Source: http://16dayscwgl.rutgers.edu/2015-campaign/2015-theme

2015 THEME ANNOUNCEMENT

“From Peace in the Home to Peace in the World: Make Education Safe for All!”

The year 2015 marks the 24th year of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence Campaign, initiated in 1991 and coordinated by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership. Participation in the Campaign has seen over 5,478 organizations, policymakers, governments, UN agencies and countless individuals from over 180 countries worldwide. Together we have brought attention to issues of racism, sexism, cultures of violence, homophobia and called for the implementation of human rights obligations, including the right to health and reproductive rights, and end to militarism and gender-based violence, among others. The strength and longevity of the Campaign is due to these thousands of participants like you.

Source: http://www.genderit.org/articles/legacy-how-gender-built-way-we-discuss-and-use-technology

By Sonia Randhawa

This article is part of a special GenderIT.org edition to commemorate the life and work of academic, activist, feminist and, for many of us, friend Heike Jensen.

One of the main threads running through Heike’s work was a challenge to the dominant narrative of a benign gender-neutral technology, that is both a-political and without structural bias. Resisting dichotomies that posed problems in zero-sum terms, a pay-off between rights and security, for instance, led to looking at the ways in which the debates around issues such as censorship and privacy are constructed, and challenging the bases of the debates themselves. By probing the manner in which gender is built into the way we discuss and use technology, her articles are helping us evolve new ways of imagining a feminist internet.

In this article, GenderIT.org talks with Anita Gurumurthy from IT For Change about gender and privacy. Anita worked with Heike in the Gender and Citizenship in the Information Society research programme.

By Luz Maria Martinez

It felt like we were all there on a mission — to be heard, to tell the world we are here this is how we think, dance, paint, talk, dress but our issues are interconnected.

The 4th Women's World Conference, 1995 in Beijing, China officially turns 20 in September 2015. So not only has this year been a year of review but it is also a time for retrospection about what and who we were in 1995. For me, this hindsight is like a trailer for an up and coming film on a fast forward button.

Where to begin? When in doubt, mid-way always works.

At the time, I along with my colleague and friend Mavic Balleza was part of the Isis communication team. One of our tasks was to cover interesting women to feature in the Isis International third quarter issue of Women in Action (WiA).

Mavic Balleza holding white jacket and Luz Martinez holding folders of the Isis communication team.

As someone new to Asia and to the women's movement, the entire process and trip was an extravaganza of women.

Isis International calls for the release of Activist School alumni Wang Man and the other detained activists

On March 6th, just two days before International Women's Day, at least 10 feminist activists in China were taken into police custody or put on house arrest on the grounds of "creating disturbance". They had been working on a nationwide campaign against sexual harassment on public transportation and had planned to distribute leaflets and post stickers on public transit vehicles.

Wang Man, an alumni of the Isis International Feminist Activist School, is one the five activists known to still be detained along with Li Tingting, Wei Tingting, Zheng Churan, and Wu Rongrong. There are no "formal charges" against the women and their ongoing detention has lead to growing concerns from the feminist community and human rights groups.

By Anne Marie Goetz and Joanne Sandler

Source: https://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/anne-marie-goetz-joanne-sandler/women%27s-rights-have-no-country#.VKqMi632HbI.gmail

There is no blueprint for holding fast against the arguments used to dismiss women's humanity, or defending our hard won human rights. It's time to meet, to brainstorm and try new formats.

At the 2012 Forum of the Association of Women’s Rights for Development (AWID) in Istanbul, there were heated discussions about whether to lobby for a Fifth World Conference on Women in 2015. The majority of older generation feminists taking part expressed reluctance. A young Turkish feminist took the floor and challenged us, essentially saying: “It’s fine for those of you who had the chance to go to Beijing and Nairobi to decline this opportunity. But what about my generation? We never had the chance to mobilize the way that you did. We need this!”