Equality Now

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Equality Now is a non-governmental organization whose stated purpose is to protect the human rights of women around the world. The group provides an international framework for spreading awareness of issues and providing support to local grassroots groups working to address issues of concern to it. The organization lists its primary concerns as being rape, domestic violence, reproductive rights, trafficking of women, female genital mutilation, and equal access to economic opportunity and political participation.

[edit] Background and history

In 1992, Jessica Neuwirth, Navanethem Pillay, and Feryal Gharahi, attorneys from the United States, South Africa and Iran respectively, created Equality Now. These founders believed that acts of violence against women were violations of the fundamental human rights guarantees as stated in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They felt that the human rights movement had neglected women’s rights, dismissing violations as “cultural” or “private”. Issues such as domestic violence, rape, female genital mutilation, trafficking, and reproductive rights were not part of the agendas of established human rights organizations.

The founders had a vision of an organization that would work closely with grassroots women’s organizations in every region of the world, sharing and receiving information on the status of women and violations of their rights, and mobilizing public protest in response. Immediately after the opening of its New York office, Equality Now began to identify groups whose work matched its own mission and to consider how to support and reinforce the actions those groups were already taking. Another part of the founders’ vision was to create a presence around the world through offices in different regions that would develop stronger relationships with the local groups and regional networks that are best placed to assess the most effective actions that can be taken to end violence and discrimination in their communities.

Equality Now found a way to raise public consciousness on women’s rights as human rights and to channel concern into strategic action through the Women’s Action Network. People who joined the network began receiving Women’s Action campaign briefings and were urged to take action against human rights violations against women by writing letters of protest directly to government officials, sharing information about these violations within their communities, and taking other steps to support the struggle to end violence and discrimination against women.

In 2000, their Africa Regional Office opened in Nairobi, Kenya. The Africa Regional Office was launched to enhance Equality Now’s ability to respond to and coordinate with other organizations working at the national and regional levels across Africa. In 2004, Equality Now opened an office in London, England, which now serves as an international research center, as well as a European base, and provides a greater and more cost-effective capacity to further target issues of critical concern. It also better enables Equality Now to build and support the unique international coordination efforts it offers to grassroots organizations around the world.

During 2008 to the current date, the most recent movement of Equality Now's main funding has been to the attempted censorship of other countries. Including the damning of free expression in art, this has primarily been to divert attention from failed equality attempts within their larger scale directives.

[edit] Goals

• to campaign for the reform of laws and practices that discriminate against women
• to contribute towards the global campaign to end violence against women
• to promote the equal partnership of women in decision-making

[edit] Key programs

Equality Now works to achieve its mission of ending violence and discrimination against women and girls around the world through its work in the 4 program areas:

[edit] Justice and equality

The fight for civil and political rights, as well as economic and social rights, all relate to the underlying struggle for justice and equality. Equality Now’s work in this area addresses the organization’s goal of reforming discriminatory laws and practices, and bringing justice and equality to women and girls. Equality Now leads and participates in a range of activities and campaigns that aim to hold governments accountable to the pledges they have made to protect the fundamental rights of women and girls around the world.

[edit] Female genital mutilation

It is estimated that more than 130 million girls and women around the world have undergone genital mutilation. At least 2 million girls are at risk every year. The cutting, which is generally done without anesthetic, may have lifelong health consequences including chronic infection, severe pain during urination, menstruation, sexual intercourse, and childbirth, and psychological trauma. Some girls die from the cutting, usually as a result of bleeding or infection. Equality Now's FGM fund provides financial support to grassroots organizations opposing these practices.

[edit] Trafficking and sex tourism

Equality Now has campaigned against sex tourism and trafficking, putting pressure on governments and helping to shut down companies that support or profit from these practices. In one prominent case, Equality Now successfully campaigned to have the New York sex tourism travel agency Big Apple Oriental Tours prosecuted for promotion of prostitution. While a restraining order was obtained preventing the company from advertising, the criminal case against the agency's owners was ultimately unsuccessful.

[edit] International peace and security

Equality Now advocates the important role of women in conflict resolution and prevention, believing that women’s full participation in peace processes can significantly contribute to sustainable international peace and security. The organization's work in the International Peace and Security Program addresses its goal of promoting equal partnership of women in decision-making. The campaign work in this area also addresses the impact of war on women, as women and children account for the vast majority of those adversely affected by armed conflict.

[edit] Recent trends

Equality Now developed a recent trend during 2008 / 2009. That trend being attacking small Japanese video game companies demanding that they seize trading as one or more of their products "offends" Equality Now / women's rights. These companies are without the proper funding needed to defend themselves and extremely small (offering an "easy target"). Equality now has taken to bullying these companies rather than face larger.

These actions have been ridiculed by many hundreds of thousands of people after Equality now claimed "even drawings can be victims".It has been stated that Japan has one of the lowest crime rates worldwide and that Equality Now should use their funding on "real people, not drawings".

Notations to these demands have been;

• Vocaloid (a music making program with teenage characters) characters are under 18, thus we are breaking child labour laws for making them "work" if the demands of Equality Now were to be met.
• If someone were to draw a character, they would be drawing a victim. In a court of law the victim has the right to turn down the conviction. How is it possible to get a testimony from a drawing?
• Equality Now also demanded a ban on "Neko-mimi" (characters wearing headbands with animal ears) due to "bestiality". Many novelty products such as these have been sold in children’s shops for many years.

Yet Equality Now has only challenged the Japanese drawn variant of this idea. Equality Now has received much conflict due to their recent acts, stating that the members of society in favour of any types of fetish or eroge are “evil misogynists”. They also believe that any ideas that conflict their own are not to be tolerated and are viewed as sexism. Due to the severity of their recent demands that they should have the right to “censor other countries” they once again claim that the “evil misogynists” waged a “hate mail” campaign against their actions. (The hate mail in question was merely criticism in the forms of free speech). One of their most recent demands submitted to the UN read as thus; “This is not enough. The Japanese government must ban everything we object to and make it all illegal. The UN must tell the Japanese to do as we direct.”.

Many people find these views similar to that of an extremist nature.

[edit] Recent campaigns

• Calling for the United Nations to select a woman as its next Secretary-General.^{[citation needed]}
• Calling for Japan to ban video games that depict rape, stalking, or anything someone could view as denigrating (to women). Based on the idea that fiction which displays it promotes and normalizes it and therefore should be banned.^[1]
• As a result of Equality Now's stance on RapeLay and other forms of eroge, several Japanese H game producers and other eroge affiliated websites have decided to block all non-Japanese IP addresses in order to protect their culture from Western censorship and political influence.^[2][3][4]

[edit] See also

• Anti-pornography movement
• Human rights abuse
• Human rights
• Sexual slavery
• Prostitution
• Feminism
• CEDAW

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Equality Now
• Equality Now YouTube page
• UN under growing pressure to appoint a woman leader, The Times
• Challenging UN Leadership, The Toronto Star
• Women Push UN Post, Women's eNews