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NEWS & LETTERS, August-September 2004

Women Word Wide

by Mary Jo Grey

Angelina Atyam, a tireless advocate for the release of thousands of children abducted by rebels in northern Uganda, has finally been reunited with her own daughter, Charlotte, who escaped with her two children after eight years in captivity after being kidnapped with 138 other girls from a boarding school. The "Lord’s Resistance Army" said they would release her daughter only if Angelina would stop speaking out, which she refused to do. She co-founded the Concerned Parents Association, which works for the release of the estimated 30,000 children kidnapped over the last 20 years.

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Racism and sexism go hand in hand at the Catholic University of America, in Washington, D.C, which has rejected the proposal of student William Jawando to start a chapter of the NAACP on campus because that organization supports abortion rights. NAACP President Kweisi Mfume called the action "blatant discrimination in its most naked form" that "speaks volumes about their level of intolerance." The group plans continued support for Jawando’s fight, including possibly suing the university to force them to recognize the campus group.

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A Vatican report released in August charges that "radical feminism" is threatening the traditional Christian family defined as one with a mother and a father. Written by conservative Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the statement criticized feminism for ignoring the biological differences between the sexes, stressing that a woman "is not a copy of a man." It concluded by repeating the church’s ban on women becoming priests.

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Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture are urging the international community to demand the Russian government immediately end human rights abuses in Chechnya and Ingushetia. They especially condemned the widespread sexual violence perpetrated against Chechnyan women.

Information from Women’s Human Rights Online Bulletin

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