This abbreviated version of our case for giving is presented here for your convenience. Please, if you have time, download and read the entire document, by clicking here.

Amnesty International USA seeks financial support from individuals to accomplish the urgent objectives of our two-year Stop Violence Against Women Campaign. The following pages outline our case for giving.

Women have always been at the forefront of thinking and action on behalf of global human rights. Tragically, women have also been among the most serious - and often invisible - victims of abuse.

We seek to reverse this by drawing on the inspiration of the countless women who have given so much in the past, and to the generation of young women who will soon carry that legacy forward.

We ask for an investment of your hard-earned money, but no less importantly, we ask you to stand up and be counted as a force for change, for all women everywhere.

In order to effectively implement this critical initiative while sustaining other life-saving programs, the online fundraising campaign around stopping violence against women will need to raise $500,000.
Women and Human Rights

While gender equality was one of the ideals of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, women and girls still face special human rights challenges by simple virtue of being women.

Women's inferior status is the law of the land in dozens of countries. In many cultures, women and girls are little more than property, and are subject to abuse ranging from limited access to education or professions and deprivation of property rights, to torture, domestic violence, and rape.

Amnesty, working with governments and the United Nations, has sought to document and make the public aware of the unique ways in which women struggle for their rights, and to move on a comprehensive solution that could actually improve the lives of millions.
The Problem of Violence Against Women

Violence is arguably the most egregious form of inequality visited upon women and girls across the globe.

This year Amnesty International launched a two-year Stop Violence Against Women Campaign. Violence against women has become the greatest human rights scandal of our time. Consider:

* One out of every three women has been beaten, forced into sex, or abused in her lifetime.

* Here in the United States, women in the armed forces are subject to rape and sexual assault, often with superior officers looking the other way.

* The UN Secretary-General reports that 80 percent of casualties in recent armed conflicts have been women and children.

Widespread abduction and rape goes unreported in Iraq because women fear reprisals for tarnishing family "honor." Girls as young as eight are being raped in Darfur, Sudan, and used as sex slaves. In Rwanda, almost 500,000 women were raped during the 1994 genocide, resulting in 5,000 pregnancies.
The Stop Violence Against Women Campaign

The two-year Stop Violence Against Women Campaign will be waged on multiple fronts. Amnesty International will work in local communities to help women at the grassroots level, pressure governments to pass legal protections, and work with the media to raise awareness about the issue.

We will undertake this initiative in addition to our substantial global human rights agenda.

Amnesty International has several specific goals for the campaign. Here are only some of them:
Protect Women in Armed Conflict and Post-Conflict Situations

* Expose and punish the use of rape as a tool of war. In Rwanda, Sudan, Kosovo and other recent war zones, perpetrators of "ethnic cleansing" used systematic rape and sexual abuse as deliberate instruments of war.

* Hold peacekeepers accountable. In post-war Kosovo, trafficking in women and forced prostitution is still commonplace. Tragically, peacekeeping forces have been involved. Amnesty will hold all legally mandated peacekeeping missions around the world accountable for violence against women and girls.

End Discrimination Against Women

* Ratify treaties such as CEDAW that protect women's rights. Amnesty will press countries to ratify the Women's Human Rights Treaty (CEDAW) - starting with the United States, which has yet to ratify the agreement. Amnesty will identify 20 key U.S. senators to lobby for the ratification of CEDAW.

* Asylum for Sexual Victims of Gender-Based Violence. Amnesty continues to press the U.S. government to provide asylum for women who are fleeing sexual oppression, domestic violence, honor killings, and similar crimes, where the refugees' home countries tolerate or condone such behavior.

* Zero Tolerance for Domestic Violence. Amnesty will pressure the United States and other countries to pass tough laws against domestic violence and insure that these new laws will be enforced without discrimination against women who suffer abuse in their homes.

Defend Women Human Rights Defenders

* Protect women human rights activists. Women around the world who fight for human rights (and especially women's rights) are subject to harassment, violence, and unjust imprisonment. Amnesty will mobilize its global network to protect women activists and to work with all who are engaged in the struggle for women's rights within their borders.

Conclusion

Since passage of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights more than half a century ago, the promise of justice and dignity for all has been denied to half the world's population.

For the planet's women and girls, the time has come to right this fundamental wrong.

As women with the ability to take action, we have a special opportunity - and perhaps a responsibility - to be leaders in enacting a new era in women's human rights.

Please join us, as a donor and perhaps as an activist. With your help, we will make history.


http://women.amnestyusa.org/caseforgiving.asp