Women's Rights in the Workplace

Salvadoran Women working in a factory

On March 30th, the International Labor Organization presented their report on Legislation Regarding Women's Work Rights in Central America and the Dominican Republic. The report revealed that the most common types of labor violations in the workplace for women are in regards to maternity and sexual harrasment.

International Labor Organization Representative, Maria Jose Chamorro, presented the report to the audience. Some interesting facts about El Salvador labor laws:

• El Salvador ratified the International Agreement on Work Dicrimination in 1995, and the International Agreement on Equal Pay in 2000, while the rest of the Central American countries had ratified those agreements in the 1950's and 1960's.
• Article 3 of the Salvadoran constitution states that "All persons are equal under the law. To have access to civil rights there could be no restrictions based on nationality, race, sex or religion."
• Both the Convention for the Elimination of All forms of Violance Against Women and the Inter-American Convention to Prevent, Sanction and Erradicate Violance Against Women have been ratified by the Salvadoran government.

Remembering María Julia: Defender of Human Rights in El Salvador

“Our struggle to exercise these rights here in El Salvador continues, we will keep searching for this truth and justice in El Salvador's courts. I don't know when, but one day truth and justice will flourish in our country for the victims who abandoned this utopia with their blood.”
  - Dr. María Julia Hernández

Dr. María Julia Hernandez, long-time director of Tutela Legal, The Salvadoran Archdiocese's human rights office, and defender of the victims of horrific human rights violations, died March 30^th four years ago. 


SHARE worked with María Julia, Tutela Legal, and the Archdiocese on many human rights initiatives over the years, including human rights campaigns during the war, coordination with the movement of refugees repopulating communities in the late 1980s, and working on the initial design for a memorial wall dedicated to the civilian victims of the war. SHARE brought María Julia on tour in the U.S. to promote and fundraise for the construction of the memorial wall. Says SHARE Executive Director José Artiga, “María Julia is one of our most prominent women leaders in El Salvador. She worked closely with all the Archbishops, and was a defender of human rights who promoted denouncements, justice, and reparations.”

In honor of María Julia Hernández, Wednesday March 30^th 2011 members of Tutela Legal organized a mass and forum in the Crypt of the National Cathedral, where María Julia, Archbishop Oscar Romero, and a number of other priests and religious persons are buried. María Julia is one of the only women buried in the Crypt. A group of forty people gathered to commemorate her life, including members of COMADRES, the Committee of the Mothers of the Disappeared, and many others who knew her. In the spirit of María Julia, during the opening prayer, one of the priests proclaimed, “We are gathered here for the dignity of all, no matter their social class.”

Decorating María Julia's tomb
with flowers

Following the mass, Luis Morales and Dr. Aceda Díaz shared reflections about María Julia's personality, work, and legacy. María Julia first became involved in working for human rights after meeting Archbishop Romero in 1977 at a gathering of student groups. Archbishop Romero called on the students to aid the victims of disappearance and genocide, and María Julia decided to accompany him in this work. She took on a preferential option for the victims, committing the rest of her life to defending human rights.

In 1983, María Julia took leadership of the newly formed Tutela Legal. She and her team worked tirelessly and systematically to investigate, record, and denounce massacres, murders, disappearances, and other human rights violations, and to protect victims. While these atrocities stopped happening systematically with the end of the war, they remained covered by silence, impunity, and the amnesty law. María Julia continued to work for the truth to be known and acknowledged. Together with Tiberio Arnoldo Romero, brother of Archbishop Oscar Romero, she brought the case of Archbishop Romero's assassination to the Inter-American Human Rights Commission. She also played an instrumental role in coordinating the exhumations of the El Mozote Massacre, bringing irrefutable evidence to light. She helped facilitate the planning and construction of the Monument to Truth and Memory as well, a memorial wall with the names of nearly 30,000 civilian victims killed or disappeared during the war.

Law passed in El Salvador for a life Free of Violence for Women!

Women Marchers Triumph:

Salvadoran Legislature Passes Law for a Life Free of Violence Against Women

Thursday November 25^th, International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, over 4,000 Salvadoran women coursed down Juan Pablo II, a busy road en route to the Salvadoran Legislative Assembly.¹ Women carried banners, thumped lively rhythms on drums, and cried out for an end to violence. In front of the legislative assembly, they demanded respect for current laws guaranteeing women's rights, and passage of the Special Holistic Law for a Life Free of Violence Against Women.

And they were successful!

Report on Mesoamerican Women's Encounter

     On Friday, September 10th, Laura, Tedde and Marina from the SHARE El Salvador office, attended an event hosted by a number of Salvadoran women's organizations as they presented the report of the Mesoamerica and Caribbean Encounter with the UN Expert on Women's Issues, which occured in March. (Read the UN Expert's report on El Salvador). Representatives from various women's organization were present, in addition to a representative from the UN, the Director of Integral Social Development in the Salvadoran Government's Foreign Relations Ministry, and a Representative from the Salvadoran National Women's Institution, ISDEMU.

      Silvia Juarez from SHARE's Counterpart, ORMUSA, presented a summary of the themes that were discussed during the encounter. Those themes were:

• Domestic and Partner Violence
• Access to Justice
• Extreme Violence-- Feminicide/Femicide
• Other forms of violence in the Caribbean and Mesoamerica
• Violence against Women in the context of breakdown and weakening of democracy
• Violation of sexuala and reproductive rights
• Sexual Violence
  
  
  

     Silvia did a wonderful job of summarizes these seven themes and how they were presented by the various countries present at the Encounter. Some of the disturbing facts that she presented that stood out to SHARE staff were:

• From January to June in 2010, a woman was killed violently every 12 hours
• In the first nine months of 2009, there were 13 registered cases of hate crimes against lesbian or transgender women in El Salvador
• Rates of domestic violence in all of Central America are so high that the home is regarded as the most dangerous place for a woman
• El Salvador has the highest rate of femicide in the region with 592 reported cases in 2009
• In the municipality of Soyapango, in greater San Salvador, of 400 reported crimes against women or girls, only 3 cases were brought to justice

     While these few facts alone are disturbing enough, the list of injustices against women in El Salvador and Central America, goes on and on. Yet, along with their reports of the current situation for women, Silvia also talked about the different responses that were taken. In some cases, the government was moving forward, and in many cases there was a serious deficiency in the justice process and protection of women's rights. The most inspiring responses to these injustices came from women's movements and resistences. Whether it be educational campaigns for women and men, marches for women's rights, or working with victims to bring their cases to justice, these women's groups have worked tirelessly to improve the dire situation of women in El Salvador, and all of Mesoamerica and the Caribbean.

SHARE invites you to join us for our Churchwomen Delegation, November 29-December 6. During this delegation, we will work together with ORMUSA to present a forum regarding women's issues in El Salvador and for immigrant women in the United States. For more questions about the delegation or our work with Salvadoran women, please contact laura@share-elsalvador.org.

"To live free of violence is a right that women have"

Remembering Women in El Salvador

Funes announces several members of his Cabinet

Several names of President-elect Mauricio Funes' Cabinet have been announced over the last couple of days. The positions include:

• Chief Advisor to the President and Chief of Staff: Alexander Segovia, Funes' current economic advisor,
• Treasury Minister: Carlos Cáceres, the former Executive Director of the Central Banking System,
• Economic Minister: Dr. Hector Dada, current Democratic Change (DC) Legislator,
• President of the Central Bank Reserve: Carlos Acevedo, an economist with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP),
• Agriculture Minister: Manuel Sevilla, another economist for the UNDP,
• Environment Minister: German Rosa Chávez, former Executive Director of the Salvadoran Program for Investigation of Development and the Environment (PRISMA),
• Public Works Minister: Gerson Martínez, current FMLN Legislator,
• Coordinator for State Modernization: Hato Hasbum, Funes' presidential campaign director,
• President of CEPA (Salvadoran Port Authority): Guillermo López, former Treasury Minister in the Saca administration, and
  
• Minister of Foreign Affairs: Hugo Martínez, an FMLN Legislator

*Photo of Mauricio Funes and Hector Dada from Amigos de Mauricio.

- Sara Skinner, US Grassroots Coordinator

"In this house we want a life without violence toward women."

The following article, written by Sara Miller Llana, was published in The Christian Science Monitor's blog:

SUCHITOTO, EL SALVADOR – Time seems to have stood still in the colonial town of Suchitoto, about 30 miles from El Salvador’s frenetic capital, with its quiet cobblestone streets and perfectly preserved architecture. But now its white-washed walls are adorned with a 21st-century message: “In this house we want a life without violence toward women.”

The words, which are accompanied by a bird and flower, the symbol of Suchitoto, forms part of a campaign by the Feminist Collective for Local Development to “elevate societal rejection of domestic violence, and make it a subject we should all be worried about,” says local feminist activist Morena Herrera.

It seems to have worked: The overall impression, reading the message on home after home – where women sweep their front porches and men gather in rocking chairs to talk on lazy afternoons – is one of camaraderie around an issue that is often overlooked in macho cultures in Latin America. In El Salvador, which contends with skyrocketing crime rates from street gangs, violence against women is even less prioritized, says Ms. Herrera.

According to the US State Department’s 2008 report on human rights, El Salvador received 6,051 reports of domestic violence last year, compared with 5,906 complaints in 2007.

The Feminist Collective for Local Development painted the walls in January with the help of the mayor’s office, and they hope to extend the program to other municipalities. Aminta Molina, whose front wall carries the motif, says she supports any initiative that gives women a boost. “Women used to have no power,” she says. “Now we are fully equals.”

- Posted by Sara Skinner, US Grassroots Coordinator

*Photo from The Christian Science Monitor

Empowered Women, Empowered Communities!

Shoveling soil is HARD! That thought ran through my head over and over again as I watched SHARE Foundation’s delegates and members of cooperatives shovel compost as the sun beat down on the tin roof that barely covered the compost soil pile. We kicked up dirt and sand and soon everyone’s brightly colored sneakers were covered with muted brown earth. I gulped down water from my water bottle and wiped sweat from my brow with my sleeve.

The group I was with was comprised of American University students and MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger’s staff and board members who had come to observe El Salvador’s historic elections and learn more about Salvadorans who are fighting for justice and creating real change in their communities. This group visited two cooperatives that participate in SHARE Foundation’s local development program: Los Frailes (The Friars) and the Marta Gonzalez Cattlewomen’s Cooperative (ACAMG).

Around 9AM, the SHARE delegates piled off the bus in the morning in La Bendición and were immediately greeted by a throng of excited, gregarious children. The delegates then convened with representatives from the Los Frailes in a community space, where individual farmers, both men and women, spoke about the benefits of using organic rather than chemical fertilizers and compost soil. Los Frailes participates in the Campesino a Campesino (Peasant to Peasant) Program, in which a local grassroots organization, CONFRAS, provides training on organic farming techniques and then encourages each participating cooperative to teach and train another community on what they learned. Farmers from Los Frailes spoke about the sense of empowerment they’ve gained by working together as a community in order to solve the community problem of hunger. To better illustrate their hard work to their visitors, the cooperative members took the group to a site where they were preparing compost soil. The cooperative members showed the different layers of the soil and invited the delegates to help “turn” the soil. Under the sweltering sun, the delegates took turns shoveling the compost, huffing and puffing with the effort. Rachel Ford, a freshman at American University and one of the first to volunteer to shovel the compost, stated, “I really enjoyed having the opportunity to work alongside the members of the cooperative and talk them about their experiences.” Luah Tomas, a freshman from American University, marveled at the difficult work required to make compost soil, “While I was watching some members of our group help shovel the fertilizer I thought that, for us, this is just two minutes of our lives, but for them it is their lives.” When it was time for the group to leave, we gave our new friends at the cooperative (sweaty) hugs and thanked them for sharing their time with us and teaching us about their work.

We arrived in Zamorano in time for lunch with the Marta Gonzalez Cattlewomen’s Cooperative (ACAMG), who prepared a sumptuous feast for the delegates. After the meal, the women spoke to the delegates about their cooperative’s history, their challenges, and their hopes. ACAMG began as part of a larger, co-educational organization, but the female cooperative members did not feel supported or included in the decision-making processes, so they chose to branch off in 1993 to form their own women-run, women-only cooperative. The women told the group how they struggled with members of their community, mostly men, who told them that they were selfish for choosing to leave the larger organization. However, the women moved forward with their plans of creating a women’s cattle cooperative, and to date, around 300 women participate in the cooperative. The women smiled slyly when they said that now some men have asked to join their cooperative, but they have told them that the only way that can join is if they start wearing a dress. Because of their success, the women have expanded their cooperative’s mission and have begun literacy circles to encourage women to learn how to read and write. During our visit, a delegate asked the representatives of the cooperative if they preferred any particular candidate or political party in the upcoming presidential election. Most of the women agreed that they wanted the FMLN (Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation) party to win, but they also reminded us that they had survived seventeen years without support from the government, and they would continue their work regardless of the election results on March 15, 2009. After the women’s presentation, Heather Wolfson, MAZON’s Marketing Manager, reflected, “I was inspired by the women of the cattle cooperative. Despite facing many hardships at its inception, the cattle cooperative has changed the lives of hundreds of women. The women have used this empowerment to provide a service for the region and have given women the independence to succeed.”

At the end of our visit, the members of ACAMG invited the delegates to participate in a procession in memory of Rutilio Grande, a priest who was assassinated during El Salvador’s civil war 32 years ago. We gathered up the road along with most of the citizens of Zamorano, which included an enormous green parrot, and filed into two lines. We sang spiritual and political hymns as we processed toward Zamorano’s church, appropriately named after Rutilio Grande. I marveled at the people in the crowd, Salvadoran and American, Christian and Jewish, young and old, united in creating a new El Salvador today.

To learn more about SHARE’s local development programs, click here.

To support SHARE's projects, click here.

- Sara Skinner, US Grassroots Coordinator

Women Ask Funes to Create Policies that Guarantee Their Rights

The Salvadoran organization, Women Creators of Peace and Life, have asked the recently elected president of the Republic of El Salvador, Mauricio Funes, to create policies that guarantee women's rights during his tenure. The representatives of the organization state that women's rights were not taken into consideration during the past twenty years of ARENA's rule.

Some of the issues that many Salvadoran feminist organizations hope that the new government will address are reproductive rights, sex education, women's labor, domestic violence, and the femicides.

The feminist organization, CEMUJER, has called for an end to the impunity for those responsible for the murder of women. In the last two months, sixty women have been murdered in El Salvador. Ima Rocio Guirola, a representative of CEMUJER, stated that there have been no concrete measures taken to stop the rate of femicides in El Salvador and believes that the Salvadoran government could help by passing the Comprehensive Law against Violence against Women. Since 2007, women's organizations in El Salvador have urged the Salvadoran government to list femicide as a crime and to create a special police unit to investigate crimes against women. Perhaps with the election of Mauricio Funes to the presidency, the Salvadoran government will concern itself more with the needs and rights of women.

- Sara Skinner, US Grassroots Coordinator

Women's Participation in Salvadoran Politics - Tim's Blog

On February 22, 2009, Tim's Blog posted the following analysis of the UCA's research on women's participation in politics in El Salvador:

"The sociology and political sciences department of the University of Central America has taken a look at the participation of women in the recently held elections for mayor and deputies to the National Assembly.

Of the 1147 persons running for mayor in municipalities across El Salvador, only 115 (11.5%) were women. A scant 29 of those women won their elections in the 262 municipalities in the country.

Of 427 persons nominated by political parties for the National Assembly, only 103 (24.1%) were women. The elections resulted in women being 16 of the 84 deputies.

The graphic below shows the relative percentages of men(green) and women (blue) as legislators and mayors after the elections:



As the article points out, 'the data demonstrate that there is no equality of conditions for the participation of women in politics and that inside the parties little has been done so that women can have realistic possiblities of being elected.' "

- Sara Skinner, US Grassroots Coordinator

Civil Society Raises Awareness of Violence against Women in El Salvador

To commemorate the Day of Non-Violence against Women, more than 2,000 women marched to Legislative Assembly demanding the Salvadoran state to step up their role in preventing violence and promoting justice for women.

The women called for the Legislative Assembly to pass the Facultative Protocol of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). CEDAW would classify femicide, the systematic muderer of women, as a crime in the Penal Code and enact a number of policies and programs to ensure a woman’s right to live a life free of violence.

According to the Organization of Salvadoran Women for Peace (ORMUSA), an organization working for equality and empowerment of women, assassinations of women have been increasing since 1999. In the last eight years, femicides increased from 195 in 1999 to 337 in 2007. In the first nine months of 2008 alone 256 women were assassinated – indicating that at least one woman is killed every day.

Other forms of violence against women (physical, physiological, verbal, sexual, economic, etc.) have reached alarming numbers as well. In 2008, there were 57,700 reports of domestic violence, and 25,552 emergency calls to 911 because of interfamily violence. This excludes cases of violence that women do not report out of fear or threats from their spouse.

On November 25, in addition to the march in the capital, women’s groups held workshops around the country to talk about the importance of these issues facing women and to discuss steps the people and the government should take to bring justice to women.

- Leslie O'Bray, Grassroots Education and Advocacy Intern

Prudencia Ayala Feminist Coalition Publishes Platform for 2009-2014

The Prudencia Ayala Feminist Coalition, a group of feminist organizations in El Salvador, announced their platform and demands for 2009-2014. Their demands fall under the following seven themes:

1. Comprehensive health for women
2. Institutional and public policy
3. Political participation: "women in power"
4. Women's access to education
5. Economic rights
6. Autonomy over our own bodies
7. Violence against women: "no more violence"

With regard to women's health, Coalition calls for reforms to the Salvadoran health care system so that it better serves Salvadoran women, which requires the recognition and incorporation of midwives into the public health care system, greater financial investment of educational programs that prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, the legalization of abortion up to 20 weeks of gestation, and the expansion of environmental law to ensure access to potable water and safe, healthy living environments. The Coalition in particular demands that mining be prohibited as it is a threat to public health.

To read the rest of the demands, contact Sara Skinner at skinner@share-elsalvador.org.

- Sara Skinner, US Grassroots Coordinator

Meat, Cheese and Bicycle Repair: Micro-credit and women’s development in Chalatenango

Member of sewing cooperative sewing a pair of pants.

I hadn’t seen a treadle sewing machine in a long time. If they are seen at all in the states it is most often in museums or antique stores. So it was strange to see them here, down a long dusty road in El Salvador. It makes sense though, they are powered by rocking a foot petal back and forth and the sewers don’t have to stop work when the power goes out, which it does… frequently. The women doing the rocking are part of a women’s group in Los Ranchos that makes and sells artisan crafts.

In the 1980’s, as newly repatriated war refugees, the women of Los Ranchos came together and began sewing undergarments. They organized trainings to support each other and learn new skills. They received help from international groups and regional organizations such as the CCR. They learned to embroider and began selling artesian goods to visiting delegations. They built upon their new knowledge and learned that their success came from themselves, from their collective work and their collective will. They learned and they grew. What started as a small sewing group is now a cooperative of 18 members. This group inspired other women in the same community to begin other projects where there was demand. They are now a sizable force within the larger organized community; participating more and more in community decision-making.

Recently, through the CCR and with funding from Salvaide, a Canadian NGO, the women have taken advantage of micro-credit programs to expand existing projects and initiate new ones. Micro-credit programs grant small loans to individuals who have too few assets or collateral to qualify for traditional loans, for example, one woman received a loan of five dollars to purchase corn flour for a tortilla stand. In Los Ranchos, three women in the community used a small loan to start expand their small store into a pupuseria. The words painted on the wall of a donated building holding the venture advertises “Milk, Meat and Bicycle Repair” proving that there are no boundaries to ingenuity.

As the women of Los Ranchos continue with their projects, and begin new ones, they will do so with the backing of community organization and solidarity. They receive and will continue to receive trainings, encouragement and support from organizations like the CCR and The SHARE Foundation.

We invite you to join, SHARE in supporting the next generation of project development. In doing so, you will contribute to the understanding that true sustainable development is accomplished through holistic projects. Micro-credits help women, but micro-credits accompanied by community organization, cooperation and mentoring empower women.

Doña Teresa y Doña Seferina (above)used a micro-credit to open a pupuseria and sell bicycle repair parts.