CONVOCATIONS NOVEMBER 2011: COMMEMORATING 25th NOVEMBER IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE WOMEN OF BUENAVENTURA

Women in Black of Madrid
Invite you to a vigil in black and in silence

On 25 NOVEMBER at 6 p.m.

in front of the Embassy of Colombia in Madrid
c/General Martínez Campos, 48

and
on the last Sunday of the month, 27 NOVEMBER, at 12:00 noon

in the Plaza Mayor (next to the horse statue)

On the international day against violence towards women

We denounce:
The femincide that is taking place in Buenaventura, Colombia, an Afro-Colombian community on the Pacific coast.

We ask
Of the government of Colombia, political will to legislate urgently and effectively against the violence that is exercised towards women in Colombia in general and especially the women of Buenaventura.

Of the European Union and the Government of Spain that their relations with the Government of Colombia be contingent on the following conditions:
♀ Respect for human rights.
♀ Putting an end to impunity for the violence against women that we denounce, whose maximum manifestation is the femicide that is taking place in Buenaventura.

Let us expel war and violence
from history
and from our lives

C/ San Cosme y San Damián, Nº 24, 2º
28012 – Madrid

..................................................................................

Commemorating 25th November: in solidarity with the women of Buenaventura

The network of Women in Black against War celebrated our XV International Conference this past August in Bogota, Colombia, in which activists from 15 countries participated. An international group and Ruta Pacifica (Women in Black of Colombia) went to Buenaventura, a city of Afro-Colombians on the Pacific coast where there have been a large number of femicides.

The situation in Buenaventura is very hard, especially for the women, exacerbated by the abandonment and vulnerability that the people in this city are experiencing. To this, one must add the presence in the area of all the armed actors (army, police, drug traffickers, paramilitaries and guerillas) and it is the women whose bodies suffer the most because of the continuation of the conflict in Colombia. Family or other affective relationships that they might have with some of the armed actors converts them into an object for all sorts of violence perpetrated by the enemies of that group: physical and sexual aggressions, trafficking in international prostitution, including young girls who are virgins, forced displacements, assassinations and disappearances. In addition, in some cases they are repudiated by their own families.

Despite all this, the women of Buenaventura resist and have created organizations to prevent and denounce violence and rape and to demand respect for their rights, accompanied by demands for truth, justice and reparation.

COMMEMORATING 25 NOVEMBER, international day against violence towards women, the International Network of Women in Black, wants to draw attention to the situation of the women of Buenaventura in particular, and of all Colombia in general, as well as the prevailing impunity for the acts of violence committed against them.

We also want to emphasize the work done by some public prosecutors in Colombia, who, despite the threats against them, are acting on the denunciations of abuses and violence against the women.

From here in Madrid, we join the international campaign of support for the women of Buenaventura and we ask:

That the European Union and the Government of Spain make their relations with the Government of Colombia conditional on the following considerations:

Respect for human rights.
The development of legislation that will protect, defend and promote real security of the women.
Putting an end to the impunity for the violence against women that we denounce, the maximum manifestation of which is the femicide that is occurring in Buenaventura.
Promotion of the processes for truth, justice and reparation.
Creation of policies that will dignify the lives of the Afro-Colombian population of Buenaventura, in particular, that of the women.

To give priority to life is not only the true economy,
it is, rather, a question of justice

Traslation: Trisha Novak, USA