Date: Tue, 7 Feb 1995 16:12:05 -0500 Reply-To: mamurphy@igc.apc.org [ Send all responses to mamurphy@igc.apc.org only. Any responses to the list or list-owners will be returned to you. ] Following is this month's sample letter on gay/lesbian/bi issue. The letter is to be sent to Gertrude Mongella, Secretary-General IV World Conference on Women fax: +1-212-963-3463 If you do send a letter, or make a phone call on this issue please let us know (send an email message to mamurphy@igc.org). We need to know whether are efforts are effective. February 12, 1995 Gertrude Mongella, Secretary-General IV World Conference on Women 2 UN Plaza, 12th Floor New York, NY 10017 Dear Ms. Mongella: I urge you to assure that the issue of women's sexual autonomy, including the concerns of lesbian and bisexual women, is given an important place in the agenda of the upcoming United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women. Lesbians and bisexual women experience a wide range of human rights abuses, including imprisonment and murder, verbal and physical harassment, denial of child custody and discrimination in employment, education, social benefits programs, housing and health care. Law enforcement agencies often are indifferent, at best, to hate crimes against lesbians and bisexual women and, not infrequently, courts rule against them in child custody cases without examining the merits of the women in question. Lack of legal recognition of relationships between women results in lesbian families being separated, often with great harm to the children torn from their loving families. Discriminatory asylum and immigration laws often contribute to the tragic separation of these families. Women should be free to determine their own sexual identity and to choose whomever they wish as their life partners. If the World Conference on Women fails to address these issues of women's sexual autonomy, areas of concern already central to the conference -- such as health care, employment and education -- cannot possibly be addressed in a comprehensive and effective manner. I urge you to assure that these issues will be addressed fully by the conference and included in the final Platform for Action to be adopted at the end of the conference. To that end, it is essential that lesbian and women's bisexual organizations be included in both the preparations for the conference and in the conference itself. Yours truly, For those who wish to help more here is a petition: Put Sexuality on the Agenda at the World Conference on Women In Beijing in September 1995, the Member States of the United Nations will convene the Fourth World Conference on Women, where they will adopt a Platform for Action that will set goals for achieving gender equality over the next decade. We, the undersigned, call upon the Member States to recognize the right to determine one's sexual identity; the right to control one's own body, particularly in establishing intimate relationships; and the right to choose if, when, and with whom to bear or raise children as fundamental components of the human rights of *all* women regardless of sexual orientation. We support the inclusion of lesbians in governmental delegations and as non-governmental observers at the conference and we call upon all delegates to insure that adequate recognition and protection of these rights are included in the final version of the Platform for Action and all other conference documents. We base these demands on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which recognizes the "inherent dignity and ... the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the the human family," and guarantees the protection of the fundamental rights and freedoms of all people "without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language ... or other status" (art.2). Name Adress ------------------- ---------------------------------- ------------------- ---------------------------------- ------------------- ---------------------------------- ------------------- ---------------------------------- ------------------- ---------------------------------- ------------------- ---------------------------------- ------------------- ---------------------------------- ------------------- ---------------------------------- ------------------- ---------------------------------- ------------------- ---------------------------------- Please download, copy and distribute. Return forms to: Beijing Project, International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, 1360 Mission St., Suite 200, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA, fax: 415-255-8662. For more information or to recieve a list of sponsors write to the above address or email: iglhrc@igc.apc.org.