Stop Femicide!
4325 Mylan Rd
Richmond, VA 23223
Policy Analysis & Advocacy
I-VAWA Reintroduced by Senators Boxer and Kerry
Photo by Alexandra Robinson (c)
At a Feb, 2010 press event on Capitol Hill, Senators Boxer and Kerry re-introduced the International Violence Against Women Act. For more about this important step, go to www.WomenThrive.org to learn about coalition built for the advocacy work related to I-VAWA.
Photo: Photo by Alexandra Robinson (c)
At this important event, a number of women from different countries spoke of their own perspectives and experiences related to violence against women, note the photograph of the indigenous woman in the background of the above photo. This image captures the global complexities and the universal experience of violence against women. It touches us all, reaching from the Middle East to Central America and beyond!
22 January 2010: Group Briefs US Department of State
In a follow-up to our White House visit, we made a briefing to US Ambassador Melanne Verveer. Ambassador Verveer's own background in non-governmental organizations committed to human rights and women's issues was clear when she responded to our questions and answers with insight about cause-advocacy and relationship building.
Ambassador Verveer is the Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues.
Left to Right: Karen Smith Rotabi, Irene F. Marr (US Foreign Affairs Officer), Priscilla Witwer, Ambassador Melanne Verveer, Janett Forte, Denise Gammonley, and Amanda Martin & Kelsey Alford-Jones (Guatemala Human Rights Commission)
A visit to Washington, DC focusing on the White House and Capitol Hill
After-delegation Action: Policy Advocacy!
All participants of the August 2009 Violence Against Women delegation made a commitment to at least three specific action steps upon return to the US. Janett Forte, Director of the Virginia Commonwealth University Institute for Women's Health, took action by organizing a briefing at the White House. On November 6, 2009, we presented delegation findings to White House advisor on violence against women, Lyn Rosenthal. That briefing focused on the facts of violence against women and femicide in addition to recommendations.
After the White House visit, the above group split into a House of Representative Team and a Senate Team. Each group visited critical offices on Capitol Hill make educational briefings about violence against women and femicide in Guatemala. The focal point of this policy advocacy work and awareness raising was the International Violence Against Women Act. If passed, this legislation will eventually lead to the recognition of certain nations for priority funding. Obviously, Guatemala should be a priority given its rate of femicide being the worst in the Western Hemisphere.
CONGRESSIONAL RESOLUTION:
A resolution expressing the sympathy of the Senate to the families of women and girls murdered in Guatemala, and encouraging the United States to work with Guatemala to bring an end to these crimes. S. Res. 178, 110th Cong., 2nd Sess. (2007).
A critical action step is policy advocacy.
Our focal point, at this time, is the International Violence Against Women Act (I-VAWA) which, if passed, may be one way in which to fund Guatemala as a priority nation for programming aimed at responding to violence against women.
Amanda Martin is the Executive Director of the Human Rights Commission (GHRC) and Kelsey Alford-Jones is Program Associate with GHRC. Our teamwork as advocates, many of us coming from the academic community, would be impossible without their persistent planning, guidance, and thoughtful feedback about delegate after-actions.
< Photographed left are:
Janett Forte, Debbie Haynes, Carmen Williams, Amanda Martin, Karen Smith Rotabi, Abby Dini, Kelsey Alford-Jones, Ruth Micklen, Christine Morin, Mildred Ann Crittenden, Debra Rodman, Roselyn Costantino, Beth Leftwich, and Emily Willard
4325 Mylan Rd
Richmond, VA 23223
