In The Diaspora
Alissa Trotz is Editor of the In the Diaspora Column
Two weeks ago, an international delegation of human rights and feminist organizations representing countries from Latin America, Canada, Spain and the United States, traveled to Honduras on a fact-finding mission during Women’s Human Rights Week, to document the violation of women’s rights in the context of the coup of June 28 that deposed democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya. Between August 17-21, they interviewed women and members of various organizations involved in resistance to the coup, and took testimonies from victims of military and police brutality. The delegation, consisting of activists, journalists, researchers and legal experts, was convened by a number of organizations in and outside of Honduras: Honduran Feminists in Resistance; Feminist Radio International Endeavor (FIRE); Just Associates (JASS), Consortium for Parliamentary Dialogue and Equality; and the Nobel Women’s Initiative.
In their preliminary report, the Observatorio de la Transgresión Feminista (Feminist Transformation Watch) noted the central role of women in daily street marches and demonstrations rejecting the de facto regime of Roberto Micheletti and calling for the return of President Manuel Zelaya. They noted the increasing use of violence by the military and police against demonstrators, and that women were being targeted in specific and all too predictable ways. One news report described acts of sexual aggression against women, “ranging from verbal obscenities and threats to women being grabbed or beaten with batons in their buttocks, to torture and rape in detention”. In one reported incident, women who were demonstrating outside the Institute of Women against the policies of the newly installed Minister of Women (who has refused to hear any complaints of the violations of women’s human rights following the coup), found themselves on the receiving end of the baton wielding military who she called in to dismantle the protest. Given the fact that so many of the testimonies have implicated the military and police as perpetrators, women have been understandably reluctant to file reports. In a situation that Guyanese can surely sympathise with at present, what do you do when those entrusted with the ‘legitimate use of force’ and with people’s security and safety are among those that you fear?
The preliminary findings also noted that the Special Prosecutor for Women confirmed that 51 women were murdered in July alone, the month immediately following the coup, an increase in woman murders of at least 60%.
One of the groups that convened the Observatorio, the Nobel Women’s Initiative (United for Peace with Justice and Solidarity) was founded by laureates Betty Williams (Ireland, 1976), Mairead Maguire (Ireland, 1976), Rigoberta Menchu (Guatemala, 1992), Jody Williams (USA, 1997), Shirin Ebadi (Iran, 2003) and Wangari Maathai (Kenya, 2004). In a statement, they expressed solidarity with the Honduran people in their struggle to restore democracy and the rule of law, and explicitly noted the dangers to women:
“The escalation and protraction of the conflict and the suspension of democratic institutions in Honduras increase the risk of violence and human rights violations. Women are often the ones most at risk in situations of conflict. Under the de facto regime, members of the police and the military attack women and new cases of femicide take place in a climate of total impunity. Women’s organizations are under surveillance and members’ lives continue to be threatened as they seek to implement strategies of non-violent resistance to repression and demand a return to the rule of law, an end to violence and respect for human rights.”
The singling out of women in times of conflict is not new. In the more visible wars, men tend to dominate the body count, a statistic that often leads us to overlook the kinds of ways in which women are caught up in the violence. In Haiti, another country in our hemisphere where a coup was sanctioned five years ago with the blessing of the US, French and Canadian governments, human rights and other reports have gathered testimonies from survivors and witnesses which have clearly established the use of sexual assault as a political weapon (and although recent reports from the Congo have begun to document the sexual victimization and humiliation of men, it is still largely women who are sexually targeted first and most extensively in conflict). It is a political weapon because such assaults are used to attack the communities or political positions with which the targeted women are identified.
Women are frequently seen as mothers of the nation or stereotypically presumed to be apolitical. Across Latin America during the dictatorship years, these assumptions tended in the beginning to provide some cover for the emergence of women’s groups that took to the streets to protest the disappearance of loved ones by the state. The targeting of traditional groups through which men were assumed to act, like trade unions and political parties, led to women organizing in the public domain. The most famous of these was Las Madres de Plaza de Mayo in Argentina, but there was also Comadres in El Salvador and Conavigua in Guatemala. And while the disappearance of family members led to the politicization of motherhood – and the waking up of the world to the atrocities – in ways that the authoritarian Latin American states did not imagine, it did not protect so many of the women, who were targeted, tortured, subjected to sexual assaults, punished for their opposition, but also for daring to become disobedient subjects who refused to be ‘proper’ women, to stay at home. Aware of this tradition, having experienced it intimately themselves, women in Honduras are taking to the streets to oppose the latest attempt to turn the clock back. They are refusing to be silenced by continuing to put their bodies on the line, despite the fact that it appears increasingly dangerous to do so.
The mainstream media has also played its part in silencing the women. In the United States, in contrast to the extensive and outraged press coverage given to the outcome of the recent Iranian presidential elections, there has been less and less attention to the continuing abuse of power in Honduras, a double standard that is no doubt related to the fact that US secretary of State Hillary Clinton refuses to call June 28 a coup, and continues to meet with the de facto government of Roberto Micheletti.
And yet, amidst increasing intimidation and an attempted conspiracy of silence supported by a local and international media blackout that would seek to deny that a coup took place, Honduran women are refusing to back down. Through solidarity actions in Honduras, as well as with feminists and other organizations internationally, they are ensuring that their stories be told beyond their borders. The international fact-finding mission is now preparing a final report that it intends to submit to the Inter-American Human Rights Commission. They have also formed a permanent Observatorio or Watch that will continue to collect evidence of the ongoing suspension of rights since the coup. Meanwhile, on the streets of Honduras, the struggle continues. As they march, women are reportedly shouting “No more coups (golpes) and no more golpes (beatings) of women!” Their participation in non-violent collective actions to demonstrate their ongoing opposition to the illegal regime of Roberto Micheletti continues. As the women chant on the street and know only too well, “nos tienen miedo porque no tenemos miedo” (they fear us because we are not afraid). And because, after all, they will not go away.
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