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Confronting the Bush Agenda:
Reasserting Women's Human Rights

Fall 2004

One demoralizing aspect of the Bush legacy is the extent to which our public conversation about foreign policy has been degraded. After four years of Bush, the notion of a government that doesn't torture prisoners, violate the UN Charter, deny women's rights, try to invent "usable" nuclear weapons, or pander to religious fanatics seems like a beacon of progressive politics. But today's grim reality should not undercut our standards for decent government�or limit our sense of what's possible. Rather, a realistic assessment of the damage done by George W. Bush in his first term should serve as a starting point for demanding change.

With the presidential election behind us, it's time to reassert the human rights priorities of the world's women and families over the corporate profiteering, macho unilateralism, and messianic militarism that have become the driving force of US foreign policy. To that end, we offer this overview of Bush's record in the communities where MADRE works, together with our commitments for responding to current crises and our consistent demands for a rights-based foreign policy that moves us closer to the world we wish to inhabit.

Iraq: Bush's War Against Women and Families

• Bush's war has killed more than 100,000 Iraqis.1 Bush spent reconstruction money mainly on projects that benefit corporations with ties to his administration (including Halliburton, now under criminal investigation for overcharging the US government for its services).2
• Meanwhile, Iraqi homes, hospitals, farms, and water treatment plants remain in ruins. Acute malnutrition has doubled and infectious disease is on the rise.3 As those primarily responsible for meeting people's basic needs, Iraqi women have been forced to intensify their work hauling water, preparing food, and caring for children traumatized by bombing, disease, and hunger.
• Bush appointee Paul Bremer added reactionary Muslim clerics to the Iraqi Governing Council, empowering leaders with a stated commitment to restricting women's human rights. Now, gangs of religious extremists patrol Iraqi communities, beating and harassing women who do not dress or behave to their liking.
• The US occupation brought a sharp rise in violence against women�including abduction, rape, and "honor killings," in which men murder women relatives who have been "promiscuous" or survived rape.4

MADRE will support three vital women's shelters co-founded with our partner, the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq. MADRE will help provide Iraqi women with skills-training to enable them to meet their families' needs, play leadership roles in their communities, and advocate for a secular, democratic, and truly sovereign Iraq.

MADRE will continue to call on the Administration to withdraw US troops from Iraq; fund a UN-led reconstruction process that will empower democratic forces, including women's organizations; and renounce control of Iraq's economy and oil resources.

Haiti: Bush's Other Regime Change

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• Bush pressed the Inter-American Development Bank to cancel more than $650 million in approved loans to Haiti�the poorest country in the western hemisphere. The freeze on these funds, slated for safe drinking water, health care, and sanitation projects, increased Haitians' vulnerability to Hurricane Jeanne, which killed an estimated 1,500 people in September 2004.
• Bush gave funding and political backing to opposition groups led by former members of the FRAPH death squads that terrorized Haiti from 1991-1994. The opposition deployed gangs armed with US-made weapons and overthrew Haiti's only democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, in February 2004.5
• After an interim government with close ties to convicted human rights abusers was installed, Bush lifted a ban on sending weapons to Haiti.6

MADRE will work with our partner, Zanmi Lasante, to provide comprehensive health care�a basic human right�to Haitian women and families, regardless of their ability to pay. Because good health relies not only on medical treatment but also on access to potable water, food, housing, and education, MADRE will support Zanmi's socio-economic programs for women and their families.

MADRE will continue to call on the Administration to acknowledge that international law does not recognize governments installed by coup d'etat and that Aristide remains the lawful president of Haiti; respect Haiti's political sovereignty; and rescind US economic policies that generate poverty and political violence in Haiti.

Palestine: US-Endorsed Human Rights Abuses

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• Bush executed the most extreme reversal of US Middle East policy ever, by backing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to annex much of the West Bank and withdraw unilaterally from Gaza; denying Palestinian refugees' right to return to what is now Israel; and condoning Israel's West Bank settlements, which have been characterized as an obstacle to peace by every US administration since 1967.
• By supporting Israel's military occupation, Bush effectively renounced the UN Charter, which forbids the acquisition of territory by force; and renounced UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, which call on Israel to end its occupation of Palestinian lands in return for security guarantees from its neighbors. These resolutions have long stood as the best hope for a negotiated settlement to the conflict.
• Bush's embrace of Sharon's plan (which entails clearing the Israel-Gaza border) ushered in the deadliest month in Gaza since 2000. In October 2004, Israel cited a need to respond to homemade Palestinian rockets, which had recently killed four Israeli civilians. Israel's army killed more than 150 Palestinians, including at least 27 children; leveled large tracts of farm land; destroyed sewage, water, and electricity lines; and demolished more than 90 homes, leaving 675 people homeless. 7

MADRE will work with the Ibdaa Cultural Center to provide trauma counseling and educational programs to Palestinian refugee youth. MADRE will also work with the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions to build houses for Palestinian families whose homes have been destroyed by the Israeli army, and bring together progressive Israelis and Palestinians committed to a future of peaceful coexistence.

MADRE will continue to call on the Administration to join the international consensus regarding Israel's occupation;* and hold both the Israeli and Palestinian leaderships accountable to international human rights standards and humanitarian law protecting civilians in war zones.

* This consensus, first articulated in a 1976 UN resolution, has been the basis of numerous peace plans accepted by the Palestinian leadership but rejected by Israel and the US. The resolution called on Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories and guaranteed the right of all states in the region, including Israel and a Palestinian state, to peace and security within recognized borders. The resolution was supported by virtually the entire world (the leading Arab countries, the PLO, Europe, the Soviet bloc, and the non-aligned countries), but opposed by Israel and vetoed by the US.

Cuba: From Bad to Worse

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• Bush increased restrictions on the type of travel licenses that allowed MADRE and other organizations to bring educational delegations to Cuba.
• Bush cut family visits for Cuban-Americans and Cubans living in the US from once a year to once every three years, and restricted visits and remittances8 to immediate, as opposed to extended, family members. These provisions deny Cubans millions of dollars worth of support on which they depend for basic necessities, such as medicine (unavailable largely due to the US embargo).
• Bush added nearly $90 million in funding for Cuban opposition groups and propaganda efforts to unseat the Cuban government. 9

MADRE will work to deliver life-saving medicines and medical supplies to combat AIDS, breast cancer, pediatric diseases, and other public health threats exacerbated by the US embargo against Cuba. And MADRE will work to repeal the US regulations that deny many US organizations, including MADRE, the right to bring delegations of US citizens to Cuba.

MADRE will continue to call on the Administration to normalize US relations with Cuba and end the US travel ban and the 42-year-old embargo, which threaten the health and welfare of Cuban women and families.

Colombia: Using the US Military to Boost Investor Confidence

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• Bush overhauled US policy on Colombia to allow military aid (previously allocated exclusively for anti-narcotics operations) to be used by Colombia's military directly against guerilla groups.
• Bush dispatched US Special Forces operatives and slated $98 million to train and equip Colombian soldiers to guard pipelines and facilitate oil exploration largely for US-based companies. 10
• Bush praised Colombia's military, which is accused of human rights abuses and cooperation with paramilitary death squads. In fact, paramilitary activity has increased dramatically in areas patrolled by US and Colombian troops: rates of civilian deaths and forced displacement have nearly doubled under Bush's policy and record numbers of people have been disappeared.11
• Threatening to withdraw military aid, Bush bullied Colombia and over 90 other countries into signing an agreement to guarantee US citizens immunity from prosecution by the International Criminal Court.* Bush thus severely undermined efforts to hold Colombia's government (and many others) accountable to international law protecting the rights of civilians in war zones.

MADRE will work with our partners, Taller de Vida and LIMPAL, to provide trauma counseling and local, sustainable economic development projects for displaced Afro-Colombian and Indigenous women and youth; and to promote peaceful resistance and demand justice for women who have been displaced from their homes, including legal recognition that would entitle them to government services.

MADRE will continue to call on the Administration to stop fueling Colombia's war; acknowledge that there is no military solution to Colombia's conflict; and support a negotiated settlement that addresses the poverty and inequality at the root of Colombia's crisis.

* The International Criminal Court (ICC), established by the 1998 Rome Statute, is the first permanent international tribunal to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and crimes of aggression. The ICC represents a significant advance in women's human rights. While relegated to lesser crimes in the past, several forms of violence against women�including rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, and sexual violence�will now be prosecuted as war crimes and crimes against humanity. For the first time, gender-based persecution is considered a crime against humanity. In 2002, Bush withdrew US support of the ICC.

Chiapas, Mexico: US Funds Forced Displacement

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• Bush doubled military aid to Mexico and ignored human rights violations committed with US funds.13 Under Bush, the Mexican military has used US aid to force Indigenous communities from their lands to make way for the exploitation of natural resources, particularly by US-based oil and pharmaceutical companies close to the Bush Administration.
• In Montes Azules, one of the world's most biodiverse areas, displacement is carried out under the guise of environmental conservation. US military aid funds the expulsions while the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and Conservation International (CI)�a group formed by several US-based corporations, including McDonalds and Starbucks�are using satellite imagery and "overflights" to target Indigenous communities for displacement.14 CI is also accused of forced sterilization of Indigenous women with the intention of "depopulating" Montes Azules for corporate investment. 15
• Bush pushed forward Plan Puebla-Panama (PPP) to establish a giant network of highways and railroads and develop the oil and electric industries from Mexico to Panama. PPP would bring maquilas (sweatshops) to Chiapas, taking advantage of rising unemployment created by NAFTA; privatize land collectively owned by Indigenous communities; displace tens of thousands more poor families; and encourage biopiracy, whereby pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies hijack Indigenous knowledge of medicinal plants and patent them for corporate profit.

MADRE will work with our sister organization, K'inal Antzetik, to support the opening of a human rights training center for Indigenous women in Chiapas; provide trainings in leadership and sexual rights and reproductive rights for Indigenous women; and support income-generating and food-security projects for their families. MADRE will work with our partner, ELIGE, to support youth advocacy for sexual rights and reproductive rights and demand justice in the unsolved murders of over 300 women�most of whom worked in maquilas�in Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua, Mexico.

MADRE will continue to call on the Administration to condition US military aid to Mexico on compliance with international human rights standards and stop USAID participation in the displacement of Indigenous communities; create trade policies that prioritize sustainable development over corporate greed; and ratify the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, which protects the intellectual and cultural heritage of Indigenous Peoples. 16

Kenya: Ideology and Greed Trump Women's Health

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• Bush reinstated the "global gag rule," denying US funding to healthcare organizations worldwide that provide abortions or abortion counseling or advocate legalizing abortion. In Kenya, seven clinics were forced to close because of the "gag rule".17 Thousands of poor women relied on these clinics for primary health care, including PAP smears, vaccinations for their children, malaria screening, and HIV/AIDS services. Moreover, Bush's cuts to family planning programs led to more unwanted pregnancies and more illegal, unsafe abortions, which kill 5,000 Kenyan women each year. 18
• Bush's promise to spend $15 billion fighting AIDS worldwide, particularly in Africa and the Caribbean, was a scam. Most of the $15 billion was money that Bush cut from existing programs and reallocated to his own initiative.19 Bush's own budget request for the program's first year was $1 billion less than the promised installment of $3 billion. 20
• Bush's initiative actually undermines international efforts to combat AIDS by: replicating efforts of the UN Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria; pushing ideologically motivated abstinence programs instead of the proven "safe sex" approach; and relying on expensive drugs patented by US pharmaceutical companies instead of lower-cost generics.
• Bush's use of AIDS policy to placate his extremist religious base and his cronies in the pharmaceutical industry is a catastrophe in Kenya, where a staggering 15 percent of the population lives with HIV/AIDS. Kenyan women comprise 60 percent of those living with HIV/AIDS and are twice as likely as men to become infected.21

MADRE will work with our partner, the Indigenous Information Network, to offer trainings for Kenyan women and girls on HIV/AIDS, reproductive health, and the rights to refuse early marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM)�human rights violations that increase women's risk of contracting HIV.

MADRE will continue to call on the Administration to repeal the "gag rule" and bring its international family planning policy into compliance with the UN International Conference on Population and Development Program of Action, which affirms sexual rights and reproductive rights as human rights; honor the 2001 Doha Declaration facilitating the export of generic AIDS drugs; and support the work of the UN Global Fund as the leading world organization in the fight against AIDS.

Guatemala: Rewarding Right-Wing Violence

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• Bush skirted a Congressional ban on military aid to Guatemala as part of a pattern of rewarding governments for cooperation in the "war on terror" regardless of their human rights record.22 Since Bush stepped up funding and training of Guatemala's army, campesinos, Indigenous communities, union leaders, journalists, and human rights activists have been increasingly targeted for murder and political intimidation by right-wing groups with ties to the military. There has also been an alarming increase in violence against women�primarily poor and Indigenous�including rape, torture, and extrajudicial killings, that human rights organizations link to a larger pattern of violations against Indigenous communities and social justice activists. An average of 41 women are killed each month and more than 1,300 women have been murdered since 2001.23
• Bush pushed hard for the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), which would extend the ravages of NAFTA into Guatemala and the rest of Central America. CAFTA was negotiated in secret without the input of civil society, and now awaits final approval from each country's legislature. In Guatemala, where poverty and inequality are among the worst in Latin America, CAFTA will further impoverish and displace small, campesino, and Indigenous farmers unable to compete with large agribusiness and US subsidies; create many more maquilas and labor-rights violations; threaten food security by wiping out local production; and jeopardize already limited access to clean water, health care, and education, which will be privatized.

MADRE will work with the Barcenas Maquila Workers' Committee to improve women's capacity to document and combat human rights abuses in the workplace; meet the immediate needs of maquila workers and their families; and create a new computer literacy and human rights training center. MADRE will continue to support income-generating projects for Indigenous women in partnership with our sister organization, T'al N�n K'oi. And MADRE will develop a parents' education and healthcare project for Indigenous Peoples with our partner, the Rigoberta Menchu Tum Organization, to support parents as they learn to advocate more effectively for their own and their children's rights.

MADRE will continue to call on the Administration to maintain the ban on US military aid to Guatemala; dissolve CAFTA and other free-trade agreements that rob the poor of rights and resources; and hold the Guatemalan government accountable for prosecuting current and past human rights violations and fulfilling its obligations under the 1996 Peace Accords concerning land reform, demilitarization, and the rights of Indigenous Peoples.

By Yifat Susskind, Communications Director and Irene Schneeweis, Program Coordinator