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Women's Global
Charter for Humanity
As
adopted during the 5th International Meeting in
World March of Women
Published in this website on May 29, 2006.
Taken from:
http://www.marchemondiale.org/publications/charte/charte/en
Preamble
We women have been marching a long time to denounce and demand an end to the
oppression of women and end the domination, exploitation, egotism and
unbridled quest for profit breeding injustice, war, conquest and violence.
Our feminist struggles and those of our foremothers on every continent have
forged new freedoms for us, our daughters and sons, and all the young girls and
boys
who will walk the earth after us.
We are building a world where diversity is considered an asset and individuality
a source of richness; where dialogue flourishes and where writing, song and
dreams can flower. In this world, human beings are considered one of the most
precious sources of wealth. Equality, freedom, solidarity, justice, and peace
are its driving force. We have the power to create this world.
We represent over half of humanity. We give life, we work, love, create,
struggle, and have fun. We currently accomplish most of the work essential to
life and the continued survival of humankind.
Yet our place in society continues to be undervalued.
The World March of Women, of which we are a part, views patriarchy as the system
oppressing women and capitalism as the system that enables a minority to exploit
the vast majority of women and men.
These systems reinforce one another. They are rooted in, and work hand in hand
with, racism, sexism, misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia, colonialism,
imperialism, slavery, and forced labour. They breed manifold forms of
fundamentalism that prevent women and men from being free. They generate poverty
and exclusion, violate the rights of human beings, particularly women’s rights,
and imperil humanity and the planet.
We reject this world!
We propose to build another world where exploitation, oppression, intolerance
and exclusion no longer exist, and where integrity, diversity and the rights and
freedoms of all are respected.
This Charter is based on the values of equality, freedom, solidarity, justice
and peace.
EQUALITY
Affirmation 1.
All human beings and peoples are equal in all domains and all societies. They
have equal access to wealth, to land, decent employment, means of production,
adequate housing, a quality education, occupational training, justice, a
healthy, nutritious and sufficient diet, physical and mental health services,
old age security, a healthy environment, property, political and decision-making
functions, energy, drinking water, clean air, means of transportation, technical
knowledge and skills, information, means of communication, recreation, culture,
rest, technology, and the fruit of scientific progress.
Affirmation 2.
No human condition or condition of life justifies discrimination.
Affirmation 3.
No custom, tradition, religion, ideology, economic system or policy justifies
the inferiorization of any person or authorizes actions that undermine human
dignity, and physical and psychological integrity.
Affirmation 4.
Women are full-fledged human beings and citizens before being spouses,
companions, wives, mothers and workers.
Affirmation 5.
All unpaid, so-called feminine tasks related to supporting life and social
maintenance (household labour, education, caring of children and intimates,
etc.) are economic activities that create wealth and that should be valued
and shared.
Affirmation 6.
Trade among countries is equitable and does not harm peoples’
development.
Affirmation 7.
Every person has access to a job with fair remuneration, in safe and sanitary
conditions, and in which their dignity is respected.
FREEDOM
Affirmation 1.
All human beings live free of all forms of violence. No human being is the
property of another. No person may be held in slavery, forced to marry,
subjected to forced labour, trafficked, sexually exploited.
Affirmation 2.
All individuals enjoy collective and individual freedoms that guarantee their
dignity, in particular: freedom of thought, conscience, belief and religion;
freedom of expression and opinion; to express one’s sexuality in a free and
responsible manner and choose the person with whom to share one’s life;
freedom to vote, be elected and participate in political life; freedom to
associate, meet, unionize and demonstrate; freedom to choose one’s residence and
civil status; freedom to choose one’s courses of study and choose one’s
profession and exercise it; freedom to move and to be in charge of one’s person
and goods; freedom to choose one’s language of communication while respecting
minority languages and a society’s choices concerning the language spoken at
home and in the workplace, and to be informed, learn, discuss and gain
access to information technologies.
Affirmation 3.
Freedoms are exercised with tolerance and mutual respect and within a democratic
and participatory framework, democratically determined by the society. They
involve responsibilities and obligations towards the community.
Affirmation 4.
Women are free to make decisions about their body, fertility and sexuality. They
have the choice about whether they will have children.
Affirmation 5.
Democracy is rooted in freedom and equality.
SOLIDARITY
Affirmation 1.
International solidarity among individuals and peoples is promoted free of any
form of manipulation or influence.
Affirmation 2.
All human beings are interdependent. They share the responsibility and
the intention to live together and build a society that is generous, just and
egalitarian, based on human rights; a society free of oppression, exclusion,
discrimination, intolerance and violence.
Affirmation 3.
Natural resources and the goods and services necessary for all persons to live
are quality public goods and services to which every individual has equal and
fair access.
Affirmation 4.
Natural resources are administrated by the peoples living in the area, in a
manner that is respectful of the environment and promotes its preservation and
sustainability.
Affirmation 5.
A society’s economy serves the women and men composing that society. It is based
on the production and exchange of socially useful wealth distributed among all
people, the priority of satisfying the collective needs, eliminating poverty and
ensuring the balance of collective and individual interests. It ensures food
sovereignty. It opposes the exclusive quest for profit to the detriment of
social usefulness, and the private accumulation of the means of production,
wealth, capital, land, and decision-making power by a few groups and
individuals.
Affirmation 6.
The contribution of every person to society is acknowledged and paves the way to
social rights, regardless of the function held by that person.
Affirmation 7.
Genetic modification is controlled. There are no patents on life or the human
genome. Human cloning is prohibited.
JUSTICE
Affirmation 1.
All human beings regardless of their country of origin, nationality and place of
residence are considered to be full-fledged citizens, with fair and equal
entitlement to human rights (social, economic, political, civil, cultural
rights, sexual, reproductive and environmental rights), within an egalitarian,
fair and genuinely democratic framework.
Affirmation 2.
Social justice is based on the equitable redistribution of wealth to eliminate
poverty, limit wealth acquisition, and satisfy essential needs to improve the
well-being of all people.
Affirmation 3.
The physical and moral integrity of every person is protected. Torture
and humiliating and degrading treatment are forbidden. Sexual violence, rape,
female genital mutilation, violence against women, sex trafficking and
trafficking of human beings in general are considered crimes against the person
and crimes against humanity.
Affirmation 4. An
accessible, egalitarian, effective and independent judiciary is put in place.
Affirmation 5.
Every individual benefits from social protection guaranteeing her or him access
to care, decent housing, education, information and security in old age. Every
individual has sufficient income to live in dignity.
Affirmation 6.
Health and social services are public, accessible, quality and free of charge;
this includes all treatments, and services for all pandemic diseases,
particularly HIV.
PEACE
Affirmation 1.
All human beings live in a peaceful world. Peace is achieved principally as a
result of: equality between women and men, social, economic, political, legal
and cultural equality, rights protection, and eradication of poverty, ensuring
that all people live in dignity and free of violence, and that everyone has
employment, enough resources to feed, house, clothe and educate themselves, is
protected in old age, and has access to health care.
Affirmation 2.
Tolerance, dialogue and respect for diversity are foundations of peace.
Affirmation 3.
All forms of domination, exploitation and exclusion, of one person over another,
one group over another, of a minority over a majority, of a majority over a
minority, or of one nation over another, are excluded.
Affirmation 4.
All human beings have the right to live in a world free of war and armed
conflict, foreign occupation and military bases. No one has the right to decide
on the life or death of individuals and peoples.
Affirmation 5.
No custom, tradition, ideology, religion, political or economic system justifies
the use of violence.
Affirmation 6.
Armed and unarmed conflicts between countries, communities and peoples are
resolved through negotiations, which bring about peaceful, just and fair
solutions at the national, regional and international levels.
CALL
This Women’s Global Charter for Humanity calls on women and men and all
oppressed peoples and groups of the planet to proclaim, individually and
collectively, their power to transform the world and radically change social
structures with a view to developing relationships based on equality, peace,
freedom, solidarity and justice.
It calls on all social movements and all forces in society to take action so
that the values promoted in this Charter can be effectively implemented and
political decision-makers adopt the measures necessary for their implementation.
It is a call to action to change the world. The need is urgent!
No aspect of this Charter may be interpreted or utilized to express opinions or
conduct activities that contravene the Charter’s spirit. The values defended in
it form a whole. They are of equal importance, interdependent, and indivisible,
and the order they appear in the Charter is interchangeable.
What is the World March of Women?
The World March of Women is a movement composed of women’s groups of diverse
ethnic, cultural, religious, political and class backgrounds, and different ages
and sexual orientation. Far from dividing us, this diversity unites us in
greater, more far-reaching solidarity.
In 2000, as part of the World March of Women, we wrote a political platform
containing 17 practical demands for the elimination of poverty throughout the
world, wealth sharing, the eradication of violence against women and the respect
of women’s physical and moral integrity. We transmitted these demands to the
leaders of the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and United Nations. We
received not even one concrete response. We also transmitted these demands to
elected officials and leaders in our countries.
Ever since, we have ceaselessly continued to defend our demands. We are
proposing alternatives to build another world. We are active in the world’s
social movements and in our societies. We are furthering the thinking about
women’s place in the world and the place we should be occupying.
With this Women's Global Charter for Humanity and our upcoming actions, we
reaffirm that another world is possible, a world filled with hope and life that
is truly a fine place to live. We proclaim our love of the world, its diversity
and its beauty.
Copyrights
: CC by-nc-sa 2.0 .
Last modified 2006-05-03
