On February 23rd, Europe could pass a directive that would introduce strict pollution controls and stop the flow of deadly tar sands oil into the EU. But 5 countries are blocking this crucial law.

Tar sands oil destroys forests, lakes, and emits 25% more carbon pollution than other oil. But for Canada it is a money making bonanza, and the government and big oil companies are ferociously lobbying Europe to open the flood gates to this black gold. Right now the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain are caving to pressure, but if we can get just 3 of them to put people and the planet before oil profits, we can win!

TAKE ACTION NOW:

Urge European member states to support the vote in favour of the directive to classify tar sands oil as highly polluting at Avaaz online!

LEARN MORE:

Peace Laureates urge EU heads of state: no tar sands oil, Nobel Women’s Initiative, February23, 2012.

Canada threatens retaliation, CTV News, February 20, 2012.

In the letter the Laureates urge the heads of state to support the policy, in spite of lobbying from the oil industry and the Canadian government to weaken it.

View a PDF of the letter.

Read the text of the letter below.

We—a group of Nobel Peace Laureates—are writing today to ask you to do the right thing for our environment and support the European Commission’s effort to keep highly polluting tar sands oil out of Europe.

Climate change is the gravest threat to the wellbeing of our planet. We now stand at a turning point.  The Fuel Quality Directive proposed by the European Commission is an example of a policy that, if implemented properly, can move us away from our destructive dependence on oil, coal and natural gas to renewable energy sources and clean transportation sources.  It is designed to help Europeans make cleaner fuel choices.

Tar sand development is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions in Canada, and threatens the health of the planet.  As the tar sands have contributed to rising emissions, Canada recently stepped away from the Kyoto Protocol.  Europe must not follow in Canada’s footsteps.

Dr. James Hansen, at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, has said that unrestricted exploitation of high carbon tar sand oil would mean “game over for the climate”.

Large reserves of tar sands exist in Canada, Madagascar, Russia and Venezuela.  In Canada, production of tar sand oil is not only contributing to climate change, but is also causing widespread environmental damage and harm to local people and aboriginal communities.  The production process has polluted the Athabasca River, poisoned the air with toxins and turned farmland into wasteland.  Large areas of the boreal forest have been cut down to make way for tar sand mining.

For these reasons we commend President Obama’s decision to reject the proposal to build the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have dramatically increased the amount of tar sands oil produced and transported from Canada to the United States.

We urge you to support the European Commission’s proposal and say no to highly polluting tar sands oil—in favor of cleaner fuels.

Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate (1976)—Ireland

Betty Williams, Nobel Peace Laureate (1976)—Ireland

Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Nobel Peace Laureate (1980)—Argentina

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Laureate (1984)—South Africa

Rigoberta Menchú Tum, Nobel Peace Laureate (1992)—Guatemala

Jody Williams, Nobel Peace Laureate (1997)—USA

Shirin Ebadi, Nobel Peace Laureate (2003)—Iran

Keep scrolling to see all…

Click here to see #Defensoras on Twitter

A little snapshot for you:

When a small group of us went to San Miguel Ixtahuacan in San Marcos, we meet with a group of around twenty women and a few men to hear their testimonies about mining in the area. We gathered in a meeting hall belonging to the Catholic church. The church in San Marcos has been very vocal opposing mining, and we had just had breakfast with the local priest. We were greeted by marimba music, and a beautiful circle with candles ready to be lit on the floor, incense was burning. The priest and a nun joined in with the Mayan blessing and lighting of candles.

Then, we were invited to take song sheets and one woman played the guitar and led us in an unusual “hymn” which we wanted to share with you.

Upward and onward!

View photos from the visit here.

Was it You, who sent the miners?

They violate the womb of Mother Earth.
They take the gold, destroy the hills.
A gram of blood is worth more than a thousand kilos of gold.

CHORUS:
What is happening to my people?
And you, my God, where are you hiding?
 We are paralyzed by fear.
My people are sold out and they don’t realize it.

Water is becoming scarce, it is the color of hell.
Polluted air rises to the sky.
We seek miracles – in the final hour,
Seeking to heal the sick and the mortal damage.

Poor people are easy to buy off.
Gifts silence suspicions and doubts.
The salaries are taken to the bars in town,
Leaving behind dark homes and my people divided.

You created a garden – not a desert.
We want progress with respect for the environment.
The hunger for gold eats more and more earth.
And you, my God, must ask:
What are my people doing?

by Veronica Arreola, activist blogger, University of Illinois at Chicago

Guatemala is a country struggling to deal with its bloody past in order to move into the future. The internal conflict of the 1980s resulted in the extinction of over 300 Mayan villages. Former President Efraín Ríos Montt was recently ordered to stand trial on charges of genocide based on his command of the Guatemalan military that carried out a scorched earth strategy.  Despite the overwhelming evidence, most based on a truth commission begun after the 1996 peace accord, many in Guatemala deny any genocide occurred.

The evidence is laid out in a 2012 documentary, Granito: How to Nail a Dictator, which was directed by a fellow delegate Pamela Yates. In Granito, Yates discusses how bits of her filming of the Guatemalan civil war in the 1980s was used as evidence in the Rios Montt trial, including a damning clip of him boasting about having total control of the military. Also in Granito is a scene about the discovery of a secret archive, now called the Historic Archives of the National Police (Archivos Históricos de la Policia Nacional, also know as the AHPN), containing mountains of paperwork detailing the atrocities committed by the police. I immediately thought of a public administration classmate of mine. One of Andy’s interests is “administrative evil” and how it could be predicted. I heard him talk about it last year and the more he talked, the more it intrigued me.

Within days I found myself at the Historic Archives of the National Police standing next to a pile of papers taller than I am. Our tour guide started us in a room where papers are still in bundles. It was like a scene from “Indiana Jones.” Creepy and exhilarating. “So much information is here…at my feet,” I thought.

Then he told me what would become the factoid for the entire trip.

The women who worked at the archive were sent there as punishment for refusing sexual harassment and advances. While at the archive, the women did an excellent job at sorting the massive piles of paperwork that came in. Sure they just piled them onto each other, but it could had been worse. Thus, instead of finding a treasure trove of paper stacked upon paper, investigators found neatly bundled papers, some labeled by month and year, stacked upon each other. Can you imagine the time saved by archivists by this one radical act of organization? I love that the women sent there as punishment made it easier for forensic archivists to do their work. Their work may result in criminal convictions, but perhaps more importantly it will certainly resolve the whereabouts of thousands of disappeared Guatemalans.

I get a lot of chuckles and weird looks when I tell people that I am studying public administration or how the bureaucracy works or doesn’t work. I am curious about what happens after policy and laws are written. I am curious about that grey area between what the words say in a law and the reality people operate in. The question of how much discretion one has as a public administrator is hotly debated in our classes. What do you do when the law says one thing, but you see a bit of wiggle room to do what you think is “the right thing?” The trip to the Historic Archives of the National Police gave me a tangible example of bureaucracy in action. For thirty years the horror of war and genocide were documented neatly on pieces of paper. Twenty years later those same bits of red tape are being used to build a case against a dictator. And that’s nothing to laugh about.

View photos of the delegation’s visit to the Archivos Históricos de la Policia Nacional of Guatemala.

Women Under Siege breaks down how rape and other forms of sexualized violence are used as tools in genocide and conflict throughout the 20th century and into the 21st. This project works from the belief that understanding what has happened from the Holocaust onward might have helped us to prevent or prepare for the mass sexual assaults of other conflicts.

The project has developed an action plan around this concept to push for a development of legal, diplomatic, and public interventions. The goal is to ensure the United Nations, international tribunals and other bodies of power understand the extent to which sexual violence is being used as a tool, and are taking adequate actions to halt the use of sexual violence.

The new web site will include analyses of how sexual violence is used in war, whether to humiliate, ethnically cleanse, retaliate, or for other motives. It also includes survivor testimonies of women from the Holocaust to those in Rwanda, Darfur, Libya, and many more countries where conflict is rampant.

LEARN MORE:

Check out the new web site Women Under Siege

Lauren Wolfe from Women’s Media Center has written in her personal blog about the release of the project. Read it here!

At least one hundred international human rights groups and more than two hundred women’s rights groups and individual women activists from Central America are calling for immediate and effective protection for Norma Andrade and her family. They are also criticizing the Mexican Government for not implementing security measures that they had committed to over a month ago.  They will soon be sending a letter to the Mexican government outlining their concerns.

Norma is the founder of Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa (NHRC), or May Our Daughters Return Home.  She was attacked on February 3^rd in Mexico City. A man approached Norma and used a knife to slash her face while she was with her granddaughter. She is currently in the hospital receiving treatment for the two-inch wound.

This is the second attack on Norma’s life.  The first attack occurred in Ciudad Juarez two months ago, when an unknown assailant attacked her at her home.  Shortly afterwards she moved to Mexico City for her safety. Human Rights organizations condemn both attacks and believe that they are directly related to Norma’s fight for justice.

In the past two and a half years, five Mexican human rights activists have been killed while twelve others have left the country. Norma’s own daughter and current President of NHRC, Maria Luisa, had to leave Ciudad Juarez after her house was intentionally set on fire one year ago.

Since 2008 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has put pressure on the Mexican government to provide protection for four members of Norma’s organization, Nuestra Hijas, including Norma. However the government has failed to do so despite the first attack on Norma two months ago.

View a PDF of the call for protection in English

View a PDF of the call for protection in Spanish

READ MORE:

Mexican Human Rights Activist’s Norma Andrade Face Slashed by Attacker, Hispanically Speaking News, 4 February 2012

Slasher attacks Ciudad Juarez activist who was shot previously, Los Angeles Times, 3 February 2012

TAKE ACTION:

Write a letter here to President Felipe Calderon urging the Mexican government to bring Norma’s attackers to justice.

Urge the Minister of Interior by sending him a letter here calling for effective protection for Norma.

Write to the Mexican embassy in your country to ask for immediate and effective measures of protection for Norma and her family.

Sign here the petition by Amnesty International Mexico (in Spanish).

Full-time, 20 week paid internship (late February to mid-July 2012)

BACKGROUND:

The Nobel Women’s Initiative uses the prestige of the Nobel Peace Prize and six courageous women peace laureates to magnify the power and visibility of women working in countries around the world for peace, justice and equality. The Nobel Women’s Initiative was founded in 2006 by Jody Williams, USA; Shirin Ebadi, Iran; Wangari Maathai, Kenya; Betty Williams, Ireland; Mairead Maguire, Ireland; and Rigoberta Menchu Tum, Guatemala. Aung San Suu Kyi joined as an honorary member in 2010. The Nobel Women’s Initiative is based in Ottawa, Ontario.

Nobel Women’s Initiative Interns are given substantive responsibilities, ranging from researching women’s rights and human rights issues to helping Nobel Women’s Initiative plan events and manage daily administration. This intern, based in the Ottawa office, will be responsible for a variety of digital skills-based tasks supporting the advocacy, policy and media teams at the Nobel Women’s Initiative.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

The Online Advocacy & Outreach intern will undertake the following responsibilities:

Support the International Campaign to Stop Rape & Gender Violence in Conflict through:

• Research software / vendor options for integrated advocacy and membership management tool
• Assist in implementation of software for this tool
• Assist in the establishment of an online advocacy campaign using sophisticated integrated social media software that will effectively disseminate calls to action
• Populate and manage the database of online supporters
• Prepare training documents for new software
• Assist in the development of a Campaign website
• Assist in the development of an online social media presence, using tools such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other key sites

Support the Media and Communications Program of the organization by:

• Online media searches for topics important to Nobel Women’s Initiative work (Burma, Iran, Sudan, Israel and Palestine, Mexico and Central America, climate change, nuclear disarmament, women’s rights, sexual violence in conflict)
• Updating of the Nobel Women’s Initiative website and other social media tools through developing new content, updating existing content and working with the website coordinator to advance general updates.
• Updating of the Nobel Women’s Initiative media database and maintaining of media clippings filings.

Support the general operations and administration of the Organization through:

• Administrative support for effective functioning of the Nobel Women’s Initiative office (filing, faxing, mail-outs, etc)
• Administrative and logistical support for Nobel Women’s Initiative projects, meetings and events

Program Qualifications

To participate in this Digital Skills Youth Internship Program, individuals must meet all criteria. Are you eligible?

• I am between 15 and 30 years of age (inclusive) at the time of placement;
• I am a post-secondary graduate;
• I am unemployed or underemployed at the time of placement;
• I am out of school;
• I am a Canadian citizen or permanent resident;
• I am legally entitled to work according to the relevant provincial/territorial legislation and regulations; and
• I am not in receipt of employment insurance (EI) benefits;
• If selected and determined to meet the eligibility criteria of the program, I will be offered the position pending a satisfactory result on a Police Record Check. This will be completed through the YMCA’s contracted provider, at no cost to the youth. Once this step is complete, additional hiring documents will be required to complete the process (employment contract, tax forms, and direct deposit forms).
• The intern must be fluent in English and fluency in French would be a definite asset.

A university degree or college diploma is also a requirement.

REQUIREMENTS:

• Social justice experience and a strong desire to work for a more peaceful, just world
• Excellent English written and oral communication skills
• Strong research skills
• Strong computer skills, particularly with database experience
• Experience with social media tools
• The ability to take initiative on projects and work independently
• The ability to be creative, flexible and adaptable

Compensation: $16/hour, 40 hours per week

To apply for this position, or to learn more, please visit the following website:

https://www.dyip.ca/dyip_admin/_dyip_apply/application/index.php?l=en&dyip_interest=y

CLOSING DATE:  Monday, February 13 at 5pm EST