The California Central Valley Journey for Justice has provided its endorsement to the World Courts of Women and invites other Central Valley groups and individuals to do the same.
The World Courts of Women will focus on “recording and discussing the different injustices that people have been
experiencing because of poverty. The Courts of Women seek to weave together objective realities (through analyses of the issues) with subjective testimonies of the women; the personal with the political; the logical with the lyrical (through video testimonies, artistic images and poetry); the rational with the intuitive; urging us to discern fresh insights, offering us other ways to know, inviting us to seek deeper layers of knowledge; towards creating a new knowledge paradigm.”
The World Courts of Women for the Western Region is targeted for January 2012 in Oakland. Others are planned for the South and the Midwest, ending with a national meeting on the East Coast. Learn more information at the Women’s Economic Agenda Project Web site (www.weap.org). A copy of the endorsement form is accessible there. Contributions would be greatly appreciated.
There have been 37 World Courts of Women since 1992. These court structures have been built on the Nuremberg trial and various United Nations’ held trials because those set a precedent for publicly held courts that put the people first, before the nation. This will be the first one to be held in the United States.
The World Courts methodology is designed to expose poverty’s existence in the midst of plenty and advance the vision and principles of the right to economic justice as a means to end violence against women and the poor. The main purpose for planning it in the United States is to assist in gathering the evidence and to eliminate poverty.
We reject the myth that dire poverty only exists outside of the boundaries of the United States. This demand is essential so that the United States upholds the principles of economic justice as guaranteed by the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In that regard, all findings will be presented to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland.
In many ways, the World Courts of Women will put the United States on trial for human rights violations. Those actions will connect the effects of globalization and struggles in the United States to the struggles of poor people throughout the world.
We in the Central Valley know poverty very well, including high unemployment, high foreclosure rates, homelessness, hunger, inadequate healthcare and rising issues of poverty. In these times of budget cuts and the dismantling of the social safety net, as well as future benefits, there is an urgency to break the silence of women, men and children—entire communities that are being affected and becoming destitute while corporate powers and banking institutions have profited tremendously at our expense.
We are committed to uniting the poor as the leadership base for a broad movement to abolish poverty everywhere and forever. Get involved, get connected. Become part of this process in building toward the World Courts of Women.
