We, the women participants in the International Forum THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS AND THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION (WTO) believe that the economic policies imposed on our communities and peoples are inhumane, unjust, and violent.  Such economic policies generate new inequalities between men and women, and worker´s rights for women become more unattainable.  In addition, indigenous women and those who work in the countryside must take on more responsibilities, and poverty becomes more widespread.  This leads entire families to migrate in order to survive.  The governments claim to want to solve these problems through more of the same policies:  Plan Puebla Panamá (PPP), the extension of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)  to all of Latin America through the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), and World Trade Organization agreements.

At the same time, during this Forum we have recognized the advancement of women that we have achieved through actions for the good of everyone.  We have created and/or strengthened the organizations through which we continue to struggle to defend the human, economic, social, political, and cultural rights of women and the exercise of our full citizenship.  We have achieved legislative victories such as the law against domestic violence, and in general we have placed women´s demands in a public light.  Gains such as these allow the struggle for women´s rights in México to survive.  Even when the Right tries to convince us that such gains are a step backwards, it is confronted with the more powerful force of women who are organized.

This Forum is one more expression of the struggle of rural and indigenous women, women who are salaried workers, students, teachers, Christians, women from  popular movements and civil society, who join together in one movement, linked to the entire social movement,

--We oppose the FTAA because it is the concretization of transnational corporations’ dream of expansion through the opening of markets.  It erodes the sovereignty of México and all the countries of Central America, the Caribbean, and South America, to the detriment of their economies and autonomy.  The FTAA will produce more suffering for the people and especially our sisters, women in all of Latin America.

--We reject PPP and the pretext that it aims to achieve an integrated and prosperous Mesoamerica.  This pretext cloaks its true aim: to devistate villages, extend more dominion over women, eradicate cultures and seize the lands and all of the rich natural resources of the countries in this region for the benefit of transnational capital.   

--We reject policies privatizing water, electricity, oil, nuclear power, biodiversity, education, health, and culture.  Far from benefitting people and villages, privatization has accelerated the growth of poverty, particularly affecting the most vulnerable sectors of society.

--We propose a revision of the section of NAFTA referring to the Mexican countryside.  This is a means of improving the inhumane conditions that have led to the disappearance of thousands of farmers, particularly indigenous people.

--We propose that women and their organizations, as well as legislative bodies, participate in the processes of change and decision making as well as in existing trade agreements such as NAFTA, visualizing with clarity the role of women in both public and private spheres.

--We propose that the state consider a public crisis the social results when men and women are forced to leave their homes and search for other work in order to survive.

--We propose that the right to food becomes an inaliable constitutional right for all children, women, and men, and that food security is guaranteed.

--We propose that reforms to the Federal Work Law should be made from a gender perspective and that the proposals of our sister labor unionists from the Working Group which was formed for this purpose be included.

--We call all women citizens together to demand an end to the murders of women in Ciudad Juarez, and the end of impunity for the killers by shedding light on the cases and punishing those responsible.

--We call on all female citizens to reject war in all of its manifestations, not only because of its specific impacts on women and the fact that it is one of the strongest expressions of male power that dominates by force, but because thousands of women, children, and men from villages and nations are murdered as part of a larger strategy of wealth accumulation.

--We call on legislators to respond to the needs of people and localities they claim to represent and to cease legislating without consulting their constituents, particularly local people’s organizations.

--We call women and social and civil organizations to intensify forces in the national campaign against the FTAA and particularly to participate in the Popular Consultation, which will come to a close between the 15^th and 18^th of next March.

--We call all women and female citizens together to become active in campaigns for fair trade and to construct a space to coordinate actions to protest the IV WTO Ministerial Round in Cancún, in September of this year.

We aspire to a just, fair, and equitable humanity that allows all citizens, male and female, to exercise democracy.

¡¡NEVER AGAIN A SOCIETY WITHOUT WOMEN¡¡
México City, February 28, 2003

Signed by:  Red Nacional Género y Economía; Marcha Mundial de las Mujeres en México; Red Mexicana de Acción frente al Libre Comercio; Alianza Social Continental - México; Movimiento El Campo No Aguanta Más; Red de Mujeres Siglo XXI; Mujeres para el Diálogo; Organización de Mujeres del Sindicato de Telefonistas; Red de Mujeres Sindicalistas; CAMPO-Jalisco; Coordinadora Amplia de Lucha contra el ALCA y la OMC; Asociación Mexicana de Mujeres Organizadas en Red (AMMOR-UNORCA); Frente Nacional de Resistencia contra la Privatización de la Industria Electrica; CODIMUJ; Centro de Apoyo a la Mujer "Margarita Magón"; Fundación Justicia y Amor I.A.P.; Red de Promotoras y Asesoras Rurales; Centro Interdisciplinario y Reorganización Social; Enlace, Comunicación y Capacitación A.C.; Grupo de Mujeres de Chiapas; Mujeres Construyendo Puebla; Organización de Mujeres del STUNAM; UCIZONI; Programa Nacional de Atención a Jornaleros Agrícolas, EDUCA A.C., Comité Estudiantil ENEP-Acatlán; Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales; Equipo PUEBLO; CATDA-Morelos; Dirección de Atención y Procuración contra Violencia Familiar; Comité Ejecutivo Delegacional G.A.M.; Convergencia Socialista/Milenio Feminista; Noche Zihuane Zan Je Tápone; CILAS; Casa de la Mujer Grupo Factor-X; Sección 35 SNTSA-OAXCA; Alianza de Organizaciones Sociales; Unión Popular Valle Gómez; Compañía de María; Conferencia de Institutos Religiosos de México; Espacio Autónomo A.C.; MRM-Queretaro; SSSYT; Liga de los Trabajadores Socialistas-Contracorriente; CIAM-Chiapas; Sría de la Mujer-PRD; Coordinadora Poblana de Mujeres de Organismos Civiles; Red Cualli Namilistli, Colectivo El Torito A.C.; Transparencia S.C.; Coalición Rural México; IDEAR S.C.; Comité Estatal MMM-Tlaxcala; Sindicato de Trabajadores al Servicio de los Poderes e Instituciones Decentralizadas de Carácter Estatal-Oaxaca, Estudiantes de la ENAH.

ON INTERNATIONAL WOMAN’S DAY

LATIN AMERICAN WOMEN STAND FOR PEACE AND LIFE

The Latin American Consultation of Women for the Construction of Peace took place in Quito, Ecuador from February 24 through 28, 2003.   The regional consultation was organized by Programa de Mujeres Constructoras de Paz (The Program for Women Building Peace), International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR), and Servicio Paz y Justicia (SERPAJ, Peace and Justice Service) from Ecuador, under the auspices of the International Observatory for Peace and the Program of Human Rights from the Andean University  “Simon Bolivar”, with the support of SIPAZ, International Service for Peace.

The purpose of the consultation was to reflect more deeply on the fundamental role of women in the search for peaceful solutions; in defending life in high-conflict social, political, or armed situations; and to give the participants the opportunity to share their own experiences and strategies for constructing a culture of peace.

The 25 participants, who came from social, small farmer’s, indigenous, human rights, and women’s organizations from eleven countries on the continent, agreed at the end of the Consultation to the following Declaration, to be disseminated across the continent on March 8, International Woman’s Day.  We are grateful to all who disseminate the declaration.

DECLARATION OF LATIN AMERICAN WOMEN CONSTRUCTING PEACE

One must undress memory in order to reconstruct true history

and awaken those fireflies that sleep in the eyes of our sons and daughters.

Nora Murillo (Guatemala)

As women struggling for life, constructing hope and resisting war, united in Quito, Ecuador from February 24- 28, 2003, we declare that peace is a permanent construction of respect, justice, inclusion, equity, and solidarity.  Peace is that which promotes ethical consensus, and politicians who guarantee the enforcement of integral human rights for women and men, changing the power structures found in our homes and in public spaces.

Nevertheless, we declare that:

A historic regional tendency toward militarization is becoming more pronounced by the American government’s intervention in our countries through the presence of troops, economic coercion, military bases and training camps, and local police units, all of which is expressed in Plan Cabañas in Argentina, Plan Dignidad in Bolivia, Plan Colombia, etc.

In the spheres of economy and politics, Plan Puebla-Panamá, the Andean Regional Initiative, the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), and the Andean-Mesoamerican Plan are being thrust upon us.  These plans are expressions of the interests of transnational corporations and multilateral institutions such as the IMF, WTO, and World Bank.

The neoliberal model has intensified exclusion and discrimination based on gender, ethnicity, race, and class.  It has lead to increasing poverty and marginalization, a growing number of refugees, and the displacement of women, children, young adults and the elderly.  This model favors surrendering of our natural resources and biodiversity; and has intensified violations of integral human rights, with the consequences of increased social conflict and decreased security, and women have suffered from both public and domestic violence.

Faced with this situation, the women of Latin America and the Caribbean, as bearers of life, recognizing ourselves as permanent builders of peace, in both the home and in society, with experience and dedication in the search for our disappeared loved ones and in the struggle for justice and participation in the peace process:

We declare our total repudiation of war, the processes of intervention in Latin America, militarization, and all forms of violation of integral human rights, which provoke suffering in the lives of all people.

We state our repudiation of the threats against human rights defenders in Latin America and the Caribbean who struggle against impunity, and we demand respect from the United States for our integrity and our lives.

We recognize and appreciate the historical presence of African and indigenous peoples, who inspire the hope that a just and peaceful world is possible.

We, female builders of peace, call on all people to show their solidarity with all people committed to a free and sovereign Latin America.

We are women who defend life, and we defend the right of self-determination as a means of transforming society.

We want a world where everyone has the right to live in dignity, justice, peace, and liberty.

BEWARE, FOR HERE WALK WOMEN

WITH MEMORY AND LOVE FOR LATIN AMERICA!

Women from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay.  With support from women from East Timor, Holland, Belgium and Canada.

Quito, Ecuador
February 28, 2003

(Note:  Because of their importance, we are reproducing and distributing these two declarations from women’s meetings)

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