WUNRN
17-03-2009 International Committee of the Red Cross - Update
SRI LANKA -
ICRC continues to help civilians as crisis escalates
Fighting
continues between Sri Lankan government forces and the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam (LTTE), prompting growing fears for the lives of those trapped in
the conflict area. The ICRC has been bringing a little hope, evacuating the
sick and wounded and escorting boats carrying food and limited medicines.......
____________________________________________________________
CALL FOR SIGNATURES - SRI LANKA
WOMEN AGAINST WAR - STOP ABUSE OF
WOMEN
Women Against War! Stop
human rights abuse of women, and uphold gender equality and non-discrimination
in Sri Lanka. It will be sent to Sri
Lankan government: The President, Prime Minister, Secretary of Defense, Public
Security, Law and Order, Minister of Foreign Employment, Promotion and Welfare
Government Spokesman for National Security and Defence, and the UN agencies and
experts: UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN
Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, UN Special Rapporteur on the
situation of Human Rights Defenders.
Please send your endorsement to maeanne@apwld.org; riwwenpo@apwld.org
by Wednesday, 25 March.
Sri Lanka -
Women Against War!
Stop human rights abuse of women,
and uphold gender equality and
non-discrimination in
We
are deeply concerned of the gravity of humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka,
particularly in the north of Sri Lanka which has been reported on by the local
and international media, civil society organisations, International Committee
of the Red Cross and the UN including by the Secretary general and his senior
Humanitarian officer Sir John Holmes despite the denial and control of access
of media to the conflict zones by the Sri Lankan government.
According
to the Human Rights Watch, over the past two months, more than 2,000 civilians
have been killed in the conflict and thousands more injured, and currently some
150,000 civilians are at grave risk from fighting and aid shortages in the
northeast Sri Lanka. Many are dying because of lack of food and medicine, as
reported by the UN.
Those
who have been displaced by the conflict are experiencing violence and human
rights abuses on a daily basis. Their fundamental human rights such as right to
life are severely curtailed because of restricted movement, denial of
humanitarian assistance, lack of adequate food, water, sanitary conditions,
medical care, etc. by the Sri Lankan government.
We
are particularly concerned of the violence perpetrated against women, violation
of human rights of women, and discrimination against women in the crisis
situation in
UN
Security Council Resolution 1325 acknowledges that “civilians, particularly
women and children, account for the vast majority of those adversely affected
by armed conflict including as refugee and internally displaced persons, and
increasingly are targeted by combatants and armed elements”. In
CEDAW
General Recommendation 19 makes clear that gender-based violence which impairs
or nullifies “the right to equal protection according to humanitarian norms in
time of international or internal armed conflict” is prohibited by the
Convention which has been ratified by the government of
Paragraph
131 of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) on women and armed conflict
condemns gross violation of human rights in armed conflict including rape and
systematic rape of women, creating a mass exodus of refugees and displaced
persons, and states that perpetrators of such crimes must be punished.
The
UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, which set out the humanitarian
standards for providing assistance and protection to internally displaced
persons, explicitly prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in the
application of all of the Guiding Principles.
The
prolonged war in
Curtailment
of social services provided by the Government has had impact on women and men
in rural areas. It is reported by
National Fisheries Solidarity (NAFSO), Sri Lanka that women and men engaging
with small-scale fisheries lost their property and income due to restriction of
fishing areas and safety zones, armed groups snatching the catch of fisher
women and men, increased check points affecting the smooth transportation of
fish, increasing costs of living such as oil and food.
Lack
of commitment to implementation of policies to improve gender equality
negatively affects women in terms of accessing to education, employment
opportunities, social security entitlement, etc. On top of those disadvantages
women have shouldered additional roles and responsibilities to cope with the
deteriorating living condition by taking care of sick or injured family members,
taking informal waged work to cover additional expenses, etc.
A woman in Trincomalee is struggling for
her life and her three children by herself after losing her husband on the sea
allegedly killed by the navy. She sells hoppers and pittu for people’s
breakfast. Widening high security zone reaching to the forest near her
community does not allow her any more to collect fire wood and some food items
from the forest causing her to lose her livelihood and adding to her burden.
A
Muslim woman in Ampara has to travel 25 km from her home to work as domestic
helper of a restaurant after her husband lost his livelihood as fisherman due
to the national security measures set in force in the area which forbid him to
go fishing. She has to go through four check points to go to work and come home
everyday. As a Muslim woman she is blamed and harassed for traveling by herself
and engaging in this kind of job. The mosque also urged her to stop doing the
job. She was depressed but has to keep herself up and sustain her family.
We
emphasise that “Peace is inextricably linked with equality between women and
men and development” (para 113, Women and Armed Conflict, BPFA, 1995) and call
upon Sri Lankan government and LTTE to immediately declare ceasefire, seriously engage in peace talks
to arrive at a negotiated political settlement and strategically address the
fundamental root causes of the armed conflict which has been raging for decades
now in Sri Lanka costing thousands of people’s lives.
We
call upon the Government to:
§
immediately
declare its willingness to a cessation of hostilities with the LTTE in order to
facilitate an emergency evacuation of civilians trapped in the conflict zones
of the Vanni;
§
ensure
urgent delivery of food, water and medical supplies to IDP camps without
discrimination based on sex;
§
ensure
the needs of women, particularly in rural area in service provision;
§
investigate
and bring justice to every human rights violation;
§
support
women’s peace efforts and promote women’s leadership in community mobilisation;
and
§
ensure
women’s participation in decision making processes at all levels.
We
call on the international community to:
§
uphold
gender equality in human rights protection and humanitarian aid work; and
§
ensure
incorporation of gender dimension in investigating and reporting the situation
of armed conflict in
================================================================
To contact the list administrator, or to leave the list, send an email to:
wunrn_listserve-request@lists.wunrn.com. Thank you.