A Call to End Persecution Against Women Globally by August 1, 2011

In countries around the world, women face conditions of persecution which cannot continue unabated on this planet. I call for an immediate end to all persecution against women globally.

One way in which patriarchal societies appear to reinforce their monopoly on power is through the use of violence against women. This violence includes honor killings, bride burnings, custodial rape, rape as a weapon of war, mandated rape, female infanticide, female genital mutilation, sexual trafficking, acid attacks, stoning, and many other forms of persecution, some at the hands of private citizens, allowed by government, and some at the hands of local or national governments themselves.

Acts of persecution against women must stop. The disenfrachisement of women, their inequitable employment conditions, prevention of their education, forced marriages – all of these conditions have no basis in natural law and are forbidden by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its subsidiary charters and conventions.

Governments who tolerate or participate in gender persecution place themselves outside the boundaries of human civilization.  This glaring blot on the human record cannot any longer be tolerated in societies that wish to have themselves be recognized as humane.

In the event that a deadline is needed to allow for a coordination of efforts, I call for a deadline of August 1, 2011, for all acts of violence and other forms of gender persecution to be verifiably ended on this planet.

For an examination of the circumstances of gender persecution globally, see the following website: Ending the Global Persecution of Women. (1)

Steve Beckow

Footnotes

(1) Located http://www.angelfire.com/space2/light11/women/index30.html