In Colombia, like in Afghanistan, Liberia, the Ivory Coast, women and young girls are victims of rape, torture, slavery etc in ways beyond the imagination, an official member of the United Nations has reported.

Even if efforts have been made to take into consideration gender issues in the peacekeeping missions, progress remains slow. Rape is increasingly being used a weapon of war and the peacekeepers themselves have sustained unacceptable abuse. For this dramatic situation to cease, members of the United Nations recommend a marked increase in the representation of women in all aspects of conflict management, peacekeeping, the process of building peace and humanitarian responses to be made to emergency situations.

"Women give life and mobilise to defend and protect it" Jackeline Rojas explains. National Co-ordinator of Working Women's movement -Organisation féminine populaire, an association of Colombian women, that was present on Thursday evening at the Grenier Bernois in Morges (Switzerland), a guest of the youth section of Amnesty International under its operation "Stop violence against women".

Armed groups are sowing terror in the villages

Over the years, 18 within the association, I have lost my father, my husband, and my brother last year. My current situation is difficult since I have been threatened, this mother says fighting back tears. For the benefit of a world appeal launched by Amnesty in 2003, paramilitary groups consider Jackeline Rojas as "a military target". In fact, she explains that the various armed groups of the regions are sowing terror in the villages and putting pressure on the family members of militants of the Woking Women's movement. Each day, when I cross the river to give help to my fellow members, my boat strikes up against corpses.

The association to which Jackeline belongs is trying by specific actions to relieve the population, to bring culture, education, and childcare. An unsettling action.

Two years against violence towards women

The world campaign "stop violence against women" initiated by Amnesty International early in 2004, should last two years.

About fifty Swiss public figures have given their support to this action including Micheline Calmy-Rey. Like Rania of Jordan and Salma Hayeck, the federal adviser did not hesitate to lend her support to the emblem banner for this appeal. According to Amnesty International, one in three women in the world is the victim of violence or of sexual aggression.

The Jackeline Rojas' lecture comes under the Morges action "40 artists together for human rights", an exhibition open to the public until 10 December next in Grenier Bernois, Morges.

English translation from French Miriam Lee
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