Thank you for urging Canada not to betray rape survivors

I got this from Amnesty International: 

 http://e-activist.com/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1770&ea.campaign.id=19000&ea.url.id=149699&ea.campaigner.email=4PH318B4QP8bTUURO9nMPBFFMe9grgD0&ea_broadcast_target_id=0

Canada's compromise at the UN leaves work to be done
 

	A teenage mother and baby in their shelter in the DRC.  She gave birth after she was raped by armed men

Thank you for signing our appeal to keep Canada from back-sliding on its leadership role in protecting woman who are victims of rape.

We can report back on some moderate success from last Friday's resolution at the United Nations.

First of all, you spoke out. Canadians by the thousands told our government that we want stronger, not weaker, protection for women.

And second, the final text adopted on Friday does strike a certain balance. Among other things it includes very good language condemning marital rape and early and enforced marriage.

But it needed to go further.

While countries like the USA and South Africa took a principled stand, Canada, as the chair for the resolution, chose the path of compromise, at the expense of women who are victims of rape.

With pressure coming from countries like Iran, Egypt, Cuba and the Holy See, the compromise failed to include provisions for sexuality education for adolescents, which play a role in promoting gender equality, female empowerment, and reduction of gender-based violence.

The resolution does mention the need to provide sexual and reproductive health services to violence survivors, but it fails to list what services must be available, including emergency contraception, safe abortion, post-exposure prophylaxis for HIV, and screening and treatment for sexually transmitted infections. The provision of these critical services for survivors of sexual violence is contentious and nonexistent in many countries. That is why referencing these examples explicitly would have added tremendously to the resolution. 

Please read more about the results of the resolution.


As our we continue our efforts to protect the rights of women, I invite you to consider these additional actions:

- SIGN our online petition to Protect Sexual and Reproductive Rights. Petition

- WRITE to your Member of Parliament, asking her/him to help ensure that Canada works to strengthen provisions on sexual and reproductive rights at the upcoming Conference on Population and Development, to be held in April 2014.

- LEARN MORE about our global campaign to protect sexual and reproductive rights on our website

- SPREAD THE WORD on twitter using the hashtag #MyBodyMyRights

Thank you for keeping the pressure on Canada and helping secure the advances for women that were reached last Friday.

Sincerely,

Alex Neve
Secretary General, Amnesty International Canada


P.S. If you'd like to get more involved, please contact our Major Campaigns and Women’s Rights Campaigner Jacqueline Hansen (jhansen@amnesty.ca) for more information and action ideas!