The Business of Girls

This afternoon and evening I have heard story after story of unbelievable injustices and violence against young girls from around the world, including here in the United States where most people think things like that don't happen. So tonight's exhaustion is emotional. But, let me share here a couple of the stories, and then the hope of women who claim the power of God.
The picture above is of Roodnir Joseph from Haiti. She was a former "restavek." A "restavek" is basically a slave that works for a family without pay, but is allowed to live in the home. She works round the clock, is often beaten and sexually abused. Roodnir was taken at age 8 as a restavek and she was freed at age 14. Her parents gave her to someone who promised her a better life, and due to the poverty the family was living in, they thought it would be better for her. It was worse.
The mistresses are called "Aunties", but the abuse is often at the hands of the boys and husband in the family. Teachers also sexually exploit the children in exchange for good grades. Often the young girls are kidnapped and if the family does not provide the money for the release, the child is severely abused. She is here speaking out against the practice and asking her government to implement and follow through on laws that will protect her. She is hoping that help will come to Haiti addressing this problem and that a Tribunal will be set up to punish the perpetrators.

Draft Document

What most here at this Commission at the UN on the Status of Women are working on feverishly this week is to submit changes to the draft document of the 51st Session of the UNCSW. What it consists of are amendments to the document submitted by various Caucuses organizing themselves here at the UN. I have been working on the North American Caucus and the Peace Caucus. There are many perspectives represented here and many with specific agendas they would like to see passed at the UN, but all seem in agreement that the document prepared for the 51st Session is very weak in every area. So, there is great effort to make the language clear and direct, especially in the areas of violence and sex/slave trafficking.
Apparently, two of the best Caucuses as far as organization and decorum are the Middle Eastern Women's Caucus and the European Union. These women came prepared with the document and pre-written suggestions as to changes and the meeting were conducted efficiently and with great respect for one another. I am sad to say that the North American Caucus was unorganized, loud, and sometimes rude. Not everyone in the Caucus, because it was very large, acted in this manner, but I think there is great opportunity for change in the future. Of course, when one suggests change, one is asked to head up that change!
The North American Caucus offered several suggestions to re-word, add wording, or eliminate certain statements such as, calling on the UN to ratify the UN Protocol to prevent, suppress, and punish trafficking persons and insure that these protocols are incorporated into national law and become fully applicable in domestic legal systems. It also addresses forced marriage and early childbirth by mothers who are still children themselves. It addresses the need for access to free education for all girls, the elimination of Female Genital Mutilation (apparently a much larger problem internationally than I realized), urging strong action for the prevention and intervention of HID/AIDS, elimination and punishment of child labor practices, and the protection of girls in areas of armed conflict. Strong wording was implemented by the N.A. Caucus in the areas of violence against women in the US.
Our Peace Caucus formed this morning when various women involved in peace initiatives realized that there was almost nothing in the document regarding peace education, more forceful language regarding the forced drafting into armed conflict, and the rapes and sexual violence against girls and women before, during, and after times of armed conflict.
It is amazing to me how careful one must be. One word that can trigger our government to throw out the whole document, and how terrible it would be to not see the necessary changes because of our inability to know what our US Delegates will accept. And I can tell you that the US is barely engaged here officially at the UN. What I have learned here is appalling.
I am off now to a workshop on how Girls Can Become Social Change agents. Tonight I hope to write about the three girls we heard from this afternoon who have been involved in the sex slave trade and trafficking.

A Small Gathering of Women

A very few of us met with Nomfundo from South Africa for lunch today. She agreed to discuss with us what happened in Dar es Salaam last week regarding the Episcopal Church USA and the Anglican Communion. Nomfundo was at this meeting of the Primates as a lay delegate. I, for one, was glad to hear that there were lay delegates present since the make up of the Anglican/Episcopal Church is supposed to be run by the laity. I am going to present what is my understanding so far in "kitchen talk" language so as to make simple sense of the mess. There is more to it than what I am sharing here, and more complications, but I wanted to begin with a post to lay out something easy to grasp. We will be having a longer "conversation" with all the Anglican Women Delegates on Thursday night to listen to one another, something that the current Primates and Bishops seem unable to do.
It is interesting to hear about how the various bishops and Primates handled themselves. Katherine Jefferts Schori, as I have heard and seen myself, remains calm, peaceful, and focused. Others from the US are so angry that it fills the room and "bounces off the walls." There is manipulation, positioning, and definitely money in the mix of negotiations on the side. Akinola, the Nigerian Primate, along with Kenya, Uganda, and a couple of others, is leading the charge to "kick out" the Episcopal Church USA. The Primates (that word continues to make me laugh) in Africa do not necessarily represent the perspectives of the African Bishops. Where is Christ in this?
Nevertheless, some sort of committee has been formed to oversee those in the US who say they cannot commune with or be accountable to our current Presiding Bishop, Katherine Jefferts Schori. While much is being said that this division is over the blessing of same-sex unions, it is becoming more apparent that it is over the issue of the Presiding Bishop being female. There were those at Dar es Salaam that refused to take the Eucharist with her. I am appalled that we have come to this. The egos involved here are taking up too much space. So, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, appointed a committee to oversee these "defectors." I am glad to see that he is making sure that they still have to answer to someone. Although, there is concern that the chair of this committee may not be the greatest choice in having the wisdom to handle Akinola and the departing US Bishops. The US Presiding Bishop pointed out a couple of times that the Canons governing the US Church are different from those governing the Anglican Communion, and no canon law has been broken.
As I have not studied the issues in depth enough to take a charted course through all of this, my main question to Nomfundo was, "If the Anglican Communion no longer recognizes the Episcopal Church USA, then what will happen to this gathering of Anglican women from around the world working on issues such as the trafficking of young girls, violence, poverty, war, immigration, homelessness, etc.? Will we no longer work together but as separate entities? Is not Christ at our center rather than division and hatred?
Nomfundo said she feels confident that the Anglican Women's Group will continue to be together. My prayer is that the women will show the true unity of the church by being about Christ's call even if we don't agree with one another all the time. I am hoping we can lead the way to reconciliation because if the church cannot reconcile and goes to work with itself, how can we ever expect the world to listen to Christ's message of love and peace without laughing at the hypocrisy of it all? We stand to loose so much in this. I hope the Primates remember this is our church and most of us, in America and in Africa, want it to stay together.

The Beijing Platform for Action

Areas of concern for the advancement of women and the societies in which they live.

1. Women and poverty;
   
2. Education and training of women;
3. Women and helath;
4. Violence against women;
5. Women and armed conflict;
6. Women and the economy;
7. Women in power and decision-making;
8. Institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women;
9. Human rights of women;
10. Women and the media;
11. Women and the environment;
12. The girl child (the theme of 2007).
    

The Millennium Developmental Goals

Adopted unanimously by member states in 2000.
Targets to be reached by 2015

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger;
2. Achieve universal primary education;
3. Promote gender equality and empower women;
4. Reduce child mortality;
5. Improve maternal health;
6. Combat HIV?AIDS, Malaria and other diseases;
7. Ensure environmental sustainability;
8. Develop a Global Partnership for Development.

The City that Never Sleeps and Neither Do I

After 12 hours of Plenary Sessions, Briefings, listening to interpreters, deciphering numerous schedules, and reviewing summaries, I am full of what I don't have time to write about, but will share highlights.
We began the day with Morning Prayer in the UN Church Center. Each day a different denomination will lead prayer, and this day was Anglican. Scriptures were read in the readers native language and then read again in English. Here is a picture of the Chapel:


The opening session was impressive merely from the realization that "Wow, I am in the UN as a delegate," and how that hits you when you walk into the Conference room brimming with people of all color, religions, languages, and dress. There we are, inches from one another while many of our people are at war with one another overseas. I watch the women from Sudan, the Congo, and many places in Africa and wonder what they have sacrificed to get there. I didn't see if Iraq was represented. It's snowing here in New York and many flights were cancelled and delegates were not there to speak. I hope they will still be heard.

It is interesting to note for you that the US is the only developed country that has NOT ratified the The Convention of the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. More on that later...and there are very few US Caucuses or involvement on a governmental level, although there is a delegation.

At many of our debriefings at the end of the day, we hear from the women of other countries about their concern for the US and how we should not be going overseas to "help" so much any more, but we need to pay attention to what is happening in our own country as we seems to be going backwards.

Connections

Today went much more smoothly as all the Anglican women gathered in the chapel at the Episcopal Church Center, 815 Second Avenue, near our hotel. There were almost a hundred delegates from around the world, plus a few women who came from other NGO's. With the tension in the air about what happened at the Primates meeting in Tanzania, many women had questions about that and if there was going to be any frank discussion. I'm not sure if there will be, but there is a common binding thread of our mission to "eliminate all forms of violence and discrimination against the girl child" that is to be our main focus. If we are not unified, I don't see how we can collectively address it. How quickly we forget that the force of evil has its power when it can divide and conquer.

Fortunately, this morning there was more time spent on a formal orientation for us all. Mary Roodkowsky from UNICEF gave an excellent presentation on why Anglican women are involved at the UN, which many of us first timers were wondering ourselves. Here is a brief overview of what she had to say:
We are here for the Church
a)to build awareness of issues on the international agenda and of strategies being used,
b)to create a truly international perspective,
c) to create solidarity among women from many nations/ethnicities/church experiences, and
d) to help build targeted strategic thinking

Why we (AWE)are good for the UN:
a)builds support for global goals,
b) creates and awareness at UN of issues as seen by the church,
c)increases government appreciation of reach and organization of civil society,
d) enriches dialogue by bringing new perpectives, and
e)encourages delegations' accountabilities

The Anglican Women's Empowerment(AWE)group is an accredited NGO and therefore we can:
a)observe the meetings at UN,
b)present written/oral statements,
c)meet official government delegations,
d)lobby delegations in the context of negotiations of agreed conclusion and resolutions, and
e)organize parallel events during the session

She mentioned that protesting at the UN is pointless. The UN delegates are not decision makers, they must call their governments for instructions regarding every vote and decision. The place we are most effective is in our own communities and supporting women in other communities.

We were then partnered through the AWE-net with someone from another country. My partner had not yet arrived, but I met her briefly at tonight's ceremony at Trinity Wall Street. I hear she is an amazing woman. Her name is Dr. Jenny Te Paa from New Zealand.

Since Dr. Te Paa hadn't arrived yet, I was invited to join Joanne from California, formerly with the World Health Organization, and Jesusa Zena T. Caytap from the Philippines. We had lunch together, and heard from Zena about her role as a youthworker in her church. Apparently, the Filipino Episcopal Church was a part of the Episcopal Church USA until the 90s. Her grandfather had been a priest, as well as her father, and now she is considering pursuing the priesthood, too. Here is a picture of Zena.

TRINITY WALL STREET

The highlight of the day was the ceremony at Trinity Wall Street, "Girls Claiming the Future: Hopes and Challenges." it was a celebration of the Anglican Delegates to the 2007 United Nations Commission on the Status of Women and Global Issues of The Girl Child. You can watch the telecast of this ceremony at www.trinitywallstreet.org for the next four weeks. Here are some highlights from the ceremony:

The opening procession was Girl Choristers from New York Episcopal Parishes, which showed the ethnic diversity of the city. The Anglican Girl Delegates to the UNCSW also processed and were part of a panel that questioned some of the leaders in global women's work. Here is a photo of the Girl Delegates (at the Episcopal Church Center):


Missing are a couple of girls, most notably Kaimana Mauai from Standing Rock Reservation who has been to one of our Legacy camps!

A girl speaker's emotions overcame her at the end and her question to The Presiding Bishop, Katherine Jefferts Schori was, "How will the church help girls who are abused and what are they going to do?" This is where I became very impressed with The Presiding Bishop. She saw a girl's pain and stood up to answer her question, taking hold of her hand, looking only at her, and as if the entire rest of the cathedral vanished and she spoke, really spoke, directly to her with such compassion and love, that many of us started crying. I watched throughout the remainder of the service and Katherine Jefferts Schori kept hold of her hand, and was speaking closely with her afterwards. I wonder what transpired, but when I saw her in the lobby of the hotel tonight, I saw a different girl. When I first met her yesterday, she would not look at anyone, was shy, couldn't talk much, and kept herself apart. Tonight she boldly walked up to us and said hello as she was leaving to go see Times Square with the other teens. Her story was the story of many girls around teh world, including the United States, and her words are now spoken out there and will carry far. I will await to see what becomes of her, because by the grace of God she has lived to tell her story, and she is on her way to making a change for other girls just like her.

There is so much more I want to share, but it is midnight and I really need some rest. I am hoping the photos I took will remind me later of the rest of the story...