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HABITAT 3: Safer Cities is a Priority

October 18, 2016 By HKearl

Norti, Suneeta, Maria, Lakshmi, Luis, Powes
Norti, Suneeta, Maria, Lakshmi, Luis, Powes

Hello from day 4 at HABITAT 3 in Quito, Ecuador. The big event for me today was the UN Women panel on their Safe Cities programme.

UN Women could only host one high-level session at the conference and they chose this issue. My colleagues at UN Women have advocated for several years for this program on sexual harassment in public spaces to be recognized and included in these kinds of high level global events, so this was a big payoff.

The room was packed with about 150 people, including people standing in the back and sitting on the floor. It went really well.

First, here is an overview of what the Safe Cities programme is. This is essentially what was shared by the moderator, Lakshmi Puri, Deputy Executive Director and Assistant Secretary General of UN Women.

The flyer for the event today... that I designed!
The flyer for the event today… that I designed!

While the program is now in more than 20 cities, there were five flagship cities (Delhi, Cairo, Quito, Port Moresby, and Kigali) that started in 2011. Representatives from all five cities were invited to speak on the panel and representatives from Port Moresby, Delhi and Cairo were able to join (the rep from Cairo gave a pre-recorded video address). They spoke about their efforts and progress over the past five years. They were all incredibly inspiring, but I think that the governor from Port Moresby was my favorite.

In his opening remarks, Governor Parkop Powes did not shy away from sharing the problem of violence in Papua New Guinea. He talked about how tribes have been at war with each other for a long time and that violence is often seen as a means for solving problems. He noted that they are a patriarchal society where men are dominant. “Trying to change the violent culture is not easy. But we see it’s important. Violence is an impediment to women and also to the development of our city.”

The focus of the Port Moresby Safe Cities program has been to make marketplaces safer as they are not only economic hubs but also social hubs. They’ve had some successes so far, but they have a ways to go, he said.

“After being in the program for a while, we see that the interventions deal with the symptoms of violence and they alone won’t solve the problem. We’ve created a safe market to make it safe for women and girls, but we haven’t solved the problem of who is responsible for violence. The women vendors who leave the market and go back home still face threats of violence and fear of violence as they travel or even in their home. So we haven’t solved the problem of violence. Having a safe house for women facing domestic violence is symptom but doesn’t solve the problem. Same thing with the women-only buses – we’d rather have an integrated system where everyone is safe, but for now, we decided to have a women-only bus. Ultimately, it’s the behavior of men that’s the problem. They are violent. It’s the culture. We are working with UN Women to create behavior change.”

They are trying some creative methods. For example, doing yoga with men to help them start to respect themselves and then respect women. As another example, Governor Powes takes a walk every Sunday that anyone can join him in. He said sometimes a thousand people will join him, most of them women. This is really revolutionary because many women feel very unsafe walking in public. Rates of rape are very high, as are rates of murder. On average, every single person knows at least one person who has been murdered. So by walking in public for recreation, the women are claiming public spaces and demanding that they be safe for all.

A representative from the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation closed out the panel. This is the “mother donor” of the program. They continued to fund it, even when Spain was in an economic crisis. The representative shared that they will increase their support next year. This is huge as it is really hard to fund programs to end violence against women (as I know firsthand from my limited experience trying to fundraise for Stop Street Harassment). Having this support is really important and makes the program possible.

Later in the day, I also had the opportunity to join my boss in meeting with the Quito Safe Cities team. They talked about their work with transit officials to make public transit safer. They also have created a comic book about respect that they will be taking to five schools and training teachers on how to hold conversations around respect. They were very open about how Ecuadorian culture is full of machismo and how they have to focus on changing mindsets and attitudes before they can really see change. But they said they have support at the highest levels — and indeed, the wife of the mayor, Maria Fernando Pacheco, led the meeting as she is very supportive of the program — and so that is making their implementation process easier. Plus, they have alarming data that helps them more easily galvanize support: more than 90% of women face street harassment. More than 1 in 4 girls have been harassed outside their schools. Most women see public transit as unsafe. And most women try not to be alone in public after 6 p.m. when it gets dark.

These two events were inspiring and uplifting and it made me so so so so happy to hear from and meet people in various parts of the world who are committed to making public spaces safer and who understand that ultimately, we have to see cultures change before that will be a reality.

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Filed Under: street harassment, UN events and efforts Tagged With: ecuador, Habitat 3, India, papau new guinea, safe cities, spain, UN women

HABITAT 3: Women’s Assembly – Safe Cities Session

October 15, 2016 By HKearl

10-15-16-waiting-in-line-to-get-registered-for-habitat-3
Waiting in line to register for HABITAT 3, Quito, Ecuador

I recently started a new consultancy position with UN Women and as part of my job, I am in Quito, Ecuador, for HABITAT 3, the third United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development. Tens of thousands of people from around the world are convening to discuss cities.

Today was the Women’s Assembly, “designed to celebrate the contributions to and leadership of the Women and Human Settlements’ movement in championing sustainable and women inclusive urban development.”

In the morning, we heard from various UN leaders and grassroots women about the importance of including women in all efforts. In the afternoon, we divided up into 10 sessions to focus on 10 topics (e.g. economic rights, leadership, and safety). In our groups, in addition to discussing our own experiences and ideas, we came up with recommendations for what needs to happen by member states to ensure women’s views and experiences and needs are included and acted upon.

Safe Cities for Women and Girls breakout session
Safe Cities for Women and Girls breakout session

I was the documenter for the Safe Cities for Women and Girls session. Our session coordinator was Kathryn Travers, Executive Director of Women in Cities International, and she shared this to set the stage:

“Safe cities and safe public spaces free of violence against women and girls are increasingly recognized as a priority issue for sustainable development. The fact that safe cities for women figures explicitly as a goal in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a binding international commitment by Member States, strengthens its position as a key issue for implementation as part of the New Urban Agenda (NUA), a normative non-binding international framework.

SDG 5, on gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls specifically calls for ending violence against women and girls (VAWG) including in public spaces (sub-target 2). This language is mimicked in the NUA and goes on to include mentions of harassment more specifically in (para 13 c). SDG 11 calls on Member States to Make Cities and Human Settlements Inclusive, Safe, resilient and Sustainable, and sub-target 7 specifies “By 2030, provide universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible, green and public spaces, in particular for women and children, older persons and persons with disabilities”…

The NUA Para 100 calls on Member States to “support the provision of well-designed networks of safe, inclusive for all inhabitants, accessible, green, and quality public spaces and streets, free from crime and violence, including sexual harassment and gender-based violence (…) bringing people into the public spaces, promoting walkability and cycling towards improving health and well-being”. Finally, echoing the SDG 5.5, the NUA calls for the empowerment of women and others to participate in urban and territorial development and decision-making (para 155).”

In this context, these were our collective conclusions:

dsc04336We want member states to recognize safety as a right to the city and:

  1. Keep women at the center of efforts including by including women as leaders at all levels;
  2. Collect data at the national level through creative and new methods;
  3. Learn from new practices that are shared in a central place;
  4. Have multi-stake holder and multi-level efforts;
  5. Commit funding to these different initiatives so they can actually happen;
  6. Monitor and report back on efforts and hold governments (local, national) accountable

On our end, we made four commitments for what we’d be do to ensure these outcomes.

  1. We commit to making available the knowledge, tools, successful practices as part of comprehensive rights-based approaches, and key experts (both professional and grassroots women) to national, regional, state and local governments to implement safe cities for women and girls initiatives in cities. Support and capacity building for both grassroots leaders and government stakeholders will be offered as part of this commitment.
  2. Recognizing the special vulnerabilities that girls and young women face, we commit to support girls’ empowerment through processes including intergenerational dialogues to speak for themselves and transform their cities to be safer and more inclusive for all girls and women.
  3. We commit to innovating participatory action research tools, including technology, and approaches for gender transformative and inclusive safe cities for women and girls initiatives and making them available to cities worldwide
  4. We commit to implement safe cities initiatives that recognize women and girls as essential agents of change in a multi-stakeholder, multi-sectoral and multi-level partnership informed by existing global frameworks on safe cities free of violence against women and girls that can be adapted to city and country context.
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Filed Under: street harassment, UN events and efforts Tagged With: ecuador, habitat, Habitat 3, safe cities, UN women

Bonus Day: International Anti-Street Harassment Week

April 18, 2016 By HKearl

Even though April 16 was the official end of International Anti-Street Harassment Week, a few more events took place on April 17.

Women for a Change held a workshop for youth in Buea, Cameroon.

4.17.16 Women for a Change Cameroon youth workshop 3 4.17.16 Women for a Change Cameroon youth workshop 4 4.17.16 Women for a Change Cameroon youth workshop

Hollaback! Ottawa hosted a chalkwalk in Ottawa, Canada.

4.17.16 HB Ottawa sidewalk chalking, canada 4.17.16 HB Ottawa sidewalk chalking, canada 7 4.17.16 HB Ottawa sidewalk chalking, canada 3

Also, many virtual campaigns took place across the week:

OCAC Bolivia:

4.13.16 OCAC Bolivia 2 4.13.16 OCAC Bolivia 3 4.13.16 OCAC Bolivia

Hollaback! Cuenca, Ecuador:

4.12.16 Hollaback Cuenca - Ecuador 9 4.14.16 Hollaback Cuenca - Ecuador 2 4.14.16 Hollaback Cuenca - Ecuador 9

HarassMap in Egypt:

4.11.16 Imprint Movement - 'It's ok' won't help her getting her right back, an official complaint will get it 4.12.16 Imprint Movement - 'The law in on your side... Speak UP' 4.13.16 HarassMap Egypt - 82 percent of bystanders dont intervene bc they think SH is not a big deal

Stop Harcelement de Rue, Paris, France:

4.12.16 Paris, France 8 4.12.16 Paris, France 4 4.12.16 Paris, France 3

OCAC Guatemala:

4.13.16 OCAC Guatemala 2 4.13.16 OCAC Guatemala 3 4.13.16 OCAC Guatemala

OCAC Nicaragua:

4.17.16 Observatorio Contra el Acoso Callejero Nicaragua 7 4.17.16 Observatorio Contra el Acoso Callejero Nicaragua 4 4.17.16 Observatorio Contra el Acoso Callejero Nicaragua 5

Safecity India, #MySafeCity:

 4.16.16 Our Program and Outreach Officer in Mumbai, Anu Salelkar's safe city is one where more women and girls occupy public spaces. India, Safecity  4.16.16 Soumodeep's safe city treats accidents as crimes and not as political issues. India, Safecity  4.16.16 Elsa Marie D'silva. India, Safecity
Touching - India 4.14.16 Safecity India Verbal Harassment - India

Mexico. 20 women living in Mexico City from different ages, occupations and backgrounds worked together towards the development of a campaign against sexual harassment, “Space is public, my body is not”. The artwork consists of a series of photographs created by the visual artist Cerrucha :

Cronopio Azul ‏-Mexico Cronopio Azul ‏-Mexico 1

Nepal. #VoicesinCrisis:

4.12.16 Voices in Crisis Nepal 17 4.12.16 Voices in Crisis Nepal 12 4.12.16 Voices in Crisis Nepal 7

The Philippines, Stand Up, Speak Out- From Streets to Schools – a campaign of the Game Changers with the UN Safe Cities Metro Manila Programme:

4.13.16 Stand Up, Speak Out- From Streets to Schools - a campaign of the Game Changers with Safe Cities Metro Manila 4 4.14.16 Stand Up, Speak Out- From Streets to Schools - a campaign of the Game Changers with Safe Cities Metro Manila 5 4.13.16 Stand Up, Speak Out- From Streets to Schools - a campaign of the Game Changers with Safe Cities Metro Manila 8
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Filed Under: anti-street harassment week Tagged With: Bolivia, cameroon, canada, ecuador, Egypt, India, mexico, Nepal, philippines

Day 5: International Anti-Street Harassment Week

April 14, 2016 By HKearl

Hello Day 5!

Here are photos from the week  | Here are the media hits

Watch the Google+ Hangout Panel with activists from Kenya, Romania and USA.

There was a #CASSchats twitter chat with Collective Action for Safe Spaces and Me=You: Sexual Violence Awareness (MYSVA).

CASS Chats_

Here are examples of the events that took place today:

  • Bahamas: Hollaback Bahamas held a “Chalk ‘n’ Chat”

4.14.16 Bahamas

  • Canada: Women in Cities International and Interviewer Noémie Bourbonnais  and Sound Recorder Lucie Pagès did on-the-street interviews about street harassment and sidewalk chalking in Montreal.
4.14.16 WICI Montreal -Interviewee (left), Interviewer Noémie Bourbonnais (centre left), Sound Recorder Lucie Pagès (centre right), and Camerawoman Kathleen Ellis (right)) 4.14.16 WICI Montreal - Interviewer Noémie Bourbonnais (right) discussing street harassment with an interviewee (left) 4.14.16 WICI Montreal - chalking 3
  • France: Chalking in Lyon, flyering in Toulouse
4.14.16 Stop HDR Lyon France 6 4.14.16 Stop HDR Lyon France 7 4.14.16 Stop HDR Lyon France

4.14.16 Toulouse, France

  • Nepal: Youth Advocacy Nepal (YAN) – in partnership with various like-minded social organizations – organized an interaction on “Harassment and violence towards women in public spaces and legal issues” at National women commission hall, Bhdardrakali.
4.14.16 -2Youth Advocacy Nepal (YAN) in partnership with others organized 'Harassment and violence towards women in public spaces and legal issues' 2 4.14.16 -3Youth Advocacy Nepal (YAN) in partnership with others organized 'Harassment and violence towards women in public spaces and legal issues' 4.14.16 Youth Advocacy Nepal (YAN) in partnership with others organized 'Harassment and violence towards women in public spaces and legal issues'
  • Yemen: To Be for Rights and Freedom will host an event in connection with an anti-street harassment campaign. At the event, NGOs will display relevant survey results, films, and share stories. [RESCHEDULED DUE TO FLOODING]
  • Iowa: End Street Harassment – Iowa City will host a support group for individuals who have experienced street harassment to share their experiences in a safe environment. Participants can create posters and other art projects for display to raise awareness and protest street harassment. Meet in Room E on the second floor of the downtown public library, 123 S. Linn Street. [6:30 – 8 p.m.]
4.14.16 Iowa City support group 4.14.16 Iowa City support group 9 4.14.16 Iowa City support group 11
  • New York: Brooklyn Movement Center will host an event at which participants will use improv and storytelling techniques to reimagine ways they would have responded to harassment, with time travel and community support on their side [6:30 – 8:30 p.m., Friends and Lovers, 641 Classon Ave, Brooklyn, NY]
  • Pennsylvania: Students at Temple University in Philadelphia put up posters around campus.

4.14.16 Temple University signs - Philadelphia, PA

Virtual Efforts:

Afghanistan:

4.14.16 Streetharassment prevents women and girls and their families from getting an educationStreet harassment prevents women and girls and their families from getting an education Afghanistan “Harassing women is not entertainment. It is a crime.”“Harassing women is not entertainment. It is a crime. 4.10.16 Afghanistan - i have the right to go shopping without being harassed

Belgium:

Free Tai-Ji Movement Pepingen Belgium
Free Tai-Ji Movement Pepingen Belgium

Ecuador:

4.14.16 Hollaback Cuenca - Ecuador 2 4.14.16 Hollaback Cuenca Ecuador 4.14.16 Hollaback Cuenca - Ecuador 8

South Africa:

4.14.16 ActionAidSouth Africa 4.14.16 ActionAid South Africa
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Filed Under: anti-street harassment week Tagged With: Afghanistan, Bahamas, belgium, canada, ecuador, france, south africa, Yemen

Women Traveling – Recent News

March 22, 2016 By HKearl

María José Coni y Marina Menegazzo. Imagen difundida en Twitter por diversas cuentas.
María José Coni y Marina Menegazzo. Imagen difundida en Twitter por diversas cuentas.

Recently, two young Argentinian women, María Coni and Marina Menegazzo, were killed while backpacking in Ecuador. In response to the horrific victim-blaming that followed, the phrase #viajosola (I travel alone) trended on Twitter, with more than 5,000 women using the hashtag to discuss their experiences.

Here’s mine. I have visited 19 countries and all 50 U.S. states (more than 40 of them at least twice) and have traveled alone for many of the trips. I began running alone in public spaces in middle school and I first flew on a plane solo as a teenager. Thus, combined, I have spent a lot of time alone in public spaces locally and while traveling. And yes, I have faced a lot of street harassment. I’m 33 now and I’m sure the figure is in the thousands.

In addition to the scary experiences I’ve had in the U.S. of being grabbed, followed and chased, my worst experiences have been in the UK, Ethiopia, and India. Men made explicit comments to me, followed me, hounded me. I traveled with my dad in Egypt and if I ever left his side for a second in a public space, men would start in with catcalls. I specifically traveled with my dad to try to stay safe, especially as there were still mob attacks happening against women at Tahrir Square.

But I’ve had really wonderful solo travel experiences too, with my best experiences happening in Ireland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden (likely there’s no coincidence that they are countries with some of the highest gender equality rates in the world… it probably also helped that I didn’t look out of place as a white woman in those countries).

I was hesitant the first time I traveled completely alone in Ireland at age 21 while studying abroad. I stayed in hostels full of strangers, had to figure out bus schedules and debated ever eating in restaurants or just picking up snacks at a grocery store and eating on a park bench or hostel room bed. But overall it was a lovely trip. I saw major historic sites and national parks from coast to coast. I even kissed the Blarney Stone. Everyone I encountered was so nice and helpful. In my six days of solo travel I wasn’t harassed once. And I had the freedom to do what I wanted. I determined every aspect of my schedule. I could eat when I wanted, leave when I wanted, go to bed when I wanted, etc.

I wish every person — every woman — could have the experience to travel and to travel safely. To see the world, to meet its diverse people, and to expand their mind. But street harassment and the fear of it escalating to sexual assault and even murder puts a damper on things.

Going back to the two Argentinian women and the victim-blaming, here are excerpts from two excellent articles on the Guardian and NPR:

Guardian:

“The restriction of women’s solo travel remains a curiously acceptable form of victim-blaming. When Sierra was killed, for example, one headline read: “American’s death in Turkey puts focus on solo travel”. Compare this with a headline about the death of Harry Devert, a 32-year-old US citizen killed while travelling alone in Mexico: “The untimely death of world traveler Harry Devert.” When Australian Lee Hudswell died after an accident while tubing down a river in Laos, the press reported: “Fatal end to Lee’s overseas adventure”.

Female travellers have long been subjected to restrictions and double standards, with their gender emphasised over their capability and strength. Female travellers are much more likely to be categorised into reductive stereotypes – such as the glamorous adventuress – than their male counterparts. Think HG Wells in ‘Warehouse 13’, sexy Lara Croft, or the film portrayal of Adèle Blanc-Sec versus that of Tintin. When men travel in films, they are usually just travelling, but when women do, they are often running away from (or towards) a male romantic partner. (Compare The Holiday, Wild, Under the Tuscan Sun, Eat Pray Love, to The Motorcycle Diaries or Into the Wild.) There are, of course, welcome exceptions (take a bow, Dora the Explorer).

Travel has historically been, and to an extent still is, seen as a natural, bold activity for men, and a risky or frivolous pursuit for women. And as with so many other forms of low-level sexism, the knock-on impact is enormous. At a local level, curtailment of travel can prevent women from accessing healthcare, visiting family or taking job opportunities. When we restrict women’s wider freedom, we also curtail their ability to broaden their horizons and acquire valuable language skills. The impact on women’s careers can be clearly seen in the responses to female journalists who experience assaults while reporting abroad and face not only immense victim-blaming but also the curtailment of foreign assignments as a result.”

NPR:

“By the time I read about Marina Menegazzo and María José Coni, their bodies have already been found. They’d been missing for nearly a week and were discovered on Feb. 28, wrapped in plastic bags and dumped near a beach in Ecuador. One had her skull bashed in, the other had stab wounds and had bled to death. The two Argentine tourists, 22 and 23, had been vacationing in Ecuador. Their murder wasn’t reported much in English language media.

As is often the case with crime in Latin America, there’s been an array of versions of what happened shrouded in a cloud of doubt. Initially, Ecuadoran authorities detained two suspects and said one had confessed that he and his friend were drunk. One of them tried to touch one of the girls and she resisted. He then hit her on the head with a stick; the blow killed her. The suspect says her friend panicked, and the other murder suspect stabbed her.The families of the victims publicly questioned this version — they think both suspects might have had nothing to do with the murders and were being forced by authorities to confess.

In recent days another version of the story has surfaced: One of the suspects has linked the murders to a group of Colombian, Ecuadoran and Venezuelan drug traffickers, one of whom was arrested this week. Coni’s father has publicly speculated that “perhaps they kidnapped the girls to traffic them and killed them.” The Argentine Consul in Guayaquil, Ecuador, has said he does not discount that hypothesis.

Justicia por Marina Menegazzo y María José Coni!! pic.twitter.com/neUkxWYjFD

— Milagros Portioli (@Mili_Portioli) March 3, 2016

One thing is for sure: The murders have sparked outrage in Latin America, where there is a widespread crisis of femicide (the deliberate killing of women) and sexual violence. Central America has some of the highest rates. The 2012 Small Arms Survey, often cited by United Nations, surveyed murders of women around the world in the years 2004-2009. At a rate of 12 per 100,000, El Salvador is the country with the highest femicide rate, followed by Jamaica (10.9), Guatemala (9.7) and South Africa (9.6). Many of the deaths are related to gang violence that rages throughout much of Central America: In a recent series, NPR investigated the brutal effect gang violence has on young women, who are seen as sexual trophies and are targeted in sexual attacks.

Central American women who choose to leave the region and head north to the U.S. face a grim reality. Amnesty International estimates that 60 percent will be assaulted on the way. Activists report that many take birth control before the dangerous journey, in preparation for possible sexual assault.

And it’s a problem that extends far south. According to Argentine NGO “La Casa Del Encuentro” in 2014 nearly 300 murders in Argentina were considered hate crimes against women. All of this has led to a growing women’s rights movement, with the hashtag campaign #niunamenos (#notoneless) protesting the killing of women. It’s also led to femicide laws in several Latin American countries, including in Brazil, where the U.N. estimates that an average of 15 women a day are murdered in acts of gender violence. The new Brazilian law imposes jail sentences of up to 30 years for convicted offenders and longer sentences for criminals who attack girls under 14, women over 60 and pregnant women.

The outrage over the fate of the Argentine tourists goes beyond the killing itself. News articles about the murders are filled with reader comments like this one: “It’s terrible, what happened to them, but how irresponsible of their parents to let them travel alone, backpacking.” Another commenter writes: “the world is tough and their parents clearly didn’t teach them well … What did they expect?”

That line of questioning has launched a twitter hasthag #yoviajosola (#Itravelalone).”

There SHOULD be outrage. No woman should be killed simply for being female in public. Or for simply being female. (And ideally, no one should be murdered, period!).

Tahrir Square in Cairo with my dad, July 2012
Tahrir Square in Cairo with my dad, July 2012

When people have warned me to not travel someplace because it’s unsafe, I weigh the facts. I’ve never not gone somewhere, but twice I did adjust my plans. When I went to Egypt, I decided I’d feel safer with my dad. When I went to India for a conference and sightseeing, I decided I’d feel safer going with a friend than alone.

But generally, I realize that I have just as much chance of being street harassed near home (as I was earlier this month) as I do abroad or in other states. And it’s more likely that I’ll be hurt in a car accident here at home than that I’ll be raped while traveling.

So yes, harassment and worse are considerations, but they won’t stop me from traveling for work, for activism, and for my own education of the world.

We should not blame women who are traveling alone or with other women for the harassment or violence they face. We should instead do everything that we can to ensure that everyone can have the freedom to navigate our world safely, in their own communities and abroad.

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Filed Under: News stories, street harassment Tagged With: Argentina, ecuador, María Coni, Marina Menegazzo, travel alone, viajosola, victim blaming

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