Women

Worldwide, women are changing the face of philanthropic giving with a collective vision that is global, innovative, and strategic. Personal stories are beginning to transform public policy, and social change is becoming key as women move away from deficiency models of passive grant seeking to power-based, progressive action.The Sociedad Mexicana Pro Derechos de la Mujer (Mexican Society for the Rights of Women), or Semillas (Seeds) as it has come to called, is a perfect example. Founded in 1990 by Mexican feminists with support from the California-based Global Fund for Women, Semillas was one of four recipients of this year’s “Changing the Face of Philanthropy Award,” given by the US-based Women’s Funding Network at their 17th annual conference in Philadelphia.  read more

Each of the major UN World Conferences of the 1980s and 90s has a review mechanism that calls for five-year meetings to discuss the past and set goals for the future. These "Plus 5s" have examined decisions made at the Copenhagen Social Development Summit, Cairo Conference on Population and Development, Vienna Process on Human Rights, and Rio Environment Conference. Next in line is a review of progress on the Status of Women, scheduled for June 5-9 in New York.

A host committee is organizing many celebratory events, and an international committee has been set up to facilitate the activities of women actually lobbying at the UN. Women’s organizations from around the world have produced "shadow" or alternative reports to fill in the perceived gaps in their government’s assessments. These will be compiled and presented as a global shadow report, the non-governmental sector’s contribution to the debate. Since this isn’t a major conference but rather a Plus 5, no large NGO forum is planned. A two-day working session for NGOs will be held on the weekend prior to the meeting, and a variety of panel and cultural events will take place within and around the UN. read more

Ten thousand peace activists, Nobel peace prize winners, and celebrities met for four days last May at a conference center at the Hague, Holland, with virtually no US – and skimpy international – coverage. A few blocks away, the boys with the big cameras clustered outside the gates of the International Court of Justice, where Yugoslavia was charging NATO with violations of international law.

After all, there was a war going on.

Every day, young people trooped down with banners, urging the media to provide some coverage. No luck. As a Hague Appeal staffer later explained, "Unless the story has action and can be explained in two seconds, they don’t want to cover it." read more

The Hague Appeal for Peace Conference was quite successful in bringing together peace and justice activists from all over the globe to network, launch new coalitions, and renew pledges to make peace possible. Four thousand people were expected to attend the four-day event in May, but over 8,000 turned up. A thousand groups representing people from 100 countries took part. But unfortunately, it was held in the Netherlands, a NATO country engaged in war at the time, and that reality did affect the outcome. read more

Every March, Toward Freedom is dedicated to women’s issues. Since this will be the last such edition of the magazine in both the current century and millennium, it seemed appropriate to look back while simultaneously offering at least a glimmer of hope for an uncertain future.

This month’s pages contain many horror stories just barely tempered by a few grace notes of accomplishment. From India to Tibet to Latin America to Europe to the US and Canada, the world’s male-dominated societies have a dismal track record, to be sure. read more