Barcelona,

Women in the Mediterranean area are victims of violence, poverty, trafficking, wars and systematic violations of the human rights. In the Mediterranean the women are victims of domination by three powers: patriarchy, neoliberism and fundamentalism. These dominant powers support and feed off each other to keep women under unacceptable conditions of life, with lesser rights than those of men in the same society.

The Mediterranean is the theatre of wars which generate violence, rapes, killings, arbitrary detention and unacceptable life conditions and lack of rights, in particular for women.

Many women from the Southern shores of the Mediterranean were not able to participate here because they were denied visas. This instance adds to the reasons that motivate us to promote with the social movements in Medsf the struggle for the right of free circulation of people.

We, together in the women’s assembly in the first Medsf, and coming from all the shores of this sea

DENOUNCE

– The militarization of the area, the neo-colonial programs of control of natural resources
– The systematic violation of women’s human rights and the violence against women
– The empowerment of fundamenatlism and political currents that deny the equality in rights of women and promote their loss of civil and social rights
– The family codes that instituzionalize women’s subordination to men
– The persistance of tollerance towards the so called ‘crimes of honour’
– The market in women’s bodies and the existence of women and children trafficking mafias
– The enslavement, forced labour and sexual mutilation imposed on women and children
– The increasing poverty and precarization of women lives, the absence or violations of our social rights and the lack of free access to education and health
– The laws of the market, of neoliberalism, which make women more precarious and devoid of economic, social and cultural rights
– The bilateral agreements between governments in the Mediterranean area which implement regulation with differential status for women and men, unfavorable for the women
– The constitution of Europe as a fortress, denying economic, social, cultural and political rigths for migrant women
– The negotiations undergoing between Europe and the Islamic parties, even with the so-called ‘moderate’ ones
– The persecution of women on the basis of their sexual choices

DEMAND

– The recognition and support of the social movements, women’s resistance and their struggles
– The immediate application, without reserve, by governments and the international institutions of all the protocols that enforce women equal rights
– The free circulation of women in the Mediterranean
– The right to live in democratic and non-religious societies
– That the right to be refugees is applied to all women who are victims of sexual violence

WE SUPPORT

– The Iraqi women that resist the imperialist occupation of the USA and its allies
– The Palestinian and Israeli women that work together towards the resolution of the conflict and against the occupation of Palestinian territories
– All the women that work for resolution of the conflicts in militarized areas and those who struggle for cultural rights and against authoritarian governments
– The women who struggle against the patriarchal family codes
– Women that struggle for the right of self-determiination in sexual preferences and of their bodies and for the recognition of the right to access to free and legal abortion

FOR A COMMON WORK, FOR AN EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION AND SOLIDARITY IN THE MEDITERRANEAN

WE PROPOSE

– The establishment of a web site of the Women’s network to continue and forward the debate and coordinate the struggles
– A common day of actions against violence on women every year on November 25. In the year 2005 this day will be dedicated to the Iraqi women that are arbitrarily detained and will demand their immediate liberation

We, women in the Mediterranean wish and struggle for a Mediterranean of peace, de-militarized, freed from violence, with equal social rights, democrecy and equality between men and women