This week brought news of worsening conditions in the Darfur region. Woes have long extended to refugee camps in Chad as well. While all displaced Darfuris have suffered during weeks like this, the plight of Darfuri women has garnered particular attention throughout the conflict. It is in this context that Physicians for Human Rights recently launched a new blog, DarfuriWomen.The website features entries from PHR staffers who work with the organization’s Darfur Survival Campaign, video of life in refugee camps sheltering displaced Darfuri people and messages from blog readers.
The most striking feature of the blog is a document entitled the Farchana Manifesto. Authored by a group of 8 Darfuri women who live in the Farchana camp in Eastern Chad, the document is a rare expression of the thoughts, feelings and outrage of this otherwise marginalized population. While the horrors endured by displaced Darfuri women have been well documented by outside observers, the Farchana Manifesto was written by women camp residents following a particularly brutal attack in which 7 unmarried, pregnant women living in the camp were herded together, tied up, and beaten publicly on charges that they'd engaged in prostitution -- when, according to the Physicians for Human Rights, they were likely raped. In response, the authors of the Farchana Manifesto, relay the “concerns and problems” faced by women living in the camp. Unlike the countless NGO and UN reports about violence against displaced Darfuri women, the Farchana Manifesto reflects the voices of Darfuri women themselves. It cites many problems, among them:
► lack of free movement;
► restrictions on education;
► forced marriages; and
► deprivation of property.
Unsurprisingly, many of these problems reflect violations of several major human rights instruments, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention Against the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
Never let it be said that this is a group that needs to be educated about its rights!
Kudos to Physicians for Human Rights for providing the Farchana women a platform by which their crucial words can be heard. As the women write in their manifesto, one of Farchana’s problems is a
'[l]ack of opportunity for freedom of speech, and no one listens to what women say.'Hopefully, with the release of the Farchana Manifesto, that will begin to change.
(credit for © Jane Beesley/Oxfam photo of women waiting for food distribution at Farchana, a camp in Chad filled with refugees from Darfur.)
