[WA-News] Intersections =?UNKNOWN?Q?=96?= Covering Gender @ the WCAR NGO Forum, Durban 2001

[jradloff at iafrica.com]

Intersections – Covering Gender @ the WCAR NGO Forum, Durban 2001
Issue 3– Part 1
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Items in Issue 3 – Part 1

1. African Women Share  Experiences and Identify Priorities 
By Mary Wandia and Atsango Chesoni, FEMNET

2. Broadcasting Hate by Mark Brooks

3. Guerilla Reports - Our Guerilla Reporter Elizabeth Araujo asks participants 
at the NGO Forum what they feel is the biggest threat regarding globalisation…
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African Women Share  Experiences and Identify Priorities 
By Mary Wandia and Atsango Chesoni, FEMNET

Women from Africa held a regional meeting at the Gender Commission meeting held 
on Wednesday. They identified priorities in the fight against racism and racial 
discrimination on their continent. The women observed that colonialism is a 
fundamental cause of racism that exists via hierarchies. Women are 
systematically devalued and placed at the bottom of this hierarchy. This is 
manifested in racial and ethnic intolerance in armed conflict resulting in 
refugees and internally displaced persons the majority of who are women and 
children.

 Modern slavery of African women continues in the form of trafficking of women 
and young girls to Europe and the Middle East. They are used as sexual and work 
slaves in the most deplorable conditions without pay. This has led to poverty, 
statelessness and the spread of sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS 
often through sexual violence.

The African women demanded that, in analysing the intersectionality of gender 
and race governments should take on board the concerns of women with 
disabilities. They called for an end to the operation of dual legal systems in 
Africa—whereby constitutions discriminate on matters of religious, customary, 
family and personal law. This undermines women’s equality by perpetuating 
harmful traditional practices such as wife inheritance, disinheritance of 
widows, and female genital mutilation. They stated that laws should grant women 
full citizenship rights to pass on citizenship to their children and spouses.

On racism and economic discrimination, they stated that the link between 
colonialism, imperialism and patriarchy resulted in the marginalisation of 
African women. Globalisation and structural adjustment programs have further 
impoverished women as the most vulnerable groups in the continent.

Racial and gender discrimination link to characterise African women as the 
primary couriers of HIV/AIDS. Women as the majority of the illiterate and poor 
bear the brunt of this disease through high rates of infection and as care 
takers of infected persons.

It was agreed that legislation should be enacted in all African countries to 
implement the outcomes of the WCAR conference and other international 
conventions and agreements protecting women from multiple forms of 
discrimination. In particular, the International Convention on the Elimination 
of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), The Convention on the Elimination of All 
Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and the Beijing Declaration and 
Platform for Action. 

The meeting called on civil society organisations and states to eradicate 
racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerances. Women’s 
organisations must use existing legislation to protect women from all forms of 
discrimination.

There is also need to lobby and advocate for the review and repeal of 
legislation particularly the dual systems of laws that undermine the equality 
of men and women in Africa. Finally they said that mechanisms for monitoring 
the impact of racism and racial discrimination on women should be set up. This 
will bring out the reality on the ground and assist in designing measures to 
protect women who make up more than half of the population in the continent.
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Broadcasting Hate 

Mark Brooks

While many of us have heard about hate sites on the Internet, we may not be as 
familiar with hate radio. These stations, usually broadcasting out of the U.S., 
use short-wave radio to reach a potential audience of millions around the 
world. These stations take ruthless aim at immigrants, people of colour, gays 
and lesbians, and other minority groups. Their messages are disturbing, if not 
downright shocking.  

Radio for Peace International, a Costa Rican based organization working to 
counter hate broadcasting, currently monitors a number of hate stations 
emanating from the U.S. At their workshop on Tuesday, Gilbert Carmichael and 
James Latham played examples of the shocking material being broadcast around 
the world on a regular basis. 

The Hal Turner radio program, broadcasting out of Montesello, Maine, is a 
particularly egregious, although not uncommon, example of hate radio today. He 
talks of a “whiter and brighter” future for America, where streets and 
communities have been freed of blacks and immigrants. 

Programs such as these often advocate violent methods to achieve their goals. 
For instance, another hate broadcaster, Kurt Saxon, provides his listeners with 
a detailed account of “how to build bombs to kill Martians”. And he’s not 
talking about little, green aliens. Although these programs often have Aryan 
Nation and Ku Klux Klan affiliations, they tend to disguise their identities by 
sometimes calling themselves Christian or Liberty groups. They are well funded 
and highly organized.

How can these stations be permitted to freely broadcast messages of hate? 
According to RFPI, the United States currently has no legislation regarding 
hate broadcasting. Many other countries do have such legislation but, due to 
short-wave radio, they cannot prevent hate programs from penetrating their air 
space. Moreover, short wave and Internet radio stations sell airtime, not 
commercial space, so there are often no advertisers or licenses for the public 
to challenge.  

We should all be concerned about the propagation of hate radio. According to 
Carmichael, the Nazi movement today claims more members than it ever did during 
its heyday in the 1930’s. In addition to lobbying for hate broadcasting 
legislation, we can educate our communities about its access and its dangers; 
and when hate radio comes to our town, we have a responsibility to act. 

Many people who would be outraged by such programming may not even know what is 
being broadcast in their own communities. It is our duty to be informed. These 
programs always require a station from which to broadcast. These stations can 
be pressured not to transmit messages of hate. With the help of organisations 
like RFPI, it is both possible and essential that we all work to keep tabs on 
these broadcasters, and continue the fight against the global dissemination of 
hate. 

For more info on Radio for Peace International:
Visit www.rfpi.org or contact: info at rfpi.org
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Guerilla Reports

Our Guerilla Reporter Elizabeth Araujo asks participants at the NGO Forum what 
they feel is the biggest threat regarding globalisation…

I think the biggest threat of globalisation is the threat to human species. The 
threat in the way that life is becoming difficult for poop people, as the world 
moves towards maximisation of profit at the expense of human needs; the 
continuous scarcity of food, water, and basic needs and the increased power of 
world countries which are rich, at the expense of developing nations. That 
becomes the main threat of globalisation.
Philemon Lukhele 
Swaziland Youth Congress

It seems to me that globalisation is a concept, or process, of corporations who 
are coming together from around the world to get cheap labour. They are going 
into low-income communities, devastating the environment, paying sub-standard 
wages, actually, paying slave wages to hard-working individuals who deserve 
better. And so, there must be some kind of check in place. In the United States 
we're passing NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreemment), and we feel 
that that's wrong. The U.S. corporations must have global guidelines around 
wages, so that the U.S. corporations aren't moving into third world countries 
and exploiting indigenous  people.
Shirley McClain 
Rural Development Leadership Network, USA

I think globalisation is largely a problem, especially to the third world 
countries. Globalisation is to the benefit of those who make the rules, who are 
able to sanction others (for example, the G8 and the United States having veto 
powers and many others, sanctioning  resolutions authority). But, at the same 
time, globalisation is not to the benefit of those who are actually in need of 
support - the international support, those who are poverty stricken, dying with 
disease, where wars are raging. All  those countries find themselves 
continuously degraded. Globalisation is not necessarily with all the glossy 
picture that it was brought. Yes, it has brought some progress for some of the 
countries, in particular the G8 countries, but it has also brought some 
protectionist arrangements for those countries to further colonise other 
countries. They're coming in and getting out (the multinational companies), 
they minimise the role of the state in determining economic policies, etc.  All 
that disempowers the people. The people end up being spectators of the economic 
exchange, whilst the multinational companies and the states who are in this 
relationship wouldn't, because of deregulations. And anytime multinational 
companies think they can move out, they can just do that within a minute. All 
that, continues to perpetuate poverty. It continues to perpetuate restlessness 
to the third world countries. All what globalisation has brought is misery 
instead of progress.
Nqaba Ntswahlana (accompanied by comrade Kabelo Mataboge)
South African Youth Council, member of the ANC Youth League and SACP

I think what the WCAR NGO Forum has taught us about the challenges with regards 
to globalisation, is that if we engage within  a UN sponsored structure, if 
anything, the issue of globalisation and the perpetuation of a North/South 
divide is reinforced by structures like the NGO Forum, because you're working 
within the paradigm of a UN sponsored event. And what we need to be careful of, 
is looking at the NGO Forum as an appropriate way in which to raise issues of 
globalisation.
Anonymous

[End Issue 3 Part 1]




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