WMST 101:  Links

Description | Requirements | Syllabus

 

Below are some links to web sites that you can consult to begin your research on the international women's issue which you and your group are examining.  Other sources that might prove useful include:  Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe; InfoTrac; any WorldWide Web search engine, like Infoseek or Alta Vista; or WWW meta-search engines, like Google.  All of these are available through McConnell Library's homepage.

 

Remember that BOOKS are also an invaluable source of information.  Consult the electronic catalog for titles on your subject.  EVALUATE all sources rigorously before using them.

 

 

 

Grey line with blue and black by Georgia O'Keefe

 

 

International Women's Rights Issues and Activism

 

Global Reproductive Health Forum  Harvard School of Public Health provides information and networking concerning women's reproductive health and reproductive rights issues. Provides an international perspective on such issues as contraception, abortion, and reproductive health.

 

Women's Human Rights Network   An extensive site containing information on such international women's issues as:  civil & political rights; custodial abuse; economic, social & cultural rights; education, equality & non-discrimination; environment; family; freedom of association & assembly; health; human rights defenders; rights of indigenous people; migrants; older women; poverty & the right to development; racism & minority rights; refugees & the internally displaced; religion & fundamentalism; reproductive rights; rights of girls; sexual rights; sexual trafficking and sex tourism; violence against women; war & armed conflict; women with disabilities; work & employment.

 

Female Genital Mutilation Education and Networking Project

 

PREDA Reports on International Sexual Crimes against Women and Children  Homepage of People's Recovery, Empowerment, and Development Assistance Foundation, a not-for-profit organization in the Philippines working on a national and international level for human rights, especially women's and children's rights.  Has information on child pornography, child abuse, international trafficking in children for sexual use, sex tourism and mail order brides, and child prostitution. 

Captive Daughters  An activist web site that provides information about the sex trafficking of children and other issues.

Beiming +5  Report on the Special Session of the General Assembly entitled "Women: 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the Twenty-First Century." It was held from 5-9 June 2000 at UN Headquarters in New York.

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)
Policy statement on women's rights adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 18, 1979.  A summary of the treaty is available by clicking here.

Women's Human Rights Resources  A comprehensive site at the University of Toronto's Law School with links to articles, documents, and websites on women's human rights issues including such concerns as:  education, feminist theory, indigenous rights, labor and employment, marriage and family, race and discrimination, prostitution, reproductive rights, sexual traffic in women, and violence against women.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights  Policy statement adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, 1948.

General Sources on International Human Rights Abuses and Other International Issues

The National Security Archive  An excellent archive maintained in Washington, DC.  Archives and analyzes tens of thousands of secret U. S. CIA and State Department documents that were declassified under the Freedom of Information Act in the interest of full disclosure of U. S. involvement in Cuba, Chile, Guatemala, Iran, Libya and many other nations. 

Amnesty International Homepage

Amnesty International's Pages on Violations of Women's Human Rights throughout the World

Amnesty International, USA, Campaign against Violence against Women and War

Broken Bodies, Tortured Minds   Amnesty's report on torture of women internationally

Guatemala:  Background on Rigoberta Menchu's Activism for Indigenous Rights

National Security Archives Declassified Documents Relating to U.S. Intervention in Guatemala.  An excellent source.  Contains declassified State Department and CIA documents related to the U.S. backed coup of 1954 and years of military repression since then.

 

National Security Archives Guatemala Documentation Project  Documents revealing U.S. involvement in Guatemala from 1963-1993.

 

A Human Rights History of Guatemala. Provides a brief overview of Guatemalan history from the stand point of human rights; extends through pre-Columbian times, the conquest, and the present with special emphasis on modern political repression and military abuses especially of indigenous people; builds a case that the abuse of human rights in Guatemala is genocide against the indigenous population.

 

Report of Bishop's Assassination  Information about the assassination in Guatemala City of the auxiliary Bishop who coordinated the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee in its researching and writing of Nunca Mas, which implicated the military in ninety percent of the killings during the years of repression in Guatemala

 

1997 Human Rights Report: Guatemala U. S. State Department report on the human rights situation in Guatemala since the Peace Process.

 

Organizations in Guatemala Hot links to numerous mass organizations in Guatemala, including popular groups that oppose the military, support indigenous rights, and protest disappearances.

 

Guatemala: State of Impunity Amnesty International examines the issue of granting broad amnesty and immunity from prosecution to the military leaders responsible for the nearly 200,000 murders in Guatemala.

 

Argentina:  Background on the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo's Activism

And Alicia Partnoy's Testimony about Disappearance and Torture During the "Dirty War"

 

Argentina Human Rights Information Maintained by Derechos Humanos: Human Rights; provides comprehensive information about current human rights concerns; contains numerous links to related sites; (available in Spanish and English versions).

 

Argentina - Human Rights  Maintained by Derechos Humanos: Human Rights; provides links to useful historical information on events leading to the military coup and successive juntas as well as human rights abuses in Argentina during "La Guerra Sucia" (The Dirty War); links include information on: military leaders accused of abduction, torture, and murder; the "disappeared" and their families; the "Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo"; national and international human rights organizations' responses; the presidential order of "impunity" for military personnel accused of crimes; national and international responses to "impunity" issue.

 

The Disappeared in Argentina  Maintained by several human rights groups to remember and pay homage to the disappeared from Argentina and other countries; contains background information on "La Guerra Sucia" and information about some of the most notorious military leaders involved in abduction and torture; contains links to related sites on the disappeared.

 

Homage to the Disappeared in Argentina. A Virtual Memorial to some of the disappeared, containing photographs and brief biographies. 

 

The Vanished Gallery. The most comprehensive web site available on "La Guerra Sucia" and events leading to it, the disappeared, the military junta and those responsible for the tortures, the secret detention centers, the modes of torture, testimonios by survivors, confessions by torturers, etc. An Excellent Source of Information.

 

Desaparecidos: Bibliography. An excellent bibliography including topics such as: "La Guerra Sucia," disappearances, psychology of torturers, testimonios by survivors of torture, testimonio (confession) by torturer, authoritarianism and nationalism in Argentina, the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo; hot-linked to Amazon.com. An Excellent Source.

 

More bibliography. A continuation of the above bibliography. An Excellent Source.

Interpreting Survivor Testimony: Excellent article by political scientist, Prof. Karen Slawner, "Interpreting Victim Testimony: Survivor Discourse and the Narration of History"; analyzes the ideological justifications for the Dirty War and interprets survivor testimony as a foucauldian counter-memory or counter-history that offers an alternative historical narrative to the one offered by the government's and military's master narrative grounded in the ideology of "national security." A Must Read Source.

"El Desaparecido" ("Disappearance"). Article by Argentine writer, Analia Penchaszadeh, about the psychological effects of "disappearances," their use as a terror tactic and means of social control; looks at the importance, though impossibility, of "speaking the unspeakable," and remembering those absent through disappearance; examines how remembering forces one to confront the horror of a loved one's torture and death; deals with the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo.

Asociación Madres de Plaza de Mayo Web site maintained by the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo; explains their work; contains photographs and links to other sites; (available in Spanish only).

 

Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo Web site maintained by the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, who have successfully located children abducted by the junta or born in detention centers before their mothers were murdered; explains their work; (available in Spanish and English versions).

 

Domestic Violence and Women's Activism

National Coalition against Domestic Violence.  Very useful site with definitions of various kinds of battering and assaults, links to nation-wide, state-by-state, and issues related statistics on all forms of domestic violence.

American Institute on Domestic Violence .  Statistics on the impact of domestic violence on the workplace and business.

Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network.  Comprehensive web site including educational materials, statistics and information on activism.

The Rights and Activism of Intersexed Persons

Intersex Society of North America Contains information about intersexed persons. The society is an activist group that works to eliminate surgical intervention before the intersexed person is ready to make an independent decision about his or her body.

Homepage of African-American Intersex Activist, and Educator, Lynnell Stephani Long  A personal perspective on the experience of being intersexed.  Contains links to many other sites.

Ms. Magazine Excellent article on Intersex Genitalia Mutilation, the practice of surgically altering an infant girl's clitoris because doctors believe it is "too big.”

The United Kingdom Intersex Association (UKIA) Homepage of an education, advocacy, campaigning and support organization which works on behalf of intersexed people.  Has excellent page of links to general information and activism.

International Women's Labor Issues and Activism:  Sweatshops

National Labor Committee  An excellent site containing links to pages with information on wages of clothing workers globally; has information on individual countries and companies that exploit laborers, as well as activist campaigns to stop exploitation of workers.  

UNITE  Homepage for the Union of Needle trades, Industrial and Textile Employees' Stop Sweatshops Campaign.
Includes informational pages to define sweatshops, explain various activist programs to stop sweatshop abuses, and indicate socially responsible clothing manufacturers.  

Sweatshop Watch Contains informational pages that define unfair labor practices in sweatshops; offers articles on sweatshop conditions; includes a link to practical information on "What Can I Do?"

Maquila Solidarity Network  Very useful site.  Contains information on campaigns being launched against specific multinational corporations such as the Gap, Nike, K-Mart, etc. Also includes information on how to organize in solidarity with these campaigns.

United Students Against Sweatshops  Very useful site for students wishing to organize local college campus actions to protest the sale of sweatshop merchandise in campus bookstores.  Their Frequently Asked Questions page answers some basic questions about sweatshops, their practices, and what's wrong with them.  Site also provides information on Codes of Conduct that various campus groups are organizing to insist upon in any shops that make clothing bearing their university's name.

 

Description | Requirements | Syllabus