The average American is a slave to technology. Although no one really knows the physical and psychological impact of this, there is a lot of discussion recently about the danger of computers and cellphones. According to several articles and books, these “gadgets” have resulted in shallower thinking, weakened concentration, reduced creativity, heightened stress, and interrupted work and family life. There are also concerns about the physical impact. One Swedish study that followed young people, who began using cellphones as teenagers, for 10 years calculated a 400 percent increase in brain tumors. Another study revealed a potential link between cellphone radiation and loss in bees’ honey production—given that bees pollinate 90% of commercial crops in the USA the side effects of this could eventually be dire. However as Maureen Dowd wrote, “even if scientists told us our computers would make our arms fall off, we’d probably keep typing.” All this recent attention to the physical and psychological impacts notwithstanding, it is people who don’t even use these “gadgets” that are at the greatest, yet far less talked about, risk. Smartphones and laptops are built from minerals—tin, tantalum, tungsten, and gold—that warlords trade and use to fund mass slaughter and rape in eastern Congo. This straightforward video by the Enough Project describes how these minerals leave a trail of destruction from the mines in Congo to the cellphone in your pocket, and what consumers can do to help end the violence.

There are many choices that, in a democratic country, should be a woman’s right to make—including the choice of what to wear and where to pray. For Muslim citizens of Western countries, however, the right to make these choices is in question. In May, the French government approved a measure to ban full-body veils (burqas, niqabs) in public. According to the leader of the French National Assembly, the ban is both necessary for public safety and a good thing for France and democracy. In response, many women’s rights activists assert that the ban is patronizing and dehumanizing for French Muslim citizens. In the US, the debate is about where Muslim women can pray. A group of Muslim women have begun organizing mosque pray-ins in an attempt to end the gender segregation that occurs in nearly two-thirds of American mosques. (Segregation in mosques is not practiced traditionally and historically in Islam. In the Grand Mosque of Mecca, Islam’s holiest shrine, women and men perform all the hajj rituals, including praying, without segregation.) In a recent Huffington Post article, Jehan Harney asserts that these activists can gain supporters “not necessarily by demanding mosques change their policies to have men and women pray side-by-side, but rather demanding mosques to give women their right to choose where to pray.”

The United Nations (UN) is in the midst of a historic reform process that has the potential to change the status quo for women’s human rights around the world. Five decades ago, the UN became a galvanizing force for protecting and promoting women’s rights by creating a framework of international laws and commitments. However, the four small UN agencies exclusively dedicated to women’s issues lack the necessary status, funding and country presence to enable the wider UN system and national authorities to fully implement their obligations. This has limited the potential for women around the world to fully enjoy their rights in practice. In September 2009, all 192 member states of the UN General Assembly finally agreed to the creation of a consolidated and stronger UN agency for women. At this moment, member states are negotiating about this new agency. The Gender Equality Architecture Reform (GEAR) Campaign — a network of over 300 women’s, human rights and social justice groups from around the world — is urging the General Assembly to adopt a resolution about the agency by July 2010 and to commit to fund the entity with an annual budget of 1 billion USD. Sign the petition today to ensure that the UN gets this reform right. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to influence systematic change in women’s rights worldwide.

A peace jirga — which aims to bring together 1,500 Afghan policymakers, community leaders and elders to end the Taliban insurgency — will begin on June 2 in Kabul. The jirga will determine a reconciliation process for members of the Taliban “who are not part of al-Qaeda or any other terrorist network, who denounce violence and who will return to normal life respecting the Afghan constitution.” President Karzai asserts that this historic forum will enable Afghans to chart a way forward. At a recent meeting at the United States Institute of Peace, Karzai sought to allay fears that negotiations with the Taliban would turn Afghanistan away from its commitment to human rights. Karzai distinguished rank-and-file militants from their leadership, asserting that low-level Taliban sympathizers are “countryside boys” who are not enemies of the U.S. Although the peace jirga is slated to include at least 20 percent women, Afghan elders and community leaders have demonstrated reluctance. Many observers fear that the Afghan government, desperate for an agreement with the Taliban, will compromise on the issue of women’s rights and women will be a pawn in the negotiations. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has asserted that it is “essential that women’s rights and women’s opportunities are not sacrificed or trampled on in the reconciliation process.” Afghan women’s rights activists assert that “the US should not support any project, with any amount, where women are not strongly present.”

Last week the Honduran government inaugurated a truth commission to investigate the June 2009 coup. The commission will “document human rights abuses related to the coup, address grievances where they are found and consider reforms to prevent similar incidents from happening again.” Human rights groups have, however, criticized the commission. Committee for the Families of the Detained and Disappeared of Honduras (COFADEH) states, “the only purpose of the Lobo commission is to support the Honduran regime’s continued efforts to whitewash those responsible for the coup and its violent aftermath.” Since last year’s coup, a powerful nonviolent resistance movement has emerged. Women make up the majority of the movement and play a critical leadership role. The resistance is united not just by opposition to the regime but also a positive vision of a new Honduras, characterized by this slogan: “Por un constituyente no excluyente” (For a constitutional convention that doesn’t exclude). The regime has responded with brutal repression. As of last August, women’s groups documented 249 cases of violations of women’s human rights, including beatings, sexual assault and gang rapes by police. To date, COFADEH has registered 47 assassinations of anti-coup activists. On May 10, the U.N. Human Rights Council urged protection for Honduran journalists after seven were killed in the past six weeks. The truth commission has no mandate to examine these current human rights violations.

On May 3rd, American Chris Flaherty will commence a hunger strike to pressure the US government to call for the immediate release of Birkutan Mideksa from wrongful imprisonment in Ethiopia. Mideska is Chairperson of the Unity for Democracy and Justice Party of Ethiopia, a single mother of a 5 year old daughter, caregiver for her 74 year old mother, and was among dozens of opposition leaders, journalists and civil society workers arrested following anti-government demonstrations in  2005. After spending nearly two years in jail Mideska was pardoned but then re-arrested in December 2008. On January 9, 2010, the prime minister of Ethiopia stated that any discussion of her release was “a dead issue.” Meanwhile, her arbitrary detention is recognized by UN Human Rights Commission. In a report released on March 23, 2010 Human Rights Watch stated that the Ethiopian government is waging a sustained attack on political opponents, journalists, and rights activists in advance of May 2010 parliamentary elections. When announcing his hunger strike Chris Flaherty (who produced a documentary, Migration of Beauty, depicting the grassroots movement of Ethiopian taxi drivers in DC who used their U.S. citizenship to impose foreign aid restrictions against their native country) implored Ethiopian Americans that “you must instigate the government… in the Diaspora you hold a responsibility.” Freebirtukan.org is focusing it’s grassroots mobilization efforts on Ethiopian mothers in America.

On April 13 – 15 the first multi-party elections since 1986 took place in Sudan. The results will be announced on Apr. 22 in Khartoum — preliminary reports suggest that the president incumbent of the ruling National Congress Party, Omar al-Bashir, is leading nationwide. However, two international observation missions have issued reports that the elections did not meet international standards and Sudanese observer groups reported widespread electoral rigging and political oppression. Leading human rights groups are calling on the Obama Administration to acknowledge that the presidential election will not reflect the legitimate choice of the Sudanese people. The past 20 years in Sudan have been dominated by warfare that has starkly divided the country on racial, religious, and regional grounds; displaced an estimated four million people; and killed an estimated two million people. The lack of investment during this time, particularly in South Sudan, has meant a generation lacking basic health services, education, and jobs. This weekend I attended the screening of a powerful documentary, Rebuilding Hope, that follows three “Lost Boys” – Gabriel Bol, Koor, and Garang – from the US to Sudan to find surviving family members, discover what the current situation is in South Sudan, and determine how they can help their community rebuild after devastating civil war. I recommend this film to all!

Tomorrow marks the end of Women’s History Month. At the same time as we’re honoring women’s past contributions, new chapters in history are being written. In America, the most recent achievement for and by women was the passage of healthcare reform. What else will 2010 hold for women? There are high hopes for the US’ ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Also known as The Treaty for the Rights of Women, CEDAW sets a universal standard for women’s equal political, civil, economic, cultural and social rights. It was adopted by the UN in 1979 and as of March 2010, 186 countries have ratified it. The US is only one of seven countries – including Sudan, Somalia, and Iran – to have not ratified the treaty. After years of stalemate, President Obama put CEDAW back on the international treaty agenda. However there is widespread agreement that ratification will require overcoming huge legislative challenges in the Senate. An effort is currently underway by The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights to ensure that the treaty is ratified in 2010.

This month’s issue of Smithsonian magazine highlights the systematic demolition of the city of Kashgar in East Turkestan, also known as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China. Kashgar is a 1,000 year old city that is home to the Uyghur people. Uyghurs are ethnically and culturally a Turkic people who practice a moderate form of Sufi Islam. Heavy-handed repression by the Chinese government has created a dire human rights situation in East Turkestan that includes arbitrary detention, torture, and execution; severe discrimination in the areas of healthcare and employment; religious repression; forced abortion; the removal of Uyghur as a language in schools; and the forcible transfer of young Uyghur women and men to eastern China at the same as government policies bring millions of Chinese migrants to East Turkestan. The systematic demolition of Kashgar is considered yet another sinister attempt “to deprive the Uyghur of their main symbol of cultural identity.” Read this speech by Rebiya Kadeer to learn what “the Mother of the Uyghur Nation” had to say after deadly demonstrations killed hundreds of Uyghur in July 2009.

Photo credit: Associated Press Uyghur women protest

This week I saw a provocative ad at a bus stop in my Washington, DC neighborhood. A picture of George W. Bush gazing out an airplane window alongside a battered piece of cardboard with “AIDS is DC’s Katrina” scrawled across it. The ad is intended to prod President Obama to act on AIDS, specifically in DC where HIV prevalence rates are at least 3% (higher than in Lagos, Nigeria). This video reinforces the message that “56,000 new US infections each year symbolize neglect and indifference.” Race played a critical role in the devastation in New Orleans and it is a central factor in the HIV epidemic in the US. African-Americans make up 12% of the population yet account for more than 45% of new infections and 46% of people currently living with HIV. AIDS is currently the leading cause of death for Black women ages 25 to 34. On March 10th –National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day – set your phone or computer to alert you every 35 minutes. This is how often an American woman tests positive for HIV. Hurricane Katrina illustrated that natural disasters are neither gender- nor color-blind. The same is true of HIV/AIDS.

AIDS Healthcare Foundation Ad Campaign