Church Women United - Legislative Office

Inform and Act

May 2008

CHANGING GIRLS’ LIVES

Adolescent girls in the Global South need our help

10 actions for Faith Leaders and Communities

Adolescent girls in the Global South need our help.  Faced with poverty and cultural bias, they are less healthy, receive less schooling, and have far less freedom than their male peers.  Among people who have so little, adolescent girls have the least.

OFTEN THESE GIRLS ARE ISOLATED AND EXPLOITED.  They spend long days carrying water, gathering firewood, caring for younger children, and tending to livestock while their brothers study or socialize with friends.  Their parents see them as unworthy of an equal share of the family’s food and protection, leaving them vulnerable to disease and sexual violence.  Many girls are forced to marry at a young age and must bear children before their bodies are ready, leading to maternal death and terrible health problems like obstetric fistula.  Many become HIV-positive from their husbands.

AS A FAITH LEADER OR MEMBER OF A FAITH COMMUNITY, you can encourage your faith community to understand the circumstances that constrain the lives of these girls, and to reach out in the spirit of compassion and communion.  Together we can ensure that no girl is denied the blessings of health and hope, the birthright of the entire human family.

PREACH

Share the stories of adolescent girls with your faith community.  Encourage worshippers—girls and boys, women and men—to contemplate living in their circumstances.  Look within your community for members who can speak about lives of adolescent girls in the Global South; ask them to share their insights.

Contact the global ministry or international service section of your faith’s national or international offices.  Invite a spokesperson to speak to your congregation about the good works fellow believers are doing around the world.

Commemorate international days of observation such as International Women’s Day (March 8); World AIDS Day (December 1); and International Day to End Violence Against Women and Girls (November 26), highlighting the situation of adolescent girls in relation to each.  Incorporate international stories, songs and sermons, featuring adolescent girls into your worship services.

TEACH

Devote religious instruction classes to teaching about the issues that affect adolescent girls in the Global South.  Ask them to contemplate what your faith says about equality, justice, dignity and compassion.

Ask young people to research a particular country or a particular issue.  Hold discussion sessions in which girls and boys explore the ways in which their own lives resemble or differ from those of girls in the Global South.

Create “safe spaces” where girls can come together to discuss their faith and the issues affecting their lives.  Ask them to explore the similarities between their challenges and aspirations and those of their sisters around the world.

Challenge young people to identify programs organized by a faith service organization, a non-profit organization, or an international organization (such as the United Nations).  Ask them to identify the ways these programs make a difference, and how the faith community can support that work.

REACH

Hold a letter-writing or calling campaign to contact your members of Congress and your local newspapers.  Ask them to support legislation that will help adolescent girls around the world, such as the Child Marriage Bill, the International Violence Against Women Act (IVAWA), and the Global Resources and Opportunities for Women to Thrive (GROWTH) Act.

Publish newsletter articles on the issues that affect the well-being of adolescent girls and the groups that are working to help them.  Collect literature from these groups and display them in the appropriate place in your place of worship.

Ask your faith community to choose a program within its international section or organization or an international non-profit with a focus on adolescent girls.  Allocate a portion of your regular collections or hold a fundraiser to benefit that program or organization.  Find out about international campaigns to promote the development of adolescent girls, and get involved!

CWU Took Action on Child Marriage at the United Nations

CWU Social Policy Book 1941-2004, page 130

In 1962, CWU (then called UCW) urged that a convention and recommendation on the age of marriage, free consent and registration of marriage be drafted by the UN Status of Women commission.  The draft convention and draft recommendation came before the 17th session of the United Nations General Assembly in September 1962 for completion and adoption;

“Believing that an international convention with the recommendation suggesting 15 years as a minimum age will prevent child marriages, establish the free choice of spouses, and safeguard the institution of marriage in keeping with a Christian concept of the family;…

Take Action on the Child Marriage Act

URGE YOUR REPRESENTATIVE TO CO-SPONSOR HR 3175

H.R. 3175 would protect girls in developing countries through the prevention of child marriage.  It was introduced by its sponsor, Rep. McCollum, Betty (MN-4) (introduced in 7/25/2007).  At this point there are 50 cosponsors and with education and action from Church Women United members across the country we can get many more cosponsors which will help to move it out of committee!  It is presently in the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.  The Chair of that committee is: Representative Howard Berman of the 28th District of California (his district office is in Van Nuys).  If you know anyone who lives in that area please urge them to contact him about this legislation.  Let him know that CWU is very concerned about the plight of girls in developing countries worldwide who face marriage at the tender age of 12 or even younger.  Use the information on "Changing Girls' Lives" in your message.

Let’s Make a New Roadmap for How we Engage with the World

(the following info can be found at www.wand.org among other websites)

The transition to a new administration in 2009 is an opportunity! Tell Congress and Candidates: the U.S. needs a new foreign policy.  WAND (Women’s Action for New Directions) has been working with the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and colleague organizations to seize the opportunity for significant change in U.S. foreign policy presented by the 2009 transition to new leadership. (CWU has signed onto this campaign.)

We will advance a slate of recommendations for significant reforms in both the structures and goals of U.S. engagement with the world to help the incoming Administration and congressional leaders change direction in U.S. foreign policy.

We have devised a New Roadmap for U.S. Engagement with the World.  The roadmap has five central principles:

The final Roadmap will include supporting analysis for each recommendation, along with links to more detailed research, case studies, polling, and more (will be coming to the WAND website, www.wand.org).

TAKE ACTION

SEND A LETTER TO THE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES, CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATES, AND OUR CURRENT MEMBERS OF CONGRESS ! (see addresses below)

SAMPLE LETTER

Subject:   Let’s make a new roadmap for how we engage with the world.

            Our country needs a new foreign policy, one that engages with the world through non-military tools. We invite you to embrace the principles behind the New Roadmap for U.S. Engagement with the World:

            (in your letter insert here the five principles of the new Roadmap as listed above!)

Thank you for your courage and integrity in moving our country forward to a brighter future.

John McCain,  PO Box 16118,  Arlington, VA 22215

Hillary Rodham Clinton,  4420 North Fairfax Drive,  Arlington, VA 22203

Barack Obama,  PO Box 8102,  Chicago, IL 60680

If you need help finding the address of your Senators and Representative, go to: www.house.gov or www.senate.gov.  You may also contact the CWU Legislative Office at 1-800-298-5551 option 4.

STOP U.S. MILITARY SUPPORT TO COUNTRIES
USING CHILD SOLDIERS

The horror of war can be traumatic for any soldier.  Its psychological scars can last a lifetime.

Imagine if children as young as 7 were forced to fight.

Right now, governments around the world are using children as frontline soldiers, porters, and spies.  The UN estimates that 250,000 children are actively involved in armed conflicts.

In many cases, the US is providing military financing, training, and weapons to the very governments that recruit and use child soldiers.

A bipartisan bill to curb this misguided military aid could see movement in the Senate this month, and your action today is critical.  (Hearings were held on April 24, 2008).

Most of the countries perpetuating this problem rely on US military aid—when that aid is threatened, it can provide governments a powerful incentive to change their ways.  That’s why this bill has the potential to make a significant difference.

Children should not be forced to endure the terrors of war.  Please take action today to end this deplorable practice.  WRITE TO YOUR SENATORS—include information about the children in your life and your concern for children everywhere.

SAMPLE LETTER

Dear Senator_____

Right now, governments around the world are using children as frontline soldiers, porters, and spies.  The UN estimates that 250,000 children are actively involved in armed conflicts.  In many cases, the US is providing military financing, training, and weapons to the very governments that recruit and use child soldiers.

As one of your constituents, I am writing to ask that you co-sponsor S. 1175, the Child Soldier Prevention Act.  If you are already a co-sponsor, please encourage your colleagues to join with you.  Senators Durbin and Brownback have introduced the bill to encourage governments to disarm, demobilize, and rehabilitate child soldiers from government forces and government-supported militias.

Thank you for your attention to this grave issue.

UN Council warns of firmer action on Child Soldiers

Feb 13, 2008, Reuters, by Patrick Worsnip

UNITED NATIONS: —The U.N. Security Council threatened on Tuesday to step up measures against armies and groups using child soldiers but made no firm pledge to impose sanctions requested by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

In a report last month, Ban listed 58 parties to armed conflict in 13 countries — mainly in Africa and Asia— that sent children into battle.  They included government armies in Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar, Somalia and Sudan as well as rebel factions.

The Security Council should consider penalizing those responsible by banning arms and military aid and slapping travel and financial restrictions on them, Ban said.

In a statement adopted after a debate on Tuesday, the council expressed “readiness to review the relevant provisions of its resolutions on children and armed conflict ...with a view to further increasing the efficiency of its actions.”

But the statement, read out by current council president Ricardo Alberto Arias of Panama, went no further and asked Ban to submit another report by May 2009.

The U.N. children’s fund UNICEF estimated last year there were some 250,000 child soldiers worldwide.  Other experts say the true numbers are impossible to determine.

The council had already said in resolutions in 2004 and 2005 it would consider targeted measures against violators, but so far it  has punished only one person.  In 2006 a sanctions committee imposed a travel ban and asset freeze on a former rebel commander from Ivory Coast, Martin Fofie.

The latest resolution in 2005 set up a monitoring and reporting mechanism that allows Ban to identify violators in his reports.

Radhika Coomaraswamy, U.N. special representative for children and armed conflict, told Tuesday’s debate it was “most important that the council make good on its promise” to adopt concrete measures.

Several Western countries said they supported Ban’s position.  Speaking for France, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said the council’s credibility was at stake.  “There is no credible deterrence without real sanctions, he said.

But Chinese envoy Liu Zhenmin said the council should work through governments and Beijing had “always opposed the wilful use of sanctions or the threat of sanctions.”  He added that “caution is called for” on the issue of child soldiers.

U.S. envoy Alejandro Wolff said while Washington backed Ban’s efforts to end the use of child soldiers, it opposed his recommendation to refer violators to the International Criminal Court, to which the United States does not belong.

Despite the lack of firm commitments by the council, Coomaraswamy told reporters the statement “keeps the momentum, moving us forward.”

Off To A Good Start: Senate Supports Increase
in International Affairs Budget

In mid-March, the Senate voted to recommend $39.8 billion for the 2009 international affairs budget—the administration’s full request.

The international affairs budget pays for all of U.S. diplomacy and development programs including poverty-focused development assistance programs around the world.  The Senate vote for robust funding of international affairs sends a strong signal of support for these programs.  Such an increase would help the United States to meet its commitments to help reduce hunger and extreme poverty, including meeting the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015.

THIS IS A GREAT FIRST STEP, BUT THE BUDGET AND FUNDING PROCESS IS NOT OVER !

The budget vote sets general guidelines, but it is up to the appropriators to determine specific and binding funding levels.  The next step will be to carry the budget resolution’s recommendations through to the Appropriations Committee, which makes decisions on the details of funding for specific programs.

TAKE ACTION

Urge your members of Congress to provide even more and better poverty-fighting assistance to poor countries around the world.  Ask for an increase of at least $5 billion in poverty-focused development assistance,  and ask your senators to cosponsor S. 2433 (the Global Poverty Act).  This bill has been passed in the House of Representatives last year.  In the Senate, it was introduced in December by Senators Barack Obama (D-IL), Chuck Hagel (R-NE), and Maria Cantwell (D-WA). 

SAMPLE LETTER

Dear Senator _________,

Church Women United is a racially, culturally and theologically inclusive Christian women’s movement in the United States which had it’s beginning in 1941.  A representative of Church Women United was present at the signing of the UN Charter in 1945.  As a member of CWU, I am eager to see the fulfillment of the U.N. Millennium Goals and urge you to do all you can to see that the U.S. meets its commitments to the MDGs. 

Rising global food prices are having a devastating impact on poor and hungry people.  As many as 100 million people could be worse off because of this crisis.  We cannot afford to let this happen!

Please do all you can to provide more and better poverty-fighting assistance to poor countries around the world.  Please ask for an increase of at least $5 billion in poverty-focused development assistance.

I would also respectfully urge you to cosponsor S. 2433 (the Global Poverty Act).  This bill will encourage better coordination of U.S. policies and programs improving our country’s efforts to fight poverty and hunger around the world. 

Sincerely,

(be sure to include your name and address here to make it clear that you are a constituent)

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