Introduction
Human rights formation was based on four goals of freedom which are expression and speech, worship of God, want, and fear. In the last 20th century, Latin America experienced the highest rise in human rights campaigns by women who were against the dictatorial leadership. In Argentina, mothers stormed the streets protesting against the abduction of their children by the military group called the Junta. This was in the 1970s when the military took over the political government. All journalists, students, men in the village, and leaders had been abducted tortured, or killed. Thus, women remained the only hope of rescuing the situation.
They organized into small groups, which later accumulated into large groups, that could withstand the force against attacks and arrests by the military police. The military era ended in 1983 with the formation of a political government. However, this did not solve the women’s problem and they continued in the streets fighting against military actions until the year 2006. This strengthened human rights in the region since they even produced a book and established a university to teach about human rights. They inspired women from other countries such as Serbia, Chile, Israel, and Palestine to fight for their rights where they were discriminated against. In Chile, women also took to the streets protesting against the disappearance of their relatives.
Comment
Women’s actions in Latin America contributed a lot to empowering human rights activities in the region. This has enabled it to acquire roots in the region as various people know or seek to know their rights.
EL Salvador
Women from El Salvador joined forces seeking the whereabouts of their relatives who had been captured by the government under the umbrella called CoMadres (Radcliffe & Westwood, 1993). It began as a religious movement but later took up to the streets. Their main activity was to go into all jails and military barracks seeking the release of the 29 men and women who had been captured. They also sought help from outside countries like the U.S. to exert pressure against the government’s inhumane activities. When the Junta government came into power, they denied charges of killings of CoMadres’ children who had been recruited into the army (Radcliffe & Westwood, 1993). However, CoMadres took the initiative and searched for the graves and found 43 grave sites. CoMadres received first threats from the government.
Many of their members were assassinated or kidnapped then tortured by the military. They either died or were released after imprisonment, and those released are the ones who gave evidence of the military activities and continued killings. Nevertheless, these assassinations did not stop their protests for human rights protection. Their offices were robbed by the government forces, but Norwegian feminist activists gave the CoMadres cash to purchase an office (Radcliffe & Westwood, 1993). The group has various projects to enable it to raise cash to provide prisoners and refugees with food. They also extend a hand to the community by offering services like free medicine.
Guatemala
In Guatemala, another woman (windows) activism was formed named Conavigua (Radcliffe & Westwood, 1993). It was also formed on a religious background. Initially, the aim was to seek basic needs like food and clothing among others. Later the aims transformed into protests against kidnapping and recruitment of their children into Junta forces (Radcliffe & Westwood, 1993). Their main activities were seeking better education and health services on behalf of their children. Members attended Spanish classes where they learned how to read, write, and some basics of law. They managed to order for exhumation of some bodies of people who had been killed which made them be threatened by the military (Radcliffe & Westwood, 1993). Their struggles continued in the fight against forced labor and rapes of indigenous women whom the soldiers thought were illiterate and could not proceed to report the violations in court (Radcliffe & Westwood, 1993).
References
Radcliffe, S., A. & Westwood, S. (1993). “Viva”: Women and Popular Protest in Latin America. London: Routledge.