FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MADRE, An International Women's Human Rights Organization

Gutting the World Summit: Bush Betrays Poor Women Again

September 12, 2005—New York—MADRE, an international women’s human rights organization, warns that this week's United Nations World Summit is in danger of being derailed by the United States, with drastic consequences for the world’s poorest people—most of them women and children. The meeting—originally intended to assess governments' progress on pledges to reduce poverty and promote development by 2015—is proceeding with much fanfare. But US Ambassador John Bolton’s efforts to overturn key international commitments may mean that the summit’s outcome document will do little to alleviate suffering and human rights violations experienced by poor women and their families worldwide.

MADRE has published a series of articles and resources related to the World Summit that expose the role of the Bush Administration in undermining global efforts to reduce poverty and promote development:

• Gutting the World Summit: Bush Betrays Poor Women Again
• The UN Millennium Development Goals: Obstacles and Opportunities
• Questions for John Bolton: A Chilling Glimpse into the Mind of the Man Representing the US at the United Nations

Read MADRE’s World Summit toolkit

Available for interviews:

Yifat Susskind, MADRE’s Communications Director and author of MADRE’s resources on the World Summit, has written extensively on US foreign policy, women's human rights, and international development issues.

Sunila Abeysekera is the Executive Director of INFORM, a human rights organization and MADRE partner based in Sri Lanka. She is also a member of the Asian Forum for Human Rights Development based in Thailand. In 1998, Ms. Abeysekera was awarded a prestigious United Nations Human Rights Award. Most recently, she has focused on women’s human rights in the context of the South Asian tsunami.

Betty Murungi is an international human rights lawyer from Kenya and former chair of the Executive Committee of the Women’s Caucus for Gender Justice of the International Criminal Court. Ms. Murungi is an internationally recognized expert in women’s human rights and international justice processes. She was recently selected by a joint civil society-United Nations task force to participate in the UN General Assembly Hearings with Civil Society in June 2005, a precursor to the World Summit.

Tarcila Rivera Zea is the Executive Director of the Center for Indigenous Peoples’ Cultures of Peru (CHIRAPAQ), a MADRE sister organization that works with Indigenous women and youth to promote sustainable, rights-based development and advocate for Indigenous Peoples’ rights on national and international levels. Ms. Rivera has played a leadership role in various international fora, including Beijing+10, the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, and the International Indigenous Women’s Forum.