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An armed conflict broke out in Burundi in October 1993. Although many of the reasons have not been expressed, the conflict was mostly due to two factors: 1. Ethnic: Hutu Tutsi antagonism 2. Partisan: above all the UPRONA party/the FRODEBU party These two factors resulted in ferocious slayings on both sides. The insecurity that accompanied this violence led to considerable numbers of displaced persons in camps. When the Hutu rebels attacked, the Tutsi survivors regrouped and when the Tutsi army counter-attacked, the Hutu survivors regrouped further away. This led to antagonism between the (...)

In the early-1990s, fish in the inland waters of Kerala in India were affected by a disease called Epizootic Ulcerative Symptom (EUS). This rendered nearly 45,000 inland fish workers jobless. Alleppey, Pathanamthitta and Quilon were the most severely affected districts. It was felt that the disease was linked to the pollution of water from industrial effluents and from the excessive use of chemical fertilizers in farm lands. Fishworkers in the state organized to highlight their problems and the threat to their livelihoods. The agitation of the fish workers came to its peak when Fr. Jose (...)

Transient villages are specific to West Bengal, India and crop up from November to March. This natural and sociological phenomenon is the result of water flowing down the Ganges submerging certain land areas in some seasons leaving it dry during other seasons. This also brings in a variety of fish that require large fixed bag nets for the catch and the gill nets are drawn in. A transient village is made up of several 'kunthis' or fishing units. The latter has an owner and may be made of 1-10 fishing boats, consisting of a temporary dormitory for the crew, a kitchen and a godown to store (...)

In the summer of 1992, conceiving a war-act against Italian state, mafia killed in Sicilia the judges Giovanni Falcone e Paolo Borsellino, symbols of the fight against mafia. In the first case, an highway was mined with a powerful bomb, and the judge died with his wife and with the three men that escorted him. In the second case, a bomb-car destroyed an entire street (140 flats)and killed the judge and four men and a woman that escorted him. The judge Paolo Borsellino was my brother. My experience in activism derives from these killings. Up to that moment, my life had been my family, my (...)

Colombia is a rich country, too rich, so it generates envies of every kind. (...)The violence there has been strongly entrenched for fifty years, but it has now reached its apex: 35,000 violent deaths per year, 10 percent of which are political assassinations, as well as 15,000 deaths during military confrontations. Of this number, it has been estimated that the percentage of female victims of death by violence is about 9 percent, higher than in previous years. However, the suffering of women cannot be limited to this figure. Women are also the victims of rapes perpetrated by the (...)

Recent political changes have given new hope for achieving peace and democracy in Cambodia. Until 1991, Cambodia had never experienced the benefits of an independent educational media. Now, however, radio and television stations have been established to produce public and voter education campaigns. The development of public interest media was furthered by the Cambodian Women's Committee for Non-violence and the Elections (CWCNVE). They produced radio programs, trained seven women in video production and published various information pamphlets in order to increase the participation of (...)

"The organization of Spanish deserters is composed of people who see anti-militarism as a means of controlling the fabric of domination that impoverishes the immense majority of the world's population. A mere twenty per cent of the population own eighty per cent of the world's wealth. More accurate statistics mention the misery affecting two thirds of the population, millions of people suffer situations at the limit of bearable, fratricidal conflicts, and migratory movements caused by hunger. The arms trade and the fueling of conflicts, especially in the Third World, contribute to (...)

This paper presents a feminist contribution to the current debate on transcending the impasse in radical development studies. The critical review of contemporary feminist theories of development presented here argues that their application to the situation of women in Third World societies has not only proved deeply problematical theoretically, but in the case of the Liberal Feminist (WID)school, proved inimical to the welfare of most Third World women in its policy applications by the development bureaucracy. While the Socialist/Marxist feminist positions avoid the cruder reductionism of (...)

The Rural Women Development Council (RWDC) chooses solidarity to fight against adversity The rural women in Buea and in other rural areas of Cameroon finally wrote down their problems: lack of capital, lack of social amenities, lack of water, electricity, health, poor education, poor infrastructures and marginalisation due to tradition and culture. Thus, they started to combine their efforts to support themselves and their communities. The idea of working in solidarity was stated by the coordinator which led to the creation of a Rural Training school in Buea. With about seven willing (...)

A professor in economics took the courage to promote women's rights and on a larger scale to try to change at her level the Indian society The reason why Virginia decided to fight for the recognition of women's rights in India results from her personal experience. The thing is that she lost her husband and was in charge of three children; therefore she had to live by her own meeans. This common situation in Europe was not understood in India. This rejection of a woman living by her self comes from the fact that in India a woman cannot live independently. Indeed in India a woman is through (...)

Peace and Human Rights promotion actions of the Mothers' of St Petersburg The Soldiers Mothers of Saint Petersburg is a Russian human rights organization that defends the rights of conscripts, recruits and their relatives. Their programs started in 1991, with consultations with people in the army. Since then the organization has collected numerous witness accounts of human rights violations in the Russian Army. In May 2001, the Soldiers Mothers of Saint Petersburg addressed a thick report to the UN Commission for Human Rights, the Council of Europe, and the European Parliament, to alert (...)

The cooperation between Palestinian and Israeli women has already started many years ago, through different frames and in different ways. In our opinion these efforts were not fruitful and that is due to several reasons which we will present in this paper. It is important to mention that the palestinian Israeli conflict is a very complicated one, both in it's history and in it's implications. We can not cover here all the details of the history and the present, we will focus only on the most direct points to the issue of women efforts to resolve the conflict. Palestinian women suffer from (...)

The Beijing Conference The NGO Forum on Women, held parallel to the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, from 30 August to 8 September 1995 in Huiarou, China, drew nearly 30,000 participants, mostly women. More than 3,000 activities were scheduled, covering presentations and discussions of various women's issues from as diverse fields as the economy and the environment to spirituality and sexual orientation. There were also rich cultural programmes as well as a general morning assembly focusing on different major global women's issues which were to be further negotiated at the (...)

In 1969, a group of determined women established an association in Gloucester, Massachusetts, US. Called the Gloucester Fishermen's Wives Association (GFWA), its purpose was to protect and promote the Gloucester and New England fishing industry as well as work to improve the quality of life for fishing families. In Gloucester, fishing vessels and businesses are family-owned. One of the original objectives of GFWA was to establish a co-operative. However, in the face of resistance from local fish processors, who threatened to stop doing business with the fishermen, this effort was (...)