culture of peace. .

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Questions for this article:

How can culture of peace be developed at the municipal level?

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Students and their families will be invited to a series of activities, held at the Jovita de Montreuil Brandão Municipal School, in the Parque das Águas neighborhood, starting at 9 am. The project is an initiative of the secretariats of Urban Security and Citizenship (Sesuc) and Education (SE) in partnership with the Departments of Sport and Leisure (SEL), Health (SS), Sustainable and Inclusive Development of Innovation and Competitiveness (SEDIC) and Funalfa. This will be the first school covered by the project, which will be extended throughout the year to other municipal schools.

At 10 am, a Conversation Circle will address the topic of Female Entrepreneurship. The program continues until 1 pm, with presentations of parodies, music for children, storytelling, leisure and sports activities, theater, games with Palhaça Amora, beauty space for women, physical activity and dance.

(Click here for the Portuguese original of this article)

DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION, Latin America

Chile – Interview with Alondra Carrillo: “The feminist transformation of the State is unavoidable, it is a fact”

. WOMEN’S EQUALITY .

An article by Nicole Martinez in El Mostrador (translation by CPNN)

The spokesperson for the 8M Feminist Coordinator has underlined the advances in terms of parity and gender perspective within the Constitutional Convention. Among some milestones, she highlights that “the Justice Systems Commission took a historic step forward by establishing that all jurisdictional bodies and all persons involved must be guarantors of substantive equality, and that all resolutions must have a gender perspective”. The constituent, who is part of the Constituent Social Movements, emphasized that the changes that have been achieved are here to stay, and that “we are never going to return to second place again. That is a commitment that we have made with ourselves, and also with future generations, with the girls of this country”.


Alondra Carrillo

Two women will go down in history as presidents of the Constitutional Convention (CC), and each commission has at least one woman among its two coordinators. They are part of the milestones that have marked the constituent process, where women’s leadership has been more substantive and visible than in other spaces of political deliberation. And it was not by chance, because behind these advances there was the work of the feminist world, which since the beginning of the process has advocated minimums such as gender parity in the election of conventional women and men.

The gender perspective has been in every discussion, in every commission and in every proposal, and has made concrete progress, such as in the first regulations approved by the Justice Systems Commission, which are already part of the draft of the new Constitution, regarding to the guarantee of equality and gender perspective in resolutions. In a few days, the first proposals related to sexual and reproductive rights will also begin to be voted on in plenary.

One of the representative voices of the feminist movement within the Convention is the constituent of the 12th district, Alondra Carrillo, who is a spokesperson for the Feminist Coordinator March 8 and also for the Constituent Social Movements. In an interview with El Mostrador, she addressed the main advances that feminist proposals have had in the constituent process, the gender perspective in political spaces and the vision before the feminist government, as defined by the President-elect, Gabriel Boric.

-The Constitutional Convention (CC) has been one of the political spaces that has innovated on gender issues. What is your diagnosis in these months of work in the CC in terms of gender issues and perspective?


-Feminists came to the Convention from many different places, and we also came with a perspective of transformation that reaches practically all areas of constitutional discussion.  Gender advancement is one of the forms of the feminist program, but it is not the only thing, to the extent that we also propose structural and comprehensive transformations in the way power is configured in our country.

In terms of gender transformations, there have been multiple steps forward, the first of which was taken during the process of drafting the regulations, where two guidelines were established. On the one hand, parity as a minimum for the presence of women and sexual and gender in State bodies. Parity that is not defined as 50/50, but in the expression is “at least half”.  Our presence must be at least half, so that there is no repetition of what happened in the election process that led to the Constitutional Convention and that resulted in the exclusion of many women in the name of 50/50 parity. Another guideline is to consider that patriarchal and gender violence is a form of political violence for which the entire constituent body has to assume responsibility. 

Now, we have advanced perspectives of parity democracy in each one of the organs of the State. It is part of the voting in particular of the Political System Commission. The Justice Systems Commission took a historic step forward by establishing that all jurisdictional bodies and all persons involved must be guarantors of substantive equality, and all resolutions musrt have a gender perspective.

Another of the transformations that are being debated these days, and that will arrive on Thursday at the plenary session of the Constitutional Convention, is the consecration of our sexual and reproductive rights, the right to decide on our bodies and on the exercise of our sexuality, including the right to a protected pregnancy and childbirth, and also the right to voluntary interruption of pregnancy, the right to comprehensive sexual education, the right to identity. And in these days the contributions of the Commission on Principles will also be debated, which establish substantive equality as a mandate to the State to remove all the obstacles that in fact prevent substantive equality among the people who inhabit our country.

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(Click here for a Spanish version.)

Questions for this article

Prospects for progress in women’s equality, what are the short and long term prospects?

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-Looking in perspective, from prior to the installation of the Convention and until now, have the priorities changed for the feminist movement?


-The feminist program against the precariousness of life with which we arrived at the Constitutional Convention continues to be the guiding compass of our activity within the Convention and also outside of it. These are points that will be discussed shortly, too, when social rights are debated in a feminist perspective. Among them, the right to work from a feminist perspective, which begins by recognizing all work that sustains life, including unpaid work, and a new comprehensive social security system, which includes a single care system sustained on the perspective of universality and solidarity.  Social rights such as housing, are demanded by the work of constituents and popular organizations in the construction of the Popular Initiative of Standards for decent housing with a feminist perspective. Housing is considered as a space where, on the one hand, we can exercise our right to pleasure and enjoyment, and, on the other hand, where the design of housing is designed to collectivize reproductive work, which consists of maintaining life on a daily basis. Today it is reduced to the private sphere, and in the private sphere it is highly precarious. That is to say, the mandate with which we came, which is a programmatic debate, has been expressed in the debate of the commissions to raise Popular Initiatives of Standard, and has informed the discussion in each one of the commissions of the CC.

-When you have raised these issues, when the gender approach has been included, there are sectors in the CC that have put up some obstacles and expressed reluctance, especially from a sector on the right. In general, how has the reception of these issues been within the Convention and how has dialogue been going on with the most critical sectors?


-Generally, the positions taken by the right within the Convention are widely publicized in the press. However, what is not so strongly highlighted on many occasions is the overwhelming transversality with which these perspectives have been advancing in the Convention.  So much so that, in its first vote, the article that establishes the gender perspective and substantive equality as mandates for the new justice system had more than 2/3 approval. After that debate, in addition, we have had complementary bibliography that we have made available to the sectors that raised objections at the beginning. We hope that as this discussion progresses, they will understand and open up to an inescapable question: the feminist transformation of the State is inescapable, it is a fact.

What we have seen is that there is a sector within the right, which is not even able to express itself, that resists accepting the transformations that are underway, and there is another sector that we hope can rise to the democratic debate and the openness that is taking place in the Convention to incorporate these transformations with an extraordinarily high majority.

-Based on the above, do you think that the milestones that have occurred within the CC, such as the two women’s presidencies and various female leaderships, in addition to these advances that you mentioned in terms of gender, are going to permeate other political spaces? ?


-Transformations in this sense are here to stay. We have always said: we are here to stay and we will never return to second place. That is a commitment that we have made with ourselves, and also with future generations, with the girls of this country. We believe that what is going to make it possible for this to continue to be sustained, for the process of transformation to continue to deepen, is the same condition that makes transformation possible in other aspects of this social, economic, political and cultural order, which is social, popular mobilization. As long as the feminist movement continues to be a strong movement, as long as we continue to understand that the path we have opened is a long-term path, and we do not allow patriarchal inertia to return,

-The incoming government of President-elect Gabriel Boric, who formally takes office on Friday, has defined itself as a feminist government. What are the expectations of that and how important is it that for the first time a government defines itself as such?


-I am part of a sector of the feminist movement that campaigned for Gabriel Boric from autonomy, because we put two issues at the center: on the one hand, the need to block the path of the extreme right that declares war on women, poor people and sexual and gender difference; and on the other hand, to maintain and defend the constitutional process that we have opened. We have our hopes pinned on the feminist movement and on its ability to sustain –as we defined in the Plurinational Meeting of Women and Dissidences that Fight, this year – the feminist program regarding the work of the Government. Never again are we going to delegate to others the continuity of the transformations that we have set out to carry out, and we know that their depth also rests on our presence, on a presence that sustains the programmatic alert permanently, so that the promises that are contained in the government program, and which coincide with the program of the feminist program, materialize in fact.

Latin America, WOMEN'S EQUALITY

Medellín and Barcelona advance in the project “Without Rumors We Build a Culture of Peace”, to avoid prejudice and stigmatization of vulnerable populations

TOLERANCE AND SOLIDARITY .

An article by Yenifer Yepes Román for the Alcadía de Medellin

The Medellín Mayor’s Office, together with the Barcelona City Council, the Regional Corporation and social organizations are working on the construction of the project “Without Rumors We Build a Culture of Peace”, to counteract the transmission of disinformation, rumours, stereotypes and prejudices that affect human rights of people from vulnerable groups.


Photographer: Photo Mayor’s Office of Medellin

The strategy, which is now in its first phase, hopes to have a positive impact on LGTBIQ+ populations, women, Venezuelan migrants, the Afro-descendant population, indigenous people, the population with disabilities and peace activists who live in Medellín and in municipalities of the metropolitan area.

“In the components of this project we do research, training, and participatory construction to generate an Antirumor Network of citizen culture and culture of peace. We invite all social organizations that want to join this work to contact us at the Secretariat of Non-Violence and together we fight against the rumors that affect citizens”, said the technical director for the Internationalization of the Secretariat of Non-Violence, Juan Camilo López.

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(Click here for the original Spanish version of this article)

Question for this article

How can we reduce prejudice and exclusion?

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This process is expected to increase the capacities of community organizations, institutions, social and sectoral networks in the city to detect and deconstruct rumors and stereotypes that affect coexistence, citizen dialogues for peace, recognition of diversities and inequalities. between the population, and to promote the peaceful settlement of conflicts.

The project has four phases that will continue until April 2023 involving journalists, businessmen, social groups, public officials and citizens in general. It is expected to create a broad territorial and citizen Antirumor Network, with 10 social and community organizations. The work has already begun in the 6-Doce de Octubre commune, the 16-Belén commune and the San Cristóbal district.

“For us it is extremely important to participate in the project without rumors because people with HIV have been victimized by rumors since the 80s. , This topic generally does not appear in the scenarios of human rights”, expressed the project director of the Fundación Más que Tres Letras, Aron Zea.

The strategy is advanced, in an articulated manner, with the Barcelona City Council, which already has experience in anti-rumour pedagogical processes. In addition, the Regional Corporation and organizations such as the Picacho with a Future Corporation, young people from the Warmi Pacha collective, the La f@brica Foundation and the Foundation for Community Development (FDC) of Barcelona, ​​Spain, participate.

“This process is the best way in which we can contribute to establishing a culture of peace in Medellín. As a signatory, you would help us a lot to remove the stigma that has done us all so much harm and open up a more inclusive society,” said Wilmar Sucerquia, a signatory of the Peace Agreement.

The project invites citizens, when they see information that causes discrimination to stop for a moment, think, not share, assess the effect of its disclosure, invite reflection and, if necessary, denounce the message.

Latin America, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY

Colombia: Decriminalization of abortion is a triumph for human rights

. . HUMAN RIGHTS . .

An article from Amnesty International

The Colombian Constitutional Court’s ruling in favour of the decriminalization of abortion during the first 24 weeks of a pregnancy is a great triumph for human rights, said Amnesty International today.


Photo by: Daniel Romero/Long Visual Press/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

“We celebrate this ruling as a historic victory for the women’s movement in Colombia that has fought for decades for the recognition of their rights. Women, girls and people able to bear children are the only ones who should make decisions about their bodies. Now, instead of punishing them, the Colombian authorities will have to recognize their autonomy over their bodies and their life plans,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International.

“Following the legalization of abortion in Argentina last year and the recent decriminalization in Mexico, this ruling is yet another example of the unstoppable momentum of the green tide in Latin America. We will not stop fighting until the sexual and reproductive rights of all women, girls and people able to bear children are recognized in the entire continent, without exception.”

The Constitutional Court approved the ruling to decriminalize abortion today during the first 24 weeks of pregnancy, with five votes in favour and four against. After 24 weeks, legal abortion will continue to only be permitted in cases of a risk to the life or health of the pregnant person; the existence of life-threatening fetal malformations; or when the pregnancy is the result of rape, incest or non-consensual artificial insemination.

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(click here for the article in French or click here for the article in Spanish.).)

Question related to this article:

Abortion: is it a human right?

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“Although decriminalizing abortion in the first 24 weeks is a vital step forward for abortion rights in Colombia, and for Latin America and the Caribbean, no one should ever be criminalized for accessing an abortion. It’s vital that we keep pushing for full access to safe and legal abortion in all circumstances in Colombia and beyond,” added Erika Guevara-Rosas.

Despite being a fundamental right established by the Constitutional Court in Decree C-355 of 2006, access to abortion is currently unequal and limited in Colombia. It is estimated that currently in the country there are 400,400 abortions performed each year, and that less than 10% of these procedures are performed legally, with a high concentration of services in the biggest cities.

Legal abortion is not only much safer than clandestine abortion, but also the cost of its provision in Colombia, compared to care for incomplete abortion,  is much lower  when performed in top-level institutions, using the techniques recommended by the World Health Organisation.

The criminalization of abortion exacerbates inequalities between women. The vast majority of those reported for clandestine abortions in Colombia are those who live in rural areas and almost a third  of them are survivors of domestic violence, sexual violence or personal injury. Therefore, instead of framework with greater guarantees of human rights, a framework of persecution against the most vulnerable women has prevailed.

Moreover, the criminalization of abortion has generated fear and stigma in health care providers,  causing them to avoid providing the service  of termination of pregnancy for fear of the social and legal consequences they may face. 

For more information or to arrange an interview, contact: Duncan Tucker: duncan.tucker@amnesty.org

HUMAN RIGHTS, Latin America, WOMEN'S EQUALITY