February 28, 2005: Headlines: Directors - Bellamy: Unicef: United Nations: Women's Issues: Reuters: UNICEF chief defends "feminism" in aiding children

Peace Corps Online: Peace Corps News: Directors of the Peace Corps: Carol Bellamy: January 23, 2005: Index: PCOL Exclusive: Peace Corps Directors - Bellamy : Carol Bellamy and the Peace Corps: February 28, 2005: Headlines: Directors - Bellamy: Unicef: United Nations: Women's Issues: Reuters: UNICEF chief defends "feminism" in aiding children

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UNICEF chief defends "feminism" in aiding children

UNICEF chief defends feminism in aiding children

UNICEF chief defends "feminism" in aiding children

UNICEF chief defends "feminism" in aiding children

01 Mar 2005 02:38:00 GMT

Source: Reuters

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 28 (Reuters) - The outgoing director of the U.N. Children's Fund fired back on Monday at critics accusing her of "radical feminism," saying if women were not strong, their children would be in jeopardy.

Carol Bellamy, a lawyer and former Peace Corps director under the Clinton administration, has been attacked by conservatives for furthering sex education for young people and endorsing access to emergency contraceptives for refugees.

Even the British medical journal, The Lancet, has criticized her for allegedly sacrificing UNICEF campaigns for child survival to a radical rights-based agenda.

"Women are central to UNICEF's mission in that their well-being directly impacts families and children," Bellamy told a news conference during a 10-year review session of the landmark world conference on women in Beijing.

"If women are not strong, then families are not strong. If families are not strong, children are in jeopardy," she said.

"For this I have on occasion been called a radical feminist. I have been accused of singling out girls and women for preferential treatment," Bellamy said.

Bellamy leaves UNICEF, which has a term limit, after 10 years as executive director and will be replaced this spring by Ann Veneman, the former U.S. agriculture secretary. The agency has 7,000 staff in 150 countries.

Bellamy emphasized her advocacy on behalf of women and girls in war zones, saying the trauma of rape received far too little attention.

Since 1990, women and children constitute most of the deaths in war zones. Boys were brutalized and forced to become soldiers, while too many women and girls were too ashamed to complain, she said.

"In situations of armed conflict, girls and women are routinely raped, trafficked, used in prostitution, held by armed groups in sexual slavery, mutilated and forced to carry pregnancies," she said.

"And we have barely begun to talk about it."

"When labels like 'radical feminism' are tossed about disparagingly, the end result is that people become reluctant to speak out against discrimination for fear of being accused of promoting special interests," Bellamy said.

She said that during her travels in Congo, Eastern Europe and Sudan, she listened to girls and women express fear in talking about rape.

"It is time that we stopped being afraid of talking about the realities of what it means to be a woman or a girl caught up in armed conflict today," Bellamy said.





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March 1: National Day of Action Date: February 28 2005 No: 471 March 1: National Day of Action
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Make a call for the Peace Corps Date: February 19 2005 No: 453 Make a call for the Peace Corps
PCOL is a strong supporter of the NPCA's National Day of Action and encourages every RPCV to spend ten minutes on Tuesday, March 1 making a call to your Representatives and ask them to support President Bush's budget proposal of $345 Million to expand the Peace Corps. Take our Poll: Click here to take our poll. We'll send out a reminder and have more details early next week.
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RPCV Groups mobilize to support their Countries of Service. Over 200 RPCVS have already applied to the Crisis Corps to provide Tsunami Recovery aid, RPCVs have written a letter urging President Bush and Congress to aid Democracy in Ukraine, and RPCVs are writing NBC about a recent episode of the "West Wing" and asking them to get their facts right about Turkey.

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Story Source: Reuters

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Directors - Bellamy; Unicef; United Nations; Women's Issues

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