Reflections on CSW59 by Jane McCall Politi Ph.D., FAWCO UN Rep
Member of the NGO Committee on Migration in NY
March 13, 2015
“Girls lives are wasting away.” Poignant and stirring comment by Memory Bonda, activist for girls in Malawi. The organization she founded, Girls Empowerment Network (GENET) pushed the government to change the child marriage law from 15 to 18 years old. Her drive for change came from seeing her sister marry at 16 and become a child mother. When the opportunity for a young girl to be educated and meet all the expected developmental milestones is shut down, for whatever reason, her psychological and physical well-being is jeopardized. It is a great personal loss, as well as one for the wider community.
The US never signed the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Child marriage is still permitted in New Hampshire for girls who are 13 and boys who are 14 with parental consent.
It takes enormous courage to stand up for your rights in cultures where you could quickly get shot down.
Communication or lack thereof underlies many of the topics that have been presented this week - promises and pitfalls. Here are a couple of thoughts that emerged.
Women need to find a way to get men to understand their needs and potential.
Young people are communicating with an invisible Other over the internet to twitter their woes, get sucked up by traffickers, join the jihad, and network with like-minded activists for making a better world– yet, many do not spend enough time in face to face conversation with their families and people in their own communities. How can parents know what their children are thinking and their expectations? How can parents expect to pass on the cultural and family values that really mean the most to them if they aren’t available to listen to and spend time with their children? Adults need to reconnect with the people in their communities to create neighborhoods that are healthy environments that will stimulate and support their children. Refugee and other minority groups find solace when they are with people from their own cultures.
Migrant teens often, however, are caught in between the ethnocultural values of their/parent’s native country and those where they grow up. As Dr. Judith Mishne stated, they are “caught on the horns of a bicultural dilemma”. Conflictual relationships with their parents and polarized values cause them to flee - only to find themselves vulnerable to exploitation – including sex and labor trafficking. They become swept up in the category of unaccompanied minors and others that are pushed to leave their homelands for reasons such as war, political upheaval, natural disasters, climate change, poverty, and life-threatening violence.
Their voices will be lost forever unless we can find a way to reconnect with them.
There is tremendous power behind rights movements that network, partnership, and create services and training to women around the world.
Development of resilience is the goal to strive for for women and children in general and in particular for refugees and migrants who need to learn survival skills in order to protect themselves and their children from chronic trauma and exploitation.